USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 5
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In tra ing downward the succession of events, it falls in order to
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mention, that in 1717, Sir William Keith superseded governo. Gookin. Sir William continued in office till the year 1726, and was very successful in cultivating and winning the popularity at which he chiefly aimed. This was quite a new thing in a deputy governor to accomplish. Hannah Penn, however, was displeased with him, because he chose rather to please the people, by compliances of dubious propriety, than to adhere to the interests and wishes of his principal. His deceptive and flattering pretensions to young Benja- min Franklin are well known.
Governor Gordon succeeded Governor Keith in 1726, and conti- nued in place till the year 1736.
In 1732, the country was gratified with the arrival of Thomas Penn, the second son by the second wife, and in 1734, his brother, John Penn, eldest son by the second wife, also arrived. He was called "the Pennsylvania born," and " the American,"-having been born in Philadelphia at the time of Penn's second arrival, in 1699. He never married, and died in 1746. After his death, his youngest brothers, Thomas and Richard, (Dennis being dead,) be- came sole proprietaries.
In 1763, John Penn, (the son of Richard, last above named,) was made Governor for the interests of his father and uncle Thomas. In this office he continued till 1775, when the war of independence dissevered this link of union with the founder in the person of his grandson. His brother, Richard Penn, was also in this country at that time ; and not being under official obligations (like his brother, the Governor,) to keep a seal upon his lips, he showed his wit among our whigs by telling them " they must now hang together, or expect to be hung up by others !"
The foregoing recitals, as the instructed reader will readily per- ceive, have only been designed as a brief outline-portrait of our general history. The object was to give some leading features, ir: their consecutive order, intended in some measure as an appropriate accompaniment to the numerous facts (which will follow under distinguishing heads) of incidents in our domestic history of Phila- delphia and adjacent country, never before published or known.
In cases where authorities have not been otherwise cited, I have, in general, followed names and dates, or assumed the facts, as ] found them related in substance in Proud's Annals of Pennsylvania, or, in Smith's New Jersey.
To a considerate and reflecting mind it must be a matter of just surprise, that Pennsylvania, and, I might add, the other colonies, should so rapidly and progressively attain to riches, independence, and renown, notwithstanding the numerous and successive disastrous events ; such as might be regarded, by the superficial, as quite suffi- cient to cripple and prevent the growth of the infant Hercules. We can scarcely look into any period of colonial history where we cannot find them struggling with what they deemed adverse circumstances ;- such as, low markets, want of currency, slow returns for debt, and loud contentions about deficiencies of public
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funds for national purposes. In New England they had Indian wars to sustain. The colonies generally had to make large appro- priations to aid the wars of the crown against the French and Indians in Canada, and on the western frontiers, &c.,-not to for- get the expensive and "glorious" expedition to Cape Breton. To these succeeded the waste and ravages of the war of the revolution. In all these measures the waste of treasure was immense; and yet the nation as a whole has gone on in quick and full bodily vigour to full-grown manhood,-even, as if none of those evils had ever existed to impede the growth! Nor are these all the disasters they encountered :- they actually lost, by depreciation, immense sums in a depreciated paper currency ; (for their practice was to issue a paper medium for almost every pressing emergency,) so that the abundance and worthlessness of continental money was itself a pro- verb. Our frequent commercial failures too, since the year 1800, have nearly ruined all the old and firmest houses of the country, and yet trade survives and flourishes, and the nation, as a whole, is in sig- nal prosperity! Such a phenomenon might be imputed to a special providence, resolved thus to exalt and establish us against probabilities and against hope ! But it may not be amiss to suggest such causes as appear to have been natural -such as may in some good degree ac- count for our surmounting so many apparent obstacles. They are generally these, to wit :- the seeming waste of money in furnishing supplies for the wars of the crown, as it never went out of the country still enriched such classes of the community as are usually the opera- tives for those who merely live to fight. Even the money often sc paid was of the paper emission, and usually depreciated beyond re- demption, which of course was a virtual relief of the national treasury. If fortunes were indeed lost to some by a sinking of paper money in their hands, it also aided others to pay great purchases with small means, in the form of debts incurred. The rich sometimes sank, and the poor sometimes rose. There was a change of relative condition,- but the usual required proportion of the sons of toil to " be hewers of wood and drawers of water" to the self-indulgent and the dainty, was still the same. The whole transaction having been an entire family affair, although the sign of money often changed its character and produced eventful changes in the relations of the members of the family, still the land and its improvements were theirs, and could not be alienated from the whole as an entire people. In the mean time, real substantial coin in great sums flowed into the country for the necessary purposes of paying off the crown officers and army, and these being expended in the country for the necessary commodities of the consumers, left a real wealth among us .* The very Indian wars too, although expensive to the State, at the same time enriched the
* The tory paper, called "Pennsylvania Ledger," printed at Philadelphia, under the auspices of General Howe, contains in No. 122, of January 28, 1778, a detailed account of all micneys expended by the crown for colonial purposes from 1714 (the time of the Hanover accession) to 1775, making the same 343 millions of pounds sterling -- Vide Folio, No. 304, in the City Library.
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men who ministered to the campaigns. The lands too, so acquired by conquest, enriched the colonies by furnishing them the means to sell lands to the numerous emigrants arriving with coin and substance from abroad. The constant influx of population as it gave a constant call for lands in the country, or for lots and houses in the cities and towns for their accommodation, not to omit the consideration also of our own natural increase, so it naturally tended to enhance all real estate; and therefore, so many as have been holders of estates in town and country have seen themselves enriched from year to year even while they held only the same numerical quantities. The causes then, if I understand the subject, why we so rapidly rose, against so many untoward circumstances, to national and individual wealth, is chiefly imputable to our facilities in providing places for a rapidly increasing population, and their skill and industry in improv- ing and enhancing their value by agriculture, manufactures, and traffic. An older country whose population was full, and whose improve- ments were at their utmost already, could not have sustained our succes- sive disasters, or have surmounted them triumphantly as we have done.
These remarks, already over long, have been elicited by so often noticing the terms of despondency in which the early settlers of Phi- ladelphia were accustomed to speak of their condition and prospects. There was a constant cry of want of money, where little existed,- of bad markets,-where heaven had most " blest their store,"-of lit- tle value of lands and improvements,-where so much abounded, &c. They feared to invest capitals if they had them, even while the pro- perties they actually held were progressively, though with small momentum, rising in value to their zenith. Thus, as late as the year 1700 to 1705, &c., we see such a man as Samuel Carpenter, who made the first and most numerous important improvements in Phila- delphia and the country, selling them out in vexation and disappoint- ment. James Logan's letters too, abound with remarks of dissatisfac- tion at things as he found them :- especially in managing William Penn's affairs,-in collecting rents,-disposing of lands,-and in be- ing deferred the pay for them. " They make my life (says he,) so uncomfortable, that it is not worth the living,"-and again, "I know not what any of the comforts of life are." As late as 22 years after the settlement (say in 1704) James Logan thus states the perplexities of things, to wit : "Money is so scarce that many good farmers now scarce ever see a piece-of-eight of their own throughout the year,"- but although this could not prevent their fields to yield, and their cows to calve, and abundance of children to be warmly clothed and well fed ! the sad story is continued : " What little there is of money is in town, and wheat for two years past has been worth very little." On another occasion he complains that "pay for land sold near New Castle to amount of £3000 is due, and I have received but £200 and that in produce, nor will one half of it ever be paid unless times should mend ; for the land, as in many other cases, will be cast back on our hands." "The Susquehanna lands (says he) are much in the VOL. I .-- E
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saine state, and I could have wished it had been a lake, rather than it should have ever been purchased for thee." In another place, he says, " last night William Penn, jun'r., sold his manor on Schuylkill (now Norrington) to William Trent and Isaac Norris for £850. They were unwilling to touch it,-for without a great prospect none will now meddle with land,-but in his case he was resolved to sell and leave the country." At the same time, William Penn exclaims, in bitterness of soul, " Oh, Pennsylvania, what hast thou cost me !--- surely above £30,000 more than ever I got by thee !" But notwith- standing such discouraging feelings and prospects, the country, even while they slept, went on prospering, and the interests which any of them retained in the land and its improvements, enriched their fami- lies. Labour produced fruitful fields, and that produced commerce,- these united, enriched all ; so that what was sown in bitterness, brought forth a fruitful and honeyed harvest to the reapers.
In this was verified : " One hath sown and another hath reaped," ___ " Others entered into their labours!"-Yea, even we of this day are the happy partakers! Seeing things so prosperous as we now do,- and the march of empire such as we behold and enjoy,-we thus apostrophise our sires :-
"Ye who toil'd
Through long successive years to build us up A prosperous plan of state, behold at once The wonder done !"
" Here cities rise amid th' illumin'd waste, O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign :- Far distant flood to flood is social join'd, And navies ride on seas that never foam'd With daring keel before !"
In Smith's edition of the Laws of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, p. 105, to p. 260-there is in the form of a very extended note, much of historical facts in regard to City Lots of first purchasers-showing the manner of their first ownership and title -much concerning all of the earliest Indian deeds for the sale of their lands ;- every thing concerning land titles and land offices ; and numerous facts of legal proceedings on disputed cases, concerning the same. To the reader who desires to peep into the intricacies of first settlers, both in city and country, and who wishes to know how many perplexities once existed before the Revolution, respecting unseated lands, there is here concentred, much to exhibit a state of things almost wholly unknown to the present generation. "Under the Commonwealth, the State paid great regard to those ancient claims of original purchasers to city lots ; and pro- vided a mode to ascertain them, and to grant patents for the lots, or an indemnification for them in case they had been sold or appropriated- provided it shall have been done within seven years after the Act of 10th April, 1781,-which see, and also the Act of 8th April, 1786, and its supplement of 8th April, 1791. The first Act of 1781, Sec. 8, says :- "Whereas it is reasonable that there should be limitation of suits and dormant claims at the end of one century, therefore, the limitation is for 7 years longer only."
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The Primitive Settlement.
THE PRIMITIVE SETTLEMENT.
" I trace thy tale To the dim point where records fail."
IT should be grateful to a contemplative and feeling mind, espe cially to a descendant of the pilgrim settlers of Philadelphia, to revive in the imagination such picturesque facts and scenic pictures, as may give to the mind's eye the striking incidents of that eventful period.
We need not resort to fiction " to adorn our moral or to point our tale ;" for, facts, scattered throughout the following pages, will amply sustain the primal scene herein attempted.
We are to transport the fancy back to the original site of Coaqua- nock,-so called from its border line, along the margin of the river bank, of lofty spruce-pines, rivalling in majesty the adjacent com- mon wood-land foliage of oaks and underbrush ;- thus giving to the place. a peculiarity and rarity, even in the eyes of the untutored savage, which lovers of the marvellous might now regard as some- thing propitious .* There we must see the busy landing of families from the anchored barks, and witness their chastened joy at once more feeling their conscious tread on terra firma,-then a gravelly strand basing the front of the precipitous river bank. There their pious minds felt solemn emotions of gratitude and praise to Him, be- neath whose eye their voyage had sped-their hearts tendered, they knelt, and praised, and prayed !;
The beholder might then innocently smile to see the unskilled efforts of men, women and children, scrambling up the acclivity to attain the level of the elevated platform. The river banks then, like the woody banks at " the Bake-house,"-now near Poquesink creek-
" All shagg'd with wood, Where twisted roots, in many a fold, Through moss, disputed room for hold."
Such impediments overcome, they gathered beneath the dark ever-greens ;- there they meet the welcome salutations of the red natives,-both in mutual wonder stand, and ruminate, and gaze Then the exploring eye, ranging on objects all around, beholds be- hind them interminable woods and hanging grape vines, &c.,-" a
* The Indians called it Quequenaku, which means, the " grove of tall pines." This lor sake of euphony, we have contracted into Coaquanock. Such pines among other forest trees is an admitted rarity. The Astrological signs of Philadelphia, by Taylor will be given in another place. He says :
" A city, built with such propitious rays, Will stand to see old walls and happy days."
t The wife of the Governor, Thomas Lloyd, as soon as she landed, knelt down, and earnestly prayed the blessings of heaven on the future colony.
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boundless contiguity of shade,"-and below them, on the limpid stream, their own ships amid the paddling canoes of the Indians. All has the air of novelty and surprise. Their spirits feel many stirring emotions :- joy for safe arrival,-a lively sense of inhaling a new and genial air, so necessary after the restrictions and sickness of sea life ;- even a momentary sadness might agitate the bosom from the sense that they were devoid of all the wonted accommodations and comforts of former home and civilization; but the prevalent sense of escape from "woful Europe," was an antidote, always at hand, to repress any murmurings.
Sustained by a predetermined courage to subdue all difficulties, and animated by future hopes of domestic comforts and of social prosperity and happiness, all join in a ready resolution to give mutual aid to every enterprise for individual or general benefit. Huts and caves are promptly resolved on as of paramount consideration. To this object, trees and underwood must be levelled. At the moment of such a beginning, we can readily imagine that some pious leader, like christian David, at the first settlement of his christian commu- nity, strikes his axe into the first tree, exclaiming, "Here hath the sparrow found an house and the swallow a nest for himself, even thine altars, O Lord God of Hosts!" Here, in the "sweet quiet," freed from the hurries and perplexities of " woful Europe," as feel- ingly expressed by the founder, they could not but consider them- selves escaped from persecution,-no longer like their fathers,
"Vex'd from age to age, By blatant bigotry's insensate rage."
Preliminaries thus settled, the men and boys choose out their several grounds for their temporary hut or cabin, called a cave. While some dig into the earth about three feet at the verge of the river bank, others apply the axe to clear away the underwood or to fall trees, whose limbs and foliage may supply sides and roofs to their humble dwellings. In other cases, some dug sods, and of them formed the sides of their huts. To these, chimnies of grass and kneaded clay were set up,-and lo! their rude house was finished! Meanwhile, the women, equally busy in their sphere, had lighted their fire on the bare earth, and having " their kettle slung between two poles upon a stick transverse," thus prepared the meal of homely and frugal fare for the repast of the diligent builders. With good cheer and kindly feelings, all partake of the sylvan feast. Thus refreshed, they speedily bear off their unsheltered furniture and goods to their several cabins, and feel themselves housed and settled for a season,
" Where homes of humble form and structure rude Raise sweet society in solitude !"*
* Some of these huts were so well constructed as to last for several years afterwards,- not only serving the wants of succeeding emigrants, but in several cases, used by some of base sort, in aftertime, as homes good enough for low minds.
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In due time the mind, devoted to better accommodation, seeks for its permanent settlement. Then the busy, bustling era begins: First, the surveyor, with much labour, by falling of trees and draw- ing off brush-wood, forms a way through which to draw his " length- ening chain," whereby the city plot is made. Lots are then to be covered with houses; and much of their material is to be found on the spot. Soon, therefore, the echoing woods resound with the labouring axe and the crash of falling trees. The wondering popu- lation of the forest are amazed at this first break of their long-long silence,-and starting here and flying there,-beasts and birds,-ex- cellent for diet and a luxury to Europeans living under the prohibi- tion of " game laws,"-are shot down at frequent occasions,-even while the main design was to clear away the deep embarrassments of the soil .* Even the reptiles, deadly and venomous, here first felt the assault of the primeval curse,-and "the serpent's head is crushed !" But although the astonished tenants of the forest thus feel and fear the busy stir of man throughout the day, and find in him an enemy before unknown, we may suppose they were not im- mediately to be driven from their favourite haunts, but long and frequent would they linger round their wonted securities in the dark- ness and silence of night. It was therefore no strange thing with the primitive population to hear occasionally at safe distances,-" the fox's bark, or wolf's lugubrious howl."
When buildings had thus been generally started, and the " clear- ings"' and the " burnings" of the " brushwood" and " undergrowth," had begun to mark, in rude lines, the originals of the present paved and stately streets, we may well imagine the cheerful greetings which passed among the settlers as they met, or surveyed each others progress. Often they must have reciprocally lent each other aid in " raisings" and the heavy operations requiring many hands. How busy then the brick makers,-what perpetual burnings of their smoking kilns,-what frequent arrivals and departures of small craft from the Jerseys, previously settled,-of boards and slabs from their saw-mills, ere the Pennsylvania mills began.
We know there were many inequalities in the surface of the city plot then, which we do not perceive now. Some hills were to reduce, and several low or miry places to fill up or drain off. In many places, the most delightful rural beauties, formed by arboreous clumps, were utterly effaced by "clearings and burnings." Even solitary rees of sublime grandeur were not spared, from the then prevalent ( pinion, that dense foliage and shades would conduce to fevers. So eneral was the havoc in process of time, that none remained of all the crowded forest, save a cluster of black walnut trees, which, till
* Pastorius MS., in my possession, expressly says, he was often lost in the woods and brush, in going from his cave, to Bom's house, south-east corner of Chestnut and Third streets, where he procured his bread.
4
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of late years stood opposite the State house on Chestnut street, and guided the stranger to that once venerable edifice .*
In that day, the greater part of the houses first built lay south of High street, and northward of Dock creek,-then called "the Swamp," because of the creek which flowed through it, having had nea: ils mouth a low and swampy margin, covered with swamp- whortleberries, &c. The creek itself was supplied by several springs flowing into it. ; At the mouth of this creek was a ferry, at the Blue Anchor Inn, for conveying passengers over to the opposite declining bank, called "Society Hill." It continued in use until they formed a "causeway" along the line of Front street across the Dock creek swamp. The same inn was memorable as the landing place of the illustrious founder, who came there in a boat from Chester, and first set his foot ashore on the "low sandy beach" then there, and long afterwards occupied as the "public landing" for the general uses of the city.
Their first bridge, and their then first means of a cart-road leading to the west, was a wooden structure laid across the Dock creek,- where the tide then ebbed and flowed, at Hudson's alley and Chest- nut street.į The creek at the same time traversed the grounds called " a deep valley," leading to Fourth and High street, and on the northern side of High street, westward of Fourth street, it formed a great pond, filled with spatterdocks, and surrounded with natural shrubbery. This pond was a great asylum for wild ducks and geese,- " there the wild duck squadrons ride!"-and often they were shot. Fish too, coming up with the high tides, were occasionally angled there.
Another great duck pond lay in the rear of Christ Church, and thence extended beyond the rear of the first Baptist-meeting. At that pond, as well founded tradition relates, an Indian feast was celebrated. On that occasion the Indians, to amuse William Penn, and to show their agility in running and leaping, performed a foot race round the entire pond. Diverging from Dock creek, (at Girard's bank, once a place for small vessels,) ran a water course through what was afterwards called "Beek's Hollow," near Fourth and Walnut streets, and thence, by the African church in Fifth street, through the " Potter's-field," to the site of the present Doctor Wil- son's Church, where it terminated in another duck pond.
As buildings and comforts progressed, soon they turned their atten- tion to public edifices. The Friends' meeting, built at the Centre Square, lay far beyond the verge of population, and often, when the early settlers were visiting it by the usual cart-road from the town, they saw it traversed before them by deer and wild turkeys.
* The last of these, which stood in front of J. Ridgway's office, was cut down in 1818. I have preserved a relic of it.
t The locality of several of those springs I have elsewhere designatel.
# The writer has now an Urn of oak, made from a piece of the butment wharf, which lay there, six feet under the present surface, 140 years.
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Their first prison was " the hired house of Patrick Robinson," in Second Street, a little north of High Street ;- and the first that the city held in fee simple, was situated on the site of the present Jer- sey Market, a little eastward of Second Street. Between it and Front Street was once a "grassy sward, close cropt by nibbling sheep," retained there till slain and sold, by one Crone, from the moveable shambles set there on market days. Near there stood Penn's low two-story house, in Lætitia Court; before which was the "Governor's Gate," where the proclamations of the day were made by "public outcry."
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