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Delaware County, PA
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Created on September 6, 1789, from part of Chester
County, and named for the Delaware River, which in turn
had been named for Lord de la Warr, governor of
Virginia. Media, its county seat since 1850, was
incorporated as a borough on March 11, 1850, and named
for its central location in the county. Chester, its
original county seat, was the county seat of Chester
County before 1788, and the temporary capital of
Pennsylvania, 1681–1682, before Philadelphia was laid
out. The county adopted a home rule charter in May 1975.
 Delaware
includes the first permanent European settlement, the
Swedes on Tinicum Island in 1643. The center of the
Battle of Brandywine in 1777 was in Delaware. Phenomenal
population growth occurred steadily after 1800, until a
fall off began in 1980. Its many fast streams made it a
milling center for lumber, grains, paper, tobacco, and
textiles, and it was located on main roads south and
west from Philadelphia. Shipbuilding flourished,
beginning in the colonial period, and oil refineries
arose in the early twentieth century. Industrial jobs
brought in a large immigrant population and from 1885 to
1915 middle class families from Philadelphia relocated
here. Once a strong dairy and mushroom farm area,
agriculture is now almost gone. Farms occupy only 7
percent of the land. There were Underground Railroad
stations in Chester Borough, Upper Darby, and Newtown
Square, and Martin Luther King Jr. was educated at
Crozier Baptist Seminary. Colleges and universities
include Swarthmore, Haverford, Villanova, Cheyney State,
and Widener.
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