ISS HISTORY OP 



John Wright and Samuel Blunston, Quakers. The first 

 mentioned took up and purchased one thousand acres, 

 bounded by the Chiques Hill on the north, and extending 

 down the Susquehanna to the present site of Columbia. 

 Having his warrant, Mr. Barber returned to Chester, and 

 in 1727, in company with John Wright and Samuel 

 Blimston, and families, came and settled on the land lue 

 had purchased. Samuel Blunston took five hundred 

 acres, adjoining the Chiques Hill, and built a house 

 where Mr. S. B. Heise now resides. He died without 

 issue, and his estate descending to collateral heirs, is 

 now held by the Misses Bethel. 



John Wright, (who had come from Lancashire, Eng- 

 land, to Chester county, on the Delaware river, in 1714,) 

 took two hundred and fifty acres of the land lying south, 

 and immediately below Blunston's, and built Avhere the 

 Messrs. Wrights now reside. Two large Walnut trees, 

 of the English species, planted by him more than one 

 hundred years ago, continue to designate the place 

 of his first improvement. His descendants continue 

 to reside in Columbia, and hold part of the first 

 purchase. 



These three gentlemen were active and enterprising 

 and useful citizens. Their names are intimately asso- 

 ciated with ail the earlier transactions of Lancaster 

 county, as will appear from the sequel of our History. 



"WTien they first settled here, and for soiife time, says 

 William Wright, grandson of John Wright, in a letter* 

 to George Ford, Esq., they had to depend on the Darby 

 Mills for flour, which they carried on pack-horses 

 through the woods along an Indian path to the Susque- 

 hanna. The Indians, who were very good" neighbors, 

 and the only ones they had, often supplied them with 



*Dated Columbia, 2 mo. 25, 1842. 



