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Compiled from various authentic sources By I. DANIEL RUPP Pulbished by G. Hills, Proprietor, Lancaster, PA., 1845 Page 59 TOPOGRAPHY OF TOWNSHIPS Upper Mount Bethel township is bounded on the north, by Monroe county; east, by the Delaware river; on the south and west, by Lower Mount Bethel township. The surface is hilly and rolling; soil, principally limestone; well cultivated and very productive. It is watered by Cobuss' creek, a small stream that rises within the township, and flowing seven miles eastward, falls into the Delaware river, about three miles below the Water Gap. There are six grist and six saw mills in it. Extensive slate quarries have been opened in this township, near the Delaware, where roofing slate, of a superior quality, is obtained, in large quantities, and a manufactory of school slates, under the auspices of the Hon. James M. Porter, the proprietor, has been established, in which, by the aid of ingenious machinery, slates, of a peculiar neatness and excellence, arc produced, at a very moderate price. There are several villages in this township. Slate Port, near the Delaware Water Gap, consisting of some six or eight dwellings, occupied by persons at work, at Mr. Porter's slate quarries and manufactory. Centreville is a post village, sixteen miles from Easton; it contains twenty dwellings, one store, one tavern and a foundry. Near the village is a splendid edifice, being a German Reformed church. The village is pleasantly situated. Williamsburg is a post village, on the main road from Easton to the Delaware Water Gap, about twenty miles from Easton, and five from the Gap. This place was laid out by William Lander, some twenty-five or thirty years ago. It contains about forty-five dwellings, one store, one tavern, two churches, an English Presbyterian church, erected of brick, in 1836; and a Methodist church, a frame building, erected in 1835; and a fine brick academy, built in 1S31, but now occupied by a common school—population about two hundred and seventy-five. The earliest settler here was a Mr. Forsman—among the other early settlers were Frutchy, Brodt, Over, Krotzer and Stein. Dill's Ferry is between Slate Port and Williamsburg, opposite Columbia, in New Jersey. There is a tavern here in which a post office is kept. The population of this township in 1820, was 2,182 ; in 1830, 2,241; 1840, 2,643. The county rates and levies for 1844, on professions, was $83,693; on real estate, horses and cattle, $751,525 ; state tax, $1,859 47. The number of taxables, 630. |
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