From The Erection Of The County Of Delaware To The War Of 1812.

in Philadelphia in that appalling time to minister to the sick and dying, as well as to give assistance and succor to the poor and needy, in true heroism far exceeds the achievements of the ordinary class of soldiers with whom history deals, who amid the din and smoke of battle sought the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth, and for their courage have received the unstinted praises of poets and historians alike. Nor is the cool, calm bravery of the men alluded to the only matter disclosed by the minutes of citizens which is worthy of commendation: in other respects these records present a grand testimonial to the higher and better nature of mankind.

I have just narrated the difficulties encountered by the inhabitants of this section in meeting the expenses of the county; but when the cry of distress went up from Philadelphia it awakened a responsive sympathy throughout our territory, and from people in all condition of circumstances contributions freely came. It is an interesting fact that the first donation from Delaware County, which was received Oct. 4, 1793, was from "Widow Grubb, of Chester," who presented "eighteen bundles of shirts and shifts for the use of the orphans under the care of the committee." On the 12th of the same month, John Pearson, of Darby, informed that body that a sum of money had been collected for the use of the orphans, and the same day Benjamin Brannan, of Upper Darby, gave notice that the people of Delaware County were raising money for the relief of the sick in the hospital and for persons in distress. On the 15th the committee was notified that £161 6s. 6d. had been collected in Delaware County; that Nathaniel Newlin, of Darby, was ready to pay that sum to any person authorized to receive it. The letter also stated that further contributions might be looked for. Henry De Forest was instructed to go to Newlin's house, near Darby, and receive the money, which be did. October 16th Mathew Carey and Caleb Lownes met Isaac Lloyd at Weed's Ferry, on the Schuylkill, from whom they received $1448.21, being part of the subscription made by citizen of Philadelphia residing in the neighborhood of Darby, to be applied to the use of the sick and poor of that city. Two days thereafter, the 28th, Mathew Carey and Caleb Lownes by appointment visited Nathaniel Newlin's house, and received $641.91, a further donation from Delaware County, while the same day Thomas Levis, of Springfield, sent $13 for the like purpose. On December 1st, John Pearson, of Darby, paid £12 10s., an additional sum raised by our people, and on Jan. 18, 1794, the committee acknowledge $34.69 from citizens of Philadelphia residing in and near Darby. The contribution from Delaware County amounted in all to $1291.57, a record of which this locality may justly be proud, when it is remembered that at that time the population was less than ten thousand persons all told. The sum just stated was exclusive of the donations "from citizens of Philadelphia residing in and near Darby," which fund was contributed, among others, by Col. Thomas Leiper, of Ridley; John Wall, a large real-estate owner in our county; Edward Tilghman, that distinguished lawyer, who refused the chief-justiceship of Pennsylvania, that it might be bestowed on his kinsman, William Tilghman, and whose country-seat was in Nether Providence, where Samuel C. Lewis now resides; Raper Hoskins, who then owned the estate, and spent his summers at Greenbank, more recently the Porter House, at Chester, and others deserving prominent places in the history of Delaware County, as well as in that of the city of Philadelphia.

In 1798 the yellow fever visited Philadelphia again, and once more the people fled, many carrying with them the seeds of the disease in their systems, to spread it at the places of refuge they sought. Mrs. Deborah Logan records that a woman from Philadelphia, dying of the fever in Chester, "exacted a promise from some of her friends that her body should be brought back to the city and buried in consecrated ground, and that in consequence of this bad vow the infection was first caught in the borough (Chester), where it spread with frightful rapidity, and depopulated whole families and streets."¹ On Edgmont Avenue, from Fourth Street to the river, there were then only seventeen houses within the space mentioned; more than thirty persons died, while in one of those dwellings² all the family excepting a boy of five years fell a victim to the plague. Indeed, it is stated that almost one-fifth of the population of Chester was swept away before the fever had subsided. At Chester Mills, now Upland, it was very virulent. Richard Flower, the owner of the mills, was so severely attacked that he was believed to be dead; but when the burial party was about to place him in the coffin he spoke, and subsequently recovered, to live nearly half a century thereafter. The cooper-shop at that place was made a hospital, and it is traditionally asserted that three dead bodies at one time were then awaiting interment. Only thirty persons constituted the entire population. In other localities near by the disease was equally fatal.

² The house adjoining on the north, the present residence of Jonathan Pennell.

The power of the Federal government to impose taxes, or in any wise to act within the limits of the several States, was during Washington's administration very imperfectly understood, and from that ignorance the difficulties in Western Pennslvania, known in history as the Whiskey Insurrection, had their origin. The settlers of that part of our commonwealth were largely Scotch-Irish, and naturally in traditions descended from fathers to sons recitals of the oppressive acts of the excisemen in the mother-country in discharging their official duties, which nar-