USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 7
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The farmers formed a habit of bringing frogs to mar- ket, caught in their home ponds. They would stand on the curb outside the Market and hold up the frogs for sale. The men bought them to frighten the ladies in the crowded aisle a little bit and make them fall back so as to let the men through. This seemed more genteel and less terrifying than the use of mice, which were no doubt as available and efficacious.
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
The Clerks of the High Street Market were:
Robert Brett 1693 Richard Armitt 1723
John Andrews 1705 William Paschall. . 1745
John Parker 1707 James Mackey 1753
Joseph Griffin 1707 Samuel Garrigues 1759
Thomas Prior
1708 Judah Foulke 1773
David Evens
1712
Joseph Redman 1776
Aldermen Carter & Richardson 1713
It is interesting to note some of the early prices as recorded in Christopher Marshall's Diary:
PRICES IN CONTINENTAL MONEY 1779 " AT PHILADELPHIA "
June 3 A peck of green peas $38.00
Butter, per pound 7.00 to $10.00
10 Green peas, per peck 10.00 “ 15.00
Veal, per pound . 5.00 "
7.00
17 Coffee, per pound 8.00
22 A piece of bobbin
22.00
66 Teneriffe wine, per gallon 85.33
66
23 A pair of shoes 120.00 1/3
66 An iron bound painted barrel 120.00
66 A pound of thread 87.75
" 24 A pair of wagons (at auction ) 29.00
1780
June 24 Currants, per pound (at auction ) . .. $16.00
Tamarinds, per pound (at auction ) . 20.00
66 White lump sugar, per Ib (at auction) 20.00
27 Figs, per pound 20.00
66
Bohea tea, per pound
80.00
July 5 Butter, per pound
12.00 to $18.00
6 Coarse tape, per yard 1.11
A pair of shoes
120.00
66 8 Butter, per pound 12.00 " 16.00
66
66 A quarter of lamb 5.00
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THE MARKET PLACE
Personality has always ruled the world and given dis- tinction to the most commonplace events. So perhaps it was the persons who managed the old market and those who were its most frequent visitors that gave it a large part of its character. The minutes of the Council disclose names that are synonymous with the early history of the city, as among those who were given the care and manage- ments of the markets. It was the oversight of such men that made the Philadelphia market justly famed and one of the important features described in the accounts written by distinguished visitors. We must keep in mind that the Market Place was the one civic centre, the one place of all public and common endeavour and the seat of authority. These are the prominent names of the Aldermen who had care of various things about the old market:
John Redman
George Mifflin
John Parsons
Benj. Shoemaker
Abram Bickley
Jos. Paschall
Edward Shippen
Samuel Rhoads
William Carter
Thomas Hopkinson
Joshua Carpenter
Robert Stamper
Owen Roberts
Henry Harrison
Jonathan Dickinson
Wm. Bingham
George Claypool
Wm. Rush
John Warder
Thos. Willing
William Fishbourne
Alex. Houston
Jos. Sims
James Logan Peter Lloyd
John Allen
Samuel Powell
Geo. Clymer
William Plumsted
Jos. Wood
Thos. Lawrence
Jos. Shippen, Jr.
Israel Pemberton
Jno. Wilcocks
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
It may be presumed that the most interested attenders were those who lived in the neighbourhood of the Market Place and most of these have already been mentioned.
In Germantown the other market began thus:
By the Governe and Council.
Whereas the Proprietary and Governe by his Charter under the Great Seal, did in the year 1689 grant unto the Inhabitants of Germantown to Have hold and keep one publick Market every Sixth day of the week in such convenient place and manner as the Pro- vincial Charter doth direct, and whereas the said Inhabitants not having yet procured any particular place for that purpose, re- quested the Governe and Council to establish and Confirm that part of the Road or Highway where the Cross street of Germantown goes down towards Schuylkill for a publick Market to be weekly held on the sd. day therein.
Ordered therefore that the said publick Road or Highway where the said Cross street of Germantown goes down towards the Schuylkill be an allowed and established Market place and that a Market be weekly held the said Sixth day of Every Week therein, till such time as the said Inhabitants shall be able to pro- cure a place more agreeable and fitt for the purpose.
Signed by Order 23 6 mo. 1701
JAMES LOGAN Secty
The land referred to in this old letter was not centrally located and in 1703-4, the Bailiff's bought a plot nearer the centre of the town, of James De La Plaine. This half acre was the present Market Square on Germantown Road between Church Lane (then Luken's Mill Road) and School House Lane. Here, of course, was the centre of activity in the town. The prison, stocks, public scales and fire engine house were here as well as the Market. Delega- tions of Indians on their way to the City would stop in Germantown and were fed at the Market Square. Here on February 6, 1764, several hundred "Paxtang boys " from the banks of the Conestoga and Susquehanna Rivers,
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THE MARKET PLACE
then the frontier, on their way to murder the peaceful Moravian Indians who had taken shelter in Philadelphia, were met by Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Chew, Thomas Willing, Joseph Galloway and others and persuaded to return to their homes.
At the end of the Square farthest from the City stood an open market house with brick piers, and by its side, surmounted by a little white spire, the Fellowship engine house wherein was housed the wooden wheeled hand-engine brought from England and thought to have been built in 1734. Beside it stood a large hand-engine of later date, and a bucket-wagon filled with leathern buckets and a small reel of hose. Upon one corner of the square once stood the De La Plaine house, where George Whitefield preached from the balcony in 1739 to five thousand people. On another stood the Bank of the United States and on still another the house of Bronson Alcott, where Louisa M. Alcott was born. William Penn preached in Jacob Tellner's house, where the Saving Fund Society's Building now stands. Count Zinzendorf preached his first and his last sermon in the German Church where Washington worshipped and the Ninth Virginia Regiment was cap- tured and confined there at the time of the battle.
It was perhaps natural that when Washington came to Germantown in 1793 and 1794, to escape the yellow fever epidemic in the city, that he should reside upon the Market Square. He occupied the house of " Honest David Deshler," who has been referred to before, the property belonging at that time to Colonel Isaac Franks. This was a handsome Colonial residence with ample and beautiful gardens, all but little changed to-day. After the battle of Germantown Sir William Howe occupied the house as his headquarters and while there, it is said, was visited by
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
Prince William Henry, a midshipman in the Royal Navy, afterward King William IV of England.
Colonel Franks charged Washington $131.56 for the use of the house in 1793 and $201.60 in 1794. Here the Cabinet of the United States met to discuss important matters, and the President was a well known figure among the townspeople as he daily walked abroad.
In 1804 the property was bought by Elliston and John Perot, whom we have also seen as residents of the old Market Place on High Street in the City.
So important a place in the town must needs have a tavern and a few feet farther up the Main Street was the King of Prussia whose sign represented that monarch on horseback, painted by Gilbert Stuart. When German- town was the seat of the National Government Thomas Jefferson lived at the King of Prussia Tavern and enter- tained other notables, among them Alexander Hamilton and General Henry Knox. Before Washington was lo- cated in the Deshler house the tavern furnished him with his dinners, the material for which was procured from the market nearby. From this ancient hostelry the first stage coach with an awning was run to the George Inn at Second and Arch Streets three times a week.
GOVERNMENT
HE first Assembly met at Chester, December 4, 1682, and then at Philadelphia March 12, 1683, prob- ably in the " boarded meeting- house " which was replaced in 1684 by the Bank Meeting House on the bank of the river, Front Street above Arch. Here the Assembly probably convened for some years. In 1695 it met in the principal room of Richard Whitpain's great house on the east side of Front Street between Walnut and Spruce Streets. The next year it met at the house of Samuel Carpenter on the west side of King (Water) Street above Walnut, then at Isaac Norris' in 1699 and again at the Whitpain house in 1701, then owned by Joseph Shippen. With no permanent home yet erected they continued to roam and settled next in the school room of Thomas Makin, their clerk. After this the new Friends' Meeting House on the southwest corner of Second and High Streets, which was built in 1695, was their home until in 1707, when they moved into the Court House in the middle of High Street at Second. In 1728 they became restive again and requested the Gov- ernor and Council to make an order for a meeting place most convenient for the despatch of business because of " indecencies used toward members of the Assembly " where it had been sitting. No doubt the Town House and Markets was too public a place and the busy stir of varied things and people probably interrupted the grave delibera- tions of the Assembly. The Governor and Council did not see fit to grant the request for the Assembly moved to the house of Captain Anthony Morris, on Second below Walnut Street.
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
In 1729 an act was passed providing for a State House and appointing Thomas Lawrence, Andrew Hamilton and John Kearsley for the building and carrying out of the same. Hamilton and Kearsley both presented designs and Lawrence cast the deciding vote for Hamilton's plan. The matter was carried to the floor of the House which approved the recommendation of the committee and the work was begun in 1735 on Chestnut Street where we still admire its completion. Hamilton bought the square from the Welsh Friends of Radnor Township who had received the lots there from Penn to accompany their country purchases.
The whole of the ground between Chestnut and Walnut Streets was not taken up at first and the sides on Fifth and Sixth Streets extended farther south than did the centre. The ground lying to the southward of the building was, however, " to be enclosed and remain a public green and walk for ever." In this square to-day stand the most inter- esting and complete group of Colonial buildings in Amer- ica. In importance of association with great events they are of course unique. They have been used for many sorts of purposes and much has been written about the assemblages, events and people of the buildings and grounds. Many dinners and balls were given in the new building and many notable persons entertained.
Mayor William Allen seems to have opened the series of social events by a feast on the 30th of September, 1736, the " most grand and the most elegant entertainment that has been made in these parts of America " as described in Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette. Governors entertained and were dined in the long room or banqueting hall on the second floor and the State House seems to have been the principal place for such events until September, 1774,
96
FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE AND COURT HOUSE, SECOND AND HIGH STREETS
-
THE BANK MEETING, FRONT NEAR RACE STREET
....
....
-
NA
THE STATE HOUSE FROM SIXTH NEAR WALNUT STREET, 1917
GOVERNMENT
when the gentlemen of the city gave a dinner for the members of the Continental Congress. After that only private dinners took place there.
After the battle of Germantown many of the wounded were cared for in the central building and later on it was used by a lodge of Masons and by Peale's Museum.
In 1799 the State Government removed from Phila- delphia after 117 years and the Assembly seem to have lost interest in the property. In 1813 indeed they wanted to sell it and run a street through it. In 1816 such a bill was actually passed but the city intervened at once and bought the priceless square for $70,000 with which the Capitol at Harrisburg was built.
When Philadelphia was incorporated on October 25, 1701, with boundaries from Vine Street to Cedar, now South Street, and from river to river, the territory of the county was very different in area from the present time. The land of the county outside the city was partly known as the " liberties " and under much less control. North of Vine Street was called the " Northern Liberties," west of the Schuylkill River the " Western Liberties," and south of Cedar Street the " District of Southwark."
The settlement of the city did not follow the city lines as had been expected but was prompted by commerce. Thus, the Delaware River front first became the built- up portion and was the base of a triangle, about the middle of the eighteenth century, with the apex within the city proper but east of Broad Street.
The first local government outside the city appeared in Southwark in 1794 and extended about a mile south of the city limit on the Delaware River. The incorporation of the local governments was a privilege of the Legislature and was not always wisely or honestly done. One by one a
7
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
large number of these independent jurisdictions sprang up, such as Moyamensing, Spring Garden, Kensington, Penn, Richmond, West Philadelphia, Belmont and others in more outlying districts. As the population increased the police control became more and more difficult. The conflicting jurisdictions and the limitations of the police practically to their own districts seriously interfered with maintaining public order and it was said, indeed, that the criminal classes were better informed as to the limits of the different districts than many of the officers. Riots and general abuse finally moulded public opinion to such an extent that the Legislature passed a bill in 1854 which welded into one municipality the twenty-eight jurisdictions of the City, Southwark, Northern Liberties, Moyamen- sing, Spring Garden, Kensington, South Penn, Rich- mond, West Philadelphia, Belmont, Manayunk, German- town, Whitehall, Frankford, Bridesburg, Aramingo, Passyunk, Blockley, Kingsessing, Roxboro, Penn, Ox- ford, Lower Dublin, Delaware, Moreland, Byberry and Bristol.
The first local government outside the City appeared in Southwark, named after one of the suburbs of London. It lay southeast of the City beyond the boundary of South Street and extended about a mile along the Delaware River, including the old Swedish settlement of Wicaco. It was erected into a municipality in May, 1762, and be- came a corporation in 1794.
The Swedes were a peaceable, religious people and were anxious to aid the colonists in every way. Penn wrote of them, " The Swedes for themselves, deputed Lasse Cock to acquaint him that they would love, serve and obey him with all they had, declaring it was the best day they ever saw."
98
L
COMMISSIONERS' HALL, DISTRICT OF SOUTHWARK
COMMISSIONERS' HALL, DISTRICT OF MOYAMENSING
GOVERNMENT
Southwark has always been the home of many indus- tries. In Colonial days Wharton's still-house, for dis- tilling rum from molasses, was on the wharf near Old Swedes' Church and on Front Street was the nitre works of William Brown. The first china works, founded by Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris in 1769, was near Front and Prime Streets. It was the only fac- tory making white ware in this country, but did not last long. A later enterprise was the Shot Tower founded in 1808 by Bishop and Sparks at Front and Carpenter Streets for the purpose of making shot for sportsmen. When the War of 1812 broke out, Bishop, who was a Friend, withdrew, but the business was continued for many years.
Old Southwark was the scene of the beginning of Mason and Dixon's line, which is perhaps the most men- tioned of any boundary line in this country. In 1763 Jere- miah Dixon and Charles Mason, two English surveyors, were sent out to survey and establish the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland which had been the cause of frequent controversies and even bloodshed. Their first duty was to determine exactly the most southern part of Philadelphia, which they decided was " the north wall of a house occupied by Thomas Plumsted and Joseph Huddle." To find its latitude they built an observatory, which was the first structure of the kind ever built in America for scientific purposes. It was probably very near the Plumsted house which now stands at number 30 South Street. They traced their line two hundred and forty-four miles until stopped by Indians, so that it was not completed until 1782. One hundred and thirty miles of the original line were marked with mile stones, every fifth one bearing the arms of Lord Baltimore on one side and those of William Penn on the other.
99
EARLY PHILADELPHIA
The Mischianza given by the British officers upon the departure of General Howe has been frequently described but very little has ever been said about its locality except that it was at the Wharton place in Southwark. " Walnut Grove," the family estate of the Whartons, was situated near what is now Fifth and Washington Avenue. The original owner was Joseph Wharton, a wealthy cooper, who had married Hannah Carpenter, granddaughter of Samuel Carpenter, prominent among the early settlers as we have seen and the wealthiest man in the colony. Shortly after his marriage Joseph Wharton bought from Charles Brockden an estate of eighteen acres in Wicaco, and upon it, about 1735, built his residence. It was plain and comfortable with an unusually large number of rooms and the grounds sloped down to the river. Joseph Whar- ton was a man of dignified manners and was called " The Duke." He had been dead but a short while when the British occupied Philadelphia and it is supposed that Walnut Grove was empty at the time, otherwise the fes- tivities which took place there would not have been counte- nanced, as the Whartons were Quakers.
The district of the Northern Liberties was almost rural until well into the nineteenth century. There were no wagon pavements in any part of it until about 1840 and several streets were not even run. Old Fourth Street was the principal street and the oldest. It was called the York Road before the Revolution. At the corner of Green Street was a famous skating pond. In 1813 Friends built a large meeting house at this corner and here were enacted many of the stirring events which led to the Separation in the Society in 1827. The Hicksite branch had its birth at that time in this house and meetings were held twice a week there until after the celebration of the one hundredth
100
COMMISSIONERS' HALL, DISTRICT OF SPRING GARDEN
COMMISSIONERS' HALL, DISTRICT OF NORTHERN LIBERTIES
GOVERNMENT
anniversary when Friends, having removed from the neighbourhood, gave it over for neighbourhood work among the foreign population of the district.
Near Third and Brown Streets was Coates' wood of some five acres, cut down by Colonel Coates for pocket money when he was young. The Northern Liberty district was famous for its rioting and disorder. The ship car- penters from Kensington and the butchers from Spring Garden used to engage in many a fracas and fighting was common every Saturday night. The spirit of unrest and disorder in the Northern Liberties found its height in the Native American riots of 1844, when the military were called out and many lives lost.
STAGE COACHES AND POST ROADS
EITHER the Dutch nor the Swedes were road-builders, and the Delaware River was the only great thorough- fare until the settlements began to grow back into the country from its banks. The first roads were mere paths through the woods made by the Indians and only pack horses were used for a long time for the conveyance of goods. Conestoga wagons came in 1760. The marketing going to the city was carried on horseback with side panniers and hampers, and most of the horses were ridden by women.
In 1686 the Council appointed a committee to inspect all the business of roads and to order them to be laid out in the most proper and convenient places. The committee and surveyors were ordered in that year to lay out a more commodious road from the Broad Street in Philadelphia to the Falls of the Delaware, where Trenton now stands. This road really went out Front Street through Frank- ford, Bristol and Trenton as we now know them. During the session of the Council in 1697 numerous roads were laid out such as from William's Landing on the Delaware in Bucks County into the King's Great Road to shorten the post-road to New York, the Gray's Ferry Road and the Darby Road to Hertford. Perhaps the two best known roads were the York Road and the Lancaster Pike.
The Council was petitioned in 1711 to lay out the York Road and the course is described in the order of the Council thus:
To begin at the side of the River Delaware opposite to John Reading's landing, from thence by the most direct and convenient course to Buckingham meeting house, and from thence the most di-
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STAGE COACHES AND POST ROADS
rect and convenient course through the lands of Thomas Watson, and from thence ye most direct and convenient course to Stephen Jenkins on the west side of his house, and from thence the most direct and convenient course by the house late of Richard Wall, now in possession of George Shoemaker and so forward by the most direct and convenient courses to Phila.
The turnpike from Philadelphia to Lancaster was be- gun in 1792 and finished in 1794 at a cost of $465,000. It was the first stone turnpike in the Union.
The roads were very bad until these turnpikes were constructed and all farmers commended and used them until the benefactors who built them were forgotten and they were shunned, leaving the stockholders to get half an income. If none had been built the roads would have mostly become clay pits and a serious condition ensued.
In July, 1718, a road was ordered laid out between Philadelphia and the Wissahickon mills. Part of the Ridge Road was made in 1698 for carting lime to the City from the kilns at Plymouth. There followed the road from Germantown to Perkiomen in 1801, from Cheltenham to Willow Grove in 1803, the Chestnut Hill and Spring House Turnpike in 1804, the Philadelphia, Bristol and Morris- ville road in 1804, the Philadelphia, Brandywine and New London road in 1810, the Perkiomen and Reading Turn- pike in 1811, the entire Ridge Road in 1812, and the Spring House and Bethlehem Turnpike in 1814.
Penn established a weekly post route between Phila- delphia, Chester and New Castle in 1683 and the letters were carried by travellers, traders or special messengers. The first public conveyance for passengers was the stage between Burlington, New Jersey and Amboy in 1732. It connected at Amboy with New York and at Burlington with Philadelphia by boat. The stage between Philadel-
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EARLY PHILADELPHIA
phia and New York was not set up until 1756 and made the run in three days at two pence a mile. On summer days the stages usually made forty miles, but in winter, when the snow was deep and the darkness came on early in the afternoon, rarely more than twenty-five. At one season of the year the traveller was oppressed by the heat and half choked by the dust, while at another he could scarce keep from freezing. Generally put down at an inn about ten at night, cramped and weary, he ate a frugal supper and betook himself to bed, with a notice to the landlord that he would be called at three the next morning. At this time, rain, snow, or fair, he was forced to rise and make ready by the light of a horn-lantern or a farthing candle for another eighteen-hour ride, when horses were changed. Sometimes, too, he was forced to get down and lift the coach out of a quagmire or a rut. Thomas Twining, travelling in America in 1795, says that the wagon in which he rode was a long car with four benches holding nine passengers and a driver. The light roof was sup- ported by eight slender pillars and from it hung three leather curtains rolled up at the pleasure of the passengers. There was no place for luggage except in front of the pas- sengers and no backs to the benches, which made the riding very uncomfortable.
In 1757 a boat left Whitehall wharf in New York on Tuesday to the Blazing Star in New Jersey. The pas- sengers went thence by stage to New Brunswick, by an- other stage to Trenton and by still another to the Sign of the George (the St. George and the Dragon) at Second and Arch Streets, arriving on Friday afternoon. Another route was from the Sign of the Death of the Fox in Straw- berry Alley, Philadelphia, to Trenton Ferry, a stage through Princeton and New Brunswick to Perth Amboy
104
CONESTOGA WAGON, 1790
1.
CITY RAILWAY CAR
AN EARLY TYPE OF STREET CAR
OLD IRONSIDES, 1832
STAGE COACHES AND POST ROADS
and by boat to New York. In 1759 there was a stage line set up from Cooper's Ferry, opposite Philadelphia, through Mount Holly and Monmouth County to Sandy Hook, thence to Middletown and by boat to New York. In 1771 John Barnhill set up a stage called The Flying Machine, which made the run in two days and a half.
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