1872 Advertising Cover Birdsboro PA

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Birdsboro was taken from Union and Robeson Townships and incorporated into a Borough in 1872. It is one of largest boroughs in the county, being approximately one mile square.

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"The colonist, William Bird, was born in England 1707, and died November 16,1762. He came to Berks County, Pa., before 1729, in which year he obtained land along "Hay Creek," in Robinson township. The iron business in this region was first started by him in 1740, by the erection of a forge on Hay Creek near the Schuylkill. In 1750 he laid out a town below the forge, towards the river and called it "Birdsboro." In 1751 he erected, within the limits of the town plan, a fine two-story, cut-stone mansion house. This building is still standing in good condition. For a long time it was a hotel,the "Birdsboro House." It is a notable example of the architecture of that period, and was the gathering place of the most prominent people of the time. Taking up additional tracts of land by means of warrant and survey, William Bird secured three thousand acres, by the year 1756. Three years later he built the furnace in Union township, and a year later the one in lower Heidelburg township. These enterprises were carried on by him until his death, and later, first by his son, Mark Bird, and then until 1794 by bis widow, who leased the property, the final results being the large and rich modern iron industry in Birdsboro.

Not only as a business man did William Bird 1 establish lasting activities, but as a churchman he founded and strengthened St. Mary's Church, a mission of the Church of England, the first to be established in 1762 in Reading, and St. Gabriel's Church in Morlatton..."

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Mrs. Louisa Cuningham, nee Bird, daughter of William Bird of Birdsboro, Pa and the mother of Ann Pamela Cuningham, was born in Alexandria, Va., May 16, 1794 and was married to Robert Cuningham, the father of Ann Pamela Cuningham, about the year 1810. Mrs. Cuningham died October 6, 1873 in the 79th year of her age. On the death of Mrs. Cuningham in 1873, as of Miss Ann Pamela Cuningham May 1, 1875, the succeeding Councils of Regents passed resolutions of regret and respect. Two of the aunts of Mrs. Louisa Cuningham, and the first Regent's mother, married distinguished Pennsylvanians one being married to James Wilson, who signed the Declaration of Independence and who was appointed by Washington a Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the other was married to George Ross of Pennsylvania, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

William Bird, Sr., the paternal great grandfather of Miss Ann Pamela Cuningham, founded the town of Birdsboro, Berks County, Pa. in 1750 and in 1751 he erected within the limits of the town place a fine two story cut stone house. This building, which was his home, is still standing and has the date 1751 on it. It is now "The Birdsboro House" or Hotel.

John Dalton and Thomas Shaw, grandfather and great grandfather of Ann Pamela Cuningham through her mother, were each vestrymen of Old Christ Church of Alexandria at the same time that George Washington was a vestryman.