A Look Back

This history may remind us that predicting the future is an uncertain art, and, most importantly, instructs us to respect the difficulty of making the “right” governmental decisions affecting future generations.

Several events from the more distant past that reflect the Quaker roots of this area, involving Upper Dublin,¹⁰ that gave rise to the northern suburbs in William Penn’s “green country” appear to have eluded prior histories but give a flavor to the early role of Upper Dublin as an agent of change:

*In the mid-18th century another Englishman, Squire Boone, father of the legendary Daniel Boone, passed through Upper Dublin (likely on Susquehanna Street Road) on his way from his first American residence in the Quaker community of Abington to a new residence in the Quaker community in Lower Gwynedd, before he moved onto to Oley (near Reading) where Daniel Boone was raised. As an adult Daniel Boone went on to explore the Kentucky wilderness, being the first settler to identify and discover a trail through the Appalachian Mountains in 1769. CITE As a result, Upper Dublin did have a part (albeit a transitory one) in exploring America’s frontier in the 18th century.

*George Washington headquartered at Whitemarsh, between 2 Nov. and 11 Dec. 1777, in what is now Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County, about twelve miles northwest of Philadelphia. While at Whitemarsh he stayed at Emlen House, a family summerhouse built by George Emlen, a Philadelphia Quaker, around 1745 and owned at this time by Emlen Devereux. Lt. James McMichael of the Pennsylvania line said that upon their arrival at Whitemarsh the troops “erected abatis in front of our encampment” (“McMichael’s Diary,” description begins William P. McMichael. “Diary of Lieutenant James McMichael, of the Pennsylvania Line, 1776–1778.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 16 (1892): 129–155. He issued General Orders, 2 Nov 1777, Founders Online. “General Orders, 2 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0081. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 12, 26 October 1777 – 25 December 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. and David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002, pp. 91–92. The Emlen home, now privately owned, is known as Emlen House. His stay is commemorated by a historical marker on what is now Pennsylvania Avenue.¹¹

*In the early 20thcentury the one-ton “Freedom Bell” (also known as “Justice Bell”), the most prominent symbol of the women’s suffrage movement in the early 20th century, passed through Upper Dublin (and likely by the Quaker Meetinghouse) on its way from Willow Grove to Ambler and then to its ultimate destination, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, on the eve of the November 2, 1915 referendum on a pro-suffrage amendment to the Pennsylvania’s Constitution. (Edward Levenson, A century ago, women battled for the vote and lost, phillyburbs.com, Nov. 1, 2015 (referencing travel of the bell from Willow Grove to Ambler)). As will be discussed later, a nationally known Quaker from Upper Dublin, Wilmer Atkinson, chaired and directed the statewide organization of men supporting passage of that referendum. Despite Atkinson’s stalwart efforts [see Voters Demand Square Deal for Women At Polls, Centre Daily Times, Aug. 13, 1915, p. 5 (highlighting Atkinson’s role as head of the Men’s League)], it was defeated both in Montgomery County (by 3-to-1, 13018 to 4319) and statewide. The Atkinson family, including reference to Wilmer Atkinson (noting his wider fame as the publisher of the nationally circulated Farm Journal), is commemorated by a historical marker on the grounds of the Quaker Meetinghouse.¹²

Notes

10.Confusion as to the location and names of the various Dublins was noted very early. Oliver Hough, Captain Thomas Holme, Surgeon General of Pennsylvania and Provincial Councilor, at p. 249 n.:.1, On Holme’s map there are two townships indicated in the area that was known as Dublin Township; the lower one was entirely included in what was afterwards Lower Dublin Township, while the upper was about half in the latter and half in what was afterwards Abington; they were generally known together as Dublin Township, though the upper one was sometimes called “ the upper Dublin Township.” The rest of the present Abington was then called Hilltown; the line between it and the present Upper Dublin was the same on Holme’s map as it is now, and the latter was called Upper Dublin even in Holme’s time. Pyne-Spring Plantation was in what is now Abington.
11.There was at least one other location in Upper Dublin that stationed at least some Revolutionary War military personnel. David J. Fowler, Guide to the Sol Feinstone Collection of the David Library of the American Revolution at 199 (1994) (referring to Tomas Conway in Upper Dublin), and Edward Pinkowski, Nine Days with Pulaski (Polish American Fdn., reprint of Polish Genealogical Soc’y of Calif., Jan. 2004 (George Washington, while staying in Upper Dublin, instituted proceedings against Theodorick Bland who moved to different quarters in Upper Dublin). However, so far as can be determined, the only likely situs was the adjacent Camp Hill, immediately to the west of Camp Hill Road from the Emlen House.
12.At its height Atkinson’s publishing business (Wilmer Atkinson Co., located in Philadelphia) issued dozens of books on agricultural themes ranging from animal husbandry to updated versions of Poor Richards Almanac and hundreds of annual county-centered farm information journals covering much of the country, such as the Farm and Business Directory of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, issued in 1914 and likely other years. Nora C. Quebral, Wilmer Atkinson and the Early Farm Journal, 47 Journalism of Mass Communication Q. 65-80 (March 1970); Reference for Business: Farm Journal Corporation Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Farm Journal Corporation (2006) (including its transformation into an online publishing enterprise). Atkinson was by far the nation’s best-known resident of Upper Dublin from shortly after he began to publish Farm Journal in 1877 through his death in 1920. In fact, it is far to say that no other resident of the township has ever approached his national visibility.