USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 4
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After Robert Morris moved out to make way for Washington, he went to the southwest corner of Sixth and
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
High Streets to live and in 1793 he moved his counting house to the same location in a back building. He got this house from Joseph Galloway, the Tory lawyer and Speaker of the Assembly. Galloway drew up the plan for the Germantown Academy in 1759 and was a noted public character. The State confiscated his residence during the Revolution for the use of the President of the Supreme Executive Council of the State, which was the administra- tive body of the Commonwealth during the war. Conse- quently, we find Joseph Reed, William Moore and John Dickinson credited to this corner from 1778 to 1785. Dick- inson was a Maryland Quaker particularly famous for his " Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer," which told the English how the Colonies felt and secured the repeal of the Stamp Act. He opposed resistance by arms but favoured it upon constitutional grounds. His counsels prevailed in the Colonies for a long time but his opposition to the Decla- ration of Independence as untimely retired him to private life for a while. He proved a staunch patriot, however, and regained his influence. He was the author of the first American patriotic song, "Hearts of Oak," which ap- peared in Goddard's " Pennsylvania Chronicle."
At what would be number 611 lived Charles Biddle between 1785 and 1791. He was the President of the Second United States Bank, the father of Nicholas Biddle, and an experienced mariner. He was one of the best known men in the city and has left a most interesting auto- biography. Charles Biddle was a friend of Aaron Burr and it was to his house on Chestnut Street near Fourth that Burr came after the fatal duel with Hamilton. Next door to him on Market Street lived his brother, James Biddle, who was President Judge of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania.
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EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR CITY
On the north side of Market Street between Sixth and Seventh Streets, Dr. Joseph Priestly, the discoverer of oxygen, dwelt. Dr. Priestly is also known as the founder of Unitarianism in this country. Among the residents of this square none were better known than Elliston and John Perot. They were natives of Bermuda who had been made prisoners by the British in their conflict with Holland, and while the brothers were in business in Dominica. After coming to Philadelphia they had their first place of busi- ness in Water Street, next to Stephen Girard, for they were of French descent. Soon they took residences on Market between Seventh and Eighth Streets, where they engaged in West India trade. In 1795 Elliston lived at the present number 733 and John at 709. About 1800, however, John moved next door to his brother.
This is the picture of Penn's "greene country towne " with its "many brave Brick Houses " surrounded by gar- dens and orchards " to the great Content and Satisfaction of all here concerned," with its streams and duck ponds and expanse of lovely river front. The earliest traces of it all are gone but there are a few reminders in similar old streets given over to the unappreciative. There are some front cellar doors on the sidewalk, numerous old fire insur- ance marks, a few footscrapers and old knockers, while the famous Philadelphia marble steps kept so scrupulously clean have not yet vanished away. Architects are building houses after the old style and we are thinking of an open river front with the esplanade which William Penn hoped and planned for.
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THE STRANGER IN TOWN
INTERESTING as an intimate de- scription of Colonial conditions may be, we should lose perspective if we did not stand off, as it were, and view some of our affairs through the eyes of a stranger. So we can round out our ideas of the city's early life by knowing some of the impressions made upon distinguished visitors in those days.
Dr. Alexander Hamilton visited the city in 1744. He says the shops open at five in the morning. He drank tea at the Governor's Club, a society of gentlemen that meet at a tavern every night and converse on various subjects. The Governor comes once a week, generally Wednesday, and the conversation when he was there was upon the English poets and Cervantes! He says the heat was ex- cessive but there is a pump of excellent water every fifty paces. He mentions brick pavements, painted awnings and a number of balconies. There was but one public clock which struck the hours but had neither index nor dial plate. Being in a tavern one night he makes this interest- ing observation-" a knot of Quakers there talked only about the selling of flour and the low price it bore, they touched a little upon religion, and high words arose among some of the sectaries but their blood was not hot enough to quarrel, or, to speak in the canting phrase, their zeal wanted fervency." He observes that the Quakers were the richest and the people of the greatest interest in the government and that they chiefly composed the House of Assembly, and then he remarks that, " They have the char- acter of an obstinate and stiff-necked generation, and a perpetual plague to their governours."
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THE STRANGER IN TOWN
A diary of this day testifies to the excellence of the entertainment. Here is one characteristic entry :
" this morning most of the family were busy pre- paring for a great dinner, two green turtles having been sent to Johnny we concluded to dress them both together here and invited the whole family in. We had three tureens of soup, the two shells baked, besides several dishes of stew, with boned turkey, roast ducks, veal and beef. After these were removed the table was filled with two kinds of jellies and various kinds of pudding, pies and preserves ; and then almonds, raisins, nuts, apples and oranges. Twenty-four sat down at the table."
The next entry states that
" My husband passed a restless night with gout."
Peter Kalm, the Swedish traveller, speaks enthusiasti- cally of the fine streets in 1748, particularly the market street which was one hundred feet wide. The Rev. Andrew Burnaby, A.M., Vicar of Greenwich, visited the city in 1759-60. He speaks of the public market held twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday as " almost equal to that of Leaden Hall," and says there is " a tolerable one every day besides." The streets are crowded with people and the river with vessels. He notes the expense of house rent as one hundred pounds per annum and that lots 30 x 100 sell for £1000.
In that interesting diary compiled by Jacob Hiltz- heimer he tells of the ringing of the town bell for fires and that on June 4, 1766, " Being the King's birthday, dined on the banks of the Schuylkill in company of about 380 persons, several healths were drunk, among them Dr. Franklin, which gave great satisfaction to the Company."
Perhaps the custom of the ladies themselves going to market may have been caused in a measure by the condition
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
described in 1769 by a newly arrived Englishman writing home. He says:
" You can have no idea of the plague we have with servants on this side of the water. If you bring a good one he is spoilt in a month. Those born in the country are insolent and extravagant. The imported Dutch are to the last degree ignorant and awkward. The negroes are stupid and sulky and stink damnably. We have tried them all round, and this is the sum total of my observations: the devil take the hindmost! "
Johann David Schoepf mentions in his Travels in the Confederation 1783-4 that " Going from Philadelphia one passes the Schuylkill, at the middle ferry, by a floating bridge consisting of great logs joined together by cramp irons. In order that the bridge may rise and fall with the ebb and flow of the water, there have been fixed at suit- able distances stout iron turning joints in the longitudinal timbers." There are 2400 houses, he says, and no streets west of Seventh, Vine and Pine being the north and south limits. The market buildings are two long open stalls from Front to Third and later further with the upper part of the Court House. Lanterns are placed on posts and night watchmen call out the hour and weather. "Christ Church has a beautiful chime of bells, which makes a complete octave and is heard especially on evenings before the weekly markets and at times of other glad public events. Eight notes of the octave are struck singly several times, descend- ing rapidly one after the other-and then the accord follows in tercet and quint, ascending, and so repeated." He de- scribes the taste in dress as English, of the finest cloth and linen. Every year dressed dolls are brought the women from Europe which give the law of the mode. To be in- dustrious and frugal, at least more so than the inhabitants
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MLERTS
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OLD KNOCKERS, FRANKLIN STREET LAMP, AND FOOT SCRAPERS
THE STRANGER IN TOWN
of the Provinces to the south, is the recognized and unmis- takable character of the Philadelphians. He is astonished at the extraordinary stores of provisions in the markets, at the cleanliness and good order in which the stock is ex- posed for sale. On the evenings before the market days, Wednesday and Saturday, all the bells in the city are rung and people from a distance come into the city in great covered wagons loaded with all manner of provender. Meat costs four pence while in 1778 it was four shillings. He notes that the war left no trace of want but the same exuberant plenty. The inhabitants are well clothed, well fed and better than their betters in Europe. He saw fine wheat bread, good meats and fowls, " cyder " beer and rum. Instead of a Bourse, the people use a Coffee House where most persons engaged in business affairs meet at mid-day to get news of entering or clearing vessels and to inform them- selves of the market. Hats especially are made in Philadel- phia from beaver skins and preferred to European makes.
Ann Warder has an interesting entry in her diary under date of Sixth month, 11th, 1786. She says the Market Street Meeting is double the size of Gracechurch Street in London, that there are five doors and one each side of the Minister's gallery. The dress of the women Friends differs from England in that there are no white frocks but blue and yellow skirts with handkerchiefs close up to throats with a frill around the neck. A man in the Quaker gallery wore a mulberry coat, nankeen waistcoat and breeches with white stockings. Table dishes consisted of roast turkey, a tongue laid in mashed potatoes, whipped silly bubs, oys- ter-pie, boiled leg of pork, bread pudding and tarts. Pro- visions are cheap, she says, and the greatest luxury is the abundance of fruit. Pineapples, strawberries, apples, cherries and peas abound. The heat is violent.
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
Dr. Manasseh Cutler of New England was in Phila- delphia in 1787. One of his notable pleasures was his view of High Street-the present Market Street-at an hour of a summer morning when it was still so dark that he could not distinctly see a man a few rods away, but when, to his astonishment, he found more than one hundred persons in the market house and crowds going into it from every street. The market building, considered by many as " the greatest curiosity in the city," was one story high, was sup- ported by brick pillars and was nearly half a mile in length in the centre of the highway. Some parts were used for fish, other parts for meat, and others for butter, vegetables and fruits, and everything was as neat and clean as a dining hall. The crowds of people were of every rank and condi- tion of life, of every age and of every colour, and there seemed to be some of every nation under heaven; there was buzzing murmur of voices that resounded through the mar- kets, but no clamour nor crying of wares. Again Cutler was impressed as he had been at Elbridge Gerry's, with the early hours in which the people of this city moved about in beginning their affairs for the day. It was difficult for him to reconcile this habit with the comparatively belated hours of breakfast in his own city, and the presence of the women on the streets so early seemed to have struck him at first as something that might be wanting in delicacy. "The ladies, indeed," he said of the High Street market, " are the principal purchasers, and are in a dress not easy to be known by their most intimate acquaintances and are always attended by a servant with a basket. What would the deli- cate Boston ladies think if they were to be abroad at this hour?" Another traveller writing under a nom-de-plume says that " One of the local institutions that had more than local celebrity was the High Street Market." Beginning
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PINE STREET MEETING HOUSE
SPARKS' SHOT TOWER, FRONT AND CARPENTER STREETS (See page 99)
THE STRANGER IN TOWN
at Front Street it had been built at that time as far to the west as Eighth Street; it consisted of a series of colonnade sheds in the middle of the street; the columns were of brick, and the roofs, which were shingled, were arched underneath. It was impossible, according to 'Prolix,' to say too much of the excellence of the beef, mutton and veal, and at no other place under the welkin was there sold such butter and cheese. "They are," he said, " produced on dairy farms and by families near the city whose energies have, for several generations, been directed to this one useful end and who now work with an art made perfect by the experience of a century."
Of course we can expect something enthusiastic from John Adams, who could always be trusted to chronicle duly anything that tickled his palate. He licks his chops, so to speak, over Mayor Powell's dinners during the Consti- tutional Convention of 1787. Here is one of his diary entries: " September 8, Thursday-Dined at Mr. Powell's with . .. and many others; a most sinful feast again! Everything which could delight the eye or allure the taste; curds and creams, jellies, sweetmeats of various sorts, twenty sorts of tarts, fools, trifles, floating islands, whipped sillibub, etc., etc., Parmesan cheese, punch, wine, porter, beer, etc." He speaks of another dinner at Mr. Chief Justice Chew's house on Third Street: " Turtle and every other thing, flummery, jellies, sweetmeats, of twenty sorts, trifles, whipped sillabubs, floating islands, fools, etc., and then a dessert of fruits, raisins, almonds, pears, peaches, wines most excellent and admirable. I drank Madeira at a great rate and found no inconvenience in it." What more glowing tribute to Philadelphia hospitality could we have than this out of New England!
J. P. Brissot de Warville records in his travels in 1788,
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
that the market day suggests a town well managed and wealth, science and virtue, the children of Industry and Temperance are the achievements of the inhabitants. The market is one of the finest in the universe, "variety and abundance in the articles, order in the distribution, good faith and tranquility in the trader, are all here united." Cleanliness is conspicuous in everything, articles and sellers. The women from the country are dressed decently, the articles neatly arranged and everything is assembled- both products of country and of industry. A multitude of men and women were moving in every direction without tumult or injury. A market of brothers, a rendezvous of philosophers. Silence reigns without interruption; there are no cries, the carts and horses are peaceably arranged in the next street and when disengaged move off in silence. No quarrels among porters, no fools or macaronies gallop- ing in streets. " Habit inspired by Quakers, who planted morals in this country, a habit of doing everything with tranquility and with reason; injuring no person and having no need of the interposition of the magistrate." Two clerks of the police walk in the market. If they suspect a pound of butter of being light, they weigh it, if light, seized for use of hospital. Price of bread /1 to /2 the pound, beef and mutton /2 to /4, veal /1 to /2. Hay 20/ to 30/ the ton. Butter /4 to /6 the pound. Wood 7/ to 8/ the cord. Vegetables abundant and cheap. Wines of Europe cheap except in taverns. Hair dressing /8 a day or 12/ a month. One horse chaise 3 days-3 louis d'ors. Philadelphia is the metropolis of the United States; the finest and best built town, most wealth though not most luxurious. There are more men of information, more political and literary knowl- edge and more learned societies. At 10 P.M. all is tranquil in the streets, which are lighted by lamps placed like those
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"THE YELLOW MANSION," OR DUNDAS LIPPINCOTT HOUSE, BROAD AND WALNUT STREETS, SITE OF VAUXHALL GARDENS OF CAPTAIN JOHN DUNLAP. HOUSE BUILT BY JAMES DUNDAS 1840, TORN DOWN 1905
THE STRANGER IN TOWN
of London. Few watchmen. Footways are of brick, gut- ters brick or wood. Strong posts to prevent carriages on footways. Public pumps in great numbers. Families sit in evenings to take fresh air on two benches placed at the door of each house. Many handsome wagons long, light and open, chairs and sulkies. There are no fine horses. The streets are not inscribed nor the doors num- bered. The shops are remarkably neat.
These contemporary portraits, thumb nail sketches though they are, serve to give us a glimpse of the peace and good-living of our forefathers, no little of which came from the care that they bestowed upon their markets as the civic centre of the community. Undoubtedly it was brought about by the interest and participation of the best people in the place.
THE CHURCHES AND THEIR PEOPLE
E have seen that Pennsylvania owed its existence to religion-to persecu- tion at home and the opportunity given to Penn to try the " Holy Ex- periment " which had been " opened " to him. It was a period of intense religious opinions which were so absorbing as to control the political and indeed whole con- duct of the people. The Quakers believed in the universal and direct revelation of God to each individual and that this " Inward Light " or " Spirit of Christ " could be best found and cultivated by silence and meditation without the barriers erected by outward or worldly things which they believed to be nonessential and of the senses only. They objected to a prearranged ceremony and a " man-made ministry " and thought that religion was not so much a matter of creed or dogma as of right living. They wished to revive primitive Christianity when God revealed Him- self directly to man. In their earliest history they made extreme protests against the bondage of ancient dogmas and what they considered non-religious and privileged practices. But as the sect grew and organized it became more orderly while at the same time the abuses it objected to declined.
The first settlers of Philadelphia were of course English Quakers, but the absolute freedom of conscience guaranteed under the " Holy Experiment " soon attracted many other sects. Religious persecution at home as well as Penn's preaching among them brought many Germans, and these, under Francis Daniel Pastorius, founded the first settle- ment of that nationality in America at Germantown. They resembled the Quakers very much, with less quietism.
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FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE IN CENTRE SQUARE WHERE CITY HALL NOW STANDS, BUILT 1694
Sinni
THOMAS FAIRMAN'S HOUSE AND PENN TREATY ELM AT WHAT IS NOW SHACKAMAXON STREET AND THE DELAWARE RIVER The house was built in 1702 and taken down in 1825; the tree blew down in 1810
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FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE, MERION, BUILT IN 1695
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INTERIOR OF MERION MEETING
CHURCHES AND THEIR PEOPLE
Indeed, their leader became a Quaker and was one of the most remarkable men in the whole colony. He could speak eight languages and was well read in science and philoso- phy, having studied at Basle, Strasburg and Jena and lec- tured at Frankfort. He was one of those who signed the first protest against slavery in this country issued by the Friends' Meeting in Germantown in 1688.
The Welsh were nearly all Quakers, with a sprinkling of Baptists and Churchmen. They took up the " Welsh Barony " west of the Schuylkill and on its other side where is now Penllyn, Gwynedd and North Wales. Here they ruled in their own way, their Quaker Meetings exercising civil authority and handing down "advice " which seems to have regulated the entire community so that all were " satisfied." All the physicians in the province prior to 1700 appear to have been Welshmen, the most prominent being Dr. Thomas Wynne, who came over with Penn in the Welcome and for whom Chestnut Street was originally named.
The first Friends' Meeting was held at Shackamaxon, in the now Kensington district of Philadelphia, at the house of Thomas Fairman, opposite the Treaty Elm, in 1681. The settlement of the city rendered this place inconvenient and Richard Townsend, who came with Penn in the Wel- come, says in his " Testimony " that one boarded meeting house was set up where the city was to be, so that this structure must have been the first concern of the settlers, even before their dwellings, and while the caves were yet in use.
On the 9th of January, 1693, a meeting of Friends was held in Philadelphia and Thomas Holme, John Songhurst, Thomas Wynne and Griffith Owen were selected to make the choice of a site for a meeting house and build it. In
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
August of the next year the Quarterly Meeting directed the building of a house in the Centre Square where now the City Hall stands, to be fifty by forty-six feet and of brick. At the same time another meeting house was pro- jected for the Evening Meetings up on the river bank on Front above Sassafras Street. Sassafras was later called Race, because it led to the place where the races were held. This house was fifty by thirty-eight feet, and was but a temporary affair of frame, being replaced by another of brick in 1703 which stood on the west side of Front above Race. Some of the timbers from this ancient Bank Meet- ing House are to be found in the present Friends' Meeting House on Twelfth Street below Market.
The meeting place at Centre Square proving inconveni- ent on account of its being so far out of town, a large house was built in 1695 at the corner of Second and High Streets, on ground given to George Fox, the founder of the Soci- ety of Friends. This house had a four angled roof sur- mounted in its centre by a raised frame of glass work, so constructed as to let light down into the meeting below. This house of course became the centre for Friends and their affairs. Governor Penn and his council met in it, as well as at the founder's residence, and beneath its roof were decided the destiny of the province until the building was taken down in 1755, when another was erected in its stead. This served until 1804, when, because of cramped quarters, the large house at Fourth and Mulberry, now Arch Street, was built on ground granted to Friends by William Penn for a burial place and so long as they " shall be in fellow- ship with the Yearly Meeting of said Friends in London."
The Welsh Friends built several Meeting Houses across the Schuylkill at an early time and their house at Merion, built in 1695, is the oldest Meeting House of the
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CHURCHES AND THEIR PEOPLE
Society of Friends now standing in Pennsylvania. One of its founders was Thomas Wynne, " chirurgeon," and one of its frequent attenders was William Penn, who rode out on horseback of a Firstday Morning to preach. The wooden peg upon which he was wont to hang his hat is still used and no less a personage than Thomas Wynne sits to-day at the head of the well kept Meeting. At Frank- ford, Germantown and Fairhill there were early meetings established and houses set up where still Friends assemble for worship and discipline. Thomas Lloyd, in writing a letter to the Friends' Meeting at Dolobran, in Wales, dated the second of sixth month, 1684, tells them that there were then 800 people at meeting in Philadelphia.
In 1691 James Dickinson held meetings out of doors, sometimes in deep snow, the meeting-houses not being large enough to contain the people. James Logan and Gabriel Thomas think that there were about 20,000 Friends in the province about 1700 and when Franklin testified before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1766 he estimated the number of Quakers in Pennsylvania at 53,000, one-third of the total population. As no census was ever taken, Franklin's guess was probably based more upon the influence of Friends than their actual numbers, although journals of the period frequently speak of an increase in numbers and the establishment of many new meetings and enlargement of old houses of worship. Samuel Fothergill says in 1754 that the meetings in Phila- delphia are " exceedingly large and all sorts and ranks of people flock to them."
So we can easily see why our customs and institutions are so well defined in their heritage of Quaker ways and principles, peculiarities which have given advertising value to the name for more than a hundred commodities of to-day.
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