USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 5
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
For a time Friends were in absolute control of the govern- ment, but it was not long, with the influx of population of other sects and lands, before trouble began for the dove in controlling the eagle. Thus there arose a powerful party opposed to the control of the Friends in the Assembly, par- ticularly on account of their peace principles. The char- acter, influence and historic claims of the Quakers, however, constituted the potent social and political forces of the State and indeed after they became a small minority of the population and had pretty well withdrawn from politics on account of religious scruples, such was the confidence reposed in them that even in the back districts where but few Friends resided, these were generally chosen by the votes of others who were not conscientiously opposed to war.
Perhaps the most accomplished Quaker leader of the early city was James Logan, Penn's young secretary. For half a century he was a most potent factor in provincial affairs. He was scholarly, genial and vigorous, believed in a defensive war and was intolerant of the narrow dis- tinctions of his sect. Perfectly faithful to the Penn family, he managed Indian affairs with great skill and quite in the spirit of the founder. His seat at " Stenton " was and still is one of the most stately of mansions. Here he enter- tained Indians and distinguished visitors with a free hand and pursued the muses to his heart's content, never allowing his business to interfere.
Writing to Thomas Story in England in 1724 Logan gives us a picture of his daughter Sarah:
" Sally, besides her needle, has been learning French, and this last week, has been very busy in the dairy at the plantation, in which she delights as well as in spinning; but is this moment at the table with me (being first-day afternoon and her mother
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FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE, AT FOURTH AND ARCH STREETS, BUILT IN 1804
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abroad), reading the 34th Psalm in Hebrew, the letters of which she learned very perfectly in less than two hours' time, an experi- ment I made of her capacity only for my diversion though, I never design to give her that or any other learned language, unless the French be accounted such."
Speaking of her sister Hannah, William Black, the young Virginia secretary of the Indian Commission en route to make a treaty with the Iroquois at Lancaster, writes in 1744:
"I was really very much surprised at the Appearance of so Charming a Woman, at a place where the seeming moroseness and Goutified Fathers Appearance Promised no such Beauty, tho' it must be allow'd the Man seem'd to have some Remains of a hand- some enough Person, and a Complexion beyond his years, for he was turned of 70; But to return to the Lady, I declare I burnt my Lips more than once, being quite thoughtless of the warmness of my Tea, entirely lost in Contemplating her Beauties. She was tall and Slender, but Exactly well Shap'd, her Features Perfect, and Complexion tho' a little the whitest, yet her Countenance had something in it extremely Sweet. Her Eyes Express'd a very great Softness, denoting a Compos'd Temper and Serenity of Mind, Her manner was Grave and Reserv'd and to be short she had a Sort of Majesty in her Person, and Agreeableness in her Behaviour, which at once surprised and Charmed the Beholders ;"
James Logan held many of the highest positions of public trust, was a founder of the College and the possessor of the most extensive library in the Colonies, which he left to the Library Company of Philadelphia. He was fol- lowed by a long line of capable and distinguished de- scendants, some of whom lived at " Stenton " until recent years when it passed into the possession of the city.
A leader of more rigid Friendly principle was David Lloyd, a Welshman of remarkable ability and the first political " boss " of the State. His shrewdness and cham-
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pionship of popular rights gained many prerogatives for the people. Thomas Lloyd and Isaac Norris, both min- isters among Friends, were very prominent in the govern- ment of the province, and John Kinsey, Clerk of the Yearly Meeting, became Speaker of the Assembly and Chief Justice, thus combining leadership in Church and State until his death in 1750. He was the last of the prominent Friends in public life and the leadership of the "Quaker Party " passed strangely enough to Benjamin Franklin. It had always been the liberty party of the province and he happened to be the popular leader. The only Friend who seems to have remained prominently in public life after this time was John Dickinson, who was the most con- spicuous person in the service of the State from 1760 until 1785. From the meeting of the Stamp Act Congress until his death he was a prominent figure in national history. He was the first to advocate resistance, on constitutional grounds, to the ministerial plan of taxation, and for a long period after the enforcement of the Boston Port Bill he controlled the councils of the country. He courageously maintained that the Declaration of Independence was in- opportune and so sank at once from the position of a leader to that of a martyr to his opinions. However, after it was found that compromise was impossible and the step was taken he proved his patriotism and remained firm in the defense of the cause. He is perhaps best known for his " Farmer's Letters " published in the Pennsylvania Chron- icle and addressed to the people of Great Britain, which did most to secure the repeal of the Stamp Act, but he prepared many of the important state papers for the Con- tinental Congress and took a distinguished part in the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States.
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He is thus described by a contemporary: " I have a vivid recollection of the man, tall and spare, his hair white as snow, his face united with the severe simplicity of his sect, a neatness and elegance peculiarly in keeping with it; his manners a beautiful emanation of the great Christian principle of love, with that gentleness and affectionateness which, whatever may be the cause, the Friends, or at least individuals among them, exhibit more than others, com- bining the politeness of a man of the world familiar with society in its most polished forms with conventional canons of behaviour. Truly he lives in my memory as the realiza- tion of my beau-ideal of a gentleman."
In a community of Quakers there were of course very many prominent ones, but these glimpses of those generally distinguished will give a sufficient picture of the sect which founded Philadelphia and gave character to the city and its institutions. As is often the case, a few radical ones because of their grotesqueness have too often led people to mis judge the whole and believe them to have been a hard, rigid, ascetic people. Their dress generally was simply the dress of everybody with the extravagances left off or, as William Penn told King James, when asked by that mon- arch to explain the differences in their faiths: " The only difference lies in the ornaments that have been added to thine."
An account of the marriage of Isaac Collins, of Bur- lington, to Rachel Budd, of Philadelphia, at the Bank Meeting in May of 1771 gives us an idea of a Quaker wedding. " His wedding dress was a coat of peach blossom cloth, the great skirts of which had outside pockets. It was lined throughout with quilted silk. The large waist- coat was of the same material. He wore small clothes, knee buckles, silk stockings and pumps. A cocked hat sur-
5
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mounted the whole. The bride, who is described as ' lovely in mind and person,' wore a light blue brocade, shoes of the same material, with very high heel not larger than a gold dollar, and sharply pointed at the toes. Her dress was in the fashion of the day, consisting of a robe, long in the back, with a large hoop. A short blue bodice, with a white stomacher embroidered in colors, had a blue cord laced from side to side. On her head she wore a black mode hood lined with white silk, the large cape extending over the shoulders. Upon her return from meeting after the ceremony, she put on a thin white apron of ample dimen- sions, tied in front with a large blue bow." Wigs were generally worn by genteel Friends, as by other people, and Ann Warder tells in her diary of a minister in the gallery at Market Street Meeting, where she attended sixth month, 11th, 1786, with a mulberry coat, nankeen waistcoat and breeches and white stockings. She says the women wore blue and yellow skirts with handkerchiefs close up to the throats with a frill around the neck. Another letter men- tions a bride's dress in meeting as " a lilac satin gown and skirt with a white satin cloak and bonnet."
Penn's Manor of "Pennsbury " on the Delaware was a model for any architect. Its size and furnishings were on a luxurious scale. The ground was terraced and the lawns and gardens extended all around the house. Vistas were cut through the trees to give views up and down the river, and many English trees of great beauty had been sent over and planted, as well as shrubs from Maryland.
The house was furnished with pewter, silver, chinaware and much handsome furniture. The curtains were of satin. The cellar was well stocked with sherry, madeira, canary and claret, and with six large cisterns of beer. His coach, calash, sedan chair and barge were as handsome as the day
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furnished, and his stable was full of good horses brought from England. Nor were Friends so neglectful of art as has been supposed, for in the case of Benjamin West his parents did not reprove his passion for painting, but en- couraged him in it and helped him to the best of their abil- ity. When he was sixteen years old a meeting was appointed at Springfield, near Swarthmore, his dwelling place, to consider his destiny. His father laid the case before the meeting and John Williamson made an eloquent plea on behalf of the youth's " wonderful inspiration to cultivate the art of painting." The meeting gave its con- sent, the women kissed him, and the men, one by one, laid their hands upon his head, praying for a blessing on his life and work. Thus the Society of Friends gave its de- liberate approval to the birth of fine art in the New World, and gave a religious inspiration to the young artist. He lived to become a founder and the President of the Royal Academy.
The wit of Nicholas Waln, a minister and the Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, was unsurpassed in his day and many of his sallies have been recounted. In his last illness he became much wasted away and being plied with many mustard plasters he remarked from under the plasters, "Don't you think there is more mustard than needed for the amount of meat."
As time wore on and the Quakers became wealthy through thrift and industry, they acquired the character- istic of nearly every important religious and political or- ganization. Their zeal for their original message waned and their precious lives were occupied with the taking care of their property and the maintenance of their organi- zation. Rigid dispensation of discipline made by them- selves and the loss of their missionary zeal depleted their
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numbers and the acquisition of many fads divided their strength. In the press of affairs and the complexity of modern life their system of transacting the business of the meeting by " unity " broke down entirely and settled into a tyrannous rule of a few ancient Friends with little else to do. The official meetings are still carried on in this way and take on the character of a hereditary secret society. They are interesting only as a quaint survival of seven- teenth century customs. This does not by any means mean, however, that the Quakers or their message are dying out. There has been a spontaneous revival of their original message among the younger members which has spread all over the world, strangely enough without the inspiration of the Society officially or its Meetings, and this is firing great numbers to a return of the former zeal of the founders brought into modern form. It is healing the divisions of the past and bids fair to unite all in a common cause.
The Church of England men were at first few in num- bers and no petition for a parish in Philadelphia was made until 1695, thirteen years after the founding of the colony. What they lacked in numbers, however, they made up in intelligence and in sustained hostility to the Quakers. With Christ Church and the College under Dr. William Smith as rallying points they increased and became powerful as a party. They were very friendly with the Lutheran Swedes and gradually absorbed them, as they did many of the Keithean Quakers. They were not used to and did not like religious equality and wanted their faith estab- lished by law. They had been accustomed to snubbing the Quakers at home and objected to this being a penal offense, sending long complaints to the home government asking that the colony be taken from the Quakers and made a royal province. When they gained control later they
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THE FIRST CHRIST CHURCH, BUILT IN 1695
Birch, 1799
THE COURT HOUSE IN HIGH STREET AND CHRIST CHURCH, LOOKING NORTH ON SECOND STREET
CHRIST CHURCH, ON SECOND STREET ABOVE HIGH BUILT 1727
ST. PETER'S CHURCH, AT THIRD AND PINE STREETS BUILT 1758
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reversed this position. It was a new situation for them where they were looked upon as dissenters and where those not of their faith were the most prominent in governmental and civil life. So they held aloof in a compact way which gave them much force and built a church of great extrava- gance for the time and a thing of beauty forever. It was the outcome of a church built in 1695 under the ministry of the Reverend Mr. Clayton. This was a frame structure with the bell set in the crotch of a tree nearby. In 1710 it was enlarged while the Reverend Evan Evans was pas- tor and in 1727 the present structure was begun under the rectorship of the Reverend Mr. Cummings. This was made possible by two lotteries projected by the vestry, the tickets for each selling at four dollars apiece. One of them, known as the " Philadelphia Steeple Lottery," was drawn as late as March, 1753, and paid for the steeple, nearly twenty years after the body of the church was built. The church was designed by Doctor John Kearsley, an eminent physician who directed its building by Robert Smith, carpenter. The steeple cost £2100 and the eight bells purchased in England cost £900. They weighed eight thousand pounds and were the cause of much favor- able comment. When rung the night before market, people would go all the way from Germantown to hear the tunes. They were rung for the first time at the funeral of Gov- ernor Anthony Palmer's wife, the mother of twenty-one children, all of whom died with consumption, and the ring- ing caused the death of one of the ringers! On the mitre surmounting the steeple, one hundred and ninety-six feet eight inches from the ground, is engraved the name of Bishop White, the first bishop.
From the time this "ring of bells," the first in the colonies, was first hung, they were kept busy. The bells
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were always being pealed and the German traveller, Doctor Schoepf, says that you would think you were in a papal or imperial city from the number of times the bells were rung.
There was probably no man in the city more revered and trusted than Bishop White. He was not only a churchman of distinction but was prominent in many use- ful public endeavours. His hospitality was famous and he was fond of good eating, with preferences for mince pies, butter and tea. Like many other citizens, the bishop took an active interest in the Hand-in-Hand Fire Company and he was a Chaplain to the Continental Congress. His interest in the College, of which he was a graduate, was very great and while sitting upon its Board of Trustees he lacked but one vote of being chosen Provost. An inter- esting story is told of how "Billy " White and Francis Hopkinson cultivated the acquaintance of Benjamin West, while studying at the College, how they used to stroll out to the sylvan banks of the Schuylkill and read the classics to him, so as to give him inspiration for his great talent, and how they, with the connivance of Benjamin Franklin, spirited his sweetheart away by a ladder in the night, and sent her to him in England, where her brother could not interfere with their marriage.
Judge Francis Hopkinson was for a time organist and there is a minute of the vestry directing that only plain and familiar tunes be sung and that there be no frequent changes. The singer, or clerk, used to stand in the organ gallery and make the whole church resound "with his strong, deep and grave tones."
The people of Christ Church from the earliest times formed the gayest and most aristocratic set in the city. They were the best dressed, arriving for worship in
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damasks and brocades, velvet breeches and silk stockings, powdered hair and periwigs. They came afoot, in chairs or in the ponderous coaches of the day, that of Washing- ton with six cream-coloured steeds adding the final touch to the imposing spectacle. As time went on, both the pro- prietors and governors added the weight of their influence to the Anglican party, in a ceaseless conflict with the Quaker Assembly, and the combative little church on Second Street held within itself a large proportion of the ability, energy and learning of Philadelphia. Franklin found the aid he needed for the founding of the " College and Academy of Philadelphia " in the Anglican party and four-fifths of its first trustees were church members, while that ablest of college presidents, the Reverend Doctor William Smith, was chosen its first Provost.
At the southwest corner of Third and Pine Streets is the second Episcopal church erected in the city limits. This was in the district where many of the best families lived and when Christ Church began to be crowded a re- quest was made for another building. This was begun in 1758 under Dr. Kearsley's care and was opened on Sep- tember 4, 1761, by the Reverend Doctor William Smith, Provost of the College. Christ Church and St. Peter's were called the United Churches and were under one Rec- tor until 1836, when the Reverend William H. De Lancey became rector of St. Peter's. Later he became Provost of the University and Bishop of Western New York. St. Paul's on the east side of Third Street below Walnut came next and was opened in 1761, three months after St. Peter's.
Two churches now belonging to the Episcopal Church but which originally belonged to another sect are old
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Swedes' on Swanson Street and Trinity Church, Oxford, on the Second Street Pike. Five years before William Penn started his colony the Swedes worshipped in a log building, or block-house, on ground given to the church by the widow of Swan Swanson. On the site of this primitive chapel they built a brick church in 1700 costing twenty thousand Swedish dollars. Poor and few as these earnest settlers were, they gave fifteen thousand dollars before the first stone was set and left the belfry unfinished, " in order to see whether God will bless us so far that we may have a bell, and in what manner we can procure it." Thus with the simple, sincere faith of children, by whom we are told wise men shall be led, the Swedes erected " Gloria Dei," which shares with Christ Church to-day the most interest of churchly buildings in Philadelphia.
Trinity Church, Oxford, on the Second Street Pike, was once a meeting place for the Quakers in a log building where a school was also kept, but in 1698, at the time of the Keith schism, it was transferred to the Episcopal Church and the present brick building erected in 1711. Its pulpit was shared by the rector of the United Churches and of the Swedes' Church and we find that energetic man, Doctor William Smith, officiating there also. It is more like an old English rural parish church than any other in the dio- cese and the curious inscriptions on the burial stones are well worth inspection.
Out on the Darby Road is the church of St. James, Kingsessing, built in 1760 and united with Gloria Dei until 1842, and at Radnor is old St. David's, built by the Welsh churchmen more than two centuries ago. In the latter lies buried the remains of that most romantic of American soldiers, Major General Anthony Wayne.
The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from the north of Ire-
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"GLORIA DEI," OLD SWEDES' CHURCH, SWANSON STREET, BUILT 1700
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, IN HIGH STREET, BUILT 1794
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land came to Pennsylvania during several decades prior to the Revolution in thousands. Most of them settled upon the frontiers, but they gave the peaceable Friends enough trouble at the centre of government. They had no patience with tolerance, were strong, vigorous and stead- fast. They brought a hostile and arrogant spirit to the Indians and promptly antagonized them by rough and quarrelsome treatment. "Why should these heathens," they said, " have lands which Christians want?" In habit of thought and life, in doctrine and testimony, they were the direct opposite of the Friends, whom they despised. Thus in really serious and sustained action they were until the Revolution the rival political force of the province. The war was three parts out of four a Scotch-Irish move- ment in Pennsylvania, says Isaac Sharpless, and we may well believe it. The first church of the Presbyterians in Philadelphia was organized by Francis Makemie in 1692 among the English, Welsh, Scotch and French settlers of that faith who met with a few Baptists in a storehouse situated on Second Street at the corner of Chestnut. The Reverend John Watts, a Baptist minister of Pennepeck, agreed to preach to them every other Sunday, and visiting Presbyterian ministers occasionally officiated. In this way they worshipped together in peace for three years, until the Presbyterians called the Reverend Jebediah Andrews from Boston. He arrived in 1698 and soon after the Bap- tists withdrew and left Andrews and his flock in sole pos- session of the storehouse. In 1704 they built a church on the south side of High Street between Second and Third Streets. It was surrounded by some fine sycamore trees and was called the " Buttonwood Church." Franklin was a pew-holder in this church, but so he was in Christ Church and the Quakers also claimed him. He has left a statement
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of his faith so that anyone can decide for himself where he belonged.
The First Presbyterian Church increased in numbers and the building was enlarged twice before 1794 when it was taken down and a new and commodious structure built of handsome appearance. This was used until 1825, when the congregation moved to their present quarters on Wash- ington Square.
In November, 1739, George Whitefield came from England to Philadelphia and created a sensation. He was eloquent, bold and denunciatory and had a fine voice. He stirred people to the depths and appealing mostly to the senses created a fever of enthusiasm in the quiet town, the like of him never before having been heard there. He began preaching in Christ Church, but soon all the churches were denied to him and he preached from the balcony of the court house in High Street, the public squares and the fields. Indeed, wherever there was an open place for the populace Whitefield gave vent to his controversial preach- ing. Finally the people put up a building for him on Fourth Street near Arch and this in time became the home of the Academy and College of Philadelphia which developed into the University. The Presbyterians used this building until 1749, when it was given over wholly to the College, and then they erected a church at the northwest corner of Third and Arch Streets, with Gilbert Tennent as their minister. This became the Second Church and sheltered many prominent Philadelphians-such men as Peter S. Duponceau, Charles Chauncey, Thomas Bradford, Ebenezer Hazard, Josiah Randall, Thomas Leiper, Isaac Snowden, Andrew Bayard, Samuel Stille, Alexander Henry and Matthew L. Bevan. The Third Church, or "Old Pine Street Church," on Pine Street below Fourth, was
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first occupied in 1768, although not finished. William Rush, James Craig, George Bryan and Samuel Purviance, Jr., of the First Church, were the building committee and Robert Smith the architect. The Reverend Samuel Aitken was the first minister. Among the most prominent Pres- byterian ministers of the early time were Francis Allison, who was a professor and Vice-Provost of the College, and John Ewing, who became Provost of the University.
After the Baptists stopped meeting with the Presby- terians in 1698 they met in Anthony Morris' brew-house, under the bank of the river, near Dock Creek. The Phila- delphia Church was considered a part of the church at Pennepeck and the same pastors supplied both until 1746. Evan Morgan, Samuel Jones, Jenkin Jones and William Kinnersley were the prominent ministers during this time and the Reverend Morgan Edwards who arrived from England in 1761 was really their first pastor. He was a remarkable man and the prime mover in the establishment of the Baptist College in Providence, Rhode Island, now Brown University. The Lutherans had two substantial churches in the old city, one in Fifth Street extending north toward Appletree Alley and the other at the south- east corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets. The first was built in 1743 and called St. Michael's, the second in 1766 and called the Zion Church.
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