1817.] HISTDKV OF DELAWARE CdUNTY. 353 



the commencement of hostilities, caused an advance in the price 

 of foreign dry goods, that induced our people to turn tlieir at- 

 tention to a more rajiid production of textile fabrics than tliat 

 which had heretofore prevailed. As early as 1810, an English 

 family, named Bottomly, converted an old saw-mill that stood on 

 a small stream in Concord (with a small addition) into a woolen 

 manufactory, to the astonishment of the whole neighborhood. 

 Dennis Kelly, with the assistance of a Mr. Wiest, erected a 

 small stone factory on Cobb's creek, in Ilaverford, about the 

 commencement of the war. This establishment was patronized 

 by the government, and with the energetic management of Mr. 

 Kelly, turned out goods to the fullest extent of its capacity. 

 Other mills were soon erected and put into operation, but still, 

 during the war, dry goods of all kinds continued to command a 

 high price. 



But the almost free introduction of foreign goods, some time 

 after the close of the war, was a severe blow to these hastily 

 gotten up establishments, and caused the suspension of some of 

 them. Still it was in these small beginnings that the manufac- 

 turing business of Delaware County had its origin. 



Farmers, in consequence, lost their home market, and there 

 was no foreign demand for the productions of their farms. With 

 the fall in the price of agricultural products, that of land also 

 declined. During the war, land came to be regarded as the only 

 safe investment, and purchases were made at almost fabulous 

 prices. Many of the purchasers, under such circumstances^ 

 were now obliged to sell at a ruinous sacrifice. In this County 

 the number of such sales was, however, strikingly less than in 

 the adjacent counties. 



This depressed condition of business did not last long, but the 

 improvement was gradual, and as a consequence people could 

 only advance their pecuniary interests by the slow but certain 

 means of industry and frugality. 



In the year 1817, Edward Hunter, Esq., a highly respectable 

 citizen of Newtown township, was deliberately murdered by John 

 H. Craig, by lying in wait in the daytime and shooting him. 

 Esquire Hunter had witnessed a will that Craig was anxious to 

 have set aside, and being an ignorant man, he believed that by 

 putting the witnesses to it out of the way, his object would be 

 accomplished. He had watched more than once for an opportu- 

 nity to shoot Isaac Cochrane, the other witness to the will, but 

 failed to accomplish his purpose. Mr. .Hunter was shot while 

 taking his horse to the stable, and although the fiendish act was 

 committed in the most cool and deliberate manner, Craig's pre- 

 sence of mind at once forsook him, for he left his gun where it 

 was readily found, which at once indicated him as the murderer. 

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