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Chapter 2
Origin of the Village
In 1848 the "Great Road" running
through the center of Gwynedd Township was incorporated into the
Sumneytown and Springhouse Turnpike. At that time The population
of the Township was about 1,600 inhabitants. The largest town
was a cluster of houses, a mill, church, tavern, coal and
lumberyards, etc which had evolved on the Great Road and was
named North Wales.
In 1867 Hezekiah Zieber opened a resort
on 20 acres of forest so "that the good people of this section
should have some place for wholesome entertainment". It included
pavilions, dining halls, buildings for picnics, a carousel, a
pond with "swan boats" and even a Fife and Drum Corps. Thousands
of patrons visited each month, traveling a dirt road that would
one day be called Garfield Avenue.
In 1869 the thriving
town of North Wales was incorporated into a borough. Two miles
north of there, Lansdale
officially became a borough in 1872. Population of these areas
had risen dramatically with the completion of the Pennsylvania
Railroad in 1857. The rest of Gwynedd Township remained farmland
with the exception of Springhouse to the south. There were over
190 farms in Gwynedd at this time.
The area
west of North Wales was farmland and forest except for
Zieber's Park. A saw mill along the Wissahickon Creek was the
only other distinction, having been there since 1717. In 1866
Henry Rosenberger sold the saw mill to Jonathan Lukens, a
notable lumber dealer. Lukens would
have a profound impact on the area seven years later.
Of the
farmsteads, a particular farm house and 139 acres had been owned
since 1818 by Andrew Kriebel. In 1856 Kriebel's heirs sold the
house and 100 acres to Amos Jones of Hilltown for $6000,
creating the Jones Farm. Today, the greater portion of the
village occupies what was once the Jones Farm.
1871
Part of a map from 1871 showing both
the Jones farm and
Jonathan Lukens saw mill.
(for reference, Sumneytown Pike
is at the top, West Point Pike is right center and Morris
Road is on the bottom.)
The Stony Creek Railroad
In 1868
plans were made by the North Penn Railroad to create the "Stony
Creek" line. This railroad was to start in Norristown near the
Stony Creek (hence the name) and end in North Wales. The plans
for the intended route were changed by a prominent individual in
Lansdale, the president of the Lansdale City Council, Dr. John
N. Jacobs. (Jacobs was the first to sign Lansdale's
Petition for Incorporation in 1872, and remained active in
Lansdale's development for more than 50 years, until his death
in 1924.) It was Jacob's desire that the new railroad lead to
Lansdale instead of
North Wales.
Also involved was John S. Heebner, a Schwenkfelder who lived
near what would soon be the village. He was on the board of
directors of Montgomery National Bank in Norristown. Jacobs,
Heebner, and a group of other businessmen bought the majority
of the shares of Stony Creek stock, and so they had the
controlling interest.
The railroad
eventually ran from Norristown to Lansdale, bypassing North
Wales completely. More important, the new route brought the tracks near Jonathan
Lukens' saw mill.
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