How did the Native American town, Hollekonk get it’s name? This page provides a brief history about the naming of Hollekonk, and the people who settled it.
Name of an Indian town in the valley of Lahaska Creek, Buckingham Township. “Watson, the Annalist, mentions the incident of Amor Preston and wife, who, after their marriage near Pennsbury, Bucks County, went to Wicaco. Preston was a tailor and made frocks, trousers, and moccasins of deer skins for the Swedes. When their house at Wicaco was burned, some of their former Indian acquaintances in Bucks County invited the Prestons to go over Lahaska (Buckingham Mountain) to their village called ‘Hollekonk.’ This Indian village was located in Buckingham Valley along a stream still bearing the melodious name ‘Lahaska.’ On the banks of this stream, the Indians had their last encampment in the Delaware Valley. Here, in the year 1775, Isaac Still, a prominent Indian and leader of his tribe, collected the last remnants of the Lenni Lenape Indians, some forty in number, and journeyed with them westward to the Wabash, ‘far away,’ as he said, ‘from war and rum.’ ”1 Colonel Paxson, just quoted, must have known the exact location of this Indian town, and it is therefore quite unfortunate that he did not definitely locate it in any of his writings. Hollekonk Well is a natural curiosity in the limestone formation near Holicong on Bycot Road and on the boundary line between “Valley Farm” and “Barley Sheaf Farm.” Formerly visited by many people, it is now surrounded by trees and covered by a shed which effectively conceals it. It is a funnel-shaped depression in the corner of a field near the road. Its bottom is currently believed by people living near it to have some connection with a cavern beneath. Water often appears in the well and attempts to fathom it are said to have been unsuccessful. Hollekonk, it seems, cannot be determined as an Indian name from anything published by students of Lenape idiom. It probably is an Indian name so much corrupted that the form and meaning of the word are not apparent. It has been claimed by some writers on local history that the Indian village of Hollekonk, mentioned by Watson, was located at or near this well, but lack of authority for the statement raises doubt as to its correctness.
- Colonel Henry D. Paxson in Where Pennsylvania History Began, p. 38. It should be noted that Colonel Paxson is here quoting Watson, and Watson, splendid antiquarian and annalist that he was, occasionally fell into error. The statement that Hollekonk was the last Lenape encampment in the Delaware Valley needs modification. It may have been the last large encampment in Bucks County, though this is doubtful, and a camp of forty individuals would not ordinarily be considered large. [↩]