Falls Twp. Helping Preserve Bucks Co. History

FALLS TOWNSHIP, PA — Supervisors in Falls Township are pitching in to help preserve Bucks County's history for future generations.

The board contributed $5,000 to the county's Adopt a Book program aimed at preserving records of deed dating back to the 1600s.

Recorder of Deeds Robin Robinson had attended the supervisors meeting in December and shared that many of the county's 1,400 deed books are falling apart and rotting from age, poor care and failure to keep them in a proper, climatized storage space.

Robinson said she discovered the dilapidated books soon after beginning her term in January 2018.

"The history of our county was on the floor of the warehouse," Robinson said of finding the books in such poor condition.

Soon afterward, she launched the Adopt a Book program. Since then, she's raised almost $14,000 to cover repair of about 200 books. To date, Falls Township is the largest contributor to the program.

"These books belong to the people of Bucks County and the people of the United States," Robinson said. "Maybe we'll spark some child's interest in history."

This month, Robinson returned to show supervisors a freshly bound book restored through the township's contribution. The deed books have records dating back to 1684, she said.

"I picked these books because there’s a lot of Falls information in there," she said. "I’ve been taking the books all around the county. Everyone is so excited and grateful to Falls Township."

Supervisors Chairman Bob Harvie said it was a shame the deed books had "fallen into embarrassing states of disrepair." "This is the history of the county," he said. "It's the history of the Commonwealth."

Bucks County records of deeds from 1980 to the present are available online, but anyone researching earlier would need to refer to the deed books.

Some of the pre-Civil War records listed the buying of slaves, according to Robinson. In some cases, she said, Quakers were recorded buying slaves, then setting them free.

"They would record the sale and freeing the slaves in our books," she said.

Books with those records currently are on loan to the Pearl S. Buck House, Robinson said. The two newly repaired volumes of Book One are on loan to Falls Township for the next month. Falls residents are invited to come to the municipal building, at 188 Lincoln Hwy., to review them.

They'll be at the Margaret R. Grundy Memorial Library, at 680 Radcliffe St. in Bristol, from April through May, at the Bucks County Visitors Center, at 3207 Street Rd. in Bensalem, from May 12 through June 15, and at Mercer Museum, at 84 S. Pine St. in Doylestown, on June 27.

With their new treatment, the books, if properly cared for, could stay in good condition for 500 years, according to Robinson.

In addition to contributions, Robinson applied for four grants to help cover book repair costs.

To learn more or arrange for Robinson to speak to your organization, you can call her assistant, Jacqueline Alexander at 215-348-6209.