Fitzwatertown, Pennsylvania
Fitzwatertown | |
|---|---|
  Fitzwatertown Location of Fitzwatertown in Pennsylvania  Fitzwatertown Fitzwatertown (the United States) | |
| Coordinates: 40°07′30.52″N 75°09′54.22″W / 40.1251444°N 75.1650611°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Montgomery |
| Township | Upper Dublin |
| Elevation | 222 ft (68 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| Area codes | 215, 267 and 445 |
Fitzwatertown is an unincorporated community located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The community is in Upper Dublin Township, 2.13 miles (3.43 km) south of Jarrettown, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Abington, 1.1 miles south of Dreshertown, 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Oreland and approximately 12.3 miles (19.8 km) north of Philadelphia.
Fitzwatertown is located at the intersection of Limekiln Pike, Fitzwatertown Road and Jenkintown Road.
History
[edit]Thomas Fitzwater arrived and laid out the road to Abington that became the Limekiln Pike in 1725.
Bean's History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania describes Fitzwatertown as follows:
Fitzwatertown is situated in the southern part of the township, on the Limekiln turnpike, in the midst of the fertile valley of Sandy Run, abounding in limestone and iron-ore. This is an old settlement where Thomas Fitzwater followed lime-burning before the summer of 1705 and had a grist-mill erected at an early period. It contains a store hotel, wheel-wright and blacksmith-shop, grist-mill and about twelve house. The post-office was established here before 1858. The value of lime produced in Upper Dublin for 1840 was stated to be twenty thousand two hundred and seventy-five dollars, which was all produced in this vicinity, but the business has since been greatly increased through railroad facilities. Edge Hill Station, of the North Pennsylvania Railroad, is only a mile distant; yet, with all its surpassing advantages, as may be observed, has made but very little progress for the last half-century. The grist-mill mentioned was long carried on by John Price and is now, owned by Samuel Conrad. Sandy Run is a steady stream rising at the Moreland line, about three miles distant.[1]
In about 1869, Irish emigrant Michael Carolan (1844-1906), of Drumbaragh, County Meath, moved, with his parents, his brother and his new wife about a mile east of Fitzwatertown, Abington Township, on to the farm of Garrett Hendrick. This was just north Susquehanna Avenue and the lime kilns of Mrs. Emeline Tyson.[2] In 1870, 13% of the population of Abington Township were Irish-born. The Carolans moved from the farm of George and Mary Spencer about a mile northeast of Willow Grove, in Upper Moreland Township. On August 22, 1869, Michael married Annie Larner (1852-1901), also born in Ireland, in Jenkintown, at the newly erected Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.[3]
The two began a family at Fitzwatertown that would result in 17 children, six of whom survived into adulthood.[4] According to the 1870 census, on the Hendrick farm, 25-year-old Michael worked beside his 16-year-old brother, Thomas Spencer Carolan (1852-1915), in the shop that Michael established.
Six years later, Michael opened a blacksmith shop in Dreshertown and moved his family to the center of Fitzwatertown, about a mile south of his shop. In 1878, Michael purchased land a mile to the north in Dreshertown for blacksmith and wheelwright shops but then sold it six months later and rented afterward. In 1880 he is working with the McCormick brothers in his shop.
The following year, while living in the center of Fitzwatertown, Michael and Annie lost four children to illnesses. They purchased a plot to bury them at the New Cathedral Cemetery in Philadelphia, to the immediate east of an industrial neighborhood called Franklinville.
It appears that they left Fitzwatertown in 1882. They moved with their five surviving children, Mathew, Elizabeth, Helen, Mary and Emma, about ten miles south, to a rental in Rowlandville,[5] in North Philadelphia.
The family moved to nearby Franklinville, Philadelphia where Michael established a new blacksmith business, and where he and Annie lived out their lives.
References
[edit]- ^ Buck, Wm. J. (1884). Theodore W. Bean (ed.). History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Evert & Pecks. p. 1095. Retrieved January 1, 2009.
- ^ Atlas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1871 Compiled & Published by G.M. Hopkins & Company
- ^ Birth and marriage records, Philadelphia Diocesan Historical Research Center.
- ^ Their firstborn son Matthew's birth certificate (1871) states his place of birth in Fitzwatertown; the birth certificate for Catherine states she was born at Fitzwatertown on July 11, 1881, and died September 15, 1881, in Fitzwatertown. According to the 1870 US census for Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the family lived on or near the Garrett Hendrick farm (located on 1871 Baist map), which was 1.5 linear miles northeast of Fitzwatertown, 1.6 linear miles east of Dreshertown and 1.3 linear miles southwest of Willow Grove. According to the 1880 census for Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the family is living three doors down from Samuel Conrad, 64, who lives in the center of Fitzwatertown and owns the old gristmill on Sandy Run, according to the 1891 Baist Map.
- ^ "About". The Rowland Company. Retrieved December 11, 2024.
