History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 12

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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The Germans of Germantown, as it has been stated before, were principally tradesmen and manufacturers. They made very good linens, and became also famous for their manufacture of stockings. The very fact of having bad roads leading into the city had helped to build up the prosperity of Germantown, for, Mr. Wat- son tells us, "to avoid such, farmers bringing produce could sell out their whole loads in Germantown. In return they could get salt, fish, plaster of Paris, clover- and grass-seed, all kinds of groceries and dry-goods." Hence the great country stores of that time, which did a thriving business until turnpikes were built and the farmers took to driving straight to the city. "Such stores were granaries for all kinds of grain, and received and cured hogs and beef. They all made money. You might see a dozen wagons at a time about their premises."

Such was the town in and about which the British lodged their troops when they took possession of Phil- adelphia. "They took up all the fences," says Mr. Watson, "and made the rails into huts by cutting down all the buckwheat, putting it on the rails, and ground over that. No fences remained. . . . At that time and during all the war all business was at a

stand. Not a house was roofed or mended in Ger- mantown in five or six years. Most persons who had any substance lived in part on what they could pro- eure on loan. The people pretty generally were men- tally adverse to the war, equal, certainly, to two thirds of the population of the place who felt as if they had anything to lose by the contest. So several have told me."

The British officers were quartered in houses in the town, and demeaned themselves with propriety. The soldiers were held under strict discipline, yet there were cases of individual robbing and plundering for which the inhabitants could obtain no redress, owing to the difficulty of identifying the offenders. "A large body of Hessians were hutted in Ashmead's field, out the School Lane, near the woods. Their huts were constructed of the rails from fences, set up at an angle of 45°, resting on a erossbeam centre. Over these was laid straw, and above the straw grass sod. They were close and warm. Those for the offi- cers had wicker doors, with a glass light, and inter- woven with plaited straw. They had also chimneys made of sod-grass. They no doubt had prepared so to pass the winter, but the battle broke up their plans. One of the Hessians afterward became Washington's coachman." 1

Gen. Howe occupied Logan's house some time. The house No. 4782 Main Street, now Germantown Avenue, possesses rare historic interest. It was built by David Deshler, an old merchant of Philadelphia, in 1772 to 1774, and was owned by him at the time of the battle of Germantown, when it was taken pos- session of by Sir William Howe, commander-in-chief of the British army, as his headquarters, when he moved from Stenton, with his forces to oppose the attack by Washington on the British outposts. After the battle he continued to occupy the house for some time, and tradition has it that he here received a visit from the future King William IV., then a midship- man in the British navy.

In 1782 the property was sold by David Deshler to Col. Isaac Franks, who had been aide-de-camp to Washington. On the outbreak of the yellow fever in Philadelphia, in 1793, Col. Franks closed his house and went to Bethlehem, Pa. Soon after, on account of the fever, Congress left Philadelphia, the seat of government was removed to Germantown, and Wash- ington, as President of the United States, rented Col. Franks' vacated house ready furnished. An inventory taken at that time is still preserved.

In 1804 the premises were purchased jointly by Elliston and John Perot as a summer residence. They continued to own and occupy it thus until 1834, when, upon the death of Elliston Perot, their property was divided, and this house fell to his share, and became part of his estate. In 1834 it was pur- chased by his son-in-law, Samuel B. Morris, a mem-

I Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, vol. Ii.

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

ber of the old shipping-house of Waln & Morris, who made it his permanent residence, and lived there until his death, in 1859, leaving it by his will to his son, Elliston P. Morris, the present owner, who now (1884) resides in it. Owing to its successive family owner- ship of eighty years, the property has been kept in perfect repair, and, with scarcely any change, re- mains to-day the same as when occupied by Gen. Howe and President Washington. It is paneled throughout, and most of its old-fashioned, open fire- places are surrounded by quaint tiling, and the win- dows retain their old eight-by-ten glasses, imported from Germany for the building.1

The British Gen. Agnew, who was killed in the battle of Germantown, had his headquarters in " Wis- ter's big house, opposite Indian Queen Lane." Christo- pher Huber's house (afterward Samuel Shoemaker's, and since Duval's) was turned into a tailoring-shop for the army. The shoemaker- and blacksmith-shops were also taken possession of, and the soldier-work- men would proceed thence daily, in squads, to do their work. The owners of the shops generally as- sisted them in their task, in order to keep an eye on their tools and property.

Reuben Haines' house was made use of by the British surgeons as a hospital ward for amputating limbs, etc., after the battle. The American wounded were taken to another house on the hill. Chew's house has become celebrated from the fact that to the delay caused by the attempt to dislodge the British soldiers intrenehed in it has been attributed the loss of the fight. John Dickinson's handsome house at Fair Hill, where he wrote his celebrated " Farmer's Letters," was burned by the British after the battle, the beautiful woods cut down, and the place laid waste. This was the house mentioned by John Adams in his diary (in 1774) : "Went with my col- leagues and Messrs. Thomson and Mifflin to the Falls of Schuylkill, and viewed the museum at Fort St. David's; a great collection of curiosities, Returned and dined with Mr. Dickinson at his seat at Fair Hill, with his lady, Mrs. Thomson, Miss Norris, and Miss Harrison. Mr. Dickinson has a fine seat, a beautiful prospect of the city, the river, and country, fine gar- dens, and a very grand library. The most of the books were collected by Mr. Norris, once Speaker of the House here, father of Mrs. Dickinson."

Mr. Townsend Ward, in his interesting papers on " The Germantown Road and its Associations," pub- lished in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, mentions a house on the road to Naglee's IFill in which is to be seen a curious relic of the olden time. Ile says, "On a pane of glass in one of the windows of the house a guest, it is believed an officer

of the Hessian force, engraved with the diamond of his ring an admirable equestrian likeness of Freder- ick the Great. On the lower margin he inscribed his name, ' M. J. Ellinkhuysen, fecit, 1783, Philadelphia.' The glass of the windows are of the early eight-by-ten size, and many in their turn became broken. This one fortunately escaped, and about thirty years ago Mr. Toland had it removed and framed for preserva- tion. One of the last acts of Miss Toland was to per- mit this engraving to be reproduced." At the time of the British occupation this house was George Miller's, who became a colonel in the army. His house was made the quarters of more than a dozen of the British officers.

We will now resume our narrative of events in Philadelphia. Time is a wonderful pacificator, and the allurements of pleasure are often irresistible, es- pecially with the fair sex. The rulers were courteous and agreeable; they were received as friends by the Tory families ; they gave entertainments, balls, and theatricals; the winter of 1777-78 was a season of gayety unprecedented, probably, in the annals of the city. The belles could not resist such attractions, and some of the Whig ladies partook of these amuse- ments without giving up their principles. They may have had many, to them, excellent reasons. With some it may have been a matter of policy, a desire to conciliate the enemy, and to protect some persecuted relative; others might entertain the hope of conquer- ing the conquerors by the power of their charms; others, still, would not give up the field to their rivals, the Tory belles ; and, lastly, some there were, doubtless, who did not see the importance of the act, but thought only of the fleeting moment of pleasure they would enjoy. Atall events there was no lack of fair faces at the great " Meschianza," gotten up by the British officers on the 18th of May, 1778, as a sort of fête d'adieux.

The first month or two of the occupation, however, had not been a very agreeable period. The Phila- delphians, accustomed to good living, and who had ever had good things in abundance, suffered from the scarcity of provisions. Then hard money was ex- ceedingly rare and paper money was worthless. In- deed, it had depreciated to such an extent before the arrival of the British that silk sold at one hundred dollars per yard, and tea commanded fifty and sixty dollars per pound. But this " hard times" period did not last long, and if prices remained high, merchandise of every kind was not wanting.

The British evacuated Philadelphia, and right upon their heels came in the Americans. It was now the turn of the Whigs to rejoice, and bitter were their feelings toward the Tories who had welcomed the British invaders. A ball was given at the City Tavern "to the young ladies who had manifested their attachment to the cause of virtue and freedom by sacrificing every convenience to the love of their country." Many were of the opinion that the Tory

1 The picture of the " Morris House," which should have been inserted with this notice, has been in error printed under the notice of Robert Morris, the financier, in vol. i. page 278. The house in Germantown was in no way connected with him.

899

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

ladies who had taken part in the Meschianza should | Gerard. A grand banquet was given in his honor. be excluded from this ball, and, in fact, be " put in On the 23d of August, the birthday of Louis XVI., the President and the members of Congress called upon the ambassador to offer their congratulations, and two days afterward he gave a handsome enter- tainment at the City Tavern. coventry" altogether, but this did not prevail, aud Tory belles danced with the American officers, as the Whig belles had danced with the British. Gen. Wayne wrote from camp in July, "Tell those Phila- delphia ladies who attended Howe's assemblies and levées that the heavenly, sweet, pretty red-coats, the accomplished gentlemen of the guards and grenadiers, have been humbled on the plains of Monmouth. The knights of the Blended Roses and of the Burning Mount have resigned their laurels to rebel officers, who will lay them at the feet of those virtuous daughters of America who cheerfully gave up ease and affluence in a city for liberty and peace of mind in a cottage." 1

Gen. Arnold, the military commander of the city, did not think as Gen. Wayne, for he not only gave the example of extravagant display and unblushing speculation, but paid particular attentions to the Tory ladies. Mrs. Robert Morris wrote to her mother at this time, "I know of no news, unless to tell you we are very gay is such. We have a great many balls and entertainments, and soon the Assembly will be- gin. Tell Mr. Hall even our military gentlemen are too liberal to make any distinction between Whig and Tory ladyes. If they make any, it is in favor of the latter. Such, strange as it may seem, is the way those things are conducted at present in this city. It originates at headquarters, and that I may make some apology for such strange conduct, I must tell you that Cupid has given our little general a more mortal wound than all the hosts of Britons could, unless his present conduct can expiate for his past. Miss Peggy Shippen is the fair one."

The father of the fair Peggy, Edward Shippen, Jr., did not quite approve of the prevailing extravagance, for he wrote to his father in December of that year, " I shall find myself under the necessity of removing from this scene of expense, and I don't know where I could more properly go than to Lancaster. The common articles of life, such as are absolutely neces- sary for a family, are not much higher here than in Lancaster, but the style of living my fashionable daughters have introduced into my family and their dress will, I fear, before long oblige me to change the scene. The expense of supporting my family here will not fall short of four or five thousand pounds per annum, an expense insupportable without busi- ness." A few months previous to this he wrote to his father that it would he very difficult to procure any Madeira wine for him ; "the only pipe I have heard of for sale was limited at eight or nine hundred pounds. . . . There is no such a thing as syrup, the sugar bakers having all dropped the business a long while."

An event in the month of July of that year was the arrival of the French ambassador, Monsieur

1 Life and Services of Gen. Anthony Wayne. By H. N. Moore.

Mrs. Washington arrived in Philadelphia about the middle of December. On the 17th an entertainment was given in her honor, from which the Tories were excluded. "The only public evidence of grace we bave had," says Dunlap's paper, "in that infatuated tribe is that not a Tory advocate nor a quondam Whig interfered on this joyous occasion." The Freuch minister and the president of the State were present. It was a very brilliant assemblage, and every one vied in paying respect to the wife of the commander-in-chief, in whom the hopes of all true Americans were centred.

Washington arrived on the 22d of the month. The impression produced on his mind by the scenes of folly and extravagance he witnessed was that of a great sadness, and he must have possessed the greatest fortitude to resist the discouraging thoughts that as- sailed him when he wrote to Col. Harrison, of Vir- ginia, " If I were to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and of men from what I have seen, heard, and in part know, I should in one word say, that idle- ness, dissipation, and extravagance seem to have laid fast hold of most of them. That speculation, pecu- lation, and an insatiable thirst for riches seems to have got the best of every other consideration, and almost every order of men; that party disputes and personal quarrels are the great business of the day, while the momentous concerns of an empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, depreciated money, and want of credit, which in its consequences is the want of everything, are but secondary consid- erations, and postponed from day to day, from week to week, as if our affairs wore the most promising as- pect. ... Our money is now sinking fifty per cent. a day in this city, and I shall not be surprised if, in the course of a few months, a total stop is put to the cur- rency of it; and yet an assembly, a concert, a dinner, or a supper that will cost three or four hundred pounds, will not only take men off from acting in this business, but even from thinking of it; while a great part of the officers of our army, from absolute necessity, are quitting the service, and the more vir- tuous few, rather than do this, are sinking by sure degrees into beggary and want."1

What a graphic picture ! and how useless the add- ing auother touch to it !

Meanwhile, the ladies had got a new mania for high head-dresses,-the old fashion revived, with exagger- ated proportions. Timothy Pickering, writing from Philadelphia to his wife in Salem, comments as fol- lows upon the follies of fashion :

2 Writings of Washington, Sparks, vol. v. p. 151.

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

" I th stighed to you the doseens land Grosses of the ladies here The more I see the mere I am pleased with them. "Tes surprising how they fix auch Loads of trumpery on their juels and not less se that they are by any onedermed ornamental The Whip helles seeth un fond of them as othets. I am told by a Frogrh gentleman they are in the true French taste, only that they want a few Freich feathers. The married ladies, however, are not all Lifeeted. One of the handsomest IGen. Mifflin's Foly T have seen in this State does not dress her head higher than was common at Salem n year ago, But you know, my dear, I have odd, old-fashioned notions. Neither powder bor jomitum lis tonched my head this twelvemonth, not even to cover my balonesy. The latter I find a very common thing, now men have left of their WIR .. "

In connection with these absurdly high head- dresses an anecdote is told of the Tory belle and fa- mous wit, Miss Rebecca Franks. She was entertain- ing Col. Jack Stewart, of Maryland, an old but un- fortunate admirer of hers, who had called upon her after the departure of the British forces, when a noise in the street drew them to the window. The crowd was jeering a figure in female attire, who wore a head-dress of enormous size,-a caricature of the style by which the Tory belles distinguished them- selves, while her skirts were ragged and her feet bare. "The lady is equipped altogether in the English fashion," unluckily remarked the colonel. " Not al- together, colonel," was Miss Frank's prompt rejoinder, " for, though the style of her head is British, her shoes and stockings are in the genuine Continental fashion."

The press kept up an incessant warfare against the extravagant fashions, but with indifferent success. The United States Gazette for 1779 fired this hot shot :

" Ladies ire accused of robbing their breasts of ganze, cumbrie, and muslin for the ore of their heads, with cults or supernumerary upper Jett c matx for ushtons, junto stum, fonder, and essence,-ab wyr, their heads tower to the extremity of the fashion ; bel w, a single petticoat leaves them as lank us ruta."

But the ladies were not alone guilty of extravagance; the gentlemen laid themselves open to criticism, and were thus severely handled by a writer in the United States Magazine for 1777, in an article entitled " A Re- taliation :"

" Dra met your hair-cherokeed. compeed, raise L'in form fa pyra- mid janne , carle 1, frizze I, boeklet, plaited, raml'rd, uel, club rd, conti- Via lige kerrly flowing in the somMers revitve the nigh Be Vaniela wina ity of m le mans ford's on this contract And to kondeste the wh dle, have, not many it 3 01, in this & d ity if tuttidar sh b int alueel the c ooked cant, lest some rule barath of whe ight bourgon strig fag har fo on the position to which you . friseur may lose enfinelit

v. Thế. An poche fican tổVươngđộng cách over the hat a là Wash-

Was Hver was Ale ty and ca y attn nible, nu insign theant force,

uh Forcontr duced inth Franse by that af latien

clutinng. As a natural . nse do . tl. hat, which was lately pared and | runed 11 1 ty little bim 1-sothe 0 er of the wearer exposed to the searching heat of the the malays ecke es metamorph sed and extended to the s ze f iny tea-tabl ., till. kop le ih the vast cir uit. we are often at a loss to know where to titel the o . riff the owner, and, when found, we somurtimes discover it is not worth the trouble it cost us tu the search.

" When superfine With might be purchased for thirty shillings, and other ninterials for clatlong were proporti mably forap, it was really diffhult, without the art fa pras nify ng-glass, t. discuter where were the skirts of your e-ats, or whether they ha fans skirts at all. At pres- ent they have got below the knee And I have no doubt, should the prices of articles increas five er six hondred per cent. We shall we them a la Hesse, dangling below the middle of the log like those word ly the offf ers made prishers that night when the fate fin liuns yet uab au was vibrating in the air, and the guardian angel of America, in the person of our illustrious hieftain, preponderate I in the scale.

" I run very well remember the time when a little rattan was thought a necessary append ige for the band of a smart fel ow, Uut now discarded from ab kind if estunition. The gold-headed ave, with its string and tabel, huth became almost as necessary as the hand that carries it or the wrist on which it is hung."

The following list of articles stolen from Jacob Bankson, "living in Penn Street, corner of an alley leading to Willing's & Morris' wharf," will give an idea of a private citizen's wardrobe in 1779:

" One light-colored cloth coat ; one purple ditto; narrow red and white stripped burn out and waistcoat ; scarlet cloth jacket ; breeches, edged with white silver buttons; one scarlet ditto; waistcoat, worsted back, yellow mirtal buttons . one banff-cloth waistcoat and breeches, plated sil- ver bittons ; the white ch ith waiste at nud breeches, one white cloth waistroat with a belt , one pair brown cloth breechesi one elegant large cotton counterpane ; two morning-gowns, one single and the other double; two women's lang cotton gowns; ne white Il land plance; one pair scarlet silk-velvet bree ties, gold koer -ban Is ; one black cloth e ust, wait- coat, and breeches . une Mack silk wa straat and breeches ; ne elegant "handled gilk & own and petti pat , twe pink Mantua gowns; one pink Man- tua porlatice ; obe nankeen riding-dress; one long scurlet cloth coat, etc., etc."

Four hundred pounds reward were offered for the return of these goods.

To complete the picture, we have the description of the outfit of a bridegoom furnished in Philadelphia and for use during the honeymoon :

" A light-colored br mndel-th coat, with pearl buttons. bree chesof the Name ]. the; ditt. black satin, best swansdown Buff stage; ditt . nuchin, checker ligure : ditto satin figure 1 . ditto Marseilles, white @ ictto Dns- lin set, figuire , dadervest, faced with red cassin re ; tw . ditta, fan- urls . One ditt cott in cito ; che paid black patent silk h. se. ne ditto, wlatte diter, une shitto, strome ditt. , ten var me dizer white sick line; three pur if caten host ; four jahs of ganze ibit a towel, six Blart; twelve week-betegek; si pekithan ther Ff, or n la- danke, a chi itz pro-gown; a jour of silk goes, litt I kid ditto."

Mrs. Bache, in her letters to her father, Dr. Frank- lin, who was then American minister to France, re- fers frequently to the high prices and scarcity of articles of dress :

"They really isk meus dorf a part of res, and I have been ( hard to fi fifte ; primnds fifter shi lou s for ae nu n calam ico p the at without gult i. that Low e cort have - ufer firen .bil- Briggs I inen tong tio what I rally wint and w ut ity silk The prices of every Ương he rare so much risil that it 1ak -4 a fortune to feed n family in a very p'un way A

. Hus, an there ( ver was mohli and pleasure gelOg on, cod1 1:60 1s meeting wun the Wings to bi 0 spots, ail strangers of distin tí n ành lg u4 Ti minute was kind ou ugh to offer nie Bume five white flanurl and has sparel is right yards Iw she bave it in my power to return him as good, with I will lep y u will castle

901

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

me to do." . . . She had asked for some fine linen, long black pine, and some lace and feathers, to be sent to her from France. Franklin ends a letter of mild reproof with the following characteristic remerks: "I therefore eend all the articles you desire that are useful and necessary, and omit the rest ; for, as you say you should ' have great pride in wear- Ing anything I eend, and showing it as your father's taste,' I must avoid giving you an opportunity of doing that with either lace or feathers. If you wear your cambric ruffles as I do, and take care not to mend the holes, they will come in time to be lace ; and feathers, my dear girl, they mey be had in America from every cock's tail." Mrs. Bache, in her Iet- ter in reply to this, justifies herself from any wish to be extravagant, and says, further, "I can assure my dear papa that industry in this house is by no means laid aside : but as to spinning linen, we cannot think of that till we have got that wove which we spun three years ago. . . . I did not mention the feathers and pins as necesseries of life, es my papa seems to think, I meant as common necessaries were 60 dear, I could not afford to get anything that was not, and begged he would send me a few of the others. . . . Home will be the place for me this winter, as I cannot get a common winter cloak and hat, but just decent, under two hundred pounds. As to gauze, now it is fifty dollars a yard, 'tis beyond my wish, and I should think it not only a shame, but a sio, to buy il if I had millions. I should be coutented with muslin caps if I could procure them in winter ; in The summer I went withont; and ao to cambric, I have none to make lace of."1

The private letters of that period of folly all agree in deploring the general extravagance.2 Gen. Greene wrote that the luxury he thought predominant in Boston was no more to be compared to what prevailed in Philadelphia "than an infant babe to a full-grown man." He dined at one table where there were " an hundred and sixty dishes." Franklin is " astonished and vexed" to find that " much the greatest part of the Congress interest bills come to pay for tea, and a great part of the remainder is ordered to be laid out in gewgaws and superfluities." An entertainment is spoken of at which eight hundred pounds were spent in pastry.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 12

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992