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.

History

The club was established in 1732 as the Colony in Schuylkill under a treaty with the chiefs of the Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) Indians. Officers of the club assumed governmental titles: governor, lieutenant governor, three councilors, sheriff, coroner, secretary. Among its 28 founding members were James Logan

James Logan (statesman)

James Logan , a statesman and scholar, was born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland of Scottish descent and Quaker parentage. In 1689, the Logan family moved to Bristol, England where, in 1693, James replaced his father as schoolmaster...

, Philip Syng

Philip Syng

Philip Syng was, like his namesake father, a renowned silversmith who created fine works in silver and sometimes gold for the rich families of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also created the Syng inkstand, which was used to sign the United States Declaration of Independence.He was a member of...

, and Joseph Wharton

Joseph Wharton (1707-1776)

Joseph Wharton was a successful merchant, and the owner of "Walnut Grove," a country place on Fifth street, near Washington Avenue, Philadelphia, on which the Mischianza of 1778 was held. The house was the finest of its day near that city. It was torn down in 1862, to make room for a schoolhouse...

; the first Governor was Thomas Stretch (born Staffordshire, England, 1695), who held the office for 34 years. Other early members included Thomas Wharton Jr.

Thomas Wharton Jr.

Thomas Wharton Jr. was a Pennsylvania merchant and politician of the Revolutionary era. He served as the first President of Pennsylvania following the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain....

, Tench Francis, Jr., William Bradford

William Bradford (1719-1791)

William Bradford was a printer, soldier, and leader during the American Revolution from Philadelphia.Bradford was born in New York City in 1719, and was the grandson of the printer William Bradford. He was apprenticed to his uncle Andrew Bradford in Philadelphia. This relationship ended in 1741...

, Samuel Nicholas

Samuel Nicholas

Samuel Nicholas was the first officer commissioned in the United States Continental Marines and by tradition is considered to be the first Commandant of the Marine Corps.-Early life:...

, Clement Biddle

Clement Biddle

Colonel Clement Biddle was an American Revolutionary War soldier.- Life :Biddle was born May 10, 1740 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to John Biddle and Sarah Owen . He was the younger brother of Owen Biddle, Sr...

, William Bingham

William Bingham

William Bingham was an American statesman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788 and served in the United States Senate from 1795 to 1801...

, Mayor Anthony Morris

Anthony Morris (II)

Anthony Morris III was a brewer, merchant, judge, assemblyman, and mayor of Philadelphia.Morris was born in London, England, and immigrated with his family to New Jersey shortly after his birth. From the age of three, he spent his life in Philadelphia, son of Anthony Morris, Jr., one of the city's...

, Thomas Mifflin

Thomas Mifflin

Thomas Mifflin was an American merchant and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, a Continental Congressman from Pennsylvania, President of the Continental...

, and Samuel Morris

Samuel Morris (soldier)

Samuel Morris was an American soldier in the American Revolutionary War.The grandson of Anthony Morris , he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

, second governor for 46 years. In 1737, membership was limited to twenty-five. After the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

, 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

Schuylkill River

The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...

 falls near Fairmount

Fairmount, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Fairmount is a United States neighborhood in the North Philadelphia area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name "Fairmount" itself derives from the prominent hill on which the Philadelphia Museum of Art now sits, and where William Penn originally intended to build his own manor house...

, now part of Philadelphia. When the Fairmount Dam

Fairmount Water Works

The Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was Philadelphia's second municipal waterworks. Designed in 1812 by Frederick Graff and built between 1812 and 1872, it operated until 1909, winning praise for its design and becoming a popular tourist attraction...

 was constructed in 1822, and the fishing at the Falls spoiled, the Castle was moved downriver to Rambo's Rock, opposite Bartram's Garden

Bartram's Garden

Bartram's Garden which covers is the oldest surviving botanic garden in North America, including an historic botanical garden and arboretum , located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park, near the intersection of 54th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

 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

Delaware River

The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...

 near Andalusia, Pennsylvania

Andalusia, Pennsylvania

Andalusia is a historic neighborhood in Bensalem Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, bordering Philadelphia. The ZIP code is 19020. The area is the southernmost part of the township and of the county. Its boundaries are: Woodhaven Road to the northeast, the Delaware River to the east and south,...

. 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

Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette , often known as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France...

 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

Fish House Punch

Fish House Punch is a strong, rum-based cocktail containing containing rum, Cognac, and peach brandy. The drink is typically served over an ice block in a punch bowl and garnished with lemon slices.-History:...

, an alcoholic drink consisting mainly of rum.

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
  Bryn Mawr College
  Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....