Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: October 2003 Volume 40 Number 4, Page 122

Looking Back in the Quarterly

Page 122

60 YEARS AGO (1943). Nearly all of the local textile mills were just beyond the bounds of our two townships, but nevertheless added to the wealth and industry of our inhabitants... The old Hammer Hollow Mill located on a branch of the Trout Run in Tredyffrin was originally a grist and flour mill, later a spool and bobbin factory, in Hammer Hollow, bounded on the north by Pugh Road, south by Gulph Road, west by Valley Forge Line Road, and east by West Valley Road about one and a half miles northwest of Strafford Station. It was a flour and grist mill during the Revolution... An Englishman named William Cundy lived in the miller's house with his family and owned and operated the mill as a spool and bobbin factory about 1865... Tradition also says that Cundy went to institutions for homeless boys in Philadelphia to get workers for his factory... At Valley Forge, on the Valley Creek, Brook Evans of Sheffield, England, leased the property and converted the old saw and rolling mills vacated by James Wood, into a gun factory and there made 20,000 rifles of a beautiful pattern. The mill was later enlarged and converted into a cotton and woolen factory and prospered for a long time. From an article, “Local Textile Mills,” by Franklin L. Burns. [Vol. 5, No. 4 (Autumn 1943) pp. 77-79]

30 YEARS AGO (1973). March 4, 1680, William Penn obtained from Charles II the charter for his colony in the new world... Having secured the Grant of these acres, now called Pennsylvania, William Penn proceeded to set up the constitution and government. He was no novice in this matter; New Jersey was then called East Jersey (the northern part) of which he was once a Trustee, and West Jersey (the southern part) which in 1676 he had had a hand in establishing... To obtain settlers and purchasers, Penn traveled with a brochure he had prepared not only in England, but in Wales, Ireland and Germany... On August 30, 1682 at Deal, England with about 100 passengers, Penn set sail for the new land. On October 27, 1682 eight weeks later the Welcome landed at New Castle... Penn was here 22 months until August 12, 1684. During these months he accomplished much: he set up three counties – Chester, Philadelphia and Bucks... He watched the town of Philadelphia (laid out by Thomas Holme before he came) grow from a tiny village to a thriving port town of more than 350 homes and perhaps 2500 inhabitants. From an article, “William Penn,” by George Norman Highley. [Vol. 16, No. 2, April (April 1973) pp. 26-28]

15 YEARS AGO (1988). Two bridges in Tredyffrin Township are among the 135 bridges in Pennsylvania and eleven in Chester County that have been nominated for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The bridges, selected by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation after a state-wide survey, are the bridge on Cedar Hollow Road over the Valley Creek, identified as County Bridge N. 171 and the bridge on Gulph Road over Trout Run near Port Kennedy. Both bridges were considered “important examples of bridge engineering and construction,” according to Bill Sisson of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and were described by PennDOT as among “the cream of the crop of state highway bridges.” [Vol. 26, No. 4 (October 1988) Notes and Comments, p. 158]