Settlement of Old Chester County, Pennsylvania

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From: Source:Rupp, 1846

Penn, on his first arrival, remained only one year and ten months in the Province; during that time he caused the city of Philadelphia to be laid out, and three counties, namely, Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester, to be erected in Pennsylvania. The organization of these counties was completed by the appointment of sheriffs and other officers. Before Penn sailed for Europe, August 16, 1684, there had been about three thousand inhabitants in Pennsylvania. .» In 1699, William Penn and his family once more visited the province, and remained till November 1st, 1701, when he sailed for England, never to return again. In 1712 he was seized by apoplectic fits, which so afflicted his mind as to render him unfit for business for the last six years of his life. He died July 30, 1718, at Rushcomb, near Twyford, in Buckinghamshire, England, aged about seventy-four years. From the time Penn first arrived, the influx of immigrants was constantly on the increase. English, Welsh, Germans, Irish, French, and others sought a home in the new province. Settlements were gradually extended north, northwest, and west from Philadelphia, towards the Susqtiehanna river— many settled in the midst of the Indians. Among others, as pioneer settlers, a considerable distance from Philadelphia, were Vincent Caldwell, Thomas Wickersham, Joel Bailey, Thomas Hope and Guyan Miller, Quakers, who settled in Kennet, Chester county, 1706 or 7. Prior to that, however, some adventurers had been among the Indians at Conestoga. Of this number was one Lewis Michelle, who had been sent out, in the year 1703 or 4, by individuals from the Canton of Bern, in Switzerland, to search for vacant lands in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Carolina.* About the same time there were some Indian traders among the traders on the Susque- hanna, viz: Joseph Jessop, James Le Tort, Peter Bazalion, Martin Chartier, Nicole Goden, and others—all Frenchmen. s Le Tort afterwards (1720) fixed his cabin at Carlisle. The first permanent and extensive settlement made near the Susquehanna, was commenced by some Swiss immigrants —they were persecuted Mennonites, who had fled from the Cantons of Zurich, Bern, Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, to Alsace, above Strasburg, where they had remained some time before they immigrated to America, in 1707 or 1708, and settled in the western part of Chester, now Lancaster county, near Pequea creek, within the present limits of West Lampe- ter township, where they purchased ten thousand acres of land. The principal individuals of this colony were John Rudolph Bundely, Martin Kendig, Jacob Miller, Hans Herr, Martin Oberholtz, Hans Funk, Michael Oberholtz, Wendel Bowman, Hans Meylin, Peter Yorde, Henry Funk, John Hauser, John Bachman. These settled in the midst of Mingoe, Conestoga, Pequea and Shawanese Indians, from whom they had nothing to fear. They mingled with them in fishing and hunting. In 1708 or 9, some French Huguenots sailed for America; arrived at New York in August, 1709—after spending a year or two at Esopus, in that State, some of them settled in 1712, on Pequea creek, near Paradise—these were the Ferees, Le- Fever's, Dubois and others. Shortly after these, settlements were made in various parts, within the present limits of Lancaster county, by English, Swiss, Germans, Scotch & Irish, principally immigrants—See Article German, and Irish, chap. 2 and 3. Before 1720, settlements had been extended northward beyond the Chickasalunga creek. Donegal township, which was organized in 1722, had been principally settled by Irish, or Scotch immigrants—Among others were the following,— Patterson, Sempel, Mitchell, Hendricks, Speer, Galbraith, Anderson, Scott, Pedan, Porter, Kerr, Sterritt, Kern, Work, Little, Whitehill, Campbell, Lowrey, McClelland, Stevenson, Wilson, Fulton, Allison, Howard, Brown, Dinsmore, Hughs, Robinson, Chambers, McMahen, McDowell, Foster, Crocket, Gilson, Woods, Spear, Bailey, McCracken, Cunningham, Lyon, Bratchey, Mason, Jameson, Hutchison, Cook, Moore, Ramsay, McClure, McFarlane, Brenard, Craig, Thomson, Carson, Connelly, Patton, Gallaher, Stewart, Boggs, Kelly, Ramsay. Settlements were now made northward, and along the Sus- quehanna river. John Harris, a native of Yorkshire, England, had made an attempt, prior to 1725, to settle near the mouth of Coney creek, not far from the present site of Bainbridge; but it seems he preferred to settle higher up the Sus- quehanna, near an Indian village called Peixtan, at or near the present site of Harrisburg. Harris was in a few years followed by others, principally emigrants direct from the north of Ireland, and some from Donegal township, whose names will be given in the sequel. See Dauphin county. At this time settlements were also made on the west side of the Susquehanna, within the present limits of York county, by Germans; and some English, intruders from Maryland, and some Irish on Marsh creek. Samuel Bluntson, agent for the proprietors, had received a commission dated January 11, 1733-4, by which he was authorized to grant licenses to settle and take up lands on the west side of the Susquehanna. The first license issued by him, was dated January 23, 1733-34. The settlements having become considerably extended, and the population augmented by an influx of a mixed population —immigrants from abroad, and natives of the province, the inhabitants of the upper parts of Chester coir.ty deemed it necessary as early as 1728, to avoid inconveniences arising daily from the want of "justice at e\-ery man's door," to petition the proper authorities to erect, and establish a new county—a county out of the upper parts of Chester, was erected in 1729, in a separate county, called " Lancaster county." Lancaster then, and till 1749, embraced York, Cumberland, part of Berks, and all the contiguous counties— Dauphin was a part of Lancaster county till March 4th, 1785. The tide of immigration was still westward. Some Irish and Scotch adventurers crossed the Susquehanna at Peixtan, Peshtank, or Paxton, and commenced settlements about the years 1730-31, in the Kittochtinny Valley, or " North Valley," west of the Susquehanna, at Falling Springs and other places, till they extended from the "Long, Crooked River"* to the Maryland Province, about the year 1736. Several hundred names of the first settlers in this valley will be given when speaking of Cumberland and Franklin counties. Passing, it might be remarked, that all the earliest settlements made in Lancaster, York and Cumberland, were commenced when the Indians were still numerous: when they, and the white settlers chased, in common, the deer, the bear, and other game, and angled in the same stream teeming with the finny race—when they greeted each other with the endearing appellation, " brothers." When the young Indian and white lad cheerily tried their skill as wrestlers and archers; each striving to gain the mastery, without any grudge toward each other. According to Heckewelder, Susquehanna, is derived from the Indian word, Sa-os-que-ha-an-unk; meaning, " Iong-crooked-River."