This spring, we learned about an 1897 inscription on an American Beech tree in Glen Providence Park! Research into its author revealed a family with deep roots in Media Borough, and direct involvement with other well-known characters and places in the park’s pre-history, from its years when it was known as Scroggie Valley. We also estimated the remarkable age of what is likely one of the park’s oldest trees.

Out of obvious view of passersby, the ornamental inscription reads:

Isaac Worrall
Media, Pa.
April 3, 1897

The Worralls were one of the earliest European families to settle near Media[1] after William Penn arrived in Pennsylvania in 1682. Early maps show a Worrall property across Ridley Creek from Broomall’s Run,[2] and you can find the Worrall family (sometimes spelled Worrell) on most of the historical maps of Media we have found.

The Isaac Worralls of Media

Four generations of Isaac Worralls listed on Ancestry.com lived and died in Media, Pennsylvania [3] – the 1860 census confirms the birth years of the first three generations.[4] At least the first three were builders, and seemingly all were active in community service. The first Isaac Worrall lived 1792-1865, the second 1827-1893, the third 1854-1920, and the fourth 1884-1948.[5] That’s at least 156 years of Isaac Worralls in Media! The third Isaac Worrall is likely our artistic inscriber – he would have been 43 years old in 1897.

The Isaac Worralls seem to have been involved in the shaping of Media Borough in its early decades after it was established in 1850. Just one source, the 1900 Semi-centennial of the Borough of Media,[6] lists Isaac Worrall as one of the incorporators of Christ Church in 1854; Isaac Worrall, Jr. as one of the incorporators of the Media Gas Company in 1866; and Isaac Worrall as a Burgess of Media 1891-1892. An Isaac Worrall served as a private in the Civil War under none other than captain John M. Broomall[7] – an active opponent of slavery, a US Congressman, and the owner of Scroggie Valley from around 1864 to his death in 1894. Continuing into the 20th century, an Isaac Worrall was one of the founding members of South Media Fire Company in 1922.[8]

Scroggie Builders!

Beyond community involvement, the Isaac Worralls left tangible marks – they built structures that still stand in Media. An 1855 Map of Media lists Isaac Worrall, Jr. as a mason;[9] the 1860 census lists Isaac Worrall as “Master Stone Mason”; and an 1870 Plan of Media lists “Isaac Worrall, builder.”[10] Several Worrall building projects are listed in the local papers from the late 1800’s, including the brick “centre building” of the Elwyn Institute in 1858.[11] An 1864 advertisement for bricks manufactured by Isaac Worrall, Jr. lists “all kinds of Bricks, consisting of hard, salmon, pressed, back and front stretchers, paving, etc., all well assorted, and of the best qualities”[12] – Worrall bricks could have been used in any number of remaining 19th century buildings around Media!

Notably, in 1867, Isaac Worrall built a “farm house” for his former Civil War captain, Judge John M. Broomall, at “Scrogy”, as announced in the Delaware County American: “The scenery around it is abrupt, yet very fine, and such as might suit the visionary fancies of the romantic, but not the more practical ideas of a thorough farmer.” [13] So, Isaac Worall built the stone Scroggie estate that still exists today, which shared its name with Scroggie Valley and the Scroggie Shingle Mill, and played a role in the glen’s 1700’s Newlywed Ghost Story! 

Delaware County Institute of Science

More Worrall intersections with Glen Providence history can be found in the Delaware County Institute of Science (DCIS). In 1902, DCIS President T. Chalkley Palmer presented a paper about“Local Mineralogy and Mineralogists,” [14] including Isaac Worrell[5] among the mineralogists. Chalkley Palmer is the man who wrote in depth about Scroggie Valley in 1889, and who was the subject of our history lecture at DCIS in February. DCIS has microscope slides of diatoms collected by Palmer at “Worrell’s Spring” in 1902, which we discovered when viewing slides Palmer collected from Scroggie Run. The 1911 Proceedings of the Delaware County Institute of Science lists in the Anthropology Section of its Museum Catalogue, “Collection of several hundred arrow heads, supposed to be mainly local, presented by Isaac Worrall, Sr., of Media.”[15] These would likely be from the local Okehocking, and it is fun to imagine some could have been collected in the glen.

So how old is the tree?

In 2015, we measured the diameter of the tree as 45.5”. Based on a formula by the International Society of Arboriculture to estimate the age of trees without taking a core sample, we multiplied the diameter by 6 to estimate the age of an American Beech tree in a wooded area. [16] The estimated age is 273 years old – the American Beech could have been growing as early as 1742, before the American Revolution! The tree would have had to be fairly large already in 1897 when Isaac Worrall carved that inscription.

How intruiging that the Isaac Worrall who left a long-lasting mark in Glen Providence Park was part of such an enduring family of Media, and a part of Scroggie Valley history!

A tremendous thank you to Scott McConnell for telling us about the American Beech, which we had walked past innumerable times without noticing its inscription. What a wonderful piece of history – we are so glad Scott was observant enough to discover it!

At this point, to protect the tree, we won’t publish where in the park it is located. If you have any photographs or more information about the Isaac Worralls of Media Borough or their descendants, please let us know! 

Endnotes are below the photo.

“Isaac Worrall
Media, Pa.
April 3, 1897″

ENDNOTES:

[1] The Rose Tree Families, Jane Levis Carter, KNA Press, 1984.

[2] “Map of Early Settlements from early Taylor Surveys,” The Rose Tree Families, Jane Levis Carter, KNA Press, 1984.

[3] Ancestry.com records on Isaac Worrall retrieved May 26, 2016.

[4] June 25, 1860 census of “Free Inhabitants in Media Borough” accessed through Ancestry.com, listing the second Isaac Worrall as a “Master Stone Mason.”

[5] As each generation aged, the use of Jr. gave way to Sr., making it unclear to which of the four Isaac Worralls some of the local records referred. Additionally, Worrall is occasionally spelled as Worrell (even within the same family), and there were other Isaac Worralls living in the area in the 1800’s. But the 1860 census of Media Borough make the birth years of the first three generations clear. There is an obituary consistent with this family history for “Isaac Worrall, Member of Old Family” in the August 2, 1948 Chester Times.

[6] Semi-centennial of the Borough of Media, Penna., May 19, 1900.

[7] PaCivilWar.com – retrieved May 26, 2016. Isaac Worrall was in the Sixteenth Regiment Militia under Captain John M. Broomall.

[8] South Media Fire Company, http://www.southmediafire.com/our-history.php retrieved May 31, 2016. Three other Worralls were included in the founders.

[9] 1855 Map of Media the Seat of Justice Delaware County, Pennsylvania by Thos. Hughes, C.E., courtesy of Media Historic Archives.

[10] 1870 Plan of the Borough of Media, PA by G.M. Hopkins, C.E., courtesy of Delaware County Institute of Science.

[11] “A Noble Institution,” Delaware County Republican, June 11, 1858.

[12] “Media Brick Yard,” Delaware County American, May 4, 1864.

[13] “Improvements in Media,” Delaware County American, April 10, 1867.

[14] Delaware County Institute of Science Minutes: “October 16, 1902 – President Palmer read a highly interesting paper on “Local Mineralogy and Mineralogists”. Among the latter he referred to Dr. George Smith, Col. Joseph Willcox, Theodore D. Rand, Dr. J. M. Cardeza, Patrick Bradley, Lewis Palmer, John Smedley, Deshong, Dr. W. T. W. Dickeson, and Isaac Worrell.”

[15] Proceedings of the Delaware County Institute of Science, Volume VI: October, 1910 to July, 1911. Media.

[16] Asheville GreenWorks, ashevillegreenworks.org/how-old-is-my-tree retrieved May 26, 2016.

This fall, we were delighted to confirm that we found two healthy young American Chestnut trees in Glen Providence Park!  At the beginning of the 20th century, the American Chestnut, Castanea dentata, was a majestic tree dominating our eastern forests. Known as the Sequoia of the east, it was one of our tallest trees.  It was the preeminent tree from Maine to Mississippi, and constituted well over 25% of trees in Pennsylvania!

Its nuts and wood were highly valued by European colonists, and doubtless by the Okehocking who lived here before them.  According to the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF), it was the single most important food source for a wide variety of wildlife from bears to birds.

Then the Chestnut blight, Cryphonectria parasitica, was discovered in 1904 on imported Asian Chestnut trees in New York City, and it spread across the east- killing an estimated 4 billion trees by 1950.  Healthy trees were cut down in a failed attempt to stop the spread of the blight.  Saplings still grow from the root sprouts, but they usually die off again when the saplings are large enough to become infected themselves.  But there are some larger survivors…

The yellow mushrooms that led us to the American Chestnuts

Finding Glen Providence Park’s Chestnuts- by accident!

While volunteering at Tyler Arboretum’s American Chestnut Nursery, which is led by John Wenderoth, I learned to differentiate American, Chinese and Japanese Chestnut leaves.  With John, we sent leaf samples to the ACF for identification and confirmed blighted American Chestnut saplings in Long Point Wildlife Sanctuary in Rose Valley, and a Japanese Chestnut on the Sledding Hill in Glen Providence Park!*

Then in Glen Providence Park last October, I was photographing some bright yellow mushrooms I had noticed on the eastern hill, when I looked up and marveled to see what looked like American Chestnut leaves!  There are two chestnut trees measuring about 15′ and 25′ tall.  This fall, Sara Fitzsimmons of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the ACF confirmed by microscope analysis that the leaves are American!  We also found chestnut burrs (the spiky nut casings) on the western hill, but have not yet located their tree…
 

1855 Map of Media by Thomas Hughes showing “Chestnut Wood” by the current Broomall’s Lake – from Media Historic Archives

History of Chestnuts in Scroggie Valley

It turns out it is not so surprising to find these chestnuts, as we uncovered historical documentation of American Chestnuts in Scroggie Valley, most of which would become Glen Providence Park.

T. Chalkley Palmer’s detailed 1889 description of Scroggie Valley mentions chestnuts: “The northwest wall is… nearly devoid of trees.  The southeast wall is wooded continuously with oaks and chestnuts.” And he described the singing of the Hermit Thrush “…of a morning, from the top of the chestnut tree on the hill.”

Even earlier, an 1855 map of Media labels as “Chestnut Wood” the area to the east of Broomall’s Run, near what is now Broomall’s Lake.  Some of those may have been submerged when dam was built in 1883, and according to a 1905 article about the Media Grackle Roost near Broomall’s Lake, the rest were logged: “On the eastern side of the lake and stream the old “Camp Meeting Woods,” principally chestnut, was wrought up for commercial purposes”. 

By 1912 the blight had hit our area: according to a Chester Times report of a Chestnut Blight talk at the Delaware County Institute of Science, the blight was “generally spread” in Eastern Pennsylvania, but had not yet spread to the Western part of the state.

In 1915, the Chester Times lamented the near-decimation of the chestnuts and their beautiful woods: “Many of the hills in and near Media, which have in past years been noted for their beauty because of the forests which crowned them, will, before the end of the present summer, stand bare except for the disfiguring stumps, mute reminders of the old conditions.”

Japanese Chestnut branch with burrs in Glen Providence Park- the (very prickly!) burrs contain nuts

Amazingly, as recent as 1935 there is documentation of chestnuts in the park- the Chester Times described chestnut saplings on George Butler’s estate, which would soon be donated for Glen Providence Park: “A close observer of nature finds many young chestnut trees coming up on the estate of Edward B. Creighton and Mr. Butler.”   The article recalls, “In days gone by… those having nut trees on their estates and farms would have house parties and their guests would carry back to their homes baskets filled with nuts…”

While over time most of those saplings would have succumbed to the blight, we now know that at least two have survived!  We provided these historical records to the ACF, and we will continue to monitor these two American Chestnuts for them- and look for more!  We also hope to plant more American Chestnuts in Glen Providence Park, with the help of the ACF’s research…
 

American Chestnuts in North Carolina in 1910 – courtesy of the Forest History Society, Durham, NC

Restoration efforts:

There have been a variety of efforts to save the American Chestnut since the blight was discovered, from fungicides to irradiation.  As a result of decades of “backcrossing” Chinese and American Chestnuts by the ACF, there is now a hybrid “restoration chestnut”  with 94% American genes, but with just enough Chinese traits to provide blight resistance.  Tyler Arboretum’s American Chestnut Nursery grows trees to provide nuts to help preserve a genetic stock of pure American Chestnuts.

On a personal note, I learned that my grandfather worked on restoring the American Chestnut for decades in his retirement, which I didn’t know until after I became interested in American Chestnut restoration and started volunteering!  His work is cited in Susan Freinkel’s 2007 book “American Chestnut- The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree.”

Keep your eyes out in the park (and in your family records!), you really never know what you will find!

* I had actually been tipped off about there being a chestnut tree on the Sledding Hill when HACC Biology Professor Geremea Fioravanti of the Delaware County Institute of Science posted a photo of a chestnut burr on our facebook page!

For more information:

– Visit the American Chestnut Foundation and PA Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation websites

– Read  “The chestnut resurrection,” Nature, October 4, 2012

– Volunteer at Tyler Arboretum’s American Chestnut Nursery!

Surviving American Chestnuts & restoration efforts in Pennsylvania include:
– Natural Lands Trust’s Mariton Preserve in Easton, PA
– Jenkins Arboretum in Devon

Additional Sources:

– “Scroggie,” T. Chalkley Palmer, The Student, Germantown, PA, December 1889 & January 1890

– “The Media Grackle Roost,” Samuel Omensetter, Cassinia, Proceedings of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, No. IX, Philadelphia, PA, 1905

– “American Chestnut – The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree,” Susan Freinkel, University of California Press, 2007

Chester Times articles:
– No Known Cure for Chestnut Blight – August 13, 1912
– Passing of the Woods – May 1, 1915
– Relics of Chestnut Blight – Gaunt Skeletons Rear Themselves in Every Wood Tract – August 10, 1916
– Unique Arboretum on County Estate – June 14, 1935

You can click on any photo for a closer look, and scroll through the photos below.

I have always noticed the Skunk Cabbage in Glen Providence Park, but only this year did I learn how remarkable these plants are.

Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is native to eastern North America. It grows in soft wetland soils- you can find it growing in the wetlands along Broomall’s Run throughout the park. It flowers in late winter and early spring, when only the flowers and their protective covering are visible above the mud. The stems remain buried below the surface of the soil with the large, cabbage-like leaves emerging later.

We found it emerging in the park on a bitterly cold day this January. How does it bloom in such cold conditions? Amazingly, Skunk Cabbage can generate temperatures of up to 15-35°C above air temperature: it literally melts its way through frozen ground, ice and snow. The heat it produces may help to spread its odor in the air, attracting early-emerging pollinating insects.

Skunk Cabbage gets its name from the pungent odor produced by breaking or tearing a leaf.  This odor attracts its pollinators: scavenging flies, stoneflies, and bees.  Its intriguing flowers are tiny, covering a yellow-green spadix, and are protected by an eggplant-like shell called a spathe.  

In the 19th century the U.S. Pharmacopoeia listed Eastern Skunk Cabbage as the drug “dracontium“. It was used in the treatment of respiratory diseases, nervous disorders, rheumatism, and dropsy. It is not considered edible raw, because the roots are toxic and the leaves can burn the mouth.  The Lenni-Lenape, or Delaware Indians, are among the Native Americans who used Skunk Cabbage medicinally.  The Okehocking were the local tribe of the Lenni-Lenape who lived along Ridley and Crum Creeks, and they could have used Skunk Cabbage along Broomall’s Run.  

The documented uses of Skunk Cabbage by the Delaware Indians are:

– Poultice of crushed leaves applied for pain
– Small portions of leaves chewed for epilepsy
– Infusion of roots used for whooping cough
– Infusion of leaves taken as a cold medicine

Not bad for one plant!  You can follow the plant’s stages in our photo gallery below.  The first image was taken in January, but the rest were taken yesterday- so you can see multiple stages of this intriguing plant during one visit to Glen Providence Park.

Perhaps I should let Henry David Thoreau have the last word:  “If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spears of skunk-cabbage buds already advanced toward a new year…There is no can’t nor cant to them. They see over the brow of winter’s hill. They see another summer ahead.”

For more fun facts about Skunk Cabbage, read this entertaining article on TheNaturalCapital.com.

Information from wikipedia unless otherwise linked.

In 2002, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission determined that Glen Providence Park is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places!  This is the official list of the Nation’s historic places determined worthy of preservation.  As Friends of Glen Providence Park, we could not agree more that this park is worthy of preservation!

In 2001, a Historic Resource Survey of Glen Providence Park was conducted, including a map of the proposed National Register Boundary.  The report recounts George and Eleanor Butler’s donation of the land as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum, and discusses recreation, culture and landscaping, including the trails, fishing, night-time skating, outdoor concerts and the park’s historic setting.

The report concludes: “The park is a good example of a community park, created from donated land, and then improved upon by the WPA… Glen Providence Park embodies the characteristics of an early twentieth-century community park…  The park has retained its integrity of design, and is recommended eligible for listing in the National Register.”  The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission agreed, and determined Glen Providence Park to be eligible.  We linked the report, the proposed National Registry Boundary, and the determination letter below.

What is the next step?  It seems that Delaware County (the owner of the park) was never notified back in 2002 when this determination was made, so getting listed on the National Register of Historic Places was never pursued.  We came across the determination letter when we reviewed the Bridge/Dam documents on the Media Borough website last year, and we have been sharing this information ever since.  And we are happy to say that we are now working with the County to investigate attaining National Historic Register status!

What else around Media is on the National Register of Historic Places?  Here is what is listed on the National Park Service website:

Dr. Samuel D. Risley House (in Media!)
Media Armory
Old Rose Tree Tavern
Ridley Creek State Park

Intriguingly, a little further away, the Okehocking Indian Land Grant Historic District in Willistown is also listed- of course we are researching the history of the Okehocking in our area!

We would be proud to have Glen Providence Park join the company of these historic places on the National Register!

You can look at these Glen Providence Park documents yourself:

– Historic Resource Survey of Glen Providence Park

– map of the proposed National Register Boundary within Glen Providence Park

– National Historic Register eligibility – determined by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Each of these documents is also posted on the Media Borough website, under the PA Dept of Transportation Section 2002 Evaluation.

William Penn sailed up the Delaware River for the first time on the Welcome on October 28, 1682: 62 years after the Mayflower reached Plymouth.  Penn landed in Upland (now Chester), and would travel the countryside and visit the Native Americans in their lodges, “purchasing” from them the land he had been granted by England’s King Charles II in 1681.  Penn was not the first European in Delaware County- the Native Americans had been fur trading with the Dutch and Swedes since 1643.

Penn had peaceful intentions and signed a Treaty of Friendship with Lenni Lenape Chief Tamanend.  But the settlers did not waste time staking out their new territory, as reflected in the property lines on the Map of the Province of Pennsylvania – begun in 1681.  Of course this would ultimately drive out the Native Americans who had been living here for millennia.

But what was it like here before the settlers?  While we don’t have specific information about Native Americans in Glen Providence Park, we do have an account of their history along Ridley and Crum Creeks from Jane Levis Carter’s book The Down River People of the Lenni Lenape Indians.  The park lies between Ridley and Crum Creeks, and its brook Broomall’s Run is a tributary to Ridley Creek.

Paleo Indians

Around 12,000 to 18,000 years ago, nomadic hunters known as Paleo Indians came to Pennsylvania.  With club and spear they hunted mammoth, moose, caribou and smaller game like Siberian lemming and snowshoe rabbits. They seem to have vanished around 9,000 years ago, at the end of the last glacial period.

Archaic Indians

Around 9,000 years ago the Archaic Indians arrived, hunting deer and other game.  They were skilled at spear fishing, and their diet included clams, berries and nuts, with acorns ground into flour and cooked as gruel.  There was a transitional period 5,000 years ago when they moved to more fixed abodes, developing clay pottery, and expanding their fishing methods with fish hooks, brush nets and stone weirs.

Witch hazel branches are said to have been used by Native Americans as dowsing rods

Lenni Lenape

Woodland Indians were direct descendants of the Archaic Indians, dating from around 3,000 years ago.  Europeans called them Delaware, after Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr.  But these people called themselves the Lenni Lenape, the Real or Original People.  Other tribes called them the Grandfather People, out of respect.  Their range was New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The Lenni Lenape were part of a social and language family known as Algonkian- an ancient race of nomad hunters, skilled in pursuit of deer, elk and caribou.  They cleared trees for agriculture, with early crops including tobacco, sunflowers for oil and dye, and corn.

“remedy for pain was the root of the common wood violet”

Okehocking

The Unami, or Down River People, were one of three Lenni Lenape tribes.  The clan of Unami who lived along the Ridley and Crum Creek watersheds became known as the Okehocking, whose heraldic emblem was the turtle, or Pakoango.  They had pumpkin plantations: the name Okehocking seems to be derived from mokahoki, or “people of the pumpkin place.”

About 1,200 years ago they began to use the bow & arrow.  Their crops of corn, beans and squash were termed the Three Sisters, and were staples in the diets of Native Americans and later settlers.  And the Okehocking would know how to utilize the park’s native plants, as depicted along the right.

The Okehocking knew the Mayapple’s root to be poisonous

The Okehocking would have used the Minquas Path, which crossed Ridley Creek two miles south of Glen Providence Park, near the Old Mill in Rose Valley.  This was a trading route used by the Susquehannock Indians, who were called Minquas by the Lenni Lenape.

While the Okehocking were primarily peaceful, they had notorious altercations with Nathaniel Newlin over the damming of creek waters.  In 1702, a group of settlers including Newlin removed the Okehockings from the banks of the Ridley and Crum Creeks to a new reservation in Willistown.  The Ockehocking remained for about a generation, and abandoned the reservation in 1737.  Part of that land is the Okehocking Preserve today.   This may have been the first Indian reservation in the country.

“Sassafras root, winauk, was a common spring tonic”

With the Okehocking Reservation five miles up Ridley Creek, the Minquas Trail two miles down Ridley Creek from Glen Providence Park, and the Lenape documented at the nearby Tyler Arboretum, we can imagine the Okehocking could have known Broomall’s Run where the park is situated.  We just wish we knew what they called it!

Where did they go?

Conventional histories of Pennsylvania indicate that the Lenape people left the state by the beginning of the 19th century.  Many Lenape were driven westward, and ultimately created communities in Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and beyond.

While all parts of Pokeberry are toxic, Okehocking knew how to safely prepare “pigeonberry” or “poke” shoot

But according to the Lenape Nation website: “…some Lenape people remained here in secret. Children of the little known Lenape-European marriages of the 1700s stayed on the Lenape homelands and continued to practice their traditions covertly. Hiding their heritage, they avoided discovery by both the government and their neighbors for more than two hundred years. Now, the descendants of these people have come forward to tell their story.”

Unless otherwise noted or linked, information is from the 1976 book The Down River People of the Lenni Lenape Indians by Jane Levis Carter, Mark One Printing, Philadelphia.

Benjamin West's painting (in 1771) of William Penn's 1682 treaty with the Lenape