History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 73

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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1 Bliaa' " Delaware County Digeat," p. 17.

287

THE TOWNSHIP OF TINICUM.

sertion covered all the islands on the Delaware ex- made good to him by the public.5 There is no evi- dence, however, to show that the land was then in- tentionally submerged. In 1780 the real estate of Joseph Galloway had been confiscated to the State, cepting Big Tinicum Island. Hence, after the termi- nation of the Revolutionary war, it became necessary for the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey to de- termine to which of these States the islands should be ; and on December 15th of that year, complaint having assigned. In that adjustment Hog Island, Martin's Bar, Printz's Island, Maiden Island, and Little Tini- cum Island were allotted to Pennsylvania, while Mo- nas' Island, Chester Island, Chester Island Bar, Ton- kin's Island, and Marcus Hook Bar became part of New Jersey. I have, of course, considered the parti- tion of the islands so far only as relates to those lying in front of the present county of Delaware. The Legislature of Pennsylvania, by act of Sept. 25, 1786, annexed the islands named as allotted to this com- monwealth to Chester County, particularly specifying that " the whole of Hog Island, which lies opposite to the said boundary of Philadelphia and Chester, and of the marshes surrounding the said island, is hereby annexed to and shall be deemed to be part of the said county of Chester and of the nearest town- ship of the said county."1

Under the provisions of this act Hog Island became part of Tinicum township, as, in fact, did all the islands facing Delaware County, the title to which Pennsylvania had acquired by the terms of its treaty with New Jersey. Very early in our history we find mention of Hog Island, for at the last court held under the authority of the Duke of York, June 14, 1681, it appears that " Justice Otto Earnest Cock ac- quaints the Court that hee has bought and paid of ye Indian proprietors a certain swampy or marshy Island, called by ye Indians Quistconck, Lying att the upper End of Tinnachkonck Island in ye river opposite Andrews Boones Creeke, and desires ye Corts appro- bation. The Cort, haveing well informed themselves about ye premisses, doe allow thereof."2 Armstrong tells us that this swampy island, now known as Hog Island, on Lindstrom's manuscript map appears under the high-sounding title of "Keyser Eyland, Ile des Empereurs." 8

This island has played no insignificant part in the story of our county. Previous to the Revolution it had become the property of Joseph Galloway, to whom allusion has already been made. On July 29, 1775, when the Council of Safety was laying the ob- structions in the Delaware River, it was decided to sink the frames opposite the upper end of Hog Island in preference to Billingsport,4 and on June 19, 1776, when an attack by the British fleet on Philadelphia seemed imminent, Abraham Kinsey, the tenant under Galloway on Hog Island, was notified that the committee deemed it necessary to overflow the island with water on the near approach of the enemy, and all injuries he would sustain by that act should be

been made to the Supreme Council that Benjamin Rue, Francis Proctor, Joseph Ogden, William Eck- hart, and Mark McCall "had taken forcible posses- sion of Hog Island," the parties were brought before Council and compelled to enter bonds for their ap- pearnce at the next Court of General Sessions for the county of Chester, to answer the trespass.6 The de- fendants, appearing to have taken possession under color of title adverse to that acquired by the State under the confiscation laws, maintained their position during a bitter and constant litigation extending over nearly ten years, and were several times after the in- stance mentioned arrested and held in recognizance to answer at court, but the threatened criminal pro- ceedings were never pressed. In December, 1780, the island was sold as confiscated estate to James Mease, Hugh Shiell, and Samuel Caldwell, of Phila- delphia, and on the 4th of January following Council instructed the sheriff of Chester County to put the purchasers in possession, " they paying the incidental expenses;" and in the mean while, Abraham Kint- zing was required to retain possession of the island in behalf of the State, and the sheriff's of Philadel- phia and Chester Counties were directed, if necessary, to " assist him in holding possession against all in- truders." At the same time the attorney-general was instructed "to support the claim of the State against sundry persons who have lately attempted to take possession under some pretended rights, and take proper steps to cause the persons who are witnesses to the late forcible entry to attend at the next Chester court, in order to lay the complaint therein before the grand jury."7

On Feb. 16, 1781, Council ordered the island to be surveyed, and the following day a committee, consist- ing of Dr. Gardner, Gen. Potter, and William Van Campen, was appointed to confer with a similar com- mittee, which the Assembly was requested to name, " touching a valuable island in the Delaware called Hog Island, seized by the agents for confiscated es- tates in the county of Philadelphia, on the property of Joseph Galloway, an attainted traytor, and which Col. Proctor and others are attempting to take into their possession."8 The committees seem to have conferred, and it was decided to retain Jonathan D. Sergeant to appear in behalf of the commonwealth, a retaining fee of fifteen pounds to appear " in a cause depending respecting Hog Island."9 The controversy continued, and on July 14, 1781, another sale of land on the island was made by the agents of the State in Chester County, in which some special order of the

1 Bliss' "Delaware County Digest," pp. 38, 39.

2 Record of Upland Court, p. 190.

3 Jb., p. 191.

+ Colonial Becorda, vol. x. p. 294.

6 Ib., p. 607.

6 Ib., vol. xii. p. 570. 7 Ib., p. 692.

8 Ib., p. 631.

9 Ib., p. 634.

288

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Council was violated; hence the agents were directed to receive no part of the purchase money, but were commanded to attend the meeting of Council to " ac- count for their proceedings."1 The State, on May 9, 1782, acknowledged a deed to Samnel Caldwell (the other purchaser seems to have abandoned all claim to the estate) for one hundred and five acres of banked meadow at Hog Island, the consideration being one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds Continen- tal money and a yearly rent of seven bushels and a half of "good merchantable wheat, payable to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania."2 How- ever, Council seemed unable to put the purchaser in possession of the estate, notwithstanding repeated orders to the sheriff of Philadelphia to assist Cald- well with whatever force was necessary to effect that end. The litigation was continued, for on June 3, 1782, Jared Ingersoll received nine pounds in specie, and on the 7th of the same month Mr. Sergeant re- ceived a like sum as fees in the case. During the summer of 1783 the remaining part of the island not already purchased by Caldwell was sold to several officers of the Pennsylvania line, the agents of the State receiving the certificates of money due to those soldiers in payment, but on August 30th of that year Council ordered the certificates to be returned to the officers, and that the island should remain the prop- erty of the State until otherwise disposed of.3 Cald- well, however, seemed not disposed to reconvey his land to the State, whereupon, on Jan. 8, 1784, the at- torney-general was instructed to institute suit against him for the recovery of the estate. Late in the year 1786 the commonwealth was still in litigation, for it retained William Bradford, Jr., Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, and Edward Tilghman in the suit brought against it by Thomas Proctor, "respecting the right to Hog Island."" The case seems to have continued until May 5, 1789, when it was tried, for on the 2d of that month, Mr. Kennedy, the secretary of the land- office, was directed to deliver certain papers in his possession to Caldwell, they being " necessary on the tryall of Hogg Island."5 The commonwealth was finally beaten in the suit, the title of Thomas Proctor and his associate owners being recognized as valid. In the Pennsylvania Packet for March 6, 1790, appears the following advertisement :

" HOG ISLAND,-To let on a lease for years, situate on the River Dela- ware, ten miles from the city of Philadelphia and seven miles by land, containing 200 acres of the richest maddow and may be immediately entered upou. For terms apply to the subscribers.

" THOMAS PROCTOR.

" JOSEPH OGDEN.

" WILLIAM ECHART.

" PHILADELPHIA, May 3d."

The island subsequently became the property of Samuel Murdock, Isaac Reeves, and John Black, who, in 1840, petitioned the court of Delaware County to

1 Colonial Recorde, vol. xiii. p. 11.

2 Ib., p. 279.

8 Ib., p. 280.

4 Ib., vol. xv. p. 117. 5 1b., p. 472.

connect the island to the main land by a bridge, and were authorized themselves to erect " a free bridge on posts or abutments, provided that an aperture of not less than 25 feet wide and of height not less than 8 feet above high-water mark, should be left, which aperture should at all times be kept free from obstruc- tion, so as to admit of passage of shallops." The bridge was erected, but the connection with the main land was made in Philadelphia County, and the peti- tion to the court of Delaware County was simply, it would appear, to prevent any trouble with the county authorities for interrupting the public (water) high- way. The island, owned by Edgar N. and John Black, is now a marvel of fertility, and so complete is the manner of banking and diking that breaks in the embankments are now as uncommon as they were common years ago. The last serious break occurred during the storm of Nov. 1, 1861, when the island was submerged, and the loss of property was great, three hundred head of sheep drowned being only one item in the list of damages. On Jan. 20, 1882, in an unused barn on the island, the body of a man was found. He had hung himself, and as the remains were not discovered for several weeks after the act, the rats had mutilated the arms and legs. The re- mains were identified as those of Charles J. Deacon, an insurance agent, of Philadelphia.

Martin's Bar, which formerly lay between Hog Island and Big Tinicum Island, and by the banking and diking of the river front has within recent years almost disappeared as a separate piece of earth, re- mained in the ownership of the State until within a comparatively recent period, although, in December, 1789, John Lockart petitioned " for the right of pre- emption of a small island in the river Delaware, be- tween Tinicum and Hogg Island containing about ten or fifteen acres ;" but on the second reading of his petition, December 12th, Council decided "the re- quest of the said John Lockart cannot be complied with."6 The bar had considerably increased in thirty years, for in the patent granted to Thomas K. Wal- lace by the State, March 28, 1821, Martin's Bar was found to contain sixty-seven acres and forty perches.™

On Jan. 3, 1881, the court of Delaware County con- firmed the port warden's line, above Little Tinicum Island. Towards the eastern end of Little Tinicum Island lie the two small islands known as Printz and Maiden Islands. The former was patented to Thomas H. and Aubrey H. Smith, Feb. 13,1841, and contained fourteen acres and eighty-one perches. It is now owned by Aubrey H. Smith. Maiden Island-said to have derived its name from a young girl who was overset in a boat managing to get to this place, where for two days she remained before rescued-is owned by a company of Philadelphians, who propose to erect coal-oil works there and on Little Tinicum Island.

6 Ib., vol. xvi. p. 230.

7 Smith'e " Atlas of Early Land Grante in Delaware County," map 16.

289

THE TOWNSHIP OF TINICUM.

Licensed Houses .- In Tinicum, although it is the oldest settlement in our county, and probably in the State, license to keep a house of public entertainment does not appear until after the yellow fever epidemic of 1798, when the authorities of Philadelphia had de- termined to locate the Lazaretto, or quarantine, there- on.

On July 27, 1799, Thomas Smith filed his peti- tion, setting forth " that a Public Lazaretto is about to be established upon the Island of Tinicum, that will cause considerable intercourse between the city of Philadelphia, and the said Lazaretto, that a house of entertainment will be necessary at or near the same. That your petitioner is about to erect suit- able buildings to accommodate the public on the road near to said Lazaretto, which he will have ready on or before the 1st day of October next," and requested license for the same. The signers of his petition cer- tify that they are well acquainted with the situation, as also with Charles Lloyd, the person to occupy the house, and recommend him as a person suitable " to run a hotel."

Shortly afterwards the health authorities took action in Smith's behalf, as will be seen by the following communication sent to the court and filed with the petition :

" HEALTH OFFICE, 7th Mo. 22, 1799.

" To the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions for the County of Dela- ware :

" The Board of Health considering the propriety of establishing a well- regulated ino in the vicinity of the intended Lazaretto, now building on Tinicum Island, are of the judgment the place fixed on by Thomas Smith as the most suitable, in their view, and do recommend the said Thomas Smith to the court to obtain a license for his house near the said Laza- retto.

" By order of the Board of Health.

"EDWARD GARRIGUES, President.

" PAXRALL HOLLINGSWORTH, Secretary.

" JAMES HALL, Resident Physician of Port.

" THOMAS EGGOR, Quarantin- Master.

"HEART NORHERRY, Steward of the Lazaretto."

The court granted license to Charles Lloyd for the year 1800.

At the same time that Thomas Smith's petition was presented, Benjamin Rue desired to be permitted to keep a public-house in the dwelling he then occupied. He sets forth that " as the Board of Health of the City of Philadelphia are about to erect buildings there for the reception of imported goods, to prevent, if pos- sible, a return of the dreadful calamity which has so frequently desolated Philadelphia, the concourse of people necessarily attending on a business of such importance, your petitioner conceives will make an Inn indispensably necessary."

The court seemed to think very much in the same way, for instead of one inn they permitted two to be established, and Rue's application was favorably con- sidered for the year 1800. His expectation of "the concourse of people" who would visit Tinicum seems not to have been realized, for after license was awarded him, in 1802, his name disappears from the records, so far as licenses in this neighborhood are concerned.

Charles Lloyd seems to have moved to Benjamin Rue's house, where he had licenses until 1807, when Elizabeth Harrison was granted license for the house formerly kept by Lloyd, and continued there until 1811, when Esther Taylor became the landlady for that year. Who kept it during 1812 can only be gathered from the petition of John Hart, in 1813, in which he desires license for the house " lately Mary Taylor's." This John Hart was the great-grandson of Edward Hart, who (with Tobias Preak, both being officers in the town of Flushing, on Long Island) for refusal to carry out Governor Stuyvesant's cruel orders against Quakers, was thrown into prison. John Hart, like Rue, it seems, was disappointed in the amount of business for a public-house at Tinicum, for the next year he made no application for license, and in John Ward's petition, in 1815, he alludes to the place as " house lately occupied by John Shreen," who owned the property. In 1817, however, he appears once more as " Mine Host" of the Tinicum Tavern, and continued thereat until 1829, when his widow, Mary Hart, followed him, the hotel having been left by John Shreen to his daughter, Mary Hart, until 1834, at which time the license was granted to John L. Fry- berg.

In 1838, George Bastian, Jr., was the proprietor, to be followed the next year by William Nugent. Sam- uel L. Ferman succeeded Nugent in 1843, to give place, in 1844, to R. M. Rutter, and he in turn, in 1845, to John Hall. In 1848, John Goff procured the license, and remained there until 1850, when, having rented the Steamboat Hotel, in Chester (which he pur- chased the following year), the Lazaretto Hotel was again kept by R. M. Rutter, who, in 1853, was suc- ceeded by Henry Pepper. John Hart, the younger, in 1855 followed Pepper, and continued to receive the court's approval until 1863, when his petition was re- jected because it was filed too late. However, he was on time the following year, as well as in 1855, after which Amos Johnson, Jr., had license granted him, which the same year he transferred to Henry Goff, who remained there until 1869, when Jacob Pepper made application for hotel license, which was denied him, but he was authorized to keep an eating-house. In 1870, Pepper again made application, his petition being warmly indorsed by John Hickman and Sketchley Morton in personal letters to the judges. Judge Morton in his letter states that in consequence of the old hotel (Rue's building) being abandoned as a public-house for two years, Tinicum was without a tavern, and it was necessary to have a public-house there. He recommended Pepper warmly, and stated that he (Pepper) " had just erected a large house con- taining twenty-two apartments, sixteen of which were sleeping-rooms." Pepper at last succeeded in procuring a restaurant license, but in the fall of that year the yellow fever as an epidemic prevailed at the Lazaretto, he was stricken with the disease and died. His widow, Annie E. Pepper, kept the house the fol-

290

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

lowing year, and John T. Huddell in 1872. In 1873 and 1874 license was prohibited outside of Chester, but on the repeal of the local option law, David Wells was licensed in 1875 and 1876.

In 1876, William Miller made application for a hotel license at the Riverview Hotel, the new house Pepper built, which was granted him, and annually thereafter until the present time at the same house.

In 1877, David Wells obtained license for that year at the old Tinicum Hotel, and in 1878 he was succeeded by C. H. Newhall, and he in turn, in 1879, by Daniel Birmingham. William H. Reed kept the old tavern in 1880-81, to give place to James E. Ford in 1882. Ford kept the house one year, and in 1883, Peter Goff, the present landlord of the old Tinicum Tavern, succeeded to the business.

CHAPTER XXIX.

ASTON TOWNSHIP.

DR. SMITH states that " this township probably de- rived its name from Aston, a village of Berkshire, England. . .. In 1686, Edward Carter, then a resi- dent in what is now Aston, was appointed constable for Northley."1 The opinions of all our local histo- rians agree in that the name of Northley was applied to Aston previous to 1687 to designate that locality from other municipal districts in the county. Edward Carter doubtless gave the name to the township, as was customary in those early days, in remembrance of his old home beyond the sea, for he came from Aston, in the parish of Bampton, Oxfordshire, Eng- land, emigrating to the province in 1682.2 He first located in Chichester, but subsequently removed to his tract of two hundred and fifty acres in Aston, and was appointed the first constable of that town- ship, which assumed its present name the follow- ing year (1688), when John Neal (Nields) was ap- pointed to the like office for the township of Aston, which is the first mention of that name in our record, and is properly accepted as the date at which the mu- nicipal district was established. Carter was a promi- nent man in the early days of the province, having served as member of the Assembly in 1688, as trustee of Chester Meeting the year previous, and Chichester and Concord Monthly Meeting was regularly held at his house until 1703, about which time he is believed to have died.8 Carter was not the first settler in As- ton, for on Oct. 8, 1682, Charles Ashcom, the sur- veyor, returned five hundred acres of land laid out for John Dutton, on the west of Upland Creek, be- ginning at "Nathaniel Evans' corner tree," and so

"unto the woods;" and tradition says that John Dutton settled on the land and built a house in the meadow, near the creek, but, being disturbed by floods, he removed a few rods farther back, and erected his dwelling on a large rock near a small rivulet. A portion of this rock may still be seen near the road from Rockdale to Village Green, the remainder having been removed for building purposes some years ago."+ It is also stated that the family of John Dutton followed an Indian path when they moved from Chester to the back settlement.5

Even before Dutton William Woodmansey took up a hundred acres at the southeastern end of the town- ship, on Chester Creek-the present Bridgewater-in 1680, naming his home in the forest "Harold," and there the society of Friends frequently held their meetings. He was one of Governor Markham's Council, having been several years in the colony be- fore the charter to Penn, coming a passenger in the ship "Kent" in 1677. Joseph Richards, who never lived in the township, in August, 1682, had surveyed to him three hundred acres in the southern part of the township, including the site of Village Green. After his death it was divided among his children, and on a portion of this tract of land, after it passed into the possession of the Barnard family, Gen. Isaac D. Barnard, the only Delaware countian who has been United States senator from Pennsylvania, was born in 1791. An intervening strip of land, between Richard's tract and Chichester and Chester town- ships' lines, containing one hundred and twenty-five acres, was surveyed to Anthony Weaver in Feb- ruary, 1681, and to this estate he gave the name Northley, by which Aston was first known. Dr. Smith relates that Anthony, being convinced that he wanted a wife, and as the women were generally Quakeresses, he whispered his convictions to Ann Richards, of Chichester, which resulted in the couple coming to meeting where the matter was discussed, and, although Anthony honestly " owned himself to be none of us," the marriage was permitted to pro- ceed.6 As usual in such cases, the wife's religious pre- dilections soon became those of her husband.

Among the early settlers of Aston was Thomas Mercer, who took up a hundred acres of land on Ches- ter Creek, near Dutton's mills, and Nathaniel Evans, in October, 1682, had surveyed to him a tract of three hundred acres, oddly shaped so as to have the largest part extend along the creek from Elwood Tyson's land to within a short distance of the Presbyterian Ford, and yet stretching west across the entire town- ship. Above the Dutton tract, John Neild, in 1682, had surveyed to him two hundred and fifty acres, which included the site of the present village of Rockdale, and following the creek to West Branch continued along the latter stream until at Llewellyn

1 History of Delaware County, p. 400.

" Thomae Maxwell Potts' "History of Carter Family," p. 9.

3 Ib., p. 11.

4 Cope's "Genealogy of the Dutton Family," p. 32. 5 Ib., p. 37. 6 History of Delaware County, p. 510.

291

ASTON TOWNSHIP.

it intersected with an easterly line drawn at right angles, thence to Chester Creek. The Crozer estate is almost entirely included in this patent. In 1695, John Neild was married to the widow of John Dut- ton, the settler, and the latter, having married a man not in membership with Friends, found that her action occasioned considerable concern to the good people of that sect.

The upper end of the present township of Aston, a tract of one thousand acres, was surveyed to Thomas Brassey in 1684, which subsequently was divided pre- vious to 1710 into smaller farms. A tract of one hundred and nineteen acres bordering on Concord township was surveyed to Thomas Martin, and at this day part of that land is still in the ownership of his descendant,-Thomas Martin. John Pennell also ac- quired over two hundred acres of the Brassey land, but the farm above the State road, where Mark Pen- nell now lives, was not a part of the original farm purchased by John Pennell in 1700. Among the original owners of land in Aston, above where the West Branch crosses the township, among the earliest purchasers was Gilbert Woolman, two hundred and fifty acres which property extended northwest from Llewellyn, including J. B. Rhodes, C. W. Mathues, Thomas Swaine, and the Lewis estate to the east of Logtown road ; while William McCracken's and Caleb Heyburn's farms are located on the two hundred and fifty acres, which were surveyed to Mary Moore, May 10, 1684. J. W. Thatcher's estate on Chester Creek above Pennellton Station is part of the twenty-one acres surveyed to Caleb Pusey in 1707-8.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 73

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150