How did Fountainville, Pennsylvania get it’s name? This page provides a brief history about the naming of Fountainville, Pennsylvania, the people who settled it, and the industry rising within it.
This village has the distinction of being located in three townships, Doylestown, New Britain and Plumstead, at the intersection of the old Ferry Road and the Doylestown and Dublin Turnpike Road (Route 270). A post office was established there January 5, 1875, with John L. Kramer, later a merchant and Councilman of Doylestown, as the first postmaster. A short distance southeast of Fountainville along the pike is an old graveyard in a grove of small trees. How many graves are there will never be known, as some of the stones are broken, some have been removed and many graves may never have been marked. A genealogist who visited the spot some years ago found the oldest headstone bore the inscription:
I. MORTCH
DIED IN 1749
This was inscribed on native stone. Another stone of the same kind was marked:
N. G. 1778
Aged 84
One of the few marble stones bore this inscription in German:
Here Rests in God
Abraham Fried
Who died the 21st
December, 1772
His age, 32 years
Wie whol ist meinem Leib
Nach is aufgestandenem Leiden
Wie whol ist meiner sole
In Jenen Himmel Freuden
The only other inscribed marble stone bore the following lines:
Erected
to the Memory of
William Daves
a blackman
Who died February 22nd 1813
Aged about 65 years
Black and white, as you pass by,
Remember that we all must die.
This graveyard is reputed to have been the burial place of a noted slavemaster of Revolutionary times, who had many slaves on his plantation in this vicinity. On the east corner of the cross roads is a large two-story stone building, which was formerly the Fountain Inn, and from this inn the village got its first name. Few people today know that this building was a public house before 1835 and until 1857, when it was closed as a hotel and became a private house. Its sign was that of a fountain and nearby was a large spring or fountain, its water being piped to the house. In this neighborhood some years ago were flowing artesian wells, the water coming to the surface of the ground and in a few instances rising above the ground like a fountain. Frequent tapping of the underground supply of water seems to have reduced its volume, but the flowing wells may be still found today.
Source: MacReynolds, George. Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania, 2nd Edition. Doylestown, PA: The Bucks County Historical Society, 1955.