New Sweden Genealogy: Difference between revisions

*(English) Blockhouse on Province Island, now Fisher's or State Island, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1642<ref>Johnson, Detailed Map.</ref><ref>Buffington.</ref><ref>Myers, 100. "There in 1642, on the present Fisher's or Province Island at the south side of mouth of the Schuylkill River, as Dr. Amandus Johnson makes clear in his ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=99A1AAAAIAAJ Swedish Settlements]'', page 213, the New Englanders built a blockhouse, the first edifice definitely recorded as erected within the present limits of Philadelphia. Both the Dutch and the Swedes vainly protested against this competition, and finally the Dutch descended upon the place, burned the blockhouse and adjacent buildings, and carried the settlers to New Amsterdam."</ref>  

*Upland (Meckopenacka), now Chester, Pennsylvania 1643+<ref>Johnson, Detailed Map.</ref><ref>Scharf and Westcott, 1024. "Fort Mecoponacka (or Upland) was the second of the same name. Aerelius says that it was 'two Swedish miles from Christina and one mile from Gotheburg, on the shore, on the same plan with some houses and a fort).' Ferris suggests that the building was a block-house,—a place of refuge and defense, always, in those days, erected near a settlement. The site was somewhere about the present town of Chester. The time that it was built is unknown. It was before 1648."</ref><ref>Eric G.M. Törnqvist, "John Printz" in The Swedish Colonial Society [Internet site] at http://www.colonialswedes.org/Forefathers/Printz.html (accessed 12 November 2008). Originally published in ''Swedish Colonial News'', vol. 1, number 7 (Spring 1993). "Fort Christina was also repaired during the summer of 1643, and a blockhouse was built to the north at Upland (now Chester), an area in which many of the Finns settled."</ref>  

*Nya Vasa (Wasa), now Kingsessing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1645-1647<ref>Johnson, Detailed Map.</ref><ref>Johnson, ''Swedish Settlements'', 328. "A short distance south of Mölndal another blockhouse was erected about this time to which the name of ''Vasa'' was given."</ref><ref>Carl K.S. Sprinchorn, "History of the Colony of New Sweden," in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ncsbAAAAMAAJ Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]'', 8 (1884): 17. Digitized by Google, 2006. "To this intent he caused to be built some distance inland a strong block-house, 'capable of defense against the savages by four or five men well supplied with powder and shot.' The place received the name ''Wasa'', and several 'freemen' settled there."</ref><ref>"Philadelphia Neighborhoods and Place Names, L-P" in City of Philadelphia [Internet site] at http://www.phila.gov/phils/docs/otherinfo/pname2.htm (accessed 13 November 2008). "Nya Vasa - Swedish settlement west of Schuylkill River and north of Philadelphia International Airport, opposite Girard Point."</ref><ref>Howard M. Jenkins, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=_EsMAAAAYAAJ Pennsylvania, Colonial and Federal: A History 1608-1907]'' (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Historical Publ. Assoc., 1907; digitized by Google, 2007), 91. "Wasa was supposed to have been the place known as 'Kingsesse' (the township afterward known as Kingsessing, now in West Philadelphia), on Karakung, (Carcoen's), or Cobb's Creek."</ref>  

*Mölndal, now Yeadon, Pennsylvania 1645-1651<ref name="WNN" /><ref>Johnson, Detailed Map.</ref><ref>Jenkins. "Molndal is better identified. It was long known as 'the Swedes mill.' It stood on Cobb's Creek, near the place where the old Darby road crosses the stream."</ref><ref>Johnson, ''Swedish Settlements'', 328. "Several places were suitable for the erection of water mills, but the most convenient spot was some distance north of New Gothenborg, ‘no doubt on Cobb’s Creek, a tributary of Darby Creek,’ where the water offered sufficient power for the driving of a water wheel large enough to turn a pair of mill stones. Here Printz built a dam and erected a mill in the summer or autumn of 1646. A miller was also stationed there continuously for some years. The colonists took their grain to the mill, where it was ground for a certain toll, and the crop of 1646 was probably ground there. A blockhouse was built near the mill to protect the settlement, which was made there, and the place was called ''Mölndal'', ‘because the mill was there.’"</ref>