[Illustration:  Depot of the Wilmington and western railroad.]

Evans’s mill was bought in 1828 by Mr. Jonathan Fell, and turned into the spice-grinding establishment which is still operated by his descendants on the same ground.  But Fell’s business was much older than that purchase, being a good representative of the ancestral industries that exist in such numbers among Penn’s settlers.  Early in this century the passengers in Front street in Philadelphia laughed at the juxtaposition of a sign just put up with an older one, the two reading thus:  “James Scholl—­Jonathan Fell.”  He had purchased the spice-grinding business of an English immigrant on that site, and now the same business is carried on at Faulkland, one hundred and seven years from its commencement, in the thirteenth generation of Fell’s descendants, after a career of accumulated and undeviating success.  Moving the factory to Faulkland, and retaining the Philadelphia situation as a warehouse, the family have kept the old system unchanged, served by employes as steady as themselves, two of the latter having died of old age after forty years in their service.  The present works of C.J.  Fell & Brother, combining steam and turbine-wheel power, are represented as the most complete in America, and produce a great variety of condiments, which season the traveler’s meal in whatever State or Territory of the Union he may visit.

[Illustration:  CHRISTINE RIVER, WITH WILMINGTON AND WESTERN RAILROAD BRIDGE.]

A chalybeate spring at Faulkland, formerly much resorted to, is now in railway communication with Wilmington, and will recover its ancient prestige.  Under the ownership of Mr. Matthew Newkirk, the late railway manager of Philadelphia, a large hotel at the Brandywine Springs was filled with rich Southerners for many summers, but the house was destroyed by fire, and the flow of visitors turned aside.  One of the smaller houses, with accommodation for two hundred guests, is the present claimant for watering-place custom.  Its situation, with the fine water-scenery, and a natural coliseum of wooded hills, is very attractive, and the restorative properties of the spring are proved and valuable.

One more interest attaches to Faulkland.  Close by were the earthworks where Washington protected his army, expecting the British attack, but, drawn from his intrenchments by a flank movement, was tempted on, to sustain disaster at Chadd’s Ford on the Brandywine.

We have just mentioned the site as in railway communication with the city of Wilmington.  It is time to speak of the town in its relation to means of transport and as a railroad centre.