History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 9

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc > Part 9

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With all his cares in founding a State and providing a government over a new people, Penn did not forget to preach the "blessed Gospel," and wherever he went he was intent upon his " Master's business." On his return from Maryland, Lord Baltimore accompanied him several miles to the house of William Richardson, and thence to Thomas Hooker's, where was a religious meeting, as was also one held at Choptauk. Penn himself says: "I have been also at New York, Long Island, East Jersey and Maryland, in which I have had good and eminent service for the Lord." And again he says: "As to outward things, we are satisfied-the land good, the air clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provisions good and easy to come at, an innumerable quantity of wild fowl and fish; in fine, here is what an Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be well contented with, and service enough for God; for the fields are here white for the harvest. O, how sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, hurries and perplexities of woeful Europe! * *

* Blessed be the Lord, that of twenty-three ships, none miscarried; only two or three had the small-pox; else healthy and swift passages, generally such as have not been known; some but twenty-eight days, and few longer than six weeks. Blessed be God for it; my soul fervently breathes that in His heavenly guiding wisdom, we may be kept, that we may serve Him in our day, and lay down our heads in peace." And then, as if re- proached for not having mentioned another subject of thankfulness, he adds in a postscript, " Many women, in divers of the ships, brought to bed; they and their children do well."

Penn made it his first care to take formal possession of his province, and adopt a frame of government. When this was done, his chief concern was to look to the establishment of his proposed new city, the site of which had already been determined on by his Commissioners. Accordingly, early in November, at a season when, in this section, the days are golden, Penn em- barked in an open barge with a number of his friends, and was wafted leisurely up the Delaware to the present site of the city of Philadel- phia, which the natives called Coaquannock. Along the river was a bold shore, fringed with lofty pines, which grew close down to the water's edge, so much so that when the first ship passing up with settlers for West Jersey had brushed against the branches, the passengers remarked that this would be a good place for a city. It was then in a wild state, the deer browsing along the shore and sipping the stream, and the coneys burrowing in the banks. The scattered settlers had gathered in to see and welcome the new Governor, and when he stepped upon the shore, they extended a helping hand in assisting him up the rugged bluff. Three Swedes had already taken up tracts within the limits of the block of land chosen for the city. But they were given lands in exchange, and readily relinquished their claims. The location was pleasing to Penn, and was adopted without further search, though little could be seen of this then forest-encumbered country, where now is the home of countless industries, the busy mart, the river bearing upon its bosom the commerce of many climes, and the abiding place of nearly a million of people. But Penn did not con-

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

sider that he had as yet any just title to the soil, holding that the Indians were its only rightful possessors, and until it was fairly acquired by purchase from them, his own title was entirely void.

Hence, he sought an early opportunity to meet the chiefs of the tribes and cultivate friendly relations with them. Tradition fixes the first great treaty or conference at about this time, probably in November, and the place under the elm tree, known as the " Treaty Tree," at Kensington. It was at a sea- son when the leaves would still be upon the trees, and the assembly was called beneath the ample shade of the wide-sweeping branches, which was pleasing to the Indians, as it was their custom to hold all their great deliberations and smoke the pipe of peace in the open air. The letter which Penn had sent had prepared the minds of these simple-hearted inhabitants of the forest to regard him with awe and reverence, little less than that inspired by a descended god. His coming had for a long time been awaited, and it is probable that it had been heralded and talked over by the wigwam fire throughout the remotest bounds of the tribes. And when at length the day came, the whole popula- tion far around had assembled.

It is known that three tribes at least were represented-the Lenni Lenape, living along the Delaware; the Shawnees, a tribe that had come up from the South, and were seated along the Lower Susquehanna; and the Mingoes, sprung from the Six Nations, and inhabiting along the Conestoga. Penn was probably accompanied by the several officers of his Government and his most trusted friends. There were no implements of warfare, for peace was a cardi- nal feature of the Quaker creed.

No veritable account of this, the great treaty, is known to have been made; but from the fact that Penn not long after, in an elaborate treatise upon the country, the inhabitants and the natives, has given the account of the manner in which the Indians demean themselves in conference, we may infer that he had this one in mind, and hence we may adopt it as his own description of the scene.

" Their order is thus: The King sits in the middle of a half moon, and hath his council, the old and wise, on each hand; behind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger fry in the same figure. Having consulted and re- solved their business, the King ordered one of them to speak to me. He stood up, came to me, and, in the name of the King, saluted me; then took me by the hand and told me he was ordered by the King to speak to me; and now it was not he, but the King that spoke, because what he would say was the *

King's mind. * * * During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile; the old grave, the young reverant, in their deportment. They speak little, but fervently, and with ele- gance."

In response to the salutation from the Indians, Penn makes a reply in suitable terms: "The Great Spirit, who made me and you, who rules the heavens and the earth, and who knows the innermost thoughts of men, knows that I and my friends have a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with you, and to serve you to the uttermost of our power. It is not our custom to use hostile weapons against our fellow-creatures, for which reason we have come unarmed. Our object is not to do injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. We are met on the broad pathway of good faith and good will, so that no advantage is to be taken on either side; but all to be open- ness, brotherhood and love." Having unrolled his parchment, he explains to them through an interpreter, article by article, the nature of the business, and laying it upon the ground, observes that the ground shall be for the use of

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

both people. "I will not do as the Marylanders did, call you children, or brothers only; for parents are apt to whip their children too severely, and brothers sometimes will differ; neither will I compare the friendship between ns to a chain, for the rain may rust it, or a tree may fall and break it; but I will consider you as the same flesh and blood with the Christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts." Having ended his business, the speaker for the King comes forward and makes great promises "of kindness and good neighborhood, and that the Indians and English must live in love as long as the sun gave light." This ended, another Ind ian makes a speech to his own people, first to explain to them what had been agreed on, and then to exhort them "to love the Christians, and particularly live in peace with me and the people under my government, that many Governors had been in the river, but that no Governor had come himself to live and stay here be- fore, and having now such an one, that had treated them well, they should never do him nor his any wrong." At every sentence they shouted, as much as to say, amen.

The Indians had no system of writing by which they could record their dealings, but their memory of events and agreements was almost miraculous. Heckewelder records that in after years, they were accustomed, by means of strings, or belts of wampum, to preserve the recollection of their pleasant in- terviews with Penn, after he had departed for England. He says, " They fre- quently assembled together in the woods, in some shady spot, as nearly as pos- sible similar to those where they used to meet their brother Miquon (Penn), and there lay all his words and speeches, with those of his descendants, on a blanket, or clean piece of bark, and with great satisfaction go successively over the whole. This practice, which I have repeatedly witnessed, continued until the year 1780, when disturbances which took place put an end to it, . probably forever."

The memory 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, Penn 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 until 1810, 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 exe- 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 Nesha- miny Creek, and thence to Penypack, and the other for lande lying between Schuylkill 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 f5 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 these 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 Kennet 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 be 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 flock 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 about 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 out 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 he 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 Sheriffs 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- uary, 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, John Moll, Raiph Withers, John Simcock, Edward Cantwell, William Clayton, William Biles, James Harrison, 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 Boyden ; from Philadelphia, John Longhurst, John Hart, Wal- ter King, Andros Biokson, John Moon, Thomas Wynne (Speaker), Griffith Jones, William Warner, Swan Swan- son; from Chester, John Hoskins, Robert Wade, George Wood, John Blunston, Dennis Rochford, Thomas Bracy, John Bezer, John Harding, Joseph Phipps ; from New Castle, John Cann, John Darby, Valentine Holl- ingsworth, Gasparus Herman, John Dchoaef, James Williams, William Guest, Peter Alrich, Henrick Williams ; from Kent, John Biggs, Simon Irons, Thomas Haffold John Curtis, Robert Bedwell, William Windsmore, John Briokloe, Daniel Brown, Benony 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 a 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. He 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 Jesuit, 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, else it is a shame to think of a wife. The girls stay with their mother and help to hoe the ground, plant

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 9

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280