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 8
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He was present, with the brother and sister of Major Witherspoon, (aid to Gen. Nash,) when he was disinterred, in Philip Weaver's front lot. They had brought a coffin, and outer case, intending to take him home to Princeton, but his body was too decayed and of- fensive to bear such a removal. He was in the same pit with six other bodies ; but he was known from the rest, by the loss of part of his skull, and by being the only one wrapped in a blanket. The sister cut off a lock of his hair. What an affecting scene for relatives !
The English cavalry pursued the Americans eight miles, on the Skippack road, fifteen and a half miles from Philadelphia, into Whit- paine township, as far as the Blue Bell. We have heard from an old friend, a witness now at that place, that our militia was already there when the British cavalry arrived, and wheeled about to make good their retreat and return. He describes the confusion that existed among the Americans as past the power of description ; sadness and consternation was expressed in every countenance.
While the dead and dying, (which had preceded this halt at the Blue Bell,) were before seen moving onward for refuge, there could be seen many anxious women and children rushing to the scene to learn the fate of their friends, and to meet, if they could, the fathers, brothers, or other relatives, who had been before sent forward for the engage- ment. Again and again, the American officers were seen riding or running to the front of the militia with their drawn swords, threaten- ing, or persuading them to face about and meet the foe. But all efforts seemed to fail; and officers and men were still seen every where borne along on the retreat. They broke down fences and rushed away in confusion, as if determined no longer to hazard the chances of war in another onset. Some few, however, still held on to the moving mass of dead and wounded-for some had died, while still in the course of their removal.
General Nash, of North Carolina, Col. Boyd, Major White, of Philadelphia, aid to Sullivan, and another officer, who vere among
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the wounded, were carried onward, so far, as that when they died they were all buried side by side, at the Mennonist burying ground and church in Towamensing township, a place beautifully shaded with forest trees. Their graves there I have visited, twenty-six miles from Philadelphia .* I have learned from the sons of one De Haven, that their father had assisted in carrying Gen. Nash, who was brought into his house, and then taken two miles further to his brother's house, where he died,-having in his profuse bleeding for his coun- try's good, bled through two feather beds before he died. A Mr. Godshalk, who is alive at Kulpsville, saw his interment; Major White was deemed the finest looking officer in the service-his beauty and dress had conferred on him the soubriquet of " beau White." He was an Irishman by birth, married to a London lady, and the father of the present Judge John M. White, of Woodbury, New Jersey. He had gone on after the battle, wounded, but riding on his own horse. He had reached the house of Abram Wentz, on Skippack road, where he had before quartered. As the alarm of the pursuing army came onward, he undertook to ride six miles further, when he took a fever from his exertions, of which he died. A lady who saw him at Wentz's house, and who is still alive, has told me he came there with Gen. Furman, and that the major was gay and cheerful, and declined any bed or assistance. In the same company there was a very young officer from Virginia, (supposed to be Lieut. Smith,) wounded in the shoulder, who also went onward. An old German, a soldier, has informed that four of our officers were buried side by side at Whitemarsh, [most probably non-commissioned ones.] In that neighbourhood there are still some remains of the former entrenchments.
A large portion of the American army lay encamped on the Skip- pack road, twenty and a half miles from Philadelphia, and while there, Gen. Washington, and several of the officers, were quartered in the house of Mr. Morris --- since known as the large country house and residence of the late Dr. James, of Philadelphia. Gen. Wash- ington had also his quarters at Jacob Wampole's farm house (the father of the late Isaac Wampole, the eminent city scrivener,) located near a woods, and three quarters of a mile from the aforesaid Men- nonist burying ground. 'That family had known that the general was in the practice of retiring to pray.
It occurs to me here to say a little of the state and class of people settled in this section of country. Such as are known to me of Towamensing and Franconia. They were generally German Men- nonists and Tunkards. The latter have a meeting-house and a well dressed congregation, by the Indian creek; all the farms are well cultivated, and evince prosperity,-far different from what their fore- fathers could have enjoyed in their own country. Such a country as this is now, so little distant from Philadelphia, was only first set- tled in 1719-at the cost of but £10 for fifty acres. When first settled, several small remains of Indians still lingered about ; and the
* We have since given them a monument there.
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name of Indian creek, given by the settlers when the first surveys were made in 1718 to J. Steel, shows their then understood vicinage and home. There I have been shown their grave ground, &c. When Henry Funk settled there in 1719, in Franconia, he was six miles northward of any neighbour, and although his place is now a mill, he then had no mill nearer than the present Mather's mill at Flourtown, (so called most probably as the earliest known place of supply,) to which place the family used to send a single bag of grain on horseback.
The late Gen. Cobb, who was long a member of Gen. Washing- ton's military family during the war, has informed us of some of the habits of the chieftain. Every thing was to be precise and punctual there-at the breakfast hour, the general was sure to be punctual, and then he expected to find his aids, Cobb, Hamilton, Humphreys, awaiting him. He came then dressed for the day, bringing with him the letters and despatches of the preceding day, with short memoranda of the answers to be made; also the substance of orders to be issued. After breakfast, these papers were distributed among the aids, to be put in form. Soon after, he mounted his horse to visit the troops, and expected to find on his return, before noon, all the papers prepared for his inspection and signature. There was no familiarity in his presence; it was all sobriety and business. Throughout the war it was understood in his military family that he gave a part of every day to private prayer and devotion. Gen. Cobb, though so long closely connected with so grave a leader, was himself a man strongly disposed to enjoy a laugh ; and yet he says, that in his long intercourse with him, he had only met with one officer-Col. Scammel, who had the power of affecting the risibilities of the general. Scammel was full of ludicrous anecdotes, and when dining at the general's table, was allowed to take the command, and to excite, beyond any other man, the general himself.
It may afford interest to some, to learn some of the local facts incident to the management and retreat of La Fayette, at Barren Hill, where he was intended to be surprised and broken up by Gen. Gray, such as I learned them to be, from Samuel Maulmsby, a respectable Friend, dwelling then and since at Plymouth meeting- house.
He was at the time an active and observing boy. The whole British force arrived early in the morning at the meeting-house, in the rear of La Fayette, and halted in the public road, remaining there about an hour and a half, seemingly perplexed and disap- pointed; and, as it is believed, debating between the choice of going either to Spring mill, or Madson's ford. The men seemed unwearied, but chagrined and angry.
He had then an uncle-a Capt. Davis, of the Pennsylvania militia, who being then with the American army, and familiar with all the localities of the country, was much consulted and often used as a guide, &c. From him Mr Maulmsby learned many facts concern
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ing the retreat of La Fayette across the Schuylkill at Madson's ford Such as that the British made their approach with all possible quiet ness and secrecy, in the night (as before mentioned, through Ger- mantown, &c.) They turned at Mather's mill to go on to Plymouth. At that mill lived a Capt. Stoy, who having occasion to get out of bed, chanced to see the army passing his door. He immediately ran across the fields and nigh cuts, to give La Fayette the alarm; but his breath failing him, he called up one Rudolph Bartle, who ran on to Barren hill and gave the intelligence. La Fayette imme- diately sent off his artillery to the other side of Schuylkill, at Mad- son's ford, and going himself to the same place by the way of Spring mill. There were Oneida Indians attached to his command, who took their own course, and had to swim the river. In doing this, they left behind them a young prince of twelve years of age, whom they there lamented in strong cries and yells of distress, as being captured or drowned. He soon after appeared, when they all kneeled in solemn praise and thanksgiving, to the Great Spirit, for his safety. The force of La Fayette moved on to Valley Forge to join Wash- ington's army, then there.
Mr. Maulmsby saw among the British several refugees, who seemed to be very active advisers. Some of them had been his neighbours. They were dressed in greenish uniforms.
He told me a fact, which should be remembered, as it helps to illustrate many cases, I presume, of alleged cruelty and plunder. A party, from the force in the road, came into his mother's house under pretext of getting water. They seemed to be highlanders; these immediately ran over the house and up stairs, forcing open chests and drawers with their bayonets, and taking off what they liked. Had the matter rested there, the whole might have been deemed a common violence; but an accident showed another system. An officer came in to ask if they could spare a pair of swingle-trees, which when young Maulmsby had found, the price was asked, and none being required the officer gave him a guinea. At this time, a soldier was observed running to the house for his musket which he had forgotten, and out of this fact grew an explanation of the pre- vious plunder. The officer forthwith entreated the widow to come out to the men to designate the depredators, assuring her the pro- perty should be restored, and the men punished before her face; he saying, they had already been threatened with death, if they attempted to plunder. Just then firing was heard at a distance, when they all hastily marched off.
General Washington was often to be seen riding abroad, with a black servant, having a guard and some officers in company. How different things then, from what he must have afterwards witnessed them when a summer resident in Germantown, and going occa- sionally over the same happy and prosperous neighbourhoods, wit. nessing their changes and improvements.
In preserving the remembrance of the past, I may mention that
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the house in which I dwell was the residence of Thomas Jefferson, in 1793, when he was secretary of state. The same house was before occupied by John De Braine, a French-German, distinguished as an astronomer; who published, while here, several small publica- tions, and diagrams, too occult to be understood!
Persons now visiting Germantown, and witnessing its universal English population, could hardly imagine that a place so near Philadelphia could have retained its German character, down to the year 1793. Before that time, all the public preaching was in German ; and nearly all the plays of the boys, and their conversation, was in that tongue. The yellow fever of 1793 brought out here all the officers of the general and state governments, and of the banks, and filled all the houses with new inmates. In the next and subse- quent years, sundry families from the city became summer residents. Then English succeeded rapidly; and soon after, increased desires for English preaching, in part, began to be manifested among the young, and to be resisted by the aged. Then, Runkle, Wack, and others, who could preach in both languages, were inducted. Now, Mr. Richards is the only one who preaches in German, and that only once a month; the chief of his sermons are in English. The Metho- dists were the first who introduced English preaching-they beginning in the school house, at first.
While the British were here, the chaplains of the Hessians preached in the German churches, and two remained in this country after the war. One of them, the Rev. Mr. Schaeffer, took the Lutheran church, in Germantown.
The yellow fever could make no headway in Germantown, although so near Philadelphia ; only six or eight persons died of it here, and they had derived it from Philadelphia. The place is always pre-eminently healthy.
General Washington, when residing here, in 1793, was a frequent walker abroad, up the main street, and daily rode out on horseback, or in his phaeton. So that every body here was familiar with the personal appearance of that eminent man. When he and his family attended the English preaching, in the Dutch church, at the market house, they always occupied the seat fronting the pulpit. It was also his own practice to attend the German preaching, thus showing he had some knowledge of that language. His house was closed on the Sabbath, until the bell tolled, when it was opened, just as he was seen coming to the church. I chance also to know, that he had some knowledge of the French, because, when my friend, Jacob Roset first arrived in this country, about the year 1792, he, with four or five of his countrymen, met the general in the street, in Philadelphia; and stopping to let him pass, he held out his hand to Mr. Roset, and said to him and his friends, Bien venu en Amerique. A salutation which delighted them.
When he left Germantown, to go onward to Carlisle, to join the western expedition, and was intended to have been escorted by a
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troop of horse, from Philadelphia, he wishing to shun the parade, went off in his single seated phaeton, drawn by four fine gray horses, out the School lane, and up the rugged back road of the township line, so as to escape their notice and attention.
Many remember his very civil and courteous demeanour to all classes in the town, as he occasionally had intercourse with them. He has been seen several times at Henry Fraley's carpenter shop, and at Bringhurst's blacksmith shop, talking freely and cordially with both. They had both been in some of his campaigns. His lady endeared herself to many, by her uniform gentleness and kind- ness. Neither of them showed pride or austerity. I could illustrate the assertion, by several remembered incidents in proof.
Those who now visit Germantown, and notice the general neatness and whiteness of the front faces of the houses, and see the elegance of some of the country seats, can have little idea how differently it looked in 1814, when the writer first became a resident in the place. Then, most of the houses were of dark, moss-grown stone, and of sombre and prison-like aspect, with little old fashioned windows, and monstrous corner chimneys, formed of stone. Now the chimneys are rebuilt of brick, and taken from the corners; and nearly all of the front walls are plastered over in imitation of marble; besides this, the whole town is laid with good foot-pavement, and thus relieving the street-walkers from the great annoyance of muddy feet These changes were effected by the frequent expostulations and suggestions of writers in the Germantown Gazette, among whom the present writer was to be numbered. Numerous shade-trees were also introduced along the streets, so as to add to the charm of the prome- nade, the whole length of this remarkably long town ;- sometimes called Long-ville, in reference to this, its peculiar characteristic. Many of the old houses, now of two stories, have been raised from one and a half stories. Before the Revolution, the most of the house. were but one and a half stories, with high double-hipped roofs.
Gilbert Stuart, the great painter, dwelt in Germantown, in 1794-5. His dwelling was the same now David Styers'; and his paintings were executed in the barn in the rear, with one light. There he executed that memorable head-his second Washington ; the first being destroyed by himself, voluntarily, as insufficient to meet his views of that extraordinary man. The head, only, was finished-the drapery having never been executed. The same head is now owned by the Boston Atheneum, procured after the death of Stuart, from his widow, at a cost of 1000 dollars. From that head he executed all his other portraits, including his full length portrait, done at Ger- mantown, for Lord Lansdown, and afterwards badly, as an engraving, by Heath, in London. Stuart had a great aversion to the drudgery of making drapery to his pictures, and used to employ another hand to execute them. At his house Gen. Washington and his lady were frequent visiters, seen here, as such, by many. Mrs. Washing- von had a great desire to have possession of that finished head of the
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general ; but as it was his chef-d'œuvre, and he had no hopes to be able to execute another as well, it was conceded to him as an indul- gence, to retain it for himself during his life. While here, he exe- cuted a full length portrait of Cornplanter, the celebrated Indian chief. Mr. Stuart was noted for his eccentricity, and his love of good eating and drinking. To the latter, he was much addicted after his dinner, showing therefrom a much inflamed face, and much of recklessness in his actions when excited by his drink. In this he dealt in wholesale way ;- buying his wine, brandy, and gin, by the cask. On one occasion he was seen kicking a large piece of beef across the street from his own house over to Diehl's, his butcher, and tumbling it into his premises ; as if to say, such beef was not only unfit for his table, but too bad to be handled. On another occasion, he took a fancy to paint for Riters' tavern a finely executed sign of the King of Prussia on horseback, (the painter to be unknown!) it stood for years worthy of admiration, and at last got painted over with letters " The King of Prussia Inn," none knowing that it was, in fact, a curiosity and a relic. At my request this sign is now preserved, and will be given to any company of artists who may wish to preserve it, by taking off its last covering of paint. The history of his life, as told in Dunlap's Arts of Design, shows many singular characteristics of this remarkably gifted man; he was great in his person, and extraordinary in all he did; highly honourable in his sentiments, and independent in his actions.
Another character of Germantown, but of quite another cast, was Redheifer, the pretender to perpetual motion. For a while he enlivened the town with his numerous visiters, to see his machinery in perpetual motion, at the extraordinary price of one dollar each visiter. It was at last found to be moved by a crank, which was wound perpetually, by a concealed little old man in an upper loft ! The machinery was elegant and expensive; and might have pro- duced something, had it been preserved for exhibition, as a curious and amusing toy. But he and his apparatus disappeared together. He was himself said to be an immoral man, and a gambler.
Among the characteristics of the place was its unrivalled manu- facture of superior stockings-all done by hand weaving, as originally brought into use by the first settlers; these have been in modern times driven out of use. The place was also, since the revolution. pre-eminent for its superior build of coaches and vehicles; but, in late years, the workmen of Newark have drawn off the business by their reduced prices.
The first introduction of carriage building was somewhat curious. Mr. William Ashmead, a smith, observing the heavy build of the coaches of his day, and that they were mostly imported, if intended to be of a superior kind, bethought him to form an open-front light carriage, on his own plan. When it was done, it was admired by many, and was often called for by the wealthy who wished to travel to distances ;- among these was Mr. Bingham. They engaged it at VOL. JI-I 6
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one dollar a day ; and it was in constant demand. At last, a gentle- man from Maryland, who had seen it, came to the place to buy it. It was not for sale; but he offered £120 for it, and took it. Then another and another was built, and orders were renewed upon Mr. Ashmead. Soon, increased demands occurred ; and his son John being made a carriage maker, received numerous orders for many kinds of light carriages, and especially for phaetons. About the same time, (the time of the revolution and afterwards,) Mr. Bring- hurst, who was at the time a chaise maker, went largely into the making of carriages. Coaches and chariots were made for £200 and phaetons for £100.
The same William Ashmead, as a smith, had made himself a plough with a wrought iron mould-board, which was found to be a great improvement ; and was so much admired by La Fayette, who saw its utility, that he purchased four of them, for his La Grange farm in France. No patent was taken; and in time some other person, following the hint, made the same thing of cast iron,-such as is now in general use.
Germantown was the first place in our country to declare against the practice of slavery. The declaration proceeded from the Friends' meeting, of whom the chief members at the time were Germans.
The old inhabitants have been old observers of " Lammas' floods," to prevail from the 1st to the 10th or 12th of August, and well it is marked, while this work is going through the press, in August 1843, flooding Philadelphia ; drenching the military encampments daily ; carrying away fifty bridges in Delaware county, &c .! St. Lammas is of record in the German almanacs-and mind! make no appoint- ments for pleasure in Lammas' times !
It may justly surprise the present generation to have a little insight into the state of farming before the revolution, and before the intro- duction of clover and plaster of Paris. These were the things which enriched the cultivators and beautified our fields. It was first started about the year 1780, at Chestnut hill, by Abraham Rex, and at Germantown, by Leonard Stoneburner. It became a wonder to see men making grass, and hauling it in from upland fields. Every body was delighted to see the effect of this new era in farming. The aged now can well remember the stirring interest which was every where excited by this important improvement. Before this time, a farmer at Germantown would consider one hundred acres of land as inadequate to provide his frugal living then, unless he had also a good portion of natural meadow to supply his stock. It soon came to be experienced that fifty acres of land, well tilled, produced enough to fill a barn of double the size before used! The horses and cattle soon found a joyous change to their benefit, and well they showed the difference of their feeding. We tell these things for the sake of the gratitude and acknowledgment which such benefits, conferred on us, deserve.
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Another great era of public benefit, now but little considered, was the formation of the Germantown turnpike-a measure got up chiefly through the exertions of Casper Haines. The common road through Germantown, before this time, at the breaking up of the winter, as well as at some other times, was impassable for wneel carriages. To that cause it was that the most of the marketing, going through the place to Philadelphia, was all carried on horse- back with side panniers and hampers, and the most of the horses were ridden by women. Think what a relief they have had since those days ! It is a well known fact that horses and carriages have been swamped and lost ! In going through the town, (now all well paved,) their horses would enter the mud to their knees at every step, and not being able to progress faster than two or three miles an hour, and then often endangered. Now what a change do we wit- ness !- No men or women now on horseback with marketing, but going with easy spring dearborns at five and six miles an hour, as easy and safe as if in state carriages. Even wagon loads of hay can be seen sometimes passing in a trot! The young farmers now know almost nothing about former difficulties and poor returns ; and they are not sufficiently aware that the fine barns and fine houses, as they have since seen them, have all been the result of clover cultivation and improved husbandry. We aim, therefore, to keep these facts " before the people," that they may thus know "the rock from which they were hewn."
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