390 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 



There are several manufacturing establishments in Ridley, 

 and large quantities of stone are annually quarried there and 

 sent to Philadelphia and elsewhere. 



The churches in Ridley are a Presbyterian church, erected 

 about the year 1818, and rebuilt a few years since ; a Baptist 

 church constituted in 1830, and another erected by a sect 

 called Bible Christians. 



SPRINGFIELD. 



Gait, in his life of Benjamin West, ascribes the name of this 

 township to the fact that Thomas Pearson, the maternal grand- 

 father of the great painter, discovered a large spring of water 

 in the first field he cleared for cultivation. Unfortunately for 

 this story, Thomas Pearson first settled in Marple township, 

 where he continued to reside during his life. On Holme's map 

 it is marked Sprinfeld Toion, but the author is possessed of 

 no knowledge either in respect to the origin of that name or of 

 the existence of any particular reason for adopting the present 

 name of the township. 



On the road leading from Springfield Meeting-house to 

 Chester, stands the house in which West the painter was born. 

 It is a substantial hipped-roofed edifice built of cut stone. Ex- 

 cept in the removal of the old fashioned paint-eaves, the build- 

 ing has undergone very little change. The room in the north- 

 west corner on the first floor is pointed out as that in which the 

 great artist drew his first breath. 



There are several manufacturing establishments in Spring- 

 field. Those at Heyville are chiefly employed in making woolen 

 yarn, while those at Wallingford manufacture cotton goods. 

 Beatty's edge tool manufactory is also located in Springfield. 



The old Springfield Friends' Meeting-house, taken down some 

 years since, though built in 1738, presented a venerable appear- 

 ance. An eflbrt has been made to preserve its general aspect 

 and contrast it with the present edifice in the annexed lithograph. 



It docs not appear that Springfield was fully organized as a 

 township prior to 1686, though Robert Taylor, one of the first 

 settlers, had received the appointment of supervisor " from 

 Chester Creeke to Croome Creeke," early in 1684. 



Remarkable phenomena are frequently connected with the 

 discharge of the electric fluid in the shape of lightning, but it 

 rarely occurs that a case is surrounded with so many singular 

 circumstances as the one I am about to notice, which happened 

 on the 3d of November, 1768, and which is copied, with some 

 abridgment, from the Peyinsylvania Chronich. 



"At about seven o'clock in the morning Mr. Samuel Levis's 



