Chadds Ford Peak was Chadds Ford’s very own ski resort. Located on the hill behind Chadds Ford Knoll, it opened in the early 1970’s or so and was started by two athletic coaches from P.S. duPont High School in Wilmington. It closed between 1988 and 1989. The last owners also owned the miniature golf course…
Joseph Turner built his 30 foot by 40 foot limestone grist mill with 18 inch thick walls on property once owned by colonist Benjamin Ring along “Ye Great Road to Nottingham” in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Using stone from earlier mills along Harvey’s Run, a nearby creek that runs parallel to today’s U.S. Route 1 and…
On September 11, 1777, the hamlet of Chadds Ford played host to one of the largest and deadliest battles of the American Revolutionary War, today called the Battle of Brandywine. An estimated 29,000 British and American troops gathered at the fledgling town populated mostly by peaceful Quakers. Britain’s campaign for 1777 was to split off…
I’ve got a few Revolutionary War ancestors, namely Moza Hurt, Philemon Hurt, Frederick Boyer, Cornelius Bogart, and Conrad Mehrkam. Sometimes when I’m reading an account of their service, I wonder to myself, what the heck are they talking about? Some of the terms are opaque to modern people. This list helped me navigate the unfamiliar…
1655 Dutch ship wrecked within the mouth of the Brandywine River, laden with brandy or “brandewijn.” 1684 Birmingham Township settled and incorporated. Chichester Meeting founded. 1686 Concord Meeting established. 1690 Birmingham Meeting founded. 1670 Andrew Braindwine received a grant of land near the mouth of the Brandywine River. 1704 William Brinton 1704 House built. 1710…
Compiled by Karen Furst, 2006 Updated 2016 The Styers story begins about 1875 when John Franklin Styer sold his country store in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, to purchase an 85 acre farm in Concordville where he operated a dairy. His sons Jacob and Walter later divided the farm, each pursuing his own business endeavors. Jacob worked as…
Pennsbury Mill at Hilandale Farm is a historically significant twentieth-century hydro-electric and pumping mill located in picturesque Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Owned by John Danby, a Wilmington, Delaware, banker, the mill and dam were built in 1919 by the Fitz Water Wheel Company before a commercial supply of electricity was available in Chester County. The technology…