Newlin Township
The Harlan Family
In 1687, brothers George and Michael Harlan brought their families to the New World. George, at first, lived in New Castle, Delaware until he moved up the Brandywine in Kennett Township (now Pennsbury) where his neighbors were "a settlement of Indians who lived in the 'Great Bend' of the Brandywine." In 1701, he obtained a warrant 200 acres of the former Indian settlement "in regard for the great trouble and charge he had borne in fencing and maintaining the same for said Indians while living thereon." That was where he built his house that his family lived in for over 200 years. His cousin Joshua built a log house not too far away from his home. Michael, meanwhile, married in the New World after settling in London Grove Township, PA. His family began to spread out in Chester County until his grandson Joel Harlan was born in Newlin Township where he started his family.
The Purchase That Irked the Native Americans
In 1724, a large tract of land in Chester County, PA was purchased by Nicholas Newlin, who immigrated from Mountmellick, Ireland with his family in 1683. Newlin subdivided what he saw as "his" land and made clear that he had no intention to share it. As a result, the Brandywine Indians took this dispute to the colonial Assembly. Despite owning land in Chester County, he had a home and a mill in Delaware County, PA that still stand til this day. Both are part of the National Register of Historic Places.
"Suffice to say that preservation of written instruments recording their property rights was not something the natives were adept at and many of the newer settlers from Europe had little interest in assisting them in preserving land grants the Indians thought Penn’s agents and family members would honor. The fact that Penn visited his lands only twice before his death in 1718 also signaled that he had little authority over his woods. By 1729 the Indians who were trying to preserve land rights in the region joined with long time adversaries, the Susquehannocks, in departing the Brandywine Valley for the frontier of central Pennsylvania."
- Mark Ashton, Chester County, A Modern History
"Indian Hannah"
Hannah Freeman (1731-1802) was part of the Lenni-Lenape tribe in Southeastern Pennsylvania. She was born at the home of William Webb in Newlin Township where her parents lived. During that time, the Lenni-Lenape tribe already left the area to settle elsewhere. Those who remained connected with friendly settlers and even lived with them.
Throughout her life, Hannah worked as a migrant domestic laborer while living with different families in exchange for room and board, payments in kind or small wages. She sold hand-made baskets and brooms to earn money.
"She had a proud and haughty spirit, hated the blacks and deigned not to associate with even the lower order of whites. ... In her conduct, she was perfectly moral and exemplary, and by no means given to intemperance, as many of her race were."
- Mark Ashton, Chester County, A Modern History
Hannah died in 1802 at the Chester County almshouse near Embreeville.
William Baldwin, Botanist
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William Baldwin (1779-1819) began to study medicine under the direction of Dr. William A. Todd of Downingtown. In 1802-1803, he entered his first course in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he would become acquainted with William Darlington of Birmingham Township. After his first course, he worked with Dr. Moses Marshall who had some botanical knowledge after helping his uncle create his botanical garden. This began Baldwin's interests in vegetable creation and collecting indigenous plants.
In 1805, Baldwin was appointed a surgeon on a merchant ship to Canton. After spending one year in China, he returned to Penn to continue his medical courses. In 1807, he earned is medical degree. He chose Wilmington, Delaware to start his practice, but the weather there made him move to a milder climate to the state of Georgia where he explored new plants for his research.
Darlington published Baldwin’s correspondence and recalled that in their first year of medical school, Baldwin saved his life at a time when Darlington fell gravely ill. Baldwin has had four plants named in his honor by fellow botanists.
Corundum Hill
"About the same time as chrome was discovered (circa 1820) locals also found deposits of a mineral known as corundum. Corundum in its most refined form is the basis of the ruby gemstone. Unfortunately, Newlin Township southeast of Embreeville would not become a producer of gemstones but with a hardness of “9” (diamonds are the only “10”) even low quality corundum was a leading source of abrasive materials such as sandpaper. The material was also useful to cut class and the mine operated with varying degrees of success from the 1830s until 1890 when other forms of abrasive were substituted. This land today is off Cannery Road and is part of the Ches-Len Preserve of the National Lands Trust."
- Mark Ashton, Chester County: A Modern History
Bibliography
Futhey, John Smith and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: With Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881): 403-404, 587-588, 668-669.
Galle, Karen and Cory Kegerise. "Remembering Indian Hannah." Pennsylvania Historic Preservation (blog). May 28, 2014. https://pahistoricpreservation.com/remembering-indian-hannah/.
Harlan, Alpheus Hibben. History and genealogy of the Harlan family : and particularly of the descendants of George and Michael Harlan, who settled in Chester County, Pa., 1687, Volume 1. (Baltimore : Lord Baltimore Press, 1914): 2-8, 21, 48-49, 139, 335-336.
Redfield, J. H. "Some North American Botanists. VI. Dr. William Baldwin." Botanical Gazette 8, no. 6 (1883): 233-237.
Walsh, Thomas M. "Ordinary Corundum: A Chester County Mineral." Chester County Day (blog). August 1. https://www.chestercountyday.com/articles/blog-post-ordinary-corundum.