History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 79

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

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ter County. He died in 1751, aged eighty-four years. The offspring of this couple-from whom all the Brintons derive descent-was numerous. Edward Brinton, their third son, died in 1799, aged ninety- four years. From the birth of his grandfather, Wil- liam Brinton, Sr., the immigrant, in 1630, to the date of his own death, is an interval of one hundred and

sixty-nine years,-a remarkable period of time to be covered by three generations in one family.

William Brinton's, Sr., daughter, Ann, about or shortly after her father left England for the province, had intermarried with John Bennett, a blacksmith, who, with his wife, immigrated the next year and set- tled on lands of his father-in-law. In 1686, John Bennett was appointed constable for Birmingham, which is the first official record of that municipal dis- trict in our county's annals.

The next settler in Birmingham, after Brinton and his son-in-law, Bennett, were Peter and Sarah Dix, which name in the lapse of years was changed to Dicks. The land patented to him was the first tract taken up extending to Brandywine Creek, and thereon he built his cabin in the thick forest, with no neigh- bor nearer than about two miles away. This tract was not located within the limits of the present county of Delaware, but the dividing line runs along the southern and part of the eastern boundary of his estate. His son, Peter Dicks, however, played a prom- inent part in our colonial history in his efforts to foster manufacturing, and will be referred to else- where.

Joseph Gilpin and Hannah, his wife, are believed to have settled in Birmingham in 1695, certainly not later than that date. They were people of position in England, being descended from Richard de Guyl- pin, to whom in 1206 the baron of Kendal gave the manor of Kentmere, as a reward for having slain a ferocious wild boar that infested the forest of West- moreland and Cumberland. Under the will of Wil- liam Lamboll, of the city of Reading, England, Joseph Gilpin received a part of the large tract of land which had been surveyed and located in Birmingham in 1683, to Lamboll. Gilpin, as did all the Quaker settlers of the day, knew the power of religious oppression, and gladly came to the province to take possession of his inheritance. When he settled on the estate he dug a cave at the side of a large rock, on the present farm of Albin Harvey, wherein he resided for a number of years, and where thirteen of his family of fifteen chil- dren were born.1 It was on this property that two val- uable varieties of apple originated,-the Gilpin, also called carthouse and winter red-streak, and the house- apple, also called gray house-apple. They were two of several hundred of new varieties produced from seeds brought from England by the first settlers. Only these two were worthy of perpetuation by graft- ing.

The farm in Birmingham, where the first Gilpin settled, remained in the ownership of their descend- ants until recent years. Joseph Gilpin, some years after he made his settlement, built a frame house, and removed from his cave to that dwelling. In 1745, ad- joining the frame, a brick house was erected. On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 11, 1777, the house then

1 Johnson's "History of Cecil County, Md.," p. 511.

313

BIRMINGHAM TOWNSHIP.

owned by George Gilpin was occupied by Gen. Howe as his headquarters, and there the commander-in- chief remained until the following Tuesday, when the British army moved to the Boot Tavern, in Goshen township. The farm, with the old dwelling standing thereon, is now owned by Elias Baker, and the latter every now and then in plowing turns up British pieces of coin, dropped by the invaders of a century ago

Francis Chadsey, or Chads, as the name afterwards came to be written,-now frequently and improperly spelled Chadd,-emigrated from Wiltshire, England, early in 1689, with his wife, and resided at or near Chichester until about 1696, when his name appears on the list of taxables for Birmingham. It is pre- sumed that he located on the five hundred acres sur- veyed to Henry Bernard, or Barnet, early in March, 1684, and conveyed to Daniel Smith, March 28, 29, 1686, which tract included all the present village of Chad's Ford. Francis Chads did not, however, ac- quire title to the estate until Nov. 24, 1702, and on May 4th of the following year he purchased one hun- dred and eleven acres adjoining his estate to the southeast, from Edmund Butcher. Chads served as a member of the Assembly from Chester County for the years 1706 and 1707, and about that time, it is believed by Gilbert Cope, he erected his corn-mill, the first in Pennsylvania, on the Brandywine, for dying in 1713 he devised to one of his sons " a half share in my corn- mill." This mill, which is supposed to have been a log building, was permitted to go to decay, until in time its very site was forgotten ; indeed, that it had ever existed passed out of the memory of man, until in 1860, in making the excavations for the foundations of the brick mill erected by Caleb Brinton, a short distance west of the station of the Baltimore Central Railroad, at Chad's Ford, a log with an old wrought- iron spike was found, with other evidences establish- ing the location of Chads' mill. That this was the first mill on the Brandywine, as is frequently asserted, cannot be successfully maintained, for as early as May 17, 1689, a petition of "ye Inhabitants of Brandy- wine River or Creek against ye dam made upon ye creek, wch hinders ye fish passing up to ye great dam- age of ye inhabitants,"1 shows conclusively that a mill of some kind had then been erected. We know that twenty years before Chads' mill was built, on April 2, 1667, "Cornelius Empson's petition Concern- ing a Bridg Road and Water mill on Brandy wine Creek was Read."? This mill, however, was in Delaware.

John Chads, who received the larger part of his father's estate, after his marriage to Elizabeth Rich- ardson, in 1729, is believed to have built the old stone house close to the spring, still standing, the most northern one in the village of Chad's Ford, which was opposite the then ford of the Brandywine. In 1829, when the bridge was erected, the petition for its con-

1 Coloniel Records, vol. i. p. 292.

: Ib., p. 199.

struction being presented to court July 17, 1828, the road crossing the stream was carried to the south, its present course.

The tradition in the neighborhood is that the log cabin of Francis Chads had stood near by where the present stone building now stands. As the tide of emigration moved westward public travel necessarily increased, and as the Brandywine in rainy weather and in spring-time was so swollen that it was almost impossible to cross it, John Chads was solicited to es- tablish a ferry at that place, and to aid him in that public work the county loaned him thirty pounds to meet the expense he was put to in building a " flatt or schowe." He seems to have been ready to enter into the duties required in 1737, for on August 30th of that year the following records appear in the pro- ceedings of the Court of Quarter Sessions :

"John Chads having petitioned the court setting forth that by the concurrence of the Justices and by order of the Commissioners and Assessors, a ferry being erected over Brandywine creek on the road leading fron Philadelphia to Nottingham, and no rates for the same ee- tablished, prays thet such rates he set for the same, as to the court may seem reasonable: Whereupon the court taking the same into considera- tion, have adjudged the rates hereafter mentioned may be demanded and taken by the said John Chads, or his assigns or successors in the said ferry :

Every horse and rider, four pence.

Every single pereou on foot, three pence; if more, two pence each.

Every ox, cow, or heifer, four pence each.

" For

Every sheep, one pence.

Every hog, three half-pence.

Every coach, wagon, or cart, one shilling and six pence.

Every empty wagon or cart, nine pence.

( Every steed, four pence.

" To the aforesaid rates the justices have subscribed their names:

" RICHARD HAYES,

"JOHN CROSBY,

" HENRY HAYES,

"SAMUEL HOLLINGSWORTH,

" JOHN PARRY,

" ABRAHAM EMMITT,

" CALEB COWPLAND,

" ELISHA GATCHELL,

" JOSEPH BRINTON."

The story of the ford is so intimately connected with the tavern at that point that all further reference to it will be found in the narrative of the license houses of Birmingham, excepting the fact that in 1760, the year of John Chads' death, it appears that the old flat was worn out, and for "rebuilding the Flatt" he charged the county £44 38. 6d., one of the items in the bill rendered being " To five weeks diet to boat- builder at six shillings per week £1 10s." The post planted on the west side of the Brandywine to fasten the ferry rope to, was still standing in 1827, but the rope, windlass, and hoat had disappeared. About the date given Hetty Brown, a colored woman, who kept a small store at the ford, where she sold cakes and beer, for a small sum would ferry passengers across the creek in a boat, which she shoved with a pole. John Chads' widow was living at the ford on the day of the battle of Brandywine, in the stone house already men- tioned. Dr. Darlington related that Amos House, a

314

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

nephew of Elizabeth Chads, who was then a widower, had come to reside with his aunt, and superintend the farm. On the morning of the battle, Washington and a few officers rode to the field just above Chads' house, and were busy with their field-glasses, when Amos House and several others, ont of sheer curiosity, approached the group of officers. The British artil- lery from the opposite bank fired several cannon-balls into the field near by, whereupon Gen. Washington remarked to the unbidden company, "Gentlemen, you perceive that we are attracting the notice of the enemy ; I think you had better retire." A hint which was promptly taken.1 Amos House, a descendant of this Amos House, still a resident of Chad's Ford, at the American Centennial, in 1876, had the control of the dairy established by the Dairymen's Association on those grounds, which will be recalled by all who visited the Exhibition.

In 1707, Samuel Painter, a son of Painter or Pari- our (for the name is sometimes spelled in that way), became a resident of Birmingham, having purchased something over five hundred acres of contiguous land from several parties in the neighborhood of the present Painter's Cross-roads. He was a tailor by trade, and appears to have thriven in his occupation, for at the time of his death he was the owner of more than a thousand acres in Birmingham, lying nearly equally divided between the present Delaware and Chester Counties. This large estate was not contig- nous, that in Chester County being widely separated from his possessions in Delaware County.

In 1688, as heretofore mentioned, it was reported that the Indians on a certain day had determined to massacre the whites, and, as rumor asserted that five hundred warriors of the savages had assembled at an Indian town on the Brandywine, "and that they hav- ing a lame King, had carried him away with all their women and children," this alarming intelligence was hastily borne to Philadelphia, reaching there while the Provincial Council was in session. A member of that body, a Friend, voluntarily proposed to go to the place with five other persons, unarmed, and the offer being accepted, they rode to the Indian town on the Brandywine, where, instead of meeting savages in war-paint, they found the old chief "quietly lying with his lame foot along on the ground, and his head at ease on a kind of pillow, the women at work in the field, and the children playing together."2 The delegation was assured that the rumor was false, and the woman who had raised the report ought to he burned to death. The site of the Indian town was in the neck of land above the present Smith's bridge, on which afterwards the iron-works of Twaddle were erected, known in more recent times as the old paper- mill.

On June 24, 1729, the Indian chief Checochinican

addressed a letter to the Governor and Council, al- leging that when they sold their interest in the lands watered by the Brandywine to Penn, he had granted them "a wrighting for the creek of Brandywine up to the Head thereof, which said wrighting, hy some Accident, was Lost with all land a mile wide of ye Creek on each side, which afterwards we Disposed of so far up as to a Certain known rock in ye said creek."3 As this disputed title does not touch any portion of the land in Delaware County, but relates to that located in Newlin township, in the present county of Chester, extended consideration of the topic does not come within the scope of this work. The Indians, however, so long as any of them remained, insisted that a strip of land a mile wide on both sides of the stream had been reserved to them in their sale to Penn. Andrew and Hannah, the last Indians in the neighborhood of Birmingham, who lived in a hut or wigwam on the high ground on the east side of the creek, above where the Baltimore Central Railroad bridge crosses the stream, always made claim to this land. I am informed by Amos C. Brinton, of Wil- mington, a native of Birmingham, and a gentleman well informed as to the olden times of that locality, that the old Indians did not attempt to till the ground, but went from house to house demanding their meals, and if it chanced that the meal was over, they would scold violently because it had not heen delayed for them. Hannah made baskets and gathered herbs to the last. She died abont 1800, having survived her husband several years. Andrew was buried on the original tract patented to William Brinton, Sr., his grave being located on Dix Run, about half a mile south of Dilworthtown. Indian Hannah, the last of her tribe, died in the Chester County almshouse. She expressed a wish to be buried in a certain Indian burying-ground which she designated, but was buried with other paupers on the almshouse grounds.

It has been published that the British forces at Chad's Ford, on Sept. 11, 1777, crossed below the ford. This, however, is incorrect. The enemy waded across the stream above the ford. The road taken by the American Reserves to Birmingham meeting-house was up the ravine from William Harvey's house, past the barn, over the hill to and across Dix's Run, up the next hill to and across the road from Dilworth- town to the Brandywine, at a point between the James Brinton and Darlington residences; thence nearly northeast across the Bennett land to the Sandy Hollow road which led to Birmingham meeting-house, the scene of that part of the battle of Brandywine. One wing of Greene's command was shown the way by George Hannum, who piloted them across the Gilpin lands from the Philadelphia and Chad's Ford road to the south of Dilworthtown.

The old Benjamin Ring Tavern, where Washington had his headquarters, was on the north side of the

] Futhey and Cope's " History of Chester County," p. 80.

2 Proud's " History of Pennsylvania," vol. i. p. 337.

3 Penna. Archives, vol. i., Ist series, p. 239.

315

BIRMINGHAM TOWNSHIP.

great road which leads to the ford, about a mile east of the Brandywine. It was of stone, two stories in height, with a hipped roof, and became the property of Eli Harvey in 1807, after the death of Benjamin Ring. Eli Harvey was the great-grandson of William Harvey, the immigrant, who, at the age of thirty-four, in 1712, came to Pennsylvania, and settled on a tract of three hundred acres in "the woods of Kennett," on the west side of the Brandywine and above the ford. William, the immigrant, was succeeded on the home farm by his son, William, he by his son, Amos, he by his sons, Marshall and Eli, Jr. Eli Harvey, of Chad's Ford, was the father of Hannah (who married Robert Peirce), Joseph P., Amos, Chalkley, Edith (who married Isaac Watkin), Evelina (married Thomas Brinton Darlington), Ellwood, Lewis P., Philena (married Mordecai Lewis), and Mary (who married Watson P. Magill).

William Harvey, the grandson of the immigrant, resided ou the east bank of the Brandywine, this land extending from below the Delaware line above and beyond Chad's Ford. Below the Delaware line the crossing of the stream is still known as Harvey's Ford, and the day of the battle his house at Chad's Ford was in the line of the American cannon, and was damaged by a shot from Proctor's gun. The ball, which buried itself in the ground after passing through William Harvey's house, is still in the possession of his relatives, as is also an oak chair which was brought to the colony by the immigrant.

William Harvey, another grandson of the immi- grant, lived on the ground occupied in part by the American army at the Chad's Ford battle, and being a Friend, commonly called a Quaker, and a non-com- batant, took no part on either side, but remained about his work as if nothing unusual was going on. When the British passed by his house in pursuit of the retreating Americans, they made him a prisoner, and marched him near the front of the army. As they went up the hill east of his house, on the brow of which was a fence covered with bushes, he saw the Americans pointing their guns towards him and the British through the bushes, and was almost stunned by the fearful flash and roar of their simultaneous discharge. He was astonished to find himself alive, and still more on observing that not a man was killed or wounded. The Americans had fired over their heads. The British, or, more correctly, their Hessian allies, then rushed up to the fence and fired at the re- treating Americans with deadly effect. When the British reached Dilworthtown, William Harvey, with a few other prisoners, were confined in the cellar under the tavern, from which they made their es- cape by wrenching out the window-frame. On his way home through a woods, he saw a pair of laced boots protruding from a hollow log, and upon closer investigation discovered his colored girl hidden there. He remained a Quaker, but on account of the active interest he manifested in the cause of the revolting

colonies, after the battle of Brandywine, he was called by the title of major to the end of his life.

The inhabitants of Birmingham suffered greatly from the British foraging parties. The following is a list of damages sustained :

£ s. d.

From William Dilworth by the British army, under Sir William Howe (and damages), while encamped at Dil- worthtown after the battle of Brandywine, September 11tb to 16th.

48 2 0

From Charles Dilworth "property taken, damages, waste, spoil, and destruction done and committed by the army of the King of Great Britain and their adherents under the immediate command of Sir William Howe,"1 Sep- tember 11th to 16th

820 15

From Joseph Dilworth, ditto ..

522

From Charles Porter, "a very poor man," ditto ...

From William Chapman, ditto ...

3 3

From John Martin, September 12th to 16th ... 242 4 6

From William Harvey, Jr., "taken and destroyed the 11th day of September (and thereabont) by the army of his Britanic Majesty, commanded by Sir William Howe,

K. B., Supporter of Tyranny, Falsifier of his word, and plunderer of private property". 562 16

From John Bennett, September 11th to 16th.

401

6 4

From George Brinton, ditto ...

544 11

From Rachel Hannings, ditto.

From Caleb Brinton,ª ditto.

592 18

From Israel Gilpin, ditto.

607

From Thomas Hannum, September 11th

42 2

From John Henderson, Septeniber 11th to 16th

536

6 11

From John Chamberlain, Septeniber 13th to 16th

From Gideon Gilpin, September 11th ....

502

From Jesse Graves, September 11th to 16th

212 14

From Thomas Davis, ditto.

From Jamee Dilworth, ditto.

From Charles McCrea, September 11th to 17th.

41 13

5844 6 71

The lands of Lewis P. Harvey, "the National Kaolin Company," was formerly part of the manor of Rockland .- the manor located in the county of New Castle, but crossing the Brandywine into Birming- ham,-and part of the land of the kaolin-works was included in the warrant for two hundred and fifty acres given to Robert Chalfant in 1701, he having settled there two years before that date. From him it is believed the Chalfant family have descended.

Churches-Presbyterian .- In the bend of the road leading down to Corner Ford, on the property of William H. Seal, the Lower Brandywine Pres- byterian Church formerly stood, and some of the old gravestones in the little burial-ground can still be seen there. The Presbyterians early in the last century had churches in this vicinity,-in log build- ings,-one located at Marlborough, known as the Upper Brandywine, and the one on the Seal farm, called the Lower Brandywine Church. It was es- tablished here in 1720, and for a long period of years services would occasionally be held in this unpretentious structure, but finally, after the Rev- olution, it was abandoned, the congregation assem- bling for worship at the "old log meeting" at Cen- treville, Del. Rev. Mr. Reed was the pastor in charge of this little wayside sanctuary during the war of independence, and tradition states that it was this clergyman who, in the darkness of the morning of Sept. 9, 1777, guided Washington when the Amer- ican army moved from Stanton, Del., to Chad's Ford,

1 Among the items charged is "the time of a Servant Lad, Patrick Kelly, about 14 months to stay, went off with the army, £10."

2 Including " two books,-' Barclay's Apology,' and 'Young Man'e Best Companion.'"

316

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

crossing the Brandywine at Harvey's Ford, below Smith's bridge. For nearly a century the Presbyte- rians of Birmingham were without a church building, but on Monday, June 3, 1878, a church of that de- nomination was dedicated at Dilworthtown. The building is of serpentine stone, and is lighted with stained glass memorial windows. The church was the direct outgrowth of the labor of Miss Cassy Brin- ton, a daughter of Hill Brinton, of Thornbury, who, about 1860, started a Sunday-school at Dilworthtown. For years that hamlet had been termed "the Devil's Half-Acre," and many of the old people declared that it was known the country round as furnish- ing more drunken men, more fights and disturb- ances, than any locality of the like size in twenty miles. That unpleasant reputation has long since passed away from Dilworthtown, and now better manners, if not better whiskey, will be found in the village.

Baptist .- The Baptist Church in Birmingham, the third of that denomination in Pennsylvania, was in- stituted May 14, 1715, the membership comprising fifteen persons, but nearly a quarter of a century pre- vious to that date religious services by Baptists are said to have been held on the same ground where the church was afterwards erected. At first the meetings for worship were held at private houses, but in a few years the congregation determined to build a church, which was done in 1718, a log structure being erected on a lot of land which had belonged to Edward Butcher, doubtless given by him for that purpose. The first permanent pastor was William Butcher, a native of Birmingham, in 1719. He was twenty years of age when intrusted with the charge of the church. In 1721 he received a call to New Jersey, and died in that province in his twenty-sixth year. The strug- gling congregation continued to worship in the primi- tive building until 1770, when it was demolished, and a stone structure erected on its site. For forty years it had been without a regular pastor, until 1761, when Rev. Abel Griffith was installed. Here he remained until 1767, when he resigned, but in 1775 he returned to the charge of the church, continuing there until 1790. In 1791, Rev. Joshua Vaughan was installed. He was by birth a Chester countian, by trade a black- smith, and during the Revolution, when David Mackey was sheriff, he was the jailer at the prison in Chester. While in that employment he was baptized by the Rev. Philip Hughes, a Baptist clergyman, who fre- quently preached at the county-seat. It is related that, when the minister and he were walking to the stream to be baptized, some one in jest asked who they were. "We are Philip and his jailer," retorted Vaughan. He continued in the pastorate until the summer of 1808, when he died. His remains lie in the burial-ground alongside the church.

The fourth pastor was Rev. Charles Moore. He was an Episcopalian, residing in Concord, and as the church of that denomination in that township was

without a rector he frequently conducted the services there as a lay preacher. In 1802 he became a Bap- tist, being immersed in the Brandywine at Chad's Ford. In 1812 he was licensed to preach, and in the fall of the year 1813 he was ordained pastor of the church, and continued in charge of the congregation until 1848. It is remembered that Rev. Mr. Moore, as he grew older and saw the wonderful growth of the United States (he died in 1847), he would fre- quently relate how, as a child of six years, he was taken to the State-House yard, Philadelphia, when the old liberty bell with its brazen tougue proclaimed the birth of the new nation.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 79

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