The Summer Meeting, 1922

Abstract

About two hundred people, arriving by automobiles, and by train to Bycot station, assembled in the quaint old meeting house. The beautiful, well-preserved stone building in its setting of grand old trees, with the peaceful burying ground in the rear, sheltered by the surrounding hills, made an ideal gathering place. Lucy B. Roberts, President of the Society, in her opening remarks referred to the fact that the Society now has an office in the Friends' Library, 142 North Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia. A sign on the door locates it as the headquarters of the Society. In the absence of the Secretary, Caroline W. Smedley was invited to serve in that capacity for the day. Henry D. Paxson addressed the Society on "Buckingham in Revolutionary Times." (See p. 57, above.) The second paper on the program was read by B. F. Fackenthal, Jr., on " Durham Iron Furnaces." The well-known Durham Iron Works are as old as the Buckingham Meeting. Durham is in the extreme northeastern section of Bucks County on the Delaware River. Its white settlers arrived perhaps as early as 1682. The greater part of the land was granted by William Penn to his Secretary, James Logan, who deeded it to the Durham Iron Works. The date stone of the original blast furnace is marked 1727. The discovery of iron ore in the hills led to its establishment. As James Logan owned one quarter of the business at that time, it is quite probable that the fire backs at his mansion, " Stenton," were made at Durham. Pig iron, cast iron, stove plates, and shock shells were also made there. The last blast of the old furnace was in 1789, after which it was used as a grist mill. In 1830 the furnaces were opened again, and modernized in 1876. The plant was dismantled in 1912. One modern furnace in one month produces more iron than did the Durham furnace of 1727 in sixty-two years. It is likely that