102 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



ther distance. This old landmark 6 of Colonial times re- 

 mains today in perfect preservation, thanks to the never- 

 failing care and interest of the present owner, 7 who has 

 done all in his power to maintain its historic associations, 

 and to keep the memory of the naturalist green in one 

 of the few spots in America where material landmarks 

 of his career have not been completely effaced. The 

 place has had an interesting history, and though Audu- 

 bon's occupancy was brief, it affected, as we shall see, 

 his whole after-life. 



Audubon thought nothing of walking to and from 

 Philadelphia w r hen no conveyance was at hand, but to- 

 day the railroad brings the traveler within a mile and 

 a half of his old farm. Not far to the south, beyond 

 the present railway station of Protectory, lies Valley 

 Forge and the wooded hills where Washington's ragged 

 veterans passed in log huts the ever memorable winter of 

 1777-8. Audubon fancied that his father had made the 

 acquaintance of General Washington at that date, but 

 this was eleven years before the place had come into the 

 possession of his family, and at that time Captain Audu- 



* "Mill Grove" farm is in Montgomery County, twenty-four miles 

 northwest of Philadelphia, in the town known, after 1823, as Shannonville, 

 but in 1899 rechristened "Audubon;" Norristown is five miles to the east. 



7 Mr. William H. Wetherill of Philadelphia, whose hospitality I have 

 enjoyed and to whom I am indebted for many interesting facts and 

 records pertaining to "Mill Grove." Samuel Wetherill, Mr. W. H. 

 WetherilPs grandfather, was one of the first to bring "black rock," or coal, 

 from Reading to Philadelphia. Samuel Wetherill, Junior, who is said to 

 have started the first woolen mill in the country and to have produced the 

 first white lead made in the United States, purchased "Mill Grove" for 

 the sake of its minerals in 1813, the war having put a stop to all importa- 

 tions from England at that time. He actually succeeded in extracting sev- 

 eral hundred tons of lead from the "Mill Grove" mines, doing better, it is 

 thought, than any who preceded or followed him. Samuel Wetherill, Junior, 

 died in 1829, and was succeeded in the lead and drugs industry by his four 

 sons, of whom Samuel Price Wetherill became the owner of "Mill Grove" 

 in 1833. The farm remained in the hands of the Wetherill family until 1876, 

 and returned to them again, when the present owner came into possession, 

 in 1892. 



