The Search for Searchville

Taylorsville, Dolington, Brownsburg, Woodhill, Buckmanville...Searchville?

In the past I've come across sparse references to people living in Searchville, Upper Makefield Township, but never knew exactly where it was.

To locate Searchville, first I checked Place Names in Bucks County, which didn't have Searchville, but did have a place called Lizette described as

Village and station in southwestern Upper Makefield Township on the New York Branch of the Reading Railway between Woodbourne and Yardley. The origin and signification of this name have not been determined.

I quickly found that Lizette was actually in Lower Makefield, so we avoided another unknown hamlet. Back to Searchville...

Next, I did a search through the Newtown Enterprise, which pulled about a dozen results of people moving to and from Searchville like this one from 1894.

I also found an interesting article from 1944 by local historian Harry Van Horn titled "The Origin of Hamlets South From Jericho to the Neshaminy". In it, he says:

Two miles towards Taylorsville from Woodhill is Searchville, where Samuel Wiggins also applied his trade before coming to Stoopville.

Samuel Wiggins was a blacksmith, so Searchville likely had a Blacksmith Shop. 

I then found this earlier ad, from 1868, advertising a blacksmith shop for sale in Searchville.

Nov 12, 1868 Newtown Enterprise

And this blurb about Samuel Wiggins taking over the blacksmith stand at Searchville in 1891, which confirms what Van Horn said.

Apr 4, 1891 Newtown Enterprise

Armed with a little bit of information, I took to the 1891 Atlas, as it was closest to the time of the Jacob A. Wollery sale.

1891 Atlas Showing Searchville

On the 1891 Atlas we find a J. Woolery owning a house in Upper Makefield, across from today's Ely Farm. The location happens to match up with Van Horn's distance. That could just be a coincidence, I wanted to find more corroboration. We also see BS.S., which stands for Blacksmith Shop, and we know that Samuel Wiggins, blacksmith, lived there.

On January 7, 1899 we find this in the Enterprise.

So there's a 12 acre lot in Searchville, which Hannah H. Carver sold to Harriet Phillips. On the 1891 Atlas we also happen to see a Miss Carver Owning a 12 acre lot.

Searchville has been located. If we go back to the 1850 map, we can see that a T. (Thomas) Search lived in the area, and is likely who the village was named after.

All that remains of Searchville is 2 houses on Woodhill Rd.

Searchville 1937