# Erwinna, Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s > A small canal-and-farm village on the Delaware, German in culture, tied to coal boats, mills, churches, and Civil War news. - Place: Erwinna, Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania (40.501, -75.073) - Years: 1860 to 1869 - Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/erwinna-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1860s - Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Erwinna%2C%20Tinicum%20Township%2C%20Bucks%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=40.5007,-75.0727&year=1865 ## Looking around You stand in Erwinna, a village officially founded only in 1856[1], near the Delaware Division Canal[1] and the river road. Around you are farms, mills, churches, and fisheries[1], with the village still small enough that even in 1880 it counted only 89 people[8]. The canal gives the place its working edge: boats move coal and farm goods between Mauch Chunk and Philadelphia[1], and private yards build and repair wooden canal boats at Erwinna and nearby Uhlerstown[7]. Inland, the ground rises into rolling, gravelly township land[5], where stone houses and Pennsylvania barns[3] stand among farms. The population around you is not just village people but township people: 2,396 residents in Tinicum in 1860[5]. Churches mark the roads and habits of the week, including Presbyterian, Lutheran and Reformed, Christian, and Baptist congregations[6]. Across the Delaware, Frenchtown is close enough for worship, trade, and crossing. ## Work: Farms fed canal work The canal shaped ordinary labor: about three-quarters of Tinicum’s population later were said to have supplemented farm income by working on the canal[3]. Erwinna also had private boat-building and repair yards[7], and nearby farms gave winter shelter to canal mules. ## Faith: Four church worlds Tinicum had Presbyterian, Lutheran and Reformed, Christian, and Baptist congregations[6]. A person near Erwinna might pass the Christian chapel on the road from Red Hill to Erwinna[5], while some families also crossed toward Frenchtown for worship. ## Law & power: Township and canal authority Everyday power came through township officers, county courts at Doylestown, property owners, church trustees, and canal management. In 1866 the waterway itself came under a new operator when the Delaware Division Canal was leased to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company[10]. ## In the air: War and old loyalties During the 1860s, even a small canal village lived inside the arguments of the Civil War. The local setting mattered: Pennsylvania had begun gradual abolition in 1780[11], but questions of Union, slavery, race, and citizenship still came through national politics and wartime news. ## Home & table: Stone houses, barns, school The township’s older landscape was already built: many buildings dated from 1790 to 1860 and included Tinicum houses and Pennsylvania barns[3]. Children in Erwinna had a local institution after the schoolhouse opened in 1861[9]. ## Money: Coal boats and tenants Property and tenancy mattered as much as cash wages: William Erwin’s 126-acre farm had been leased to tenants[1], and Jacob Stover shared the Erwin property with a tenant farmer after 1859[2]. Canal freight money passed through boat-building, repair, mule keeping, stores, and farm produce. ## Who lived here: Mostly German Tinicum Tinicum Township held 2,396 people in 1860[5]. It was remembered as a German township[5][3], though older settlement included Scotch-Irish, Dutch, English, and other families. ## Roads & news: Post, road, canal, river Erwinna had a post office long before the 1860s[1], and the canal and river road connected it outward. The working route was large: the Delaware Division Canal linked Mauch Chunk with Philadelphia[1]. ## Year by year - **1859** (here): Jacob Stover bought the Erwin property in Tinicum, putting a major local tract under new ownership just before the decade began.[2] - **1861** (here): Erwinna’s schoolhouse began operating, giving the village a local school during the first year of the Civil War.[9] - **1861** (the country): Fort Sumter was attacked and the Civil War began, making Union enlistment, war taxes, casualty news, and party politics unavoidable topics even in rural Bucks County. - **1863** (the country): The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, changing the meaning of the war and sharpening arguments over slavery and Union. - **1863** (nearby): The Battle of Gettysburg was fought in Pennsylvania on July 1–3, close enough to dominate news and fear across the state. - **1865** (the country): Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, and news of the killing would have reached the post office, churches, and canal corridor. - **1866** (here): The Delaware Division Canal was leased to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, changing control of the waterway that helped sustain Erwinna’s work.[10] - **1869** (the country): The first transcontinental railroad was completed in the West, a national event that showed how railroads were beginning to overshadow canal-era transport. ## What the sources say - Erwinna was officially founded in 1856, though it had a post office by 1807 and appeared on maps by 1817. (from the sources)[1] - In the Erwinna region before the Civil War there was a mill, several churches, and Delaware River fisheries. (from the sources)[1] - William Erwin’s house tract included a 126-acre farm that he leased to tenants rather than farmed himself. (from the sources)[1] - Arthur Erwin had bought 944 acres in Tinicum Township in 1769, land that included the later village site of Erwinna. (from the sources)[4] - Jacob Stover bought the Erwin property in Tinicum in 1859 and shared it with a tenant farmer. (from the sources)[2] - The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal ran behind the Erwin property and linked Mauch Chunk with Philadelphia. (from the sources)[1] - The canal was used for transporting coal and farm goods between the upper Delaware-Lehigh region and Philadelphia. (from the sources)[1] - The Delaware Division Canal opened in 1832, and Tinicum’s later township plan says about three-quarters of the local population augmented farm income by working on it. (from the sources)[3] - Private canal-boat yards built and repaired boats along the Delaware Canal at Erwinna, Uhlerstown, Upper Black Eddy, Point Pleasant, New Hope, and Bristol. (from the sources)[7] - Delaware Canal boats were commonly built to about 87.5 feet long, 10.5 feet wide, and 7.5 feet tall, and could carry up to 100 tons of cargo. (from the sources)[7] - A 19th-century Bucks County history described Tinicum Township as having four churches: Presbyterian, Lutheran and Reformed, Christian, and Baptist. (inferred)[6] - A Christian chapel stood on the road from Red Hill to Erwinna and had occasional preaching by other denominations. (from the sources)[5] - Tinicum Township’s population was 2,396 in 1860 and 2,401 in 1870. (from the sources)[5] - The same county history called Tinicum “a German township,” and the township comprehensive plan says Germans made up about 80 percent of the population by the mid-1800s. (from the sources)[5][3] - Tinicum’s built environment dates mostly from 1790 to 1860 and includes examples of the local “Tinicum House” and the Pennsylvania barn. (from the sources)[3] - A county history described Tinicum’s surface as rolling and its soil as gravelly. (from the sources)[5] - The 1880 federal census volume listed Erwinna, Tinicum Township, Bucks County, with a population of 89. (from the sources)[8] - By 1876, just after the decade, Erwinna had more than two dozen buildings, including a post office, schoolhouse, hotel, boat shop, and several stores. (from the sources)[2] - The Erwinna schoolhouse was active from 1861 to 1957. (from the sources)[9] - The Delaware Division Canal was leased to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1866. (from the sources)[10] - Pennsylvania passed the Gradual Abolition Act in 1780, so slavery was legally on a path to extinction long before the 1860s, though race still shaped rights and status. (from the sources)[11] - No detailed online description found in this quick search gives the exact appearance of Erwinna’s individual houses, shops, or road surfaces during the 1860s. (not known) - Local prices and wages for Erwinna in the 1860s were not found in the opened sources; canal wages and farm prices would need newspaper or manuscript research. (not known) - As across rural Pennsylvania during the Civil War, national war news, enlistment, draft politics, taxes, and casualty lists would have reached villages through newspapers, post offices, churches, and travelers. (inferred) ## Sources 1. William and Achsah Erwin. Bucks County, Pennsylvania. https://buckscounty.gov/1554/William-and-Achsah-Erwin 2. The Erwinna Stovers - Jacob and Mary Stover. Bucks County, Pennsylvania. https://buckscounty.gov/1560/The-Erwinna-Stovers---Jacob-and-Mary-Sto 3. Tinicum Township Comprehensive Plan. Tinicum Township / Bucks County, 2013. https://www.buckscounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1889/Tinicum-Township-Comprehensive-Plan?bidId= 4. The Erwin Family. Bucks County, Pennsylvania. https://www.buckscounty.gov/1551/The-Erwin-Family 5. The History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Part 48. LDS Genealogy transcription, 1876. https://ldsgenealogy.com/PA/books/The-history-of-Bucks-County-Pennsylvania-from-the-discovery-of-the-Delaware-to-the-present-time-part-48.htm 6. Tinicum. Bucks County History. https://www.buckscountyhistory.com/tinicum.html 7. Canal Boats Historical Marker. Historical Marker Database, 2015. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=86687 8. 1880 Census: Population of Civil Divisions Less Than Counties. U.S. Census Bureau, 1880. https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1880a_v1-12.pdf 9. Erwinna, Pennsylvania. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwinna,_Pennsylvania 10. History of Delaware Canal State Park. Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/where-to-go/state-parks/find-a-park/delaware-canal-state-park/history 11. History of the Site. Bucks County, Pennsylvania. https://www.buckscounty.gov/1584/History-of-the-Site ## The same place in other decades - [Erwinna in the 1830s](https://yorehistory.com/place/erwinna-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1830s/md) ## Nearby, about the same time - [Mount Pleasant, Alexandria Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/mount-pleasant-hunterdon-county-new-jersey/1840s/md) (15 km) - [Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/bucks-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (18 km) - [Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/doylestown-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1880s/md) (22 km) - [Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pennsylvania in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/mauch-chunk-carbon-county-pennsylvania/1840s/md) (70 km) - [White Haven, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s](https://yorehistory.com/place/white-haven-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1860s/md) (86 km) - [Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre area, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-or-wilkes-barre-area-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (107 km) - [Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (107 km) - [Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1830s](https://yorehistory.com/place/kingston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1830s/md) (109 km) --- Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Erwinna, Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s", https://yorehistory.com/place/erwinna-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1860s