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. II > Part 10
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Pennsylvania Inland .- Byberry.
affection of a brother. The building, which is of stone, bears marks of age and decay. On one of the stones near the front door, I dis- covered the letters J. R. Before the house flows a small but deep creek, abounding in pan fish. The farm consists of ninety acres, in a highly cultivated state. The owner did not want to sell; but I begged, if he ever should incline to dispose of it, to make me or one of my surviving sons the first offer. While I sat in its common room, I looked at its walls, and thought how often they had been made vocal by my ancestors-to conversations about wolves, bears and snakes, in the first settlement; afterwards about cows and calves, and colts and lambs, &c., and at all times, with prayers and praises, and chapters read audibly from the Bible; for all who inhabited it, of my family, were pious people-chiefly of the sect of Quakers and Baptists. On my way home, I stopped to view a family grave- yard, in which were buried three and a part of four successive gene- rations, all of whom were the descendants of Captain John Rush, who, with six sons and three daughters, followed William Penn to Pennsylvania, in 1683. He had been a captain of a troop of horse under Oliver Cromwell ; and when I first settled in Philadelphia, I was sometimes visited by one of his grandsons, a man of eighty-five years of age, who had, when a boy, often seen and conversed with the former, and especially concerning his services under the Protector. I retain, as his relics, his sword, watch and Bible leaf, on which is in- scribed, in his own hand, his marriage, and children's births and names. My grandfather, James Rush, after whom my son, the physician, is named, has his gravestone and inscription in the afore- said grave ground-as " departed this life, March 16, 1727, aged 48 years, &c." He was a farmer and gunsmith, of much ingenuity in his business. While standing and considering this repository of the dead, there holding my kindred dust, my thoughts ran wild, and my ancestors seemed to stand before me in their homespun dresses, and to say, what means this gentleman, by thus intruding upon our re- pose ; and I seemed to say-dear and venerable friends, be not dis- turbed. I am one who inherits your blood and name, and come here to do homage to your Christian and moral virtues ; and truly, 1 have acquired nothing from the world, (though raised in fame), which I so highty prize as the religious principles which I inherited from you ; -and I possess nothing that I value so much as the innocence and purity of your character. After my return from such a visit, I re- counted in the evening to my family, the incidents of the day, to which they listened with great pleasure ; and heartily they partook of some cherries from the limb of my father's tree, which my little son brought home with him as a treat to them."
Such a letter, from such an eminent man, consecrates to kindly remembrance such hallowed localities ;- It gives to me, if I needed it, a sufficient apology for thus enlarging this chapter on recollections and incidents of Byberry. They will come home to the bosom of many.
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Pennsylvania Inland .- Gwynedd.
There is not a spot in this wide-peopled earth, So dear to the heart as the land of our birth ; 'Tis the home of our childhood, the soul-touching spot, Which mem'ry retains when all else is forgot!
A letter written under such circumstances does more to illustrate the character and the heart of the writer, than a volume of common biography. The visit of such a man to the graves of his ancestors, creates a stirring at the heart of the sensitive reader. There is piety in it-an enthusiasm and holiness of feeling devoted to the dead, which give character and immortality to him who cherished them. His feelings were far better and more pure than to be borne aloft by his renown, amidst the hosannas of the people. In such a place for thought-for mental abstraction, how withdrawn from the tempests which sweep over the world's affairs! What a rest to the heart !- The fancy only is busy, when it there cons over the former employ- ments, business, joys, sorrows, hopes and fears of those now beneath his tread. The world's glory-its highest ambition, quickly fades and dies before the tranquil pleasures of such an hour as this. Such a home is consecrated by such a letter, and should be perpetuated and visited as the solum natale of a man both good and great. One cannot forbear the wish that the sons of such a father should long possess the home, and there preserve the simple and touching narra- tive of such a parent! I would inscribe such a letter upon its walls for ever-Esto tu perpetua.
Gwynedd-in Montgomery county.
The late venerable Jesse Foulke stated, in substance, the following facts concerning what he knew of the settlement of Gwynedd, to wit :-
In the year 1698, the township was purchased of William Penn, by William, John, and Thomas Evans, and distributed among origi- nal settlers, to wit : William, John, Thomas, Robert, Owen and Cad- wallader Evans, Hugh Griffiths, Edward Foulke, Robert Jones, John Hughs, and John Humphreys. Only the two eldest were then Friends-all were Welshmen ; and all, except the two Friends, were churchmen. These held their meetings at Robert Evans'; and there Cadwallader Evans was in the practice to read from the Bible to the people.
But as Cadwalladar Evans himself related, he was going as usual to his brother Robert's, when passing near to the road to Friends meeting, held at John Hughs' and John Humphreys', it seemed as if he was impressed " to go down and see how the Quakers do." This he mentioned to his friends at the close of his own meeting, and they all agreed to go to the Friends the next time ; and where they were all so well satisfied, that they never again met in their own worship.
In 1700, they built a log meeting house, near where the present
79
Pennsylvania Inland .- Norristown.
one stands. This gave place to a larger one of stone, in 1712; and in 1823, that was removed for a still larger one.
The Friends' meeting house, at Gwynedd, was made a hospital for the wounded of the army after the battle of Germantown.
I have given the foregoing recital of the manner of Evans' con- vincement, in the words of Mr. Foulke ; but his kinswoman, Susan Nancarro, who died lately at the age of 80 years, told it to me a little variant. She said that the brothers read the public services of their church, and convened in a summer house. As one of the brothers was once going to that place, he passed where William Penn was speaking, and willing to hearken to him, he became so earnestly convinced that way, that he succeeded to bring over all his brethren.
Mrs. Nancarro had often seen and conversed with her grandfather, Hugh Evans, who lived to be ninety years of age. When he was a boy of twelve years of age, he remembered that William Penn, with his daughter Letitia and a servant, (in the year 1699 or 1700,) came out on horseback to visit his father, Thomas Evans. Their house then was superior in that it was of barked logs, a refinement surpassing the common rank. The same place is now E. Jones', near the Gwynedd meeting house. At that house William Penn ascended steps on the outside to go to his chamber ; and the lad of twelve, be- ing anxious to see all he could of so distinguished a man, went up afterwards to peep through the apertures at him ; and there he well remembered to have seen him on his knees praying, and giving thanks to God for such peaceful and excellent shelter in the wilder- ness! What a subject for a painter ! I heard Mrs. D. L. say that she had also heard the same facts from old Hugh Evans.
There was at this time a great preparation among the Indians near there for some public festival. Letitia Penn, then a lively young girl, greatly desired to be present, but her father would not give his consent, though she entreated much. The same informant says she ran out chagrined, and seeming to wish for something to dissipate her regret, snatching up a flail near some grain, at which she began to la- bour playfully, when she inadvertently brought the unwieldly instru- ment severely about her head and shoulders ; and was thus quickly constrained to retreat into the house, with quite a new concern upon her mind! This fact made a lasting impression upon the memory of the lad aforesaid, who then was a witness.
Norristown.
This place, now so beautiful and numerous in houses, is a town wholly built up since the war of independence. At that time, it was the farm of John Bull ; and his original farm house is now standing in the town, as the inn of Richard Richardson.
As early as the year 1704, the whole manor, as it was then alled, which included the present township of Norrington, was sold out by William Penn, Jr., for £850. From Isaac Norris, one of the pur- chasers, the place has since taken its name.
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Pennsylvania Inland .- Chester County.
The original settlers about the neighbourhood of Norristown, Swedes' ford, &c., were Swedes, who much inclined to settle along the banks of the Schuylkill, and, like the Indians, to make free use of their canoes for travelling conveyances. The Swedes' church, not far off, was much visited by worshippers going there in their boats; and in still later times, when horses became a means of conveyance, it was common for a man and woman to ride together on one horse, the women wearing for economy " safe-guard petticoats," which they took off after arrival, and hung along the fence until again required.
There are still remains below Norristown, nearly fronting the ford. of a long line of redoubts, made by the Americans, under the direc- tion of Gen. Du Porteuil, to defend the passage of the ford against the British approaching from the battle of Brandywine, and which had the effect to compel them to pass six miles higher up the river, at " Fatland ford." Some of the cannon, in an angle of the redoubt, have since washed into the river bank, and may at some future day surprise a discoverer !
It was on the river bank, at Norristown, that the first spade was set to excavate the first public canal attempted in the United States' This should be remembered! It was indeed abortive for want of adequate funds, as well as economy ; but it tested the early spirit of enterprise of our leading citizens,-acting a few years in advance of the age in which they dwelt. This fact, in connexion with the MS. account of Mr. John Thompson, of Delaware county, of his early adventure in a boat, the White Fish, by a navigation from Niagara to Philadelphia, by the water courses in New York state ; showing beforehand, the practicability of the Grand canal of New York, are so many evidences of our early efforts in the " canal system !" The boat, after so singular a voyage, was laid up in the State-house yard, in the year 1795, and visited as a curiosity. A sight of that boat, and a knowledge of the facts connected with it, is supposed to have prompted President Washington, at that early period, to write of his conviction of the practicability of a union of the waters of the lakes with the ocean. A subject, happily for all, now no longer a problem.
Chester County.
At the time the European emigrants first settled in this county it was principally overshadowed by forests-only a small patch here and there around the Indian huts having been cleared by the natives, for the purpose of growing their corn. But the woods at that time wore a very different appearance from what they do now. Owing to the Indian custom of firing them once or twice in a year, the small timber and bushes were killed in their growth, and of course the forests were but thinly set. I am informed that one of the first settlers said that, at the time of his first acquaintance with the county, he could have driven a horse and cart from one end of its extremi-
81
Pennsylvania Inland .- Chester County.
ties to the other, in almost every direction, without meeting with any material obstruction.
For a number of years the process of agriculture by the new settlers was extremely rude and imperfect. No regular rotation of crops was observed. A field was frequently appropriated to one kind of produce for several successive years. No man's care in rela- tion to his ground extended beyond the sowing and gathering of his crops, and by total neglect of manuring and fertilizing their lands, the strength of the soil was yearly and daily exhausting itself. This was so much the case within the memory of one ancient now living. that when he departed from the common course, and began to endea- vour to recruit his soil, his plan became the subject of general ridi- cule among his neighbours ; and the saying was applied to him on all hands, " a penny wise, a pound foolish." His success, however, began to have its influence in his neighbourhood; but still they did not then know the beneficial effects of lime-little use was made of it before the revolution, and so little was it valued in itself, as to be often sold for five or six cents a bushel. Wheat, rye, oats and barley, were the principal productions. Indian corn was so little regarded, that many depended upon getting the little they used from the lower counties, in preference to raising it themselves. Clover was almost wholly unknown, and timothy quite so. Meadows which were irrigated furnished the grass for hay and pasturage. How very differently managed is every thing now! Now all the farmers are becoming wealthy and happy. Thus proving that conduct is luck.
This county originally contained within its limits the present county of Delaware, and they together formed one of the first settled counties in the state. The first settlers were generally of the society of Friends, and now their descendants mostly occupy the south eastern and middle townships. The Welsh settled along the " Great Valley," a fine region of land, of from one to three miles wide, tra- versing the whole county from east to west; the Irish Presbyterians settled in the south-west; and the English intermixed generally throughout the whole county. Many of the townships are of Welsh origin, as is indicated by their names,-such as Tredyffin, Uwchland, the Calns, Nantmels, &c. Other names indicate lands formerly be- longing to the London company, such as London Grove, New Lon- don, London Britain, Birmingham, &c.
The appearance of the fruitful and picturesque country of the " Great Valley," is well worth a visit from the youth of our city. It comprises nearly fifty thousand acres of the choicest lands, and is bor- dered on either side by long continuous ranges of high ridges, called North and South hills. From their summits, there are sometimes very extensive and beautiful views-such as might lead out the young mind to conceive of those much greater elevations, "the Blue moun tains," and the great Allegheny " backbone of the state."
The Brandywine, running through this county, is a fine stream, affording much profitable " water power," and some very picturesque VOL. II .- L
82
Pennsylvania Intand .- Chester County.
scenery. Brantewein (brandy) is a word of Teutonic origin, which might have been used equally by the Swedes and Dutch to express its brandy-coloured stream. Certain it is, that at all early periods, after the river lost its Indian names of Minquas, and Suspecough, it was written Brandywine.
Since the county sustained the separation of Delaware county, the county town has been located at West Chester, a very growing place and possessing a genteel and intelligent population. At this place, are the original records of Chester county, and of course affording to the curious inquirer the means of exploring the antiquarian lore of the primitive days.
As our business is to show to the present rising generation the great difference between the present and the remote past, when all was coarse and rustic, we shall subjoin some scraps of information illus- trative of such change, to wit :
Mr. William Worrell, who died but a few years since,-an inhabi- tant of Marple township, at the advanced age of nearly one hundred years-says, that in the country there were no carts, much less car- riages ; but that they hauled their grain on sleds to the stacks, where a temporary thrashing-floor was made. He remembered to have as- sisted his father to carry on horseback one hundred bushels of wheat to mill in Haverford, which was sold there for but 2s. a bushel. The natural meadows and woods were the only pasture for their cattle; and the butchers of Philadelphia would go out and buy one, two, or three head of cattle, from such as could spare them, as all their little surplus.
He recollected when there were great quantities of wild turkeys; and a flight of pigeons which lasted two days! Only think of such a spectacle! They flew in such immense flocks, that they obscured the rays of the sun! One night they settled in such numbers at Martin's bottom, that persons who visited them could not hear one another speak, by reason of their strong whirring noise. Their weight on the branches of the trees was so great as to break off nu- merous large limbs !
He never saw coffee or tea until he was twenty years of age ; then his father brought some tea from Philadelphia, and his aunt did not know how to use it, till she got information first from a more refined neighbour. On another occasion a neighbour boiled the leaves and buttered them !
In going to be married, the bride rode to meeting behind her father, or next friend, seated on a pillion ;- but after the marriage, the pil- lion was placed with her behind the saddle of her husband. The dead were carried in coffins on the shoulders of four men, who swung the coffin on poles, so that they might proceed along narrow paths with mnost ease.
Another ancient inhabitant, William Mode, who died on the west branch of the Brandywine, in 1829, at the age of eighty-seven years, said he well remembered the Indians-men, women and children,-
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Pennsylvania Inland .- Chester County.
coming to his father's house to sell baskets, &c., and that they used to cut and carry off bushes from their meadow, probably for mats to sleep on. The deer, in his boyhood, were so plenty, that their tracks in the wheat field, in time of snow, were as if marked by a flock of sheep: at one time his father brought home two of them on his sled. Wild turkeys in the winter were often seen in flocks, feeding in the corn and buckwheat fields. Foxes often carried off their poultry ; once their man knocked one down near the barn. Squirrels, rabbits, rackoons, pheasants and partridges abounded.
Samuel Jeffrey, too, a man of eighty-seven years, who died at West Chester in 1828, said he could well remember when deer were plenty in the woods of Chester county, and when a hunter could occasionally kill a bear. He also had seen several families of Indians still inhabiting their native fields. N. Marcer died in 1831, aged one hundred and one years.
This county still contains some of the oldest inns known in the annals of our country. Thus, Powell's Journal, of 1754, speaks of his stopping on the way to Lancaster, at " the Buck," by Ann Mil- ler-at " the Vernon," by Ashton, (now "the Warren")-" the White Horse," by Hambright-" the Ship," by Thomas Park-" the Red Lion," by Joseph Steer-and " the Wagon," by James Way, &c.
Chester county is also distinguished as being the theatre of some important events in the revolution,-such as " the battle of Brandy- wine," the " massacre of Paoli," and the winter quarters of our army at "the Valley Forge." The battle ground of the Brandywine, near where La Fayette was wounded, may be still visited at the Bir- mingham meeting-house of Friends. There, if you see the grave- digger turning up the grave ground, you may possibly see the bones of some British soldier at only two feet under the ground, with frag- ments of his red coat, his stock-buckle, buttons, &c .! You may even be shown some old gold coin, found concealed once in the great cue of a buried Hessian! If you ramble down to " Chadsford," not far distant, you may still see remains of the little redoubt which dis- puted the ford ; and there, as a relic of silenced war and bloodshed, pick up an occasional bullet or grapeshot. The county was at one time much disturbed, and made withal remarkable, by a predatory hero in the time of the revolution. He was usually called " Captain Fitz," but his real name was James Fitzpatrick. He roamed the country in stealth, as a " British refugee," making his attacks upon the chattels of the " stanch whigs," and seemingly delighting in his perils and escapes. His whole character made him a real Rob Roy of his time. At last he was seized and executed.
The state of the American army at the Valley Forge, in the drear winter of 1777-8, was an extremely perilous and suffering one. They were kept in necessary fear from so superior a force as Howe's well appointed army ; whereas, ours was suffering the need of almost every thing. An officer, an eye-witness, has told me, that a suffi ciency of food or clothing could not be had ; that so many men were
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Pennsylvania Inland .- Chester County.
without wi.ole shoes, that several actually marked the snowy ground with their bloody footsteps ; some, while on duty as sentinels, have doffed their hats to stand in, to save their feet from freezing ; of salt beef or pork, they could not get a supply, and fresh beef was wholly impracticable to get at all; of vegetables they got none. One wooden or pewter dish answered for a whole mess; and one horn tumbler, in which whisky rarely entered, served for several. Much of their diet was salted herrings, too much decayed to bear separation ; but were dug out of the cask en masse. Sugar and coffee were luxuries not seen ; and paper money, with which they were paid for such severi- ties, was almost nothing !
If such were the calamities of war, and such the price they paid for our self-government, oh ! how greatly should we, their descend- ants, prize the precious boon ! Maddened be the head, and palsied be the hand, that should attempt to despoil us of a treasure so dearly purchased !
A public journal of Philadelphia, of August, 1778, thus describes the circumstances of the conduct and capture of the aforesaid Captain Fitz, saying, " The celebrated bandit of Chester county was taken and brought to Philadelphia in August. He had been made prisoner by Robert McPhee (McAfee) and a girl. Fitz entered the house of McPhee's family while they were at tea, armed with a rifle, a sword, and a case of pistols, saluting them as friends; upon their saying they did not recognize him, he swore he would soon be better known, as ' Captain Fitz, come to levy his dues on the cursed rebels.' He soon demanded his watch and buckles, and soon after ordered them all up stairs before him, whilst he should search for his money. When he had got up stairs, he, thinking he was safe, began to arrange his shoe buckle on the edge of the bed, when McPhee (McAfee) signing to the girl, Rachel Walker, a young woman, they sprang upon him, and so held him that he could not escape." The reward was 1000 dollars, which was divided between them, and Captain Fitz was hung. While in Philadelphia he broke his hand cuffs twice in one night. At Chester, afterwards, he filed off his irons and got out of his dungeon, and would have escaped but for the extraordinary vigilance of his jailer. His real name was James Fitzpatrick, he was hanged at Chester : was a blacksmith.
The New London Academy, of New London, though not much spoken of now, furnished, in colonial days, some of the leading scholars, such as Dr. Francis Allison, Charles Thomson, Gov. Thomas M'Kean, Dr. John Ewing, Dr. Hugh Williamson, M. C .; Dr. David Ramsey, historian ; the Rev. James Latta, &c.
The " battle ground of Brandywine," so eventful in our revolu- tionary period, will ever tend to consecrate it as a place of remem- brance, and by some as a place of visitation. To those who may choose with us " to wander o'er the bloody field to book the dead," we shall here furnish such notitia, and notes by the way, as will serve as a companion to others :---
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Pennsylvania Inland .- Chester County.
" Our direction was to the forks of the Brandywine, on Jeffrey's ford, the point at which Lord Cornwallis crossed the river on the 11th of September, 1777-the day of the battle, known by the name of the river on the banks of which it was fought.
" It was near the close of July of that year, that the British army; under Sir William Howe, and their Hessian auxiliaries, under Gen Knyphausen, embarked from New York on the meditated invasion of Pennsylvania. The squadron had a long and unpleasant passage. Finding the Delaware too well prepared for defence, to allow of a very favourable ascent of that river, the British commander bore away for the Chesapeake-thence ascended Elk river into Maryland, as far as that stream was navigable, at which point the army disem- barked, and on the 23d of September took up its march for Philadel- phia. In the mean time General Washington returned from Jer- sey, for the defence of that important city, and public opinion seemed to require the hazard of a pitched battle. The American com- mander, therefore, marched upon the Brandywine to intercept the advancing foe, and crossed the river with a part of his forces. The British forces advanced until they were within two miles of the Ame- ricans; but, after reconnoitring the enemy on the night of the 8th of September, General Washington, apprehending the object of the enemy to be to turn his right, and, by seizing the heights on the north side of the river, to cut off his communication with Philadelphia, changed his position by recrossing the river, and taking position on the heights near Chadd's ford, several miles below the forks.
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