Milford chronicle., 1940-12-06

During the past five years, MIR
Zebley has taken about $50 photo
graphs of the creek-Or river, what
ever you may choose to call it. He
has talked with hundreds of men
and women whose lives were influ-
cnced by it, who live on its shores
or in the valley-whOse ancestors
lived there before them.
Mr.. Zebley's grandfather, Benja-
min Price, was the last Of the grist
millers at Brandywine Bridge, Will
mingtOn-a class of men who gave
Wilmington and the Brandywine
fair names in America and abroad.
Benjamin Price lived at 1902 King
street, Wilmington. Upon his. death
his daughter, Mrs. Kate Price Zebley,
inherited the home and there today
her son lives-and there he wrote
his book, "AlOng the Brandywine,'
which he published this week, affec-
tiOnately dedicated to his mother
ana an expression of an effort t.
share his enjoyment of the rivel
with others.
Although as a boy and young man.
he knew the Brandywine fairly we'll
IL Md6 HUI uAllAA AJDU AAAhbf1liEI AEGtuEu
upon this project-tO trace the river
TO its source and photograph its pic
turesque landmarks. II was no easy
task. Just above Lenape, the Bran
dywine branches into two streams
the Eastern and Western. The ives
tern Brandywine eventually bra
ches at ROcklyn into the eastern and
western branches of the Western
This, therefore, made three streams |
to be traved to their sources, all Oi ]
which he found in the Welsh Noun
tains, only a few miles apart
Book Is Praised
The result of his Investigations j. |
a neat little book, we'll printed, pre-
fusely illustrated with excellent pho
tographs-ranging from quiet little
country roads to magnificent man.
siOns, tumbling mills, and modest
little homes that rich and poor have
built and loved.
To Mr.. Zehley the actual source
of the Brandywine-if one consider
the "farthest north" point of view
is Squash Spring near Bert Paup's
home. But there are also 9th,
springs-almOst a dozen, some
which are in cellars of forgotten
hOuses-that eventually meet to
form small brooks that trickle acros,
meadows and pastureland-even
tually broadening into a good sized
stream.
Up there in the mountains, some of
the folks never heard of the Brandy
wine and just refer to the brooks that
flow through their properties as "the
crick."
AS it continues its trip down
Pennsylvania. it goes
areas where were once grist
mills and furnaces. 1t races along
a boon to farmers and millers. For
that really seems to have been the
destiny of the rivera waterway for
industry and husbandry; but ii took
a bloody battle in the fall Of 1777 at
Chadd's Ford to make it famous in
American history
Rich In Beauty
It has always been rich in local
color, atmosphere, rural beauty.
thousands of men have used its
power and hundreds Of writer's and
artists have written of It's charm.
Mr. Zebley's book is not only a
chronicle Of the stream itself but
Of the people who lived on its banks
and in its valley.
But this is no orderly stream that
Mr.. Zebley has mapped. One of its
said to him that the |
flows along straight for
. distance, then decides to curve {
sround and 90 back to take look
Il itself
In his wanderings, Mr.. zebley also
,aused to look in, as 1t were, at old I
ms where Consstoga wagcnneFs {