Recreation

Diary of Caleb Wickersham

We have an intriguing insight into life in early Pocopson because of diaries maintained by some young Pocopson residents shortly after the township was formed. There was a good deal of writing around the time of the Civil War.  The following is a summary of a diary of Township resident Caleb Wickersham.

 

Lenape Park

At the turn of the 20th Century, Pocopson was home to one of the region’s popular recreation spots—Lenape Park, on the Brandywine.  Reports differ on its early history.  As early as 1858, according to one source, picnics were held on the site, even though the ground was overrun with bushes and vines.  The more organized site started in 1877, in the middle of a hickory grove on Sager’s Island, when a group of local residents got together with hatchets and saws and constructed an open-air dance platform.