[Pennsylvania County Histories]

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun26unse - . f MARK TWAIN’S senap moK. PA TENT S : UNITED STATES. GREAT BRITAIN. FRANCE. June 24TH, 1873. May i6th, 1877. May i8th, 1877. TRADE MARKS: UNITED STATES. GREAT BRITAIN. Registered No. 5,896. Registered No. 15,979. DIRECTIONS. Use but little moisture, and only on the gummed lines. Press the scrap on without wetting it. DANIEL SLOTS & COMPANY, NEW YORK, INDEX. U V W W X YZ / 1 Europe, giving his chapters the form of I ^ letters; in this we think he has acted with judgment; it will place him more at his |j Fiqmifo i F&ypS, foifo | ease, give him freedom of manner, and enable him to tell an hundred little things, foe*? I ,folfoi*6'0-ri^ Peasant to be kuown, which would not I C V^. I /come in so well were he to assume the ; gravity and stateliness of regular History, | .Date, fofoLfo:/...^/.. / <f <? s/t 1 FOR THE RECORD. J I Chester County. <r~ LETTER I. HISTORY Stalui res gestas populi ut quceque mernoria dignae videbantur, pei'scribere. Salust. OF My Dear Brother, It would give me much pleasure could I be 'assured of being able to perform with satis¬ CHESTER COUNTY.: faction, either to you or myself, the task you have assigned me. But the labour and re- i search requisite to such an undertaking, not By JOSEPH J. LEWIS. j to mention higher qualifications not less es- , I sential, are such as fill me with apprehen¬ sions with respect to my own competency. The following articles, from the Village To furnish such a view of our county as you i Record files of 1824, are roproduced as close- propose, from the time of our earliest ac- j quaintauce with it to the present; to collect ' ly in both form and style as present type will , the few scattered accounts that tradition has permit. The series consists of twenty-nine delivered down in relation to the Abori- chapters. It began January 7, 1824, and I gines; to inquire into the history of the sev¬ ended with the issue of July 21,1824. eral settlements, to learn the character of the 'settlers; to exhibit a faithful picture of our (From the Village Record of July 28,1824.) 'several institutions, aud to give a clear and The reader will see that the History of ! concise narration of the most important Chester County is brought to a close, except a 'events, that have occurred in our little dis- few numbers, chiefly to consist of biographi¬ I trict, would appear to constitute a work cal sketches of eminent men, which will be somewhat formidable, aud to which I cau by ready for publication some time next fall. It ! no means promise myself equal. But since had been supposed that twenty-six numbers it is your particular request I will even un¬ • would have comprised every thing which dertake the enterprise, so far at least as -e- was originally contemplated in these sketch¬ lates to the information I possess upon the es! but matter accumulated as the writer ad¬ 'subject, aud hope that the cheerfulness and vanced to twenty-nine, c ntaining about an alacrity with which I proceed to fulfill my hundred columns, which would make a task, may be allowed to palliate in some mea¬ volume of between two and three hundred sure the faults of a defective execution. pages. We here take the liberty to say that Chester county being as it is, the place of jthose essays have been written by Mr. , your birth and parentage as well as that of 'Joseph J. Lewis, a young gentleman who | the former residence of many of your ances¬ has presided over the classical department of tors, it is not surprising that you should feel the Westchester Academy, and while attend¬ an interest in its history. Regarding it with ing strictly to the duties of the school, pur¬ that natural affection with which everyone suing at the same time the study of the law, looks to his native soil, your enquiries evinci ,;has by his unwearied and most meritorious no more than a curiosity that is every way I application and researches, been able to col¬col- laudable, and a partiality what every one lect the facts, and to write these numbers so must own, considering the spot towards jrapidly that the press has never been delayed which it is indulged, to be altogether reason¬ a moment, tinder such circumstances, the able. For Chester county has ever main¬ intelligent and liberal reader will agree with tained a respectable standing among her us that they evince talents of high order, and neighboring sisters and been even distin¬ industry the most meritorious. We feel that guished on account of the many virtues that we may proudly ask for him—Where is the pertain to the general character of her citi¬ youth of 22, that in the same time, has done zens. To an uniform industry and sobriety so much, and so well ? These perfor- they unite a patriotic and enterprising spirit, ,mances have, at times, been marred by and are not less remarkable for their open errors of the press, the blame of which we and liberal hospitality, than for the regular¬ Ituke upon ourselves, the merit of them is ity of their' lives and the simplicity of their wholly his; and we take this opportunity manners. The wide distinctions which for- publicly to return him our acknowledge¬ , tune but too often creates between the rich ments for the great quantity of valuable and the poor have not obtained here. The original matter he has enabled us to lay be¬ wealthy preserve their condescension and the fore our patrons; and also to thank him for poor their independence. Thus the equally the noble example he has set to our young respect ible of the two classes meet upon men; who ought, on considering it, to start terms of an honourable equality, that does from their pillow, and ask themselves— credit to them both. The people as a body ‘What effort to render myself useful, have I j are sensible and informed, and the well jipade, during the last six months, to com¬ known fact of the superior excellence of our pare with his ? juries deserves record, ns a just testimonial in regard to the intelligence of their charac¬ (From the Village Record of January 7,1824.) ter. They can also boast of their number, many distinguished for elevated thought, su¬ |This week commences the History of Chester perior talents and profound erudition, and county. The author, it will be seeD, has the many excellent seminaries that at present I chosen the method of Russel in his modern flourish in the county, evidence a prevailing taste for the high and engaging pursuits of i literature and science. _ ■emigrants, °‘ whom our early--population was chiefly composed, since they are even I It is scarcely a century ancTT half since yet remembered by a few of our oldest citi the first European settlement v, as established zens and their native peculiarities m some in this county, at which time the Lenm manner still distinguish their posterity. We Lenape Indians were the undisputed proprie¬ can also readily trace the source of such tors of the soil, and inhabited here in con-1 events as by their importance are entitled to siderable numtors. And there are yet those notice. We may view the progress of 1m- ? . alive who can remember to have seen some ■ provement and remark tbe ,successive ' remnant of that unfortunate people, living changes that have been wrought upon the in our woods and pursuing their usual avo¬ general appearance of the country, by the cations. But as emigrants purchased and hand of cultivation and the spirit of enter- gradually occupied their lands, they with¬ nrise. And this I presume cm constitute no drew by degrees into remoter forests, -o that unpleasant task. For there is. something ■ now not a single native Indian remains an trdyanimating and agreeable nit he pros¬ inhabitant of the county. Their habits, from pect of a population springing as it were from which it seems almost as impossible to ^ean them as to reverse the order of nature itself, ’ the bosomOSODd 01of theill© wilderness,Wliuwucoa, ■ by a course of such uniform prosperity, and oblige them to fly the presence of civilization. [ with a rapidity perhaps almost They must have space for the hunt ana nd to wealth and consequence. Our ances- j woods for their game, and these cannot be Itors themselves could .scarcely have pie- had where the arts of agriculture have in¬ f sutned to anticipate.the interesting and sur- truded, But not only have they passed tirising transformations which the face of the away, but scarcely have they left a single country has exhibited in the space of a cen- trace of their former existence behind them. The principal that we do and can know is, ' tury and that the waste of the forest which that they “were and are not.” Their general * they left but half subdued should so soon * have been succeeded by the fertility of our character indeed is well described by many fiplds And it could not but fill them wim / that have written of the Aborigines, but a pride,’I conceive, were Jhey permitted now minute and particular account of that por¬ tion of the race, that once resided here, with “to return tor a moment into being, to iee the a knowledge of the chiefs that ruled among country which they had been the first to till, them, is nowhere to be found.

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