This is a newspaper article from Chester Co newspaper
HISTORY REVEALS RIDGEWAY HAD MANY OWNERS, BUT ONLY ONE ELISHA PHIPPS *(
1762-1843)
"now Elisha must have been a joy to know. One
historian says "he was a good fiddler and although Quaker he delighted in
getting boys and girls from the surrounding country to gather at the mill in the
evening to dance." He was in the habit of going on sea voyages in a
small boat which he had named the 'Dusty Miller' and he used the boat to
carry his flour to market. It had a record as a fast sailer and used to
win most of the race she entered. The History of Delaware County records an
interesting story concerning him.
"Elisha Phipps was a strange, erratic character, moved
by the impulse of the hour. It is related that the mill being
located at the head of the tide'water, which was customary in those days, he conveyed his flour to
market by a shallop and returning would bring a cargo of grain.
On one occasion he headed his little craft with flour and
sailed for New York. Time elapsed and as no word came from Elisha, his
wife became anxious and finally went to New York in search of her husband.
There she could learn nothing save that he had not been to see the persons with
whom he had been accustomed to trade. Finally she returned to her home
disconsolate, fully convinced her husband had been lost on the trip to NY.
Time passed and no word from the absent Phipps. It was nearly
dusk one evening when the "good wife" saw the Dusty Miller coming up
Muckinipates Creek with the flood tide. Shortly after the craft was moored
at its accustomed wharf, Phipps entered the house and in his usual manner
tossed his hat on the table, as if his absence had been no unusual event in his
daily life, and asked "Supper ready, Mom?"
It seems that after the "Miller " had passed out of
the capes of the
Delaware, Phipps on a sudden impulse decided to sail for the West Indies, where
selling his flour at a large profit, he shipped a quality of rum and molasses
for New York. At the latter port he sold the cargo, purchased grain and
finally sailed for home!"