Notes and queries historical, biographical, and genealogical, Vol. I, Part 59

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: s.n.
Number of Pages: 618

USA > Pennsylvania > Notes and queries historical, biographical, and genealogical, Vol. I > Part 59

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took the driver's place and drove away, leaving the driver behind, as a joke, while Mr. P. had to run after to overtake the stage.

The direet and only road to Laneaster previous to the making of the turnpike was, what is now Second street extended below Paxtang street, west of the canal bank, called the mill road to what is at present the Loehiel mill. The writer will state a eireumstance which occurred at this old stone mill. Peter Pancake's father-in law, Mr. Mahan, lived as a ten- ant and farmer of the now Lochiel Farm, General Cameron's. Peter had married Miss Mahan contrary to the wishes of her father. The former went to the mill soon after the marriage, when the father in law came with a loaded gun to shoot him. The late Rob- ert Diekey was there also, and to prevent the shooting, inserted slyly a cask nail into the touchhole of the loek, which prevented the gun from discharging and Peter of being shot. Mr. Paneake was quite poor when he married, commencing housekeeping with only two old chairs and two knives and forks. These they retained during their lives as mementoes. But hy industry and economy they ae- cumulated considerahle, and at their de- cease left the Mahan family in good eir- cumstances.

The Newspapers.

All the newspapers published outside of Philadelphia were weekly papers, filled entirely with political artieles, and adver- tisements, which were scattered over the third and fourth pages. The first page was appropriated to foreign news which came in sailing packet ships and other copied news which occurred sometime previous. There were no local news of any kind, except occasionally a marriage or death notice. It was not surprising, for politics engrossed the minds of the people ahove all other subjects except religion, which was too often a secondary matter. Men's minds were so ahsorhed and excited that they would bet nearly all they possessed on the re. sult, and if they unfortunatly were on the minority side, became impoverished. Even the women were excited on party issues, causing many good friends to he- come enemies, or else to associate as

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good friends. Such was the influence excited by the newspapers in former years.

These lines were written after having examined a copy of the Democratic Union of October 4th, 1848, published by Messrs. Mckinley & Lescure. There is not one line of local matter in that issue of the paper from borough or county; nothing but politics, politics, for the reader, who was left in ignorance of matters perhaps of interest which transpired dur- ing the previous week. The files of all the old newspapers published since the formation of the borough are just as re- miss in noticing local matters occurring around them. Had simply the erection of the three story brick residences, and other improvements which were made from time to time been noticed it would te of great satisfaction in later years. We leave any one to state by examining former files of the papers published in Harrisburg, when the attention to local news occurring in and near the town was commenced In a few county seats the newspaper was truly a home newspaper giving its patrons weekly the local events; such a paper was the Village Record of West Chester, and a few others. B. A.

THE CUMBERLAND VALLEY.

Genealogical Notes of Early Settlers.

KILGORE.

James Kilgore, of Newton township, d. in September, 1771, leaving a wife, Elizabeth, and issue:

i. HUGH.

ii. BENJAMIN.

iii. JOSEPH.

iv. PATRICE,

v. HAVID.

vi. MARY.

vii. OLIVER.

viii. EZEKIEL, d. April, 1775.

ix. JOHN.

X. JONATHAN.

xi. WILLIAM.

xii JESSE.

xiii. ROBERT.

ALLISON

I. James Allison, of Newton township, d. in March, 1770, leaving a wife, Eliza- beth, and issue:

i. JOHN.

ii. ISABELLA.

iii. ROBERT.

iv. ELIZABETH.

In his will he mentions his brother, Andrew, of county Tyrone, Ireland.

II. William Allison, of Antrim town- ship, d. January, 1779, leaving a wife, Catharine, and issue:

i. WILLIAM.

ii. JOHN.

iii. PATRICK.

iv. AGNES, m Robt. McCrea and had William.

v ROBERT.

vi. CATHARINE, m. James Hendricks. He also mentions his grandson William Allison, nephew John Allison and brother Robert Allison.

HULING.

Marcus Huling, senior, of Greenwood township, Cumberland county, now Perry county, d. September 1783, leaving issue :

i. MARCUS.

ii. MARY, m. - Stewart.

iii. SAMUEL

iv. JAMES.

v. THOMAS.

STEWART.

I. Arthur Stewart, d. July 1750, leav- ing a wife Dinah, and children :

i. THOMAS

ii. ARTHUR.

II. Andrew Stewart d. April 1754, leaving a wife and children :

i. MOSES.

ii. HUGH.

iii. ELIZA.

III. Robert Stewart, of West Penns- boro', Cumberland county, d. March, 1785, leaving a wife Elizabeth. He men . tions in his will his grandchildren, Ra- chel, Elizabeth, Mary and Moses Starr.

WALLACE.

John Wallace, of Hopewell township, d. February, 1770, leaving a wife Mar- garet and children :

i. WILLIAM.

ii. ANN.

THOMAS.

George Thomas, of Hopewell, d. Sep- tember, 1777, leaving issue :

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Historical and Genealogical.

i. WILLIAM. ii. JOHN.

iii. ALEXANDER. iv. THOMAS.

v. SARAH, m. George Wright.

FISHER FAMILY OF MIDDLETOWN.

The Journal of the 2d gives us the fol- lowing account of a family reunion, which we transfer to Notes and Queries as a portion of the county's history :

On the 21st ult. [June, 1886] the mem- bers of that branch of the Fisher family which still retains a portion of the an. cestral acres, were reunited at "Pineford farm," the old homestead, to celebrate the sixty-eighth birthday of their mother. They came from widely separated homes -one from Emporia, Kansas; one from Philadelphia, one from Rahway, N. J .; one from Swathmore, Pa .; one from Sac and Fox agency, Ind. Ter .; two are lo- cated in Ida county, Iowa, and one lives with his mother on the farm.

There are comparatively few families in this State who have held estates so long.

John Fisher, the founder of the family in this country, came from England with Wm. Penn, in the ship Welcome in 1682. His grand son, John Fisher conveyed to his son George, a tract of land containing eleven hundred acres purchased by him from the Penn's, the original deed of which is in the possession of Hon. Rob't J. Fisher, of York Pa.

In 1752 he (George Fisher) settled on this land, and in 1755, (thirty years before Harrisburg was laid out, ) founded the town of Middletown on the site of an old Indian village. The town was so called on account of its being located half way between Lancaster and Carlisle. On his death the property was left to his son George, who being but ten years of age, was taken to Philadelphia, where he afterwards studied law with his guar- dian Isaiah Pemberton.

In 1814 he laid out the town of Ports- mouth, (now a part of Middletown.) He also owned a large body of land now included in the city of Harrisburg, which he afterwards disposed of, under the im- pression that Middletown would be the State capital.

His second wife was Ann Shippen

Jones, daughter of the then Mayor of Philadelphia, and grand daughter of charter Mayor, Edward Shippen, the first Mayor of Philadelphia. One of his sons, Edward Fisher, father of the children who were thus temporarily reunited, retained the old homestead, and a portion of the patrimonial acres. Mrs. Hannah Fisher, whose birthday was here com- memorated, is the last member of the family bearing the name, now residing in Dauphin county. C. H. H.

In connection with the above perhaps a slight sketch of Middletown, taken from a work presented to me by my father in 1844, may not prove uninterest- ing. [Rupp's History of Dauphin, &c. ]

"Middletown, with its near neighbor Portsmouth, takes the second rank in the county, (to Harrisburg) and as a town is the most ancient. It occupies the high ground about half a mile from the con . fluence of the Swatara with the Susque- hanna; Portsmouth is on the plain im- mediately at the mouth, ten miles below Harrisburg. Middletown was laid out by George Fisher, Esq., in 1755."

"The proprietor being a Friend, several of this denomination from Philadelphia, and the lower counties followed him;and these, with some Scotch and Irish mer- chants formed the first inhabitants of the village, who enjoyed, up to the period of the Revolution, a very extensive and lucrative trade with the natives and others who settled on the Susquehanna and Ju- niata, and also with the western traders. Several of the Scotch and Irish merchants entered the army, whence few returned. During the war a commissary department was established here, when the small boats for General Sullivan's army were built, and his troops supplied with pro . visions and military stores for his expedi- tion against the Six Nations."

"After the war, trade again revived, and flourished extensively until 1796, after which it gradually declined. Until then, the mouth of the Swatara was con- sidered the termination of the navigation of the Susquehanna and its tributary streams. Below this it was believed to be impracticable, on account of the numerous and dangerous falls and catar- acts impeding its bed. In 1796 an enter- prising German miller named Kreider,

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from the neighborhood of Huntingdon appeared in the Swatara with the first ark ever built in those waters, fully freighted with flour, with which he safely descended to Baltimore. His success becoming known throughout the interior, many arks were constructed, and the next year numbers of them, fully freighted, arrived at tide water. The en - terprise of John Kreider thus diverted the trade of this place to Baltimorc, where it principally centered, until the Union canal was completed in 1827, when it was again arrested at its old port. It would probably have so continued, if the Penn- sylvania canal had not been finished to Columbia, by which the principal ob- struction in the river, (the Conewago falls) was completely obviated. Middle- town again declined. A large trade, however, in lumber and other articles of domestic produce, is still intercepted here, supplying the valleys of the Swatara, Quitopahilla, Tulpehocken, and Schuyl kill. It may fairly be presumed from the local advantages enjoyed by this town, that it is destined ere long to become one of much importance."

NOTES AND QUERIES,

Historical, Biographical and Genealogical.

CXI.

RECORDS OF OLD BINDNAGLE CHURCHI. We will publish in next number of Notes and Queries, the first portion of the rec. ords of this old church. They are of ex. ceeding interest and value.

HEAVY WEIGHTED HEROES. - Re- cently we came across the following which is worthy of preservation in Notes and Queries :

Weight of several officers of the Revo- lutionary army, August 19,1788-weighed on the scales at West Point: General Washington, 209 pounds; General Lins coln, 224 ; General Knox, 280; General Huntingdon, 182; General Greaton, 166; Colonel Swift, 219; Colonel Michael Jackson, 252; Colonel Henry Jackson, 238; Lieutenant Colonel : Huntingdon,

212; Lieutenant Colonel Cobb, 182; Lieutenant Colonel Humphreys, 221

"SHIN-PLASTER."-The term "shin- plaster was applied derisively to the small paper currency which was plentiful after the war of 1812-14 and especially during the financial crisis of 1838. Bart- lett says that it was in use during the Revolutionary war, and was applied to the Continental currency, which was de- creasing in value every day ; so that, when it became utterly worthless, an old soldier who had been paid off with it, and who could not get rid of it, very philo- sophically made use of it as plasters for a wounded leg. This suggestion we consider as an invention-got up to account for the use of the phrase in the absence of any known.reason for its original adoption.

COLONIAL OR PROVINCIAL .- Many of our writers, especially newspaper histo- rians, use the term Colonial to the events in Pennsylvania under the Proprietary Government. Prior to the purchase by William Penn, it was the Colony on the Delaware, afterwards the Province of Pennsylvania. New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania were Provinces, while Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and others were always colonies until they declared their independence. The Gov- ernor of a Colony was appointed by the Crown-those of the Province by the Proprietary. Perchance the use of this term Colonial as to Pennsylvania arose from the fact that Mr. Hazard, who edited them, misnamed our Provincial Records, Colonial Records. He ought to have known better.

AN OLD TURNPIKE ORDER has been sent us, a copy of which is herewith given There is no date, but we pre- sume it must be at least fifty if not sixty years old :

"THE SPRUCE CREEK and WATER STREET TURNPIKE COMPANY, HUNT- INGDON COUNTY, PENN.

('Copy of an order issued to gatekeepers. ) 'Resolved, That the maximum burden to be drawn on the Spruce Creek and Water Street turnpike be six thousand

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Historical and Genealogical.

pounds, and any person attempting to haul a greater load than above specified will not be allowed to pass through said turnpike or gates

(Signed, ) SAMUEL WIGTON, Secretary. 'By order of the Board of Managers. ('Instructions to gatekeepers.)

'You are hereby required to enforce above resolution strictly, as civilly and courteously as possible. But if assaulted, or attempt to force through the gate without your consent, defend yourself and your office in the best manner possible. Knock down horse or driver with a club, or any other way necessary, and you will be fully sustained by the company.

(Signed. ) 'JOHN S. ISETT, President.''

FIRST AMERICAN CENT COINED. - In reply to the question wben was the first American cent coined, we would state, that immediately after the Revolution and before the establishment of a National Mint, a variety of copper coins were is. sued by the several States. In 1791 the Washington cent was coined and put in circulation by a man named Hancock, in Birmingham, England. In 1792 a large copper coin, bearing the head of Wash- ington, appeared-the enterprise of some enterprising individual. There were other copper coins, of various sizes, bear- ing Washington's head, circulated about the same time; but as they were mere fancy pieces of private issue, they never received official sanction, and have no place among the authorized coins in the national collection at the United States Miut. The National Mint was not in regular operation until 1794, and there- fore we presume that no authorized cents bear date prior to that year. An exami. nation of the collection at the Mint at Philadelphia might materially assist any one in making up a proposed series of American coins.

MINSHALL, ATKINSON, DOYLE AND KITTERA.

In Notes and Queries (No. cix), it is stated that Joshua Minshall married a daughter of Robert Barber. Several years have passed since that article was written, and I have ascertained that Joshua Minshall married the daughter of

Stephen Atkinson, who built a fulling mill on the east side of the Conestoga about the year 1713. It was located a mile or two south of the present city of Lancaster. Minshall was a Quaker and it was his son Thomas Minshall who married Robert Barber's daughter. It is quite probable that Atkinson and his wife were Scotch Irish.

Although Thomas Minshall was reared a Quaker, and became an active member of that society, he could not altogether restrain a natural taste for a military life. He raised a company of volunteers in York county, and marched at their head to join Forbes' Army at Fort Bedford in 1758. There was so much pressure brought to bear against this movement of his, by the Wrights and Barbers at the Susquehanna, that he resigned his com- mand and returned to his farm near the . present town of Wrightsville. A few years before the Revolutionary War he sold his land and removed to Middletown, on the Swatara. He married a second time, a Mrs. Young, of Middletown.

Thomas Doyle (hatter), of Lancaster, also married a daughter of Stephen At- kinson. His son, Thomas Doyle, was a Lieutenant and Captain in the First and Third Regiments of the Penn'a Line of the Revolution. He was wounded, and became a pensioner. He was stationed at Fort Washington (Cincinnati), where he died about 1802 or 3.

John Doyle, brother of Thomas, was also a lieutenant and captain in the Revo lutionary army. He commanded an in- dependent company, and was stationed at Lancaster and York. He was pro- moted, and marched with the Pennsyl- vania troops to Virginia in June, 1781, and was wounded July 6, 1781. These brothers became prominent, and evi- dently inherited a taste ior military life.

The Hon. John Wilkes Kittera, who was an officer in the Revolutionary army, and a member of Congress for ten years from the Lancaster District, married a sister of Capt. Thomas Doyle. Mr. Kit- tera was a very successful lawyer, and had an extensive and profitable practice. The large fortunes made during the Revolution in the manufacture of iron led him to embark extensively in that busi ness. He owned several thousand

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Historical and Genealogical.

acres of land and the furnace at the mouth of Codorus creek in York county. He also owned the ore lands on Chestnut Hill in Lancaster county, which afterwards came into possession of the Grubbs as did also the furnace, &c. He lived elegantly and entertained a great deal of company, when he was a member of Congress. His wife was a very at- tractive and accomplished lady. His furnace and land speculations, proved disastrous, and when Mr. Kittera died, in 1802 or 3 his estate was bankrupt. Mrs. Kittera was disappointed, for she supposed that her husband was a rich man, and returned to Lancaster from Philadel- phia, whither he had removed when he was appointed U. S. District Attorney by the elder Adams. Few ladies of the cul- ture, and position in society, held by Mrs. . K., could have withstood the shock of so sudden a reverse. She was equal to the emergency. She sold many fine dresses and her jewelry, and took her son and two daughters to Philadelphia, where she opened a small store. Her son was sent to college, and afterwards became an eminent lawyer in Philadelphia. Her daughters received a good education, and became the heads of prominent families. Mrs. Kittera accumulated a large for- tune by her own exertions, and lived to enjoy it in ease and comfort.

There have been no descendants of the Atkinsons and Doyles, or Kitteras in Lancaster county for eighty or more years.

Samuel Reed also married a daughter of Stephen Atkinson. He was a promi- nent citizen, and probably lived in Mar- tick township.

SAMUEL EVANS.

COLUMBIA, Pa.

THE "WALKING PURCHASE."

[In the Editor's History of Pennsylva- nia, page 443, is given an account of the famous "Indian Walk" on the 19th of September, 1737, to which the following paper has reference. This "walk" was no doubt the cause of jealousies and heart-burnings among the Indians, which eventually broke out in loud complaints of injustice and atrocious acts of savage vengeance .- W. H. E.]

REMINISCENCES OF SOLOMON JEN- NINGS, ONE OF THE "THREE WALK- ERS."

John Hyder, in his deposition concern- ing the day and a half day's walk, made before Governor Denny in March, of 1757, tells us that Solomon Jennings "went no further with the walkers, about 10 or 11 of the clock, of the first day; that then and there he fell back, keeping, however, in the company of the curious crowd that was following in the wake of the contestants, as far as the Indian Ford on Lehigh" (Ys:elstein's Ford), at which point he bade them adieu and turned home. Jennings' home at this time was on a tract of 200 acres of land, situate on the south bank of the West Branch of Del- a Ware or Lehigh, upwards of a mile west by south from the present borough of Bethlehem. This land was a portion of a great tract of 5,000 acres, which John, Thomas and Richard Penn had ordered by a warrant, (dated at London, 18. March, 1732, ) issued to the Surveyor General of the Province, to be laid out for the proper use of Thomas Penn and his heirs. Thomas Penn, by his assign . ment endorsed on the aforesaid warrant of the same date, granted and assigned over the said warrant and 5,000 acres of land to Joseph Turner and his heirs, who by his assignment endorsed on said war- rant, and dated 10 Sept., 1735, made over the same to William Allen, of Philadel- phia, whereupon there was surveyed to the said Allen the before mentioned tract of 200 acres, then situate in Bucks county, but now in Salisbury township, Lehigh county.

The precise time at which Jennings got possession of this tract and entered it, we have failed to satisfactorily ascer- tain. In the deed for it made by the attorneys of William Allen to the execu- tors of Solomon Jennings, in May of 1773, it is indefinitely stated that "Whereas Sol. Jennings in his life time did agree with said Allen to purchase the said tract and did pay £131 11s-a part of the con- sideration money, &c." It may have been (and probably the supposition is cor- rect) that Jennings occupied it in the spring of 1736, the following item ex- tracted from the "Pennsylvania Journals 1765 1769," vol. V of "The Penn Papers". pointing to that year.

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Historical and Genealogical.

"August 2, 1765. John Jennings (a son of Solomon) Dr. For 28 years of Quit-rent on 200 acres of land surveyed to his Father, per warrant of 5th March, 1736, £11 13s 4d sterling. He is to pay no purchase money, the Proprietors having given his Father this Land in recompense for his services."*

When the Moravians came into the Forks of the Delaware (to the Whitefield tract, Nazareth, in the Spring of 1740), and founded Bethlehem in the Spring of 1741, Solomon Jennings was one of their nearest neighbors in that then sparsely settled portion of Bucks county.

Between the peace loving orother- hood and

the sturdy yeoman, there were never other than friendly re- lations during the sixteen years of their intercourse Jennings also found a ready market for his surplus produce at Bethle. hem, and from its shops he soon learned that he could have nearly all the wants of his household satisfactorily and ex- peditiously supplied. Jennings, further- more, was accustomed to call upon the Moravian clergymen, at Bethlehem, whenever a clergyman's services were needed. The Rev. Abraham Reinke, of Bethlehem, in a private record of his of- ficial acts, records, under date of 14th November, 1745, the haptism of an in- fant daughter of Solomon Jennings. The act he adds, was performed in the father's house, and the habe was named Judith. A Rachel Jennings (an older daughter) is mentioned as occasionally coming to Bethlehem, about this same time and earlier.

From this time forward until the erec. tion of Northampton county, in 1752, we

*Solomon Jennings in his life time paid William Allen £131 11s on the land. After his death in February of 1757, his executors paid Allen "£50, also a part of consideration money;" and in May of 1764, the same parties paid into the hands of John Allen and Joseph Turner, Wil liam Allen's attorneys, "a further pay- ment of £299 14s., it being the remainder of the consideration money;" whereupon a deed was given.

find no notices of the discomfited walker, having aught of interest, excepting that he frequently served as a juryman on roads at different and at remote points of Upper Bucks, occasionally as arbitrator or assessor in neighborly disagreements- circumstances which would seem to show that he was a man of some repute in the community in which he moved. Never- theless he was illiterate, always making his mark (it was So) instead of affixing his name to documents that legally re- quired his signature.

In October, of 1755, Jennings was elected one of the County Commission. ers of Northampton county, and being unable to write, made an X, in place of signing his name on taking the oath of office +

In November of 1755, the French Indians, as is well known, began to lay waste the borders of the Province. Upper Northampton (now Monroe), suffered severely in the month of Decem . ber. The affair at Hoeths, and the affair at Brodheads (hy Stroudshurg), struck consternation into the settlers, and called for the interference of the military. The Province sent troops to the scene of the savage inroads, and the inhabitants also organized for defence. Of such a com- pany of volunteers, Solomon Jennings was captain, passing through Nazareth en route for transmontane North - ampton, on the 14th of Decem- ber. We have learned nothing further of his military career. "Last night," i. e. on the night of 15th and 16th of February, 1757, writes a Mora- vian recorder, "our good old neighbor, Solomon Jennings died, after a short illness." This item will wipe out from the page of history, the gratutious asser- tion that Jennings died a few years or shortly after the consummation of the walk in consequence of over-exertion in that contest. The Rev Abraham Reinke, furthermore conducted the funeral service at the deccdent's house, in the presence of a large concourse of yeomanry, and the remains of the historic walker were in- terred in the family grave-yard near by- the afternoon of February 17.

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Notes and queries historical, biographical, and genealogical, Vol. I, Part 59

Author: Publication date: 1884 Publisher: s.n. Number of Pages: 618

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: s.n.
Number of Pages: 618