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 35
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On Sunday, Nov. 25, 1877, the church held its one hundred and thirty-fifth anniversary, on which occasion the building was profusely decorated with flowers, and the Rev. Herman Jacob- son said :
" When the first Moravians arrived in this country Pennsyl- vania was almost a wilderness: its boundaries were the Susque- hanna and the Blue Mountains. Philadelphia was in its infancy ; its number of inhabitants thirteen thousand, its number of houses fifteen hundred, and the greater portion of the city lay south of Market street. On Race street, between Second and Sixth, not more than a dozen houses had been erected. Pennsylvania at that time presented a great mixture of nations-English, French, Scotch, Irish, Germans, Swedes, Swiss, Dutch, Jews, and Indians.
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The number of Germans was estimated at one hundred thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand.
"Every variety of religious creed was represented, and the expression 'Pennsylvania religion,' for persons caring neither for God nor His word, had become proverbial. The first Moravians arrived in 1734. From 1734 to 1741 quite a number of them came from Georgia, as their colony there had proved a failure on account of the climate. They worked altogether as home mis- sionaries.
" Count Zinzendorf arrived in Philadelphia December 10, 1741. He was full of religious enthusiasm, eager to preach the gospel to all men. His idea was to unite all Protestant denominations into a Christian confederacy. He certainly did not come to this country with a view of founding Moravian congregations. His activity consisted in preaching in Philadelphia and the neighbor- hood, and in holding seven synods or free meetings of all denom- inations, most of them at Germantown, each lasting two or three days, the first in January, 1742, and the last in June, 1742. These meetings were without practical result, but they served to awaken a greater interest in religious matters.
"In May, 1742, Zinzendorf was called by the Lutherans of Philadelphia to be their pastor, but as he intended soon to set out on his famous journey to the Indian country, he appointed in his place John C. Pyrlæus, a minister of the Moravian Church. There was a strong faction in the Lutheran Church hostile to the Moravians, and July 9, 1742, Pyrlæus, while officiating in church, was forcibly ejected by a gang of ruffians. Some of the congregation followed him.
" This event led to the erection of the First Moravian Church in Philadelphia, corner Race and Bread streets. The foundation- stone was laid September 10, and the church was dedicated No- vember 25, 1742. Zinzendorf himself paid for its erection out of his own means. The first members composing this congre- gation were mostly Germans, but in October, 1742, they were joined by quite a number of Moravians from England. The congregation was formally organized January 12, 1743, by Zin- zendorf, on the eve of his departure for Europe. The Moravians at that time had no less than twenty-five preaching-places in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
"In 1747 the young congregation passed through a dangerous crisis which threatened its dissolution on account of the differ- ences between the English and German members. In 1817 the German language was altogether dropped in the services ; up to that year there had been German and English preaching alter- nately. In 1819 a new church was erected in the same location, corner Race and Bread streets. January 26, 1856, the present church edifice, corner Franklin and Wood streets, was dedicated. It stands on a portion of the old Moravian graveyard, in which
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Churches.
the first interment took place in 1756. The congregation is at present in a flourishing condition, promising well for the future."
EPISCOPAL.
St. Paul's Church, p. 455 .- A printed account of this church was written by Dr. Tyng, then its pastor, but afterward of Epiph- any, on the north-west corner of Fifteenth and Chestnut streets. He was called to New York. He was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Allen at St. Paul's, and afterward by Dr. Newton, who published an account of the church.
Dr. Tyng was succeeded at Epiphany Church by Mr. Fowles, who was much beloved. He died in South Carolina, at the house of Rev. Mr. Pringle in Richland District, in 1854. His remains were brought to this city and interred in the ground of the church, over which a monument to his memory was erected.
Dudley A. Tyng (son of Rev. Stephen H., as above), while set- tled very agreeably at Cincinnati, was invited to take the place of Mr. Fowles, and entered on his duties May 14, 1855, and so continued till November, 1856, when he resigned his charge. On the 29th of June, 1856, he preached a sermon "On Our Country's Troubles," chiefly in allusion to Kansas affairs, taking the popular side of the question, during the delivery of which he was interrupted by one of the vestry (Dr. Caspar Morris) rising from his seat and publicly addressing him. This sermon induced the vestry to ask his resignation. It appears from the statement published that there had not been for some time the most friendly feelings toward the pastor. Mr. Tyng resigned, and the sermon and statements by the pastor and vestry were printed in pamphlet form.
Mr. Tyng and numerous persons from Epiphany began hold- ing meetings at the National Hall, Market below Thirteenth, which was constantly filled. There they organized the Church of the Covenant in March, 1857, on which occasion Mr. Tyng preached a sermon, which was printed. They proposed erecting a church to contain three thousand persons, half the seats to be free, toward which a considerable sum was subscribed. The next Sunday Rev. Stephen H. Tyng preached a sermon, which was printed.
Mr. Tyng's labors, however, were suddenly arrested by his death, which occurred April 19th, 1858. In examining a ma- chine at the place where he resided at Conshohocken, about nine miles from the city, his arm became entangled, and the upper portion was so much lacerated as to require amputation ; death ensued two days after. The grief of the citizens was general, as they had become much attached to him for his bold, vigorous character and as a most useful man of prominent talents and pleasing manners.
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Annals of Philadelphia.
METHODISTS.
P. 458 .- John Hood was a ladies' shoemaker, and a very re- spectable man amongst Methodists. He occasionally exhorted.
Eastburn was for many years associated with Peter Lesley as a blind- and coffin-maker. Their shop was a red frame, standing with gable to Arch street, and occupying the space from the steeple to the street, before the church at Third and Arch was enlarged by taking in the steeple, in 1805. Joseph Eastburn was appointed an evangelist, and left the business several years before his death.
The congregation purchased a shell of a church on the 23d of November, 1769. This church was subsequently called St. George's, a name which it still retains. The property was form- ally deeded in September, 1770, to Richard Boardman, Joseph Pilmoor, Thomas Webb, Edward Evans, Daniel Montgomery, John Dower, Edmund Beach, Robert Fitzergald, and James Em- erson. For a long time the church edifice remained unfinished. The British army allowed the Methodists to worship in the First Baptist Church in Lagrange street. When the army left Phil- adelphia the Methodists reassembled in the church. They half covered the ground with a floor, and put up a square box on the north side for a pulpit. Mr. Pilmoor preached five months, and when he left there were one hundred and eighty-two in the society. The society boarded Mr. Pilmoor at fifteen shillings a week, paid for his washing, postage, shaving; also furnished him with a paper, scarlet cap, yarn cap, wig, and gave him in cash about £33 9s. 10}d. On Friday, March 23d, 1770, the first American love- feast was held in this city. Mr. Boardman followed Mr. Pilmoor at St. George's. Mr. Pilmoor returned in July, 1770, and not only occupied the pulpit at St. George's, but in the afternoon would take his stand upon the State House steps and in other eligible positions in different parts of the city. On Monday, October 4th, 1771, he preached the funeral sermon of Mr. Ed- ward Evans, one of the original trustees, who had been converted thirty years previously under Mr. Whitefield. On Sabbath, Oc- tober 27th, 1771, Francis Asbury and Richard Wright, after a voyage of more than fifty days, reached Philadelphia. On the following Monday evening Mr. Asbury preached his first sermon in America in St. George's Church, and on the 4th of November held his first American watch-night. In 1791 the galleries were put in the church. Rev. Richard Wright, who shared with him the pastorate of St. George's, remained but a short time, returning to England in 1774.
THE UNITARIAN CHURCH.
Extracts from a MS. sermon of Rev. Mr. Furness, late pastor of the Unitarian Church, Tenth and Locust streets, preached in 1848 (he resigned January 12, 1875) :
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Churches.
" It is just twenty-three years this day since I first officiated in this church." "On Sunday, 12th June, 1796, nearly fifty-two years ago, fourteen persons assembled for the first time in this city as Unitarian Christians to establish and observe religious worship upon the simple principles of our faith. The meeting took place in a room in the University of Pennsylvania granted for the purpose. The number was shortly increased to twenty-one. Such was the commencement of the first Congregational Uni- tarian church in this city, and, I believe, the first professedly Unitarian company of worshippers on this continent; so that this church may claim to be the oldest Unitarian church in the country. Of its first fourteen members none now survive. The religious services of this little company were conducted by its members in turn. There are grounds for connecting the distin- guished name of Priestley with this the earliest effort made in this country in behalf of liberal Christianity." He then gives a short sketch of Priestley, and says:
" He came to this country in 1794. In the winter of '95 and '96 he delivered lectures in this city, which drew around him many eminent citizens, Philadelphia being then the seat of the general government. The arrival of Dr. Priestley was one of the circumstances which led to the formation of this religious society. He was present at some of the preliminary meetings, and after the association was formed he recorded his name; it stands in the books of the church among its members ; although he never officiated, as he was not a resident of the city, yet he attended the services of the infant church whenever he came to the city from Northumberland, where he made his home and where his ashes now repose."
" This small flock continued to meet regularly every Sunday until 1800, when its meetings were discontinued, some of the members having died and others being scattered by the visita- tions of the epidemic which in those years was fearful and fatal here, as it is to this day in our Southern cities." (These must have been in the Old Academy building, the University in Ninth street not having been finished till 1797.)
" In 1807 the church resumed its regular worship under the care of Mr. William Christie, the author of a very able and com- plete volume on the unity of God." [See a notice in Poulson's Advertiser, May 20, 1807, of these regular meetings, conducted by Rev. Mr. Christie at " Carpenters' Hall, near the Custom- House ;" as the latter was then in the hall, the society probably occupied a room of the company on the side of the court.] "The place of meeting at this time was for a brief space the Universalist church in Lombard street. After a few months a private room was obtained, from which, however, the society was soon compelled to withdraw, their religious views having excited prejudice and alarm. A place of worship was next found in
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Church alley, where they remained without molestation until â small church (the cupola of which, by the way, now surmounts the public schoolhouse at the north-east corner of Twelfth and Locust streets) was erected, on a portion of the ground occupied by our present building, in 1813. Mr. Christie conducted the services only for a few months. He was succeeded by three members of the church, who led the service by turns-Mr. Eddowes, Mr. Vaughan, and Mr. Taylor. In 1811 the project of building a church was started, and after many difficulties, by great effort and by liberal assistance from the well-disposed among their fellow-citizens, and at an expense of some $30,000, a small brick church of an octagonal shape, about half the size of the present church, was erected and dedicated in 1813. In 1815, Mr. Vaughan ceased to take part in conducting the relig- ious services. In 1820, Mr. Eddowes was led by increasing age and infirmity also to retire. In 1823, Mr. Taylor followed the example of his associates. In 1825 the present pastor was or- dained. In November, 1828, nearly twenty years ago, this building was completed, the corner-stone having been laid in March of the same year."
SWEDENBORGIAN.
The First Swedenborgian Church of this city was formerly at the south-east corner of Twelfth and Sansom streets, in a build ing afterward occupied by the Academy of Natural Sciences There are three congregations now.
CHURCH HISTORY.
In the Philadelphia Christian Observer, edited by Rev. Dr. Converse, there is a series of numbers-1 to 33, commencing April, 1853, and ending December, 1853-giving reminiscences of the writer, Rev. Mr. Mitchell, then attached to Pine Street Church, Fourth and Pine, where his father was for some time chorister or clerk, and perhaps elder. These "Brief Notes on the Churches of Philadelphia " are in general very correct. They do not profess to be histories of the churches, but contain many facts of value and interest. Most of the events, as currently reported at the period embraced, were fresh in the recollection of those living at the time of their publication.
The entire number of churches in Philadelphia is probably under five hundred and fifty. If the whole were assessed at an average price of ten thousand dollars each-which may be half the real value-the amount of tax realized, at present rates, would be about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
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Pennsylvania Hospital.
PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL.
P. 460 .- See proceedings respecting the law for a hospital in Col. Recs., v. 513, 516, 526 ; also an Address at the Centennial celebration by Dr. George B. Wood, June 10, 1851. It contains a list of contributors, managers, physicians, etc. from the be- ginning.
In 1750 a number of benevolent individuals applied to the As- sembly for a charter for a hospital. It was granted in May, 1751, by James Hamilton, lieutenant-governor under Thomas and Rich- ard Penn, and £2000 were to be given as soon as a like amount was subscribed. More than that amount was soon raised, and on July 1st the contributors elected as managers Joshua Crosby, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Bond, Samuel Hazard, Richard Peters, Israel Pemberton, Jr., Samuel Rhodes, Hugh Roberts, Joseph Morris, John Smith, Evan Morgan, Charles Norris ; treasurer, John Reynell.
In the year 1751 a few benevolent persons rented a private house, the residence of Judge Kinsey, on the south side of Mar- ket street, above Fifth, and there first established the Pennsyl- vania Hospital. On this same lot of Kinsey's, Mary Masters built the fine house that Robert Morris, and afterward General Washington, lived in. Medicines were given out, thus establish- ing the first dispensary.
They applied to the Proprietaries for a lot of ground on the south side of Mulberry (or Arch) street, between Ninth and Tenth streets. The Proprietaries offered a lot on the north side of Sassafras (or Race) street between Sixth and Seventh streets, part of what is now Franklin Square. The managers objected to it, because "it is a moist piece of ground, adjoining to the brickyards, from which the city hath been supplied with bricks about forty years past, where there are ponds of standing water, and therefore must be unhealthy, and more fit for a burying-place -to which use a part of it is already applied-than for any other purpose ; besides, as it is a part of a square allotted for public uses, as the old maps of the city will show, our fellow- citizens would tax us with injustice to them if we should accept of this lot by a grant from our present Proprietaries on such terms as would seem to imply our assenting to their having a right to the remainder of the square." These noble men were determined to carry out their useful work properly. They then offered to buy the first proposed lot, and declined to accept a large lot offered them by one of their own number, because it was a mile out of town, as it would be inconvenient to the physicians who gave their time and skill. The Proprietaries finally granted to the hospital about one acre on the northern part of the square they now occupy, the remainder of the
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Annals of Philadelphia.
square having been purchased in 1754 from individuals at a low rate.
On the 28th of May, 1755, the corner-stone of the new hos pital building was laid, and the following year the eastern wing was completed and occupied ; the western wing was first used in 1796, and the centre building in 1805; in 1851-52 the eastern wing was rebuilt, and at that time many important per- manent improvements were made. So diligent and successful were they in their applications for contributions that scarce a tradesman, or even a laborer, was employed in any part of the work without first engaging a reasonable part to be charitably applied in the premises. John Key, the first-born, was present, by invitation, at the laying of the corner-stone. The hospital is placed in the centre of a plot of ground of four and a quarter acres, which has always for sanitary purposes been carefully cultivated ; the tall buttonwood trees around the enclosure were planted more than one hundred years ago. These buttonwood or Occidental plane trees, the largest growth of our forests, were planted in 1756 by Hugh Roberts, one of the first managers. They owned also the vacant square to the east, and several lots to the south and west-in all about ten acres. Unable to com- plete the whole building, they yet commenced on a liberal scale, adopted a symmetrical plan, and filled it out at successive periods as they got the funds and as the population required it. The hospital is intended to accommodate two hundred and twenty- five patients; the largest number at any one time under treat- ment has been about three hundred ; of this number, however, one hundred and twenty-five were insane persons ; but the latter, since 1841, have been exclusively treated in the Department for the Insane on the west of the River Schuylkill.
Since the hospital was first opened nearly one hundred thou- sand patients have been admitted within its walls. Its benefits have not been confined to the native-born; during the last ten years, of nearly nineteen thousand admissions, only eight thou- sand were born in the United States. Medical and surgical cases are alike received, and any case of accidental injury, if brought to the gate within twenty-four hours, is received with- out question. This institution is, and always has been, the great "accident hospital" of this large manufacturing city.
The hospital is provided with every appliance for the comfort and cure of its patients, and no pains or expense have ever been spared to render the wards healthy ; and since the introduction of the forced ventilation, which was effected during the past year at an expense of about six thousand dollars, we believe that it would be almost impossible to offer more favorable surroundings in any hospital for the recovery of the sick and wounded. By aid of the fan twenty-six thousand cubic feet of fresh, pure air is forced through this building per minute, or six thousand cubic
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Pennsylvania Hospital.
feet per hour for every patient. The air from the fan is driven into various chambers in the basement. It there comes in con- tact with coils of iron pipe, which are heated by steam. Thence the warm air is distributed to the various parts of the hospital, while the foul air is taken out through openings near the floor. For more than two years no case of pyæmia, or " hospital dis- ease," so called, has occurred in the wards.
The managers, with their usual liberality, have now introduced into the service of the hospital an ambulance, and the telegraph to communicate with all parts of this great city ; so that injured persons can be brought immediately to the institution, and in a much more comfortable and far more humane manner than here- tofore, and by this means many lives will be saved. In cases of necessity application for an ambulance should be made to the nearest police station-house, from which word will be sent to the hospital by telegraph.
In the building now occupied by the Historical Society was formerly exhibited Benjamin West's picture of Christ healing the Sick, presented by him in 1804, and which used to bring in a revenue of from five hundred to one thousand dollars per annum. A statue of William Penn, presented by his grandson, John Penn, of Stoke Pogis, England, placed upon a pedestal of white marble, occupies a conspicuous place on the lawn in front. It is lead, bronzed. A chair, once the property of that great man, is preserved in the house. A scion from the Treaty Elm of 1682 had in 1832 attained considerable size.
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane .- The thirty-sixth annual report of Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, for the year 1876 shows that at the date of the last report there were 419 patients in the institution; since which 260 have been admitted and 265 have been discharged or have died, leaving 414 at the close of the year. The total number of patients in the hospital during the year was 679. The highest number at any one time was 451; the lowest was 397; and the average number under treat- ment during the whole period was 428-210 males and 218 females. Of the patients discharged during the year 1876, there were-
Males. Females. Total.
Cured,
. 42
51
93
Much improved,
4
16
20
Improved,
39
13
52
Stationary,
. 40
10
50
Died, .
29
21
50
Statistical tables are given showing the particulars of the cases of 7427 patients received into the institution in the last thirty-
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six years. The following figures show the supposed causes of insanity in these cases : Ill-health of various kinds, 1360 ; intem- perance, 673; loss of property, 246; dread of poverty, 6; dis- appointed affections, 90; intense study, 52; domestic difficulties, 146 ; fright, 60; grief, loss of friends, etc., 345; intense appli- cation to business, 61 ; religious excitement, 220 ; political excite- ment, 14; metaphysical speculations, 1; want of exercise, 8; engagement in duel, 1; disappointed expectations, 31; nostalgia, 8; stock speculations, 2; want of employment, 46; mortified pride, 3; celibacy, 1; anxiety for wealth, 3; use of opium, 28 ; use of tobacco, 17; lead-poisoning, 1 ; use of quack medicines, 4 ; puerperal state, 287; lactation too long continued, 12; uncon- trolled passion, 12; tight lacing, 1; injuries of the head, 99 ; masturbation, 95; mental anxiety, 453; exposure to cold, 6 ; exposure to direct rays of the sun, 72 ; exposure to intense heat, 2 ; exposure in army, 6 ; old age, 3; unascertained, 2952. The following are the officers of the institution : Managers-William Biddle, President ; Benj. H. Shoemaker, Secretary ; A. J. Derby- shire, Samuel Mason, Samuel Welsh, Wistar Morris, Jacob P. Jones, Alexander Biddle, Joseph B. Townsend, Joseph C. Turn- penny, T. Wistar Brown, and Henry Haines. Treasurer-John T. Lewis. Physician-in-Chief and Superintendent-Thomas S. Kirkbride, M. D.
The new hospital of the Jefferson Medical College, on Sansom street, above Tenth, was formally opened Sept. 17, 1877. The new building cost two hundred thousand dollars, one half of which was given by the State and the other half raised by private subscriptions. Dr. E. B. Gardette, president of the board of trustees, made the opening address, and Professor Pancoast fol- lowed in a review of the history of the college-how it sprang from a medical class established by the late Dr. George Mc- Clellan, growing gradually until it now was second to none in the country.
John Key, p. 461 .- See Vol. I. p. 511, for life of him.
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Poor-houses.
POOR-HOUSES.
Poor-houses, p. 462 .- See Col. Recs., iii. 589, Mar. 28, 1735, prior to which time " the alms-house built for the city of Phil- adelphia " had been erected, in 1731-32. Also Minutes of Com- mon Council, 1704-76, pp. 309, 330; Mar. 13, 1730, 620.
My father had an engraved view of the " House of Employ- ment, Almshouse, Pennsylvania Hospital, and part of the City," which gives a back view of the almshouse and a view of the old portion of the hospital, taken about this time, which represents quite a country view. It formerly belonged to Du Simitière, and was photographed in 1857 for Mr. Dreer on a smaller scale.
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