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 60
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
In 1690 there were many settlements of Indians in these town- ships-one on the lowlands near the river, on George Pownall's tract, which remained for some time after he settled there-one on James Streiper's tract, near Conkey hole-one on land since Samuel Harold's-one on Joseph Fell's tract-and one at the Great spring, &c.
Tradition reports that they were kind neighbours, supplying the white people with meat, and sometimes with beans and other vege- tables; which they did in perfect charity, bringing presents to their houses, and refusing pay. Their children were sociable and fond of play. A harmony arose out of their mutual intercourse and de- pendence. Native simplicity reigned in its greatest extent. The difference between the families of the white man and the Indian, in many respects, was not great-when to live was the utmost hope, and to enjoy a bare sufficiency the greatest luxury.
About 1704, several new settlers arrived; among whom was my great-grandfather, Thomas Watson. His certificate is from Pardsey
525
Appendix.
Cragg, in Cumberland, G. B., dated 23d, 7th mo., 1701. His wife was Eleanor Pearson, of Probank in Yorkshire, and their two sons, Thomas and John. He first settled at a place then called Moncy hill, near Bristol ; and settled finally, about 1703 or 1704, on Rosill'a four hundred acres in Buckingham.
John Watson became the deputy surveyor in this county ; and by the force of a suitable docility of mind and quickness of perception, rather than from constant application, he acquired among learned men the character of a great scholar. At the time of his decease, which was in 1761, he was employed, in company with Purdie and Dixon, in running the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Being seized with the influenza, and having taken cold while in a fever, in extremely hot weather, he rode upwards of sixty miles in a day to William Blackfan's, where he died.
It appears in an old account book of my grandfather, Richard Mitchel, who had a grist-mill and store in Wright's town, 1724 to 1735, that his charges are as follows :- wheat from 3s. to 4s. ; rye one shilling less ; Indian corn and buckwheat, 2s. ; middling, fine, 7s. and 8s .; coarse, 4s. 6d. ; bran, 1s. ; salt, 4s .; beef, 2d .; bacon, 4d. ; pork was about 2d.
Improved land was sold generally by the acre, at the price of 20 bushels of wheat. Thus, wheat 2s. 6d., land £2 10s .; wheat 3s., land £3; wheat 3s. 6d., land £3 10s .; wheat 5s., land £5; wheat 7s. 6d., land £7 10s .; wheat 10s., land £10. When provender could be procured to keep stock through the winter, milk, butter, and cheese became plenty for domestic use. Swine were easily raised and fattened. Deer, turkeys, and other small game made a plentiful supply of excellent provision in their season. Roast veni- son and stew-pies were luxurious dishes, which the hunter and his family enjoyed in their log cabins with a high degree of pleasure.
Having generally passed over the era of necessity that attended the first settlement, about 1730, and for some time before, they mostly enjoyed a pretty good living, were well fed, clothed, and lodged ; and though all was in the coarse way, yet their fare was wholesome and nourishing, their clothes fine enough for labouring people, and no doubt they slept as sound on chaff beds on the floor in the loft, as they could have done with all the finery that the in- ventions of later days have introduced. The domestic management that fell to the share of the women was generally well ordered. As soon as wool and flax were raised, they manufactured good linen of different kinds and degrees of fineness, drugget, linsey, worsted, &c., sufficient to clothe themselves and families ; were very industrious and frugal, contented to live on what their present means afforded, and were generally well qualified to make the most proper use of what they had.
Notwithstanding the engagements at home, and the difficulty of travelling in ,those early times, yet visits of friendship were fre. quent, not only to relations, but others. On these occasions, cider,
526
Appendix.
metheglin, or small beer, toast of light biscuit made of fine wheat flour, and milk, butter, cheese, custards, pies, made an afternoon's repast. Chocolate was sometimes used ; and in lack of other mate- rials, the toast was sometimes made with rum and water. For common living, milk and bread, and pie, made the breakfast ; the milk being boiled, and sometimes thickened in winter; good pork or bacon, with plenty of sauce, a wheat flour pudding, or dumplings, with butter and molasses for dinner ; and mush or hominy with milk and butter and honey, for supper. Pies of green or dried apples were the universal standard of good eating, especially with children. When milk was scarce, small-beer thickened with wheat flour and an egg, or cider in that way, made an agreeable breakfast.
Wheat was the principal article for making money. Butter, cheese poultry, and such articles were taken to market on horseback. There were but few stores in the neighbourhood, and those kept but few articles.
Most of the original tracts were settled and improved before 1720, and in 1730 the lands up the Neshamony and in Plumstead were settled; and in New Britain by Welsh generally. Large fields were cleared and pretty well fenced; low and swampy land was cleared out for meadow; and but little seed of any kind of foreign grass was sown, as the plough was seldom used to prepare for meadow ; and red and white clover were only propagated by manure, after they were first somehow scattered about on the new settlement.
From 1730 to 1750, as the people were industrious, the land fresh and fertile, and seasons favourable, their labours were blessed with a plentiful increase; so that many plain dwelling houses and good barns were built, convenient articles of househould furniture were added by degrees, and by the means of productive labour, moderate riches increased insensibly. The winter of 1740-41 was very severe. The snow was deep, and lay from the latter end of December to the fourth of March ; and in the period above mentioned, there was ge- nerally more snow, and that lay longer on the ground through the winters, than of latter years. Easterly storms of pretty heavy rain, lasting mostly two or three days, were also much more frequent.
Northern lights, I believe, are not so common of late years as formerly ; but of this I am not certain.
Indian corn, not being an article of trade, was not attempted to be raised in large quantities before 1750, nor until some years after. It was dressed by ploughing and harrowing between the rows, the hills all moulded nicely with the hoe when the corn was small, and, after ploughing, hilled up again with the hoe. For wheat, open fallows were preferred, which were generally ploughed three times during the summer; but in this way, unless corn and buckwheat had preceded, the blue grass, not being killed, became injurious to the crop. Hence, what was called double cropping became com- mon; which is sowing oats on the corn-stalk and buckwheat ground, and then sowing wheat in the fall. This practice effectually killed
527
Appendix.
the grass, and impoverished the land; la.ge fields being sown, and but small portions manured. Liming answered a good purpose, which kept the soil in better heart; but, on the whole, wheat crops were on the decline, growing poorly in the fall, being eaten by lice or small flies; and, in wet land, being frozen out by the winter Mildew and rust sometimes destroyed it near harvest. On all these accounts, spring grain was more cultivated ; and, as horses, cattle, and pork bore a better price, served in part to make up the de- ficiency. But the land generally suffered by a bad method of farming.
Before this time, no cross occurrence happened materially to dis- turb the general tranquillity ; every thing, both public and private, went on in an even and regular routine ; moderate wishes were fully supplied ; necessaries and conveniences were gradually increased ; but luxuries of any kind, except spiritous liquors, were rarely thought of, or introduced ; either of apparel, household furniture, or living. Farm carts were had by the best farmers. Thomas Canby, Richard Norton, Joseph Large, Thomas Gilbert, and perhaps a few more, had wagons before 1745; and a few two-horse wagons from then to 1750 were introduced; some who went to market had light tongue-carts for the purpose. These were a poor make-shift, easily overset, the wild team sometimes ran away, and the gears often broke. John Wells, Esq., was the only person who ever had a riding chair. He and Matthew Hughes were the only justices of the peace, except Thomas Canby, who held a commission for a short time; and there were no taverns in the two townships, except on the Delaware, at Howell's and Coryell's ferries, (which was owing probably to the disposition and manners of the inhabitants,) and but one distillery a short time.
The preceding account will apply with general propriety to the state of things until 1754, when a war began between England and France concerning lands on the west and north-west of Pennsylvania. Col. Washington was defeated and taken prisoner on Wills' creek; and. in the ensuing summer General Braddock was defeated and killed in that country. When the Indians attacked the frontiers of this province, four or five hundred thousand pounds were granted in a few years for the king's use ; money was also sent in from England to purchase provisions, and in general the war introduced a more. plentiful supply of cash. Trade and improvements were proportion- ably advanced; the price of all kinds of produce was increased, wheat was from six shillings to a dollar a bushel, and a land tax was raised to sink the debt; yet the burden was not sensibly felt, as there was such an increasing ability to bear it.
As the quantity of cash increased during the war, so also there was a much larger importation of foreign goods. Bohea tea and coffee became more used, which were not often to be found in any farmer's house before 1750. Tea, in particular, spread and prevailed almost universally. Half silks and calico were common for women's
528
Appendix.
wearing; various modes of silk bonnets, silk and fine linen neck- handkerchiefs ; in short, almost every article of women's clothing was of foreign manufacture. The men wore jackets and breeches of Bengal, nankin, fustian, black everlasting, cotton velvet, as the fashion of the season determined the point, which changed almost every year. Household furniture was added to, both in quantity and kind; and hence began the marked distinction between rich nd poor, or rather between new-fashioned and old-fashioned, which has continued increasing ever since. The first beginning was by imperceptible degrees ; I believe tea and calico were the chief initiating articles. Tea was a convenient treat on an afternoon's visit, easily gotten ready at any time ; and calico a light agreeable dress that would bear washing. On the whole, present calculation decided against homespun of almost every kind, and in favour of foreign manufactures, which were to be had in the city, or in country stores, so cheap, and often on credit.
The subject of old and new fashion bore a considerable dispute, at least, how far the new should be introduced. Some showed by their practice that they were for going as far as they could ; some stopped half way; and a few, trying to hold out as long as they could, were not to be won upon by any means more likely to prevail than by the women, who had a strong aversion to appearing singular; so that at the present time, and for these twenty years past, there are but few men, and fewer women, left as perfect patterns of the genuine old-fashioned sort of people.
State of the Country at Swatara, Pottsville and Mauch Chunk in 1829, as seen, and journalized by an observer.
The MS. from which this is taken, being a picture of things as they were, and from which they are continually changing by popu lation and improvement, may serve to preserve some tokens of their former wilderness state, to wit :
On Monday, 3d August, 1829, I started in the mail stage, at three o'clock A. M., for Reading. Found a full company of agreeable travellers-went twenty-six miles to Troy's, to breakfast Giving time for a devouring appetite.
We approached Reading by 11 o'clock. High hills and moun- tains seem to encircle it. We look down upon it as in a vale below us. It covers a wide extent of ground, and presents a mixture of log houses and finely built three story brick buildings. The place has an air of business.
The first hotel there was the house of Conrad Weisser, seen in 1829, as the little white store of General Keim, on the corner of Callowhill and Penn streets, and since replaced by a great new house of fashion. It was at that place that C. Weisser, as Indian agent, used to deliver the Indian presents-here the war song of the savage was sung, the war dance wound down, and the calumet of peace was smoked. The house was built earlier than the town
529
Appendia
Here I took my seat for Lebanon-to go along the line of the Union canal through the Tulpehocken country. The Tulpehocken country ranging along the line of the creek, to Lebanon, is a rich valley country, with high mountains in the distant view. The cultivation and scenery always fine. This was the favourite home of the Indians, and of their supplanters, the Germans. To this land went Conrad Weisser, the Indian interpreter,* he settled his farm at the present Womelsdorf, where we arrived at half-past two o'clock- a town chiefly of log houses, on a rising ground. There I inquired for Weisser-he has been buried there many years-his grandson is still there-Old Willick Seltzer, now alive there, remembers to have seen and talked with Conrad. He was a good man, the favourite of the Indians, who invited him to go and settle at their home. C Weisser, as magistrate, married the first German minister there. The present aged Reverend William Hendel is said to have many facts of the primitive settlers. The whole face of the country looks German-all speak that language, and but very few can speak Eng lish. Almost all their houses are of squared logs neatly framed-of two stories high. They look to the eye like " Wilmington stripes," for the taste is to white-wash the smooth mortar between the logs but not the logs themselves, thus making the house in stripes of alternate white, and dusky wood colour. Much I wanted to make every house entirely white, with the white-wash of their abounding lime. The barns were large and well filled, generally constructed of squared logs or stone, but all the roofs were of thatched straw-a novelty to my eye- said to last fifteen years. Their houses were shingled with lapped shingles. Saw no stately or proud mansions, but all looked like able owners. This character of houses and barns, I found the same throughout my whole range of tour.
As I rode through the Tulpahocken, much I thought of the former Indian owners-
" Whose hundred bands Ranged freely o'er those shaded lands, Where now there's scarcely left a trace, To mind one of that tawny race."
Some few of them still clung about their former home till the period of the Revolution, and then suddenly withdrew. How it surprises the mind to consider the present rich harvest fields, decked all over with houses-canals and turnpikes running through former wilds. This in a place which in 1755, after Braddock's defeat, was so new, so frontier, so possessed by the Indians, that the massacres and ravages there were dreadful-one little girl was found alive, of six years of age, who had been scalped. The city gazettes of the day teemed with accounts of Indian devastations, at Tulpahocken-
* See Proud's History. Post and Tedyuscunk, and Indians stopped there, in 1758 next at Fort Hunter, on the Susquehanna.
VOL. II .- 3 R
45
530
Appendix.
in Berks-in Northampton-scaring the inhabitants into such towns as Lancaster, Easton, &c. The story ran that 1500 French and Indians were encamped on the Susquehanna, only thirty miles above the present Harrisburg !
I found all the aged with whom I talked, in my travels, had In- dian stories to relate when questioned. Near Pine grove is an aged woman now, who was nine years a prisoner with the Indians from that neighbourhood.
All the population we see are Germans of coarse manners and education. Uninformed as they are, they are powerful enough in the interior to sway the election, and to give us German rulers. This seems strange to contemplate, as we were originally English colonists.
We arrived at Lebanon at half-past four o'clock, P. M., a large- looking modern town-having a large court-house, prison, and three churches with steeples-the whole of a city aspect. Even here the talk of the street was still German, and occasional English.
This place is famous now as the Summit level of the Union ca- nal. I found the whole region a very level plain. Six miles of the canal here was cut through hard limestone rock, found a little below the surface ; it leaked greatly-they resorted to clay and puddling ; finally planked the whole six miles as tight as a tub ! A very ex- pensive concern !
All along my rides, I noticed every where fields strewed with flax laid to dry-for every where German women still use the spinning wheel ! Cheapness of manufactured goods will not allure them from their olden habits of making home-made stuffs.
I start along the Union canal, on foot-go by the celebrated tun- nel cut out of solid rock, through a hill. There I bathe in the canal ; finally see sixteen descending locks in seven miles-reach Mrs. Jeffries' good brick house, called " Mount Union hotel," near the romantic banks of the Swatara. There see a long and deep reservoir, used as a " feeder," by water works there, which by steam power pump up and send back the water before used at the Summit level. It is sent back by a framed trough six miles long! A good supper and bed here were charged only 2s. 6d .! From the mount near here, I looked northward over a very richly cultivated plain, formed along the stream of the Swatara. It had mountains near it. It lay in squares of various coloured fields, like the sections of a chequer board. From the canal here issued forth a beautiful cataract of forty feet, tumbling into the Swatara, nearly drained out below.
Having heard much of the great feeder, formed in the gaps of the Blue mountains, a few miles off, I started before sunrise to go along the line of the canal leading to it, by Jones' town, four miles off. This I also undertook on foot. It gave me much better chances of observation and the means of keeping close to the canal. It led through a romantic looking country, of alternate woods and farms
531
Appendix.
along the margin of the Swatara. I every where found more culti- vation than I had expected. At length I was much charmed, when I expected no such art of man, to see at a distance, gleaming through the trees, a kind of magnificent bridge across the Swatara, which on nearer approach proved to be a fine aqueduct to the canal, over which I went to the opposite side. Afterwards I passed a well finished bridge, at Jones' town ; I saw at a distance the place where the dam of the feeder was forming between the base of the two mountains- closing in the Swatara fifty feet deep, three-fourths of a mile wide, and seven miles long ! A big affair indeed ! An expense hereafter to be avoided, by inclined planes, as at Morris canal.
About forty houses in Jones' town, and a steepled church, on a level ground. Some locust trees before old houses.
Here I sought a horse and dearborne to convey me to the Blue mountain pass. Went through Stump town, a small log house town-rich and cultivated, in the county of Lebanon. All Germans, none along the road could answer me in English. They are a heavy, toilsome race-saw women at thrashing-heard no where the songs of the nursery-no mothers joyful with their children, all was dull and money-making.
I went across the Blue mountain on foot-I was desirous to feel, as well as see its slow ascent and descent. It took about four to five miles to get across it, although itself at the lowest point leading to " Pine grove." The whole of it was covered with broken frag- ments of big stones and forest trees growing between-seemed a good den for rattlesnakes, but I saw none, nor any kind of trace of wild animals! At meridian I reached the summit of the road, and sat me down on a stone in the shade, and there wrote this page of my book on the Blue mountains !
The tops of hills below me, covered with woods, look like a level vale covered with green velvet, and fields between of various culti- vated hues. I hear distant dogs bark, cows low, and sheep bleat, and tinkle. See readily at forty miles' distance, where all the horizon seems bordered and shut in by green mountains towering as my own, and through these are occasional ' passes,' where I see still further, twenty miles or more, to other mountains, blue with distance. From this resting stone, where I sit, once looked out the Indian wanderer, looking abroad as from the home of his Great Spirit. From hence they saw their smoking wigwams-knew their corn fields, and felt the love of their homes. In such still regions as this, they sought the bear and deer. All this walk over the mountain was through constant shade of lofty trees. 'The country towards Pine grove, after my descent, was in good tillage.
As I cross another branch of the Swatara, observed another in- stance of the usual bungling signs of the country, all done by coun- try artists " unknown to fame." Here I read on a finger post, " PEINT GROF," which, being interpreted, stood for Pine grove ! I before observed a sign lettered thus, to wit: "Sheuin work & al
532
Appendix.
wagons' -which stood for all kinds of wagon work and hored shoeing! All the usual signs of inns, with heads of generals, or horses, bulls, or bears, were clumsy daubs, often marking the genius of the host himself.
Wednesday, 5th August, -began this day before sunrise, by walking four miles to Schuylkill Haven, all along a good road and among farms-feel rejoiced to see myself so near to the head of the Schuylkill navigation. Here thought of Penn, when he first re- joiced to see the Schuylkill, near to Philadelphia-looked forward to its future usefulness in uniting our commerce to the Susquehanna. Yet little he or they then knew of the region where I now stand and ponder. How often, and how many Indians, but half a century ago, were familiar with this water as their favourite haunt-near here I see the canal, a work every where reducing savage wildness to level or modelled paths, &c. Along this I make my walk, all is still in early morn, the songsters of the grove are vocal, the sun just begins to gild the scene, and to give brilliance to the dew drops- canal boats are moving to and fro, the rush and fall of waters are heard in the locks, the boatmen's horns resound-half-tunes are blown abroad, and all the scene opens on the senses, from my former silent walk, like the spells of enchantment. As I proceed along a well- beaten canal path, passing lock after lock, and boats after boats-I see much romantic beauty and scenery, down the acclivity beneath my walks, in the closely adjacent and continuous Schuylkill, which here for a long distance adheres closely to the canal. As I ap- proached to Mount Carbon, the high hills came in view-in time they surrounded me ; and when I reached the proper landing place, or the head of the navigation, I see myself in a busy town, at the water side, and at the narrow base of mountains of 1000 feet in height, covered all over with woods. Wagons appear all along the road, drawing coal to the landing-there are great wharves for its de- posit, and boats about them to convey it to Philadelphia. Several warehouses, numerous boats building on the stocks-all noise, bustle and enterprise. Onward half a mile in ascending line, come to the general town called Pottsville, named after the original proprietor, whose blazing furnace still is there for melting ore and casting iron. Took my breakfast at eight o'clock, at Troutman's hotel, where I found my valise of clothes, before sent on from Reading.
Pottsville is another Rochester in rapidity of rise ; seems to be now a town of 100 houses, and constantly adding, buildings are avery where going up. It is a high ground, but in front and rear close shut up with coal mountains of 1000 feet high. The Sharp mountain and its range is ever in the eye-much city people here, all the storekeepers are from cities; no German characters here, save among the wagoners of the coal, and the country visiters. The Schuylkill is in sight, then hides itself between the mountains. Then I visited several coal mines ; the North American was worked into 1700 feet, others usually 600 or 700 feet. I saw the process
533
Appendix.
of the railway cars. The houses are generally plastered in imita tion of stone, or white, and several are of brick ; lots and houses bring great prices-much speculation abroad in lots and in coal acres. Only one old log house in the place, some are of white frame. Saw two rattlesnakes which had been killed in the neigh- bourhood. The hotels here are large. The coal wagons are con- stantly going along the street, making it black thereby. A rail road is forming along the river, on the other side, which will take off this annoyance. All the conversation here at present is about coal- one Gothic church, Presbyterian, and one Roman chapel.
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.