USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania in American history > Part 12
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Bohemia manor, it is probable that he took the deed there to be executed.
The trust so established led to consequences which in one respect at least were more important than could have been foreseen. The school was conducted by Christopher Dock, "the pious School- master on the Skippack," whose memory I some years ago revived, and who has since been written about by Edward Eggleston and Martin G. Brum- baugh, and has become famous; and it was here, in 1750, that he wrote the earliest American essay upon pedagogy, and in 1764 upon etiquette.
All of the trustees were members of the Men- nonite church, and their selection was due no doubt to the fact that the greater number of the settlers belonged to that sect, and that the affiliations of Van Bebber were with it. Eight years later, March 30th, 1725, they, being then all still living, executed a declaration of trust, brought about doubtless by the determination to build a meeting house, which pur- pose was that year accomplished. This declaration set forth :
" Which s'd land & premisses were so as afores'd con- vey'd unto us by the direction and appointment of the
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Inhabitants of Bebberstownship afores'd belonging to the meeting of the people Called Menonists (alias Menisten) & the above recited deed poll was so made or Intended to us in trust to the Intend only that we or such or so many of us as shall be & Continue in unity & religious fellow- ship with the s'd people & remain members of the s'd meeting of the Menonists (alias Menisten) whereunto we now do belong should stand and be seized of the s'd land & premisses in & by the s'd deed poll granted To the uses and intends hereinafter mentioned & declared & under the Conditions & provisos & Restrictions hereinafter limitted & expressed & to no other use Intend or purpose whatso- ever, that is to say For the benifit use and behoof of the poor of the s'd people called Menonists (alias Menisten) in Bebberstownship afores'd forever And for a place to Erect a meeting house for the use & Service of the s'd people, & for a place to bury their dead, as also for all & every the Inhabitants of the s'd Bebberstownship to build a school house & fence in a sufficient burying place upon the s'd one hundred acres of land there to have their Children & those of their respective families taught & In- structed & to bury their dead Provided always that neither we nor any of us nor any other person or persons Suc- ceeding us in this trust who shall be declared by the mem- bers of the s'd meeting for the time being to be out of unity with them shall be Capable to Execute this trust while we or they shall so remain But that in all such cases as also when any of us or others Succeeding us in the trust afores'd shall hapen to depart this life then it shall & may be lawfull to & for the members of the s'd meeting as often as ocasion shall require to make Choice
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of others to mannage & execute the s'd trust instead of such as shall so fall away or be deceased. And upon this further trust & Confidence that we and the Survivor of us & the heirs of such survivor should upon the request of the members of the s'd meeting either assign over the s'd trust or Convey & Settle the s'd one hundred acres of land & premises to such person or persons as the members of the s'd meeting shall order or appoint To & For the uses Intends & Services afores'd Now Know Ye that we the s'd Henry Sellen, Claus Jansen, Henry Kolb, Martin Kolb, Jacob Kolb, Michael Ziegler & Hermanus Kuster do hereby acknowledge that we are nominated in the s'd recited deed poll by & on the behalf of the s'd people called Menonisten (alias Menisten) and that we are therein trusted only by & for the members of the s'd meeting and that we do not claim to have any right or Intrest in the s'd Land and premises or any part thereof to our own use & benifit."
By this declaration the trustees endeavored, while maintaining the original trust of providing for the education of the children of all the inhabi- tants of the township, and for the burying of their dead, to so extend its purposes that the land should be held for the benefit of the poor of the Mennon- ites, and for the erection of a meeting house for the people of that sect, and, on the other hand, to so re- strict it that only members in good standing in this meeting could act as trustees. They also make the
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statement that their selection was due to a nomina- tion made by the members of the meeting. It is plain they were acting under the guidance of some one more or less familiar with the forms of convey- ancing, but unacquainted with the principles of the law. The deed shows the characteristic peculiari- ties of the handwriting of Pannebecker. For many years Pastorius used a seal with the device of a sheep, above which were his initials, "F. D. P." He had been dead seven years. His seal, however, was used upon this declaration seven times, and like- wise upon the deed of Johannes Fried, before re- ferred to, in 1724, which indicates that it was at that time in the possession of some one living in Skippack. It could be no other than Pannebecker, and this leads to the query as to whether or not he had secured the forms and other paraphernalia of Pastorius after the death of the " Pennsylvania Pil- grim." The witnesses were Hans George Reiff, a member of the German Reformed church, who wrote a neat signature, and Antonius Heilman, a Lutheran living at the Trappe. Whether this selec- tion of witnesses was the result of chance alone, or had some purpose, it is impossible to determine.
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In the deed of 1717 from Van Bebber there was a reservation of an annual rent of one shilling and four pence "current silver money of Pensilva- nia " to be paid to him and his heirs on the first day of each March for ever. It is evident that this reservation was not intended in any sense as the con- sideration for the conveyance or any part of it. The consideration is fully stated. It was customary in the proprietary deeds of the time to reserve the payment of a modicum of corn, wheat, roses, money, or other tangible thing, in recognition of the fealty due to the lord of the fee, and in reten- tion of the idea of the duty of service which was incident to the feudal system. This thought, in- sisted upon by Van Bebber, as something owed to him and conceded by his purchasers, will be found in all of his deeds, and it is further evidence that his relation to the people of this settlement was considered by him and them to be that of a patroon as well as a vendor. It was regarded as so important that it was expressed even in a gift to the trustees of a charity. On the 17th of June, 1737, two years before his death, Van Bebber executed to six of the trustees, Jacob Kolb being then dead, a re-
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lease of his annual rent to the extent of "six pence sterling for fifty acres of the within specified or mentioned land, the other fifty acres being for the use and benefit of the Dutch Baptist Society, being excepted, reserved and foreprized together with the proportionable part of the yearly Quitrent accruing to the Chief Lord of the Fee." This language is somewhat obscure, but it shows that the reservation was to the lord of the fee, there being likewise a quitrent to Penn, the chief lord of the fee. The amount was of so little importance that the four pence were forgotten entirely. The lands have ever since been retained and still belong to the Mennonite meeting, so early and well endowed, and the venerable place with its important associations and hallowed graveyard deserves more attention than it has hitherto of recent years received. The Dutch Bible used in the meeting house is still in existence.
By order of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia County, upon petition of the residents, the township was regularly laid out and surveyed in 1725 and given the name of "Skippack and Per- kiomen," and thereafter the earlier name of Bebber began to fade and disappear into the distance. The
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effort was made, under the direction of Pannebecker, who secured the signatures to the petition, and gave his assistance to those who were unable to write. The names attached to the petition are Klas Jansen, Johan Umstat, Peter Bon, Henry Pannebecker, Hermanus Kuster, Paulus Frid, Johannes van Fos- sen, Johannes Friedt, Hans Tetweiller, Jacob Scheimer, Paul Friedt, Willem Weirman, Nicholas H-st, Henrich Kolb, Martin Kolb, Jacob Kolb, Jacob Merckley, Arnold van Fossen, Isaac Dubois, Huppert Kassel, John Pawling, John Jacobs, Rich- ard Jacob, Michael Ziegler, Christoph Dock, Hans Volweiller, Valentin Hunsicker, Richard Göbel, Matthias Teissen, Arnold Van Vossen, Jacob Op de Graff, George Merckle, Daniel Deesmont, and Peter Jansen.
In the spring of 1728 horrid war raised its grisly front almost in the midst of this scene of quiet and peace, causing untold agitation throughout the settlement, and terror to the inhabitants. During the month of April there were repeated rumors of threatened attacks by bodies of hostile Indians. On the 29th a communication was sent to Philadelphia to Governor Patrick Gordon, signed
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by a number of people living on what was then the frontier, mostly Germans and Welsh, informing him "That the Indians are Consulting against us;" that the people were so disturbed that "Several Families have left their Plantations with what Ef- fects they could possibly carry away Women in Childbed being forced to Expose themselves to the Coldness of ye air whereby their lives are in Dan- ger;" and asking him to take such measures with respect to the situation that they might be freed from these alarms. This warning does not appear to have aroused the governor to the necessity for action. A few days later eleven Indians in their war paint, fully armed, and under the command of a "Spanish Indian," appeared only five miles beyond the borders of Bebber's township, and, going from house to house, compelled the people to supply them with victuals and drink. Twenty men gath- ered together for defence, some of them armed with guns, and some with swords, started in pursuit of the Indians, and, overtaking them, sent two of their number to parley with the leader. He refused to receive the messengers and, raising a sword, or- dered his braves to fire. They obeyed, and two of
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the settlers were wounded. The latter returned the fire, the doughty Spanish Indian was hit and fell, but arising, "run into the Woods after his Party, having left his Gun and Match Coat behind him." As was to be expected, the affair was much exag- gerated. It was widely reported that there was a general uprising of the savages, that this band was only the advance guard of the host with which the forests were filled, and that already several of the German settlers at Tulpehocken and elsewhere had been killed. The whole country was aroused, and in a state of commotion. The waters of the Skip- pack and the Perkiomen seemed to take a tinge of red and to murmur of disaster.
There was living at that time on the east side of the easternmost of the three roads which ran northwestward from Philadelphia through Philadel- phia, now Montgomery county, near where the road crossed the Skippack creek, and three or four miles further up the stream than Pannebecker, a man named John Roberts, who was evidently thrown into a state of mental excitement by the stirring events occurring around him. On the 10th of May he wrote a petition to the governor. It is
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headed "Van Bebbers Township and ye Adjacencies Belonging," and proceeds:
"We think It fit to address your Excellency for Relief for your Excellency must Know That we have Suf- ered and Is Like to Sufer By the Ingians they have fell upon ye Back Inhabitors about falkner's Swamp & New Coshahopin. Therefore We the humble Petitioners With our poor Wives and Children Do humbly beg of your Excellency To Take It into Consideration and Relieve us the Petitioners hereof whos Lives Lies at Stake with us and our Poor Wives & Children that Is more to us than Life."
The first signature to the paper is that of John Roberts, the second John Pawling, who lived on the east bank of the Perkiomen about a mile below Pennypacker's Mills, and was a warden of St. James's Episcopal church, the third Hendrick Pannebecker, the fourth William Lane, who gave forty acres of glebe land, still retained, to that church, and then follow :
John Jacobs, Isaac Dubois, Israel Morris, Ben- jamin Fry, Jacob Op den Graeff, Johannes Scholl, Richard Adams, George Poger, Adam Sellen, Diel- man Kolb, Martin Kolb, Gabriel Shouler, Anthony Halman, John Isaac Klein, Hans Detweiler, Will- iam Bitts, Heinrich Ruth, Hupert Kassel, Henry
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Teutlinger, Christian Weber, Gerhard In de Hoffen, Lorentz Bingaman, Richard Jacob, Hermannus Kuster, Peter Bun, Jacob Engers, Hans Weierman, Conrad Custer, Jacob Marieke, Christian Neus- wanger, Conrad Reiff, Jacob Kolb, Hans Ulrich Bergey, John Myer, Henrich Kolb, John Fried, Paul Fried, William Smith, Peter Rambo, David Young, Christopher Schmidt, Garrett Clemens, Jo- hannes Reichardt, Matthias Tyson, Peter Johnson, Hans Joest Heijt, Christian Allebach, Hans Reiff, Daniel Stauffer, Abraham Schwartz, Johann Valen- tine Kratz, John Johnson, Ulrich Heffelfinger, Nicholas Haldeman, Michael Ziegler, Christian Stoner, Johannes Garber, John Haldeman, Claus Jansen, Nicholas Hicks, Johannes Leisher, Jacob Sheimer, Michael Krause, Peter Reiff, George Reiff, George Meyer, Bastian Smith, Edward In de Hoffen, Christian Kroll, Jacob Grater, Jacob Stauffer, Henry Stauffer and Paul Fried, Jr .*
Forty-four of these seventy-seven names were written by Roberts himself, and it is probably a fairly complete list of the residents at that time.
* This petition in the Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I., is given a mis- taken heading and misprinted.
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A man upon horseback rode "with speed " into Philadelphia, bearing this pathetic message to the governor, who the same day, accompanied by Andrew Hamilton and several others, hastened to Manatawny, where he remained until the 14th. He found the country in very great disorder, many of the houses deserted, a number of Germans " gathered together at a mill* near New Hanover township in order to defend themselves," and a man who had been " wounded in the Belly." An angry feeling was rife, indicating a purpose to kill whatever Indians could be found. He issued a commission to John Pawling of Bebber's township, Marcus Huling, and Mordecai Lincoln, ancestor of the president, authorizing these persons to organize the settlers for defence and protection, and he dis- tributed some powder and lead among them. The hostile Indians were a band of Shawanese on their way, as their chief afterward alleged, to aid the Delawares in a war with the Flatfeet. Altogether five of the settlers and several of the Indians had
* The only mills then in existence which could possibly have been meant were Moyer's, Yelger's, Zimmerman's, Boone's, Maak's, Welker's, and Pennypacker's, the last then owned by Hans Joest Heijt, and of these the first three were in Hanover, and not near it.
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been wounded more or less seriously, but not- withstanding the wild rumors, none were killed. It is interesting as the only engagement with the savages which ever occurred in the vicinity of Philadelphia.
For twenty-five years, from 1702 to 1727, the settlement had grown in size and importance with Van Bebber far away at Bohemia manor, and Pan- nebecker living on the Skippack, acting as his attorney, and representing those interests of the community which arose in the course of its grad- ual but steady development. Now Van Bebber was getting old, the cares of life were becoming more of a burden, and a great change, interesting to the individuals concerned, and important to the settlement, was impending. At that time there was living in Pennsylvania a young merchant from Holland, a member of the assembly, whose family were of theological, literary, and social consequence in Europe, named Lodowick Christian Sprogell, born at Quedlinburg, July 16, 1683. His father was an eminent divine and author who presided over the seminary at Quedlinburg; his mother Susanna Margaretta Wagner was the only daughter
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of the noted composer of music, Michael Wagner ; his sister Anna Maria married Godfried Arnold, who wrote the most valuable church history of his time, still recognized and studied as an author- ity ; his brother John Henry Sprogell recovered in an ejectment suit against Pastorius the lands of Germantown and Manatawny, and brought from Berlin miners to mine the first copper found in Pennsylvania, and when he was baptized at Qued- linburg his sponsors were Herr Jacoby Nicholas, the pastor; Anna Maria, Countess of Hesse ; and Angelica, Princess of Anhalt. Sprogell and Pan- nebecker conceived together the great scheme of getting control and possession of Bebber's town- ship, and their efforts resulted in success. On the 7th of July, 1727, Van Bebber conveyed to Spro- gell alone, though with knowledge that it was in the interest of both, "all the remaining part of the s'd six thousand one hundred and sixty six acres of land which was unsold and not conveyed by the s'd Matthias Van Bebber at the date of the s'd Lease and Release together with the appurtenances ex- cepting one hundred and twenty acres of land in the s'd Release reserved".
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How often the anticipations of men, even those which seem to rest on the surest foundations, are blighted and come to naught. For Sprogell it proved to be a brief ownership and a short season of importance. Ere two years had gone by, on the 5th of June, 1729, he was dead. Another period of two years rolled along, and then, November 17th, 1731, Catharina Sprogell, the widow, and John Lodowick Sprogell and Susanna Catharina Sprogell, the children, conveyed to Hendrick Pan- nebecker of Bebber's township, reciting the deed from Van Bebber, "all the Remaining part of the s'd Tract of land herein above described which now Remains unsold & not Conveyed by the s'd Matthias Van Bebber or the s'd Lodwig Christian Sprogel excepting the one hundred & twenty acres of land in the s'd Release Reserved" and all of the interest inherited by them. Neither of these two deeds has any reference to the number of acres transferred. They conveyed a township sub- ject to such rights as had become vested in other prior purchasers. The sales which up to that time had been made, so far as they have been ascertained by my own investigations and those of James Y.
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Heckler, the local historian who wrote upon the subject, were as follows :
Hendrick Pannebecker 404 acres
Johannes Umstat 204 “
Dirck & William Renberg 300 Gerhard & Herman In de Hoffen 440 Gerhard Clemens 100 .
The Mennonite Meeting 100
Andrew Schrayer
100
Claus Jansen
306
Daniel Desmond
150
Johannes Kolb .
150
Solomon Dubois
500
John Krey
306
Johannes Fried .
123
Reserved .
I20
3303 acres
As might have been expected, there was some friction. Where people have through a long time become accustomed to the conditions surrounding them radical changes always result in a feeling of annoyance. There must have been some contention and disturbance, some dissatisfaction with the new order of things, some unhappy feeling engendered by the new proprietorship, but what it was, and
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what was the cause of it, and to what extent it pro- ceeded, we do not know and probably never shall know. However, nearly a year afterward, Van Bebber issued this proclamation to the people:
"To all Persons in Bebbers Township who have bought formerly of me M. Bebber Any Land in s'd Town- ship Know Yea That on the 7th day of July 1727 I sold & Convayed unto L.C. Sprögel all the Land that I had Leaft unsold at that Time in s'd Township & whereas s'd Land was Convayed to s'd Sprögel notwithstanding that all the unsold Land was Convayed to s'd Sprögel yet ye True Meaning and Agreemt was that Henry Pannebecker was to have a Share of s'd Land he paying his Share also of Ye Consideration into s'd Van Bebber. Now Know Yea that my desire & will is for every of you to Injoy all which I Sold & Convayed unto you and No More & that ye Rest the Said Henry Pannebeckers May Injoy according his Deed of Sprogell's heires having Date ye 7th of 9 mo Ao. 1731 & that without Quarling or hinderance.
Given under my hand the 22nd 8br 1732 M. BEBBER."
Upon the back of this impressive document Pannebecker has written "Matthias Van Bebber's deseier and will too the peopel." It was folded so as to make a long and narrow slip, and the back is rubbed and soiled, showing that he carried it about with him, probably in a leather wallet, for
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months, in order that it might be exhibited to all interested. Its tone of paternal authority, lingering after all rights of property had been abandoned, is quite manifest.
At last Pannebecker had reached the foremost position in a movement with which he had been connected for thirty years, had become the head of a settlement and the sole proprietor of a great township. He owned many other acres elsewhere- on the branches of the Perkiomen, in Salford, the site of the present Harleysville, and in Hanover- but none which had the same importance or could have given the same satisfaction. He was now fifty-eight years of age, and this step may be said to have been the culmination of the efforts of a life. For some unexplained reason neither Van Bebber nor Sprogell had provided for the quitrents due to the proprietaries. The account books of the Penns show that 4 mo. 20, 1735, Pannebecker paid these rents upon "6166 A's Bebber's Township 33 years in full £15 5s 3d" and that six years later, May 22, 1741, he paid in full a balance due for the intervening period of 10f 15s. Id. These entries make it plain that Pannebecker had assumed
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the relation of Van Bebber toward the township along with its responsibilities .* He gave of his lands to each of five sons, and they all became mill- ers, almost the only occupation in which at that early day, in a rural community, capital could be invested at a profit. The sale by one of his sons of a bushel of "Deer's hair" gives a bit of color to the picture. He made surveys for the proprie- tors and individuals and trained a grandson named for him, Henry Vanderslice, afterwards sheriff of Berks county in 1768, to succeed him. He shipped flour to Philadelphia to the Penns. His teamster, Abraham Yungling, drove to the recently erected furnaces and forges in Philadelphia, Chester and Berks counties at Colebrookdale, Pine Forge, Pool Forge, Warwick Furnace, Coventry Forge, and Reading Furnace, and hauled the iron, one ton at a time, to the Philadelphia merchants. He drank his wine, I am sorry to say occasionally his rum, and, according to Muhlenberg, who had been frowned upon as a carpet bagger (Neulander), he was fond of them. He was engaged in at least five
* With the first payment Jacob Kolb appears to have had something to do.
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lawsuits. He read his Bible, printed at Heidelberg in 1568, and his other books of mystical theology and what not, and generously, though unwisely, loaned of his store to his neighbors. Another quarter of a century rolled away, and one morning, the 4th of April, 1754, he fell over dead at the ripe old age of eighty years and two weeks, and thus fitly ended the career of the last of the Dutch patroons in Pennsylvania.
HIGH WATER MARK OF THE BRITISH INVASION
[Historical address delivered at the dedication of the memorial mon- ument, at Phoenixville, September 21, 1907.]
W E meet here to-day upon the outer edge of the classic region of America. On the battlefield of Gettysburg the government of the United States has erected an elaborately in- scribed memorial to mark the farthest northward surge of the waves of rebellion. In like manner the borough of Phoenixville has here set up this stone of native granite from the shores of the French creek to designate the westernmost inland point reached by the main army of British invaders during the Revolutionary war, in the times that tried men's souls. Philadelphia was then the metropolis and capital city of the country, the centre of its litera- ture, science and cultivation, as well as of its trade and wealth. In that city had met the preliminary
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congress of 1774, and there, in the most mem- orable of American buildings, the state house of the province, the Continental Congress had in 1776 issued the fateful declaration of independence, and in 1777 were holding their daily sessions. The purpose of the campaign of 1777, with its many battles and its long and rapid marches, was upon the part of Howe to capture, and upon the part of Washington to protect, the city of Phila- delphia. Both of the contestants were of the opinion that the outcome of this campaign would in all probability determine the result of the war. On the one side it was believed, and on the other it was feared, that the fall of Philadelphia would lead to a cessation of hostilities and the restoration of British control over the colonies. Howe took his army by sea to the Chesapeake bay, and on the 25th of August landed at the head of the Elk river. On the 5th of September Washington, then at Wil- mington, said to his soldiers:
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