Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Moses COATES
Moses invented an apple peeling machine, a self-setting saw and a horse rake. He owned a large tract of land on which he laid out the city of Coatesville. He was postmaster of the town, serving in 1812. On March 22, 1789 Moses Coates purchased 201 acres and 17 perches of land from Peter Fleming, one of William Fleming's eight children, and his wife, Margaret Hope. Coates immediately erected the water powered saw mill to supply material for the many contemplated buildings in this area. When the Philadelphia Lancaster Turnpike was constructed, 1792-1795, the west branch of the Brandywine was spanned by a stone bridge. The date stone can be seen on the north side of the present bridge. The pike crossed Brandywine Manor Road east of the bridge and John Way, Moses Coates' son-in-law, built a hotel, The Sign of the Bridge, in 1798. The village which grew up around it was known as Bridgetown.
Residents of Bridgetown received their mail for 14 years at the first post office in Chester County run by Hunt Downing at the General Washington Inn in Downingtown. Bridgetown changed to Coatesville in honor of the new postmaster, Moses Coates, when the fourteenth in the county was opened in his general store. His son, Isaac Coates, succeeded his father and served for about five years.
The Quaker, Moses Coates, was an inventive genius who constructed an apple paring maching, a self-setting saw for his mill and a horse rake which he demonstrated before President Jefferson. George Washington had breakfast with him one morning and they discussed building a canal on the Brandywine. Moses and Mary Coates sold their property to Jesse Kersey, their son-in-law, July 2, 1810 for $3,000. Later his home was known as the Brandywine Mansion when it was occupied by Rebecca Lukens, the great lady of the Brandywine Iron Works, the forerunner of Lukens Steel Co. Her father, Isaac Pennock, previously owned the Federal Slitting Mill on the Buck Run at Rokeby before he started the iron mill in Coatesville just south of the bridge.
Moses Coats built a large stone home on the hill opposite the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Coatesville. It was sold to Benjamin I. Miller, proprietor of the Midway Hotel, who entertained everyone on the first locomotive train to go through Coatesville in February, 1834, on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. In 1867, the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad, giving the company exclusive ownership fo the tracks between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The transaction marked the turning point which changed the country village of Coatesville and Midway into a thriving, modern, industrial community. During the same year the village of Midway and the village of Coatesville became the Borough of Coatesville. By the year 1906 Coatesville, was known as "The Pittsburgh of the East" where the best and the largest steel plate in the civilized world was made. Many steel furnaces had been erected and more were planned. The borough contained a reservoir, a pumping station, two firehouses and a hospital. The postal service included a letter carrier system as well as several rural delivery carriers each day. Streets were macadamized and a sewer system installed in some parts of town. A uniformed police force maintained law and order and an ambulance service responded to emergencies. The population of Coatesville doubled from 1900 to 1906 so it was difficult to provide all the services needed.
In July 1910 on the 100th Anniversary of Lukens Steel Company, the
Chester County Historical Society put a marker on the site of the original mill where the first boiler plate was rolled in the U.S. The marker was unveiled by Charles Lukens Huston, Jr.
The adjacent settlements of Valley View and Drumpelier were annexed in
1909 and on May 3, 1915 Coatesville became a city.
End - Kay Parker McCary, Milam, Sabine County, Texas
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