Schuylkill Fishing Company

Schuylkill Fishing Company
Schuylkill Fishing Company logo
Location:	Andalusia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates:	40°3′43.57″N 74°57′59.35″W / 40.0621028°N 74.9664861°W / 40.0621028; -74.9664861Coordinates: 40°3′43.57″N 74°57′59.35″W / 40.0621028°N 74.9664861°W / 40.0621028; -74.9664861
Established:	1732
Governing body:	private

The Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania, also known as the State in Schuylkill, was the first angling club in the American Colonies. Still in existence, it claims to be the oldest social club in the English-speaking world. It is said that the club pays its rent with fish.^[1]

History

The club was established in 1732 as the Colony in Schuylkill under a treaty with the chiefs of the Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) Indians.^[2] Officers of the club assumed governmental titles: governor, lieutenant governor, three councilors, sheriff, coroner, secretary. Among its 28 founding members were James Logan, Philip Syng, and Joseph Wharton; the first Governor was Thomas Stretch (born Staffordshire, England, 1695), who held the office for 34 years. Other early members included Thomas Wharton Jr., Tench Francis, Jr., William Bradford, Samuel Nicholas, Clement Biddle, William Bingham, Mayor Anthony Morris, Thomas Mifflin, and Samuel Morris, second governor for 46 years. In 1737, membership was limited to twenty-five. After the American Revolution, in 1782, the club changed its name to "State in Schuylkill", but retained its rules and organization.

It had a clubhouse, known as the "Castle", at the foot of the Schuylkill River falls near Fairmount, now part of Philadelphia. When the Fairmount Dam was constructed in 1822, and the fishing at the Falls spoiled, the Castle was moved downriver to Rambo's Rock, opposite Bartram's Garden and below Gray's Ferry. Here it remained until 1888, when the fish in the Schuylkill were poisoned by sewage, and it was forced to move again in 1937, this time to its present location at Devon, the estate of William B. Chamberlain on the Delaware River near Andalusia, Pennsylvania.^[3] A faded stone marker commemorating the club's original location can be found on Martin Luther King Drive near Sweet Briar Drive in Philadelphia; it appears to have been erected in 1947.

The club designated May 1 as the "opening day" of the sporting season and claimed to have received its rights for fishing and fowling on the river directly from Chief Tammany in 1732.

On July 21, 1825, Gen. Lafayette visited the Castle and was elected a member. On April 27, 1844, the club was incorporated under the name Schuylkill Fishing Company.

The club is reputed to have been the origin of Fish House Punch, an alcoholic drink consisting mainly of rum.^[4]

See also

Philadelphia portal

• Fish House Punch
• Old Philadelphians

References

1. ^ The New York Times: "Oldest Dining Club in the World" (January 15, 1905)
2. ^ John Thomas Scharf, Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Lippincott, Phila., 1884.
3. ^ Philadelphia Reflections: Philadelphia Fish and Fishing
4. ^ History of Fish House Punch

External links

• Milnor, W., An authentic historical memoir of the Schuylkill Fishing Company of the state in Schuylkill. From its establishment on that romantic stream, near Philadelphia, in the year 1732, to the present time. Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1830.
• 1830 lithograph of the Castle of the State in Schuylkill (frontispiece of Milnor's book)
• History of the Society from the Annals of Philadelphia
• Historic photograph of the State in Schuylkill Castle at Bryn Mawr College