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 64
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Our collector had been carefully forewarned to keep a good look- out for the ripples at " the fording places;" for then, be it remarked, we had few or none of our present good bridges. When he got near to Harrisburg, having forded the Swatara, by the course of us rip- ple, he met with an old customer in the form of an elderly widow, who had just go a young husband, in the person of a German mu- sician. The lady was extremely afraid of fording, and as our young traveller had now acquired some skill therein, he offered to lead the way, if they would follow in their old fashioned chair. The offer was accepted, and they went on very well until about the middle of
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the stream, when lo! the horse which had been but imperfectly tied at the collar, actually walked out of his gears, drawing out the wed- ded groom by the reins into the water, and letting down the shafts! thus leaving the lonely lady screaming with fright, with her feet under the water in her chair! In the mean time the big trunk of merchandise, which had been set up in the forepart of the chair, was floating down the ebbing stream. Time and money were lost to procure assistance to regain the trunk, and to draw out the lady and the chair!
Harrisburg, at which he next arrived, was a rough and rude affair. compared with its present improvement and enlargement. The crossing of the Susquehanna, at the then "Harris' ford and ferry," was occasionally a terrible affair. He had actually to remain there nine days to get even a chance to pass over amidst the driving ice. When he did start, the boat, which had twenty inches of ice frozen to its bottom, became an unmanageable clump among the floating masses, and drove down the stream some miles, before they could effect their landing. Now, the same river is traversed by a grand bridge in two divisions, making an entire mile in length ! It ought to be remembered, that at this time there were no bridges in all the route to the West!
Carlisle was then chiefly remarkable for its rigid religious feelings, and especially in its deep silence in the streets and at the inns on the Sabbath. The Scotch Presbyterians then had all the sway to themselves.
On one occasion of travelling beyond Carlisle, the passage of the Yellowbreeches' creek was so swollen as to stop the passengers for a couple of days. He at length procured a man, who, for the con- sideration of four dollars, contrived to set him over at a place above the ford. He used a canoe to which he tied and swam the horse ; he then took off the wheels and the body of the sulkey, and ferried them over separately.
Sometimes these tours extended to the "far West," and at other times through the western parts of Virginia and North Carolina. As there were then no stages and no banks inland, there were of course no means of remittances, and, therefore, the collectors were expected to call generally upon their customers. When they had succeeded to gather their silver in quantities, they bought pack-horses to serve as their carriers ; each horse taking bags containing two thousand dollars, placed upon little wooden-formed saddles, much in the shape of a sawyer's wood-horse and set upon the horses' backs. These horses when they arrived at Philadelphia were sold. It was in this way of horse-back travelling, you could sometimes see officers of the Western army " coming into the settlements," as they called it, even on to Philadelphia. In this way of travelling, we can well remem- ber, when, about the same time, the present Philip, king of France, rode out High street, with his young brothers, as explorers and visiter's of the Western regions.
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We might justly be surprised, now, to contemplate a young man, quite alone, with his half a dozen horses laden with silver, travelling the lonely wilds of our woods and the rugged heights of our Al leghanies, unmolested by robbers, and almost without fear! No ac. cidents then occurred, for surely men were less enured to crime. The pack-horses used to be severally unladen at nights, and the silver carried into the traveller's bed-room, in the low log-house inn. The collector had indeed his pistols; but what were they to the power of the landlord and his friends, if they had been evil disposed ! The money was, however, a serious charge, and we could, if we had room, give some amusing anecdotes of false alarms.
Such facts, so recent in our history, should not be forgotten by those who now enjoy such remarkable improvements in our trans- portation conveyances, by steamers, railroads, and comfortable coaches drawn upon turnpikes.
The Revolutionary Navy.
The Revolution was begun without a single armed vessel. In 1775, Rhode Island began by fitting out two small schooners to de- fend the coasting trade, and Connecticut had also two small vessels for the same object. Rhode Island was the first to recommend to congress the formation of a naval force; and in December, 1775, congress commissioned several vessels-say thirteen in number, and thus commenced our gallant little navy. In the spring of 1776, Mas- sachusetts fitted out several armed vessels, the white flag of which bore a figure of a pine, or liberty tree, with the motto, " We appeal to Heaven." The first naval battle took place about three weeks after the battle of Lexington ; and a Captain Wheaton was the first to cause the striking of the British flag on the ocean. At the time of this early career on the sea, General Washington undertook to get up and send to sea an expedition of six vessels, and was obliged in his instructions to address them as a part of the army. This because no congressional laws then existed for the creation of the navy
At this early period of our naval enterprise, the middle and more southern states seem to have started with the device of the rattle- snake, on their flag. The earliest vessels seen of the Virginia out- fit, at Norfolk and Hampton roads, contained thirteen stripes, and a rattlesnake in its coil with head and tail erect, and thirteen rattles- with the motto, " Don't tread on me." *
The earliest frigate, from Philadelphia, the Alfred, Captain Hop- kins, of which Paul Jones, was lieutenant, showed a flag of thirteen stripes of red and blue, with a rattlesnake, in a running attitude, with mouth open and sting projected, under it the motto-"Don't tread on me." That same flag, says Sherburne, in his Life of Jones, was borne by the Alliance frigate, under Paul Jones, when she dashed through a British fleet of twenty-one sail of war-vessels in the North sea, receiving their fire and making her escape.
. It is commended by the London Morning Chronicle, of 25 July, 1776.
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Memoranda from Lewis Evans' Journey in 1743, going from Philadelphia by the Schuylkill and Susquehanna, to Lake Ontario, to wit.
About 24 miles west of the wagon ford, is the passage through the first ridge of the Kittocktinny Mountains, (since Blue Moun- tains.) From the top of this pass we have a view of the vale ten miles across, varied here and there with swelling hills, look- ing at a distance like cleared land, but are covered with dwarf oaks, about shoulder high, and bearing acorns, or the best gall- nuts of any we have. Count Zinzendorf gave to this vale the name of St. Anthony's Wilderness, and designs, as Mr. Conrad Weiser tells me, to bring over some Germans to settle it. The soil is but poor and ordinary, except on the Swatara, and there is at present no practicable road over the mountain by which the vale may communicate with the settled part of the province. [The foregoing description must apply to Schuylkill county generally.] He speaks of a settlement of Indians, five families of Delawares, at the confluence of the two branches of the Swatara ; -marking the place since Jones Town, on the main road to Harrisburg. [How things are since altered .- The Wilderness of St. Anthony is no more such, but is now " a beautiful and varie- gated valley above the Kittatinny Mountain," which mountain stretches from the junction of the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, over Dauphin, Schuylkill, and Northampton counties.]
Shamokin (now Sunbury) is called an Indian town of Dela- wares, who have their groups of wigwams pretty near together, and many more scattered here and there over a very fruitful spot of ground of about 800 acres.
Early travelling in Pennsylvania, inland, 1762.
Heckewelder tells us of his travel from Litiz (Lancaster) with C. F. Post and others, to the Indians at Muskingum. They started on horseback, singing a hymn. Their going so far was deemed perilous. Put up first night at Middletown; next day crossed the Susquehanna at Harris's ferry ; the river was risen fearfully by the melting of much snow, the ferrymen feared to cross; at length they got over, but were carried down the stream two miles by the rapid current. Stopped at Carlisle to meet and talk with Indians ; in two days reached Shippensburg, where they saw the last of the white settlements. Then came the howling wilderness, and every where they saw the blackened ruins of former houses and barns, and remains of chimnies, the sad memorials of French and Indian devastations in the war of 1756, and after, of which they heard many horrid recitals from eye-witnesses. Eleven miles beyond Shippensburg, Post struck into a mountain path, as a much shorter route than by the wagon road. The path was VOL. II .- 3 V
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hardly discernible, and the ascent steep and rocky. After a traver of several days, they arrived at the Juniata crossings, incurring much danger over the rapid stream. Soon after they passed " Bloody Run," where a body of soldiers conveying provisions to Fort Pitt, had been surprised and killed. Seven miles further, they came to Fort Bedford, where was a strong garrison. On the 30th March they began to cross the Alleghany mountains; then the ground was covered with snow 32 feet deep. Saw there many carcases of horses scattered along the mountain path, more snow was falling, and they feared to be covered with it; after a pain- ful ride, they gained the summit of the mountain. At last, after a hard day's journey, they came to the cabin of a hunter (Jack Miller) in Edmond's swamp. As soon as nightfall the wolves came round and began their dismal howl, the night music of the place, all the year round. Miller (called "Fancy Jack") had no stable, and to guard the horses from the wolves, ward and watch was kept up all the night by the hunter and his sons. In the morning they started and soon reached Stony Creek, where the small steam was too swollen to be crossed. The small gar- rison, and the few settlers were on the other side. In time a Sugar trough was brought from the woods, and they ferried over, but their horses narrowly escaped destruction. Afterwards they crossed Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge, and reached Bushy Run on the 1st April, from whence they pushed on diligently to go 25 miles to Fort Pitt, before night. When within seven or eight miles of that Fort, they found themselves on Braddock's field, known as the place of action on the 9th July, 1755, by the dreadful sight of so many scattered skulls and bones of the slain, which lay so thickly around, as to be continually stricken by the hoofs of their horses and awaking dismal recollections of the slain. At length they reached the Fort, and were once more among their fellow men. The then only private dwelling was at the point, owned by two traders, Davenport and Mckinney, who received them into their house with the most friendly hos- pitality. In the command of the Fort, was Colonel Bouquet, who, with his officers, treated them with much civility.
[Such as the preceding, was the nature, toil, and exposure of an inland travel, in 1762, and for several years afterwards. It is something now, to be thus informed by actual travellers, what was once the rough and wilderness state of a country, since so settled, productive and flourishing !]
Western Pioneers, as recollected by Rev. Mr. Doddridge.
The first settlements along the Monongahela, commenc ' by his father, with others, was in 1772. In 1773, they extended en to the Ohio. First settlers came mostly from Maryland and Vir. ginia ; they generally went by the route of Braddock's TRAIL
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Some which went from Pennsylvania, went by the military road, via Bedford and Ligonier. Their removals were generally on horses with pack-saddles. Settlement entitled men to land, 400 acres free. They called the same "Tomahawk's rights," because with it they barked and deadened the trees around their bounds of location. They usually chose grounds having a hollow for the house and barn, and the hills near, making them as settled in a basin, intending thereby that "whatever comes to the house, comes down hill."
Usually, settlers came in the Spring, the male part only, and after clearing and planting corn, &c., went back for their families, and brought them out in the Fall. Small families came out at once in the Spring. They depended much on lean venizon and wild turkeys, and often the flesh of the bear. Anxiously they looked out for the first growth of the potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, &c. When the young corn came it was a perfect jubilee to use them for roasting ears, and afterwards when hardened by age, to grate them on a tin grater for "Johnny Cakes." (Journey cakes.)
At this time, the settlers lived in peace with the Indians, but in the year of 1774, all was brought into confusion and peril by the war of Lord Dunmore, all brought on by the atrocious murder of the peaceable, inoffensive Indians at Captina, and Yellow Creek. They had, in consequence to move the women and children into Fort, wherein they had small hovels ; the men, in the mean time, had to risk the knife and tomahawk, in occasional attention to their fields, to guard their families from eventual starvation.
These original settlers had to be their own mechanics, for all which they needed. The hommony block and hand-mills were found in most of their houses. The block was hollowed out at top by burning, and the play of the pestle ground the corn. Sometimes they used the sweep of 16 feet to lessen the toil. in pounding corn into meal for cakes and mush. At some places where they had saltpetre caves, they made their own gunpowder by means of those sweeps and mortars. In making meal, they also used a domestic contrivance called a grater ; it was a plate of roughly perforated tin, on which they grated their grain. The hand mill was another and a better contrivance, made with two circular stones, the under one being the bed stone, and the upper one the runner. These were placed to run in a wide hoop or band, with a spout for discharging the meal; the runner was moved by a staff passed through an upright affixed in the run- ner. Such mills are still used in the Holy Land, as alluded to by our Saviour, when he said "two women shall be grinding at a mill." &c.
Their water-mills were tub-mills, made readily with little ex- pense, consisting of an upright shaft, at the lower end of which a wheel of 4 or 5 feet was attached, the upper end passed through
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the bed stone and carried the runner in the manner of a trundle. head. Sifters were used in lieu of bolting cloths, and were made of deerskins as a parchment, stretched over a hoop and pierced with holes made with hot wire.
As to their clothing, it was spun by women in every house ; almost every woman could weave their linsey-woolsey and make the clothes.
Every family tanned their own leather; their tan vat was a large trough sunk in the ground ; bark was shaved and pounded, ashes were used in place of lime, for taking off the hair. Bear's and hog's lard and tallow, answered in place of fish oil. The currying was done with a drawing-knife ; the blacking was made of soot and hog's lard.
Most families had their own tailors and shoemakers; those who could not make shoes could make shoe packs, made like moccasons, of single pieces of leather, save the tongue-piece, on the top of the foot, all was fitted by gathering stitches. They made ploughs of wood, harrows with wooden teeth, they also made their own cooper ware of staves. Some who could not do some of these things for themselves, gave their labor to those who could, and so all were profited and mutually accommodated. Rough times indeed !
For a long time after the first settlement of the country the inhabitants married young. There was no distinction of rank, and very little of fortune; on these accounts the first loves resulted in marriage; and a family establishment cost but a little labor, nothing else. Marriages were celebrated at the house of the bride, and the incidents were usually these, viz .: It created a general sensation, it was looked to by all, old and young, as occasion for frolic and fun, and being almost the only means of producing a gathering, except where labor was required, such as reaping, log-rolling, house building, or campaigning; they went to it with double zest. The groom party started from the house of the father early, so as to reach the house of the bride by noon, the intended time of marriage,-for it was always to precede the dinner. The company there assembled being frontier people, without a store, tailor, or mantuamaker within a hundred miles, came dressed accordingly. The gentlemen were dressed in shoe-packs, moc- casons, leather, breeches, leggins, linsey hunting shirts, and all home-made. The ladies dressed in linsey petticoats, and linsey or linen bedgowns, coarse shoes, stockings, handkerchiefs, and buckskin gloves, if any. The horses were caparisoned with old saddles, old bridles or halters, and pack-saddles, with a bag or blankets thrown over them ; a rope or string was the usual girth, The procession march on such an occasion was intended to be in double file, where the horse paths, for they had no roads, would permit. Such paths were occasionally interrupted by fallen trees
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and sometimes so done from mischief, and by interlocking grape vines and sapplings to frustrate the company. Sometimes a posse of neighbors would be resting in ambush to fire a feu de joie, so as to cover the party with smoke, and to create surprise and shrieks among the riding ladies, and the chivalrous bustle of their part- ners. If some got a sprain, they bound it up with their handker- chief, and cared little more about it; they had no doctors to help them, nor to help consume their gains. As the procession neared the house of the bride, it would sometimes occur that two young men would start on horseback, full tilt, to win the bottle of whis- key, which, it was previously understood, would be hung out for the gain of the first arrival. The start was announced, by an Indian yell; the more the route was encumbered by logs, brush, muddy hollows, &c., the better for the rival parties to show their norsemanship. The bottle gained, the winner returns to the party, and first hands it to the groom, and thence it goes on from one to another, giving each their draught of a dram, the ladies included.
For the repast of such a party, the table, made of a large slab of timber hewn out with a broad-axe, and set on four sticks, was spread with beef, pork, fowls, and sometimes deer and bear meat. There might be some old pewter dishes and plates, but the rest were wooden bowls and trenchers. A few pewter spoons were to be seen, but the most of them were made of horns. If knives were scarce, the deficiency was made up by using their scalping knives, taken from the belts of their hunting shirts.
After dinner dancing commenced, and usually lasted till the next morning. The figures were reels, or square sets, and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was fol- lowed by what was called jigging it off; none were allowed to steal away to get sleep, and if girls got tired, they were expected, for want of chairs, to sit upon the knees of the gentlemen.
At 9 or 10 o'clock at night, some of the young ladies would steal off the bride. That was sometimes to a loft, above the dan- cers, going there by a ladder; and such a bride's chamber, was floored with clap boards, lying loose and without nails. Some young men, in mean time, stole off the groom to his bride. At a later period, they sent them up refreshments, of which black Betty, so called, was an essential part, as she stood, in their par- lance, for a bottle of whiskey.
Such entertainments sometimes lasted for several days, none giving over till fully fagged down. If any neighbors felt them- selves slighted, by not being invited, it would sometimes occur, that such would show their presence by cutting off the manes, foretops, and even tails of the horses belonging to the wedding party, everything being rude, like the regions which surrounded them! All those scenes and all those kinds of people have passed away.
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First Western Settlements.
Wm. Darby, speaking of his early recollections of Pittsburg, and the adjacent country, (beginning 25 years after Braddock's defeat,) after speaking of his wonderment at the changes effected in 55 years of absence, says, that the Indians were before his time, most clustered about that vicinity. That it was there that Shingas, King of the Delawares, occupied the spot chosen by Washington as the agent, for the site of a post for the Ohio Company. The other part of the proximate country was in- habited by the Mingoes and Shawanoes. When the French were obliged to abandon their position at the forks of the Ohio, the greater part of the Indians moved further west ; so that when settlements first began to be made there by the Whites from Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania, the whole country was an unsettled wil- derness. It was between the years 1735, and '50, that the Whites passed and seated themselves "few and far between," beyond the Blue Ridge. The oldest town in the Great Valley, is Win- chester, Va., which had probably been an Indian village before. It was a trading station as early as 1730; Hagerstown was also another out-trading post. Salt at that time was worth $5 per bushel to frontier people, and the difficulty of getting it continued for 30 years afterwards. The great era of Western settlement began in 1752, under the auspices of Gov. Dinwiddie; it was he that gave the impulse and encouragement westward, extending from Wyoming in Pennsylvania, to Holstein river in Virginia. In Virginia, the Alleghany was not passed by the settlers until 1749, when some isolated habitations were formed in the Green Brier county. In 1750, Christopher Gist was sent out by the Ohio Company, with instructions to examine the country, and to report the practicability of settlements along the Ohio river, and thence down to the Falls of Ohio. He made his journey up the Potomac, thence up the valley to where Fort Cumberland was afterwards made; thence to the Franktown on a branch of the Juniata, thence to Loyalhannon, and thence out to the Ohio, at the Forks. When he got to Muskingum, he saw the King's colours there hoisted, and George Croghan (Indian trader) at the head of the few Whites found there, and holding a council with the Indians. It was from Winchester, Va., that Thos. Merlin and John Salling undertook a journey of discovery up the Great Valley. They went as far as the head of the Roanoke, where Salling was captured by the Cherokees, and carried to the present Tennessee; from thence he escaped in a hunting excursion in Kentucky. At his return home, via New Orleans to Williams- burg, he gave such fascinating accounts of the fine lands seen that he inspired John Lewis and John Mackay to accompany him westward. Lewis made his settlement near the present
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Taunton, and gave his name to Lewis creek, a branch of James river; and Mackay fixed himself (where his descendants now reside,) in the Forks of the Shenandoah. At that time their hunters could find buffaloes to kill, now no longer seen.
First Settlers of New Jersey.
Of the first settlement of Newton township, old Thos. Sharp, a friend, has left a quaint account, to wit: Let it be remembered, that it having wrought upon ye minds of some friends that dwell in Ireland, but such as came thither (there ?) from England, and a pressure being laid upon them for some years, from which they could not remove until they gave up to leave their friends and relatives there, with their comfortable subsistence, to transport themselves and families into this wilderness. In order thereto, they sent from Dublin in Ireland, to one Thomas Lurtin, a friend in London, commander of a pink, who came and made his agreement to transport them into New Jersey, viz : Mark Newby, Thomas Thackara, William Bate, George Goldsmith, and Thomas Sharp, (the writer) then a young man and single. But while the ship lay at Dublin, Thomas Lurtin getting sick, remained behind, and put the command under his mate, John Daggar, who set sail the 19th 9th mo., 1681, and arrived at Elsinburg in Salem Co., upon the 19th 11th mo., (two months) following, where they were well entertained at the houses of the Thompsons, who had before gone from Ireland in 1677. [The time of the first Thomas Watson.] These had attained to very good living by their in- dustry. From there, we went to Salem, where were several houses that were vacant of persons who had left the town to settle in the country. In these we resided for the winter, which proved to be moderate. At Wickacoa (Philadelphia) we purchased a boat of the Swansons [sons of Sven the Swede] and so went to Burlington to the Commissioners, of whom we obtained a war- rant of survey, from the then Surveyor General, Daniel Leeds. Then, after some considerable search to and fro in what was then called the third of Irish tenth, we at last pitched upon the place then called Newton, [up Newton creek, and now gone,] which was before the settlement of Philadelphia. In the Spring of 1682 we all removed from Salem, together with Robert Zane, who had before come with the Thompsons, and was also expect- ing us. So we began then our settlement; and although we were at times pretty hard bestead, having all our provisions as far as Salem, to fetch by water, yet through mercy of God, we were preserved in health, and from any extreme difficulty. A meeting was immediately set up at the house of Mark Newby,*
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