Month: April 2011

CHAPTER XIX MANNERS AND CUSTOMS – HOW INHABITANTS OF DELAWARE COUNTY LIVED IN FORMER YEARS Houses. The progress of a nation is traced not in the life of an individual, who, from some personal or fortunate circumstance, was elevated for the time being above his fellows, but is found in the narrative of the daily … Read more

CHAPTER XVIII CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS We have little or no information as to the criminal code which maintained among the early Swedish and Dutch settlers on the Delaware.* The fragmentary records which have been preserved incidentally in correspondence and official reports do not enlighten us as to the manner of trial or the authority exercised … Read more

CHAPTER XVII THE CIVIL WAR The war of sections, which had overhung the country for over forty years, burst upon the nation on Saturday, April 18, 1861, when the American flag was hauled down at Fort Sumter, under the assaults of Southern military men who, on the plains of Mexico, had proudly marched to victory … Read more

CHAPTER XVI THE REMOVAL OF THE COUNTY-SEAT TO MEDIA In considering the history of the removal of the county-seat from the ancient borough of Chester to Media, the present location, I must necessarily draw largely from the narrative of that event furnished by Dr. Smith, he having been an active advocate of the changes, although … Read more

CHAPTER XV THE TEN-HOUR MOVEMENT One of the most important movements, and, in the results which have flowed from it, of great moment to the people of Delaware County, the State of Pennsylvania, and, more or less, to the country at large, was first put into practical effect in the eastern portion of this State, … Read more

CHAPTER XIV STORMS, FRESHETS, AND EARTHQUAKES We have little save tradition respecting storms, freshets, and earthquakes in the olden times. It is only within the last half-century that any circumstantial records have been kept of such incidents in our annals. On March 22, 1662,* William Beckman, in a letter, mentions the day before the tide … Read more

CHAPTER XIII FROM THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND TO 1850 The second war with England had almost wholly severed communication with the Old World, particularly with Great Britain, and the immediate result was an effort on the part of the people to meet the public demand for those commodities which previous to the beginning of … Read more

CHAPTER XII THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND In a work such as this it is not to be expected that space can be given to a discussion of the causes which led the Congress of the United States, on June 18, 1812, to a declaration of war against Great Britain, but it is sufficient to … Read more

CHAPTER XI FROM THE ERECTION OF THE COUNTY OF DELAWARE TO THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN The sparsely-peopled territory, which in the anger of defeat at the removal of the court-house from “Old Chester”—for so the ancient borough now began to be termed, to distinguish it from the newly-born West Chester—had formed a separate … Read more

CHAPTER X FROM THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR TO THE ERECTION OF DELAWARE COUNTY When the storm of war had subsided, Chester County, with the whole country, suffered severely in the process of adjustment from a warlike to a peaceful condition which naturally followed the recognition by the King of England of the independence of the confederate … Read more