Chester, Pennsylvania

“ Both the kidnapping and the murder at the time of the occurrence shocked and excited the better thinking and humane classes largely, not only in Pennsylvania, but to a considerable extent over the Northern States. It may be said, without contradiction, that Chester county, at least, was never more aroused by any one single outrage that had taken place within her borders, than by these occurrences. For a long while the interest was kept alive, and even as lately as the past year (1870) , we find the case still agitating the citizens of Chester county. ”

“ In the southern part of Chester County, Pennsylvania, is money, too, but just where nobody knows. A lonely, crabbed man, who died there in a poor hut after the Revolution, owned that he had served the British as a spy, but said that he had spent none of the gold that he had taken from them. ”

“ In Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in Washington County, where the most substantial farmers in the country are found, the families in the present generation are small. Many of the older stock have no children. ”

“ The establishment of schools in Chester, Radnor, Darby and Concord meetings is discussed in this chapter.
Chester
Land devised for schools
Three schools
There is evidence that education was provided for some children in Chester before the Quakers came to the colony. The first meetings at Chester were held in the Court House, but land for a meeting house was devised in 1688. The first property devised for school purposes was that of Hoskins in 1769. A schoolhouse was built on the land in 1770. ”

“ Our “Dutch” never make store-cheese. At a county fair, only one cheese was exhibited, and that was from Chester County. The farmer’s wife boards all the farm-hands, and the mechanics—the carpenter, mason, etc.—who put up the new buildings, and the fence-makers. At times she allows the daughters to go out and husk corn. It was a pretty sight which I saw one fall [37] day,—an Amish man with four sons and daughters, husking in the field. “We do it all ourselves,” said he. ”

“ The Valley Forge Park Commission acquired, in 1893, 472 acres, partly in Chester County, to maintain and preserve forever the Revolutionary camp ground; American army here from December 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778; soldiers built their huts 16 × 14 feet by 61⁄2 feet high, each to accommodate twelve men, and bore their sufferings from cold, starvation, and sickness like heroes ”

“ Property granted the meeting and house built
beginning at said Urin’s lot or Garding, and so running, 60 feet along and fronting the street towards the prison house, thence down the lower edge in Chester Creek—thence along the Creek 60 feet—thence to the place of beginning ... to the use and behoof of the said Chester—the people of God called Quakers and their successors forever. [656]
In the year following, it was urged by the monthly meeting that Friends agree with workmen to build a meeting house at Chester 24 feet square by 16 feet in height. ”

“ The country is beautifully diversified and well watered; clear streams, without bridges, intersect the highway in many plaees. I reached West Chester at dark, distant eight miles from the Paoli tavern, having passed, on the way, near the residence of General Wayne.
West Chester is the seat of justice of Chester county. It is in Goshen township, twenty-three miles from Philadelphia, and five south of the Great Valley. It is a pleasant village, containing a population of about three thousand, who are noted for their intelligence and general refinement. ”

“ Situate on the northern banks of the River Dee, the deified stream of the Ancient Britons,—built upon, or, as we ought rather to say, built into the solid rock, for the principal streets within the Walls are almost wholly excavations of several feet in depth—the city of Chester stands forth before the world certainly the most curious city in the British Isles, second to none of its fellows in martial strength or historic importance, and as a faithful and enduring relic of the past, “peerless and alone!” ”

“ Now, as has been already remarked, Chester is not only a delightful city to walk in, a city which it is a pleasure to have any business to transact in, but its arrangement and the unstudied variety of its houses make it serviceable and economical. The shifting, broken skyline, and the gables of the houses projecting as it were in amicable rivalry into the street, are always pleasant and cheerful to behold. ”

“ To the quartette of riotous travelers Battlesburg was only an uninteresting detail of their trip, which had intruded itself unbidden upon their sight; but to Battlesburg the arrival of a private car with real people in it was an epoch. Why, it might be the President! Long-legged Billy Ricks, standing idly upon the platform because the dragging hours passed by there as well as anywhere else, did not even wait to take a good look at it, but loped up the one long street, so fired with enthusiasm that he scarcely wobbled as his bony knees switched past each other in their faded blue overalls. ”

“ Not only to the antiquarian, however, is Chester interesting; p. 2there is scarcely any order of mind or taste but may here find its gratification. Its noble arched bridge, venerable cathedral and churches, unique rows, and ancient walls encompassing the city, with a considerable number and variety of relics, all combine to make Chester an attractive place of resort. It is the metropolis of the county palatine of that name, and is pleasantly situated above the river Dee, on a rising ground. ”

“ In what good stead they availed the city during the trying period of the great Civil War, a former chapter has sufficiently declared; and, though we cannot but rejoice that those days of anarchy and confusion have passed away, yet are we sure, should the direful necessity again arise, the hearts of the men of Chester will still beat as loyally, and their stalwart arms emulate as nobly, the glorious deeds of their forefathers of yore! ”

“ But a North Adams man spoke up rather sharply, "Well, Berkshire County is good enough for me." The incident has a deeper meaning than appears at first glance.
Going westward on the Boston and Albany, a heavy up-hill grade is reached at Chester. The rest of the way lies in a country of hills. A pleasing prospect meets the eye in every direction. There is nothing sublime and majestic to inspire the mind and exhilarate the spirits, but the steadfast, sober hills and the quiet valleys in nature’s soft colors are restful alike to body and soul. ”

“ The country, after passing the Schuylkill, is pleasingly diversified with rising grounds and woods, and appears to be in a good state of cultivation. The first town of any note which you come to is Chester, fifteen miles from Philadelphia; this town contains about sixty dwellings, and is remarkable for being the place where the first colonian assembly sat. From the neighbourhood of this town there is a very grand view of the river Delaware. ”

“ On the corresponding estuary of the Mersey stands Birkenhead, the bustling modern port of Cheshire; but it was at Chester that Milton's college mate had embarked for another haven than the one he reached.
Chester itself is to many an American tourist the old-world city first seen and best remembered. Liverpool and Birkenhead are of to-day, but Chester, walled, turreted, with its arched gateways, its timber-and-plaster houses, its gables and lattices, its quaint Rows, its cathedral, is the mediæval made actual. ”

“ Mary’s Church, a most interesting edifice, worthy of the tourist’s examination.
Opposite St. Olave’s Church, before mentioned, is an old house, formerly occupied by the Gamul family, which possesses great interest from the fact of its having given protection to Charles I. during the siege of Chester by the Parliamentary forces. There is some very curious painted panel work and beautiful carving in the interior, which render it well worthy of inspection. A little higher up is an antiquated building called “The Falcon Inn,” a fine specimen of the old timber houses of Chester. ”

“ If the romantic be measured by its hostility to our modern notions of convenience, Chester is probably the most romantic city in the world. This arrangement is endlessly rich in opportunities for amusing effect, but the full charm of the architecture of which it is so essential a part must be observed from the street below. Chester is still an antique town, and mediæval England sits bravely under her gables. Every third house is a "specimen"—gabled and latticed, timbered and carved, and wearing its years more or less lightly. ”

“ Paul’s Church.—The Spital and George Marsh.—Roman Altar.—St. John Street, and Mechanics’ Institution.—Roman Catholic Convent.—St. John’s Church and Ruins.—Jacob’s Well, and the Anchorite’s Cell.—The Groves and the Dee.
What a strange old place this Chester of ours is! As we retrace our steps under the Northgate and the Walls, we seem as if roaming through a city of the middle ages; so oddly does everything around us arrest our attention, and “excite our passing wonder.” ”

“ Chester is one of the interior towns of Orange County, situated on the main line Erie Railroad, which together with the Newburgh branch, Lehigh and Hudson and Orange County Railroads, make up the chief commercial outlets to the ports on the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. ”

“ West Chester is in a farming country with important market gardens and dairy farms; among its manufactures arc dairy implements, foundry and machine-shop products and carriage and wagon materials. The factory product in 1905 was valued at $2,121,185. There are several large nursery farms here. West Chester was first settled in 1713, succeeded Chester as the county-seat in 1784–1786, and was incorporated as a town in 1788 and as a borough in 1799. ”

“ With all his strength, he was restful.
“I feel like a new man at this time of the year,” returned Allison, glancing at Gail with cool appreciation. A car full of men passed them, and the looks they cast in his runabout pleased him. “Gail, do you remember the first time we drove out here?”
“Indeed yes,” she laughed. “With the snow in our eyes, and the roads all white, with the lights gleaming through the flakes like Arctic will-o’-the-wisps. We ran away that night, and dined at Roseleaf Inn, and worried 272the folks to death, for fear we had had an accident.” ”

“ At an early age Chester became a teacher in a school at Ballston, New York, and in 1837 clerk in a land agency office in Warren, Ohio. In 1838, in his seventeenth year, he went to New York and commenced the study of the law, but soon abandoned it for the mercantile profession, and was employed as a clerk by Tappan & Co., silk merchants. His literary tastes were early developed; while in New York he contributed articles to the newspapers and magazines of the day, chiefly of a poetic character. ”

“ Immediately beyond this room is the Pentice or Council Chamber, where the mayor and magistrates settle the accounts of the drunk and disorderly, and take preliminary depositions in cases of felony, &c. This room, in which the Mayor is also annually chosen by the Council, has on its walls full-length portraits of George III., several members of the Grosvenor family, and of William Cross, Esq., the first Reform Mayor of Chester. Yonder series of large panels, contain portraits of Owen Jones, Offley, and other famous benefactors to the poor of the city. ”

“ Perhaps it is true; certainly it was a very convenient arrangement for discouraging an untimely visit. The oval lookouts in porches, common in our Essex County, have been said to answer a similar purpose, that of warning against the intrusion of undesirable visitors. The walk round the old wall of Chester is wonderfully interesting and beautiful. At one part it overlooks a wide level field, over which the annual races are run. I noticed that here as elsewhere the short grass was starred with daisies. They are not considered in place in a well-kept lawn. ”

“ Traces of the work of that wonderful people still remain on our walls, and on the rocky brows which surround them; and excite the attention, and reward the diligence of the antiquarian. Those pigs of lead, the produce of Roman industry, which are first mentioned, in ‘Camden’s Britannia,’ as being found in the neighbourhood of Chester, and two of which have recently been discovered, are memorials of the early period at which the mineral wealth of this district was known, and of the commerce to which it gave rise. ”

“ That they shall take who have the power,
And they shall keep who can.
From this period to the Conquest, Chester has nothing of a tale to tell; but on the accession of William the Conqueror, he created his nephew Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, at the same time investing him with supreme authority throughout the county and city, so that he held as absolute a regal sway within those limits as the king himself had in his dominions. ”

“ They even seemed to leer down at the Reverend Smith Boyd, as if his being the only clean thing in the street were an impertinence, which they would soon rectify. It had been comparatively dry in the brighter streets of New York, but here, in Vedder Court, there was perpetual moisture, which seemed to cling, and to stick, and to fasten its unwholesome scum permanently on everything. Never had the tangle of smudge-coated children seemed so squalid; never had the slatternly women seemed so unfeminine; never had the spineless looking men seemed so shuffling and furtive and sodden ”