"Mr. Canby has made this book strictly the history of the river, the story of what the Brandywine has meant to him and to others. It is not state or military or city history, but river history in its relations to American life....Henry Seidel Canby, the author, known for many years as a critic and authority on American literature, was born on the Brandywine and his family has lived on its banks for generations. He writes of the river from a great warmth of personal affection. The Brandywine is a little river of big events. New Sweden was founded at its mouth in the seventeenth century; William Penn's Quakers settled on its banks; and the greatest chemical company in the world, the Dupont Corporation, began in its narrow gorges. At the mouth of the Brandywine the first log cabins were built and the first prairie schooner was devised to haul grain to its flour mills. During the Revolution Washington fought across the fords of the Brandywine and, defeated because of his ignorance of geography, still conducted a masterful retreat. In The Brandywine are pictures of the brilliant refugee society of Wilmington at the time of the last great cycle of European wars, of the plantation life of the iron masters in the hills from which the river flows, and of the unusual Quaker society which made a culture of its own in the river valley. " [from the dust jacket]
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,
Date of Publication
1975.
Physical Description
vii, 156 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Notes
Bibliography: p. 153-56.
Summary
Joshua Gilpin (1765-1840) and his brother Thomas had a business in Philadelphia as general merchants, and on the Brandywine Creek as manufacturers of paper, and woolen and cotton textiles. He travelled quite a bit in Europe at the end of the 18th century seeking to learn about industrial practices. In 1809 Joshua Gilpin combined a famly vacation with a business survey of the Redstone area (the vicinity of Brownsville), Pittsburgh, and Indiana County. He described the country through which he drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and return. He discussed land values and business prospects with innkeepers, businessmen, and legal experts all along the way; noted the presence of natural resources; and spent some time in Pittsburgh in conferences with men who were able to supply him with the ind of information he desired.His route west took him through Lancaster. His return trip east took him through Harrisburg, Lebanon, and Reading.Contents :1. From Philadelphia to the Redstone/ 2. In the Redstone Country/ 3. Pittsburg Business prospects/ 4. Pittsburgh to Bedford via Indiana County/ 5. Bedford to Philadelphia
Lafayette at Brandywine, containing the proceedings at the dedication of the memorial shaft erected to mark the place where Layfayette was wounded in the battle of Brandywine, with supplementary paper on Lafayette and the historians, by Charlton T. Lewis. Also evidence as to the place where Lafayette was wounded: accounts of his visits in 1780 and 1825: names of contributors: members of the Chester county historical society: etc
150th anniversary of the battle of the Brandywine, 1777-1927, Dilworthtown, Chester County, Pennsylvania : [program], September 9th, 10th and 11th, 1927
"These excerpts from ... [the author's] 'Journal' are now published for the first time by courtesy of his great-grandson, Mr. Lawrence Richardson of Boston."--Foreword signed: William Bell Wait.
"Limited edition ... no. 80 [and] 398."
Description of travel from Philadelphia to Ohio (p. 3 - 7).
"Reprint from the original edition (Pittsburgh, 1810). The appendix, being composed of irrelevant matter, is herein omitted."--Page [15].
Contents
Chapter 1: Commencement of journey - Schuylkill bridge - Schuylkill river - Downingstown - Brandywine creek - Pequea creek - New Holland - Connestoga creek and bridge - Lancaster / Chapter 2: Elizabethtown - Susquehannah river - Harrisburgh / Chapter 3: Conestoga massacre - Carlisle and Dickinson college...
Early western travels, 1748-1846. Cleveland, Ohio : The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904-1907 v.4Lancaster History Library - Electronic ResourcesOnline resource-See full library record for link
