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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/thomasleiperlieuOOsmyt 
 
THOMAS LEI PER 
 
 By 5. Gordon Smyth. 
 

THOMAS LEIPER 
 
 / 
 
 LIEUTENANT OF LIGHT HORSE, 
 PATRIOT AND FINANCIER IN THE REVOLUTION; 
 
 AND 
 PIONKKR IN THE DKVELOPEIVEENT 
 
 OF 
 INDUSTRIES AND INLAND COMMERCE; 
 
 IN 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL GORDON SMYTH. 
 
 BECORDEB PBINT: CONSHOHOCKEN, PA. 
 
 1900. 
 
\5^ 
 
THOMAS LEIPER 
 
 The early annals of the three origi- 
 nal counties of Pennsylvania and the 
 story of their rapid settlement with 
 people drawn by the beneficent princi- 
 ples of the "Holy Experiment" from the 
 bondage of foreign lands, have always 
 presented a ready and fruitful field 
 for historical research. 
 
 Under the wise laws and a liberal 
 government instituted by the founder 
 and Proprietary, whose ideas of relig- 
 ious tolerance were the far-reaching 
 influence to this end, Philadelphia 
 very soon became the most cosmopoli- 
 tan city in the New World, and equal- 
 ly distinguished for the thrift, progres- 
 siveness and intellectuality of her cit- 
 zens. 
 
 The light which the pre-Revolution- 
 ary newspapers throw upon her his- 
 tory shows that in the last days of the 
 Colonial era, her merchants, factors, 
 traders, shippers and farmers exalted 
 Philadelphia, and she thus became the 
 wealthiest and most conservative of 
 centres, a position unique and pre- 
 eminent in her relation to the capitals 
 of the neighboring provinces. 
 
 As we scan the fading pages of our 
 ancient city press we may learn of the 
 genesis of many of the leading fam- 
 ilies of these later times, whose found- 
 ations of wealth were laid in the hive of 
 a relentless industry which character- 
 ized the home of their vigorous an- 
 cestry. Among those names most fre- 
 
 quently mentioned we come across one 
 belonging to an early citizen whose 
 prominence and genius have been little 
 heard of by this generation. 
 
 Thomas Leiper, for sixty-odd years, 
 T\as a useful and influential figure in 
 the activities of the last century. He 
 found the opportunity while building 
 up his own private fortunes to devote 
 a great deal of his time, energy and 
 capital to the advancement of the 
 growing municipality. 
 
 This notable person came from Scot- 
 land in 1746, a youth of nineteen, 
 and settled in Virginia. He was a 
 younger son of Thomas Leiper, a Scot- 
 tish patrician, and his wife who was 
 Helen Hamilton (of the family of Kipe 
 and Stane-House). 
 
 On his father's side the lad was de- 
 scended from an ancestor of French 
 origin who had come to Scotland, it 
 is said, in the court of Mary Stuart, 
 •when that beautiful but erratic Queen 
 returned to ascend the throne in 1561. 
 
 Though destined by his parents for 
 the Kirk, the death of his father and 
 the passing of the ancestral estate into 
 the possession of an elder brother, di- 
 verted the young man from his intend- 
 ed career and determined him to rome 
 to America. Here he arrived with 
 four brothers, in the year above stated. 
 
 While in Virginia, young Leiper be- 
 came interested in the tobacco busi- 
 ness. He remained in that province 
 
w 
 
 a, 
 
 Oh 
 
but a short time and came to Philadel- 
 phia a few years prior to the American 
 Revolution. Here he established a to- 
 bacco warehouse at No. 9 North Water 
 street. In 1774 we find that he had 
 become a snuff manufacturer and had 
 located at No. 274 Market street and by 
 this time was known as an extensive 
 dealer in snuff and tobacco — those com- 
 forting essentials of the Colonial gen- 
 tly. 
 
 In a comparatively short period he 
 had amassed a fortune, as fortunes 
 were then rated, and was reckoned 
 among the most astute merchants.. 
 
 Thomas Leiper was the friend of 
 Washington, the companion of Jeffer- 
 son and the champion of Jackson; a 
 zealous and courageous advisor of the 
 people in the times in which he lived; 
 a strong advocate and supporter of the 
 irfant State; a leader of and a master 
 among men. He was patriotic, jjopu- 
 lar and of the highest respectability. 
 
 America was already in the shadow 
 oi the Revolution. The people were 
 struggling for the exercise of those un- 
 deniable rights and privileges into 
 M nich they were born as freemen. In 
 the agitations of those questions Thom- 
 as Leiper was prominent. He was one 
 of the first to* recommend a rupture 
 with the mother country, and one of 
 the last, afterward, to lay down his 
 arms. When he saw that a conflict 
 was inevitable he prudently allied him- 
 self with the Whig party and fast de- 
 veloped into one of the most ardent 
 of patriots, sacrificing to the cause his 
 energies and fortune. 
 
 On the evening of November "7th, 
 1/74, "twenty-eight gentlemen, repre- 
 senting the wealth and respectability 
 of tne city," met in Carpenter's Hall 
 and there organized the First Troop of 
 Light-Horse, which became afterward 
 known as the First City Troop. At the 
 seme time the following officers were 
 
 elected: Andrew Allen, 1st Lieut; 
 Samuel Morris, 2d Lieut.; James Mease, 
 Cornet; Thomas Leiper, 1st Sergeant; 
 Levi Hollingsworth, Quartermaster; 
 William Pollard, 1st Corporal, and 
 James Hunter, 2d Corporal. 
 
 The subsequent service of the First 
 Troop in the war of the Revolution 
 was exceptionally valuable. They were 
 attached to General Washington's 
 staff during that memorable campaign 
 in the Jerseys, its members acting as 
 bearers of despatches from the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief to his generals. The 
 Troop participated in the battles of 
 Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth. 
 At Trenton and Princeton they were 
 actively engaged. Thomas Leiper be- 
 ing a great personal friend of General 
 Mercer, was detailed with five o+her 
 lighthorsemen to service on his staff, 
 for the purpose of conveying intelli- 
 gence. After four weeks duty they 
 were relieved, with the thanks of Gen- 
 eral Washington. At Princeton, Lei- 
 per was by the side of General Mercer 
 when he fell pierced by the British 
 bullets, and when General Washington 
 rode to the front to save the day Sergt. 
 Leiper and the troop rallied about 
 him. The only cavalry in this engage- 
 ment were the twenty-five light horse- 
 men of the First Troop. 
 
 While in the vicinity of Princeton, 
 acting as escort to the Adjt. General 
 of the Army, Col. Joseph Reed; Serg't 
 Leiper and his squad of troopers came 
 upon a British foraging party, which 
 they promptly captured. 
 
 After their tour of duty in the Jer- 
 seys was completed the Troop were 
 discharged. A personal letter of 
 thanks was sent by General Washing- 
 ton to Captain Morris, at the time. 
 
 While acting in his capacity as 
 Treasurer of the Troop, Thomas Lei- 
 per carried the last of the French sub- 
 sidies to the Federal troops at York- 
 
8 
 
 town. As the war continued, Sergt. 
 Leiper contributed very largely by his 
 own means, and was quite successful 
 in raising funds to aid and equip oth- 
 er organizations for taking the field. 
 
 In 1778 we find his name enrolled 
 upon the active list of the Patriotic 
 Association of Philadelphia. 
 
 In 1780 the National Bank of the 
 United States of America was organiz- 
 ed, for the purpose of supplying pro- 
 visions to the army. It was establish- 
 ed in Philadelphia and had 92 sub- 
 scribers contributing £300,000. Sam- 
 uel Morris gave £5000, James Mease 
 £6000 and Thomas Leiper £4000, and 
 others less amounts. The bank was 
 afterward (1782) incorporated as the 
 Bank of North America. 
 
 At the close of the war when the 
 coTintrj^ began to experience the new 
 conditions of self-government, Thom- 
 as Leiper was in demand to take office, 
 but he generally declined all those of 
 emolument or pay. He presided at 
 many of the town meetings, and in 
 public affairs generally his culture 
 and talents gave him a wide influence 
 for good. The revival of trade, the 
 establishment of enterprises calculat- 
 ed to develop the resources of the new 
 ration, appealed strongly to his at- 
 tention. He stimulated and advanced 
 the prosperity of Philadelphia in every 
 way. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of his 
 military services, we may add that 
 when the Whiskey Insurrection broke 
 out in the Western part of Pennsyl- 
 vania, the First Troop was early in the 
 field, and Thomas Leiper went out with 
 them as Second Lieutenant. This 
 was in 1794. 
 
 Leiper's town residence was on Mar- 
 ket street, near Fourth. Here he en- 
 tertained hospitably his many ,and of- 
 ten distinguished, friends. He was 
 a great admirer of Thomas Jeffeison, 
 
 who, it is said, dined either at Lei- 
 per's, or Dr. Rush's and would go to 
 no other place. 
 
 It was at the house of his friend, 
 Thomas Leiper, that Jefferson was 
 nominated for the Presidency in 1800. 
 M. Leiper, at this time, was president 
 ot city councils, an office which he held 
 for several years. 
 
 Long after the close of the century 
 the tobacco merchant was credited 
 with great wealth. He was an exten- 
 sive investor in real estate in Phila- 
 delphia; he had large estates at Frank- 
 ford; he owned the site of Wanamak- 
 er's Grand Depot, it is claimed, and 
 the new Mansion House Hotel, which 
 he erected at the southeast corner of 
 ETleventh and Market streets, a site 
 now occupied by the Bingham House. 
 In company with John Chaloner, John 
 Dunlap, John Mease and others, he 
 purchased Tinicum Island from Thom- 
 as Levis, the agent for Chester coun- 
 ty. The tract had been confiscated as 
 the property of Joseph Galloway, a 
 well-known royalist of Philadelphia, 
 who fled to England during the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 Thomas Leiper's name is found 
 among the taxables of Nether Provi- 
 dence township, Chester county, as 
 early as 1779. It was probably on his 
 property that Dr. Robert Harris es- 
 tablished the powder works with which 
 his name was connected during the 
 V ar with England. The Colonial rec- 
 ords describe them as being located at 
 Strathavon, which, we know, was the 
 name of Leiper's Chester county pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 The tradition is, that by the >ear 
 1785, the plantation acquired by Thom- 
 /.as Leiper in the townships of Ridley, 
 ( to many hundreds of acres, enough to>. 
 Vspringfield and Providence, amounted^ 
 form a continuous strip from the pres- 
 ent site of Swarthmore College to the 
 
9 
 
 Delaware river, approximately, three 
 liiiles, and containing farms, mills, 
 quarries, etc. In 1785 he erected a 
 stone mansion on his beautiful estate 
 which he had sometime before named 
 "Strathavon," after the ancestral halls 
 beyond the sea. He chose for the lo- 
 cation of his house a pretty hillside 
 which overlooks the picturesque scen- 
 ery of Crum Creek. From broad piaz- 
 zas, the owner could look out upon 
 that forest-clad landscape lying over 
 the ravine and clothing the opposite 
 slopes in a garb of everlasting beauty. 
 Below his dwelling, in a ravine, rush- 
 ed the creek over its boulder-strewn 
 bed, the whole scene suggesting, shall 
 we say? something to the man's mem- 
 ory of boyhood's haunts among the 
 wild glens and tarns of the old Scotch 
 highlands. 
 
 It is interesting to note in this con- 
 nection that over the gabled doorway 
 of the mansion, its builder has carved 
 two tobacco stalks, to symbolize the 
 democratic origin of his riches — what 
 armiger has nobler blazon! Around 
 and about the mansion Leiper planted 
 box bushes which he had imported 
 from Holland, and the sugar maples 
 which shaded his home were brought 
 down from the Kaaterskills by his own 
 oxen-express on the return from some 
 tcbacco-trading expedition to the pa- 
 troons of Van Rensselaerwyck. 
 
 In the section of Delaware county 
 where Thomas Leiper settled his fam- 
 ily certain Revolutionary events have 
 occurred, which add their historic in- 
 terest to the story of the famous mer- 
 chant and of the age in which he lived. 
 
 The great Southern post-road passed 
 through the estate. It was traveled 
 bj' the British and American armies 
 in their manoeuvering for the possession 
 o: Philadelphia. The American forces 
 retreated through the plantation from 
 
 the fatal field at Brandywine on their 
 ■way to Darby. 
 
 Below Leiperville, then called Kid- 
 ley, stands the old "White Horse Tav- 
 ern," where Captain Culin was shot by 
 one of his own men, and where Cap- 
 tain John Crosby was lured by a Brit- 
 ish boat's crew and captured. 
 
 In the angle of the same pike and 
 the Leiper railroad, the old homestead 
 of John Macllvaine stands in partial 
 ruin. This is the house where Gen- 
 eral Washington passed the night after 
 the disastrous dash down the Brandy- 
 wine hills. Peter Hill's mill is near at 
 hand from which the Continental sol- 
 diers carried off grist and grain to the 
 \alue of SOOOacres of Virginia land — 
 the price that Congress paid for the 
 foray. On the banks of Crum Creek, 
 Hugh Lloyd, the son of Richard, of 
 Darby, also had a grist mill, which is 
 the one mentioned by General Wash- 
 i^'gton when he instructed Gen. James 
 Potter to scour the country and re- 
 move the burr-stones from certain 
 mills that would be likely to come 
 Vviihin the limits of General Plove's 
 rfids. Hugh Lloyd was a delegate to 
 the Provincial Committee, which sat 
 ai Philadelphia in 1775. 
 
 Thomas Leiper was deeply interest- 
 ed in the useful arts and sciences. He 
 was the friend and patron of internal 
 Iniprovements and to such enterprises 
 as turnpikes, waterworks and caa^^ls, 
 he is said to have given as much as 
 $100,000. He introduced into his fac- 
 tories the most recent devices; some 
 were the result of his own investiga- 
 tions in the realm of mechanics. 
 
 In the development of his Delaware 
 county estate, his genius for industrial 
 pi ogress is brilliantly displayed and 
 his efforts foremostamong the achieve- 
 ments of practical science. 
 
 The Crum Creek which flows through 
 his plantation has a superior water- 
 
10 
 
 power which was promptly used by its 
 pioprietor. A little way below J^ei- 
 per's residence the valley of the creek 
 broadens out and forms a small cove. 
 Along the shelving banks of the 
 stieara and protected by high encir- 
 cling hills on the west is a little vil- 
 hige that long ago grew up about the 
 factories which Mr. Leiper had estab- 
 lished there from time to time. He 
 christened the colony "Avondale," in 
 remembrance of a little hamlet, in one 
 of the glens of Scotland. The opera- 
 tions at this place consisted of two 
 snuff mills, a stone-sawing mill, where 
 tiiG huge blocks of rough granite -vere 
 brought from the adjacent quarries, 
 and converted into curbing and coping. 
 Higher up the stream was the .^rrist 
 mill, later transformed into a blade 
 factory; all were propelled by the cur- 
 rent. The farm laid the water-power 
 under tribute to do the threshing and 
 cider making and the churning for the 
 dairy. Such were the first industries of 
 Avondale. To-day, the visitor to the 
 ancient place will find one of the two 
 snuft' mills used for a dwelling and 
 the other a ruin. Yarn spinning suc- 
 ceeded snuff-making and more dwell- 
 ings were needed. 
 
 1 he building is standing — a dwell- 
 i-':;g now — beneath whose massive arch- 
 es the first practical attempt was made 
 to saw stone by artificial appliances. 
 The operation was long ago abandoned 
 but the principle still lives in the 
 methods now employed by stone-cut- 
 tinj; concerns. 
 
 • The surrounding hills produced the 
 nest valuable and permanent of the 
 resources of the great Leiper estate. 
 The quarries yielded unlimited quan- 
 tilies of excellent building stone, which 
 was then, and has ever since contin- 
 ued to be, in demand. Some of the 
 quarries were opened on Crum Creek 
 iTi 1740, long before Thomas Leiper be- 
 
 came their owner and material from 
 them entered into the construction of 
 the most substantial houses of Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 It is in connection with the develop- 
 ment of these quarries that the n^me 
 of Thomas Leiper stands out in lu.nin- 
 ous characters upon the pages of his- 
 tciy as the pioneer and champion of 
 inland transportation. 
 
 Out of his own vast fortune ne found- 
 ed the Leiper railway and the Leiper 
 canal — lines of water and rail com- 
 niimication which improved and facil- 
 itated the transportation of the coun- 
 try and gave it its first impulse toward 
 ai; immeasurable destiny. 
 
 The last years of Thomas Leiper'slife 
 were crow^ded with the triumphs of 
 his activities. Possessing an honorable 
 reputation, the most desirable person- 
 al qualities and excellent executive 
 aoilities, he was found generally at the 
 head of the best corporations of the 
 city and his name coupled in intimate 
 commercial relation with the leading ^ 
 citizens throughout the land. ^ 
 
 In 1800 we find him associated with 
 A. J. Dallas, Robert Patterson and oth- 
 ers in organizing the Penna. Improve- 
 ment Company, whose object was the 
 development of inland communication 
 and banking. Later we note that he 
 w^as connected with Dr. Mease, Rob- 
 ert Ralston, Robert Wain and Samuel 
 Hazard in founding a savings bank 
 under the corporate title of The Penna. 
 Society for the Promotion of Economy. 
 His experience with military affairs 
 during the Revolution brought him 
 the chairmanship of the Commission 
 for the Defense of Philadelphia, when 
 the peril of a British raid seemed im- 
 minent after the fall of Washington 
 in 1814. 
 
 His name is found among the Lot- 
 tery Commissioners appointed by the 
 Governor when lotteries were a popu- 
 

 
12 
 
 lar financial undertaking. Thomas M. 
 Willing, Stephen Girard, Cad. Evans, 
 Jr., William Jones and Thomas Lei- 
 per were appointed a commission by 
 President Madison to superintend the 
 subscriptions to the capital of the 
 Ijnited States Bank, in 1816. He is 
 found in Independence Hall, in 1817, 
 with such men as Jared Ingersoll, Hor- 
 ace Binney, P. S. DuPonceau, Thomas 
 Walsh and William Rawle, protesting 
 against the practice and extension of 
 human slavery. 
 
 Pie was a leader in the first attempt 
 to organize the manufacturers of Phil- 
 adelphia into a society for the better 
 protection of their interests. Among 
 the Presidential Electors on the Jack- 
 son ticket of 1823 we find his name, as 
 we do lateh in connection with Jack- 
 son Day celebrations, as a presiding 
 genius. 
 
 His death occurred in Philadelphia, 
 in July, 1825. The Aurora thus eulo- 
 gizes him: "For simpleness of heart, 
 integrity of person and conduct, de- 
 votion to the cause of liberty and of 
 his country, he was unsurpassed. He 
 was an ornament to the city of Phil- 
 adelphia, the pride of Pennsylvania, 
 and advantageously and honorably 
 known to the whole American nation." 
 
 When Thomas Leiper came into pos- 
 session of his large Delaware County 
 estate there were some stone quarries 
 upon the tracts lying along Crum and 
 Ridley Creeks. These quarries had 
 been operated for many years and their 
 product attained an excellent reputa- 
 tion for superior quality. 
 
 The rapid rise and solid growth of 
 Philadelphia kept the demand for good 
 building stone constantly on the in- 
 crease until the prompt delivery of the 
 orders became a matter of serious con- 
 sideration. The solution of the ques- 
 
 tion, however, was at hand when 
 Thomas Leiper conceived the idea of 
 building a canal from tidewater of 
 Crum Creek to the quarries at Avon- 
 dale. 
 
 The plan was to utilize principally 
 the creek itself which was in places 
 wide, deep, and well adapted for such 
 a purpose. The grades were to be ov- 
 ercome by a system of locking and 
 short water levels. 
 
 In 1780 the matter had been so far 
 developed that Thomas Leiper made 
 application to the Pennsylvania As- 
 sembly for the privilege of carrying 
 out his plans, and about the same 
 time a representation was also made 
 to the Assembly in behalf of the peti- 
 tion, by twenty-eight of the principal 
 masons and bricklayers of Philadel- 
 phia, who claimed "that the stones 
 raised from Leiper's quarries are the 
 best produced in the neighborhood of 
 the city for the purposes of curbstones, 
 flags and house-building." 
 
 Notwithstanding the energetic sup- 
 port of these men, and his own person- 
 al influence, Leiper's petition was op- 
 posed. John and Richard Crosby who 
 owned and operated a forge near the 
 great Southern post road, objected be- 
 cause it was feared their mill dam 
 would be ruined by the canal. The 
 most formidable opposition came from 
 the m-embers of the Assembly itself 
 who believed that the idea v.'^as chimer- 
 ical, visionary, and ruinous; thus the 
 Avisdom of the Legislature, great as it 
 was, proved unequal to the emergency 
 and so the bill failed. 
 
 Thomas Leiper out of these difiicul- 
 ties evolved another expedient which 
 he partly describes in a notice appear- 
 ing in The American Advertiser, April 
 1, 1793, and reading in part, as follows: 
 
 "Card to the public — The subscriber 
 having failed in his application to fa- 
 cilitate the transportation of stone to 
 
1 '^ 
 
 this city by opening a canal from the 
 quarries on Crura Creek, to the tide- 
 water of the River Delaware, has en- 
 deavored, notwithstanding, to ensure 
 an abundant supply of that article by 
 means of an approved and regular land 
 carriage, in which waggons capable of 
 carrying upwards of 10 tons will be 
 constantly employed. 
 
 "He returns thanks for the orders 
 he has heretofore received, but regrets 
 that, from unavoidable cause, he could 
 not preserve a perfect punctuality in 
 executing them. He has, however, sur- 
 mounted many difficulties by shorten- 
 ing and improving the road, as well as 
 by enlarging the size of the flats and 
 waggons which he employs, so that, 
 besides 4000 feet of curbstone now col- 
 lected in Philadelphia and at the land- 
 ing-place on Crum Creek, he expects 
 in the course of the ensuing season to 
 cut double the quantity that was used 
 in the city during the last year. He is 
 therefore ready to contract for the de- 
 livery of any quantity of curbstone, 
 building or foundation stone, flags for 
 pavements, and Weaver's freestone in 
 the rough, at any place or port in the 
 United States. 
 
 "The subscriber, meaning at some fu- 
 ture time, as well as for the public ben- 
 efit, as for the advancement of his own 
 interests, to renew his application to 
 the General Assembly, is preparing for 
 the perusal and information of his fel- 
 low citizens, a statement of the pro- 
 ceeding and arguments respecting the 
 proposed canal on Crum Creek, from 
 which, he trusts, it will appear to a 
 very disinterested and candid mind, 
 that similar plans have received 
 the sanction of the Legislature; that 
 his proposition combined public good 
 with private interests, and that use 
 and value of the property of his neigh- 
 bors so far from being injured, would 
 
 be materially improved and appreciat- 
 ed by the success of his design." 
 
 As an advertisement writer Thomas 
 Leiper seems to have been a success, as 
 subsequent events will show. 
 
 It is probable that the "land car- 
 riage," described here, is the first men- 
 tion made of a practical attempt in the 
 use of tramways — for such we may as- 
 sume it was, and destined soon to rev- 
 olutionize modes of travel and inaug- 
 urate the magnificent system of rail- 
 ways which to-day encircles the globe. 
 
 In 1797, Thoma,s Leiper advertises 
 that he "will enter into a contract for 
 the whole of the curbstone that may 
 be wanted this year for the supply of 
 the city and districts, at 3 pence per 
 foot lower than such stone can be fur- 
 nished by any other person. It will be 
 warranted the best that ever came to 
 Philadelphia," and cites from a certif- 
 icate issued by Mr. William Covert and 
 other City Commissioners, dated 
 DecemDer 31, 1791, that "in their opin- 
 ion the curb and gutter stone from 
 Thomas Leiper's quarries, exceed in 
 goodness any other that yet have been 
 made use of for the city pavements." 
 
 The epoch approaching 1809 was 
 probably a period of success in the 
 methods hitherto adopted. It is evi- 
 dent that Thomas Leiper's fertile mind 
 had been again at work for he had, at 
 this time, elaborated a more extensive 
 plan for connecting his quarries with 
 the river commerce, and at this date 
 had secured John Thomson, whose 
 son, J, Edgar Thomson, afterward be- 
 came president of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad, to make surveys, draughts 
 and estimate for a line of railway to 
 run across the steep grades of the di- 
 vide, which separates the Crum from 
 Ridley Creek, and at a point below 
 Avondale on the former and Pierce 
 Crosby's mills on the latter stream. 
 
 A Scotch mechanic named Somer- 
 
14 
 
 ville, who had probably seen such de- 
 vices in England or Scotland, where 
 the idea was first demonstrated, built 
 for Thomas Leiper an experimental 
 track under Leiper's supervision, in 
 the courtyard of the Bull's Head Tav- 
 ern, by Poplar Lane in the Northern 
 Liberties. The track was 60 yards 
 long, graded 1% inches to the yard, 
 four feet gauge and the sleepers laid 8 
 feet apart. Up this incline a single 
 horse drew a loaded car, weighing 10,- 
 690 pounds, to the summit, and under 
 a disadvantage of having to travel 
 through loose earth. This trial, which 
 aetermined the success of the venture, 
 occurred in September, 1809 and was 
 witnessed by a large number of per- 
 sons; amiong them were Prof. Robert 
 Patterson, of the University of Penn- 
 sylvani; Callender Irvine, Superin- 
 tendent of the U. S. Naval Stores; John 
 Glenn, Mr. Leiper's agent, and others. 
 Reading Howell was the engineer in 
 charge. 
 
 Thomas Leiper immediately began 
 the contruction of what is said to be 
 the first railway put to practical use in 
 America. Its length was three-fourths 
 of a mile and the estimated cost 
 ,^1592.47. At first the rails used were 
 made of oak scantling but they soon 
 wore out from the friction of the cast- 
 iron flanged car wheels and a stone 
 track was substituted, which lasted the 
 nineteen years of subsequent service. 
 During this period the cars were drawn 
 by oxen. 
 
 The writer, in company with an ar- 
 tist, recently visited the site of the 
 original railroad and was enabled to 
 find some hundreds of yards of the old 
 cut and embankments on the hill back 
 of Carey's Bank. There is but little 
 change in the appearance of what is 
 left of it since it was abandoned 70 
 years ago. The overgrowth of ))riars 
 and rubbish had been cut away and 
 
 left the line of the railway perfectly 
 clear. The largest part of the roadbed 
 was long ago filled in and worked over 
 by the enterprising farmers who after- 
 ward came into possession of the dis- 
 integrated estate. 
 
 Twenty years after its inception it 
 was abandoned. In the meantime 
 Thomas I^eiper had died and his eldest 
 son — G-eorge Grey Leiper revived the 
 original project for a canal. Canals 
 were then in high favor and were con- 
 sidered the most convenient and eco- 
 nomical systems of inland travel. 
 
 George G. Leiper, who had been a mem- 
 ber of the General Assembly in 1822-23 
 succeeded in obtaining in 1828, the cov- 
 eted privilege by law, and the long de- 
 ferred building of the canal proceed- 
 ed as originaly intended by the father. 
 
 William Strickland, one of the lead- 
 ing engineers of the time and an en- 
 thusiast upon the subject of 'water- 
 ways was engaged, and put in charge 
 of the operation. Work was begun in 
 1528 and the canal finally completed 
 and opened for traffic in 1829. A co- 
 temporary has preserved a description 
 of the ceremonies attending the cele- 
 bration of its opening from which we 
 take the following extract: 
 
 "At 1 o'clock the ladies were escort- 
 ed to the canal boat 'William Strick- 
 land,' a beautiful boat 55 feet in length 
 and named after that distinquished en- 
 gineer. In the stern of the boat was 
 stationed a band of music which play- 
 ed, during the passage of the boat up 
 to the quarries, a distance of nearly 
 two miles, some of the most fashion- 
 aBle and patriotic airs. Attached to 
 txie boat were two handsome, full- 
 blooded 'Windflower' colts, neatly 
 decorated with covers and trimmed 
 with ribbons. At half -past one the 
 signal was given and the procession 
 moved on in carriages and gigs, and 
 gentlemen on horseback accompanied 
 
15 
 
 the boat as she smoothly glided 
 through the unruffled stream to her 
 place of destination. The sight as may 
 well be imagined was truly grand and 
 inspiring. When the 'William Strick- 
 land, entered the first lock nomed af- 
 ter the venerable proprietor, three 
 cheers were given. In a few minutes 
 after, she entered the Thomas Leiper 
 lock, which, for beauty of stone and 
 superior workmanship, is unrivalled 
 in the United States. Such is the opin- 
 ion of Messrs Strickland and Strurhers 
 of Philadelphia and Major Bender. 
 
 "On the Leiper Lock, the Delaware 
 County Volunteer Battalion, under the 
 command of Lieut. Col. Myers, were 
 posted, and as soon as the boat passed 
 through it a national salute was fired 
 by the Penna. Artillerists accompan- 
 ied with musketry. The boat was pre- 
 cisely one half-hour from the time she 
 left the great Southern road until she 
 arrived at the mansion of Hon. George 
 G. Leiper. The ladies were then land- 
 ed and the boat proceeded on her pas- 
 sage up to the quarries without any 
 accident having occurred to in^pede 
 her progress. 
 
 "The troops were then paraded in 
 front of the mansion of Mr. Leiper and 
 were addressed by him in a very ap- 
 propriate manner. Afterward his 
 house was thrown open to those who 
 were disposed to refresh themselves 
 with his hospitality. There were at 
 least 1000 persons present at the cer- 
 emonies. Had the weather been fav- 
 orable a much greater crowd would 
 have been there. In all the bustle in- 
 cident to such a parade no serious ac- 
 cfdent occurred to mar the pleasures 
 or the day." 
 
 The canal, in addition to its speci- 
 fied object, served also, as a water- 
 power for the mills along its banks, 
 and that alone survives to-day. It 
 was a mile long and quite narrow. 
 
 Starting from Crum Creek, about a 
 hundred yards north of the present 
 crossing of the P. W. & B. R. R., a 
 snort distance below Leiperville, Rid- 
 ley, as it was then called, has since ris- 
 en into some prominence by reason of 
 its connection with the Leiper indus- 
 tries. At the starting point was the 
 landing where for 50 years past ves- 
 sels had traded in stone with the out- 
 si'de world. Here were the first ser- 
 ies of locks, also the basin and beyond 
 these the boats passed into the creek 
 at Crosby's dam and proceeded over 
 the long, deep, shady reaches till they 
 arrived at "Lapidea," the last locking 
 stage. 
 
 At this point — locally called Carey's 
 Bank, the locks were about a quarter 
 of a mile apart and situated in the 
 midst of the most picturesque sur- 
 roundings; beside them, was the 
 bleachery green of an old mill that 
 was once a grist mill during the Revo- 
 lution. It was then known as Hugh 
 Lloyd's Mills and was converted by the 
 Leipers into a woolen factory. In this 
 beautiful dell Judge Leiper came to 
 live; here he erected his great mansion 
 in 1811 and with John P. Crozier oper- 
 ated the mill for several years after- 
 ward. 
 
 The principal lock was located at the 
 foot of Judge Leiper's lawn, where it 
 may be seen to-day, as the artist has 
 caught the scene, beautiful even in 
 its ruin, as an example of the stone- 
 dressers' art. The main lock chamber 
 is about 100 feet long, 12 feet wide and 
 as deep as wide. Its walls are con- 
 structed of the choicest blocks of fine 
 grained granite that came out of the 
 Leiper quarries; some of them meas- 
 ured twelve and fourteen feet in length 
 and a yard wide, all laid in uniform 
 courses a foot in depth. Bach stone 
 has a smooth finish and champfered 
 on the edges. The locks v/ere named 
 
16 
 
 respectively "Elizabeth Leiper Lock 
 1S28." and "Thomas Leiper Lock 1828." 
 The inscriptions were carved deeply in 
 six-inch letters in the face of the wall. 
 Nothing is left of the old timbers of 
 the lockgates, except a chance bit of 
 oak clinging to a rusty hinge in the 
 ruin. All about them is the deserted 
 village of Carey's Bank with the 
 tumbling mansion of Judge Leiper at 
 the head of it. 
 
 The course of the canal ran along 
 and formed a boundary to Judge Leip- 
 er's lawn passing near his door so that 
 all the traffic over its waters was vis- 
 ible to the master's eye. Above the 
 lawn the boats passed into the dam at 
 Blackbird Island— an islet which the 
 Judge had converted into a boAvery 
 spot for the resort of his household 
 and from thence over the last long 
 reach, past the several quarries to the 
 end of the journey at Avondale. 
 
 During tv/enty-two years of unin- 
 terrupted activity most of the great 
 mass of stone which forms the break- 
 water at Lewes, Del., which helped to 
 bulwark the^chuylkill at Fairmount 
 and rear the Blockley Hospital and 
 numerous buildings in Philadelphia 
 and elsewhere passed down the histor- 
 ic watercourse to the river, before the 
 career of the canal closed. 
 
 A second railway, built in 1852, sup- 
 erseded the canal. It was a narrow- 
 guage affair and followed the route of 
 the canal. It was for many years op- 
 erated, as the writer well remembers, 
 by a long file of gray horses, which 
 at regular intervals twice a day passed 
 down the grade with their train of 
 heavily laden flats, to the landing 
 where schooners received the freight 
 to carry it, as Leiper advertised in 
 1793, "to any place or port in the Uni- 
 ted States." 
 
 When the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
 road completed their line through this 
 
 section of the county in 1887, the Leip- 
 er railway became a tributary freight 
 branch. The steam cars thundered 
 through that beautiful little village; 
 they run into the very heart of Strath- 
 avon and thus have destroyed forever, 
 the charm of its repose and the do- 
 mesticity of its ancient industries; but 
 the effort of Thomas Leiper and his 
 private enterprise have attained an 
 end far beyond the most extravagant 
 expectation of the founder. 
 
 If anything is needed to show how 
 heredity reflects the excellencies as 
 well as other traits of character upon 
 succeeding generations — one needs but 
 to glance over the brief but interesting 
 genealogy of this remarkable man. He 
 gave to his posterity not only the vir- 
 tues which were the adornment of his 
 long and useful life, but also, the strong 
 m.artial qualities which he inherited 
 from ancestors who may have fought 
 on Flodden Field. 
 
 Several of his descendants have won 
 distinction on the battle field of the 
 Republic and others have gained emi- 
 nence in the victorious courts of 
 Peace. 
 
 Sometime toward the beginning of 
 the Revolution Thomas Leiper mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Coultas Grey, the eld- 
 est daughter of Hon. George Grey, of 
 Grey's Ferry, whose wife, (nee Martha 
 Ibbetson of Whiteby Hall), rendered 
 such humane and devoted service to 
 the wounded soldiers in Philadelphia, 
 while that city was occupied by the 
 British, as to call forth high commen- 
 dation from both British and Ameri- 
 can officers. 
 
 Thomas Leiper had several children. 
 Elizabeth, the oldest, married Robert 
 Taylor who were the parents of Dr. 
 George S., James L., Samuel L., and 
 Thomas L. Taylor. Martha married 
 the well-known Presbyterian minister, 
 Rev. Jacob J. Janeway. Helen Ham- 
 
 Style ■> 
 
 
17 
 
 illon Leiper became the wife of Dr. 
 Robert Maskel Patterson, (son of Prof. 
 Patterson), who was appointed by 
 President Jackson in 1805, Director of 
 the U. S. Mint. Ann G. married 
 George G. Thomas. Jane D. married 
 Hon. John K. Kane, Judge of the Ad- 
 miralty and U. S. Court for the East- 
 ern District of Penna. They had five 
 sons: Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, Surgeon 
 U. S. Navy and the famous explorer 
 who lost his life in the polar region 
 while in search of Sir John Franklin's 
 party. General Thomas L. Kane — 
 sometime Colonel of the 42d Penna. 
 ( Bucktails") Vols.; Robert P. Kane 
 of the Philadelphia Bar and John K. 
 Kane of Wilmington,- Delaware. Julia 
 Leiper became the wife of Colonel 
 Plenry Taylor, of Virginia; George 
 Grey Leiper married Eliza S. Thomas. 
 George was a leading textile manufac- 
 turer as well as a quarry operator on 
 Crum and Ridley Creeks. He was 
 Captain of the Delaware County Fenc- 
 ibles in the War of 1812; a member of 
 i-e Penna. General Assembly 1822-23; 
 Congressman in 1848-49 and was after- 
 ward appointed an associate Judge of 
 
 the Delaware County Courts. John C, 
 his son, married Mary, the daughter 
 of Captain Peter Fassoux whose wife 
 was Rebecca the daughter of General 
 William Irvine, Colonel of the Penna. 
 Line in the Revolution and later a 
 Brigadier and Commisary General U. 
 S. A. Samuel M. Leiper was married 
 to Mary B. Lewis and their son, Thom- 
 as I. Leiper, became a Colonel in the 
 war of the Rebellion. He was also at- 
 tached to the staff of his cousin. Gen. 
 Thomas L. Kane. James Leiper mar- 
 ried Ann, the daughter of Pierce Cros- 
 by, a prominent manufacturer of Up- 
 land, Pa. William J. Leiper died un- 
 married. 
 
 Gen Chas. I. Leiper, recently de- 
 ceased, also belonged to this family 
 of Leipers. In the Rebellion he was 
 Colonel of the 17th Penna. Regiment, 
 (Rush's Lancers). Such is a partial 
 array of the military talent of a family 
 who trace their descent from the fam- 
 ous trooper of 1774. 
 
 Several of the younger generation 
 have already served in the Cuban 
 Campaign and others are at the front 
 in the Philippines. 
 
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