1860 Census (Part 3): Saturday and Sunday, July 21-22, 1860

On Saturday, July 21^st, Flounders covered 14 households, including the Newtown Square Inn and the general store and post office, all on the northwest corner of the West Chester Turnpike and Newtown Street Road.  When area farmers needed to “go to town” to get supplies, this is where they would congregate, to pick up their mail, socialize at the tavern, get the news of the day, and sit on the front porch to wait on the stage coach and discuss politics. 

Davis Beaumont owned the property, but in 1860 the hotel was being run by George Eppright, as tavern keeper, while Isaac Haldeman Jr. was the storekeeper and postmaster.  On the same day, Flounders also met the two oldest residents of the township, 90 year old Phoebe M. Thomas and 93 year old Esther Garrett, who were both children when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. 

Sunday was a day of rest in a religious community, and so Flounders rested.  If he wanted to attend church, he had several choices.  The oldest church in the community was the Friends Meeting, originally constructed in 1711, and expanded to its current size in 1791.  Friends (also called Quakers) were the early settlers in many Delaware County communities, and were still a strong force, with 16 active meeting houses in the county. 

While the census did not ask about religion, it did count the seating capacity of the 67 churches in the county, and the Quakers had 5280 of the 20,625 church seats in the county, more than any other denomination.  In the far northwest corner of the Township was the Episcopal St. David’s church, built in 1715, where the rector in 1860 was Richardson Graham, living with his son George, born in China, and daughter Anne J., born “on the ocean”.  

Apparently Reverend Graham had done missionary work before coming to Newtown.  The parish of St. Davids was up in arms that summer – in July the vestry had approved plans to replace the roof, and tear out the east wall of the ancient church to add a vestry room. 

Word spread among the parish and angry parishioners gathered at the church on August 28^th to voice their opposition to altering the old church.  When one of the wardens who opposed the alterations, Mark Brooke, was asked if he was not a good Episcopalian with the advancement of the church’s interests at heart, he replied “I am a St. David’s man, not an Episcopalian.”   

Those sentiments, voiced in a Quaker meeting, would have likely resulted in the speaker being “read out” of the meeting; but at St. David’s that summer, Mr. Brooke spoke for the majority of the parish, and the plans to alter the old church were defeated. 

On Newtown Street Road, the Baptist church, originally built in 1834, was also undergoing improvements that year.  The Baptists at that time performed their baptisms at a branch of the Darby Creek on the Hibberd farm at the northern border of the township near Easttown. 

Worshippers of other denominations could do so in each other’s homes, or would have to go to a neighboring community to find another church, as there were just these three church buildings in Newtown. 

[To be continued...]