This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ...daughter, Sarah, married Samuel Tyson, and became possessor of the property. Mrs. Coffin Colket purchased the present tract in A. D. 1886, and rebuilt the old farm-house, under the designs of Architect Robert G. Kennedy. Mrs. Colket was the mother of Mrs. Howard B. French. The place has been very much improved and beautified during the present ownership. About seventeen acres are in the lawn, and one acre in the lake--the water being collected from Alderbrook Creek; the alders on its banks having probably suggested the original appellation. The garden claims an acre; and six acres of well-trimmed woodland arc a striking feature of this rustic retreat. From the front porch of the house, a view which is unsurpassed in this section of the country meets the vision. Directly in front is the beautiful Chester Valley, with its well-tilled farms; to the left, historical Valley Forge; and beyond the Schuylkill, range after range of hills and mountains can be seen for a distance of nearly forty miles. Howard B. French is the son of Samuel H. French, who was connected with the firm of French. Richards & Co., of Philadelphia, in the wholesale paint and drug business, organized in A. 1). 1844, which was succeeded in 1882 by Samuel H. French & Co. He was born in Salem, Ohio, but has spent his life mainly in Philadelphia, lle was educated at the Friends' Central School, Fifteenth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, and afterward graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Mr. French is now the senior member of the firm of Samuel H. French & Co. The ancestor of the French family in this country was Thomas French, who came from Northamptonshire, England, to Burlington, N. J., in 1680, and was one of the proprietors of West New Jersey. He...