USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Historical sketches : a collection of papers prepared for the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 8
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Alan W. Corson was a strict adherent of the Society of Friends, and to the last conformed to the usage in dress so peculiar to the society of years ago. The same authority quoted above says his "mind received a strong religious bent at a very early age, and his conscientiousness and truthfulness
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have been controlling characteristics during his long life. He has been all his days an ardent lover of nature. Many years ago, with his cousin, John Evans, he used to make annual ex- cursions to the lowlands of Delaware, Maryland, the sandy pine woods of New Jersey, and even to the Adirondacks, for specimens of botany, geology, mineralogy and entomology, and in search of other scientific matters."
In early life he married Mary, the daughter of Laurence Egbert, of Plymouth, who died a few years previous to his death. Alan W. Corson died in 1882, at the great age of 94.
The honesty of Mr. Corson was acknowledged by all who were acquainted with him. As an example, William W. Mor- ris, who was assessor of the township of Whitemarsh for twenty- five years, says that when he would go around in the spring of the year making assessments Mr. Corson would request him to call in a few days again, when he would give a correct list of money at interest after examining his instruments of writing, stating in all instances the true amount thus to be accounted.
He was an earnest advocate of the anti-slavery cause from the start, affiliating with the Abolition party in all the stages of its progress to the final overthrow by President Lincoln's proclamation. No one more abhorred the system of slavery or rejoiced more sincerely in its suppression than Alan W. Corson. He was equally earnest in the cause of temperance ; and, in fact, in any cause of true reform he would always be found on the side of justice and right. His very nature could do nothing else.
[The writer is indebted to Buck's History of Montgomery County, Millett's History of St. Thomas' Parish, Watson's Annals, Pennypacker's Germantown, Smith's History of Friends, Auge's Eminent Men of Montgomery County, Penn- sylvania Archives, old deeds, etc., for much of the information contained in the foregoing paper.]
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THE STORY OF LYDIA DARRAH.
By Margaret D. Rex.
Although little known, the story of Lydia Darrah is one of the most interesting events of the American Revolution. In 1777 a Quaker named William Darrah, with his wife, Lydia, occupied the house known in history as the "Loxley House," 177 South Second street. Its commodious gallery in front was frequently used as a preaching place by the cele- brated missionary Whitefield. The house was then out of town over the Second street bridge. In front of it was a hill, whose green slopes afforded a fine resting place for the immense audiences who came to listen to this great missionary. On that hill, too, Captain (afterward General) Cadwallader used to drill his "silk stocking company," as it was called, on account of the unusual bearing of its members, who afterward became General Washington's guard while in New York.
While the British had charge of Philadelphia, the Adju- tant General of the army (said to be the accomplished and lamented Major Andre) made his headquarters at Darrah's, and it being a secluded spot, the superior officers of the army used frequently to hold their confidential meetings there. On one of these occasions, about the 3d of December, 1777, the Adjutant General ordered Mrs. Darrah to make ready the upper rooms for the meeting of his friends, who expected to remain late; and added, " Be sure, Lydia, that your family are all in bed at an early hour." She accordingly had the rooms prepared, but the order aroused her curiosity, and, womanlike, she resolved to know the purport of the meeting.
When the officers came, Lydia was the only member of her family up to receive them. After showing them to their rooms, she retired to her couch without undressing, but she could not sleep.
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It seemed a higher impulse than that of curiosity deter- mined her to become a listener, so she stole softly from her room and went to the door of the room occupied by the offi- cers and put her ear to the keyhole. While listening, she heard, after a few minutes of silence within, a voice read in a distinct tone an order from General Howe for the troops to leave the city the next night and march out to attack Washington's army, then encamped at Whitemarsh. On hear- ing this, she immediately returned to her chamber and threw herself upon her bed. In a few minutes there came a rap on her door by one of the officers, who had arranged to call her when about to leave the house.
She feigned deep sleep, and answered at the third rap, when she arose to secure the doors at their departure. Her mind was so agitated by what she had heard that she could not sleep during the whole night, for she now possessed a momentous secret. Her sole thought was how she might apprise the Commander-in-chief of the American army of what she had heard, for she was not only a true friend to her country but she had a son who was an officer in General Washington's army. She sent up a prayer for divine guid- ance and at dawn she was astir.
She awoke her husband, but no hint did she give him of the secret she held. She told him she must go to Frankford for some flour for the use of the family, a common occurrence in those days. He insisted that she should take her maid- servant with her, but this she declined to do. She was a small delicate woman, but the cold December morning with the snow on the ground several inches deep did not deter her from her noble purpose. On foot and alone, with bag in hand, she started on her errand, stopping at the headquarters of General Howe, nearby, to obtain the necessary passport to get through the British lines. As her errand was represented to be a matter of necessity, the passport was readily granted.
Mrs. Darrah reached Frankford, nearly five miles distant, at an early hour, and leaving her bag at the mill she went on her way to the American out-posts. Fortunately for her, she
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soon met with Lieutenant Colonel Craig, of the Light Horse cavalry, who had been sent out by General Washington to gather whatever information he could respecting the move- ments of the enemy. Colonel Craig knew Mrs. Darrah and inquired where she was going. Now was the time to disclose her important secret. After exacting from him a promise not to betray her, she at once informed him of the order she heard read at her house the night before. After warmly thanking her for the noble service she had rendered her countrymen, he conducted her to a house nearby and directed that something should be prepared for her to eat. General Craig then left her and immediately hastened to headquarters when he com- municated to General Washington the news he had received from Mrs. Darrah. Lydia returned to the mill, took her bag of flour (25 pounds) on her shoulder and returned to her home with her heart full of thankfulness at the success of her ruse.
From her window on that cold night she watched the departure of the British troops to make the attack on Wash- ington's camp, and again she watched when the distant roll of a drum heralded their return from a fool's errand. Fore- warned was forearmed. The Americans were on the alert and fully prepared to receive them. When the British re- turned to their encampment in the city, the Adjutant General went to his quarters at her house. He soon summoned Lydia · to his room and, locking the door, with an air of authority he requested her to be seated. She tremblingly obeyed.
"Were any of your family up, Lydia," he asked, " on the night of our last meeting in this house ?"
"No," she answered, "they all retired about eight o'clock," and this was strictly true, though she herself arose afterwards.
"It is very strange," said the officer, "how General Wash- ington could have gained information of our intended attack, unless these walls could speak."
"I know you were asleep, Lydia, for I rapped three times before you were awakened, yet it is certain we were betrayed by some one. On arriving at Washington's encampment, we
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found him prepared at every point to receive us, and we were compelled to march back to the city like a parcel of fools."
This was joyful news for Mrs. Darrah to hear. She could scarcely restrain herself in the officers' presence. After their departure, she went to her room, and on bended knees thanked her Maker for permitting her to be the instrument of saving General Washington's army from a great disaster.
Shame on the American people that this brave woman
1 should have gone to her grave without a mark of reward for this unselfish act of devotion to her country, while Captain Mollie, in the battle of Monmouth, was rewarded for an act of bravery done impulsively to avenge her husband's death. By the recommendation of Washington, her name was placed upon the list of half-pay officers for life, and also conferred upon her the commission of Sergeant. The action of Mrs. Darrah was of so much more importance to the army that we fail to understand why it should have passed unrecognized by the government.
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BANKS AND BANKING.
By William McDermott.
It is not my intention, in submitting this paper to your association, to delve into the archives of the state or county, or go through the doings of our law-makers and cull from their reports a huge array of figures or pages of facts that lay there entombed; but to look over the past years and lay before you the recollections of the generation gone by, and deal only in such figures as may be necessary for the " historical" por- tion of this paper; and thus take a journey together along the past to the present year, 1881, now drawing to a close, in the line of the monetary interests of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania.
Gold, the symbol, from its imperial throne of power, dis- penses its gifts as the patron of art, science, literature, and industrial pursuits, thus moving the world. It has been said that a war in Europe was, for a time, prevented by the Roth- childs refusing a loan to one of the belligerent powers sufficient to equip the army and navy. Gold endows our colleges, erects and sustains the great institutions of learning, of charity and benevolence; gives the source and impetus to the grand and noble improvements of this and all other ages; it is the demand of every-day life-a necessity of the beggar for the loaf of stale bread, and the requisite of the proud and prodigal ruler on the throne of empire; it is a most valued servant, a bitter and cruel master. We are therefore all most deeply interested in those appliances that will supply our needs the best.
Although paying for money borrowed, a peculiarity ot banking, has been familiar to us all our lives, we may not have noticed that it is so different from borrowing any other article. A farmer would not charge his neighbor for the loan of a plow,
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or a student charge for the loan of a book. It probably grew out of the profit we make out of the money borrowed. Then comes the demand for the safe-keeping of funds. But the way funds are being lost, "safety" may soon be a lost art.
The earliest idea of exchanging money, and of interest, or usury, the chief principle of banking, is in a law of the Jews, recorded in Exodus xxii, 25, where we find, "If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury." There are but two places in the New Testament where the word "usurer" is used. In the parable of the Pounds, in Matthew and Luke, the Lord condemns the faith- less servant who failed to make a proper use of the talent given him. In the new version, the word "usury" is trans- lated "interest." The verse reads, "Wherefore thou gavest not my money into the bank that at my coming I might have received my own with interest" This is the only instance where the word "bank" is used. The principle of exchange, of giving one thing for another, seems to be an instinct of the
race. We find in Genesis xxiii, 9, the beautifully pathetic story of Abraham, where he made arrangements for the burial of his wife Sarah, whom he loved so tenderly, by the purchase of the cave of Machpelah. He called upon the children of Heth that they might intercede with Ephron, "That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is the end of the field, for as much money as it is worth, he shall give it me for a possession of a burying-place amongst you." And mark the words of the liberal-minded and kind-hearted Ephron, as he said to Abraham: "My lord, hearken unto me ; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between thee and me? Bury therefore thy dead." Although freely offered to Abraham by his friend Ephron, yet we find that Abraham weighed out four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant, a sum equal to about two hundred and fifty-two dollars. A pretty fair price, even at this day, for a burial lot. Yet here was the price more than thirty- five centuries past. And what a curious fact, that the first
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money transaction recorded in the Scriptures is that of buying a cemetery lot in which to bury Sarah, the beloved wife of Abraham. It is no less remarkable that in the construction of the Ark or the building of the tower of Babel, no mention is made of "pay" 'or the use of money. Silver and gold as currency came with the earliest records of our race.
"Bank" signifies "a place of deposit," and comes from "bunco," an Italian word for "seat" or "bench." The first bankers were Jews, from whence it is said our word "jewelry" is derived. Goldsmiths then took charge of other people's funds, and afterwards tradespeople who had valuable goods of their own. Probably the first regularly established banks were the Bank of Venice, in 1171; Bank of Amsterdam, 1609; Bank of Hamburg, 1619. The largest and most important in the world is the Bank of England, in London. It was pro- jected by William Patterson, a Scotchman, July, 1694, and started with a capital of six millions of dollars. This amount was loaned to King William, and therefore the bank became at once a servant of the crown. It was chartered from time · to time by parliament. The notes are very plain, with no pictures, only the title of the bank and the denomination, but printed upon the best linen paper. To counterfeit these is a capital offense, and a gentleman told me he saw several counterfeiters all hung at one time in a public place. All the work of engraving and printing is done inside the buildings. After a note has been returned it is never reissued, but numbered and retained for a number of years and then burned. A furnace is always kept burning for this purpose. We have a better way. We chop up our notes, reduce them to pulp, and make them into paper again. The present circu- lation is seventy-five millions of dollars, and the notes are legal tenders. The interest on the great irredeemable debt of England is paid by this bank, from which it receives a large income. A man falling and breaking his leg collected a crowd, and from that incident a " run " on the bank was the result. Its dividends have been from five to eight per cent. per annum. The "Old Lady," as it is sometimes called,
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raises and lowers the discount as she pleases, has her home in Threadneedle street, covers eight acres of ground, employs about twelve hundred clerks, and is controlled by a Governor, who retires on full pay after thirty years of service. The accuracy with which all its affairs are conducted, and the extent of its operations, have made the Bank of England a wonder of the world.
New York city, if not already, will, in the near future, be the money centre of the world. The balance sheet of either New York or Chicago more than rivals the great Bank of England, for such a sheet foots up all the way to fifty millions of dollars in a single day. We have thus reached in a single century that for which England has been struggling for two hundred years. And where in the wide world are such col- lossal fortunes built up in a lifetime? We have instances in our country where the amazing sum of a hundred millions have been accumulated by one man during his life of business. But what is a million of dollars? I can count a thousand silver dollars in nine minutes; but, to count and put away fifteen thousand silver dollars a day, as a regular day's work, would be a fair way of counting. At that rate it would take almost three months to count out, one by one, a million silver dollars It is stated of that keen, shrewd, one-eyed million- aire, Stephen Girard, that he once had a lot for sale on Chest- nut street, Philadelphia, which a purchaser, thinking to catch the wily old fox, offered to cover with silver dollars if the lot would then be his. But with a twinkle of the " other eye," he said, " Stand them on edge and it is a bargain." We may say the bargain was not concluded at that time.
Banks, before the war, were State institutions, chartered by the Legislatures under a general banking law, but which usually granted particular privileges to each institution. Probably the first bank in our state was "The Bank of North America," in Philadelphia, which received its first charter from the Congress of the United States. This year (1881), or the beginning of next, completes its centennial, being chartered in 1781. In view of this fact, the comptroller of the currency, at
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Washington, permitted this bank to retain the old title, and it is therefore the only national bank without the word " na- tional " in the charter and on its notes. Somewhere between 1825 and 1828, General Jackson, president of the United States, vetoed the United States Bank, which was to have been a great national bank. For a long period of years the question of " banks" and " anti-banks " formed the battle cry of politicians and entered into the platforms of the Whig and Democratic conventions-the former being for and the latter against these institutions. To start a bank, a committee would lobby a bill through the legislature, and, with the charter in their pocket, locate at any place where the most could be made. As a case in point, a party of men came over from New York, and after securing the " right," opened a concern at Erie, in our State, and called the concern "The Bank of Commerce," of Erie. " Bank of Commerce" was in large letters and " Erie " so small that it could scarcely be seen. The notes were brought on East. As the Bank of Commerce of Philadelphia was a solid bank the " scalpers " succeeded in getting a large lot of the worthless trash into circulation before the fraud was detected. . When redemption was asked for the 'notes at the counter of the bank, no assets could be found. Banks, under the old law, made large profits by not redeem- ing their notes and securing a large circulation. The State law permitted banks to have three times as large an amount of notes issued as they had silver or gold, which were the only legal tenders in those days, in their vaults. The Montgomery County Bank, the only bank at that time in our county, under the management of that great financier, William H. Slingluff, never would be a party to such unfair practices, but kept the notes of that grand old institution always at par by redeeming them every week. I remember during a busy season, although he bought up every week all that could be gathered, he found one hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars awaiting him that had accumulated in the redeeming bank in one week. This demanded unusual skill in the management of the bank.
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Although Mr. Slingluff was what was termed a "bank man," he always advocated the "individual responsibility" clause in charters, by which stockholders were held liable to depositors and note holders personally. He did this on fair and honest ground, that if the share-holders had the profits, they should be held for the losses. This old-fashioned, sterl- ing honesty, if it had been universally adopted, would have saved many a bankrupt bank. As there were no statements made in those "days of yore," except to the auditor general, and buried in his reports, some of the state banks would circu- late from ten to twenty-four times the amount of coin in their vaults. Hence there was no control of the manner of doing business, and, as a consequence, neither security to depositors nor note holders. The Western steamboat captain, therefore, could only be induced to trade wood for bank notes at " cord for cord." This state of things created hordes of brokers, who lived and grew rich by "shaving" notes. It would take a pocketful of bills to go from Philadelphia to New Orleans. Although you might be well provided for your journey, when you read the morning papers the next day, and then examined the bills in your pocket, you might not have enough left to pay for your breakfast, the banks "failed" so rapidly. Each insti- tution prepared its own notes, and this gave a wide field of operation to the counterfeiters, because poor and indifferent notes were issued. The one-dollar note, the last issued by the Montgomery County Bank, cost five hundred dollars, and contained portraits of the four distinguished generals of Nor- ristown: Winfield S. Hancock, Adam J. Slemmer, John F. Hartranft and Edwin Schall, names the nation is proud to honor. Every note lost was just that much profit to the banks; hence the greater the circulation, more and greater the profits. Great risks were taken, with the hope that dividends could be made and divided before the rocks were struck that violated acts of the Legislature.
Permit me to state, that, with the exception of what came under my own observation during more than thirty years, the important facts and remarks in reference to the Montgomery
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County Bank, the Montgomery National Bank, and the great success that has ever attended that institution, as well as the incidents in the life of Mr. William H. Slingluff, who for more than half a century managed that bank, has been furnished by Mr. John Slingluff, the present President, and who follows with very marked ability in the footsteps of his distinguished father, who stood without a superior as a bank financier.
The rebellion changed the way of doing business, as well as our investments. Our people, to a large extent, had their funds secured by bonds and mortgages, and the first of April was "pay day," and lasted from about ten days before until fifteen days after the first. During these days a large amount of money changed hands. Many persons were not satisfied with the passing of checks, but must have the bank notes or gold; so it was no unusual thing to have to count the very same money over and over again. But how impossible such a way would be for the business of the nation to-day. It has been found that from ninety-two to ninety-six per cent. of all the business of the country is done by means of checks and drafts-that is from four to eight dollars out of a hundred is all that is needed in money. Then the issue of the govern- ment of bonds broke up this system of investment, so that the first of April differs but little from any other period of the year now. When the great Secretary Chase issued his " seven- thirty " bonds, by which everybody who could gather fifty dollars could secure from the nation a penny a day interest, he did that which was not only popular and profitable, but stamped his scheme as the master financial monument of the war times. Our people were quick to catch at the offer, and hundreds of thousands of dollars from old Montgomery pour- ed into the national treasury.
The war, while it brought a long train of evils, also gave us a National banking system ; the very best this nation has ever had, and which has not its superior in any country. From the loose, disjointed laws and worse protective principle, we have a new system that stands upon a rock of protection and raises its grand symmetry and splendid proportions. It de-
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mands safety and gives security to all along the line of its in- fluence. What are its points of excellence? The holder of the note is secured beyond the possibility of loss, for the gov- ernment has the bonds, with a par margin of ten per cent., be- sides the market value, to cover the entire national bank cir- culation. Then the depositor comes first for payment in a bankrupt bank, and if the assets are not sufficient an assess- ment is made upon the stockholders up to the full par value of their stock. That is, if you hold a thousand dollars of stock on the books of the bank, and the institution fails, you may be taxed up to one thousand dollars additional. The loss up to the present time, since the national banking system started, all through the panic, has been but one-tenth of one per cent. upon the capital. The notes are most elaborately engraved on both sides, requiring the most skilled workmen and the very best machinery. They are, therefore, very diffi- cult to counterfeit, and the extent of the counterfeiter's domain is circumscribed ..
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