History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 257

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 257

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"Our ancestry's record does seem very meagre aside of the prolific cata- logue of to-day, and almost justifies such a disparagement. They never built an engine ; they never launched a steamboat ; they never surveyed a railroad; they never saw a telegraph, they never whispered in a tele- phone; they never rode a reaper; they never ran a sewing machine ; they never walked in electric light.

"They never uttered the term 'protoplasmi' or 'evolution.' They never heard of the 'survival of the fittest.' They believed in Adam as the progenitor of the human race. They despised the ape. They ats oysters without discerning the blood of their sires within !

"Does not that golden-mouthed hut blear-eyed orator boldly declare : ' This world was not worth living in fifty years ago ' ?

"Under such a strong indictment, the less we talk of the wisdom of the fathers, the better ; unless we may cast a more invulnerable coat of mail and build & more impregnable wall around them. What shall be the argument, then, by which the citizens of Montgomery County may successfully defend and maintain the propriety of their Centennial Jubilee ?

"I will answer. I will tell you :-

" The jubilee instinct in mankind is the reasonable and satisfactory base on which every memorial act, either of an individual or social nature, finds room enough to stand.

"Oo this broad and lasting foundation, the countless apotheoses of the world may withstand the assaults of the wise and of the foolish. This is a chief corner-stone on which men have ever built their mem- orial temples ; not of 'hay, straw and stubble,' either, but of gold, silver and precious stones.'

" To undertake to account for this disposition in man, is to enter the wide sphere of psychology, and tell why man is what he is. A theme too large and heavy to carry on e holiday !

" To canonize consuminated facts of by-gone ages, is an instinct of the race which ever did and ever will continue to come to the surface of human society among all nations, and at all the stages of the world's march. To deny this proposition is to antagonize history. The memory of man does not know of a time, or a people, that did not grace itself with monumental deeds and memorial seasons. In the wake of the pri- mal Sabbath of God, when the miracle of creation was first commem- orated, festival days and jubilee songs bloomed along and flavored the great highway of time. The Orient, the Middle Ages, and Modern Ages, all voice this race instinct. Account for it as we may, we dare not ignore the fact.

" Nor are these commemorative demonstrations to be regarded as frozen mausoleums, erected over dead and buried dust. They, like the singing Memnon, utter psalms, not requiem hymns. They are the incarnation of mankinds' creed in au immortality. They are mounments, not mounds. They are both proofs and prophecies of man'e sense of an everlasting life. It is history's way of protesting against a final nihilism. Rightly interpreted, that is what all the Bethel stones and Ebenezer altars declare, all along the track the race has broken. That is the language of pyramids, pillars and statues. With two faces, as it were, they look into the Past and Future, and tell us of the 'Golden Age ' that was, and of the 'Good time coming.'

"Tombs and epitaphs weary mortals ever crave at the end of their journey, cold and frigid as they seem. Like faithful sentinels, those white, sepulchral stones mark the graves of men. Even 'merry Eng- land' grants an 'initial letter ' over the grave of her Newgate felon. And even through the blazing ages of cremation ao urn is used.

"And so, too, does the nation and the race erect its countless 'In Memoriams' over deeds and characters illustrions ; and all the more so, since, like the grain of wheat, they fell into the earth that they might fructify the more.

" You search in vain through all the cemeteries of the world for the grave of lost hope interred.

"The Egyptian Pharaoh commands his name to be chiseled in a solid rock, orders his body to be emhalmed, and, lying down, exclaims -- " Death, where is thy victory ? Lo, I live forever !'

"And, as the oldest civilization set the precedent, so have all successive layers continued to build. The horror of annihilation pervades all souls. A conscious rebellion, au irrepressible instinct protests against having one's heiog measured by the brief space of an ephemeral existence.

"On that text, history ever preaches its ' sermons in stones." On that key, all those pæans of humanity are ever set. Monuments are not dumb sentinels ; nor are the songs of jubilee like campaign glees, which cloy in their sounding. They are rather rounds in the ladder of immortality, which the angels of our better nature have been building ever since the ancient patriarch saw a stairway between heaven and earth.

" If we are silent, the 'stones will cry out,' declared Jesus of Nazareth.

"Montgomery's centennial jubilee needs no words of justification, no defence ; not even an apology. It does not confront us as a historical novice, an event, solitary or peculiar. It is but another building-stone that we bring for the walls of the temple of immortality, which is rising heavenward, since the creation of man 'in the image of God.' Nur will it prove a Babel tower, once more. 'The maker and builder is

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

God.' The primal centenary jubilee of this province will challenge the regard of all thoughtful souls Dow living, and yet to live, within the province.

" The tower at Rhodes, it is said, stood on two shores. And so does every such memorial festival. It is rooted in the hopes of vanished ancestry and in the memory of a living posterity. Our fathers anticipated just such a memorialization nt our hands. They made but a few things, but these they made well. Their homesteads stand like castles aside of the frail structures of to-day, with the moss of a full century under their roof-trees. Their lindywork was, and is still, hand-work-the products uf patient souls and nimble fingers, and proof against moth and rust ; yea, proof against dissolution, the tooth of Time. In every surviving article which the hands of our fathers and mothers have made, we may read their craving after an enduring name and being.

"Nor can their offspring fail to respond heartily to so natural a long- ing. We need not blush over sires so genuine and noble as ours proved. They were stalwart generations of men and women, of fathers aod mothers, of sons and daughters ; a hardy race of good blood.

"The century's relics are precious then, not merely because they are a hundred years old, but because ' these are they which testify of them' -of the generation that went before. We admire the mountains, not because of their dizzy height alone, but for that these have been standing through all the ages that have been. We admire the stars, not because of their brilliancy alone, but because they have looked down on all generations of men. And such an unction rests upon the remains of our venerable pioneers.

" They have all vanished, all vanished ! But if we may look upon their handiwork, are the hands themselves no more? If the husk is preserv- ed, has the corn perished ? If the temple still stands, has the builder of the temple ceased to be ?

" Then why dance around the dried and withered effects of an ancestry that is to-day no more than if it never had been? Why not follow the example of the red man, and hury the warrior's weapons with the warrior, under ground ? A funeral pyre were far more hecoming than a jubilee, surely. The old requiem that was doubtless sung over the mor- tal dust of our sires, had better he intoned over all their musty relics and remains : 'Dust to dust ! Earth to earth ! ! Ashes to ashes ! ! ! '

' But all these are shrines and niches in which Owners and occupants of earlier dates, From graves forgotten, stretch their dusty hands, And hold in murtmain still their old estates.'

" The century's relics are not after the order of Melchizedek, 'without father or mother.' They are the title deeds to homes and lands our sires once acquired ; and we are but their heirs. Hence, do we emhalm in memory's cabinet their clumsy tenements, their rude utensils, their instruments so rough, their coaches lubberly, their homespun linens, and all their hands have made.

' " The shades of our ancesty hover over us, unless the ancients were stark mad in peopling homes and scenes familiar with 'spirits of the dead.'

' All houses wherein men have lived and died, Are haunted houses. Through the open door The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no noise upon the fioor.'

"There are more guests at tahle than the hosts Invited ; the illuminated hall

Is thronged with inoffensive ghosts As silent as the picture on the wall.'

"The historic places orient themselves through the presence of our sires,

who gave them birth and name and fame. They are their original sponsors.

"Valley Forge, laved by the Schuylkill, rises to view, like a fresh-wash- ed mermaid on the sea, rebaptized with revolutionary glory. What seemed a fiction to our young eyes, asserts itself as n frozen fact. General George Washington did indeed live, and did indeed move a bare-footed band of patriots about this historic centre, front the chilly month of December, in 1777, till the June flowers foretold the budding of freedom -six whole mionthis. From this martyr scene, those Knights of Liberty did truly march upon the hard-fought field of Monmouth, during the darkest hour and gloomiest period of the American Revolution.

"Parker's Ford-that, too, swarms with phantom troops before our vision, once more pursuing the enemy, after the battle of Brandywine, seven years and one day less than one hundred years ago (September 11, 1777).

"Skippack, 'the stream of sluggish waters,' liquefies just now, like the blood of St. Januarius, in the presence of the faithful. The legions that moved along its banks, before and after the battle of Germantown. a century back, on the 4th of October, revisit it. 'Tis as

' I've read in some old, marvelous tale, Some legend, strange and vague, That midnight hosts of specters pale, Beleaguered the city of Prague.'

"Our worthy heroes present a fine galaxy. As is the soil, so Is the fruit. In military lore, honorable mention is made of the brave men who lived on our territory. General Peter Muhlenberg, of Independence days, whose statue now graces the rotunda at Washington, was born within our borders. General Andrew Porter, who fought in the Revolutionary army so gallantly, at Trenton, at Princeton, at Brandywine, and wherever courage was needed, was a native of this county.

"Nor dare we forget our grand citizen-soldiers, whose records shine Bo brilliantly since the late period of contention and strife-Major-Generals John Frederic Hartranft and Winfield Scott Hancock. These are real, genuine Montgomery-countians. And do not the names of Brooke and Zook stand in red letters ?

"The civil list embraces among its brighter lights a cluster of very worthy mien, all born here. Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Speaker of the lower house of Congress, was a son of the soil. And is there another province that has furnished so much good timher of which Governors are usually made? David R. Porter, Francis R. Shunk and John F. Hartranft form a trio rot so readily matched.

"And still others might be noted, who would not have disgraced that chair, but who could not be accommodated for want of room ! So, too, would time fail me to record all the candidates for those honorable seats, in the century to come. These, those who come after us, may tell.

" Our religious pages glow most brilliantly. Rev. Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patron saint of the American Lutheran church, abode on this fruitful field during forty-five of his most active years. Here he wrought his greatest deeds. Here he died at the ripe age of seventy- eight years. His ashes rest at the old Trappe church, and his name fills all Christendom with its goodly savor.

"Rev. Michael Schlatter, the first Missionary Superintendent of the Reformed church in the United States, made his head centre in Mont- gomery County. From this point outward he organized the scattered flocks of his faith, and died within its borders, a Christian soldier both for Cbrist and Cæsar.

"And of all the counties of the Commonwealth, none opened its doors wider to the oppressed for conscience' sake. Here the Friends found an asylum for their peaceful spirit ; not only the State received its name, but our county, too. The Welsh Quakers baptized it in honor of their native place beyond the sea.

APPENDIX.

" Here the persecuted Palatines pitched their early homes. Their log houses, their log school-houses, and their log churches, tell a most inter- esting tale of patience, endurance and martyrdom.

" Here the colony of Schwenkfeldians, a persecuted flock in Silesia, lo- cated and continue with us to this day, the sole place of staying in the wide, wide world.

"And besides these scenes and spirits known, and lauded in history and jo song, there are yet many more whom God alone knows. I mean the stalwart patriots of the Revolutionary hosts; the braves of 1812 ; the heroes in the Mexican war; tbe martyrs in the rebellion. All these toiled faithfully under tbeir leaders, and died unhonored and unsung by pen and tongue.

"And the victors in peace must not be slighted-the home guards, tho tillers of the field, the honest traders in times when Indians and wild beasts prowled about, the trusty servants of daily toil ; when ono hun- dred cents made a dollar !

" Let us mention, finally, the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, who wove, and spno, and made the household happy within, when all was dark without.

" These are all with ns to-day. if there be such a mystery as the ' com- munion of saints.' And we may do ourselves the best of service if we allow ourselves to be baptized afresh hy their spirits, and draw a new supply of inspiration for the century before ns. Shades of our fathera and mothers hail !

"An ancient seer spoke of a child a hundred years ago. That ia the portrait of Montgomery county, a century old. Aged one century, and still but an infant in the arms of Father Time. The snow white tresses that crown the head of our goodly province are but as the grains of dust that flost in the sunbeam), to the big eye of history, or to Him in whose sight a thousand years are as one day, Only a little way from the be- ginning, and hardly any nearer to the end !

"As the christening of the babe follows hard on its birth, 60 is this fes- tive day but the name of the province. Let it be, as every second birth should be, a regeneration period, from which we ascend the higher plane of a yet nobler life. A still grander history awaits the county. Let no Jeremiads be sung. It is no time to say, 'Vanity of vanities, all ia van ty.'

' Tell us not in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream ; For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.'

" Victor Hugo wisely says: 'There is an evil in our times ; I will almost say there is only one evil : a certain tendency to place everything in this life,' This serions and eloquent Frenchman declares : 'There would be no digoity in living if we had to die completely. What light- ens labor, sanctifies work, renders man brave, good, wise, patient, be- nevolent, just, at once humhle and great, worthy of knowledge, worthy of liberty, is the fact that he has before him the perpetual vision of a better world shining across the shadows of life.' 'As for myself,' this gospel novelist affirms, '1 believe profoundly in this better world ; and after many struggles, much study and many trials it is the supreme as- surance of any reason, as it is the supreme consolation of my soul.'

"As there is no dead past, 80 qeither is there a dead future, All time is God's-the past, the present, and the future, since ' Ile was, and is, and is to come.' Let me not be such outrageous optimists as to look back upon the age of our sires as upon an age of darkness and void. Nor will we turn into morbid pessimists, aod say, as men have kept on say- ing ever since the time of old Nestor : 'The former days were better than these.' No ! Manhood is better than infancy or childhood ! The best of history's crop is not under ground. Blessed are our eyes, for our

fathers desired to see what their sons see, and did not see it ! Thers never has been ao age like ours !

" But the harvest of to-day, is but the seed of yesterday matured. Therefore, 'whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things ars pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,' within our borders in the year of grace, 1884, all is but the fruiting of the seed embedded by ances- tral hands years ago. It has not been lying torpid like the grain of wheat in the Egyptian mummy, but has fructified and growo. There is no new thing under the sun. All things are falling upward. Our chief business is to be consecrated to the work of perpetuating the building which the sires bave founded ; building on and up, that our posterity may receive it from our hands, even as we have fallen heir to it 'by the fathers' will sud testament,' another century's length in- proved.

' Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate ;

Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.'

"After our jubilee anthems have died away in total silence, and the waves of rejoicing are merged again in the steady stream of time, like the practical Roman, the still more practical Yankee, will ask the ques- tion, ' Cui Bono ?'

What shall the answer be ?

'Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,

Who have faith in God and Nature,

Who believe that in all ages

Every human heart is human, Listen to this simple story Of the here and the hereafter.'

"This province has made a confessional act of gratitude to Almighty God for his amiable and adorable Providence, but records its acknowl- edgement on its historical Ebenezer. ' Hitherto the Lord hath helped 116.'

" This province has performed an act of filial piety, in memory of a worthy ancestry, and thereby challenges the fulfillment of the first con- mandment with promise ; 'Honor thy father and thy mother.'

" This province has achieved an educational act, which teaches those liviag, and yet to live, that brave men lived before Agamemnon.'

"This province has erected a triple tower of Faith, Hope and Charity, for another century to come, on which we and our children may read ' Ha who led the sires will lead the sons.'

" And, surely, with such a spirit of reverence within its loins, Mont- gomery county may be considered good for another century, I trust.

At the conclusion of Dr. Weiser's oration, the whole andieuce arose, by request, and united in singing the long meter doxology, 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.'

After which the Rev. Mr. Rodenhough pronounced the following

DENEDICTION.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, our Heavenly Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, be with 18, and with all the people of God, now and evermore. Amen.

THIRD DAY.

THE PARADE.

Thursday, September 11th, was Parade day.

The parade was formed on the streets west of Stony Creek. Every

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

division had its particular street upon which to form, so that the pro- cession started with very little confusion.

Col. John W. Schall was Chief Marshal, and to his efficient work, the success of the parade in a great measure was due. There was less delay than usual on euch occasione. The parade was to have started at ten o'clock A. M. At fifteen minutes past that time, the head of the line moved over the route selected.

THE PARADE.

The parade was formed and marched according to the following order, issued by the Chief Marshal.

NORRISTOWN, September I, 1884.

GENERAL ONDER, No. I.

I. The parade in honor of the centennial of Montgomery county, on Thursday, September HIth, 1884, will be composed of four divisions, as follows :

FIRST DIVISION. Col. P. C. Swank, Marshal.

Indian children, Grand Army of the Republic, National Guard of Pennsylvania.

SECOND DIVISION.

J. P. Hale Jenkins, Esq., Marshal.

Will be composed of fraternal and benevolent organizations.

THIRD DIVISION.

Major D. B. Hartranft, Marshal. Will be composed entirely of firemen.

FOURTH DIVISION. T. J. Baker, Marshal.

Manufacturers, Tradee, and Industrial Pursuits.

IF: The respective divisions will form at 9.30 A. M, as follows :

First Division-On Astor street, right resting on Marshall, facing west.

Second Division-On Chain street, north and south of Marshall street, right resting on Marsball atreet.

Third Division-On George street, north and south of Marshall street, right resting on Marshall street.

Fourth Division-On Hawe Avenue, right resting on Main street, and on Main street, right resting on Stanbridge street, and facing east. Sewing machine display will form on Koba street, right resting on Airy street. Dairy display on Stanbridge street, north of Marshall street, right resting on Marshall.

III. The column will move promptly at 10 o'clock A. M., over the following route : Marshall to Stanbridge, to Main, to Walnut, to Airy, to Arch, to Marshall, to Church, to Airy, to De Kalb, to Penn, to Swede, to Chestnut, to DeKalb, to Spruce, to Willow, to Elm, to Swede, to Oak, to Cherry, to Main, and dismiss.

IV. Division Marshals will appoint a sufficient number of Aids, and will issue such orders relative to the formation of their respective divi- sions as they may deem necessary.

V. All organizations arriving via the Reading Railroad will disembark at Main street station, and those arriving via Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley will disembark at Franklin avenne station.

By order of Chief Marshal.

THOMAS J. STEWART, Chief of Staff.

At the court-house the parade was reviewed by the officers of the Association, who left the line when it arrived at that point.

The following constituted the order of the parade:

Chief Marshal-Col. John W. Schall. Chief of Staff-Thomas J. Stewart.

Aids-Dr. J. K. Weaver, Dr. William J. Ashenfelter, John Pugh, Roscoe K. Moir, and Isaac Chism, Esq.

FIRST DIVISION.

Marshal-Col. Daniel C. Swank.

Aids-George G. Hoover, Esq., J. Schrack Shearer, and John A. Vanderslice. Pottstown Cornet Band. 20 pieces. Zook Post Drum Corps.

Company F, Sixth Regiment, N. G. Pa., uniformed and armed, Capt. Ilenry Jacobs, commanding.

Zook Post No. 1I, G. A. R. of Norristown, in full uniform, with battle flags. Ifiram IFansell, Commander. Liberal Drum Corps.

George A. Smith Post, No. 79, G. A. B., of Conshohocken. James Wolfong, Commander.

Twenty Indian boys from the Indian Department of Lincoln Institute, uniformed. Seventy-five Indian girls from the same

Institutiou, in carriages. Under charge of David Schall, Marshal's Aid.

Carriages with Officers of the Centennial Association and invited guests, as follows :

1. Joseph Fornance, Esq., F. G. Hobson, Esq., J. A. Strassburger, Esq., Muscoe M. Gibson, Esq.

2. Ilon. B. Markley Boyer, Ilon. Feaac F. Yost, Gen. John F. Hobart.

3. William J. Buck, Abraham H. Cassel, Henry S. Dotterer, Robert Iredell.

4. Mrs. Dr. George W. Holstein, Mrs. Sarah H. Tyson, Mrs. C. R. Hallowell.

5. ITon. I. Newton Evans, Hon. William H. Sutton, Hon. Lewis Royer, John W. Bickel, Esq.

6. Henry W. Kratz, Edwin S. Stahlnecker, Hiram Burdan, Willjanı Rittenhouse.

7. Prof. J. Shelly Weinberger, Dr. Milton Newberry, Prof. R. F. Hoffecker.

8. Prof. S. U. Brunner, Thomas G. Rutter, James B. Harvey, George F Wanger.

APPENDIX.

xvii

9. B. Frank Tyson, Septimus Roberts, James B. Hollands, Major William II. Holstein.

Carriages containing Town Council of Norristown. Towa Council of Bridgeport. Towa Council of Pottstown. Visiting officials from other boroughs.

SECOND DIVISION.

Marshal-J. P. Hale Jenkins, Esq.

Aids-Edward P. Gresh, Hon. George N. Corsoo, aod Dr. M. Y. Weber. Liberty Legion Pioneer Corps, in full uniform, carrying axes. Capt. Edward Bisbiog, Commander. East Greenville Cornet Band.

Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Aaron Sperry, Marshal. Repre- seated by the following lodges:

Montgomery, No. 57; Curtis, No. 230 ; Norris, No. 430 ; Peonsburg, No. 449 ; Perkiomenville, No. 367. Merion Coraet Band. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, viz. :

Economy, No. 397 ; Merion, No. 210; Gratitude, No. 214; Baoyan Tree, No. 100; Spring House, No. 320. Ironbridge Cornet Band.

Limerick Council, No. 278, Order United American Mechanics, in regalia, with man disguised as an Indian, bearing a battle axe. Milton T. Miller, Marshal. Eagleville Coroet Band.

Neville Council, No. 25, Junior Order of American Mechanics. William Thompson, Marshal.

Republicao Invincible Pioneer Corps, uniformed in red shirts and white helmets. Markley Murray, Commander. Frankenfield's West Philadelphia Band.

Knights of Friendship. Hoo. George N. Corson, Marshal. H. C. Gerhart, Assistant Marshal. Represented by the following chambers :

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 257

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534