Upper Chichester Township.

Larkin, Joseph Pennell, Isaac Hughes, and Hester Hughes were organized in accordance with the rules of the society to act as a preparative meeting. On the lot given for the purpose a stone meeting-house, thirty-two by forty feet, was erected in 1831. In the same year a school was organized, and for two years John Reeves taught the pupils in the meeting-house. In 1834 a stone school-house twenty-five by thirty feet was built, and was under charge of the Monthly Meeting. Joseph Bennett and his daughter, Louisa Bennett, were teachers, as were also John Cardwell and Thomas Speakman. After the public-school law was adopted, and until the directors erected a school-house, the building just mentioned was rented and used for school purposes. During the lifetime of Salkeld Larkin he was the head of the meeting, and at his death, April, 1870, aged ninety years, Nathan Pennell succeeded, to be followed in turn by Caleb Eyre. In 1883, Upper Chichester Meeting was "laid down," and Friends in that section united with Concord Meeting.

Schools. - In 1793 the society of Friends established a school in Upper Chichester, which was maintained and continued under the auspices of that religious organization until the public-school system was accepted and introduced in the township, when its further continuance was unnecessary. Besides the school under the supervision of Friends, previous to 1825, was a subscription school kept in a brick house erected for that purpose on the site of the present No. 1 public-school building, a short distance north of Chichester Cross-road, McCaysville, and Chichester, for the cluster of buildings - wheelwright- and blacksmith-shops, and a few dwelling-houses - at the intersection of the Chichester and Concord road have been known by all three of these names. On Dec. 31, 1819, a meeting of the citizens of Delaware County was held in this school-house to form a society for the suppression of vice and immorality. Thomas Ryerson was appointed chairman, and John Kerlin secretary. George Martin, Jr., Dr. R. M. Huston, Thomas Ryerson, Joseph Walker, Jr., Thomas Dutton, and James Brattock were appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws, which they were instructed to report at a meeting to be called at a future time to be determined. As they seem never to have reported, and as the names are all those of Upper and Lower Chichester residents, the other sections of Delaware County appear to have taken no interest in the movement. Hence the projectors of the society failed to effect an organization. After the adoption of the school law of 1836 the building was placed in charge of the school directors, and was continued to be used until 1867, when the old structure was taken down, and the present two-story brick building erected. The lower story was built by the school directors, at a cost of two thousand five hundred dollars, and the second story was erected and completed at a like cost by the voluntary contributions of the citizens of the township, who were desirous of providing a room for Sunday-schools, and where public meetings could be held. After the question of continuing the public schools in the township had been decided in the affirmative by a popular vote, in 1837, on January 4th of the following year John Talbot was appointed teacher at the brick school-house, near Chichester Cross-roads, but he seemed totally unable to control the pupils, and on February 15th the school was discontinued until the directors could obtain the services of a more efficient teacher. After a few weeks Joseph Henderson was employed for the remainder of the term, and the school was opened. The children attended, but no complaint appears of record of the new pedagogue's inability to command obedience from the scholars.

The Dutton school-house, at the intersection of the Upper Chichester road with the highway leading from Aston to Marcus Hook, was built many years before the free public-school system was established in the commonwealth, and because of the material employed in the construction of its walls and the abundant use of lime, was also known as the stone or white school-house. The lot and house being located on lands formerly of Richard Dutton, it is very probable that this was the site of the early Friends' school, and that Dutton, who did not die until 1795, had, two or three years before that date, given the lot and contributed to the erection of the building for educational purposes. Let that be as it may, after public schools were established in Upper Chichester the Dutton building passed into the control of the directors, and continued to be used for such purposes, an addition, in 1838, having been made to the house. On May 22, 1837, Elizabeth Harvey began teaching at this school, but on December 18th of the same year John Lloyd was the master there. In 1870 the directors purchased additional land adjoining the school lot from William H. Dutton, the ancient stone house was removed, and the present school-building erected, at a cost of nineteen hundred dollars, the contractors being Mifflin Wright and Benjamin F. Green.

The two schools mentioned had become so crowded that on Dec. 9, 1842, an additional school was opened in a house of Salkeld Larkin, on the Chichester and Concord road, of which Larkin Pennell was the first teacher. This was known as No. 3 school, and continued to be kept in Larkin's house until 1859. On the 26th of May of that year an acre of land was purchased from Enos Thatcher, near Salkeld Larkin's, and a stone house, twenty-four and a half by twenty-nine feet, was erected. This was known as Larkin's school-house. In 1874 the directors discontinued instruction in this building. The following year school was resumed there, to be discontinued in June, 1876, since which time it has not been used for educational purposes.

After the passage of the act of 1834, under its provisions the court appointed Joseph Henderson and William Booth inspectors of the public schools for