The Dutch were the first Europeans to arrive in Lower Merion, sailing down the Delaware River in 1623 and building a trading post opposite the mouth of the Schuykill River. *Early studies described the Lenape as bands of foragers, but by 2015 historians had identified Lenape villages of agriculturalists who continued to hunt, fish and gather, but increased their planting, even raising corn for sale to the Europeans. In return for annual gifts, the Lenape granted the use of their land for trade. They hunted, fished, gathered and planted crops (often selling maize to Europeans who lacked adequate foods when they first came) but after the Europeans arrived, they increased their trading activities, mainly exchanging beaver furs for European items they lacked, like metal tools, cloth or food during their own “starving times”. By 1654, a Swedish engineer, Peter Lindestrom, claimed that most of the 4000 Lenape at that time lived on the West Bank of the Delaware River near the Schuykill. Lenape artifacts have been found at Riverbend Environmental Center in Gladwyne, as well as nearby areas such as Manayunk, Broomall and Philadelphia. Of course, the Lenape were the oldest inhabitants of Lenapehoking, and by 1600 controlled eastern Pennsylvania (as well as parts of New Jersey and Delaware), with several unpalisaded towns along the Delaware River and at least two more along the Schuykill*. Map of Lenape towns along the Delaware and Schuykill Rivers So the Delaware Valley was not an unoccupied wilderness when the Quakers arrived. ” Thomas Paschal, an immigrant from Bristol, England, who lived at Kingsessing (Southwest Philadelphia) wrote in 1683 that “Swedes provide food and housing for the newcomers but also essential services in negotiating with the native Indians”. Edward Jones later recalled that shortly after his family’s arrival, “the Indians brought venison to our door for six pence ye quarter. But the area was not empty when these travelers arrived! Quaker Thomas Evan’s son reported that when his father arrived in Merion that year he was thirsty and given a drink of water by an elderly Swede and his wife. Lower Merion Township’s official history begins in 1682 after Penn established his colony and sold the land to the Welsh Quakers who founded Merion Friends Meeting.

The story below was previously published in the Merion Friends Meeting April 2021 Newsletter.

Lower merion township population