The Township Of Tinicum.

ily came in the room and shut the door. The fox, finding exit from the apartment by the door closed, ran to the chimney, which he ascended. From its top he sprang to the roof of the house and thence to the ground. He was not captured until near sundown, when he holed at the root of a hollow tree, which he ascended to the forks, whence he was dislodged by a stick being thrust at him, and descending to the roots, he was taken in the usual way and bagged.

Tinicum has been a choice locality for startling sensations from the earliest date. As far back as the 8th of Third month, 1698, Joseph Holt and Isaac Warner were drowned by the ferry-boat from New Castle to Philadelphia being overset in a gust of wind. The evidence showed that Robert White, who was at Isaac Taylor's house, went to the river to bathe and saw a corpse, whereupon he called Isaac Blawn, and the latter said, "Let us go forward and we shall find more;" and he went, and they did see another, and they called Isaac Taylor and all his household and went down together. When the bodies were recovered Taylor told Isaac Blawn to search them. On Holt they found a piece of eight and some small money, a silver seal, some keys, and four gold rings on his finger. On Warner they found a carpenter's rule, fourteen pieces of eight and a half, and some other money. Warner had gone aboard the boat at New Castle, much intoxicated, carrying a speckled bag of money. The whole tenor of the evidence taken would seem to indicate that a rumor had gone abroad that the dead men had a considerable sum of money with them, and that those who had found the bodies at Tinicum had appropriated part of it to their own use. Taylor, it appears, had the matter fully investigated and the testimony of a number of witnesses taken at large. The case is an interesting one, inasmuch as it goes into the details of the clothing and other matters of value to the students of history in arriving at a just conception of the customs and habits of the early settlers.

Almost a hundred and fifty years after this event, on Sunday, Jan. 1, 1843, the good people of Tinicum were astonished to find the dead body of a man hanging from the limb of an apple-tree on the estate of Richard Welling. On examining the clothing of the deceased a carpenter's rule and a memorandum-book, containing the name of Daniel Barber, was found. No further particulars were ever learned respecting the dead man.

On Sunday, May 12, 1861, the body of a young girl, about fourteen years of age, was found in a ditch on the farm of Jacob Allberger, and, from the appearance of the body, and the fact that tufts of grass had been pulled up by the roots, it was believed that murder had been done in the hope of concealing an infamous outrage. The night previous to the supposed murder a colored man, who lived in the neighborhood, stated that he had heard voices as if some persons were talking, but his dogs were barking at the time so that he could not distinguish what was said. The body was brought to Chester. The next morning the Philadelphia papers contained an advertisement asking information respecting Elizabeth Cox, of Germantown, and the personal description answered to that of the body found at Tinicum. The parents of the missing girl came to Chester, and recognized the corpse as that of their daughter, who was of unsound mind. The case aroused such public indignation that on May 24th the county commissioners offered a reward of two hundred dollars for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who had committed the murder. Mayor Henry, of Philadelphia, also appointed two detective officers to investigate the facts, and on May 31st they reported that the evidence seemed to establish that the girl, in partial derangement, had wandered from home, was overtaken by night, and had fallen into the ditch; that the banks of the ditch showed that she had struggled to get out, but, as one foot and leg almost to the knee had become fastened in the adhesive mud, she could not extricate herself, but, finally exhausted, had fallen into the water and drowned. The result of the post-mortem examination strongly corroborated this theory. At all events the case ceased at that point, and if murder had been committed, those who did the deed escaped "unwhipped of justice."

On Friday, March 30, 1877, the body of a man, which subsequently proved to be that of Oliver Saxton, of Philadelphia, was found on the meadow, near the tenant-house on the estate of Aubrey H. Smith, then occupied by James Reid. The circumstances of his death were soon learned. It appeared the deceased, a few days before, had gone to Little Tinicum Island duck-shooting, and when returning in the evening, owing to a heavy storm of rain and snow, was unable to reach his place of destination, and was taken on the yacht of Joseph Woods. The yacht, owing to the storm, was driven ashore on Tinicum, and in the endeavor to get her off the men on her lost their boots in the mud, and finally were compelled to abandon her and seek the fast land in their bare feet. It was night, and the men separated to find shelter. Saxton went to the cabin of Henry Roan, near the bank, but was denied admittance. Woods, who reached the same cabin shortly after Saxton had been there and gone away, was also denied shelter, but on the payment of several dollars was permitted to pass the night there. Saxton attempted to reach Reid's house, but, being overcome with the cold, he fell to the ground and died. When found the skin was worn from his feet, and his legs were torn by the briers through which he had forced his way.

For almost a century Tinicum was a part of Ridley township, but at the May court, 1780, a petition, signed by twenty-three "inhabitants, owners, and occupiers of land in the Island of Tinicum," was pre-