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. III > Part 30
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CARPENTERS' HALL.
P. 419. This old structure was for many years better known to our citizens as an auction-store and horse-mart under Charles J. Wolbert, and afterward his son Frederick Wolbert, at least to 1856, than for its historical associations. But the Society of Car- penters, to whom the property belongs, in 1857 took the old hall in hand, and while fitting it up in handsome style adhered as closely as possible to the original plan of the building; and Car- penters' Hall is now nearly in the same condition it was in when the historical events occurred which give it importance.
In the first story the first Continental Congress assembled, and among the furniture preserved that was in use by Congress are two very high-backed quaint arm-chairs. The satin banner borne by the society in the Federal procession of 1788, and that
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Carpenters' Hall.
borne in the procession of 1832, the centennial anniversary of the birthday of Washington, are also displayed.
The upper part of the building has a library and meeting- room and rooms for the janitor's family. In the library are several of the original leather fire-buckets. We give a chrono- logical summary of the most important events connected with this hall :
In 1724 the first Carpenters' Company was formed for obtain- ing instruction in architecture and assisting poor members' widows and children, the officers a master, assistant master, and wardens. In 1752 another Carpenters' Company joined it. In 1736 the first book for the library was purchased; in 1763 a commit- tee was appointed to look out for a lot for a hall. This was bought in 1768-sixty-six feet on Chestnut street by two hun- dred and fifty-five feet in depth, for an annual ground-rent of one hundred and seventy-six Spanish dollars; part of the lot was afterward sold off, leaving an entrance through Carpenters' court.
In 1770 the hall was commenced, and the first meeting was held the following year, though the building was not entirely fin- ished until 1791, owing to lack of funds.
July 15, 1774, a conference of committees from all parts of the Province met here, and passed resolutions asserting the rights of the colonies, condemning the conduct of Parliament, and recom- mended delegates to Congress be appointed.
In 1774 the first Provincial Assembly and the first Continent- al Congress met in the hall, the latter on September 5th, remain- ing until October 26th, when Congress moved to the State House. On September 5th the delegates from eleven Provinces met at the City Tavern, in Second street above Walnut, and went up to Car- penters' Hall to inspect it, it having been offered for their use by the company. It was soon approved, and Congress agreed to meet there.
The Congress was composed of such men as Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Peyton Randolph from Virginia ; Mifflin, Ross, and Dickinson from Pennsylvania; the two Adamses from Massachusetts; and Charles Thomson was secretary. The deliberations of these men and others nearly as prominent from the other colonies resulted in the formation of a national government, which from that time became a strongly united one.
Here Duché offered his celebrated prayer, and read the Collect of the day, the thirty-fifth Psalm; the latter seemed appropri- ate, as a rumor was circulated that the British fleet had bombard- ed Boston. As John Adams said, " It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning ;" and he added, "I never heard a better prayer."
After the First Congress vacated the building it was occupied
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during the Revolution by various bodies representing the Prov- ince, such as the provincial convention of 1775 and the Com- mittee of Safety to enforce measures recommended by Congress and to devise " ways and means." The Philadelphia Library occupied the upper story from 1775 until 1791, though the li- brary-room was used during the Revolution as a hospital for sick American soldiers. In 1775 the Assembly met here to at- tend the funeral of Peyton Randolph, the first president of Congress.
The British took possession of the hall in 1777, and continued to hold it during their stay in Philadelphia. The soldiers made a target of the vane on the cupola, and several holes were drilled through it by their balls.
In 1787 the hall was occupied by General Henry Knox as commissary-general of military stores; from 1791 to 1797 by the first Bank of the United States, and afterward by the Bank of Pennsylvania until their house on Second street above Walnut was finished. This bank had previously occupied the Masonic Lodge building in Lodge alley. It was during its occupancy of the Carpenters' Hall that the Bank of Pennsylvania was robbed in 1798 of $162,821.61. In 1798 it was used by the United States as a land-office, and from 1802 to 1819 as a cus- tom-house. General John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, General John Shee, and General John Steel were collectors; William Bache and James Glentworth surveyors; General William Mac- pherson and Samuel Clarke naval officers. From 1817 to 1821 it was used by the second Bank of the United States, William Jones president and Jonathan Smith cashier. In 1822 it was used by the Musical Fund Society ; in 1825 by the Franklin Institute; the Apprentices' Library used the second story for seven and a half years; in 1827 it was used by the Hicksite Society of Friends as a meeting-house until the meeting-house in Cherry street near Fifth was built. For twenty-nine years C. J. Wolbert sold furniture and had his horse-market here, and Johnny Willetts, the peculiar and well-remembered schoolmaster, held sway; and in 1857 the Carpenters' Society again took pos- session of their ancient hall, and have, ever since its restoration to former appearances, kept it open for exhibition as an historic relic, as it is only second in interest to Independence Hall. A volume of fifty-seven pages was published in 1858, giving a history of the hall and the society. The architect of the build- ing was Robert Smith, and not Nathan Allen Smith, as has been sometimes stated.
The one hundred and fifty-third anniversary of the Carpenters' Company was held in Carpenters' Hall in January, 1878. Seventy- six out of the ninety members were present and sat down at the annual dinner.
The report of the Centennial Committee, preparing the ancient
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Carpenters' Hall.
edifice for the reception of Centennial visitors, was read. This report shows that over seventy thousand copies of the little work entitled Carpenters' Hall and its Historic Memories had been given away to visitors. It is estimated that at least half a million of people paid a visit to this time-honored building during the Ex- hibition. The names and residences of seventy-two thousand vis- itors are registered in fifteen large books, but as these registers were kept on the second floor, not more than one person out of ten was able to go up stairs on account of the crowd, and conse- quently did not sign the register.
One little instance will suffice to illustrate the great interest shown by visitors in everything connected with the hall. In the Historic Memoirs mention is made of the prayer offered by Rev. Mr. Duché of Christ Church when the first Congress of the United States assembled in the hall.
Mr. Jay of New York and Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina opposed the motion made by Mr. Cushing, that the session should be opened with prayer, when Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said " that he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from any gentle- man of piety and virtue who was at the same time a friend to his country ; he was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duché (Duchay they pronounce it) deserved that character ; and therefore he moved that Mr. Duché, an Episcopal clergyman, might be desired to read prayers to Congress to-morrow morn- ing." The motion was seconded and passed in the affirmative.
"Mr. Randolph, our president, waited upon Mr. Duché, and received for answer that if his health would permit he certainly would. Accordingly next morning he appeared with his clerk and in his pontificals, and read several prayers in the Established form, and then read the Psalter for the 7th day of September, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm. You must remember that this was the next morning after we had heard of the horrible cannon- ade of Boston. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning."
On one of the desks in the hall a Bible published by the Amer- ican Bible Society at a comparatively recent date was placed for the convenience of visitors who might wish to read over the thirty-fifth Psalm, spoken of above, but the notion being started that this was the "original Bible " from which Mr. Duché read, the relic-hunters tore out piece by piece not only the entire Psalm, but other portions of the book, and now the Bible, all torn and soiled, is retained in the library as one of the relics of the Cen- tennial year.
The secretary's report showed that three members of the com- pany had died during the year, and that two had been admitted. The oldest member, Moses Lancaster, ninety-six years, residing at Newtown, was not able to be present, but John M. Ogden, aged eighty-six, the second member on the list, and D. H. Flick-
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wir, the third in point of age, were present. It also mentions the fact that William Wirt Henry of Richmond, Virginia, has pre- sented the society with a mezzotint of his grandfather, the cele- brated Patrick Henry.
During the occupancy of the Carpenters' Hall by the Bank of Pennsylvania in 1798, to which it had removed from its former premises, the Masonic Lodge building in Lodge alley, it was robbed September 1st, 1798, in the evening, of the large sum of $162,821.61. The suspicion of the officers of the bank was di- rected upon Patrick Lyon, because of his known skill and of the following circumstances: Sixteen months before the robbery he had been employed to make two doors for the vault of the bank ; at the time he cautioned the officers that the inner doors were in- sufficient, and recommended something stronger. His advice was not taken, and in August of 1798 he was again employed to re- pair the locks upon the two inner doors. At this time the yel- low fever, which was raging, drove every one from the city who could get away, and Lyon with an apprentice left the city a week afterward, and stayed at Lewes, Delaware. The boy sickened and died of the yellow fever, and Lyon attended to his burial. Two weeks after the robbery Lyon heard of it, and that he was suspected. He immediately left Lewes and walked to the city, as no vehicle could be had on account of the embargo by the yel- low fever. He called at the house of John Clement Stocker, a director, and said he would meet the officers there next day. On the following morning he met the president, Mr. Fox, and the cashier, Mr. Smith, and Robert Wharton, mayor, at Mr. Stocker's house. He gave them in a clear, straightforward manner an ac- count of every hour, and proved that on the night of the robbery he was attending the sick boy. His testimony and manner were in vain. They judged him to be an accomplice ; he was impris- oned in the Walnut Street Prison for three months, his bail, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, being too large to be raised. Although, after he had been incarcerated two months, surrounded by and exposed to the yellow fever, one of the real thieves was captured, they still detained him on the plea of being an accom- plice. The real culprits proved to be Thomas Cunningham, the porter of the bank, and a carpenter named Isaac Davis. The porter shortly after the robbery took the yellow fever and died within a week. Davis was arrested, and disgorged over one hun- dred and fifty-nine thousand dollars, and was allowed to escape. Not until three weeks later was Lyon let out on two thousand dollars bail, and an indictment carried before the grand jury, who ignored it. Lyon brought suit againt Fox, Stocker, and Haines the constable, but it was not till late in 1805 it came to trial, and Lyon got judgment for twelve thousand dollars. A new trial was granted, which was kept off till the spring of 1807, but the matter was compromised by the payment by the bank
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Peter S. Duponceau.
of nine thousand dollars to Lyon nearly nine years after his arrest !
OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
P. 423. The office for the Secretary of Foreign Affairs was demolished in March, 1846, as well as the small office south of it, both represented in the engraving on p. 419. The house of P. S. Duponceau, at the corner of Sixth and Chestnut, a hand- some, old-fashioned brick structure, which stood back from the line of the street, with a one-story office north of it, was also demolished at this time-all, with another building at the south of the " office," giving way to a new structure erected for stores and offices by Abraham Hart of the late firm of Carey & Hart, booksellers. It was five stories in height and named "Hart's Buildings." They were nearly destroyed by a terrible fire in the winter of 1851-December 26th, the evening of the banquet to Louis Kossuth at Musical Fund Hall-as well as the build- ings on the other side of Sixth street and known as the "Shake- speare Buildings," adjoining the Chestnut Street Theatre. This fire occasioned the death of W. W. Hayley, a lawyer, part author of Troubat & Hayley's Practice, just returned from Europe with his wife, née Miss Haldeman of Harrisburg; also of another young man, John Baker, a watchman-both crushed by falling walls and burned to death ; their bones alone and Hayley's watch were found. By request of the widow, the bones of both were buried in one coffin. The building was rebuilt as it now stands, and is owned by A. J. Drexel, Esq.
PETER S. DUPONCEAU.
Peter Stephen Duponceau, an eminent scholar and lawyer, was a native of France, having been born June 3d, 1760, in the Isle of Rhé, where his father had a military command, the son being also destined for that profession. On the death of his father, by his mother's persuasion, he entered the ecclesiastical order and became the Abbé Duponceau. In 1755 he abandoned it and repaired to Paris, where he lived by teaching and translating, understanding the English and Italian languages. Here he made the acquaintance of Baron Steuben, and accompanied him to the United States as private secretary and aide-de-camp in 1777. His first experience of American military life was at Valley Forge; he served ably for two years. In 1779 he left the army, and became a citizen of Pennsylvania in 1781, and the
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following year was appointed secretary to Mr. Livingston, Secre- tary of Foreign Affairs. The business was transacted in thai narrow two-story building, which most of us remember, on the east side of Sixth street, adjoining Mr. Duponceau's one-story office.
At the close of the war Mr. Duponceau studied law. In 1788 he married and led a retired life, practising his profession. In that year the Federal Constitution was promulgated ; Mr. Rawle and Mr. Duponceau took opposite sides, the latter belonging to what was called the Anti-Federal party. He afterward said, "I thought I was right; subsequent events have proved that I was in the wrong."
For many years he occupied a prominent place at the bar, and was frequently employed in the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, whither he went with his eminent con- temporaries, Messrs. Rawle, Tilghman, Ingersoll, and Dallas. He thus writes of these journeys: "The court sat there, as it does at present, or did until lately, in the month of February, so that we had to travel in the depth of winter, through bad roads, in the midst of rain, hail, and snow, in no very comfortable way. Nevertheless, as soon as we were out of the city and felt the flush of air, we were like school-boys on the playground on a holiday, and we began to kill time by all the means that our imagination could suggest. Flashes of wit shot their coruscations on all sides ; puns of the genuine Philadelphia stamp were handed about ; old college-stories were revived; macaronic Latin was spoken with great purity ; songs were sung, even classical songs, among which I recollect the famous bacchanalian of the arch- deacon of Oxford, 'Mihi est propositum in taberna mori;' in short, we might have been taken for anything but the grave counsellors of the celebrated bar of Philadelphia."
On their return from one of these expeditions the merriment of these venerable persons became so excessive as to upset the driver, who lost his reins; the horses ran away at a frightful rate; all but Mr. Duponceau leaped from the stage, and were more or less bruised; he kept his seat and took snuff with mechanical regularity and characteristic abstraction. " We had," he said, "a narrow escape. I am now left alone in the stage of life, which they were doomed also to leave before me. I hope I shall meet them again in a safer place."
Mr. Duponceau made himself at home in this community ; he mastered the language completely, and spoke with the slightest French accent. He admired our political and social creeds, and reverenced the founder and early lawgivers of the State. He suggested and took an active part in establishing the "Society for Commemorating the Landing of William Penn," which after- ward, unfortunately, died of exaggeration and collapse.
The society met originally, with great and appropriate simpli-
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Peter S. Duponceau.
city, in the small, low, two-story building in Letitia court, then kept as a tavern or eating-house by a worthy Irishman of the name of Doyle. A circumstance occurred at the outset which was characteristic of Mr. Duponceau's absence of mind. A committee was appointed, of which he was chairman, to draw up a constitution and by-laws. After waiting some time for a summons from the chairman of the committee to retire and en- ter upon the subject, they were surprised to see him rise and take from his pocket a manuscript of some length, and announce that the committee had retired and considered the subject, and had drawn up the requisite documents and directed him to report them. All this had passed through his mind, and he thought it had passed through the committee. Of course they acquiesced in the report, and the constitution thus engendered was adopted by acclamation.
Mr. Duponceau had a reverence for the primitive days and early inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and delivered a discourse "On the Early History of Pennsylvania" before the Philo- sophical Society in 1821. Among his other acquirements, he was a great philologist, and deeply versed, so to speak, in the comparative anatomy of languages. His treatises upon the Chinese tongue display great learning and ingenuity, and with his other writings acquired for him a distinguished reputation abroad and at home. He was president of the American Philo- sophical Society, of the Atheneum, and of the Historical So- ciety, and member of many literary and scientific societies-to which he left both money and books.
Mr. Duponceau, with his usual foresight and patriotism, gave much thought and attention to the advantages that might arise to this country from extending the culture of the white mulberry tree and the propagation of the silk-worm, for which the great variety of soil and climate offers great facilities. With M. d'Homergue of Nismes, France, who came over at Mr. Du- ponceau's suggestion, he established a filature under his direc- tion in 1831. They made a beautiful American flag of their silk and presented it to the Legislature. The committee ap- pointed, with Mr. Ingersoll at its head, spoke in the most flat- tering manner of the valuable experiments of Duponceau, prov- ing it might become a great staple of this country, and, citing the instance of cotton, and "the fact that but forty-six years ago an American vessel, with cotton on board, was seized at Liver- pool under the impression that cotton was not the growth of America, and also the fact that last year (1830) more than six hundred and forty thousand bags of American cotton were im- ported at that port, said there is nothing unreasonable in the an- ticipation that a similar development may attend American silk." What would the committee say now to the amount of cotton sent to Liverpool yearly, and to the amount of silk raised and manu-
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factured in this country ? Much of it in a part of the country then an almost unknown land !
Mr. Duponceau died April 1st, 1844, aged eighty-four, and was buried in the Arch street Presbyterian ground, in Arch above Fifth. The pastor, Rev. Dr. Cuyler, delivered an address at the grave. An eulogium was delivered before the American Philosophical Society by Dr. Robley Dunglison, who was his physician, in the Musical Fund Hall.
In 1784, Mr. Duponceau applied for and obtained the office of notary-public and interpreter of French and Spanish. (See his application and testimonials, Penna. Archives, x. 351-354.) A good likeness of him may be seen in the Historical Society rooms, as well as a silhouette, full length.
P. 425 .- See a notice of the discovery and the virtues of the waters in Penna. Chronicle, May 17-24, 1773, and Penna. Ga- zette, May 19, 1773. It proved a hoax.
FORT WILSON.
P. 425 .- This riot was a notable one. It originated from the fact that Robert Morris and Blair McClenachan had imported some flour in a time of scarcity, and this flour was taken for the use of the French fleet. A mob of anti-monopolists posted pla- cards threatening monopolists and defenders of treason, James Wilson having defended two men accused of treason. At this time (September, 1779) Continental currency was very much de- pressed, and the prices of the necessaries of life were very high. Meetings pro and con. were held, and many of the privates of the militia banded together to redress their wrongs. On the 4th of October the privates marched down to the City Tavern, in Second street above Walnut, where they supposed some of the obnoxious merchants might be found, but not finding them, they marched up Walnut street to Third, to Wilson's house. Accounts, as usual, differ how the affray was brought on, but there were twenty-six gentlemen in the house, and as the mob were passing and hurrahing Captain Campbell threw up a win- dow and brandished or fired a pistol, while he addressed them in an excited manner. The mob turned, fired upon the people in the house, and broke open the door with a sledge. Colonel Chambers was bayoneted in the entry, but finally the assailants were repulsed, just as eight members of the City Troop dashed down Third street from Chestnut. This put the mob to flight, and other troopers appearing on the scene, the mob was dispersed. Major Lenox, who had before this taken an active part against the menaces of the populace, and who led this attack, drew their
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enmity upon himself. Captain Campbell was killed on the spot. He had been married only one week. His widow became the wife of the late Alexander Fullerton.
In this building also afterward resided for many years William Lewis, Esq., a celebrated lawyer, with a remarkable nose; a good likeness of him may be seen in the library-room of the bar, at the south-east corner of Sixth and Walnut streets. In warm weather he might very frequently be seen walking bareheaded in front of his house, and always puffing his cigar. He seldom went to church, excepting when Rev. Dr. John Mason of New York preached; who, it is said, he always made it a point to hear, he being a very celebrated preacher.
For various other names in the house see Col. Recs., vol. xii. There a Mark Bird is mentioned. For several letters on the subject see Penna. Archives, vol. vii. p. 732, 735, and 744; also Reg. Penna., i. 316, and Biography of Signers.
FRIENDS' ALMSHOUSE.
P. 427 .- Mr. Watson's statement that John Martin left this property to the Friends in consideration of their supporting him for life is hardly warranted by the facts. Friend Martin, a tailor, was a man well-to-do in this world, certainly in city lots, and his will would prove that he did not even bequeath his property to go after his death for any particular purpose, save by implication. He died in November, 1702, and bequeathed all his property to Thomas Chalkley, Ralph Jackson, and John Michener for their own use. But by the records of Friends' Monthly Meeting, held on the 27th of the same month, it appears he intended " his estate should be disposed of for the use of poor Friends, according to this Meeting's directions." The executors declared in 1714 that they held the two lots of ground for the use of the society and for the habitation and succor of poor and unfortunate members, and for want of such poor to inhabit them that the premises should be let and the rents applied to the bene- fit of poor Quakers.
Upon this property the Friends built in 1713 several small houses one story high, with a high peaked roof and a large high chimney. In 1729 they erected a long, low stone house, with high basement, one story, and garret, and tall chimneys, with an extra story over one-third the front. The front extended the full width of the lot. The entrance through an archway passed into the garden, which was well shaded and planted with herbs, flowers, and vegetables. Here the elder members of the Friends passed their lives in peace and quietness until the removal of the buildings.
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