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 57
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" I thence passed on within the fence, in Hamilton's meadow, to the western boundary of the field, and westward of the house ; from thence turning north I kept that course, between Springetsbury and Bush Hill, along the eastern side of the fence, or Hamilton's western boundary, where grew many plants, shrubs, bushes, wild flowers, &c., watered by a small stream, issuing from the springs in the higher grounds, a little above, northward,-here I broke off a sprig of American willow, observing along the water-course a variety of plants and wild flowers, and raising divers wild fowl on passing along, till I ascended the high ground, north-westward from Hamil- ton's house aforesaid. From thence turning round on the right nand above, or northward of the place where the gardens formerly belonging thereto used to be, I directed my course towards the east, observing, as before, many plants and flowers in bloom."
" But what more particularly drew my notice and reflection in this
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Western Commons, g.c.
place, was, in observing the ground formerly occupied by pleasant large gardens, walks, groves and woods, now all naked and desolate, without a tree, and laid in common, like a barren wilderness or de- sert, heightened by the sight of the ruins at the place called the Vineyard, near the same-the woods entirely gone, fences down, the garden places covered with wild shrubs and bushes, and joined to the common ground, a kind of general desolation! &c., [caused no doubt by the presence of the British army] a few years ago exhibiting a very different appearance to me, when I have visited those then pleasant places, &c., now affording cause of solemn reflection on the transitoriness and uncertainty of human affairs, besides the neglectful management of the present owner, which may properly bear such strictures as at present I forbear to make.
" Passing along, eastward, through divers fields now laid in com- mons, fences down, &c., I directed my course towards the city, here in full view from one end of it to the other, appearing, as it were, under or lower than my feet,-a beautiful prospect; thence going right forward over divers fields, I came to John Pemberton's ground in a lower situation, where I stood awhile to look about and consider where I was; for at first I did not know, though I had often been here many years ago; so great a change had taken place, even in this part of the vicinity of Philadelphia, &c. In this ground I no- ticed a spring of water which I had formerly observed when here ; this spring in its course from its fountain forms a pretty large stream running towards the city, to a still lower ground ; I followed it till I came to a low place, where it divides into two. One stream mani- festly appeared to me to run south-westward towards Schuylkill, as before observed, south of Hamilton's house or Bush Hill, and the other, eastward to the Delaware, neither of them appearing to have much fall or descent, except the former, where it approaches near Schuylkill. I followed the latter through divers fields, till I came near the brick-kilns before observed, when this stream, crossing the Wissahiccon road, forms what is called Pegg's run, and falls into Delaware river northward of the city plan.
"From my observation it appeared to me, that probably by means of these two streams, and other circumstances, which two streams manifestly appear to form at present one water-course between the two rivers, aided by other springs issuing from the high lands about Bush Hill and Springetsbury, &c., a very useful canal of water might easily be effected, and that without very much expense, to the great future utility of the city and vicinity in divers respects, all the way or space between the two rivers, at or near the boundary of the city plan, where the ground is lowest.
" From this place I came home by David Rittenhouse's new dwell- ing, north-west corner of Arch and Seventh streets ; after this I im- mediately wrote these notes,-this in the space of an hour and a half nearly, slowly walking, and sometimes standing."
Fairmount .- The glory of Philadelphia is its water works
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Springs
These unite in themselves, and the adjacent country and river pros- pect, beauty of scenery, usefulness of purpose, magnitude of design, excellence of effect, nature and art, all harmoniously blended. What delightful scene, more worthy of the painter's art and the poet's pen ! There we see the graceful, glittering river winding amongst its wooded banks, the artificial cascade at your feet, the lovely jet d'eaux all around, the green plats and gravelled walks through which you have walked, the picturesque views wherever you cast your eyes, these go to make up the picture which is spread out in rich luxuriance before you. All this change of Fairmount, by the hand of art, is a fair exchange for the loss of its original rugged, woody and romantic cliffs, then all solitary and silent, now all busy with active life, and useful, by its public utility, sustaining the health and blessing the city inhabitants .* [It is a curious fact concerning these works, so uniformly visited and extolled by strangers, that they have never been hitherto the admiration or pride of Philadelphians theniselves. It surely proves that they are not puffers. There are at this moment (1842) thousands of our citizens who have never visited them, and many of them have been first induced to visit them from hearing them extolled by people at a distance, when they have been travelling on summer tours.]
SPRINGS.
" Yet often from the spring the draught is sought, Which here to all doth freely flow unbought."
MAKIN'S POEM, 1729.
PENN expressed his surprise, when here, at our numerous brooks and added besides, "there are mineral waters, which operate like Barnet and North Hall, that are not two miles from Philadelphia." Gabriel Thomas too, in his description of 1698, speaks probably of the same springs, saying: "Not two miles from the metropolis are purging waters that pass by siege and urine, all out as good as Epsom." The idea of some good springs about the city was also expressed in the motto above, from Thomas Makin's Latin poem, descriptive of Philadelphia in 1729. At this day none have any knowledge of any existing springs, and almost as little of any that are past. When Dr. Bond came to Philadelphia to settle as a phy- sician, in 1734, he found such fine chalybeates near the city as to attract his admiration ; and it is known that he gave much encou- ragement to their free use by the sick and infirm.
* These thoughts we borrow from a stranger's description. VOL. I .- 3 M
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Springs.
Having never been able to find one person who had any idea of the location of any of the springs so clearly referred to in the above citations, I have felt myself stimulated to find out, if possible, all and every case of springs, at any time formerly known to the ancients. I give the following facts, to wit :
" The mineral springs" I presume to have been the same found at " Bath town," in the Northern Liberties, and at a run a little this side of " Lemon Hill" seat, near the Schuylkill. The latter at pre- sent excites little or no attention ; the former was brought into much celebrity by the influence of Dr. Kearsley. In the year 1765, we see an advertisement of John White and wife, who advertise their bath at the town of Bath, saying they will provide refreshments for those who visit it; and they hope, from the virtues of the water, to answer the salutary purposes which the founder (Dr. Kearsley) ori- ginally intended. Their house at that day stood on a pleasant farm, called White's farm, having about the house a grove of grateful shade-itself on a green bank gently declining into the Cohocksinc creek. The house was sometimes called the "Rose of Bath," be- cause of the sign of a rose attached to the house. The house is now standing, dismantled of all its former rural and attractive charms, a two story brick building, on the lot next north of the Methodist church in St. John street; and the spring, now obliterated, once flowed on the south side of that church, on ground now converted into a tanyard by Pritchet, nearly due east from the Third street stone bridge. The spring, over which Dr. Kearsley had erected a bath house, stood about twenty to twenty-five feet west from the line of St. John street, on the southern side of the tanyard, as I have been told. I mention the location with such particularity, that it may at some day cause a better speculation for some of our citizens, to revive it there by digging or boring, than that of "Jacob's Well" at New York. "The town of Bath," so imposing in name, never existed but on charts. It was a speculation once to make a town there, but it did not take.
Under the article " Pegg's Run" I have already spoken largely of an extraordinary spring there, the property of Prosper Martin, which is also of purging quality, though not a chalybeate, throwing out sixty thousand gallons of water in a day! This also was near the line of St. John street.
Bathsheba's "Spring and Bower," sometimes called " Bath and Bower," near the junction of Little Dock and Second streets, has been described elsewhere, under the article " Loxley's House."
Dock creek in early days abounded with springs, and I have been able to trace as many as three of them on the western side, to wit: At Morris' brewery, now called Abbott's, at the junction of Pear street and Dock street, there is now a spring arched over, which has a vault from it into the great tunnel. The fact was told to me by Timothy Matlack, who had it so covered in his early days, when once concerned in that brewery. They once esteemed their beer w
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Springs.
surpassing that of any in the city, from the use of that spring, which they then concealed and kept a secret. It stood twenty feet east from the east end of the brewhouse premises, and fifteen feet back from the street. With such a guide I was afterwards enabled to de- tect some issues from it in the cellar of Upton's eating house, now on the place.
The late aged Owen Jones, Esq., told me he remembered a spring in the cellar of a brewhouse on the western side of Dock street, nearly opposite the present custom house.
There was formerly an excellent and much used spring on the west side of Dock creek, nearly due west from the Drawbridge. It may now be found under a platform in the area of the cellar door appertaining to the stone house late of Levi Hollingsworth. John Townsend, an aged Friend, who died ten or twelve years ago, told me, when in his 78th year, that he well remembered when the spring was open, and was much visited by boatmen, to take in their water for sea voyages. It had seats around it, and some shade trees about it. Wm. Brown, a public Friend, afterwards built the stone house there, having previously built a frame house in front of it, which was pulled down, as lying beyond the proper line of the street.
The late aged Colonel A. J. Morris, when ninety years of age, told me he well remembered the spring which he presumed gave name to " Spring Garden." He saw it in his youth when there was no village there, but so much in nature's wildness, that he hunted bird's nests, and got stung by some hornets, whose nests he was in- specting. At that time he knew an elderly lady who told him that when she was young she and other company used to go up Pegg's run, then beautifully rural, and lined with shrubbery,* going in a boat up to the spring at its source, and there drinking their tea and making their regale in a place of great rural attraction. As early as the year 1723, I observe " the house and land called Spring Garden, well known to most people, is offered for sale by Dr. Francis Gando- vet."
I think I have found the site of this, and that it must be a chaly- beate. It is on the premises, bought in April 1839, by John C. Scu- ler of Frederic Uber, who bought it of Joseph Harmer in 1799. It lies in the cellar of a brick house, at about 100 feet east from Ninth street, on the north side of Pegg's run, very near to where there is now an entry port into the sewer on the street called Garden street, formerly called Spring street. The brick house which covers the spring fronts upon this said Spring or Garden street, on the western side. Mr. Schuler had promised me to procure me a bottle of the water of the spring for analysis, but neglected it, until it has been paved over the whole cellar, and a conduit from the spring has been laid out into the culvert close by. Mr. Schuler and wife told me
· Some scrubby remains of these I can even remember in my time ; and along the race of Craig's factory, and at his dam, the usual water bank shrubbery abounded, such as alder and rose bushes.
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Springs.
the water tasted disagreeable and for that reason was not valued or esteemed. It deposited a yellowish deposit wherever it rested, it showed it soon in a tumbler ; on my asking if it did not taste like rusted iron, they said it tasted like copper. They are Germans. They said it was walled round with brick, seemed five or six feet deep and lower than the cellar floor, which was probably only the level of the original ground ; that in some seasons it raised and overflowed the cellar upwards of two feet deep. They made efforts to destroy or stop the spring, but could not succeed ! but could never find its point of issue, although they pumped out often to find it.
In the year 1773 the citizens were much excited to the admiration of a fine mineral spring accidentally discovered on the lot of ground at the north-east corner of Chestnut and Sixth streets, now the pre- mises of P. S. Duponceau, Esq. It was then pronounced, " from many accurate experiments then made, to exceed in strength any chaly- beate in the country." While it enjoyed its fame many were sup- posed to have been benefited, but in a little while they discovered it owed its character to the remains of a sunken pit.
The late aged Joseph Crukshank told me he was shown by the aged Mr. Pearson, formerly City Surveyor, where a creek ran into the Schuylkill, somewhere nigh or between Pine and South streets. It was then dry and partially filled up. But he believes his kinsman, who now occupies a steam engine at the corner of Pine and Schuylkill Seventh streets, derives his well-water from the hidden springs of that creek, as they have a surprising supply even when the wells around have generally failed.
The house of Christopher Marshall, in Carter's alley, north side, has had a good spring in its cellar, even from its foundation. And his daughter, Mrs. Haines, told me that the well of the pump on Chestnut street, a little west of Second street, had such a peculiar character many years ago, that Mr. West, at Vine street, who salted up provisions, used to send there for the water used in pickling his meat.
There was a powerful spring, now covered with a pump, at the corner of Dock street and Goforth alley, in the rear of the Bank of Pennsylvania. It was discovered about 45 years ago, in digging there a pump-well. All the ground was alluvial to the depth of 28 feet, and no appearance of water ; but in striking in the spade below that depth, still in alluvial soil, the water spouted up powerfully, and rose so rapidly, to 15 feet, that they could never pump it dry enough to be able to build the well wall. The spring was excellent. Mr. Thomas Dixey, who told me these facts, then had a wooden curb sunk, and settled a brick wall in it.
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Gardens.
GARDENS.
UNDER this head we shall present slight notices of places con- spicuous in their day, as places of observation or resort.
The garden belonging to Isaac Norris at Fairhill, was kept up in fine cultivation as early as the year 1718. F. D. Pastorius, who was himself distinguished at Germantown as a terri cultore, gives the praise of Fairhill garden to the wife,-saying to her and her sisters, as daughters of Governor Thomas Lloyd,-" I write an article respecting the treating of gardening, flowers and trees, knowing that you are lovers of gardens,-the one keeping the finest (at Fairhill) I hitherto have seen in the whole country, filled with abundance of rarities, physical and metaphysical,-the other a pretty little garden much like mine own, producing chiefly cordial, stomachic and culi- nary herbs."
Of his own garden, Pastorius, who was a German, a scholar and a poet, thus speaks at Germantown-
-What wonder you then
That F. D. P. likewise here many hours spends,
And, having no money, on usury lends
To's garden and orchard and vineyard such times, Wherein he helps nature and nature his rhymes,
Because they produce him both victuals and drink,
Both med'cine and nosegays, both paper and ink."
His poetry having been written in different colours, he remarks, that of turmerick and elder leaves
" He forms his red and green, as here is seen."
The taste which governed at the Fairhill place most probably in- spired the fine arrangements of the garden grounds of " Norris' garden" in the city, on the site of the present Bank of the United States, there occupying nearly half the square, and when still out of town, alluring strangers and people of taste to visit it.
In the olden time, gardens where they sold "balm-beer and cakes" were common as places of resort. Such a one of peculiar celebrity, called the " Cheese-cake-house," once occupied the ground on the west side of Fourth street opposite to the Lutheran church- having there many apple and cherry trees, arbours and summer- houses, extending from Cherry street to Apple-tree alley-names probably derived from the place which they now serve to comme- morate. The Cake-house was ancient.
There was a small " Mead-house" long known up High street,
42
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Gardens.
vis-a-vis to Markoe's, above Ninth street. It was chiefly remark- able for its enormously large buttonwood trees.
" Cherry Garden," down on Society Hill, in the parlance of its day, was a place of much fame as a place of recreation. It was a large garden fronting on Front street vis-a-vis to Shippen street, oc- cupying half the square and extending down to the river. The small house of one story brick, in which the refreshments were sold, is now standing with its dead wall on the line of Front street. In 1756, it was advertised for sale as the property of Harrison, who ad- vertised to sell off some of it in lots " on Front and Water streets to the river in Cherry Garden." Colonel Morris spoke of it as he remem- bered it in the time of Clifton as its owner-said it had abundance of every shrubbery and green-house plant. See a picture of the house in my MS. Annals in the City Library, p. 282.
Clement Plumstead, Esq., Alderman, &c., had a finely cultivated garden, distinguished in its day, at the north-west corner of Front and Union streets. In January, 1729, it was thus noticed in the Gazette, viz. : " Some vile miscreants one night this week got into the fine gardens of C. P., and cut down many of the fine trees there."
The Spring Garden has been described under the article of its spring for which it was once famed.
There was once a range of beautiful sloping gardens, declining from Front street houses into Dock creek, so as to be seen by pas- sengers along the western side of Dock street. They belonged to Stedman, Conyngham, and others. They were seen by T. Mat- lack and such aged persons. Conyngham's garden, as it existed in 1746, in the ownership of Redman Conyngham, Esq., was pecu- liarly beautiful, it had stone steps descending into the Dock creek, to which was chained a pleasure boat always ready for excursions and fishing parties. The mansion was the same now No. 96 south Front street.
At Turner's country-seat, called " Wilton," down in the neck, was some remarkable garden cultivation, inviting the strangers visit. ing the city to inspect it, which has been noticed in connexion with the premises, under the article " Country Seats."
Gray's garden, at Schuylkill ferry, after the time of the Revo- lution, then enjoyed the last and greatest fame. It was begun about the year 1790.
There was a noted mead house in Chestnut street, east of Sixth street, on the north side.
495
Ponds and Skating places.
PONDS AND SKATING PLACES.
" The playful days of other years like shadows stole."
To those who still feel they "love the play-place of their early days," it may afford some interest to see herein revived the recol- lection of those places, where on " sounding skates" they once made their vigorous and gladdening speed. I speak only of those once within the present thickly inhabited places, to wit :
There used to be a deep pond at the north-east corner of Arch and Eighth streets, close by what was once called Dr. Church's family burying ground on Arch street. Another was on the south side of Arch street above Seventh street, called "Everly's pond." In 1842, in excavating a cellar on the north side of Arch street, be- tween Seventh and Eighth streets, the workmen came to two head- stones of the afore-mentioned Church family, which have been now built into the foundation wall, in perpet. vie mem., to wit: John Church died 17th September, 1740, aged 63; the other, Rhoda Church died in 1720, aged 36. When so found none could be found to explain the cause of their existence there! So easily is the knowledge of the past obliterated. Their skulls, with sound teeth, were found.
There was " Evans' pond," on the north side of Race street, extend- ing back to Branch street.
A small pond lay at the north-west corner of Arch and Fourth streets.
A pond, called " Hudson's pond," lay at the north-west corner of High street and Fifth street. Another lay near it, called " Kinsey's pond," on the south side of High street between it and Minor street at the western end, where Washington's house stood.
Pegg's run had ponds in the marsh there, always much visited and celebrated, of which mention has been made under the article " Pegg's Run."
Colonel A. J. Morris, when 90 years of age, formerly told me of his skating on a deep pond on the west side of Third street, above Pine street ; and Owen Jones, nearly as old as he, told me of a pond once on the site where Duché's lot on the opposite side of Third street was formed. There he once saw an enraged bull driven in by dogs and pursuers. The fact of former much lower grounds on the western side of Third street is even now evidenced by a house in Union street, still standing fully two feet lower than the present street.
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Fires and Fire-engines.
The foregoing were generally such ponds as had been previously formed by brick-kilns, or by raising streets higher than some miry lots. They were generally of that period when skated upon by such aged persons as Colonel Morris, Thomas Bradford, Alexander Fullerton. These spoke of them to me.
Both Morris and Fullerton spoke to me of the " great Blue-house pond,"* at the south-east corner of South and Ninth or Tenth streets. It was surrounded by numerous willow trees, the great stumps of which even now remain there, although the former appearance of the pond is almost obliterated. From that pond, they concurred in say- ing they could skate by a continued line of water down to its outlet at Little Dock creek, by the way of the present St. Peter's church in Pine street-then the whole range being in commons. This long water communication only showed itself in the winter seasons or in heavy rains.
Mr. Thomas White, now but 73 years of age, tells me he used to skate at "Nevill's pond," lying front of the present Presbyterian church in Pine street, and extending to Spruce street up to Fifth street. He also skated on a pond on the north side of Spruce street, up to St. Mary's church, and reaching nearly from Fourth to Fifth street.
Those ponds and those days are no more! The youths who sported on their mirror surface have gone or are going hence Those who survive may even yet-
"Be moved amidst the shifting scene To smile on childhood's thoughtless joy, And wish they had for ever been A careless, laughing, happy boy !"
FIRES AND FIRE-ENGINES.
" Red flames and blaze, there all amaze."
IN 1683, William Penn speaks of a fire in the city, in which the newly arrived Germans were sufferers, and proposes a subscription for their relief.
1711-Samuel Preston, the mayor, acquaints the board of coun- cil that he has frequently had in his consideration the many provi- dences this city has met with, in that fires, that have so often hap- pened, have done so little damage. He thinks it is our duty to use all possible means to prevent and extinguish fires for the future, by providing of buckets, hooks, engines, &c., which being considered
* The blue house was an old inn on the opposite south-west corner.
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Fires and Fire-engines.
it is the opinion of the Board that such instruments should be pro- vided; the manner of doing it is referred to the next Council. This was beginning pretty early considering that fire engines them- selves, were but a new thing in England itself-being only invented in 1663.
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