HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
 

843
 

CHAPTER LIV.
 

VOLUNTEEPuS;  BIBLE SOCIETY; AGRICULTUEAL  SOCIETIES; VISIT
OF LAFAYETTE ; POISONING OF DOCTOR CHAPMAN.
 

Martial spirit in Bucks.—Troops in French war.—Militia organization.—First vol¬
unteer company.—Washington met at Trenton.—Companies organized.—War
of 1812.—Troops march to camp.—Captain Purdy's company.—Captain Magill's^
—Camps Dupont and Marcus Hook.—Colonel Humphrey's.—Bucks county in
civil war.—Volunteers' encampment.—Bucks county Bible society.—Agricul¬
tural societies.—Mowers and reapers.—Beek's exhibition.—'Visit of Lafayette.—
Poisoning of Doctor Chapman.—Mina.

A MARTIAL spirit prevailed in Bucks county, notwithstanding the
prevailing sentiment of the Friends was against it and, wdienever the
occasion required, her citizens turned out to defend the frontiers
from the Indians.i In 1755 her volunteers were the first to go to
the rescue of Bethlehem and the neighboring settlements. The first
company to march was Captain Wilson's, sixty strong, the last of No¬
vember, and in December Captains Asten and Wayne followed him.
The 17th of January, 1756, Franklin, then colonel of a regiment,
ordered Captain Jacob Arndt,2 from "Bocklandin Bucks," probably
Bichland, to the frontier near Bethlehem.    In the French and In-

1 The first attempt to form a militia in this state was in June, 1702, in the absence
of W^illiam Penn, when a company was organized in Philadelphia, commanded by
George Lowther, on the occasion of war with France.

2 Captain Arndt was a popular and energetic officer in the Indian wars, and a mem-^
ber of the supreme executive council during the Revolution. He died at Easton in
1805, whither he had removed.                                                                                   -'