Bedminster, Pennsylvania

How did Bedminster, Pennsylvania get it’s name? This page provides a brief history about the naming of Bedminster, Pennsylvania, the people who settled it, and the industry rising within it.

Village near the center of Bedminster Township on Route 656. It was known in the past as Bedminsterville. A post office was established April 7, 1851, with Elias Ott as first postmaster. In the days of mail coaches the village had communication tri-weekly with Doylestown. One of its early industries was chair making, carried on quite extensively seventy to eighty years ago by Reuben Stever. The center of life in Bedminster for many years, however, has been its village store, one of the largest of its kind in the county. It was established in 1834 by Abraham Freidlich. Scheetz Brothers succeeded Mr. Freidlich. In 1855 Levi Mickley took charge, followed by Peter O. Mickley, who quit in 1860 and was subsequently elected township assessor. A new and larger store building was erected in 1860 by Isaac Fluck, who had succeeded the Mickleys as owner. In 1863 Levi C. Hafler became proprietor. He took J. H. Afflerbach into partnership and Hailer & Afflerbach managed the business until 1868, when Mr. Hafler retired because of ill health. The Keller family, for nearly seventy years in the store business at this place, entered the firm in 1870, when Abraham Keller became associated with it under the name of J. H. Afflerbach & Co. Mr. Afflerbach retired in 1873 and the firm name was then changed to Keller & Son, Abraham Keller taking into partnership his son, Lewis, who had just become of age. In 1875 another reorganization took place, Lewis and Joseph M. Keller forming a partnership under the name of Keller & Brother. Joseph Keller retired in 1878 and the business was taken over and successfully carried on by Lewis until Saturday, October 2, 1886. On that evening the entire plant, comprising the main store building, furniture depot and several smaller buildings, was destroyed by fire. Undaunted by the calamity, Mr. Keller took advantage of the opportunity to build upon the ruins of the old plant the finest and largest country store of that time north of Doylestown.

Source: MacReynolds, George. Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania, 2nd Edition. Doylestown, PA: The Bucks County Historical Society, 1955.

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