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 49
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The first public mention of the trumpeter was in the Journal des Modes for 1809, at which time it was exhibited at Vienna. About 1830, M. Maelzel came to this country, bringing the trumpeter and also the chess-player, another clever piece of mechanism, but which was not an automaton in the correct sense of the word, as its actions were controlled by a skilful human chess-player, who was concealed within the figure.
The trumpeter was first exhibited on Fifth street below Adel- phi, in a building which stood on the present site of the Messrs. Tathams' building. Here Mr. Maelzel had a diorama of the " Burning of Moscow," which was a favorite entertainment.
The late Signor Blitz, then a young performer, also appeared, and the trumpeter was exhibited by M. Maelzel, who would wheel it out on the floor and touch a spring on the shoulder which started the mechanism. He would then seat himself at the piano and play the accompaniment and variations while the automaton played army calls, marches, etc.
After remaining here for some time, M. Maelzel took his ex- hibition on a travelling tour, returning to Philadelphia and ex- hibiting at the north-east corner of Eighth and Chestnut streets. Maelzel afterward went to Havana, taking Signor Blitz and the automaton with him. Here he was unfortunate, and becoming dispirited and his health failing, he started again for Philadel- phia, but died on shipboard, and his effects were sold to pay his passage. A number of gentlemen, among whom were Dr. Mit- chell, Constant Guillou, and Robert Cornelius, purchased the chess-player, which was placed on exhibition in the Chinese Mu- seum at Ninth and Sansom streets, and it was lost in the fire which destroyed that building.
The trumpeter was placed in the old Masonic Temple, and afterward passed into the possession of the late Mr. E. N. Scherr, a music-dealer on Chestnut street, to whose estate it now belongs.
The machinery of the trumpeter is contained within the trunk of the figure, and is worked by a steel spring which drives a re- volving barrel, on which are pegs similar to those in a musical- box ; a bellows just below the neck of the figure furnishes the wind, and a valve with a steel tongue, which is lengthened or shortened by means of levers working on the pegs of the barrel, makes the different notes.
There is an important difference between this trumpeter and the ordinary mechanical organs or musical-boxes. These have a separate pipe or trumpet for every note of the scale, while in the automaton the notes are all produced by the one horn, the length- ening or shortening of the steel tongue or reed by means of the levers mentioned producing all the tones of the chromatic scale,
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on the same principle by which the human trumpeter produces them by tonguing the mouthpiece of his instrument.
Many will remember the delight and wonder with which, in their juvenile days, they witnessed the Burning of Moscow, with its lurid fires and loud guns; the chess-player and his excellent playing with any member of the audience; and the correct notes of the trumpeter.
JOHN MCALLISTER.
John McAllister, Jr., died December 17th, 1877, aged ninety- one years. He was born at the north-east corner of Market and Second streets, June 29th, 1786. His father, John McAllister, a native of Scotland, was born in Glasgow February, 1753. He came to this country when twenty-two years of age, settling in New York. He came to Philadelphia in 1785, and went into business as a turner and manufacturer of whips and canes, on Market street between Front and Second. In 1798 he formed a partnership with James Matthews of Baltimore, and opened busi- ness at No. 50 Chestnut street-afterward No. 48-on the south side, west of Second street. McAllister & Matthews proposed to carry on the whip and cane business, and added to their stock spectacles, glasses, and optical articles. This latter business was found to be more important than the manufacture of whips and canes, which was abandoned ; and the attention of Mr. McAllister and his family has since been turned to the manufacture of ma- thematical and optical instruments. John McAllister, Jr., in- tended for the business of a merchant, in 1804 entered the count- ing-house of Montgomery & Newbold, on Water street, having graduated from the University in the preceding year. In 1811 he entered into partnership with his father, Mr. Matthews having retired. The partnership of John McAllister & Son continued until the death of John McAllister, Sr., May 12th, 1830. John McAllister, Jr., with Walter B. Dick, continued the business under the firm of John McAllister, Jr., & Co. In 1835 he re- tired from the business, which was then conducted by some of the members of the firm and William Y. McAllister, under the firm name of McAllister & Co., and its location was changed to Chestnut street below Eighth, where it still remains. John McAllister, Jr., after 1835, being a gentleman of culture and taste, with a strong liking for local antiquities, devoted himself to the collection of a library rich in works of all kinds, but partic- ularly noticeable for old newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, essays, etc. connected with the history of Philadelphia. He was the oldest alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, and the oldest member of the Philadelphia Library Company, of the Atheneum, and of the St. Andrew's Society.
ADDITIONS AND EMENDATIONS
TO VOLUME II.
45.5
ADDITIONS AND EMENDATIONS TO VOL. II.
GERMANTOWN NOTES.
On the 24th of October, 1685, Francis Daniel Pastorius, with the wish and concurrence of the governor, laid out and planned a new town, which, as he says, " We call Germantown or Ger- manopolis, in a very fine and fertile district, with plenty of springs of fresh water, being well supplied with oak, walnut, and chestnut trees, and having besides excellent and abundant pas- turage for cattle. At the commencement there were but twelve families, of forty-one individuals, consisting mostly of German mechanics and weavers. The principal street of this our town I made sixty feet in width, and the cross street forty feet. The space or lot for each house and garden I made three acres in size ; for my own dwelling-house, however, six acres."
P. 17 .- In the list of purchasers Daniel Spehagel should read Behagel ; Gobart Renckes should be Govert Remkins.
P. 18 .- The members of the Frankfort Company did not all live in Frankfort; of the Germantown patent for 5350 acres, the company only purchased one-half of it, or 2675 acres. This helps to reconcile the discrepancy of Mr. Watson's figure of 25,000 acres.
The Johnson or Jansen House .- The Johnson house, which was on the corner of Germantown avenue, opposite the Chew property, was built by Heivert Papen, one of the old German settlers of Germantown, in the year 1698. The Johnson-originally Jan- sen-family is also descended from old Germantown settlers, who formerly also owned ground on the west side of Main street and a portion of the ground on which Cliveden-afterward the Chew house-was built. A remarkable tree stood in the grounds near this mansion on Main street. It is the noblest tree of the kind -the silver fir (Picea pectinata). Downing, in his Landscape Gardening, gives an illustration of it as a specimen tree-fig. 37 -entitled " The Silver Fir, at the residence of Dr. Johnson of Germantown ; age, fifty-seven years ; height, one hundred feet." This was thirty years ago, but, like all trees when too much crowded and shaded, it lost its majestic appearance. Immediately in front of the mansion is the finest specimen of the dwarf spruce (Abies pumila) to be found in this vicinity.
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KELPIUS, THE HERMIT OF THE WISSAHICKON.
We are indebted to the learned pen of Prof. O. Siedensticker for the pre-American life of Kelpius, as follows :
Our information about John Kelpius-generally styled "the Hermit of the Wissahickon "-is so scanty that this strange and mysterious character seems to float like a tenuous, unsubstantial being on the distant horizon of the earliest colonial times. But he does not dissolve into a myth; his notebook is still in exist- ence; his name appears in the colonial records as one of the suc- cessors of F. D. Pastorius in the agency of the Frankfort Com- pany. Moreover, he has been heard of on the other side of the ocean, and the few memoranda that we can furnish about him previous to his emigration will be an interesting complement to his strange career on the Wissahickon.
The father of John Kelpius was minister in Denndorf, Tran- sylvania, where he died 1685. The son chose his father's calling, and wished to prepare himself for the pulpit at the University of Tübingen, but in consequence of the French invasion of the Palatinate and Würtemberg, he changed his mind and pursued his studies at Altorf in Bavaria, then the seat of a university of some note. Here he became the pupil and friend of Professor John Jacob Fabricius, who a few years afterward accepted a call to the university at Helmstedt, and became a prominent repre- sentative of the Irenic (or peace-seeking) school of theology.
In 1689, J. Kelpius obtained the master's degree, and on that occasion wrote a Latin thesis on natural theology. The next year he treated, likewise in Latin, the question whether the pagan sys- tem of morals (such as that presented by the Aristotelian philos- ophy) was the proper one for the instruction of Christian youth. About the same time Fabricius and Kelpius combined their labors upon a work called Scylla theologic aliquot exemptis Patrum et Doctorum, etc., ostensa. There could have been no more striking proof of the high opinion that Fabricius had of his pupil than thus choosing him associate author of a learned book.
We lose sight of Kelpius during the next three or four years, but from the stand he took in 1693 in religion it is evident that he had plunged deeply into the mystic and theosophic speculations of Jacob Böhm, and that he was a convert also to the millennial and universalistic doctrines of Dr. Wilhelm Petersen. Perhaps he spent some time in Holland, then the asylum of numerous dis- senters, who were not tolerated in Germany. In his diary he mentions a Catharine Beerens in Holland with much feeling, calling her " divina virgo." She sent him a draft when he was in London.
We next find him, in company of about forty associates who held similar views as himself, ready to embark for America, and
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Kelpius, the Hermit of the Wissahickon.
there to await the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom. The leader of this mystic flock was John Jacob Zimmermann, highly spoken of as a man versed in mathematics, astronomy, and the- ology. He had been minister in Würtemberg, but was dismissed on account of his peculiar religious opinions. Zimmermann ap- plied to a wealthy and kind-hearted Quaker in Holland for means to defray the cost of transportation, and these were obtained. Be- sides Zimmermann and Kelpius, there were among these enthusi- asts several more men of learned education, such as John Selig of Lemgo, Daniel Falkner of Saxony, Henry Bernhard Köster of Blumenberg, Ludwig Bidermann of Anhalt-all of whom had been prepared for the ministry. When they were nearly ready to leave Zimmermann became sick, and died at Rotterdam. This happened toward the end of 1693. In the early part of the next year the rest, including Zimmermann's widow and children, em- barked in London on board the Sarah Maria, Captain John Tan- ner. In London, John Kelpius became acquainted with the famous Jane Leade, the founder of the Philadelphic Society, a sect of visionaries which extended also to Germany. Kelpius was evidently much taken with the philadelphic doctrines; the secretary of the society, Henry John Deichmann, became his in- timate friend, with whom he corresponded after his arrival in Pennsylvania.
During the voyage to America, John Kelpius kept a journal in Latin, by which we see that several untoward circumstances attended the passage. The ship was not out many days when it grounded on a sandbank, and was in great peril. The war existing between England and France made the passage of an un- protected ship across the sea a ventursome undertaking, and so the Sarah Maria lay by first in Deal, then in Plymouth, many weeks, to wait for the convoy of a fleet. At last, on the 15th of April, she got again under way in company of eighteen vessels, most of them carrying the Spanish flag. But as their destination was not Philadelphia, they left the Sarah Maria after about a week's time, with the exception of an English vessel, the Prov- idence. What had been dreaded now really came to pass-an encounter with hostile ships. On the 10th of May three vessels hove in sight, which proved to be French sloops, carrying re- spectively twenty, ten, and six guns. The English valiantly re- pelled the attack, and finally captured the smallest of their aggres- sors, which had been disabled. The German mystics on board the Sarah Maria offered a solemn thanksgiving for having been mercifully saved from so imminent a peril. On the 23d of June they arrived in Philadelphia, and on the 24th proceeded to Ger- mantown.
Of the life and doings of the "Hermits on the Ridge" we have no definite information ; even the letters of Kelpius, which are in reality religious treatises, give us no clew, except by infer-
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ence. And they certainly prove that the hermit-life of Kelpius was not that of a rude cave-dweller ; he remained attached to his studies and must have seen some society. In one of the letters he makes a request for two harpsichords with strings; he was known and esteemed by persons of high culture, as is evidenced by his correspondence with Stephen Momfort, the Seventh-Day Baptist of Newport (see Belcher's Religious Denominations, p. 265) ; with Hester Palmer of Flushing, Long Island ; with Mary Elizabeth Gerber of Virginia and Rev. Erik Biörk of Christina (Wilmington). In a Latin letter addressed to this eminent min- ister of the Swedish congregation at Christina he says; "I re- ceived the double proof of your fraternal love, your very kind letter of 23d of January, and the money through Mr. Jonas B." ," Would I were such as you represent me, and as you, with my beloved Rudman, judge me to be." Rev. Andrew Rud- man, as is well known, was the first provost of the Swedish churches on the Delaware and minister at Wicaco.
Several of the letters, of which Kelpius kept copies in his memorandum-book, are addressed to H. J. Deichmann, the sec- retary of the Philadelphic Society in London-next to J. Selig the most intimate friend of Kelpius.
When F. D. Pastorius, at his urgent request, was in the year 1700 relieved of the agency of the Frankfort Company, there were, instead of one, three successors appointed-viz. Daniel Falkner, John Kelpius, and John Jawert. How can we account for the fact that a person so totally averse to the affairs of the world, a pious recluse, an ascetic dreamer like John Kelpius, should have been selected to conduct the land and administration business of a company ? It seems most likely that upon the re- tirement of Pastorius the members of the Frankfort Company, who lived all in Germany, could not agree upon the same person a: a successor, and compromised by the appointment of their several favorites. Now, Dr. John William Petersen, and probably some other members, held religious views quite in keeping with those of Kelpius; Petersen and his wife were in Germany, the most prominent exponents of Jane Leade's millennial and philadelphic notions, and John Kelpius's sympathy with the same is sufficiently evident from his correspondence with Deichmann, the correspond- ing secretary of the Philadelphic Society.
It hardly needs to be said that the hermit did not descend from his lofty and solitary stand to higgle about the rent of houses and lands, to keep cash and transfer books, write deeds and agree- ments. He did not even take the trouble to decline the appoint- ment ; he simply ignored it.
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The Tunkers or Dunkards.
THE TUNKERS OR DUNKARDS.
Pp. 23, 42, 111, and 258 .- In 1729, Rev. Alexander Mack arrived in this country with many of his congregation, and as- sisted Mr. Becker, who had removed to Bebberstown, near Ger- mantown. He died in 1735. After Mr. Becker went to Skip- pack in 1747, Rev. Alexander Mack the second succeeded. În 1737 a few, about seven, of the Dunkers established a religious house or monastery upon the plan of the large monastery of the Seventh-Day Baptists at Ephrata, founded by Conrad Beissel in 1732-33, who had formerly been a Dunker, but adopted the principles of the Seventh-Day Baptists. They built a house "in a valley one mile from Germantown," but only continued it for seventeen months. The " Monastery of the Wissahickon," about a mile above the Red Bridge on the Wissahickon, has been popu- larly supposed to have been the house built by the Brothers. But it has been a fine large mansion, and not such as the Brothers would have erected. The ground in question was sold in March, 1747, to John Gorgas of Germantown. In 1752 he conveyed half of it to his brother, Joseph Gorgas, who had erect- ed on it a three-story stone house. Joseph was a member of the society of Seventh-Day Baptists, and here he gathered congenial spirits and "held sweet communion." They baptized in the Wissahickon, at a spot known as "The Baptisterion." Joseph Gorgas sold the property to Edward Milner in 1761.
P. 23 .- The true name of this town was Bebberstown-not Beggarstown ; therefore Watson's reason for the name can hardly be founded on fact.
P. 24 .- This market-house has been entirely removed, and the market-square has been adorned with trees and walks, and pre- sents a pretty appearance, railed in, and embellished with flowers and a fountain.
P. 27 .- First grist-mill. (See Vol. I. p. 128.)
From England, p. 27 .- This is not quite correct, I think. Townsend in his printed account (see Proud, i. p. - ) expressly says that the materials brought from England were used by him in a mill he erected on Chester Creek, and which, being men- tioned by him before, was probably erected first, but in Chester county. It is uncertain when Townsend's account was printed, but this mill, he says, was erected about one year after German- town was settled-say 1683 or 1687.
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GERMANTOWN ACADEMY.
P. 27 .- On the 6th of December, 1759, a meeting was held at the house of Daniel Mackinet, when it was resolved that a large commodious building should be erected near the centre of the town for an English and High Dutch or German school, and also dwellings for the teachers. A subscription was at once started, and many subscribed, and Christopher Meng, Christopher Sauer, Baltus Reser, Daniel Mackinet, John Jones, and Charles Bensell were appointed to collect further subscriptions. The contributors met Jan. 1, 1760, and chose of their number for trustees, Christopher Sauer, Thomas Rosse, John Jones, Daniel Mackinet, Jacob Keyser, John Bowman, Thomas Livzey, David Deshler, George Absentz, Joseph Galloway, Charles Bensell, Jacob Naglee, and Benjamin Engle; for treasurer, Richard Johnson. The directors selected a lot, and submitted a plan, estimate of cost, and a plan of government at a meeting held on the 25th. It was decided that the school should be free to persons of all religious denominations, that it should be on a lot "in the lane or cross-street leading toward the Schuylkill, commonly called ' Bensell's Lane'"-it was purchased from John and George Bringhurst-and that it should be called "the Germantown Union School-house."
On April 21, 1760, the trustees and other contributors met and laid four corner-stones. It was completed and opened in Sep- tember, 1761. Hilarius Becker was the German teacher, David James Dove the English teacher, Thomas Pratt the English usher. By the 16th of October there were 131 pupils-61 in the English and 70 in the German department. The school went on flourishing until the Revolution. In 1764 we find the Quakers objecting to certain lessons of politeness, and the trustees resolved " that the master shall give express orders to the children of persons of that society that they do not accost him or others by uncovering the head at any time." Greek, Latin, and the higher mathematics were taught in addition to the ordinary rudiments.
About 1776, " by reason of the troubled times," it was difficult to get a quorum of trustees. In July, 1777, a new teacher was appointed, because Thomas Dungan, the master of the English school, had joined the American army, in which he became a captain. In August, 1777, the school was about to be used as a hospital for the sick of Washington's army, but Israel Pemberton saw President Hancock, and the sick soldiers were taken to the hospital in Philadelphia, and the school was not interrupted. In October, 1778, it is stated that " on account of the distressed times no German or English school has been kept this good while." Nor do we find any minutes of the board of trustees, nor notice of the school having been again opened until after the
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Germantown Academy.
peace. In 1784 a charter was obtained incorporating it as "the Public School at Germantown," which was amended in 1786. The school was poor, the Legislature's finances, " so soon after a long and expensive war," could not furnish aid, so contributions were solicited. They struggled on for some years, getting grad- ually more prosperous from access of pupils, contributions, and legacies. In 1808 a lottery was held which yielded £93 12s., but John Johnson resigned, and Treasurer John Bowman refused to receive the money.
In 1793, on account of the yellow fever in the city, the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania and Congress proposed to occupy it, but it was resolved that it be first offered to the President at a rent of $300 for the session. At the next attack of the fever, in 1798, the use of the cellar and lower story was granted to the banks of Pennsylvania and North America, they agreeing to paint the building and put on a new roof. When leaving it the banks thanked the trustees for the asylum afforded.
In 1810 the house opposite the school was bought for $3200 from James Matthews, who presented the insurance on it, and Mr. John Wister lent $1400 to make the purchase. From this period the school has continued to prosper and advance. The same trustees were constantly re-elected, some of them having been in the board from twenty to thirty years. Among them are the familiar Germantown names of Bensell, Rittenhouse, Lehman, Johnson, Galloway, Pemberton, Chew, Haines, Logan, Ashmead, Harvey, Watson, Forrest, Betton, Wister, and others of the best families. Mr. Reuben Haines was a particular friend of the school and active patron of science; and Mr. Charles J. Wister, a trustee for thirty years, presented a valuable philosophical ap- paratus.
The school possesses some curious relics, which are also sym- bolic of the past. On the spire is a crown, placed there by the loyal love of our ancestors for their government; in the steeple is a bell that came over in the ship that brought the tea which was thrown overboard into Boston harbor; in the library is a spy-glass used by Washington at the battle of Germantown. Each of these represents a portion of our history-colonial de- pendence, indignant resistance to royal power, war, Washington, and victory.
The centennial anniversary of laying the corner-stone was celebrated by the people of Germantown with great enthusiasm April 21st, 1860, by ringing of the bell, parade, one hundred guns, and in the evening by a short address and an ode by John S. Littell, a prayer by Rev. Charles W. Schaeffer, an oration by the late Sidney George Fisher, and a benediction by Rev. Henry S. Spackman.
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THE MORRIS MANSION.
P. 41 .- The mansion occupied by General Howe and by Wash- ington, on the Main street below Schoolhouse lane, was at that time owned by Isaac Frank; it afterward became the property of the Perot family; then of the late estimable and respected Samuel B. Morris, and now of Elliston P. Morris, Esq., his son. It is a large and most comfortable mansion, old-fashioned in its style of architecture, but in much better taste than many modern houses of more pretension. The hall is very fine, and the rooms are wainscoted and panelled from the ceiling to the floor, with a rich heavy cornice. The wood-work is admirably done, and perfect to this day. Mr. Morris retains, with rare good taste, the original appearance of it as near as possible. There is the old-fashioned door-knob, latch, and fastenings, which must have been handled by Washington many a time, and even some of his china. Mr. Morris's taste has preserved many fine pieres of antique mahogany and walnut furniture from his ancestors, so admirably in keeping with the house itself. It is a rare treat for the lover of antiquity to pass some hours in this house with its surroundings. The grounds possess some noble trees, many of considerable age, and are laid out with such skill as to give the idea of much greater scope than they possess. The grass is kept in admirable order.
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