USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 2
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Nevertheless they laid out the city and built their houses with taste and skill. Fifteen thousand came between 1681 and 1700 at an average of 70 shillings per head, which
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
amounts to 50,000 pounds they must have paid. Their purchases cost them 25,000 pounds more and as has been said they brought much useful material with them.
Penn went about the colonization of his province in a business-like way and with great advertising skill. He issued a series of immigration pamphlets in the interest of his project with a scrupulous regard for true statements and simple facts without exaggeration. He described the plentifulness of timber, game and commodities and granted all legislative power to the people and government. No law was to be made or money raised but by the people's consent. To buyers he offered 5000 acres free from any Indian encumbrance for 100 pounds and a shilling per annum quit rent for every 100 acres. To renters he offered land at the rate of one penny per acre not exceeding 200 acres and to servants he gave 50 acres to the master for every head and 50 acres to the servant at the expiration of his time of indenture.
The servants generally came over on separate ships but appear in many cases to have been of the same social rank as the masters, being bound to work for them for a few years or until the money advanced them for their passage had been repaid.
Penn appeals to " Industrious Husbandmen and Day Labourers, Laborious Handicrafts, especially Carpen- ters, Masons, Smiths, Weavers, Taylors, Tanners, Shoe- makers, Shipwrights, etc. Ingenious Spirits that being low in the world, are much clogg'd and oppressed about a Livelihood, for the means of subsisting being easie there, they may have the time and opportunity to gratify their inclinations, and thereby improve science and help nurseries of people, younger brothers of small Inheritances and men of Universal Spirits that have an eye to the Good of Pos-
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7
Pegg's Run-now Willow Street
Dock Creek
PHILADELPHIA IN 1702 (Key on succeeding pages)
KEY TO ILLUSTRATION OF PHILADELPHIA IN 1702
No.
1 Swedes' Church, originally built in the year 1667
2 Old Horse Mill, Christian St., below Front St.
3 Pont House, framed and floated from Chester, 1682
4. Sven Swener's House, Swanson and Beck St., 1653
5 Duck Pond and Indian Huts, 3rd and Pine Sts.
6 Loxley's House, 2nd and Little Dock
7 President Barbadoes Co's. House
8 Edward Shippen's House
9 Creek and Drawbridge
10 Mouth of Dock Creek
11 Betheseba's Bower
12 Bakery
13 Blue Anchor Tavern, 1682
14 John Austin's House, 1684
15 Vannost Block and Pump Yard
16 Bakery
17 Mrs. Jones' Tavern, sign of the 3 Crowns
18 Budd's Row, built 1682-3
19 Carpenter's Warehouse
20 Carpenter's House, Brewery and Bakery
21 Mrs. Claypole's House
22 Old Slate or Gov. Penn's House, 2nd and Norris Alley
23 Andrew Doe's Stone House
No.
24 Friends' Public School
25 Benezet House
26 Duck Pond, 4th and Market Sts.
27 Baptist and Presbyterian Meeting House, 2nd and Chestnut
28 Friends' Meeting, 2nd and Market 29 Laetitia Court House
30 T. Masters' House
31 London Coffee House, built 1702 32 Crooked Billet Tavern
33 Thomas Masters' House
34 Market Shambles and Flag Staff
35 Patrick Robinson's (used as a Prison)
36 Christ Church, built 1695
37 Jones' Row, built 1699
38 Thomas Masters' House 1702
39 Turner's Famous House
40 Arch Street and Arch
41 Samuel Carpenter's House
42 Friends' Bank Meeting
43 Penny Pot House, Vine or Valley Street
44 Pegg's Run, supposed outlet for Schuylkill
45 Pegg's House and Grounds
46 Governor's Mill
47 Gunners Rambo's Run and Mrs. Kin- sey's House
48 Swedish Settlement
49 Fairman's Mansion and Treaty Tree 50 Floating Windmill
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536
40
42
40
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50
1
A
DIAGRAM OF PHILADELPHIA IN 1702
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR CITY
terity, and that both understand and delight to promote good Discipline and Just Government among a plain and well intending people."
It is plain to be seen what a sensible man Penn was and how earnestly he hoped for the success of his " Holy Experiment " without great material gain for himself. He describes what to take on the journey, its cost and what is first to be done on arrival. This was serious business, a journey in a little boat for two months on a great sea to an almost unknown wilderness, and they must not delude themselves with an expectation of " An Immediate Amend- ment of their Conditions." Indeed, he says, they must be willing to do without conveniences for two or three years. The passage money was six pounds a head for masters, five for servants and fifty shillings for children under seven years. Live stock can be purchased there at easy rates. Finally he exhorts all to have an eye above all things to the providence of God in the disposal of themselves and not to move rashly or from a fickle mind. "In all which I beseech Almighty God to direct us, that his blessing may attend our honest endeavour, and then the Consequence of all our undertaking will turn to the Glory of his great Name, and the true happiness of us and our Posterity."
Travelling between London and Bristol during the next three months Penn disposed of 300,000 acres of unlocated land in the new province to about 250 persons who were known as the first purchasers and were well-to-do Quakers of northern England, about two-thirds equally divided between London and Bristol. In October, 1681, he sent over three commissioners to help Governor Markham, ar- rived in June, organize the colony, lay out grants and settle upon the capital city. With these went the advance guards of immigrants, one from London in the ship John and the
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
other from Bristol in the Factor. In March, 1682, the Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania was incorporated, and in the following month the Surveyor General, Thomas Holme, sailed and the frame of government was drawn up. By the time Penn sailed in August, 1682, 600,000 acres had been sold and in the list of first purchasers published in London in that year by the Committee of the Free Society of Traders there are some 600 names, a few of which still survive among us. Most Philadelphians will recognize an ancestor in a list containing the names of More, Harrison, Knight, Flower, Baker, Taylor, Allen, Bond, Pickering, Jones, Bowman, Fisher, Turner, Holme, Davis, Chambers, Fox, Sharpless, Rowland, Ellis, Alsop, Barklay, Criscrin, Martindale, Palmer, Carpenter, Mat- lock, Thomas, Powell, Parsons, Griscom, Barnes, Lehman, Noble, Gibson, Fell, Harding, Scott, Dickson, Paschall, Sheppard, Russell, Harris, Mitchell, Dickinson, Cross, Clark, Guest, Buckley, Lyvesly, Kinsey, Hayward, Kent, Green, Loyd, Pierce, West, Welsh, White, Morris, Potter, Pusey, Jeffries, Geery, Austin, Hicks, Cope, Bacon, Jen- kins, Hart, Phillips, Roberts, Warner, Nixon, Keith, Car- ter, Coats, Bailey, Saundres, Townsend, Andrews, Evans, Waln, Pritchard, Collins, Rogers, Mason, Wood, Price, Spencer, Murrey, Hill, Child, Miles, Stephens, Marshall, Hunt, Richards, Brock, Haines, Howell and Johnson.
The earliest immigrants arrived before Philadelphia was surveyed and did not know where it was. They stopped at Upland, now Chester, which was peopled by the Swedes and some English Quakers from Jersey. Phila- delphia was located in 1682, "having a high and dry bank next to the water, with a shore ornamented with a fine view of pine trees growing upon it." In this bank they made caves to shelter their families and belongings and then went
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EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR CITY
out into the wilderness with a warrant of survey to choose their land.
There was a steady stream of immigration during the first year, and more than thirty ships and several thousand settlers arrived. Penn's letter to the Society of Traders in 1683 describes his own observations in his dominion which seem to have been keen since few details are over- looked. Here is part of it:
A Letter from William Penn, Proprietary and Governour of Pennsylvania in America, to the Committee of the Free Society of Traders of that Province, Residing in London. Containing a General Description of the said Province it's Soil, Air, Water, Seasons and Produce both Natural and Artificial.
The Natural Produce of the Country, of Vegetables, is Trees, Fruits, Plants, Flowers. The Trees of most Note, are the Black Walnut, Cedar, Cyprus, Chestnut, Poplar, Gumwood, Hickery, Sassafras, Ash, Beech, and Oak of divers Sorts, as Red, White, and Black; Spanish Chestnut and Swamp, the most Durable of all. Of All which, there is Plenty for the Use of Man. The Fruits that I find in the Woods, are the White and Black Mul- berry, Chestnut, Wallnut, Plumbs, Strawberries, Cranberries, Hurtleberries, and Grapes of divers Sorts. The Great Red Grape (now Ripe) called by Ignorance, The Fox Grape, (because of the Relish it hath with unskilful Palates ) is in it self an Extraordi- nary Grape and by Art, doubtless may be Cultivated to an Excel- lent Wine, if not so Sweet, yet little inferior to the Frontiniack, as it is not much unlike in Taste, Ruddiness set aside, which in such Things, as well as Mankind, differs the Case much; There is a White Kind of Muskadel, and a Little Black Grape, like the Clus- ter Grape of England, not yet so Ripe as the other; but they tell me, when Ripe Sweeter and that they only want Skilful Vinerons to make good Use of them; I intend to venture on it with my Frenchman this Season, who shews some Knowledge in those Things. Here are Also, Peaches and very Good, and in Great Quantities, not an Indian Plantation without them; but whether Naturally here at first, I know not, however one may have they by Bushels for little; they make a Pleasant Drink, and
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
I think not inferiour to any Peach you have in England, except the True Newington. Tis disputable with me, whether it be Best to fall to Fining the Fruits of the Country, especially the Grape, by the Care and Skill of Art, or send for Foreign Stems and sets, already Good and approved. It seems most Reasonable to believe, that not only a Thing groweth Best, where it naturally grows ; but will hardly be equalled by another Species of the same kind, that doth not naturally grow there. But to solve the Doubt, I intend, if God give me Life, to try Both, and hope the Consequence will be as Good Wine, as any European Countries, of the same Latitude, do yield.
The Artificial Produce of the Country, is Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rye, Pease, Beans, Squashes, Pumpkins, Water-Melons, Mush- Melons, and all Herbs and Roots that our Gardens in England usually bring forth.
Of Living Creatures ; Fish, Fowl, and the Beasts of the Woods, here are divers Sorts, some for Food and Profit, and some for Profit only ; For Food, as well as Profit, the Elk, as big as a small Ox, Deer bigger than ours, Beaver, Racoon, Rabbits, Squirrels, and some eat Young Bear and commend it. Of Fowl of the Land, there is the Turkey, (Forty and Fifty Pound Weight) which is very great; Pheasants, Heath-Birds, Pigeons, and Partridges in Abundance Of the Water, the Swan, Goose, White and Gray: Brands, Ducks, Teal, also the Snipe and Curloe, and that in Great Numbers ; but the Duck and Teal excel, nor so Good have I ever eat in other Countries. Of Fish, there is the Sturgeon, Herring, Rock, Shad, Catshead, Sheepshead, Eel, Smelt, Pearch, Roach; and in Inland Rivers, Trout, some say, Salmon, above the Falls. Of Shell Fish, we have Oysters, Crabs, Cockles, Conchs, and Museles ; some Oysters six inches long ; and one sort of Cockles as big as the Stewing Oysters, they make a Rich Broth. The Creatures for Profit only, by Skin or Fur, and that are Natural to these Parts, are the Wild Cat, Panther, Otter, Wolf, Fox Fisher, Minx, Musk-Rat: And, of the Water, the Whale for Oil, of which we have good Store, and Two Companies of Whalers whose Boats are Built, will soon begin their work, which hath the Appearance of a Considerable Imprivement. To say nothing of our Reasonable Hopes of Good Cod in the Bay.
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EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR CITY
He described the looks, character, language, customs, government and religion of the Indians and says he has learned their language. The settlers have had, he says, two General Assemblies which sat only three weeks and passed seventy laws without a dissent. Courts and officers are established and there are three peace-makers chosen by every court to arbitrate differences and prevent lawsuits among the 4000 settlers. Philadelphia was laid out on a strip of land a mile wide from the Delaware to the Schuyl- kill rivers and advanced within a year to four score houses and cottages. The office of the Free Society of Traders was on the west side of Front Street near the south side of Dock Creek at the foot of "Society Hill," so named from the location of the Company's headquarters. A Front Street along each river bank was planned, a High Street (now Market) near the middle from river to river one hundred feet broad and a Broad Street in the middle of the city from side to side of like breadth. In the centre of the city a square of ten acres was to provide at each angle for the houses of public affairs such as a Meeting House, Assembly or State House, a Market House and a School House. In addition the squares in each quarter of the city were provided for and to contain eight acres each. Eight streets were to run from Front to Front and twenty besides Broad Street from side to side, all fifty feet wide. In laying out the lots, says Penn, each purchaser " hath room enough for a House, Garden and small Orchard, to the great Content and Satisfaction of all here concerned."
Upon his return to England in 1685 he wrote a fur- ther description of the Province, telling of the divers col- lection of European nations represented there. French, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Scotch, Irish, English " and of the last equal to all the rest." There
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
are now 357 houses, mostly large, well built with cellars, three stories and some with balconies. The tradesmen consist of carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, masons, plas- terers, plumbers, smiths, glasiers, taylors, shoemakers, butchers, bakers, brewers, glovers, tanners, felmongers, wheelrights, millwrights, shipwrights, boatrights, rope- makers, saylmakers, blockmakers, turners, etc. There are two markets every week and two fairs every year. There are seven Ordinaries (Taverns) and good meal can be had for sixpence. The hours for work and meals are " fixt and known by Ring of Bell." Some vessels and many boats have been built, many " Brickerys," good cheap brick and " many brave Brick Houses " going up. These enthu- siastic accounts left us by the Founder are records of a truly remarkable development and are the best evidence of the early state of Philadelphia.
Pastorius says he was often lost in the woods and brush in going from his cave along the river's bank to the house of the Dutch baker Bom at the southeast corner of Third and Chestnut Streets where he procured his bread. Soon, however, the forest was all felled except a cluster of black walnut trees which stood until 1818 on Chestnut Street opposite the State House. The hills were reduced and the miry places filled. The greater part of the houses were south of High Street and north of Dock Creek, which was swampy. At the mouth of the creek there was a ferry at the Blue Anchor Inn for conveying passengers to the opposite bank called " Society Hill," where the Society of Traders had their office. Here was the public landing and afterwards a drawbridge which allowed ships to come up as far as Second Street. Dock Creek traversed a " deep valley " to Fourth and High Streets and on the northern side of High west of Fourth it formed a great pond,
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BLUE ANCHOR TAVERN
THE DRAWBRIDGE AND DOCK CREEK
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THE SLATE ROOF HOUSE, SOUTHEAST CORNER OF SECOND STREET AND NORRIS ALLEY
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR CITY
famous for its wild ducks and spatterdocks and surrounded with natural shrubbery. The Indians called the creek Coocanocon, but the first landing at its mouth, the boat- yards, tanneries and lumber landing places soon gave it another name.
Just above the northern boundary of the little town was Pegg's run, now Willow Street, named by the Indians Conoqinoque and later after Daniel Pegg who owned much land in that section. At Tenth and Vine Streets it sepa- rated into two streams running farther westward. There was another duck pond in the rear of Christ Church on Second Street and another near Fifth and Locust Streets at the beginning of a stream which ran into Dock Creek at Girard's Bank. For urchins who got over the great Dock Creek there was plenty of game, fruit, berries and nuts in the woods opposite. George Warner landed in 1726 and on account of the smallpox came ashore at the Swedes' Church " far below the great towne." He stopped at the Blue House Tavern at the southwest corner of what is now Ninth and South Streets, near a great pond, and they saw nothing in all their route there but swamps and lofty forests and wild game. Removing to the Blue Anchor at the drawbridge on Dock Creek he saw not one house.
There was a good-sized pond at Eighth and Arch Streets, another nearby toward Seventh, one at Race and Branch and one at Fifth and High, now Market Street.
Gabriel Thomas tells us that in 1698 there were 2000 houses, stately and of brick generally three stories high " after the Mode in London." There were many lanes and alleys from Front to Second Streets, abundance of produce, excellent climate and good wages for " Trades Men " of whom there are many of every sort. The maid
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
servants' wages, he says, are six to ten pounds per annum and " of Lawyers and Physicians I shall say nothing, be- cause this country is very Peaceable and Healty." By this time there is a " Noble Town House or Guild Hall, a Handsome Market House and a Convenient Prison." Also Warehouses, Malt and Brew Houses, Bake Houses for Public Use, several good Schools and " no beggars or old maids." Paper and linen are made in Germantown and the people are mostly Lutherans, Church of England, Presbyterians, Baptists and Quakers. Thomas thinks that of the many gardens surrounding the houses that of Edward Shippen who lived in the "Great House " in Second Street north of Spruce, excels in size and quality.
Edward Shippen was a Yorkshireman and a Mayor of the city. He was a wealthy merchant, speaker of the Assembly, provincial councillor and chief justice. His house, " on the hill near the towne," surpassed his contem- poraries in style and grandeur and was surrounded by a " great and famous orchard." The lawn before the house descended to Dock Creek and was the grazing place for a herd of " tranquil deer." Penn stopped with him on his arrival in 1699 for his second visit.
On the square running from Front to Second and fronting on High was the large lot and house built for the Proprietor before his first coming, afterwards on Letitia Street, named for his daughter. It has been moved and is now attractively set in Fairmount Park at the western end of the Girard Avenue bridge and must present much the same appearance as it did when Penn resided in it.
William Frampton lived on the west side of Front Street between Walnut and Spruce. He had extensive land in the rear on Second Street by the south side of Dock Creek and on it was his brew house, bake house and
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JOHN DUNLAP'S HOUSE AT TWELFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS
CARPENTER'S MANSION IN CHESTNUT STREET BETWEEN SIXTH AND SEVENTH STREETS
THE SHIPPEN HOUSE, SECOND STREET NORTH OF SPRUCE STREET
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR CITY
an early residence rented as an inn. He probably had the greatest stock of merchandise of any in the city and owned one of the first three wharves.
Samuel Carpenter had the first " Coffee House " in the neighborhood of Front and Walnut Streets. He also had a crane, bake house and wharf. The only public landings were at Dock Street, north of the drawbridge, at the " Penny Pot House," north side of Vine Street and at a great breach through the high bank of the river at Mul- berry Street, which afterward became known as Arch Street because of the arched bridge for Front Street over this breach in the hill.
Penn's design was to have a promenade on the high bank of the river front the whole length of the city, intend- ing Front Street to have an uninterrupted view of the Delaware River scenery. Had it not been for the trickery and deceit of some of the people during his absence this wonderful plan would have given us the most beautiful city in America.
Front Street was the principal street of the city for a long time, first as a residence street when all the houses were built on the western side, and afterwards as a place of trade. On the arrival of ships from England in spring and autumn, all along Front Street from Arch to Walnut, the pavements were covered with boxes and bales from the mother country. On King Street, now Water, separated from Front by a wall and an iron railing, were the ware- houses and stores of the old-time merchants. Here were the India stores of Robert Morris and Thomas Willing and here Jacob Ridgway, John Welsh, Thomas P. Cope, Robert Ralston, Charles Massey, Manuel Eyre, Henry Pratt, Stephen Girard, the Walns, Whartons, Lewises, Hollingsworths and many others engaged in trade with
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
South America, the Indies, China, and European cities, and built up great fortunes.
The wells were generally public and in the street and there were few pumps in the early days. Both seem to have been the subject of much complaint. In 1744 there was a well to every house and several in the streets with a " pump of excellent water every fifty paces."
The only pavement was near the Court House at Second and High Streets and the then short market house extending westward about half a square. Extensive build- ing began first on " Society Hill " and particularly on the west side of Front Street with grounds extending to Second.
The earliest pavement was a narrow footwalk of bricks filled in on each side with gravel or the whole with gravel only. The rest of the street was very bad until the large pebbles or cobbles came and that was not much better.
The first street to be paved was Second from High to Chestnut because one of the Whartons on horseback was mired there, thrown from his horse and broke his leg. After that a subscription was taken up and the street paved. His experience was somewhat similar to that of one of the Johnsons in Germantown who had to saddle his horse after a rain in order to cross the Main Street. Tales are told of how gallants, including the doughty Washington, had to carry ladies from their coaches to the entrances of houses. One Purdon, a British soldier on duty in Philadelphia, had charge of the first paving and was so useful that he was released from the army to serve the community in a better way. There was very little general effort to have the middle of the streets paved until 1761 and then only in a desultory way through money derived from lotteries. In 1782 the city was levelled and many graceful undula-
32
DWELLING AND SHOP, SOUTHEAST CORNER OF FRONT AND RACE STREETS, SHOWING SHOP WINDOWS, SHOP AND DWELLING ENTRANCES
COOMB'S ALLEY, NOW CHERRY STREET, WEST OF FRONT STREET Extant 1917
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR CITY
tions destroyed. The State House at that time stood upon a little eminence about four feet higher than the surround- ing streets which were unfortunately filled in. The side- walks were protected from the traffic of the streets with posts and it was not until 1786 that the first curbstones were introduced on Water Street from High to Arch. The biggest pebbles were always placed in the middle of the street, when the gutters were not there, and so the roughest riding was where it should have been easiest. There were a dozen bridges in the little town and six of them crossed Dock Creek.
In 1751 the Grand Jury expressed the need for watch- men and paved streets and the next year an act was passed providing for a night watch and for " enlightening the city " which had hitherto been illuminated only by private lamps. The guardians of the city were first citizens who served for a period by necessity. They went around every night before going to rest to see that all was well, and such men as Joseph Shippen, Abram Carpenter, George Clay- poole and Henry Preston were in 1706 fined " for neglect to serve as constables." It was a time of small beginnings and of mutual responsibility.
Highway robberies were of such frequent occurrence that the citizens were compelled at last, with the approval of the Supreme Executive Council, to organize themselves into patrols for the protection of property and persons passing through the streets at night. Says a city news- paper as late as 1787 after the mitigation of penalties which the new penal code provided:
" On Tuesday night between twelve and one o'clock, as William Hamilton, Esq., and Miss Hamilton, his neice, were returning from the city to Bush Hill, they were attacked in the neighbourhood of Twelfth and Market
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