USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > Historical sketch of Chester, on Delaware > Part 4
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In 1739, when England declared war against Spain, an expedi- tion was proposed from the Colonies against the West Indies, and the Governor, in a proclamation calling for . recruits, " to inlist in the Important Expedition now on Foot for attacking and plunder- ing the most valuable Part of the Spanish West Indies," notified the people of Chester and vicinity that those, who proposed to recruit, should call on James Mather in the Borough.
The revolutionary period was rapidly approaching, and the peo- ple throughout the thirteen Colonies were aroused by the spirit of oppression which seemed to animate the English ministry in its dealings with the American Provinces. The First Continental Con- gress in Philadelphia, had, among other means to protect the liber- ties of the Colonies, resolved that committees should be chosen in every county, city and town, to observe the conduct of all people respecting the suspension of trade with the mother country, and it was responded to by Chester county, December 20, 1774, in the old
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
Court House in this city, when a committee was appointed consist- ing of sixty-nine of the most prominent men of the day, many of whom afterwards attained reputation in the State by their conduct during the struggle with Great Britain; and one, the chairman, Anthony Wayne, achieved world-wide fame. The committee had frequent meetings thereafter at the public house of David Coup- land, still standing at the south-west corner of Fourth and Market streets. (An account of the building will be found elsewhere in this volume.)
In December, 1776, it was proposed to institute hospitals for the sick soldiers of the American army, at Darby, Chester, Marcus Hook, Wilmington and New Castle Tradition states that the old school house, torn down in 1874, and the house now owned and oc- cupied by Jonathan Pennell, on Edgmont avenue, were used for that purpose, and subsequently, as barracks for soldiers. During the year 1776 and part of '77, the signal and alarm Post, No. 8, was located at this place
The war cloud, however, did not actually drift in this direction until 1777, although during the preceding year, when the destina- tion of the English army which had evacuated Boston, was unknown, so large a body of soldiers was stationed at Chester and Marcus Hook that in both towns there were not sufficient houses to supply the troops with shelter, and hence, April 13th, 1776, the Commit- tee of Safety furnished " 100 good tents," for that purpose. In May of the same year the force in cantonment at this place num- bered nearly a thousand men, and one thousand pounds of gunpow- der, two thousand pounds of lead and twenty thousand musket car- tridges were ordered to be delivered to Col. Samuel Miles, com- manding the Associators of Chester county, while on the following day, the commissary was ordered by the Committee of Safety to " send down to Chester, for the use of the Provincial Troops under Col. Miles, sixty-five locks." On July 2, 1776, after it became evident that New York and not Philadelphia was the point menaced by the British Fleet and Army, Col. Miles was ordered to march his battalions to the latter city, and this town again was removed from the hourly dread of battle in its neighborhood.
In July, 1777, Chester again became the rendezvous of the raw levies from the county. While General Howe was at sea, and his
Chester from the Arrival of Wmn. Penn to the year 1850. 31
destination unknown, the alarm was intense among the people of the seaboard cities, and in this neighborhood it was not lessened when they comprehended that the English Commander, with a well disciplined and equipped army of eighteen thousand men had land- ed at the head of Elk river, and that Philadelphia was his objective point. In accordance with the request of Congress in the preced- ing April, a call had been made by Pennsylvania for 3,000 militia, and half of that number was encamped in Chester, which force General Armstrong had been assigned to command. On August 1, 1777, Washington passed through this place, southward, to check, if possible, the enemy's advance. September 11, 1777, that of the battle of Brandywine, was one of if not the most intensely anxious. days Chester has ever known. The noise of the distant cannonading could be distinctly heard, like far away mutterings of thunder, and after the battle had been lost, the bearers of ill tidings traveled fast with their unwelcomed intelligence. Early in the afternoon, the first of the discomfited American forces began to straggle in, spreading all sorts of rumors regarding the results of the contest. When Lafayette, wounded in the foot, was brought hither, before he would permit his injuries to be dressed, he stationed a guard at Chester bridge to arrest the disorganized men and return them to their commands. Far into the night the retreating army kept marching into the town, and it is related that Col. Custer, of the Third Virginia Infantry, because of the darkness and to prevent his men being crowded off the approaches to the bridge, at the creek, fastened his handkerchief to a ramrod, and stood there holding it aloft as a signal, until his command had filed by. At midnight, Washington addressed a letter to Congress, apprising that body of the loss of the battle. The missive is dated Chester, and tradition- ally in the Kerlin family, it is said, he wrote the letter at the Wash- ington House, on Market street. The disordered American army assembled back of the town, and the next day retreated to Philadel- phia. On September 15, Lord Cornwallis occupied Chester, and while here the residents of the Borough suffered severely from the depredations of the English soldiers. From thirty-one persons, nearly fifteen thousand dollars' worth of property was taken. Af- ter Philadelphia had been captured, General Howe landed a body of troops from New York here November 18. Lord Cornwallis,
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
with three thousand men, uniting with those already at this point, embarked on transports, and crossed the river to Billingsport. General Green, learning that his adversary outnumbered him, re- treated, abandoning the fort. In 1777, while the enemy had con- trol of Chester, it must have presented an animated appearance, for Major Clark, in a letter dated from Mrs. Withey's Tavern, No- vember 19, 1777, states that " eighty sail lie opposite this place, and eighty opposite Bridgeport." Joseph Bishop, an octogenarian, who died many years since, stated that when a boy, he stood on the porch of the old Salkeld house, now the Perkins' mansion, in South ward, and watched the fleet practicing, and on several occasions, when receiving distinguished personages, the yard arms were man- ned and the vessels gaily dressed with many flags and streamers. It may have been that on one of these occasions, by mistake, a few shots were fired into the town, one of which struck the Steamboat Hotel, another the Graham House, and a third the Richardson House, north-east corner of Market and Second streets, although it is stated to have been an intentional act on the part of the Com- mander of the frigate " Augusta." During the winter of 1777, the " Vulture," the vessel noted in our national annals as having carried Major Andre, when he ascended the Hudson to meet Arnold, laid off Chester, and on her several prominent Whigs, of this neighborhood, were imprisoned.
On April 8, 1782, the remarkable action between the Pennsylva- nia vessel of war, " Hyder Ali," commanded by Capt. Joshua Bar- ney, and the British ship, " General Monk," took place in Delaware Bay. Notwithstanding the latter outnumbered the former both in men and armament, she was compelled to strike her flag to the Continental vessel. The American commander brought his ship and prize to Chester, where he left the " Hyder Ali," and in the " General Monk " sailed to Philadelphia. Capt. Jackson, the Eng- lish commander, who was seriously wounded, was brought to Ches- ter and placed in the family of a Quaker lady who nursed him un- til he entirely recovered from his wounds.
At the close of the war, Chester, as all other localities, suffered greatly in the depreciation of the Continental currency, and many estates which had been in the families of their owners for half a
Chester from the Arrival of Wm. Penn to the year 1850. 33
century were sold by the Sheriff, while business in the disturbed condition of affairs, was uncertain and precarious.
The history of the removal of the seat of justice from Chester, is related in the article, Court Houses and Prisons, elsewhere in this volume, hence it requires no further notice here.
In 1699, the yellow fever first appeared in Chester, and again in 1793, when the contagion was brought here by some boys who went in a boat to a vessel lying in the stream, on which there were seve- ral persons ill with the disease. In 1798, it again visited the Bo- rough. On that occasion, it is said, a woman who fled from Phila- delphia to escape the scourge there, died in this place, and as she had requested, previous to her death, that her body should be taken . to the latter city for interment, the corpse, while being conveyed through the streets of this town, thus spread the seeds of disease. On Edgmont avenue, from Fourth street to the river, more than thirty persons died, and in the house adjoining Jonathan Pennell's residence, on Edgmont avenue, all the family, excepting a boy of five years, died from the malady.
In 1789, the new county of Delaware was erected, and with that exception, very little of public interest occurred in our annals until the year 1794, when the Whisky Insurrection broke out in Western Pennsylvania, at which time William Graham, in command of a company of cavalry from this neighborhood, responded to the call of President Washington In 1789, the latter passed through Ches- ter, in a coach-and-four with outriders, and received a congratula- tory address from the citizens of the town.
The annals of our city are very meagre for the following half century, and for many years no new buildings were erected, while the population seemed to remain without any material increase. In October, 1814, an encampment of several thousand militia was es- tablished at Marcus Hook, and on the 14th of that month the com- pany of Capt. Morgan marched to Chester, where it remained for nearly two weeks awaiting the forwarding of camp equipage by the State authorities. The war, however, was nearly at its close, and these troops never took part in any engagement. In the same year the Bank of Delaware County was chartered.
During the year 1836, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti-
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
more railroad was surveyed, and in 1838 was opened for public travel.
On Aug. 5, 1843, occurred the " Lammas Flood," which wrought immense damage in Delaware county and in Chester Borough. The day had been rainy, but about half past five o'clock in the after- noon the water fell in torrents for the space of a half hour. The earth, water-soaked, turned off the rain into the feeders of the creeks, and the latter rose with unexampled rapidity. It is stated that a wave, several feet in height, moved down Chester creek like a wall, sweeping everything before it. The water rose here a foot a minute until it had reached a point twenty-three feet higher than the ordinary high water mark, and horses, wagons, animals and trees were hurled into the Delaware river. The railroad and the county bridge at Third street were both swept away. The loss of property along the stream in the Borough amounted to many thousands of dollars.
In the fall of 1845, the agitation of the removal of the county seat from Chester to a more central location began, and the contest ended in favor of the removalists, by a decided popular vote at the election held in October, 1847, and in May, 1851, the Courts of Delaware county were for the last time held in the ancient Borough.
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1822021
CHESTER FROM THE YEAR 1850 TO 1882.
T THE majority of the inhabitants of the venerable Borough be- lieved that the removal of the county seat to Media would be a fatal blow to the prosperity of the town, and that it would rapidly sink in population and as a business point. Few persons compre- hended that the hour for its advancement had come. The purchase by John P Crozer of the old Chester mill site to the north-west of the Borough, the erection at that place of a cotton mill, and the lo- cation of James Campbell at Leiperville, to the northeast, where he built up a large business in manufacturing cotton goods, had di- rected the attention of a few thoughtful men to the possibilities and advantages of Chester as a manufacturing centre. To properly ap- preciate the position of the then Borough, in narrating the awaken- ing of the oldest town in Pennsylvania from the lethargy of a cen- tury and a half, it will be necessary to present a short sketch of the men who were to bring about this great change in our local history, as well as to introduce a brief description of Chester as it appeared thirty-two years ago.
John Price Crozer was a Delaware countian by birth. His early life was passed on a farm, until he was twenty-seven years old, when he formed a partnership with George G. Leiper, and em- barked in business at the grist and saw mill on Ridley creek. Be- coming dissatisfied with that occupation, Mr. Crozer and John Lewis rented part of the grist mill from Judge Leiper, and em- barked in cotton spinning. The new enterprise trembled often on the brink of disaster, but, ultimately, it began to return a profit, and when assured that he might venture to enlarge his business, he
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
purchased Mattson's paper mill and farm, on the west branch of Chester creek. From that hour his career was one of continued success, for so lucrative had his occupation become that, although in the freshet of 1843 his new factory, at Knowlton, was swept away, involving a loss of $50,000, yet within two years thereafter he pur- chased from John W. Ashmead the noted Chester Mills, together with some sixty odd acres of land, on which he began extensive im- provements. His subsequent career, how he attained great wealth, how he distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to public charities, educational and religious institutions, is well known to most of our citizens and need not be recapitulated here.
James Campbell, of Stockport, England, came to this country a young man and sought employment in the factory of Mr. Phillips, at Rockdale. He subsequently was manager of the mills owned by James Howton, at Pennsgrove, now Glen Riddle, until 1837, when the latter removed to Groveville, New Jersey, and the former de- clined to go to that . point, although the position lie held was ten- dered him at the new location. Thereupon Campbell started in business as a manufacturer in the machine shop of John Garsed, at Pennsgrove, with only six looms-which had been made by his fa- ther-in-law, Mr. Garsed, for a party who became embarrassed and could not take them. From this small beginning his business in- creased until the opportunity was presented him to obtain the bark mill at Leiperville, to which building Hon. George G. Leiper erect- ed an additional story, to afford space for the machinery required in a cotton factory. At this locality Campbell was very success- ful and had accumulated considerable capital, when he removed to Chester, with the avowed object of developing the Borough into a manufacturing town.
John Larkin, Jr., was born in Concord township, Delaware county, in 1804, where he worked at farming until he was twenty-three years of age, when he built a vessel and followed the water for seven years, during which time he sailed his own craft and worked hard at his calling. In 1840 he was elected Sheriff of Delaware county; in 1845-'46 he represented the district in the Legislature, and after the city of Chester was incorporated, he was elected its first Mayor in 1866 and again in 1869, and during the term of six years in which he held the office he refused to accept any salary for his ser-
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Chester from the year 1850 to 1882.
vices. He was one of the originators of the Chester Rural Ceme- tery, and the President of that Company since the death of Joshua P. Eyre. He is also President of the Chester Mutual Insurance Company, and of the First National Bank of this city.
John M. Broomall is a native of this county, and in his busy life has been teacher, lawyer, Legislator, Representative in Congress, Presi- dent Judge of the county, and a member of the Constitutional Con- vention of 1874. Mr. Broomall is a man of vast attainments in history, science, law and literature, in fact, no intellectual pur- suit in which he has engaged but evidences his mental powers and remarkable erudition.
In 1840, the population of the Borough was seven hundred and forty persons of all ages and sexes. The town occupied, in a scat- tered manner, the space extending from the Philadelphia, Wil- mington and Baltimore railroad to the river, and from Welsh street to Chester creek. But a small part was built upon, and in the area given, most of the houses- many of them dilapidated-had been erected in the preceding century, and the place showed all the features of a finished town. The residence of Dr. William Gray, then but recently built, was an exception, as also that of Ma- jor William Anderson, and the mansion of Hon. Samuel Edwards, at the north end of Market street, and that of Joshua P., and Wil- liam Eyre, at the west end of Fifth street, which were large, mod- ern and comfortable dwellings. A strange coincidence, however, was that each of the two latter houses stood directly in the way of an extension of the streets mentioned, showing that at the time they were built the popular belief was that Chester would never grow sufficiently to require the use of these thoroughfares, and, in fact, no streets at those points were ever laid down on any map, previous to the year 1860. MIany of the inhabitants owned the houses they occupied, and there was singularly little desire either to buy or sell land. It was remarked that a property held for sale would not bring a fifth of its value, while a person wishing to buy would have to give ten prices for what he wanted, so loath were the owners to part with their real estate. The change which has since that time so developed the little fishing village, for Chester was scarcely more than that, first began to show itself about 1842. A few properties then changed owners at fair prices. What such
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
prices were may be gathered from the fact that about 1844 the hotel now owned by Henry Abbott, with the ground extending from Fifth street to Dr. Monroe's office, and from Market street to the rear of the stables, was offered for $2700, and only an accident prevented the sale. The great difficulty in the way of Chester was, that it was surrounded by large farms held by persons in easy cir- cumstances, who would not sell a foot of ground at any price, and who looked upon those who proposed to build a city here as visionary men, who would run themselves in debt and ultimately fail. Time, however, brought these farms into the market. Death and debt have no respect for conservatism, and by degrees these agencies worked in behalf of the change that was dawning. The first of these tracts of land that came into the hands of the progressive spirits who were guiding the new order of things, was that of Wil- liam Kerlin, a fifty-acre plot, lying between the Post road and the river, on the west bank of Chester creek.
On this tract the famous Essex House stood, and a few of the trees which grew on the river bank when Penn landed, were still standing, although much decayed, marking the spot where his feet first trod on the land of the great Commonwealth he founded. The Essex House stood on the site of the present brick dwelling at the north-west corner of Front and Penn streets. It was a story and a half in height, its south-east gable fronting the river, the rear or south-west side facing Concord avenue, and its front, with a com- modious porch, was to the creek. About one hundred and ten feet in a north-easterly direction from the porch, stood the trees under which Penn landed. This estate, then containing five hundred and sixty acres, had been granted by Richard Nichols, Governor General under the Duke of York, by patent, dated June 1, 1668, to "Justina Armguard alias vpo Papegay of Prinse Doope " daughter of Gover- nor Printz, in fee, and she, March 21, 1673, for eighty pounds ster- ling, sold the estate to Robert Wade, who built the house where Penn was entertained in 1682. The Proprietary, by letters patent, June 5, 1684, confirmed this tract of land to Wade. On January 9, 1689, Wade made his will, in which he devised three hundred and sixty acres of the estate to Robert Wade and Lydia Wade, the children of his brother Thomas. His nephew, Robert, dying un- married and without issue, his interest vested in his sister Lydia,
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Chester from the year 1850 to 1882.
who had married Philip Eilhirz. The latter and his wife, June 1, 1702, conveyed the estate to John Wade, in fee, and he, with his wife Frances, August 24 and 25, 1733, transferred it to Joseph Parker, in fee, and the latter, July 5, 1736, leased the tract of fifty acres, afterwards the estate of William Kerlin, to John Wade, for the term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, at a yearly rent of twelve pounds sterling, two barrels of cider and ten bushels of apples. Wade conveyed the lease to James Mather, who died Jan- uary 11, 1780, and his estate proving insolvent, his interest in the leasehold was sold by Ezekiel Leonard, Sheriff, 5th mo., 27, 1789, to Eleazer Oswald, who in turn, the same day conveyed it to Wil- liam Kerlin, who by his will dated November 28, 1804, devised the leasehold to his son William. It was he who owned the estate in 1850.
John M. Broomall, then residing in Upper Chichester, supposed that he had bought the farm in 1846, at one hundred and fifty dol- lars an acre, but the agent, Charles D. Manley, though authorized to sell at that price, was, to his great mortification, unable to get his principal to execute the deed, and the sale fell through. In the early part of 1849, Mr. Broomall, who had in the meanwhile re- moved to Chester, purchased the farm again of Mr. Kerlin himself after considerable negotiation, at two hundred dollars an acre. A time was fixed for executing the contract of sale, but before the day came, Mr. Kerlin again changed his mind. In December, fol- lowing, John Edward Clyde, who was quite anxious that a sale should be effected, meeting Mr. Kerlin on the street, agreed to purchase the farm, and insisted that the former should go at once to the office of Mr. Broomall. The latter declined to enter into a negotiation except upon the condition that the deed should be forth- with executed and the sale consummated, if a price could be agreed upon. The condition was accepted, Hon. Edward Darlington was sent for as counsel for Mr. Kerlin, and in half an hour the deed was executed, the price paid being two hundred and fifty dollars an acre. During the negotiations in the early part of 1849, Mr. Broomall had offered to John P. Crozer and John Larkin, Jr., each an equal interest with himself in the farm he then believed he had purchased from Mr. Kerlin. Both of these gentlemen were natives of the county of Delaware, whose attention had been attracted to
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
Chester as the site of a future city if it could only get room to grow, and they had been looking at the Kerlin farm as a possible outlet. Before the actual purchase took place, Mr. Larkin had the opportunity of buying a large part of the farm belonging to John Cochran, to the north of the town, now forming a considerable portion of the North ward. He therefore declined to accept Mr. Broomall's proposal, and the Kerlin farm was acquired by Mr. Cro- zer and Mr. Broomall in equal shares, the latter taking upon him- self the management of it, with the advice and pecuniary aid of the former.
On January 5, 1850, John Larkin, Jr., purchased eighty-three acres of land, which had formerly been a race-course, from John Cochran. This tract had been included in the estate of David Lloyd, and the greater part of it was embraced in the purchase, May 1, 1741, made by Joseph Hoskins from Grace Lloyd, and which he devised to his nephew, John Hoskins, of Burlington, New Jersey. The latter sold the property to his son, Raper Hoskins, March 22, 1791, and he dying, seized of the property, his widow, Eleanor, administered to the estate, and sold it, April 27, 1799, to Thomas Laycock. The latter dying, and his heirs making default in payment, the property was sold by John Odenheimer, Sheriff, October 26, 1806, to Anthony Morris, who in turn sold it to Major William Anderson, and the latter conveyed it to John Cochran, May 26, 1823, who, dying intestate, the estate was conveyed by the heirs to John Cochran, the younger, who sold it to John Larkin, Jr., at the time already stated. The entire tract was in one en- closure, the only improvement so far as buildings were concerned, was the small stone house, still standing, with its gable end to Edg- mont avenue, below Twelfth street, and a frame stable. The land, after it ceased to be a race-course, had been used as a grazing lot for cattle.
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