Ridley Township.

on Sunday afternoons, but the movement failed. A second effort was made in 1874, by Rev. J. E. Alexander, which also failed. Towards the end of that year a Sabbath-school was established. Mr. Smith, superintendent of Ridley Park, offered the use of the hotel dining-room for the purpose during the winter. The first session of the Sabbath-school was held on the first Sunday in January, 1875, and have been held every Sunday since. Occasional services were had in the hotel and in the store building, in a room which had been secured for Sabbath-school purposes. In August, 1875, at the request of Henry Holcombe, Dr. Grier consented to hold regular services for two months at Ridley Park. A committee subsequently waited on the doctor and invited him to statedly supply the pulpit for one year, which he consented to do. Immediately a movement to build a church was organized. The Ridley Park Association gave two lots on the northwest corner of Ridley and Swarthmore Avenues as a site, and plans were furnished by A. W. Dilks, of Philadelphia, who also supervised the building of the church edifice. Work was commenced on Dec. 13, 1875, H. F. Kinney and D. R. B. Nevin being the building committee. The church is of stone, in the Gothic style of architecture, and is thirty by fifty feet, with porch and vestibule. It was completed in the summer of 1876, and dedicated September 10th in that year, the Rev. Dr. M. Greer and the Rev. Mr. Mowry, of Chester, conducting the services. The edifice cost when completed about seven thousand dollars, and the church was incorporated to the trustees Sept. 8, 1876.

A communion of the Presbytery of Chester, Nov. 9, 1876, approved the movement to establish a church, and in February, 1877, met in the new building, and organized a church with twelve members, in connection with and under the care of the Presbytery of Chester. John Craig was subsequently elected elder. The Rev. Dr. M. B. Greer, of Philadelphia, editor of the Presbyterian, was chosen pastor of the new church, and it is still under his charge. The present membership of the church is thirty-five.

Christ Protestant Episcopal Church. - An effort was made to establish a church of this denomination at Ridley Park in 1873. Two lots were donated by the Ridley Park Association on which to erect a church, and on May 7, 1873, the corner-stone of a chapel was laid. Through want of funds the movement languished, and work on the edifice ceased. In the summer of 1878 an effort to establish an Episcopal Church was again revived, and regular services were held at the depot by the Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of Philadelphia, and the Rev. Henry Brown, of Chester. Subscriptions for a chapel were obtained, and in 1879 the present edifice was erected. It is of the English type, built of Port Deposit stone, and has a bell-tower and a spire. The pulpit is now occupied by the Rev. William Marilla, under whose ministrations the congregation is steadily increasing.

Ridley Park Seminary. - In September, 1882, Miss C. J. Taylor, of Ridley Park, opened a private school for instruction in the common branches, and also preparing students for college. A school-room was fitted in her father's residence, with the intention eventually of using the house as a boarding-school. Lectures are delivered once a week at the seminary by W. Curtis Taylor on astronomy and geology, and occasionally by Dr. J. Gibbons Hunt on common things, illustrated with a microscope. During the past year there have been in attendance twenty-five pupils. It is the intention of the principal in 1885 to establish a boarding-school at Ridley Park.

The Knights Templar Encampment. - On May 28, 1876, a grand encampment of Knights Templar of Maryland was held on the rolling ground west of Crum Lynne Lake, at a point equal distant from Crum Lynne and Ridley Park Station. A number of knights from the Western States, as well as commanderies from New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, joined with the Maryland commanderies in the grand encampment. A pavilion, two hundred feet long, was erected, and the camp proper was of canvas tents, fronting on avenues running north and south, with main avenues crossing them east and west. The arrangement and perfecting of the camp at Ridley Park were in charge of Maj. Nevin. The encampment continued for ten days, and while the knights were present was a scene of activity, which attracted a large number of visitors.

Prospect Park. - In 1874, John Cochran, of Chester, purchased one hundred and three acres of land of the estate of Joshua Pierson, and in that year laid it out in villa lots. Early in September of that year Cochran sold an interest to John Shedwick & Son, then of Philadelphia, but formerly of Chester, where they had erected a number of houses and other buildings. On Sept. 10, 1874, the first public sale of lots was held, and after that sales were made two or three times a year until most of the land was sold, when the remaining interest of Cochran was purchased by Shedwick & Son, who now own all of the original tract which has not been sold for lots. There are now twenty-five houses in the park, many of them handsome and costly villas.

Prospect Methodist Episcopal Church. - In April, 1878, a class was formed of six members, and a lot of land, one hundred by one hundred and four feet, on the road from Moore's Station to the Lazaretto, was purchased of James C. Shedwick. A charter was obtained for the church Aug. 1, 1878. A neat brick structure was erected the same year, at a cost of four thousand four hundred dollars, and dedicated June 1, 1879, by Bishop Matthew Simpson. The Rev. J. H. Pike was the first pastor, and was succeeded by the present incumbent, the Rev. G. M. Brodhead. The membership is at present about seventy persons.

The Plow Tavern. - On Aug. 26, 1740, Israel