Ralph Stover (January 10, 1760 – November 7, 1811), son of the immigrant

Henry Stauffer Henry Stauffer was born in Worms-Ibersheim, Ibersheim, Germany on 1724 and died November 27, 1777. He immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 9, 1749, and settled in Bedminster Township, Pennsylvania, Bedminster on , purchased of Wil ...

, was an American

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and politician in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He was a member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

, 1793–99.Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Harold Cox: Wilkes University
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History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania

We quote from W. W. H. Davis ''The History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania'' published in 1876 (2nd edition 1905). For a more complete quote see the article on his father

History of Ralph Stover State Park

Tohickon Creek was named by the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

some of the first inhabitants of the area. "To-Hick-Hanne" means "Deer-Bone-Creek".

Ralph Stover State Park Ralph Stover State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on in Plumstead and Tinicum Townships, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is a very popular destination for whitewater kayaking on Tohickon Creek and rock climbing on High Ro ...

was the site of an 18th-century

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

that was built on

Tohickon Creek Tohickon Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River. Located entirely in Bucks County, in southeastern Pennsylvania, it r ...

by the park's namesake, Ralph Stover. Remnants of the mill and

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a mi ...

can still be seen near Tohickon Creek, Pennsylvania. The Stover family gave their land to the

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

in 1931. The recreational facilities were built during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

by the Federal

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

created by U.S. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

to provide work for the unemployed. Author

James A. Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and ...

donated the High Rocks area to the park in 1956. Although " High Rocks State Park" is listed in the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

and the coordinates given in USGS GNIS are located here, it was never an official name according to the

Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), established on July 1, 1995, is the agency in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania responsible for maintaining and preserving the state's 124 state parks and 20 state forests; pr ...

or a separate park.

Literature

* Fretz, A. J. ''A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Henry Stauffer''. Milton, NJ, 1899.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20061209081458/http://www.csm.uwe.ac.uk/~rstephen/livingeaston/local_history/Penn/Penn_family_Index.html - Penn Family History {{DEFAULTSORT:Stover, Ralph 1760 births 1811 deaths Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives People from Bucks County, Pennsylvania