The Brandywine River or Brandywine Creek is a 60-mile waterway
flowing from southeastern Pennsylvania, through northern Delaware, and
finally into the Delaware River. It is a very small waterway, but one
which is important to the history of the region.
The mouth of the Brandywine is not far from where the Swedes first
settled in 1638, at Fort Christina. In fact, the Brandywine and the
Christina run parallel to one another through parts of
Wilmington. The name of the river appears to have originated
in the late seventeenth century, though the exact origin isn't clear
(to me, at least). One story says that an early resident named Andrew
Brandwin (or Brandwine, or Brainwinde, or Brainwend) owned land near
Wilmington, and when later purchased by Englishman Robert Jones, the
official deed called the river the Brainwend Kill (kill
being an old Dutch word for a waterway). The other story is that the
name was given to the river by the Dutch, and was originally
brandewijn, Dutch for a sweet wine, referring to the quality of the
water. The current name of Brandywine is then just an
anglicization of the older dutch one. Prior to this, it was known as
Wauwaset to the Lenni-Lenape, and as Fiskiekylen (Fish Creek)
to the Swedish settlers.
The Brandywine originates in southeast Pennsylvania, in the Welsh Hills
country between the Susquehanna and
Delaware Rivers. The headwaters are actually two
separate spring-fed streams, which originate a short distance from one
another but then separate. The West Branch flows south from the Welsh hills
through Coatesville, and the East Branch flows south through
Downingtown. The two streams run separately for the first thirty or
forty miles of the River, but unite near Chadds Ford, a few miles
north of the Delaware state line. Most of the land surrounding the two
branches is a mix of cultivated farm land and hardwood forests. From
Chadds Ford, it flows through the hilly
farm country (now mostly parks and estates) of northwestern Delaware,
and into a rocky valley, and from there through Wilmington and
into the Delaware.
The first inhabitants of the region were the Lenni-Lenape, also
(incorrectly)
known as the Delawares, whose territory bordered that of the Naticokes
and Susquehannas. Then came the founding of Fort Christina, which
brought the first European farmers to
the region. With the English in control by the end of the
seventeenth century, the Quakers settled in the region, followed by other
settlers from England, Ireland, and Scotland. They were in turn
followed by German
immigrants, and finally by the Amish and Mennonite religious communities
which still remain and thrive in Lancaster County.
Historically, the Brandywine is noted for several things. First, and
probably most famous, is the Battle of the Brandywine, fought in 1777
between the American General George Washington's Army, and the British
under Lord William Howe. American forces were taken by surprise by a
pincer movement by British forces, and were badly beaten at the
Brandywine Battlefield. This loss led to the capture and occupation of
both Wilmington and Philadelphia in the winter of 1777.
After the war, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont established his black powder mill
on the lower Brandywine in 1802, a few miles north of Wilmington, one of
a series of millworks throughout the lower Brandywine. The rocky valley
made it possible and convenient to build dams and spill runs for
powering millworks throughout the valley, both for industry and for
farming. du Pont's mills evolved into the Du Pont corporation, still
headquartered near the river today. The du Pont family itself owned many
estates comprised of many thousands of acres in the Brandywine River valley and
surrounding hill country,
including what are now the Hagley and Winterthur Museums.
Near the end of the nineteenth century, Wilmington native Howard Pyle
established a studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and an art school in
Wilmington, and became the
de facto leader of a school of art that included N.C. Wyeth and
Maxfield Parrish. Wyeth also moved to the Chadds Ford area shortly
afterwards, and raised his own family of artists. The most famous of
these, Andrew, still paints landscapes inspired by the
Chadds Ford region and Brandywine River Valley, and the Brandywine River
Museum outside Kennett Square houses one of the largest independent
collections of his work.
But that is what the Brandywine was. What the Brandywine struggles
to remain today is a rural region, encroached by the expanding urban and
suburban centers of Philadelphia and Wilmington. In the 1970s, many farmers
(including the Amish) struggled to maintain the headwaters region as
farmland. There was (and almost certainly still is) tension between farmers
and developers. Around 1980, many Amish farmers banded together to buy large
parcels of land surrounding Welsh Mountain to protect it from development,
though whether they continue to hold most of it, I don't know. I do know
that each time I go home and drive out through West Chester and Chadds Ford,
I notice more
new housing developments on what was once farmland and forest, so I suspect
it is only a matter of time before they disappear.
However, some other groups are also organizing to protect the river,
particularly the lower reaches from Chadds Ford to Wilmington. The
Brandywine Conservancy works to protect the river and surrounding
wilderness areas from development. They cooperate in part with the
Brandywine Art Museum in Kennet Square, Pennsylvania, which not only
maintains one of the largest collections of Andrew Wyeth's work, but also
works to maintain the historical properties in the region, particularly
the Wyeth studios. South of the state line, the river flows through the
Brandywine Creek State Park, and the Hagley Museum, which are both protected
by the state. The state park in particular houses a sizable forest for
protecting some of the native species, although it is not an
old-growth forest -- very little land on the east coast is anymore.
I have a lot of memories of the Brandywine Valley growing up. On weekends,
my parents would drive up through Kennett Square, through Chadds Ford, to an
old farmhouse in West Chester that houses a book store, and I remember
wandering through the stacks that smelled of dust and pine smoke, and
playing in the garden around an old millstone left in the grass. The drive
up passes by some of the creeks that feed into the river. When I was
old enough to drive, I'd go up to Brandywine Creek State Park by myself to
enjoy the quiet. I remember walking
though the forest, occasionally spotting hawks and eagles overhead,
or stumbling into a herd of deer in dense wood. I remember being at
peace there. And I miss that.
Sources:
Delaware: A guide to the First State, Federal Writers Project,
Hastings House, New York (1955)
The Brandywine Tradition, Henry C. Pitz, Houghton Mifflin Co. (1969)
Brandywine, Elizabeth Humphrey and Michael Kahn, Jared Company,
Wilmington, DE (1990)
http://www.brandywinemuseum.org/ and http://www.brandywineconservancy.org/
and memory