Canal's End Antiques

10/27/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

Stingy Jack tricked the Devil into becoming a coin to pay for their drinks. Instead of paying, he put the coin in his pocket with a cross, trapping the Devil. He let him out after a promise of protecting his soul for a year. Later, Jack tricked him into climbing a tree to get an apple, then carving a cross on the trunk. He let the Devil free with a promise of never taking his soul. When Jack died, neither Heaven nor Hell would take him. He was condemned to wander forever at night with just a burning coal to light his way. He put it in a hollow turnip. When the legend came to the colonies, the turnip became a pumpkin, because they were bigger & easier to carve. Jack became known as "Jack of the Lantern".

10/20/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

Caleb Newbold Taylor lived in his family mansion, "Sunbury" in Newportville while he was a congressman during the Civil War. His ghost still lives there, along with the ghost of a Hessian soldier who hid in the house after escaping from prison. He is known to rattle his chains. They share the house with a woman in a white dress (of course!), with a blue sash. She hangs out at the top of the stairs, & reportedly pushed the caretakers out of their bed. Dishes shatter, glasses fly. The ghosts like to party!

10/13/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

Did you know ...
Bristol is as old as Pennsylvania. Samuel Clift settled here when Penn got the land.
Bristol was the 1st in Bucks County to have a post office, courthouse, prison, mill, public school, African American church, paved road, and - America's oldest continuously operated inn - the King George II Inn.
Plexiglass was invented here as well (Rohm. & Haas).

10/06/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

Miss Ellen Cameron, the new typing & shorthand teacher at Bristol High School tried a new way of teaching in 1926. Students learned to type using the "Rhythm Method". A record was played & the students typed along with the beat of the music. As they improved, the music got faster. It tought a steady, even speed & made it easier to scan ahead on a document.

09/29/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

Around 1720, Irish immigrants began settling in Warwick, Warminster & Warrington Townships. Fellow Irishman, Reverend William Tennent, founded the Neshaminy Church in Warwick, & later, the nearby Log College. By 1774, Ben Franklin estimated that about 1/3 of Pennsylvanians were Irish.

09/22/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

The local Lenape fished in the Delaware River for shad, sturgeon & eel (good roasted!). They would create a V shaped trap in the water, now called a weir, by piling rocks that funneled the fish into a holding pond. Nets made of vegetation kept the fish in, while gourds floated on top to keep the nets up. They then speared the fish, or caught them by hand.

09/15/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

You know the Dovells wrote the Bristol Stomp about the Goodwill Hose Fire House dances, but do you know there was a sequel? Bristol Twistin' Annie came out in 1962 & hit No. 27 on the Billboard charts. "She's got a shape like OW Rin Tin Tin & a face like Uncle Ben...When it comes to the Twist, everyone calls her the queen of the hop."

09/08/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

In 1796, Napoleon won a battle in Lodi, Milan, Italy. Thirty five years later, Italian immigrants moved to Upper Bucks County to work on the canal & thought the area looked a lot like their home, so they named their town Lodi. Even later, Italians also settled in Wrightstown, creating "Little Italy". They worked in the quarry & on the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad construction.

09/01/2026

BUCKS COUNTY BITS

Daniel "Sip" Alexander was at the Battle of Gettysburg when his master took him along as a servant. Daniel escaped to the Union Army, where he met E.G. Harrison of Hulmeville. Bringing him home with him, Harrison asked where he was from, Daniel answered "ississippi" & was forever after known as Sip. He farmed, made jewelry, sold fishing gear, played the fiddle, built his own house, went to school & joined Grace Episcopal Church. When he died, a stained glass window was added to the church in his name.

08/26/2026