Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania

Bucks County

This collection provides a history of place names in Bucks County Pennsylvania. Each article contained within speaks of a specific geographic location or feature. They provide brief histories about the naming of place names in Bucks County Pennsylvania, the people who settled them, and the industry rising within them.

Names of places have tremendous human interest. Men have fought over them, and oftentimes a proposal for a change will meet with violent community opposition. A place name is not easily destroyed. It persists for years after being replaced by another. A well-know historical writer of the 1870’s almost invariably used in his manuscript journal the seventeenth century name of Four Lanes End for Langhorne and nearly everybody knew what town he had in mind. There are instances in Bucks County where time has wiped out every vestige of a village, yet its name survives.

At some time or another it becomes desirable or even necessary to know why, how or when a certain place came to be known by the name it bears. A name may be spoken or written daily for years without a thought given to its origin or significance, when suddenly something starts an inquiry along that line, and it may not be readily answered. Information is likely to be scant, or scattered, or unreliable; so it was thought that comparatively accurate data, collected and made accessible in printed form – a place-names historical reference book, so to speak, would be timely.

Towns, Villages, Hamlets, and Stations in Bucks County Pennsylvania

Geographic Features in Bucks County Pennsylvania

  • Almshouse Hill
  • Anchor Creek
  • Aquetong Creek
  • Aquetong Spring
  • Beaver Creek
  • Beaver Run
    Small stream in Richland Township, rising southwest of Quakertown. Flowing in a northeasterly direction, it forms a junction with Licking Run east of Quakertown. On a draft of the 503-acre tract of John Thompson, surveyed by Samuel Foulke, November 15, 1780, this stream is named Muddy Run. It is presumed to have taken its name Beaver from the prevalence of that animal along its bank 150 years ago.
  • Bins Hill
    A hill near Springtown, close to the Northampton County line.
  • Brandywine Creek
  • Broad Axe Creek
  • Brock Creek
    A stream in Lower Makefield Township, flowing into the Delaware River at Yardley.
  • Buckingham Cave
  • Buckingham Mountain
  • Buckwampun Mountain
  • Burn Bridle Hill and Burn Bridle Forest
  • Butter Creek
  • Cabin Run Creek
  • Canada Hill
  • Cauffman Hill
  • Chestnut Hill
    Conspicuous hill in southeastern Durham Township, extending across the township boundary line into Nockamixon. It is 740 feet above tide level. Rising over 300 feet above the surrounding country, it commands a magnificent view from its summit. The hill was once covered by a luxuriant growth of chestnut timber, hence its name. It is about two miles in length by a mile and a quarter in breadth.
  • Common Creek
  • Cooks Creek
  • Cooks Run
  • Coppernose Hill
  • Core Creek
  • Cressman Hill
    In Springfield Township overlooking the Durham Creek.
  • Curley Hill
  • Curls Run
  • Cuttalossa Creek
  • Dark Hollow
  • Dark Hollow Run
    Small stream wholly in Solebury Township, about a mile in length, flowing in a northeasterly direction and emptying into the Delaware Division Canal below New Hope. The main line of the Postal Telegraph Company runs through Dark Hollow. A branch line from Trenton, N. J., was connected there with the main line in the summer of 1888.
  • Dark Hollow Run
    Small stream wholly in Tinicum Township, a mile and a quarter in length, flowing northwardly and emptying into Delaware River near Smithtown. The Smithtown Road, leading off River Road (Route 326) and passing through the Dark Hollow ravine, makes a picturesque drive. Thence Smithtown Road passes through Tinicum village and past Lower Tinicum Church, crosses Tohickon Creek at Myers grist mill and connects with Route 611 at Pipersville, six miles from the River Road.
  • Deep Run
  • Deer Park
  • Deer Run
    Small creek, rising in the central part of Bedminster Township in two primary tributaries. It lies wholly within the township and flows through the second valley northwest of Deep Run, emptying into Tohickon Creek near the mouth of Wolf Run, occupying the intervening valley. Deer were very plentiful along its banks when the first white settlers came, hence its name.
  • Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal
  • Delaware River
  • Delaware River Islands
  • Dimple Creek
    This is a tributary of Tohickon Creek in Haycock Township, joining a little south of Applebachsville.
  • Dry Branch
  • Small stream rising in northeastern Richland Township. Flowing in a southerly direction through the eastern edge of the township, it empties into Tohickon Creek east of Quakertown. The stream is named on very early land drafts and its name is said to be due to the fact that its flow is not constant in dry seasons.
  • Durham Cave
  • Durham Hills and Durham Mines
  • Edge Hill
  • Flatiron Hill
  • Gallows Hill
  • Gallows Run
  • Geddes Run
  • Great Swamp
  • Griers Hill
    Is located in southeastern Warrington Township. It has an elevation of about 360 feet and flanks the upper part of Fretz Valley to the southeast. It is sometimes called Warrington Hill and is crossed by Route 611. In the early days of the Bucks County Railway, which was built along the side of the roadway, the hill gained a reputation as the “Toboggan Slide” from the practice of motormen allowing the old-time four-wheel trolley cars to coast down the hill at a speed of sixty miles an hour or more. The hill was named for the Grier family, who owned a homestead there.
  • Hardiaken Creek
  • Haxelbach Creek
    In the western part of Milford Township, near Trumbauersville.
  • Haycock Creek
  • Haycock Mountain
  • Hazelbach Stream
    A small stream wholly in Milford Township. Rising in the northwestern interior of the township, it flows southeastwardly and empties into Unami Creek a short distance north of Finland. Germans living on its beautiful banks coined the name from the English word “hazel” or “hazel-nut,” the name of a well-known nut-bearing shrub that grows abundantly along the stream, and the German word “bach,” meaning “brook.”
  • Hickory Run
    Small stream in southeast Plumstead Township, flowing northeastwardly and paralleling the Ferry Road, southeast of that old thoroughfare. It empties into the Delaware Division Canal between Point Pleasant and Lower Black Eddy and was early regarded as the boundary line between those villages. Its name was due to the once abundant hickory trees along its banks.
  • Honey Hollow
  • Hough Creek
    Small stream wholly in Upper Makefield Township. It rises on the southwest side of the township in an angle formed by the lines of Newtown and Wrightstown, flowing in an easterly direction and emptying into the Delaware River south of Washington Crossing. It is the southernmost stream in Upper Makefield and was named for Richard Hough, the first settler on its banks. The creek is shown on the Holme Map (1682-84) as passing diagonally through the large Hough tract. Holme spells the name “Richard Huffe.”
  • Ingram Hill
  • Irish Run
  • Iron Hill
  • Iron Works Creek
  • Jericho Creek
  • Jericho Mountain
  • Kimble Creek
  • Kitchens Hill
  • Kuglers Roost
    A hill of 600 feet elevation in southeastern Milford Township, about a mile south of Trumbauersville. It is a spur of the Rock Hill ridge. It is said to have been named many years ago for a man who led a hermit’s life on its slope.

Source

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

  1. This editor of Pennsylvania Genealogy was unable to find a manuscript so entitled, I believe they are referring to Two Hundred Years [↩]
  2. The Doanes before the Revolution,” by Dr. H. C. Mercer. Papers read before The Bucks County Historical Society, Vol. I, p. 180. [↩]

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