Smyrna times., 1875-12-01
mise eIIuW e OMS.
Among the Blue Hens Chickens.
Correspondence Qfme Philadelphia Times.

parts OF pennsylvania are the least explored
and talked about in these busy days, when
We are opening railways through the wilder
ness of Allegheny and exerting every
energy to Z" go West" Bucks, Chester and
Delaware counties receive less considera-
ton than the wild cat districts, where coal,
iron and lumber form the staples of pur-
suit How many Pennsylvanians have
taken any interest of late years in Z" the three
low countless of Delaware, which were
settled by the same races as early as Penn
sylvania, or earlier, and formed part of
Penn's proprietorship down to the Revolu-
ton? The great Quaker held a court at
New Castle as often as at Philadelphia, in
order to conciliate that rival municipality.
His widow, Letitia, had fifteen thousand
acres of land in New Castle county, estima-
tedby James Logan, her husbands secretary
to be worth twenty pounds per hundred
acres in 1902. Logan writes to the widow
that he expects to make her rich with these
and other lands, but he prudently says to
the ardent dame: Be not too easily dis
posed of; thy marriage is commonly
reported here; it would be scandal if any
Of thy fathers engagements should be an
occasion to sacrifice thee TO any but where
true love officiates as priest" Stealing a
week which | could hardly spare, | have
been running over part of two counties of
Delaware. This is one of the oldest and
the most conservative State of the Union.
1t was settled only eleven years after Ply
mouth, and the same year as Rhode Island,
its little colleague. Penn did not come in
until 1852, when he made his first landing
at New Castle, where there had been a fort
and town for thirty-one years and a court
house already existed, where the Swedes
and Dutch gathered around the fair young
Quaker, who was only thirty-eight years
old, and by their entreatips he united them
with his Province, holding the first Assem- |
bly, at Chester, nearly half way between his |
two ambitious capitals.
Geologically, Delaware may be compared |
to smooth ironingboard with a pair of
andirons placed at the narrow top to repre-.
sent the only considerable hills in the |
State. Little Christiana or Christina river, |
which rises in the borders of Maryland and |
Delaware, and was ascended by the Swedes
in 1888, flows down through the corner of |
the State and then abruptly turns to the
northeast, leaving a range of considerable
hills on its northern margin, while the
remainder of the State to the south is un-
dulating fields and meadows, with scarcely
e, l. ~ ~. r r -
Commonwealth. About one hundred
square miles out Of two thousand is thus
composed of beautifully y-moulded hills not
more than a few hundred feet above tide
water while the rest Of the State is of
secondary, tertiary and recent formation,
with watershed near the boundary line of
Maryland; a series Of clays, sands and
gravels, making exquisite loan, composes
the high level, and the rest Of the soil is
argillaceous and often contains surface and
bog iron ore. Two of these hills continue
on into Maryland and their extensions run
out to the mouth of the Elk river, where
the Philadelphians kept military lookout
during the war of 1912. The highest
altitude on the Philadelphia and Baltimore
Railroad is at Iron Hill, near Newark, ]
where for at least one hundred and fifty i
years the Welsh or Swedish miners have y
taken out hematite ore. The ancient pits /
of these miners are shown on the top of I
Iron Hill, about one hundred and eighty v
feet above the tide, and are now grown j
over with heavy timber. The remains of t
the old forge exist near Coochs mill, at the [
base of Iron Hill, and the ore was used b
during the wars with the British to make h
cannon at Principle Furnace. Three firms c
are now engaged in mining it, 10 be manu- "
factuFed on streams tributary to the Chesa- L
peake, and it is forwarded to Harrisburg t
by the Delaware State branch of the Penn a
sylvania Railroad. This ore yields about is
50 per cent. of iron, and it is said that the o
first iron works north of Mason and Dixon's "
line were established hereabouts. These Il
hills were used as forts by the Mingoa e
Indians 10 resist the Senecas, and Washing o
ton rode over their SUBMITS while marching a
on the flank of the British towards the Il
field of Brandywine. There has never been G.
a battle of any Importance on the soil of a
Delaware, although it was Washington's c.
first intentions to have met the British on h
Red Clay creek instead of the Brandywine h
After passing the hills of the Christina, p
in which are some very old Presby yterian, r;
Quaker and Welsh Baptist Churches, the c
soil of New Castle is found titled over a a
region Of twenty miles to degree of per- is
fection probably not attained anywhere t.
else in the United States. In no other c
part of the country have the hedges been g
maintained with such thrift and beauty for h
such a long time They are often clipped n
fat on the top and run for miles as if Il
man might walk over their surface. Again p
they are cut round like box bush, and h
supply the places of fences or walls for Il
indeed thousands, offarms. The a
n Ias