Hopewell, Pennsylvania | |
---|---|
Unincorporated community & Former
Borough | |
Coordinates: 39°46′45″N 76°00′59″W / 39.77917°N 76.01639°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Pennsylvania |
County | Chester |
Townships | East Nottingham & Lower Oxford |
Incorporated as Borough | 2 May 1853 [1] |
Unincorporated | 1914 [2] |
Elevation | 344 ft (105 m) |
Demonym | Hopewellian [3] |
Time zone | UTC-5 ( Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer ( DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
GNIS feature ID | 1203835 [4] |
Hopewell is an unincorporated community and former American borough which is located in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. [2]
This Pennsylvania village was incorporated as a borough on 2 May 1853. [1] After declining in the late 1800s, it was reabsorbed into East Nottingham and Lower Oxford townships in 1914. [2] [5]
It lies at an elevation of 344 feet (105 m) and is also the location of the Hopewell Historic District. [4] [6]
Hopewell's founding is directly linked to the history of the Dickey family, who arrived in East Nottingham Township from Northern Ireland in the 1730s. [2] [5] [7] The first Dickey, Samuel Dickey, Sr., acquired a property in the township and built an estate he called “Palmyra”. [2] [5] [7] His son, Samuel, Jr., inherited the estate and expanded it to include a carpenter shop and a brick oven. [5] Samuel Dickey, Jr., raised four sons: John; Samuel, III; Ebenezer (father of John Miller Dickey); [2] and David. [2] [5] At his passing, he split Palmyra between Samuel, III, and David. [5] Samuel, III, continued the property’s development and built a small cotton mill in 1809. [5] By 1812, Samuel, III, had built another cotton mill northeast of Palmyra on Tweed Creek, the future site of Hopewell. [2] [5] David had also built mills in this area for manufacturing flour and wood products. [2] [5] [3] The two brothers later combined their commercial efforts and formed the Hopewell Cotton Works. [5] Around 1816, Ebenezer joined his brothers’ enterprise, and the group began doing business as S. E. & D. Dickey. [2] [5]
The Hopewell Cotton Works originally produced cotton yarn, but at its height also produced around one hundred different varieties of fabric. [5] The mill began to recruit skilled labor, such as carpentry and masonry, which drew talent and settlers to the region. [2] [3] As their business thrived, the brothers built new estates around the mills and began building homes for their workers to rent. [2] [5] Hopewell received a general store at this time as well. [5] Hopewell’s public school opened in 1826, and, in 1830, the Hopewell Post Office opened within the general store. [5] When David and Ebenezer died in 1831, Samuel assumed full control of the Hopewell Works. [5]
Village resident Thompson Hudson opened Hopewell Academy in 1834, a private school he operated on his property. [5]
Samuel Dickey, III, died in 1835 and left most of his businesses to his sons Samuel J., Ebenezer J., and David J. [2] [5] At the time of Samuel’s death, the Hopewell Works consisted of two cotton mills, a sawmill, a gristmill, the general store, a wheelwright shop, a blacksmith shop, and a machine shop. [2] [5]
The new generation of Dickeys, known commercially as S. J. Dickey and Brothers, began buying up large swaths of farmland in the region. [2] [5] [3] The brothers were accomplished farmers, and Ebenezer J. even patented a seed drill he had invented to ease the planting of crops. [2] [7] He also patented a “butter worker” that he claimed could produce one hundred pounds of butter in fifteen minutes. [2] [5] [7]
The first Hopewell Academy shuttered in 1841, but a former teacher, Jesse C. Dickey opened his own educational institution shortly thereafter. [2] [5] His school, also called Hopewell Academy, offered lessons in mathematics, Latin, Greek, botany, chemistry, and many other subjects. [2] The academy offered an education equivalent to two years of college and drew students from all over southern Chester County. [2] [5] [3]
Hopewell continued to prosper; and, in 1848, residents of the village petitioned the county government to shift the border of Lower Oxford Township south to include all of Hopewell in one municipality. [5] When their effort failed, they petitioned for Hopewell to receive borough status. [5] [3] This succeeded, and two square miles were erected from Lower Oxford and East Nottingham Townships on 2 May 1853 to form the Borough of Hopewell. [2] [5]
By 1860, the Hopewell Mill had become the fourth most profitable mill in Chester County; however, 1860 was also the year that marked the beginning of Hopewell’s decline. [2] [3] In the 1850s, Oxford and Hopewell had been similar in size, but this changed when the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad was laid in the region. [3] The railroad bypassed Hopewell and instead went through the center of Oxford. [3] The population of Oxford ballooned, and Hopewell’s began to decline. [3] Many people left the town for Oxford, where they saw more personal opportunities. [2] The second Hopewell Academy closed its doors in 1861, leaving the town with only its small public schoolhouse. [5] The beginning of the Civil War also damaged the borough’s prospects. [2] S. J. Dickey and Brothers suddenly went in early 1862 due wartime cotton shortages and years of mismanagement. [2] [5] [7] [3] Its assets were sold off, and despite some of the works reopening, agriculture became the main driver of the Hopewell economy. [2] [7]
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, there was some short-lived hope of a revival. [5] The Hopewell Cotton Works briefly rebounded around 1869, and the borough finally received a railroad connection in 1872 with the completion of the Peach Bottom Railway. [2] [5] Another positive development occurred in 1875 when the Hopewell Lyceum was founded. [2] The social club drew large crowds but did not disrupt the general trend of decline that the borough was facing. [2]
By 1870, almost all of the Dickey family had left Hopewell, with many resettling in Oxford. [5] The Chester County Milk Company, located in Hopewell, shuttered by 1879, and the grist mill burned down at this time as well. [2] The Hopewellian identity began to die, as residents increasingly considered themselves members of the greater Oxford and Nottingham communities as opposed to a distinct Hopewell one. [2] By 1897, thirty-five of the forty-five people in Hopewell who were eligible to vote held some borough office. [5] [3] Even women held some positions in the local government, which was unheard of at the time. [3] The dying borough had become little more than a small cluster of buildings. [5] [3]
Some residents of Hopewell, led by the president of Hopewell’s Board of Health, Elwood Webster, began petitioning the Chester County government to revoke the borough's charter in the mid-1890s. [2] [3] They were unhappy with the high borough taxes and the poor state of the village's roads. [3] [8] The borough officers’ salaries were expensive, and the cost of hosting local elections once a year was high as well. [3] Those in favor of maintaining the borough were led by Squire Thompson Hudson. [3] The first effort at annulment ultimately failed. [2]
The second attempt, begun in 1913, was led by Burgess David F. Cope, while Hudson again commanded the opposition. [1] Two thirds of taxable residents had to agree to annulment for the petition to go to the county, and the signatures were successfully collected. [1] After Cope’s death in mid-1913, borough resident W. D. Harra assumed the task of presenting the formal petition for annulment. [1] He brought his work before the county court in West Chester on August 25, 1913. [9] Despite Thompson Hudson’s best efforts to change the court’s mind, West Chester granted annulment on December 23. [2] [8] Squire Thompson Hudson continued to appeal the decision into August of 1914, but it was to no avail. [10]
The Borough of Hopewell was dissolved in early 1914, and its territory was returned to East Nottingham and Lower Oxford Townships. [2] [5]
In 1991, the Hopewell Historic District was created to preserve the remaining buildings of the former borough. [2] [5]
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1860 | 278 | [11] | — |
1870 | 268 | [12] | −3.6% |
1880 | 216 | [13] | −19.4% |
1890 | 213 | [14] | −1.4% |
1900 | 182 | [15] | −14.6% |
1910 | 136 | [16] | −25.3% |
Many of the buildings in the former borough, such as the Academy and Hopewell Post Office, are now contributing properties of the Hopewell Historic District. [2] It is now also home to Hanover Farms, Hopewell UMC and Boy Scouts of America Troop 8. [4] [6]