USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Middletown > The chronicles of Middletown : containing a compilation of facts, biographical sketches, reminiscences, anecdotes, &c., connected with the history of one of the oldest towns in Pennsylvania > Part 8
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down strongly at the sides and ends, and under the rear axle tree were suspended a tar bucket and water pail.
Sleek, powerful horses, of the Conestoga breed, were used by the prosperous teamsters. The horses were usually from four to seven in number, were often carefully matched, all dapple gray, or all bay. They were so intelligent, so well cared for, so perfectly broken, that they seemed to take pleasure in their work.
The heavy, broad harnesses were costly, of the best leather, trimmed with brass plates. Often each horse had a housing of deer skin or bear skin, edged with scarlet fringe, while the head stall was gay with rib- bons and ivory rings, and colored worsted rosettes.
Bell-teams were common. An iron or brass arch was fastened upon the harness and collar, and bells were suspended from it. Each horse, save the saddle horse, had a full set of musical bells tied with gay ribbons.
The driver walking alongside, governed his team with an ease that was beautiful to see. These teamsters carried a whip, long and light, which, like everything used by them, was of the best material. It had a squirrel skin or silk cracker, was carried under the arm, and the Conestoga horses were guided more by the crack than the blow.
All chronicles agree that a fully equipped Conestoga wagon, in the days when they were in their prime, was a pleasing sight.
All the teamsters carried their own blankets, and many carried also a narrow mattress, about two feet wide, which they slept upon. This was strapped in a roll in the morning, and put into the wagon. Often the teamsters slept on the barroom floor, around the fireplace, feet to the fire. Some taverns had bunks with wooden covers, around the sides of the room. The teamster spread his lunch on the top or cover of his bunk; when he had finished he could lift the lid and he had a coffin- like box to sleep in, but this was an unusual luxury.
The number of these wagons was vast, at one time over three thousand ran constantly back and forward between Philadelphia and other Penn- sylvania towns. Sometimes a number of them followed in close order, the leaders of one wagon with their noses in the trough of the wagon on ahead. To show the amount of this traffic, one man in Middletown spent his time in making the tar-buckets carried by these wagons. In one year Conrad Seebaugh, a cooper here, made for John Landis, who then (1807) kept store at the corner of the "Square," nine hundred fifty-pound firkins in which to pack the butter taken in at the store; and the rental of "Chamber's Ferry" about six miles above Middle- town, where most of the travel crossed the Susquehanna, was over $750 per annum.
Main street was a portion of this great highway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. (One section of this road, that between the former city and Lancaster, was the first turnpike in the United States. It was com- menced in 1792, and finished in 1794, at an expense of $465,000. It was macadamized, and substantial stone bridges spanned the streams cross-
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ing it.) Consequently a large proportion of the travel between the east and west passed through Middletown.
Long lines of "Conestoga" or "Pitt" wagons, gaily painted coaches, carriages, horsemen, pedestrians, and great droves of cattle and sheep, were always in sight. Hotels were to be found every few miles, whose jolly landlord knew all the teamsters, drovers, stage drivers, &c., that made the road their thoroughfare. Penn, Washington, Lafayette, Har- rison, Webster, Stevens, and many other noted men have traveled over this route. For long distances, especially in the Alleghenies, the coun- try was a dense forest, with only here and there an isolated clearing, but on the pike the travel was as dense and continuous as in the streets of a large town, and sometimes filled the road for miles, as the immense emigration and freightage to the west surged through.
There were several stage lines; the drivers were all armed, and car- ried horns, which they blew on arriving at or departing from a station. Each stage (and there were sometimes many each way a day) carried ten passengers and was drawn by four horses, which were changed every few miles.
When the railroad was completed between here and Philadelphia (about 1837) the stages ceased running ; the traffic grew less and less with each succeeding year, until now its ancient glories exist only in the memories of a few ancient patriarchs, who tell marvelous stories of the "good and old times," and mourn o'er the degeneracy of the pres- ent. The turmoil of traffic, the beat of hoofs, the rumble of wheels, the tinkling of teamster's bells, the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the toot of stage horns, and the cries of the drovers have ceased. The deserted taverns and toll houses have disappeared ; grass grows in the once dusty highway and (save an occasional peddler's cart or farm- er's wagon) the road is silent and deserted.
XVIII.
The province of Pennsylvania as early as 1756 had put a tax on ardent spirits. Being violently opposed in the western counties, it was, after remaining for years a dead letter, finally repealed. On the 3rd of March, 1791, the Federal Government, at the suggestion of General Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, imposed a tax of four pence a gallon on all distilled liquors.
The Government was but recently established, and its powers were little understood. The cause of the Revolution had been an excise law, and the people of western Pennsylvania classed this in the same category as the tax on tea, etc. They were descendants of the Scotch and Scotch- Irish, and came naturally by their love of whiskey. There were no temperance societies in those days and there was nothing disreputable in drinking liquors; it was as common as to eat bread. Distilling was
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early commenced and extensively engaged in, and was considered as moral and respectable a business as any other. There was no market for rye, their principal crop; there were few roads, and the commerce was carried on by means of pack-horses; now, while a horse could carry but four bushels of grain across the mountains, he could carry the product of twenty-four bushels in the shape of alcohol. Whiskey, therefore, was the one article of traffic by means of which they were enabled to pay for their supplies of salt, sugar and iron. They had cultivated their fields at the risk of their lives, and protected themselves without assistance from the Federal Government; and now when they raised a little more grain than they actually needed, they were prevented doing what they pleased with the surplus.
That is the way in which they looked at the matter; and so when the excisemen, the tax collectors, came, liberty poles were erected; the people assembled in bands; chased off the intruders; singed their wigs; cut off the tails of their horses; put live coals in their boots; tarred and feathered them; burnt their offices, houses and barns; or compelled them to resign. The whole of that section of the State was aroused in armed opposition to the measure.
In Congress, May 8, 1792, material modifications were made in the law, lightening the duty, allowing monthly payments, etc. September 15th, of the same year, the President issued a proclamation, enjoining all persons to submit to the law, and desist from all unlawful proceed- ings. Government determined Ist, to prosecute delinquents; 2nd, to seize unexcised spirits on their way to market; and third, to make no purchase for the army except of such spirits as had paid duty. June 5th, 1794, Congress amended the law.
All was of no avail, the excitement still continued, and the people, led by prominent men of that day, and section, by united opposition practically nullified it, and demanded its repeal.
It became indispensable for the Government to treat the malcontents with more decision, and so finally the President ordered forward the army which had been collected in the east. It consisted of 15,000 men, regular troops and volunteers from Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Governor Lee, of Virginia, was in chief command. The other generals were Govenor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania; Governor Howell, of New Jersey; General Daniel Morgan and Adjutant General Hand, General Knox, Secretary of War, General Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, and Judge Peters, of the United States Court, also went out to Pittsburgh.
I have been thus diffuse, because history makes but slight mention of this rebellion, and little is known of it. President Washington passed through Middletown in October, 1794, and stopped at the tavern then owned by McCameron on the site now occupied by the Joseph Nisley property, then went on to Carlisle where he reviewed the troops. Among the troops who marched to suppress it was one company com- manded by George Fisher, Esq., the founder of Portsmouth. As there
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were a number of volunteers from Middletown and its vicinity in this company I give an extract from the journal of one of its members, Captain Samuel Dewees. He says :
"Lawyer Fisher, Dentzel, Elder, a storekeeper of the name of Reitzel, and other citizens were engaged in raising a volunteer military com- pany. Lawyer Fisher was elected captain, lawyer Dentzel, ensign, Reitzel, first lieutenant, and second lieutenant. The com- pany was a large one, and each member uniformed and equipped himself in handsome style. Captain Fisher found out the residence of a drum- mer of the name of Warriour. Warriour had been a British drum- major, but had at an early stage of the Revolutionary struggle deserted from the British, and joined himself to the Continental army, and had beat the drum for it until the end of the war. Warriour was chosen drum-major in Captain Fisher's company and I was chosen fife-major. Warriour was decidedly the best drummer that I had ever seen or heard beat during the Revolution. His music was not of the loudest kind, but it was sharp, clear, well-timed, and rich in its spirit-stirring melodies. Captain Fisher's company was composed of patriotic, intelligent, re- spectable and wealthy young men, who prided themselves very much in exercising and perfecting themselves in the school of the soldiers.
"Captain Fisher received orders for his company to march on to Carlisle :- We crossed over the Susquehanna river in flats; these were a kind of boat twenty or thirty feet long, and ten or twelve feet wide, with sides a foot and a half or two feet high.
"Upon our arrival in Carlisle we pitched our tents upon the 'commons' beyond the 'spring' and very soon after the camp was formed, ten or twelve men were detached from our company to join General Washing- ton's quarter-guard. President Washington had arrived that day, or the day previous, at Carlisle. He had been there, however, several times previous to our marching thither. Warriour and myself played the de- tached portion of our company up to the court house, where the Gen- eral's body-guard was stationed, and then returned to camp.
"In a few days after our arrival at Carlisle, President Washington issued his orders for all to be in readiness to march. On the next or second day thereafter, in the morning, we were ordered to beat up the 'General.' This was a signal tune. As soon as we would commence to play it, all the men would set themselves about pulling up the tent pins, and arranging matters for a general strike. At a certain roll on this tune (called the 'General') all things being in readiness, the tents would be thrown down in one direction and all fall at once in the same movement, or as nearly so as could be done.
"This done, some of the soldiers would engage in rolling them up, whilst others would carry them to the wagon, and pack them, camp- kettles, &c., therein. When this task was accomplished the long-roll was beat and all formed into line. The army then formed by regiments into marching order, then marched and formed the line in the main street of Carlisle. The regiment to which Captain Fisher's company was at-
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tached, was formed in the main line of regiments, and upon the right of that line: Captain Fisher's company occupying the right of that regiment, constituted the extreme right of the entire line, and rested in the main street opposite the court house. The rear of the main column rested at a great distance from town on the old Philadelphia road, and beyond the 'Gallows-ground.' This line besides being formed prepara- tory to the march, was also established for the purpose of passing the review. All the officers were at their posts in front of the line in order to receive and salute the Commander-in-chief and suite. President Washington and the Governors of States then at Carlisle, formed the head of the line. The brigade and field officers that accompanied the President and Governors took their positions in the line preparatory to the review.
"All things being in readiness, the President and suite moved on to a review of the troops. The method of salute was, each regiment as the Commander-in-chief and suite drew near was ordered to 'present arms.' Field officers, captains, lieutenants, &c., in line in advance of the troops, saluted by bringing the hilts of their swords to their faces, and then throwing the points of their swords towards the ground at some little distance from their bodies on their right side, the musicians at the same time playing and beating a salute. The flag bearers at a certain roll of the drum would also salute by waving their colors to and fro. The mu- sicians in this grand line of military varied very much in their salute. Some drummers no doubt knew what tune was a salute, and could have beaten it well, but their fifers could not play it; and some fifers knew how to play it, but their drummers could not beat it. An acquaintance of mine of the name of Shipe, who played the fife for a company from Philadelphia, could have played it, and well too (for many a time we had played it together during the Revolution), but his drummer knew nothing about it. Some musicians played and beat one thing, and some another. One fifer, I recollect (within hearing distance of us), played 'Yankee Doodle' and his drummer no doubt beat it well, too, but it was not a salute. When President Washington and his suite arrived at our regiment, I struck up and Warriour beat the old 'British Grenadiers. march,' which was always the music played and beat, and offered to a superior officer as a salute during the Revolutionary War.
"President Washington eyed us keenly as he was passing up, and con- tinued to do so, even when he had passed to some distance from us. After this duty was performed, upon the part of the soldiery, Washing- ton, in conversation with the officers, asked Captain Fisher if his musi- cians (Warriour and myself) had not been in the Continental service during the Revolution? Captain Fisher informed him that we had been, upon which the President replied that he had thought so, from the playing and beating, and observed that we performed it the best of any in the army, and were the only musicians that played and beat the old (or usual) Revolutionary salute, which he said was as well played and beat as he had heard it during the Revolution. Captain Fisher was
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very proud of our having so far excelled as to attain the just praise of the President, and said to us upon his return : 'Boys, you have received the praise of President Washington to-day, for having excelled all the musicians in the line in playing and beating up Washington's favorite Revolutionary salute, for he says not a musician in the whole army has played it to-day but yourselves.' If Captain Fisher was proud of Wash- ington's commendation of us, my readers may judge that we were not less proud of it than himself.
"In the course of an hour or two after the troops had been reviewed by President Washington, at Carlisle, the order of 'forward' was given. The whole army then took up its line of march westward, and in the evening of that day it reached Mount Rock and encamped. This place was about seven miles from Carlisle. The next day we passed through Shippensburg and reached Strasburg, at the foot of the mountain, where we encamped. I do not recollect whether we remained at this place longer than a night or not, but think that we were a day and two nights encamped there before we began to ascend the mountain.
"We broke our encampment at Strasburg, and set out upon the march up the mountains. It is nothing to travel over the mountains now to what it was then; the roads were both narrow and steep, as well as crooked. Owing to the zigzag nature of the road, soldiers in front could see many soldiers toward the rear, and the soldiers in the rear could see many of the soldiers that marched between it and the front. This march not being a forced one, ample time was given us to ascend to its summit.
"Soon after our arrival at that place (Bedford), portions of our army were reorganized. Here we lost our captain (Fisher), who was pro- moted to the rank of major. Lieutenant Reitzel became our captain, and Ensign Dentzel became lieutenant. After these changes were made we had to hold an election for ensign.
"Shortly after this there was intelligence received that the 'Whiskey Boys' in great numbers were lying in ambush awaiting our approach. The whole army received an ample supply of ammunition. The rifle companies were ordered to mould a great many bullets, and much prepa- ration was made to repel any attack which the insurgents might feel dis- posed to make. The orders to march upon a certain day were general. Each man drew a double or triple quantity of provisions, and received orders to cook the same.
"All things being in readiness, we then took up the line of march, and pushed for the Allegheny mountains. I do not recollect anything worthy of notice until we were descending the western base of the Alle- ghenies in our approach to the 'Glades.' Here we had a hard time of it. It was now November, and the weather was not only quite cold, but it was windy and rain was falling. By an oversight we were pushed on a considerable distance in advance of our baggage wagons, and at length halted at an old waste barn that we supposed belonged to some one of the insurgents, for had it not been so our army would not have been permitted to burn the fences thereon. We collected rails and built fires,
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but owing to the rain and marshy nature of that section of country the ground around our fires with our continued tramping became quite miry.
"My readers may judge of the land's surface, and of the state of the roads through the 'Glades' when I inform them that when some of the wagons arrived in the forenoon, at where we had halted the night pre- vious, they had each from twelve to twenty horses attached to them, and the axle-trees were sweeping or shoving the mud and water before them as they moved onwards. None but regular wagoners could have navi- gated these mud swamps, and none but regular teamsters, or men ac- quainted with bad roads, or roads in their worst state, can conceive the impassable state of the roads through the 'Glades' in the year 1794.
"We next made a halt at Greensburg, in Westmoreland county, and the next halt we made, was not far from the 'Bullock Plains,' known by many as Braddock's Fields. When we arrived there we formed camp and remained a few days. Whilst there, the soldiers, many of them, amused themselves by climbing up into the trees, for the purpose of cutting out bullets which had been lodged there in 1755, when General Braddock was defeated by the Indians. From Braddock's Fields we moved on to Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh), and encamped within a mile of the town.
"Whilst we remained at Fort Pitt I obtained permission to visit the town every day or two. The old fort (Duquesne) which had been built for the protection of this post, I do not recollect whether it was occupied by any of our troops, but believe it was not. It was so built as to com- mand the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers above and at their junc- tion, as also the Ohio river below. The hills around Pittsburgh, particu- larly those on the opposite sides of both rivers, were very high. The hills above Pittsburgh and between the two rivers were (some of them) quite high, and were called different names, as Grant's Hill, Scotch Hill, Forbes' Fields, &c.
"Instead of being met, as was threatened, by a formidable foe, we saw nothing in the form of enemies. The disaffected had disbanded and gone quietly to their homes. The insurrectionary spirit was every day growing weaker. and weaker, and in proportion as this had manifested itself, the insurgent force had diminished. Mustering from seven to ten thousand men only, and they promiscuously and hastily drawn from their homes, young and old, without proper leaders, proper discipline, military stores, &c., they had thought it altogether futile to attempt to resist (or cope with) a well disciplined army of upwards of fifteen thousand strong. After a number of the more active leaders were captured, and handed over to the proper authorities, to be dealt with according to the laws of the land, the expedition was considered at an end. Governor Lee, be- lieving that it was altogether necessary and loudly called for, left General Morgan with a strong detachment in the centre of this disaffected coun- try. The main body of this army was then withdrawn from Pittsburgh, and the surrounding country, and were marched on their way homeward.
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Many who sought discharges obtained them; some of them enlisted in the United States regular service and marched on to join General Wayne, who was then engaged in a war with the Indians on the Miami, in Ohio."
In the spring the military were finally removed, order had been fully restored, the law was acquiesced in, and business resumed its wonted course.
XIX.
Let us go back about one hundred years and look at the old town in the days of stage coaches and canals; when telegraphs, electric lights, express companies and daily papers were unknown. To the good old era of the scythe and flail, the tallow candle and the tinder box; before luci- fer matches, canned goods, reapers, petroleum, sewing machines, steel pens, ready-made clothing, and the thousand and one things that tend to demoralize this generation, and wean them from the simple habits of their ancestors, were dreamed of.
It was a jolly old burg then- no total abstinence societies or local option laws "froze the genial current of the soul." There was whiskey galore, and rows extempore; taverns every block, and streets, stores and inns were crowded with teamsters, raftsmen, boatmen and travelers. Yes, those were the flush times of Middletown, and we who live in these degenerate days can only mourn that we were not born sooner.
Commencing on the square-we find the old log house of George Rod- fong's on the southeast corner, belonging to Joseph Struhman; he traded it to John Achey,1 who lived here and carried on cabinet making in a shop on the same lot. He afterward moved to Ohio.
Where Joseph Nissley lived was a tavern. This was also the stage office for the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh stages and the postoffice, and was kept by John McCammon, who was postmaster for nearly twenty- seven years. On the same lot in the space now occupied by A. B. Croll's hardware store (northwest corner of the square and Main street) was a yard, with sheds for horses.
Dr. Laverty, Jr.'s (southwest corner Main and Square), was a log house built by Conrad Seabaugh's father, afterwards occupied by Jacob Schneider, a tobacconist. At the southwest corner Union street and Square he had a pottery. This Jacob Schneider bought a Redemptioner, a young woman named Schaab, whom his nephew afterwards married. She subsequently married a man named Koons. Her brother settled in Lebanon and died intestate, leaving considerable property, to which this sister's children or their descendants, if they could be found, are heirs.
Eugene Laverty's (northeast corner Union and Square) belonged to Mrs. Shackey. She left it to Mrs. Smuller, the late George Smuller's mother.
Jacob Dickert's (northwest corner Union and Square) was owned by
1 He was married to Jacob Rife, Sr's. sister.
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Dr. James McCammon. Before his time it had belonged to Dr. Meyrick. Here Simon Cameron once lived, and here his son, Donald, was born.
The Rife property (southeast corner Main and Square) was a tavern, the "Washington House," kept by George Crabb.2 Mrs. Wentz was landlady in 1807. Cummings in his "Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country," alludes to this hotel :
"January 30th, 1807 .- After resting about an hour (at Elizabethtown), and not feeling at all fatigued, at half past four I proceeded for Middle- town, eight miles farther, first loading one of the barrels of my gun with a running ball, as I had to pass near where one Eshelman3 was robbed and murdered last fall. The road over the Conewago hills was bad, and by the time I arrived at the bridge over Conewago creek, three miles from Elizabethtown, my left foot began to pain me so that I was forced to slacken my pace, which made it dark before I arrived at Swatara creek; when the pain had much increased, which was occasioned by my stepping through the ice up to my knees in a run which crossed the road, which the darkness prevented my seeing.
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