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 67
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of, " Sır, how do you do, this warm day ?" "Do, sir !" he replied, " why like a young man! I have been walking up one street and down another, looking about, for several hours, visiting where I chose." All this he spoke with strong, full utterance, and with a lively, good-natured cheerfulness. He had no aches, no pains, to annoy him; ate well; his hair but half gray ; a man of middle stature and weight ; one eye seemingly blind and covered with green silk, and the other small, and of defective vision. He had some time before a paralytic affection, which now caused some tremulous mo- tions to his head occasionally. When a young man, of about twenty- four years of age, he became a provincial in the Pennsylvania Greens; was with them at Braddock's defeat ; well remembered Washington's services there. At one time he made several voyages to sea ; when on shore, he worked as a ship-carpenter. He joined Gen. Wayne in the Revolution, and served till he saw Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown. He seemed to have full recollection of Governor James Hamilton, who was governor from 1748 to '54; spoke also of Go- vernor Morris and Governor Denny, who were here in 1754 and '56.
General Washington,
While he lived in Philadelphia, as President, had his formal levee visits every two weeks, on Tuesday afternoon, and were under- stood by himself, to be as President of the United States, and not on his own account. He was therefore not to be seen by any and every body, but required that every one should be introduced by his secretary, or by some gentlemen whom he knew himself. The place of reception was the dining room in the rear-a room of about 30 feet in length. Mrs. Washington received her visiters in the two rooms on the second floor from front to rear.
At 3 o'clock the visiter was introduced to this dining room, from which all seats had been removed for the time. On entering, he saw the tall manly figure of Washington, clad in black silk velvet, his hair in full dress ; powdered and gathered behind in a large silk bag ; yellow gloves on his hands, holding a cocked hat with a black cock- ade in it, and the edges adorned with a black feather about an inch deep. He wore knee and shoe buckles, and a long sword. He stood always in front of the fire place, with his face towards the door of entrance. The visiter was conducted to him, and his name dis- tinctly announced. He received his visiter with a dignified bow, in a manner avoiding to shake hands,-even with best friends. As visiters came they formed a circle round the room ; and at a quarter past three the door was closed, and the circle was formed for that day. He then began on the right, and spake to each visiter, calling him by name, and exchanging a few words. When he had com- pleted his circuit, he resumed his first position, and the visiters ap- proaching him in succession, bowed and retired. By 4 o'clock this
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ceremony was over. These facts have been learned in general from the reminiscences of Gen. Sullivan.
Mrs. Washington's levees were every Friday evening, at which occasion the General was always present. It was an occasion for emulous and aspiring belles to essay to win his attention ; but he was never familiar ; his countenance uniformly, even there, preserved its habitual gravity. A lady of his family said it was his habit also when without company ; and that she only remembered him to have once made a hearty laugh in a narrative and incident in which she was a party. The truth was, his deportment was unavoidably grave -it was sobriety-stopping short of sadness. His presence inspired a veneration and a feeling of awe, rarely experienced in the presence of any man. His mode of speaking was slow and deliberate; not as though he was in search of fine words, but that he might utter those only adapted to his purposes.
Having by one means or other picked up a few scraps concerning this great man, I will at least gratify myself by their record and pre- servation, to wit :
Governeur Morris, at Philadelphia, once made a bet that he could treat Gen. Washington familiarly. He undertook it at the dinner table, by taking occasion to pat the General on the shoulder and say, " old gentleman do you believe that ?" The silent look of Washington made him feel the repulse in the presence of the betters. At Alexandria, on occasion of Washington's dining there as a farmer among farm- ers, it was agreed before hand not to rise on his entrance, but they all rose involuntarily. These facts were told to me by Dr. Thomas C. James, who had it from persons present.
The late Dr. Joseph Priestley, when he resided at Northumberland town, in Pennsylvania, speaking of Gen. Washington, said that he heard the celebrated Edmund Burke, then a member of the English parliament, say, he was one of the wisest men in the world.
The late Isaac Potts, well known for his good sense, hospi- tality and urbanity, who resided at the Valley Forge, near Schuyl- kill river, a preacher to Friends, and with whom my informant spent a few days in March, 1788, informed him that at the time our army was encamped there, he one day took a walk up Valley Creek, and not far from his dam he heard a solemn voice, and walk- ed quietly towards it, he observed Gen. Washington's horse tied to a small sapling, and in a thicket he saw the General on his knees, praying most fervently. He halted, as he did not wish to dis- turb him at his devotions, and as the General spoke in a low voice, he could only now and then understand a word, but not enough to connect what he said, but he saw the tears flowing copiously down his cheeks.
He retired quietly and unobserved. Mr. Potts informed him he was very much surprised, and considerably agitated, and on return- ing to his house, the moment he entered the room where his wife was sitting, he burst into tears, and upon her inquiring the cause, he
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informed her what he had seen, adding, that if there was any one on this earth that the Lord will listen to, it is George Washington ;- that now, he had or felt a presentiment, that under such a com- mander, there could be no doubt of our eventually establishing our independence, and that God in his providence had willed it to be so. This he told my informant in the presence of his amiable family, and though some years had intervened, he was much agitated,-there was something in his manner of relating it, and expatiating on the General's morals, and other good qualities, that all present were in tears. Rev. J. Eastburn saw him so at prayer near Princeton battle.
I have the hair of Washington in a gold locket, which is embel lished with Washington at the battle of Trenton, it consists of twc parcels ; the principal body was cut off in 1781, by Martin Perrie his hairdresser, and was given to me in 1830, by his son John, in Philadelphia. The small circle of two long gray hairs, tied together by a silk thread, was a part of that preserved by Gen. Mifflin, and was given to me in 1828, by Samuel Chew, Esq.
I have also a button taken off of Gen. Washington's military coat, received from P. A. Brown, Esq., in 1834. It was taken off the coat in 1802, by Mr. Fields, a portrait painter, in the District of Columbia. It was on his coat of the 22d Regiment, and is so marked.
When Congress agreed by law to rest at Philadelphia ten years, the Legislature of Pennsylvania voted a large edifice for Gen. Wash ington as President, in South Ninth street, (the site of present Uni- versity,) but the President, when he saw it, would not occupy it, be- cause of the great expense to furnish it at his own cost ; for then the nation never thought of that charge to their account. His dinner parties were given every Thursday at four o'clock precisely, never waiting for any guests ; his company usually assembled 15 to 20 mi- nutes before dinner in the drawing room. He always dressed in a suit of black, sword by his side, and hair powdered. Mrs. Washing- ton often, but not always, dined with the company ; and if there were ladies present, they sat on each side of her. Mr. Lear, his private secretary, sat at the foot of the table, and was expected to be specially attentive to all the guests. The President himself, sat half way from the head to the foot of the table, and on that side which would place Mrs. Washington, though distant from him, on his right hand. He always asked a blessing at his own table, and in a stand- ing posture. If a clergyman was present he asked him to do it. The dishes were always without covers; a small roll of bread enclosed in a napkin was on the side of each plate. The President generally dined on one dish, and that of a very simple kind. He avoided the first or second course, as " too rich for me!" He had a silver pint cup or mug of beer placed by his plate, of which he drank ; he took but one glass of wine at dinner, and commonly one after. He then retired, (the ladies having gone a little before) leaving his secretary to tarry with the wine-bibbers, while they might further remain. There were placed upon his table, as ornaments, sundry alabaster mytholo.
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gical figures of about two feet high. The centre of the table con tained five or six large silver or plated waiters. The table itself was of an oval shape; at the end were also some silver waiters of an oval form.
It was the habit of Gen. Washington to go every day at 12 o'clock to set his watch at Clark's standard, south-east corner of Front and High streets. There all the porters took off their hats and stood un- covered, till he turned and went back again. He always bowed to such salutation, and lifted his hat in turn.
It was a singular thing in the death of this great man, that he died in the last hour, last day of the week, last month of the year, and last year of the century, viz .:- Saturday night at 12 o'clock, De- cember, 1799.
In Dec. 1837, the remains of this great father of our nation, after a slumber of 38 years, were once more exposed "to be seen of men," by the circumstance of placing his body once and for ever within the Sarcophagus of marble, made and presented by Mr. Struthers of Philadelphia. The body, as Mr. S. related, was still in wonderful preservation ; the high pale brow wore a calm and serene expression, and the lips pressed together, had a grave and solemn smile. A piece of his coffin has been given to me by a lady.
The New York Mirror, of May 1834, has a couple of columns of well told tales, showing that Washington once got benighted in a town near the Hudson and the Highlands, and sought a shelter in a poor man's house, and that they heard him pray, at length, for him- self and his country. The account adds, the family retain with fond regard a token which he left. The difficulty in this story is, that names and places are avoided. It ought not to have been so, if true.
Gen. Sullivan, in his late publication, states that it was considered, by all his military family, that he had a time every day, set apart for retirement and devotion.
Rev. Dr. Jones, of the Presbyterian church at Morristown, has de ;lared that he administered the communion to Gen. Washington, by iis request, while he was there, in command of the American army -at the public table.
Gen. Washington was born on a plantation called Wakefield, lying on Pope's creek, in Westmoreland county, Va. The house was about 300 yards from the creek, at half a mile from its entrance into the Potomac. The mansion was long since in ruins ; but in 1815, W. Custis and S. Lewis went there and gathered from the remains a pedestal, and they placed on the top an inscribed stone which they took with them, bearing the words, " Here, the 22nd. Feb., 1732, Washington was born." The situation of this, his solum natale, is said to be verdant and beautiful, and might be readily visited by steamboat parties, laying in the Potomac. The place now belongs to John Gray, Esq.
Washington's coach was presented to him, it is said, by Louis XVI., King of France, as a mark of personal esteem and regard. Others
49*
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have said it had been brought out for the late Governor Penn. It was cream-colored, globular in its shape, and capacious within; orna- mented in the French style, with Cupids supporting festoons, and wreaths of flowers, emblematically arranged along the pannel work ; the figures and flowers beautifully covered with fine glass, very white and dazzling to the eye of youth and simplicity in such matters. It was drawn sometimes by four, but in common by two, very elegant Virginia bays, with long switch tails, and splendid harness, and driven by a German, tall and muscular, possessing an aqueline nose ; he wore a cocked hat, square to the front, seemingly, in imitation of his principal, but thrown a little back upon his long cue, and presenting to the memory a figure not unlike the one of Frederick of Prussia, upon the sign in Race street : he exhibited an important air, and was evidently proud of his charge. On the death of Washington, this coach found its way to New Orleans, after the purchase of Louisiana, and there being found at a plantation in the time of Packenham's invasion, got riddled with shot and destroyed. The chief of its iron work has since been used in the palisade to H. Milne's grave.
On Sunday mornings, at the gate of Christ Church, the appearance of this coach, awaiting the breaking up of the service, never failed in drawing a crowd of persons, eager, when he came forth, for another view of this nobleman of nature-and stamping with their feet in freezing weather upon the pavement to keep them warm the while. The indistinct sounds of the concluding voluntary upon the organ within was no sooner heard by them than the press became formida- ble, considering the place and the day. During the slow movement of the dense crowd of worshippers issuing from the opened door, and the increased volume of sound from the organ, it was not necessary for the stranger visiting the city, and straining his vision to behold the General for the first time, to inquire of his jostled neighbour-which is he ? There could be no mistake in this matter, Washington was to be known at once.
His noble height and commanding air, his person enveloped, in what was not very common in those days, a rich blue Spanish cloak, faced with red silk velvet, thrown over the left shoulder ; his easy unconstrained movement ; his inimitable expression of countenance, on such occasions beaming with mild dignity and beneficence com- bined ; his patient demeanour in the crowd, emerging from it, to the eye of the beholder, like the bright silvery moon, at night, from the edge of a dark cloud ; his gentle bendings of the neck, to the right and to the left, parentally, and expressive of delighted feelings on his part: these, with the appearance of the awed, and charmed, and silent crowd of spectators, gently falling back, on each side, as he approached, unequivocally announced to the gazing stranger, as with the voice of one " trumpet tongued"-behold the man !
One day in summer, passing up Market street on a message, the reminiscent was struck with the novel spectacle of this splendid coach, with six elegant bays attached, postilions and outrider in livery, in
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waiting at the President's door, and although charged to make haste back, was determined to see the end of it. Presently the door opened, when the " beheld of all beholders," in a suit of dark silk velvet of the old cut, silver or steel hilted small sword at left side, hair full powdered, black silk rose and bag, accompanied by " Lady Washington," also in full dress, appeared standing upon the marble steps-presenting her his hand he led her down to the coach, with that ease and grace peculiar to him in every thing, and as remem- bered, with the attentive assiduity of an ardent youthful lover ;- hav- ing also handed in a young lady, and the door clapped to, Fritz, the coachman, gave a rustling flourish with his lash, which produced a plunging motion in the leading horses, reined in by the postilions, and striking flakes of fire between their heels and the pebbles be- neath-when
"Crack went the whip, round went the wheels, As though High street were mad."
The President's house, of which I give a picture in this work, came in time to be occupied the one half as a boarding house, and the other half as a confectionery ; but at that time it was considered as the only house, obtainable in the city, suitable for the residence of General George Washington, the first President of the United States. It stood on High street, one door east from the south-east corner of Sixth street. Now N. Burts' three houses, 192 to 194.
John Fitch.
Among the wonderful things of this wonderful age, must be men- tioned the oblivious neglect of this extraordinary man! The only parallel case among us has been the long oblivion resting upon the name and fame of Godfrey. Scarcely any seem to have ac- quainted themselves with the individual history of Mr. Fitch. They only seem to know him, as being like " the man who the longitude missed on"-and as he, who failed to make his profits out of the in- vention of the steamboat! The fame, and the rewards, have fallen into later hands :- not unlike the labours of the late Captain Edmund Fanning, who first suggested and urged all the measures, means and benefits, for an exploration of the polar regions of the South Pole, whilst other names and persons are likely to engross the glory.
" There are insects that prey On the brains of the Elk, till his very last sigh ; Oh, Genius! thy patrons, more cruel than they, First feed on thy brains, and then leave thee to die !"
Finding that none-so far, will interest themselves to exalt, or preserve the name and merits of " poor John Fitch," as he feelingly called himself, I shall herein endeavour to set down sundry facts be- longing to bis personal history. He went astray in the opinion of many in his religious faith ; but so far as we know, he lived cor-
Persons and Characters
rectly , and in general conduct was much better than many who have juster theories to help their actions and morals.
The ancestors of John Fitch-for he had respectable ancestors- with a vellum of pedigree and a coat of arms, were originally Saxon, and emigrated to Essex, in England ; from thence, they went out to . Windsor, Connecticut; where his great grandfather purchased one- twentieth of the original settlement, and left it to three sons-Joseph, Nathaniel, and Samuel.
John Fitch, the inventor, was born on the line, between Hartford and Windsor, on the 21st January, 1743. He served his time, after he was eighteen years of age, at clockmaking, with Benjamin Cheaney, in East Windsor. He had two brothers, namely, Joseph and Augustus, and three sisters, Sarah, Anne, and Chloe. He said of himself, that " take him all and all, he was the most singular man of his age,-he having the winds and the fates against him through all his life !" He met with harsh treatment in early life from several, and especially from an elder brother with whom he lived-(his "good mother," Sarah Shaler, having died when he was only four years of age,) and he embraced infidel opinions when he was but seventeen years of age-superinduced, as he himself thought, by some certain slights inflicted upon him about the building of a certain meeting house in his neighbourhood. He was in his earliest youth fond of books and study, which he probably inherited from his father, John Fitch-(the son of Joseph,) " who had a genius for astronomy, ma- thematics and natural philosophy, and was a truly honest and good man."
John Fitch, the subject of this memoir, was married in the twenty fifth year of his age, to Lucy Roberts, his elder, on the 29th Decem ber, 1767, and had a son, born the 3d November, 1768; but he only lived with his wife, with whom he dwelt in continual dissatisfaction, until the 18th January, 1769; when, as he says in his MS. book, he could endure it no longer, and so left his home, to seek more con- tentment in Trenton, N. J. There he remained and pursued the business of a silversmith and the repairing of clocks, until the break- ing out of the revolutionary war-when he estimated his property acquired to be worth £800. He then took to gunsmithing for fur- thering on the war; employed twenty hands at it, until the entry of the British, when they destroyed his tools and furniture. He then fled into Bucks county, to the house of John Mitchell, in Attlebo- rough, and afterwards went to Charles Garrison's, in Warminster township. While there, his 4000 dollars in continental money de- preciated to 100 dollars. After this, he went to the west in 1780, as surveyor in Kentucky, and in 1782, intending a voyage to New Or- leans with flour, he was made prisoner by the Indians, near the mouth of the Muskingum, on the Ohio. He was then carried, or rather driven, twelve hundred miles bare-headed, to Detroit and Prison Island, where he was given up to the British as a prisoner of war. He and his party were the first whites who were cap
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tured after Wilkinson's massacre of the Moravian Indians; and they had just reasons to fear every evil from their revenge. Of that cap tivity, he used to relate many very stirring and affecting anecdotes.
It ought to be here mentioned, that many facts of himself are re- lated with much apparent frankness, in his MS. books bequeathed to the Philadelphia Library, and which being sealed, were not to be opened until thirty years after his death, and never to be lent out of the institution without a pledge of £500 for their safe return. Thus quitting his own age, and appealing to another, as if to say, that he foresaw that the next age could alone do justice to his memory. It may seem strange, that in such a reading community as Philadel- phia affords, there should be found so many, so long indifferent to their examination and reading! Who, even to this day, can say that they have read them? There is however, I am assured, for I have not closely inspected them, much of deep instruction to be found in many of his observations. Speaking of himself while at Trenton, he says, that he had proved the fact, that " the best way to make the world believe him honest, was to be the thing itself,"-and to his sedulous practice therein he ascribes his rapid advancement in pro- perty. He had while there a greater run of business than any silver- smith, even in Philadelphia itself: and his tools were certainly the best set then in America.
A gentleman, (D. L.,) who entertains warm feelings for John Fitch-regarding him as an unduly neglected and injured man, has kindly made me acquainted with many facts concerning him, and among other means of information which he possessed, he had made considerable examination of the MS. remains found in the first volume in the City Library. He speaks of the work as being " essentially a part and parcel of the man, and as exhibiting him in bold relief every how, and in every way ; in his shop, in his thoughts, and in fine, in his very self." "You may there see a full portrait of the man as he was in his sympathies and in his aversions ; there you may see the elaborate workings of an original and inventive mind." Will any consider ?
There were two individuals of Bucks county,-women who were the neighbours and frequent observers of John Fitch, whilst he was a resident at Garrison's, and whilst he was working for himself, at his inventions in Jacobus Scouter's wheelwright shop; they were named Mary McDowell and Mrs. Jonathan Delany. From Mary, I have learned some facts of Fitch's lands and property in Kentucky. He owned there 1600 acres,-and whilst he was engaged with his favourite object, the steam enterprise, others settled the land and built thereon a fine mill and sundry dwellings and outhouses. Being pos- sessed of capital, and having possession, they were enabled to suspend and defer any legal action. She thinks that his friends, Joseph Buda and Doctor Say, were in partnership with Fitch, about its recovery. Fitch, while in Kentucky, was a deputy surveyor, and seems to have been intimate with Colonel Todd and Colonel Harrod, then men of VOL. I .- 3 Y
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consideration and consequence there. He had one of the best re quisites of an efficient surveyor, in that he was a great walker ; being tall, slender and sinewy. He told Mary that he had sold 800 of his Maps of the north-western parts of the United States, in the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, making all his journey on foot ; and on such occasions, he could always out-travel a horse In walking he pitched forward, and went onward with a great swing. On one occasion, when he was robbed of his silver and gold, to the amount of £200, which he had buried for its better security, at Warminster, he walked to Spring Mill and back, before sunset,- making forty miles in the journey. One of his Maps is now at War- minster, preserved as a relic of the genius of the man. It is inscribed as, " Engraved and printed by the author ;" and with equal truth it might have been imprinted thus :- " Engraved in Cobe Scout's wheelwright shop, and printed on Charles Garrison's cider press, by the author,"-for such were the facts in the case. All these efforts of the man were specially designed to raise funds, whereby to push forward to completion and success the absorbing subject of his steam invention. That was the theme and the purpose of all his thoughts and wishes.
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