USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > Celebration of the two hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the landing of William Penn in Pennsylvania held at the Washington house, Chester, Pa., Saturday, October 26th, 1912 by the Colonial society of Pennsylvania, in association with the Swedish colonial society > Part 2
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The experiment of conducting the house on strictly temperance principles proved an unprofitable venture and Flaville at length disposed of the property January 1, 1849, to Thomas Clyde, who had formerly conducted an extensive general store in Chester and was largely interested in quar- ries on Ridley Creek. During the panic of 1837 he lost heavily by the failures of contractors, who were carried down in the slump in business and values that followed. For nine years Mr. Clyde continued to be landlord of the Washington House, but as he insisted in continuing it as a temperance inn, it was conducted with but little financial success. His namesake and nephew, the late Thomas Clyde, of steamship fame, a child of seven, on the death of his parents in Ireland, was sent over to the United States, and was an inmate of his uncle's household in Chester until he attained his majority. In April, 1856, Thomas Clyde sold the property to his son-in-law, John G. Dyer, who had been an Inspector of the Customs at the Lazaretto, and later interested in manufacturing. A man of pleasing address
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and an attractive conversationalist, Mr. Dyer, who had re- ceived license for the ancient hostelry, soon re-established the Washington House as one of the most popular public houses in the county. In 1868 he conveyed the premises to his son, Col. Samuel A. Dyer. The latter was a man of unusual business ability and forethought, and one to whose liberality the City of Chester owes much for its present prosperity. In after life he became a banker, was the founder of the Chester National Bank, of which for a number of years he was president. To his enterprise and energy the City is indebted for its present street railway system. Col. Dyer, on June 1, 1870, sold the Wash- ington House to Henry Abbott, Jr., who continued as its landlord for nearly a quarter of a century. Henry Abbott died January 16, 1911. A clause in his will attracted wide- spread attention throughout this country and was largely copied by the press of Great Britain. He had had during all his life a horror of being buried alive, hence it was to guard against such a contingency that he inserted the following clause in his will:
"It is my desire that for forty days after my decease my body shall be kept in a vault with the lid of the coffin unfastened, and be visited daily during that period, and subsequently be interred in my burial lot in the grave where my wife, Margaret J. Abbott, is buried in Chester Rural Cemetery. If my body be interred before this my desire is known, I direct that it be immediately disinterred and these provisions fully carried out."
The obligations imposed by the will were faithfully carried out by the executor, but it was a revolting duty to the official, who daily visited the tomb to watch the slow process of dust returning to dust.
On January 22, 1895, Henry Abbott sold the Wash- ington House to Charles E. Morris. On Saturday afternoon, April 19, 1902-the hundred and twenty-seventh anniver- sary of the Battle of Lexington-the Delaware County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, with appropriate ceremonies unveiled a bronze tablet, which had been placed in the wall on the right side of the main en . trance to the Washington House, whereon in raised letters were inscribed several of the noted historical incidents
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which are associated with the story of the old hostelry. Mine Host Morris had had the building tastefully decorated for the occasion. Draping the door opening into the room in which Washington wrote the only report he ever made to Congress in reference to the defeat at Brandywine, were two large silk American flags which twenty-six years before had been used as part of the decorations of the Roach Ship- yard exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 at Phila- delphia. The colors of the Daughters of the American Revolution were everywhere conspicuous in the apartment which Washington had occupied. Addresses were made by Mayor Howard H. Houston, Henry Graham Ashmead and Rev. Philip H. Mowry, D.D.
Charles E. Morris, on January 29, 1910, conveyed the Washington House to William Band, Jr. Mr. Band is peculiarly fitted to be in control of the old Colonial tavern, with its wealth of historic associations. He venerates its glorious past while still desirous that the Washington House shall be equipped with all the conveniences of a modern hotel. Recognizing that age is one thing which money cannot buy, Mr. Band has carefully preserved in all the changes made at the hotel, the dominant fact that the old Washington House is one of the best examples of Colonial architecture existing to-day in these United States, and has historical associations clustering about it beyond that of any other public house in all America.
HENRY GRAHAM ASHMEAD. Chester, Pa., October 26, 1912.
REMARKS OF PRESIDENT PAGE.
When the cigars were lighted, President S. Davis Page rapped for silence. Then he said:
"Gentlemen of the Colonial Societies: When I picked up your menu here and found that I was down for 'Remarks,' I was a good deal astonished; for, although one who has been put in this exalted position by your votes must expect to stand and deliver whenever called upon, yet, upon this occasion, I thought we came down here for instruction and entertainment at the hands of those who are more familiar with the locality, and certainly vastly better in- formed as to its history than I am. Since I have been
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sitting here, however, although but a few minutes, I have gotten some very interesting information on the subject from the distinguished gentlemen who hold up my hands, the one on the right and the other on the left (alluding to the Mayor and Garnett Pendleton, Esq.).
" It occurs to me that if that remarkable citizen of the world, William Penn, who landed so near this very spot, the 28th of October, two hundred and thirty years ago, were here to-day, the changes wrought in that time would be bewildering indeed to him. What do you suppose would be the emotions of that man if he could step out from the grave, or land from that fabled boat that carried him across the Styx-old Charon at the helm-what do you think would be his emotions if he landed at this time in the year of Grace, 1912, and looked at this fair town, to which we have come, at the hospitable call of Mr. Ashmead and others of our associates residing here ?
" You have a town here of 40,000 people, particularly noted for its manufacturing industries. You have on the one side the great works of Baldwin, enormous in their potential production-if not in their present realization- and on the other you have great silk and other mills of varied activities. When I was told that the silk they have produced in that silk mill is made out of the wood of the mulberry tree, without the properties of the tree contained in the leaf passing through the silk worm at all, it occurred to me that perhaps William Penn, were he to come back in this day of Grace, would be even more surprised at the progresses and changes that have been made in the rela- tion of man to man, in the improvements, in the utilities and comforts of life, in the development of the power of man over the elements of nature, even to harnessing the lightning of the thunderbolt and bringing it here for our comfort and entertainment, as we see it in the lights before us, than were the dwellers of Jerusalem when they saw the lame walk and the dumb speak and the lepers cleansed, nineteen hundred years ago.
Altogether, as I get older, and there are not many here who are older than I, it seems to me that the longer you live the more astounding are the miracles that each day brings forth; and when I sometimes hear people talking
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about the story of the miracles in the Bible as being per- haps too great a tax on their credulity, I feel like pointing to the daily occurrences that we read of in the papers as really presenting miracles as astounding almost as those which God Incarnate, with a full and complete knowledge of all the powers of nature, and with all of them within the grasp of His hand, was able to and did do here on earth. Really, we are living in a miraculous age; and, with all that we have and know and see, we can hardly realize, gentle- men, what men like Penn did 230, 250 or 300 years ago, when they left the centers of civilization and faced the wilderness and the savagery beyond the seas; for the good, not only of themselves, but of mankind, and for the human race. What man of all of them did more for the human race, in respect to its deliverance from the thraldom of religious intolerance, and of civic oppression, than this man whose landing on these shores we here and now do celebrate? Let me say just here-I think it was a most happy suggestion that we should come down here to Chester at this time, near that sacred spot. Our meet- ings, as you know, are usually held at this time of year to celebrate this very event, the Landing of William Penn; and where better could we celebrate it than right here, where, after stopping at New Castle, he made his first landing? It was a particularly happy suggestion of our fellow members living here and it has given great pleasure and gratification to all of us, and I am sure I am speaking on behalf of the members of both societies, of our own, the Colonial Society, and the Swedish Colonial Society, of which some of us are also members, enjoying together this charming hospitality.
"I congratulate you all that we are here to-day. I congratulate you for the kind Providence that has smiled upon us, and who gave us such a lovely day to be here; but particularly do I congratulate you that the Mayor of the City of Chester will address us to-day and that my friend, Mr. Garnett Pendleton, will instruct us as to the associations connected with the place and recall some of the men of it and their doings of long ago. I have the pleasure of presenting to you the Hon. William Ward, Jr., Mayor of Chester."
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MAYOR WARD'S ADDRESS.
Mr. Ward, as he arose, was welcomed with much clap- ping of hands. This having ceased, he said:
" Mr. President and gentlemen of the Colonial So- cieties: The City of Chester extends to you to-day, gen- tlemen, a-visiting, a cordial, hearty welcome. We are always glad to welcome the stranger within our gates, but we are particularly honored this day and extend a most generous welcome to you, the descendants of our early settlers and pioneers.
" We of the City of Chester and the County of Dela- ware, claim prominence in the story of this great Com- monwealth. Within a radius of five miles of this city of ours, all of the history of Pennsylvania was made during the first four decades of our Colonial life. Over this par- ticular locality have floated as the emblem of sovereignty, the Swedish and Dutch flags, the red-crossed standard of St. George, and our own " Old Glory," the best flag of all, that at the conclusion of every struggle in which it has engaged, has emerged from the smoke of battle, wreathed with victory.
" Four miles to the east of where we meet to-day, in what is now the township of Tinicum, the first permanent settlement of the white man, within this State was made, two hundred and seventy years ago.
"It was at Tinicum where Governor Printz, whom we are told weighed near to four hundred pounds, and had a capacity of four quarts of strong liquor each day, built and erected Fort Gottenberg.
" There the Governor established his fort and his col- ony and issued his decrees, and despite famine, misfortune and disease held to his post and sowed the seed from which has grown this glorious Commonwealth. He it was who first inaugurated the policy of conciliation toward the In- dians, an idea which the Proprietary in later years, shrewdly adopted and emphasized.
" The Redman and the Swede lived in harmony and perfect amity. The white man taught to the Indian his latter day arts and perchance, some of his imperfections and frailties. The Redman taught to the Swede his lore
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of the forest primeval and drilled him in the conquest of the woods and river stream.
"We know that the Swede used his foot as a weight in trading with the Indians for their peltry, but the Redman was not slow to learn and quickly sent forward the tallest brave to act as yard-stick when the Swedes were paying for furs or land with gaudy calico.
"This fact I would particularly impress; that the Swedes in 1654 entered into a treaty with the Indians at Tinicum, of which it is recorded that it 'has ever been faithfully observed on both sides.' This treaty was made twenty-eight years before the oft questioned meeting of Penn with the aborigines, said to have taken place under the great elm at Shackamaxon; an incident so noted whether it be fact or myth, as to call forth Voltaire's often quoted expression that 'It was the only treaty which has not been sworn to, and which has not been broken.'
" And it would be as well to recall the fact that it was the brush of the Quaker artist West, born at Swarthmore, within four miles of where we are now assembled, that has so largely contributed to the prominent place held by Penn's treaty with the Indians, in the history of this Com- monwealth, of this country and in the annals of the world.
"We first learn of Chester in 1644, then called Upland, as a tobacco plantation, land afterwards granted by the Swedish authorities to Joran Kyn.
"It may be noted that in the same year-1644-was born William Penn, a peculiar association of incidents, worthy at least of passing attention.
"The land on which the building stands in which we are now gathered was included in that Swedish grant to George Keen, for that is the English name of our foremost early settler.
"I learn that among those with us this afternoon are quite a number of the direct descendants of George Keen, and I desire particularly to extend to those gentlemen a hearty welcome to this city, the site of which two hundred and sixty years ago was in the undisputed ownership of their ancestor, the first permanent settler of Chester.
"The tide of life ran evenly and slow in the colony and the years rolled on till 1682, the year that marked
OFMAWARE COUNTY CHAPTER
DAUGHTERS OF THE
MARKS TILLS HOUSE IS THE PLACE WHERE WASHINGTON WROTE AT MIDNIGHT THE ONLY REPORT OF THE BATTER OF BRANDYWINE
HERE WASTRETON ALSO RECEIVE THE CONGRATIT ATIONS AF THE PEOPLE OF CHESTER GRON HIS TUECTION AS THE
FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL 20 1789
TABLET ON THE WASHINGTON HOUSE
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the coming of William Penn, for it was in that year that our Quaker Proprietary first placed foot in his territory and gave to the Province his name, and to the Nation of the future the Keystone State of Pennsylvania.
"Chester claims the honor and distinction of contain- ing the spot of ground where William Penn first landed in this State. There has been much discussion as to the accuracy of the spot designated and some criticism of the style of marker erected.
." These are the facts: On November 8, 1850, the corrected date from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania visited Chester, in celebration of the one hundred and sixty-eighth anniver- sary of Penn's landing in this town, then a borough, and after the literary exercises which were held in the old Methodist Church on Fifth Street, now a cigar factory, were concluded, the assemblage in a body visited the site where Penn first trod the earth of the Province, which then and now bears his name.
"The places where the ancient trees had stood, under which the Proprietary landed were still visible, the last of the old pines had been up-rooted in a violent gale in October, 1846. A survey was then made and as portions of the stumps of the five trees, to one of which the boat which bore William Penn from the 'Welcome' to the shore was made fast, were still discernible, it can be accepted as a well ascertained fact that the marker, which was erected in 1882, thirty-two years later, during the Bi-Centennial observances, stands within at least twenty feet of the pre- cise spot where the landing took place two hundred and thirty years ago.
" As to the marker: It was not intended as an ela- borate monument nor designed as a work of highest art. The idea as to the form of the memorial stone was that of John Struthers, whom it will be remembered, supplied and superintended the placing of the stone work that en- tered into the City Hall of Philadelphia, who suggested that the marker should be in the form of a mile stone, as symbolizing an epoch in the history of the Nation, just as the old mile stones represented a measured distance on the surface of the earth.
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"I am informed that since the locating of this stone in Chester the idea has been adopted in many of the coun- tries of Europe and that on the Island of Runnymede, where the great Magna Charta was signed by King John, a stone of like shape now marks the spot forever associated with the story of human freedom.
"So passed the years. For the first forty odd years Chester was the stage upon which was enacted almost the entire history of the Province; and while the fears that Penn and his advisers entertained that it was possible that the claim of Lord Baltimore to its ownership might be maintained, led him to select Philadelphia for his " Green Country Town," Chester as a borough and city has held prominent place in the annals of the Keystone State. From this neighborhood came John Morton, whose decisive vote gave Independence to the Colonies and as a consequence birth to the United States.
"From the windows of this apartment we look down upon the street where " Mad Anthony " Wayne drilled the Continentals of this section from raw levees into martial form. Here Commodore David Porter, one of the conspicu- ous heroes of the second war with England made his home and here was born his son, Admiral David Dixon Potter, a brilliant figure of the Civil War. Only a stone's throw from here Admiral David Glasgow Farragut went to school and in this town he passed much of his boyhood days. Here were born Rear Admiral Frederick Engle and Pierce Crosby and here in Roach's Shipyard the present Naval establish- ment of the United States had its birth. Out of the receding past I have alluded to but a few incidents, which we as resi- dents of Chester, and you, gentlemen, as citizens of Penn- sylvania, may well be proud.
" To-day we welcome you to a progressive city of almost fifty thousand souls, a hive of industry and toil, not content to live only in the past-but striving for moral, industrial and municipal betterment.
" Rich in our history, proud of our progress, loyal to our people and to our glorious Commonwealth, Chester to-day extends to you, gentlemen, a generous and cordial welcome." (Applause.)
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PRESIDENT PAGE :-
" Gentlemen of the Colonial Societies: After having been admitted to the gates of Chester in the charming manner in which the Mayor extended the welcome of the town to us, let us now look beyond those gates, and throw our minds back, not so far as two hundred and thirty years ago, but one hundred and thirty years ago, or thereabout, and think of the great men of that time, to whom we, as descendants of some of them, and as those who have profited by their sufferings and by their work, should look back with veneration and the greatest regard; but that veneration and regard is a matter simply of lip service, if we do not lay their examples to our hearts and endeavor to lead a little of the altruistic lives led by those men who camped not far from here during that ter- rible winter at Valley Forge. Among those men who did and suffered so much, there was one man, who dared and did so much that he was thought really to be beyond the control of reason; and that man, forgetting himself, for- getting even his surroundings at times, pressed on to any risk, any danger, to any chance of suffering, to achieve and to accomplish the design which he had in hand, in the furtherance of the great plans which the General in com- mand of the army at Valley Forge had conceived and eventually carried to such a successful completion and fruition; " Mad Anthony Wayne " had reason in his mad- ness, and in the toast which comes next, he is presented to our contemplation as "Soldier and Citizen." Some men in the discharge of one duty sometimes forget the other, and there are men who would carry into their citizenship some of the ideas perhaps which they may have imbibed while filling the role of soldiers. The swords of Anthony Wayne and of those who fought with him, wrote into the hearts of their countrymen with the blood of their owners' 'regard for law.' And, in the discharge of their duty as citizens, they obeyed the law; not the law founded on the will of one man, but the law founded upon the consent of a multitude of men, all equal before the law, but formed in such a way that the power of the majority shall never be exercised to the injury of the rights of the minority. (Applause) Never can that principle be preserved should
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there be any successful effort made at any time by any men, under any call, by God or Devil, to override the written law of the land and the Constitution of the United States established by the labor and the blood of men like Anthony Wayne-established I pray as the everlasting law of these States, its object being the control and limitation of the powers of Government in the land; for there can be no slavery greater than an unlimited exercise of the powers of government, even if ostensibly and ostentatiously for the good people, who should learn rather to govern themselves, if we are to remain a free people.
" You who have paid any attention to history know something of the efforts of our ancestors and forebears, throughout all the ages, of the record, to limit and control the powers of government. We want no extension of the powers of government; the fewer laws we have, the better; the more restricted the powers of government, the safer the rights of the governed.
" Gentlemen, I have the honor to present to you Mr. Garnett Pendleton, who will talk to us of ' Anthony Wayne, Soldier and Citizen.' "
GARNETT PENDLETON'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania and Gentlemen of the Swedish Colonial So- ciety: It is eminently fitting that organizations whose prime object is the collection of data concerning the early history of Pennsylvania should meet within the limits of the old town and County of Chester; within the walls of the ancient hostelry that so often sheltered majestic Wash- ington and chivalrous Lafayette, and in plain view of a town hall replete with civic associations and redolent of martial memories, eight years the senior of that historic edifice whence issued the declaration and the prophecy of American independence.
" We are engaged in the manifold activities of modern life, and enjoy the privileges of a high and complex civiliza- tion. But are not unmindful of the rock whence we were hewn. We realize that the present, with its wondrous achievements and its magnificent possibilities, is the child of a vigorous, an energetic and a glorious past.
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"We honor and revere our ancestors and their con- temporaries. They were men of resolute heart, iron nerve and stern determination. We owe them a debt forever insoluble. They braved the terrors and the perils of the trackless wilderness that for us that wilderness might bud and blossom as the rose. They battled with and expelled the ruthless savage, that we here might have peace and safety. They broke the rod of the oppressor that we might bask in the sunlight of liberty.
"The proper study of mankind is man. The history of the human race is an absorbing topic. American history -the recital of our development from colony to Common- wealth, from a group of communities lying along a narrow seaboard into a compact and powerful and continent-wide Republic, is a theme of ever-engrossing interest.
"The soldier is the great hero of secular history. His courage, his apparent indifference to danger and death, the battle array, the impetus of the charge; the pomp and glorious circumstance of war elicit the enthusiastic admira- tion of him who sees and of him who reads. The soldier looms large in the annals of mankind. Peace is the offspring of war; and liberty, the outcome of struggle; civilization rears her marts and her palaces on the conquered domain of barbarism.
"Too much of the work of the soldier has been in furtherance of the personal ambition of the general. We admire the transcendent military genius of Napoleon; but realize that in his quest of glory and self aggrandizement he prostituted his great gift to the subjugation and oppression of his fellowman, and in his pursuit of world- wide dominion drenched the earth in blood.
"To us as philanthropists and as patriots is offered another and a fairer picture. For the character of Wash- ington we cherish filial reverence and rejoice in the achieve- ments of a soldier who fought for the liberation, and not for the enslavement of his kind.
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