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| Community History |
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The history of a community plays a vital role in the identity of its residents. If you have lived in Franconia Township for many years, this Community History will be a heartfelt reminder of days gone by.
If you have just come to call Franconia Township home, the following historical perspectives are a way to learn more about the community you have joined. We would love to share the history of Franconia with all who reside here. If you are interested in writing your own brief history about this area to share with the community, please contact us! |
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The History of Franconia
FRANCONIA TOWNSHIP
BOASTS LONG, RICH HISTORY
They say the past is dead, but evidence of it is as real as a tombstone. And most of us pass by it every day, all but unaware of the surrounding cultural cemetery. It comes in the form of old barns and farmhouses, perhaps several rows of corn, local produce stands and churches, many of which are nearly as old as the towns they’re in.
Even the names on modern day street signs serve as ancient artifacts of a local history. Many of the roads have been named for local families. Moyer Road traverses some very old Moyer farmsteads, while Delp Road passes through the old Delp farm. Kellers Road was named after the family that started the old Kellers Creamery. Likewise, the Halteman, Landis, Godshall, and Barndt families all have been cartographically immortalized.
In 1981 Franconia Township turned 250 years old, and a celebration was held that by now, a mere 25 years later, has also become a relic documented in commemorative books and the memories of old timers. After all, the area has dramatically changed even in that short amount of time. In May of that year some 10,000 people showed up for a two-hour parade of horse-drawn equipment, antique cars, and commemorative floats. And Franconia resident Merrill Yoder still remembers watching the fireworks display above a then-open field, which is now covered in houses.
The early European settlers arrived to the area around 1718. Salford Township was established first, and Franconia split off from Salford in 1731, while Upper and Lower Salford were annexed in 1741. Joyce Clemmer Munro documented in a brief history published for the 250th anniversary that the court entered a decree to establish the township on March 31, 1732, and Franconia consisted of 14.87 square miles of land. By that time, the Lenni Lenape Indian tribe that had occupied the territory for thousands of years before them had mostly vanished.
Joel Alderfer, curator of the Mennonite Heritage Center, describes the early Swiss German settlers as farmers and agrarians. They belonged to the various groups that had emerged following the Protestant Reformation. They were Anabaptists and Pietists, Mennonites and Schwenkfelders. And they believed in hard work, frugality, and resourcefulness. They were, as William Penn had imagined, a “free…sober and industrious people.”
“You didn’t waste anything,” Alderfer said. “You were frugal in all that you had.” In leaving Europe, the early settlers apparently had brought their religious and peasant values along with them, and felt obligated to diligence and proper management of “the resources God had allowed them to use.”
Though predominantly farmers, many of the workers back then specialized in particular trades, like weaving, spinning, milling, cabinet making, carpentry, wood turning, tanning, blacksmithing, saddling, clock-making, and processing flax. The area is still known for the production of meat. Hatfield Quality Meats, Leidy’s, Pilgrims Pride, and the Moyer Packing Company can all be traced back to early times. Meats were processed and sold locally or in the Philadelphia market.
Churches were established early on, but the first schoolhouses weren’t built until close to the turn of the century. After the passing of the Common School Law of 1834, Franconia held its first school board election in 1845, but records show that the new public school system was not adopted until 1851. As Munro wrote, “By 1871 the township had eight school districts, each with a schoolhouse centrally located. The schoolhouses often took the name of the farmer nearest the school.”
The nine schoolhouses in Franconia were Bergey’s, Morwood, Schueck’s, Franconia, Detweiler’s, Skippack Creek, Rosenberger’s, Indianfield, and Frederick’s schools. All the one-room schoolhouses were consolidated in December 1941 with the opening of a new multi-room facility on Harleysville-Souderton Pike northeast of Franconia Square, located at the present day-corner of Route 113 and Allentown Road. In August 1955, Franconia’s school districts joined the other five districts of Souderton, Telford, Salford, Upper and Lower Salford in a formal agreement to unite as one.
With the establishment of schools, infrastructure, community organizations, churches, and thriving villages, it seemed that the fortitude of the early settlers had paid off. Having passed on to their children the traditional values of hard work, frugal spending habits, and wise investments, the people of Franconia developed a community that had become not only self-sufficient, but also successful. Even today the area is touted as a desirable place to live, resulting in the influx of houses and development that ironically seem to have erased many signs of the early culture from which it grew.
Of course evidence of the local history is available today not only in physical form, but also in the actions and behaviors of the people, who continue to promote a strong work ethic and community mindedness.
“When you have a community that lives that way,” Alderfer remarked, “you get a prosperous community…Over the centuries, you get a well-to-do community. And I think that is what we have here.”
Jerilyn Covert
Staff Writer, Souderton Independent
Courtesy of the Souderton Independent
“LAND OF THE FRANKS” TURNS 275
On March 6, 1731, about 33 residents of Indianfield petitioned the Philadelphia Court to separate their 9,520 acres from then Salford Township. They called it Franconia, “Land of the Franks.”
It has its roots in old German duchy, or territory ruled by a duke, which was also the birthplace of Francis Daniel Pasorius, the man responsible for Germantown. After the Battle of Germantown, the wagons of wounded soldiers and patriots from Washington’s army, rested overnight near Franconia on their way to the Moravian hospital in Bethlehem, according to Jacob Kratz, President of the Franconia Historical Society.
The Liberty Bell even passed through the township on its way to Allentown.
Moyer Packing Company, the oldest business in Franconia, had its roots in Jacob Freed’s butchering business, which opened in 1877 near Keller and Morwood roads.
Franconia Township will soon see a new change when Souderton Area School District opens its new school on Lower Road. In fact, Kratz said a Lenni Lenape village is documented to have existed on the former farm of Jacob Wile, Jr. near the present-day school district administration building. Kratz said a Lenni Lenape chief is buried near present-day MOPAC at Allentown and Lower Roads. Another Indian burial site rests on the former Charles Andrichyn farm, he said.
Excerpts from an article by:
Tony DiDomizio, Staff Writer
The Reporter / Courtesy of The Reporter
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