Brandywine Creek (Christina River tributary)

The Brandywine and its East Branch from Thomas Holme's 1687 map of Pennsylvania

The headwaters of both the East Branch[4] and West Branch[5] of Brandywine Creek are in western Chester County, Pennsylvania, near Honey Brook. The East Branch and West Branch flow southeast for 27.4 miles (44.1 km) and 33.1 miles (53.3 km), respectively,[3] to their confluence about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Coatesville, between East Bradford Township and Pocopson Township. The combined drainage of the East Branch and West Branch, downstream of the confluence, is defined as Brandywine Creek and continues to flow southeast through Chester County, past Chadds Ford,[6] Delaware County, Pennsylvania then enters the state of Delaware about 5 miles (8 km) north of Wilmington.

The creek continues south through First State National Historical Park and Brandywine Creek State Park, into Wilmington,[7] where it flows through Brandywine Park near the city center. Brandywine Creek joins the Christina River 1 mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Wilmington and about 2 miles (3 km) upstream from the mouth of the Christina, which also includes flows from the White Clay Creek[8] and Red Clay Creek[9] basins, and finally discharges into the Delaware River estuary.[10] The confluence of the Christina and Delaware rivers is the approximate dividing point between the freshwater Delaware River and the saltwater Delaware Bay.[11]

In Pennsylvania, Chadds Ford, Elam, Downingtown, Unionville, and parts of West Chester, are all in the Brandywine Valley, as well as the Delaware towns of Centreville, Greenville, Montchanin, Hockessin, and Yorklyn. Nearby Avondale (in the White Clay Creek basin) and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (in the Red Clay Creek basin) are often considered part of the Brandywine Valley.[12]

• 
  Smith's Bridge over the Brandywine Creek.
• 
  Brandywine Creek looking upstream from the Brandywine River Museum at Chadds Ford
• 
  Brandywine Creek in Brandywine Park near downtown Wilmington in February 2007, looking downstream toward Washington Street Bridge
• 
  Canoeing near Pocopson

Native Americans of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape (or Delaware) Nation lived in the area between the Hudson River Valley and southern Delaware before the European settlement. They lived by hunting, farming corn, beans, and squash, and by fishing. The Brandywine had an especially rich shad fishery. The Lenape called the creek Wauwaset, Wawasiungh, or Wawassan, and other Native American names for it included Suspecough and Trancocopanican.[13][14]

The first European settlement on the Brandywine was Swedish. On March 29, 1638, Peter Minuit, who had earlier explored the area for the Dutch, founded the colony of New Sweden near the confluence of the Christina and Brandywine, at Fort Christina, in present-day Wilmington. About 600 Swedes, Finns, and Dutch settled in New Sweden.[15] They tended to settle along the Delaware River rather than move inland along the Brandywine and are credited with introducing the log cabin into America.[12] They called the creek Fiskiekylen, or "Fish Creek", and the Dutch heritage is also reflected in Fiske Creek and variant names using the Dutch word "Kill" or stream, Bainwend Kill, Brandewyn Kill, and Brandywine Kill. The creek’s current name may be from an old Dutch word for brandy or gin, brandewijn, or from the Swedish word brännvin (swedish vodka). During the colonisation of the Swedes the creek was called brännvins kilen. It has been asserted that in 1655, a Dutch vessel carrying brandy, wintered in the stream and was sunk due to ice accumulation.[16] The name might also derive from an early mill owner, Andreas Brainwende or Brantwyn.[12] A 1681 map labels the creek Brande wine Cr.[17][18] Thomas Holme's 1687 map of Pennsylvania gives the name as simply Brandy Wine and shows it flowing into Christian Creek and then the Delaware River.[19]

The Swedes, Dutch and English disputed possession of the area until 1674, when the English gained control. William Penn was granted a charter for Pennsylvania in 1681 and gained control over the "lower three counties," as Delaware was then known, soon thereafter.[15] The population of New Sweden had only reached about 1,000, on the western shore of the Delaware, by the time of Penn's arrival.[20] By 1687, a Swedish colonist, Tyman Stidham, opened the first mill on the Brandywine, near Wilmington. Holme's 1687 map shows only five land claims along the Brandywine, all near present-day Chadds Ford. Land claims of the earlier Swedish and Dutch colonists were not noted on this map.[19]

While the Lenape still remained along the Brandywine, they had by this time been decimated by European diseases and wars with Susquehannock and later Iroquois tribes over control of the fur trade with Europeans. Their estimated population had fallen from 10,000–20,000 in 1600 to 2,000 in 1682.[13][14] The Lenape signed a series of treaties with the Europeans, beginning with a 1682 treaty with William Penn, but were forced out of eastern Pennsylvania by the time of the French and Indian War. During the 1720s and 1730s, the Lenape claimed that William Penn had granted them all the land 1 mile on each side of the creek, and complained that mill dams on the creek were ruining their shad fishery.[21] Hannah Freeman (1730–1802), believed to be the last Lenape to have lived in Chester County, is buried in Embreeville, near the forks of the creek.[22][23]

Nation Makers depicts a scene from the Battle of Brandywine, by Howard Pyle, a summer resident of Chadds Ford. The painting is displayed in the Brandywine River Museum[24]

The valley was settled by Quakers, and other dissident Protestants, following Penn’s Charter. Their activities were mainly farming and milling. Quaker influence is still felt with over 16 Quaker Meetings and several Quaker schools operating in the area.[25] The Quaker millers near the mouth of the Brandywine cooperated in maintaining quality and branding the flour. "Brandywine Superfine" flour was shipped all along the Atlantic coast and to the West Indies even before the American Revolution.

A base point for surveying the Mason-Dixon line, known as the Stargazers’ Stone, was established in Embreeville 31 miles (50 km) west of Philadelphia and 15 miles (24 km) north of the Maryland-Pennsylvania border by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in 1764. They used the adjoining John Harlan house as their center of operations until 1768.[26][27]

The creek lends its name to the 1777 Battle of Brandywine of the American Revolutionary War. General William Howe, commanding the British forces, was marching north on Baltimore Pike (now U.S. Route 1) toward Philadelphia and needed to ford the Brandywine near Chadds Ford. General George Washington, massed most of his American forces on the banks of the creek near Chadds Ford, and protected other fords as far as 5 miles (8.0 km) north and 3 miles (4.8 km) south. The Brandywine Battlefield Park covers only 50 acres (200,000 m²), but during the battle British troops marched about 6 miles (9.7 km) north, fording the creek above the forks, to outflank Washington's forces.[28]

Before the battle, General Anthony Wayne had his headquarters in Brandywine Village, across the creek from Wilmington, and Continental troops camped nearby, near Lovering Avenue.[29] The poet Bayard Taylor wrote of the battle and the creek:[30]

Early paper mills were located along the creek, during the Revolution. They supplied Benjamin Franklin's print shop and also supplied the paper to print Continental currency and the Declaration of Independence.[12]

The Conestoga wagon was first built to haul grain from the Conestoga Valley to Brandywine flour mills.[31]

A group of painters, including N. C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth and Howard Pyle, are referred to as the "Brandywine School" especially for their landscape works which depict the Brandywine valley. Many of their works are on view at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford.[32][33]

The first of eight dams on Brandywine Creek was removed in 2019, enabling American shad (Alosa sapidissima) to migrate further up the river. The dams block passage to shad spawning runs which cannot access the Pennsylvania reaches of the river. The plan to remove all 8 dams is known as "Brandywine Shad 2020" and has been led by Professor Jerry Kauffman of the University of Delaware Water Resources Center.[67][68]

• Bancroft Mills
• Brandywine Battlefield Park
• Brandywine Valley Railroad
• Chaddsford Winery
• East Branch Brandywine Creek
• Eleutherian Mills
• Forks of the Brandywine Presbyterian Church
• Longwood Gardens
• Nemours Mansion and Gardens
• Preston Lea
• Rockland, Delaware
• William Lea
• West Branch Brandywine Creek
• Wilmington State Parks
• List of Delaware rivers
• List of rivers of Pennsylvania

• Badertscher, Vera Marie, "Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania and Delaware", in National Geographic Traveler. Accessed 24 August 2021
• Bryant, Wiliam Cullen (1872). Picturesque America, Scenes on the Brandywine. New York: D. Appleton and Co. pp. 220–231.
• Henry Seidel Canby (1941). The Brandywine, illustrated by Andrew Wyeth, Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA. ISBN 0-916838-06-4.
• MacElree, Wilmer (1912). Down the eastern and up the Black Brandywine. West Chester, PA: F.S. Hickman.
• Maynard, W. Barksdale. The Brandywine: An Intimate Portrait (University of Pennsylvania Press; 2014) 253 pages; Traces the history of the Delaware and Pennsylvania region around the Brandywine River since first European settlement.
• Bruce Mowday. (2001). Along the Brandywine River, Postcard History Series. Arcadia Publishing.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brandywine Creek (Christina River).

• U.S. Geological Survey: PA Continuous Streamflow Gaging Stations
• Brandywine Conservancy
• Brandywine School (art review)
• Brandywine Valley Association
• Chadds Ford History
• 11 LIFE Photographs by Walker Evans of the DuPont gunpowder mills, 1957
• Pennsylvania Scenic Rivers website
• The Historic Christina Basin
• Historic images of the Brandywine from the Hagley Digital Archives
• Delaware's Industrial Brandywine
• Brandywine Shad 2020 web page at the University of Delaware Water Resources Center