HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Germantown Township, also known as German Township, is a defunct
township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
that was located in
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Philadelphia County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the List of counties in Pennsylvania, most populous county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...
. The municipality ceased to exist and was incorporated into the
City of Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
following the passage of the
Act of Consolidation, 1854 The Act of Consolidation, more formally known as the act of February 2, 1854 (P.L. 21, No. 16), is legislation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly that created the consolidated City and County of Philadelphia, expanding the city's territory to ...
.


History

Germantown Township occupied the area known as the Germantown Tract surveyed by Thomas Holmes in 1683, and depicted on his map of about 1687. That survey was prepared for Francis Daniel Pastorius, agent for the
Frankfurt Land Company Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its nam ...
, and thirteen German families, known as the "Original Thirteen Families", from Krefeld, Germany and nearby areas. Board of directors for the Frankfurt Land Company included Jacobus van der Walle, Johann Jacob Schutz, Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeld, Daniel Behagel, George Strauss, Jan Leureiss, Abram Hasevoet. They had purchased a total of 2,675 acres (11 km²) of land. The intent of the Frankfurt Land Company was to send German Settlers to settle their Pennsylvania lands. In the end, they sent no settlers, and none of the directors ever came themselves. The Settlers from Krefeld had obtained a similar sized parcel, and arrived on the ship Concord, on 6 October 1683, and almost immediately began to clear their land. Additional settlers would begin arriving the following spring. The Germantown Tract was divided into four settlements, including: Germantown, and the villages of Cresheim, Sommerhausen and Crefelt, laid out in sequence from the south east to the northwest. The villages were named after the hometowns of some of the earliest settlers. The later three villages eventually combined to form the "Upper Ward" of Germantown Township. The Town of Germantown became known simply as the Borough of Germantown. The greatest length of the Germantown Township was 5½ miles; the greatest breadth, ; area, 7,040 acres (28 km²). The township was bounded on the northwest and northeast by Springfield Township,
Montgomery County Montgomery County may refer to: Australia * The former name of Montgomery Land District, Tasmania United Kingdom * The historic county of Montgomeryshire, Wales, also called County of Montgomery United States * Montgomery County, Alabama * Mon ...
on the northeast partly by Bristol Township; on the southeast by Penn Township and Roxborough Township. Within Germantown Township were the settlements known as Germantown, Cresheim (afterwards Mount Airy), Sommerhausen (later called Chestnut Hill) and Crevelt, a rural section north of Chestnut Hill.


References


Resources


''Chronology of the Political Subdivisions of the County of Philadelphia, 1683–1854''
*

courtesy o
ushistory.org
'

- excerpted from the book at the ushistory.org website {{Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Municipalities in Philadelphia County prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854 1683 establishments in Pennsylvania 1854 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Palatine German settlement in Pennsylvania