The City Of Chester.

village wheelwright. About 1800, William Ford was a shipwright at Chester. I do not know how long he had been in business as such, but we do know that on July 1, 1778, Col. Jehu Eyre was placed in charge of the department for building boats for the State, having four separate sets of ship-carpenters at work at different locations, with one at Chester, under charge of Capt. William Bowers.¹ Samuel Lytle sawed ship-plank for their vessels. It is stated a gunboat was built in the woods upon the creek since known as "Ship Creek," so that it might be hidden from the view of any English man-of-war ascending the river; and after it was launched it was discovered that it was a foot or so wider than the passageway between the abutments at Third Street bridge, and could not make its way to the Delaware. The stream still retains the name, but the circumstance from which it derived that title has generally been forgotten.

The first description of Chester after the Revolution which I have found describes the town thus:²

² Joseph Scott's "U. S. Gazetteer" (Philadelphia, 1795, first "Gazetteer" of the United States published), title "Borough of Chester."

"Chester, borough of, a post-town of Pennsylvania, and capital of Chester County [Delaware County]. It is situated on the northwest side of Delaware River, between Ridgely [Ridley] and Chester Creek, fifteen miles southwest of Philadelphia. It contains about sixty dwellings, built on a regular plan, a courthouse, and jail. Courts of Common Pleas and General Quarter Sessions of the peace are held here the third Monday in February, May, August, and November. This town is remarkable for being the place where the first Colonial Assembly was convened, which was on the 4th of December, 1682. As it affords an agreeable morning's ride, and having genteel accommodations, it is the resort of much company from Philadelphia in the summer season. It was incorporated by an act of Assembly December [March], 1795, and is governed by two burgesses, one high constable, one town clerk, and three assistants. The powers of the corporation are much limited; they are wholly confined to the preservation of peace and order among the inhabitants of the borough."

Almost all the inhabitants of the venerable borough believed that the removal of the county-seat to Media would be a fatal blow to the prosperity of the town; that it would rapidly sink in population and as a business point. Few persons comprehended that the hour for its advancement had come. The purchase by John P. Crozer of the old Chester mill-site to the northwest of the borough, the erection at that place of a cotton-mill, and the location of James Campbell at Leiperville, to the northeast, where he built up a large business in manufacturing cotton goods, had directed the attention of a few thoughtful men to the possibilities and advantages of Chester as a manufacturing centre.

To properly appreciate the condition of Chester at that time, it is necessary to present a brief picture of the borough, which, after the Revolution, was incorporated with all the rights and privileges of a shire-town by act of Assembly of March 5, 1795. It had, however, remained almost stationary in respect to population and business enterprises. In 1840 the population of the borough was seven hundred and forty persons of all ages and sexes. The town occupied, in a scattered manner, the space extending from the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad to the river, and from Welsh Street to Chester Creek. But a small part was built upon, and in the area given, most of the houses, many of them dilapidated, had been erected in the preceding century, and the place showed all the features of a finished town. The change which has since that time so developed the little fishing village, for Chester was scarcely more than that, first began to show itself about 1842. A few properties then changed owners at fair prices.

The great difficulty in the way of Chester was that it was surrounded by large farms held by persons in easy circumstances, who would not sell a foot of ground at any price, and who looked upon those who proposed to build a city here as visionary men, who would run themselves in debt and ultimately fail. Time, however, brought these farms into the market. Death and debt have no respect for conservatism, and by degrees these agencies worked in behalf of the change that was dawning. The first of these tracts of land which came into the hands of the progressive spirits who were guiding the new order of things was that of William Kerlin, a fifty-acre plot, the Essex House tract, lying between the post-road and the river, on the west bank of Chester Creek.

John M.. Broomall, then residing in Upper Chichester, supposed that he had bought the farm in 1846, at one hundred and fifty dollars an acre, but the agent, Charles D. Manley, though authorized to sell at that price, was, to his great mortification, unable to get his principal to execute the deed and the sale fell through. In the early part of 1849, Mr. Broomall, who had in the mean while removed to Chester, purchased the farm again of Mr. Kerlin himself after considerable negotiation, at two hundred dollars an acre. A time was fixed for executing the contract of sale, but before the day came, Mr. Kerlin again changed his mind. In December following, John Edward Clyde, who was quite anxious that a sale should be effected, meeting Mr. Kerlin on the street, agreed to purchase the farm, and insisted that the former should go at once to the office of Mr. Broomall. The latter declined to enter into a negotiation except upon the condition that the deed should be forthwith executed and the sale consummated, if a price could be agreed upon. The condition was accepted; Hon. Edward Darlington was sent for as counsel for Mr. Kerlin, and in half an hour the deed was executed, the price paid being two hundred and fifty dollars an acre. During the negotiations, in the early part of 1849, Mr. Broomall had offered to John P. Crozer and John Larkin, Jr., each an equal interest with himself in the farm he then believed he had purchased from Mr. Kerlin. The attention of both of these gentlemen had been attracted to Chester as the site of a future city if it could only get room to grow, and they had been looking at the Kerlin farm as a possible outlet. Before the actual purchase took place, Mr. Larkin bought a large part of the farm of John