WRANGLETOWN NOW LIMA, CHELSEA WAS CORNER KETCH
Lima and Chelsea at one time were
known by the descriptive names of Wrangletown and Corner Ketch
respectively. Primos was originally Oak
Lane and Gradyville was Howellville.
The name
Wrangletown meant just what it said. Early in the nineteenth century “The Pine
Apple”, an inn was operated by Philip Yarnall at the Middletown Township
crossroad now the center of Lima. The
name originated around 1806 because of the frequent disputes that arose at the
inn.
It is believed that the name was
dropped in 1836 when the present name, Lima, was adopted. Wrangletown was not
the only name used. This area was also
referred to as Hamor’s Store.
Information
as to why Lima was chosen for the new name could not be located. Only clue is the capital city of Peru of this
name. The South American capital is
known as the “City of Kings”. However, it
seems unlikely that Delaware County’s Lima was named for the Peruvian City.
Until a
post office was established there, Chelsea, in northeastern Bethel Township,
was picturesquely called Corner Ketch or Catch - Ketch being a corruption of
the Dutch and German word for catch. The
name originated, according to Henry O. Ashmead, from the fact so many roads
centered there. Five corners are the
result, and an early traveler could easily be confused as to the proper highway
he should take.
However,
when the post office was applied for, the name had to be changed because there
was already a Corner Ketch in Chester County.
It was at this time that the name Chelsea was chosen.
Records show that the earliest settlers of
this area were Edward Bezer and Edward Brown.
In 1683 500 acres of land at this location were surveyed to them for
their estates.
Primos, the
railroad station and community at the border line between Aldan borough and
Upper Darby Township, was formerly known as Oak Lane. The name was changed to Primos by the
railroad because of other stations with names the same and similar to Oak Lane.
The old Oak Lane station, just west
of Clifton station, was erected in 1868 and served particularly persons
visiting the Clifton Hall Insane Asylum
Gradyville,
in Edgemont Township, was at one time Howellville. It was known by this name as late as
1870. The name was perhaps changed under
circumstances to Chelsea, when a post office was established.
Although no
positive information was found, it is presumed that both names had their
origins in names of persons or families.
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A great XMAS gift!!
Henry Graham Ashmead's History of Delaware County provides no clues as to why Lima is Lima. Were Lima beans a cash crop in the area? From 1542 beans of this type were shipped in boxes stamped "Lima, Peru" all over the world.
ReplyDeleteW. Atlee Burpee & Company, the seed merchant who sold the famous "Fordhook" Lima beans was founded in 1876 by Washington Atlee Burpee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after starting a mail-order chicken business in 1876. The company expanded to selling garden seeds, farm supplies, tools and hogs after customers began asking for seeds they had grown in their native farms. In 1888, the family farm, Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was established as a family farm and crop field trials after Burpee began traveling to Europe to collect seeds which needed to be adapted to North American climates. The farm was likely the first experimental test field station in the United States.
Burpee started selling lima bean seeds 70 years after the Lima in Middletown Twp. was named...