History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 142

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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Haverford College .- This celebrated and prosper- ous institution holds an estate of about two hundred and twenty acres in the northern part of the township of Haverford. It was founded in the year 1832 by prominent members of the society of Friends in the Middle States, the larger number being residents of Philadelphia and its vicinity. The purpose of its founders was to provide a place for the instruction of their sons in the higher learning, and for moral train- ing, which should be free from the temptations preva- lent at many of the larger colleges. A tract consisting at first of forty acres, but gradually enlarged until it now contains upwards of seventy, was set off by an experienced English landscape-gardener and planted with a large variety of trees, to constitute the aca- demic grove in which the college buildings should stand. This park is now the most beautiful which any Americau college can boast, and the exquisite undulations of its surface, its stately trees, its winding walks, and its green and well-kept turf attract many admiring visitors.

The " Founders' Hall," as it is now called, a large and well-constructed building, was finished in 1833, and in the autumn of that year " Haverford School" was opened. This modest title, corresponding with the unostentatious spirit of its founders, was borne for upwards of twenty years, although a full collegiate course of study was pursued from the beginning. Early in 1856, however, the institution was incorpor- ated as a college, with the right of conferring aca- demic degrees.

Barclay Hall, built in 1876, a strikingly beautiful

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building of Port Deposit granite, furnishes studies and bedrooms for eighty students. Others are ac- commodated in Founders' Hall. There are two astronomical observatories,-one built in 1852, the other in 1884. These contain a refracting equatorial telescope of ten inches aperture, by Clark ; a refract- ing equatorial telescope of eight and one-fourth inches aperture, by Fitz; an alt-azimuth reflecting telescope of eight and one-fourth inches aperture; a fixed transit instrument of four inches aperture, with circles twenty-six inches in diameter ; a zenith instrument of one and three-fourths inches aperture, with microm- eter and circles; a chronograph, connected by elec- tricity with all the instruments, which records the exact time of observations to the tenth of a second ; two sidereal clocks; a filar micrometer; a spectro- scope made by Grubb, with a train of ten prisms; a polarizing eye-piece for solar work; a sextant; and a valuable library of astronomical literature.

The students have free access to the observatory, and enjoy such advantages for observatory practice as are seldom offered. The director of the observatory, Professor Sharpless, is a man of great knowledge and wide fame.

A tasteful and well-proportioned building, erected in 1863-64, contains the library and Alumni Hall, the latter being used for lectures, society meetings, and the public exercises of the college. Here some fifteen thousand volumes are always ready for the use of the students, selected with great care in all departments of knowledge. A large number of the best European and American periodicals are taken in. The library is regarded as inferior in importance and usefulness to no other department of the college.

A carpenters' shop was built soon after the opening of the school, as a place where the boys might find profitable exercise and amusement in the use of tools. This was fitted up in 1884 for the use of the depart- ment of mechanical engineering, and contains a forge, steam-engines, and a variety of machines and tools for the use of students in that department.

The chemical laboratory was built in 1853 (a room in Founders' Hall having previously been used for the purpose), and has several times been enlarged and improved. It is now very commodious, amply fur- nished, and under very skillful management. Under it is a beautiful gymnasium, which is supplied with the apparatus of Dr. Sargent, the director of the Harvard gymnasium. Exercise here is required of the students, under the direction of an experienced physician.

In Founders' Hall there is a museum of natural history, and a physical laboratory. This hall con- tains also the recitation-rooms and the dining-hall.

Among the most distinguished officers and instruc- tors of the school and college have been Daniel B. Smith, John Gummere, Joseph Thomas, Samuel J. Gummere, Henry D. Gregory, Paul Swift, Hugh D. Vail, Joseph Harlan, George Stuart, Moses C. Stevens,

Clement L. Smith, Albert Leeds, Henry Hartshorne, Edward D. Cope, and John H. Dillingham. The officers in 1884 are as follows: President, Thomas Chase, a graduate of Harvard University, who re- ceived in 1878 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Harvard, and in 1880 that of Doctor of Literature from Haverford. He was a member of the American company of revisers of the English translation of the New Testament, and is the editor of a series of classi- cal text-books which are very widely used. Dean, Isaac Sharpless, a graduate of Harvard in the scien- tific school, and honored with the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Pennsylvania in 1883. Professor Sharpless is a man of wide scientific dis- tinction, and is the author of excellent text-books in geometry, astronomy, and physics. Pliny Earle Chase, LL.D., also a graduate of Harvard, is the professor of Philosophy and Logic. He holds very high rank among living thinkers and men of science, and his philosophical and scientific papers have been widely published, both in this country and in Europe. Allen C. Thomas, a graduate and master of arts of Haverford, is the accomplished and learned professor of History, Political Economy, and Rhetoric. Lyman B. Hall, a graduate of Amherst, and Ph.D. of the University of Göttingen, is professor of Chemistry and Physics, and a thorough master of these sciences. Edwin Davenport, A.B. and A.M. of Harvard, a brilliant and distinguished scholar, is professor of Latin and Greek. Henry Carvill Lewis, graduate and Master of Arts of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the foremost men of science in America, is the professor of Geology. The other instructors are men of distinction and promise. Thomas Newlin, of the University of Michigan, professor of Zoology and Botany, and Curator of the museum. James Beatty, Jr., a graduate of the Stevens Institute, professor of Engineering Branches. Walter M. Ford, M.D., in- structor in Physical Training. William Earl Morgan, a graduate and Master of Arts of Penn College, assistant astronomical observer; and William F. Wickersham, asssistant librarian.

The following regular courses of study are pursued at the college : I. A course in classics, mathematics, general literature, modern languages, and science, for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. II. A course in general science and literature, and modern languages, for the degree of Bachelor of Science. III. A more specialized course in practical science and engincer- ing, together with modern languages, for the degree of Bachelor of Science or for special degrees. The requisites for admission are substantially the same as at other first-class colleges.

The college claims, in its published circulars, special advantages for its students. These are, " First, good moral and religious influences. Endeavors are made to imbue the minds and hearts of the students with the fundamental truths of the Christian religion, and to train them by the inculcation of pure morals

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and the restraints of a judicious discipline. No stu- dent is admitted without a certificate of character from his last instructor, and none believed to be of low moral character are retained. Second, thorough scholarship. The teaching is of high quality; the classes are small enough to allow regular performance of work and the opportunity for individual instruc- tion. The absence of the constant distractions which attend life at many colleges, and the example and influence of the professors, enables a large amount of honest work to be done, so that the standard of graduation is high. Third, the healthfulness of the student life. In the large and beautiful lawns every facility is given, right at the doors, for cricket, base- ball, foot-ball, tennis, archery, and other field games. The gymnasium furnishes judicious physical training, under the care of a skillful physiciau. The rooms are pleasant, the table and service good, and all the conditions wholesome."

Haverford College, from its modest beginnings, has slowly but surely won a position among the foremost literary institutions of the country, and may justly be counted an honor to the county and the common- wealth in which it stands. In October, 1883, it cele- brated the fiftieth anniversary of its opening. Six hundred of the old students assembled on its beautiful grounds, and their high character and eminence gave a striking testimonial to the merits of their Alma Mater.

Churches-Haverford Meeting-House .- Friends' meeting-house in Haverford township, the oldest place of worship in Delaware County, was erected in 1688 or 1689. The first marriage solemnized in it was that of Lewis David to Florence Jones, at a meeting held First month (March) 20th, 1690. The south, or what is now known as "the old end" of the structure, was built in 1700, at a cost of about one hundred and fifty- eight pounds. It was erected as an addition to the meeting-house of 1688 or 1689, which original build- ing was replaced by the present "new end" in the year 1800. At the date last mentioned the part built one hundred years before was modernized somewhat in its outside appearance, by changing the pitch of the roof and in substituting wooden sash in the win- dows for those of lead. The gallery was originally at the south end of the building. It is also claimed that a number of chestnut boards with which the house was at first lined are still in place. For many years the original building and its annex of 1700 was without a chimney, being warmed with a kind of stove or furnace, placed on each side of the audience- room, and supplied with fuel from the outside. Only the tops of these stoves were of iron, and the smoke escaped by flues opening on the outside of the wall, a few feet above the opening through which the fuel was introduced. Part of this arrangement is yet con- spicuous in the walls of the old end of the meeting- house.

Soon after the completion of the building erected

in 1700, Governor William Penn visited Haverford and preached in the new meeting-house. Yet from the fact that the Welsh language was the prevailing dialect then spoken in Haverford, and that the ma- jority of its inhabitants at that time could speak no other, many of his hearers could not understand him.

Sutcliff, an English Quaker, who visited the prov- ince about the time of Penn's second visit to America, mentions another incident concerning the Governor which is pertinent to the history of Haverford meet- ing-house. A little girl named Rebecca Wood was walking from Darby, where she resided, to Haverford meeting-house, when Penn, who was proceeding to the same place on horseback, overtook her and in- quired where she was going. Upon being informed, "he with his usual good nature, desired her to get up behind him; and bringing his horse to a convenient place, she mounted, and so rode away upon the bare back, and being without shoes or stockings, her bare legs and feet hung dangling by the side of the Gov- ernor's horse."

The burial-ground attached to Haverford meeting- house was laid out in 1684. During the same year the first interment was made in these grounds, it being the body of William Sharpus, who was buried Ninth month 19th. More than one hundred years later another burial was made in the same place, which attracted many people. The circumstances are related by Dr. Smith, as follows :

"In the winter of 1788 a very tragic affair happened on Darby Creek, where it forms the line between Marple and Haverford, in the death by drowning of Lydia Holliogeworth, a young lady of great worth and beauty, who was under an engagement of marriage to David Lewis. The party, consisting of Lewis, Lydia, another young lady, and the driver, left the city in the morning in a sleigh, and drove out to Joshus Humphreys, near Haverford meeting-house, and from thence they drove to Newtowo ; but before they returned the weather moderated and some rain fell, which caused Darby Creek to rise. In approaching the ford (which was on the road leading from the Presbyterian Church to Cooperstown), they were advised not io attempt to cross, but were made acquainted with the existence of a temporary bridge in the meadows above. They drove to the bridge, but the water was rushing over it, and the driver refused to proceed; whereupon Lewie took the lines, and, missing the bridge, plunged the whole party into the flood. All were rescued but Lydia, whose body was not found till the next moroiog. The feelings of Lewie cau be more readily imagined than described. The young lady was buried at Friends' graveyard, Haver- ford. In some pathetic rhymes written on the occasion it is stated that 1700 persone attended her fuueral."

Haverford meeting-house occupies one of the most beautiful and commanding sites in the township. Regular meetings are held there each week, the Friends usually attending being from twenty to thirty in number. A Friends' meeting-house is also located near the Haverford College grounds.

St. Dennis' Church. - This, the first Catholic Church edifice erected in Delaware County, stands near Haverford meeting-house, and was built during the year 1825. Dennis Kelly, the well-known woolen and cotton manufacturer, donated its site and the land for the burial-grounds, and also was the greatest con- tributor to the fund for its erection. It was built for the accommodation of those of the Catholic faith who

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were employed in Kelly's mills, on Cobb's Creek. The original structure was small, plain, and unpre- tentious in its appearance. A few years ago, how- ever, it was remodeled and enlarged, and now presents a very pleasing aspect both within and without. Dennis Kelly, who might be termed its founder, lies buried within its shadows, he having departed this life July 21, 1864, aged nearly eighty-five years.

Bethesda Methodist Episcopal Church .- The society existing under this name was organized in Oc- tober, 1831, under the pastoral charge of Rev. William Crider. The church edifice, which is located in the southwest quarter of the township, about one-half mile southwest from the Eagle Tavern, was erected in 1832. It was considerably enlarged in 1871. Among the original members of the organization were John Gracy and wife, I. P. Jonas, Charles Cunningham, Michael Lincoln and wife, John Foy, Bushrod W. Horton and wife, Lewis Wright, John Wright, Rich- ard Timple, William Palmer, Isaac Anderson, Samuel Pippin, Charles Peirce, and Benjamin Yard. Other early members who joined during the succeeding five years were G. M. Kunkle, James Lewis, Jonathan Evans, Sarah Evans, Sarah Peterman, Alexander Kimble, Sarah Gracy, and Ann Barr.

The preachers who have had charge of this church are mentioned as follows: William Crider, to 1833; David Best, 1833-34; R. W. Thomas, 1835; William Cooper, 1836-37 ; J. B. Ayres, 1838-39 ; H. King, 1840 -41; G. Lacy, 1842; - Crouch, 1843; - Mc- Namee, 1844; T. Sumption, 1845-46; R. M. Green- bank, 1847-48; M. D. Kurtz, 1849-50; J. Edwards, 1851-52; H. Sutton, 1853-54 ; J. A. Watson, 1855-56 ; H. B. Manger, 1857-58; William Dalrymple, 1859- 60; George Rakestraw, 1861-62; S. Patterson, 1863- 65; L. B. Hughes, 1866; D. McKee, 1867-68; A. L. Wilson, 1869-71; M. A. Day, 1872-73; D. L. Patter- son, 1874-75; J. Y. Ashton, 1876-77 ; T. C. Pearson, 1878-79; A. L. Wilson, 1880-82; Edward Devine, 1883; and D. T. Smyth, present pastor, 1884.

Among the junior preachers who were assigned to or assisted at this church prior to 1858 were Messrs. Perry, Hand, Ford, Jackson, Graham, Niel, Roach, McCaskey, Lybrand, Sanderson, Cummings, Cald- well, Hobbs, Lane, Bailey, Clark, Wheeler, Barr, and Martin. The present members of Bethesda Church are about forty in number.

Licensed Houses .- The first application for license in Haverford that appears of record is that of Griffith Evans, who, at February court, 1731, desired to be permitted to keep a house of entertainment becanse, as he alleged, he was "an ancient man, his wife well stricken in years & subject to lameness." This license must have been successful, for Dr. Smith iu- forms us that "he [Evans] kept the well-established stand known as the ' Old Trog' in that day." It was located, the same authority states, a short distance above Cooperstown. We, however, have not found his name in the clerk's list of approved licenses ..

On Feb. 29, 1732, Samuel Rees presented his ap- plication, signed by Daniel Humphrey and twelve other persons, representing that Samnel had been " ai !- ing for some years, and at times unable to help him- self, and since March last altogether ailing in the limbs ; sometimes forced to keep his bed for weeks ; his crops of corn failing for several years, having a large family," etc His house they represent " being on the great road from Conestoga, &c., to Philadelphia, & convenient for a public house." Despite his many ills and misfortunes the conrt refused to accede to his wishes and denied him license. In no wise contented with the decision of the justice, he appeared again, May 30, 1732, when he received a favorable response for the remainder of the license year. On Aug. 29th of the same year he presented his petition again, and it also was met with the favorable consideration of the bench. Ou the clerk's list of the successful petition- ers at the August court, 1734, his name appears, and annually thereafter until Aug. 26, 1740, when Littice Rees, the widow of "Samuel, of Haverford," prays the court that the license may be continned to her, in- asmuch as she had " a parcell of small children to support." The court yielded assent to her prayer, and again in 1741 extended the like favor to the widow and her fatherless children. On Aug. 30, 1734, William Bell made application to the court, and in his peti- tion sets forth that "Lettis Rees's Lysance being now expired," he desires to renew it, but he does not state whether it was at the old location or not. In 1748, Patrick Miller purchased the house formerly occupied by William Bell, and procured the license until 1752, when, he having died, his widow, Anne, carried on the business until 1757. In 1759, John Gregory had the license, and so on annually until 1761, when Llewel- lyn Barry obtained it, and in 1766, William Lewis became the landlord, to be followed in the next year, 1767, by Joseph Miller, who continued the business until 1772, when he died. In 1773 his widow, Mary, obtained license, and so on from year to year nntil 1789, from the Chester County court. After the crea- tion of Delaware County she continned to receive the favorable consideration until 1796, when Jonathan Miller, probably her son, succeeded to the business. From his petition, in 1802, we learn that his tavern was known as the Buck.1 In 1836 he gave place to Edward Siter, and the latter remained there two years, after which date the old inn ceased to be a public-house.

1 The tavern termed the "sign of the Buck" stood on the old Lan- caster road (not the turnpike), in the northeast corner of Haverford ; and it was there that the interview between Sower, the German printer, and Gen. Forbes and the Governor of the province took place in 1758. Respecting this meeting, it seems that in the course of the discussione which ensued during the progress of the war above alluded to, several articles appeared In a German newspaper, published at Germantown hy Christopher Sower, which were supposed to be simed against the king and the government. In consequence, fourteen Highlanders, from a regiment lately arrived at Philadelphia, were dispatched to the printer with a written order to meet Geu. Forbes "at the tavern sign of the

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

To show that the justices took the condition of the applicant into account in dispensing the judicial crumbs, on the clerk's list of successful petitions in the year 1734 appears, instead of the party's name, this entry : " A widdow in Haverford-Beer & Syder," and a like statement in the following year, 1735, when it disappears from the list.

Thomas Ashbridge, of Goshen, Feb. 28, 1737/8, in his petition stated that that he had " taken a place in Haverford, which has been a place of publick enter- tainment for a considerable time." Possibly that of the widow mentioned above. He was refused, but at May court, 1738, he again tried to obtain a favorable hearing, and succeeded so far as being allowed to sell " Beer & Cyder." Ashbridge, however, seemed not to be content with the bench's bounty, for at the Au- gust court following he appeared again, asking full license, which the judges accorded him. In March (25), 1743, Matthew Beard, of Haverford, presented his petition, that he " hath lately Rented or Leased a Plantation or Tenement adjoining to the Great Road from Goshen to Philadelphia, in which Tenement there hath been for several years past a House of En- tertainment." He was granted leave to sell "bear and Syder," but at the August court he received full license, and it was continued until 1746, after which his name does not appear of record.

In 1748, William Rusk, a renter, asked license for a public-house, stating that a tavern had been kept there; doubtless Beard's old place. In 1761, Philip Foreman was successful in his application, and in 1762, Adam Boyle received the court's favor. In 1764, Evan Watkins had license granted him, and in 1767, Peter Pechin was permitted to keep an inn. In bis petition for 1770 the name Fox Chase appears for the first time. Pechin was succeeded, in 1771, by John Richards, and the latter, in 1774, by Aaron Coates, and he in turn, in 1778, gave place to David Quinn. David Lyons, in 1782, obtained license, and continued to secure him from the court until the new county of Delaware was created, and after that period until 1791, when Zacharias Loud had license for that and a part of the following year (1792). He was fol- lowed, in 1793, by Frederick Bittle, and in 1795, Wil- liam Bittle became the landlord of the inn, which he called the Eagle and Compass. In 1809 his petition speaks of the house as the Compass. In 1813, Bittle having removed to a new house he had built, Martin Wise took it, and kept it until the old building was destroyed. However, in 1813, David Lyons states in his petition that he has "lately built a commodious house

in the aforesaid township, situated at the intersection of the road leading from the borough of Chester to Ger- mantown, and from Darby to Newtown Square and through the township of Radnor, formerly known as a place of entertainment by the name of the Fox Chase." He desired license for the same. The court granted it, and continued annually to allow it until 1832, when it also ceased to be a tavern.

William Bittle, whose removal from the old Fox Chase Tavern we have just related, in 1813 made ap- plication for license. His petition sets forth that " Having built and removed to the commodious building on the road leading from Norristown to Chester, where the West Chester road crosses said road," he wishes the court's permission to keep a hotel there. His application was rejected, but at the January court, 1814, it was approved, and the Spread Eagle Tavern on the West Chester road was estab- lished. In 1827, William Bittle was succeeded by Robert Dunn, and he being dead, in 1829, the license was issued to his widow, Susannah Dunn. The fol- lowing year Lewis Bennett was landlord, and in 1831 William Bittle once more was "mine host" of the Eagle. In 1832 the latter gave place to J. S. Atkin- son, and he in turn, in 1834, was followed by John Williams. In 1836, David Quinn had license, and in 1838, Andrew Steel, to be followed, in 1841, by William Bittle. In 1850, James P. Afflick, having purchased the property, made application to continue an inn at that place, the Eagle not having been licensed in 1848 or 1849. It was met with a remonstrance signed by William B. Lindsay, Adam C. Eckfeldt, James Smith, Vincent D. Litzenberg, Thomas L. Cochrane, Charles H. LaMar, and forty-five other persons, setting forth that " the subscribers, citizens, and legal voters of the township of Haverford ... report that your me- morialists have learned with deep regret that applica- tions will be made to your Honorable Court ... by James D. Afflick and William Y. Stackhouse for 'Tavern licenses,' or, in other words, for the privi- lege of vending intoxicating drinks under the sanc- tion of law in our township, and inasmuch as we be- lieve it to be our bounden duty to do what we may to prevent a consummation so much to be dreaded, we would therefore ask leave most earnestly but respect- fully to remonstrate against the granting of the priv- iledge asked for, because we believe the sale and use of strong drink to be fraught with the most fatal con- sequences to the best interests of mankind, present and future, and because a very large majority of our citizens are and have been for years opposed to the granting of any license in the township of Haver- ford. Inasmuch, therefore, as no one is expected to be benefitted in the granting of the applications re- ferred to but the persons above named (and even their ultimate advantage in such a calling is extremely doubtful), whilst many might be exposed to the deepest suffering in consequence of this multiplication of the places and sources of temptation. We appeal

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 142

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150