Upper Providence Township.

In 1826 Thomas Bishop owned all the mill property, and Amor Bishop, his son, operated the works there. In that year the grist-mill ground from eight to ten thousand bushels of grain, the saw-mill was employed occasionally, and about one hundred tons of iron was rolled and slit per annum. The rolling- and slitting-mill was assessed as "not occupied" in 1829. The grist-mill and saw-mill were continued in use by Amor Bishop, and in 1856 were conveyed to his son, Washington Bishop, who sold them to Joseph Velotte in 1867, and the latter, on Jan. 29, 1868, passed the title to William F. Lewis, who now owns and operates them under the name of Sycamore Mills.

The dam at the Sycamore Mills has been washed away four times, once in the great flood of 1793, again on Feb. 22, 1822, a third time in the destructive ice flood of Jan. 26, 1839, and the last time in the noted flood of Aug. 5, 1843.

Register's Nail-Factory. - This industry, which has now been abandoned for more than a half-century, was the direct outgrowth of the rolling-mill, and although it was located across Ridley Creek, just above the bridge at Bishop's Mills, its story is so connected with the latter that it properly should be narrated in the history of the Sycamore Mill. The nail-factory was a small frame building owned by Jesse Reece, and was rented to David Register, who at an advanced age, in 1812-13, employed men, and began making wrought-iron nails entirely by hand. Register had been a Tory during the Revolution, and had fled with the British troops to Nova Scotia, but subsequently returned after the passage of the amnesty act. The building, which had many years before ceased to be used as a nail-factory, was washed away in the flood of Aug. 5, 1843.

In 1830 Judge Hemphill in Paris, writing to a friend in Chester County, stated that in 1818 or 1820 he, with John Jefferies, visited Mr. Bishop, where, on the latter's estate, he saw "decomposed feldspar in streaks of white lying in abundant veins where the road had been cut through the hills, and observing that the land was uniformly rich where it made its appearance, not knowing what the substance was (such he confesses was his ignorance of mineralogy), he imagined that perhaps it might contribute to fertility and be useful, like plaster or marl, upon land. To test the correctness of the opinion, he obtained a box of it, sent it to a distinguished agriculturist, with a request that he would have it examined, and give in return any information he might be able to get. A letter in reply stated that it was decomposed feldspar; that it was the material of which the French China was manufactured; that a specimen had been sent to France, which afterwards was pronounced excellent. This information was communicated to the late Jacob Cist, Esq., of Wilkesbarre, a gentleman of science, and who was turning his attention particularly towards different clays and the finer materials for Delf-ware and Porcelain. At his request the writer of this procured and sent to Philadelphia a barrel of the material, which he caused to be taken to Wilkes-barre. He pronounced it excellent, but the distance was too great to haul and work it to advantage."¹

Jeremiah Collett's Mill. - Tradition alleges that on the tract of two hundred and fifty acres, purchased Dec. 13, 1693, by Collett from James Swaffer, which was that part of the Swaffer patent lying south of Egmont township line, Collett erected a water-power mill. This tradition has some evidence to sustain it, in that at the court held on Oct. 2, 1695, when the grand jury, because "the County Treasurer is out of purse," levied a tax to defray pressing obligations, in the quaint document signed by the grand inquest appears the following item: "Jeremiah Collett, for his estate and calling, 30 pounds." And in the same presentment certain persons are mentioned by name, and taxed on their "calling," all of whom save Collett we know were millers. Tradition states that Collett had erected a mill and was operating it for many years before the Providence Mills (now Sycamore) were built. After the erection of the latter mills the then owner of the property, who was operating these mills, became so enraged at the competition that he threatened to build a dam so high that when the water should be suddenly let out it would rush down the creek, sweeping everything in its way. Tradition locates this mill in Edgmont, on Big Run, on the estate of Joseph Taylor, although one hundred acres of that land was purchased by James Swaffer from John Holston, who took up two hundred and fifty acres there in 1684. Jeremiah Collett never owned the property, nor was the title in Swaffer for the land on which are the remains of the mill and a small portion of the old wall of the original dam, the distinct outlines of which are pointed out to this day. If Collett had a mill, it was located in Upper Providence, on the east side of Ridley Creek.

Palmer's Mill on Crum Creek. - The only grist-mill in the township in 1799, except that of Thomas Bishop, was owned by Jacob Siter, who was assessed in that year on twenty-seven acres of land, - a grist-mill, plaster-mill, and a frame smith-shop. Where this mill was located is not known, for in 1802 his name does not appear in the assessment-roll as owning a mill. That he lived on Crum Creek is evident from the fact that he was also assessed on forty-seven acres of land in Marple township. On the 23d of March, 1801, Abram Jones purchased a dower-right in a property on Crum Creek, on which in 1802 he was assessed as owner of a grist-mill in Upper Providence, and also on a saw-mill in Marple. On Jan. 25, 1812, he bought of the executors of William Hunter, the remaining right in the mill property. In the report of Delaware County manufacturers, in 1826, it is reported. "On Crum Creek in Upper Providence and Marple a grist- and saw-mill head and fall twelve feet owned