USA > Pennsylvania > Welsh settlement of Pennsylvania > Part 30
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significant they had no mention in the Slate Garetleer of 1832, though Humphreyville, on the pike, now Bryn Mawr, was recorded as a village, but in 1875, it had only twenty- one houses.
In Provincial times, and almost to recent years, the "free- men" of the Welsh Traet were put to great inconvenience when balloting for Philadelphia county officials. Before the Revolution, there were successive election days, as in England, when all of the voters of the Welsh Tract were obliged to go to the inn opposite the State House, in Ches- nut street, Philadelphia, to cast their votes. When the British occupied the city, the men beyond the Schuylkill were obliged to go to Germantown, and east their ballots at the tavern of Jacob Coleman, and continued doing this at each election till by Act of Assembly, 17 Sep. 1785, when the Merion voters, and others west of the Schuylkill, who did not reside in Philadelphia county, went to the court house of the newly created county, Montgomery, at Norristown, to vote, as Merion was from that time a part of this new county. By Act of 31st March, 1806, Merion tp. became a separate voting district, when its elections were held at the tavern of Titus Yerkes, the General Wayne Inn, till in 1867.
Although Lower Merion was known as a "farm country" till it became a "suburb," from its earliest settlement its main stream, now called Mill Creek, but in early days, Upper Mill Creek to distinguish it from another Mill Creek to the South, whose name was changed to Cobb's Creek," furnished the
*This "Lower Mill Creek" was called Karakung, and Kakara Kong by Indians, and Carcoen Crock by the early Swedes. The Swed- ish Governor, Printz, had his gristmill built at the ford, or at the old Blue Bell tavern, in Paschallville. When the territory became Penn's he took over this mill, and established William Cobb as the miller, and the concern became one of the properties of Penn's monopoly Milling Company. It was patronized by the Welsh Friends at great inconvenience till the downfall of Penn's monopoly, as related herein. From this it may be seen that this Mill Creek got its present name from Penn's miller, William Cobb.
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power for many manufacturing industries. After Penn's milling monopoly was broken, there was a grist mill erected on Upper Mill Creek by the Welsh, which was well patron- ized by settlers in Dr. Jones's, and the other plantations.
After the Revolution, and during it, it is believed, there was an important gunpowder mill on this creek, carried on by Messrs. Young & Homes. It seems to have been a rather unfortunate concern, for according to entries of burials at the Merion Mecting House, there were numerous accidental explosions in it, when workmen were killed. As the Burial Records state :- Smo. 2. 17SS, "Richard Gill [entered again as Still]. Powder mill blode up"; Nov. 1801, "Two men, blue up at Young and Homes powder Mill on Mill Crick, [buried] in Strangers Yard"; Jan. 1805, "Two men, burnt in Young & Homes powder house on Mill Crick, [buried] in Strangers Yard;" 5mo. 10. 1806, "miller, killed [by] the Blowing up of Young & Homes Powder Mill." Written under this entry; "and they gave out makeing," which it may be supposed was a note by the clerk of the meeting, that because of so many accidents, Young & Homes discon- tinued powder making.
In 1785, there were four saw mills and five grist mills, along Mill Creek, and in 1800, there were seven paper mills, and two others in the township elsewhere, but at this time there were only three saw mills and three grist mills on the creek. The water power of Mill Creek was used by a dozen small concerns each employing from six to twelve men, up to a few years before the Civil War. Beginning at the mouth of the creek, there were Joseph Stillwagon's paper mill, William Chadwick's lampwick factory, and his grist mill and seven dwellings, Daniel Nippes's "manufactury," William Todd's carpet-fillings facto y, Hannah Hagy's woolen yarn factory, Charles Greaves's Kentucky jeans factory, Evan Jones's carpet-yarns factory, Samuel L. Robe- son's saw mill, Samuel Croft's brass mill, a concern of three factories, and a half dozen dwellings, Francis Sheetz's paper mill, Charles Humphreys's woolen mill, and factory for agri-
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cultural implements, and Levy Morris's grist and saw mill. A notice of Roberts's Pencoyd Iron Works, at the Falls, just before the Civil War, says the concern employs sometimes as many as thirty-six men! Also in the Thomas and Jones tract, at this time, Isaac Wetherill had a cotton factory, and Grimrod a grist mill on Frog Hollow Run, and on a little tributary to Mill Creek, James Dixon had a diaper factory. The Merion Furnace, at Matson's Ford, Schuylkill, was also a wonder in the middle of the last century, for "it employs as many as thirty men sometimes." The other streams of Merion, Trout Run, Indian Creek, Rocky Hill Creek, Gully Run and Arrowmuck Creek, have ever been small affairs, but Cobb's Creek in Haverford tp., and Darby Creek, its western boundary, in times past ranked with Mill Creek as water powers.
No sooner were the first Welsh settlers scated than they began to plan convenient roads in their proposed "barony," or borough, connecting their meeting houses, and them- selves with Philadelphia. But, at first, naturally, the stream bordering one side of their tract, which the Indians called Ma diunk or Manayunk, and the Swedes, Skair Kill, the Dutch, Skulk Kill, and the English, Schuylkill, was the only thoroughfare from the tract to the great town on the Dela- ware. This stream, before the erection of the dam at Fair- mount, was sometimes navigable for flat-bottom boats up to the falls, or the southeast corner of the Welsh Tract, and possibly the earliest settlers in the Thomas & Jones lands at the falls removed their effects up the stream from the Dela- ware to the Falls of Schuylkill, in preference to using the narrow Indian trails over the hills. But the necessity of convenient intercommunication must have been felt soon, for a year after the first arrivals the Welsh had fairly good communications between their little settlements, and with Philadelphia, though these ways were at best only bridle- paths through the woods, and no wider than single wagon
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tracks,* the principal ones were called "streets" by courtesy or custom, and not known as public roads till after the rights of ways were surveyed, laid out, and confirmed, which was after the Provincial township organizations had been estab- lished, and each township had its highway supervisor, and when directions of public roads were determined by road- juries. Besides these "streets," the great highways, there were many lanes and by-ways in different directions through the tract, over private property, used as short cuts, con- necting the "streets" which had their beginnings when needed, only a few of which came to be confirmed roads in after years. In all cases, the dates of confirmation are only suggestions as to the ages of public roads or the dates were only those of the time of their matureness.
A fairly complete sketch of the old wagon roads of the Welsh Tract would be the annals of its townships, and for this reason I will notice only the main "streets"; those decided upon by the Welsh, in 1683, and these were Merion Street, through Merion township, connecting with the road leading through Blockley to the "middle ferry" of Schuyl- kill (at High, or Market Street), known subsequently by several names, and best as "the old Lancaster Road"; "Hav- erford Street" through Haverford township, and also to the middle ferry; "Radnor Street," through Radnor township, and via Haverford road to the middle ferry, and the high- way between the Welsh Friends' meeting houses of Merion, Haverford, and Radnor "towns." Early, there were the
*Possibly this order "By the Co'rt of Upland," (Chester), 12 Nov. 1678, concerning the public highways, was continued in force, and, though the method was crude, communication was opened through the country. It ordered that every person, "as far as his Land Reaches, make good and passable ways, from neighbour to neighbour, w'th bridges where itt needs, To the End, that neighbours on occasion may come together." Another order instructed "the highways to be clensed as forthwith, viz .: The waye bee made clear of standing and lying trees, at least ten feet broad, all stumps and shrubbs to be close cutt by ye ground. The trees mark'd yearly on both sides."
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"cross streets" connecting Merion mee'ing house with Hav- erford meeting house, and another connecting both with "the ford in Schuylkill," above the falls.
The "streets" of Merion and Haverford apparent . had official recognition by Penn's government, and may have been surveyed routes, in 1683, as in land deeds of that date, and later, they are called "settled roads," without names. The "Haford," "Harfod," Haverford Street, or road, through the townships of Haverford and Blockley to the Schuylkill, surveyed in 1683, apparently, laid out in 1703, and confirmed as a public highway in 1701, has changed but little from its original course and grade. It does not have the same sentiment and "history" connected with it, that its twin, the "J. erion Street," or old Lancaster Road has. Nor has the Merion to Radnor road, a "cross street" as early as 1683-4, and laid out and confirmed in 1713. Nor what is known as the Radnor to Chester road, dating from 1687. Nor that other landmark road from Merion to the Darby road, through Haddington, or the "Haverford and Darby mond," passing Narberth and Overbrook, an official highway early as 1687.
Other "historically inconspicuous" Welsh Tract roads: 19 Dec., 1693, "the Inhabitants of Radnor petitioned for a Road to be laid out from upper part of sd township to the Mer- ion Ford." The request was granted. (On same date, there was "request of confirmation of the Road that is from Mer- ion Ford to Philadelphia," and that "it come into the third strect in the sd town. Ordered.") In 1696, it was ordered that a road be opened "from David Meredith's to Haver- ford meeting House" (this passed White Hall inn, and Hav- erford College on the west), and in 1697, a road "from Humphrey Haines's in Marple tp. to Haverford Meeting House," was opened.
But the fact that a "side road" was officially "opened" did not always keep it open to general use. If it was one opened in the Welsh Tract through English influence, or for the particular convenience of "English invadors," a Welsh-
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man, with an abutting farm, would not hesitate to plow and plant the ground taken from him, and visa versa. Mer- ion seemed to be free from such troubles, but Haverford, and particularly Radnor, with its mixed, as to creed and nationality, population, had some difficulty in having "the right of way kept open," and had to appeal to the Provincial Coun: ! for assistance. As an instance of this, on 6mo. 18. 1637 (Council Minutes), "upon ye Reading ye Petition of ye Inhabitants of Radnor complayning yt part of ye road yt lades to the ferry of Philadelphia is ffenced in, & more likely to be" [continued so]. This was where an abuttor ran his fence across the opened road and took the road bed back into his farm. In Council, it seemed to be a question whether the trespass should be overlooked, and a new course selected for the road, or otherwise, as "it was Ordered yt John Bevan, Henry Lewis, David Meredith, John Evans, Barnabas Wilcox, and Thomas Ducket meet within 4 daies to view, or agree upon as Conscientiously as may be, a Road from ye Place aforesd to ye ferry, and return ye same to the Board ye next sittinge."
Some of the Welsh Tract public roads now designated as old, are not so in fact compared to those mentioned above. We hear of the "old Mill Creek Road." It was, as a public road, quite modern, since the petition for it to be opened "from John Roberts's mill to Rees Edwards' Ford," bears date of 1766. (This was "John Roberts, of Wayne Mill," as often found in print, but who was really of the "Vane Mill," so known from its wind director, and not a property of the well known Wayne family, any more than the "Wynn Mill, in another part of the tract, was the property once of Dr. Wynne, or his family, because once it was only a wind mill.) The same of the "old Gulph Road," the "old Ford Road," and the "old Levering Road," &c. This Lev- ering Road, from Anthony Levering's mill, on the Schuyl- kill, connecting with the Lancaster Road (Montgomery Ave.), by another road through Academyville, and past the Belmont Driving Park (where Hugh Roberts lived), and the
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Merion Meeting House, is referred to elsewhere as the "Ravine Road" to Rock Hollow. It was not made a public road till about 1785, on the petition of the miller Levering. This connecting road is now a handsome driveway, known as Meeting House Lane, but was in its earliest days known in deeds as simply "the road to the ford." For this reason it is often confounded with "the old Ford Road." This lat- ter highway was quite another ancient institution of Mer- ion and Blockley, but its identity is almost obliterated for one end of it has been swallowed by an avenue of West Fairmount Park, and the other end by what is known as the State Road, in Merion. Yet its route can be described as from an olden time Schuylkill ford, about where Laurel Hill Cemetery landing is located (of course, before Fair- mount dam was built), through Fairmount Park to the City Line road, or City Ave., then crossing the Schuylkill Valley Railroad, near Bala station, thence through Merion- ville, or what was known as Bowman's Bridge, till it is lost in the State Ro d. It has been supposed that the continua- tion of the "Ford Road," or its counterpart on the east side of the river, was an Indian trail from the Delaware river to the Schuylkill, passing between the two Laurel Hills to the landing.
The greatest and most prominent thoroughfare through Merion, passing the Friends' meeting house, our beautiful Montgomery Ave., is such a road, for it is tradition that once it was only an Indian path, from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, widened in part by the Welsh. Taken offi- cially, this ror Lis a mere infant compared with some other Welsh Tract highways. But of this road hereafter.
The "old Gulph Road," or the Gulf Road going westward to Gulf Mill and Paoli, from the old Lancaster Road, near the Merion meeting house, through the Merions, seems old because it has the Penn family coat of arms on its mile- stones, and it certainly was a "line of communication" as early as 1690, yet it was not officially a public highway till
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it was surveyed and opened in 1748, when it is presumed, the milestones were placed under the direction of Richard and Thomas Penn, the joint governors of the Province .*
What we now know as the West Chester Pike, is the result of a petition, 16. 9mo. 1703, of Humphrey Ellis, Dani l Lewis, and fifty-eight others, inhabitants of the Welsh Tract, for a public road from Goshen tp. to Philadelphia, past the Haverford meeting house. It was ordered that it be laid out "from William Powell's ferry on Skuylkill & passing by Haverford meeting House to the Principal part of Goshen Township."
All of these country roads were primarily for the con- venience of farmers marketing their produce, as it is likely that few people travelled in vehicles in the Welsh Tract till after the Revolution since no Welshmen's inventories of estates earlier than this period, mention any. At the time of the Revolution, there were only eighty-five vehicles of all kinds in the whole Province, and in 1760, in Philadelphia, there were three coaches, drawn by four or six horses (the Proprietor's, the Governor's, and William Allen's), two landaus, drawn by four horses, eighteen chariots, or two horse carriages, and fifteen one horse chairs, volanties, sulkies, and chaises. In the years just before the end of the
*The annalist Watson mentions in his MS notes (at Pa. His. Soc.) the mile stones he saw in 182-, along the Gulf Road, and the Haver- ford Road, particularly one on the latter, at White Hall Inn, (the water station on the old Columbia Railway), and one on a line of the "Harriton" farm, at 12 Mile Hill, which he records, "was marked 12 in front, with the Penn arms on the rear." (This stone, without figures, is now :. ored in the cellar of the Pa. Historical Society build- ing. "These stones," says Watson, presumably referring to those on the Haverford Road, "were placed by the Mutual Association Fire Company, [Green Tree] of Philadelphia, as the price of its charter." The 11 Mile Stone was also on the "Harriton" farm, as the Gulf Road (and the Mill Creek) traversed it. The 10 Mile Stone was where the road crosses Mill Creek, and at its junction with the road to Merion Square (Gladwyn). The 9 Mile Stone was on the Id Gaskill place, and the 8 Mile Stone on the old Lancaster Road, about 800 feet east of where the Gulf Road joins it.
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eighteenth century, there were a thousand of all kinds of private vehicles in use. William Penn owned a coach and a calash when last here, but could not use either because of the "dreadful roads." Thirty years later, there were only five four-horse coaches, and three two-horse four-wheeled chairs in the Province. It was horseback for all but a very, very few till after the Revolution.
The present fine road passing the Merion Friends' meet- ing house from the city, was in its earliest times described only as "a settled road," in deeds concerning abutting lands, and may then not have had a name, as it had not become the King's Highway, for it was only a courtesy way across private grounds, having never been officially laid out, nor dedicated, excepting by implied consent, to public use by the Welsh Friends, owners of the land, for their own convenience in going to and from the city, by way of the "Middle Ferry," through the woods. Unless this could be considered as Penn's imaginary "Street" through Merion, there is no clear conception of what and where "Merion Street." was. Nor is the western terminus of this road in earliest days certain. Pioneer roads always led to a definite spot. This one, after connecting Merion Meeting people with Middle Ferry, possibly united with what we know as the Gulf road, and continued on to "the mill at Gulph," for in 1740, it only had the reputation of a "settled road" from the Merion meeting house towards the city, when it was known as the "Blockley and Merion Waggon Road," and the "Merion Road to Middle Ferry," and, of course, was only a mud road, for Macadam was not yet born. In after years, when it came to be widened, extended, and improved, and a part of a great highway, and was confirmed as a connecting link between Lancaster, or the frontier, and the city, it was known as the "Road to Lancaster," and was the principal thoroughfare of Merion. Its original route from Ducket's place, or the Friends' Schuylkill meeting place, near the Middle Ferry, out our Market Street and Lancaster Avenue,
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to our 52d Street, does not appear to have been altered. But from 52d Street, and the Pensylvania Railroad, and in Merion, there were some changes made in direction and in grades, when the way over it to Lancaster was confirmed, and this Welsh enterprise came under the immediate pro- tection of Philadelphia county, and after 1781, under that of Montgomery, beyond the new Philadelphia county line. Anciently, as now, the route in Merion, in a general way, of this historic road, over which our soldiers of six wars have marched, and only in one was their way contested, was via Merionville, past Daniel Morgan's place now the site of the great convent and school of the Sisters of Mercy, past the General Wayne tavern, the Merion Friends' meeting house, and westward for miles.
The beginning of this road in its present course and shape was when, on 20 Jan., 1730-1, the Provincial Coun- cil was petitioned by the settlers of Lancaster county for a road "from Lancaster town till it falls in with the high road [the King's High Road] in the county of Chester, leading to the Ferry of Schuylkill at High Street." The Council thereupon appointed a committee of Lancaster and Chester county men to select a route. On 4 Oct., 1733, this committee reported a route in their counties to the Coun- cil, which ordered that it be vacated and cleared in those counties, and also directed, to extend it to the ferry, and that the "road in Philadelphia county leading to the Ferry be search: d" by a committee consisting of Messrs. Rich- ard Harrison, Hugh Evans, Robert Roberts, Samuel Hum+ phreys, David George, and John Warner. But eight years passed without any report from this Philadelphia county committee; and the Lancaster and Chester people had to petition again to have "a road from John Spruce's, on the Chester line to the High Street ferry," and thereupon a new Philadelphia county committee was appointed by the Council, namely Richard Harrison, Griffith Llewellyn, William Thomas, Edward George, Hugh Evans, and Robert Jones.
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On 23 Nov., 1711, this committee reported a route with courses and distances made out 10 Nov., for the Lancaster road extended, which, in a general way was, in Philadel- phia county, from near the homes of Rees Thomas and David James, on the Chester county line, over the "Cone- stoga Road" (surveyed on 20 July, 1741), beginning at Spruce's through Whiteland ip., to the Pektang road, to Kinnison's run, to Robert Powell's house, "then leaving the old road, and on George Aston's land" thence "to Wil- listown, to the west bounds of Burge's tract, to William Evan's sn.ith shop, through Tredyffryn tp., to the Sign of the Bull, through East Town tp., to Radnor's upper line, and near John Samuel's place." Past the Radnor Friends' meeting house, "to Samuel Harry's lane, and his house, to James's house and lane, to the county line." Thence from the Radnor line to the Merion line, "past David I es's shop." Over the Chester county line "to Benjamin Humph- rey's upper line (being the Philadelphia county line), to the Gulf Mill road, thence through the lines of Benjamin and Edward Humphreys, to Richard Hughs's upper line and house, to Evan Jones's lower line, past the Merion Meet- ing House, and into the Ford road, and through Richard George's property, to the Blockley line." Then "near the house of Edward George, over David George's lane and run, to the Haverford road, past Peter Gardner's house to High Water mark at end of the Causeway at west side of High street ferry." It was ordered that this route be opened and cleared.
Going back over this road, in earlier days, there was com- ing from the ferry, the lands of Edward Prichard and Thomas Ducket, and a survey of the latter's land here shows the Friends' burying ground as a bound, and that the land of Francis Fincher was also a boundary for Ducket, and a deed shows that Fincher's land was bounded on the west by a street or road, the one to the ferry, and that he also bought land bounded on the south by this road. That is, Fincher had 35 acres on the upper side of Market
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Street and across the street was "the Haverford Friends' burying ground," that is the graveyard of the Schuylkill Preparative Meeting, and the land of Philip England.
The road passed through 200 acres, next to Ducket's, owned by Barnabas Wilcox, thence through William Powell's 291 acres, William Smith's 500 acres, William Warner's 288 acres, the lands of Israel Morris, William Warner (again), and [Hugh Roberts's] 200 acres, Wil- liam Woods's and Wood & Sharlow's claim of 200 acres, and by the land of Jonathan Wynne (lying between 161 acres of Edward Jones and 200 acres of George Scotson), across the city line, and through the land of John Roberts, whose neighbor to the southwest on his side of the line was Grif- fith Jones, and next to the latter was Abel Thomas, opposite to whom, across the city, or liberty line, was William ap Edward, and where these two properties were, now grows the village of Overbrock. Adjoining William Edwards' 186 acres, and Edward Jones' 161 acres, on the southeast was the 286 acre farm of David Jones. On 19. 12, 1700-1, Penn issued "warrant to survey unto David Jones, late of Merionethshire, 250 acres of my land on the west side of Schuylkill within the bounds of the liberties of Philadel- phia, to be bounded to the eastward with the land seated by Hugh Roberts, to the northward with William Edwards, to the south'd with the line of William Warner, and to west- ward with my vacant land, reserving 50 acres on the north- east corner, adjoining to Jonathan Wynne and Hugh Roberts."
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