Marple Township.

ter on public business, as there is no public-house for a considerable number of miles." They also certify that the petitioner "is a suitable person to conduct the business, and as such we take the freedom (with due submission) to recommend him to the favorable notice of your honorable court." The judges refused the application, but at the October term, 1800, the license was granted.

In 1804, Reuben Lewis succeeded Davis Reed as landlord of the inn, and in 1807 Thomas Mason petitioned for license at that house, and, for the first time, in that year, the name "Sign of the Drove" appears on the record.

It was in this year that Joseph Vogdes petitioned the court to be granted license for a house "on the State road leading from Philadelphia to West Chester and Strawsburgh to Lancaster;" and at the October session, 1807, he was allowed to keep a tavern at the place designated, where he continued until 1815, when John Worthington had license for that year. Joseph Vogdes, in 1816, resumed his position as "mine host" of the Buck, yielding the place, in 1819, to Thomas Temple, who continued the name Buck, but added to it the words "and Still." In 1822, John Jacob superseded Temple, to yield, in 1824, to John Jones, who dubbed the house the "Three Tuns Tavern." When John Jacob resumed control of the inn, in 1826, be restored the old title, "The Buck," cutting off all the additional words and ponderous names which had been bestowed so freely on the house in the preceding few years. In 1827, Charles Vogdes followed Jacob, and David Vandersmith took Vogdes' place in 1829. In 1830, Hugh Jones Brooks was landlord of the Buck, and the next year John Williams was the host of the inn. In 1833, Samuel Hale was granted license, and continued until 1854, when, during the next three years, the application was rejected, to be approved in 1858 to George Ball, and in 1859 to be again refused. In 1860, Charles H. Hale presented his petition, which was met by three remonstrances, and the last application to the court for the privilege legally to vend liquor in Marple was refused.

To return to the Drove Inn. In 1808, George Pearson followed Thomas Mason, to be substituted, in 1810, by George Levis. Martin Wise kept the house in 1812, and Mordecai Worrell the year following. Christian Himes was landlord from 1815 to 1820, and his petition at the last date states that the tavern was a stone building, and had been licensed for twenty years. Himes remained at the Drove for the two succeeding years, when, in 1823, John Frick's "laugh was ready chorus" to the oft-repeated jokes of the frequenters of the tavern. John Jacobs, who seemed to be constantly attracted to the house, in 1824 took Frick's place; and when Frick, in turn, in 1825 followed Jacobs, the latter, in 1827, was reinstated, to give place, in 1828, to Thomas B. Boyle. Mordecai Moore, in 1830, received the court's approval, as did also Mordecai Moore, Jr., in 1831, and annually thereafter until 1835, when John Smith put in an appearance. In 1836, Powell McAffee became the landlord of the Drove until 1842, when license was bestowed on the old inn for the last time.

The year previous to the breaking out of the second war with England the following petition was presented to the Court of Quarter Sessions for the April term, 1811:

"The petition of Isaac Burns, of the township of Marple, humbly present that the petitioner has discovered on his farm, in said township, about one mile north of the West Chester road, a mineral or chalybeate spring; that he has erected a bath-house and other improvements for the accommodation of those who wish to use the waters for the restoration of their health and others; that for want of the necessary accommodations for entertainment many persons may be deprived of the benefits of using the said waters. Your petitioner therefore requests the favor of your recommendation to the Governor to grant him a license to keep a house of public entertainment on his farm, in said township, near the said springs, which he will endeavor to merit by keeping a good and orderly house.

"We, the subscribers (twenty-two in number), do hereby recommend the above petitioner as a sober and orderly person, and request that the prayer of his petition may be granted."

This petition was accompanied by the following certificate:

"We, the subscribers, do certify that having heard of the great virtues attributed to the mineral springs on the farm of Isaac Burns, in Marple township, have been induced during the last summer, and at various times previous thereto, to drink at and bathed in the waters, and by means thereof have been greatly relieved, and in many instances entirely cured of our respective disorders.
"April 8, 1811.
"Samuel Lewis, relieved of a rheumatic pain in the arm and inflammation in one of his eyes.
"John Hortor, relieved of the inflammation in his eyes.
"George Lewis relieved of a sick stomach."

The court, however, refused to aid in the restoration of those unfortunates afflicted with all the ills of humanity, who on the granting of license to the springs, it was believed, would hasten thither for treatment, and rejected the petition, only to have it presented the next year, and to again turn the applicant unsatisfied away.

Six years afterwards, when Judge Wilson had resigned, and Judge Ross was the president of our court, William Burns represented that "he has on his farm in Marple, about three-fourths of a mile off the West Chester road, and on a public road from the same, and leading upwards, towards the Leopard Tavern, a mineral or Chalybeate spring, and that he has erected a bath-house and other improvements for the accommodation of those who wish to use the waters for the restoration of their health and others," but as the court six years before had coldly refused his father, Isaac, so the judges on this occasion turned their faces from the petition of the son, and thus for the last time on the records of the Quarter Sessions of Delaware County, is mention made of the Marple Spring of Health.

The Brooke House. - On the West Chester turnpike-road, a short distance below Broomall, is the residence of George Brooke, an aged gentleman, a de-