USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania : comprising a historical sketch of the county, by Samuel T. Wiley, together with more than five hundred biographical sketches of the prominent men and leading citizens of the county > Part 3
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The Pennsylvania railroad runs along the ridge from Radnor to Frazer, about thirteen miles, and then grades down the hill slope into the valley at Downingtown. as shown by the following table :
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.
Miles from Phila.
Feet above tide.
Radnor station in Delaware Co. 12
409
Edgewood
401
Wayne
14 405
Reeseville
163
495
Paoli 19
534
Greentree
543
Summit 550
Malvern.
21
546
Frazer (junction of W. C. R. R.) .. 490
Glenlock 25
453
Ship bridge. 411
Walkertown
388
25
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
Miles from Feet Phila. above tide.
Intersection of Waynesburg branch
256
Downingtown 32
266
Gallagherville.
33
298
Thorndale
34
313
Caln
36
359
Coatesville (X of Wilm. &
Northern R. R.) 38
380
Midway
396
Pomeroy ( E. junction of Penn. & Del. R. R.) 42
483
Parkesburg 44
537
Summit west of Parkesburg
562
Penningtonville. 47
500
The streams of this region flow, contrary to the general direction of drainage in the county, by heading west along the west border of the gneiss region, and thenee into and through the hydro-mica-schist helt. It is drained by the Brandywine river and its tributaries, Bock and Doe runs, and Muddy and several smaller runs flowing westward into Octoraro creek.
The Downingtown valley region is known as the "Great valley," and also as the "Chester valley." It is a narrow valley from five hundred to two thousand yards wide and from two hundred to four hun- dred feet deep, which extends from southwest to northeast, clear across Chester county. It extends through parts of West Sadsbury, West Fallowfield, Sadsbury, Highland, Val- ley. East Fallowfield. Caln. West Bradford, East Bradford. West Whiteland. East Whiteland, Willistown, Tredyffrin, and Easttown townships. Limestone and mar- ble form the Hoor of this valley, and extend to some distance up both slopes. Marble quarries and mines of brown hematite iron ore are worked at many places within the valley. Its soil possesses that great fertility
which distinguishes all limestone areas. Its tide level does not exceed four hundred feet at any place within its rock-walled boundaries. The Pennsylvania railroad runs through it west from Downingtown, and from that place the Chester Valley railroad extends east to the Montgomery county line. In the following table we give the altitude of the most important places along these lines in the county :
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.
Miles Irom Feel
Radnor. above tide.
Gallagherville
22} 298
Thorndale
233
313
Calı
253
359
Coatesville 273
380
Midway 394
Pomeroy ( eastern junction ). . . 31}
483
Parkesburg 33}
537
Summit
562
Penningtonville. 363
500
CHESTER VALLEY RAILROAD.
Miles. Above tide.
Bridgeport. opp. Norristown ... 0
76
Henderson's station
165
King of Prussia station
190
Centreville station 6 202
Garden's station 7 225
Howellville station 83
221
Paoli road station. 93
238
Cedar Hollow station 10
246
Lee's station 279
10!
Valley Store station. 11}
295
Mill Lane station. 13 315
White Horse station ( Summit ) 14 339
Exton station. 16
324
Oakland station. 18 301
Baldwin's station 193
200
Downingtown station 21}
267
The valley has good drainage. Two
rivers-the Schuylkill and Brandywine-
26
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
beside Buck run and Octoraro creek, flow south through eight gaps in its north and south walls.
The northern gneiss region, the fourth topographical division of the county, is a rolling country of decomposing gneissoid rock, traversed by ridges of sandstone. It occupies the larger part of the county north of the Downingtown valley, from which it stretches northward to French creek, which is its northern boundary line for twelve miles. The remaining part of its north boundary line, nine miles in length to Val- ley Forge, is marked only by change of soil. It embraces the townships of West Caln, Iloneybrook, West Nantmeal, East Nant- meal, Wallace, West Brandywine, East Brandywine, Upper Uwchlan, Lower Uwch- lan, and West Pikeland; and parts of West Sadsbury, Sadsbury, Valley, Cal, East Caln, West Whiteland, East Whiteland, Tredyffrin, Charlestown, Schuylkill, East Pikeland, South Coventry, and Warwick. The southern boundary ridge is partly Pots- dam sandstone. Copper Mine ridge and Welsh mountain are of Potsdam sandstone, and there are areas of this stone in Lower Uwchlan. A large area of limestone is in Schuylkill and Charlestown townships, while copper, lead, iron ore, and kaolin exist in considerable quantities. The soil is most productive and yields fair crops.
This region varies in height from fonr hundred to nine hundred feet above tide level. Four railways pass through it, and below we give the altitude of various points on the lines of three of these different roads.
WILMINGTON & NORTHIERN RAILROAD.
Miles from Feet Junction. above tide.
Birdsboro junction, in Berks Co. 0 173
Hampton station, 2.7 223
White Bear station, .. 4.6 349
Miles from Feet
Junction above tide.
Geigertown station, Berks Co., 6.2 432
Cold Run station, 7.7 525
Joanna station,
66
10.2 627
Springfield station, in Chester
county.
12.4 645
Conestoga station, in Chester county 13.7 647
Isabella station, in Chester Co. 15.7 639 East Brandywine and Waynes-
burg railroad crossing. 19 647
Beaver Dam station, in Chester county. 21.3 603
Honeybrook station, in Chester county 23.1 596
Manor station, in Chester Co
...
25.9
572
Hibernia station,
27
530
Brandywine station, “
27.6
556
Coatesville, in the valley
30.7
315
EAST BRANDYWINE & WAYNESBURG RAILROAD.
Miles from Feet
Downingtown. above tidc.
New Holland, in Lancaster Co. 28.1 482
East Earl, 66
25.2 510
Cedar Lane, 66
24.6 552
Beartown.
22.0 763
Churchtown road, 20.7 867
Honeybrook, in Chester county. 18.1 728
End of track in 1877, “ 18 741
Waynesburg station, " ..
728
Lancaster pike,
696
Buchanan's station, 16.5 672
Wil. & Read. railroad crossing 16 645
Dampman's station 15 628
Forrest station. 14.5 576
Cupola station.
14
565
Lewis Mills station. 13.5
542
Barnestown station.
12
486
Moorestown station 9.5 443
Springton station 405
Cornog's station 7.5 361
Brooklyn station 6 331
27
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
Miles from Feet
Downingtown. above lide:
Reed's road station
4.5
309
Dorlan's station
4 280
Dowlin's Forge station
274
Shelmire's
1
246
Downingtown junction Pen-
sylvania railroad
256
PICKERING VALLEY RAILROAD.
Miles from Feet Phoenixville. above tide.
Byer's Eagle Summit.
113
426
Cambria station.
93
322
Chester Springs station
73
278
Pikeland station. 7 272
Kimberton station.
4
211
French Creek station 2
128
Phoenixville station.
110
The general tendency of the drainage of this region is eastward. The three principal streams, which rise elose to each other, are the east and west branches of the Brandy- wine and French creek. The main tribu- taries of the Brandywine are Birch, Rock, Marsh, Perkins', and Culbertson's runs, and Marsh and Beaver ereeks. French and Pickering creeks enter the Schuylkill river.
The Schuylkill or mesozoic region is a long triangle, one-half mile wide at Valley Forge, and increasing to five miles in width on the Berks county line. Its eastern border is the Schuylkill river, and its south- ern boundary line French creek and the edge of the gneiss district. It comprises all the townships of North Coventry and East Coventry, and parts of Warwick, South Coventry, East Vincent, East Pikeland, Charlestown, and Schuylkill. It is every- where hilly, but at no place is over five hundred feet above tide level. The altitude of several points in this region is given in the following table, together with their distance from Philadelphia :
Miles from
Phila.
Feet above tide.
Douglassville
44₺
161
Pottstown.
40
150
Limerick
34
138
Royer's Ford.
32
127
Mingo
303
116
Phænixville
271
110
Perkiomen Junction
25
109
Valley Forge. 233
98
Port Kennedy 21}
87
Merion 19
81
Bridgeport, opp. Norristown ... 17
76
Philadelphia, Delaware front .. ... 28
The surface of the mesozoic region is drained by the Schuylkill and the following of its tributaries : Stony run and French, Pigeon, and Pickering crecks.
Mineralogy. - The best and most acenrate description of the minerals, rocks and ores of the county that we find, is contained in a table arranged by George G. Groff, M. D., natural science professor in West Chester State Normal school, and published in 1881, in Futhey & Cope's " History of Chester County." From this table we take the following lists of the minerals, rocks, and iron, lead, copper and zine ores, of the county :
MINERALS.
Quartz, chalcedony, jasper, calcite, dolo- mite, serpentine, tale, horn-blende, tourma- line, mica, feldspars, asbestos, garnet, cyan- ite, tremolite, actinolite. magnesite, apatite, graphite, corundum, epidote, aragonite, scapolite, jefferisite, dewylite, fluorite, beryl, staurolite, zoisite, zirieon, knolin, margarite and chesterlite-the latter found first in poor-house quarry, and at Bailey's, in East Marlborough, and named from Chester conuty.
28
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
ROCKS.
Gneiss, composed of quartz, mica, feld- spar; mica slate-quartz, mica, feldspar; tale slate-quartz, tale, feldspar; serpen- tine-same as mineral serpentine; lime- stone-impure calcite; sandstone-small grains of quartz; red sandstone-small grains of quartz ; horn-blende rock-quartz, horn-blende, feldspar; trap ( volcanic)- horn-blende, feldspar; and quartz-same as mineral quartz.
IRON ORES.
l'yrites, composed of iron, sulphur; limo- nite -iron, oxygen, water; hematite - iron, oxygen ; maguetite-iron, oxygen ; chromite - iron, chromium: and titanic iron -iron, titanium.
LEAD ORES.
Galena, composed of lead, sulphur; py- romorphite-lead, phosphorus ; cerussite --- carbonate of lead ; and anglesite-sulphate of lead.
COPPER ORES.
Calcopyrite, composed of copper, iron, sulphur; malachite-carbonate of copper; azurite-carbonate of copper; chrysocolla - copper, silica.
ZINC ORES.
Calamine, composed of silica, zinc, water; sphalterite-zinc, sulphur; rutile (money- stone)-titanium, oxygen ; and pyroluisite - manganese, oxygen.
Zoology. - The zoology of the county is an interesting field of study, in which Dr. Ezra Michener and others have labored with good success. Doctor Michiner, in his zoological catalogues, published in Futhey & Cope's " History of Chester County," has done very thorough work. In his catalogne 1
of mammals he gives sixty-five species of the following eight orders: Insectivora, carni- vora, marsupiala, rodentia, ruminatia, sol- idungula, pacydermata, and proboscidia. In explanation of recording his species of ele- phants and mastodons, Doctor Michener says : "Perhaps many who will read this history may not know that the alluvial deposits of our county have for untold centuries been the custodians of the fossil remains here noticed. The elephant and the mastodon have each dropped us a molar tooth as a memorial of their prior claim upon our soil. The former was obtained on the farm of John G. Jackson, in the Hockesson valley, and the latter was thrown ont by a flood in White Clay creek, in the meadow of Howard L. Hoopes, near Avon- dale." The extinct animals of the county are: American panther, Canada wild cat. American wolf, black cat weasel, beaver. American porcupine, white rabbit, elk, red deer, American buffalo, elephant, and mas- todon ; while among rare animals are men- tioned the American wild cat, gray fox, and American otter.
The ornithological catalogue of Doctor Michener gives two hundred and thirty-two species of birds for Chester county, of which two hundred and twenty have been found. Among the birds given are : Iceland falcon, golden eagle, white headed eagle, snowy owl, Michener's warbler, Townsend's warb- ler, great Carolina wren, English sparrow. Townsend's sparrow, sand hill crane, night herron, summer duck. and greater shear- water. But one specimen of Townsend's sparrow is known, and it was presented by Doctor Michener to the Smithsonian insti- tution.
Of reptiles Doctor Michener catalogued fifty-four species, belonging to four orders ;
29
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
Batrachia, ophidia, lacertilia, and testudin- ata. Of venomous snakes he mentions the banded rattlesnake and the copperhead.
Prof. E. D. Cope says that about sixty species of so-called fishes are native to the waters of Chester county, and that the five following species have been introduced : Black bass, gold fish, carp, salmon, and
California salmon. In his catalogue of na- tive fishes he divides them into eighteen families and sixty species, of which eight families, comprising nineteen species, are the best for food. The best resident food fishes are the pike, perch and trout, while the shad ranks best of the anadromus species.
In the field of conchology Dr. W. D. Hartman has labored zcalonsly, and his illustrated catalogue of the terrestrial and Inviatile testaceous mollusks of Chester county is a valuable contribution to the zoology of southeastern Pennsylvania. He gives one hundred and twenty-seven species of the three orders : Pulmonifera, pectini- branchiata, and branchifera. Of these one hundred and twenty-seven species, one hun- dred and twenty-three are illustrated.
Botany .- Dr. William Darlington's well known work. " Flora Cestriea," describes the flowering and filicoid plants of the county, while its cryptogamus plants are described by Dr. Ezra Michener in his cata- logue of the "Cryptogamia of Chester County." He gives two hundred and fifty- three species of the four genera of aerogens or ferns, anophyta or mosses, hepatica or liverworts, and thallophyta or linchens. Dr. Michener said that twelve hundred species of the genera of hysterophyta or fungi had been collected in the county, which he had not the time to properly arrange in a cata- logue.
Prehistoric Rares .- Within the last quar- ter of a century some light has been thrown on the aboriginal and the earlier part of the savage period of America, as well as of the old world, by the researches in the field of arehæology. Dr. Brinton, in his Icono- graphic Dietionary of the Arts and Sciences, says that prehistorie archeology is an inde- pendent branch of the general history of man, and is an indispensable introduction to the general history of culture, for the rude objects of ancient art are mute wit- nesses of a period of human existence baek of the scope of written records, and that they supply the long-sought means of trac- ing man from almost his first appearance in the world down through his conquests over nature to the time when history takes np the thread of his career.
De Mortillet divides prehistoric archæol- ogy into the ages of stone, bronze and iron, and divides the first age into three periods :
1. Etholithic, or fired stone.
2. Palæolithie, or chipped stone.
3. Neolithie, or polished stone.
The nomenclature of the archeology of the western hemisphere is elosely similar to that of the eastern, and the prehistorie is separated from the historic by the discovery of America by Columbus; so that whatever in the United States is ante-Columbian is also prehistoric.
The prehistoric archeology of the United States lies wholly within the age of stone as confined to the palæolithic and neolithic periods. In the first of these two periods was the glacial age, whose disappearance most of the geologists agree in placing at thirty thousand years ago. Among the extinet animals of the paleolithic period were the true mammoth ( Elephus primi- genius), the mastodon, the great musk ox
30
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
(Oribos bombifroms), the reindeer, a huge lion, ( Felis atrox), whose bones have been found near Natchez, and a large tiger which frequented the area of Texas, beside two species of the horse.
It is generally accepted now that man existed in North America during the glacial epoch of the palæolithic period; and stone implements made by him have been found in the Trenton gravels, the Nebraska Loes beds, and the auriferous gravels of Califor- nia, which strengthen this view ; as well as the finding of the celebrated Calaveras human skull, at the depth of one hundred and fifty feet, in a mining shaft in Cala- veras county, California.
The art products of the aboriginal Amer- ican are represented by articles in stone, clay, bone, and shell. Those of stone are arrow and spear heads, grooved hammers, and axes, gouges, semi-lunar knives, awls, scrapers, mortars and pestles, food vessels, spades, plummets, ornaments, pipes, images, and inscribed petroglyphs or tablets. The pottery of the Middle Atlantic States was rude in character and imperfectly burned. Bone was used for fish hooks, spoons, awls, and ornaments. Shells were used for enps, spoons, chisels, and knives.
At what time the aboriginal period com- menced in America none with certainty can tell, while the fate of the aborigines and all of the prehistoric races of this country ex- cept the Indian remains a mystery upon which history sheds no light. Of the races who passed away and left no record of their existence in any form of written language, archæology alone has been successful in se- curing any knowledge of their life, charac- ter, and seats of empire. This it has ac- complished by researches among the ruins of their mounds, fortified heights, and town
sites. and the careful examination of the tools and implements which they left. One theory makes the aborigines to include the Indians, while another holds them to be a different people from the Indians, credits them with being semi-civilized, and names them Mound - builders, on account of the earth mounds which they erected all over the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. Their mounds were of four classes : temple, altar, effigy, and tomb mounds.
Numerous theories have been advanced to account for the unknown fate of the mound builders. But whether they per- ished by war or famine, or went south to found the empires of Mexico and Peru, no one knows.
The mound builders were never perma- nent residents in Chester county, but areh- æology has discovered in the Trenton gravels the evidence of one or more pre- historic races having inhabited the banks of the Delaware long before the advent of the Indian into southeastern Pennsylvania. Who these races were, and how long they remained on the territory of Chester county and along the Delaware, none can tell. The Indian, with his unreliable traditions, is the only one of the prehistorie races of the county of whom we have any knowledge.
Indian Occupation .- The savages of Brit- ish America and the United States consti- tute a single great race, from the Eskimo to the Comanches, while some authorities make the race to embrace the Mexic and South American semi-civilized Indians, and the stupid Patagonians; but this subject, like many others of ethnography, must be considered as belonging to the yet undeter- mined and debatable domain of that science. The unity of the various Indian nations of
31
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
the United States, as descendants of a single stock, is proved philologieally by their lan- guages. This unity is not manifest in the similarity of the words but in the structure of the different languages. Two of the eight Indian families of the United States were the Algonquins, who stretched from Vir- ginia to New England, and the Huron- Iroquois, whose home was in Canada and in central and western New York. The most powerful confederation of the latter family was the Iriquois, or famous Six Nations, who were the terror of the Algon- quins, and conquered the Delaware tribes of the latter family in eastern Pennsylvania.
The Six Nations were the most intelli- gent and advanced, and also the most terri- ble and ferocious, of all the Indian nations of this country. Such was their great elo- quence and wonderful energy of character, and the extent of their conquests, that Volney called them the "Romans of the West." Parkham, the American historian, says: "The Iroquois were the Indians of Indians-a thorough savage, yet a finished and developed savage." He is, perhaps, an example of the highest elevation which man can reach without emerging from his prin- itive condition of the hunter.
The Iriquois were often called the Five Nations, until they were joined by the Tuscaroras, in 1712, after which they were designated the Six Nations. They called themselves Ho-de-no-san-nee, or People of the Long House.
" The Iroquois were bound together by a remarkable league, which was the secret of their power and success. They constituted a confederacy, in some respects like our federal union, in which the nations repre- sented States, to which were reserved gen- eral powers of control, that the several
nations exercised with great independence of each other, while certain other powers were yielded to the confederacy as a whole.
" In each nation there were eight tribes, which were arranged in two divisions, and named as follows :
Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle,
Deer, Snipe, Heron, Hawk.
The division of the people of each nation into eight tribes, whether pre-existing, or perfected at the establishment of the con- federacy, did not terminate in its object with the nation itself. It became the means of effecting the most perfect union of separate nations 'ever devised by the wit of man. In this manner was constructed the Tribal League of the Hodenosaunee; in itself an extraordinary specimen of Indian legisla- tion, and it forms an enduring monument to that proud and progressive race, who reared, under its protection, a widespread Indian sovereignty."
The present territory of Chester county was occupied at the time of its first settle- ment by several small tribes of the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware nation, whose names have not been preserved-with the solitary exception of the Nanticoke tribe, that dwelt along the Brandywine river. These tribes were frequently known to the early settlers by the names of the streams where they resided. They were most numerous in the Downingtown or "Great Valley," but were evenly scattered over the rest of the county, except west of White Clay creek, where they were few in numbers.
In 1697 a Shawanese tribe came from the Carolinas and by permission of the Conesto- goe Indians, and Governor Markham, be- came resident on the waters of Pequa creek, Lancaster county, from which they soon extended into southern Chester. They had
32
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
villages at Steelville and Doe Run, the latter of which seems to have been their seat of power, as within its boundaries was the council house of the nation.
Trails. - The Delawares had several trails or paths in the county, some of which after- ward were used as public roads by the white settlers. One of their leading trails was the Pequa and Chesapeake path, now known the Limestone road, which entered West Sadsbury township from Pequa valley, and ran through the southwestern part of the county to Cecil county, Maryland. This path ran on the dividing ridge between the waters of the Brandywine and Susquehanna rivers, crossed no stream, and passed through the townships of West Sadsbury, Highland, West Fallowfield, Upper Oxford, Lower Oxford, and East Nottingham.
Villages. - But little account has been pre- served of the many Indian villages, or clus- ters of bark wigwams, that were scattered through the county and generally located on the south hillsides, near springs of water. Of the Delaware villages or towns we have record of only three: one on the John B. Kinsey farm, in Upper Oxford township; another near the site of the present Baptist church, in Little Britain township; and the third (called Indiantown by the whites ) on the old Henderson tract, in Wallace town- ship. Indiantown was a cluster of about thirty wigwams, situated near two fine springs ; and the Delaware Indians remained there until 1733, when they sold it, with a large tract of surrounding land, to Daniel and Alexander Henderson. The Hender- sons promised the Indians that their burial ground should never be disturbed, and the promise was kept by them and their chil- dren : but now the Indian graveyard,
although but a quarter of an aere, is part of a cultivated field.
After Penn's treaty with the Indians in 1682, a number of those in Chester county abandoned nomadic habits to a considerable extent, and raised some corn and tobacco, and planted fruit trees, although they ob- tained their main subsistence by hunting, basket-making and fishing. The Delawares and Shawanese remained as tenants-at-will under the Six Nations of New York until 1756, when they revolted under the lead of Teedyuskung, and obtained the recognition of their independence from the great "Iro- quois Confederacy."
The Indians sold their lands to the whites, and as the latter occupied them the red men removed from the county. At the opening of the French and Indian war, public feeling in eastern Pennsylvania be- came so bitter against all Indians that the remaining Delawares and Shawanese of Chester county became dissatisfied with the treatment which they received at the hands of the whites, and about 1755 removed westward to what is now Mercer county. The last of the Delawares in the county was " Indian Hannah," as she was usually called. She was a member of a family that called themselves Freeman, and had their wigwam near Anvil tavern, in Kennett township, and died in the Chester county poor house, March 20, 1802, aged seventy- one years.
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