Emma C. Patterson wrote "Your Town and My Town" for the Suburban & Wayne Times from 1949 to 1958. It was written during a time when Wayne's founders were still around to reminisce about the area's development. The articles are a wealth of information, with many names and places referenced.

The same way historic photographs of Radnor can tell us a great deal about their subjects, Ms. Patterson's writing draws a vivid picture of Radnor's history as seen from the lens of the mid-20th Century. At that point venerable institutions that no longer function were still alive in full swing, longtime residents who could remember back to Wayne's agrarian past could still share their memories, and there was enough community interest that the Suburban was willing to print such extensive and descriptive columns week after week for nearly a decade.

Locked in fading newsprint, tucked away inside crumbling scrapbooks for fifty years, each article by Emma C. Patterson is reproduced here in full, in an easy to navigate searchable blog format.

Browse an index of all articles

Main Line School Night, part 3 – Wayne School Night

/ Emma C. Patterson

From its beginning in the late winter and early spring of 1938 until the fall term of October, 1940, Wayne School Night followed in a general way the original pattern set by its founders when they first conceived the idea in December, 1937. As stated in earlier columns, our local adult school was an adaptation of a highly successful experiment conceived a few years earlier in Maplewood, N. J. Then in the fall of 1940 Lower Merion joined forces with Radnor, thus inaugurating Main Line School Night. Plans called for a fall semester in Wayne each year, and a spring semester in the Lower Merion High School in Ardmore.

For four terms this joint program continued in existence, at first a highly successful one enthusiastically backed by the people of the two adjacent townships and participated in by many from neighboring communities. During the fall term of 1941, however, war clouds were darkening the horizon. In December the catastrophe of Pearl Harbor shook America from coast to coast. The fall term was almost over . . . the School Night board hesitated before launching on its plans for a spring term.

Eventually the decision to continue was made . . . the new catalogue invited the public to “take a vacation from trouble and care . . . come to School Night.”. It was a time of unrest and uncertainty . . . the beginning of a year that saw America’s entry into a war that was to last four long years, for her. Citizens of Lower Merion and Radnor townships and all their neighbors were busy with other matters than “School Night”. There were Civil Defense meetings and classes, Red Cross was organizing classes in First Aid and Home Nursing, Nurses Aides, Gray Ladies. The suburbs were buzzing with wartime activities.

Enrollment in “School Night” classes dropped off from their former high level. Attendance in these classes grew less and less. And then came gas rationing . . . With School Night finances at a low level never before experienced, its Board gave up the struggle. There were no more sessions until March, 1948, when the cheery caption on the on the catalogues stated that “By popular request, School Night again brings you an adult Education Program.”

This brief summary, however, passes over far too lightly the story of School Night up to its revival in the Spring of 1948, the School Night as it will go into its 16th semester on Monday evening, February 12, in Lower Merion High School. To go back a bit . . . on March 27, 1939, the very first annual meeting was held, with thirty members of our community sufficiently interested to serve as directors. Following the general meeting, these directors elected an Executive Board composed of Harry C. Creutzburg as president; T. Bayard Beatty as vice-president; Jason L. Fenimore as treasurer, with Mrs. T. Magill Patterson, Douglas C. Wendell and Paul Clark to complete the Board.

The semester just ending has offered 28 courses. Of the 844 registrants at the time of the annual meeting, 454 had come from outside the township while 390 were residents of it. The significance of this was a little difficult to determine. Perhaps it was because the fame of Wayne’s Adult Education program was spreading all the while. At any rate, before the semester was over, the total registration was approximately 1000.

Thirty courses were offered in the fall of 1939, when registration could be made to William L. Caley, of Wayne, registrar, by mail or in person. There were also registration stations in Ardmore and in Norristown. “Marriage and Family Relationships”, with the Rev. John Scott Everton as moderator, was one of the specially featured courses for those “18 years or older”. Mr. Everton was then pastor of the Wayne Baptist Church. A “Last Minute Flash” announced a Current Events Course “covering world news combined, whenever possible, with a critical analysis of the main currents of propaganda flooding into America over the air and on the printed page.” This was given by Joseph H. Forrest, of Radnor High School.

Other Wayne instructors included Leo M. Curtin, then Director of Physical Education at Radnor High School, who kept three games of indoor baseball going every Monday night. T. Bayard Beatty, Jr., taught a class in pencil drawing; Elizabeth B. McCord conducted a course on “Books of the Day”; Franklin F. Trainer, Jr., had a class in photography so popular that there had to be two sections of it while Henry V. Andrews had another two-section class in public speaking. Isabel Jacobs Ruth taught “Dynamic Diction”, O. Howard Wolfe had a lecture course in “Money and Banking”, C. Chauncey Butler, then instructor in Mathematics in Radnor High School taught “Mathematics for Fun!” Charles C. Smith, also of the High School faculty, had a class in “Frontiers of Modern Science”. Mary Jacobs Wright and Edith Wood Atkinson taught “Contract Bridge”, while James Veeder had charge of “Social Dancing”. In short more than half of the 30 courses had local instructors.

(To be continued)

Main Line School Night, part 4 – “Associated Adult School of Suburban Philadelphia

/ Emma C. Patterson

The Spring term of 1940 was the last which Wayne School Night operated alone. Plans were already well underway for the merger with Lower Merion and by September, 1940, catalogues advertised “The New Radnor-Lower Merion Center of Education, Culture, Fun, The Mecca of the Main Line.” Twenty-nine courses were offered, including one on the “Historic Main Line,” by Harry Emerson Wildes, author of “Valley Forge”, “The Delaware” and “Anthony Wayne.” Another course with a nostalgic backward look was the “Epic of American Transportation.” which featured talks on “Wayside Inns and Conestoga Wagon Days”, “Steamboats on the River,” “From Turnpike to Super Highway” and many others.

In contrast to these two courses one was called “America Looks Ahead”, which attempted to answer some of the questions to be raised by a war that was still only on the horizon as far as our country was concerned. Ten eminent students of world affairs discussed different aspects of America’s future. Among them were Dr. Felix Morley, president of Haverford College; Jesse H. Holmes, professor of Philosophy, Swarthmore College; Dr. Ernest Minor Patterson, president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and Wilheim Sollman, formerly secretary of the Interior under Chancellor Stresemann of Germany. School Night was attempting to help its students to face the country’s problems squarely.

By this time the “Associated Adult Schools of Suburban Philadelphia” had held several area meetings under the leadership of Mr. Creutzburg, who had been elected president of that group of seven schools. These soon included Upper Darby, Nether Providence, Pitman, N. J., Swarthmore, Cheltenham and Narberth, in addition to the Main Line group. Organized originally as a discussion group when problems common to all the adult schools could be discussed, it had become an invaluable source of information and guidance for new adult schools as they were established.

The school when it went out of existence in 1942 was still operating under Mr. Creutzburg as president; Raymond P. Worrell as vice-president; R. Leland Smaltz as secretary; S. Eugene Kuen, Jr., Philadelphia, as treasurer, and an executive committee composed of Jason L. Fenimore, Wayne; Jacqueline Link, Merion; Wendell B. Stewart, Cynwyd, and Guier S. Wright, Bryn Mawr. These had been chosen from a Board of Directors made up of 15 representatives from Radnor and Lower Merion townships.

In the Spring of 1948, after a silence of almost six years School Night, “by popular request”, was again with us. A short term of six weeks started on March 18 in Lower Merion High School. Its success warranted the resumption of the once-popular adult education program with its Full term held in Radnor High School and its spring term at Lower Merion.

By the Fall term of 1948, the 11th semester for School Night, the even balance between representation from the two townships had again been struck on the Board of Directors. Assisting Mr. Creutzburg as president were R. D. Kreitler as vice-president, Robert W. Trout as secretary and Harry M. Buten as treasurer.

On Monday night of this week, Lincoln’s Birthday, the 16th semester of Main Line School Night inaugurated the first of its ten sessions at Lower Merion. Enrollment was almost 1000 by registration night on February 5, according to Walter Whetstone, Jr., the registrar. This will probably reach about 1300 by the beginning of the second class on February 19. While this does not reach the all-time high of 1612 students of one year ago, it is still an indication of the lasting interest felt in Pennsylvania’s first adult education school, founded in Wayne in February, 1938.

(For the material used in these few articles the writer is indebted to Mr. Creutzburg and to Douglas C. Wendell. The latter kept publicity scrap books concerning School Night which are of increasing value as the years go by.)

The forming of Delaware County, part 1 – Chester County

/ Emma C. Patterson

In browsing through the books on local history on the shelves of our Radnor Memorial Library, this columnist found several weighty tomes on “Southeastern Pennsylvania”. Its sub-title indicates that it is “A History of the Counties of Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Schuylkill”. Delaware County alone has eight chapters devoted to such aspects as “Organization”, “Industrial Development”, “Professions”, “Educational Developments”, etc. Published in 1943 by the Lewis Historical Publishing Company, and with J. Bennett Nolan as supervising editor, this book is practically an encyclopedia of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Many times the writer of this column has led her readers along the pathways of the past few hundred years in Radnor Township and neighboring sections. She had never even speculated upon Delaware County as it was “a thousand million years ago”, nor does it much concern her now. But it is of passing interest to know that the rock foundation of the county is said to be of the earliest types known. They represent the residue of the first processes of hardening, soon after the earth, a molten, whirling ball of celestial matter, chilled sufficiently to land.

“A thousand million years ago– the county was a part of the sea and then the earth formation was squeezed above sea level. In time it was shoved into high mountain peaks, followed by another sinking era that brought the sea over the county area again. The land reverted to a monotonous plain, then, untouched by the glacial scratchings and plowings of the Ice Sheet, it gradually assumed the rolling surface it has today”.

So much for Delaware County of a thousand million years ago, at least we know how to account for the rolling surface of our fair county of today.

To start at a time now almost 350 years ago, the first white men to come to this section were probably those who sailed with Henry Hudson, English captain of a ship owned by the East India Company of the Chamber of Amsterdam in 1609. Early records show that they sailed off the Capes of the Delaware River on August 28 of that year. A few years later two Dutch captains, one Cornelius Jacobson May and the other Cornelius Hendrickson, sailed up the Delaware River. Early records are hazy as to the exact dates, but it seemed quite certain that the Dutch were the first white settlers. Later came the Swedes.

The Indians, whom the early Dutch and Swedes found along the Delaware River, were the Lenni Lenape groups and the Iroquois. The former were probably the most peaceful of the Indians along the Atlantic seaboard. When the early white settlers arrived they were paying tribute to the more war-like Iroquois. Essentially peaceful themselves, the Lenni Lenapes were naturally suspicious of the early settlers. As a consequence, they wiped out a small settlement made by the Dutch West Indian Company near the present town of Lewes, Del.

After Finns had joined Dutch and Swede settlers, the first seat of government in the present Delaware County area was established on Ti— Island under John —– ——, a former calvary officer in his native Finland. This was in 1643, the same year that the town of Upland, later to become Chester, was settled. With the establishement of Tininleum and Upland the area which is now Delaware County definitely enters the picture.

In 1664, England took over the colony William Penn was made its proprietor. English settlers immediately flocked into the region until the Finns and Swedes were very much in the minority. And from that time on the section became an English colony. William Penn, himself, resided for some time in Upland.

The colony continued to grow in spite of countless quarrels between the government, assembly and the heirs of Penn, who died in 1718 in England, where he had gone a few years earlier to protect his rights. Many citizens of Chester County, together with other colonists, were moving toward a break with England, a movement, which as it became more general, ended in the War of the Revolution.

Even before the war Chester County had become a very important area of Pennsylvania. The fact that the town of Chester was the county seat aroused a good deal of controversy since there were many who thought that official business should be conducted in a more central location. The war temporarily put an end to problems of a local character among the colonists. This particular one arose again, however, as soon as the war was over. It ended in September, 1789, when the Pennsylvania Legislature authorized the division of Chester County into two separate counties,the new one to be called Delaware County. Thus our county became an entity.

The old Chester County area was split as equally as possible, care being taken that farm areas should not be divided. Chester was again a county seat, this time of Delaware County. The first county elections were held in October, 1789, when a sheriff, coroner and five justices of the peace were elected under the State Constitution of 1776. On February 9, 1790. Court was first held in Delaware County and on March 2, the first Orphans Court was seated.

It was not until November, 1845, however, that the first direct step was taken to select a more accessible county seat. At a meeting held then it was decided that each township should hold an election to choose delegates to discuss the relocation of this center of county government. After a number of locations were considered, the delegation petitioned the State Legislature to provide legal means for deciding the issue.

“Removalists” and “Anti-removalists” now opposed each other on this issue. A bill to permit the controversy to gain public action was defeated. However, the Legislature later passed an act permitting the question to come to a vote. The Removalists won on October 12, 1847.

In 1849 the county commissioners bought 48 acres of land in Upper Providence Township. The new tract cost $5760, and because it occupied a central location, the name chosen for the new county seat was Media. The first courthouse was completed in May, 1851, and the first session was held in its halls in August of that year, with Judge Henry Chapman on the bench.

(To be continued)

The forming of Delaware County, part 2 Conestoga Road

/ Emma C. Patterson

In the early days of the colonization of Pennsylvania, Delaware County had the unique experience of a crown appointed proprietor in the person of William Penn. His advanced ideals and social theories gave the people of this section their first experience in real democratic government.

Very early in its political existence Delaware County gave its support to the Republican Party. Indirectly, this was due in a great measure to the large Quaker residency in the county. Always interested in matters of justice and humanitarianism, Quaker sympathy was with the freedom of the slaves from the time their freedom became an issue. Even as early as the American Revolution citizens of Delaware COunty went on record as opposing slavery.

So although political opinion was generally Federalistic before the Civil War, the majority of voters of Delaware and Chester Counties naturally agreed with teh political philosophy of the Republican Party when it was organized-and to this day Delaware County has, generally speaking, remained a bulwark of Republicanism.

It was in October 1682 that Penn first set foot upon his property in Upland, which in about 1700 was to be re-named Chester. A memorial shaft at the corner of Front and Penn Streets marks the place of his landing as he came up the Delaware River. A little more than a year earlier Deputy Governor William Markham, representing his cousin, Penn, had established Upland as the seat of the Colonial Government of Pennsylvania. Penn chartered it as a borough on October 13, 1701. The courthouse, built in 1724 near what is now Fifth and Market Streets, is said to be the oldest consecutively used public building in the entire country.

Chester is the only city in Delaware County, having been incorporated by an Act of Assembly on February 13, 1866. It belongs in the third class group. In addition to this one city, there are 25 boroughs and 21 townships, Radnor and Concord, each with an area of 13.80 square miles are the largest in the county.

Townships are divided into two groups, first class and second class, according to their “needs, development, and density of population” rather than population itself. Those having a population of 300 or more persons per square mile are first class and all others are second class.  Radnor will this month celebrate its 50th anniversary as a first class township.

Strictly speaking, Pennsylvania’s settlers were not pioneers. Some others had preceded them along the Delaware River. When they arrived they found other white men as well as an Indian population. In the most part, the latter were friendly and already accustomed to trading food and materials for warm clothing. However, to the newcomers was to fall the work of clearing, since the greater part of what is now Delaware County was then virgin forest.

Most of these settlers arrived in the late summer or early fall since summer is the least hazardous season in which to cross the Atlantic in a small craft. Their first task was to build a shelter against the elements. Since timber was plentiful and lime was available these shelters usually took the form of crude log houses. When the snows of winter melted, the work of clearing was resumed. For the most stumps were left in the ground, and these with the field stones which also remained, meant that the lot which the farmer ploughed was a very rough one.

However, the soil was not really rocky, and the crops were mostly good from the wheat, corn, rye, oats, flax and tobacco which were sown. Prior to the Revolutionary was livestock belonging to the settlers of Delaware COunty roamed at large. According tot he laws of the Duke of York all cattle, sheep, goats, hogs and horses were to be branded by their owners as a means of identification. For all parts of the county domestic fowls such as we have today were common. These included chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys.

Of some of the earliest roads there is no exact record. Conestoga Road, which was originally an Indian trail from the Delaware to the Susquehanna River, divides Radnor Township almost diagonally. It was opened as a series of links in the chain of communication between Philadelphia and the West. The section extending from Merion Meetinghouse to Radnor was first laid out. This was later extended from Radnor to Moore’s Mill, as Downingtown was then called. The entire route was resurveyed in 1741. From these records we learn that among the stations were Radnor Meeting House and Jerman’s Run. Another early road, the old Lancaster Turnpike, has been frequently described in this column.

All of these early roads, as petitions show, were intended to provide ways “to mill, to market and to meeting”. The mills played an important part in the lives of Pennsylvania’s early settlers. Grist mills and sawmills were often established together for seasonal reasons, just as the ice and coal business were combined at a later time. Even before Penn’s settlers had arrived, Swedes had established a gristmill on the early bank of Cobbs Creek. The earliest mill known to have been in Delaware County was established in 1683 on Chester Creek near Upland, by a partnership of ten men, of whom one was William Penn himself. It was “brought ready-framed from London, and served for grinding corn and sawing boards”. From this beginning many other mills sprang up all over Delaware County, among them a gristmill operated in Radnor in 1710 by one William Davis.

(To be continued)

The forming of Delaware County, part 3 (industries) – William Penn

/ Emma C. Patterson

In last week’s column we wrote of the many mills in Delaware County in the early days, the first one of which there is record being the grist mill established on Chester Creek in 1683 by a partnership of ten men, of whom William Penn was one. Among later mills of this type was the one operated in Radnor Township by William Davis in the early 1700’s. On the whole, however, Radnor Township had fewer mills and tanneries than most of its neighbors. This was due, according tot he historians who compiled the comprehensive volume on “Southeastern Pennsylvania”, to the fact that the creeks in the Township “were not large enough to produce a large quantity of power, and transportation difficulties discouraged 19th century industrialists.”

Among the many other types of mills that flourished generally throughout Delaware County were fulling mills. These were for the preparation of felt, for which there must have been extensive use in those early days since there are records of so many of these mills, particularly on “the famous Darby River”. One advertisement tells of a fulling mill in this vicinity where one could have “woolen cloth or druggets, milled, dyed, sheared and pressed; tammies and duroys scoured and pressed, and cloth or yarn dyed blue”.

Other types of mills which seemed to have been productive were those for the manufacture of such varied commodities as paper, leather, blades, snuff, powder, cotton yarn, flour, carpets, silk yarn and woolen goods.

Tanneries were not one of the very early industrial developments of Delaware County, although by the middle of the 18th Century there were a number of flourishing ones. Among these was a tan yard operated in Radnor in 1766 and 1767 by Adam Siter. There were apparently no forges or furnaces in Delaware County until about the same time as when tanneries became an important industry. This absence of early furnaces and forges was due in part to the lack of the iron ore which is so plentiful in some other parts of Pennsylvania. One of the earliest forges was one at Leiperville on Crum Creek while another was at the present Glen Mills.

Among the most interesting of these old time mills were those for the manufacture of paper. As early as 1729 the famous Willcox Paper Mills, then called the Ivy Mills, prepared paper for the United States Treasury Department, as well as for the governments of South America and for certain of the European countries.

During the 20th Century innumerable new industries have made their appearance in Delaware County. Few of these, however, are in Radnor Township. For the most part they center in the Chester district, the city of Chester itself being one of the outstanding ports and centers of industry along the Atlantic seaboard. Among the businesses with national and sometimes international fame are the Scott Paper Company, the Viscose Company, Congoleum, Nairn, Inc., Sun Shipbuilding Company, Sun Oil, Pure Oil, and Sinclair Refining Companies. Still others are Baldwin Locomotive Works, Westinghouse Electric, Aberfoyle Manufacturing Company for making cotton materials, General Steel Castings Corporation and Ford Motor Company.

From that first Delaware County grist mill established by William Penn and his partners in 1683 until now, when the County is a veritable center of all sorts of industries, is after all but a matter of a little more than 250 years.  IN that comparatively short time our county has become a “vital workshop . . . of which America can be proud”, to quote once more from our history of “Southeastern Penn-eastern Pennsylvania”.

With the growth of machine-operated industries came problems of labor. Early in the 19th Century a movement for a shorter day’s work began in both England and America. In February, 1836, a meeting to oppose the long hour system was held by employees of cotton mills on Chester Creek. In May of the same year the group demanded higher wages or less hours of labor. These were among the first “labor meetings” in the country, since they presented the demands of the employees as a unit.

Soon meetings similar to the one held by the employees of the Chester County cotton-mills were held throughout all Delaware County. With the aid of the press, these groups compelled the State to pass a ten hour law in July, 1848, with the Delaware County representative in the Legislature strongly advocating the measure. Many persons contended, however, that the government could not determine by law how long a man should work. But by 1855 the law was really effective. It is interesting to note that this statute also prohibited the employment of children under thirteen years of age. A fine of fifty dollars was to be imposed for non-observance of this new statute.

Even as early as 1836 the employees of Crozer’s West Branch Mills called a strike to protest the discharge of one of its group. Later they held another strike to obtain higher wages. Though records do not show to what extent these strikers obtained their ends, they do indicate the birth of groups of employees working together for a common benefit. Now some hundred and more years later labor unions are so strong in Delaware County that the employees of every large industry are affiliated with the CIO, the AFL or a local company union.

(To be continued)

The forming of Delaware County, part 4 (churches) – Old St. David’s Church, St. Mary’s Episcopal, Radnor Baptist Church

/ Emma C. Patterson

Whatever the different motivating factors behind the coming of the early settlers from Europe to the New World which was America, these people were on the whole extremely religious. William Penn, when he sailed up the Delaware River to land at Upland, found that the Swedes and the Dutch both had established places of worship, humble though they were.

The Swedes, who had made the first European settlement in Pennsylvania of which we have any record, that at Tinicum, in Delaware County, had been given land for the erection of the log church by their governor, John Printz. To this small edifice on Tinicum island members of its congregation came in canoes from their various settlements along the Delaware River. Reverend John Campanius, who had some to America with Governor Printz, was then pastor, a man who has been called Delaware County’s first prominent theologian.

Born in Sweden in 1601, Campanius died in 1683 after spending 40 years of his life as a missionary among the Delaware Indians, and as pastor of that first little Lutheran Church on Tinicum Island. The first leader of a religious denomination in Pennsylvania, he had completed the earliest translation of a European language into an Indian one before returning to his native Sweden in 1649. This translation was that of the Lutheran Catechism into the Delaware Indian tongue.

Of the first little log church on Tinicum Island nothing is left to indicate even the location, or that of the graveyard connected with it. Its congregation transferred its affiliation to other churches, and at about the beginning of the Eighteenth century the small edifice fell into ruin. The second Lutheran congregation in Delaware County was organized in 1878 by —– in Chester. Others sprang up from time to time until now there are a large number of churches of that denomination scattered throughout the county.

The Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, held meetings in Upland as early as 1675. A few years later a group of them purchased a lot on what is now Edgemont Avenue in Chester where they erected a place of worship in 1691. However, the very first meeting house to be built in Delaware County was that in nearby Haverford Township. This was erected in 1688-89. Radnor Meeting was another of the very early structures having been built shortly after Haverford Meeting. The present lovely old edifice, dating back to 1718, is one of the landmarks of Radnor Township, as is the Old Store across Conestoga Road, where the friends who later made up Radnor Meeting congregation met before their own first little church was built.

The second oldest church structure in the county is one as familiar to most of Wayne’s citizens as any of its own churches, picturesque Old St. Davids, located in Newtown Township. This small ivy covered Episcopalian Church on the slope of a hill amid towering trees dates back to a period prior to 1700, when its congregation was first organized. For one half century after the original small structure was built, no floor was laid and no pews built. The congregation sat on benches, originally furnished by the occupants. The old graveyard with its crumbling headstones surrounds the church on three sides. Among the graves is that of “Mad” Anthony Wayne of Revolutionary fame.

Among other very old Episcopal churches in the county are St. Paul’s in Chester, completed in 1702, and St. John’s in Concord Township, built only slightly later. In about 1725 “the Chapel” at Marcus Hook was built. It remained nameless until 1760 when the brick structure which replaced the original small frame one was called St. Martin’s. In our own township, the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Rosemont, was organized in 1869 after meetings had been held for several years at Woodfield, and at the residence of Mrs. Supplee in Radnor. The corner stone for the church building was laid in 1871. Since then the chapel, the parish house and the rectory have been added.

St. Mary’s Memorial Episcopal Church in Wayne was erected in 1890, after eight years of preliminary meetings, while St. Martin’s in Radnor has been active since 1887.

The Baptist Church in Birmingham Township, Delaware County, was the third of that denomination in the state of Pennsylvania. A log meeting house was built in 1718 after a period of years in which meetings were held in private homes. In 1770 the log structure was replaced by a stone building which sufficed until the present church was built a hundred years later.

Radnor Baptist Church originated over the anti-slavery agitation in Great Valley Baptist Church, when Rev. Leonard Fletcher and his followers, who were opposed to slavery, asked for letters to form a new church. These letters were granted to 79 persons, who formed Radnor Baptist Church in 1841. They purchased the “Radnor Scientific and Musical Hall” which they used for a church building until 1890. Later the Central Baptist Church of Wayne was organized with the original building still standing between Lancaster Pike and West Wayne avenues, near the center of Wayne.

As early as the beginning of the 18th Century there were log cabin Presbyterian Churches in Delaware County, with thier congregations made up principally of Scotch-Irish immigrants. The first Presbyterian Church in Delaware County was organized in Middletown Township in about 1728. In 1762 the log cabin was replaced by a stone building to which the congregation brought their own charcoal foot-stoves. In 1879 this building was destroyed by fire. But before the year was out a new edifice had been dedicated, and quite recently a new church wing built on colonial lines has been added to the older structure.

In 1818, the Philadelphia Presbytery ordered two churches established, one in Springfield and the other in Aston Township. The former never even reached the point of organization. Of the latter, which was known as the Blue Church, or Mount Gilead, nothing now remains of the building which became inactive after a few years of existence.

Among other Delaware County Presbyterian Churches that were organized a hundred years or more ago are the Marple Church near Broomall, built in 1835; the Darby Presbyterian Church, originally started along Congregational principles in 1845; the Presbyterian Church of Darby Borough, founded by twenty people in 1851; a Presbyterian’s chapel in Todmorton, originally built for employees of Crookville Mills in 1850, and Leeper’s Church in Ridley Township, built before 1850.

The Wayne Presbyterian Church was organized almost 51 years ago in June, 1870. The first church building, still standing to the East of the present one, was built by J. Henry Askin on land which he had donated. He also built the first manse, the large white house facing South on Lancaster avenue, several blocks from the church. This old Manse is now the home of Mr. Walter Lister.

(To be continued)

The forming of Delaware County, part 5 (churches) – Thomas Willcox

/ Emma C. Patterson

Last week’s column told of early Lutheran, Quaker, Episcopalian, Baptist and Presbyterian churches that were established in Delaware County, dating back to the small log cabin church on Tinicum Island, built by Swedish colonists some years before the coming of William Penn. The other two of the seven major denominations, the Methodist Church and the Catholic Church, also established themselves early in the life of our county.

The Methodist denomination, which has the greatest number of church edifices as well as the largest membership in the county, saw part of its earliest beginnings right in Radnor township. The Radnor Methodist Church on Conestoga road goes back to the primitive days of Methodism in America. As described in a series of articles in this column in November and December, the first meetings were held in “The Mansion House” on Old Lancaster road, the beautiful old James home still standing, and now the property of Mrs. Percival Parrish. In 1784 the first church building was erected on land sold by Evan and Margaret James to Francis Asbury and his assistants. With a steadily increasing membership, both of the Church and the Sunday School, the Radnor Methodist Church has just completed a successful campaign for funds to enlarge the present lovely old edifice, built in 1833 to replace the original structure.

Among other old Methodist churches in Delaware County is the Mt. Hope Methodist-Episcopal Church in Ashton Township, which had its beginning in 1807; the Union Methodist-Episcopal Church in Manoa, organized in 1832. Shortly after the Manoa church was founded, other Methodist churches sprang up throughout the county, including one at Lima, another at Marcus Hook and still another at Upper Darby. The first African Methodist congregation in Delaware county was organized early in the 19th century by a Negro slave, Robert Morris, who met at first with three friends in a private home in Chester. By 1831 they had sufficient funds to build the church now known as Union African Methodist Church. There are now many other African Methodist Churches throughout the entire county with a large aggregate membership.

The first Catholic Masses to be celebrated in Delaware County were those said in the home of Thomas Willcox in Concord in the early 1700’s. The Willcox family is believed to be the oldest Catholic family in all Pennsylvania. Thomas Willcox, who lived in Concord from 1718 until 1779, was the paper manufacturer who established the famous Ivy Mills referred to in a recent article in this column. The number of communicants who met in his home were few in number until about 180, when large immigrations brought more Catholic families.

The chapel which was built in the Willcox mansion and used until 1856, was known as St. Mary’s Church. In that year a new church, St. Thomas the Apostle, was completed and dedicated. Located between Chester Heights and Ivy Mills, it had more than five hundred communicants at this time. However, the very first Catholic edifice to be erected in Delaware county is St. Denis’ Church, built in nearby Haverford township in 1825 and directed by Augustinians since 1853. Chester’s first Catholic Church was St. Michael the Archangel, an imposing edifice built in 1843.

(To be continued)

The forming of Delaware County, part 6 (colleges) – Augustinian College of Villanova in the State of Pennsylvania, Haverford College, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania Military College

/ Emma C. Patterson

Old churches in Delaware County, and others not so old, have been enumerated in the last two issues of this column, along with a brief listing of many of them. The seven major denominations in the county have been the Lutheran, Quaker, Episcopalian, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist and Catholic. Among the churches of the last-named denomination which have not already been named are two of more than passing interest locally. These are the interesting old St. Thomas of Villanova on Lancaster Pike and St. Katharine of Siena, in Wayne. The latter was established about 60 years ago in 1890, with the cornerstone of the church edifice laid on June 9, 1895.

Two church denominations of these seven have been responsible for the establishment of three of Delaware County’s colleges, one of them in Radnor township. Villanova College history began in 1842 with the purchase of a tract of land by the Augustinian Fathers, a teaching order of the Catholic Church. This tract of more than 200 acres, located on Lancaster avenue, was then known as BElle Atre, on which was located the old Rudolph mansion.  It was here that classes were opened in the fall of 1843. The following year a building program was instituted. In 1848, the Fathers had incorporated by an act of legislature as the “Augustinian College of Villanova in the State of Pennsylvania.” THe institution was then given power to grant and confer degrees.

From 1857 until 1865 the college was closed by a financial depression, followed by the Civil War. After it was reopened, however, it prospered greatly, with several new buildings and an enlargement of the faculty and curriculum. Since 1905 the School of Engineering, the School of Science, Chemical Engineering, Commerce and Finance have been added.

Haverford College and Swarthmore College were both established by the Society of Friends, the former in 1830 and the latter in 1864. Haverford stands as the oldest institution of higher learning in Delaware county and has ranking among the best academic colleges in America. Founders Hall, the first building on the campus, was erected in 1833. The college now has some 25 buildings on a site of 216 acres, with an endowment fund of several million dollars.

Swarthmore College was founded on a site in the community of Westdale, named for one of its famous citizens, Benjamin West, the painter. The town later assumed the name of the College. A co-educational institution, it now has more than 237 acres of land and 32 buildings. Its endowment is more than $7,000,000.

Two other well-known Delaware County colleges are Cheyney State Teachers College in Thornbury township and Pennsylvania Military College, located in Chester. The former is the only state-controlled institution of college status in the county. It was founded in 1832 when Richard Humphreys, a West Indian, left $10,000 to form an institution for the education of Negroes. The money was left to the Society of Friends with the understanding that the Society should have charge of the affairs of the foundation. Started in Philadelphia as the Institute for Colored Youth, it later came to Delaware county, where it functioned as a State Normal School, joining 13 other state teachers’ colleges.

Pennsylvania Military College might be called the oldest college in Delaware county if its beginning is considered as the opening of a boarding school for boys in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1823 by an influential Quaker, John Bullock. In 1853 the equipment and good will of the school were sold to Colonel Theodore Hyatt, who was succeeded by his son, General Charles E. Hyatt in 1888. The college is now conducted as a non-profit institution by the Hyatt Foundation, basing its curriculum and student life on a pattern such as is followed at West Point.

Crozer Theological Seminary, located at Upland, began classes with 20 students in 1868. These classes were held in the old buldings of the Upland Normal Institute. Many additions have since been made to the school, including Bucknell Library.

Outstanding among private educational institutions in the county is Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, with it modern plant of 16 buildings. Here boys may prepare for the United States military and naval academies. Another noteworthy county institution is Ellis College at Newtown Square, a fully-accredited boarding school for the education of fatherless girls.

The forming of Delaware County, part 7 (banks & newspapers)

/ Emma C. Patterson

Recent articles in this column have featured the churches and schools of Delaware County with particular reference to those that were established at an early date in the history of the county. These were our institutions of religion and of learning. Equally interesting are our business institutions, among them the banks.

The first bank to be chartered in this county after the “Omnibus Bank Bill” became a State law in March 1814 was teh Bank of Delaware County, doing business in Chester. After the formation of the county the need for banking facilities became evident. With Chester as the county seat and the commercial center of the community, its location there was an obvious one.

Early Swedish and Dutch settlers along the Delaware River found the Indians using a form of currency called wampum-peag. It consisted of white and dark purple beads, shells and stones in long strings. After the early colonists came, trade was conducted chiefly by the barter system. “Country money” consisted of furs, skins and country produce while “ready money” consisted of Spanish, Swedish, Dutch and New England coins.

There were 187 original shareholders from all sections of the county in the Bank of Delaware County when it was founded in 1814. Its first location was in Preston Eyre’s house on West Third street, Chester, where he had conducted a general store for some years. Within a few months’ time a house and lot were purchased on Market Square. After some alterations it was occupied by the bank and remained its home for almost 70 years. In 1864 it incorporated as “The Delaware County National Bank” and in 1882 a new building was erected on the old Market Square site. In 1928 it merged with the Pennsylvania National Bank of Chester and in 1933 a consolidation with the banking department of the Delaware County Trust Company was effected.

It was 50 years after the founding of this first Delaware County bank that in 1864 two more were started, the First National Bank of Chester and the First National Bank of Media, both organized under the National Bank Act passed by Congress in that year. Some 20 years and more later two others were organized, the Delaware County Trust Company, in 1885, and our own Wayne Title and Trust Company in 1890.

Soon after the turn of the century the First National Bank of Clifton Heights and the Swarthmore National Bank and Trust Company were incorporated, the former in 1902, the latter in 1904. Since then a number of other banking institutions have come into existence throughout the entire county.

As Delaware County grew in population and in business, its affairs were chronicled by the early newspapers or journals. The first of these was called the “Post Boy”, because it was delivered by post riders. This quaint old periodical, of which there are only four known copies in existence, was owned by Steuben Bulter and Elijhaleb B. Worthington. Nine years later, in 1826, it was renamed the “Upland Union”, continuing in operation under that title until 1852.

In 1828 a second journal, “The Weekly Visitor”, was established in Chester by William Russell. It was a short-lived publication, however, as it went out of business in 1832. With “The Weekly Visitor” press and equipment the “Delaware County Republican” was founded a year later in Darby. This paper adhered to the Whig principles for a time, later taking up the fight of the new Republican party. Having survived many changes in ownership and in name, it became a daily known as the “Morning Republican” in 1900. Twenty-three years later it merged with the well-known “Chester Times.”

The “Times” itself was founded in September, 1876, by Major John Hodgson, with the principle of stressing local news as its main tenet. By 1882 the Chester Times Publishing Company was formed by 15 leading Delaware County residents. First known as the “Daily Times”, it now became the “Chester Times” and under this name its real progress began. Through many years of changing ownership it continued in existence until November, 1941, when it suspended publication for a short time as the result of a strike of the editorial, advertising, business and circulation emplyes. Shortly thereafter, however, the business was reorganized by a company headed by Alfred G. Hill, of Topeka, Kansas, a veteran newspaperman, under whose direction the paper has reached a new peak of prosperity.

Another very early Delaware County newspaper was “The Delaware County Democrat”, founded in Chester in 1835. Some years later it merged with “The Pilot”, which was started in 1877. Many other newspapers, too numerous to name individually, were established in the county, most of them with but short terms of existence.

Of the more than 30 weeklies now published in Delaware county, only four were in existence before the turn of the century. Among them is “The Suburban”, founded in 1885. The others are “The Weekly Reporter”, a legal journal founded in 1881 and also published in Chester, and “The Rockdale Herald”, a Democratic weekly founded in 1898, and the “Darby Progress.”

In closing the series on the history of Delaware County, which has included something of its early settlers, its native Indians, Penn’s landing and home in Upland, the old mills and tanneries, and other industries, the historical churches and colleges, this columnist wishes to acknowledge once more her indebtedness to Nolan’s “Southeastern Pennsylvania” for much of her information.

The Wayne Art Center, part 1 – Radnor High School

/ Emma C. Patterson

Like most of the large houses built in Wayne in the late 1880’s and the early 1890’s, Mrs. Craig Atmore’s home at 314 Louella avenue has a big barn in the rear of the building lot. Like many of its contemporaries this building is larger and more stately than the average house that is being erected these days. Aside from using a comparatively small part of the downstairs portion for garage space, most of the owners of these structures of a bygone era do not quite know how to utilize them. Indeed, a one or two-car garage would have much more purpose in most cases. And besides, it would not take up nearly so much of the building lot!

Mrs. Atmore’s barn is a notable exception to this rule, however. For it houses one of Radnor township’s most interesting and unusual organizations, The Wayne Art Center, founded 20 years ago this Spring as the result of a small meeting held on March 5, 1931 in Miss Mary Walsh’s apartment in Windermere Court.

This meeting opened, according to its minutes, as kept by Dr. Addison S. Buck, “with a brief statement to the effect that the purpose . . . was to discuss what might be done in Wayne for persons either out of work or with surplus leisure time at their disposal, by providing a suitable place for them to go, with opportunities to engage in avocational pursuits, or, more specifically, opportunities for self-expression.”

1931 was one of the years of “the depression”. There were more than a few among us “either out of work or with surplus leisure time.” Then, besides, such a project as this contemplated would give the children of the township “a suitable atmosphere and materials . . . to learn to use their free time with the development of an appreciation of the beautiful things of life.”

As an example of what might be attained, the excellent work of the Graphic Sketch Club of Philadelphia, under the guidance of Mr. Fleisher, was cited. Mrs. Ross W. Fishburn, who had questioned Mr. Fleisher in regard to what could be done along similar lines in Wayne, quoted him as saying that one thing that might be accomplished would be “the establish a center of beauty, where one may work creatively,” adding this terse statement, “America has no reserve in art.”

This meeting was attended by 22 interested residents of the township. A second meeting, held a week later at the Field and Shaw Shop, then located at the corner of Lancaster avenue and Louella drive, had a still larger attendance. Ideas on organization became more concrete and various committees were appointed. By the third meeting, held on March 19, a motion was passed “that an Arts and Crafts Centre be started to encourage the appreciation of the arts by instruction and by providing workshops and a place in which exhibitions may be held.”

These were the comparatively simple beginnings of one of Radnor township’s noteworthy institutions, The Wayne Art Center, now housed in the barn at the rear of 314 Louella avenue. Its first home was in the second floor of the large garage, formerly used as a stable, on the Humbert B. Powell property on Windermere avenue, the rental agreement for which was signed on May 28, 1931. Several years later the Art Center took up quarters in Radnor High School before moving to its present location.

The 20 years intervening between the Spring of 1931 and this Spring of 1951 have been interesting, colorful ones that will be described in later articles in this column. These years led up to the present time, when each week sees six classes in session, each taught by professionals, all of whom are recognized artists in their particular fields. The old barn is a veritable bee-hive of activity, with the large room on the second floor used as the studio for the various classes. Three smaller rooms of this floor, as well as the hourse stables on the main floor are used for storage of large quantities of supplies, such as easels, paints, paper, objects for still life, pieces of sculpture, plaster, indeed all actual necessities for painting and sculpturing.

Unique among the six classes is the lively Saturday morning one for children, taught by Mrs. Edward Fenno Hoffman, assisted by Mrs. Russell Moore. Daytime classes include those taught on Tuesday mornings by Margaret Chrystie, where part of the work is done in the studio and part in field trips. Mrs. Hill Kephart’s classes meet on alternate Thursday afternoons, for instructions in early American decoration, with special emphasis on tray painting and on the decoration of furniture.

Then there are three evening classes, among them the class taught by Reynolds C. Mason, in which some unusual talent has been developed among beginners. These classes are held on Thursday evening. On Tuesday evenings William Ferguson, who is critic rather than instructor, holds classes in oils, water colors, pastels and charcoal. On Wednesday evening there is available another class in tray painting, in addition to Mrs. Kephart’s, this one taught by Mrs. William C. Hurst. Mothers of young children and women emplyed during the daytime, are in the majority among those enrolled in Mrs. Hurst’s group.

The Art Center is now headed by one of its charter members, Arthur Edrop, of Radnor, as president. Vice-presidents include Miss Bernadine Tolan and John H. Ansley, of Wayne, and Mrs. W. N. Stilwell, of Radnor. Mrs. John J. Berg, of Wayne, is secretly of the board, while Mrs. Henry D. Booth, Jr., of St. Davids, is treasurer. Mrs. Davis W. Gregg, also of St. Davids, serves as executive secretary of the organization.

(To be continued)