How did Kirkbridesville, Pennsylvania get its name? This page provides a brief history about the naming of Kirkbridesville, Pennsylvania, the people who settled it, and the industry rising within it.
Hamlet at the Pennsylvania side of Kirkbrides Ferry, opposite Bordentown, N.J. Gordon1 in 1832, speaks of this place as being “opposite Trenton,” but that seems to have been an early general term to locate places on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware near that city, and in this instance, Kirkbrides Ferry is some miles south of Trenton. Gordon also says, “There is a tavern here, but that is the only building immediately at the place, save sheds and stables.” Kirkbrides Ferry, one of the oldest on the Delaware River, was established “at the landing place of Joseph Kirkbride” by an act of the General Assembly, passed May 31, 1718. At the end of eleven years, the grant was renewed by the act of May 10, 1729. In later years, this ferry became known as Bordentown Ferry. A road leads from Tullytown across the southeastern part of Falls Township to the ferry landing, and late maps show a group of several buildings there.
- Gazetteer of Pennsylvania, 1832, p. 223. [↩]