USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 15
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During the important period during which Walter Rogers Johnson was head master the Marquis de Lafayette visited the school. This was on July 20, 1825, and the scene was a dramatic one, particularly when the distin- guished visitor was introduced to Fernando Bolivar, the nephew and adopted son of Simon Bolivar, " Liberator of South America," who was one of the pupils.
The family names connected with this old school are distinguished and continuous. Wister and Johnson are of course among them and the well-known historian, John F. Watson, was treasurer for many years. To the present generation no name is, however, so synonymous with Ger- mantown Academy as that of Dr. William Kershaw whose service dates from 1877. The group of buildings in their setting of fine old trees above the street present the digni- fied and substantial appearance of our best Colonial tra- dition.
Before the days of the public school there were of course many children whose parents or friends were unable to give them an education. The need to provide for this situation was suggested to a group of young men in the winter of 1799 by William Nekervis, one of their number, who explained his tardy appearance at one of their stated meetings for social intercourse by describing the effort
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which he had witnessed of some young women to gratuit- ously teach poor girls. He added that the undertaking had greatly interested him and he could not help thinking that he and his friends could employ their leisure with more credit by teaching poor boys than to spend it in merely social intercourse at a public house. The idea was approved, a society formed and a plan of operations adopted by the little band of apprentices, clerks and young men commencing business, under the name of " The Phila- delphia Society for the Free Instruction of Indigent Boys." These nine youths opened a night school in which the teachers alternated in the weekly classes and instructed between twenty and thirty scholars in the ordinary branches of English education. The place chosen was a room in the rear of the Second Presbyterian Church, at the north- west corner of Third and Arch Streets, from which it was removed to the new school house built by the Society in Walnut Street above Sixth. They contributed $16.37 the first year and their expenditures were $9.27, so that they may be said to have managed the affair with unusual business acumen.
In June, 1801, a day school was opened in response to an urgent call for more extensive operations. The title was now changed to " The Philadelphia Society for the Establishment and Support of Charity Schools," and in- corporation considered. Action on this account was hastened by the bequest of $8000 by Christopher Ludwick for the purpose of teaching, gratis, poor children in the City and Liberties of Philadelphia. The University at once joined with the Society in competition for this fund and so an exciting contest was begun. The right to the legacy depended upon the priority of incorporation according to its terms, and to complete an act of incorporation at that
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time it was required that the instrument should be trans- mitted to Lancaster, and recorded in the Rolls Office. Thomas McKean, the Chief Magistrate, delivered the two deeds to the agents of the rival candidates at the same moment and in addition to his role of strict and just im- partiality seems to have had a keen sporting interest in the outcome. Great excitement prevailed on the part of the public whose attention had been called to the prospective race. The express of the University upon the back of a fast trotting horse started first. The President of the Society, Mr. Eves, followed in a light sulky. After a hard ride Eves overtook the horseman and they travelled side by side for fourteen miles. One cannot help wondering what their conversation, if any, must have been during those contentious moments. At the Spread Eagle Tavern Eves passed and lost his rival whose horse gave out. Eves' horse at length followed suit but he hired another from a plough and proceeded. Four miles further on and he pur- chased a third horse. He was determined to win! Anxious crowds awaited the contestants at various points on the road with shouts of " there he comes, there he comes!" Eves covered the sixty-six miles in seven hours, presented his charter for enrollment and won the race on the seventh day of September, " at ten minutes after eight o'clock in the evening."
The Society's building fund was augmented by the appeal of Dr. Benjamin Rush which realized $2800 at once. Thomas Walter was appointed teacher and the school continued to flourish in its new building by day and by night. Soon a library was added and legacies began to come to it so that soon two more schools were opened. At the opening of the nineteenth century the Society's School was the only one for the free instruction of pupils
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regardless of their birthplace or religion and it was there- fore the forerunner of our public schools established in 1818 through a law drafted in their school room.
In 1859 the school was removed from Sixth and Walnut Streets to the Paul Beck School House, Catharine Street above Sixth. In 1872 the name of the Society was changed to the Ludwick Institute, in recognition of the early bene- factor for whose bequest the famous race was run. Thus is continued to-day a still useful organization founded by Joseph Bennett Eves, Joseph Briggs, Benjamin Williams, William Nekervis, John Stockton, Hartt Grandon, Thomas Potts, Jr., Phillip Garrett and Thomas Bradford, Jr.
FOX HUNTING
LL Englishmen love a good horse, and while racing was enjoyed in Phila- delphia by gentlemen from the ear- liest time the more exclusive set found its chief interest in fox hunting. A man named Butler kept the kennel of hounds on the brow of the hill north of Callowhill Street, descending to Pegg's run, now Willow Street, and at about sixty feet westward of Second Street. The increase of the population decreased the number of foxes thereabouts, so that finally the company had to move over to Gloucester and hunt in the Jersey pines. They provided for their old huntsman, Butler, in 1756, by setting him up with the first public stage to New York.
Amusement was rather restricted in those primitive days in the new country and while the City Friend could provide entertainment with a delightful repast, the hos- pitable gentleman of the country promised good sport with horses, dogs or fox. The first organization of these lovers of exhilarating out-of-door sport was formed at the London Coffee House, at Front and High Streets, in 1766. The associators were Benjamin Chew, John Dickinson, Thomas Lawrence, Moor Furman, Enoch Story, Charles Willing, Levi Hollingsworth, James Wharton, Thomas Mifflin, William Parr, Israel Morris, Jr., Tench Francis, David Rhea, Robert Morris, John White, John Cadwalader, Samuel Morris, Jr., Anthony Morris, Jr., Turbot Francis, Zebulon Rudolph, Richard Bache, Isaac Wikoff, Joseph Wood, David Potts, Samuel Nicholas, Andrew Hamilton and David Beveridge. A negro named Natt, owned by the Morris family, became the master of the kennels and had a long and honourable service. Indeed, bandy-legged "Old
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Natty " became a famous character known to every urchin of town or country. The hunting uniform was a dark brown cloth coatee, with lapelled dragoon pockets, white buttons, and frock sleeves, buff waistcoat and breeches, and a black velvet cap. The pack in 1774 consisted of about sixteen couple of fleet hounds. Membership in the club grew rapidly until the war of Independence sus- pended all affairs of the chase until 1780. A meeting at the Coffee House in October of that year disclosed a debt to Mr. Morris of £3553, which was paid by nineteen members. The rendezvous for hunting was at William Hugg's inn, Gloucester Point Ferry, New Jersey, or at the kennel on the banks of the Delaware River nearby, where in 1778 there was a pack of twenty-two excellent dogs and ten six-months-old pups.
After the war Samuel Morris, Jr., Governor of the Schuylkill Fishing Company, was chosen president and served until he died in 1812. In 1800 there were about forty members and the club flourished until 1818, when Captain Charles Ross, the last master-spirit, died. Presi- dent Wharton, former Mayor of Philadelphia, and his few remaining disheartened associates resolved upon the disso- lution of the organization, the pack was dispersed, and the services of old Jonas Cattell, the guide and whipper-in, and Cupid the negro huntsman, were dispensed with.
The hunts took place principally at Cooper's Creek, about four miles from the city, at the Horseheads, seven miles, at Chew's landing, nine miles, at Blackwood Town, twelve miles, at Heston's Glass Works, twenty miles dis- tant, and sometimes at Thompson's Point on the Delaware, many miles to the south. They usually lasted from one to six hours and sometimes longer. In 1798 a fox carried the pack in full cry to Salem, forty miles distant.
Captain Samuel Morris, who was the guiding spirit of
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THE CHESTER VALLEY PACK ARRIVING AT THE KING OF PRUSSIA INN NEAR RADNOR
THE RADNOR AND KIRK HOUNDS ON THE WHITE HORSE PIKE
FOX HUNTING
the fox hunters for so many years and for forty years Governor of the "Colony in Schuylkill," was a man of engaging amiability and a beloved citizen. He was an excellent horseman, a keen sportsman and typical of the Philadelphia gentleman who has always clung tenaciously to the manners and customs of the mother country. The First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry, in which Samuel Morris was first a lieutenant and afterwards the captain, was originated in and chiefly composed of the fox-hunting gentlemen of the Gloucester Club and the members of the old Schuylkill Fishing Company. At some time prior to 1797 the members of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club presented Captain Morris with the celebrated Tally-Ho punch bowl of china, on one side of which a huntsman is shown taking a fence while on the other side his long- necked barb is jumping a ditch. The bowl is carefully cherished in the old house on South Eighth Street, pur- chased by his son, Luke Wistar Morris in 1817, and now owned by Effingham B. Morris.
The fox-hunting of the Philadelphia gentlemen was not confined to the Jerseys, for there is record of hunts held in both Chester and Delaware Counties. Jacob Hiltz- heimer makes note in his diary of fox hunts which occurred with considerable frequency at Darby, Tinicum, and one on December 12, 1767, at Centre Woods, where City Hall now stands, where a fox was dropped and " afforded an agreeable ride after the hounds till dark. The fox ran up a tree on the Schuylkill side, and when Levi Hollingsworth climbed up after him, it jumped down and was killed." On December 27, 1765, he tells us that he set off in the:
" Morning at five o'clock, with Thomas Mifflin, Sam Miles, Jacob Hollingsworth and Young Rudolph from my house; proceeded to Darby to meet the other gentlemen hunters; from there to Captain Coultas's house, and to the
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woods. About thirty-five gentlemen attended with thirty dogs but no fox was secured."
Captain Coultas was of Whitby Hall, situated at what is now Fifty-eighth Street and Florence Avenue, and hunted also with the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club. He came over prior to 1732, was of engaging manners and a charter member of the " Colony in Schuylkill." He got his military title from the associators in 1748, who formed a battery for the defense of Philadelphia from fear of French and Indian invasion. He was also Sheriff and Judge of the County Courts.
The Black Horse and Anvil taverns in Delaware county were starting points for many a hunt in olden times when Charley Pennell, Nicholas and Joseph Fair- lamb, Squire Baldwin and Anthony Baker were noted hunters. Most of the farmers hunted in those days, as indeed many of them do now, and while the dogs and horses were not always of the best, the sport was fine and the meets times to be remembered. Jesse Russell, living in Edgemont township, made a dying request that he be buried on a wooded round top called Hunting Hill where he could hear the hounds running. Farmers in those days, old and young, hearing the hounds running in their neigh- bourhood, would leave work, rush to the barn, saddle and bridle a horse, and join in the chase. These farm horses were of course not schooled to take the fences with their owners up, but when the hunt came to a fence the rider dismounted and called to his horse from the other side to come to him, whereupon the animal would make the jump with an empty saddle. To jump one's horse without leav- ing the saddle like this was considered a piece of showing off to be frowned upon. When the gentlemen riders from the City, some of whom had hunted in England, be- came more numerous with their red coats, it got to be the
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START OF THE HUNTERS' SCRAMBLE AT THE ROSE TREE HUNT CLUB'S SPRING MEET NEAR MEDIA, PENNSYLVANIA
FOX HUNTING
usual thing to ride straight and take the fences, although, of course, all the farmer's horses were not up to it. The American hounds were able to go into a wood, find the fox and bring him out, but the English hounds required the direction of the huntsman.
It was a free, democratic bit of real sport. They hunted with trench fed packs, each farmer keeping a few hounds of his own, and on hunting days they would meet at an appointed place and run all the hounds together. The first hounds were brought from France and England and bred to a little bit of everything, including bloodhounds, which accounts for the long ears and wrinkled foreheads of some of the American types of to-day. Some of the best hunts of the early days were on moonlit nights and the hunters would sit around a fire on a hill-top listening to the music of the hounds, spinning yarns and warming the inner man with some good country brew. This indeed was the origin of the popular Radnor Hunt Club of to-day which boasts of often turning out a field of a hundred riders of a Saturday.
This district about Philadelphia is by far the best fox- hunting country in America and foxes are as plentiful now as they were in the olden times. Bayard Taylor well de- scribes one of the old time hunts in his " Story of Ken- nett." With the sport so popular in Delaware and Chester Counties it was inevitable that a club should be formed and so the famous Rose Tree Club was organized at the old Rose Tree Inn in 1859 with J. Howard Lewis, President; George E. Darlington, Secretary, and J. Morgan Baker, Treasurer. As well as being the oldest, this club is the most active of the fox-hunting clubs of to-day about Phila- delphia. Its history is full of affectionate anecdotes of per- sons, places and hounds, much of it centred about the old inn whose name the club bears. Races were added to
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the hunting about forty years ago with a steeplechase course. The farmers in great numbers mingled with the gentlemen riders, coaches and handsome turnouts. Per- haps the family names found most often among this cele- brated company at the Rose Tree were those of Lewis and Rogers. Fairman Rogers was a famous horseman, a Captain of the First Troop and a Professor in the Uni- versity. Another widely known hunter was Alexander J. Cassatt, who became President of the Pennsylvania Rail- road. Along with these prominent men in the fellowship of the hunt went the farmers who had milked their dozen or more cows before mounting their sturdy animals for a run with the hounds.
Not so many years ago a prominent Philadelphian, then a lad, rode out to the Whitemarsh Valley on one of his father's coach horses to see a fox hunt. In the excitement of the moment he urged his horse forward and much to his surprise found himself well up in the field. Only re- cently while spending a year in England to enjoy the sport he was made Master of Fox Hounds of the Cottesmore Hunt, one of the mother country's most famous clubs. Gentlemen of the City and of Germantown were numerous and keen at most of the hunt clubs. Fearless riders a plenty were in every field, taking all sorts of risks and hazards. One hunter tells of his being precipitated into a brook in the morning, continuing the chase and getting a worse ducking during the run when he actually had to swim to get out. The records of fox-hunting are filled with the names of famous horses and hounds mentioned no less affectionately than those of their owners. Nor is the cunning of the fox neglected in the old traditions and all go to make it "the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt, and only five and twenty per cent. of its danger."
THE PHILADELPHIA SKATING CLUB AND HUMANE SOCIETY
T is quite certain that skating early became a sport in which Philadelphians were noted. Graydon says in his " Memoirs " that " though Philadel- phians have never reduced skating to rules like Londoners, nor connected it with their business like Dutchmen, I will yet hazard the opinion that they are the best and most elegant skaters in the world;" and he had seen " New Eng- land Skaters, Old England Skaters, and Holland Skaters." Dunlap in his History of Art, says that Benjamin West, the painter, was a skilful skater and speaking of his distinction on this account in London says, "Nor was the considerate Quaker insensible to the value of such com- mendation. He continued to frequent the Serpentine and to gratify large crowds by cutting the Philadelphia Salute."
The Delaware River and the numerous ponds near it were the places where the early Philadelphians learned to skate. Many of these ponds have already been mentioned. There was one at what is now Eighth and Arch Streets, one on the south side of Arch near Seventh Street and one on the north side of Race extending to Branch Street. Hudson's Pond at the northwest corner of Fifth and High Streets was the favourite haunt of such celebrated skaters as Colonel Morris, Thomas Bradford, and Alexander Fullerton. Other noted skaters were William Thorpe, Doctor Foulke, Governor Mifflin, Charles Wilson Peale, George Heyl and a negro named Joe Claypoole. George Heyl was the most conspicuous for he dressed in a red coat and buckskin tights and was particularly graceful and
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clever at figure skating. Doctor Foulke, the famous sur- geon, was an adept at the " High Dutch " and in cutting his name. Peale introduced the idea of carrying the runner above the foot and then back. Graydon names General Cadwalader and Charles Massey the biscuit maker, as the best skaters of their time.
The Great Blue House Pond at Ninth and South Streets near the tavern of that name, was chiefly used by citizens of Southwark. The Delaware River was, however, the chief skating place and the ice would often become two feet thick and even more. The skaters and walkers formed a big crowd and a great number of booths were erected for the sale of refreshments. Often, indeed, there was an ox-roast over a fire upon sand which was sprinkled on the ice. Horses were specially shod for racing sleighs and the course sometimes extended to Burlington and beyond. The whole scene presents a lively picture for the imagination of healthy, vigorous out-door sport.
Subsequently the Schuylkill River was sought by the enthusiast, a long distance to travel without the aid of any public conveyance. When the omnibus lines and later the horse cars began running to Fair-Mount, thousands would go out and the names most mentioned were Parrish, Zole- koffer, Evans, Paul, Snyder, Peale and Page.
On December 21, 1849, a number of enthusiasts held a meeting to form a Skaters' Club at Stigman's Hotel, on George, now Sansom Street, above Sixth. Colonel James Page was called to the chair and William H. Jones was appointed Secretary. A week later an adjourned meeting convened and the club took shape by the appoint- ment of Edward S. Lawrence, Albert R. Schofield, Wil- liam F. Van Hook, Josiah Evans, and the Chairman to
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draft a constitution. E. W. Bushnell was appointed Treasurer. On January 2, 1850, Josiah Evans was chosen Chairman and William H. Jones, Secretary, and a com- mittee appointed to select a pattern for reels with lines sixty feet long. Two days later, still at Stigman's, the Constitution was reported and unanimously adopted. So far the only ice these sportsmen had tried was that supplied by the well patronized bar at Stigman's and the only reels from the apple-jack obtained at the same place. On Janu- ary 8, 1850, James Page was chosen the first President, Josiah Evans, Vice-President; James Sullender, Treas- urer; William H. Jones, Secretary, and Edward D. Yates, Corresponding Secretary. The badge adopted was a small silver skate to be worn on the left breast. The life-saving apparatus consisted of a reel and cord, safety ladders and small boats on runners. In case of accident, two or three members only went to the rescue, while the others kept back the crowd. E. W. Bushnell introduced the first steel skates at $30 a pair. The club was of great service in breaking up gangs of toughs who molested skaters and stole their skates, so making it safe for anyone to venture on the ice by day or night.
The life saving record of the club soon eclipsed the work of the old Philadelphia Humane Society, whose activity had been gradually waning. This Society was established in 1780 and, like nearly all the useful early organizations of the City, was composed of the best citizens. It aimed to rescue "those whose animation may be sus- pended by drowning, breathing air contaminated by burn- ing charcoal, hanging, exposure to choke-damp of wells, drinking cold water while warm in summer, strokes of the sun, lightning, swallowing laudanum, etc." The signs of the Humane Society were familiar to the old City up to
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1850. They were placed near ferries, prominent taverns and places of resort and gave notice that the apparatus of the Humane Society was stored on the premises. It con- sisted of drays, hooks, nets, together with medicines and other appliances for the resuscitation of persons taken from the water, when animation was suspended. In summer startling hand-bills were posted on the pumps so popular in various parts of the City, cautioning people against drinking cold water when the body was heated. Nowadays our hardened and fastidious citizens may be expected to protest loudly if their drinking water is not iced in summer. The Society offered prizes for dissertations on the best methods of rescuing persons whose animation was suspended, and medals for acts of heroism. Dr. Benjamin Say and Joseph Cruikshank, two prominent Quakers, were early presidents of the Humane Society. It seems to have died a natural death and its funds were presented to the Pennsylvania Hospital.
The work in a modified form being continued by the skaters they incorporated the name in the charter granted to them in 1861. The growing club met at many places in town and as early as 1855 the erection of a permanent home on the Schuylkill River was agitated. The ladders and life-saving apparatus of the club were stored at Fricka's Hotel on Coates Street, now Fairmount Avenue, and were taken on the ice in the morning and every night carried back by the " boat-hook-and-ladder-brigade " of members. Edward Yates stuck to the hope of a house and one day in December, 1859, invited Harvey, Sullender and Bushnell to skate with him on the Wissahickon Creek. After a good dinner at a neighbouring inn he produced his plan to which all agreed. Permission from Councils to
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build, raising the money and erecting the building were all completed with much labour and the house finished in the spring of 1861. Here in " boat house row " near the dam, the hospitable Skaters' Club still continues its organi- zation and although the skating season seems much cur- tailed and the Park Guard has supplanted their humane work, the members still manifest a lively interest in the manly art and seek to emulate the record of their past.
CRICKET
RICKET is perhaps the oldest and the slowest of games and it may be acknowledged at once to the eager metropolitan that it is a Philadelphia importation. First recorded in Eng- land in the year 1300, cricket has con- tinued to be the one sport played by gentlemen for fun and exercise. Other games create more enthusiasm but there is no other for which its devotees hold so much affection. It is planned for the participant rather than the spectator and the length of time taken to finish a game is founded upon the idea that it is pleasant to pro- long an intermingling with one's friends in a game for fun which may be played by those of all ages and so add vastly to the joy and health of life for all. When youths are accustomed to play their games with grown men, it introduces an element of sobriety, courtesy and reticence into their play and behaviour, and games assume their proper value. The character and nationality of the game of cricket appealed to the Quaker habits of Philadelphians and though we have no records of games in Colonial days, or indeed until well into the nineteenth century, we may rest assured that the English settlers pitched many a cricket crease in the old town.
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