When William Penn stepped off the boat in his newly chartered colony, it was already a diverse place. The land later known as Chester County was a seat of cultural diversity which would lay the foundation for the religious toleration and commerce for the colony of Pennsylvania.
Shortly after the English started a
permanent settlement at Jamestown in 1607, Henry Hudson explored the waterways
looking for a route to the West Indies for the Dutch East India Company.[1]
While Hudson did not venture up the Delaware River, he noted a bay in the area
blocked off by sandbars. In 1616 a European expedition travelling on the Iron Hog, one of the first ships
made in North America, sparked Dutch exploration and claim of the area. In
1610, the British laid an official claim on the Delaware Bay and River naming
them for Virginia governor, Lord De La Warr. At the time, there were so few
people in the area, and so little interest in it that little could be done to
enforce the claim. [2]
In the 1620s, the Dutch established
trading posts east of Pennsylvania but they were sparsely staffed and soon
abandoned. It was not the English or the Dutch who were the first European
settlers in the area. According to the values of the time, the area held little
monetary value as there was no gold in the area. It was the Swedes, who were
enjoying status as a world power after the Thirty years war, who attempted to
make wealth from the natural resources in the area while also spreading
Lutheranism. The Swedish officials were instructed to collect samples of local
woods and minerals for assessment as well as produce high priced commodities
such as beaver pelts and tobacco. [3]
In 1638, Peter Minuit, former
Director-General of New Netherlands, created Fort Christina on the Delaware
River for the Swedes. He purchased land from the local Native Americans to
create the fort which was located in modern-day Wilmington, Delaware. The
establishment of this fort created tensions with the Dutch, although nothing
was done at the time to prevent it.[4] In
1641, the Swedish settled an area called Mecoponacka and built a small fort
there called Fort Mecoponacka. The name of the town was changed to Upland; and
later, Chester. This city served as the seat of Chester until 1798.[5]
William Penn is primarily responsible
for the climate of religious and cultural toleration in Pennsylvania. As a Quaker, he believed that conscience, not
the Bible should be an individual’s moral guide. He also emphasized women’s
rights and later Native American rights as well as education and toleration.[6] Although William Penn was of high social
standing, he projected that his Quaker beliefs would soon put him at a
disadvantage in England. He sought a way to protect himself and other Quakers
by establishing a colony in the New World.
In 1680, William Penn made negotiations with King Charles II for a tract
of land in the New World located near The Duke of York’s land, the Duke of York
being a personal friend of Penn’s.[7]
In March 4, 1681, Charles II
granted Penn a charter to pay off a £16,000 debt that Charles II owed to Penn’s
father. The charter granted Penn land 12 miles North of New Castle, Delaware
and west of the Delaware River. In 1701, surveyors measured this southern
boundary starting from a point in New Castle so the ending line, 12 miles away,
was a curved line. This curved line figures prominently in the southeast border
of Pennsylvania. [8]
In the end of October of 1682, Penn
sailed up the Delaware River, stopping briefly in New Castle and continuing
onto Upland. Aboard the ship, Welcome,
Penn brought with him men, women and children from England, Ireland and Wales. Upon arrival, Robert Wade entertained Penn in
his home. [9]
Penn established three counties in his
territory by the end of November, 1682: Chester, Philadelphia and Bucks
Counties.[10]
Chester County encompassed all the land between the Delaware River in the southeast,
Susquehanna River in the west, the curved boundary in the south and the
Schuylkill River in the north.[11]
Even
before the Dutch and the Swedes explored this territory, it had been home to
the Okehocking, a clan of the Lenni-Lenape, for thousands of years. The Okehocking occupied the Darby-Crum-Ridley
Creek watershed, and their population had diminished in the pre-English
settlement years.[12]
William Penn was adamant about treating
the Native Americans with respect and fairness.[13]
While the Europeans already present in
the territory believed that their religion and culture was superior to the
religion and culture of the Lenape, Penn did not and set out to make amends
with the Native American groups in the colony. Penn purchased land from the
Native Americans by trading and provided protection for Native Americans. Penn
was strict with his policies regarding the protection of Natives Americans to
the extent that later in 1728, two men would be hanged in Chester for murdering
a Native American, something that was not seen as a crime in other colonies.[14]
Penn returned to England in
1684, in an attempt to resolve issues with Lord Delaware over land disputes. [15] Due
to petitions, in 1729, Penn divided Chester County in the north at Octoraro
Creek and made the land north of it, Lancaster County. [16]
From the late 17th
century to the 1730s, settlers in Chester County were busy establishing
themselves in the area. The Swedes had already laid the foundation for dairy
farming. Due to the fact that there were few women in New Sweden, men had to
assume traditional European women’s roles which included dairy production and
vegetable gardening. Those farmers who were willing to do what was
traditionally women’s work took advantage of the market need and prospered. Dairy
would be an important product in Chester County until the mid 1900s.[17]
By
the 1730s, wheat became the principal crop grown in Chester County and helped
established the agricultural economy that continued up to the 20th
century. 1750 brought a rise in wheat
prices and Chester County became a center of wheat production due to the fact
that they used a different style of mill than was used in England and other
colonies. The waterwheels of these mills were built indoors, allowing them to
be used during colder temperatures. [18] Chester County had many small but fast
flowing steams that were conducive to milling. By 1780, Chester County had an
incredible 127 mills for milling wheat. During the Revolutionary war, mills
were a target for both armies to the extent that General Washington ordered the
stones removed from prominent milling sites so they could not mill for the
British and would be less likely to be attacked as they were a big part of the
Colonial economy. It is not known if General Washington’s orders effected mills
in Chester County.[19]
Despite the agricultural economy
of Chester County, slavery had never been large scale. Even the Quakers
permitted slavery among their followers during the early years of colonization.
While some settlers in Chester County had slaves, most of the settlers in the
area preferred farming their own land with the help of indentured servants. In
the North slaves were seen as a status symbol: some wills of wealthy colonists
listed slaves under luxury items rather than farming equipment.
Slave life in the northern colonies was very
different than slave life in the south. Enslaved Africans worked and lived
among white servants and workers. Due to the small scale of slavery in the
North, enslaved people had much less of a chance than enslaved people in the
South of creating families or a cohesive culture. In the North, slave children
were seen as unnecessary expenses and slave women were frequently sold for
getting pregnant.
On March 1, 1780 the
Pennsylvania assembly voted to abolish slavery gradually. Africans who were
already enslaved would continue to be enslaved, but children born after that
date would be freed at 28 years of age, therefore abolishing the institution.
Due to Chester County’s proximity to the mason Dixon line and the large
population of Quakers, it became a destination for escaped slaves.[20]
In
1789 Chester County was divided into two counties: Chester County in the west
and Delaware County in the east. The line dividing the two counties meanders as
the surveyors acquiesced to requests from landowners that desired to be in one
county or the other. The county seat of Chester County became current-day West
Chester due to the location of a popular meeting tavern nearby, called the
Turk’s Head.[21]
By
the 1850s, dairy farming had become a major product of Chester County. One
magazine for dairy farmers claimed that in Chester County, most of the butter
produced in the county was shipped to Philadelphia and sold in the markets
sometimes ignoring local demands. People in Chester County bought their butter
from Delaware County.[22]
Dairy was still one of Chester County’s
primary farm-based products in the 1960s, in addition to cattle, poultry, corn,
flowers, and poultry.[23]
[1] Daniel K. Richter, “The First
Pennsylvanians,” in Pennsylvania: History
of the Commonwealth, ed. Randall M. Miller and William Pencak (University
Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002), 49.
[2] Jacquie Posey, “Penn Historian Discovers Evidence Documenting
First European Voyage Up the Delaware,” University of Pennsylvania,
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-historian-discovers-evidence-documenting-first-european-voyage-delaware
(accessed September 27, 2011).
[3] Daniel K. Richter, “The First
Pennsylvanians,” 49-50.
[4] J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert
Cope, History of Chester County,
Pennsylvania with Geological and Biographical Sketches (Philadelphia: Louis
H. Everts, 1881), www.archive.org (accessed September 29, 2011).
[5] George Smith, History of Delaware County
(Philadelphia: Henry B. Ashmead, 1862), 54.
[6] Jim Powell, "William Penn: America's
First Great Champion for Liberty and Peace," The Religious Society of
Friends, http://www.quaker.org/wmpenn.html (accessed October 5, 2011).
[7] Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County.
[8] Charles William Heathcote, History of Chester County Pennsylvania
(West Chester: Horace F. Temple, 1926), 6.
[9] Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County.
[10] Heathcote, History of Chester County Pennsylvania, 6.
[11] Jim Powell, "William Penn”.
[12] Alice and Carl Lindborg, Historic Newtown Township, (USA: Newtown Tricentennial Commission,
1984), 5-6.
[13]Susan E. Klepp, “Encounter and
Experiment,” in Pennsylvania: History of
the Commonwealth, ed. Randall M. Miller and William Pencak (University
Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002), 63-65.
[14]Heathcote, History of Chester County Pennsylvania, 19-21.
[15] J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert
Cope, History of Chester County.
[16] Heathcote, History of Chester County Pennsylvania, 11.
[17]
Klepp, “Encounter and Experiment,” 53-54.
[18] Stephen G. Del Sordo, “Work in
Progress: Eighteenth-Century Grist Mills: Some Chester County, Pennsylvania
Examples,” Perspectives in Vernacular
Architecture 1, (1982), http://www.jstor.org/stable/3514268 (accessed,
October 7, 2011), 75.
[19] WITF, Inc, “Colonial Gristmill
Historical Marker,” ExplorePAHistory.com,
http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-166 (accessed October 10,
2011).
[xx] William C. Kashatus, Just Over the
Line: Chester County and the Underground Railroad (West Chester: Chester
County Historical Society, 2002), 8-10.
[20]Heathcote, History of Chester County Pennsylvania, 71-73.
[21] “Packing Butter in Firkins or
Tubs for Preservation,” in The Dairy
Farmer v. 1 (Herkimer: A. W. Eaton, 1861), 137-138.
[22] Thomas A. Pitt, History and Progress of Chester County
(West Chester: Horace F. Temple, 1962), 24.
