It is hard to imagine today but postcards were all the rage from c.1900 thru the 1920's. You could have custom postcards made of your house, family etc. Dealers made postcards of streets, buildings etc. The above card is just to tell a friend a letter is coming, I have almost 4000 original Delco cards in my collection.
,Website Update!!
I was very lucky this year to have Penn State, Brandywine Campus, select my website, delawarecountyhistory.com to update, expand etc. The 3 students worked on my site for 3 months and did a wonderful job. The great thing they did was put a search engine in that indexes all the names on my site which runs into the 1000's. The students are still doing a few more updates and changes but please take a look!!
MANY SMALL TOWNS NAMED FOR PROMINENT FAMILIES
The
original intent of research on this subject were to track down township and
borough names. Material gathered in this
primary search has been presented in the first 23 stories. However, in hunting up this material, one stumbles
over name histories of the smaller county communities. Therefore, it was decided to present what was
found on villages and towns despite the fact that the material covers at best
only a percentage of such county locations.
A
glance of a cross-section of village names shows that the majority of them come
from names of persons or families. Of
the same 25 community names traced, 15 are from this type of source. Other sources are similar to those of the
townships and boroughs. Indian and
English names, and original industries are also frequent reasons for village
names.
Among
those named for people and families, one finds several interesting
circumstances.
Take
the case of Broomall, for instance. This
Marple Township community was named for Congressman John M. Broomall, but he
knew nothing about it at the time.
The
story is that when an application for a post office along the West Chester Pike
in Marple was submitted, Congressman Broomall signed and presented the
application to postal officials. The
department approved the application but noticed that no name was specified.
After
trying to locate the congressman and failing, they named the new post office
after him, Broomall. Although this was
only a temporary name, it was never changed and remains today. Congressman Broomall was the grandfather of
the late Judge John M. Broomall, 3rd.
Four
villages named for persons and families are Glen Riddle, Elwyn Boothwyn and
Ogden.
Glen
Riddle, in Middletown Township, was named for Samuel Riddle, a leader in
textile manufacturing there and throughout the county.
Elwyn,
post office and community, also in Middletown, was named for Dr. A.L. Elywn, a
pioneer in the movement that led to the establishment of the Pennsylvania
Training School for Feeble-Minded Children, now known as Elwyn Training
School. The school was founded in
1853. Previously the railroad station at
Elwyn was known as Greenwood.
Boothwyn
and Ogden were both named for families who owned farms and homes in the areas
these villages now comprise. Both in Upper
Chichester Township. Boothwyn was named for the Booth family and Ogden for the
Ogden family.
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