Nether Providence Township.

spindles, sixty looms, and three sets of cards. In 1863 a stone building, with picker-house adjoining (now the engine-house), two stories in height, forty by twenty-three feet, was built, and in 1864 another building, also of stone, three stories in height, forty by forty feet, was erected. In 1873 the main mill was enlarged by an addition of seventy-five by fifty-five feet, three stories in height, making that building one hundred and fifty by fifty-five feet; a dry-house sixty-one by forty feet, and a picker-house sixty by forty feet. The building contains at present two thousand three hundred spindles, one hundred looms, and fifteen sets of cards.

Randall Osborne emigrated before 1730 from England, and settled in Montgomery County, where he leased property and engaged in agricultural pursuits. Among his children was Richard, whose son, Randall, became owner of the land, which he cultivated and improved. One of the grandsons of the latter, who also bore the name of Randall, married Mary Hess, by birth a German, whose children were Richard, Nathan, Jonah, John, Randall, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who became Mrs. John Custer. Jonah, of this number, was born in 1788, on the ancestral land in Montgomery County, and on attaining a suitable age acquired the trade of a stone-mason. He married Elizabeth Bisson, and had children, - Mary (Mrs. James Redmond), Franklin, Antrim, Elizabeth Ann (Mrs. William Sewell), Phoebe (Mrs. Harlan Miller), and Susannah. Antrim Osborne was born Nov. 19, 1817, on the homestead, in Montgomery County. Having been deprived, in the year 1826, when but eight years of age, of a father's protection and guidance, he was placed with Bethel Moore, of West Conshohocken, to learn the trade of woolen manufacturing. He remained three years at this point; was employed for a brief period at a neighboring mill, and ultimately removed to Rockdale, Delaware Co., where he was engaged as a weaver with Lewis & Phillips. After a service of four years with this firm he removed to Philadelphia, and completed an apprenticeship to the trade of a bricklayer. In 1838 Mr. Osborne resumed his original occupation in Delaware County, and was employed for three years by Richard Blundon, after which the same period was spent in a carpet-factory in Philadelphia, owned by John McAfee. He was also at a later date employed at Crosby's mill, in Delaware County, and in 1846 rented a mill at Waterville, in the same county, where he began the manufacture of satinets. He continued in this location for seventeen years, and in 1861 purchased the property of the Rose Valley Paper-Mill, upon which site his present buildings were erected, after which he began the manufacture of woolen jeans, doeskins, and cassimeres. In 1863 his son, William H., became a partner, and in 1879 his son, Thomas J., was admitted in the firm. Mr. Osborne was married in 1839, to Isabella V. Barris, of Trenton, N. J. Their children are Elizabeth B. (Mrs. John L. Grimm), William H., Mary Ann (Mrs. William H. Forwood), Thomas J., and Antrim E. Mr. Osborne is in his political views a pronounced Republican, but has been fully occupied with his business interests, and found no leisure for participation in matters of public concern. He and his family are worshipers with the congregation of the Nether Providence Methodist Episcopal Church.

Thomas Y. Hutton's Grist-Mill. - A short distance above the Rose Valley Mills, on the property sold by Nathaniel Stemmel in October, 1794, stands an old unoccupied mill, now in the possession of Antrim Osborne. This property passed from James Reese through several parties, and in 1823 from John and Jabez Jenkins to Thomas Y. Hutton, who, in 1840, built a stone grist-mill, which he operated until Sept. 1, 1845, at which date he sold it to Richard Wetherill. The latter kept it until April 1, 1847, when he conveyed the mill to Robert Boyd, who changed it to a turning-mill and sand-paper factory. Boyd died in 1859, and James Greer, as administrator of his estate, sold it, July 1, 1862, to Edward Borden, who rented it to Joseph Jackson, a bobbin-turner. On Aug. 1, 1869, the latter bought it and ran it till 1878, although he had sold the mill to William Pilling, March 1, 1873. From Pilling it passed successively to Solomon Chorley, John Wildey, and Andrew Rankin. The latter sold it, Nov. 25, 1879, to Antrim Osborne. The building is now used by Antrim Osborne as a store-house.

Chestnut Grove Cotton-Mill. - In 1764, Nathaniel Vernon was operating a saw-mill on Vernon's Run, which was discontinued soon after 1770. The land on which it stood was in 1799 part of the large tract owned by Thomas Leiper. In the division of his estate in 1843 it came to Samuel M. Leiper, who, March 24, 1845, sold the land to John Fildes. The latter erected near the old mill-site a cotton-factory, dye-house, and other necessary buildings. In April, 1852, fire broke out in the dye-house and spread rapidly to the main building. They were both destroyed. The mills were again rebuilt and operated by Fields until May 25, 1858, when the property was sold to Samuel Bancroft, who retained possession until Oct. 28, 1865, when he sold the cotton-factory and sixteen acres of land to James Jerome. The property later came to Mrs. Frances M. Jerome, and afterwards to Andrew P. Walker, by whom it was owned March 29, 1884, at which time the factory was destroyed by fire.

Mills on Ridley Creek - Leiper's Snuff-Mill and Avondale. - The first appearance of the name of Thomas Leiper in connection with manufactures in this county occurs in an assessment-roll of Nether Providence in 1779. In that year he was assessed on a snuff-mill, which was located on Crum Creek, in Nether Providence, opposite and a little above where the Avondale Mill is now. In 1790 he was operating two snuff-mills and was the owner of two hundred and ninety-six acres of land. A dry-house was added