Ridley Township.

was thrown open, where those who felt disposed to refresh themselves were kindly invited.

"There were at least one thousand persons present at the celebration, and had the weather been more favorable we believe there would have been a much greater number. We are happy to say, amidst all the bustle incident to such a parade, no serious accident happened to mar the pleasures of the day."

Under date of Chester, Pa., Oct. 9, 1829, occurs this notice:

"The Leiper Canal. - This canal, the work of our enterprising and public-spirited fellow-citizen, George G. Leiper, was yesterday filled with water, and his new canal boat, the 'William Strickland,' passed the whole line of the canal up to the quarry. The Volunteer Battalion of this county, with their band of music, and a band from the city, we are informed, were present to give life to the interesting scene."¹

The canal, which was about a mile in length, not only was used to transport stone in boats to the creek below Leiperville, but the water was led by it as in a race to supply power to the mill at Leiperville. The lower part of the canal has been filled in, and the upper part as far as the mill at Leiperville is still used as a race to convey water to the factory.

Ridley Quarries. - Although doubtless the quarries on Ridley Creek were opened at an early date, yet the first record found respecting them occurs in the assessment-roll of 1766. Richard and John Crosby are assessed on quarries in Ridley. The present quarries of John Leiper on the Post road are the old Crosby quarries, worked at that time. The basement of the old building of the American Philosophical Society was built of stone from this quarry. In the year 1789, the Supreme Executive Council directed an order to be drawn in favor of John Crosby for £53 14s. 4d. in payment of stone used in repairing the bank at Mud Island,² where Fort Mifflin now is. The following year the quarries of Thomas Leiper, in Springfield and Ridley, were already noted, as appears from the petition presented to the Assembly in that year, already mentioned in the history of Leiper's Canal. In the General Advertiser, published by Benjamin Franklin Baché, in Philadelphia, for July 29, 1797, was the following advertisement, which shows that the quarries had acquired a name before they were purchased by him:

"Curb Stone. - The Subscriber will enter into a Contract for the whole of the Curb Stone that may be wanted this year for the Supply of the City and Districts at three pence per foot lower than such stone can be furnished by any other person. It will be warranted the best that ever came to Philadelphia.

"He is also ready to contract for the delivery of any quantity of building or foundation stone; as also of free stone of Weaver's Quarry, in the rough, at any place or Port within the United States. The quality of the stone in the subscriber's quarries is known to be excellent by a certificate from Mr. William Covet, and from other City Commissioners, dated December 13, 1791. They give it as their opinion that the Curb or gutter stone from his quarries exceed in goodness any other that yet have been made use of for the City pavements. In a representation also to the Assembly of this State, signed by 28 of the principal Masons and Bricklayers in Philadelphia, they say that the stones raised from his quarries are the best produced in the neighborhood of this city, for the purpose of Curb stone, flaggs, and house building. For terms apply to

In the Leiper quarries in Ridley, in February, 1851, the largest blast of gneiss rock ever made in the county is said to have taken place. The blast was made by William McFarland, assisted by Edward Rattigan, John Davies, and James McKenney. The length of the breast was ninety-five feet, width of bench forty-two feet, depth of bench nineteen feet six inches, and measured five thousand nine hundred and eighty-five tons. Three hundred pounds of powder were required for the blast. To the Delaware Breakwater many thousand tons of the stone from this quarry were sent. The masonry of Fort Delaware at the Pea Patch, Girard College, the Chestnut Street bridge over the Schuylkill, and many other massive structures in Philadelphia, were built from stones from these quarries. Besides these quarries, which were brought into prominence by the construction of a canal and railroad, there were a number of quarries along Ridley Creek, all of which became prominent when the United States was building the Breakwater. When this work was first begun the greater part of the stone was furnished from the Delaware County quarries. In 1832 the following quarries were operated on Ridley Creek: Thomas Clyde, Robert Churchman, Spencer McIlvain, William D. Shoemaker, Thomas B. Shoemaker, John Burk, John Hankins, William Hill, and H. M. Wuger & Co., on Crum Creek, while the quarries of Isaac Hennis, Jonathan P. Worrell, and Samuel Lytle were on Chester Creek. In 1836 the superintendent at the Breakwater rejected the stone from Delaware County, stating that it was inferior to that from Delaware State, on account of the large quantity of mica contained in it, which renders it peculiarly liable to decay and easily worn by the action of the water. This action on the part of the superintendent would have occasioned heavy loss to the quarry-owners, and therefore the Delaware County Institute of Science appointed a committee, of which Dr. George Smith was chairman, to report upon the character of the stone. The report was made, and on its result the government revoked the order made by the superintendent.

Moore's Station. - The land on which this station is located, on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad and the Lazaretto road, between Norwood and Ridley Park, was in the possession of the Moore family in 1800, and is so marked on Hill's map. Prospect Park lies to the west of the station. There is at Moore's the railroad station, a block station, engine-house, and a steam brick grist-mill, twenty-six by sixty feet, which was built in 1877 by George W. Moore & Co.

Leiperville is on the old Queen's Highway, fourteen miles from Philadelphia and one from Chester. It is named from the Leiper family, who at one time owned most of the land in the neighborhood. The Leiper canal ran through the hamlet. It contains one tavern, a store and post-office, a wheelwright- and blacksmith-shop, and about twenty-five dwellings.