USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania in American history > Part 11
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years of warfare. It consisted of four regiments of three hundred and forty men each, the first com- posed of troops from Virginia and Pennsylvania, under Colonel Christian Febiger, of the blood of the old Norsemen; the second of troops from Penn- sylvania, Maryland and Delaware, under Colonel Richard Butler, one of the most efficient officers of the Pennsylvania Line; the third of troops from Connecticut, under Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, from that state, who had won laurels and gained experience at Quebec; and the fourth of troops from Massachusetts and North Carolina, under Colonel Rufus Putnam, of Massachusetts, who had seen hard service at Saratoga.
Every feasible effort to secure accurate informa- tion had been made. Light-Horse Harry Lee, with his partisan legion, had patrolled the whole country and picked up stray facts from farmers and deserters. Allen McLane had gone to the post with a flag of truce and kept his eyes open while there. Rufus Putnam, the chief engineer, had made a careful sur- vey from the vantage ground of the neighboring hills, and by the 6th of July both Washington and Wayne had made personal tours of inspection.
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"When all the doors were fastened, And all the windows shut, There was yet one little window, And that one was forgot."
From a deserter it was learned that the Point could be approached from the southward along a beach of sand where the marsh reached the river, and here Washington suggested the advance should be made. On the 10th he wrote a letter to Wayne con- taining his views of a plan for the assault, and even elaborating such details as the putting of a white feather upon the cap of each man, but he left the re- sponsibility for its acceptance with Wayne, saying,-
"These are my general ideas of the plan for a surprise; but you are at liberty to depart from them in every instance where you think they may be im- proved or changed for the better."
It appears that for some reason a delay had been proposed and that Wayne was eager to make the attempt at once, because Washington again wrote, on the 14th, giving his permission for the following night, and adding, "You are at liberty to choose between the different plans on which we have conversed."
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By the next morning at eleven o'clock the ar- rangements were completed and the "order of bat- tle" prepared. Without hesitation Wayne made a fundamental change in the proposed plan. Instead of an assault in a single column from the south- ward, he ordered that Colonel Febiger form a col- umn upon the right, to be preceded by one hundred and fifty picked men "with their arms unloaded, placing their whole dependence on the bayonet," and that Colonel Butler form a column on the left, "preceded by one hundred chosen men with fixed bayonets" and with arms unloaded. Major Murfree was directed to move in the centre and, dividing a little to the right and left, await the attack, and thereupon keep up a galling fire as a feint. It will be observed that this plan involved an apparent frontal attack accompanied by the noise of musketry, and that the real attack should be made by the silent columns. Any soldier who presumed to take his musket from his shoulder or attempted to fire without orders was instantly to be put to death. Any soldier so lost to a sense of honor as to retreat a foot or skulk in the presence of danger was like- wise immediately to be put to death by the nearest
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officer. At the head of each column, sixty feet in advance, were to march twenty men and an officer, designated as the "forlorn hope," that on the right led by Lieutenant Knox, of the Ninth Pennsylvania, and that on the left by Lieutenant James Gibbons, of the Sixth Pennsylvania. Upon entering the works the victorious troops were to shout the watchword, "The fort's our own!" Wayne, who was deter- mined to share in the danger and participate in the glory, as his order declares, concluded to march with the right column.
On the morning of the 15th of July the troops, thirteen hundred and fifty strong, "fresh shaved and well powdered," were drawn up for in- spection, and when that ceremonial was completed, instead of being dismissed to their quarters, they started on the road to the southward. Then for the first time officers and men knew that some . event of more than ordinary moment was in con- templation. Over a rough and narrow back road dwindling away at times to a mere path, across rocky hills and through swamps and ravines, they marched thirteen miles, and at eight o'clock in the evening arrived at the farm of David Springsteel,
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about a mile and a half to the westward of Stony Point. Not a soldier had been permitted to leave the ranks, every dog for miles around had been killed, and a detachment of the Pennsylvania bat- talion, under Captain James Chrystie, and the rangers of Allen McLane had meanwhile been sweeping the intervening country and gathering into their embrace all wandering countrymen who might perchance give warning to the garrison. The secret had been well kept and neither friend nor foe had yet heard a whisper of the coming event. Ere the storm burst there was a lull of three hours and a half until half-past eleven o'clock at night.
Picture to yourselves, if you can, you who are here one hundred and twenty-three years later to participate in this anniversary, the strain and sus- pense of that interval. After the columns had been formed and the "order of battle" read to them, after he had ridden forward for the last time to in- spect the approaches, Anthony Wayne, upon whose shoulders the responsibility rested, keenly alive to the desperate character of the venture, its uncertain- ties and the personal danger, sat down "near the hours and scene of carnage " at eleven o'clock in
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the old farm-house. Securing a sheet of paper, he wrote to a near friend, "This will not reach you until the writer is no more .. . I know that friendship will induce you to attend to the education of my little son and daughter. I fear their tender mother will not survive this stroke. . . . I am called to sup, but where to breakfast either within the enemies' lines in triumph or in another world."
The thought of the strong man, with the scythe of the grim reaper flashing before him, was of his wife and children in their far-away home near the banks of the Brandywine.
The time had come. By half after twelve o'clock the right column had crossed the marsh, two hundred yards in width, with water up to the waists of the men, but ere they had reached the far side the pickets of the enemy opened fire and gave the alarm. Without a shot in return, in the face of a rapid fire from cannon and muskets, the men, led by Fleury and Knox, tore down the abatis and pushed forward up the steep. The Connecticut officers, Seldon, Phelps, Palmer and Hall, and the Pennsylvanian, Hay, were grievously wounded, and on every side soldiers were falling; but who could
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halt to minister to them? At the second abatis Wayne was shot in the head and brought to the ground, but rising to his left knee and pointing to the front with his spear, he cried, " Forward, my brave fellows; forward!" and later was carried bleeding into the fort. The garrison within rushed to arms, and Colonel Johnson, the commandant, with about half of his force, hastened to the centre of the outer line, where he heard the rapid firing from Murfree, thus paying tribute to the wisdom of that part of the plan. In a few minutes Fleury was over the parapet and grasping the British flag, and with the honor of being the first within the en- trenchments, he shouted, with French accent and enthusiasm, "The fort's our own!" Following him and each other, and almost at the same instant, in rapid succession came Knox, of the "forlorn hope;" Sergeant Baker, of Virginia, wounded four times ; Sergeant Spencer, of Virginia, wounded two times; and Sergeant Donlop, of Pennsylvania, wounded two times.
So well were the arrangements planned and so efficiently were they carried out that the two col- umns, with different tasks and difficulties, separated
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in space, reached the parapet and entered the fort almost at the same time. There has been less detail preserved as to the occurrences in the left column, but the fact that when Lieutenant Gibbons, of Phil- adelphia, first of them all, crossed the parapet, seventeen of the twenty-one in the "forlorn hope" had been shot, sufficiently attests the desperate char- acter of the struggle. Upon all sides now re- sounded the cry, "The fort's our own!"
There were clashing of sword and spear, and bayonet thrust; but the British, finding that the Americans had surmounted their defences, and that further resistance was useless, soon cried for mercy. One old captain refused to surrender and fell where he stood, fighting to the last. Of the Brit- ish, twenty were killed, seventy-eight were wounded, fifty-eight were missing, and four hundred and sev- enty-two were taken prisoners. Of the victors, fifteen were killed and eighty-four were wounded.
At two o'clock on the morning of the 16th Wayne sent a despatch to Washington, informing him that "The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnson, are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men determined to be free."
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Up to this time no event of the war had pro- duced such an ardor of enthusiasm in the minds of both the army and the people. The newspapers of the day teemed with praises of all the participants, and poets depicted the details of the affair in their most stirring verses. The congress passed resolu- tions of thanks and voted gold medals. Washing- ton wrote that the officers and men " gloriously distinguished themselves," and Greene, himself a hero, in earnest words declared, "This is thought to be the perfection of discipline and will forever immortalize General Wayne, as it would do honor to the first general in Europe." Said John Jay, later the distinguished chief justice of the United States, "This brilliant action adds fresh lustre to our arms." And General Charles Lee wrote, "I do most sincerely declare that your action in the assault of Stony Point is not only the most brilliant, in my opinion, through the whole course of this war on either side, but that it is one of the most brilliant I am acquainted with in history." But even high tributes of respect came from the enemy. General Pattison, who commanded the British artillery, wrote to Lord Townsend in London that the un-
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fortunate event " has filled every one with astonish- ment," and Commodore George Collier did not hesitate to assert in his journal that "The rebels had made the attack with a bravery they never be- fore exhibited, and they showed at this moment a generosity and clemency which during the course of the Rebellion had no parallel."
After the lapse of a century and a quarter, Stony Point yet remains the most conspicuous and imposing illustration of American military valor. At New Orleans the riflemen of Kentucky and Tennessee triumphed over the veterans of Welling- ton fresh from the fields of the Peninsula, but they stood behind and not in front of entrenchments. At Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor there were desperate and sustained charges against fortified positions, but in each instance they ended in failure. The great Empire State of the Union does well to set aside this beautiful park to com- memorate the only instance in American history where the soldiers of the country were victorious over a disciplined European foe, protected by what seemed to be impregnable fortifications. She is to be commended for her effort again to brighten the
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memory of that remote time in our annals when upon her soil the men of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, all wearing the buff and blue of the Continental soldier, together faced death as they clambered up these steep heights in the defence of their own liberties and the maintenance of those principles which meant the welfare of the human race during the ages that were yet to come.
THE DUTCH PATROONS OF PENNSYLVANIA*
[Written for the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. January, 1907.]
S C INCE the publication of a biography of Hen- drick Pannebecker, thirteen years ago, addi- tional facts have come to light which give a broader significance to his life, and make him a more conspicuous, and almost a unique figure in the early history of the province of Pennsylvania. Research had disclosed that he spoke three languages, Dutch, German, and English; that he wrote a con- veyancer's hand and drew deeds; that he surveyed for the Penns a number of their manors and laid out most of the early roads in Philadelphia county; that he owned four thousand and twelve acres of land; that he possessed a library of books, one of
* This paper has been prepared mainly from deeds and original docu- ments in my own possession, for some of the most important of which I am indebted to the thoughtful kindness of Mr. Franklin S. Reiff, of Skippack- ville, Pa.
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which in MS. has recently been secured by the Rev. A. Stapleton, and in it a contemporary theologian has written, "Henrich Pannebecker habet virtuo- sem uxorem;" that he was described in certain recorded instruments as a gentleman, and offended Henry Melchior Muhlenberg by his pride and sense of "important family connections;" and that he was on terms of personal friendship with Edward Shippen, Israel Pemberton, Richard Hill, James Logan and Isaac Norris. It now appears that he became the head of an inland colony, and the pro- prietor of an extensive township, since divided into two of the present townships of Montgomery county, with certain manorial privileges and at least a quasi jurisdiction over the people.
On the 10th of March, 1682, William Penn conveyed to Dirck Sipman, of Crefeld, five thou- sand acres of land in Pennsylvania, and on the 11th of June, 1683, to Govert Remke, likewise of Cre- feld, one thousand acres, upon the condition that a certain number of families were to be taken across the ocean to settle upon them. The arrangement was more than a sale of land, since it contained this provision for a settlement, and when Sipman sold
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two hundred of his acres, August 16th, 1685, to Peter Schumacher, then in Rotterdam on his way from Kriegsheim in the Palatinate to Germantown, the purchaser agreed for "himself and his family to settle upon and dwell on the said two hundred acres of land," and to secure compliance he bound "his person and all his goods without reservation." It is plain from the letter of Pastorius of March 7th, 1684, that the Dutch and German immigrants who founded Germantown expected to receive their grant along a navigable stream, to have a little province of their own, free from the sway of the English, or, as Penn described it, "a new Francken- land," and that promises to this effect had been made on his behalf by Benjamin Furly, his Rotter- dam agent. Of the purchase of Sipman, five hun- dred and eighty-eight acres, and of the purchase of Remke, one hundred and sixty-one acres were located and surveyed in Germantown. By a deed in the Dutch language, January 14th, 1686, Remke sold his unlocated land to Sipman. By another deed in the Dutch language, Sipman sold his entire interest, including the lands of Remke, to Matthias Van Bebber, a Dutch merchant, who came to Ger-
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mantown in 1687, son of Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, one of the first Crefeld purchasers.
The deed was irregular and was confirmed by the attorneys of Sipman May 13, 1698. Van Beb- ber had the lands located upon the Skippack creek, a branch of the Perkiomen and the first stream of any importance met in going northwestward after leaving the Wissahickon. The tract was supposed to contain five thousand acres, but a more accurate survey showed that it included six thousand and one hundred and sixty-six acres, or nearly ten square miles. Van Bebber paid the difference in value to Penn, and secured a patent February 22, 1702. It was described by rather perishable marks as follows:
" Beginning at a Hickory Sapling at the corner of Ed- ward Lane's land, from thence by a line of marked trees northeast one thousand and forty four perches to a stake by a white oak marked from thence by a line of marked trees northwest nine hundred and eighty eight perches to a stake by a marked black oak thence southwest five hundred and thirty four perches to a stake in William Harmar's line thence by the said line eighty eight perches to a stake again by the said William Harmar's land southwest five hundred and ten perches to a white oak by the corner of the said Will- iam Harmar's land, then southeast by the said Edward Lane's land nine hundred perches to the place of beginning."
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At the time of the issue of the patent the tract was already called Bebber's township, and it bore that name as late as the publication of Scull's map of the province in 1759. It covered substantially the same territory as is included within the two present townships of Skippack and Perkiomen. The patent gave to Van Bebber "all mines, min- erals, quarries, meadows, marshes, swamps, cripples, savannahs, woods, underwood, timber and trees, ways, passages, waters, liberties, profits, commodities and appurtenances," the right to "Hawke, Hunt, Fish and Fowl," and to hold the lands "in free and common socage by fealty only." Van Bebber at once began the settlement of his township, and since it extended across two considerable streams of water, and was further removed from English influ- ence, he no doubt believed that it would possess advantages over Germantown and prove to be more attractive to the Dutch and German incomers who had been disappointed in that location. In all probability he had had a previous understanding with Pannebecker, who, immediately after the grant, with his brother-in-law, Johannes Umstat, re- moved from Germantown to the Skippack. Other
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settlers in 1702 were Johannes Kuster, Claus Jansen, and Jan Krey. In 1704 came John Jacobs, who founded one of the most influential of our colonial families. A grandson, Joseph Jacobs, a merchant in Philadelphia, was a signer of the non-importation resolutions of 1765, and treasurer of the Associa- tion library. His brother John was the last speaker of the assembly before the Revolution, and of him Benjamin Rush reported that he had been in favor of a republican form of government for twenty years before that time. Another brother, Benjamin, was a member of the Philadelphia county committee of safety in 1775, and signed some of the issues of colonial currency; a fourth brother, Israel, was a member from Pennsylvania of the second United States congress; a sister, Elizabeth, married Colonel Caleb Parry, killed at Long Island ; and a sister Hannah married the famous astronomer and mechanician, David Rittenhouse. In 1706 came John Newberry,' Thomas Wiseman, Edward Beer, Dirck Renberg, William Renberg, together with Ger- hard In de Hoffen and Herman In de Hoffen (De Haven), known of old in the Dutch books of mar- tyrology, and whose great tombstones, with their
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ancient inscriptions, give dignity to the Mennonite meeting house on the Skippack. They were fol- lowed in 1708 by Daniel Desmond, a name evidently French in origin, and now converted into Dismant; Johannes Scholl, some of whose descendants became manufacturers of iron and achieved distinction in the wars; Christopher Zimmerman, Hermannus Kuster, one of my own forefathers in the sixth generation, who is said, with what truth I know not, to hark back to Peter Kuster, the martyr, and Lawrence Kos- ter, the inventor of printing at Haerlem, and forward to General George A. Custer, killed on the plains ; and by Cornelius Dewees, and William Dewees, whose son, Colonel William Dewees, was sheriff of the county, and owned a mill at Valley Forge which the British burned in 1777. In 1709 came Andrew Strayer and three brothers from the village of Wolf- sheim in the Palatinate; Martin Kolb, long a noted Mennonite preacher; Johannes Kolb, who owned a Dutch copy of Erasmus; and Jacob Kolb, later killed by a cider press; in 1716 Solomon Dubois, from Ulster county, New York; and in 1727 Paul Fried. Ere long the settlement on the Skippack became known over the continent of Europe.
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There are many references to it in the Geistliche Fama, the Büdingische Sammlung, Fresenius Nach- richten, the Hallesche Nachrichten, and similar publications. A pamphlet published in Holland in 1731, giving information concerning "De Colonie en Kerke van Pensylvanien " is confined almost ex- clusively to affairs on the Skippack. When George Whitefield came to America he did not go to the Chester valley, or to the Susquehanna, but he did preach at Skippack. The Skippack road, laid out in 1713 to the settlement, and a few years later ex- tended four miles further to Pennypacker's Mills on the Perkiomen, became one of the three main thoroughfares to Philadelphia, over which a part of Braddock's army marched, going westward in 1755, and the continental army marched under Washing- ton, going eastward in 1777.
Van Bebber never lived in his township, but in 1704 moved from Philadelphia to Bohemia manor, Maryland, where he died in 1739, owning a part of the manor and many lands, and leaving a large family, the later members of which became dis- tinguished in the life of Delaware, Maryland, and the west. The name has been introduced into
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modern literature by Richard Harding Davis. The representative of Van Bebber in the settlement and the man of affairs among its people, laying out their roads, surveying their lands, supervising their real estate transactions, drawing their deeds, and taking charge of such matters as brought them into rela- tions with the province and other communities was Pannebecker. An examination of the deeds which have been saved from the maw of time almost in- variably shows his participation in the arrangements made between the parties, and, in most instances, he appears as a witness. In the deed, now in my possession, from Van Bebber and Hermana his wife to Johannes Fried, April 8, 1724, for one hun- dred and twenty-three acres, they describe Panne- becker as their attorney with power and authority to deliver seisin of the land, and it is altogether probable from the absence of Van Bebber, the neces- sity for some personal direction of affairs and the prompt movement of Pannebecker after the patent had been secured, that some such relation had ex- isted from the beginning.
The people of Skippack, June 2, 1713, pre- sented a petition to the county court saying that
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"pretty many families are already settled and prob- ably not a few more to settle" in that region, but that no road had yet been laid out, that "what paths have been hitherto used are only upon suf- france and liable to be fenced up," and asking that a road or cartway be established "from the upper end of said Township down to the Wide Marsh or Farmer's Mill." Favorable action was taken result- ing in the laying out of the Skippack road, the surveys for which there is reason to believe Panne- becker made. He was one of the signers of the petition.
On the 8th of June, 1717, Van Bebber and his wife, in consideration of "the true love and singular affection he the said Matthias Van Bebber bears to them and all theirs," conveyed one hundred acres of land to Henry Sellen, Claus Jansen, Henry Kolb, Martin Kolb, Jacob Kolb, Michael Ziegler and Hermannus Kuster, reserving an annual rental of one shilling and four pence to hold to them "the survivors and survivor of them and to the heirs and assigns of the said survivors or survivor for ever" upon the trust that "it shall be lawful for all and every the inhabitants of the aboves'd Bebbers Town-
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ship to build a school house, and fence in a sufficient Burying place upon the herein granted one hundred acres of land there to have their children and those of their respective families taught and instructed, and to bury their dead." So far as I know these provisions are without precedent in our annals, and have never been followed elsewhere. There are many instances where men have given lands and money for the support of some church, or philan- thropic scheme, with which they have been associ- ated or in which they were interested, but the recog- nition of a duty to provide for the education of all of the children of a township and the burial of all of the dead, and that for all time, the setting apart of so large a domain as one hundred acres for the pur- pose, and the expression of his affection for them, are not at all characteristic of a mere sale of lands, but indicate the patroonship or overlordship of the extensive Dutch grants, like that of Van Rensselaer at Albany, accompanied by a sense of obligation to to see that the needs of the people are anticipated. The deed was written by Pastorius and witnessed by Pannebecker. Since the two parties and the other witness, Isaac Van Bebber, were all then living at
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