Chester Township.

followed Engle, and he, in turn, gave place to J. Rowland Cochran. The store is at present occupied by the Beatty Brothers.

Crossing Chester Creek in the angle made by the division line of Aston to the north, and Upper Chichester to the west, was a tract of four hundred acres, laid out to Michael Isard, Sept. 20, 1677, by order of the court at Upland. This estate, which was known as "Weston," on June 20, 1684, became the property of Thomas Baldwin. Baldwin's Run traversed this property from east to west, and the name which the stream received in early days it still retains. On this tract the farms of James C. Williams, Jethro Johnson, Lewis Bergdoll, Charles Flower, and the larger part of that belonging to William Graham Flower, are located.

At the bend on Chester Creek, where the land of Hannah Coppock borders on that stream, the original "Great Road" to Philadelphia crosses so as to reach the fords. At that time William Woodmansey owned one hundred acres of land, extending over to the Upper Chichester line, to which he acquired title Nov. 25, 1679. At the court held 3d day 1st week, Tenth month, 1688, the grand jury in their report stated, "Wee likewise present the Township of Chester for want of a foote Bridge over Chester Creek by William Woodmansee's." This presentment was continued to the next court; but that the wishes of the grand inquest were not complied with is evident, for June, 1689, the court "Ordered that William Woodmansee have an Order sent to him to make up a Bridge near his house." The court at length acknowledged that it had imposed more on Woodmansey than was altogether just, for it subsequently "Ordered that William Colbourne, Supervisor of y^e Highways for y^e Towne of Chester, have Power to summon y^e Inhabitances of s^d Township to erect a foote Bridge over Chester Creeke, att or near William Woodmansee's. And that John Baldwin have another order to Summon the Inhabitance of y^e Township of Astone to assist y^e Inhabitance of Chester in y^e matter." The foot-bridge was subsequently built, for afterwards several of the residents of the town of Chester were presented for failing to repair this bridge.

These lands of Woodmansey were on the John Test tract of four hundred acres, called "Hopewell of Kent," which was surveyed to Test Sept. 27, 1678. The latter sold this estate to various purchasers in different-sized plots, and at different dates. The lower part of this tract, extending southward into the estate of Samuel M. Felton, containing two hundred and thirty-six acres, became the property of Robert Wade, and he sold it to Henry Worley, March 8, 1698, and the latter conveyed the premises to Jeremiah Carter, Nov. 23, 1702. Through this tract the Upper Chichester road was laid out, Oct. 25,1687, and four years after the tract came into possession of Carter the Aston road was laid out, beginning at Carterville, on the Upper Chichester road, and running in a northwesterly course through the township of Aston. Jeremiah Carter is supposed to have been a native of England, and came to this country with his wife, Mary, in 1682, as is stated in the official paper on file at Harrisburg. His first purchase of land was of twenty acres, bought of William Woodmansey on the 9th of November, 1690, for which he paid £6 6s. He is mentioned in the deed as "Jeremiah Carter, Linning Weaver." On the 27th of August, 1689, Mary Carter, wife of Jeremiah, was one of a jury of women at the court at Chester. Robert Wade, of "Essex House," conveyed by deed, Sept. 11, 1694, fifty acres of land to Lydia Carter, daughter of Jeremiah and Mary, and provided that her father should have the use of it until she was twenty-one years of age, paying a yearly quit-rent of half a bushel of good wheat. The tract of one hundred and eighty acres which Carter purchased in 1702 was surveyed in 1703, and found to contain two hundred and fifteen acres. In November, 1731, Jeremiah Carter deeded to Nineveh Carter, one of his sons, eighty-eight acres at the southwest part of the tract. Jeremiah Carter, the settler, died in the latter part of 1736, and left three sons, - Edward, Nineveh, and Abraham, - who all settled on or near the old homestead. Edward, a son of Abraham, married Eleanor Dod, of whom an interesting story is told:

"She was of English parentage, and, when a young girl, was invited by a sea-captain's wife to come on board the ship and see the cabin and furniture before the vessel sailed. She accepted the invitation, and employed a boatman to take her out to the ship as it lay at anchor in the harbor, but when she set foot on deck the captain ordered the boatman away, and at once weighed anchor and set sail for America with Miss Dod on board. Years passed and no tidings came from the long-lost daughter. Her family probably knew or suspected that she was somewhere in America, as about the year 1790 her brother Thomas set out to search for his lost sister, but he died on his passage to America. But at last when she had been many years married, and her own daughters had grown up and settled in life, she was put into communication with her family after the following manner: An Englishman on a visit to America being in the neighborhood, heard that Mrs. Carter was of English birth, and called to have a chat with her. This led to the unexpected discovery that he knew her parents and family in England. When he returned she sent with him a letter to her people, which he delivered in person, and of course gave full information as to her circumstances in America. This was the first her people knew of her whereabouts."¹

Joseph Carter, of Chester township, in 1798, in the partition of his father's (Abraham Carter) estate, received a tract of eighty-five acres of land running down to and along Chester Creek. On this land, near a little run emptying into the creek at the northeastern end of the farm of Edward Carter, deceased, between the years 1807 and 1810, Joseph Carter erected a saw-mill, which, together with four acres of land, by his will July 17, 1828, he devised to his son, Daniel Carter. The mill must have been in disuse in 1826, for it does not appear on the assessment of the township for that year. It rapidly decayed, and is spoken of in 1833 as "an old deserted saw-mill." About 1800, Joseph