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Historical Society of Bensalem Township subject files
Notifications
Held at: Historical Society of Bensalem Township [Contact Us]3211 Knights Rd., Bensalem, Pennsylvania, 19020
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Society of Bensalem Township. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
"Bensalem Township [Bucks County, Pennsylvania] is an area of 22 square miles bounded on three sides by waterways: the Delaware River, the Neshaminy Creek and the Poquessing Creek. Through it pass four of the most important arteries of transportation in the United States: Interstate 95 (Delaware Expressway), US Route 13 (Bristol Pike), US Route 1 (Lincoln Highway), and Interstate 276 (PA Turnpike).
"There have been many discussions about the name 'Bensalem' with the most popular theory being that it comes from the estate of Joseph Growden called 'The Manor of Bensalem' in the 1700s.
"Settled by the Dutch, Swedes, and English, it was a farming community until the 1950s when businesses and industries started to dot the landscape. One of the biggest changes in the township in the 1960s was the construction of Interstate 95 which transformed Street Road from a two lane country road into a major four lane highway.
"In 1979 all the small towns (Andalusia, Eddington, Cornwells Heights, Bridgewater, Flushing, and many others), became one postal area called 'Bensalem.'"
Bibliography:
Quoted text from The Historical Society of Bensalem Township. "The History of Bensalem." Accessed March 25, 2013. http://www.bensalemhistoricalsociety.com/history.html
This collection consists of vertical files and binders focusing on local history subjects. The materials are primarily photocopies of primary-source documents and secondary-source articles. There is a fair amount of original materials as well, including newspaper clippings, photographs, ephemera, and other miscellaneous materials. The subject files are organized into two series: vertical files and binders.
The vertical files, which consist of newspaper clippings, computer print-outs (of articles, photographs, and emails), and a small number of original photographs and other original documents, are arranged into the following subseries: Bensalem alphabetical; Surrounding areas; Bensalem School; African American History; Families; Churches and Cemeteries (includes a gravestone index of Beechwood Cemetery); Bicentennial and Tricentennial; Growden; and Logan. Files within subseries are organized alphabetically.
The binders document the following topics:
Bensalem and other areas of Bucks County Bensalem cemeteries Bensalem High School scrapbook, 1937 (Senior Name Cards) Bensalem High School teachers list, 1925-2010 Bensalem real estate Bensalem Township photos, 1958-1959 Bridgewater History (Prepared by Hazel Lamon) Buck Hotel Buckman family Clippings scrapbook, 1942-1946 Gibbs family Glen Ashton history Grace Galloway diary Growden Mansion Henry Tomlinson book of deaths (1736-1850) High School pictures from the 1950s Historic Site Survey of Bensalem Township completed by Heritage Conservancy, 1995 History of Eddington School (Prepared by Hazel Lamon) History of Reitter House in Feasterville, Pa. Ingraham - Whelan Homestead house history ("Edgewood Tigers") (Prepared by Gregory D. Huber) John F. Kennedy clippings, 1959-1960 Logan pictures Lower Southampton Township and Lower Southampton Historical Society (several binders) Mina-Chapman murder case Moving of the Langhorne house and Penndel Plane Pen Ryn and Bickley family Photographs of reunions, graduates, and classes Rodman Sears houses Trevose - Milner Report Tribute to Helen L. Sourman by Dottie McLean and Romayne Sternell
Of special interest are two binders about the Rodger Joseph McElwee American Legion Post #766, Bensalem. The binders are scrapbooks which include newspaper clippings, original photographs (captioned), correspondence, history of the post, and related documents, 1960-1968.
Materials acquired by Historical Society of Bensalem Township at various times.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Historical Society of Bensalem Township directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Historical Society of Bensalem Township
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Historical Society of Bensalem Township for information about accessing this collection.