Once Upon A Time

In New Garden Township

 

by Ann Hagerty

1977

 

We are pleased to be able to publish on this website the text of Ann Hagerty's long out of print history of New Garden Township.  This history, published in 1977, is a fascinating account of the people that settled here in bygone centuries and the industries of the area.  We are thankful to Robert Simon who did the tedious OCR work necessary to ready the book for web publication.

 

The book itself contained many historic photographs. Unfortunately, we will be unable to include these photographs on this website until we obtain permission from their current owners. We will seek permission to publish these photographs as we identify their owners, but expect this will be a lengthy process.  In the meantime, please enjoy the text of the book itself.

Page000.jpg

FOREWORD   by the author

ONCE UPON A TIME... A phrase that conjures visions of knights and princesses, goblins, and ghouls, fairy godmothers and witches seemed an appropriate title for this story of New Garden Township, for often the whole account seemed like a fairy tale. I hesitate to call it a history for much trivia is included to "lighten the load," and many important facts have been omitted. This can be attributed to lassitude.

 

Interest in New Garden Township began as we heard local stories of events, people, and places well-remembered and well-loved. After twenty years, we have decided that New Gardeners are delightfully maverick in much they do or say! We thought this attitude was engendered by those who arrived long after the "staid and somber" Quakers, but after research, I am convinced that "our" Friends, while certainly devout and firm in their beliefs, were mavericks themselves as they first went to Ireland and then came to America - hardly the somber, staid, patterned individuals they were pictured.

 

An attempt was made to write of the early Quaker families, but that project was soon abandoned because of the enormity of the task. Our whole early Township story is theirs. Much information is readily available at the Chester County Historical Society library and in repositories of the Society of Friends for those wishing more detail. Greater space has, therefore, been given to the story of those who arrived later and of whom little is written, for their part in our story is equally important. Generally, the tale stops with the advent of the Twentieth Century excepting the sections on mushrooms, a product so vital to our Township, and on those who grow them.

 

Many lament the passing of "the good old days," but they weren't so good in some ways. With our mixture of people of various backgrounds and cultures, perhaps we can select the best parts and adapt them to current times and "live happily ever after."

 

Ann Hagerty

May 1977

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people helped with this project and to them go great thanks. In addition to those listed below, members of individual families and owners of older homes furnished much information. Special thanks to my husband, Edward, who has never complained of inconveniences caused by piles of papers and endless telephone calls; to my friends, Alice Aurig and Lorraine Crossan, who supported the project and listened when the need arose; to my friend, Dorothy Powell, who lent material and endless support and designed and drew the cover in addition. Some others were:

Mrs. Christopher Vandegrift                             Mr. and Mrs. Leon Wilkinson
Mrs. Mary Douglas                                          Mrs. Chester Dickerschied
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas DeCecco                       Ernest Crossan, Sr.
Mr. and Mrs. James Bacino                              Ernest Crossan, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Pia                                     Mrs. Nora McComsey (deceased)
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Mendenhall                      George Holton (deceased)
Charles Williams                                               G. Pownall Jones
Mr. and Mrs. W. Thomas Kelleher                   Smedley Thomas
Augie Testa                                                      Benjamin J. Reynolds (deceased)
Mrs. Lyle Amberg                                            Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ciarrocchi
Mrs. Ernest McMaster                                     Louis Toto
J Raymond Crossan                                          Leone Pizzini
Miss Johanna Kelleher                                      Mrs. Anne S. Wood
J. Louis Landenberger                                      Mrs. Rita Brackin
Ernest W. Haines                                              John "Tibbie" Connell
Edward "Ted" Strode                                       Maurice "Skip" Reynolds
Charles Murray                                                Charles Sproat
Charles Wagner                                                Mrs. Paul Wollaston


SOURCES

Some sources of information other than those listed in the text were:

"History of Chester County" by Futhey and Cope

"Little Known History of Newark, Delaware and Its Environs" by Francis A, Cooch

"Immigration of Irish Quakers In Pennsylvania" by Albert Cook Myers

New Garden Civic Association booklet

New Garden Meeting histories by Eleanor Cooper, Eleanor Parrish, Vera Schrader

"The Ethnic Experience in Pennsylvania" edited by John E, Bodnar

"Quaker Meeting Houses" by Horace Mather Lippincott

"Underground Railroad" by Smedley

"Manual of Mushroom Culture" by G, Raymond Rettew; published by Mushroom Supply Co.

"Some Recent Changes In the American Mushroom Industry" by Richard Bucksar in
            "The Journal of Geography" - March 1966.

"The Outline of History" by H. G. Wells

"The Indestructible Irish" by John Philip Cohane

"The Education of an American" by Mark Sullivan

All of the New Garden files - Chester County Historical Society Library

Various Encyclopedia

"Autobiographical Notes of Ezra Michener, M.D."

"Indians in Pennsylvania" by Paul A, Wallace

"Delaware's Buried Past" by C. A. Weslager

"The Story of the Wilmington and Western Railroad" by Arthur G. Volkman

"Historical Background" In Centennial Memorial of St. Patrick's Church by
            Rev. Robert J. Cassidy

"The Negro In Pennsylvania History" by Ira V, Brown

"Pennsylvania's Architecture" by Irwin Richman

"Early Domestic Architecture of Pennsylvania" by Eleanor Raymond FAIA