Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)Herrick, Francis Hobart
History
Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Herrick, Francis Hobart
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851
[84] "Mill Grove" farm is in Montgomery County, twenty-four
miles northwest of Philadelphia, in the town known, after
1823, as Shannonville, but in 1899 rechristened "Audubon;"
Norristown is five miles to the east.
[85] Mr. William H. Wetherill of Philadelphia, whose
hospitality I have enjoyed and to whom I am indebted for many
interesting facts and records pertaining to "Mill Grove."
Samuel Wetherill, Mr. W. H. Wetherill's grandfather, was one
of the first to bring "black rock," or coal, from Reading to
Philadelphia. Samuel Wetherill, Junior, who is said to have
started the first woolen mill in the country and to have
produced the first white lead made in the United States,
purchased "Mill Grove" for the sake of its minerals in 1813,
the war having put a stop to all importations from England at
that time. He actually succeeded in extracting several hundred
tons of lead from the "Mill Grove" mines, doing better, it
is thought, than any who preceded or followed him. Samuel
Wetherill, Junior, died in 1829, and was succeeded in the
lead and drugs industry by his four sons, of whom Samuel Price
Wetherill became the owner of "Mill Grove" in 1833. The farm
remained in the hands of the Wetherill family until 1876,
and returned to them again, when the present owner came into
possession, in 1892.
[86] In 1761 James Morgan, the first miller and builder,
conveyed one-half of the mill site of five acres to Roland
Evans, who came into possession of the other half, with the
adjoining farm, in 1771; the property was sold to Governor
John Penn in 1776; it passed to Samuel C. Morris in 1784, and
to the Prevosts in 1786.
[87] The lease, which was drawn up in English, April 10,
1789, reads in part as follows: "This indenture, made on the
tenth Day of April in the Year of our Lord, One thousand Seven
hundred & Eighty nine, Between John Audubon, of the Island of
St. Domingo, Gentleman, now being in the City of Philadelphia,
of the one party, and Augustine Prevost...." The lease
included the messuages, grist mills, saw mills, plantation and
tract of land, which is described, tools, implements, stock,
and furniture of the mills and farm, and was drawn for one
year; it was signed in the presence of Miers Fisher, agent
and attorney for Jean Audubon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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