|Kennett Square History|
Kennett Square: People and industries through the years By Gene Pisasale Contributing Writer
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A sketch of the Unicorn Inn by Dr. Isaac D. Johnson.
Moynihan’s blacksmith shop in Kennett Square.
Samuel Pennock.
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Herb Pennock, a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher.
hester County has a rich heritage of accomplishments in the arts and sciences, and in business and industry, and Kennett Square has been an important part of that heritage. Many people today do not know that Kennett Square had its own trust company and national bank, as well as a road grading firm and other large industrial sites, a railroad depot and its own trolley lines. Another fact somewhat lost to the historical archives is that several business leaders made their fortunes in Kennett Square over the years and left their mark on society. In Greetings from Kennett Square: 1855-2005, Joseph A. Lordi and Dolores I. Rowe wrote that the name “Kennett” derives from a village of the same name in Wiltshire, England. Francis Smith was a former resident of that village. He arrived locally in 1686 and purchased 200 acres along Pocopson Creek. Another early landowner was Gayen Miller, who bought acreage in the eastern part of what became Kennett Borough from Letitia Penn Aubrey, William Penn’s daughter. According to Kennett Township, the first known structure here was the Unicorn Inn, at the corner of State and Union Streets, constructed around 1735 as a public house serving travelers between Philadelphia and Baltimore. The name Kennett Square first appeared in 1769 as Joseph Musgrave was trying to establish a town. Lordi and Rowe note that by 1776, Musgrave sold his property to Colonel Joseph Shippen. The Colonel was the uncle of Peggy Shippen, who is best known as the wife of Benedict Arnold. During the Revolutionary War, Kennett Square was just a small village, but it became the site for the encampment of thousands of Hessian soldiers and British troops before the Battle of the Brandywine. Kennett Square was incorporated in 1855 and celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2005. It is well known that Kennett Square is the Mushroom Capital of the World, but the Kennett area has been the home to numerous thriving businesses in other industries, too. In Kennett Square: Yesterday and Today, Janice B. Taylor and
Kennett Square Life | Summer 2022 | www.chestercounty.com
