A daily feature from our surrounding historical societies.
In 1791, 14 years after General Washington and the Continental Army marched out of Towamencin. Mordecai Davis, or Mord as his friends called him, a tailor by trade, claimed that while he was a young apprentice, he helped fashion a cloak for now President Washington while he was camped in Towamencin.
Mordecai was known among locals to embellish the truth on a few occasions, and since this oral history has never been substantiated, it will remain folklore forever. However, we do know that in 1791 Mordecai bought six acres of land for 70 pounds from Towamencin farmers Jacob and Mary Clemens Kulp along the west side of the Great Road, now known as the Sumneytown Pike.
Circa 1794, Mordecai built a combination two-story inn and home along the Great Road. Mordecai’s inn is the first building in what would one day become a village known as Kulpsville. His inn stood on the Sumneytown Pike at Franklin Street; today an empty commercial lot for sale.
Kulpsville today showing the Great Road (later known as the Springhouse and Sumneytown Turnpike, and today the Sumneytown Pike at Franklin Street. This is the site (within the yellow ribbon) of the first building in Kulpsville, a home and inn operated by Mordecai Davis. Across the Sumneytown Pike is the Courtyard Philadelphia Hotel.Tired and hungry travelers on their way between Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley used the inn for a hot meal and a rest for themselves and their horses for the evening. It was common for a village to spring up around an inn, as it was not only a stopover for travelers and their horses, but also a gathering point for locals. Soon additional businesses were attracted to the inn, as travelers and locals who stopped there were potential customers.
Mordecai opened a store inside his inn and took in tailoring work. Mordecai often traveled to the market in Philadelphia to purchase stock for his store. Farmers gathered at the inn to catch up on the news of the day and to purchase supplies. Mail was delivered to the inn for Towamencin farm families.
Mordecai, innkeeper and merchant, married Edith Lukens, an older sister to George Lukens, the farmer who's farm and home is now Dock Mennonite Academy. Mordecai and Edith had three children. After Edith died, Mordecai married Hannah Tennis of Towamencin.
The group of shops and houses that sprang up near Mordecai’s establishment in Kulpsville was named after Jacob Kulp, one of the first farmers to own land near the crossroads. Kulpsville has always been the lone village in Towamencin Township.
