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 43
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It commenced with light showers about nine o'clock, and from. that time there were some intermissions until half after eleven, when the rain recommenced, and continued, with thunder and lightning, for the period of three hours, to pour down such powerful torrents of water, as to deluge all the low lands in the city and neigh- bouring districts. In these situations many cellars were filled, in some of which sugars and other perishable articles were destroyed, and other goods were damaged. The embanked meadows on the borders of the Delaware and Schuylkill were much injured, and some of the cattle were drowned. Two bridges between Holmes- burg and Frankford, and the floating bridge at Gray's ferry, on Schuylkill, were carried away. The bridge at the Flat rock on Schuylkill, and Poole's bridge in Front street, were considerably damaged, and several mill-dams, and bridges across turnpike and other roads, were either carried away or considerably injured. A large quantity of lumber and drift wood was carried down the stream from the borders of the Schuylkill, and a man who was endeavour- ing to collect a portion of it, was unfortunately drowned yesterday morning, below Fairmount dam. The loss to the county of Phi- ladelphia, and to individuals, must be considerable. The rain which fell, measured by the gauge, four and a quarter inches. In Germantown, it fell eleven.inches.
The water rose in Cohocksink creek, four feet higher than is recollected by the oldest inhabitants in the neighbourhood. It was nine inches deep on the lower floor of a house occupied by a Mr White, and his family was apprized of the circumstance by the neighbours early in the morning, having rested in confidence of their being secured from the flood. The house is an ancient one, having
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been built before the war of the revolution, and during the conflict, was fired by the English; it was afterwards repaired, as many others in the vicinity of our city have been, which were burnt by order of the British.
We measured the height of the water mark left on the wall in the lower room of Messrs. Craig & Co's. cotton factory, and found it four feet above the floor. The machinery was nearly covered with it, and about forty bales of cotton goods were damaged ; the dye- house belonging to the factory was inundated, and most of the dye- stuffs destroyed ; much of the fencing along the creek was swept away.
At the bridge over the creek on Second street the water rose to about four feet above the crown of the arch, and from a hasty view, there appeared to be about eight or ten cart-loads of lumber across the stream at that point. It is generally believed, that the insufficiency of the tunnel of that bridge to discharge the water was the principal cause of the damage sustained : and from our own knowledge, within the last thirty-five years, the bed of the creek at Second street has been raised five or six feet, thereby lessening the tunnel nearly one- half of its capacity.
At the bridge over St. John street there were fifteen or twenty .oads of lumber, casks, privies, &c., together with the plank work of the bridge, swept from its pier at Beaver street. A family residing in a small brick house near Beaver and Third streets were taken from the window of their bedchamber at about two o'clock in the morning, at which time the fresh was at its height.
When the extreme lowest tides have occurred in the Delaware, at the city, there have been some rocks exposed near Cooper's upper ferry, which are never seen, even in part, at other times. They were first observed bare in 1769, --- then again in 1796,-and at last, again in 1810, generally on the 17th of March. These low ebbs have usually occurred in March, and have been much promoted by strong and continued north-west winds. Those rocks have been seen as much as seven or eight feet out of the water; on such occasions they have always been permanently marked with the initials and dates of visiters, &c. The rocks, in 1810, were but two feet out of the water.
1827, October .- Unusually high tides about full moon.
November 14 .- Lowest tide recollected for many years- rocks on Jersey channel exposed to view.
1829, March 6 .- The ice and fresh came over Fairmount dam five feet six inches in depth, with a very powerful flow of water, and perhaps owing to the addition of a very strong north-west wind, the awful rushing of the waters over the dam appeared, to an observer of both freshes, much more terrifically sublime than that in 1822, although at that time the depth was three feet six inches more than the recent one flowing over the dam. It is most gratifying to know that the Schuylkill navigation and canals, and the Union canal, with
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their locks and dams, sustained both these freshes, which have oo curred since these valuable works were formed, without any injurv of importance.
Storms .-- 1745, March 26 .- Friday last a violent gust occurred which damaged houses and cast down trees.
1747, April 30 .- A violent north-east storm did much damage
1750, December 25 .- A violent north-east storm last Thursday ; it damaged the wharves and sunk some small craft.
1753, November 14 .- A violent gale from the east overflowed the wharves, and water lodged in most of the stores.
1770 was " the great September gale," in which was a great loss of vessels all along our coast.
1786, April 1 .- A north-east gale, with hail and snow, did much damage.
1788, November 10th and 11th .- A violent storm from south-east caused a heavy swell in the river; many vessels were injured.
1796, January 7 .- A violent storm last night did considerable da mage.
1805, December 28th and 29th .- A great storm-" a mere hurri- cane," by which several vessels were sunk at the wharves, and others broke loose and went to pieces.
1819, September 28 .- The meadows below the city were over- flowed by the great rise of the river in the late gale.
1821, September 3 .- A great storm of rain and wind from the north-east destroyed many trees, blew down chimneys, and unroofed the bridge at the Upper ferry. The Schuylkill dam rose much.
The " old fashioned snow storm," (so called) of the 20th and 21st of February, 1829, the liveliest and best picture I have seen of late years of the olden-time snow scenes of my youth, came on the 14th and 15th January, 1831, to be far eclipsed by " the deep snow" of this last memorable time. It was really cheering and delightful, to rise in the snow-stillness of the Sunday morning of the 16th January. when,
"Earth robed in white, a peaceful Sabbath held-"
in a double sense,-to witness such towering pyramids and deeply piled banks of glistening snow, all resting after the subsidence of the storm, in calm repose. It cheered the men of olden days, to be thus able to show to the young of the rising generation, the unexpected, and welcome living picture of scenes oft told, but difficult to be con- ceived, or credited by those youngsters who had never seen them. Hardly expecting to see such another storm, in my future life, I de- termined, at the time, to preserve sundry notices of its effect, &c. throughout the country, not now needful to relate. It laid upon the country, and was used upon the roads till the middle of February, actually exhausting all the pleasures of sleighing by its long con- tinuance.
There was a very remarkable storm of rain at Philadelphia, at
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midnight of the 25th of June, 1835, and continued till three o'clock in the morning. It being at time of high tide, the water sewer in Dock street filled, and the street overflowed and filled all the cellars, and even the ground floors of the houses with water. A similar heavy rain occurred on the night of the 1st July, 1842, again over flowing the sewer, and filling the cellars.
Meteors .- 1737, May 7, was seen an aurora borealis.
1743, December 8, a comet visible for five or six nights.
1748, April 21, a comet visible for eight or ten nights past.
1750, February 16, a very bright aurora borealis.
1756, December 30, people much surprised with the sight of two mock suns.
1807, October 7, a comet visible,
1814, in November and December a comet is seen.
In 1749, 17th of 12mo .- There was last evening an extraordinary appearance of the aurora borealis, which moved from north-east to north-west, and back again.
In 1764, 21st of July .- There was seen at Philadelphia, at seven in the evening, a great fiery meteor, about fifty degrees above the horizon, of bigger apparent diameter than the sun, which exploded in sight of the city with a report like springing of a mine, when were seen thousands of pieces of fire to diverge.
The meteors of the 13th November, 1833, were the most remark- able ever witnessed. A beholder says, he was sitting alone in a well lighted apartment, at 4 A. M., when he suddenly saw through the window a shower of sparks falling past it on the outside. He sup- posed the house was on fire, and rushing to the door, to his extreme amazement, he found the entire atmosphere filled with flakes of fire, (for they fully resembled flakes of snow of a stellated or radiated form,) of a pale rose red, seemingly of an inch diameter, falling in a vertical direction, as thick as he ever saw snow! 'Intermingled with the smaller stars, were a larger kind, equal to one in a hundred of the others, of an intense sapphire blue, seemingly of three to four inches diameter. This shower continued up to broad day light. They were seen all over the United States, and have been. variously described, but all agreeing that they surpassed all other known cases.
VOL. 11 .- 2 W
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Medical Subjects.
MEDICAL SUBJECTS.
To note-the thousand ills Which flesh and blood assail.
UNDER this head it is intended to comprise such facts as have come to our knowledge respecting early diseases ; to name some of the plants in use as remedies in primitive days ; and to cite some facts concerning some of the earliest named physicians.
Of Febrile Diseases
1687-Phineas Pemberton, in his MSS., states, that a great mor iality occurred at the Falls of Delaware, (in 1687,) occasioned by " the great land flood and rupture."
1699-Isaac Norris, Sen., left among his papers a record, saying, " About the time of the harvest proved the hottest summer he had ever before experienced. Several persons died in the field with the violence of the heat." In the autumn of the same year, the town was visited by a very destructive fever : he says of it, " This is quite the Barbadoes distemper-[i. e., the yellow fever of modern times :] they void and vomit blood. There is not a day nor night has passed for several weeks, but we have the account of the death or sickness of some friend or neighbour. It hath been sometimes very sickly, but I never before knew it so mortal as now : nine persons lay dead in one day at the same time : very few recover. All business and trade down. The fall itself was extremely moderate and open."* Five of his own family died.
Thomas Story, a public Friend, and the recorder of the city, has also spoken of this calamity in his Journal, as being a scourge which carried off from six to eight of the inhabitants daily, and visiting the most of the families. "Great was the fear," says he, " that fell upon all flesh ! I saw no lofty or airy countenances, nor heard any vain jesting ; but every face gathered paleness, and many hearts were humbled."
The whole number who died was about two hundred and twenty, of whom about eighty to ninety were of the society of Friends.
1717-The summer of this year is mentioned in the letter of Jona- than Dickinson, as a time in which was " great prevalence of fever and ague in the country parts adjacent to Philadelphia."
1741-The summer of this year is called a time of great sickness in Philadelphia-Vide secretary Peters' MS. letter to the proprietary,
" In a letter of subsequent date, he says, that " three years after" the same disease be- came a scourge at New York, " such as they had never seen before! Some hundreds died, and many left the town for many weeks, so that the town was almost left desolate."
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to Wit: It was called the " Palatine distemper," because prevailing among the German emigrants, probably from their confinement on shipboard. The inhabitants were much alarmed, and fled to country towns and places ; and the country people, in equal fear, avoided to visit the city. From June to October, two hundred and fifty persons died : others, of course, recovered. Noah Webster, speaking of this sickness, says, after the severe winter, the city was severely visited with " the American plague." The same disease, Doctor Bond has said, was yellow fever, supposed to have been introduced by a load of sick people from Dublin.
1743-Some of it also again prevailed in Philadelphia, says Secre- tary Peters, while at the same time, just such another disease visited New York, and was there considered as certainly " not imported." Joel Neaves' case, who died of it at Philadelphia, was thus described : " He had a true, genuine yellow fever, with black vomit and spots, and suppression of urine-all this from overheating himself in a very hot day, by rowing a boat. He also gave it to others about him, and they to others ; yet but few of them died."
1747-Noah Webster, in his work on Pestilence, says, " This year the city was again visited by bilious plague," preceded by influenza.
February, 1748, as said by said Peters' letters, was a time of great mortality in all the provinces; it was called "the epidemic pleurisy." It thinned the country so much, that it was said that servants, to fill the places of others in town and country, were bought in great num- bers, as fast as they arrived. The Indians were afraid to come to a treaty by reason of the sickness. It stopped suddenly, before the sum- mer came.
1754-I perceive, by the gazettes, that there were many deaths by reason of the " Dutch distemper."
1755-It had often happened, that the servants coming from Ger- many and Holland, after being purchased, communicated a very ma- lignant fever to whole families and neighbourhoods where they went. It was of such frequent occurrence as to be called, in the gazettes, the " Dutch distemper." This year I find it stated, that it is now settled " to be precisely the disease known as the jail fever."
Of Smallpox.
This loathsome and appalling disease was of much more peril to our forefathers than to us, in our better management now ; to the poor Indians it was terrific and destructive.
The happy art of inoculation was first practised in Philadelphia, in the year 1731 ; and the first person of note who then devoted him self as a forlorn hope for the purpose of example, was J. Growden, Esq. The circumstance, with his character in life as a public offi- cer in high standing, made his house a place of after notoriety, and is the same venerable and respectable-looking building (when you can see it !) now in the rear of some two or three small houses, since
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put up, in South Fourth street, vis-à-vis to the first alley below High street. It was then a dignified, two-story, large house, with a rural courtyard in front.
The terror of inoculation was not such in Philadelphia at any time, as seized upon our brethren of New England, and of Boston in particu- ar, in 1721, when their doctor, Z. Boyleston, had his life menaced, his person assaulted in the streets and loaded with execrations, for having dared, with scientific hardihood, to inoculate his only son and two of his negroes .* Even sober, pious people were not wanting there, to regard it as an act of constructive murder, in case the patient died.
We, also, had our public attempts, growing out of the above facts, to forestall the public mind, and to create a religious prejudice against the attempt at inoculation. Our Weekly Mercury, of 1st January, 1722, contains the sermon of the Rev. Mr. Masley, who preached and published against the inoculation of the smallpox, which he calls " an unjustifiable art, an infliction of an evil, and a distrust of God's over- ruling care, to procure us a possible future good !"
Under such circumstances, it became a cause of some triumph in Philadelphia, to publicly announce the success of the experiment on J. Growden, Esq., made in the Gazette of March, 1731, to wit : "The practice of inoculation for the smallpox begins to grow among us. J. Growden, Esq., the first patient of note that led the way, is now upon the recovery."
1701-Is the first-mentioned occurrence of smallpox in the city of Philadelphia. In that year, one of the letters in the Logan MSS. says, " the smallpox was very mortal and general." As early as 1682, the vessel that brought out William Penn had the smallpox on board, which proved fatal to many while at sea.
1726-A ship from Bristol, England, with passengers, had many down with the smallpox ; but they, with George Warner, the inform ant, being landed at the Swedes' church, below the town, and con- ducted through the woods to the "Blue-house tavern," out South street, all got well without communicating to the inhabitants of the city
1730-Was called the "great mortality from the smallpox." That year there died of it, George Claypole and his five children. He was a lineal descendant from the Lord General Claypole, who mar- ried Cromwell's daughter. His wife Deborah lived to be upwards of ninety years of age. Vide Logan MSS.
1736-7-There are some evidences of the progress of inoculation, for the Gazettes thus state the fact, to wit: From the fall of 1736, to the spring of 1737, there have been 129 persons inoculated, viz.,
Of white men and women,
33 persons.
" under 12 years of age,
64
Of mulattoes,
4
Of negroes, young and old, - 28
. This was the same year it was first attempted in England, after the Turkish man ner, upon the daughter of the celebrated Lady Montague.
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Only one child died among all the foregoing 129! The above ac. count was framed from the then physicians of that day, to wit : Doc- tors Kearsley, Zachary, Hooper, Cadwallader, Shippen, Bond, and Sommers, they being the only physicians who inoculated. Doctor Græme had then no share in it, being himself confined with illness the whole time the disease was in town.
1746-Even at this late period religious scruples against the small- pox had not subsided ; for I see in a MS. journal of John Smith Esq., (son-in-law of James Logan,) that he thus intimates his disap- probation of the measure, to wit: "Two or three persons (in one month) have the smallpox, having got it at New York. Inoculation he dislikes, because it seems clear to him that we, who are only tenants, have no right to pull down the house that belongs only to the landlord who built it !"
It was probably about this period of time that Thomas Jefferson (say about 1760) came to Philadelphia, on purpose to get inoculated for the smallpox, and was placed in a cottage house, back from the city, near to the Schuylkill. It was then that Charles Thomson first became acquainted with him, and from him I derive this fact.
Samuel Preston, Esq., an aged gentleman, has given me some ideas of the fatality of the smallpox among the Indians in Bucks county. It got among the Indians settled at Ingham spring, and as they used sweating for it, it proved fatal. Several of the Indians, as they had never heard of the disease, thought it was sent by the whites for their ruin. Such as survived, abandoned the place. Tedeuscung, the Delaware chief, was among the latter.
Of Plants for Medicine.
In the olden time, the practice of medicine and the dependence of the people upon physicians in cases of ordinary sickness, were essen- tially different from the present. Physicians then were at greater ex- pense for their education, with less compensation for services. Then, all accredited physicians were accustomed to go to England or Scot- land to prepare themselves. The people were much accustomed to the use of plants and herbs in cases of sickness; and their chief resort to physicians was in calls of surgery, or difficult cases of childbirth. As the druggist shops have since increased in drugs and mineral pre- parations, the use of herbs and roots has more and more declined. We have, indeed, since then, brought the study of the names of plants into great repute, under the imposing character of botanical lectures; but the virtue and properties are too often abandoned for a mere classification of uninstructive names. In that day, every physician's house was his own drug shop, at which all his patients obtained their medicine.
I have formerly seen aged persons, not possessing more than the ordinary knowledge of plants for family medicines, who could tell me, in a walk through the woods or fields, the medicinal uses of
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almost every shrub or weed we passed. It was, indee .! , grateful to me to perceive that nothing around us seemed made in vain !
" Let no presuming, impious railer tax Creative wisdom, as if aught was form'd In vain, or not for admirable ends."
Thus, in the commons, the Jamestown weed was used, by smoking it in & pipe, for the asthma ; the pokeberries, when ripe, and the juice dried in the sun, as a plaster of great virtue for the cancer ; sour dock root made an ointment for itch and tetters; burdock leaves made drafts for the feet, to reduce and allay fevers ; tea from it was made into a wholesome tonic-the roots were also used ; the plant ever- lasting, much approved for poultices in drawing swellings to a head ; of mullein was made a steam vapour to sit over, in cases of bowel dis- eases ; motherwort was used in childbirth cases; catmint tea was used for colic ; a vine which grows among field strawberries, called cinque-foil, was used as a ptsan for fevers ; blackberry roots and ber- ries were used for dysenteries.
In the woods they also found medicines, much of which know- ledge was derived from the Indians, as G. Thomas, 1689, says, " there are also many curious and excellent herbs, roots, and drugs of great virtue, which makes the Indians, by a right application of them, as able doctors and surgeons as any in Europe." The inner bark of the oak, and of the wild cherry-tree, were their tonics. Sassafras roots and flowers were used as purifiers and thinners of the blood. People used the leaves of the beech-tree for steeping the feet in hot water. Grape-vine sap they used to make the hair grow. Of the dogwood- tree (its flowers or bark) they made a great cure for dysentery. The magnolia leaf they used as a tea to produce sweat; the berries, put into brandy, cured consumptions, and was a good bitter; the bark of it was used for dysenteries ; it could cure old sores by burning the wood to charcoal, and mixing the powder of it with hogs' lard. People used the root of the bayberry-bush to cure the toothach. The cedar- tree berries were used as a tonic, to strengthen a weak spine, to de- stroy worms, &c. Goldenrod was deemed excellent for dysentery. Boneset, used for consumption and for agues ; sweet fern for bowel complaints ; pennyroyal, excellent to produce sweats for colds ; dit- tany, for cure of a fever ; alder-buds made a tea for purging the blood ; elder-berries were used for purges, and the inner bark to make oint- ment for burns and sores. It is needless to hint at even a few of the numerous plants cultivated in gardens, and laid up in store against family illness :* many are still known. It may suffice to say, in con- clusion, that they regarded the whole kingdom of vegetation as ap- pointed for " the healing of the nations." It would be a most com-
* It was an annual concern of the ladies of the family at Norris' garden, in Philadel phia, to dry and lay up various herbs for medical purposes, to be geven away to the many who called for them.
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inendable adjunct of botany, if to the present exterior and superficial classification of plants, they would investigate and affix their uses and virtues
Of Physicians.
Those who first came among us, in primitive days, were generally from Great Britain. The names and characters of those we can oc- casionally see in the passing events of their day, may be generally summed up in the following brief recital, to wit :
Thomas Wynn, an eminent Welsh physician, who had practised medicine several years, with high reputation, in London, and his brother, came to this country, in 1682, with the original settlers, lo- cated themselves in Philadelphia, and were the earliest physicians of the city. Dr. Griffith Owen arrived in the prime of life, and is said to have done the principal medical business in the city, where he was highly distinguished for his talents, integrity, and zeal. He died in 1717, about the age of seventy years, and left a son, who practised some time after his father's death .* Dr. Græme came from Great Britain, with the governor, Sir William Keith, in the year 1717. He was about thirty years of age when he arrived, had an excellent education and agreeable manners, and was therefore much employed as a practitioner, and greatly confided in by his fellow citi- zens. Dr. Loyd Zachary probably commenced the practice of medi- cine between 1720 and 1730, and died in the year 1756, in the me- ridian of life, greatly and most deservedly lamented. He was one of the founders of, and a very liberal contributor to, both the College and the Hospital. Dr. Kearsley, Senr., was for many years a very industrious practitioner both in medicine and surgery. He was not deficient in public spirit. The public are more indebted to him than to any other man for that respectable edifice, Christ church ; and by his will he founded and endowed a hospital for poor widows. He educated Dr. John Redman, and Dr. John Bard, of New York. This eminent physician, Dr. John Kearsley, had been so very popular in the assembly, that on several occasions he has been borne home from the hall on the shoulders of the people ; he died in 1772, at the age of eighty-eight years, having been in the city since the year 1711, happily dying just three years before he could witness the outrage offered to his respectable nephew. Dr. John Kearsley, who was ob- noxious as a tory, in 1775. Dr. Cadwallader Evans was one of the first pupils of Dr. Thomas Bond, and completed his medical educa- tion in England. He was descended from a much venerated early settler, and had a great share of public spirit as well as of professional worth. In 1769, some observations appeared in the Gentlemen's
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