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Tinicum Township - The priority given to Tinicum in this chapter is not due to its greater prominence
or importance, but from the fact that on the island, now the township of Tinicum, the first recorded European settlement
in Pennsylvania was made by the Swedes.
Tinicum Island lien along the mainland, irom which it is separated by the waters of Darby and Bow creeks, which
with the Delaware form the water-courses encircling the island of Big Tinicum, so called to distinguish it from
Little Tinicum, a long, low marshy strip nearly in the middle of the Delaware, extending nearly the whole length
of Tinicum island proper. At its broadest part Tinicum is about one and one-half miles in width, its circumference
about nine miles. It contains 2750 acres, 2000 of ,which are marsh or meadow land, all but 500 acres having been
reclaimed by the construction of dykes. The Indian name was Tanakon, Tutacaenung and Teniko, which after the Swedish
settlement was changed to Nya Gotheberg, later to Kattenberg. The English changed the old Indian name to its present
form, Tinicum. The first authenticated record of settlement on Tinicum, by the Swedish governor, John Printz, in
1643, is treated in the early pages of this work.
For almost a century Tinicurn was a part of Ridley township, bitt at the May court, 1780, a petition was signed
by twenty-three "inhabitants, owners and occupiers of land on the island of Tinicum" praying that they
be set off into a separate township. On August 31, 1780, their prayer was granted, and from that date Tinicum became
a separate district, having all the rights and obligations of other townships. Under the provisions of the act
of the Pennsylvania legislature, passed September 25, 1786, Hog Island and all the islands in the Delaware facing
Delaware county, acquired by Pennsylvania by the terms of the agreement with New Jersey, became part of Tinicum
township. Hog Island has played an important part in local history, and by a system of banks and dykes has been
converted into fertile farm lana as has Tinicum. In 1799 a quarantine station was established on Tinicum, buildings
erected and quarantine for the protection of the health of Philadelphia, established in 1801. In later years, serious
objection was made to its location and strenuous efforts made for its removal. These efforts were persistently
defeated, and the station was continued until recent years, when the station was removed.
Tinicum contains two villages,- Essington and Corbindale, both located on the line of the Philadelphia & Reading
railway that traverses the township. Connection is also made with Philadelphia and Chester by the cars of the Philadelphia
& Chester railway. The population in 1910 was 1135. Churches and public schools have been erected, the schools
of the township being noted in the chapter on education.
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