USA > Pennsylvania > The Historical journal : a quarterly record of local history and genealogy devoted principally to Northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 11
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timber ; neither hilly nor level. Plain, old-fashioned settlements. Many of the buildings log; barns thatched with straw ; clay ovens; women scutching flax. Two or three o'clock we passed from Dauphin into Lebanon County. Same appearance of country. It looks like a settlement of good, old residenters, ignorant of pride. The farmers seem disposed to leave small lots of timber stand. A good deal of timber for an old settled country. There is something in the appearance of this country, not in the natural face, but in the style of its improvements, that brings to " remem- brance joys that are past." Log houses with whitewashed cracks, thatched barns; women at work out doors. Crossed the Swatara in the evening. Passed the water works and the Pine Grove feeder, which is navigable 18 or 20 miles. The water works are for throwing water into the Summit level. Went through 9 or 10 of the locks after dark. These 19 locks are all close together at the West end of the Summit level. Stopped for the night at 10 o'clock. The day has been pleasant. Traveled 34 miles.
THURSDAY, Nov. 14 .- Started about daylight. Passed the re- mainder of the 19 locks into the Summit level-the Summit that divides the waters of the Susquehanna from those of the Schuyl- kill. Passed Lebanon. Foggy and drizzling ; could not see the town; it is situated on the Summit, not on the highest ground. Limestone land : a beautiful country, almost level, the hills low. Buildings are more tasty ; some very fine. Bank barns chiefly ; many of them thatched with straw. Fence rows clean ; very little corn cut up. Before we came to Lebanon we passed through the tunnel. Near the town we saw a very tasty garden with a glass house in it, the property of a Mr. Lehman. Soon began to de- scend towards the Schuylkill, down the Tulpehocken from its source. Canal very crooked, winding along the stream. Passed three stone houses in the course of the day, pretty large, and re- sembling each other, built about 100 years ago. In the evening passed from Lebanon into Berks County. Came 21 miles to-day. German settlements. The land is valued at $100 an acre. Course East, or nearly so.
Manner of living in the boat not very regular. Sometimes we eat breakfast late, mostly one at a time, each one baking his own buckwheat cakes; take "a piece " for dinner; supper sometimes
*
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before night, sometimes after. The locks on the Union Canal, as far as we have come, are built of hewn sandstone, good work, and handsomely coped; better work than in the Pennsylvania locks.
FRIDAY, Nov. 15 .- Started a little before day. Our stopping place last night was within 14 miles of Reading by land and 26 by canal. Course East, but very serpentine. Country chicfly limestone. Good buildings; some very fine : stone with few ex- ceptions. Passed two or three small old buildings covered with .. tile. As we descended the stream more elevated hills prevented a view of the country. It could be seen, however, that the timber was oak, except along the sides of the hills facing the stream. After traveling some time we saw pine, then some beach and hem- lock, then cedar. The hills, though low, put up to the creek or river (a small stream for a creek), in some places abruptly exposing their limestone and slaty rock of some kind. Stone flouring mills every few miles. Drizzling, and rain in the forenoon, notwithstand- ing a pleasant day. Came to the Schuylkill a mile or two above Reading. Course East. Stopped for the night opposite Reading; 67 miles from Philadelphia. A break in the Union Canal made it necessary to take the Schuylkill.
SATURDAY, Nov. 16 .- Started after daylight. Crossed the Schuylkill to the Reading side. Had but an imperfect view of Reading. Saw a number of steeples, a foundry and Keim's nail factory. Saw a locomotive with a train of cars starting for Phila- delphia. Three or four miles below Reading crossed the Schuyl- kill to the South side.
The Schuylkill here is not much larger than Pine Creek. Saw cedar, some limestone; mountains at a distance, rocky and bar- ren ; some alluvial bottom : hills low and tillable : buildings chiefly of red sandstone. a few covered with tile. Mostly good bank barns : land from appearance not very good. The country has not that sociable and unpretending appearance that is in the country abont the head of Swatara, and in Dauphin and Lebanon Counties.
At three o'clock we passed from Berks into Chester County. Montgomery County on the North side of the river. Distance from Reading, 18 miles. Passed Pottsgrove. It is made up of a few good looking houses. A short distance from it, handsomely situated on a hill, is a poor house, a handsome building. Both are
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on the other side of the river in Montgomery County. Passed and met a number of Schuylkill boats employed in carrying coal from Pottsville to Philadelphia. Still in Chester County, on the North side of it. Stopped for the night within 32 miles of Philadelphia by water, and 28 by land. Came 34 miles. Four of us lodged in the boat cabin. Upper and nether bunk on each side and very little room in the middle. Rose is stretched on a bed made on a board elevated near the roof. The stove is on one side, the table is at one end, and there is very little room in the middle.
SUNDAY, Nov. 17 .- Started in on another week about daylight. Passed a beautiful railroad bridge across the river, consisting of four arches built altogether of cut sandstone. It fronts the tunnel through a mountain four or five hundred feet high. The river, in running two or three miles, makes a turn past the other end of the tunnel. It looked odd to see the cars pitching straight through the mountain.
Crossed the river into Montgomery. Good buildings. Some of them fine. Crossed about noon back into Chester County. Stopped opposite Norristown. a handsome little manufacturing town, 16 miles from the city. Boats running thick. Horses, many of them. worried down. Humanity, if no other consideration, should stop the running of boats on the Sabbath ; besides a large number of people are deprived of the influence of the Sabbath.
Staid at Norristown. In the evening went to preaching; first to the Presbyterian Church. Learning there would be no preach- ing there, Mr. Simmons and myself went to the Methodist. Their minister being from home, we directed our course to the Baptist, but finally got into the Episcopalian, a very fine building, beauti- fully furnished in the inside with splendid lamps. The minister appeared first in a white gown, then in a black-too much cere- mony. Took his text in Acts: " Those times of ignorance God winked at, &c." Gave some important events in the history of Athens in a clear and something of an elegant style-gave a de- scription of repentance, then explained more fully the character of true repentance, and illustrated from the parable of the prodigal son, and application. The organ and singers made good music ; there were few that sang. Came home to lodge in the boat.
Norristown is a pretty clever town, 16 miles from Philadelphia,
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connected with the city by a railroad, besides the one from Read- ing on the other side of the river. Buildings chiefly rough cast.
MONDAY, Nov. 18 .- Sold and unloaded the wheat and started empty for Philadelphia, much of the way on the trot. Passed companies of Irishmen at work.
THURSDAY, Nov. 21 .- Started from Vine street wharf, Phila- delphia ; crossed the river without difficulty. Delayed at the lock in consequence of an unusually low tide. Isaac Smith's boat ran aground on a gravel bar ; just above broke our towing post and the horses got tangled in their gears on a towing path bridge; a hand went back to help Smith off. Landed at Norristown, or Bridge- town, opposite Norristown, 16 miles from Philadelphia. This is a manufacturing town. Just opposite is a large cotton factory. three stories high, 16 windows in the front of each story, handsomely illuminated. I was told that 72 females are employed in each story.
This day has been very cold; the ground frozen and the ice freezing on the bushes near the shore; very blustering, strong winds; the thermometer 8 degrees below freezing. A long dis- tance from home this season of the year. How desirable its com- forts. What a contrast is this cabin, and this employment ! Noth- ing can compensate for the loss of the society of one's own family ; at least when that family is the beloved.
FRIDAY, Nov. 22 .- Started from Norristown. Isaac Smith's boat yet behind. Went two or three miles and waited an hour or two, and started again without the arrival of the boat. Stopped at the beginning of the twenty-two mile canal, as it is called, the navigation along this river being part slack water and part canal. Came 22 miles, 38 from Philadelphia. When we started this morning there was no ice. This afternoon the river in many places was frozen over three-fourths of an inch thick. This day was cold but not so windy. To-night the thermometer stands 6 or 7 below freezing.
SATURDAY, Nov. 23 .- Frozen up. Thermometer 14 degrees below freezing. Isaac Smith's boat not yet arrived. Forenoon, a company of boats passed us, breaking through the ice. After wait- ing till near sundown, with much anxiety, undetermined almost
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whether to go or stay, Isaac Smith's boat arrived. We then started and came about 18 miles and stopped between one and two o'clock in the morning. Started Sunday 24th and came to Reading. Hear the fiddle tuning up in some of the boats while I am writing this. A number of boats are waiting here in conse- quence of the ice in the Union Canal. A most unpleasant day. snowing and raining. Crossed the river from the Reading side and entered the Union Canal; it had been frozen up. This after- noon boats are beginning to run. Stopped before dark ; raining ; got a stable ; raining to-night and thawing.
MONDAY, Nov. 25 .- Started two or three hours before daylight ; detained at the lock. Fed at dark, and started again. Smith. S., our boy driver, opposed starting, even to tears. Cold night. Comfortable in the cabin ; a good stone coal fire in the little stove. A comfortable place to sleep in a cold night. To help the driver along I got out and walked with him.
TUESDAY, NOV. 26 .- Cold, sharp morning. Started about day- light. About sunrise passed from Berks into Lebanon, 103 miles below the town of Lebanon. Stopped with ice. Went on a mile or two and stopped within half a mile of the Summit. Some boats with difficulty got through the locks into the Summit level. and with the half of a flat meant to proceed to Lebanon, five miles from this.
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 27 .- Within half a mile of the Summit. At the head of the Tulpehocken : stopped with ice. This morning more pleasant. A possibility of a thaw. Determined to wait another day.
THURSDAY, Nov. 28 .- Pleasant day and thawing. Started in the afternoon behind some boats that broke the ice and got to Lebanon after dark. Froze that night ..
FRIDAY, Nov. 29 .- Doubtful about starting. Went down the canal three or four miles, to see the condition of the canal. The ice strong and from appearance difficult to break. Began . thawing about noon. Concluded to start. Six boats in company : the ice hard to break ; difficult to get through the locks after it was broken. Came five miles.
SATURDAY, Nov. 30 .- Started in the morning. Six boats : gave
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25 cents apiece for going before with a flat to break the ice two miles. Hard getting along till we came to the Pine Grove feeders. below which the canal was free from ice for some distance. Passed through part of Lebanon and Dauphin. Log houses with whitewashed cracks: red gable ends; some frame houses painted red ; thatched barns : clay ovens. It has no lazy appearance. For some distance this side of Philadelphia rough cast houses were the rule, then red sandstone, then the more lively looking limestone. then the plain. honest log. Stopped within eight miles of Mid- dletown.
SUNDAY, DEC. 1 .- Sabbath, started before day ; passed Middle- town; came in view of the Susquehanna: anxious to stop, but over- ruled. Fed at Harrisburg. Dark before we came to the crossing of the Susquehanna. River higher than when we went down. Rose, the captain, expressed doubts of the propriety of crossing with our own towing line ( the State has a large rope that is used when the river is high.) The captain thought the river was not too high. We struck in, but what was our surprise and alarm. when about one-third of the way across we found the ice broken up and running thick. Notwithstanding our breach of the Sab- bath, I had the courage to look to Heaven for help, and sprang for a pole. We called to the driver, "steady." The boat almost stopped : we got through safe. If the rope had broken we would have gone over the dam." We got into the canal and were satis- fied to stop for that day.
The greatest wisdom is implicit obedience to the command of God. If we had kept the Sabbath we would not have been ex- posed to this danger.
MONDAY, DEC. 2 .- Detained two or three hours with low water below Liverpool. The rest of the day very fine going. After nine o'clock we were within an hour's drive of Selinsgrove. In the cabin thinking of home: can recollect William's features pretty distinctly, Isaac's less distinctly, Alexander's still less dis- tinctly, and have almost forgotten how little Johnny looks. I can remember his little paddling motion up the embankment and across the bridge and out of sight ; his wheeling and coming back again : his wheeling again and going across. Fine sport but dangerous.
* Known to boatnien and raftsmen as Green's dem.
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The remainder of the trip was pleasant. Samuel Simmons and Isaac Smith left their boats in charge of the hands and returned home from the city by rail and stage. Smith's boat did not get up that fall.
Simmons and his wife were anxious and uneasy about their son, our little driver. They lived nearly half a mile from the canal. It was midnight when we reached Pine Creek. We blew the horn. Simmons and his wife were at the landing when we ar- rived. Home!
LOCAL HISTORY-ITS INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE. BY EDITH C. BAILY, JERSEY SHORE.
I F, as the poet has said, " the proper study of mankind is man,"
the importance of the collection and preservation of local history cannot easily be overestimated. Creatures of one great Creator, a kindly interest in all members of the human family is natural, and, in its proper exercise, refining and ennobling to a high degree.
Inquiring closely into the intelligence brought from the ends of the earth, flashed over the magic ocean-buried cable, or the not less wonderful aerial telegraph, scattered in the million leaves turned off by the untiring press, it is of man in his doing, being, suffering. that we read. Earthquake or tornado, fire or flood, shipwreck or mine disaster, the festal wedding or the sad funeral, all are thrill- ing, interesting or heartrending, because of their relation to human life and prosperity. Tidings from the world at large come thus to us daily, and the person who reads but one weekly paper, and that not a very live one, is away behind the age, and in imminent danger of becoming that very unpleasant and uninteresting object, a human fossil. How strange, then, that in the clamor for news, local life and history should be neglected ; yet the principle of this neglect is as old as our Christian faith, whose Founder, speak- ing as never man spake, said, "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house." We are too apt to feel that in our own locality nothing of note or worthy of record can take place. The young professional man makes a better start in life away from home, and persons are less likely to be appre-
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ciated in mental toil or literary work among those who have been their associates from childhood. Yet it is not for us to know what part of our local record will be called for as a part of general history, nor who of our own citizens is to be the one whom the King delighteth to honor. It seemed no great deed for Paul Revere to hang that lantern in the belfry of the Old North Church, yet its rays have flashed as far as the sound of the first gun at Lexington. .
" Where once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world."
Luke Varnum, the blacksmith's hoy, left sadly at home from the war because of his lameness, builded better than he knew when he shod General Warner's horse, on an August day almost a century ago ; for he saved the battle of Bennington for America, and gave his own modest name to history. Such acts. cherished by some careful hand, are but a few of many which give history its charm, as the fine touches in a picture give clearness and character to the whole. .
The collection of local data and happenings by the way, is often regarded as evidence of eccentricity, a harmless diversion of the weak mind, yet there have been those in all ages whose refined and meditative natures cherish the quiet life close at hand, and delight to gather its many colored threads into one softly tinted web. Sir Walter's quaint Old Mortality has plenty of good company.
It is this faculty of seizing upon the interesting features of every- day life that gives to the works of our best writers their charm. Those who have read "The Strange Friend," " The Quaker Widow," and others of Bayard Taylor's delightful stories and poems, will recall the quaint speech, and the fidelity with which every scene of the quiet Quaker life is drawn. Cable, in his de- scriptions of the dreamy, uneventful and ignorant existence of the Acadians and Creoles in Louisiana, has taken the reading world by storm, depicting as he does with a master's hand that with which he is familiar, making no errors in the finest details.
The flora of any given locality is a most charming study, to one who will seek with the zeal of a true lover the haunts of our native flowers, ferns and shrubs, noting their habits and prefer- ences, and their family traits and peculiarities. Of birds there are
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enough to provide material for the enthusiasm of an ornithologist, and our rocks and hills will yield their secrets to those who search with knowledge.
Thus I have indicated the importance of local records; their systematic preservation is a debt we owe to future generations. We have heard of the old negro who said, " What I keer for pos- terity? Posterity nebber done nothin' for dis niggah." Possibly this feeling, unspoken, exists in other minds than that of Uncle Jonah. Yet it is more pleasant to imagine the people of the future looking over our well kept records with pleasure. feeling a family pride in the same, than that they should be obliged to make out our history by chance scraps found here and there, and by the traditions of the elders, which, while very entertaining, are not un- failingly exact.
We as Pennsylvanians have an inheritance not to be held lightly, a roll of honorable names; from William Penn, the Indian's friend, down a long line of true and brave, both men and women, who spared not counsel, treasure, life or limb, to make this Common- wealth a praise among the people. Our soil is sacred by the tears of the bereft ; by the burial of the slain, by the joy of victory and the calm of peace ; each foot of our heritage is holy ground, and to us nothing may henceforth be common or unworthy.
. A PROLIFIC FAMILY.
L EWIS BRICKER. SR., of Greene County, Pa., had a very large family, and he determined to distribute them in the Western country # where lands were cheap and he could provide them with farms. Accordingly he bought 1,600 acres of land in what is now Knox County, Ohio, and started the elder members of his family to it in the spring of 1810. Of the number were Peter, and George Lewis, his brother-in-law. They went out to that wilderness region, camped one night, and the next morning hitched up their teams and by noon were on their way back. They reported the country wild, and did not believe it ever would be settled. They saw many Indians and heard the owls hooting and the wolves howling all night; and, unaccustomed to such things.
* Norton's History of Knox County, Ohio, published in 1862, p. 348.
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they agreed with their wives to let the land go before they would risk their lives and their children in the Owl Creek region, * which they believed to be . the next thing to, if not altogether, the in- fernal regions. Their father, however, accustomed to frontier life, and knowing also the value of the lands in that country, deter- mined in the fall to make another effort at settlement. Accord- ingly he sent out another delegation of his family and continued the work until he got into what is Liberty Township the following children: Peter, George, John, Jacob, David, Solomon, Lewis. Catharine, Rachel and Mrs. George Lewis, who in time peopled that wilderness, felled the forest and cultivated the ground. They multiplied by the "double rule of three." Peter Bricker had a dozen children, and George Lewis sixteen; George Bricker, eight ; John Bricker, who followed them about a year later, six; Jacob, who joined them about 1813, five; David, who arrived about 1817, had six: Solomon arrived the same year and added eleven children; Lewis arrived in 1819 and had six. Catharine married John Conkle about 1827, and had six: Rachel married John Pruner and had seven. All of the original Brickers re- married in Liberty, except David, who resided in Morgan Town- ship. George Lewis died many years ago. Of his sixteen chil- dren eleven were living recently. The descendants of the elder George remember when their father went to mill with a grist of corn and left his wife and family alone. They had nothing to eat. the Indians prowled about their cabin all night, and they expected to be massacred before morning. But three-quarters of a century have wrought a wonderful change upon the face of the country. It is now highly cultivated, rich, fair and beautiful to look upon. and the descendants of the sturdy. pioneers from the rock-ribbed hills of Greene County can scarcely realize what has been ac- complished in a period of time so comparatively brief. The hoot of the owl is no longer heard, and the dust of the savage has long since mingled with the soil.
* Mount Vernon, the capital of Knox County, is situated in this "region." It is noted for the number and elegance of its private residences, and manufacturing industries. The country is rich and thickly populated. It lies 45 miles North- east of Columbus.
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CURIOUS GRAVE STONE INSCRIPTIONS.
O N High Street, Middletown. are several old grave-yards long since abandoned. On the crumbling slabs of marble and tablets of red sandstone. sunken and out of place, and half hidden among rank weeds, are many quaint inscriptions, of which the following is a sample :
"In memory of Michael Shepler, born July 3, 1779, and died the 11th of December, 1833, aged 454 years, 5 months and 8 days."
The error in the age was probably made by the stone cutter, for it will be observed that the difference between 1779 and 1833 is just 54 years, and singularly enough the blunder has been on record for a period of 54 years.
In another abandoned old grave-yard, in the same town, a sunken and dilapidated slab is pointed out, which is thus inscribed :
"Here lies the body of Mary, daughter of William and Susan Mills, who de- parted this life on the 24th day of November, at 2 o'clock A. M., A. D., 1793, aged 28 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 6 days and 13 hours."
The novel feature of this inscription is in marking the very hour of the death of the person over whom the tablet was erected.
A correspondent over the initials of " W. A. W.," in the Harris- burg Telegraph, of May 28, 1887, writes : One hundred and fifty years ago. Conewago Presbyterian Church stood in a valley of that name, and not far from Little Conewago Creek, the dividing line between Lancaster and Dauphin Counties. The location is four or five miles east of Middletown, a quarter of a mile north of the " Harrisburg and Lancaster turnpike," and within the same distance of the little village of Gainsburg.
On visiting this spot a short time ago, in company with Hon. J. B. Rutherford, of Paxton Valley, we found in a wheat field on the farm now owned and occupied by John Allwine a plat of unculti- vated ground, about 27 by 85 feet. . It is not enclosed. This is what remains of the Conewago burying ground.
At one end of the plat there are the remains of a stone founda- tion-or, perhaps, the walls of a stone building-making an en- closure of about 10 by 18 feet. The stones are laid in mortar. On the southeast side the wall is still about two feet high-so high as to suggest the idea that the building may have been of stone ?
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