The Schools of Woodhill

Woodhill Store "The Eagle" 1905

Prior to being a village, Woodhill, Upper Makefield Township, was known as "The Spread Eagle Hotel" or "Eagle Tavern." A post office named Makefield was established there in 1881. The village became known as Woodhill in 1896. The hilltop location of the village provides views of the scenic countryside and Jericho Mountain, which famously sheltered Washington and his troops prior to the Battle of Trenton. 

Today, Sol Feinstone Elementary School serves all of Upper Makefield Township. At one time, fifteen different school houses served the children in the immediate vicinity of them. They were Buckmanville, Dolington, Brownsburg, Taylorsville, Woodhill, Fairfield, the Salt Box, Highland, Brookside Schools, Betts Schoolhouse, Washington Crossing Elementary, Lurgan, Makefield Meeting and the Wiggins Springhouse. The Highland School was briefly at another location, the Reeder House, but other than that only Woodhill had multiple schools.

Sol Feinstone isn't the first school at Woodhill, nor is it the second. It's the third public school to serve the children of the area in the past 221 years.

Hayhurst School 1948 Pre-restoration

In 1804, a small one-room school was built by John Hayhurst on a piece of land just south of The Eagle, on the west side of Eagle Rd at the end of the lane to Hayhurst Farm, General Sullivan's headquarters preceding the battle of Trenton. This school was known as "Hayhurst", and later "Eagle". It served the neighboring school children free of charge. 

Hayhurst/Eagle/Salt Box

In 1834, an act was passed by Governor Wolf enabling local districts to set up free public schools. There was opposition to this law, as residents would be taxed for these schools. For the next 30 years, this Woodhill School was where the local children were taught in that section of Upper Makefield Township. After its disuse as a school house, the small stone building was used to store cattle salt by the merchants of the Eagle, and henceforth was known as the "Salt Box". In 1873 William Heston bought the Salt Box for $200, as a new school had been built a few hundred yards away. 

The Salt Box today

In 1872 another site a short distance south on Eagle Rd was selected for a new school, which would be known as the Fairfield School. The Fairfield School ran to grade 8, and graduations were held in Dolington for the whole district. There was a pot belly stove and the building lacked modern lavatory facilities. The Fairfield School was in use until 1952, when local landowner Sol Feinstone donated the land for a new school to be built to serve the ever growing population in the township. Today, the Fairfield School is a residence. Presumably with modern toilets.

Fairfield School

Sol Feinstone lived at Buckstone Farm, on Taylorsville Rd, later the David Library of the American Revolution and current home to DCNR. His contributions to American Revolutionary history are well-documented. He contributed globally and locally, and was a member of the Township School Authority. He presented the township with a deed for a parcel of land, 8 and 3/4 acres opposite the Fairfield School, on the east side of Eagle Rd. The land was known as the Isaac Yates Farm and was directly next to the Thompson Memorial Church, or Woodhill Chapel, then home to Alfred Neal. It is on the crest of the hill on which the village of Woodhill stands.

Woodhill Chapel 1905

The newspaper describes the location beautifully. Just look at how far you can see in distance in the image of Woodhill Chapel and the Eagle, both images taken by the Arnold Brothers.

The new school site appears ideal in many respects. It has a commanding position; north is the Jericho Mountain and the historic Jericho Valley, where the American Revolution was saved by the outpouring of food by its patriot people to restore Washington's beaten army to effectiveness to win the Battle of Trenton. Far into New Jersey can be seen on the East, with the Belvedere and Bound Brook Railroad and Bald Pate and the Sorrel Mountains. South and West are the rolling hills of Bucks County. Sep 4, 1952 Newtown Enterprise

Sleepy Village of Woodhill 1937

The new school would dwarf the previous two in size, because of the influx of students from the closed one-room schools into the township. This was a six room school building, compared to the two and one room schools preceding it. Groundbreaking began in July of 1953, with Robert Biddle III, president of the Upper Makefield School District turning the first shovel of dirt. 

Woodhill Elementary School 1950s

In 1963, a name change occurred. What was known as Woodhill Elementary School would now be known as Sol Feinstone Elementary School.

Resolved that in recognition of the services given the community by Sol Feinstone in serving on the initial Upper Makefield School District Authority, supervising the work of construction and donating the land on which our present school is situated, we, directors of the Upper Makefield School District designate the name of the school to be the Sol Feinstone Elementary School. Feb 14, 1963 Newtown Enterprise

Sol Feinstone Elementary School Today

In 1964, the Feinstones built a library addition to the school, about which Sol said in an interview:

It has a fireplace so the kids can sit near on a heated floor. It has a high ceiling. It gives them a lifted-up spirit, more so than in a place with a low ceiling. 

The Sol Feinstone Elementary School continues to serve the population of Upper Makefield today. The author is a graduate, and his children currently attend. Today, the school has gone through a major renovation that brought the building up to modern standards, and kept Sol's fireplace as the centerpiece of the library. Prior to the renovation, it had the oldest and most dangerous boiler room in the district, and was lacking central air in the majority of the building. The previous renovation was done when the author was in attendance, in 1990, and required our 6th grade class to be moved to Newtown Junior High School. There was one renovation before that, in the 1970s.

Woodhill has been the gathering place for students in Upper Makefield for almost 190 years, all three locations extant. With the current renovation project taking shape, it will be remain that way for generations to come.  

The Ghost of Cave Hollow

Mar 19, 1953 Newtown Enterprise

West of Woodhill stretches a strip of woodland, of several hundred acres, almost to Wrightstown, as wild as when Washington camped on Jericho Mountain and the band of tories watched him from the wooded hilltops west of Woodhill and north of Highland Road [Wrightstown Rd], in perfect security, for it would have taken a small army to dislodge them.

The branch of Jericho Creek runs south into this wooded area, crossing the Pineville Rd. by the Shannon buildings, then dividing into three branches on the Egypt farm to rise in the wooded area near the Highland Road. All these branches contained ravines 40 to 50 feet deep during their courses. The eastern branch, which passes about one-half mile from Woodhill, rises within a stone's throw of the intersection of Eagle or Highland (or Wrightstown-Washington Crossing) Road. This creek is known as "Cave" or "Cavey's Hollow" and, as its upper course is through Harold Lewis', his farm is known as the "Cave Hollow Farm". A branch of this Cave Hollow stream runs up to the buildings of John Wood's "Makefield Farm" and from an incident at a stone cottage along this branch, comes the story of the Cave Hollow Ghost.

At the time of Washington's camp on Jericho, the road to the Eagle (now Woodhill) ran from Ryan's Corner on the Durham Road, between Wrightstown and Newtown Township, and then straight across the woods and valleys in Upper Makefield, up the branch containing the stone cottage, passed the lane to the Hayhurst farmhouse, to the Eagle. General John Sullivan had his brigade at the Hayhurst farm building. An outpost was stationed at the stone cottage further west, then occupied by an unmarried carpenter named Jack Cave (or Cavey), who was reputed to have a considerable sum of money in hard cash, that is coin, not paper. After Washington left on his nation saving expedition to Trenton, the tories from the Egypt farm raided Jack Cave's cottage for they were now robbing and supporters of the revolution. They surrounded the house and boosted one of their number up to open a first story window. Jack Cave heard the noise and ran downstairs and grabbed his carpenter's hatchet. The Tory's right arm was just coming over the window sill. Jack chopped down, cutting the hand from the arm. The tory fell back and his hand fell inside the house. He was carried a short distance away by his companions and an effort was made to stanch the flow of blood but he died within a few minutes. Jack Cave used the diversion of the tory's death to escape from a back door. The tories surrounded the house again and set fire to it, intending to burn Jack Cave alive. The cut off hand of the dead tory, and the supposed hoard of Jack Cave fell into the ruins.

Marcus Doan, of Woodside, who lived on the Cave Hollow farm until well into manhood, said that about the beginning of the present century the mechanics and clerks of Woodhill, then a bustling business village would go down the lost road to the ruins and search for the treasure but, though they did find a few coins of small denomination, no sizable sum was ever recovered. It is said to this day that, on bright moonlight nights, the ghost of the dead tory will come out of the dark recesses of Cave Hollow and search in the ruins for the bones of his missing hand. 

The Lost Road to Woodhill

Local historian Harry W. Van Horn wrote many interesting columns in the Newtown Enterprise on various local history topics. One of his favorite to write about was the "Lost Road to Woodhill".

The Lost road to Woodhill Outlined. Washington's Supply Line While on Jericho Mountain Now Township Line. Nov 25, 1943 Newtown Enterprise

One Sunday last February, before the spring thaw made walking difficult, I set out to retrace the lost road to Woodhill (The Eagle) from Ryan's Corner, 3 miles above Newtown, and about 1 mile below Wrightstown, on Route 113, a section of the old Durham road.

This forgotten road was Washington's supply life line during his last stand camp on Jericho Mountain before the battle of Trenton, in December 1776. My quest was successful beyond my hopes for its course is as straight as an arrow and its first half, northeast from Ryan's Corner towards Woodhill, is the boundary line of Wrightstown Township, at the start with Newtown Township and later with Upper Makefield. Just north of the Highland road, however, where the Wrightsown-Upper Makefield line turns north at right angles, the road ceases to be a township boundary but continues on the same straight line to Woodhill, down the great gulch, just north of Mount Canaan, the high knob on the Highland road, just west of the present Eagle road, at Yates' corner. Thus, anyone with a map of Bucks County, such as put out by the County Commissioners by putting a ruler on a line from Ryan's Corner to Woodhill, at the angle indicated by the Wrightstown Township line can trace it as accurately as I did, with much less effort.

A person tracing on the map, however, will miss the weird picture that the historic highway presents, a straight avenue, down a deep gorge, lined with massive trees, apparently going nowhere. Not far from its shadowy course was the last home of the Delaware Indians, and another spot was the rendezvous of the Tories, who made the foray on Newtown in 1781, to capture the County Treasury. Farther along the old road towards Woodhill stands the ruins of the old stone cottage, which was burned by the Tories during the Revolution, after their attack had been repulsed, and which is the basis of the legend of the Handless Tory of Caves Hollow.

Confused yet? VanHorn calls Wrightstown Road the Highland Road, which has no relation to today's Highland Rd. You'd have to know which farm was known as Mount Canaan, and which of Yates' corners he was talking about to pinpoint the path of the road. The public apparently was still confused too, as Harry wrote about the subject again just 3 months later.

The Lost Road to Woodhill - Located by Local Landmarks (By Harry W. VanHorn) Feb 3, 1944

Many people have asked me to locate the Lost Road to Woodhill, Washington’s supply lifeline during his Jericho camp, by better known local landmarks than township lines.  It may be a common failing of those writing local history to use such academic directions as township lines.  MacReynolds, in his 1942 “Place Names of Bucks County” describes Hough’s Creek, sometimes known as the “Aqueduct Creek”, “A small stream wholly in Upper Makefield.  It rises in the angle formed by the lines of Newtown and Wrightstown”.

Now this description probably means very little to the average person but if the source of Hough’s Creek is described as just south of Highland Road, west of Mount Canaan, it would be more readily understandable.  This also happens to be the exact place where the Lost Road crosses the Highland Road.  At the recent sale of the Ellis farm, one-half a mile above Woodhill, I heard several groups discussing the course of the Lost Road to Woodhill.  Some of the new owners of estates were hopeful that it curved around to go through their places, but this is impossible in the case of the Lost Road because its main virtue was that it was straight, taking the hills and dales as they came in stride and some of the drops, going in and coming out of Mount Canaan gorge, are precipitous.  The old road started on the Durham Road, at Ryan’s Corner; it started right where now is the home of Fred and Eleanor Cope, for their house, built by William Ryan after the Civil War, did not exist when the road was in use.  Then the old road followed the present Stoopville Road, passed the residence of the late Abdon Lee to the first turn; there it left the present road, going through the field of the Worthington chicken farm (recently Adam Bennethum) and across the meadow of Walter Sanders and through the newer part of his house, and then between his house and barn, and up his back lane until it leaves his land just south of the Highland Road.  Here a piece of the old road is still extant; an open cut, with grown up hedge rows, running almost to the Highland Road.  After crossing the Highland Road it enters the right-of-way to the Collet farm and this first part is also the lane to the former Twining homestead, now Rose Sheer’s.  When the Collet right-of-way reaches the woods, at the edge of the great gorge, the Lost Road leaves it and runs across the upper edge of the ravine, on what was formerly the Mount Canaan place, then for about a mile, down through the edge of the wooded gorge, coming out in the open at the far end of the former Harry Doan place, now Lewis’, it crosses the VanHorn homestead, owned by the late Pemberton VanHorn (now Dr. Fischer’s), near the historic revolutionary out post of Cave’s Hollow.  It then goes straight over the Hayhurst place (now E. T. Buckman’s), east of the buildings, to the former Spread Eagle Hotel, at Woodhill. 

Got that? Abdon Lee, the Worthington chicken farm, Walter Sanders' meadow?  Maybe they were local landmarks in 1944, but today they mean little to most. Maybe some aerials will help piece it together. There's enough evidence of the road left in 1937 that we can see its path. The aerial is split in two sections.

Start of the Lost Road to Woodhill

End of the Lost Road to Woodhill

Still having trouble? Here's a modern aerial with the lost road outlined on it. 

Modern Aerial Lost Road to Woodhill

We start at Ryan's Corner (Stoopville and Durham Rd) and draw a straight line that follows the township line across Wrightstown Rd (which VanHorn called Highland Rd.) From the corner of the Wrightstown/Upper Makefield Township line we go straight through to the Eagle (at the corner of Woodhill and Eagle Roads).

Now we've found the Lost Road to Woodhill. There's other interesting lore about the area, such as a forgotten graveyard and the ghost of Cavey's Hollow.