The Birthplace of John Cassin. 



In Ashmead's splendid "History of Delaware County" it is 

 stated, page 674, that John Cassin was born "in Upper Provi- 

 dence," one of the twenty-one townships of the county. In a 

 sketch of his life, appearing in the issue of "Cassinia" for 

 1901, it is stated that he was born "near Chester." As 

 these two statements are in conflict, and as it is both historically 

 desirable and humanly agreeable, to know the spot that was 

 the birthplace of — and pleasantly associate it with, — this emi- 

 nent early American ornithologist, the writer undertook this 

 last summer (1918), to "rundown" or locate the old Cassin 

 homestead. 



In 1848 there was published, by Dr. Joshua Ash, a map of 

 Delaware County, showing almost every feature of it, and 

 amongst other things the locations and land-holdings of most of 

 the early landowners of the 1800's. This map is accepted as 

 painstakingly and wonderfully correct. On it, in the extreme 

 southeast corner of Concord township, appears a land-holding 

 of Thomas Cassin. Nowhere else does the Cassin name appear, 

 and in the literature, maps and histories of the county, no other 

 data bearing on the birthplace of Cassin appear, other than as 

 mentioned above. 



A search among the deeds, however, in the Kegistrar's oflBce 

 at the county seat. Media, gives ample evidence to locate and 

 establish the Cassin homestead for at any rate three generations. 



From these deeds it is evident that three successive Cassins — 

 the grandfather, Luke; Thomas, the father; and John, the son, 

 the ornithologist, owned and lived on a forty-odd acre tract in 

 Upper Providence township, about a mile north of the present 

 borough of Media, and about a third of a mile south of the old 

 " Rose Tree" inn, on the west side of Providence road, at the 

 intersection of what is now the Cemetery road, and on the south 

 side of that road; i. e., the southwest corner. For the deeds 



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