In the south part of the township the east and west branches of Indian Creek have their origin also a branch of Cobb’s Creek. Trout Run, a branch of Mill Creek, has a course of about two miles, and has received this name from the fish found in it from an early period. The Merion Cotton Mill, with nine hundred and forty spindles, was propelled by it before 1822. Nicholas Scull mentions on it, in 1758, “Roberts’ grist and paper mills.” In 1858 it propelled the machinery of one plaster, two grist and two saw mills, besides eleven manufactories. It was noted for its paper mills before the Revolution. In this distance it receives fourteen small streams, and a line of steep hills marks most of its course, but none are over one hundred feet above its surface. It has its source near the Green Tree Tavern, on the Gulf road, and is, a winding, rapid stream, about six miles in length. Mill Creek is the largest stream, and lies wholly within the limits of the township. So well is Lower Merion watered that scarcely a large farm can be found which does not contain one or more excellent springs of living water. Though none are large, yet several furnish valuable water-power. The surface of this township is agreeably diversified by a number of beautiful streams, thirteen of which empty, within its borders, into the Schuylkill. In connection with the aforesaid formation, talc, dolomite and some other kinds of stone abound. Extending through its breadth is a belt of serpentine, accompanied by steatite or soapstone, which is quarried on the Schuylkill, a mile above Mill Creek. The soil is generally a productive loam, approaching a stiff clay only in the vicinity of Bryn Mawr. The surface is generally rolling, the highest elevation being near West Conshohocken, rising probably three hundred and fifty feet above the Schuylkill, and at the cemetery to the rear of Pencoyd two hundred and twenty-five feet, the most level portion being in the vicinity of Ardmore. By the erection of West Conshohocken into a borough, in 1874, its territory was reduced about two hundred and fifty acres. In its situation it is the most southerly in the county, and the greatest in extent and population. Its greatest length is six and a half miles, with a width of four miles, embracing an area of fourteen thousand five hundred acres.

THIS township is bounded on the north and east by the Schuylkill, on the northwest by Upper Merion and the borough of West Conshohocken, southeast by Philadelphia, and south and southwest by Delaware County.

Bean Everts & Peck, Philadelphia (1884) Lower Merion

Township of lower merion