History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 42

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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these premises, one of them at the southwest corner of Juniper and Race Streets, and the other on the east side of Broad Street, below Race, were appropriated to the uses of the Home Guard of the city, under the direction of the mayor and the Committee of Defense and Protection. Three thousand dollars were appro- priated to pay for the necessary alterations. The building upon Race Street was appropriated to arsenal purposes and the storage of batteries of cannon. The first piece placed in that building was a handsome cannon with full equipments and ammunition pre- sented to his native city by James McHenry, then residing at London. A few days afterward, two rifled cast steel guns were presented to the city by James Swaim, also a native of Philadelphia and residing abroad. They were manufactured in Prussia, and when received were placed in the Race Street armory.

By ordinance passed in June, 1862, it was directed that such portions of Spring Garden Hall, Southwark Hall, Kensington Hall, and the Town Hall of Ger - mantown, not at that time profitably employed by the city, should be appropriated as armories and drill- rooms for companies of the Home Guards. Mayor Henry vetoed this bill upon the ground that the buildings named were in use by the police, and could not be occupied by soldiers without much incon- venience. This veto was sustained. Before the war was closed the Home Guard had ceased to be of im- portance, its strength had been much reduced by the more active recruiting for regiments in the field. Two fine new regiments, the Gray Reserves and the Blue Reserves, were attached to the State militia. They kept up their organization with much zeal, and during the invasions of Pennsylvania they had gone promptly to the front, and had been of service. Before the war was closed in February, 1865, the City Councils passed a resolution requesting the Legislature to repeal all laws respecting the Home Guards.

By act of April 8, 1862, the armory company of the Gray Reserves was created. The corporators were Peter C. Ellmaker, Napoleon B. Kneass, Charles H. Graff, Robert P. De Silver, Jos. T. Ford, William H. Kern, Albert R. Færing, Charles S. Smith, Charles M. Prevost, J. Ross Clarke, Jacob Laudenslager, Jos. N. Piersol, George W. Wood, George W. Briggs, Charles P. Warner, C. Frederick Hupfeldt, and Francis P. Nicholson. The capital was one hundred thousand dollars, divided into eight thousand shares, at $12.50 each. The corporation was authorized "to erect and maintain a suitable building for the accommodation of the companies composing the First Regiment of Infantry, Gray Reserves, or any other organizations desirous of occupying the same."

The enterprise languished for some years for two reasons. The funds collected were not sufficient to authorize the institution of measures necessary for the construction of the building. The city had endeavored

to dispose of the two buildings at Broad and Race Streets at public sale, but the bids made upon the prop- erty were at rates which, if accepted, would have ren- dered necessary a very considerable peenniary sacri- fice. Therefore, the effort to sell was abandoned. The Race Street Armory was given up to the use of the commissioners of the fire department for the storage and repairage of apparatus. In the Broad Street Ar- mory the First Regiment was permitted to remain. About 1881 the First Regiment, formerly the Gray Re- serves, began to move in support of a proposition to make some actual commencement of the work, which had been so long delayed. Subscriptions were received to a liberal amount, fairs and other methods of raising money were resorted to. A large lot of ground was purchased at the southeast corner of Broad and Cal- lowhill Streets, and there, on the 29th of March, 1882, ground was broken for the armory building of the First Regiment. The corner-stone was laid on the 19th of April by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania with Masonic ceremonies. An oration was delivered by Col. William McMichael. There was a military parade and review, and a reception in the evening at the Academy of Music.

The Third Regiment National Guards of Pennsyl- vania is a recent organization, composed of com- panies the headquarters of which are mostly in the lower part of the city. The various organizations met for drill and company purposes at the company armories. In 1882 the City Council granted to the Third Regiment the use of a portion of the public ground originally appurtenant to the county prison (Moyamensing), a part of the parade-ground, and situ- ate at Twelfth and Reed Streets. Here was con- structed a long brick building, principally of one room in the interior, and well suited for drill pur- poses for that reason. The regiment took formal pos- session on the 29th of December, 1881. The building was dedicated with religious services by Bishop Stevens, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, on the 9th of April, and was opened the next evening by a reception of citizens. Col. S. Bonnaffon was at that time in command of the regiment.

As soon as it became apparent that the armory of the First Regiment, at Broad and Callowhill Streets, would be completed, probably in the early part of 1884, the battalion of State Fencibles, under Maj. John W. Ryan, made application for the use of the old armory, at Broad and Race Streets, by that corps. Councils made a grant of the property on a nominal lease. The battalion raised a fund, and announced that as soon as the building was vacated by the First Regiment the Fencibles would rebuild and remodel the armory in front and in the interior.

The Keystone Battery, which had used the armory on Race Street for the storage of their guns and ac- coutremeuts, were ousted from that place by the appropriation of the building for the use of the fire department. For a time their guns and caissons were

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stored in a wooden shed, at the northwest corner of Brown Street and Corinthian Avenue, on a lot used by the commissioners of city property. The ground being sold, the artillery and accoutrements were stored in a vacant room of the City Hall, at Broad and Market Streets. In 1883 Councils made grant of a site for an armory for the battery, on a portion of the ground appurtenant to the almshouse in West Phila- delphia. Liberal contributions have been made to- ward the construction of the building, and the com- pany expects to erect and finish a commodious and appropriate armory in the course of the year 1884.

Forts .- The earliest building erected by the Euro- peans on the Delaware was intended for defense. The settlement trusted for protection to the fort, and when new stretches of country were occupied the block-house or battery was erected. When the Dutch came in 1623, they built Fort Nassau, " about fifteen leagues up the river on the eastern shore." The site of Fort Nassau was immediately opposite the terri- tory afterward occupied by the city of Philadelphia. It is supposed by Mickle to have been in the neigh- borhood of the present Gloucester Point, and at the mouth of the most northerly branch of Timber Creek, then called Sassackan. Edward Armstrong, in 1853, located it on a tongue of land between Big and Little Timber Creeks. Fort Nassau was for a long time the citadel of the Dutch power on the Delaware, and by its position and strength dominated the entire terri- tory. The name of this fort was derived from the German house of Nassau, which occupied the throne of the Netherlands. In 1651 the Dutch, under Stuy- vesant, conceived that Fort Nassau was "too far up and laid too far out of the way." It was, therefore, resolved to abandon Nassau and erect a new fort near New Castle, which was afterward finished and called Casimir. The directors of the Dutch West India Company were much surprised at the actions of Stuyvesant, and they doubted whether its demolition was an act of prudence.

FORT UPLAND, the second in construction on the Delaware, was built by Capt. Peter Heysen, of the ship "Walrus," near the mouth of Horenkill (now known as Lewes) Creek. It was a house surrounded with palisades, and a settlement near it was called Zwandludael or Swanendael,-the Valley of Swans. The settlement was taken and burned by the Indians shortly afterward.

on there very briskly with the natives and wild In- dians. The sale to Corssen was confirmed by Indian chiefs, in 1648, at Fort Beversrede, which must there- fore have been built before that time. The situation of Beversrede is supposed to have been on the east bank of the Schuylkill River, within the limits of the present First Ward of Philadelphia, in the old dis- trict of Passyunk, upon the east bank, on a bold shore above the Penrose Ferry bridge, where it would command the stream called the Minquas, or Mingo, which was connected with the series of streams that flowed out of and between Darby and Bow Creeks. Beversrede was a palisaded fort, with au armament of great guns. The Swedish Governor, John Printz, in 1648, took the curious method of rendering Fort Beversrede unimportant, by building in front of it, on the Schuylkill, a house, about thirty to thirty- five feet long by twenty feet broad. This obstruc- tion made Beversrede harmless. Boyer, who com- manded there in 1648, complained that by the new house " our liberty on said water is obstructed so that our vessels, which come into anchor under the pro- tection of our fort, can discover said fort with diffi- culty. . . . The back gable of the house is only twelve feet from the gate of the fort, so that the house is placed within the water-side and our fort." By this means the imaginary guns of Beversrede seem to have been effectually muzzled.

In 1648 the Dutch said of the Swedish house, then called a trading house, that it was "right before the gate" of the company's fort, Beversrede, not being a rod from the gate, "thereby depriving us altogether from the view of the common route, so as to deprive the company of the beaver trade, and to effect this they are using every effort." In 1648 Alexander Boyer wrote that Beversrede was garrisoned with only six men who were in good health and able to make de- fense, and that with that fort he was expected to de- fend two forts, Nassau being the other.

FORT CHRISTINA was the first Swedish post on the Delaware. It was built by Peter Minuit, in 1638, and named in compliment to the young queen of Sweden. It was near the creek afterward called Chris- tiana, and near the present city of Wilmington. It was described in 1645 as being about half a mile (Dutch), or two and a quarter miles English, "within the creek, and nearly encircled by a marsh, except on the northwest side, where it cau be approached by land." At the southwest it touches the kill. Mr. Ferris has located this fort at a point long known by the name of the Rocks, which here forms a natural wharf of stone, at that time being one of the bases of Christina, and so called in the ancient records of the country. In 1655, after the surrender of Fort Casimir to the Dutch, Fort Christina was besieged by Peter Stuyve- sant, director-general of the New Netherlands. Gov- ernor John Rysingh, of the Swedish forces, defended the fort valiantly for fourteen days, and then capitu-

FORT BEVERSREDE was, as far as known, the first building of any kind constructed by Europeans withiu the bounds of the future city of Philadelphia. It was erected upon ground purchased of the Indians by Arent Corssen, the Dutch commissary at Fort Nassau, probably in 1633. Upon that territory Fort Beversrede was built. Exactly when is not known. Probably soon after the purchase, as one of the reasons for buying the Schuylkill lands was that it was a place remarkably well situated, and named thus on account of the beaver-trade which was carried | lated upon honorable terms, by which the property of

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the Swedish crown and of the Swedish company it was agreed should not be confiscated. The garrison was allowed the honors of war, and it was agreed that they should " march out of the fort with beating of drums, fifes, and flying colors, firing matches, balls in their mouths, with their hand and side arms." The name of the stronghold was changed by the Dutch to Fort Altona. In 1657 swords and fire-arms were sent to Altona sufficient for twenty persons. In that year it was said " for a long time no garrison has been there, and, as it was rather decaying, they knew not what to do either in regard to their lodgings and victuals." He thought that seventy-five men should be sent to Al- tona. In 1663, in consequence of rumors of a new Swedish expedition, all the guns were removed from Altona to the fort at New Amstel. The garrison at that time consisted of ten persons.

NEW GOTTENBERG was built by John Printz, Swedish Governor, in 1643, upon the island of Te- naka (Tinicum). It was constructed " by laying very heavy hemlock (greenen) logs the one on the other," and was " pretty strong." On the same island Printz built his mansion or palace, and had his orchard and other conveniences, and called the place Printz Hall. Fort New Gottenberg commanded the Schuylkill River, which opened just above it, and being south of Fort Nassau, the passage of the Dutch up the river could be prevented. In 1655, the Dutch being triumphant upon the Delaware by the capture of Fort Casimir and Fort Christina, New Gottenherg was compelled to surrender. Campanius says, " The Dutch proceeded to destroy New Gottenberg, laying waste all the houses and plantations within the fort, killing the cattle, and plundering the inhabitants of everything that they could lay their hands upon." The name of the fort was changed to Island Gotten- berg. It probably ceased to be of any importance as a military post after the Dutch power was established on the Delaware.

FORT ELFSBORG was erected by the Swedish Gov- ernor, John Printz, in 1643, on the east bank of the river, on or near the month of the Asamohackingz, called afterward by the English "Indian Creek." This fort was mounted with eight cannon of iron and brass, and had also one potshoof. The garrison was a lieutenant and twelve men. The main object of this post was to visit when required or to annoy the Dutch vessels which passed, "and oblige them to lower the colors, which greatly affronted them." The fort also was useful to salute Swedish vessels when they arrived. Washington Irving, in " Knickerbock- er's History of New York," gives a funny narrative of the driving out of the Swedish garrison by swarms of mosquitoes.

Swedish than a Dutch name." When Governor John Printz heard of the erection of this fort he protested against it, but without effect. In 1654 the Swedish Governor, John Rysingh, sailed up the Delaware in the good ship " Aren" with three hundred men, among whom were twenty or thirty armed soldiers, and ap- peared before the fort. The Dutch, who were under the command of Gerritt Bikker, were much surprised, as well at the coming of the ship, which was unex- pected, as by what followed. The soldiers landed on the beach; the door of the fort being open, they marched in. When within the fort, Capt. Swensko demanded the surrender of the river as well as the fort. Surprised at this, Bikker sent two commissioners on board the vessel to inquire the authority of Rysingh. The latter was not disposed to explain ; two guns were fired over the fort, and the soldiers, of which there were ten or twelve, were disabled, and Rysingh took possession of the work. The result was that a for- cible surrender by the Dutch was compelled, and the Swedes took possession of the fort on Trinity Sunday, for which reason the work was renamed Fort Trefall- digheet, or Trinity.

When the directors of the Dutch West India Com- pany heard of this proceeding they were very angry. They resolved to fit out an expedition for the re- covery of the fort and the restoration of the Dutch power on the river Delaware. In September, 1655, Peter Stuyvesant sailed from New Amsterdam (New York) with seven vessels, having on board six to seven hundred men. Arriving before Trinity Fort, an officer, with a drummer, was sent on shore, de- manding "direct restitution of our own property." Rysingh was absent. Lient. Swen Schnute, who was in command, requested time for consideration. There was a parley. The Dutch in the meanwhile had been raising breastworks. On the following day the fort was surrendered, and the Dutch marched in with flying colors on the 11th of September, 1655, the articles of capitulation being signed on board the man-of-war the "Weightscales," or "Balance." In- stead of retaining the old name, Casimir, the Dutch, in the succeeding year, called the fort by the new name, "New Amstel." The post was put under command of Capt. Martin Krygier, with a force of soldiers. The fort and the ground appurtenant were transferred, in 1657, to Jacob Aldrakes, in behalf of the colony of the city of Amsterdam, there to be planted. In 1664, the English having captured New Amsterdam, to which they gave the name of New York, Sir Robert Carre was ordered to proceed to the Delaware River and reduce the Dutch, who had " seated themselves at Delaware Bay, on His majesty of Great Britain's Territories, without his majesty's consent." Carre sailed in the frigate "Guinea," accompanied by the " William" and " Nicholas," with a force of soldiers, and appeared on the 11th of October, 1664, before Fort New Amstel. The Dutch

FORT CASIMIR was built in 1651, a short distance north of the town afterwards called by the English New Castle. Why it was so called by Stuyvesant is unknown. The Swedish Company when they heard of it were surprised, because it was "rather a were not in position to resist, and they prudently

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surrendered on the 14th. The English gave another name to the fort, which they called New Castle.

In 1673 a Dutch expedition under Evertse and Benkes recaptured New York from the English. An- tony Colve was appointed Governor on the Delaware in behalf of the Dutch, and Fort New Castle fell again into possession of the New Amsterdam authorities. By the treaty of Westminster, between England and the States-General, signed on the 19th of February, 1674, it was agreed that " whatever countries, islands, towns, posts, castles, or forts have or shall be taken on both sides since the time the late unhappy war broke ont, either in Europe or elsewhere, shall be restored to the former lord or proprietor in the same condition they shall be in when the peace itself shall be pro- claimed." Under this treaty New Castle again passed into the hands of the English, and Fort New Castle ceased to be a post of importance. It was ordered to be repaired in 1678. In that year there were eight iron guns mounted, and musket and other ammuni- tion. After the arrival of Penn the fort must have fallen into disuse. It was a matter of complaint against Governor John Evans in 1707 that the fort at New Castle undertook to fire at vessels sailing up and down the Delaware. But it clearly appears that the fort at that place was established by the Governor and the Assembly of the Lower Counties, by virtue of an act passed " for erecting and maintaining a fort for her Majesty's service." It is probable that this work was either old Fort Casimir rebuilt or erected upon the same site.

FORT KORSHOLM .- Acrelius says that this fort " was at Passynnk, where the commander, Swen Schute, had his residence." The date is not given. It was probably erected before 1648, and afterward burned and destroyed by the Indians. It was on the east side of the Schuylkill, north of Fort Beversrede, and probably on the highlands at Point Breeze.

"FORT MANAYUNK," says Acrelius, "was a fine little fort of logs, having sand and stone filled in be- tween the wood. It was situate upon Manayunk (or Manasonk) Island, at the east corner of the work, and surrounded by palisades, four Swedish (twenty-seven English) miles from Christina, eastward by the Schuylkill River, and the Delaware River north and west of League Island."

FORT MECOPONACKA (or UPLAND) was the second of the latter name. Acrelius says that it was "two Swedish miles from Christina and one mile from Gotheburg, on the river shore, on the same plan ( with some houses and a fort)." Ferris suggests that the building was a block-house,-a place of refuge and defense, always, in those days, erected near a settle- ment. The site was somewhere about the present town of Chester. The time that it was built is un- known. It was before 1648.

FORT GRIPSHOLM was built by the Swedish Gov- ernor, John Printz, on an "island in the River Schuylkill," within gunshot of its month. The

precise situation is unknown. Ferris conjectures that it was on the high point of land near Bartram's Botanic Gardens, near Gray's Ferry, and that the mouth of the Schuylkill at that time, in consequence of the islands and low grounds of the Neck, was covered with water, so that the mouth of the Schuyl- kill was between Point Breeze and Bartram's Garden. This conjecture can scarcely be sustained by known facts. There were transfers of land on the west side of the Delaware and Schuylkill, from Bow Creek up, in the early jurisdiction of the Upland Court. It would have been folly at that time, when ground was so plenty, for any one to have taken up sub- merged islands and marshes. The description of Gripsholm by Huddy, the Dutch officer, is that it was "a fort on a very convenient spot on an island near the borders of the kill, secured from the west by another creek, and from the south-southeast. and at each side, with underwood and valley lands. It lies about the distance of a gunshot in the kill. On the south side, on this island, beautiful corn was raised. . . . This fort cannot control the river, but has the command over the whole creek, while this creek is the only remaining avenue with the Minquas, and without it this river is of little value." The creek spoken of must have been the Minquas (or Mingo), with the streams connected therewith leading from Darby and Cobb's Creeks. This stream was in early time said to be the regular passageway of the Indians coming from the west to the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers.

The Dutch Fort Beversrede was built immediately opposite the Minquas, or Mingo, or Eagle's Nest Creek, to command the trade in furs (skins) brought that way by the savages. It is most likely that Fort Gripsholm was situated on the west side of the Schuylkill, upon the ground afterward known as Province Island, or State Island.

WICACO BLOCK-HOUSE.

WICACO BLOCK-HOUSE stood near the Delaware River, it is believed, about the site afterward occupied by the Swedish Church Gloria Dei, now south of Christian Street on the west side of Swanson Street.

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The block-house was built for defense against the Indians in 1669, and is usually described as having loop-holes for defense. It is believed that the first Swedish Church ordered by Upland Court, in 1675, to be erected at Wicaco, was established in this block- house, which was fitted up for the purpose in 1677. The building was torn down in 1698, when the old brick Swedes' Church building, dedicated July 2, 1700, was commenced.

ASSOCIATION BATTERY AT WICACO .- In 1747, the province of Pennsylvania being defenseless, and Great Britain being at war with France, much anxiety existed among the inhabitants of the city of Philadel- phia who were not members of the Society of Friends in fear of the visits of hostile privateers or ships of war, there being no garrisoned fort or other military defense on either side of the Delaware from the capes all the way up. The proprietary government under the Penns was in sympathy with any warlike measure necessary for defense. But members of the Society of Friends, who were in majority in the Assembly, would not consent to any measures of a warlike char- acter. Finally the proprietary government deter- mined to encourage the formation of a volunteer military force. It was determined to form what was called " The Association for General Defense." In May, 1748, President Palmer, of the Provincial Council, said, "Many thousands of the inhabitants having voluntarily entered into the most solemn engagements for that purpose, in consequence whereof arms have been provided," had "likewise at con- siderable expense erected batteries on the river of such strength and weight of metal as to render it very dangerous for an enemy to attempt the bringing of any ships before the city." Thomas Penn wrote from England March 30, 1748, " Whenever any com- pany shall be made in Pennsylvania for establishing a militia and erecting a battery, we shall be very ready to show our concern for the safety of the city by giving cannon for such a battery." The Association in the city was embodied in regiments. There were liberal subscriptions, by means of which the battery was built, and cannon to mount it borrowed from Governor Clinton, of New York. A lottery was promoted for the raising of funds, and with the profits the managers bought some guns in England. In 1753 the Association Battery mounted twenty- seven pieces. The site of this work was southward of Swedes' Church, and is believed to have been exactly where the first United States navy-yard was afterwards built. In 1758 the Association Battery was placed under guards, and they were ordered to use the cannon against any vessel which might attempt "to break through the embargo." From the absence of any record of use of the Association Battery after- ward, it is presumed that it was untenable and had fallen into decay before the commencement of the Revolutionary war.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 42

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