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 50
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With such views, Penn, as we shall presently show, instituted several small experiments. He and others naturally inferred, that a country so fruitful in its spontaneous productions of grapes, must have had a peculiar adaptation for the vine. When the celebrated George Fox, the founder of Friends, was a traveller through our wooded wilderness, he expressly notices his perpetual embarrass- ments in riding, from the numerous entangling grapevines. The same too is expressly mentioned by Pastorius, in his traversing the original site of Philadelphia. And when Kalm was here, in 1748, he speaks of grapevines in every direction, the moment he got with- out the bounds of the city; and in his rides to Germantown and Chester, &c., he found them all along his way. Thus numerous and various as they once were, it may be a question, whether, in the general destruction of the vines since, we have not destroyed *
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Grapes and Vineyards.
several of peculiar excellence, since modern accidental discoveries have brought some excellent specimens to notice,-such as the Orwigsburg and Susquehanna.
In 1685, William Penn, in speaking of his vineyard to his steward, James Harrison, writes : " Although the vineyard be as yet of no value, and I might be out of pocket, till I come, be regardful to Andrew Dore, the Frenchman. He is hot, but I think honest." "This, I presume, refers to the vigneron, and to the vineyard at Springettsbury.
In another letter, he writes to " recommend Charles de la Noe, a French minister, who intends, with his two servants, to try a vine- yard, and if he be well used more will follow."
In 1686, he writes to the same steward, saying, " All the vines formerly sent and in the vessel (now,) are intended for Andrew (Dore,) at the Schuylkill, for the vineyard. I could have been glad of a taste last year, as I hear he made some." Again he says, " If wine can be made by Andrew Dore, at the vineyard, it will be worth to the province thousands by the year,-there will be hun- dreds of vineyards, if it takes. I understand he produced ripe grapes by the 28th of 5 mo., from shoots of fifteen or sixteen months, plant- ing. Many French are disheartened by the Carolinas, (for vines,) as not hot enough !"
About the time William Penn was thus urging the cultivation of the vine, his enlightened friend Pastorius, the German and scholar, was experimenting, as he expressly says, on his little vineyard in Germantown.
How those vineyards succeeded, or how they failed, we have no data on which to found an explanation now. We beheld, however, lately, that Mr. E. H. Bonsall was succeeding with a vineyard among us; and at Little York the success is quite encouraging
The following description of the discovery and character of the Susquehanna grape, will probably go far to prove the superiority of some natural grapes once among us, or leave grounds to speculate on the possibility of birds conveying off some of Penn's above men- tioned imported seeds! Another new and excellent grape has been discovered on the line of the new canal, beyond the Susquehanna.
About 15 years ago, there were obtained some cuttings of a grape- vine which was discovered by Mr. Dininger, on an island in the Susquehanna, called Brushy island. The island upon which this vine was found is uninhabited and uncultivated, the soil alluvial, and subject to overflow. The vine runs upon a large sycamore, spreading through the top branches, to the height of forty or fifty feet from the ground, and appears to have grown with the tree, the root being from twenty to thirty feet from the tree. The wood, leaf and early shoots very much resemble what is called Miller's Bur- gundy, also the fruit, in colour and flavour; but in size it is much larger. It was observed, that the fruit obtained in September, 1827, was a deep brown; that of the next season, some were brown and
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Grapes and Vineyards.
others a deep black. The difference was accounted for by Mr. Dininger, who stated that the brown bunches were those that were shaded from the sun by the thick foliage of the tree; but those exposed to the sun were black. Some of the bunches procured that season were very fine, and set closely upon the stem-fruit the size of the Powel grape, skin thin, no pulp, a sweet water, seed small, flavour equal to the celebrated Black Prince, and not inferior to any foreign grape, for the table.
It is believed to be a truth, that no native grape was previously found, that did not possess a secondary skin, enclosing a stringy pulp, and most of them possessing a husky flavour, proving their affinity to the fox. But because this one, found on the Susquehanna, is an exception-because it possesses all the delicate sweetness, tenderness of skin, and delicious flavour of the most esteemed exotics, we are not willing to concede that it is not entitled to be classed among the native productions of our soil.
In favour of its being purely of American origin, we will state, that the island on which it was found has never been inhabited ; that lying immediately below Eshleman's falls, the approach to it is diffi- cult; and that it has rarely been visited, except by the proprietor, an aged man named Fales, lately deceased, who did not trouble himself much about grapes, native or foreign, and merely used it as a place to turn young cattle upon in the summer season. The sycamore, of which it is the parasite, appears to be about forty years old, and the vine is rooted about thirty feet from the stem of the tree, under a pile of drift wood, from which it runs along the ground, in company with three other vines of the fox or chicken variety, apparently of the same age, and, interwoven, climb the tree together. From appearances, one should judge that the tree is not older than the vine; and that the young sycamore, in its growth, carried the vine with it.
At the period in which this vine must have taken root, foreign · grapes were little known in the United States, and then their cultiva- tion was confined to the neighbourhood of the great Atlantic cities.
None of the foreign varieties we have seen correspond in appear. ance with this fruit ; for though the wood and leaf of Miller's Bur- gundy are so similar as scarcely to be distinguished apart, yet the bunches and fruit of that of the Susquehanna are much larger.
Again-we have many stories related through the country, by per- sons worthy of credit, of the delicious grapes found upon the islands of the Susquehanna ; some described as white, some red, black, pur- ple, &c., without pulp, and all ripening in August and September. It was these reports which urged several gentlemen to the pursuit, that has been so far crowned with success, in the discovery of the kind above described. Mr. D. was one of several citizens who visited the Brushy island, in the autumn of 1827, and saw the vine, and from the ob- servations then made, and facts that have since come to his know- edge, says, I have no doubt that there does exist in those islands a
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Beasts of Prey, and Game.
variety of grapes, equal, for the table or for wine, to any that have been imported, and that they are purely native.
Of the grape now discovered, we understand there are from two to three hundred plants, in the possession of different gentlemen in that neighbourhood, in vigorous growth, independent of those in the possession of Col. Carr and the Messrs. Landreths, of Philadelphia.
Charles Thomson used to tell, that the most luscious and excellent wild grape he ever tasted, grew in a meadow on the road to Chester. He thought the fruit so fine that he intended, at a proper season, tc procure cuttings, for its cultivation ; but found the stupid owner had destroyed it, because "it shaded too much of his ground !"
BEASTS OF PREY, AND GAME.
" The squirrels, rabbits, and the timid deer, To beasts of prey are yet exposed here .- Poem, 1729.
THE following notices of the state of wild animals roaming through our woody wastes in early days, will aid the mind to perceive the state of cultivation which has since banished the most of them from our territories, to wit :
Mr. Kalm, the Swedish traveller, who was here in 1748, says that all the old Swedes related, that during their childhood, and still more in the time of the arrival of their fathers, there were excessive num- bers of wolves prowling through the country, and howling and yelp- ing every night, often destroying their domestic cattle.
In that early day, a horrible circumstance occurred for the poor Indians. They got the smallpox from the new settlers. It killed many hundreds of them. The wolves, scenting the dead bodies, de- voured them all, and even attacked the poor sick Indians in their huts, so that the few who were left in health, were much busied to keep them off.
The Swedes, he said, had tamed some few wolves. Beavers they had so tamed, that they were taken to fish with, and bring the fish they caught to their keepers. They also tamed wild geese, and wild turkeys. Those wild turkeys which he saw in the woods, were gene- rally larger than those of the domestic race .* The Indians also tamed the turkeys, and kept them near their huts. Minks were very numerous along the waters.+
· Penn speaks of turkeys weighing from forty to fifty pounds.
+ Hector St. John, of Carlisle, in 1784, speaks of it as practised there, to render rattle snakes harmless, and to keep them as matters of curiosity and amusement. If they find such a snake asleep, they put a small forked stick on their necks, by which they hold VOL. II .- 3 E 37
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Beasts of Prey, and Game.
In 1721, in September, several bears, says the Gazette, were seen yesterday, near this place, and one was killed at Germantown, and another near Darby. Last night a very large bear being spied by two amazons, as he was eating his supper of acorns up a tree, they called some inhabitants of this place (the city !) to their assistance, and he was soon fetched down and despatched by them.
As late as the years 1724 and '29, they gave a premium, by law, of 15 to 20s. for wolves, and 2s. for foxes. This was for the purpose of destroying them out of the country.
In 1729, a panther was killed at Conestogoe. It had disturbed the swine in their pen at night. The owner ran to the place with his dogs, and the beast then ascended a tree. It being very dark, the women brought fire and made a flame near it. It was shot at twice. The second fire broke both its legs, when, to their surprise, it made a desperate leap and engaged with the dogs, until a third shot in the head despatched it.
About the same time, a monstrous panther was killed at Shrews bury, by an Indian. Its legs were thicker than those of a horse, and the nails of its claws were longer than a man's finger. The Indian was creeping to take aim at a buck in view, when hearing something rustling behind him, he perceived the panther about to spring upon him. He killed him with four swan shot in the head.
In 1730, a woman in Chester county, going to mill, spied a deer, fast asleep, near the road. She hit it on the head with a stone, and killed it.
The latest notice of buffaloes, nearest to our region of country, is mentioned in 1730, when a gentleman from the Shenandoah, Va., saw there a buffalo killed, of 1400 pounds; and several others came in a drove at the same time.
1732 .- At Hopewell, in New Jersey, two bucks were seen fight- ing near the new meeting-house, in the presence of a black doe. They fastened their horns so closely, that they could not separate, and were so taken alive! The doe also was taken. Another brace had been before caught in a similar extremity !
In 1749, the treasurers of the several counties declared their treasu- ries were exhausted by the premiums paid for squirrels. £ 8,000 was paid in one year, (says Kalm,) for gray and black squirrels, at 3d a head, making the enormous aggregate of 640,000! The pre- mium was then reduced one half.
Samuel Jefferies, who died near West Chester, in 1823, at the age of eighty-seven, very well remembered a time, in his early life, when deer were plenty in his neighbourhood : and Anthony Johnson, of Germantown, tells me of often hearing from his grandfather there,
them firm to the ground, and in that state give them a piece of leather to bite. This they jerk back with great force, until they find their two poisonous fangs torn out. Once he saw a tamed one quite gentle. It was delighted to be stroked with a soft brush, and would turn on its back to make it more grateful. It would take to the water, and come hack at a call.
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Beasts of Prey and Game.
of his once killing deer, beavers, and some bears and wo.ves in that township.
Mr. Kalm, when here in 1748, says, all then agreed that the quan- tities of birds for eating, was then diminished. In their forefathers' days, they said the waters were covered with all sorts of water-fowl. About sixty to seventy years before, a single person could kill eighty ducks of a morning ! An old Swede, of ninety years, told Mr. Kalm he had killed twenty-three ducks at one shot! The wild turkeys and the hazel hens, (pheasants,) too, were in abundance, in flocks, in the woods. Incredible numbers of cranes visited the country every spring. They spoke also of fish being once much more abundant. At one draught they caught enough to load a horse ; and codfish, since all gone, were numerous at the mouth of the Delaware.
In the year 1751, as I was assured by the late aged Timothy Matlack, Esq., there was killed a bear, at the square now open east- ward and adjoining the late Poor-house, nine years before it was built, in 1760. He was killed by Reuben Haines, grandfather of the late gentleman of that name. He and five others had started him from near Fairmount, and chased him through the woods nearly five miles, when he took to a cherry tree at the square afore- said. They had no gun, but remaining there till one was procured, he was shot down. Mr. Matlack declared this was a fact. Penn's woods, we know, were then existing thereabout.
In 1750, a woman killed a large bear at Point-no-point. She lived there with Robert Watkins, and while she was at work near the kitchen out-house, he came up to it so near, that she killed him.
These were of course deemed rare occurrences, even in that day, and have been since remembered and told from that cause.
Old Mr. Garrigues, a respectable Friend, when about eighty-six years of age, assured me that when he was a lad, and coming home one night late from Coates' woods, then in the Northern Liberties, he actually encountered a bear as he was passing over the path at Pegg's run, then a lonely place. It was moonlight, and he was sure he could not have been deceived, and he fully believed it was also a wild one. This may seem strange to our conceptions now, but as the time is seen to agree with the story preceding it, of Haines and others starting a bear at Fairmount, in 1751, there may be more reason for inferring the fact, than would otherwise be admitted. If no better reason could be found, it might in both cases be admitted to be a bear escaped from keeping. Those different parties certainly never thought of comparing their accounts, and probably never knew of each other's adventures. Their coincidence, so far as they accord, furnishes a reason which has not escaped my observation, that an annalist should not reject isolated facts, if interesting them- selves, because he could not immediately discern their bearing ; for other incidents may occur to give them their due interpretation at some subsequent period.
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Culture of Silk.
In 1816, January 1st .- A large she wolf was taken in West Not- tingham, Chester county, nearly three feet high, measuring upwards of six feet in length.
1817, January 7 .- A large eagle was shot fifteen miles from Phi- ladelphia, in Moreland township, weighing eight pounds, and its wings extending seven feet. About the same time a wild cat was killed at Easton, measuring three feet.
1827, February .- A panther, measuring six feet, was killed seven- teen miles from Easton.
At Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in December, 1832, it was published that Mr. Long, of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, called Bill Long, had killed during the hunting season, one hundred and sixty-five deer, five elks, twenty-eight bears, and thirteen wolves; one of the elks weighed seven hundred pounds. All this was done in a county within fifty miles of the great State canal, and at places but thirty miles from the great thoroughfare, the Allegheny river. So rapid is our improvement.
In October, 1834, a bear, weighing one hundred and forty pounds, was started by dogs from near the head of Joseph Lindsay's mill pond, in Chester county, and after being pursued by men and dogs, and ascending and descending several high trees, and after receiving several shots and grappling some two or three times with the dogs, was at last killed by six guns at once. Such a visiter, in so im- proved a county, was a strange affair, and it is supposed that it must have crossed the Delaware from the Jersey pines.
About the same time it is published, that several were seen not far from Reading, coming down from the wooded mountains, and exploring their way along the skirts of the farms.
In the same winter of 1836, a man was killed and torn to pieces by wolves, in Perry county, Liberty valley, he having first killed six of them with his knife-so it was published.
CULTURE OF SILK.
FROM the commencement of our annals, at different periods of time, the advantages of silk culture have been recommended or attempted.
As early as the year 1725, James Logan, in writing to the Penn family, recommends " the culture of silk in this country as extremely beneficial and promising." He says " iron-works also promise well." In the next year he speaks of silk sent to England, saying " he is glad it proves so good, and he doubts not, in time, the country may raise large quantities."
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Culture of Silk.
In 1734, Governor Gordon addresses the lords commissioners of trade on various objects of produce, &c., and speaks in strong terms of his expectations from the culture of silk, " as a fit return to Great Britain" for their usual importations ; he says the tree is so natural to our soil, and the worm thrives so well. Some among us have shown its practicability by making some small quantities, &c.
In the year 1770, the subject was taken up in Philadelphia and adjacent country with great spirit. It was greatly promoted by the exertions of the American Philosophical Society, stimulated by the communications from Dr. Evans and Dr. Franklin in Europe. Application was made to the assembly for the establishment of a public filature at Philadelphia, for winding cocoons, and the ma- nagers to have power to grant premiums, &c., equal to about £500 per annum, for five years. The necessary incipient funds, equal to £900 were furnished by generous individuals on subscription, being generally £2 each, some £15, and Governor John Penn £20. With such means the filature was opened in June, 1770, at a house in Seventh street, between Arch and High streets, and a rate of pre- miums was announced.
It appears that in the year 1771, about 2300 lbs. were brought there to reel, and that of it 1754 lbs. were purchased by the managers in about two months, in July and August; nearly two-thirds of this had been raised in New Jersey. At the same time much discussion of the subject appeared in the gazettes, and many mulberry trees were planted in New Jersey and the counties around Philadelphia. The ladies in particular gave much attention to the subject, and especially after the war had begun, when the foreign fabrics of silk were cut off from their use. As early as the year 1770, Susanna Wright, of Lancaster county, at Columbia, made a piece of mantua of sixty yards length, from her own cocoons, of which I have pre- served some specimens* in my MS. Annals in the City Library, page 165 and 170. She also made much sewing silk. Mrs. Hop- kinson, mother of the late Francis Hopkinson, raised much cocoons. A woman in Chester county raised thirty thousand worms. To give eclat to these colonial designs, the queen gave her patronage by deigning to appear in a court dress from this American silk. The best dresses worn with us were woven in England. Grace Fisher, a minister among Friends, made considerable silk stuff; a piece of hers was presented by Governor Dickinson to the celebrated Catha. rine Macauley. The daughters of Reuben Haines, in Germantown, raised considerable, and his daughter Catharine, who married Rich ard Hartshorne, wore her wedding dress of the same material-pre- served on page 230 of the MS. Annals. The late Mrs. Logan was among those who in the time of the war raised their own silk in conjunction with several other ladies, to provide for their personal or family wants.
* It received the premium of the society.
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Ships and Shipbuilding.
In 1772, Robert Proud, our historian, makes a MS. memorandum of his visit to James Wright's place at Columbia, where he saw one thousand five hundred worms at their labour, under the charge of " the celebrated Susanna Wright." They said they could raise a million in one season, and would have undertaken it with suitable encouragement.
About the present time, the culture of silk begins again to awaken public attention. A few families in the country are engaged in it. A Holland family, on the Frankford road, were making it their exclu- sive business on a large scale; and in Connecticut whole communi- ties are pursuing it, and supplying the public with sewing silk.
SHIPS AND SHIPBUILDING.
PHILADELPHIA has long been justly renowned for her superior excellence and elegance in shipbuilding. None of the colonies equalled her; and, perhaps, no place in the world surpassed her in her skill and science in this matter. At the present day other cities of the union are approaching her excellence. When Samuel Hum- phreys, Sen., was visiting England, he was offered, it is said, a great sum to remain and execute models for the British navy. In early times they used to construct at Philadelphia great raft ships, of much larger dimensions than the late renowned ones from Canada, called the Columbus and Baron Renfrew, and which in the present day, have been regarded as nonpareils. A little before the war of Inde- pendence, the last raft ship was built and launched at Kensington .* Our great raft ships were generally constructed for sale and use in England, when our timber was more plentiful and cheaper. They would carry off " eight hundred logs of timber, competent to make six ships of two hundred and fifty tons each." An eye-witness, who saw one of those mammoth fabrics descend into her destined element, said she bent and twisted much in launching, but when on the water looked to the eye of the beholder much like another ship in form, &c.
Before the Revolution, a former raft ship, bearing the name of the Baron Renfrew, (probably the largest ship ever built, being up- wards of five thousand tons, and double the measurement of an ordi- nary seventy-four) made her voyage safely into the Downs. But the pilots being unwilling to take her into the Western channel, because of her great draught of water, undertook to carry her round the
* One was launched in 1774-5, at Slater's wharf, a little south of Poole's bridge, and was navigated by Captain Newman.
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Ships and Shipbuilding.
Goodwin sands, where being unable to beat up against the strong north wind, got her ashore on the Flemish banks, near Graveslines, where she was broken up by the heavy sea. Nearly all her cargo was saved. Rafts of great size were made of her lumber, and towed into France, and into the river Thames. Some of them contained fifteen to twenty thousand cubic feet of timber. On the top of one of them, which was towed to London, was the foremast spar of this mammoth ship-being a single tree of ninety feet in length, and was there regarded with great admiration, as a noble specimen of our American white pine.
The ship-yards used to occupy the river banks, beginning about Girard's wharf, above High street, up to Vine street, and, as popu- lation increased, extended northward. As early as the days of the founder, the shipyard of William West was begun at Vine street. The activity of shipbuilding there, by which he enriched his pos- terity, was wonderful. He had generally more orders than he could supply, (so says his late grandson,) and mostly required for Eng- lish and Irish houses abroad. William Penn's letter, of 1683, says, even then, " Some vessels have been built here and many boats."
In July, 1718, Jonathan Dickinson writes to his correspondent, saying, " Here is great employ for shipwork for England. It in- creases and will increase, and our expectations from the iron-works forty miles up Schuylkill are very great." The same writer calls a ship sometimes a galley, and a small vessel a hoy-of such he speaks as being used in navigating the Delaware, and going to Cape May for cedar rails, &c.
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