The City Of Chester.

The borough grew slowly, for Oldmixon refers to it in 1708 as containing "one hundred houses." Bampfylde Moore Carew, in 1739, stated that it "contains about a hundred houses, and a very good road for shipping." In 1758, Acrelius said, "it had 120 houses, which gives endorsement to the assertion of Lewis Evans, in a letter written in 1753,¹ that "Chester, Bristol, and Newtown have been long at a stand." Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, in the fall of 1748, journeying from Wilmington to Philadelphia, mentions in his journal "Chester, a little market town which lies on the Delaware. The houses stand dispersed. Most of them are built of stone and two or three stories high; some are, however, made of wood." The Delaware County Republican of July 1, 1836, states, Chester "has about 140 dwellings."

In 1713 the inhabitants of Chester County petitioned Governor Goodkin and Council "that ye Borough of the Town of Chester, in this Province, may be made a free Port." The petition was referred to William Penn, who took no action in the matter. Over a century thereafter, in March, 1838, the inhabitants of the borough of Chester petitioned the Councils of Philadelphia to have Chester made a port of entry, promising, if that was done, to build a railway from the piers to intersect with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. The project was so flattering to the hopes of the people of the place that, on March 7, 1840, an act of Assembly was obtained empowering the authorities to lay such track in the streets, but nothing ever came of the scheme.

In 1739 the noted clergyman, George Whitefield, preached in Chester, and so great was his fame and the excitement throughout the colony, occasioned by his eloquence, that about seven thousand persons gathered here to listen to his sermon. It is said that a cavalcade of one hundred and fifty horsemen accompanied the noted divine hither. It was during this year that Bampfylde Moore Carew, heretofore mentioned, passed through Chester, and he relates how the people for many miles around flocked to the places where Whitefield was to preach. Carew came here on Sunday, "stayed all night, and the next morning he inquired of one Mrs. Turner, a Quakeress, who formerly lived at Embercomb, by Minehead, in Somersetshire. From her he got a bill (money) and a recommendation to some Quakers at Darby, about five miles further." This Mrs. Turner lived at the northeast corner of Third Street and Concord Avenue, the property of the late Mrs. Shaw.

The story of Chester in its stationary condition is so interwoven with that of the county that it cannot be separated the one from the other. And it is unnecessary to refer to it here, since it is told in the general history heretofore given. On several occasions enterprising men have endeavored to give business impetus to the old borough. Jasper Yeates, in 1698, erected extensive granaries on the creek, and established a large bakery. It was located at Second and Edgmont Streets. The eastern abutment of the bridge there is built partly on the site of the old granary. The second story of the building was used for the storage of grain, while the lower was the biscuit-bakery. The enterprise failed to satisfy, for in a letter from James Logan to Penn 5th First month, 1708/9, it is set forth:

"The Country people of this Province having of late generally fallen upon the practice of bolting their own wheat and selling or shipping the flour, Jasper Yeates, a man of a working brain for his own interest, found his trade at Chester to fall under a very discouraging decay. Upon this he has frequently discoursed of removing to New Castle, where he is possessed of a large tract of land close to the town."

The old granary was substantially built of stone and brick, the walls being nearly three feet wide. The lime and mortar had so cemented the materials together that when it was demolished in April, 1853, by Mr. Pusey, of Chester County, to erect on its site a large flouring-mill, it almost defied the efforts of the workmen to pull it down. During the Revolution Joseph Ashbridge baked much of the "hard tack" for the American army, and in 1812 it was used for a like purpose for the United States. The archway of the building, which led from Edgmont Street to the creek, was a place of dread to the children in the olden times, for it was stated a woman had been murdered there and her uneasy spirit lingered about the place of her untimely "taking off."

Between 1761 and 1770, Francis Richardson, to whom Grace Lloyd devised the greater part of her large estate, built extensive warehouses and two piers, known as Richardson's Upper and Lower Wharf (in 1816 conveyed to the State, and in 1823 conveyed by the commonwealth to the United States), believing that Chester could be made a rival of Philadelphia as a shipping-point for grain and produce, but the difficulties with the mother-country totally ruined him. In 1732, Joseph Howell was a tanner in Chester, and continued in that occupation at the old tan-yard (now Frederick J. Hinkson's) on Edgmont Street, near Third, until 1764, when Isaac Eyre purchased the property and carried on the business. In 1799, John Birchall had the tannery there, and William Brobson followed him until 1863. The latter dying, the business was continued by Hon. Frederick J. Hinkson and J. S. Bell; later by I. J. & C. Hinkson, sons of Judge Hinkson, and more recently by the Chester Morocco Company.

In 1782, Jonathan Pennell, a blacksmith, had a shop on Edgmont Avenue, near Front, and William Spear in the same trade, in 1799, where Ladomus' block now stands. John Baggs was employed in one of these shops or with Jonathan Morris, who had a shop at that time on the southwest corner of Fifth and Welsh Streets. William Hawken was then the