The City Of Chester.

Stroud & Co.'s Planing-Mill. - In 1871, John H. Stroud and Robert Booth established the sash-factory on the south side of Front Street and Concord Avenue. The machinery consists of one engine and boiler. Fourteen men and two boys are employed at a monthly pay of six hundred dollars. Two hundred thousand feet of lumber is used per year. In 1876 the mill was destroyed by fire, and the firm then moved to their present location, corner Front and Concord Avenue. The main building is of brick, forty-five by forty feet, three stories, with a two-story engine-room, twenty-five by twenty feet, and a commodious office. The mill contains all the latest improved machinery.

Penn Street Planing-Mill. - In 1875, Henry M. Hinkson erected on Fourth and Penn Streets a two-story brick building, one hundred by forty feet, as a planing-mill and sash- and blind-factory, and rented it to Miller Cox, who began business Sept. 1, 1876, continuing it until May, 1881, when Mr. Hinkson established the present business at this mill. Eleven hands are employed, and one hundred thousand feet of lumber is used annually in the manufacture of sash, blinds, doors, and other building material.

Miller Cox's Sash-Mill. - The business was established by Miller Cox, Sept. 1, 1876, at the Penn Street Planing-Mill, and in April, 1881, he removed to the new mill at Seventh and Penn Streets. Fifteen men are employed, and one hundred and fifty thousand feet of lumber is used annually in the construction of sash, doors, blinds, and other building material.

Hamilton's Box Factory. - A brick building, thirty by sixty, at the corner of Front and Franklin Streets was fitted with machinery for the manufacture of boxes, and supplied with power from the Lilley Manufacturing Company adjoining. About fifty thousand feet of lumber is used per month. The factory is occupied by John Hamilton.

Price's Brick-Yard. - In 1854, John C. and William G. Price established a brick-yard on the site of the Yeadon Mills at the corner of Tenth and Upland Streets. About 1864, seven acres of land at Fifth and Parker Streets were purchased of William and Joshua P. Eyre. In 1879, while the firm were having clay dug on the lot at the northeast corner of Concord Avenue and Sixth Street, they uncovered the bottom of an old kiln, respecting which the oldest resident could give no information. The idea which prevails among many of our people that bricks in old dwellings in this city were of English make is entirely erroneous, for not two years after Penn's first coming, in a lease made by Robert Wade, of the Essex House, to Robert Goforth, dated March 12, 1684, part of the property leased is described as abutting on an old brick kiln, near Chester Creek. A careful examination of the locality shows that the old kiln unearthed was the one mentioned in the lease, and without doubt the Hoskin-Graham house, Logan house, and others here, were built of brick from this yard. At the Price yard, at the present time, are manufactured thirty thousand machine-made bricks per day. Three kilns are in use, and twenty men are employed.

The Delaware County Insurance Company. - In the winter of 1834-35, four gentlemen were accustomed to meet in a small frame store kept by Jonathan P. Newlin, on the west side of Ridley Creek, north of the. Queen's highway, on the lands owned by Spencer McIlvain. William Martin, Spencer McIlvain, John L. Crosby, and Jonathan P. Newlin were the four men who discussed at this meeting the need of a local insurance company, and finally they by the act of April 10, 1858, with others, were named commissioners to receive subscriptions for a company, which by the charter thus granted was termed "The Delaware County Insurance Company." Subscription-books were opened at the public-house of Isaac Hall in Nether Providence, and so eager were the substantial citizens of the county to invest in the enterprise that on the day the subscriptions were received the crowd was so large that many persons "absolutely fought their way into the commissioner's rooms in their anxiety to obtain the stock."¹

On July 27, 1835, the first board of directors, consisting of John P. Crozer, Joshua P. Eyre, John L. Crosby, Archibald T. Dick, Samuel M. Leiper, Charles Kelly, David Trainer, George Serrill, and John Bancroft, met and elected George Serrill president and William Martin secretary. In the fall of this year the company began business, its office being in the double house at the northeast corner of Market Square, Chester, where it continued until 1837, when it was removed to the present "Stacey Mansion," on Market Street, south of Fourth. Here it continued until 1843, when it was determined to enlarge the business of the company and to remove its office to Philadelphia. To that end the act of Assembly, March 17, 1843, was procured, changing the title of the corporation to "The Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance Company," under which name, in Philadelphia, it became one of the most successful insurance institutions in the United States. The list of the presiding officers of the company indicates that residents of the county of Delaware have always held a prominent place in its management. George Serrill, the first president, was elected July 27, 1835; William Eyre, Jr., Sept. 5, 1842; William Martin, Jan. 3, 1844; Thomas C. Hand, Oct. 30, 1862. The latter is the only one in the list who was not from Delaware County. In the present board of directors, Hon. Edward Darlington, who was elected Sept. 5, 1842, still retains that office, and Spencer McIlvain, the only one of the four gentlemen who organized the movement in the country store in Ridley a half-century ago, is now living; has been a director since Jan. 5, 1846.

The grandfather of Spencer McIlvain, who was of Scotch descent, resided in Ridley township, where he was an extensive and successful farmer. He