258 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1748. 



at their own expense. Chester County furnished a regiment of 

 Associators, for which the following gentlemen were commis- 

 sioned as officers: Colonel, Andrew McDowell; Lieut.-Colonel, 

 John Frew; Major, John Miller, and Captains, Job Huston, 

 William Bell, Joseph Wilson, Henry Glassford, William Boyd, 

 William Reed, William Porter and William Clinton.^ 



Fortunately these preparations for defence were not needed. 



Preliminaries for restoring a general peace were signed at Aix 



la Chapelle on the 19th of April, and proclaimed here in August. 



The year 1748 was one of great sickness, not only in the 



city of Philadelphia, but throughout the Province. 



James Hamilton, a son of Andrew Hamilton, received the ap- 

 pointment of Lieutenant-Governor, and assumed the duties of the 

 office in November. 



In the autumn of this year, Peter Kalm, the Swedish natural- 

 ist, arrived at Philadelphia, and after remaining a short time in 

 that city, passed through our county on a visit to Wilmington. 

 On his return to Philadelphia he spent some time at Chichester, 

 "a borough on the Delaware, where travellers pass the river in 

 a ferry." He adds, "they build here every year a number of 

 small ships for sale, and from an iron work which lies higher up 

 in the country, they carry Iron bars to this place and ship 

 them." The environs of Chichester, he says, "contain many 

 gardens, which are full of apple trees sinking under the weight 

 of innumerable apples." About noon our traveller reached 

 Chester, " a little Market town which lies on the Delaware. The 

 houses stand dispersed. Most of them are built of stone, and 

 two or three stories high ; some are, however, made of wood, 

 in the town is a church and a market place." 



"About two English miles behind Chester," our author re- 

 marks, " I passed an iron forge, which was to the right hand by 

 the road side. It belonged to two brothers, as I was told. The 

 ore, however, is not dug here, but thirty or forty miles hence, 

 where it is first melted in an oven, and then carried to this place. 

 The bellows were made of leather, and both they and the ham- 

 mers, and even the hearth, but small in proportion to ours. All 

 the machines were worked by water." The location of this forge^ 

 must have been on Crum Creek, just below where it is crossed 

 by the post road, while that mentioned in connection with Chi- 

 chester was probably located on Chester Creek, at or near Glen 

 Mills, and was owned and carried on by John Taylor. 



Up to this period the forests preserved the same open appear- 

 ance and freedom from underwood which they presented at the 



1 For a full list of officers, see Col. Rec. v. 210, 246. 



* This forge is supposed to be the one before mentioned as belonging to Peter Dicks, 

 but Peter Dicks resided in Nether Providence, which leaves the matter in doubt. 



