Also known as: Brandywine and Christiana Manufacturing Company; Brandywine Manufacturing & Banking Company
Owner: Nathan Bunker, Jacob B. Clement, Thomas Fisher, John Hemphill, John B. Newman
Industry type: Paper mill
Location: Kentmere
Active dates: 1825-1845
Summary: The Brandywine Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1825 and took over T&J Gilpin's mills. The company was rechartered as the "Brandywine and Christiana Manufacturing Company" in 1829, though it seems that it was still popularly known simply as the Brandywine Manufacturing Company. The company won an award from the Franklin Institute for their paper in 1835. The company's Kentmere property included two four-story stone cotton mills, the larger of which was 80x45 feet and the smaller of which was 40x45 feet.
In 1836, an additional company known as the Brandywine Manufacturing and Banking Company was chartered to construct buildings and capital improvements such as dams and millraces on the property. They also provided banking and insurance services for nearby mills. The Brandywine Manufacturing Company may have leased the property to one of the partners, John Newman, as early as 1838 before he eventually purchased the property at a sheriff's sale in 1845.
Citations: Boatman, Roy. The Brandywine Cotton Industry, 1795-1865. Hagley Research Report, 1957.
Hancock, Harold. Advertising Practices of Selected Wilmington and Brandywine Firms, 1800-1900. Hagley Research Report, 1962.