By The Schuylkill River & Urban Waters Research Corps Archive team
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An Act To Incorporate the Tinicum Fishing Company of Philadelphia: An 1863 Act by the Pennsylvania General Assembly named a number of Pennsylvania citizens, as well as "such others as they shall hereafter associate with themselves," as a body politic "by name of the Tinicum Fishing Company of Philadelphia." The Act conferred on the group, which first formed in 1859, terms for the election of officers and the exchange of lands and goods. ~ Source: Google Books ~ Creator: Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ~ Date: April 1, 1863Atlas of Delaware County, 1870: Page 17 of the 1870 Atlas contains a detailed map of Tinicum Township. The Tinicum Fishing Company property is marked at the confluence of Darby Creek with the Delaware River. ~ Source: Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network ~ Creator: Henry W. Hopkins, C.E.
~ Date: 1870Excerpt from Tinicum Fishing Company vs. Carter: In July 1867, Paul B. Carter brought a lawsuit against the Tinicum Fishing Company for disturbing the productivity of the Carter fishery located below the Lazaretto. Carter's claim to the fishery was based on "long-continued possession," by which the uninterrupted use of a property for at least twenty-one conveys a title. He claimed that the walls, piers, and other infrastructure erected by the Tinicum Fishing Company encumbered his fishery. The case opened a discussion about what rights a riverfront property owner has over the adjacent water, where property boundaries lie in the case of tidal fluctuations of water level, and the seasonal variation of river conditions and therefore rights, among other issues. The lawsuit lasted several years and ultimately concluded in favor of Tinicum Fishing Company. In May 1870, Justice Sharswood declared that "it would be of very dangerous consequence...to all riparian proprietors upon navigable rivers, if by this sort of parol evidence of user, they could practically be deprived of their frontage, by being cut off from all the advantages of it for wharves, landings and other improvements." ~ Source: Google Books ~ Creator: Pennsylvania State Reports Containing Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ~ Date: 1867-1870Excerpt from Judge Broomall's Address : During a 1914 banquet celebrating the career of William B. Broomall, the Judge described his memories of several lawyers and cases. In his recollection of lawyer Paul B. Carter, he notes that "Mr. Carter's name and fame will always be associated with Carter vs. Tinicum Fishing Company." He goes on to describe Carter's tenacity with the case, despite his ultimate defeat. ~ Source: Google Books ~ Creator: Delaware County Reports, Volume XII ~ Date: February, 1914
The waterfront just upstream of Darby Creek provided for productive fishing, in part because of the protection offered by Little Tinicum Island. In 1959, a group of men from the surrounding area formed a commercial fishing enterprise, which was incorporated in 1963. Despite battling a lawsuit over the impact of their docks and piers on adjacent fisheries for several years, the Tinicum Fishing Company operated until the 1890s, when the property was sold to the Philadelphia Yacht Club.
