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 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
252
The Swedes
The old Swedish inhabitants were said to be very successful in raising chick turkeys; as soon as hatched they plunged them into cold water, and forced them to swallow a whole pepper corn,-they then returned them to the mother, and they became as hardy as a hen's chick. When they found them drooping, their practice was tc examine the rump feathers, and such two or three as were found filled with blood were to be drawn, and the chick would revive and thrive.
Kalm, the Swedish traveller, who was here among his country- men in 1748, has left us such notices as follows concerning them, to wit :
The ancient Swedes used the sassafras for tea, and for a dye. From the persimon tree they made beer and brandy. They called the mullein plant the Indian tobacco; they tied it round their arms and feet, as a cure when they had the ague. They made their candles generally from the bayberry bushes ; the root they used to cure toothache; from the bush they also made an agreeable smell- ing soap. The magnolia tree they made use of for various medi- cinal purposes.
The houses of the first Swedish settlers were very indifferent; they consisted of but one room ; the door was so low as to require you to stoop. Instead of window panes of glass they had little holes, before which a sliding board was put, or, on other occasions they had isin- glass ; the cracks between logs were filled with clay ; the chimneys, in a corner, were generally of gray sandstone, or for want of it, some- times of mere clay ; the ovens were in the same room. They had at first separate stables for the cattle ; but after the English came and set the example, they left their cattle to suffer in the open winter air. The Swedes wore vests and breeches of skins; hats were not used, but little caps with flaps before them. They made their own leather and shoes, with soles (like moccasons) of the same materials as the tops. The women, too, wore jackets and petticoats of skins; their beds, excepting the sheets, were of skins of bears, wolves, &c. Hemp they had none, but they used flax for ropes and fishing tackle This rude state of living was, however, in the country places prin- cipally, and before the English came, who, rough as they must have also lived for a time, taught a comparative state of luxury.
The Swedes seem, however, to have retained an hereditary attach ment to skin garments, for within the memory of the aged Mrs. S she had seen old Mauntz Stille, down the Passyunk road, in his calfskin vest and jacket, and buckskin breeches.
Many Swedes settled along the western side of the Schuylkill. Matthias Holstein, a primitive settler in Upper Merion, took up one thousand acres there. Mauntz Rambo, an aged Swede, alive about sixty years ago, born near the Swedes' ford, was a celebrated hunter in his day ; he killed numerous deer in the neighbourhood in his time-once he shot a panther which he found attempting to attack
253
The Swedes.
his dog. He remembered many Indians still among them, in his younger days.
My friend, Major M. Holstein, fond of his Swedish descent, tells me, that when he went to the Swedes' church, in Merion, as a boy, all the men and women came there on horseback, and all the women wore " safe-guard petticoats," which they took off and hung along the fence.
His grandmother, born at Molothan, four miles from Pottsgrove, remembered the Indians once about them, and that she herself, when young, had been carried some distance on a squaw's back. They then did all their travelling by canoes on the Schuylkill. When married, she and her wedding friends came down to the Swede's ford in their canoes. In the same manner they always made their visits to Philadelphia.
In 1631, the Swedes built a fort at " Fort point," the present estate of Benjamin Holmes, in Elsinborough. It was fronting upon the Delaware, and not up Salem creek. It was at this place they found the parent stock of the Elsinborough native grape. They built another at Finnsport New Jersey, opposite to Fort Delaware. They also built a fort at Elsinborough, which was afterwards destroyed by the Renappi Indians.
The Swedes settled several places on the Morris river, at Bucks- hutem, Dorchester and Leesburg; at the first place they had a church, but now all have disappeared, so that no Swedish names remain. Their graves, however, are still seen at Leesburg, on the brink of the river.
At Salem, one can still see remains of the earliest brick houses ; they may be known, by being regularly intermixed with the glazed brick, always one-story high, with high double roofs. They are now generally raised into two-stories, without the glazed brick in the upper stories, and at the gable-ends may be still seen the lines which marked the former double roofs; and now the roofs have a single pitch. In the large grave ground opposite to the Friends' meeting, well filled with graves without any stones, is a very large oak tree of admirable spread and beauty in its wide branches. From being once deemed unhealthy as a residence, it has become, by the regular draining of the meadows, a healthy town, and has much of taste and beauty and neatness in the style of its houses and improvements. Philadelphians should visit it oftener, as the place where the first English emigrants began their first settlement on Delaware. It is entitled to their regard for the sake of its early associations.
22
254
The Germans.
THE GERMANS
THIS hardy, frugal, and industrious portion of our population in Pennsylvania, so numerous and exclusive in places as to preserve their manners and language unaltered, are so often the subject of remark in the early MSS., which I have seen in the Logan collection, &c., as to deserve a separate notice, to wit :
When the Germans first came into the country, save those who were Friends and settled in Germantown in 1682-3, it is manifest there was a fear they would not be acceptable inhabitants, for James Logan, in 1717, remarks, " We have of late great numbers of Palatines poured in upon us, without any recommendation or notice, which gives the country some uneasiness, for foreigners do not so well among us as our own people," the English.
In 1719, Jonathan Dickinson remarks, "We are daily expecting ships from London which bring over Palatines, in number about six or seven hundred. We had a parcel who came about five years ago, who purchased land about sixty miles west of Philadelphia, and prove quiet and industrious. Some few came from Ireland lately, and more are expected thence. This is besides our common supply from Wales and England. Our friends do increase mightily, and a great people there is in this wilderness country, which is fast becoming a fruitful field."
Kalm, the Swedish traveller, here in 1748, says the Germans all preferred to settle in Pennsylvania, because they had been ill-treated by the authorities in New York, whither they first inclined to settle. Many had gone to that colony about the year 1709, [say 1711,] and made settlements on their own lands, which were invaded under various pretexts. They took great umbrage, and beat some of the persons who were disposed to dispossess them. Some of their lead- ing men were seized by the government. The remainder in disgust left the country, and proceeded to settle in Pennsylvania. After that, even those who arrived at New York would not be persuaded to tarry, but all pushed on to Pennsylvania, where a better protection was granted to their rights and privileges. This mortified the New Yorkers, but they could not remove the first unfavourable impres- sions. As many as twelve thousand came to Philadelphia in 1749.
This emigration from New York to Pennsylvania is further inci- dentally explained by James Logan, in his MS. letters to the pro- prietaries. In writing to them in the year 1724, he manifests con- siderable disquietude at the great numbers coming among them, so numerous that he apprehends the Germans may even feel Jisposed to usurp the country to themselves. He speaks of the lands to the northward, (meaning Tulpehocken) as overrun by the unruly Ger- mans,-the same who, in the year 1711, arrived at New York at
255
The Germans.
the queen's expense, and were invited hither in 1722, (as a state policy,) by Sir William Keith when he was at Albany, for purposes of strengthening his political influence by favouring them.
In another letter of 1725, he calls them crowds of bold and indi- gent strangers from Germany, many of whom had been soldiers. All these go into the best vacant tracts, and seized upon them as places of common spoil. He says they rarely approach him on their arrival to propose to purchase; and when they are sought out and challenged for their rights of occupancy, they allege it was published in Europe that we wanted and solicited for colonists, and had a superabundance of land, and therefore they had come without the means to pay. The Germans in after time embroiled with the Indians at Tulpe- hocken, threatening a serious affair .* In general, those who sat down without titles acquired enough in a few years to buy them, and so generally they were left unmolested. Logan speaks of one hundred thousand acres of land so possessed, and including the Irish squatters also.
" Bold master-spirits, where they touch'd they gain'd Ascendence-where they fix'd their foot, they reign'd !"
The character of the Germans then known to him, he states, are many of them a surly people-divers of them Papists,-the men well armed, and, as a body, a warlike, morose race. In 1727, he states that six thousand Germans more are expected, and also many from Ireland ; and these emigrations he hopes may be prevented in future by act of parliament, else he fears these colonies will, in time, be lost to the crown !- a future fact.
In 1729, he speaks of being glad to observe the influx of strangers, as likely to attract the interference of parliament, for truly, says he, they have danger to apprehend for a country where not even a militia exists for government support. To arrest their arrival in some degree the Assembly assessed a tax of 20 shillings a head on newly arrived servants.
In another letter he says, the numbers from Germany at this rate will soon produce a German colony here, and perhaps such a one as Britain once received from Saxony in the fifth century. He even states as among the apprehended schemes of Sir William Keith, the former governor, that he, Harland and Gould, have had sinister pro- jects of forming an independent province in the west, to the west- ward of the Germans, towards the Ohio-probably west of the mountains, and to be supplied by his friends among the Palatines and Irish, among whom was his chief popularity at that time.
In later time, say about the year 1750 to '55, the Germans having become numerous, and therefore powerful as make weights in the political balance, were much noticed in the publications of the day. They were at that period of time in general very hearty co-operators
· It was at Tulpehocken, Conrad Weiser, a German, so often employed as Indian inter- preter, was settled and died-say at present Womelsdorf, where he had his farm.
256
The Germans.
with the Friends, then in considerable rule in the assembly. A MS pamphlet before me, supposed to have been written by Samuel Wharton, in 1755, shows his ideas of the passing events, saying, that the party on the side of Friends derived much of their influence over the Germans through the aid of C. Sower, who published a German paper, in Germantown, from the time of 1739, and which, being much read by that people, influenced them to the side of the Friends, and hostile to the governor and council. Through this man, says he, they have persuaded them there was a design to enslave them ; to enforce their young men [by a contemplated militia law] to become soldiers, and to load them with taxes, &c. From such causes, he adds, they came down in shoals to vote, and carry all before them. To this I may add, that I have heard from the Norris family, that their ancestors in the assembly were warmly patronized by the Ger- mans, in union with Friends. His alarms at this German influence at the polls, and his proposed remedies for the then dreaded evils, as they show the prevalent feelings of his associates in politics, may serve to amuse the present generation. He says the bad effects of these successes of the Germans will probably be felt through many generations! Instead of a peaceable, industrious people as before, they are grown now insolent, sullen and turbulent,-in some counties threatening even the lives of all those who oppose their views, because they are taught to regard government and slavery as one and the same thing. All who are not of their party they call " governor's inen," and themselves they deem strong enough to make the country their own! Indeed, they come in, in such force, say upwards of five thousand in the last year, I see not but they may soon be able to give us law and language too, or else, by joining the French, eject all the English. That this may be the case, is too much to be feared, for almost to a man they refused to bear arms in the time of the late war, and they say it is all one to them which king gets the country, as their estates will be equally secure. Indeed it is clear that the French have turned their hopes upon this great body of Germans. They hope to allure them by grants of Ohio lands. To this end they send their Jesuitical emissaries among them to persuade them over to the Popish religion .* In concert with this, the French for so many years have encroached on our province, and now are so near their scheme as to be within two days march of some of our back settlements-alluding of course to the state of the western wilds, overrun by French and Indians just before the arrival of Braddock's forces in Virginia, in 1755.
The writer imputes their wrong bias in general to their " stubborn genius and ignorance," which he proposes to soften by education-a
* It is true that the Jesuits at an early period founded a missionary station at Lancaster ; and in 1734, Governor Gordon, from the fear of their being connected with French in- terests, brought the subject before the council. They also founded one at Cusshahoppen near Summany town.
257
The Germans.
scheme still suggested as necessary to give the general mass of the inland country Germans right views of public and individual inte- rests. To this end, he proposes that faithful Protestant ministers and schoolmasters should be supported among them-a scheme, as we shall presently see, which actually came to pass. Their children should be taught the English tongue ; the government in the mean time should suspend the right of voting for members of assembly ; and to incline them the sooner to become English in education and feeling, we should compel them to make all bonds and other legal writings in English ; and no newspaper or almanac be circulated among them unless also accompanied by the English thereof.
Finally, the writer concludes that " without some such measure I see nothing to prevent this province from falling into the hands of the French !" The paper, at length, may be seen in my MS. An- nals, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, pages 198 to 202. There may be consulted also, in the City Library, several pamphlets, pro and con, concerning the Germans and Quakers, printed in 1747-8-one is " Plain Truth"-" An Answer to Plain Truth"- and in 1764 appears " The Plain Dealer," and " An Answer" to it, &c.
The same writer gives a passing notice of a society in England, of noblemen and gentlemen, to raise funds for some English schools for the Germans among us; and in 1755, Benjamin Franklin pub- lished a book, entitled " A brief History of the charitable Scheme for instructing poor Germans in Pennsylvania." It is the same scheme alluded to in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 1755, saying therein, that a great society is formed in Europe for the raising of money for in- structing the poor German children, and giving them ministers, &c It is patronized in Holland and England by the first nobility and gentry, and some of our first citizens are made trustees of the charity -such as Hamilton, Allen, Franklin, Peters, &c. The Rev. Mr. Schlatter is made visiting and travelling inspector and agent, and the Rev. Dr. Smith, our provost, was charged with the publication of a German newspaper. The states of Holland and West Friesland grant 2000 gilders per annum, for five years. Much is given in Amsterdam. The general assembly of Scotland gave £1200 ster- ling. The king of England gave £1000-the Princess of Wales £100-the proprietaries also agreed to give annually, &c. The style of the whole forcibly reminds one of the popular missionary schemes of the present day. It is all done in the name of advancing the interests of the Protestant religion-giving pious education -- teaching them "to read their Bible, to sing psalms, to write and cast accounts," and also "to furnish pious instruction where they have no ministers." The whole effect of this formidable array, now that the effervescence has subsided, and the means have been fully ex- erted, might tempt a looker-on to suggest cui bono !
It appears from the Minutes of Council, of January, 1730, that the first settlers of Tulpehacka creek, were 33 families of Palatines, who came away from New York, nigh Albany, in 1713, under the al- VOL. II .- 2 H 22*
258
The Germans
lurement of Sir Wm. Keith, the governor, headed by their chief, Conrad Weiser. It appears that they did not pay the government nor the Indians for their settlement. In 1728, the Indian chief makes a claim for it of Gov. Hamilton. The names of the first fa- milies are given on page 89 of the Minutes.
The emigration of the Palatines direct to Philadelphia, by sea, are recorded as often as thirty times in one volume !
Conrad Weiser was an early and respectable interpreter, who lived once at the present Reading, and also at Tulephocken. At Wo- melsdorf, a town in that district, he lived and died. It is situate be- tween Reading and Harrisburg. Himself and father were among the first settlers of Schoharie, New York; they having gone out from Germany to New York in 1712, with other emigrants, in a long six months' passage, under a proclamation of Queen Anne, of 1709, to take up land free, and no taxes. When N. Bayard, the Queen's agent, came afterwards to enrol their names, to record their metes and bounds; they became alarmed and offered resistance. Strife and apprehension ensued, so that, with some encouragement from Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, much of the population, thirty-three families, set out for Tulpehocken, in 1713, by way of the Susquehanna river, and settled when there at Muehlback, or Mill- brook. The facts are well known in the early history of Schoharie; others of the same Germans settled on the German Flats, New York.
There was, as early as 1732, to 1740, a very remarkable religious sect of Germans, formed at Ephrata, intended to live in a monastic life. In time it also included a separate sisterhood. They formed a considerable town, and grew in wealth by their industry and rise of value in lands. At one time they were many in number, but now have dwindled away. They were undoubtedly sincere and exemplary in their religious principles and actions. Doctor W. M. Fahnestock, of Harrisburg, who lately united himself to them, and has probably become one of their preachers, has given a long and interesting historical sketch of this people, in Hazard's Register of 1835. They were remarkable as a community in being fine Latin- ists-writing and speaking Latin as readily as their vernacular tongue. Men of wealth in Philadelphia, who sought good classical education for their sons, used to send them there ; and I have known some educated there who used to correspond with some of the bro- therhood in Latin. But above all, they were peculiar for their supe- rior music and singing. It was this last attraction which first allured young Doctor Fahnestock to their meetings, and when his heart was touched, like St. Augustin's, he readily fell into sympathy with their religion-a thing in itself found needful, in some way, for all men, who come to think considerately.
Their music was so peculiar as to deserve some special mention- " not as music for the ear, but as music for the soul." One of their leaders, Beissel, was a first-rate musician and composer. [See p 111 of this volume.]
259
The Irish.
These people, in general principles of religion, have come nearest to the Tunkers, and have been called Seven-day Baptists. In their early state they wore the habit of the Capuchins, or white friars-a long white gown and cowl for the men, and a cowl for the women. The men wore beards. Their inmates all assumed new names -- such as Onesimus, Friedsam, &c .- after the monastic fashion in Europe. Their houses were all framed of wood, and the sides were shingled and covered. In 1740, the monks were 36 and the sisters 35 in number. The whole place is now nearly untenanted, only a few aged sisters linger about the place of their ancient recollections. Such of the society as still continue in the original principles of the first faith are settled at Snowhill, in Franklin county, where they have " married, and bring up families," and still try to execute the former enchanting style of singing and music.
THE IRISH.
THE Irish emigrants did not begin to come into Pennsylvania until about the year 1719. Those who did come were generally from the north of Ireland. Such as came out first generally settled at and near the disputed Maryland line. James Logan, writing of them to the proprietaries, in 1724, says they have generally taken up the southern lands, [meaning in Lancaster county, towards the Maryland line,] and as they rarely approached him to propose to pur- chase, he calls them bold and indigent strangers, saying, as their ex- cuse, when challenged for titles, that we had solicited for colonists, and they had come accordingly. They were, however, understood to be a tolerated class, exempt from rents by an ordinance of 1720, in consideration of their being a frontier people, formning a kind of cordon of defence, if needful. They were soon called bad neigh- bours to the Indians, treating them disdainfully, and finally were the same race who committed the outrage called the Paxton massacre. These general ideas of them are found in the Logan MS. collection. Some of the data is as follows :
In 1725, James Logan states that there are as many as 100,000 acres of land possessed by persons (including Germans) who reso- lutely set down and improve it without any right to it, and he is much at a loss to determine how to dispossess them.
In 1729, he expresses himself glad to find the parliament is about to take measures to prevent the too free emigration to this country. In the mean time the assembly had laid a restraining tax of twenty shillings a head for every servant arriving; but even this was evaded
260
The Irish.
in the case of the arrival of a ship from Dublin, with 100 papists and convicts, by landing them at Burlington. It looks, says he, as if Ireland is to send all its inhabitants hither, for last week not less than six ships arrived, and every day two or three arrive also. The common fear is, that if they thus continue to come they will make themselves proprietors of the province. It is strange, says he, that they thus crowd where they are not wanted. But few besides con- victs are imported thither .* The Indians themselves are alarmed at the swarms of strangers, and we are afraid of a breach between them, for the Irish are very rough to them.
In 1730, he writes and complains of the Scotch-Irish, in an auda- cious and disorderly manner possessing themselves about that time of the whole of Conestogoe manor of 15,000 acres, being the best land in the country. In doing this by force, they alleged that " it was against the laws of God and nature, that so much land should be idle while so many Christians wanted it to labour on, and to raise their bread," &c. The Paxton boys were all great sticklers for reli- gion, and for Scripture quotations against " the heathen !" They were, however, dispossessed by the sheriff and his posse, and their cabins, to the number of thirty, were burnt. This necessary violence was perhaps remembered with indignation ; for only twenty-five years afterwards, the Paxton massacre began, by killing the Christian, un- offending Indians found in Conestogoe. Those Irish were generally
settled in Donegal.
In another letter he writes, saying, I must own, from my own experience in the land office, that the settlement of five families from Ireland gives me more trouble than fifty of any other people. Before we were broken in upon, ancient Friends and first settlers lived hap- pily, but now the case is quite altered, by strangers and debauched morals, &c. All this seems like hard measure dealt upon these spe- cimens of "the land of generous natures," but we may be excused for letting him speak out, who was himself from the " Emerald isle," where he had of course seen a better race.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.