Kendigtown, Pennsylvania

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

The Ferry Road, beginning at Lower Black Eddy and winding through Gardenville, Danboro, and Fountainville to Chalfont, is very old. North of Doylestown, it was during Revolutionary times the main artery of travel across Bucks County into New Jersey. Stranded in isolation along this road when traffic was later diverted to other newly-opened highways was a small group of houses which still bears the almost forgotten name of Kindytown. It is located in southwestern Plumstead Township between Danboro and Fountainville and in olden times was a place of some importance. The village was named for the Kendig family, once numerous and important in that part of Plumstead, but now almost entirely obsolete. Kendig was often locally pronounced Kindig, and some members of the family so spelled it. The first part of the name Kindytown was simply another form of Kendig. The name now appears properly on State Highway Department maps as Kendigtown. The largest house, a plain stone building, has a datestone set in the west gable, bearing the figures 1791. Not far from the village is the Johnson farm, once owned by Jacob B. Johnson, the contractor who in 1875 built the Doylestown and Dublin Turnpike Road. Johnson was firmly convinced that galena ore was embedded under his farm in quantity that would warrant mining it. Only a couple of miles away, in the same valley of North Branch of Neshaminy Creek, are the New Galena mines. With the aid of a companion who shared his faith, Johnson sank a number of shafts, ten feet square and thirty to fifty feet deep. The abandoned shafts are still to be seen. But no ore was found, though Johnson contended to the close of his life that he would have found ore if he could have commanded sufficient funds to sink his shafts deeper.

Source

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

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