History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 8

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Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 8
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 8

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The inemory of this, the "Great Treaty," was long preserved by the na- tives, and the novel spectacle was reproduced upon canvas by the genius of Benjamin West. In this picture, l'enn is represented as a corpulent old man, whereas he was at this time but thirty-eight years of age, and in the very height of manly activity. The Treaty Tree was preserved and guarded from injury with an almost superstitious care. During the Revolution, when Phila- delphia was occupied by the British, and their parties were scouring the coun- try for firewood, Gen. Simcoe had a sentinel placed at this tree to protect it from mutilation. It stood untit ISIt, when it was blown down, and it was ascertained by its annual concentric accretions to be 283 years old, and was, consequently. 155 at the time of making the treaty. The Penn Society erected a substantial monument on the spot where it stood.

Penn drew up his deeds for lands in legal form, and had them duly ese- cuted and made of record, that, in the dispute possible to arise in after times, there might be proof definite and positive of the purchase. Of these purchases there are two deeds on record executed in 1683. One is for land near Nosha- miny Creek, and thence to l'enypack, and the other for lands lying between Sebuylkill and Chester Rivers, the first bearing the signature of the great chieftain. Taminend. In one of these purchases it is provided that the tract " shall extend back as far as a man could walk in three days." Tradition runs that Penn himself, with a number of his friends, walked out the half this purchase with the Indians, that no advantage should be taken of them by mak- ing a great walk, and to show his consideration for them, and that he was not above the toils and fatigues of such a duty." They began to walk out this land at the mouth of the Neshaminy, and walked up the Delaware; in one day

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

and a half they got to a spruce tree near the mouth of Baker's Creek, when Penn, concluding that this would include as much land as he would want at present, a line was run and marked from the spruce tree to Neshaminy, and the remainder left to be walked when it should be wanted. They proceed- ed after the Indian manner, walking leisurely, sitting down sometimes to smoke their pipes, eat biscuit and cheese, and drink a bottle of wine. In the day and a half they walked a little less than thirty miles. The balance of the purchase was not walked until September 20, 1733, when the then Governor of Pennsylvania offered a prize of 500 acres of land and fó for the man who would walk the farthest. A distance of eighty-six miles was covered, in marked contrast with the kind consideration of Penn.

During the first year, the country upon the Delaware, from the falls of Trenton as far as Chester, a distance of nearly sixty miles, was rapidly taken up and peopled. The large proportion of these were Quakers, and devotedly attached to their religion and its proper observances. They were, hence, morally, of the best classes, and though they were not generally of the aristocracy, yet many of them were in comfortable circumstances, had valuable properties, were of respectable families, educated, and had the resources within themselves to live contented and happy. They were provident, industrious, and had come hither with no fickle purpose. Many brought servants with them, and well supplied wardrobes, and all necessary articles which they wisely judged would be got in a new country with difficulty.

Their religious principles were so peaceful and generous, and the govern- ment rested so lightly, that the fame of the colony and the desirableness of settlement therein spread rapidly, and the numbers coming hither were unpar- alleled in the history of colonization, especially when we consider that a broad ocean was to be crossed and a voyage of several weeks was to be endured. In a brief period, ships with passengers came from London, Bristol, Ireland, Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire, Holland, Germany, to the number of about fifty. Among others came a company of German Quakers, from Krisheim, near Worms, in the Palatinate. These people regarded their lot as particularly fortunate, in which they recognized the direct interposition and hand of Provi- dence. For, not long afterward, the Palatinate was laid waste by the French army, and many of their kindred whom they had left behind were despoiled of their possessions and reduced to penury. There came also from Wales a com- pany of the stock of ancient Britons.

So large an influx of population, coming in many cases without due pro- vision for variety of diet, caused a scarcity in many kinds of food, especially of meats. Time was required to bring forward flocks and herds, more than for producing grains. But Providence seemed to have graciously considered their necessities, and have miraculously provided for them, as of old was pro vision made for the chosen people. For it is recorded that the "wild pigeons came in such great numbers that the sky was sometimes darkened by their flight, and, flying low, they were frequently knocked down as they flew, in great quantities, by those who had no other means to take them, whereby they supplied themselves, and, having salted those which they could not immedi- ately use, they preserved them, both for bread and meat." The Indians were kind, and often furnished them with game, for which they would receive no compensation.

Their first care on landing was to bring their household goods to a place of safety, often to the simple protection of a tree. For some, this was their only shelter, lumber being scarce, and in many places impossible to obtain.

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Some made for themselves caves in the earth until better habitations could be secured.

John Key, who was said to have been the first child born of English par- ents in Philadelphia, and that in recognition of which William Penn gave him a lot of ground, died at Kennet, in Chester County, on July 5, 1768, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He was born in one of those caves upon the river bank, long afterward known by the name of Penny-pot, near Sassa- fras street. About six years before his death, he walked from Kennot to the city, about thirty miles, in one day. In the latter part of his life he went under the name of First Born.

The contrasts between the comforts and conveniences of an old settled country and this, where the heavy forests must be cleared away and severe la- bors must be endured before the sun could bo let in sufficiently to produce anything, must have been very marked, and caused repining. But they had generally come with meek and humble hearts, and they willingly endured hardship and privation, and labored on earnestly for the spiritual comfort which they enjoyed. Thomas Makin, in some Latin verses upon the early set- tlement, says (we quote the metrical translation):

" Its fame to distant countries far has spread, And some for peace, and some for profit led; Born in remotest climes, to settle here They leave their native soil and all that's dear, And still will tlock from far, here to be free, Such powerful charms has lovely liberty."

But for their many privations and sufferings there were some compensat- ing conditions. The soil was fertile, the air mostly clear and healthy, the streams of water were good and plentiful, wood for fire and building unlimit- ed, and at certain seasons of the year game in the forest was abundant. Rich- ard Townsend, a settler at Germantown, who came over in the ship with Penn, in writing to his friends in England of his first year in America, says: "I, with Joshua Tittery, made a net, and caught great quantities of fish, so that, notwithstanding it was thought near three thousand persons came in the first year, we were so providentially provided for that we could buy a deer for abont two shillings, and a large turkey for about one shilling, and Indian corn for about two shillings sixpence a bushel."

In the same letter, the writer mentions that a young deer came ont of the forest into the meadow where he was mowing, and looked at him, and when he went toward it would retreat; and, as he resumed his mowing, would come back to gaze upon him, and finally ran forcibly against a tree, which so stunned it that he was able to overmaster it and bear it away to his home, and as this was at a time when he was suffering for the lack of meat, he believed it a direct interposition of Providence.

In the spring of 1683, there was great activity throughout the colony, and especially in the new city, in selecting lands and erecting dwellings, the Sur- veyor General, Thomas Holme, laying out and marking the streets. In the center of the city was a public square of ten acres, and in each of the four quarters one of eight acres. A large mansion, which had been undertaken be- fore his arrival, was built for Penn, at a point twenty-six miles up the river, called Pennsbury Manor, where ho sometimes resided, and where he often met the Indian sachems. At this time, Penn divided the colony into counties, three for the province (Bucks, Philadelphia and Chester) and three for the Territories (New Castle, Kent and Sussex). Having appointed Sheriff's and other proper officers, he issued writs for the election of members of a General

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Assembly, three from each county for the Council or Upper House, and nine from each county for the Assembly or Lower House. *

This Assembly convened and organized for business on the 10th of Jan- nary, 1683, at Philadelphia. One of the first subjects considered was the revising some provisions of the frame of government which was effected, re- ducing the number of members of both Houses, the Council to 18 the As- sembly to 36, and otherwise amending in unimportant particulars. In an assembly thus convened, and where few, if any, had had any experience in serving in a deliberative body, we may reasonably suppose that many crude and impracticable propositions would be presented. As an example of these the following may be cited as specimens: That young men should be obliged to marry at, or before, a certain age; that two sorts of clothes only shall be worn, one for winter and the other for summer. The session lasted twenty two days.

The first grand jury in Pennsylvania was summoned for the 2d of Feb- ruary, 1683, to inquire into the cases of some persons accused of issuing counterfeit money. The Governor and Council sat as a court. One Picker- ing was convicted, and the sentence was significant of the kind and patriarchal nature of the government, "that he should make full satisfaction, in good and current pay, to every person who should, within the space of one month, bring in any of this false, base and counterfeit coin, and that the money brought in should be melted down before it was returned to him, and that he should pay a fine of forty pounds toward the building a court house, stand committed till the same was paid, and afterward find security for his good behavior."

The Assembly and courts having now adjourned, Penn gave his attention to the grading and improving the streets of the new city, and the managing the affairs of his land office, suddenly grown to great importance. For every section of land taken up in the wilderness, the purchaser was entitled to a certain plot in the new city. The River Delaware at this time was nearly a mile broad opposite the city, and navigable for ships of the largest tonnage. The tide rises about six feet at this point, and flows back to the falls of Trenton, a distance of thirty miles. The tide in the Schuylkill flows only about five miles above its confluence with the Delaware. The river bank along the Delaware was intended by Penn as a common or public resort. But in his time the owners of lots above Front street pressed him to allow them to construct warehouses upon it, opposite their properties, which importunity in- duced him to make the following declaration concerning it: "The bank is a top common, from end to end; the rest next the water belongs to front-lot, men no more than back-lot men. The way bounds them; they may build stairs, and the top of the bank a common exchange, or wall, and against the street, common wharfs may be built freely; but into the water, and the shore is no purchaser's." But in future time, this liberal desire of the founder was dis- regarded, and the bank has been covered with immense warehouses.

* It may be a matter of curiosity to know the names of the members of this first regularly elected Legis- lature in Pennsylvania, and they are accordingly appended as given in official records :

Council : William Markham, Christopher Taylor, Thomas Holme, Lacy Cock, William Haige, Johu Moll, Ralph Withers, John Simcock, Edward Cantwell, William Clayton, William Biles, James llarrison, William Clark, Francis Whitewell, John Richardson, John Hillyard.

Assembly: From Bucks, William Yardly, Samuel Darke, Robert Lucas, Nicholas Walne, John Wood, John Clowes, Thomas Fitzwater, Robert Hall, James Royden; from Philadelphia, John Longhurst, John Hart, Wal- ter King, Andros Binksoo, John Moon, Thomas Wynne (Speaker), Griffith Jones, William Warner, Swan Swan- son; from Chester, John Hoskins, Robert Wade, George Wood, John Blunston, Denuis Rochford, Thomas Bracy, John Bezer, John Hardiog, Joseph Phipps ; from New Castle, John Cano, John Darhy, Valentine Holl- iogsworth, Gasparus Herman. Joho Dchoaef, James Williams, William Guest, Peter Alrich, Henrick Williams; from Kent, Johu Biggs, Simon Irons, Thomas Haffold John Curtis, Robert Bedwell, William Windsmore, John Brinkloe, Daniel Brown, Renony Bishop; from Sussex, Luke Watson, Alexander Draper, William Futcher, Henry Bowman, Alexander Moleston, John Hill, Robert Bracy, John Kipshaven, Cornelius Verhoof.

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Seeing now his plans of government and settlement fairly in operation, as autumn approached, Penn wrote a letter to the Free Society of Traders in London, which had been formed to promote settlement in his colony, in which he touched upon u great variety of topics regarding his enterprise, extending to quite a complete treatise. The great interest attaching to the subjects dis- cussed. and the ability with which it was drawn, makes it desirable to insert the document entire; but its great length makes its use incompatible with the plan of this work. A few extracts and a general plan of the letter is all that can be given. Ile first notices the injurious reports put in circulation in En- gland during his absence: "Some persons have had so little wit and so much malice as to report my death, and, to mend the matter, dead a Jesnit, too. One might have reasonably hoped that this distance, like death, would have been a protection against spite and envy. * * * However, to the great sorrow and shame of the inventors, I am still alive and no Jesuit, and, I thank God. very well." Of the air and waters he says: " The air is sweet and clear, the heavens serene, like the south parts of France, rarely overcast. The waters are generally good, for the rivers and brooks have mostly gravel and stony bot. toms, and in number hardly credible. We also have mineral waters that operate in the same manner with Barnet and North Hall, not two miles from Philadelphia." He then treats at length of the four seasons, of trees, fruits, grapes, peaches, grains, garden produce; of animals, beasts, birds, fish, whale fish- ery, horses and cattle, medicinal plants, flowers of the woods: of the Indians

and their persons. Of their language he says:

"It is lofty, yet narrow; but,

like the Hebrew, in signification, full, imperfect in their tenses, wanting in their moods, participles, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections. I have made it my busi- ness to understand it, and I must say that I know not a language spoken in Europe that hath words of more sweetness or greatness in accent and emphasis than theirs." Of their customs and their children : " The children will go very young, at nine months, commonly; if boys, they go a fishing, till ripe for the woods, which is about fifteen; then they hunt, and, after having given some proofs of their manhood by a good return of skins, they may marry, olse it is a shame to think of a wife. The girls stay with their mother and help to hoe the ground, plant corn and carry burdens. When the young women are fit for marriage, they wear something upon their heads as an advertisment; but so, as their faces hardly to be seen, but when they please. The age they marry at, if women, is about thirteen and fourteen; if men, seventeen and eighteen; they are rarely elder." In a romantic vein he speaks of their houses, diet, hospitality, revengefulness and concealment of resentment, great liberality, free manner of life and customs, late love of strong liquor, bebavior in sickness and death, their re. ligion, their feastings, their government, their mode of doing business, their manner of administering justice, of agreement forsettling difficulties entered into with the pen, their susceptibility to improvement, of the origin of the Indian race their resemblance to the Jews. Of the Dutch and Swedes whom he found set. tled here when he came, he says: " The Dutch applied themselves to traffick.

the Swedes and Finns to husbandry. The Dutch mostly inhabit those parts tant lie upon the bay, and the Swedes the freshes of the Delaware. They are a plain, strong, industrious people; yet have made no great progress in culture or propagation of fruit trees. They are a people proper, and strong of body. so they have fine children, and almost every house full: rare to find one of them without three or four boys and as many girls-some, six, seven and eight sons, and I must do them that right, I see few young men more sober and laborious." After speaking at length of the organization of the colony and its manner of government, he concludes with his own opinion of the country: "I say little

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

of the town itself; but this I will say, for the good providence of God, that of all the many places I have seen in the world, I remember not one better seated, so that it seems to me to have been appointed for a town, whether we regard the rivers or the conveniency of the coves, docks, springs, the loftiness and soundness of the land and the air, held by the people of these parts to be very good. It is advanced within less than a year to about fourscore houses and cottages, where merchants and handicrafts are following their vocations as fast as they can, while the countrymen are close at their farms. * *

* I bless God I am fully satisfied with the country and entertainment I got in it; for I find that particular content, which hath always attended me, where God in His providence hath made it my place and service to reside."

As we have seen, the visit of Penn to Lord Baltimore soon after his arrival in America, for the purpose of settling the boundaries of the two provinces, after a two days' conference, proved fruitless, and an adjournment was had for the winter, when the efforts for settlement were to be resumed. Early in the spring, an attempt was made on the part of Penn, but was prevented till May, when a meeting was held at New Castle. Penn proposed to confer by the aid of counselors and in writing. But to this Baltimore objected, and, complain- ing of the sultryness of the weather, the conference was broken up. In the meantime, it had come to the knowledge of Peun that Lord Baltimore had issued a proclamation offering settlers more land, and at cheaper rates than Penn had done, in portions of the lower counties which Penn had secured from the Duke of York, but which Baltimore now claimed. Besides, it was ascertained that an agent of his had taken an observation, and determined the latitude without the knowledge of Penn, and had secretly made an ex parte statement of the case before the Lords of the Committee of Plantations in En- gland, and was pressing for arbitrament. This state of the case created much uneasiness in the mind of Penn, especially as the proclamation of Lord Balti- more was likely to bring the two governments into conflict on territory mutu- ally claimed. But Lord Baltimore was not disposed to be content with diplo- macy. He determined to pursue an aggressive policy. He accordingly com- missioned his agent, Col. George Talbot, under date of September 17, 1683, to go to Schuylkill, at Delaware, and demand of William Penn " all that part of the land on the west side of the said river that lyeth to the southward of the fortieth degree." This bold demand would have embraced the entire colony, both the lower counties, and the three counties in the province, as the fortieth degree reaches a considerable distance above Philadelphia. Penn was absent at the time in New York, and Talbot made his demand upon Nicholas Moore, the deputy of Penn. Upon his return, the proprietor made a dignified but earnest rejoinder. While he felt that the demand could not be justly sus- tained, yet the fact that a controversy for the settlement of the boundary was likely to arise, gave him disquietude, and though he was gratified with the success of his plans for acquiring lands of the Indians and establishing friendly relations with them, the laying-out of his new city and settling it, the adop- tion of a stable government and putting it in successful operation, and, more than all, the drawing thither the large number of settlers, chiefly of his own religious faith, and seeing them contented and happy in the new State, he plainly foresaw that, his skill and tact would be taxed to the utmost to defend and hold his claim before the English court. If the demand of Lord Balti- more were to prevail, all that he had done would be lost, as his entire colony would be swallowed up by Maryland.

The anxiety of Penn to hold from the beginning of the 40° of latitude was not to increase thereby his territory by so much, for two degrees which he

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

securely had, so far as amount of land was concerned, would have entirely satisfied him; but he wanted this degree chietly that he might have the free navigation of Delaware Bay and River, and thus open communication with the ocean. He desired also to hold the lower counties, which were now well settled, as well as his own counties rapidly being peopled, and his now city of Philadelphia, which he regarded as the apple of his eye. So anxious was he to hold the land on the right bank of the Delaware to the open ocean, that at his second meeting, he asked Lord Baltimore to set a price per square mile on this disputed ground, and though he had purchased it once of the crown and hold the King's charter for it, and the Duke of York's deed. yet rather than have any further wrangle over it, he was willing to pay for it again. But this Lord Baltimore refused to do.

Bent upon bringing matters to a crisis, and to force possession of his claim, early in the year 1634 a party from Maryland made forcible entry upon the plantations in the lower counties and drove off the owners. The Governor and Council at Philadelphia sent thither a copy of the answer of Penn to Baltimore's demand for the land south of the Delaware, with orders to William Welch, Sheriff at New Castle, to use his influence to reinstate the lawful owners, and issued a declaration succinctly stating the claim of Penn, for the purpose of preventing such unlawful incursions in futuro.

The season opened favorably for the continued prosperity of the young colony. Agriculture was being prosecuted as never before. Goodly floeks and herds gladdened the eyes of the settlers. An intelligent, moral and in- dustrious yeomanry was springing into existence. Emigrants were pouring into the Delaware from many lands. The Government was becoming settled in its operations and popular with the people. The proprietor had leisure to attend to the interests of his religious society, not only in his own dominions, but in the Jerseys and in New York.

CHAPTER VII.

THOMAS LLOYD, 1684-86-FIVE COMMISSIONERS, 1686-88-JOIIN BLACKWELL, 1688 -90-THOMAS LLOYD, 1690-91-WILLIAM MARKHAM, 1691-93-BENJAMIN FLETCHER, 1693-95-WILLIAM MARKIIAM, 1693-99.

B UT the indications, constantly thickening, that a struggle was likely soon to be precipitated before the crown for possession of the disputed terri- tory, decided Penn early in the summer to quit the colony and return to En- gland to defend his imperiled interests. There is no doubt that he took this step with unfeigned regret, as he was contented and happy in his new country, and was most usefully employed. There were, however, other inducements which were leading him back to England. The hand of persecution was at this time laid heavily upon the Quakers. Over 1,400 of these pions and in. offensive people were now, and some of them had been for years, languishing in the prisons of England, for no other offense than their manner of worship. By his friendship with James, and his acquaintance with the King, he might do something to soften the lot of these unfortunate victims of bigotry.

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Author: Publication date: Publisher: W. Taylor Number of Pages: 1280

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280