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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01202 8749
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https://archive.org/details/progressivepenns00swan_0
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA 1
A
RECORD OF THE
REMARKABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE KEYSTONE STATE,
WITH
SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS EARLY AND ITS LATER TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, ITS EARLY SETTLERS, AND ITS PROMINENT MEN.
BY JAMES M. SWANK,
SECRETARY AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION FOR THIRTY-SIX YEARS, FROM 1872 TO 1908. AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE MANUFAC- TURE OF IRON IN ALL AGES AND OF OTHER HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS.
Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask thy father and he will shew thee; thy elders and they will tell thee .- Deuteronomy, xxxii. 7. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times .- Psalms, lxxvii. 5.
PHILADELPHIA : J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 1908.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1908, BY JAMES M. SWANK, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Printed by J. B. Lippincott Co. The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia.
1502863
PREFACE.
THIS volume contains my final contribution to the industrial history of our country and particularly of my native State. My long connection with the work of the American Iron and Steel Association has made me acquainted with many important facts relating to the industrial develop- ment of Pennsylvania, including its systems of transportation, which are not to be found in any of the accepted histories of the State but which are abundantly worthy of preservation. These I have recorded in the following pages. In the arrangement of these facts I have conceived it to be necessary to present first a background of the leading incidents in the early history of Pennsylvania. In compiling these incidents I have given prominence to some features of the early history of the province which in my opinion deserve wider recognition than they have received. These include the presence of settlers on the Delaware long before the granting of Penn's charter ; the text of important parts of the charter itself ; the people who settled Pennsylvania after the granting of the char- ter, including the large number of redemptioners ; the existence of negro slavery in Pennsylvania and when and by whom the agitation for its abo- lition was set on foot; the text of the act providing for this abolition, a much overrated measure; the cause of the estrangement of the peaceful Delaware Indians ; the physical characteristics of Pennsylvania ; and the animal life of the province. After the presentation of these and other features of the early history of Pennsylvania I have passed to the means of transportation that were employed by the pioneers and by those who came after them-the early roads, flatboats, keel boats, ferries, bridges, turnpikes, canals, steamboats, and railroads, and these details are followed by several chapters which deal with the great productive industries of the State. Included in these chapters I have given the early history of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's industrial centre and the world's industrial wonder. The prominence of Pennsylvania as the leading industrial State of the Union is presented in connection with some account of the lead- ing industries of the whole country. A chronological chapter follows which gives a record of many notable industrial events in the history of both the State and the country. This chapter really embodies a vast amount of information the value of which would have justified its pre- sentation in more elaborate form. The book closes with a number of chapters that are devoted to biographical sketches of some eminent Pennsylvanians, most of whom have been prominently identified with the history and development of Western Pennsylvania, and some of whom have not been honored by their fellow citizens as they have deserved.
This volume deals with exact statements. My long familiarity with the compilation and analysis of industrial statistics has impressed me with the value of statistical methods in the presentation of historical facts. Hence in the preparation of this volume my aim has been first to secure exact information upon such subjects as were deemed worthy
iv
PREFACE.
of consideration and next to present this information in a form as con- densed as possible and always in logical and chronological order. Neces- sarily at the outset severe limitations had to be placed upon the subjects to be treated. The book was not intended to be in any sense a history of Pennsylvania-not even an exhaustive history of its leading industries. The purpose and scope of the book are fully stated in the title-page. Such important subjects as the military history of Pennsylvania and the history of its schools of learning, all of which shed lustre on the whole history of the State, have been passed over because they were not really essential to the proof of the proposition that Pennsylvania is a great industrial and every way progressive State.
In selecting the subjects to be considered in this volume our iron and steel industries, the greatest of all the manufacturing industries of the State, have received special attention. In dealing with this subject I have made free use of my previous historical investigations, particu- larly as they are recorded in Iron in All Ages. I have done this not only because that antiquarian volume is but little known to the pres- ent generation, making appropriate the reproduction of such of its lead- ing facts as relate to Pennsylvania, but because some of the historical facts which it records must necessarily be republished in condensed form if later details which bring the record of the iron and steel achieve- ments of the Commonwealth down to the present time are to possess their full significance.
In "Authorities Consulted " I have given credit to the large num- ber of historical and statistical publications that have helped me in the preparation of this volume, quoting freely, with proper credit, from some and but slightly if at all from others. The treasures of the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and of other Philadelphia libraries have been generously opened for my examination. I am also indebted to many friends for letters containing historical data of great value. A General Index and a Personal Index will assist the reader in his search for any particular information.
As would naturally be supposed by the reader, the utmost pains have been taken to prevent the insertion in the following pages of any errors affecting dates, proper names, or other historical details. If any such errors should be observed, or any serious omissions of historical facts, the blame can not be laid to haste in composition. It is simply impossible in a work which embraces thousands of names and thousands of dates that every one should be correctly given. In the preparation of the copy for the book and in the proof-reading I have had the bene- fit of valuable suggestions and other help from every member of my clerical staff, an obligation which I cheerfully acknowledge. The tail- piece illustrations are reproduced from pen and ink sketches by Miss Anna M. Wirth, all but one being original studies. My thanks are due to the J. B. Lippincott Company for the excellent manner in which the book has been printed and bound. J. M. S.
PHILADELPHIA, No. 261 South Fourth Street, October 1, 190S.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
The Life of William Penn. By Samuel M. Janney. 1852.
William Penn. By Augustus C. Buell. 1904.
Life of John Heckewelder. By the Rev. Edward Rondthaler. 1847.
Washington and the West. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1905.
Washington After the Revolution. By William S. Baker. 1892.
An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Colonel James Smith. 1799.
Journal of William Maclay. 1789-1791. 1890. 1874. Memorial of Thomas Potts, Junior. By Mrs. Thomas Potts James. Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania. Sherman Day. 1843. Early History of Western Pennsylvania and the West. I. D. Rupp. 1846. A Gazetteer of the State of Pennsylvania. By Thomas F. Gordon. 1832. The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. By John Fiske. 1901. The Making of Pennsylvania. By Sydney George Fisher. 1896.
Pennsylvania, Colony and Commonwealth. By Sydney George Fisher. 1897. The Story of the Palatines. By Sanford H. Cobb. 1897.
Two Centuries of Pennsylvania History. By Isaac Sharpless. 1900. A Quaker Experiment in Government. By Isaac Sharpless. 1902. Continental Sketches of Distinguished Pennsylvanians. By D. R. B. Nevin. Pennsylvania Dutch and Other Essays. By Phebe Earle Gibbons. 1882. The Germans in Colonial Times. By Lucy Forney Bittinger. 1901. German Religious Life in Colonial Times. By Lucy Forney Bittinger. 1906. The Huguenot Emigration to America. By Charles W. Baird, D.D. 1885. Memorials of the Huguenots in America. By Rev. A. Stapleton. 1901. The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania. By Julius Friedrich Sachse. 1895. The Fatherland. By Julius Friedrich Sachse. 1897.
German Emigration to America. By Rev. Henry Eyster Jacobs, D.D., LL.D. 1898.
German Exodus to England in 1709. By Frank Ried Diffenderffer. 1897. German Immigration into Pennsylvania. Frank Ried Diffenderffer. 1900. The Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania. 1899.
The German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania. By Oscar Kuhns. 1901.
Recollections of Persons and Places in the West. By H. M. Brackenridge. The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania. By Charles H. Lincoln. The Old National Road. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1901.
Historic Highways of America. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1904. The Ohio River. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1906.
History of The People of the United States. By John Bach McMaster. Pennsylvania. Pioneer and State. By Albert S. Bolles, Ph.D., LL.D. 1899. Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. By John F. Watson. 1857. Old Redstone. By Joseph Smith, D.D. 1854.
Pioneer Outline History of Northwestern Pennsylvania. By W. J. Mc- Knight, M.D. 1905.
History of American Manufactures. By J. Leander Bishop, M.D. 1861. Iron In All Ages. By James M. Swank. 1892.
vi
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Pennsylvania, Colonial and Federal. By Howard M. Jenkins. 1903. Hazard's Gazetteer of Pennsylvania.
History of Pennsylvania. By Robert Proud. 1798.
History of Pennsylvania. By William H. Egle.
Presbyterian Centenary Memorial. Pittsburgh. 1876.
The Moravian Manual. By Rev. E. De Schweinitz. 1859. A History of Bethlehem, Pa. By Bishop Joseph Mortimer Levering. 1903. History of Braddock's Expedition. Edited by Winthrop Sargent. 1855. The Old Northwest. By B. H. Hinsdale, Ph.D. 1898. American Animals. By Stone and Cram. 1902. Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. By Samuel N. Rhoads. 1903.
The Olden Time. By Neville B. Craig. 1846. History of Pittsburgh. By Neville B. Craig. 1851.
The French in the Allegheny Valley. By T. J. Chapman. 1887. Old Pittsburgh Days. By T. J. Chapman. 1900.
Pennsylvania and the Centennial Exhibition. Official Report. 1878. Old Westmoreland. By Edgar W. Hassler. 1900.
History of the County of Westmoreland. By George Dallas Albert. 1882. History of Westmoreland County. By John N. Boucher. 1906.
The Scotch-Irish. By Charles A. Hanna. 1902.
The Scotch-Irish in America. Scotch-Irish Society of America.
History of Somerset County. By William Welfley. 1906.
Diary of David Zeisberger. Edited by Eugene F. Bliss. 1885.
Fort Pitt. By Wmn. M. Darlington. 1892.
History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. By W. B. Wilson. 1895. Fiftieth Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 1896. The Monongahela of Old. By James Veech.
Old and New Monongahela. By John S. Van Voorhis, A.M., M.D. 1893. The Old Pike. A History of the National Road. By T. B. Searight. 1894. The Oil Regions of Pennsylvania. By William Wright. 1865. State Book of Pennsylvania. By Thomas H. Burrowes. 1847. Historical Sketch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 1853.
Canals and Railroads of the United States. By Henry S. Tanner. 1840. Tunneling. By Henry S. Drinker. 1878.
Transportation Systems in the United States. By J. L. Ringwalt. 1888. History of American Steam Navigation. By John H. Morrison. 1903. History of the Lumber Industry of America. By James E. Defebaugh. History of Fayette County. By Franklin Ellis. 1882. History of Crawford County. 18SS. History of Bedford, Somerset, and Fulton Counties. 1884. History of Cambria County. By Henry Wilson Storey. 1907. History of Bucks County. By William W. H. Davis. 1905. Cyclopædia of Indiana and Armstrong Counties. 1891. Essays and Speeches of Jeremiah S. Black. By Chauncey F. Black. 1886. Historical and Biographical Sketches. By Samuel W. Pennypacker. 1883. The Settlement of Germantown. By Samuel W. Pennypacker. 1899. Year Books of the Pennsylvania Society. By Barr Ferree. The St. Clair Papers. By William Henry Smith. 1882. Andrew Carnegie. The Man and His Work. By Barnard Alderson. 1902. Reports of the United States Geological Survey. Reports of the United States Census. And many others.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
1. The Lack of Civic Pride in Pennsylvania 1
2. The Founding of Pennsylvania .. 11
3. The People Who Settled Pennsylvania. 26
4. Redemptioners and Other Bonded Servants. 43
5. Negro Slavery in Pennsylvania.
54
6. The Delaware Indians
70
7. Physical Characteristics of Pennsylvania. 75
8. Animal Life in Pennsylvania 88
9. Buffaloes in Pennsylvania. 96
10. Early Transportation in Pennsylvania 102
11. Early Navigation in Pennsylvania. 114
12. Early Steamboats in Pennsylvania 124
13. Early Canals in Pennsylvania. 130
14. The Building of the Pennsylvania Canal 139
15. The Pennsylvania Canal in Operation 149
16. Early Railroads in the United States 156
17. Early Railroads in Pennsylvania. 165
18. The Great Industries of Pennsylvania 174
19. The Early Iron Industry of Pennsylvania 185
20 The Manufacture of Iron and Steel Rails
202
21. Cornwall and Other Iron Ores.
216
22. Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania.
224
23. Industries Developed by Pennsylvanians. 229
24. Industries Created by Pennsylvanians 240
25. Early Chain and Wire Bridges. 248
26. The Early History of Pittsburgh. 255
27. Chronological Record of Important Events. 267
28. The Muhlenberg Family of Pennsylvania 289
29. General Arthur St. Clair 298
30. Albert Gallatin 312
31. A Man of Letters 316
32. Two Men from Somerset 331
33. A Champion of Protection. 342
34. Other Noted Western Pennsylvanians 349
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER I.
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
PROMINENT Pennsylvanians have repeatedly and forci- bly called attention to the lack of civic pride in Pennsyl- vania, and they have had good reason for their criticism. It has been truthfully said that we even neglect to claim for our military heroes the honors that are their due. The winter at Valley Forge, which marked the supreme crisis of the Revolution, and the battle of Gettysburg, which de- termined the fate of the Southern Confederacy, are events in the history of Pennsylvania to which its people might point with greater pride than they do. The achievements of eminent Pennsylvanians in war and in peace are not taught to the children of the State in their school-books or commemorated to any considerable extent in monu- ments, or statues, or bronze tablets, so that the present generation of Pennsylvanians and succeeding generations may be reminded of the deeds of these great men and be inspired to noble deeds themselves. The story of the founding of Pennsylvania by that great man, William Penn, is inadequately told in our school histories. The geography and the history of Pennsylvania are so imperfectly taught in our schools and colleges that many Pennsylvanians who are supposed to be liberally educated do not know how many capitals the State has had or where and when the important battle of Bushy Run was fought. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that a Philadelphia newspa- per writer not long ago said that York, Pennsylvania, is farther away from Baltimore than Philadelphia. Yet York is one of the oldest and one of the most noted cities in the State. The Continental Congress sat at York for nine months during the Revolution, from September 30, 1777, to June 27, 1778, and two signers of the Declaration died
2
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
and are buried there, Philip Livingston, of New York, and James Smith, of Pennsylvania.
The pioneer settlers of Pennsylvania endured many hardships and privations, but their sacrifices and services are not conspicuously recognized in our day. Only in a mild way do we observe the scriptural injunction : "Re- member the days of old; consider the years of many generations ; ask thy father and he will shew thee, thy elders and they will tell thee." The Chinese and all other people who worship their ancestors are more to be com- mended than the people of Pennsylvania who forget the pioneers who laid the foundations of a great State. In very few counties in Pennsylvania are there to be found societies for the preservation of local history or museums for the preservation of historical relics.
We are all supposed to be patriotic, but patriotism and civic pride are not convertible terms. To love one's country and to fight for it if necessary is one thing ; to be proud of its pioneers, its past history, its great men, its industrial achievements, its hospitals and other charities, its schools and churches, and the intellectual and moral progress of its people is an entirely different thing. Civic pride also implies a watchful regard for the good name of the town or city and the State in which we have our home.
New England is noted for its civic pride, and its peo- ple are deserving of the highest praise for the veneration they constantly show for the memories of their ancestors. In its periodical publications, in public addresses, and in other ways the history of the early settlement of New England, the part it has played in the development of the country, and the work of its great men and women in the learned professions and in the arts are never for- gotten. New England is thus being constantly advertised to the outside world and commended to its own people for what it has done and for what it is. The literary spirit has always been cultivated in New England and it has been largely fed by the inspiration of local themes. All its great writers have found in its history and customs and traditions attractive and inspiring subjects for their fertile pens.
3
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
The civic pride which is found in the Southern States is more notable than that of New England. Without it there could not have been a four years' war for the dissolution of the Union. The great sacrifices which the people of the South made in support of the Lost Cause could not have been possible but for their pride in them- selves and in their ancestors. Almost as one man they united in its support. "The first families of Virginia " was not in its day an empty phrase; the people who used it were typical of a large class. It illustrated the sentiment of intense loyalty to the South and to Southern traditions. In the old days Virginians were proud to say that their State was the mother of Presidents. And how proud they are to-day that General Robert E. Lee was a Virginian ! The neighboring State of Ohio has shown far more civic pride than Pennsylvania, although, if the history of the two States be closely studied, it has not one-half as much to be proud of as Pennsylvania. But see how its people have developed a State pride that never ceases to honor the men who were born on its soil!
Abraham Lincoln's ancestors, on both his father's and his mother's side, were long residents of Pennsylvania, and the name of one of his kinsmen, also named Abraham Lincoln, is honorably associated with its history. General Grant could trace both his paternal and maternal lineage through the blood of Pennsylvanians; indeed this blood was the dominant strain in his veins, his father's mother having been Rachel Kelly, of Westmoreland county, Penn- sylvania, and his own mother, Hannah Simpson, having been born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. And yet very few Pennsylvanians know anything of the Pennsyl- vania ancestry of Lincoln and Grant. Both Rachel Kelly and Hannah Simpson were of Scotch-Irish extraction. The Muhlenberg family of Pennsylvania is one of the most distinguished in our country's history, contributing as many really great men as any other family in any colony or State, but Pennsylvanians are not so familiar as they should be with the achievements of these eminent Pennsylvania Germans.
In the literary history of Pennsylvania we have had
4
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Bayard Taylor, Thomas Buchanan Read, George H. Boker, Henry Charles Lea, the eminent historian, and other writ- ers of prominence, but Pennsylvanians do not have that regard for the productions of these writers that the peo- ple of New England have for the creations of their own great writers. We have had our great judges-Wilson, and Tilghman, and Gibson, and others, but many Pennsyl- vanians do not know that such men have ever lived. If they had lived in New England the whole country would have heard of them. Bunker Hill monument has no coun- terpart in Pennsylvania, although great deeds were done on its soil in colonial and Revolutionary days. There is a statue of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the distinguished Phila- delphian, in Washington City, but none in Philadelphia. It was only within the last few years that a creditable statue of Franklin was erected in Philadelphia, the gift of a private citizen.
Philadelphia has not erected any monument, or statue, or tablet to the memory of its great publicists whose watchful care of its manufacturing and other industrial interests has greatly contributed to its prosperity as well as to the prosperity of the whole country. Mathew and Henry C. Carey, William D. Kelley, and Samuel J. Randall are especially worthy of being gratefully remembered by a city which they so faithfully served and so highly honored. In the same class we may also place Stephen Colwell, whose great work on The Ways and Means of Payment and his other publications should cause Phila- delphians to hold his memory in honored remembrance. But few Philadelphians know that this man ever lived. New England would have thought itself honored if all these men had lived within its borders.
There is a particularly noticeable lack of civic pride in that part of Pennsylvania which lies west of the back- bone of the Allegheny mountains and is properly desig- nated as Western Pennsylvania. This section of the State, embracing over one-third of its territorial extent, possesses a history that is rich in great achievements and in great men, although settled a full century after the eastern section. Its inhabitants, particularly the descendants of
5
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
its early settlers, have good reason to be proud of its prominent place in the industrial world, proud of its con- spicuous share in opening to settlement the vast region lying west of its own boundaries, proud of its patriotic record, proud of its men of renown who have passed to the other side and of others whose work is not yet done. But these citizens of Western Pennsylvania are singularly backward in claiming for their section the honors to which it is justly entitled. Their annals are incomplete and dis- jointed; there is a lamentable lack of interest in histor- ical subjects in all Western Pennsylvania-a greater lack than is noticeable in the earlier settled parts of the State. There is not published to-day within its borders a single historical magazine or other historical periodical. It has few public libraries, and those that are worthy of special mention have been established in recent years through the liberality of one man, and he is not "native here and to the manner born." Its schools of learning and its charities have not been generously endowed by its rich men, except in one notable instance, in which the munifi- cence of the public-spirited citizen already referred to has established and endowed a scientific school of wide scope and great usefulness.
Pittsburgh, the second city in Pennsylvania, has no monument to the great Pitt, after whom it was named, or to Washington, who visited its site in 1753, when he wrote in his journal that the point at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers was "extremely well situated for a fort." Washington's early military experi- ence was acquired in efforts to prevent the French from seizing and holding the point between these rivers where Pittsburgh now stands. There is no memorial stone or monument to mark the site of Fort Necessity, in Fayette county, which Washington surrendered to the French in 1754, or to mark the site of Braddock's defeat in 1755, or to mark the general's grave on the line of his retreat.
Among the few Indian relics in Pennsylvania was a large flat stone on a farm in Washington county, upon which had been carved various curious Indian hieroglyph- ics that had attracted wide attention from Revolutionary
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