William Penn's founding of Philadelphia in 1684 and the establishment of local Cape May government in 1692, created an environment where individuals could pursue a wide range of opportunities. Early settlers were entrepreneurial in spirit, extracting the riches of the earth, forest and sea and marketing them to growing communities to the north, west and south. The peninsula of Cape May put local seafarers in a prime position to sail forth on trade missions as well as guide vessels from around the world to the port of Philadelphia. Local industries were powered by the tidal rise and fall of small waterways and by the wind, which was harnessed to grind grain and saw timber. While prime agricultural land was limited to the spine of the peninsula, resourceful businessmen banded together to drain and farm tidal marshlands on the bayshore.