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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Gc 974.8 J41p v.3 1135745
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01144 8724
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacolo03jenk_0
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Etched ly Man Rosenthu
Stram Photo by Gutekunst
Copyright by The Pennsylvania, Historical Publishing SAvocation, "Thela 1009
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
A HISTORY 1668-190 Editor HOWARTAI KIN-
Polune Carte
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One hundreil on Tin Not
Phil .delphia . Fe osyle mula
ANDREW GREGG CURTIN
Etched for this work by Max Rosenthal From the photograph by Gutekunst
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
A HISTORY : : : 1608-1903 Editor HOWARD M. JENKINS
Dolume Three
Pennsylvania Historical Publishing Association One hundred and forty North Fifteenth Street Philadelphia . Pennsylvania : : : MCMIII
Copyright, 1903 By The Pennsylvania Historical Publishing Association
(svol 5)
Mendoza - 2.50
1135745
Contents
CHAPTER I
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. I
CHAPTER II
THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM
98
CHAPTER III .
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 119
CHAPTER IV
PENNSYLVANIA JOURNALISM I85
CHAPTER V
MILITARY AFFAIRS
208
CHAPTER VI
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
254
CHAPTER VII
NATURAL RESOURCES
335
CHAPTER VIII
THE PLANTING OF THE CITIES
509
V
Etchings
ANDREW GREGG CURTIN Frontispiece
JEREMIAH SULLIVAN BLACK Opposite page 112
GEORGE GORDON MEADE. Opposite page 208
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. Opposite page 304
BAYARD TAYLOR .Opposite page 384
JOHN FREDERICK HARTRANFT Opposite page 432
Illustrations
OLD EIGHT SQUARE SCHOOL HOUSE, DIAMOND ROCK 4
SAMUEL BRECK-Portrait. 9
THOMAS HENRY BURROWES-Portrait. 14
HENRY CUYLER HICKOK-Portrait. 17
THADDEUS STEVENS-Portrait. 25
ARMS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1809 32
THOMAS MCKEAN-Portrait 37
WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE-Portrait. 45
ALEXANDER JAMES DALLAS-Portrait 49
JOHN GOTTLIEB ERNESTUS HECKEWELDER-Portrait. 53
RICHARD DALE-Portrait. 61
OLD "CAMEL BACK" BRIDGE ACROSS THE SUSQUEHANNA AT HARRISBURG. 65 NICHOLAS BIDDLE-Portrait. 73 SIMON SNYDER-Portrait. 77
vi
:
Illustrations
ABNER LACOCK-Portrait. 81
ARMS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1820. 84
JOHN ANDREW SHULZE-Portrait. 89
"HAZEL DELL," BAYARD TAYLOR'S BOYHOOD HOME. 92
JOHN BROWN TANNERY, NEW RICHMOND 96
JASPER YEATES-Portrait. IOI
WALTER H. LOWRIE-Portrait 105
ROBERT COOPER GRIER-Portrait. IO7
GEORGE SHARSWOOD-Portrait 109
PENN TREATY MONUMENT II4
CONSTANTIN HERING-Portrait. I21
DAVID HAYES AGNEW-Portrait. 125
WILLIAM PEPPER-Portrait. I33
GEORGE WOLF-Portrait. I37
HENRY MARIE BRACKENRIDGE-Portrait. 140
DUNKER CHURCH AND INTERIOR, BLOOMING GROVE. I44
MARKET AND FRONT STREETS, PHILADELPHIA 149
JOSEPH HOPKINSON-Portrait. 153
A PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN BANK NOTE
I 57
OLD COURT HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA
16I
JOSEPH BUFFINGTON-Portrait.
16.1
ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH, HARRISBURG.
169
JOSEPH RITNER-Portrait. I73
THE CLOISTER, SNOW HILL. 177
SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE, SNOW HILL
183
HOLLIDAYSBURG ABOUT 1840.
I88
WALTER FORWARD-Portrait
193
DAVID RITTEN HOUSE PORTER-Portrait
197
EBENSBURG 200
NEVILLE B. CRAIG-Portrait. 201
PUBLIC SQUARE, CARLISLE. 206
GEORGE BRINTON MCCLELLAN-Portrait. 213
JOHN FULTON REYNOLDS-Portrait. 217
FRANZ SIGEL-Portrait 22I
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Illustrations
GENERAL MEADE'S HEADQUARTERS, GETTYSBURG. 225
GETTYSBURG, VIEW FROM OBSERVATORY 229
CULP'S HILL, GETTYSBURG. 233
GETTYSBURG, VIEW FROM LITTLE ROUND TOP. 237
GENERAL LEE'S HEADQUARTERS, GETTYSBURG 24I
HANCOCK AVENUE, GETTYSBURG. 245
DAVID DIXON PORTER-Portrait 249
UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESHMENT SALOON, PHILADELPHIA. 252
HUNTINGDON, CAMBRIA AND INDIANA TURNPIKE SHINPLASTERS. 256
FOUNTAIN INN, PHILADELPHIA AND PITTSBURG TURNPIKE. 261
CONESTOGA WAGON 265
OLD CROSS ROADS, BETWEEN PHILADELPHIA AND BALTIMORE 268
CANAL NEAR OLD PORTAGE RAILROAD 272
LAST OF OLD PORTAGE ROAD ENGINE HOUSES 276
SECTION OF OLD PORTAGE ROAD. 280
DOUBLE CULVERT. NEW PORTAGE ROAD 284
LANCASTER 288
SAMUEL VAUGHAN MERRICK-Portrait. 292
FRANCIS RAWN SHUNK-Portrait. 297
WILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON-Portrait. 303
INDEPENDENCE HALL AS IT APPEARED IN 1840 309
PUBLIC SQUARE IN WILKES-BARRE. 313
WILLIAM MORRIS MEREDITH-Portrait. 317
CHARLES STEWART-Portrait. 325
DAVID WILMOT-Portrait. 329
GEORGE MIFFLIN DALLAS-Portrait.
341
WILLIAM BIGLER-Portrait.
345
BUTLER
318
TOWN BUILDINGS AT DOYLESTOWN ABOUT 1840. 350
MONUMENT AT JUNCTION OF PENNSYLVANIA, MARYLAND AND DELAWARE. . 352
JAMES POLLOCK-Portrait. 356
ARMS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1855. 360
WILLIAM FISHER PACKER-Portrait. 364
FELIX REVILLE BRUNOT-Portrait. 369
vill
Illustrations
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ-Portrait. 373
ARMS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1870. 376
ENTRANCE TO FORT WASHINGTON, CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 380
MAP OF FORTS WASHINGTON AND HENRY CLAY, CUMBERLAND COUNTY 382 JOHN WHITE GEARY-Portrait 388
SLOCUM HOLLOW, 1840 392
JESSE FELL-Portrait. 100
BREAKER IN THE ANTHRACITE COAL REGION 404
COAL MINE TROLLEY 409
DANIEL AGNEW-Portrait 413
ASA PACKER-Portrait. 421
SIMON CAMERON-Portrait. 429
EDWIN LAURENTINE DRAKE-Portrait. 44I
DRAKE'S FIRST OIL WELL. 445
GENERAL VIEW OF PITHOLE, 1865 448
GENERAL VIEW OF PITHOLE, 1895. 449
THE DRAKE MONUMENT 453
HENRY MARTYN HOYT-Portrait. 461
THE GREAT SEAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA-OBVERSE 468 THE GREAT SEAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA-REVERSE 469
CENTRAL PART OF WASHINGTON 477
WESTERN ENTRANCE TO YORK 485
CARBONDALE CHURCHES IN 1840. 489
BRISTOL FROM THE ISLAND
497
READING IN 1840. 512
INDEPENDENCE HALL.
517
"FORT" RITTEN HOUSE. 525
BEAVER IN 1840.
528
OLD STATE CAPITOL
533
NEWTOWN 5,36
GEORGE WHITFIELD SCRANTON-Portrait. 541 LEBANON IN 1840 544
JAMES G. BLAINE'S BIRTHPLACE. 549
HOME OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA 553
ix
Illustrations
JOHNSTOWN, GENERAL VIEW. 557
JOHNSTOWN, RESIDENCE SCENE 561
JOHNSTOWN, WRECK OF DAY EXPRESS. 565 JOHNSTOWN, RESIDENCE SCENE. 569
NEW STATE CAPITOL 573
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
CHAPTER I.
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
T O do justice to the early settlers of Pennsylvania it is neces- sary to bear in mind that education is of two kinds, that which is given at school, and that which is given out of school.
The education which is given out of school prevails among all classes of people. The struggle for existence imposes even upon savage tribes the necessity of transmitting certain kinds of knowl- edge from generation to generation. So primitive an art as that of building a fire (to us so simple by reason of the progress of invention), was for the aborigines of America and for the early settlers of Pennsylvania a problem involving knowledge, labor and skill. How to get food, where and how to fish, the making of weapons for the hunt and for war, the habits, migrations and feeding-places of birds and other animals, constituted a body of information which the young could and did largely acquire from those older and more experienced.
The education which is given out of school as a preparation for adult life must date back to the earliest pre-historic races who dwelt along streams or in the forests. It was surely not neglect- ed by the first settlers of Pennsylvania. How to keep body and soul together in a wilderness where they had to face savage foes and adverse forces in the domain of nature, was the difficult prob- lem that confronted our forefathers. The need of food, cloth- ing and shelter at first claimed supreme attention. Every family
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
was a little world in itself. The growing of grain, vegetables. cattle and poultry for food, of flax and wool for garments, occu- pied the time of the parents and children. It was mainly a pro- cess of education out of school that occupied the time of the boys and girls. As agriculture was then carried on in Pennsylvania, the school was of very little assistance in bread-winning. The ambition of the early settlers was to give every son a farm. The main motive which led them to establish schools was not found in their daily occupations. Reading and sewing were valued for girls, and reading, writing and ciphering for boys, as necessary for life's duties, but the chief incentive to the employment of teachers must be sought in a realm outside of secular occupations. This was, in many cases, a religious motive.
The school history of Pennsylvania falls naturally into four sections. The first deals with education in the colonial period, The second treats of education during and after the revolution, including the struggle for free schools. The third discusses the educational revival, including an account of the condition and forces that led to the legislation providing for the county superin- tendency. State Normal schools and a separate school department. The fourth is devoted to the further legislation that was needed to perfect the system of public instruction, and to a brief account of high schools and the other institutions of higher learning.
Colonial Education .- The first settlement on Pennsylvania soil was made by the Swedes. They were members of the Lutheran church and felt it to be their duty to give every child enough schooling to enable it to learn the catechism, to read the Scriptures and to sing the hymns used in divine worship. On the Delaware, this requirement was, no doubt, carried into effect as fully as circumstances would permit. If no schoolmaster was to be had, the minister himself assumed the duty of instructing the children. If they lived so far apart that they could not be gathered into the church or some other suitable- building, the schoolmaster taught them in their homes. The court at Upland
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The Educational System
contains the record of a successful action brought in 1679 by Ed- mund Draufton, for two hundred "gilders," against Dunck Will- iams for one year's service in teaching the children of the latter to read. He is the first school teacher on Pennsylvania soil of whom we have any knowledge. In 1693 thirty of the Swedish settlers sent a letter to John Thelin, postmaster at Gottenburg, Sweden, in which they express their longing desire and hope for two Swedish ministers and the following books: Twelve Bibles, three copies of sermons, forty-two manuals, one hundred handbooks and spir- itual meditations, two hundred catechisms, and two hundred A- B-C books. In 1696 four hundred catechisms were sent from Sweden to America. In one instance the colonists offered to pay for the books if lost on the voyage
The settlers from Holland were accustomed to schools sup- ported by taxation. "Neither the perils of war," says Brodhead, "nor the busy pursuits of gain, nor the excitement of political strife ever caused the Dutch to neglect the duty of educating their offspring to enjoy that moral freedom for which the fathers had fought."
William Penn had views on education far in advance of the age in which he lived. He believed in education as necessary to good government : "That which makes a good constitution must keep it, viz. : Men of wisdom and virtue: qualities, that because they descended not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth." These words are from the preface of Penn's Frame of Government, written early in 1682. In the same document it is provided that "the Governor and Provincial Council shall erect and order all public schools, and encourage and reward the authors of useful science and laud- able inventions." A committee of manners, education and arts was to be appointed to prevent wicked and scandalous living and to see to it that "youth may be successively trained up in virtue and useful knowledge and the arts." Penn aimed to lay the foundation for a system of industrial education. One of the
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Old Eight Square School House
Diamond Rock. Photo by J. F. Sachse
enactments of the second assembly, which met at Philadelphia in 1683, explicitly provided for a general system of instruction. There is evidence that this law was enforced. It was not merely a step in the direction of industrial education, but an attempt to banish illiteracy and to make ignorance impossible, ante-dating our compulsory school laws by two centuries.
Another enactment, providing that the statutes of the province should be published from time to time in book form and regularly taught to the children, reminds one of the Roman republic in which the youth learned by heart "Twelve Tables" of the law as a preparation for citizenship. By the direction of Penn a school was opened in 1689, and was formally chartered in 1697. It was called the Friends' Public school and has continued to exist until the present time, although it is now and has for many years been
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The Educational System
known as the William Penn Charter school. It was managed by leading members of the Society of Friends, but admission as pupils was granted to children of all denominations. It was not a free school in the modern sense, nor was it supported by taxa- tion. Penn soon discovered that his views were in advance of the people in his province, and the frame of government of 1701 com- pletely ignores the subject of education. The Friends in their yearly meetings took up the question and as a religious society began to establish schools in which the rich paid tuition, but the poor received gratuitous instruction. From that day Friends' schools for elementary education have flourished and some are still in existence. The early records of the society reflect great credit upon its leaders, and their beneficent influence in favor of schools has been felt and acknowledged through two centuries of Pennsylvania history.
Many of the settlers who came somewhat later-from 1700 on-were from Germany and Switzerland. Some of these cher - ished views similar to those of Penn on the question of war, on the taking of oaths and on what they called a hireling ministry. They did not consider a learned education essential to the preach- ing of the gospel and the interpretation of the Scriptures. But they believed that every child should learn to read the Scriptures for himself. Wherever the German Baptists, the Mennonites, the Amish and the Schwenkfelders settled, they strove to have read- ing and writing taught. The denominations were often called "the Sects," to distinguish them from the so-called church people who supported an educated ministry.
The German Baptist, brethren (often called Dunkards, or Dunkers), produced the two Saurs, father and son, who brought the art of printing from Europe, making their own type, manufac- turing paper and printing Bibles as well as two hundred other books in the period before the revolution. Their activity in the making of books and in the printing of a German newspaper is conclusive evidence that the people to whom they were catering
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
were able to read. The Seventh-Day Baptists, who seceded from the others, had among them a teacher by the name of Ludwig Höcker, who established Sunday schools forty years before Rob- ert Raikes inaugurated the same movement in England.
The Mennonites produced the first writer on school manage- ment upon American soil in the person of Christopher Dock, "the pious schoolmaster of Skippack." He came to this country about 1714, taught school for a decade, bought a farm upon which he lived for ten years more, but his conscience did not feel easy until he returned to the school-room. He opened two schools, one in Skippack and the other in Salford (now Montgomery county), alternately devoting three days to each. In 1750 Christopher Saur, through a mutual friend, a Mennonite minister by the name of Dielman Kolb, obtained from Dock a description of his method of teaching school, with the understanding that it should not be published until after the author's death. Nineteen years afterward some friends secured his consent to have it published. The Elder Saur had died, the son had read the manuscript, mis- laid it, and Dock rejoiced that it had been lost. It was subse- quently found and given to the world. His views on school disci- pline were far in advance of an age which believed in the rod as essential to school-keeping. Dock wrote hymns which were sung by the Mennonites in their church services. One evening in the fall of 1771 he did not return from school. Search was made; he was found in the school house on his knees, dead. His spirit had flown while he was occupied with his usual devotions at the close of school. ( Pennypacker's "Historical and Biographical Sketch- es," pages 91-98.) The same writer makes the following inter- esting statement in regard to the establishment of a school in Germantown, p. 55:
"On the 28th of June, 1701, a tax was laid for the building of a prison, erection of a market, and other objects for the public good. As in all communities the prison preceded the school house, but the interval was not long. December 30th of that year
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The Educational System
'it was found good to start a school here in Germantown.' Arent Klincken, Paul Wolff and Peter Schumacker, Jr., were appointed overseers to collect subscriptions and arrange with a school teach- er. Pastorius was the first pedagogue." Francis Daniel Pastor- ius was educated at the Universities of Strasburg, Basle and Jena, was familiar with Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch, English and Italian, and at the age of twenty-two publicly disputed in different languages upon law and philosophy.
Several flourishing settlements in Pennsylvania were made by the Moravians, who still speak of themselves as Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren in Christ. "From the founding of the church by the followers of the Bohemian reformer, John Huss, in 1457, down to the present day," says Dr. Wickersham, "no other relig- ious organization, in proportion to membership, has done so much to provide a good education for its own children or to plant schools among the heathen in different quarters of the globe." In 1742 the Moravians opened a school at Germantown, in which the daughter of Count Zinzendorf, the Countess Benigna, was a teacher. A year later there were fifty pupils, more than half of whom were boarders, including two Indian girls. Similar schools were established in other places. The seminaries for ladies at Bethlehem and Lititz and the Boys' school at Nazareth acquired national reputation, and still continue their excellent work. Their schools for the education of the Indians did a service which rivals that of the special Indian schools of our times." (Wickersham's "History of Education in Pennsylvania," pages 149-153.)
Many of the immigrants from Germany were members of the Lutheran and (German) Reformed churches. To their minds the church and the school were one interest. We read that in 1708, over eleven thousand German Protestants arrived in Lon- don on their way to America, and that among them were eighteen schoolmasters. Many others followed and settled in the province of Pennsylvania. As soon as their resources permitted of it in any settlement, they built a church and beside it a school house.
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
If they could erect only the former, it was used for school pur- poses. They brought with them from the Fatherland the rite of confirmation as a condition of admission to full church privileges. Confirmation was preceded by religious instruction based upon the catechism, whose questions and answers were to be treasured in the memory. This called for ability to read and to understand what was read.
The schools alongside the churches were under the supervision and oversight of the pastor ; the children of the poor were educated free. The schoolmaster became, next to the pastor, the most im- portant person in the community, and at times performed in con- nection with his school duties the function of reading sermons and baptizing children in cases of necessity.
About the middle of the Eighteenth Century a movement sprang up to establish charity schools among them. Rev. Michael Schlatter, who had been sent to America to visit the scattered German congregations of the Reformed or Calvinistic faith, went back to Europe and gave a soul-stirring account of spiritual desti- tution among them. While these people had been felling trees and raising crops, the churches and schools began to languish for want of pastors and teachers. "What makes the condition of these congregations the more deplorable and worthy of our sym- pathy," he wrote in his appeal, "is that most of them are not even provided with a good schoolmaster. Few even of such as are found qualified can be prevailed upon to labor in this work, be- cause the poor people are not able to contribute enough to enable a schoolmaster, who devotes his whole time to his calling, to sup- port himself and family even with the greatest care and economy." (Harbaugh's "Life of Schlatter," page 205.) Hearts were stirred in Holland, Switzerland and England. A society was established ; the king contributed one thousand pounds and others of the nobility made liberal subscriptions. In all about twenty thousand pounds were raised. What ultimately became of this fund is not known, but for eight years the income was applied to
8
Samuel Breck
Member legislature 1817-1821; congressman 1823-1825; in 1832 elected to State Senate. Was chairman of joint committee of the two houses of Legislature in the session of 1833-34, to frame the free school law
The Educational System
aid in maintaining schools at Reading, York, Easton and other places. The movement was favored by the patriarch of the Lu- theran church, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. At his suggestion a printing press was established for the issue of books in two lan- guages. Schlatter was made supervisor or visitor, with an annual salary of one hundred pounds, and continued in the discharge of these duties until about the middle of the year 1757, when he was succeeded by Dr. William Smith. These schools were designed for the youth of all Protestant denominations. Instruction was to be given in both the German and the English language, in writing, keeping accounts, and in the principles of religion. Girls were to be taught reading and the use of the needle. Catechisms and other good books were to be printed in both languages at the expense of the society and distributed to the poor. The aim was to qualify the Germans for all the advantages of native English subjects. The ability to speak English would enable them to rise to places of profit and honor, to buy and sell to greater advantage in the markets, to understand their own causes in the courts where the pleading's were in English.
Christopher Saur has been severely blamed for his opposition to the movement. He saw in it an attempt to alienate the Ger- mans from the views of the Friends on the subject of war. He claimed that the intellectual and spiritual destitution of the Ger- mans was not as bad as represented by Schlatter. That there was a measure of truth in his claims is evident from a letter dated April 9, 1763, and addressed by Rev. Alexander Murray to the secretary of the Venerable Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts : "The country for miles around this city [ Read- ing] is thick peopled and by few others than Germans and Qua- kers. The former, being computed twelve to one of all other nations together, seem to be abundantly well provided in teachers of one denomination or another, and as long as they are so de- votedly attached to their native tongue as they are at present, an English minister can be of no great service to them. For this they
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Pennsylvania Colonial. and Federal
might be at no loss for English schoolmasters, yet they choose to send their children to German schools, which they have every- where in great plenty."
Schemes to change the language of a people in order to alien- ate them from one crown and to attach them to another are well known in Europe. The readiness with which the king of Eng- land and the nobility subscribed money for these schools may have been partly due to a desire to attach the Germans to England and to make them English in sympathy and language. Dr. William Smith (some time provost of the University of Pennsylvania) proposed severe measures to stamp out the use of German. The right of the Germans to vote for members of the assembly was to be suspended until they had acquired a competent knowledge of the English language and the provincial constitution. All law writings were to be void unless made in the English language. No newspapers, almanacs or other periodical papers written in a foreign language were to be printed unless accompanied by an English translation. Further importations of Germans were to be prohibited, and those already in the country were to be bound to the provincial government by a common language and the con- sciousness of a common interest. Dr. Smith even proposed that all members of the assembly should take the oath of allegiance and subscribe a declaration that they would not refuse to defend their country against His Majesty's enemies. This would have excluded the English Quakers, as well as the non-resisting Ger- mans to whom Saur belonged. Dr. Smith was even suspected of circulating the report that the Germans were in league with the French against the English crown.
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