The roads and rail line brought growth, and they brought heavy carriage and wagon traffic from near by farms, iron and ochre mines, furnaces, and mills. The town became a bustling market. Cattle yards and factories were established. Products that emerged included quality picks, hosiery, and grain. In the latest figures available, Fleetwood boasts a population of 3,775 within its one square mile area.
Nobody knows for sure.
There is speculation that it was somehow named after the city of Fleetwood, England. But, the most romantic notion is that it derived the moniker from the names of two men who surveyed the lots that became the town-men named Mr. Fleet and Mr. Wood. Legend has it that it was their daughter, Susanna, who took a job at a farm in Exeter Township and became a part of Berks County history there. On that farm, Susanna Cox murdered her newborn son. She was convicted of the crime, and hanged in Penn's Common in Reading in 1809.