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OLD ROADS OUT OF
PHILADELPHIA
By JOHN T, FARJS
SEEING THE MIDDLE WEST
Nearly 100 iUiutrations. Octovo.
A f aacmating journey Uirough that great inland empire of
amacing cities and thriving farm lands.
SEEING THE EASTERN STATES
Colored frontispiece and 90 illustrations in halftone.
Tdls of and pictures the historic states from Maine to
Delaware. Replete with scenic interest* story and legend.
SEEING THE SUNNY SOUTH
115 illustrations. Frontispiece in color.
It covers eveiything of interest in houses* roads, traditioni,
sports, entertaining stories and historical anecdotes about the
(Offerent places.
SEEING THE FAB YinBST
lid illustrationa and 8 maps. Octavo.
A wonderful panorama in text and illustratioiis of theaoenio
flories from the Rockies to the Pacific.
SEEING PENNSYLVANIA
Frontispieoe in ctAat, 118 illustrations in douUetone and 8
maps. Octavo.
A rare and fascinating guide to an American wonderland
iHiich all Americans should know.
THE ROMANCE OF OLD FHILADELPHU
Frontispiece in color and 101 illustrations in douUetone.
Decorated cloth. Octavo.
OLD ROADS OUT OP FHILADELPHU
117 illustrations and a map. Decorated Cloth.
Octavo.
By THEODOOR Ds BOOY and JOHN T. PARIS
THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
OCR NEW POSSESSIONS AND
THE BRITISH ISLANDS
97 illustrations and five mi4>s especially prepared lor
this work. Octavo.
1 •
OLD ROADS OUT
OF PHILADELPHIA
BY
JOHNT: FAKIS
rK:;.v'^-iSiri.vsj?^S".ss:^iis:P"r
WITB m ILLUSTllAIlOSa ASD A UAf
PHIIADELPHIA AND LONDON
J. B. I.IPPINCOTT COMPANY
' — : .. „ z 1
COFTRIGHT. If 17, BY J. B. UPPINOOTT COlfPANT
pbinted by j. b. upfincorr company
at the washington square press
phuadelfhia, u. s. a.
•
FOREWORD
HOW many of those who speed along the roads
out of Philadelphia in their motorcars, who ride
in trolleys, or take refreshing walks, know of the
roads on which they travel or of the things that they
see by the way? This volume has been prepared for
the purpose of adding to the enjoyment of outdoor life,
entertainment, knowledge of fascinating bits of local
history, and pleasing adventure.
For the vicinity of Philadelphia is rich in histor-
ical interest. Boston alone, among American cities,
can compare with it in this respect, but Philadelphia
has the advantage of Boston in that so many of the
historic buildings and their surroundings are still prac-
tically in the state in which they were a century or
more ago.
Some one has compared the old roads out of Phila-
delphia to the sticks of a lady*s fan. If an opened fan
is laid on the map of Philadelphia and its surrounding
country westward, the boimdary sticks may be made
to conform to the Delaware. The city itself will be
covered by the open portion of the fan, while the radi-
ating sticks will correspond after a fashion to the ten
great old roads, several of which date from the later
years of the seventeenth century.
It is quite possible for the automobilist, in a single
half day, starting from the first of these roads to the
FOREWORD
south, the Wihnington Turnpike — say at a point fif-
teen mfles from the City Hall — ^to go across country
on a line roughly parallel with the boundaries of the
dty, crossing in turn the Baltimore, the West Chester,
the Lancaster, the Gulph, the Ridge, the Grermantown,
the Bethlehem, the York and the Bristol roads.
After such a trip, the roads might with great profit
and pleasure be traversed one after another, to a dis-
tance of thirty, forty or fifty miles from the dty, or
even farther, though thirty or thirty-five miles will
include the most of the historic portion of any of these
roads, at least so far as the history is bound up with
Philadelphia.
Most of the roads are well surfaced, and the auto-
mobile owner may take all of the trips outlined in the
chapters of this volume. Moreover, car lines are so
well placed that one can cover much of the territory
indicated by trolley. Thus there is a trolley on the
Wilmington road as far as Wilmington; the Baltimore
road has a trolley from Angora to Media; the West
Chester road has a car line its entire length; the Ridge
road may be seen from the car window; the traveler
along the Germantown road can go quite a distance
by car; much of the Bethlehem Turnpike may be seen
on the cars of the Liberty Bell route; there is a trolley
to Willow Grove on the York Road, from Willow
Grove to Doylestown on what, by some early writers,
was spoken of as a branch of the York Road, and from
Willow Grove to Hatboro on the main stem of the
York Road, while the trolley line keeps on or dose to
the Bristol road all the way to Morrisville. Only the
vi
FOREWORD
Lancaster and the Gnlph roads are entirely without
troUey service, though much of the Lancaster Pike
may be reached from stations on the Philadelphia and
Western to Strafford, while a convenient point on the
Gulph road may be reached over the main line of the
same line.
The roads can be seen best by those who will go
over them in a leisurely manner, stopping to look for
all houses and churches and for other spots with asso-
ciations that take one far back into the past, and going
down the side roads where many of the places most
worth seeing are found.
It has not been the purpose of the author to tell of
all the historic points on any road. To do this would
make the book imreadable. Then it would not be
right to deprive the traveler of the fun of making dis-
coveries in unexpected places. One who begins the
search in earnest will find spots that are not mentioned
in any book. He may stumble on a building of which
even those best informed in the history of Philadel-
phia and its surroundings are ignorant. When such
a place is found, the next thing is to learn its story.
Concerning many of the old places no story can be
told; but it is surprising how much can be learned when
the inquirer persists, exhausting every avenue of dis-
covery. And it will be found that there are few pleas-
ures greater than that of those who roam the country
about Philadelphia and piece together the stoiy of
the pioneers in connection with their houses and their
favorite haunts.
The writer is glad to acknowledge his indebtedness
• •
YU
/.
FOREWORD
to Frank H. Shdton for the use of many of the photo-
graphs reproduced in the chapters on the Baltimore
and the West Chester roads; to Frank H. Taylor, for
the use of historical data; to E. R. Longstreth» for
suggestions of great value; to Lincoln Cartledge and
Fred P. Powers, for the use of photographs taken by
them; to A. O. H. Grier, for Wilmington photographs;
to Ernest Spo£Ford, Assistant Librarian of the Library
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; to H. G.
Blatchley, Rev. Lrving R. Wagner and Dr. Collin
Foulkrod, for companionship on a number of the roads;
and to Ph. B. Wallace and Henry C. Howland, archi-
tectural and landscape photographers, who accom-
panied him on his trips to many of the points men-
tioned in the volume, and took most of the photographs
reproduced.
The chapter on the Lancaster Turnpike was already
printed when action was taken by the Pennsylvania
L^pslature that made free to all users the last toll sec-
tions of this pioneer turnpike.
J. T. F.
Philadelphia, 1917
i
CONTENTS
I. IN OLD PHILADELPHIA 15
n. THE KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTDN 27
IIL TEIE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE 77
IV. THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE 96
V. ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE 110
VI. THE GULFH ROAD 147
Vn. THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOIHEN 173
Vm. THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD 204
DL THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM 284
X. THE OLD YORK ROAD 267
XI. TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON 285
>^ -
^
♦.
I
OLD ROADS OUT OF
PHILADELPHIA
ILLUSTRATIONS
Rbhdsmcb or Db. Wiixxam Suna, Fibst Pbovost or trb Unitkb-
arrr or Pbwwbi l vawia, Falls or Scsutlkiix 184
Photo l^ Heuy C. Howliuid
Mnij Gboti^ Nbar PncyrBcioBT Station 185
Photo by FhOq> B. Wallace
pATLAMIMk mOIC TBB ScHUTLKILL RlVKB 185
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Fatlandb, tbou tbm Road IM
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Houu or John Pbicb Wbthxbilu Sb., Nbab Pbotbciobt Station 19$
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Old Bbidgb Ovbb thb PDixioifBN 200
Photo by Philip B. WaUace
Intebiob or a Covbbbd T ubwhbb Bbidob flOl
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
UUBTAD MaNOB flOl
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
TkB HouBB or FkANCD Danibl Pabtobito^ Gbbmantown 210
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Trb Writdiabbh Valuet Countbt Club 816
Photo by Philip B. WaUace
Trb Rex Houbb, Chbbtnut Hni. 217
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Tromab Hovendbn'b Studio at Pltmouth Mkbtdto 217
Photo by Phitip B. Wallace 4
Nobbiton Pbbbbttbbian Cbubch 220
Photo by PhiUp B. Wallace
Whbbb David Riitbnhoubb Livsd 220
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Thb Old Tbapfb Chubch 221
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Thb Pulpit and Cobnbb or Galuebt. Old Tbapfb Chubch 221
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
EiojBN Houbb, Nbab St. Thomas' Chubch 238
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Thb Wents Fabm Houbb, Nbab St. Thomas' Chubch 242
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
HopB Lodgb, Whitemabsh 242
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Thb Highlands, Skifpack Pikb 248
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Doobwat, Thb Highlands 244
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
ziv
ILLUSTRATIONS
DAwnmLD, ON thb Sccfpack Pkb 844
Photo by Henry C. Howland
T^B PSTEB WbNTZ HoxmS, NSAB CeMTKB P6INT 84ff
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Tbb Fouij» Houbb, Pbnlltn 84ff
Photo by Fred. Perry Powers
Uppsb Inn, Montgoioert Squabb 852
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Upper Inn, Rbab View 868
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
OiA Fabm House, Bbtwben Momtgoickbttillb and Dotudbtown. . 85S
Photo by PhiUp B. WaUaoe
An Old Houbb in Bbthibbeu 86S
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Gbangb Fabm, Nbab Tabob Station 888
Photo by Philip B. Wallaoe
Old Fabm House, Butleb Placb 868
Photo by PhiHp B. WaUace
HoBSHAM Meeting Houbb 80S
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Gbaemb Pabk 808
Photo by Philip B. WaUace
Bbidoe Oyeb tbb Nwhhamtnt, Nbab Dotubtown 870
Photo by PhiUp B. Wallace
Old Babn at Haluwell 876
Photo by PhiUp B. WaUace
Old Fabm House, Between Dotlbbtown and Cbntbkvillb 876
Photo by PhiUp B. WaUace
Tbb Libbabt at Hatdobo 877
Photo by PhUip B. WaUace
Old Fabm House, Nbab Nobbiton Road 877
Photo by PhUip B. WaUace
Abandoned Fabm House: a Study in Gables and Chdcnbts 888
Photo by PhUip B. Wallace
Tbb Benjamin Pabbt House at New Hopb (Cobtxll'b Febbt). . 888
Photo by PhUip B. WaUace
T^E Neelt Housi; Nbab New Hopb 888
Photo by PhUip B. WaUace
Sections of Road Map from Philadelpbla to New Yobk 886, 887
From "The ThiveUcr's Directory," 1808
CoMMODOBE Stefben Decatub Housb, Fbankfobd 880
Photo by Lincoln Cartledge, PhUadelphia
PoBT RoTAU Fbankfobd 880
Photo by PhUip B. WaUace
ILLUSTRATIONS
HaU% FftjUODOBD flOl
Photo by linooln Cftrtledge
BfeDDoa Om thm FtonrrpACK* at Houobbbubg m
Photo l^linooln Cartledge
AiokAUmiA. 800
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Bbidob Ovbb thb PoQunanra at Tobbudalb 801 '
Photo by Lincoln Caitledge
Tbm Rsd Lion hm, on trn PoQCTHiNa 801
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
P«NN Rhtn 804
Photo 1^ Philip B. Wallace
Ite Old Clock Houbb and ibs Castlb or thb 9tatb-in-Schutlkiu«
Nnab Eddinoton 804
' Photo by H. Paricer Rolfe, Philadelphia
BnsTOL CoLUDOi, Nbas Cbotdon 805
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
China Haix^ Nbab Cbotdon 810
Photo by Plulip B. Wallace
BoiAON Fabm, Nbab Tullttown 810
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
Tbm Town Hali^ Bbimol 811
Photo by Philip B. Wallace
ICap or thb Old Boiaixi Out or PtaLADBUBu 8f7
BOOKS CONSULTED
IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME
AnnAb of FhoenumDe and Ita Viciiiibr . . .Sunud WhiUkerPamypadKr
Phikddphia, 1878.
Biogrftphy of the Signcn (Gnur Rodney, John Morton and Gcoifa
Oymer) Wain and Sanderaon.
FhihuMphia* 1883.
Briatol FSke^ The a F. Hotchkin.
George W. Jacoba k Co^ Philadelphia.
Colonial Hooaet of Philadelphia Eberlein and Lippincotl.
J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.
Diaiy of George Washington, 1789-1791. Edited by BenMm J. Lo«mg.
Charies B. RidiArdson, New York, 1870.
Gtude Book to Historic Gennantown . . . Charles F. JonkiB*
Sites and Relics Society, Gennantown.
Htstoiy, Life and Manners in the United States^
1888-84 ByaTraTokr.
New HaTen, 1886.
History of Old Gennantown Dr. Naaman H. Keyair.
Horace F. McCann, Gennantown, 1907.
Histoiy of the City and Ptople of Philade^hia. Oberholtaer.
Thos. J. Ckrk Pub. Co., Qucago and New York.
History of Phikdelphia Scharff and Westoott
EverU k Ca, Philade^hia, 1884.
Itineraiy of General Washington from 1775
to 1788 William S. Baker.
J. B. Lippincott Conqiany, Philadelphia.
Journal of a Toor in the Unsettled Puts of the
U. S. A., 1790-97 Fmnds Bailey.
Letters and ReoJlections of George Washington.
Doableday, Page k Ca, New York.
Life of David Rittenhouse James Renwick.
Boston, 1887;
Monographs of the Gty History Society of
Fhiladdphia.
Xfii
t
BOOKS CONSULTED
New Tnvda in the United SutM Jean Pierre Briaaot de War-
▼iUe.
Dublin. ITOS.
Old Yoik Bead S. F. Hotchldn.
Binder & KeOy, Philade^hia. 1892.
Old York Road Mrs. Anne de B. Mean.
Published for the Author by Hatper & Brothers. New York, 18(Mt
Pennsylvania Magarine of Histoiy and
Biography Hiatorical Society of Penna.
Pennsylvania Railroad, The William B. Sipes.
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Guide, 1850.
P^esbytay of the Log College Thomas Murphy.
Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia.
Ph)oeeding8 on Unveiling the Monument to
Gesar Rodney Thomas F. Bayard.
^^^Imington, Delaware.
ReooUectiims of Samuel Breck Edited by H. E. Scndder.
Porter Ac Coates, Philadelphia, 1871.
Retrospections of America, 1797-1811 .... John Bernard.
Harper k Brothers, New York, 1887.
Sallie Wister's Journal Edited by Albert Cook Meyer.
FeiTis & Leach, Philadelphia.
Seven Ages of Washington, The Owen Wister.
Macmillan k Co., New York.
Some Colonial Mansions Thomas Allen Glenn.
Henry T. Coates k Co., Philadelphia.
Story of Komett, The Bayard Taylor.
Geoige P. Putnam's Sons, New York.
Tales of Old Taverns ' Fied. Perry Powers.
Sites and Relics Society, Germantown.
Iliomas Rodnor's Diaiy Cesar A. Rodney.
Hist< - -
Traveller's Directory, 1808 Morse and Jones.
Lorical Society of Delaware, Wilmington.
J ,..„.
Philadelphia, 1802.
^ Thiveller's Directory through the U.S.A., 1819 . John Melish.
Philadelphia, 1819.
V' Xraveller's Directory for 1822 John Melish.
Philadelphia, 1822.
«
V IVavds in North America, 1824 George Philips.
Dublin, 181L
...
ZVUl
BOOKS CONSULTED
Trmvda in North America, 1804HI Eobert Satdiffe.
York. England, 1811.
Travels in North America, 1806 Thomas Ashe.
London, 1809.
Travels into North America FMer Kalm.
London, 1771.
Travels in the Confederation, 1785-1784. Erom the German ol lohaim
David Schoepf. (Translated by Alfred Morrison.)
William J. Campbell* Philadelphia. 1011.
Travels in the U. S. A., 1703-07 William Priest
Lcmdon, 1802.
Travels of Governor Thomas Pownall, 1754.
Washington in His Letters S. Weir MitchdL
The lippincott Press, Philadelphia.
Wayside Inns of the Lancaster Roadside . . Julius F. S«/*^*»
Published by the Author, Philadelphia.
Peon's Original Propo^d and I^an . James Coleman.
London, 1881.
OLD ROADS
OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
IN OLD FHILADELFHIA
OF all the many places I have seen in the world
I remember not one better seated; so that it
seems to me to have been appointed for a Town.
• . • It is advanced within less than a Year to about/our
9G0Te Houses and Cottages, such as they are. . . .
So William Penn, Proprietor of Pennsylvania, spoke
of his beloved Philadelphia, in a prospectus which he
sent in 168S to the Committee of the Free Society of
Traders residing in London, after he had made this
explanation:
Philadelphia, the Expectation of those who are
concerned in this Province, is at last laid out to the
great Content of those here, that are anyw^es Inters
ested therein; the Scituation is a Nedc of Land, and
lieth between two Navigable Rivers, Delaware and
Skulkill, whereby it hath two Fronts upon the Water,
each a Mile, and two from River to River. Delaware
is a glorious River, but the Skulkill being one hundred
Miles Boatable Above the Falls. . .is like to be a great
part of the Settlement of this Age.
The plan of the dty called for a High Street (now
Market Street) from river to river, one hundred feet
in width, and a Broad Street in the middle dt the City,
16
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
from Bide to side» of the like breadth. In the centre
of the city was located '*a Square of ten Acres'* at
each angle of which were to be placed "'Houses for
publick Affairs, as a Meeting-House, Assembly or State
House, Market House, School-House/' It was arranged
also that *'in each Quarter of the City'* there should
be a '* Square of eight Acres, to be for the like Uses."
In addition to the High Street there were to be eight
streets from river to river, and twenty streets (besides
the Broad street) across the city, each fifty feet wide.
For many years the streets on each river front were
numbered in a similar manner, thus: Delaware Front»
Delaware First, Delaware Second, and so on to Broad
Street; and Schuylkill Front, Schuylkill First, Schuyl-
kill Second, and so on, to Broad Street. The residents
of the city must have breathed a sigh of relief when
this awkward nomenclature was abandoned.
Lossing says that when William Penn, with the
help of Thomas Holme, the surveyor, laid out the city
at the close of 1682, he caused the boundaries of the
streets to be marked on the trunks of the chestnut,
walnut, locust, spruce, pine and other forest trees that
covered the land. It was natural, then, that some of
the streets should bear the names of those trees.
Penn's *' Checker-board plan,'' as it came to be
called, elicited much favorable conunent from early
travelers from abroad who have left accounts of their
journeys. One of these travelers, who told of visiting
a number of other cities in the infant colonies, spoke
with satisfaction when he found a place that had
adopted Penn's plan in laying out the streets. One
16
IN OLD PHILADELPHIA
traveler said, in despair, that it was too easy to find
his way about in Philadelphia!
In 1755 Thomas Pownall told of some changes that
time had made in the city. "Front Street/' he said,
"stretches farther along the banks of the Delaware
than as designed by the original plan, as the other
streets are more and more defalcated of their length,
so that the shape of the town at present is that of a
semi-oval."
The same writer called attention to a fact that
shows what a shrewd real estate agent William Penn was :
All the plans of Philadelphia represent it as extend-
ing from the River Delaware to the Schuylkill. This
was indeed the original plan laid down on paper, and
held out to the first settlers, and it is said that Mr.
Penn sold many of the lots on the banks of the Schuyl-
kill almost as dear as those on the bank of the River
Delaware. That the town should ever have such
extent is almost impossible; it does not extend one-
third of the way: those, therefore, who bought their
lots as a speculation were much deceived.
At about the same time Peter Kalm, a Swedish
traveler, said that the purchasers of the first lots sold
had actually begim to build houses on both these
rivers, although the place was at that time an entire
wilderness covered with thick forests. "But the in-
habitants could not be got in sufficient numbers to fill
a place of such extent," he commented. "The plan
therefore about the river Skulkill was laid aside till
more favorable circumstances should occur, and the
houses were only built along the Delaware. The
houses which had already been built upon the Skulkill
2 17
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
were transplanted hitherto by degrees/' At the date
of his visit the town measured a little more than an
English mile in length, and the breadth in some places
was half a mile. The population was said to be about
twenty thousand.
Some of the earliest settlers lived for a time m
primitive cave-houses in the side of a hill or in a bank
of earth. In the side of this a shallow pit was dug.
The excavation in the bank was about seven feet deep
at the rear, the earth walls sloping to the ground level
at the front. The next step was to line the sides of
the excavation with rough stones, or with logs set
upright and dose together; these walls reached to a
height of perhaps seven feet on all sides. Thus the
earth bank at the rear was as high as the walls. Some-
times the earth was banked high on the sides also.
The roof was made either of logs, plastered with day,
or with bark or thatch on poles. It is a tradition in
one old Philadelphia family that when the primitive
cave-house of their ancestors was succeeded by a moie
ambitious dwelling, the cave-house was carefully pie-
served in the cellar.
Thomas Pownall wrote that it was the original idea
that Delaware Front Street should have no houses
immediatdy on the bank, but a parapet. However,
''after the first settlers had bought these lots on Front
Street, it was found more convenient for the merchants
and traders to build their warehouses, and even dwell-
ing-houses, on the beach bdow, which they wharfed
out. This part of the soil was not sold,*' he added,
for "several took long leases, and this became a street
18
IN OLD PHILADELPHIA
of the dweUing-houses &c of all the principal Merchants
and rich men of business, and was called Water Street/*
Another tribute to one of the greatest real estate
dealers America has known was paid by Mr. Pownall,
who said, ^* a prodigious advantage arose to Mr. Penn's
estate upon the long leases falling in.'*
At the time of which Mr. Pownall wrote (1755)
"the houses were all of brick; the fronts of them pre-
cisely such as those in Cheapside, London; a pent over
the base story, and shop, and a little slip of a window to
light a closet on the side of the chimnie.*'
A later traveler, William Priest (1794), said, for
the benefit of readers in England:
The first object of an industrious emigrant, who
means to settle in Philadelphia, is to purchase a lot of
ground in one of the vacant streets. He erects a small
building forty or fifty feet from the line laid out for
him by the city Surveyor, and lives there till he can
afford to build a house, when his former habitation'
serves him for a kitchen and a work-house. I have
observed buildings in this state in the heart of the city;
but they are more common in the outskirts.
Five years before the observant Mr. Priest told <rf
the houses in the dty Samuel Breck told of a man who
lived in a venerable looking house standing where the
*'Bank of the United States now is . . .He has been cutting
up his garden into building lots. It extended to Fifth
Street, and in it the City Library in that street was
built, and the fine row of brick houses on Chestnut
Street lately converted into the most splendid shops
in America, and which may stand comparison with
any in London or Paris."
19
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
''The increase of this city is still astonishing/* the
Hon. Jonathan Mason of Boston wrote in 1804» after
passing through Philadelphia with his family, on the
way to Savannah. Then he added:
I am persuaded, though the citizens deny it, that
they do not trade so much and so well as New York,
and that their commercial capital is lessening; yet hav-
ing been in the habit of building for several years past,
the Masons and Carpenters and tradesmen from their
past earnings are able and obliged to employ their
journeymen and themselves in fitting up houses for
rent and sale. There is not a gentleman in the dty
that has built this year past, and yet whole squares
have been covered in that time, five hundred houses
the last year.
In 1755 it was noted as a fact worthy of attention
that ''on each side of the streets there is a trottoir paved
with bride: the Streets are not yet paved, but formed
with gravel, as were the great streets of London, two
hundred years ago."
At this time, in spite of the fact that more than
seventy years had elapsed since the settlement of the
dty, there were "remaining in some of the Streets, the
stumps or roots of some of the original Pine trees."
In 1789 no pavement extended south of Chestnut
Street beyond Fourth. When Washington went to the
theater in Cedar Street, he had great difficulty in keep-
ing out of the mud when he stepped from his coach.
Just before the close of the century came an im-
provement which was looked on with disapproval by
many of the old residents who had been content to
get their water from pumps, placed in different parts
20
IN OLD PHILADELPHIA
of the city. On some streets, aecoFding to Dr. Man-
asseh Cutler, who visited the city in 1787, each house
had its own ptunp at the edge of the sidewalk, ten feet
from the house front. ^'A company of adventurers,"
William Priest wrote in 1794, "are bringing water from
above the falls of Schuylkill, in the manner of the New
River in London: but mean to improve on Hugh
Middleton's plan, by making their aqueduct also serve
the purpose of inland navigation.'* A matron of the
period told of the introduction of the water through
hollow logs, laid beneath the roadway, and added that
she did not know if she would like the new way. She
had been accustomed to go for her bath to certain
public places provided for the purpose, and the proph-
ecy that soon people would be able to bathe in their
own houses did not appeal to her.
More than thirty years after the first city water
system was discussed, an old man, William Kite, told
of his recollections of the city when he was a boy,
about 1758. He said that Washington Square, which
was then the Potter's Field, was an unsightly piece
of ground, part of which was filled with many cart
loads of brick bats, stones, and all kinds of rubbish,
"which, by the bye, is one reason for the difficulty of
raising trees in that part of the square."
The garrulous old man went on to say:
Just below Fourth Street lived Cutty Cramer, who
kept cows, and used to send his daughter, Guly, with
milk to his neighbors. On the hill adjoining Walnut
Street, he had a small Peach Orchard, but how he kept
the fruit from being taken by us boys I know not.
21
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
But perhaps his most significant reminiscence was
of the Dock Creek, which was open to Third Street,
and concerning the green Commons, which extended
in some places from Eighth Street to the Centre Woods
(City Hall Square); '"how that famous forest was cut
down by the British troops, and how there was but
one bricJc house on Market Street above Fifth Street.*'
Bush Hill, James Hamilton's place, was spoken of as
a country seat, though it extended from Vine to Coates
Street (Fairmount Avenue), and from Twelfth to Nine-
teenth Street.
All agreed that life in Philadelphia was far from
dull. Ealm told of the two great fairs held every year,
one in May, and the other in November, on the six-
teenth day of the month. *'But besides the fairs," he
wrote, '^ there are every week two market days, viz.
Wednesday and Saturday; on these days the Countay
people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey bring to town
a quantity of victuals, and other productions of the
country, and this is a great advantage to the town."
In 1824 a traveler wrote a full description of the
market:
The market house, which is nothing more than a
roof supported by pillars and quite open to each side,
begins on the bank of the Delaware, and runs one mile,
that is, eight squares in length ! It must be understood,
however, that the Market house stops at the edge of
every square, (so as not to interfere with the cross
streets), and b^^ on the next square, and so on, hav-
ing an interval for every street, but on market days . . .
a strong chain is drawn quite across the Street at each
end of the Market house, and so no horse or carriage
22
IN OLD PHILADELPHIA
is permitted to pass» as these intervals, as well as the
whole market, are then occupied by both buyers and
sellers, to a degree beyond belief.
One square from the lower end of the market was
another haunt of buyers and sellers, and of this many
in the city were not so proud — ^the auction block at
which slaves were sold. This stood at the comer of
Second and Chestnut Streets, almost directly in front
of Old Buttonwood, as the First Presbyterian Church,
now located on Washington Square, was called. One
of the slaves sold there was advertised thus by Ben-
jamin Franklin, the printer:
To be sold: a likely n^ro wench, about thirty-five
years of age; is an exceeding good cook, washwoman
and ironer, and is very capable of doing aU sorts of
housework. Inquire of the printer.
Not only were slaves sold here, but immigrants who
had promised to give a number of years of service in
return for their passage to America. An early resident
of Philadelphia received a letter from a friend in New
Castle, Delaware, who told of the town's loss of their
valued schoolmaster, but added cheerfully that the
man could be replaced easily from a vessel which was
expected soon; it woiild only be necessary to go to the
dock and buy one!
A pleasanter subject was dwelt on in the letters of
Alexander Mackraby to Sir Philip Francis of London.
In 1768 Mackraby, who spent some months in Phila-
delphia, was so carried away by the women he met
that he talked about them more than about anything
else. **The circle and the beauty of ladies in New
23
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
York bears no comparison with this city," was his
verdict. ''I am repeatedly reminded of this obser-
vation/' he continued. ""The ladies here resemble the
city, pretty, regular, and refined. Their beaux must
be imported, for at this moment they are only as one
to five in number, and as ordinaiy as they are scarce.
I can say nothing of the young men who are growing
up. Their scarcity gives them advantages which they
do not improve."
Once, after a dinner, he wrote:
Again reminded by the presence of many lovely
women, of their superiority, in beauty, affability, and
manners, to those of New York. A man would sup-
pose that where so much worth was so visible, there
would be more matrimony, but the reverse is true;
and among many, one cause is the dress and extrava-
gant ideas of the ladies themselves. The generality
of the young men of our country are not able to sup-
port the rank and grade which the ladies assume, par-
ticularly in dress.
One English visitor had a word of criticism for the
ladies; he said they would not walk with him; he could
see them only at their own homes or at the semi-
monthly assembly. Likewise, in 1794, William Priest
said:
The fair Philadelphians are by no means so fond
of walking as the English ladies, not that they have
any great dislike to a trip in the country, but it is not
fashionable even for a maid servant to make use of
her legs on these occasions; the consequence is that
there are 806 two and four wheeled coaches entered
at the office and pay duty as pleasure carriages, most
of which are for hire; and yet the inhabitants do not
24
IN OLD PHILADELPHIA
exceed fifty thousand, of whom there are not three
individuab but follow some profession, trade, or employ-
ment.
Of one of the carriage owners Mr. Priest said:
Peter Brown, a blacksmith, having made his for-
tune, set up his coach; but so far from being ashamed
of the means by which he acquired his riches, he caused
a large anvil to be painted on each pannel of his car-
riage, with two naked arms in the act of striking. The
motto, "By this I got you."
It was stated in the City Directory of 1798 that
Peter Brown was located at 144 North Front Street.
Eight hundred and six coaches seemed the height
of luxury to the old man of whom George Phillips of
Dublin wrote in 1824:
He remembered when there was but three carriages
in the whole town, and now the streets were full of
them, and he likewise said, that at so low a state was
the commerce then, that two or three vessels at most
arrived yearly with the manufactures of Great Britain,
while at present the trade is so much increased, that
some thousands of ships go out of the port yearly to
different quarters of the world.
It was a favorite occupation of visitors to Phila-
delphia to dwell on the wonderful growth and pros-
perity of the city. Kalm, after reciting many facts
that to him seemed astounding, said:
It will be easy to conceive how this city should
rise so suddenly from nothing, into such grandeur and
< proportion, without suffering any powerful mon-
^ arch's contributing to it. . .and yet its fine appearance,
I good regulation, agreeable situation, natural advan-
tages, tiude, riches and power, are by no means inf e-
25
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
rior to those of any» even of the most ancient towns of
Europe. It has not been necessary to force people to
come and settle here; on the contrary » foreigners of
different languages, have left their coimtry, houses,
property and rdations, and ventured over wide and
stormy seas in order to come hither. Other countries
which have been peopled for a long space of time, com-
plain of the small number of their inhabitants. But
Pennsylvania, which was not better than a desart in the
year 1681, and hardly contained four hundred people,
now vies with several kingdoms of Europe in number
of inhabitants.
The rapid growth of Philadelphia and its surround*
ings encouraged John Melish, in his Travellers* Direc-
tory of 1824, to prophesy that in 1830 the population
of the Union would be 12,875,000. This calculation
was made in reply to a minister from Spain to the
United States who had said that the population of the
country " may now be considered as stationary.*' "Time
will show how much he has been mistaken,** Melish
said. "Suppose the whole territory of the United
States only as thickly settled as Pennsylvania, it would
contain upwards of thirty-eight millions.**
Then he made a final calculation: '^ Supposing the
population increases in the same ratio as it has done
for one hundred years, the result would be nearly as
follows.** His table of figures ended with 1916, when,
he calculated, there would be 199,756,788 people in
the country.
26
n
THE KING'S fflGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
And call they this Improvement? — to have changed
My native Schuylkiira once romantic shore.
Where Nature's face is banished and estranged.
And Heaven reflected in thy wave no more;
ll^ioBe banks, that sweeten *d May-day's breath before.
Lie sere and leafless now in Summer's beam.
With sooty exhalations cover'd o'er;
And for the daisied green-sward, down the stream
Unsightly brick4anes smoke, and clanking engines gleam.
THOMAS HOOD wrote these lines of the Clyde»
in his native Scotland, but the change of but
the River's name shows how well they may be
used of the Schuylkill, especially the stretch of the river
for a mile above and below Gray's Ferry Bridge. For
in early days the traveler along the King's Highway,
soon after crossing the river at what is now Market
Street, began to pass within view of a succession of
bowers of beauty which must have been a delight to
those who were accustomed to more prosaic surroundings.
The first of these gardens was on the estate of Wil-
liam Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, once Attorney
General of the Province of Pennsylvania, and nephew
of James Hamilton, lieutenant governor of the Prov-
ince. This estate contained more than three hundred
acres, and extended north beyond the Market Street
of to-day. The first family mansion. The Woodlands,
was built by Andrew Hamilton, and its successor, the
27
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
house which is still standing, was built by William
Hamilton about the time of the Revolution.
Early in the last century The Woodlands was thus
described:
The building embraces three different orders of
architecture, but the Doric prevails. The north ter-
race is ornamented in the front by six pilasters, and
on each side is a pavilion; the south front has a mag-
nificent portico, twenty-four feet in height, supported
by six stately Tuscan columns.
Before long the mansion had to share its glory with
the grounds. At first there was nothing particularly
inviting about these, but when Mr. Hamilton went to
England, soon after the close of the Revolution, the
sight of the parks on the large estates led him to wonder
if he could not have such a garden on the banks of the
Schuylkill. At any rate, he sent word to his Secretaiy
at The Woodlands:
I shall, if God permits me a safe return to my own
country, endeavor to make it smile in the same useful
and beautiful manner.
But he could not wait until his return to America
to begin his garden. From England he sent seeds and
rare plants to his secretary with explicit directions as
to their disposition. When he was himself on the es-
tate he gave personal attention to the shrubbery, the
trees, and the flowers. Many of these were brought from
distant lands. Some of the captains of vessels which
sailed down the Delaware carried with them commis-
sions to bring back rare specimens for the garden.
28
Road trum Philadelphia tt)
Road from Philndclphia
/
V
to
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
During Mr. Hamilton's absence on business trips,
many of the letters to his secretary were devoted to
minute instructions about his pet plants — ^how they
were to be watered, where they were to be placed, what
things were needed to complete the beauty of the
grounds. Once he said, **The Rose Bush Box should
be removed into ye shade behind the Hot House, there
to remain during the summer." Again he wrote: *'If
George for one day n^lects the necessary attendance
on the Hot-bed, everything in it will be lost."
At length he was the proud possessor of what was
spoken of as the best specimen of landscape garden-
ing in the country. Visitors to the city went out to the
estate in chariots, on horseback, or on foot. One of
his visitors, a botanist, Manasseh Cutler, gave in 1803
his impression of the garden, for which, as Mr. Hamilton
told him, ''there was not a rare plant in Europe, Asia,
Africa, from China and the islands in the South Seas,
of which he had any account, which he had not pro-
cured." After walking over the lawns and along the
paths his enthusiasm and amazement were imbounded.
A few months before the visit of Mr. Cutler, Mr.
Hamilton wrote a curious letter which showed that he
gave the same careful attention to the mansion as to
his garden. Modem sufferers from the carelessness of
builders wiU sympathize with his complaints:
Early in the winter I discovered accidentally that
the plynths (or supports) of the portico columns were
rotten as punk & that the whole of them as well as
the roof was in jeopardy. The securing of them by
underpinning with stone was attended with an im-
29
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
mensity of trouble & no small degree of expense.
This you will readily believe when you are told that
the columns & roof were obliged to be raised &
supported during the operation by screws of an im-
mense force. This was hardly ended when an accident
happened equally unlooked for & was nearly attended
with most serious consequences. The ceiling of my
dining parlour (in consequence of the rascality of
in laying the plaister to the thickness of from 4 to 5
inches) came down at once (without the smallest pre-
vious notice) with such force as to crush all in the way
and shock the House like an aspen leaf & with sudfi
a noise that the family at Weeds came out of the ferry
House to know what cannon had fired so near them.
Most of the rare plants have disappeared from the
grounds of The Woodlands, which have been used since
18S9 as a cemetery, but the visitor will see that the
stone supports which were placed under the columns
of the portico are still doing their work.
The route to The Woodlands was over what was
once known as the Queen's Road, was authorized, in
1696, "to goeso far in the road that leads to Darby as
may be/' In 1781 this road became known as the
Great Southern Post Road; it passed along what is
now Woodland Avenue, to Forty-ninth Street. There
it joined the King's Highway, which was opened on
October 29, 1696. The latter road led from Chambers
Ferry (later known as Gray's Feny) along the present
Gray's Ferry Road to Darby, Chester, Wilmington and
"the lower counties."
In the Traveller's Directory for 1822, by John Mel-
ish, this table of distances was given for those who used
the road from Market Street:
30
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
Cross Schuylkill 1 mile
Cobb's Creek 6 miles
Darby 1 mile
Crmn Creek 6 mUes
Ridley Creek 1 mile
Chester 1 mile
Marcus Hook 8 miles
Naaman's Creek 2 miles
Brandywine Creek 8 miles
Wilmington 1 mile
The traveler who sought the famous gardens next
bqrond The Woodlands could use either the Great
Southern Post Road to the north of the Schuylkill, or
the Eong's Great Road to the south of the river, which
led from Cedar Street, now South Street, over what is
still called Gray's Ferry Road.
As early as 1740 the keeper of the ferry was George
Gray, and his name has ever since been connected with
the place. So many travelers used the feny that, in
1790, a garden was opened for their accommodation on
the western shore of the river. This garden was de-
scribed by an enthusiastic visitor as '* romantic and
delightful beyond the power of description." Attention
was called to oranges, lemons, pineapples and other
tropical plants, and to the fact that on the grounds
was ''eveiy kind of flower one could think that nature
had ever produced, and with the utmost display of
fancy as well as variety." Grottoes, cascades, diain
bridges and other attractions led him to think that he
must be '*on enchanted ground."
To this garden came pleasure-seekers from Phila-
delphia in large numbers, for the entertainment pro-
31
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
vided wajs pleasing. In winter the spot became the
Mecca of sleighing parties. It is recorded that George
Washington more than once refreshed himself at the
inn in Gray's Garden.
The boat at Gray's Ferry was later succeeded by a
primitive floating bridge, whose construction was de-
scribed thus by Thomas Twining, an Englishman who
visited the United States in 1796:
We soon reached the Schuylkill . • • crossed it
upon a floating bridge, constructed of logs of wood
placed by the side of each other upon the surface of the
water, and planks nailed across them. Although the
bridge floated when not charged, or charged but light-
ly, the weight of our waggons depressed it several inches
below the surface, the horses splashing through the
water, so that a foot passenger passing at the same
time would have been exposed to serious inconvenience.
The roughness and imperfection of this construction
on the principal line of road in America, and not a mile
from the seat of government, afforded the most strik-
ing instance I had yet seen of the little progress the
country had made hitherto in the improvements of
civilization.
But the traveler was too polite to give this as his
last word. For fear he had been too critical he added :
I believe there is no nation that would have done
more in so short a time, and most nations would have
done infinitely less. . . . The bridge of planks and logs
had probably succeeded a more insecure boat, and would
certainly in a few years be replaced by arches of brick
or stone.
The ferry and the bridge which succeeded it have
witnessed stirring scenes. For instance, there was the
32
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
October day in 1781 when an express rider came up
from the south» bearing the news which was first an-
nomiced to the startled city by a German watchman:
^'Basht dree o'clock and Gomwallis isht daken/'
More than two years later victorious General Wash-
ington crossed the river at the ferry on his way to his
Mount Vernon estate, where he hoped to spend the
rest of his days in peace.
One spring day in 1789, the bridge was decorated
with triumphal arches, flowers and evergreen shrub-
bery, this time also in honor of General Washington,
who crossed it on his way to New York, to assume his
office as President.
On December 18, 1799, the southern mail coach
crossed the bridge and, ''passing through the forests
which bordered the Schuylkill, took the country road
we call Spruce Street." One of the passengers startled
all within reach of his voice as he made the sorrowful
announcement, ''George Washington is dead!''
Nearly fifteen years later, when word was re-
ceived of the burning of the city of Washington by the
British soldiers, the bridge was the scene of great ac-
tivity» for it echoed to the tread of hundreds of work-
men who were hurrying to the location selected for the
redoubts over the western end of the bridge. An early
historian picturesquely tells what follows :
Parties composed of 400 victualers, 800 hatters and
brickmakers, the crew of the privateer Washington,
800 cordwainers, 500 friendly aliens, 510 Free Masons,
2200 "sons of Erin, citizens of the United States,''
650 colored men, 540 men from the German societies,
3 33
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
silversmiths, artists, lawyers, doctors, took up the pick
and spade. In all 15,500 persons worked on the forts
for one day each. • . . Every morning, between five
and six o'clock, from September S to October 1, a crowd
of these volunteers witn their food in knapsacks and
handkerchiefs, left the dty and thronged out to the
scene of their labors. As a rule, each party had its fife
and drum. A Scotchman, dressed as a Highlander,
played on the bagpipe, as he led some thirty other
Soots, each with a spade, to the redoubts.
The row of houses in the triangle at Gray's Ferry
Road and Forty-eighth Street marks the site of these
redoubts. These houses are known as Fort Terrace.
The third garden which made the King's Highway
famous was found, and may still be found, by the
traveler who turned toward the river at what is now
Fifty-third Street, and sought the estate of John Bar-
tram, which made its owner famous, both because of his
''garden of delight," and because of the house that he
built with his own hands.
The ancient stone house stands a few rods from the
banks of the Schuylkill. Beneath one of the windows
is a stone on which is carved rudely this inscription:
It is God Alone, Almyty Lord,
The Holy One By me Ador'd.
John Bartram 1770.
This confession of faith was added to the house
many years after the earnest Quaker owner built it.
For another stone, set in the south wall, has this record:
John: Ann: Bartram: 1781.
A critic of Philadelphia's colonial architecture has
said that the ''details are generally hard and crude and
84
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
often inappropriate''; and he cites this house of John
Bartram's as an example. But, as the Architectural
Record points out, '"Bartram's house ought not to be
regarded as in any way representative of Philadelphia
domestic architecture, and, least of all, as representa-
tive of Georgian building. It is in a class all by itself
and presents nothing but John Bartram's home-made
efforts in both plans and execution of detail."
The quaint house was in the midst of a tract of land
which the owner transformed from a wilderness into a
garden, bearing all manner of trees and fruits and plants,
gathered from up and down the Atlantic Coast and as
far into the interior as the Allegheny Mountains.
The plain Quaker gardener, who was bom March 28,
1699, had little opportunity to attend school, but he
made up for the lack by teaching himself. He learned
Latin and Greek in the intervals of his farm work. He
was a diligent farmer, and his crops were abundant,
but he was not content to plant the seed and reap the
grain; he wanted to know more of the wonders of God's
world. His son William wrote of him:
While engaged in plowing his fields and mowing his
meadows, his inquisitive eye and mind were frequently
exercised in the contemplation of vegetables; the beauty
and harmony displayed in their mechanism, the ad-
mirable system of order which the great Author of the
universe has established throughout their various tribes,
and the equally wonderful powers of their generations,
the progress of their growth, and the various stages of
their maturity and perfection.
As he studied, there came to him the desire to plant
his garden; so he bought a piece of ground at a tax sale,
36
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
But now the trunk stands in the midst of the garden,
gaunt, huge, crumbling into dust.
The Lady Petrie pear tree is still bearing fruit, after
more than one hundred and fifty years. In 1763 Bar-
tram wrote to Peter CoUinson:
The Pear raised from her (Lady Petrie's) seed
hath borne a number of the finest relished fruit. I
think a better is not in the world.
Box trees planted by the botanist are yet green.
There is a jujube tree, planted in 1735, which waves
above the old house. Elsewhere are a Ginkgo tree from
Japan, a holly, a tulip tree, a silver-bell tree, a cucumber
tree — of the species brought from Lake Ontario in
1763 — ^and a horse-chestnut, grown from seed received
from England in 1746. These are among the old trees
that are stiU green. Over the arbor grows a trumpet
vine which was sent from North Carolina in 1749.
Bartram's Garden was looked upon as one of the
wonders of colonial days. Here Washington and Frank-
lin and Jefferson used to come for rest and refreshment,
and here tens of thousands of others had the intimate
communion with nature that the proprietor of the gar-
den made possible for them by his years of loving toil.
When Bartram was dying he feared that his pride
would be laid waste by the British army, which was
advancing from the Brandywine. He died, September
22, 1777, before the soldiers came to Philadelphia. But
when they came, it was not "to lay waste his darling
garden, the nursling of almost half a century,*' but to
pass it by unharmed.
The botanist's son John succeeded him as proprie-
38
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
tor. With him lived his brother William, whose fame
as a nature lover was second only to that of his father.
After his death in 182S the garden passed to other
hands. To-day it is a park belonging to the city of
Philadelphia. It should have a constant stream of
visitors. Yet comparatively few go there. Many old
residents have not thought it worth while to visit it;
many more do not know of its existence. But some day
it will be thought of as one of the spots that eveiy one
must visit.
It was but a short distance from John Bartram*s
house to the quaint church of Saint James of King-
sessing, which now occupies, with its burying ground
and rectory, a square between Sixty-eighth and Sixty-
ninth Streets on Woodland Avenue. In 1761 it was
decided by the Lutherans who worshipped at Gloria
Dei in Wicaco to build a diurch in Kingsessing, a Swed-
ish hamlet, for the accommodation of members who
ought not to be asked to continue to take the long trip
to the quiet church near the Delaware. The new out-
station was built on three ** spannland " of ground, which
were to belong '"for time eternal'' to the Swedish Evan-
gelic Lutheran church in Wicaco.
The original building is the main portion of the
church as it stands to-day, without the wings and the
tower. The original rectory is now used as a residence
for some of the sta£F of the Catholic institution farther
down the street, which was occupied as a hospital dur-
ing the Civil War.
One of the most enthusiastic givers and workers
for the new church was James Coultas of Whitby Hall,
39
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
who had opened his home for preaching services during
many months. He was a leader of the ''members of
the congregation who came to work, as often as they
were called upon, often more than one hundred per-
sons at a time/' according to the curious account written
by Dr. Wrangel, who was rector then and for many
years afterward.
In the old burying ground there is a stone which
bears this odd inscription:
Watch and pray, do not delay.
For time doth quickly pass;
For you may see, who pass by me,
Man's days are like the grass.
Another stone gives this message:
Farewell, fond world, I have done with thee
And I am careless what thou sayeth of me;
Thy love I court not, nor thy frons I fear;
In hope, through charity, my head will easy lie here.
The church is prosperous as ever, but the property,
which was designed for Lutheran uses ''for time eter-
nal," has for more than seventy years belonged to the
Protestant Episcopal Church. This change followed
the agreement of the King of Sweden, dated June 25,
1789, to the authority given to the church by the Penn-
sylvania Assembly to employ ministers of either the
Lutheran or the Protestant Episcopal Church, and
Assembly's act of December SI, 1842, authorizing the
erection of the parish of St. James.
Whitby Hall, the home of James Coultas, is a short
distance from St. James. It was reached by a lane
which led from the King's Road to the road to West
40
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
Chester. At first this was called Coultas's Lane. Later
it was known as Gray's Lane. The location to-day is
Fifty-eighth Street and Florence Avenue. The site was
on the brow of a hill above the Ameasaka, a small trib-
utary of the Kasakung, now Cobb's Creek.
The original house was built in 1741, though a wing
was added in 1754. Later reconstruction has been
done so well that the original charm of the building
has been retained. Critics have said that the house
is as perfect a specimen of colonial architecture as exists
anywhere in the neighborhood of Philadelphia.
The builder of Whitby Hall was one of the fore-
most citizens of Philadelphia. From 1755 to 1758 he
was High Sheriff of the city, and he was always a leader
in planning public improvements. He was one of the
commissioners to '"survey" the Schuylkill, and he was
an advocate of road improvement. In the PennsyU
tania Gazette of December IS, 1764, appeared this
advertisement signed by him:
Whereas Good roads are of the Greatest Use and
Benefit to the Inhabitants, both as to Profit and Pleas-
ure, and altho' the Legislature of the Province hatii
taken much Pains to make Laws for the Amendment
of the Highways, yet do not seem to answer for the
end thereby intended,
I do therefore humbly propose to undertake the
Amendment of the Road from the first HUl to the West-
ward of the Lower Feny on Schuylkill to the Borough
of Chester, Deemed the Distance of about eleven Mue,
making Stone Bridges over all the Runs and Hollows
in the said road, if Money to defray the Expense of the
same can be raised by Subscription from the Inhabit-
ants, Travellers, County Commissioners, and the Over-
41
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
seen of the Highways. I have given two ThouBand
pounds security to Uie Treasurers of the Counties of
Philadelphia and Chester^ and their Successors, that
the Money so raised shall be expended for the afore-
said Use, and no other whatever.
Whitby Hall was one of the houses visited by Wash-
ington, who was a frequent traveler on the road.
Another buildingwhich often shelteredhim is at Seventy-
third Street and Woodland Avenue, the old Blue Bell
Tavern. Many stories are told of the hours he spent
there. One of these, which is perhaps no more unre-
liable than any of the rest, is that one night three young
girls looked in at the door of the room where the tall
Virginian stood before the open fireplace. ''He looks
as if he would like a kiss,'* one of them said. ''Which
one of you said that?" the general asked, promptly.
There was no reply, so Washington kissed all three!
Opposite the Blue Bell, on the banks of Cobb's
Credc, there was for many years one of the numerous
water-power mills which were to be found eveiy few
miles. This mill, it is said, was built by the Swedish
Governor Printz.
According to the Traveller's Directory of 1802 the
region at this point, along Cobb's Creek, between the
Post road and the Delaware, was a favorite place for
fattening cattle for the Philadelphia nuirket, and it was
a common occurrence to pass droves coming from the
South with this purpose in view.
When the Traveller's Directory was issued, note
was made of the fact that a little beyond Cobb's Creek
stood the important town. Darby, which contained
42
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
*' about fifty or sixty houses/' Two of these houses are in
the first square of Lansdowne Avenue, after leaving the
tzoUey terminus. Both of these buildings are fine speci-
mens of the Gennantown-hood house. One of them is
called the John Bartram house, and there is a tradition
that the Colonial farmer -botanist lived here before
making his "garden of delight'* on the Schuylkill.
An early traveler, who told of approaching Darby
from the south, in 1754, gave his impressions thus:
Darby looks very pretty, seen from off any of the
hills round about it, for it stands in a bottom, sur-
rounded with hiUs. The houses, built in one street,
all stand in the bottom, and the sides of the hiUs are
covered with houses and farms.
A later traveler, George Phillips, who passed
way in 18£4, did not have so favorable an idea of the
country, for he said that it had a barren appearance,
*'from the custom the inhabitants have of cutting down
all the trees near the house; this they do, not for the
value of the timber, but also for the sake of clearing
the ground for the plough. The want of hedges," he
continued, '' also adds to the nakedness of the prospect,
for the fields are divided only by a rude paling, which,
to those acquainted with the neat hedge-rows of Ire-
land, had a very bleak and unsettled appearance."
From the hills about Darby is visible the region
near the mouth of Darby Creek which is said to have
been the site of Fort Beversede, built by the Dutch in
16S8, to protect their trade with the Indians. Not far
away was the island called Tenako, Mattinicum, Tena-
konk, or Tinicum, where, in 1643, Governor Prints
48
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
built a fort of hemlock logs, which he called New Goth-
enberg» and his mansion, Printz Hall. In 1656, when
the island fell into the hands of the Dutch, they changed
the name to Kattenberg.
Beyond Darby every mile of the road has its attrac-
tion. An oddity at Glenolden, on the right, should be
noted — ^an octagonal house which is plainly not a sur-
vival of the old days, in spite of its curious form. At
Norwood, also on the right, is the old White Horse Inn,
a relic of the days before the Revolution. This was
another of Washington's favorite stopping places. Until
recently the hostelry was open for business.
A dilapidated house near Essington, on the Dela-
ware, was the birthplace of John Morton, a signer of
the Declaration of Independence. The house is said
to date from 1698, and the date al Morton's birth was
twenty-six years later. His ancestors were among the
first Swedish emigrants who settled on the Delaware,
and the first settlement was made only a short distance
from the spot where the house stands. The Swedish
records show that Marten was the name of the first
American ancestor of the signer.
As a boy, John Morton did not have many advan-
tages. For three months he was able to go to school, but
after that he received his training from his step-father,
who taught him the principles of surveying, considered
almost a necessary accomplishment in the days of the
settlement of a new country. He was better known,
however, as "the plough boy of Ridley.'*
He was forty years old when his public service began,
and his neighbors did not give him much rest after this
44
L
(.'HESTER, 17*8
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
time. First he was Justice of the Peace, then succes-
sively member of the Pemisylvania General Assembly
and a member of the famous Stamp Act Congress which
met in New York City in 1765. That he was ready to
serve in any capacity is evident from the fact that he
was next sheriff of Chester County, while later he be-
came one of the judges of the Pennsylvania Supreme
Coiut. In 1774, 1775 and 1776 he was a member of
Congress.
Here he had the opportunity for the great service
of his life. He was one of five delegates from Pennsyl-
vania when the vote was to be taken on the Declara-
tion of Independence. Great pressure was brought to
bear on the delegates by those who wished them to vote
one way or the other. There was much difference of
opinion among the Pennsylvania delegates, and there
was great anxiety on the part of the advocates of a
courageous policy. What if the great colony of Penn-
sylvania should not stand with those who demanded
their inalienable rights? At the decisive moment two
of the seven delegates, both of whom were known to be
against the Declaration, were absent. Of the five re-
maining, two, Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson,
were in favor of the decisive action, while Charles
Humphrey and Thomas Miller were in opposition.
Morton had the casting vote, and he voted in the affirm-
ative. It is said that the great strain under which he
labored on this momentous day hastened his death, less
than a year later. His biographer says that during his
last days many old friends turned from him because of
his action. But he was not disturbed. ''Tell them,"
46
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
he said when on his deathbed, ''that they will live to
see the time when they shall acknowledge it to be the
most glorious service that I ever rendered to my
country."
He was buried in the cemetery of St. Paul's Church,
Chester, now in the heart of the city, on Third Street,
above Market.
From Essington the traveler should return to the
turnpike as he came, and go on to Ridley Park. Just
beyond Swarthmore Avenue, on the right, is a stately
stone house, now used as a residence, which was once
the Wheat Sheaf Tavern. A quaint feature of the place
is a high old wooden pump, under a sheltering roof.
Opposite the entrance to Stewart's Lane, Ridley
Park, on the right, is an old house occupied by H. M.
Worrall, whose father, who was bom in 1795, went to
school in a stone building still standing a few hundred
yards beyond the house, on the same side of the road,
near Little Crum Creek. This was one of the subscrip-
tion schools of the early days before the public school
system had been thoyght of.
Many historic houses in this section have long since
disappeared, to the sorrow of the traveler, but there is
one institution which existed at Ridley Park from early
days, at whose disappearance there was no r^ret —
the old toll gate, one of six between Chester and Darby.
Toll was charged on the road for more than two hun-
dred years, or from the time when the highway was
opened in response to the petition of one hundred resi-
dents.
An English traveler in early days spoke with joy of
46
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
his first sight of a turnpike gate on this highway, be-
cause it made him think of home. He was glad to see
that America had adopted ^^a custom of the Mother
Country which Adam Smith dtes as one of the most
equitable examples of taxation, the traveUer paying
for an evident convenience and in proportion as he
enjoys it/*
Near Crum Creek in Leiperville is a house, now oc-
cupied as a residence, which was built of the white stone
similar to that used in the Chester City Hall. On the
front of the house is a stone bearing the date 1770.
This is a rather plain stone structure, but it is well
worth seeing. Here Washington is said to have spent
the night after the disastrous defeat at Brandywine.
It was then the home of John Mcllvaine.
A colonial stone house a short distance beyond the
point where the trolley line leaves the pike is the home
of Miss EUza Leiper, great-granddaughter of Thomas
Leiper, for whom the borough is named. The house,
old at the time of the Revolution, was occupied by a
family whose son was in the Continental army. Once,
when at home on furlough, he hesitated to show him-
self, fearing betrayal by a Tory family who lived across
the road, though at some distance. Chie day he thought
it was safe to come out early to the pump for his morn-
ing wash. A sharp-eyed Tory saw him and sent word
to the British conunander, who sent a boat up Ridley
Creek, captured the soldier and sent him to the prison
ship in New York Harbor.
The many navigable creeks along this road made
travel difficult in the early days. Some years before
47
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELP
the Revolution the road did not run through the
Leiperville, but some distance to the north,
was easier to ford the creeks.
When a bridge was built over Ridley Cr<
elers had to pay what must have seemed an ex(
toll. The rates posted at the bridge were as f '
Coach, light waggon, or other pleasure car- ^ '
liage, with four wheels and four horses 25 c
Do, two horses 16
Chair, sulky, &c 10
Sleigh with two horses 6
Man and horse 2
Waggon with four horses 12
Do. do two do 8
Cart and horses 4
For every additional horse to carriage of
pleasure 4
do to carriage of burden 2
But perhaps it was a good thing, after all, t
these charges at the small stream; they prepai
for the larger charge at such a ferry as that o*
Susquehanna, 6S miles from Philadelphia. Th
charges ranged from $2 for '^ Coach &c« wil
horses,'' to 25 cents for an empty wagon and 50 cents
for a cart and two horses.
No wonder an early traveler carefully records the
number of streams of all sizes crossed while making a
journey !
But toll bridges and ferries were by no means the
worst obstacles in the way. Roads were rough and ve-
hicles were often at the repair shop. A bladcsmith
shop was to be found at every tavern, and there was
48
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
usually a pressure of work at all times. The traveler
who planned to use his own conveyance^ if he was wise,
would have it thoroughly overhauled before setting
out. In 1790, just before starting to Mount Vernon,
over this Eang's Highway, Geoige Washington wrote
to a friend:
I have left my coach to receive a thorough repair
against I return . . . and I request you will visit Mr.
Clarke (into whose hands it is conunitted) often, to
see it well done; and that I may not be disappointed
in the time allowed him for the completion. . . . The
harness is also left with him, and he has my Ideas on
this subject — generally they are, if the wheel harness • •
can be made complete, and look as well as if they were
new, then and in that case, he is to make a set of pole-
end harness to suit them, both to be plated — ^but if
this cannot be accomplished, the set is to be made
entirely new — ^and in the best style.
Thomas Twining, who passed over this new road
six years later, told of his experience in a public con-
veyance in words that give a vivid picture:
The vehicle was a long car with four benches. Three
of them in the interior hdd nine passengers, and a tenth
passenger was seated by the side of the driver on the
first b^ch. A light roof was supported by eight slender
pillars, four on each side. Three large leather curtains
suspended to the roof, one at each side and one behind,
were rolled up or lowered at the pleasure of the passen-
gers. There was no place nor space for luggage, each
person being expected to stow his things as he could
under his seat or l^s. The entrance was in front, over
the driver's bench. Of course the three passengers on
the back seat were obliged to crawl across all the other
benches to get to their places. There were no backs to
4 40
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
the benches to support and relieve during a rough and
fatiguing journey over a rough and ill-made road. It
would be unreasonable to expect perfection in the ar-
rangements of a new country^ but Chough this rude con-
veyance was not without its advantages and was really
more suitable to the existing state of American roads
than an English stage-coach would have been, it might
have been rendered more convenient in some respects
without much additional expense. Then a mere strap
behind the seats would have been a great comfort, and
the ponderous leather curtains, which extended the
whole length of the Waggon, would have been much
more convenient, divided into two or three parts, and
with a glass, however small, in each division, to give
light to the passengers in bad weather and enable them
to have a glimpse of the country. . . .
Tins might be called the description of a pessimist.
For contrast one should take a peep into the journal
of Francis Baily, who made a tour of America in 1767.
He, too, spoke of the necessity of climbing over the
passengers in the front to reach the rear seats, but he
found this '* amusing," and he thought that traveling
in America was '^ very pleasant,[as you enjoy the country
much more agreeably than when imprisoned in a close
coach, inhaling and exhaling the same air a thousand
times over, like a cow chewing the cud.'' He spoke
with approval of the democratic method of placing a
member of congress by the side of the shoemaker who
elected him. ''You see no person here take upon him
those important airs which you too often meet with in
England," he added. He even found amusement in
the necessity of getting out and putting his shoulder to
the wheel, and this in the most unpleasant weather, as
50
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
well as in the midst of mire and dirt. One night, when
the coachman landed the stage in a bog> and it was
necessary to leave it there, with the baggage, while the
passengers walked to the nearest house, he did not
think of entering his complaint, but told instead of his
surprise and pleasure that all the baggage was found
intact the next morning.
Humorously the stage coach passenger told of the
declivities 'Mown which the waggon descended at a
great rate, for not only was it unprovided with a drag
to keep it back, but it seemed to be the principle of
American driving to go as fast as possible down hill
in order to make up for the slowness inevitable on all
other parts of the road. This road being newly and
roughly formed, furrowed with ruts, and strewed with
huge stones which had been separated from the mould
or gravel, the jolting of the waggon in these rapid de-
scents was almost insupportable, and even drew forth
many a hard exclamation from my companions, ac-
customed to it as they were. . . . The driver managed
his four active little horses with all the skill of an Eng-
lish coachman, although he had little of the appearance
of one, having neither his hat on one side, nor his great
coat, nor his boots, but a coarse blue jacket, worsted
stockings, and thick shoes.'*
Another difficulty of early travel was due to the
fact that ''the surface of the land was entangled with
the roots of trees, and covered with stones which the
plough had recently exposed to the light for the first
time, and with clods of dirt not yet broken."
It is easy to sympathize with the passengers who
51
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
decided that *'as the extreme jolting of the waggon
had caused a general complaint • • • and the incon-
venience might be expected to remain/' it would
be better to hire some other conveyance. And one can
appreciate their disappointment when it was found
that the wagon was the only carriage on the road.
Only a few months after the Englishman told of his
trying experience, the American Annual Register said:
The Roads from Philadelphia to Baltimore exhibit
for the greater part of the way, an aspect of savage
desolation. Chasms to the depth of six, eight or ten
feet occur at narrow intervals. A stage coach which
left Philadelphia on the 5th of Februaiy, 1796, took
five days to go to Baltimore. The weather for the first
four days was good. The roads are in a fearful condi-
tion. Coaches are overturned, passengers killed, and
horses destroyed by the overwork put upon them. In
winter sometimes no stage sets out for two weeks.
Many a weary stage-coach passenger, who had
helped for hours in the struggle with roads that seemed
bottomless, must have welcomed the approach to
Chester and the knowledge that there they would find
at least temporary respite from trial. For Chester, the
oldest town in Pennsylvania, seemed like a staid and
settled community in days when Philadelphia was a
mere beginner. In 1708 there were one hundred houses
here. In 18S6 the number had increased to one hun-
dred and fiif ty, while four years later the population
was only seven himdred and forty.
In 1754 Thomas Pownall spoke of the town as ''a
good pretty village; a place famous for c^der, as the
country people say/' William Priest said in 1793:
62
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
The little town is . . . the same to Philadelphia
that Gravesend is to London. Ships outward bound
here receive their passengers.
The receipt of passengers by a vessel that sailed
from Chester in 1765 is made a part of a most interest-
ing story in Cope and Ashmead's ** Historic Homes of
Chester and Delaware Coimty/* which was said to be
based on a letter from a man who knew one of the actors.
This is the letter:
Elizabeth Shewell became acquainted with Ben*
jamin West, afterward the celebrated artist, and thev
fell in love with each other. West, at that time, al-
though descended from a good family, was poor and
little known. Stephen Shewell wished his sister to
marry another suitor, which she refused to do, in con-
sequence of her attachment to West. The brother ob-
jected to West on accoimt of his poverty and obscurity,
and he was forbidden to come to the house. Elizabeth
Shewell, however, continued to see him elsewhere, and
they became engaged to be married. West then de-
termined to go to Europe and prosecute his studies and
profession there, and ElizabetJi Shewell promised him
that when he notified her of his ability to maintain her,
and his wish for her to come to him, she would proceed
to join him in any part of Europe and many him. Her
brother was informed of her meetings with West and
of their engagement. So, to prevent any further in-
tercourse between them, he confined her to her chamber
and kept her imder lock and key until after West's
departure for Europe.
He pursued his studies and profession for some time
in various places on the continent; and finally settled
in London, where he soon met with sufficient patronage
to justify him in calling on Elizabeth Shewell to fulfill
her promise. He then made arrangements for her to
53
I
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
oome in the same vessel that conveyed his request to
her, and also, that his father should accompany her
on the voyage. Upon the receipt of his message, Eliza-
beth Shewell prepared for her departure* but her brother
was apprised of her intention and again confined her
to her chamber.
Her engagement to West was well known in Phila-
delphia, and her brother's tyrannical treatment of her
excited great indignation against him and strong sym-
paliiy for the sister. In this state of things the late
Bishop White, who was my guest at his last patriarchal
visit to Easton, told me that he (then eighteen years
of age) and Dr. Franklin (about fifty-nine years of age)
and EVands Hopkins (twenty-nine years of age) when
the vessel was ready to sail, procured a rope ladder,
went to the captain, engaged him to set sail as soon as
they brought a lady on board, took John West to the
ship, and went at midnight to Stephen Shewell's house,
attached the rope ladder to a window in Elizabeth
Shewell's chamber, and got her safely out and to the
vessel, which sailed a few minutes after she entered it.
Hiey were married 9 mo., 2, 1765, and for fifty years
their lives were joined in kind and tender companion-
ship, neither of them ever returning to this country.
Some local historians say that this story is not true.
The statement was once made in behalf of Miss
Shewell's family that there was never the slightest op-
position to the engagement. There is, however, at least
this bit of truth in the narrative: Miss Shewell did
go to England on a vessel that stopped for her at Ches-
ter, and she did marry the artist, with whom she lived
happily ever after.
One hundred and twenty-one years before the bride-
to-be took passage from Chester, the first
64
li
I
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
aettlers landed here, having been sent by the Swedish
Company to cultivate a tobacco plantation. It is re-
lated that J5ran Kyn was one of these early settlers-
He came with Governor Printz on the ship Fama, in
IMS. At first he made his home, as did others, on Tini-
cum, or New Gothenberg. When the island became too
crowded Kyn went to Chester, or Upland, as he called
it, in remembrance of Upland in Sweden. He substi-
tuted this name for the Indian Meco-pon-aca (big po-
tatoes). The land to which he was given title extended
for a mile and a half above Chester Creek, and was
three-quarters of a mile wide, reaching to the Dela-
ware on the east, and to the north as far as Ridley Creek.
In 1687 he gave a bit of this land, adjoining his "'lot
or Garding" ''to the use and behoof of . . • the people
of God called Quakers, and their successors forever.
Nothing remains in Upland to remind visitors of
Kyn. The most ancient house in old Upland, outside
the dty limits of Chester, is the Caleb Pusey house,
built in 1683, the year after William Penn landed. It
is said that the house still retains most of its original
features. William Penn occasionally occupied a room
in the building while visiting here. A tablet on the
stone wall about the house recites these facts.
For a time Penn thought seriously of founding his
"great town" at Upland. In his instructions to the
Commission, he directed that ''the river and creeks be
sounded on my side of the river, especially Upland,
in order to settle the great town."
After receiving formal possession by treaty he landed
on the Delaware, south of Chester Creek. At once he
55
I
"
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
changed the name of the settlement. Turning to a
fellow passenger in the ship Welcome, he said: '^ Provi-
dence has brought us here safe; thou hast been the
companion of my perils; what wilt thou that I shall
call this place?'' The man replied, ''Chester, in re-
membrance of the city from which I came/'
On December 4» 1682, the first Assembly was called
together, and very soon it was determined to go farther
north for the settlement of the great town.
Forty-two years later the Chester Court House was
erected, a building that has since that time been oc-
cupied continuously as a public building, the oldest
building in the United States so used. A tablet on the
left of the entrance records:
This building was erected in 1724, during the reign
of George I of England. It was the Court House of
Chester County 1724-1786; the Court House of Dela-
ware County 1789-1851; Hall of Chester Borough, 1851-
1866; Hall of Chester City Since 1866. In 1789 Eng-
land declared war against Spain and soldiers were here
enlisted for an expedition to Cuba. Here Anthony
Wayne rallied and drilled his troops Jany 1776. In
1824 Lafayette as Guest of the Nation was enter-
tained in this building.
Across Market Street from the quaint City Hall is
the Washington House, built in 1747. The original
name of the famous hostelry was the Pennsylvania
Arms, but this was changed in honor of the most
famous guest the walls every held, George Washington.
Here he received the congratulations of the people on
his election to the Presidency, when he was on his way
to Philadelphia, on April 20, 1789. It is generally be-
56
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
fieved that he was also within the walls twelve years
earlier, on September 11, 1777, just after the Battle of
Brandywine, and that here, at his request, Adjutant-
General Pickering wrote to Congress a letter giving the
only report of the battle Washington ever made. But
there are those who contend that this letter was written
from the Columbia Hotel, kept by Mrs. Withey, which
was torn down a few years ago to make way for the
Columbia office building.
Less than three weeks before the writing of this
letter to Congress, Washington had passed through
Chester with high hopes. On August 25, with ten thou*
sand troops, he mardied through Chester to Naaman's
Creek, then on to Wilmington. Next day he was at
Gray's Hill, two miles from Head of Elk, within six
miles of the scouts of the British, who had landed near
that point the day the American commander passed
through Chester. The armies kept dose together till
the Battle of Brandywine was fought.
In September, 1781, Washington hurried this way
once more. At Chester he learned of the safe ar ival
of Count de Grasse in Chesapeake Bay, with twf nty-
eight sail of the line, and four frigates, and three thou-
sand troops, which were to be sent to join the American
Army under the command of Lafayette.
Ten years later Washington noted in his diary a
visit to Chester when he was on his way to make a tour
of the Southern states. He wrote:
Roads exceedingly deep, heavy and cut in places. • •
My equipage &^ attendance consisted of a Charriot &
four horses — a light baggage Waggon of two horses —
67
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
four saddle horses besides a led one for myself — and
five — ^to wit — ^my Valet de Chambre, two footmen.
Coachman, & Postillion.
In the days of Washington the road from Chester,
through Marcus Hook to Claymont, was perhaps half
a mile south of the present turnpike, on which the
trolley line is laid. The first mention of this lower road
was in March, 1695, when the Grand Jury at Upland
spoke of the need of a '^ Bridle Road'' from Marcus
Hook to Chester.
Marcus Hook, which is built on land granted in 165S
to Captain John Amundsen Beck, for his faithful ser-
vice, and promises for the future, received its name from
an Indian Sachem, Maarte, who lived on the ''hook''
or point of land on which the town is built. Maarte
Hook soon became Marrities Hook. Then the descent
to Marcus Hook was easy. At an early day Governor
Markham, on the request of the inhabitants, changed
the name of the place to Chichester. This is now the
name of the township, but for some fortunate reason
the village has not been able to get away from the title
that speaks of its history.
This old town was one of the haunts of Blackbeard
the Pirate, tales of whose escapades frightened the chil-
dren of the early days. Many efforts were made to
capture him, but he always managed to get away
before hands could be laid on him.
A short distance from Marcus Hook is Chichester
Meeting House, thought by competent judges to be the
most quaint of all the meeting houses.
Chichester Meeting was started by a few Friends
58
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
from New Jersey who settled on the west side of the
Delaware River before the arrival of William Pemi in
1682. Perhaps the best known of these was William
Clayton. Some of them located at Marcus Hook and
held a Monthly Meeting on ** the 14 day of ye 12 month
1681." Another early record speaks of "the fearst
Monthly Meeting held by friends in Chichester ye 17th
of the first Month in ye year 1684.'' William Clayton's
son was the first man married in the new meeting.
The first deed for the Chichester property was made
by James Brown ''4 day of Tenth Month 1688'' to
William Clayton, Sr., ''for the use of the people of God
called Quakers of Chichester." The deed was certified
by the '* Clark's hand in open Court at Chichester, 10th
mo 4, 1688."
The original house stood until 1769, when Richard
Dutton was directed to build the present house and to
put a stone in the gable with the legend R. D. 1769.
It is stated in the church records that the builder had
a son bom to him on February 2, 1769, who lived for
exactly a century, and was buried in the graveyard ad-
joining the church. To his neighbors at Village Green,
three miles from the meeting, this son delighted to tell
of the Battle of Brandywine, and of seeing afterward
the British soldiers on their way to Philadelphia. They
took a cow from his father, but he went after it and
drove it back home.
William Clayton, Sr., came from Chichester, Eng-
land, in 1671, first having procured a patent from the
British Government to five hundred acres of land in
Upper Chichester. It is said that he owned also a tract
60
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
of land near Philadelphia, which is crossed by the pres-
ent Forty-ninth Street. He became one of the nine
justices who sat at Upland in 1681, and was also a
member of Penn's Council.
The annals of the family teU of the marriage of his
grandson to a daughter of Walter Martin, who donated
the ground on which was built St. Martin's Church at
Marcus Hook, the deed being dated in 1699. One of
the conditions of the gift was that no Quaker should
be buried in the graveyard belonging to the church.
In return for this gift, it is said, the church honored the
giver, and took the name St. Martin.
One of the descendants of William Clayton bought
for his son a farm near the railroad station at Claymont.
The mansion, which stood on a hill, was called Clay-
mont, an abbreviation of Clayton's Mount. That the
origin of the name is not generally known is evident
from the fact that one writer on the town says that *Mt
is most appropriately called Claymont, because of the
clay soil in the neighborhood."
Thomas J. Clayton, another descendant, who was
Judge of the Court of Delaware County, wrote that in
his boyhood ''the old Post Road from Wilmington to
Philadelphid was the central artery for the circulation
of general news. Important messages were carried by
post horses, which were changed every ten miles. Tav-
erns were located all along the road, about ten miles
apart. In those days the 'keepers of public houses,'
as tavern keepers invariably called themselves, were
looked upon as important persons, several degrees above
the common herd in social and political standing."
60
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
He also gave this picture of the old days on the
turnpike:
I have seen the United States mail coach, with an
armed guard and trumpeter, come up the Post road in
a full gallop, and when the horn was blown, all the driv-
ers on the road to the Philadelphia market immediately
pulled out to give free passage to the United States
Mafl.
Many of these travelers must have been on their
way to market with wood, for "coal had not yet come
into general use, even in the cities, hickory wood was
hauled by horses all the way to Philadelphia, Chester
and Wilmington. There was a city officer called the
'corder/ It was his duty to measure every cord of
wood brought for sale to the city. Every farmer care-
f uUy preserved his woodland, as he supposed the supply
would soon become exhausted and his timber lands
would bring fabulous prices."
The demand for wood for heating, for the mills and
for other purposes, was responsible for the existence of
a picturesque class of workers who were frequently
seen along the turnpike. They were called " woodmen.'*
Of these men Mr. Clayton wrote:
They were a degree higher in the social scale than
''farm hands," and farm hands were one degree higher
than "laborers." These woodmen spent the whole
time in the woods chopping firewood, getting out fenc-
ing materials and ship timber. I have seen them with
a ripsaw, one man on an elevated log and one standing
under it, the man above lifting the saw and the one
below drawing it down, sawing out great three-inch
planking for shipping. This "ship-stuff," as it was
61
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
called, would be transported on great timber wheels,
drawn by five or six horses in a single file, to the ship-
yards at Wilmington. Another distinct class of work-
men, called ''team drivers,'' did nothing but attend to
and drive these teams, by which they transported all
articles of heavy merchandise.
The country about Claymont was heavily wooded.
''If we desired we could hunt all day without leaving
the continuous wood from the south branch of Naaman's
Creek at the Post road, as far as Brandy wine Sunmiit,'*
Mr. Clayton continued his recollections. "Game was
quite plentiful. With an old-fashioned flint-lock gun
six feet long we could shoot pheasants, partridges, wild
pigeons, woodcock, wild ducks, English snipe, and
squirrels. Foxes were so plentiful as to make the preser-
vation of our chickens somewhat difiicult. During the
hunter's moon the young fellows, with good trained
dogs, amused themselves by successful possum and
coon hunts. Rabbit hunting with hounds was great
sport.
The Naaman's Creek, mentioned by Mr. Clayton,
is crossed just after the State Line is passed. This
picturesque stream is named, it is thought, for an In-
dian chief, one of those with whom Governor Printz
treated on his arrival in America. Naaman, who be-
longed to the Minquas tribe, showed his friendship for
the settlers on more than one occasion. In 1654, for
instance, at a meeting held on Tinicum Island, when
ten Indian chiefs were present, complaint was made
against the Swedes, and it seemed as if the result of
the coimcil was to be unfavorable. But Naaman re-
62
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
buked the rest for having spoken evil of their friends
the Swedes, and his words prevailed. A treaty of friend-
ship followed.
YHiere the Post Road and the Pennsylvania Rail-
road cross the creek is one of the most picturesque spots
on the route. Facing the turnpike bridge is an ancient
house, the older part of which dates from about 1654,
though there are those who daim that it was built by
Governor Printz in 1640. But the Swedish records
indicate that it was .built by John Rising, who came to
America from Sweden to be Lieutenant Governor under
Printz. When he arrived he learned that Printz, having
been taken ill, had returned to Europe. Some time
later Governor Rising, with nine good men, went up
the river in a boat, looking for a good site for a mill.
They found a waterfall near the river, in a creek, which
bore an Indian name, and decided to locate here.
The ground desired for the saw mill was deeded to
the Swedes by the Sachem Peminacha in July, 1654.
In October Governor Rising built the block-house
which still stands at the right of the house. The
narrow port-holes, the nine-foot fireplace, and the
spring-house section are just as they were originally.
In 1655 Peter Stuyvesant attacked the block-house.
In May, 1910, in the heart of a decayed tree on the
premises, a three-inch cannon ball was found which
an ordnance expert has pronounced a pre-Revolution-
azy ball. Probably it was fired from a cannon manned
by one of Peter Stuy vesant's men. The ball rests on
the mantel in the main room of the house.
On at least two later occasions the block-house was
63
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
under fire, in 1671, when it was captured by the In-
dians, and in 1777, when it was captured by the British.
At the latter date the property was owned by Colonel
Thomas Robinson, an ofiBcer of the Revolution whose
portrait by Peale is in Independence HaU. He was
bom in the house on March SO, 1751.
During the Revolution the Robinson House, as the
property came to be known in 1788, when it came into
the possession of Colonel Robinson's ancestor, was the
scene of exciting ev^its. On October SI, 1777, Wash-
ington ordered Light Horse Harry Lee to assist in re-
moving the stones from the old mill on the place, to
prevent the British from obtaining flour. The stones
were buried at the rear of the orchard. One of them is
now the hearthstcme in the main room of the house,
while the other is used as a tea table on the lawn at the
rear of the house.
On another occasion a squad of British soldiers,
seeing several American soldiers take refuge inthehouse,
followed them into the hall as they disappeared up the
stairs. Triumphantly the British guarded the front
and rear stairs, both of which opened into the main
hall; the latter, being a dosed-in stair, shut off the hall
by a door. Removing their shoes, the Americans slipped
down the closed-in stair, opened a panel in the wall
that led to the kitchen, and escaped to their horses.
The panel is still shown to visitors.
General Washington was often a guest at Naaman's
Creek. On one of his visits he was so pleased with a seed-
ling pear that it was named after him; this was the
origin of the celebrated ^* Washington pear.*' Here he
64
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
used the sofa now in Independence Hall. Mad An-
thony Wayne was another famous guest of the Robin-
sons\
To-day the house is owned and occupied by Mrs.
Edna A. Bobinson, who is a descendant of John Rob-
inson, who came over with the Pilgrims in 1620. The
Robinsons who occupied the house for one hundred and
twenty-five years were descendants of Thomas Rob-
inson, the Quaker brother of John Robinson.
The house is fitted up as a tea-room, and all who
come are made welcome.
The first road to cross the creek at this point was
an old Indian trail which led along the Delaware from
New Castle to Tinicum. The first bridge was built
before 1880. In 1802 this was r^laced by the present
stone arch bridge, said to be at the very spot where the
old trail passed. Until 1882 this was a toU bridge.
The story of the building of the bridge is interest-
ing. In 1800 William Poole was commissioned by the
Court to contract for and superintend the erection of a
st<me arch bridge. On July SO, 1800, Mr. Poole wrote
a letter to Genial Robinson, asking him to superintend
its erection. On June 8, 1802, General Robinson wrote
on the back of Mr. Poolers letter:
Agreeably to the annexed Request, I have observed
with satisfaction the attention of Mr. Williamson in
building the Bridge over Naaman's Creek, and 'tis
my Opinion he has used every necessary care and in-
dustry in the erection thereof.
Beyond the bridge is Claymont station, noted be-
cause of its dueling history in the first half of the nine-
6 66
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
teenth centuiy. On Sunday morning, March 21» 18S0,
William Miller, of Philadelphia, and Midshipman Charles
G. Hunter, of the United States Navy, met just outside
the village. For his offense the officer was dismissed
from the Navy by order of President Jackson, but he
was restored and served through the Mexican War,
though he died soon after, a disappointed num. On
June 4, 1842, Hon. Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky,
fought a duel with General James Watson Webb, of
New York City, the spot chosai being at the junction
of the turnpike and the State Line. A disagreement in
Congress led to the fight. Three years later Washing-
ton Keith and Morris Meredith fought directly on the
line, and both were wounded.
These later duels show how ineffective was the pro-
test made in 1824 by the Philadelphia City Register,
which gave an account of all the dueb in the United
States from 1801 to that date. The purpose of the
publication was *'to awake more attention to the wide-
spread and overwhelming misery occasioned by duel-
ing.'' Nearly one hundred had been killed. Some
thirty of those who fought were army officers, and about
as many were navy officers.
But the records of the King's Highway tell of brave
men as well as of assassins. Perhaps the favorite hero
tale connected with the road is that of General Caesar
Rodney, to whose memory a memorial is to be erected
in Wilmington. How well he deserves this recognition
will appear from several extracts from the letters of
General Rodney and his brother. Colonel Thomas Rod-
ney, and conunents made on them by Thomas F. Bayard.
66
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
From Philadelphia, on June 7, 1768, the General
wrote to his brother:
Sir: — ^The morning after I parted with you, I drove
to New Castle by dinner time, and intended the morn-
ing following to have ffone on to Chester; but when I
oidered my horses in the chariot found the best horse
so ill, that we were obliged to stay that day at New
Castle that he might grow better; but, finding he grew
worse, I borrowed a saddle and bridle and set out on the
other horse. ... I got to Philadelphia on Saturday,
and on Monday applied to doctors concerning the sore
on my nose, who all, upon examination, pronounced it
a cancer. . .
If Mr. Rodney had followed advice and gone to
England for treatment, the disease might have been
arrested, but he was a member of the Legislature, and
he felt that he was needed at home.
For eight years he was so engrossed in the people's
business that he continued to neglect the cancer.
In 1776, when independence was agitated in Con-
gress, General Rodney went down into Delaware to con-
sult his constituents about the question. While there
he did his best to subdue discontent and to promote
harmony of action in the cause of liberty.
While he was absent, and sooner than he had an-
ticipated, the question of independence came up in
Congress. Messrs. McKean and Read, the other two
delegates from Delaware, could not agree. When the
vote was taken on July 1 nine colonies were in favor
of Richard Henry Lee's resolution, **that the United
States are and ought to be, free and independent
states." Pennsylvania and South Carolina were at
07
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
this time against the resolution. Delaware did not vote.
Thomas McEean, who favored the resolution, sent
a mounted messenger, at his own expense, with in-
structions to find General Rodney and bring him to
Philadelphia, post haste.
Mr. Bayanl tells what followed:
Eighty long miles lay between Dover and Phila-
delphia. Mr. McKean's messenger could not have
been dispatched until late on the afternoon of July 1,
after the adjournment, and it would have been a re-
markable horse or a relay of horses that could bring
him to Dover before the night of July 2.
At one of his farms, "Byfield," or "Poplar Grove,"
several miles out of Dover, he must have found Mr.
Rodney, and when McKean's message was received,
you may know how little time there was for dainty
preparation, barely enough for tightening of saddle
girUi and spurs, before the good horse was ready again
to be mounted, and our hero began his immortal ride
on that hot and dirty July day to carry into the Con-
gress of the Colonies the vote he held in trust for the
people of Delaware, and which was needed to make
the Declaration of Independence the unanimous act
of thirteen states.
Tired and dusty, the Delaware delegate appeared
just a little while before the adjournment of the session.
He was met at the door by Mr. McEean, who had been
looking for him with great anxiety. A few minutes
later, when Delaware was called, he rose and voted for
independence.
At the time of this memorable ride the cancer had
become quite painful. One account says that Rodney's
face was swathed in bandages when he reached the
68
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
State House. Fortunately, the cancer did not cause
death until he had the satisfaction of seeing independ-
ence an accomplished fact.
Just a little while before the death of Caesar Rodney,
Jacob Hiltzheimer told of a visit of Washington to Wil-
mington, December 16, 178S. His account was quoted
from the Pennsylvania Packet of December 28, 1783:
Last evening his excellency general Washington,
arrived in this borough, on his way to his seat in Vir-
ginia; previous to his arrival he was met by the gov-
ernor and council, the attorney -general, and other
Civil officers of the State, officers of the army and other
gentlemen, who escorted him into town; on his ar-
rival he was saluted by thirteen discharges of cannon;
an elegant supper was provided, whilst Uie inhabitants
demonstrated their joy by making large bonfires, &c.
Four years later Washington made another tri-
umphal journey along the King's Highway, on his
way from Philadelphia to Mount Vernon. He rode in a
chariot, accompanied by a Mr. Blair, who was his guest.
On the journey he had a narrow escape when one of the
horses fell through a bridge. The other, with the char-
iot» was on the point of following, but by great exertion
was saved, Wadiington related in his diary on Septem-
ber 1, 1787.
Nearly one hundred and fifty years before this trip
that might have proved fatal to Washington — ^in 1688—
the Swedes made the first permanent settlement on
the Delaware. They landed at the foot of what is now
Sixth Street in Wilmington and immediately built Fort
Christiana. At this fort a prosperous fur trade was
OLD AOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
carried on with the Indians. It is said that the first
year thirty thousand skins were shipped to Sweden.
These early settlers reclaimed many hundred acres
of lowlands to the north of Wilmington, along the pres-
ent King's Highway and between it and the river. The
Brandywine Meadows are a monument to their in-
dustry.
The references made to Wilmington and its vicinity
by early travelers who passed over the road are full of
interest to the modem tourist.
In 1745» David Bush wrote to Thomas Hopkinson:
The Country sixty years ago, particular on the
Creek & River Side, was settled by Dutch & Sweads
which seldom went from the Settlement and when they
had occasion to cross the Creeks, their usual method
was to swim over their Horses, while they crossed
in a Canoe; between forty and fifty years ago, the
English beginning to settle and make a figure in the
country, and perceiving a real necessity for the Safety of
Travelers that a Ferry should be Erected, application
being made to the Court, then held at Newcastle, for lib-
erty to erect a ferry on Christeen, the Court granted it.
The writer proposed that he be permitted to equip
a new feny, one of the advantages of which was to be
''the Lowering the price to S}/^ d. for Fenying Man and
Horse over, which I judge is full much.'*
A year later Peter £alm noted with interest that
redoubts had been thrown up hastily for protection
against the French and Spanish privateers who, it was
feared, might come up the Delaware.
The only comment made by Thomas Pownall, who
passed this way in 1754, was to the effect that Wilming-
70
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
ton " is a r^ular well-built town; but not travel enough
to draw together a sufficient number of people to com-
I^eat it to its plan/'
In 1794» William Priest passed along the road in a
hired ** caravan with four horses, which is here caUed a
stage/' He notes that he slept at Wilmington, ''a
pleasantly situate town on the bank of a creek/'
Then he called attention to the fact that there were
"about thirty square-rigged vessels, beside sloops and
schooners, belonging to this port/'
Ten years later a more observant visitor told of a
visit to the Brandywine mills :
The mills are mostly in the hands of friends, and al-
though not the most extensive are in construction and
situation perhaps equal to any. They are eight in num-
ber, and each grinds upon an average, per day, about
three tons and a half of flour, and about ten tons of
Indian meal; going through all the processes of grind-
ing, packing, &c. They are so situated that near vessels
receive and discharge their caigoes alongside the mills.
The neighborhood of these mills is romantic and beau-
tiful, and is one amongst the many pleasant spots I
have seen in this country.
Samuel Breck in 1809 crossed the Brandywine on a
bridge then building, which was suspended on iron
chains on the principle of the bridge at Falls of Schuyl-
kill. He ''traversed Wilmington without stopping,"
yet ''one could perceive that this Capital of the state
of Delaware is in a flourishing condition, and may con-
tain about two thousand souls."
One of these early visitors called attention to the
fact that part of Wilmington stands on ground belong-
71
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
ing to the Swedish church, *' which annually recdves
certain rents, out of which they pay the Minister's sal-
aiy, and employ the rest for other uses."
Old Swedes' Church is practically the only mmiu-
ment left on the original Swedish settlement, though
it was not the first church built by the Swedes. One of
the first things done by Peter Minuit after landing with
his colony on Christiana was to prdvide a place of wor-
ship within the fort. In 1667 the Crane Hook Church
was built on the banks of Christiana and Brandywine
Creeks. Wherever possible, early churches were located
near streams, for there were no roads, no carriages, and
no bridges; boats were the only means of transportation.
The cornerstone of Old Swedes' was laid on May 28,
1698, by Rev. Ericus Biorck. Money was scarce, and
he feared that the progress of the work would be slo\f ,
yet he managed to push it. ''I made a bargain with
bricklayers and carpenters, and bound them and me so
strongly, that otherwise the work would not have been
finished in less than three years." The amount of stone
work done is evident from the statement that the walls
up to the windows are three feet thick, while above that
point they are two feet thick. The dedication took place
on July 4, 1699, the name Trinity Church being given.
Wilmington, as first laid out, was some distance from
the church, and for one hundred years many of the
worshippers traveled at least half a mile over wretched
roads to reach the quiet spot. '*Its situation was se-
cluded and quiet," one historian has written. ''The
sceneiy all around it was indeed beautiful. The Chris-
tiana flowed by between its green bordering of reeds,
72
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
but a few feet from the churchyard wall. Behind it
was the beautiful Brandywine, and beyond it the ma-
jestic Delaware. Rich green meadows lay immediately
around the church.''
The tower was added in 1802, the gift of Thomas
Cole, whose grave may be seen near its base. Many
other graves attract attention, but perhaps the one
that causes most comment is marked by a stone in the
original brick floor of the church, placed there to the
memory of a child who died at the age of nineteen days.
What a contrast to the more than two centuries of the
history of the building!
For twelve years after the erection of the new Holy
Trinity Church some distance away the old SwediA
relic was not in use, and it became quite dilapidated,
but in 1842 it was put in good condition, and most of
the time since services have been held in it.
The old-time quiet of the neighborhood has given
way to bustle and confusion. On three sides, the houses
of foreigners cluster thickly about the church. On the
fourth side is the Pennsylvania Railroad. Passengers
entering Wilmington from the north should look for
the quaint building and the graveyard. It may be seen
on the right, a moment before entering the Wilmington
station.
Another old church buildi^ is the original edifice
of the First Presbyterian congregation, which stands,
gurroundfd by its old cemetery, in the heart of the
city's bufflness district, at Ninth and Market Streets.
For many years this building has been used as a mu-
seum by the Delaware Historical Society.
73
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Of all the objects of interest in the museum the
oddest is the wooden statue of Washington, of heroic
size, which was erected in Battery Park, New York, in
1796. When this was removed it was sold to a relic
hunter for $300.
Among the many old residences in Wilmington is
the Tatnall homestead at 1807 Market Street, where
Lafayette was once entertained. It is thought that
the older part of the house, the Nineteenth Street front,
was built by the first Edward Tatnall, who came to
Wihnington in 1785. In 1809 the Market Street front
was built. The original house faced the Brandywine
and overlooked the Tatnall farm. At that time Nine-
teenth Street was a country lane. Those who have
opportunity to enter the house will be interested in the
massive doors, the marble mantels and the narvow cup-
boards at each side of the mantels.
Beyond the northern dty limits is the Richardson
homestead, built in 1765, as is shown by the date stone
in the southern gable wall. Before building this house
Richard Richardson lived in the small brick house
nearer the road, almost directly in front of the larger
house. Tradition says that this was built in 1728.
Port-holes for defense are in the wall of this earlier
building. The land on which the houses stand was
bought by John Richardson from the Swedes, in the
seventeenth century. For a long time he operated a
mill. About him grew the thriving village of Newport,
a shipping point to which the farmers from Chester
and Lancaster Counties brought their grain in wagons
for shipment to markets
74
KING'S HIGHWAY TO WILMINGTON
Probably the best known house in Wflmington is
Delamore Place, built by Captain Samuel Boyer Davis,
the hero of the defense of Lewes, Delaware, against
the British squadron, in April, 181S. It has always
been a source of wonder that he was able to withstand
the attack of the enemy, for he had only untrained
militia at his back. Colonel Davis persisted in his re-
fusal to surrender the town and when the cannon balls
from the guns of the fleet fell in the streets they were
gathered up, loaded in the one American battery, and
sent back with the customary good marksmanship of
American gunners.
It is said that the intrepid leader camped over night
on what became the site of Delamore Place, and that
he was so much pleased with it he determined some day
to build there. At any rate, after serving in the army
until 1819, he returned to Wilmington. There he
learned that the owner of the ground whose situation
had pleased him so much had b^gun to build and was
unable to finish. At once he bought the place and com-
pleted the house, whose walls are nearly three feet
thick. Here he spent many of the years that inter-
vened before his death, in 1854.
But perhaps Delamore Place is best known as the
residence of Thomas F. Bayard, during his career as
Senator, Secretary of State, and Ambassador to Eng-
land. For a time it was occupied also by Howard Pyle,
the artist.
It is claimed that no house on or near the King's
Highway has had more men of note within its walls
than M Delamore Place. President Polk was once a
76
I
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
guest at dinner here. General Louis Cass and Stephen
A. Douglas visited in the house, while President Cleve-
land spent a Sunday here in 1893.
Near the southern boundary of the city, between
Maryland Avenue and the Pennsylvania Railroad, is the
distinguished looking mansion Latimeria, which was
built in 1815. The builder was William Warner, who
took an original method of selecting a plan. The story
is that he gave a dinner to a company of his friends
and requested each gentleman guest to bring with him
a set of plans for the house he proposed to build. The
favored plan was brought by Eleuthere Iren^ du Pont,
founder of the great powder manufacturing house.
In 1838 the house became the property of John R.
Latimer, a descendant of James Latimer, a member of
the Council of Safety of 1776, and president of the
Delaware Assembly ^that was the first to ratify the Con-
stitution of the United States. He was the great-grand-
father of the present owner of the house, who delights
to show visitors the mementos of the past within its
walls. Among these are two large paintings of the tea
ship owned by John Latimer, who was a Philadelphia
tea merchant. Other treasures are preserved in a cabi-
net in the libraiy. This is filled with wonderful tea
sets which the merchant brought from China, as well
as other rare specimens of Oriental ware.
The house is still a prominent feature in the land-
scape, which it has dominated since first the travelers
on the King's Highway paused to admire the graceful
lines of a building that is unlike anything to be found
on this or any other road.
76
m
THE BALTIMORE TURNPEEOE
ON May 4, 18SS, Samuel Breck, of Philadelphia^
wrote a prophecy of the time when stage coaches
on roads out of Philadelphia to Baltimore and
Washington would be things of the past. He said:
Undoubtedly, a traveler will be able to go from
Baltimore to New York by the light of a summer's sun
when the locomotive shdl be placed on the Amboy
railroad. An invitation to a three o'clock dinner may
now be complied with by the individual who takes
his breakfast in either of these cities; and with the
loco» when established, he may start from one city in
the morning, and return again in the evening from a
visit to the other.
Before he left America, however, he was not so
enthusiastic. After telling of a journey in an ugly
box attached to a *Moco," he asked:
Shall we be much longer kept by this toilsome
fashion of hurrying, hurrying, from starting (those who
can afford it) on a journey with our own horses and
moving slowly, surely and profitably through the coun-
try, with the power of enjoying its beauty and be the
means of creating good inns? Undoubtedly, a line of
post-horses and post-chaises would long ago have been
established along our great roads had not steam monop-
olized everything. Steam, so useful in many respects,
interferes with the comfort of traveling, destroys eveiy
salutaiy distinction in society, and overturns by its
77
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
whirligig power the once rational, gentlemanly and
safe mode of getting along on a journey.
He gave an amusing description of the trials endured
''for the sake of doing uncomfortably in two days what
would be done delightfully in eight or ten":
If one could stop when one wanted, and if one were
not locked up in a box with fifty or sixty tobacco
chewers; and the engine and fire did not bum holes in
one's clothes; and the springs and hinges didn't make
such a racket; and the smell of the smoke, of the oil
and of the chimney did not poison one; and if one
could see the countiy, and was not in danger of being
blown sky high or kicked off the rails, — ^it would be
the perfection of traveling.
A second time he assumed the r6le of prophet,
writing what in these days sounds like an anticipation
of the automobile:
After all the old fashioned way . . . with one's own
horses and carriages, with liberty to dine decentiy in
a decent inn and be master of one's movements, with
the delight of seeing the country and getting along
rationally, is the mode to which I cling, andf which
will be adopted again by the generations of after time.
When the first petitions were presented for the
building of a turnpike on the route of the present Bal-
timore Road, the petitioners did not think of any
means of communication from city to dty but the
stage coach. They were quite content to look forward
to a speed of from six to nine or ten miles an hour,
and they were sure that a second road from Philadel-
phia toward Baltimore would be profitable. Evidently
the authorities agreed with them, for in 1809 the Phila-
78
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
ddphia. Brandy wine, and New London Turnpike Com-
pany was chartered to build by way of Chadd's Ford
to the State line toward Baltimore. On April 2, 1811,
permission was given to the builders to lay the route
**over the road leading from Schuylkill to Darby, com-
monly called the Woodlands Road, where said road
diverges from the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turn-
pike/*
An early guidebook names but four points in the
first section of this early road: Hamiltonville, two
mOes; Wrightstown, sixteen miles; Chadsford, twenty-
five miles; and Kennett Square, thirty-three miles.
Most of the country through which the road passes
for the first ten miles of the course has been so well
built up that old landmarks are scarce. Some of them
may be picked out by the careful observer, however.
For instance, there is the house at Clifton Heights,
between the turnpike and the railroad, built in 1729,
and in Swarthmore, on the campus of Swarthmore
CoUege, is the house of Benjamin West, the artist.
But those who have time for a short side trip from
Swarthmore will find, within a space of two miles, not
only many old houses, but industries which had their
b^pnning before the Constitution was framed, as well
as sites and relics to which pilgrimage should be made
by everybody who delights in the picturesque and the
unusual.
i^The way to the glen where history was made is
through Swarthmore, then down Crum Creek until
Avondale, the mansion of Thomas Leiper, is reached.
The house is on the right, built on the side of a hill.
79
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
The walk from the creek road to the front door leads
from a gateway whose posts are great stone slabs from
the old Leiper quany near by.
Thomas Leiper, the Genius of the Glen, came to
America from Scotland in 1764» when he was nineteen
years old. At first he lived in Virginia, where he became
interested in the tobacco business. Later he came to
Philadelphia. His first tobacco warehouse was at
North Water Street. In 1774 he was known as a man-
ufacturer of snuff, and his place of business was at
274 Market Street.
The canny Scot, when looking for a site for a new
snuff manufactory, was attracted by the water power
ready to his hand on Crum Creek. Here he opened
a stone quarry, built a snuff mill, and a cotton mill,
and a grist mill, and erected substantial stone houses
for his quarrymen, which are occupied to-day by the
Italian successors of the laborers of one hundred and
thirty years ago.
The crowning feature of the glen was, and still is,
the mansion built in 1785. This is known as Avondale
Place, the name of the village of quarry workmen
being Avondale. From the creek side the old house is
seen to be four stories high, but from the hillside it
appears to be but a regulation two story and attic
house.
The most striking feature of the house is the exquis-
itely simple portico and doorway, said to be the finest
entrance in Delaware County. The steps leading to
the portico are worn with the passa{;e of many feet.
The pavement at either side of those steps is of marble
80
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
brought to America a3 ballast in one of the Leiper ships.
At the side of the house is a curious structure that
looks like a bank vault. The Grenius of the Glen was
far from banks, so he built this strong house that could
defy the attempts of thieves to enter it. Even to-day
a cracksman would have to use much ingenuity to get
inside. The walls are two feet thick, the ceiling is
vaulted and re-enforced, the door is iron-bound, and
the windows are narrow slits which widen toward the
interior. To-day it is used as a den by Miss Laiper,
the daughter of Cal. I. Leiper. The small iron-bound
chest in which especially valuable articles were stored
is now a wood-box. When this is empty two men would
find it difficult to lift it.
Thomas Leiper was a man of vision. He sought a
better means of getting to tidewater the product of
his quarries than ox-wagons and dirt roads could ^ve.
In 1791 he asked permission of the Pennsylvania
Assembly to cut a canal from the quarry to tidewater.
The petition was supported by many Philadelphia
business men, but others objected. The permission
sought was declined, on the ground that the scheme
was ''chimerical, visionary and ruinous.*'
For twenty-one years the quarryman struggled
along with inadequate transportation facilities. In
September, 1809, on a vacant tract beside the Bull's
Head tavern, on Front Street near Poplar Street,
Philadelphia, he directed John Thomson— -civil en-
gineer, father of John Edgar Thomson, builder of
parts of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, and for
twenty-seven years president of that system — and a
6 81
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Scotch millwright named Somerville, in the construc-
tion of a trial track one hundred and eighty feet long.
The rails of wood rested on sleepers eight feet apart.
The grade was one and a half inches to the yard.
Those who watched the operation were incredulous
when they were told that the builders expected to see
a horse drag a heavy load up the incline. They pre-
pared to jeer when a car with grooved wheels was
placed on the track and loaded with five tons. To
their amazement one horse puUed the car with ease
to the end of the line, though several horses would
have had a hard task with a similar load on a level road.
Then Thomas Leiper was ready to let the contract
for a railroad one mile long, to be built from his quar-
ries on Crum Creek, across to tidewater on Ridley
Creek. John Thomson secured the contract. For
nineteen years this was operated, the first practical
railroad in the country. The first track was of wood,
but the friction of the flanges of the iron wheeb
soon wore out the wood. A track of stone was
then substituted. The cars were drawn by horses
and oxen.
In 1828 Thomas Leiper's son, George Grey Leiper,
who lived at Lapidea, a short distance from Avondale
Place, succeeded in securing from the Legislature the
permission to build a canal, which had been denied
his father. The canal as built had two locks. One of
these has almost entirely disappeared, though the sec^
ond, not far from Avondale, is in a good state of preser-
vation.
Li 1829 the canal was opened for trafiic. The first
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
boat to enter the upper lock, the William Strickland,
carried a load of guests and a brass band. When the
second lock was reached the Delaware County Volun-
teer Battalion and the Pennsylvania Artillerists were
on hand to give the martial salute.
The canal was a success — too much of a success,
in fact — ^for so much water was required to run it that
the various mills were deprived of their power. A sec-
ond railroad was thereupon built, down Crum Creek
to the Chester turnpike and beyond. This road is
still in use; it is operated by the Baltimore and Ohio
Railway Company.
The right of way of the original railway, across
the ridge from Avondale quarry to Ridley Creek, may
still be traced by the embankment, on the property of
State Senator Sproul, the present owner of the land on
which Lapidea, George Leiper's house, stood. In the
Senator's new house are some of the old mantels from
Lapidea.
Passengers by the Chester Short Line, which passes
Leiperville half a mile to the east of the Chester turn-
pike, are sometimes told that the narrow-gauge road
along the north bank of Crum Creek, between the car
line and the pike, is the original Leiper road. The
fact that this road also leads from a large quarry gives
color to the statement. Those who start on this false
scent should follow the narrow-gauge road to a snudl
footbridge across the creek. A private road leads from
this to the Chester road. From Chester road Fairview
road leads up the creek to the Avondale quarry.
The road to the quarry leads past the Leiperville
83
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Presbyterian Church, organized in 1818. In the orig-
inal building Andrew Jackson, Elisha Kent Kane, James
Buchanan and Harriet Lane, Buchanan's beautiful
niece, were worshipers more than once.
Thomas Leiper had time for other than business
activities. He was the first seigeant of the First Troop
of light^ Horse, later the City Troop, he was at the
side of General Mercer when he fell on the battlefield
of Princeton, and later he welcomed to his city home
many of the makers of early history. It is said that
in his home, in 1800, Jefferson was nominated for the
Presidency.
Those who go down Crum Creek from Swarthmore
should continue the trip along the creek and over
toward Ridley Creek, to Waterville. Near the trolley
from Chester to Media, on a hill at the left, is the house
which one of the sons of John Sharpless, immigrant,
built in 1699. Several hunderd yards from the house,
on the bank of Ridley Creek, is the great boulder
against which John Sharpless himself built his first
house, in 1682. Here was the start of the Sharpless
family in America, one of the most prominent of the
Quaker families. Isaac Sharpless, long President of
Haverford College, is a descendant.
From Crum Creek, it is easy to reach the Provi-
dence Road, one of the historic highways of Delaware
County. Several of the best of the inns for which the
county was famous in early days may be found along
this road. One of these. Providence Lm, at Media,
has been converted into a hospital. Another, the Rose
Tree Lm, is located a short distance above Media, at
84
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
the intersection of Providence Road and the Rose
Tree Road. The old signboard of the inn has been
appropriated by the Rose Tree Hunt, whose dub house
is located directly across the Providence Road.
Fox-hunting has been a popular diversion in Dela-
ware, Chester and Montgomery counties since early
days, though there is no record of an organized hunt
in these counties during colonial times. Hie first hunt
in the vicinity of Philadelphia was the Gloucester Fox
Hunting Club, organized December IS, 1766, in the
Coffee House at the comer of what is now Front and
Market streets, Philadelphia. On the list of the one
hundred and twenty-five members were the names
Wharton, Willing, Chew, Mifflin, Cadwalader, Leiper
and Penrose. Captain Samuel Morris, who later organ-
ized the City Troop, was the first president. The first
huntsman was ''Old Natty," a slave belonging to Cap-
tain Morris. In his charge, at one time, tzos a pack of
sixteen couples of hounds. Most of the hunting was
done in New Jersey, but sometimes the hounds were
brought across the river and more than once they
picked up the trail of the fox among the hills whero
the Rose Tree Hunt has its headquarters.
During the years since the Gloucester Hunt dis-
banded, in 1818, there have been a number of suc-
cessors. Perhaps the most famous of these are the
Radnor Hunt and the Rose Tree Hunt, though long
before these were organized many farmers and their
friends turned aside from work to the pursuit of the
fox. 3ayard Taylor, in ''The Stoiy of Kennett,'* tells
of one of these gatherings:
86
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
The owners of the hounds picked out their several
animals and dragged them aside, in which opeFation
they were uproariously assisted by the boys. The
chase in Kennett, it must be confessed, was but a veiy
faint shadow of the old English pastime. It had been
kept up» in the neighborhood, from the force of habit
in the Colonial times, and under the depression which
the strong Quaker element among the people exercised
upon all sports and recreations. The breed of hounds
had considerably d^enerated, and few, even of the
richer farmers, could afford to keep thoroughbred
hunters for this exclusive object. Consequently all
the features of the pastime had become rude and imper-
fect, and, although very respectable gentlemen still
gave it their countenance, there was a growing sus-
picion that it was a questionable if not demoralizing
diversion.
The Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club is said to be the
oldest in the country. It was formed in 1859 at the
Rose Tree Inn, by a company of riders who for years
had made a practice of organizing a hunt, bringing
together riders and hounds as they could. As early as
1853 two riders had kept their hounds at the tavern.
There were famous hounds and daring riders in those
days; tales are still told of their exploits. Indeed, the
first members had gained so much experience in follow-
ing the hounds that for many years no Master of the
Hounds or^Huntsman was required.
From the Rose Tree Hunt return may be made
through Media to the Baltimore Road. It is of
interest to note that the town is built on seven hundred
acres of the plot of about twelve hundred and fifty
acres sold by William Penn to Peter Taylor and his
86
Nuw ibc Ucdin Hoipilii]
ii
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
brother William, for a little more than ten cents an acre.
At the intersection of Edgemont Road, beyond
Media, is the residence of Allen Cunningham, remodeled
in 1915 from the old Black Horse Inn which dates from
17S9. On November 27 of that year William Noblit
asked permission to keep tavern in ''a newly built and
Commodious stone house upon the great road Leading
from Chester to the Valley." He argued that the tav-
ern was a necessity for the public generally, and that
it was especially needed because it was located '* about
three-quarters of a mile from the Presbyterian Meet-
ing-house which Commonly is a great resort of people,'*
some of them *' having ten or fifteen miles to travel to
the sd. place of worship."
Probably many of the members of the church to
which Landlord Noblit referred in his petition — ^Mid-
dletown Presbyterian Church, at Elwyn, a short dis-
tance down the Edgemont Road, which was founded
in 1720 — would not have agreed that they needed a
tavern for use between services. They had other means
of passing the time. One of the treasured possessions
of the church is a folio volume, inscribed thus on a
blank page:
This Book call'd M' Baxter's Directary, was given
by y* Reverend D' Isaac Watts of London to the Ph)t-
estant Dissenters usually assembling for Worship at
Middletown Meeting House in Pennsylvania, that
people who came from far, and spend their whole day
there, may have something proper to entertain them-
selves with, or to read to one another between the
seasons of worship for morning and afternoon: & 'tia
for this end entrusted to y* care of the Protestant Dia*
87
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
flenting Mmister who preaches there and to his sue*
oessors, to be used by him or them in their weekly
Studys, and to be secured and devoted to the Use of
the Congregation on y* Lord's days.
JanuaiySOth: 17S5-6.
Hie Book is Committed to the Care of M' Benj
Hawley to be Carried over to Pennsylvania, and after
he has kept it in his own hands and made the best use
of it for six months, that is till the SOth of July next,
he shall deliver it to the hands of the present Protes-
tant Dissenting Minister for the puiiKMe af oremoi-
tioned.
In the beautiful graveyard of the Middletown
diurch are two quaint and interesting tombstones a
little more than a foot wide and not much h^her.
Near them are two venerable chestnut trees, remark-
able for their vast size, each being not less than twenty-
five feet in circumference and still bearing fruit. The
inscriptions on the stones are as follows:
MARTHA DICKEY
DECEASED
AGVST T
HE TWEN
TY FIRST
1781
On the f ootstone is
HIR AGE
TWO YEA
RS ANDS
IX MONT
HS
JAMES COOPER
DECEASED THE
FORTH DAY OF
NOVEMBER IN
THE YEAR OF
GOD 1781
On the f ootstone is;
HIS AGE FIF
TY TWO YE
ARS
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
Another stone in the graveyard has this record:
Here lieth the body of Bemhard Van Laer, M. D.,
Physissian in Physick, who departed this life January
26, 1790, aged 104 years.
It is recorded that, in his one hundredth year. Dr.
Van Laer rode on horseback from Marple to his Chester
County farm, a distance of thirty miles, in one day.
In his one himdred and second year burglars entered
his house and demanded to be told the hiding place
of his savings. Angered at his refusal, they abused
him. He never recovered from the effects.
Not far from the grave of the "physissian" is this
inscription :
Samuel Crozer, died 1747
lidCy glass is run.
My work is done.
My body under ground;
Intombed in Clay
Until the day
I hear the trumpet sound.
About as far up the Edgemont Road from the old
Black Horse as Middletown church is below it, is the
historic settlement Lima. Here, in 1806, Philip Yamall
was given leave to open a public house. The place was
then called Middletown Cross Roads, but soon after
the Pineapple tavern was opened the settlement won
a new name. There was so much disorder at the tav-
ern that the crossroads came to be known as Wrangle-
town. Maps of the period record this impleasant name.
The reputation of the Pineapple became unsavory and
the license was forfeited the next year. Joseph Yar-
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
nail succeeded in securing a renewal in 1816. He added
to the evil reputation of Wrangletown, and in 1810
the license was finally revoked.
Some distance down the branch of Chester Creek,
from Markham, near Chester Heights, are the ivy-
covered walls of the third paper mill in America —
the Ivy Mill, founded by Thonuis Willcox in 1727.
The ivy on the picturesque ruin grew from a root
brought by the founder from his home in Devonshire,
England. In this mill was made the paper used by
the Colonies for papar money and during many dec-
ades by the United States Government for its bank
notes.
The Glen Mills, located several miles up the main
Chester Creek from Wawa, were later built by descend-
ants of Thomas Willcox. The paper business of the
Glen Mills is still carried on.
When the Ivy Mill was in its gloiy the boys of the
neighborhood went to a stone schoolhouse which stands
on the left of the road to Glen Mills, within sight of
the turnpike, on the right. The roof of this building
will soon be gone, and the walls wiU probably be torn
down before many years; but it will be long before the
old residents cease to pass on tales of the severity of
nuisters who taught in this subscription school when
the United States was young. Perhaps it was stand-
ing even when the British Army marched down the
turnpike from the field of Brandywine and turned
into the road to Chester, at Concordville.
Less than a mile and a half beyond Concordville
the Wilmington Road intersects the turnpike. This
go
^
. HEADQUAKTEOS, ^
TDBNPIKB BRIDOE OVER TUB BRANDTWIKK, »
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
leads to the south, and crosses the curious north boim-
dary line of the state of Delaware. On the map of
Nicholas ScuU, dated 1759» this boundary is called
"Circle line/* The story of the "circle line," the only
boundary of the kind in the United States, is interest-
ing. June 14, 1680, William Penn asked Charles 11
to give him a territory north of Maryland, in payment
of a debt of £16,000, money advanced by his father to
the government. Suggestion was made later that the
northern boundary of the territory should extend
twelve miles north of New Castle. "But I do not
understand why it is precisely necessary to insist on
just such a number of miles, more or less, in a country
of which we know so little," was the conmient of one
of whom the request was made. Yet Penn insisted,
and when the boundaries of what were long known as
the lower counties of Pennsylvania were fibced, it was
decreed that the northern line should be "on a circle
drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle north-
ward and eastward."
The king who agreed to this strange boundary
little thought that in less than one himdred years a
British army would be opposed by the soldiers of the
colonies, only three or four miles north of the point
where Brandy wine Creek crosses this "Circle line.'*
On September 10, 1777, Washington and his men were
waiting at Chadd's Ford, prepared to block the prog-
ress of the British who had landed at Head of Elk on
Chesapeake Bay. The battle which followed next day
opened four miles north of the Ford. This point may
be reached conveniently by taking the Wilmington
01
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
Road to the north as far as Dilworthtown. At Dil-
worthtown a ride of two miles on the road to the left
takes the traveler by the point where Lafayette was
wounded, past the center of the battlefield, past the
Friends' graveyard where many American soldiers were
buried, and to the place where was the first firing
between Comwallis and Washington. Comwallis's
headquarters after the battle were not far north of
Dilworthtown. Greneral Howe's headquarters were on
a cross road that leaves the Wilmington road about a
mile south of Dilworthtown. Lafayette made his head-
quarters in a stone house on the Baltimore Turnpike^
near the Brandy wine Baptist Church — ^which was organ-
ized in 1715 — ^and Washington's headquarters were
just beyond the church. These buildings on the pike
may readily be identified by the tablets on the trees.
Lafayette's headquarters is especially noteworthy be-
cause of the great tree between the bam and the house.
The house was at the time of the battle a tavern kept
by Gideon Gilpin. When Lafayette was in America
in 1825 he visited the place and talked to Gilpin, who
was then on his deathbed.
Less than a nule beyond Washington's headquar-
ters is the covered bridge over Brandywine Creek.
This beautiful stream was called Fish Kill by the
Swedes. The present name was given by the Dutch, it is
said, after a vessel loaded with brandy had been wrecked
near the point where the creek empties into the Dela-
ware.
Eight miles farther on is Kennett Square, the birth-
place and the home in later life of Bayard Taylor. As
92
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
a boy Taylor wandered over almost every foot of the
territory for miles aroimd, and gained the familiarity
with the coimtry that enabled him later to describe it
with such charm in '"Hie Story of Kennett/*
One almost imagines that^he can identify the scene
described in this passage:
Having crossed the creek on a flat log, secured with
stakes at either end, a few more paces brought her to
the warm, gentle knoU, upon which stood the farm-
house. Here, the wood ce»sed, and the creek, sweep-
ing around to the eastward, embraced a quarter of a
mile of rich bottom-land, before entering the rocky
dell below. It was a pleasant seat, and the age of the
house denoted that one of the earli^ settlers had been
quick to perceive its advantages. A hundred years
had aUxeBJoy elapsed since the masons had run up those
walls of rusty nomblende rock, and it was even said
that the leaden window-sashes, with their diamond-
shaped panes of greenish glass, had been brought over
from England, in the days of William Penn. In fact,
the ancient aspect of the place — ^the tall, massive chim-
ney at the gable, the heavy, projecting eaves, and the
holly-bush in a warm nook beside the front porch, had,
nineteen years before, so forcibly reminaed one of
Howe's soldiers of his father's homestead in mid-Eng-
land, that he was numbered among the missing after
the Brandywine battle, and presently turned up as a
hired hand on the Barton farm.
Taylor's description of the Deane Mansion was
evidently drawn from life. Just such houses may be
found to-day within a few miles of Kennett Square:
The Deane Mansion stood opposite the Unicom
Tavern. When built, ninety years previous, it had
be<»i considered a triumph of architecture; the mate-
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
was squared logs from the forest, dovetafled, a&d
overlapping at the comers, which had the effect of
rustic quoins, as contrasted with the front, which was
plastered and yellow-washed. A small portico, covered
with a tangl^ mass of eglantine and coral honey-
suckle, with a bench at each end, led to the door; and
the ten feet of space between it and the front paling
were devoted to flowers and rose-bushes.
years of wandering in Europe and America,
the author of these descriptions was sustained by the
thought of Mary Agnew, a playmate in childhood,
long his promised wife. But she died, and her death,
instead of spoiling his life, roused him to nobler efforts.
In his journal, a few days after her death, he recorded
this prayer:
Almighty Father, who knowest the burden of every
heart, hdp me to bear the cruel sorrow which has fallen
upon me. Remove the weakness and blindness of my
rebellious soul, that I may see thy ways more clearly,
and still the outciy of my heart. Soften the bitterness
of my grief, that I may not fail to praise thee and love
thee, with the same confiding spirit as of old. Suffer
me to become all that she hoped of me, all that I be-
lieve I may become, if thy blessing sanctions the labors
of my life. Help me to be purer and better than I have
been; help me to toil more faithfully and zealously
than I yet have toiled.
For years he had owned to ''a slender wedge of
hope" that he might one day own a bit of ground,
'"for the luxury of having it, if not the profit of culti-
vating it." He dreamed after this manner of the house
he would build:
94
THE BALTIMORE TURNPIKE
It must be large and stately, simple in its form»
without much ornament — ^in fact, expressive of strength
and permanence. • . • The gate shall stay open, naued
open, if need be, like the hospitable doors of Tartary.
In the house of his dream, which still stands one
mile from the center of Kennett Square, on the trolley
line to West Qiester, he entertained Whittier, Lanier,
Stedman, Stoddard and many other literary celeb-
rities. Here ''The Story of Kennett" was written
as well as a number of other volumes.
yfhea he died in Berlin, where he was United
States Minister to Germany, on December 10, 1878,
the body was brought to a cemetery near Cedar-
croft for burial. On the stone above his grave are
carved these words from his own poem, ^'Deucalion*':
For Life, whose source not here b^an.
Must fill the utmost sphere of man.
And, so expanding, lifted be
Along the line of God's decree.
To find in endless growth aU good —
In endless toil, beatitude.
IV
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
ONE of the advantages of the West Chester Road
is that the electric car from 69th and Market
Streets has a right of way on it to West Chester.
One of the disadvantages is that it is far from an ideal
road for the motorist. But there is so much of beauty
and interest along the way that a rough road should
not be allowed to be a hindrance.
At any rate the inconvenience caused to-day by
the roughness of the road is nothing to the state of
affairs described by one who has written of West Ches-
ter travel in pioneer days.
In those early staging times — especially when the
frost was coming out of the ground — ^the road was
often so miry and heavy, and the watering places
always so numerous and attractive, that the drivers
would take from breakfast time till candlelight in the
evening to get from the dty to our Borough (West
Chester). On one of these irksome occasions, when
Judge Darlington and Olof Stromburg were among the
passengers, the Judge made the inteqectional remark,
IT^^at a long road from Philadelphia to West Ches-
ter.'' Olof concurred in the opinion, but added, ''It's
a good thing for us that it is so." ''YHiy so?" asked
the Judge. ''Because," replied Olof, "if it was not so
long it would not reach."
It is no wonder the twenty-four miles to West
Chester seemed long, for there were no towns to break
96
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
the monotony of the way, and houses were scarce. As
late as 1824 John Melish's Traveler's Companion noted
as the] only stations on the stage road Hamiltonville»
Cobb's Creek» Darby Creek, and Chester Creek.
In early colonial days it was an event when such a
thoroughfare as the West Chester Road was laid out.
At first the grand jury was charged with the task of
hearing petitions for new roads, viewing the proposed
routes, and arranging for the construction. In 1692
a change was made, when the township through which
the road passed was given complete control of it. Eight
years later it was ordered that county roads should be
in the hands of the county justices, while the governor
and his council were expected to give grave attention
to all problems connected with the king's highway.
As the population of the interior townships and
counties grew, petitions for new roads multiplied, and,
while many of these were not granted, so many roads
were opened that Washington despaired when he saw
how many avenues of approach to the city must be
guarded if he would prevent supplies from reaching
the British army in Philadelphia. However, he devised
a most efficient means of intercepting food bound for
the dty, thus adding to the difficulties of the invaders.
It was not until April, 1793, that the legislation
passed a bill directing that a State road be laid out from
Philadelphia to York through West Chester. This
road, known as the Strasburg Road, is a little north
of the West Chester Turnpike. Seven years after the
authorization of this road, a tri-weekly line of stages
was arranged for. In 1809 a line of stages ran to Lan-
7 07
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
caster from Philadelphia by way of ''Strausberg and
West Chester/' The fare to Lancaster was $S.50,
while the fare to West Chester was $1.25. To-day
the fare by electric car is thirty cents. Fourteen pounds
of baggage would be carried free for each passenger,
though excess baggage was permitted. The provision
was made that one hundred and fifty pounds of bag-
gage should be paid for at the rate of a passenger's
transportation.
In addition to the stages, Conestoga wagons, and
private carriages, the West Chester Road saw many
specimens of the lumbering cart, with solid wheels
cut from symmetrical logs of proper size. Sometimes
these wheels wero built up by carpenters.
Some of these carts found their way with grain to
the Millboume Mill, founded in 1757 on Cobb's Creek,
at what is now Sixty-third and Market Streets. The
builder was the grandson of Samuel Sellers, who bought
hundreds of acres from William Fenn in 1690. At
first the capacity of the mill was five barrels a day,
but this was gradually increased until to-day the out-
put is enormous.
For about one mile from Millboume Mill the West
Chester Road passes through lands that for nearly
two centuries wero in the possession of the Sellers fam-
fly. Several of the farmhouses built by members of
the family near the road may still be seen. Samuel
Sellers had need for a house at an early day, for his
marriage to Anna Gibbons was the first to be recorded
in the minutes of the Darby Meeting.
Two of the oldest houses on the road, one of which
08
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
is fast becoming a niin» may be seen, soon after pass-
ing toll gate number two. A third old stone farmhouse
may be seen by those who will leave the turnpike at
Manoa Road, directly opposite the grounds of the
Delaware County Country Club. A short distance
down the road, and opposite the Babies' Hospital,
this relic looks down on the passers-by as it has done
for more than a century.
At the crossing of Darby Creek two buildings
attract attention — one, a saw mill, built in 18S7, and
the other the residence of the proprietor of the saw mill,
John E. Stanley. The newer portion of this house is
venerable; the log portion is probably not far from
two hundred years old.
Darby Creek looks so inviting at this point that it is
not difficult to appreciaite the enthusiasm of Harold
Donaldson Eberlein who urges lovers of nature to try
the sport he calls "'Creek Following.'" He suggests
that those who want a short walk full of siuprises
should follow Darby Creek from the West Chester
Pike to Clifton on the Baltimore Pike. This is his
argument:
You would see the country in a wholly new light
and discover a hundred new aspects of familiar places
that you have never dreamed of. You who would get
sound outdoor pleasure from a neglected source and
abundant healthful exercise withal, follow the wind-
ings of the creeks, .and trace their courses afoot. It
may sound like rank heresy in these days of automo-
biles to urge walking for pleasure, but if you would
really know the country you Uve in you must con-
descend sometimes to use the means of locomotion
90
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Heaven gave you and tramp where neither auto nor
horse can take you. . . . Stout shoes and old clothes
are indispensable to the creek follower. . . . Nowhere
is there a richer endowment of streams than in the
country round about Philadelphia. All are exceeding
fair, and many an almost unknown nook in our own
neighborhood is just as rarely beautiful as divers of
the far-famed spots in older lands that travelers fall
into raptures over.
One of the results of such a ramble might be the
discovery of some old mill or abandoned house whose
solid walls will lend themselves admirably to recon-
struction. Tales are told of wise people who, seeing
the possibilities of such structures, have bought them
for a song, and have made for themselves delightful
sunmier homes or even more permanent habitations.
A mile and a half beyond Darby Creek, at Broomall,
is a building that would lend itself admirably to such
reconstruction. This was the Drove Tavern, for many
years a popular wayside house for turnpike travelers.
The date stone in the upper gable says the house was
built by L. H. R. (Hugh and Rebecca Lownes) in 1798.
The third figure is obscured, and there are residents of
the village who insist that, by the use of opera glasses*
they have made it 2 instead of 9. The probability
is that they are wrong, though it is perhaps true
that the lower portion of the house, built of logs, is
much older than the more conservative reading of the
date stone would indicate. The tavern had a license
«
from 1800 to 1842. Here many thousands of hungry
men found refreshment. Probably some of them would
have appreciated the humor of the lines written by
100
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, after stopping
at an inn a few miles from Philadelphia:
Here two long rows of market folk were seen.
Ranged front to front, the table placed between.
Where trays of meat and bone and crusts of bread
And hunks of bacon all around were spread;
Or pints of beer from lip to lip went round.
And scarce a bone the hungry house-dog found.
Torrents of Dutch from every quarter came.
Pigs, calves and sauer kraut the important theme.
While we, our future plans revolving deep.
Discharged our bill and straight retired to sleep.
Alexander Wilson would have enjoyed associating
with a French traveler, Jean Pierre Brissot de War-
ville, who visited the United States in 1788, because
he, too, saw the pleasing side of accommodations on
the road in which many others saw nothing but what
was vexatious. After one of his trips by stage, he
wrote:
The carriage is a kind of open wagon, hung with
double curtains of leather and wool, which you raise
or let fall at pleasure; it is not well suspended. But
the road was so fine, being sand and gravel, that we
felt no inconvenience from that circumstance. The
horses are good, and go with rapidity. These carriages
have four benches, and may contain twelve persons.
The light baggage is put under the bench, and the
trunks fixed on behind.
Let the Frenchmen who have travelled in these
carriages, compare them to those used in France; to
those heavy diligences where eight or ten persons are
stuffed in together; to those cabriolets in the environs
of Paris, where two persons are closely confined, and
deprived of air, by a dirty driver, who torments his
101
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
miserable jade: and those carriages have to run over
the finest roads, and yet make but one league an hour.
If the Americans had such roads, with what rapidity
would they travel? since notwithstanding the incon-
venience of the roads, they now run ninety-six miles
in a day. Thus, with only a century and a half of
existence, and opposed by a thousand obstacles, they
are already superior to people who have been undis-
turbed in progress for fifteen centuries.
Brissot found it interesting to study his fellow
passengers:
You find in these stages men of all professions.
They succeed each other with rapidity. One who goes
but twenty miles, yields his place to one who goes
farther. The mother and daughter mount the stage
to go ten miles to dine. Another stage brings them
ha/di. At every instant, thus, you are making new
acquaintances. The frequency of these carriages, the
possibility of finding place in them, and the low and
fixed price, invite the American to travel.
Beyond Broomall, opposite the grounds of the
Pennsylvania Hospital, is one of the most curious
buildings in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, the old
Octagon School. This is the sole sm^vor in the
neighborhood of several structures for school purposes
whose builders made use of a similar design. One of
the buildings which has disappeared was erected in
1815 by the Friends of Newtown Meeting on the
meeting house lot, and was opened as a subscription
school. In 1836 a Friend provided in his will the
annual payment df two hundred dollars for the support
of the school.
Newtown Square, the cross-roads settlement a short
102
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
distance beyond the Octagon School, for many years
had a struggle with its rival» the old Square, at the
intersection of the Newtown and Goshen roads, three-
fourths of a mile to the north. When Thonuus Holme
made his map of 1681 he said that William Penn had
planned a town at the crossroads which should be
"the £rst inland town west of Philadelphia.*'
A house on the Goshen road was one of Washing-
ton's outposts during the British occupation of Phila-
delphia in 1777-1778, and the soldiers quartered there
were chai^ged with the duty of cutting ofiF supplies
of all kinds designed for the use of the army of occupa-
tion in the city.
The Castle Rocks are a natural feature of great
beauty, two miles from Newtown Square. These are
more than one hundred feet high, and are honeycombed
with fissures and caverns. The beauty of the rocks
has been somewhat marred by the efforts. of a manu-
facturer to crush the rock for ballast, but fortunately
he had to abandon the effort because of its extreme
hardness.
The farm on which the rocks are located is noted
because it was patented by William Penn to Samuel
Bradshaw, in 1682, and because it was the scene of
the capture, in 1778, of James Fitzpatrick, the out-
law, who terrorized the countryside for several years.
The site of the house where he was captured is dose
to the house next beyond the Castle Rocks, on the
right.
James Fitzpatrick, whom Bayard Taylor in "Ihe
Story of Kennett" called "Sandy Flash,'* and whom
103
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
others have called the Rob Roy McGregor of Penn-
sylvania, was an Irish blacksmith who enlisted in the
American Army, and deserted. When arrested by two
soldiers, he asked them to go with him to his mother's
house, that he might get some clothing. Entering
the house in advance of them,_he seized his rifle and
drove his captors away. Fromfthat day he was an
outlaw, and scores of travelers had cause to regret
his escape from the soldiers. But he would not make
war on women. One day, it is said, he met an old
woman who was on her way to Philadelphia to pur-
chase supplies. When she saw him his engaging man-
ner made her confidential; she told him how she dreaded
meeting Captain Fitz and being robbed of all she had.
Thereupon he told her that he was the man she dreaded,
but that she had no reason to fear, as he would scorn
to rob a defenseless woman. Drawing from his pocket
a well-filled purse, he handed it to her, and left her
rejoicing.
Bayard Taylor told of a man who recognized the
highwayman on a lonely road:
The victim uttered a cry and gave himself up for
lost. This was the redoubtable highwajrman — ^the
terror of the country — who for two years had defied
the law and all its ordinary and extraordinary agents,
scouring the country at his wiD, between the Schuyl-
kill and the Susquehanna, and always striking his
blows where no one expected them to fall. This was
he in all his dreadful presence, a match for twenty
men, so the story went.
Again the novelist related an incident that is still
described with bated breath by countrymen to whom
104
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
H has been passed down by tradition. It is said that
once he appeared at a tavern where a score of men,
armed for the purpose of catching him, were gathered:
All eyes, turned toward the crossing of the roads,
beheld, just rounding the comer house, fifty paces
distant, a short, broad-shouldered determined figure,
making directly for the tavern. His face was red and
freckled, his thin lips half-parted with a grin which
showed the flash of white teeth between them, and his
eyes sparkled with the light of a cold, fierce courage.
He had a double-barrelled musket on his shoulder,
and there were four pistols on the tight leathern belt
about his waist.
'* Whoever puts finger to trigger, falls. Back, back,
I say, and open the door for me!*'
StQl advancing as he spoke, and shifting his pistol
so as to cover now one, now another of the group, he
reached the tavern porch. Some one opened the door
of the bar-room, which swung inwards. The highway-
man strode directly to the bar, and then stood, facing
the open door, while he cried to the trembling bar-
keeper, —
"A glass o' rye, good and strong!'*
It was set before him. Holding the musket in his
arm, he took the glass, drank, wiped his mouth with
the bade of his hand, and then, spinning a silver dol-
lar into the air, said, as it rang upon the floor, —
""I stand treat to-day; let the rest o' the gentlemen
drink at my expense!''
He then walked out, and slowly retreated back-
wards toward the comer-house, covering his retreat
with the levelled pistol, and the flash of his dauntless
eye.
Still another incident of the redoubtable adventurer
is current:
105
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
In 1778 a blacksmith's apprentice near Newtown
was starting fires in the morning. A young man rode
up and asked to have a shoe put on his horse. The
apprentice was persuaded to attempt the task. While
preparing the hoof, the yoimg man asked for an apron
and proposed that the apprentice blow the bellows
while he drove the nail. The boy objected, that the
animal might be lamed. But the young man said he
would take the risk. It was soon evident that he was
master of the trade.
'*You are well armed, sir. Are you in the army?'*
the boy asked.
**It is dangerous to travel this road alone," was the
reply. "They tell me there is a Capt. Fritz or Fitch,
who frequents this neighborhood, and the people are
much afraid of him, IVe heard.'*
"Many people are afraid of him," the apprentice
said.
Have you ever seen him?" came the question.
No, but I have heard him described," was the
reply.
"Do I answer the description?" the volunteer black-
smith asked.
Then he mounted, and said, "You have never seen
Fitzpatrick. I'm going now, and I might just as well
say to you that Fitzpatrick happens to be my name."
In Edgemont township, in which Castle Rocks are
located, near Gradyville, is the striking house of John
Yamall, pioneer. This has been caUed the "trick
house," for when it is approached from different direc-
tions it presents a decidedly altered appearance. This
is due to the fact that one main wall and one gable
are of stone, while the second main wall and the sec-
ond gable are of brick.
106
u
if
■'5
If
3
The not! of Ihc wilnut Ittr taivt (miin about
L HOUaE, 1720, NBAR EDOEUONT
"The Ttiik Hoiue- bmuH (roDt vill u>d a>l Ribh- (k <rf brick, -hilc re
ud w«I (ibic >R of ilonr
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
lake all the farmhouses of early days» the Yamall
house had its own outdoor bake-oven. These bake-
ovens of the pioneers were described by a man whose
boyhood was spent on just such a farm as that of John
Yamall:
They were from six to eight feet long by three to
five feet wide, of an oval shape, in which a dozen large
loaves of bread, forty or fifty pies, a little pig, a great
roast or two turkeys and several chickens could be
baked all at the same time. The preparation of oven
wood was a serious matter to the farm hands, so much
so that in the rustic parties and sham weddings with
which the young people amused themselves, they
required the suffering groom to promise that ''he
would be true and would be good, and keep his wife
in oven wood."
One of the Yamall family, Isaac, was complained
of by Middletown Meeting, on "8, 27, 1758," for mar-
riage to one who was not a member of meeting, and
without his mother's consent. For this he was dis-
owned.
By that time the upper part of what was then Ches-
ter County was getting so well settled that the farmers
began to urge that the county seat, which had been at
Chester since the days of William Penn, should be
removed to a more convenient location. But agitation
did not bear fruit until March 20, 1780, when Assembly
passed an act authorizing the removal of the court
house and jail from Chester to West Chester, a settle-
ment then known as the Turk's Head, because of the
tavern of this name (still standing) which was built
in 1774. The enabling act named men who were to
107
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
cany out the wishes of Assembly, but evidently these
men were more in favor oi continuing the county seat
at Chester or removing it to one of the other locations
that had been setting up a claim for it. At any rate
they had the temerity to ignore the conmussion. Ac-
cordingly, on March 22, 1784, a supplement to the
original act authorized other men to undertake the
work. They proceeded at once to erect a court-house
and a jail near the Turk's Head.
In the mean time the citizens of Chester, alarmed
lest that borough should lose its prestige when no longer
the county seat, bestirred themselves, brought pres-
sure to bear on the Assembly, and on March SO, 1785,
an act was passed suspending the supplement to the
original act.
In triumph a company of Chester sympathizers
decided to go to the Turk's Head and demolish the
new buildings. Word of their intention was received
in West Chester in plenty of time to make preparation
to give the visitors a warm welcome, if they should
appear. But they did not appear. Conference between
the parties, on neutral ground, resulted in a decision
to await the further action of the Assembly. This
action was taken on March 18, 1786, when the sus-
pending act was repealed by a fourth act with the
curious title:
An act to repeal an act intitled an act to suspend
an act of the General Assembly of this Commonwealth,
intitled an act," etc.
But the residents of the lower part of Chester
County were not satisfied. Again they appealed to
106
THE WEST CHESTER TURNPIKE
the Assembly, and on September 26, 1789, the county
was divided, Delaware County was formed, and Ches-
ter was made the county seat. This distinction re-
mained hers for more than sixty years, when Media
took the prize from her.
The borough of West Chester dates from March 28,
1799. Its growth was slow but steady. The first
great event to break the monotony of quiet develop-
ment was the completion of the railroad to the borough
in 1836. Carried away by their enthusiasm, the citi-
zens planned to bring the railroad to the doors of as
many as possible. An attempt was made to extend
the track through the streets. But the plan did not
work out well; "the project proved as abortive in its
results as it was crude in its conception," a county
historian says. The "appendage" was removed as a
nuisance.
Those early enthusiasts were only a few decades
ahead of time. If they could see to-day the trolley tracks
in the streets of the borough, they would feel like saying,
"We told you so!"
100
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
WHEN the sturdy Swedish settlers who preceded
the colonists of William Penn ventiured iato
the interior from what is now Philadelphia,
many of them followed the Kitanning Path, one of
the best known of the trade routes out from the Del-
aware and the Schuylkill. At that time there was no
ferry across the Schuylkill at the present Market
Street. No ferry was provided until after the meeting
of the first Assembly in 1682.
The keeper of the first feny was not satisfactory
to the early travelers. When some of them appealed
to the Council, he was warned ''to Expedit a sufiident
ferry boat for horses and cattle to pass to and fro over
the Schuylkill as also to make the way on both sides
easy and passable both for horse and man to Loe water
Mark; otherwise ye Council will make Care to dispose
of it to such as wiU dispose of ye same.''
Complaints continued until 172S, when the ferry
privilege was leased to Aquila Rose for twenty-one
years. He was required to get substantial boats and
make good landings. In consideration of this invest-
ment, the promise was made that he should have a
monopoly of ferry privileges for some distance up and
down the river, and he was allowed to charge a reason-
able toU. Foot passengers we^ taxed one penny, and
no
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
a loaded cart or wagon had to pay one shilling. He
went ahead with pleasing speed to mend the condi-
tions of which complaint had been made, but only a
little while after the ferry privilege became his he was
drowned while at work. A rhymester of the day
explained :
'Twas then that, wading through the chilling flood,
A cold ill humor mingl^ with his blood.
The first petition for a bridge was presented to the
Assembly in 1751, and Benjamin Franklin, Casper
Wistar and Charles Norris were appointed to study
the situation and report In August, 1751, they re-
ported in favor of a bridge ''near to the end of the
Market street where Captain Coultas keeps his terry. ^
But nothing further was heard of this proposition.
Three years later, when Thomas Pownall passed
this way, he wrote of Coultas's Ferry:
The ferry-boats at Schuylkill • • • are the most con-
venient I ever saw; and the oars with which they are
rowed over, rigged out in a manner the most handy
that can be devised; they are fixed in an iron fork, so
as to have a perpendicular motion, and they are loaded
towards the hand, so as to be nearly ballanced, leav-
ing, however, the feather of the oar rather the more
heavy; this fork is fixed on a pivot, in the gunwale of
the boat, by which the oar has free horizontel motion.
By this simple contrivance of mechanism, a very
slight boy can manage a pair of laige heavy oars, and
row over a laige ferry boat.
It is recorded that in 1770 the entire income of the
city of Philadelphia was but eight hundred poun<ls,
and that two hundred pounds of the amount came
lU
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
from the Market Street ferry, which had been taken
over by the dty.
During the Revolutionary War several floating
bridges were built at this point, but the first perma-
nent bridge was built by a company incorporated in
1708. A prospectus set forth these things, among
others:
The bridge is to consist of three large arches, of
which the centre is to be two hundred and fifty feet
long, and the other two to be each one himdred and
fifty feet, besides these, there will be a second smaller
arch at each end, to give greater ease for the passing
of the waters during the freshes. The width of the
bridge will be fifty feet, with footways on each side.
The bridge was of wood, on stone piers. The cor-
ner stone was laid October 18, 1800. 800,000 feet of
lumber were used. The structure, 1300 feet long, was
opened January 1, 1805. The cost was $300,000, and
the receipts the first year were $13,600. This was the
first covered bridge in America.
A marble obelisk with inscriptions was set up on
the western approach. One inscription read:
No pier of regular masonry into as great a depth
of water is known to exist in any other part of the
world.
Tolls were abolished in 1840, when the dty became
owner of the bridge. Thirty-five years later the struc-
ture was burned. The temporary bridge that suc-
ceeded it for a time was completed in two hundred
and seven working hours. The present bridge was not
arranged for until 1881.
112
f
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
Tlie monument erected to conmiemorate the orig-
inal bridge is still standing, having been removed to
the eastern approach to the present bridge, beside the
gas tank. The inscriptions can no longer be read, for
the soft stone has worn away.
Improvements in the road that led from the river
toward Lancaster kept pace with the changes in the
method of crossing the SchuylkiU. The beginnings
of the first road date from 1687. As the years passed
the road was extended and developed. In 1721, when
it became necessary to organize Lancaster County,
the residents asked for a foot road which they could
use in taking their produce to Philadelphia. They
argued that they had no navigable water, as the peo-
ple in the Schuylkill valley had, and that the existing
road was '* incommodious/* In 1741 the road asked
for was opened.
As the country developed, and travel increased, it
was evident that a better road was needed. In 1792,
therefore, the Legislature authorized a company to
construct a turnpike from Philadelphia to Lancaster,
the first road of the kind in the country. Popular
enthusiasm was so high that the stock offered was
heavily oversubscribed, and it became necessary to
dioose the stockholders from among the applicants
by lot. When thirty dollars only had been paid in on
the shares, they were in great demand at par.
An interesting document sent to the stockholders
when the road was still under construction has been
preserved. Matthias Slough, the author of the docu-
ment, was the superintendent of the fifth of the five
8 113
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
districts into which the road was divided. He declared
that, as an honest man, and in accordance with his
instructions, he had turned a deaf ear to the appeals
of certain land owners who wished him to run the road
crooked to suit their convenience; later they tried to im-
pede him. This, he felt sure, was the explanation of the
fact that the managers of the road later awarded to
some one else the contract for a desirable section of
the road, though his bid was two hundred pounds
lower than that of the successful bidder. He explained
that complaint had been made that he had not been
able to show as good results as his neighbor, the super-
intendent of the fourth division. He owned that much
more work had been done in this division than in his
own, ''but,*' he added, "that it is to be ascribed to the
extraordinary exertion of the superintendent, I deny."
The real reason, he said, was that the fourth district
lay in a barren r^on. The farmers, having little
work of their own to do, were glad to work on the road.
Further, stone was plentiful in the fields by the road-
side. In his own district the farmers were so busy in
their fertile fields that he could not secure help, and
stone could be secured only at a distance and with
great labor. More, in the fourth district only the
easiest of the work had been done, while in his dis-
trict he had done all his work well, in spite of difficul-
ties. To cap the climax, he declared that the work in
the fourth district had cost much more than in the
fifth district. ''I can lay my hand on my heart, and
declare that I, in no instance, wantonly sported with
one shilling of the Company's money."
114
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
Then he went on to say to '"those who prostitute
truth at the Shrine of Malevolence":
I should have treated aU you said with the con-
tempt it deserved; you have not confined your Mallice
to yourselves, in propagating your infernal stories,
but sent forth your sons and your daughters, your man
servants and your maid servants, to calumniate and
traduce my character abroad.
I deem it my duty to lay before you these facts, to
show you the treatment a worthy citizen of Chester
County received.
History is silent as to the result of this broadside,
but it makes interesting reading, for it helps to show
that human nature was the same a century ago as it
is to-day.
The Lancaster Turnpike was completed in 1704.
The first r^^ar stage, carrying ten passengers, used
the new road in May, 1797. It left Lancaster at five
o'clock in the evening, and reached Philadelphia, sixty-
six miles distant, at five o'clock next morning.
Francis Bailey, in his Journal of a Tour in North
America, written in 1796, pronounced the road **a
masterpiece of its kind." That the managers pro-
posed to keep it in good condition is evident from this
regulation:
Nor shall more than eight horses be attached to
any carriage whatsoever used on said road, and if any
wagon or other carriage shall be drawn along said road
by a greater number of horses or with a greater weight
(S 1-4 or 4 tons) than is hereby permitted, one of the
horses attached shall be forfeited to the use of said
company, to be seized or taken by any of the officers,
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OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
or servants, who shall have the privilege to choose,
excepting the shaft or wheel horse or horses.
Another interesting document connected with the
early history of the turnpike is the note book kept by
one of the surveyors employed in 1806 to plan for the
improvement of the road. On the right-hand pages
of the note book the surveyor carefully drew the detail
of the road on a scale of one-half mile to the inch,
the left hand pages he used for all sorts of notes, cu-
rious and otherwise, for example, he quoted a rhyme
that sad experience in the rough country may have
made him appreciate —
On the 22d day of December
A confounded big piece of timber
Fell down slambang
And Kill'd poor John Lamb.
A later note has to do with business:
Rising the Hill at the Commencement of the fifth
mile at the beginning of David Evan's District the
stones are very large and ought to be broken finer.
This however is not the fait of the present Superin-
tendant they appear to have been left so originidly in
making the road.
The following memorandum shows that the trav-
elers of that day were just as averse to paying toll as
the automobilist is to-day:
Mr. Daniel Maul is of opinion that a 2 1-2 mile
Gate ought to be set just below where the Gulf Road
falls into the T. road below the Buck in order to inter-
cept the traveling which comes in along the 2d Gulf
Road and the Old L. road, which now travels on the
116
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
T. road about one mile and turns off to the old L. road
again at Lenoff's Lane without paying any toll.
As is indicated by this memorandum, the turnpike
did not always follow the course of the original Lan*
caster Road. At places a better route was found.
Thus the Old Lancaster road diverges from the Lan-
caster Turnpike from Haverford College to a point
beyond Wayne, is identified with it for a short space,
then has a separate existence for a longer distance.
The two roads finally come together beyond Berwyn.
The closing memorandum is a statement of account:
Took with me Nov. S, 1806 Cash $115 to bear the
Expense of the P & Lancaster Turnpike Road.
Nov. 6 "Snack at Eagle" .87
Nov. 6 "rained" 6.08
20 pd for 4 seats in the
Lancaster stage $16.
pd. James Dewey for
15 days assistance 15
Salmon Veats do 7
16 Days Surveying 64
Tlie Old Lancaster Road was called the Conestoga
Road because it was the favored route of the great
Conestoga freighters. But long before the day of the
Conestogas the road was a busy place. Hundreds and
thousands of pack horses threaded their way along the
narrow track, picturesque cavalcades whose advance
was the signal for the gathering by the wayside of the
scattered residents of the countryside who were hungry
for the touch with the world which these messengers
of commerce could give them. Frequently the drivers,
welcoming an excuse for rest or delighted to be the
117
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
center of interest, would satisfy the curiosity of the
settlers; sometimes, however, the sense of their own
importance would make them keep on their way, heed-
less of all greetings and inquiries. Human nature as
seen on the roads in those early days was not different
from human nature today.
Ordinarily there were from twelve to sixteen horses
in a pack train. In charge of each train were two
men; one of these led the procession, picking out the
road, while his companion brought up the rear. Bells
formed a part of the equipment of each horse, though
these were not for use by day so much as they were a
convenience in locating animals that might stray from
the camp.
Year by year the wagon roads grew longer and
the pack-horse routes or bridle paths grew shorter.
Each year the point at which the transfer from wagons
to pack-animals had to be made was advanced. Lancas-
ter was for a time the head of the wagon road. Later
Carlisle was the transfer point. At length the day came
when a wagon could go all the way through to Pittsbuigh.
The pack-horse drivers did not welcome the advance of
the roads; they did not see why they should be deprived
of their occupation. Consequently, there was bad blood
between the wagoners and the leaders of the passing
industry, and clashes between them were frequent.
At first the great Conestoga wagons ran independ-
ently, but in time the industry was organized. Com-
panies controlled much of the business. The Line
Wagon Company was among the leaders. The experi-
ment was tried of having drivers and horses in relays
lis
> ■; 2 I
Is"
?3;
h
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
along the road, and of delivering wagons at stations
precisely as a railway crew turns over a train to others
at a division point. But this plan did not work well;
it was found that the drivers thought more of malring
speed than of caring for their outfit. As a result there
were many wrecked wagons by the roadside, and the
profits of the company wero impaired. Then it was
decided to return to the old system of making each
driver responsible for his own outfit along the entire
distance.
For a generation following the Revolution the road
was a busy place. Conestoga wagons, stages, pack
horses, and private conveyances at times made an
almost continuous procession. Johan Schoepf, writ-
ing in 1784, said that thero were probably ''seven or
eight thousand Dutch Waggons with four Horses each,
that from Time to Time bring their Produce and Traf-
fick to Philadelphia, from 10 to 100 miles distance.**
Sometimes thero wero as many as eight horses to a
wagon. Each wagon had its feed trough suspended
at the rear and the tar can swinging underneath. The
procession on busy days must have been startling.
A hint of the amount of the traffic at this period
was given by Sister Catherine Fritsch, who, in May,
1810, with half a dozen others, went from Bethlehem
to Philadelphia, crossing over to the Lancaster Road
at Downington. She spoke of ten wagons that stood
at a wayside mill to be loaded with flour for the dty.
Another picture was drawn thus:
At the toll-gates their Keepers wero usually busily
engaged in taking the toll, for sometimes three or four
119
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
conveyances stood in waiting. Some of the gatekeepera
kept tally on a slate of the money they took in.
Coming early to a toll-gate we had to wait until
the sleepy Keeper, rubbing his eyes, came out for our
toll. Generally, these gate-keepers were taciturn, sour-
looking men. Indeed, they seemed to me to resemble
each other so much that I almost believed them to be
of one family — sons of one father.
At eight o'clock that morning she ordered break-
fast, *'but had to wait patiently for it as the passengers
of the Post stage must first be served.''
'^The more one approaches to the dty," she said,
finally, "the greater the number of conveyances of all
kinds, and consequently the deeper the dust, which
covered us from head to foot and even filled our mouths.
. . . We could not see objects twenty feet ahead of us."
The most important man on the road in the days
of which Catherine Fritsch wrote was the driver of
the stage coach. Next to him came the wagoner.
Least important of all was the driver of a private con-
veyance, as the following incident shows:
Once a wedding party in two-wheeled gigs was on
the way to Philadelphia. One gentleman groom drove
against the leaders of one of the numerous wagoners
passing in the same direction. At the next turn the
driver called on the gentleman for redress. It took
some diplomacy to arrange the matter.
When travel was at its height, the returns on the
stock of the turnpike company were large. Frequently
the net annual earnings were more than fifteen per
cent. But after about 1820 the profits became less.
Many travelers have left humorous and illuminat-
120
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
ing narratives of their experiences when the Lancaster
road was in its glory.
Li 1778 Elizabeth Drinker went from Philadelphia
to Lancaster. Of one day's experience she wrote in
her diary:
In our journey to-day we found the roads so bad,
that we walked part of ye way» and climbed S fences,
to get dear of ye mud.
On April 9 she wrote:
This day we forded three large rivers, the Cone-
stoga ye last, which came into ye carriage, and wet our
Feet, and frightened more than one of us.
In an old diary, some one whose name is not known,
in telling of "a trip for pleasure,'' wrote:
Left Lancaster ... in good spirits, but alas, a sad
accident had like to have turned our mirth into mourn-
ing, for W. driving careless and Being happily engaged
with the lady he had the pleasure of ridmg with, and
not mindful enough of his charge, drove against a laige
stump which stood in the way, by which the chair was
overturned and the lady thrown out to a considerable
distance, but happily received no hurt. About 8
o'clock arrived at Douglass' where supped and rested
all night. The supper was pretty tolerable, beds indif-
ferent, being short of sheets for the beds, the woman
was good enough to let W. have a table-doth in lieu
of one.
In 1789 a family party took passage on a stage of
a latet line, hoping for a speedy journey from Phila-
delphia to Lancaster. Soon they overtook a husband
and wife who had been traveling in a chair until the
driver refused to take them further. Room was made
121
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
for the wife in the stage; the husband walked along*
side. The further incidents of the journey were re-
lated by one of the party in a letter to friends. The
road was so rough, and the load was so heavy, that
the axle soon cracked, and the stage dropped to the
road. Fortunately nobody was injured, so the party
extricated themselves and ''footed it Indian fashion
to the nearest inn,'* two miles distant. After eating
dinner they persuaded a countryman to take them on
the next stage of the journey. ''His team proved to
be a country wagon without springs or cover, with no
seats other than bundles of rye straw." However, all
agreed that the wagon was better than walking. Fi-
nally, after twelve weary hours, the party succeeded in
reaching Downings.
William Hamilton of Woodlands, who made fre-
quent journeys to Lancaster to look after his large
interests there, wrote to a friend, on September 1,
1790, an account of a distressing accident:
Having been so unfortunate in returning from Mr.
Ross's as to overset my sulky. As one of the wheels
struck a stone 2 feet lugh when I was driving at the
rate of 7 miles an Hour you will not wonder that the
shock was violent. Although I have to thank Heaven
that I have no broken limb I am fearful of having for
a long time to complain of a very severe sprained
ankle. The agony I experienced for the first 20 min-
utes was so extreme that I had no doubt of the leg
being shattered to pieces. What added to my misery
was that I was quite alone without the possibility of
extricating mysetf until the chariot came up which
was about a mile behind. The mare stopp'd (after
dragging the sulky between 20 & 30 feet) as if she was
122
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
shot and to this I attribute my salvation, entangled
and helpless as I was.
While in Lancaster on another occasion Mr. Hanul-
ton wrote to his secretary in Philadelphia that he must
give no hint of the time the writer planned to return
home, for the following reason:
From the ntunber of people with whom I have had
to do Business an idea has been falsely taken up of my
having rec'd an immensity & some rascab or other
may think me worth a speculation on the road. It
will therefore be no more than prudent to be on my
guard the more especially as within three days a gang
of villanns have arrived in this town.
In 1805 Robert Sutdiffe saw something that, even
on this road of unusual sights, appealed to him so
much that he wrote:
At General Paoli Tavern, met a family who had
now landed a few days before in Philadelphia, and were
on their way to the Ohio. . . . The men wore a plain
jacket and trowsers, with very large shallow crowned
hats, and the women had their hair plaited in long
braids, which himg down their back, with jackets and
petticoats just the reverse of the fashion of the present
day. Altogether they had the appearance of a stout,
hardy race, and in Uie company, I understood there
were four generations. The master of the inn informed
me that he had every reason to believe they had a
very large property with them, in the waggon in which
they traveled.
For the accommodation of the constant travel on
the road there were sixty-one taverns in sixty-six miles.
Many of these were kept by men of standing, fre-
quently by members of Congress or of the state legis-
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OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
lature. Alter his journey to America the Count de
Segui spoke of this fact:
At first I was siuprised, on entering a tavern, to
find it kept by a Captain, a Major, or a Colonel, who
was equally ready to talk, and to talk well, about his
campaigns, his fanning operations, or the Market he
had for his produce.
Mrs. Mary De Wees, who left Philadelphia for
Kentucky on September 27, 1787, told in her journal
of the frequent stops at convenient inns. One night
she slept at the Sign of the Lamb, she breakfasted at
Colonel Webster's, and took supper and slept at the
United States. Next day she went on to the Waggon,
and then to the Compass. Next came the Hat. If
she had chosen, she might have stopped at the Buck,
the Red Lion, the Steamboat, the Rising Sun, the
Spread Eagle, the Ship, the Swan, the Sheaf, the Cross
Keys, the Rainbow, or the White Horse.
Most of these taverns entertained the weaiy trav-
eler well, but sometimes the wayfarer was compeUed
to stop at a place where nothing was pleasant. Thomas
Ashe, an Englishman, in his "Travels in America,'* told
of one such experience:
It was a miserable log house, filled with emigrants
who were in their passage to tiie Ohio, and a more
painful picture of human calamity was seldom beheld:
old men embarking in distant, arduous imdertakings,
which they could never live to see realized; their chil-
dren going to a climate destructive to youth; and the
wives and mothers partaking of all their sufferings, to
become victims in their turn to the general calamity.
The scene held out no very strong temptation to me
124
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
for passing the night there, but there was no alterna-
tive; for my horse was tired, the wolves were out, and
the roads impassable in the dark; the fire-side too, and
all the seats were occupied, and the landlord was
drunk. I was too much engrossed however with the
distress around me, sensibly to feel my own. • • .
It is of little consequence where a traveler sleeps,
when and what he eats, and whether he is comfort-
able, &c. In travelling along this, and every other
road in America a stranger is furnished with a route
indicating the best inns and their distance from each
other; as to the expense, it seldom varies, being a
quarter of a doUar for lodging, the same sum for eveiy
meal, and half a dollar a night for a horse.
A traveler of 1795 was not quite so philosophical
in the presence of what was not pleasing:
The taverns are veiy indifferent. If the trav-
eler can procure a few eggs with a little bacon, he
ought to rest satisfied; it is twenty to one that a bit
of fr^ meat is to be had, or any salted meat except
pork.
V^etables seem also to be very scarce, and when
you do get any, they generally consist of turnips or
turnip top boiled by way of greens. The bread is
heavy and sour, though they have as fine flour as any
in the world; this is owing to the method of making it;
they raise it with what they call ''rots,'' hops and water
boiled together. The traveler on his arrival is shown
into a room which is conmion to every person in the
house, and which is generally the one set apart for
breakfast, dinner and supper. All the strangers that
happen to be in the house sit down at these meals
promiscuously, and the family of the house also form
a part of the company. It is seldom that a single bed-
room can be procured.
125
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
In 1810 Margaret DwighCni^^ ^^ Timothy Dwight,
the President of Yale CoU^;e, told of the accommoda-
tions f omid at the end of a hard day. Her party came
to a house which had been a tavern. They were told
of a log hut across the road, built for '"movers" like
themselves, ''that the landlord need not be bothered
with them." He had made plenty of money, and he
had taken down his sign. They wished to go in search
of better accommodations, but, as their horses were
tired, they decided to make the best of the hut.
In her journal Miss Dwight told further facts:
We have a good fire, a long dirty table, a few boards
nailed up for a closet, a dozen long boards on one side
and as many barrels in the other, two benches to sit
on, two bottomless chairs, and a floor containing dirt
enough to plant potatoes.
The building of the railroad from Philadelphia to
Columbia was tiie beginning of the end of the rushing
business done by the turnpike, though when the rail-
road company was chartered, an innkeeper on the
turnpike said Philadelphia would be ruined, for "no
railroad can carry the freight that the old Conestpgas
do.'' Just at first it seemed that the prophecy would
come true. The railroad was crooked, and it was
operated by horse power for some^time. When loco-
motives were first talked of, there was great opposi-
tion on the part of those who used the turnpike or
lived near it. They declared that the engines would
destroy the value of their horses, and that sparks from
them would set fire to their houses and bams. It
was not until April, 18S4, that the first train was drawn
126
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
from Fhfladdphia to Lancaster by a locomotive, the
Black Hawk. Tlie time required was eight hours and
a half. Not until 1836 did locomotives finally displace
horsepower. Then the decline of turnpike traffic was
rapid.
The modem travder who goes over the route of
the old Columbia Railroad, or its successor, the Penn-
qrl vania Railroad, and the Lancaster Turnpike is inter-
ested at once in the Welsh names that meet him on
every hand — ^Merion, Narberth, Wynnewood, Biyn
Mawr, etc. The early settlers here were Welsh Quakers
who came in response to William Penn's invitation
and began to carve out homes in the wilderness.
One of these early settlers wrote of his experiences:
By the providence of Grod the year 1683 I trans-
ported myself with many of my friends to Pennsyl-
vania where I and they arrived, the 16th day of the
9th month 1683, being then thirty-five years old; and
settled myself in the place which afterwards I called
Pencoid in the township of Merion, which was after-
ward caUed so by them, being the first settlers in it,
having brought with me one servant from my native
land, and fixed my settling here. I took to ^e Gay-
nor Roberts.
William Penn was a frequent visitor in the homes
of these early Welsh settlers. An incident of one of his
visits was described by Sutcliffe in 1804. Sutcliffe was
at the home of a friend in Merion, whose sister told
him that on WiUiam Penn's arrival in America he
lodged at her great-grandfather's in Merion. At
that time her grandfather was a boy of about twelve
years old; and being a lad of some curiosity, and not
127
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
often sedng sudi a guest as William Pom, he privatdy
crept to the chamber door, up a flight <rf steps, in the
outside of the building, which was only a log-house.
On peeping through the latchet-hole, he was struck
with awe, on beholding the great num upon his knees,
fay the bed-side; and could distinctly hear him in
prayer, and in thanksgiving, that he was thus pro-
vided for in the wilderness.
The oldest portion of a house that is still standing
within two miles of Merion Station may have been in
existence at the time when Penn made this prayer of
thanksgiving. This is Pont Reading House, a short
distance from the Lancaster Road, on Haverford Road,
at Ardmore Junction. This house, which is owned by
the Humphreys family, is in three parts. The front
section was built in 181S, the middle section dates
from 1760, and the rear section is of unknown date.
One of the log walls of this section may be seen by
those who enter a door on the west side of the house.
Much of the original furniture is still in place. The
interior woodwork, of curly maple, was made from
trees that grew on the estate. Judging from the trees
still standing, there must have been a noble forest
there when the builder of Pont Reading decided on
the site.
From Pont Reading house it is not far down the
Haverford Road to Haverford Meeting, which dates
from 1700. Distinctive features of the stone building
are the smoke holes, one in the north wall and one in
the south wall. In early days, in winter, it was the
custom to kindle a firo outside the building. Flues
128
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
led up through the wall, to the smoke holes. A large
pipe set into the wall radiated the heat into the build-
ing. This was quite an ing^ous arrangement in the
days when most churches had no provision for heating
other than the f ootstoves brought from home by indi-
vidual worshipers. That such primitive heating appli-
ances were not always safe is indicated by an extract
from Poulson's American Advertiser of Feb. 12, 1816:
A stage between this city and Trenton took fire
and was entirly consumed. It was occasioned by a
passenger setting a hot brick on the floor of the stage
to keep his feet warm, and, what is most extraordi-
nary, it burnt with such rapidity that the passengers,
six in number, with difficulty made their escape.
Robert Sutdiffe attended Haverford Meeting one
Sunday in 1804, when he was in Philadelphia. He
says in the story of his traveb:
This is one of the oldest meeting-houses in Amer-
ica; and at the early settlement of this meeting, friends
of Philadelphia went every first day to attend it; most
of them coming on foot a distance of about ten miles.
At that time nearly the whole of the road was through
a shady forest. Amongst the rest, Wm. Penn used to
come on horseback, and would occasionally take up a
little bare-footed girl behind him, to relieve her when
tired. By the early minutes of the monthly meeting,
it appeared that several friends were appointed to
mark out a road through the woods from Philadelphia,
to Haverford and Radnor meetings.
From Haverford Meeting to Haverford College the
distance is short. The Lancaster Road is directly in
front of the college grounds. A short distance farther
9 120
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
on* beyond the eighth nulestoiie, is the dd Buck Tav-
ern, built in 1735, remodeled in 1780. It is now owned
by D. C. Martin whose grandfather bought the prop-
erty in 1844. From that time it has not be^i a licensed
house, and it is now a private residence.
When Washington crossed the Schuylkill in Sep-
tember, 1777, a portion of his army encamped near
the General Warren, not far from the twentieth mile-
stone. The main portion, with Washington, camped at
the Buck. Still another portion camped at the Plough
Tavern about eleven miles west of the Schuylkill.
The parts of the army combined on September 15, and
marched up the road, camping at night near the White
Horse, above Paoli.
Before this march was b^gun Washington wrote a
letter to the President of Congress, dated *'Buck Tav-
ern, Lancaster Road, September 15, 1777, S p. m.'*
The letter, one of the most revealing communications
addressed by Washington to Congress, is reproduced
here from a transcript made from the original on file
in Washington:
Your favor of yesterday, with its several enclos-
ures, came to hand last night. Though I would will-
ingly pay every attention to the resolution of Con-
gress, yet, the late instance respecting the recall of
General Sullivan, I must beg leave to defer giving any
order about it, till I hear further from that honorable
body.
Our situation at this time is critical and delicate, and
nothing should be done to add to its embarrassment.
We are now most probably on the point of another
battle, and to derange the army by withdrawing so
ISO
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
many general officers from it, may and must be attended
with many disagreeable if not ruinous consequences.
Such a proceeding, at another time, might not produce
any bad effect, but how can the army be possibly
conducted with a prospect of success, if the general
officers are taken off in the moment of battle?
Congress may rely upon it, such a measure will not
promote but injure Uie service. It is not my wish to
prevent or delay a proper inquiry into Greneral Sulli-
van's conduct a single instant, when the circumstances
of the army will adoiit, but now they prohibit it, and,
I think, this suspense in his command also. The recall
of General St. Clair obliged me to part with General
Lincoln, whom I could but ill spare; so the whole
charge of his division is now upon Gen'l Wagner, there
being no other Brigadier in it but himself. . . •
'Die main body of the British, from the best inteUi-
gence I have been able to get, lies near Dillworthtown,
not far from the field of action, where they have been
busily employed in burjring their dead, which, from all
accounts, amounted to a considerable number.
We are moving up this road to get between the
British and Swede Ford, and to prevent them from
turning our right flank, by crossing the Schuylkill
river, which they seem to have a violent inclination
to effect, by all their movements. I would beg leave
to recommend in the most earnest manner, that some
board or committee be appointed, or some mode
adopted, for obtaining supplies of blankets for the
troops. Many are now without them, and the season
being cold, they will be injured in their health, and
unfitted for service, unless they are inmiediately pro-
vided with them.
Our supplies in this instance, as well as in any ar-
ticle of clothing, cannot be too great, as there are fre-
quent losses not easily to be avoided.
181
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
I would also observe, that I think, in point of pru-
dence and sound policy, eveiy species of provisions
should be removed from the city, except such as will
be necessary to supply the present demands of the
army. I have been told there are considerable quanti-
ties in private hands, which should not be suffered to
remain longer till they can be conveyed away.
Several miles farther along the Old Lancaster Road,
near the comer of Ithan Road, is another inn of the
early days where Washington stopped more than once.
This is the Sorrel Horse, now occupied as a residence
by George H. McFadden. On the bridge over a small
stream east of the house is a tablet bearing this mes-
sage:
During the encampment at Valley Forge in the
darkest days of the revolution, the near4>y stone
dwelling, then the Sorrel Horse Inn, with warm and
patriotic welcome sheltered often as its guests Wash-
mgton and Lafayette.
The name of this tavern was frequently spoken in
a toast that was popular with the traveler in the days
of the Conestoga wagon:
Here is to the Sorrel Horse that Kicked the Uni-
com that Made the Eagle fly; that Scared the Lambs
from under the Stage, for drinking the Spring-house
diy; that drove the Blue Bell into the Black Bear, and
chased General Jackson aU the way to Paoli.
The^ ten taverns listed in the toast were passed in
the order named by the wagoners bound west.
In 1787 William Hamilton wrote from the Sorrel
Horse:
132
i!
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
In all the times and seasons I have travelled this
Road I never found it so bad as at present. From
Jesse George's Hill to this place I could not once get
into a trot, but could not compare it to anything but
being chin deep in Hasty pudding & obliged to trudge
thro it. The Hills its true are not so slushy but are
worn into lopsided ruts so as to be scarcely passable.
Beyond the Sorrel Horse, is Radnor Meeting, whose
date stone shows that the oldest portion of the build-
ing was erected in 1718. The great sycamore tree, by
the side of the horse sheds, perhaps twenty feet in cir-
cumference, is a landmark to be remembered.
A traveler has told of the large crowds that attended
these meetings in the early days:
On coming out of the house after the breaking up
of the meeting, I was surprised at the great number of
horses and carriages standing on the ground b^ore
the meeting-house. The space they occupied consisted
of several acres, and from the best judgment I was
able to pass, there were nearly 200 carriages of differ-
ent descriptions, mostly on springs and more than
double that number of horses, exclusive of those used
in the carriages. The trifling expense at which horses
and carriages are kept in the country parts of America,
enables even those in slender circumstances to keep
them.
Beyond Ithan Station the Old Lancaster Road
crosses Church Road, which leads to St. David's church,
built in 1715, perhaps the most famous of all the old
churches, in the vicinity of Philadelphia. This build-
ing was long a mere idiell. The people in the pews
could look up to the bare rafters which bore the marks
of the woodsman's ax. For fifty years there were no
133
I
OLD EOADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
floors; men and women were glad to stand on the bare
gromid.
Of this church Longfellow wrote:
What an image of peace and rest
Is the little church among its graves!
All is so quiet; the troubled breast.
The wounded spirit, the heart oppressed.
Here may find the repose it craves.
See, how the ivy climbs and expands
Over this humble hermitage.
And seems to caress with its little hands
The rough, gray stones, as a child that stands.
Caressing the wrinkled cheeks of age.
Cross the threshold; and dim and small
Is the space that serves for the Shepherd's Fold;
The narrow aisle, the bare, white wall.
The pews, and the pulpit quaint and tall,
Whisper and say, ""Alas, we are old!''
One of the early pastors of St. David's was Griffith
Hughes. On September 10, 17S5, he wrote for per-
mission to go to England to reprint Welsh books for
his countrymen in America. In this letter he spoke
of his need of a change, and the reason:
Lately on my way to perquihoma Church I had
the misfortune to br^k my kneepan, which continues
tho upon the mending very weak so that it is impossi-
ble, for me in my present Condition to serve the Church
in a Regular order the present writing that and sev-
erall other hardshipps which I have with pleasure
almost endured on my several Journeys to preach
among the Back Inhabitants hath very much Impaired
my health being often obliged in the day to want the
134
S dimrH, RADNOH, 1715
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
Common necessities of life, and in the night to be Con-
tented the shade of a Large tree for a Lodging. As
for my Congr^ation at Radnor it is in a very flour-
ig Condition.
A short distance from St. David's Church is Straf-
ford, where the Valley Road, which dates from 1705»
touches the turnpike. Beyond the railway station, on
this road, is the Eagle School which McMaster says
was, at the time of the erection of the building, in 1788»
one of the very few rural schools in the United States.
Here, in 1794, Andrew Garden, who had been a fifer
in the Revolutionary War, was teacher. Evidently
an earlier building was used for eighteen years, since
the school was established in 1767. The building now
on the ground was used for school purposes until 1872.
The property was n^lected until 1895, when residents
of Strafford went into court and asked for the appoint-
ment of trustees to administer the property in accord-
ance with the terms of the original gift. There were
no documents to establish the trust, but the Court
decided, on purely traditionary evidence, that the
property should be administered forever for the pub-
lic benefit. It has been said that this is the only
instance in the United States where the character <^
such a public trust was successfully established on
such evidence.
The trustees appointed by the court removed the
plaster from the walls, repointed the stone, added the
colonial entrance, restored the burial ground, erected
a monument to Revolutionary soldiers (''Not famous
but faithful") brought about the removal to the pres-
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
ent route, of the road which bisected the property,
and opened the building as a public libraiy and read-
ing room, and for small religious and educational gath-
erings.
There was at one time an old church on the prop-
erty, but the burying ground, in which the oldest stone
is dated 1777, is llie sole reminder of this use of the hill-
side.
One of the most curious inscriptions reads:
In Memor of
Rosannah Akins^
wif of James Akins
was Bom January the
17th 1757 and Departed
This Life July The 10th
1818 Aged 61 years
5 months.
i choose they path of
Heavenly Truth and
Gloryed in my choice Not
All Uiey pleasures of the
Earth Could make me so
Rejoice
And Seetly Tastes Unmeingled
Love and Joy without a
Tear a Bove.
On a neighboring stone is a rebuke of such weird
poetry:
In Memory of Margaret
Workizer, Consort of Christian
Workizer, who departed this
life February the 4th 1805 in
the 55Ui year of her age.
186
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
Verses on tombstones
are but idly spent
The living character
is the monument.
Not far from Strafford, along the Sugartown Road,
is Waynesboroughy the birthplace of Greneral Anthony
Wayne, Revolutionary hero. The main part of this
mansion stands practically unchanged, even to the
curiously crooked hood above the entrance door. The
owner of the property, W. M. Wayne, naturally does
not look with favor on proposals to change this his-
toric feature of the house.
Captain Wayne, grandfather of "Mad Anthony,'*
came to America in 1722 and built Waynesborough
in 1724. His son, who was a member of the Provin-
cial Assembly, enlarged the house in 1765. A wing
was added in 1812.
In the room to the right of the entrance hall Gen-
eral Wayne spent much of his time. Nothing here
has been disturbed. The old high-backed horse-hair
furniture, the ancient fireplace, the spindle-legged
table, the faded carpet, are exactly the same as when
General Wayne last saw them, and as they were seen
by General Lafayette when he visited America in
1824. Above the mantel is a portrait of the General
by a Froich artist, and above this are the General's
pistols.
One of the finest box bushes in the country is on
the grounds. One story is that *'Mad Anthony" hid
here when British soldiers searched the house for him;
another version is that the soldiers penetrated the
137
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
bush with their bayonets, fearing that he might be
lurking there.
Fixed to the front wall of the house is a tablet
which reads:
The Home of General Anthony Wayne.
Bom in this House, January h 1745.
Died at Erie, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1706.
A Leader of the American Revolution in
Pennsylvania and a soldier distinguished
for his
Services at Brandywine, Germantown,
Valley Forge,
Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown.
Subdued the Lidians of Ohio, 1794.
Commander-in-Chief of the
United Sta tes Army 1792-1796.
Marked by the Chester County Historical
Society.
On the occasion of the unveiling of this tablet ez-
Grovemor Samuel W. Pennypacker paid the following
tribute to the hero:
General Wayne was, without a doubt, one of the
greatest generaLs and soldiers ever produced by this
country. He early saw the futility of fightmg the
Britons, with their superior numbers and equipment,
in the open. Strat^y was the keynote to the success
of Mad Anthony. He took advantage of the natural
conditions afforded by the country in which he was
fighting. Midnight attacks, ambuscades and the cut-
ting off of detached parties of the enemy were methods
favored by him.
These methods were successful, and the efforts of
Mad Anthony and his men did much toward securing
the fre^om of this country. The very daring of some
138
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
of the attacks made by this man and his small group
of untrained soldiers was their best defense. The
enemy was invariably surprised and unable to offer
a successful resistance. These acts gained for him the
sobriquet of Mad Anthony Wayne, a name to inspire
fear in the hearts of the invaders. His patriotism and
devotion to duty are fit models for any American to
diape his life after.
Two miles from the home of the Revolutionary
hero is the scene of one of the greatest disasters suffered
by him. On the night of September 20, 1777, at a
point half a mile southwest of Malvern, the British
surprised the forces under General Wayne. It is said
that somehow they learned the American watchword,
'*Here we are, and there they go.'* The exhausted
soldiers were roused by the cry, "Up, run, the British
are on you.*' Eighty Americans were kiUed. The
battle has been called the Paoli Massacre because, it
was said, the wounded and the sick were killed, and
because soldiers were bayoneted after they had ceased
to resist. There were those who said that General
Wayne might have prevented the disaster by prompt
action. Accordingly he asked for an official inquiry.
A courtmartial held after the Battle of Germantown,
acquitted him "with the highest honor."
The site of the Paoli Massacre, as it has always
been known, was marked by a pile of stones until
1817. The monument built then was almost destroyed
by relic hunters, and on the centennial anniversaiy
of the disaster the present monument was dedicated.
This may be reached from Waynesborough, or, if pre-
ferred, from Malvern by going out Monument Avenue.
139
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
General Wayne is buried in St. David's church-
yard, where a monument stands above his grave.
Malvern is at the summit of the grade from Phila-
delphia, the roadbed of the Pennsylvania Raikoad at
this point being five hundred and forty-five feet above
sea level. For many miles along the turnpike the view
across the Chester Valley is wonderfully beautiful.
Near the twentieth milestone, at the foot of Valley
Hill, where the turnpike makes a turn to the right,
is the General Warren Tavern, long one of the chief
houses of entertainment along the road. Here many
famous travelers stopped over night. One of these was
Thomas Pownall, who wrote in 1759:
This is a narrow valley, but a most pleasing land-
scape; a little brook runs through it, which falls into
the Schuylkill at Swedes-ford. The valley, fully set-
tled and cultivated, eveiy farmer has a lime-kiln for
manure, or dressing to his land; they raise chiefly
wheat — ^The farm houses all with sash-windows, and
busked up on each side with peach and apple orchards,
and surrounded on all sides with everything that looks
like a man's own business being done here. The farms
are such as yeomanry, not tenants, dwell in.
The tavern was first opened in a more primitive
building before 1745. The present building was erected
after the Revolution, and was rebuilt after a fire in
1881. Originally it was called the Admiral Vernon.
The name was soon changed to the Admiral Warren,
but after the Revolution the name was changed a
second time, this time to General Warren, in honor
of an American hero, instead of a British seaman.
The property came into the hands of Hon. John Penn,
140
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
of Philadelphia, in 1776, after the death of a landlord
who directed in his will that '*my messuage and ten-
niment, commonly Called by the name of Warren
Tavern/' should be sold for the payment of his debts.
During the Revolutionary War the property was
leased to Peter Mather, a Tory. It was said that the
Warren was the meeting place for Tories, that British
spies were received here, and that information as to
tixe movements of the Continental Army was sent to
the British. Major Andr6, while a paroled prisoner
from Lancaster, visited the inn and made a map of the
country. It is said that he suggested the capture of
Philadelphia by way of the GKOt Valley, the plan
adopted by Howe and Comwallis in 1777. On the
night of September 20 Major Andr6 was with the
party* that came down the Swedesford road, stopped
at the Warren, and then moved on to attack Wayne's
men at Paoli.
After the action the landlord, Mather, was charged
with having led the British to Paoli, but this he denied.
That the people of the neighborhood did not believe
him, however, was shown by their later avoidance of
the tavern and its proprietor. From that day he did
not prosper. "God frowned on him," was the popu-
lar explanation. From innkeeper he became a dray-
man. In later years he made his living by pushing
a handcart. When the boys saw him on the street
they were accustomed to jeer at him. "Here we are
and there they gof and "Remember Paoli!" they
would ay.
When the removal of the county seat of Chester
141
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
County from Chester wbs under discussion, there was
an effort to make the Warren Tavern the new county-
seat, but the bad name of the property because of
Mather's Tory acts, and reluctance to allow any of the
Penn family to secure a fresh hold in public life, de-
feated the project.
In 1786 there appeared at the Warren a dusty
traveler who wore a long coat of homespun, secured
by hooks and eyes, a broad brimmed hat, cowhide
boots, and baggy trousers, which attracted attention
because most people wore knee breeches. Mather
would not admit him; he took him for a beggar. But
the man walked on to Philadelphia, saw John Penn,
bought the inn and three hundred and thirty-seven
acres of land for two thousand pounds, then returned
to the Warren with a bill of sale in his saddlebags.
This time he was admitted.
Under the new proprietor, Gideon Fahnestock of
Ephrata, the prosperity of the tavern was renewed,
for it became the resort of all Germans who passed
that way. The wagoners called the house *'the Dutch
tavern." They liked the fare provided there, but they
did not like the principles of the proprietor, who refused
to sell liquor on the Sabbath, the seventh day. They
liked still less the stand taken by Gideon's son and
successor, who changed the name to Warren Temper-
ance Hotel, and on Sunday reversed his sign so that
the message might be read, ''Nothing Sold on the
Sabbath.'* This early advocate of temperance was a
member of the Great Valley Presbyterian church,
located on the turnpike some distance from the tavern,
142
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
which was btiHt on ground given by the father of Caleb
Pany, landlord of the Warren in 1767.
Five miles beyond the Warren are three old inns,
within a mile, the Sheaf of Wheat, the Ship Tavern,
and the Ezton. The original Ship was one mile west
fd Downingtown, but when the turnpike was built
the present house was erected, and the old signboard,
whidi pictured a ship imder full sail, was transferred
to the new location. Tliis signboard waa marked by
many bullets, fired by those who did not klce the Toiy
sentiments of the proprietor of the old Ship. The
house is now a private residence.
The twmty-fifth milestone is set against the wall
by the bam beyond the Ship. Ttds is one of the stones
found and relocated in 1907 by the Colonial Dames.
The work was done under the direction of Miss Susan
Carpent^ Frazn of I^ancaster. She adopted an ingoi-
ious method of search and determining the proper
distance between stones. She would tie a white
streamer to the tread and one spoke of a wheel, and
then count four hundred and seventy revolutions.
Sometimes a milestone was found at the place indi-
cated by the completed revolutions. Sometimes on
discing by the roadside. Miss Frazer uncovered a
stone. One stone waa found six hundred yards from
the proper place, leaning against a barn. Another was
discovered in use as a doorstep of a house by the road-
side.
East Cain Meeting is in the edge of Downingtown.
The old Downing*8 Tavern, which gave the name to
the town, is at the junction of the Lionville Road, while
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
the Swan Tavern, another historic house, is in the
business center of East Downingtown. A few rods far-
ther on, is an ancient log cabin, thought to be the old-
est relic in the neighborhood.
Beyond Downingtown, near the fortieth milestone,
James Annesley, the hero of Charles Reade's novel,
'^The Wandering Heir," had many of his startling
adventures. Annesley, who was heir to the estate
and title of Lord Altham in Ireland, was by his unde
spirited away from that country when thirteen years
of age, and sent to America. He landed in Philadel-
phia in 1728 and was sold as a ''redemptioner'' to a
farmer. He ran away from his Master, was captured,
imprisoned and returned to servitude. After he had
served twelve years, two Irishmen, traveling along
the Lancaster road, stopped at the house where the
missing heir was in service. In conversation with the
young man they learned that he came from Dumain,
County Wexford, Ireland, their own town, and they
were convinced that he was the son and heir of Lord
Altham. When he had been taken back to England
they testified at the trial of the celebrated case of the
claimant, and had the gratification of seeing him prop-
erly recognized.
This section of the road in later days saw many
other men, as well as women and children, who were
escaping from servitude, for this entire r^on, from
West Chester to Downingtown and on to Lancaster,
was a part of the route of the Underground Railway.
Along the road were stations where the fugitives were
hidden and from which they were passed on to the
144
ON THE LANCASTER TURNPIKE
next station. At Bird in Hand, a station was kept by
Daniel Gibbons. Historians of the Underground Rail-
way say that, of the twelve hundred or more slaves
assisted by him from 1797 to 185S, but one or two
were taken from his house.
One day a man came to the farm, saying that he
wanted to buy a horse. But Mr. Gibbons was sus-
picious, for he saw him eying a n^^ who was work-
ing about the place. Immediately after the man
departed the negro was sent away. Next day came a
constable from Lancaster in search of the slave, but
he was compelled to return without his prey.
At another time slave hunters icame in search of a
slave who was in the house at the time. Mr. Gibbons
detained them by talking and asking questions. Mrs.
Gibbons took the fugitive out the back door and hid
her under an inverted rain hogshead. Then Mr. Gib-
bons politely showed the searchers through the house.
When they left they were satisfied that the n^gro was
not there.
Eight miles beyond Bird-in-hand is Lancaster, which
became the capital of Pennsylvania in 1799. At that
time the town was the largest inland settlement in the
United States. In 1804 a petition was sent by the
citizens to William Hamilton of Philadelphia, asking
him if he would offer ground for the accommodation
of the legislators. His favorable response to the request
did much to abate the feeling against his father,
Andrew HamOton who, when Lancaster was founded,
managed to divert the town from the site originally
planned, ten miles from the present site, to his own
10 146
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
estate. For many yean the pe(q[>Ie groaned under the
necessity of paying ground rents to the family. In
178S, according to Johann Sdioq>f, these amounted to
one thousand pounds a year.
But the capital did not renuiin long in Lancaster.
In 1812 it went to Harrisbuig, and the importance of
the second great section of the road from Philadelphia
to Pittsburgh was greatly increased.
VI
THE GULPH ROAD
THERE is no more picturesque road near Phila-
delphia than the Gulph Road, branches of which
wind in what seem an aimless manner through
Lower Merion Township. The pedestrian, the horse-
man or the automobile owner will enjoy a trip along
the sections which are nuu-ked on a good road map as
the Old Gulph Road. But the trip should be made
in a leisurely manner that none of the points of histo-
rical interest may be missed.
The oldest section of the road leads out of Nar-
berth by way of Narberth Avenue. On this secticm
may be seen the ruins of several old mills dating from
before the Revolution, notably the Dove Paper Mill,
where the paper for Continental bank notes and other
city government paper was made. These ruins are
located beyond the jimction with the Merion Square
Road. From this point the Gulph meanders on for a
number of miles.
The section of the road which is of greatest interest
b^^ at a point on Montgomery Avenue about half-
way between Ardmore and Bryn Mawr Station on the
Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. After pass-
ing the Bryn Mawr Hotel and Bryn Mawr College,
another bit of the Gulph leads to the right. A httle
way down this road, on the left, an old mansion will
147
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
be seen at the end of a driveway which leads from
Bbberts Road. This is Harriton House, built in 1704
by Rowland Ellis, who called his estate Bryn Mawr,
after his old home in Wales. He was obliged to trans-
port in panniers, on horses, all the sand, stone and
other material used for the house, since there were at
that time no road vehicles available. It is a two-story
house, built of stone, with quaint dormer windows.
In 1719 the house was bought by Richard Harri-
son, together with several hundred acres of land. The
name Harriton was bestowed by the new owner, this
being his own name with the change of a sinj^e letter.
From his old home in Delaware, where he had been
a tobacco planter, Richard Harrison brought his house-
hold goods and slaves in a sailing vessel. The vessel
was attacked by river pirates, and the goods were
stolen. The slaves were compelled to find their way
overland to the estate on the Gulph Road.
The story is told that some of these slaves soon
afterward attempted to poison the members of the
Harrison family, that they might be free to return to
Delaware. One morning they put poison in the choco-
late, and placed it on the table just before the silent
moment which was kept by the family, after the man-
ner of Friends. Just then there was a knock. Some
one, rising to open the door, overturned the chocolate.
No one would have known of the poison but for the
pet cat, which died after licking up the chocolate.
Frightened by the event, the guilty slaves confessed
the crime they had attempted.
Some of the slaves were set to work in the fields
148
THE GULPH ROAD
where the lord of the manor planted tobacco. When
the product was ready for market, he was confronted
by two difficulties — ^the hills were steep, and the Gulph
Road was otherwise unsuited to wagons, even if such
vehicles had been available. So he adopted a plan
popular in the South. The tobacco was packed in
great casks, through the center of each of which a pole
was passed. This served as an axle. To the ends of
the axle poles were attached. These served roughly
for shafts for a horse, which rolled and bumped the
casks to the Philadelphia market.
On the death of Richard Harrison in 1747 the prop-
erty came into the possession of Hannah Harrison,
his daughter. In 1774 she married Charles Thomson,
friend of Benjamin Franklin, secretary of the Stamp
Act Congress of 1765, and secretary of Congress for
the first fourteen years of its history. History says
that he presented to Washington the certificate of his
election as President of the United States. But per-
haps his greatest claim to fame is that he was known
among the Indians with whom he dealt as '"The Man
Who Always Speaks the Truth."
After retiring from public life, Mr. Thomson devoted
twelve years to a translation of the Bible from the
Septuagint. The work was done in the old dining
room of the mansion, which he used as a library. The
translation was published in 1808, in four volimies.
The translator lived until 1824, to the age of ninety-
five years.
In his will he made known his wish to be laid in
the Harriton family burying ground, located just across
149
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
the Robots Road, in the thick wood. This burying
ground he had k^t in view from the library, through
a hme cut in the trees.
Hie lane has disappeared, but the cemetery may
be reached by a path that leads to the little stone-
walled enclosure, on the grounds of George Vaux, Jr.,
who is a direct descendant of Richard Harrison. On
the wall is the inscription:
Harriton Family Cemetery
Anno 1719
On the inside of this stone the statement is made:
This stone is opposite to the division between two
rows of family graves wherein were interred Richard
Harrison and a number of his descendants, also George
Thomson, and Hannah Thomson, wife of Charles
Thomson, daughter of Richard Harrison, Grand-
daughter of Isaac Norris and great-granddaughter of
Governor Thomas Floyd.
One of the stones is erected in memory of Mary
Roberts, of whom this is said:
Having experienced the affliction <A loosing an
affectionate Husband, tender Parents, three Brothers
and her only Sister, and being thus left the only sur-
viving member of her Family, all Attachments to this
world had Vanish'd and her Most earnest wish was to
d^Hirt hraice.
It is interesting to note that the claim is not made
that Charles Thomson lies in this plot. He was bur-
ied here, but his body was not suffered to remain.
When Laurel Hill Cemetery was opened in 1838, the
Company wished the prestige that would come from
THE GULPH ROAD
having a number of famous men buried there. The
heirs of Charles Thomson were asked to allow the
removal of his body. In view of his wish that he be
buried by the side of his wife the request was refused.
However, a nephew was found who authorized the
removal, and one August night in 1838, under his
direction, the agents of Laurel Hill set to work. They
were still busy when a farm hand, on his way to the
field, surprised them. They fled in haste, taking with
them the body which they had recovered. Later a
monument was erected in Laurel Hill to the memory
of the Secretary of Congress.
Two miles beyond Roberts Road the turnpike forks.
The left road leads to Devon and the Lancaster Pike.
The right road leads to Valley Forge and Phoenixville.
At the forks the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of
the Revolution in 1892 erected a boulder monument
with the inscription :
Gulph MiUs.
The Main Continental Army
Commanded by General George Washington
Encamped in This Immediate Vicinity
From December IS to December 19
1777
Before Going to Winter Quarters
At Valley Forge.
Back of the monument is Gulph Creek, which
tumbles over a slight precipice. The sound of the fall
can be heard from the monument. This fall furnished
power for the old mill, built in 1741, whose ruins may
still be seen at the left of the road, immediately after
leaving the monument.
151
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
YfhSle his army was encamped at this point, Wash-
ington thanked the officers and men for the patience
and fortitude shown during the arduous campaign of
the year about to dose, and told them how necessary
it would be that they be patient and courageous while
in the winter quarters to which they were about to go.
He told them plainly what they might expect, but he
assured them that he wished he could provide better
things for them» and asked them to remember that he
would share their hardships with them.
Two days after the address was made the army
marched on to Valley Forge, but a guard was left at
the Gulph, under the direction of Colonel Aaron Burr,
who was then twenty-two years old. Burr's biographer
tells an incident of his service during this winter:
It appears that the militia stationed to guard the
pass at the Gulph were continually sending false alarms
to camp, which obliged the officers to get the troops
under arms, and frequently to keep them on the alert
all night. These alarms, it was soon found, arose from
want of a proper system of observation and from a
general looseness of discipline in the corps. Greneral
McDougall, who well knew the quality of Burr, as a
soldier, recommended the Commander-in-Chief to give
him the command of the post. This was done, which
resulted in the introduction of a system of such rigor-
ous discipline that mutiny was threatened and the
death of the Colonel resolved upon. This came to the
knowledge of Burr, and on the evening decided upon
(every cartridge having first been drawn from the
muskets) the detachments were ordered to parade.
When in line one of the men stepped from the ranks
and levelled his musket at him, whereupon Burr rused
152
THE GULPH ROAD
his sword and struck the arm of the mutmeer above the
elbow» nearly severing it from his body. In a few
minutes the corps was dismissed, the arm of the mu-
tineer was the next day amputated, and no more was
heard of the mutiny.
Not far from the monument is a spot where the
colonial road builders encountered a barrier — a ridge
of the range, of volcanic origin, which stretches, at
intervals, for about seventy miles from Maryland,
through Chester County, and on to the Delaware.
Gulph Creek cut its way through the lower edge of
one of these hills, which rises with startling sudden-
ness from the comparatively level country to a height
of 290 feet above the creek bed. The way for the road
had to be cut through the upheaved rock by the side
of the creek, and the work was done in such a way that
the road once formed, roughly, a half arch over the road-
way. Since the road was built the rock has crumbled,
but the overhanging roof is still there.
It is interesting to observe the curious formation
of the diff, which is a mixture of a material that crum-
bles in the fingers and rock as hard as flint. From the
softer material may be broken off fragments some of
which contain little garnets, too brittle to be of any
value.
This spot, known as the Gulph, is a favorite place
for picnics, but it was not a favorite spot with the
soldiers. One of them, Albigence Waldo, said in his
diaiy, on Saturday, December IS, 1777:
The Army march'd three miles from the West side
of the River, and encamp'd near a place called the
153
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Gulph and not an improper name either. For
Gulph seems well adapted by its situation to keep us
from the pleasure & enjoyments of this world, or being
conversant with anybody in it.
Johann Schoepf, in his *' Travels in the Confeder-
apy/' told of passing Gulph Mill ''at a narrow gap
between high rocks, apparently divided apart by
force."
The traveler wrote of meeting wagons that were
quite common in the days after the Revolution, loaded
with lime, a staple of this ''mountainous tract." Then
he went on to tell of the limebuming industiy, and cl
the trade in the product:
This is commonly managed not in walled furnaces
but in square pits, sometimes but not always lined
with fire-proof stone. In burning the lime, for vari-
ous reasons, dead wood or diy logs are prdFerred,
rather than green, and it is estimated that 15 cords of
wood are needed to bum 5-600 bushels of lime. The
wood is bought on the stump, and 5 shillings Pensyl.
Current (2-3 of a Spanish doler) the cord is regarded
as dear. According to the price of the wood, and the
cost of cutting and hauling, a bushel of burnt lime can
be sold at 8 to IS pence Fensylv. Current. Most of it
is brought to the city, but the people of the region use a
great deal of it on their lands. Being near a good mar-
ket, and the land having long been worked, they find
this means of improving their fields very convenient.
This garrulous German traveler became acquainted
with the people along the road as well as with their
occupation. He noted that those who live "in and
along these hills seem not to be the most prosperous
and their dwellings are not the best. But,'^ he added,
154
THE GULPH ROAD
''they are not forgotten in the tax levies; an ordinary
house, e.g., with 100 acres of land, paid this year 20 Pd.
Pennsylv. Current. The owner, a fanner, would there-
fore rather live somewhere else, but he expressed a
singular dislike for the famed county on the Ohio,"
because in Kentucky there is no real winter, and where
there is no winter, people would have to work year in
and year out!
Once he stopped for refreshments at a farm house
where he was told by the wife who ministered to him
''how her husband, during the war had, by a wise use
of his post in the Land Office, got to himself a hand-
some estate, seven plantations, and could now laugh
at the world." He had made his purchases with paper
money, playing on the credulity of his patriotic fellow
countrymen.
Of course there were men of this stamp, but as a
rule the people along the Gulph Road were in hearty
sympathy with the brave defenders of their country,
whom they watched as they marched the seven miles
from Gulph Mills to their encampment at Valley Foige,
most of them without shoes and stockings, and all of
them suffering from cold and exposure.
George Washington Parke Custis, in his "Recol-
lections and Private Memoirs of Washington,'' told
graphically of the hardships of the troops:
The winter of 1777 set in early, and with unusual
severity. The military operations of both armies had
ceased, when a detachment of the Southern troops
were seen plodding their weary way to winter quarters
at Valley Forge. The appearance of the horse-guard
155
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
announced the approach of the Commander-in-Chief:
the officer commanding the detachment, choosing the
most favorable grouid, paraded his men to pay to
their General the honors of the passing salute* As
Washington rode slowly up, he was observed to be
eying very earnestly something that attracted his
attention on the frozen surface of the road. Having
returned the salute, with that native grace, that dig-
nified air and manner, that won the admiration of the
soldiery of the old Revolutionary days, the Chief
reigned up his charger, and ordering the commanding
officer of the detachment to his side, addressed him
as follows: *'How comes it, sir, that I have tracked
the march of your troops by the blood stains of their
feet upon the frozen ground? Were there no shoes in
the Commissary's stores, that this sad spectacle is to
be seen along the public highways?'* The officer
replied: *^Your Excellency may rest assured that this
sight is as painful to my feelings as it can be to yours;
but there is no remedy within our reach. When the
shoes were issued, the different regiments were served,
and the stores became exhausted before we could
obtain even the smallest supply!"
The General was observed to be deeply affected by
his officer's description of the soldiers' privations and
sufferings. His compressed lips, the heaving of his
manly chest, betokened the powerful emotions that
were struggling in his bosom, when, turning toward
the troops with a voice tremulous yet kindly, Wash-
ington exclaimed, ''poor fellows"; then giving rein to
his charger rode away.
In this interesting event in the life and actions of
Washington he appears in a new light. He is no longer
the grave, the dignified, the awe-inspiring and unap-
proachable General-in-Chief of the armies of his coun-
try. AU these characteristics have vanished, and
1£6
THE GULPH ROAD
Pater Patriae appears amid his oompanions in arms in
all his moral grandeur, giving vent to his native good-
ness of heart.
It is not difBcuIt to close the eyes and reconstruct
the scene as the sturdy Continentals passed this way.
The road is far smoother than it was then, but the
sound of the water falling over the rocks is the same,
and there is still the sound of whirring machineiy, for
instead of the old Gulph Mill, there is the Montgom-
ery Worsted Mill, located on the bank of the creek a
short distance beyond the Gulph.
The old house by the side of the Philadelphia and
Western embankment, also on the left, should have
attention. This house, built in 180S, was the manor
house on the large Macf arland estate to which belonged
much of the land in the neighborhood. The fine door-
way and stairway wiU repay examination. The orig-
inal floors are still in use.
'* Gulph" is the name called by trainmen on the
Philadelphia and Western Railroad as they reach the
station near the mills, though Ballygomingo was the
name given by some early settler; perhaps after a spot
in Wales to which his thoughts turned often. This
name was later shortened to Balligo.
The Gulph station offers a convenience to those
who wish to pass over the Gulph Road on foot. The
trip from Bryn Mawr to Valley Forge and Phoeniz-
ville is too long for a single outing, but the pedestrian
might take the train at Sixty-ninth and Market Streets,
alight at Gulph station, and walk the four miles to
Bryn Mawr. Another day the longer walk might be
167
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
taken to Valley Forge, with car from the village to
Phoenixville, thus completing this important section
of the road.
A short distance after passing under the railroad
the turnpike crosses the creek on what is called the
Foederal bridge, whose story is told on a stone built
into the left parapet:
Montgomery
County
Upper Merion
Township.
1789.
In the 2nd year the
Foederal Union.
^/^ Beyond the bridge, is the Bird in Hand Inn. The
old appearance of the building and the swinging sign
board lead one to think that this is the original inn
of the name seen by Washington and his men. But
it is a comparatively modem hotel. The historic Bird
in Hand is a little farther along the road, which takes
a sharp turn to the left after crossing the bridge.
On the hill back of the new Bird in Hand, on the
road leading to Conshohocken, is Poplar Lane, once
the home of Isaac Hughes, Lieutenant Colonel of the
Flying Camp of the Pennsylvania militia. Half a
mile to the left, along the Norristown road, is the site
of the house built on Walnut Grove Farm by John
Hughes, father of Isaac Hughes, who came to America
in search of his son Hugh, after he had run away from
the parental home in Wales, in 1680.
Hugh Hughes became a tanner in Philadelphia,
168
HOUSE, NEAR BRTN HAWB, 17M
THE 6ULPH ROAD
but he moved later to Walnut Grove, which came into
his possession on his father's death. John Hughes,
the stamp officer of colonial days in Pennqrlvania,
was the next owner of Walnut Grove, and when
his son, Isaac Hughes, was married, he lived with his
parents on the old farm. He was master of the house
when Washington and members of his suite paid fre-
quent visits to the place.
Later Isaac Hughes moved to Poplar Lane. Until
recently it was thought that the oldest portion of the
house was built in 1769, but not long ago the present
owner, P. R. Varian, on opening a great fireplace, dis-
covered the date 1758 plainly lettered on the fireback.
From the Hughes family Poplar Lane passed to
the possession of George Nugent, a Philadelphia mer-
chant, who had retired with a fortune after trading
for years in the West Indies. Mr. Nugent had two
hobbies, his farm, where he tried advanced methods of
cultivation that made his neighbors jeer, and his chil-
dren, for whose education he founded a school. The
buildings are stiU standing, back of Poplar Lane, on
the Conshohocken road. There are two of them, a
residence for his son^ who was the proprietor of a woolen
mill in the valley, as well as for the master of the
school, and the seminary, a large structure of unusual
architecture, whose walls are two and one-half feet
thick. The most prominent features to the observer
from the road are the seven fan-like windows in the
end wall, two for each of the main rooms, and one for
the attic room, in which the boys had their dormitory.
Mr. Nugent was not a selfish man; he freely opened
159
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
the CoDc^te Institute, as he caUed it, to the children
of the neighbors who made sport of his advanced experi-
ments in farming.
After a season of prosperity the Institute was
dosed, and the buflding became the home of the Acad-
emy of Natural Science. In recent years, when the
Philadelphia and Western Railroad was under con-
struction, it was the home of a gang of Italian laborers.
The present owner of Poplar Lane bought it that he
might keep away undesirable tenants.
Another house whose last inhabitants were labor-
ers on the railroad is on the Gulph Road, a short dis-
tance up the hill, beyond the old Bird in Hand. This
stone building is rapidly falling in ruins. A peep within
the sagging door is repaid by a glimpse of a curious
old oven built into the fireplace. Beyond the firq>lace
is a cramped stairway that is not much better than a
ladder.
'"What a foolish man the builder was!" a visitor
to the house exclaimed, after climbing to the third
story. "He had all out-doors before him, yet he put
up a cramped three-stoiy house! How pleased his
wife must have been !'*
In spite of the sign-board near Hughes Comer,
which makes quite contradictory statements as to the
\y' distance to the King of Prussia Tavern, it is not far
to this famous old hostelry. There is a question as to
the date of this building. The swinging sign is dated
1709, though some say that 1768 is the correct date.
Yet the title papers are dated 1718. An early keeper
of this popular hostdry was a Brussian, to whom the
160
THE GULPH ROAD
name was a reminder of his home. Most of the building
has been remodeled, since the days when it was a
resort of the spies of the British army who sought
information of the movements of Washington and his
men, but the kitchen is about as it was then. For-
tunately the original sign was recovered from the waste
pile in the blacksmith shop a few rods away.
A few moments after passing the old tavern the
graceful columns of an old house appear through the
trees. Just enough can be seen to make one want to
go down the private road that leads from the turnpike
around to the front of the mansion. This house was
built in 1820, when William Cleaver married Jane
Thomas. Miss Thomas was bom in what is now known
as the Ashbridge house on Montgomery Avenue, just
beyond Bryn Mawr, which dates from 1769. The new
house was a copy of the old homestead. This is now
the home of C. W. Bray.
The entrance to Valley Forge Park is not far from
the Bray homestead, and it is possible to approach this
over a good road; but many will prefer to keep to the
Gulph Road, even if the final stretch is rather poor.
Otherwise they will miss an old landmark on the
left over the ridge above Trout Creek. This house
was occupied during a part of the period of the Valley
Forge encampment by Brigadier General George Wee-
don, a Virginian, who was sometimes called ''Joe
Gourd," because, as a Virginia inn-keeper, he used
gourds in distributing liquid refreshment to his cus-
tomers. The house, remodeled, is now the country
home of Congressman John R. K. Scott.
11 161
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
The Gulph Road entrance to the park is to the
left of the arch erected by the United States Govern-
ment to the memory of the officers and private soldiers
of the Continental Army, dedicated in 1914. Inside
the arch is the inscription:
And here, in this place of sacrifice, in this vale of
humiliation, in this valley of the shadow of that death
out of which the life of America rose regenerate and
free, let us believe with an abiding faith that to them
Union will seem as dear and liberty as sweet and
progressfas glorious as they were to our fathers and
are to you and me, and that these institutions which
have made us happy, preserved by the virtue of our
children, ^all bless the remotest generations of the
time to come.
Thus Henry Armitt Brown spoke of the heroism
of the defenders of their country. But they must
have felt far from heroic on that December day when
they entered the wood at "Wolley Forge," as the site
of the winter camp was called by an officer at White-
marsh when the plans were first announced.
On December 18, the day before the site was occu-
pied, Washington asked the regimental officers to divide
the soldiers into groups of twelve, each of which was to
build a hut of logs. A reward was promised to the twelve
men of each regiment who should complete their hut
first, and in the most workman-like manner. The
inventive genius of officers and men was stimulated
by the off er of one hundred dollars for the best sugges-
tion of an effective substitute for a roof which would
be cheaper than boards and could be applied more
promptly.
162
s HEADUl-'ARTEtta AT VALUET F
THE 6ULPH ROAD
Thomas Paine, in a letter to Benjamin Franklin,
gave a vivid picture of the scene during the days when
the men became builders:
I was there when the army first began to build
huts. They appeared to me like a family of beavers.
Everyone busy, some carrying logs, others mud, and
the rest plastering them together. The whole was
raised in a few days, and it is a curious collection of
buildings in the true rustic order.
Like a good comrade, Washington lived with his
men imtil they had the shelter ready. Not until Christ-
mas Day did he move to the house of Isaac Potts, the
miller. This was the day when he entered in his care-
fully kept account book:
To expenditure in the different and continued move-
ments of the Army from Germantown Sept. 15 till we
hutted at Valley Forge, the 25th of Dec. pr. mem,
$1,087.00 or £78,ls.
Several days earlier Washington sent to Congress
a letter from General Vamum, who said:
Three days successively we have been destitute
of bread. Two days we have been entirely without
meat.
On December 28, Washington said that unless
there was a great and sudden change in the commis-
sary department, the army must inevitably be reduced
to one or other of these three things: '^starve, dissolve,
or disperse in order to obtain subsistance in the best
manner they can/'
168
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
TVhen the Assembly of Pennsylvania found fault
with the action of taking the men into winter quarters,
Washington wrote:
I can assure those gentlemen, that it is a much
easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances
in a comfortable room by a good fireside, than to occupy
a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow,
without clothes or blankets. However, although th^
seem to have little feeling for the naked and distressed
soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and from
my soul, I pity those miseries which it is neither in
my power to relieve or prevent.
General Lafayette, in his Memoirs, gave another
telling picture of the later sufferings of the men:
The unfortunate soldiers were in want of eveiy
thing; they had neither coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes;
their feet and l^s froze tiU they became black, and
it was often necessaiy to amputate them . . . The army
frequently remained whole days without provisions,
and the patient endurance of both soldiers and oflScers
was a miracle which each moment seemed to renew.
Sergeant Andersen Kemp wrote to his mother:
We have had a dreadful time of it through the
winter at Valley Forge, sometimes for a week at a
time with nothing but frozen potatoes and even worse
still for clothing. Sometimes the men obliged to sleep
by turns for want of blankets to cover the whole, and
the rest keeping watch by the fire. There is hardly a
man who has not been frostbitten. . . . But our distress
for want of food was nothing compared to the grum-
bling of some of the men, and, I am sony to say, of
some of the officers.
THE GULPH ROAD
Surgeon Waldo told thus of a midnight feast:
At 12 of the dock Providence sent us a little mut-
ton with which we immediately had some Broth made
& a fine Stomach for same. Ye who eat Pumpkin Pie
and Roast Turkies and yet Curse Fortune for using
you ill. Curse her no more lest she reduce your Allow-
ance of her favours to a bit of Fire Cake & a draught
of Cold Water & in Cold Weather too.
On March 1, 1778» General Weedon indicated in
his Orderly Book that conditions were improving.
After the manner of the true optimist he made the best
of privation, nuule excuses for the failure of provisions
and looked forward to better things:
Thank Heaven, our Countiy abounds with pro*
visions and with prudent management we need not
Sprehend want for any length of time. Defects in
9 Commissarie Department, Contingencies of Wea-
ther and other Temporary Impedements have sub-
jected and may again subject us to deficiency for a few
days. But Soldiers, American Soldiers will despise
the manners of Repining at Such trifling strockes of
Adversity, Trifling indeed when compared with the
Transcendent prize which will undoubtedly crown their
patience and perseverance.
The brightest day of the six months' encampment
was May 7, 1778, when the soldiers rejoiced because
of the treaty of Alliance between France and the United
m
States. This event gave them courage for the move-
ment undertaken on June 18, the day the British evac-
uated Philadelphia, when the camp was gladly left
behind.
165
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
The story of that winter has been told effectively,
in verse, by Thomas Buchanan Read. After speaking
of the hardships of which General Weedon made light,
he said:
Such was the winter's awful sight
For many a dreary day and night.
What time our country's hope forlorn.
Of every needed comfort shorn,
Lay housed within a hurried tcait.
Where every keen blast found a rent.
And oft the snow was seen to sift
Along the floor its piling drift.
Or, mocking the scant blankets' fold,
Across the night couch frequent rolled.
Where every path by a soldier beat,
Or every track where a sentinel stood,
Stfll held the print of naked feet.
And oft the crimson stain of blood:
Where Famine held her spectral court.
And joined by all her fierce allies:
She ever loved a camp or fort
Beleaguered by the wintry skies, —
But dbiefly when Disease is by.
To sink the frame and dim the eye.
Until, with seeking forehead bent.
In martial garments cold and damp.
Pale Death patrob from tent to tent.
To count the chameb of the camp.
Gulph Road leads across the park, past the Letitia
Penn schoolhouse, and past the woods which, it is
said, were the scene of an incident related by Benson
J.Lossing:
Mr. Potts the Quaker relates that one day while
the Americans were encamped at Valley Forge, he
166
THE 6ULPH ROAD
strolled up the creek, and when not far from the dam»
heard a solemn voice. He walked qui<^y in the direc-
tion of it, and saw Washington's horse tied to a sapling.
In a thicket near by was the beloved chief upon ms
knees in prayer, his face suffused with tears. Like
Moses at the bush, Isaac felt that he was on holy
ground, and withdrew unobserved.
After crossing the creek, the road leads directly to
Fhoenizville, three miles distant. The oldest house
by the way is Moore Hall, on a hill beyond the water-
works, immediately after crossing Pickering Creek.
William Moore, the owner of the estate at the time
of the Revolution, was bom in Philadelphia on May
6, 1699. Twenty years later he graduated at Oxford.
His father, who was Collector of the Port of Philadel-
phia, gave him 240 acres on Pickering Creek. When the
land came into his possession there were on it a house,
a stable and a sawmill. This sawmill was a source
of wonder to the Indians, who liked to come and
look and listen.
Perhaps it was one of these very Indians who once
visited the shop of a smith near Valley Forge, showing
a gun which needed repairs. The blacksmith was
unable to help him, for his supply of fuel was exhausted.
The Indian took a basket, hurried away and came
back after a while with a quantity of coal which
he insisted would make a fine fire. The fire was re-
plenished and the gun was repaired, but he refused
to tell where he had found the '* black stones.''
Evidently the Indian knew of a supply of coal in
the neighborhood, but its location has never been
found.
107
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
The house on the new property did not answer
the needs of William Moore, who longed ito entertain
plenty of company. So he built a house which, a few
years later, was succeeded by a mansion that became
famous throughout all the region, not only for its own
sake, but because in it was shown a hospitality remaik-
able even among the open-handed colonists.
The owner of the mansion had many slaves, whom
he quartered in a stone house near Moore Hall. Some
of these slaves persisted in running away, as appears
from advertisements in the Philadelphia papers of the
period. In the Pennsylvania Gazette of August 10,
17S0, this notice was inserted:
Ran away from William Moor of Moore Hall, in
Chester County, a likely young negro man, named
Jack. Speaks but indifferent English, and had on,
when he went away, a new Isenbuig shirt, a pair of
striped breeches, a striped ticking waistcoat and an
old Dimity coat of his master's with buttons of horse
teeth set in brass and cloth sleeves, and a felt hat,
almost new. Whoever secures said negro and brings
him to his master, or to John Moore, Esq. Fhiladd-
phia, shall receive 20 shillings and reasonable charge.
William Moore.
Mr. Moore was prominent both in Church and
State. He was at different times a vestryman in St.
James Episcopal Church on the Perkiomen and of St.
David's Church at Radnor. He was colonel of the
Chester County militia, organized for defense against
the Indians, he was a member of the Assembly from
17SS to 1740, and was appointed a Justice of the Peace
168
THE GULPH ROAD
in 1740. He was a good oflSdal, but he made ^lemies
who were not slow to make charges against him, when
they saw a good chance to hurt him.
Their opportunity came when he was out of favor
with the Assembly. The majority of the members of
the Assembly were Friends, opposed to war, but he
insisted that means be taken for preparation against
a threatened Indian attack. Once he wrote to the
Assembly that two thousand men were coming down
to Philadelphia from Chester County to compel the
passage of the militia law.
Just at this time came to the Assembly a complaint
from Ch^ter County, declaring that Squire Moore
had been guilty of tyranny and injustice. He defended
himself in a paper printed in Franklin's PennsyU
vania Gazette. Provost Smith of the University of
Pennsylvania helped him secure a Grerman trans-
lation, that the defense might be published in Ger-
man also.
But the Assembly did not like the statement made
in this defense that their readiness to listen to the
charge was scandalous. A warrant was issued for his
arrest, and two men were sent to Moore Hall. In Jan-
uary, 1758, he was arrested and taken to jail in Phila-
delphia. Provost Smith was arrested at the same time.
Moore's defense was burned by the hangman, and no
attention was paid to habeas corpus proceedings. The
Provost was compelled to hear his classes in the jail.
Both men were released at the close of the session of
the Assembly, but they were liable to arrest as soon
as the Assembly met again.
160
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
The Provost went to England at once, arriving
January 1, 17fi9, and related the facts to the authw-
ities. When he returned the Assembly, convened by
the Privy CouncH, was compelled to listen to a rebuke
given by Governor Hamilton*
The Committee of Congress appointed to investi-
gate the condition of the army at Valley Forge made
their headquarters at Moore Hall. Hiey remained
three months, and decided that Washington was the
best man in the country for the head of the army.
Washington was himself a frequent visitor at Moore
Hall, though the tradition that he once went there on a
fishing expedition is erroneous.
On July 80, 1787, he wrote in his diary:
In company with M'Gov' [Gouvemeur] Morris, and
in hisPh»ton with grey horses, went up to one Jane
Moore's in the vicinity of Valley Forge to get Trout.
By mistake the Pentuylvania Backet of August 1,
1787, said:
Monday his Excellency General Washington was set
out for Moore Hall in order to visit his old quarters at
the Valley Forge in this State.
On July 81 Washington wrote:
Whilst M' Morris was fishing I rid over the old Can-
tonment of the American [Army] of the Winter 1777 &
8 — visited all the Works w^'^ were in Ruins; and the
Incampments in woods where the ground had not
been cultivated. On my return to M" Moore's I found
M' Robert Morris & his lady there.
William Moore died Bfay SO, 1782, and was buried
in St. David's churchyard at Radnor. His body lies
170
THE 6ULPH ROAD
directly in front of the door of the old church. By his
side is his wife, who inherited his property because^
as he said in his will, she was ''never frightend by
the rude rabble or Dismaied by the Insolent threats
of the ruling powers. Happy Woman, a Pattern to
her Sex, and worthy the Relationship she bore to
the Right Honourable and Noble family from which
she sprung."
Perhaps a mSe from Moore Hall, on the edge of
Fhoenizville, is The EnoO, once the seat of the Morris
family. Later it became the property of Charles
Wheatley, an Englishman who married into the family.
He was interested in metallurgy, and he was delighted
when he found a vein of copper on his property. A
deep shaft was dug on his land. This was long ago
filled up.
Fountain Inn, in Phoenizville, was at one time the ^^
headquarters of General Howe. In front of the inn,
by the side of the car tracks, is a marker on which is
this record:
The Farthest Inland Point Reached in the British
Invasion of the Northern Colonies during the Revolu-
tionaiy War, September 21-8S, 1777.
Not far away is the old Greneral Pike Hotel, built
in 1807, and directly across the road is the Jones Man*
sion, built by John Longstreth. During the British
invasion the Hessians came to the house and took all
the geese, straw and everything else they could lay
Imnds on. His daughter Sarah married Robert Jones,
and th^ lived in the old house during the years before
the Civil War.
171
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
was on the route of the Undeigioiind
Railway on which so many slaves found their way to
freedom in Canada. There were four stations in the
neighborhood of the town, and of these the Jones Man-
sion was one. Visitors to the house are shown a wood
closet in the chimney where the slaves were hidden
dur^ig the day. Once a father and mother and their
baby were crowded in these narrow quarters when the
searchers came to the house after them. The baby
cried» and Mrs. Jones was in an agony. But the hid-
ing place was not discovered, and that night the slaves
were sent on their way.
A second station was kept by Elijah F. Fenny-
packer at the Comer Stores. In the History of the
Underground Railway it is said that he did a thriving
business. He ''kept a large two-horse dearborn, in
which he took loads of fugitives by day and by night.
If they reached his house in the night, and there was
urgency to proceed, they were taken on without delay.
In case they were taken in daytime, the women and
children were placed in the rear end of the wagon, the
children covered up, and the women disguised by wear-
ing veils. The men walked singly so as not to ezdte
suspicion/'
172
vn
THE RIDGE ROAD TO FEREIOMEN
LIKE many others of the old roads out of Fhiladel-
i phia, the Ridge Road — so named because it is
on the ridge between the Schuylkill and the
Wissahickon — ^follows an old Indian tiuil.
The owners of the primitive limekilns along the
Schuylkill sought an easier way to market than the
rough forest path afforded. So, in the days of Gov-
ernor William Markham, a cartway was opened
along the ridge. An eariy historian records that this
cartway led ''from the Sd limekiln into Flimouth rode,
near Cressoon, where there is neither improved land,
hill nor water to impede."
Gradually the country was developed. The for-
ests were cleared, the land was improved, and thou-
sands of settlers found their way to the region tribu-
tary to the Ridge.
A map made in 1706 showed that everything north
of Callowhill Street was country. The entire terri-
tory beyond was shown as well covered with trees.
In 1804 the country along the Ridge Road was so
open that it formed a refuge for many citizens in a
time of need. Robert Sutdiffe wrote in his account
of his travels in America:
Joseph Paul Ridl^ took me in his carriage to see
a large encampment on the Ridge road, where many
poor persons were acconunodated who had left Phila-
delphia to avoid the infection of yellow fever.
178
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Thirty years later the country beyond Twentieth
Street was still wild and lonely. Iji 18S0 two highway-
men attacked a Ridge Road stage carrying the United
States mail, at what is now Twenty-third Street and
Ridge Avenue. A hue and cry was raised, and the
desperadoes were apprehended and thrown into jail
at Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets. It is said
that when an appeal was made to President Jackson
and he pardoned one of them, an Englishman, but
refused to interfere with the punishment of the other,
an Irishman, Irish residents of the dty thought this
an insult to them. On the day of execution soldiers
were sent to guard the gaUows lest the infuriated com-
patriots of the offender should effect a rescue.
As early as 180S a petition was made to the legis-
lature for a turnpike road along the Ridge, but this was
refused because the Germantown turnpike was parallel,
and at some points was but a short distance away.
Eight years more passed before the desired per-
mission was wrung from the careful l^pslators, but on
March SO, 1811, an act was passed **to enable the
governor to incorporate a company for making an
artificial road b^inning at the intersection of Vine
and Tenth Street," Philadelphia, and thence to the
Perkiomen. The route of the new road was to be ''as
near as may be consistent with economy and utility,
along, over and upon the bed of the present road . • .
to Wissahiccon creek; thence to Barren Hill; thence
to Norristown in the County of Montgomery; and
thence by the nearest and best route to the Perkio-
ming bridge in the county aforesaid.*'
174
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
Earli^ turnpike roads had had so much difficulty
with travelers who sought to escape the payment of
tolb that it was thought wise to include in the act of
incorporation a provision for the fining of anyone who
ahould pass a tollgate without payiog the required
fee^ or who should evade payment in some other way.
It was further ordered ''that if any person or persons
shall wilfully break, deface, pull up or prostrate any
mflestone, which shall be placed in pursuance of this
act on the side of the said road, or shall obliterate the
letters or figures inscribed thereon,'* or on a direction
post, he was to be fined ten dollars.
Pairt of this early turnpike was used for the first
stage of the journey of Samuel Breck, the framer of
the public schools law in Pennsylvania, when he took
a trip .from his estate, Sweetbrier, on the Schuylkill,
to Boston. Mr. and Mrs. Breck, Miss Breck and a
maid were in the party. The trip required twenty-
six days, the distance covered was six hundred nules»
''over exceUent roads and meeting with exceedingly
good inns, and not an accident excepting the lameness
of one horse.'* Mr. Breck carefully added that the
expense of the journey was about five hundred dollars.
It is interesting to read in the Recollections of
Samuel Breck a description of the Sweetbrier estate,
which is now a part of Fairmoimt Park. The house
still stands not far from Belmont Mansion. Of his
home Mr. Breck proudly said:
My residence has been when at home with my fam-
ily where it now is, for more than thirty years, being
on an estate belonging to me, situated on the right
176
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
bank of the Schuylkill, in the township of Blockl^,
County of Philaddphia, and two miles from the west*
em part of the city. The mansion on the estate I
built in 1797. It is a fine stone house, rough-cast»
fifty-three feet long» thirty-eight broad, and three
stories high, having out-buudings of every kind suit-
able for elegance and comfort. The prospect consists
of the river, animated by the great trade carried on
in boats of about thirty ton, orawn by horses; of a
beautiful sloping lawn terminating at that river, now
nearly four hundred yards wide opposite the portico;
of side-screen woods, of gardens, green-house, etc
Sweetbrier is the name of my villa.
The first famous landmark along the Ridge Road,
Girard CoU^e, was completed in 1848. The north-
eastern boundary of the coUege grounds extends from
Nineteenth to Twentieth Streets. To-day houses.cluster
thickly about the college grounds, and pleas have be^i
made to the dty for opening streets through the large
campus, but when the site was chosen it was well out
citovm.
For forty years before his death, which occurred in
1881, Stephen Girard, the founder of the college, was
the loneliest man in Philadelphia. His wife was in an
insane hospital. Hints of his great loneliness were
given in his letters. Once he said: "I live like a galley
slave, often passing the whole night without sleeping.
I am wrapped up in a labyrinth of anxieties and am
worn out with care. I do not value fortune. The love
of labor is my highest ambition." And again : ** When I
rise in the morning, my only effort is to labor so hard that
when night comes I may be enabled to sleep soundly."
The lonely worker who did not value money for
176
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PEREIOMEN
its own sake used it for the good of his country and for
his fellows. During the war of 1812 his was the part
that Robert Morris played during the Revolution.
Once, when the public subscribed but twenty thou-
sand dollars to a national loan of five million dollars,
he restored public confidence by taking the remainder.
And when his will was read it was found that he
had left the bulk of his fortune to care for the poor
boys of Philadelphia and the State. He planned that
the college should be open to poor white boys, between
six and ten years of age. Every orphan admitted was
to be bound by indenture to the city authorities until
twenty-one years of age, his entire care and education
to be paid for by the college. No boy, he declared,
must be permitted to remain in the institution after
the age of eighteen. At that time, if not before, he
should be apprenticed to learn a trade.
One hundred orphans were admitted when the
college opened. To-day there are more than fourteen
hundred boys enrolled. Thus the lonely man's dream
of bringing joy to the hearts of others has been realized.
Several miles beyond Girard College is Falls of
Schuylkill, noted in early days as the Mecca of the
fisherman. The early name of the settlement was
Fort St. David's, so called for an early fishing and
social club which flourished until the Revolution.
Loyalists thought of the members of this club as trai-
tors to the king of England, and they took pleasure
in seeing the Hessians tear down the log club house
and use the logs in building huts for the officers of the
British force.
12 177
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Further down the stream stood another fishing
club, the Colony in Schuylkill, founded in 17S2, which
now» under the name of the State in Schuylkill, has
its dub house on the Delaware, not far from Edding-
ton station on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Fishing was good at the Falls of Schuylkill until
the buflding of the Fairmount Water Works dam, and
during the season tons of fish were taken from the
water daily.
In 1805 Sutdiffe told in an entertaining manner
of the great catch he witnessed:
At this part of the river, the Shad Fishery is prose-
cuted with great spirit in the early part of summer.
Almost every farmer who happens to have a field on
the banks of the river, keeps a net for the purpose;
and, with a little industry, may, in the course of two
or three weeks, lay up a supply for the whole year.
The fish are salted, and are brought out, through the
winter, as a relish at breakfast and supper. I have
sometimes stood by in the evening watching the people
taking these fish. The nets used are about fifty or
sixty yards in length, and about six feet in width; the
lower side being weighted with lead, and the upper
side supported with pieces of cork. One end of the
net is fixed firm to a stake on the edge of the river,
whilst the other end is taken out in a small boat to-
wards the other side. After getting to the extent of it,
the boat is rowed down the river, bringing the end of
the net with it, and at length it comes to land a little
bdow the stake to which the other end of the net is
fastened, forming a drcular endosure, within which
the fish are secured. As the net approaches the bank
of the river, the fishes are seen struggling in all direc-
tions; till at last they are brought dose to the shore,
178
THE BID6E ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
where they are quickly gathered up, and thenoe into
the boat. Seveitd hundreds are, at times, taken at
one draught, but as the fishing is continued through
the night, during the season, tne farmers often think
thentiselves well paid with 20 or SO, and they weigh
about 5 pounds each.
The Falls and the region up the river as far as Nor-
ristown saw much of Washington and Howe during
the Revolution. At one time Washington's army
crossed the Schuylkill at Levering's Ford, at Mana-
yunk, just beyond the Falls. Colonel Pickering told
in his journal of an annoying delay at this crossing,
which took place on September 14, 1777. One cannot
help sympathizing with the soldiers, while at the same
time seeing the commander's point of view:
The army, having yesterday cleaned their arms,
and received ammunition to complete fifty rounds a
man, this day marched up a few miles and recrossed
the Schuylkill at Levering's Ford, the water being
nearly up to the waist. We lost there much time, by
reason of the men stripping off their stockings and
shoes and some of them their breeches. It was a pleas-
ant day, and, had the men marched directly over by
platoons* without stripping, no harm could have ensued;
their clothes would have dried by night on their march,
and the boots would not have hurt their feet. The
officers,^ too, discovered a delicacy quite unbecoming
soldiers; quitting their platoons, and some getting
horses of their acquaintances to ride over, and others
getting over in a canoe. They would have better done
their duty, had they kept at their platoons and led on
their men.
Another incident is told of those trying days, of
which John IBrk was the hero. Near the point where
179
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
School Lane intersects Ridge Road this man, one of
Washington's spies, popularly known as Fearnought,
unexpectedly met a trooper of the British picket.
The trooper was armed, but Kirk was unarmed.
Stealthily he crept upon the unsuspecting trooper, and
then sprang suddenly upon him, at the same time
wresting the gun from his surprised foe. Clubbing
the weapon, he knocked the trooper insensible, and so
was able to make his way safely to Washington's camp,
with his valuable information.
Perhaps the most historic building in Falls of
Schuylkill is the house, near Indian Queen Lane, which
was occupied for many years, beginning in 177S, by Dr.
William Smith, first Provost of the University of Penn-
sylvania. It is related that on April 17, 1790, Dr.
Smith was dining here, with David Rittenhouse, the
astronomer, Thomas Mifflin, first Grovemor of Penn-
sylvania under the Constitution, and several others,
when word was brought to them of the death of Ben-
jamin Franklin. At the time a fierce thunderstorm
was raging. Dr. Smith, always quick with his pen,
on the spot wrote the following verses:
Cease, cease, ye clouds, your elemental strife!
Why rage ye thus, as if to threaten life?
Seek, seek no more to shake our souls with dread ;
What busy mortal told you, "Franklin's Dead"?
What though he yields at Jove's imperious nod?
With Rittenhouse he left his magic rod!
In 1777, when Washington's army was encamped
in the neighborhood. General Stephen of Virginia had
his headquarters in this mansion. During the yellow
180
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
fever epidemic of 1793, General Knox, Secretary of
the Treasury, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Auditor of the
Treasuiy, had their offices here.
In a house on Dr. Smith's estate lived Joseph Neef ,
who became famous because of his introduction into
America of Pestalozzi's system of education. In 1808
he published a small book, printed in Philadelphia, in
which he explained how he became interested in the
system; how he had studied with Pestalozzi in Berne,
Switzerland, and had taught with him there, and how
he had been brought to America by friends of educa-
tion, who paid his expenses while he was learning their
language, that he might show Americans the superior-
ity of objects over books in teaching.
Not far from the Smith mansion, on Indian Queen
Lane, is a historic schoolhouse where books rather than
objects have always been used. This was built as an
academy in 1813, the funds being raised by subscrip-
tion. On Sunday it was used for religious purposes.
This has been called the birthplace of the churches,
for here many of them made their start. It is now a
mission of St. James the Less.
Falls of Schuylkill has an even greater claim to
distinction than its connection with early education
through the work of Joseph Neef and through the old
Academy. Here, it has been claimed, anthracite coal
was first used for manufacturing purposes, in a wire mill,
one of the early industries of this manufacturing town.
Philadelphia long looked with suspicion on the
^' black stones,'' the first of which came to the city in
1786 or 1787. Some of this importation from Wilkes-
181
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
barre was distributed among the shipwrights and
smiths, but most of it was taken to the cellar of Robert
Morris's partner, John Nicholson. When he was
thrown into prison for debt, those who seized the val-
uables in his house threw the coal out on Franklin
Square, regarding it as rubbish.
One historian says that an early miner issued hand-
bills printed in both Grerman and English, explaining
the method of burning the coal. **They went also to
blacksmiths' shops, exhibited certificates from smiths
who had successfully used the new fuel, and sometimes
bribed the journeymen to make the experiment fairly.
All these efforts availed very little.'' It was not until
1819 that a newspaper advertised the fuel, though
within six years of that time it had won its way to the
coal bins of the citizens of Philadelphia.
Soon after leaving the Falls, the traveler comes to
the High Bridge Tavern, one of the early hostelries
of the Ridge Road, which had a better reputation than
the road house of which Elizabeth Drinker told, under
date of August 20, 1771 :
This evening our Landlady, a dirty, old, Dutch
woman, refused changing very dirty for dean sheets;
this after much entreaty she pretended to comply —
but we found to our mortification she had taken the
same sheets, sprinkled them and then ironed and hung
them by the fire, and placed them again on the Bed;
so that we were necessitated to use our Cloaks &c.,
and this night slept without sheets. With the assist-
ance of our two women servants cooking, we supped
very well, and slept better than we had reason to
expect, all in one room.
183
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
Next day she wrote:
H. S. and self each folded a dirty sheet Nutm^
fashion, and left them covered up in ye Beds, for the
old woman to tag and scold at., May it be the means
to mend her manners.
The High Bridge Tavern is familiar to Fhiladel-
phians because it is near the beginning of the Wissa-
hickon Drive, one of the most famous bits of road in
the country. At every turn new beauties are discov-
ered, and in most unexpected places historic spots are
found.
Among the earliest settlers in this beautiful glen
were a company of forty men who came, in 1694 from
Geneva, with John Kelpius and Daniel Falckner. They
had come to America hoping to be free from religious
intolerance, and here they thoroughly enjoyed them-
selves. One of these Hermits of the Wissahickon, as
they were called, wrote:
What pleases one here most is that one can be peas-
ant, scholar, priest and nobleman all at the same time
without interference, which of all modes of living has
been found to be the best and most satisfactory since
patriarchal time. To be a peasant and nothing else
IS a sort of cattle life; to be a scholar and nothing else,
such as in Europe, is a morbid and self-indulgent exist-
ence; to be a priest and nothing else ties life to blind-
ers and responsibilities; to be a nobleman and nothing
else makes godless and riotous.
The Wissahickon was a favorite haunt of Captain
Allen M cLane, who commanded the famous cavalry
troop known as McLane's Rangers. The British put
a price on the head of this daring commander whose
1S3
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
unexpected appearances and hardy exploits kept them
guessing. The region for many miles around» as far
as Barren Hill and Germantown, was apt to shelter
him at any time. He was an invaluable aid to Wash-
ington in intercepting the supplies which the British
tried to smuggle into the city.
Perhaps his most famous exploit was on the night
of the Meschianza, the entertainment given in honor of
Howe and some of his officers when they were about to
leave Philadelphia for England. Taking the enemy at a
disadvantage, McLane made a sudden descent on the
British front. *'An abatis of felled trees with bristling
branches had been built all the way from the Schuyl-
kill to a point in Germantown so as to cover the ap-
proach to the city by the Ridge Road, Germantown
Road and intervening roads. The whole line of abatis
was fired by the dragoons under McLane." The alarm
was given. Thomas Buchanan Read has written of
this:
There rose a tumult wild without,
A hurried rush of wild alarms.
The flash of flames, the sentind's shout.
The shuddering guests no more could doubt
But quaked to think the rebel crew
Had burst in all their midnight power
Upon them in their revel hour
To act the Trenton scene anew.
McLane and most of his followers crept by way of
Barren HQl to Washington's army. There he was
reinforced. He turned upon his pursuers and drove
them back to the city.
184
mu. GBOVE, NGAB PBOTBCTORT B
Tbc boute in ctrly manhoail ol John Jainn
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PEREIOMEN
At Rozborough and Ridge, at the side of Grace
Lutheran Church, is a stone bam where, after the
battle of Germantown, a few British stragglers sought
refuge, while near the car bam are two places worth
more than a passing glance.
Another spot that interests the student of Revolu-
tionary movements is between the ninth and tenth
milestones, where a tablet gives this information:
About three hundred yards northwest of this place
were encamped the Indian scouts that were a part of
Lafayette's Command-
On the reverse is this record:
On the ground in the rear of this Stone the Amer-
ican troops under Lafayette were encamped from the
18th to the 20th of May, 1778.
The cross-roads village of Harmanville is a center
of historic interest. Here is the historic Harman
Yerkes house, once a famous inn. Nearby is the home
of Hiram Corson, where Dr. Joseph Corson, long fa-
mous through all this region as a physician of the old
school, had his abode. Then comes the Angel House,
so named because of the curious carved block of mar-
ble placed between two of the windows in the second
story. Here are represented two cherubs, one on each
side of a palette, on which they are writing. It has
been explained that the artist planned thus to repre-
sent the budding industries of the new country.
This carving was one of many imported from
Venice by Robert Morris as^adomments for his palatial
house at Eighth and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia.
When financial difficulties overtook him, the unfin-
186
J
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
ished house was stripped of its adornments. Some
were sold and some were taken by workmen in part
settlement of their claims. One stoiy is that the
builder of the Angel House was a workman on Morris'
Folly, while another story is that the carving was
bought at a sale of the effects of the great financier
and was handed over to the masons when they built
this modest stone structure.
The Angel House is of special interest for another
reason. On the premises, in the rear, is the old Potts
Quarry, from which was taken the stone used by the
builders of Independence Hall.
At Spring Mill, near the terminus of the troUey
that passes the Angel House, is the old L^gaux house.
Though many think the house dates from about 1690,
it received its name from Peter Legaux, a Frenchnoan
who at one time was Grovemor of San Domingo. It
was his idea when, in 1786, he came to the estate on
the banks of the Schuylkill, that the growing of grapes
and the making of wine would be profitable. On the
two hundred acres in his possession he set out thirty
thousand grape vines, the first vineyard of any size in
America. To his home amid the vines, which he
called Mt. Joy, he welcomed General Washington on
many occasions. The house, much altered, is now
the home of Hany S. Righter.
In colonial days, and during the Revolution, both
banks of the Schuylkill from Spring Mill to Consho-
hocken, were lined with the farms of sturdy settlers who
used to go to Norristown to market. One of these
farms, on the west bank, at Swede's Ford, was owned
186
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PEREIOMEN
by Peter Holstein, a rdative of John Hughes, whose
farm, Wafaiut Grove, is mentioned in the chapter on
the Gulph Road. In 1785 Levi Bartleson asked Peter's
daughter Mary to marry him. Because of his intem-
perate habits, the father refused to give consent. Soon
afterward the father died, leaving his entire estate to
his only child.
As soon as Peter died the suitor called at the house
and, entering the room where the body lay, remained
there a few moments. ''When he came out,'* the
stoiy is told, ''he remarked in a cheerful, wellHBatisfied
manner, that they would now be married, for he had
asked her father, and as silence gives consent there
could be no further objection."
Within five years the intemperate man had dissi-
pated the fine estate, and his wife was left in destitute
circumstances. For some time she earned her living
as a servant in the house where she had been mistress.
Then she married a farm hand and moved to Ohio.
Some years later the people who had given employ-
ment to the destitute wife before her second mar-
riage, while residents of Norristown, saw a man and a
woman, quietly dressed, riding handsome horses, pass-
ing along Main Street, as the Ridge Road in Norris-
town was called. To their surprise and pleasure they
recognized the unfortunate Mary Bartleson and her
farm-hand husband.
The land on which Norristown is built was a part
of the Manor lands of William Penn. In 1704 he sold
the entire tract, which includes the present Township
of Nwrington, for £850. Isaac Norris was one of the
1S7
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
purchasers. From him the town took its name. At
first it was called the Town of Norris. When Mont-
gomeiy Comity was cut off from Philadelphia m 1784»
Norristown became the county seat. In 1795 there
were ten buildings in the town. ''In one of these/*
a traveler said, ''the sessions are held; in another
the judges reside when they come to hold the as-
sizes; a third is the county jail; three others are inns;
the rest are farm-houses, shops or habitations of
laborers.'*
The only road in early Norristown was the old
Egypt Road. On some of the old houses in Norris-
town are still the Egypt Road signs, though this is the
present Main Street.
The road was so named because it passed through
the section near the mouth of the Perkiomen which
was overflowed every year; the deposit of soil made the
lands fertile like the overflow lands of Egypt.
The Egypt Road, which may be considered a part
of the Ridge Road, has an interesting history. Joseph
Richardson, who built at Olethelo on the Schuylkill,
near Phoenixville, in a petition dated in 1722 declared
"that there is no certain Road laid out from thence
towards the city of Philadelphia,** and he asked the
Coiut to order a Eong's Road or Cartway through the
various hills and up and down the aforementioned
places, to wit, from the India town ford to the next
established King's Road that will best suit the inhabi-
tants of Olethelo to the said city of Philadelphia. The
petition was'granted, and a jury was appointed to lay
out the road. Joseph Richardson was made one of
188
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PEREIOMEN
the ^'overseers of ye above road/' The work of survey-
ing was done and approved by the court.
But Isaac Norris, who had bought the Manor of
Williamstadt, objected to the new road. His ten thou-
sand acres of land he had divided into small lots. The
proposed road would cross his Manor and he did not
want his land taken for any such purpose. He said that
there was no need of a road, since there was another
road near; why have a second? Richardson asked him
to go over the route and suggest possible changes. On
November 8, 1725, Norris met Richardson in the
woods. The men were unable to agree, however.
On the 5th of 4th month, 1727, Norris presented
a petition to the Court. In this he stated that he was
informed a road had been "petitioned to be laid out • • .
which runs aslant more than four miles through • • •
Wm Stadty obliquely, cutting the line of the several
lots laid out years before in the said Mannor very
injuriously." So he pleaded for a reconsideration, but
this was denied and the road was built.
If they could speak, two neighboring houses on a
byway that leads from Egypt Road would be able to
tell a pleasing romance. Opposite a deserted black-
smith shop, on the right, is the gateway to Mill Grove.
Some distance farther on, on the left, is the entrance to
beautiful Fatlands, so named because the estate in-
cluded what was known as the "Fat Lands of Egypt."
And this is the romance of these two old homes of
early days:
About two himdied years ago there lived in France
a poor fisherman named Audubon, who had nineteen
189
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
daughters and two sons. One of the sons was sent
away to make his fortune when he was twelve years
of age. His entire patrimony was a shirt, a suit of
clothes, a cane, and a blessing. For five years he was
a sailor before the mast. Then he bought a boat. He
prospered and bought other vessels. After many years
he had large wealth, and was trading to the distant
quarters of the earth.
When he was an old man he paid a visit to Amer-
ica. In two widely separated places, attracted by the
country, he bought land. One estate was on Perkio-
men Creek, near Philadelphia; the other was in Loui-
siana. On the latter John James Audubon, who was
bom in 1785, spent a portion of his boyhood.
CoDunodore Audubon wanted his son to be a sea-
man, and he took him to France that he might be edu-
cated for the navy. But the boy's tastes were in
another direction altogether. One of the teachers pro-
vided for him was an artist, who gave him lessons in
drawing that were intended as a part of his training
for the profession the father had chosen for him. But
John James put drawing to a use of his own. On his
holidays he used to take a lunch and go into the coun-
try, and he returned loaded with natural history
specimens of all kinds. These he preserved in a cab-
inet of his own devising, and he made and treasured
drawings of many of them.
Commodore Audubon, not pleased with his son's
habits, thought he would give him something to do
that would distract his mind. The estate in Pennsyl-
vania needed a superintendent, so he sent the would-
loo
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
be naturalist to America, with instructions to look
after the estate.
But the wild woods about Philadelphia offered so
many opportunities for tramping and nature investi-
gation that the estate was neglected. Along the Per-
Idomen he could ramble for hours, with his gun or his
fishing rod or his collecting instruments. He has left
a description of his appearance and ways at this
period:
I had no vices, but was thoughtless, pensive, lov-
ing, fond of shooting, fishing and riding, and had a
passion for raising all sorts of fowls. It was one of my
passions to be ridiculously fond of dress; to hunt in
black satin breeches, wear pumps when shooting, and
dress in the finest ruffled shirts I could obtain from
France.
Before long the attic room which he occupied was
a treasure house of birds and animals and natural his-
tory specimens. He was his own taxidermist. He
did his work seated at a window that looks toward
the Valley Forge country, where Washington spent
the winter of 1777-1778 with his faithful soldiers.
The marks of his work are still to be seen on the old
boards beneath the window. These boards came from
the sawmill on the estate which gave the house its
name.
Here in this attic room the young naturalist dreamed
of making careful, accurate drawings of all the birds
of America. He knew that this would be a difficult
matter, but he was not deterred by thoughts of hard-
ship and poverty.
191
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
One who viewed his attic room told of what he saw:
I was astonished and delighted to find that it was
turned into a museum, l^e walls were festooned
with all sorts of birds' eggs, carefully blown and strung
on a thread. The chimney piece was covered with
stuffed squirrels, raccoons and opossums, and the
shelves around were likewise crowded with specimens,
among which were fish, frogs, snakes, lizards and other
reptiles.
While he was dreaming of what he would do for
the world, something was happening in London that
was to have an effect on his life. William Bakewell,
one of the Sheriffs of London, refused to be silent
about a matter that George IQ felt should be forgot-
ten; he was a conscientious man, and he did not feel
that silence would be proper. The king rebuked him,
and he resigned his office. At once he made up his
mind to leave England and make a home in America,
taking with him his wife, his two sons and his daugh-
ter.
After many investigations, he found an estate near
Philadelphia that pleased him — ^Fatlands, on the
Schuylkill, near the Ferkiomen; there he went in Jan-
uary, 1804. The original mansion house at Fatlands
was built by James Vaux in 1774. There the English
immigrant made his home.
Of course Audubon heard of the coming of the
strangers to the house across the road, not half a mfle
from his own quarters. But he did not go to call on
them. He was French and they were English; he felt
sure th^ would be undesirable acquaintances, and
192
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
that he had better keep to the woods and follow his
own pursuits, without reference to others. Even when,
on his return from a hunting expedition, he learned
that Mr. Bakewell and his daughter had caUed at
Mill Grove, he was rduetant to make a return visit.
There came a winter day when Audubon was fol-
lowing some grouse down the creek. Suddenly he
came upon Mr. Bakewell. The naturalist's prejudices
were dissipated by the discovery that the Englishman
had kindred tastes. ** I was struck with the kind polite-
ness of his manners,'' Audubon wrote later. *'I found
him a most expert marksman, and entered into con-
versation. I admired the beauty of his well-trained
dogs, and finally promised to call on himself and his
family. Well do I recollect the morning, and it please
God may I never forget it, when, for the first time, I
entered the Bakewell household. It happened that
Mr. Bakewell was from home. I was shown into a
parlor, where only a young lady was seated at work,
with her back turned towards the fire. She rose on my
entrance, offered me a seat, and assured me of the
gratification her father would feel on his return, which,
she added with a smile, would be in a few minutes, as
she would send a servant after him. • • . The young lady
made the time pass pleasantly enough, and to me
especially so. It was she, my dear Lupy Bakewell,
who afterward became my wife and the mother of my
children."
After Mr. Bakewell's return ''Lupy rose from her
seat," Audubon wrote on, *'and her face, to which I had
before paid little attention, seemed radiant with beauty,
18 193
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
and my heart and eyes followed her everywhere. The
repast being over» guns and dogs were provided, and
as we left I was pleased to believe that Lucy looked
upon me as a not veiy strange animal. Bowing to her,
I felt» I knew not why, that I was not indifferent to
her."
Before long the lovers devised a method of com-
munication between Mill Grove and Fatlands, by means
of a series of signals^ chalked on a board and hung
out of the window. On every possible occasion the
young people were together. Lucy Bakewell taught
English to Audubon, and the young naturalist taught
her to love.
Lucy's brother William became Audubon's com-
panion on his expeditions in the forest and on the creek.
Qnoe, when they were shooting, Audubon wagered that
he could put a shot through his cap tossed in the air
while he was passing it at f uU speed. The wager was
won; the cap was riddled.
On one of these expeditions the naturalist nearly
lost his life. While pursuing a flock of wild geese, he
plunged into an air hole in the ice and was swept down
stream. Fortunately, he came up at another air hole
and was dragged out by his companions. He was
taken to Fatlands, where he was put to bed. It was
three months before he was able to return to Mill
Grove.
The dream of the lovers was interrupted by the
coming of an overseer named Da Costa, whom the
senior Audubon had sent from France to look after the
lead mines at MiU Grove. He assumed authority over
104
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
young Audubon, attempted to limit his finances, and
made objections to his marriage, on the ground that
Lucy Bakewell was beneath him. Audubon resisted
and demanded money to go to France, that he might
appeal to his father. Da Costa thereupon sent him
to New York with a letter of credit. The season was
midwinter, but Audubon walked to New York in three
days. There he was informed not only that there was
no money for him, but that Da Costa had suggested
that he be seized and shipped to India. From a friend
he procured money and wait to France. There he
secured the removal of Da Costa, and told of his engage-
ment. His father wrote to Mr. Bakewell, and was
delighted to learn that he belonged to the family of
the Peverils, landowners in Derbyshire, famous because
Sir Walter Scott made one of the name the hero of
"Peveril of the Peak.'*
At length, after Mill Grove had been settled on
Audubon by his father, he sold the property, and on
April 8, 1808, he was married to Lucy Bakewell. Then
they began the long wanderings in the West and the
South, the fruit of which was what has been called one
of the most wonderful ornithological treatises ever made.
Mr. and Mrs. Audubon floated down the Ohio
River, spent a season in Kentucky and Missouri, had
narrow escapes from the Indians, and finally found
their way to Louisiana. There for a time the wife
supported herself by teaching at the home of a planter.
Friends and acquaintances thought the husband was
a madman to continue his quest of the birds when his
family was in straitened circumstances. But Mrs.
106
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Audubon believed in him, and urged him to go to
Europe and study painting in oils, that he might be
better equipped for the preparation of his bird plates.
She secured a good situation as teacher at Bayou Sara,
and was soon enjoying an income of three thousand
dollars a year.
FinaUy, with some of his own savings, as weU as
some of his wife's funds, Audubon went to England,
where he was well received. Plans were made to pub-
lish the bird plates, with descriptive matter, at $1,000
per set. He had to have a hundred advance subscribers.
These he secured by personal solicitation.
At last the work was issued. Cuvier called it **the
most magnificent work that art ever raised to orni-
thology."
Many years after his marriage to Lucy Bakewell,
Audubon returned to the scenes of his early life as a
naturalist. "Here is where I met my dear Lucy,** he
said with glistening eyes, as he looked into one of the
rooms of the old mansion.
Between the Quaker meeting house and the entrance
to Fatlands, in the edge of the wood, jutting stones in
the wall show the beginning of a path that leads to
the Bakewell burial lot. Here lies the body of Lucy
Bakeweirs mother, who died in September, 1804, after
pining for months for her English home. On the stone
are these lines:
A lovely form, a soul devoid of art.
With all the kind affections of the heart;
A tender mother and a faithful wife.
In duty's sacred path she moved through life.
196
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
Though husband, chfldren, friends implored her stay
He who bestows hath right to take away.
Li humble faith this hope we keep in view
The pow'r that formed us will our lives renew.
In the same grave is the body of her husband.
Timothy Matlack, secretary of the Constitutional
Congress, is also buried in the lot, together with one
hundred and fifty Free Quakers.
Not far from this burial ground, on the bank of the
Schuylkill, General Sullivan built a pontoon bridge,
at the direction of General Washington, that he might
have free access from Valley Forge to the north bank
of the river. When the American army left Valley
Forge in 1778, the soldiers used this bridge and passed
near the house, and on to Egypt Road.
In 1804, Robert Sutdiffe wrote of Vaux Hall, after-
ward Fatlands:
I paid a visit to a relative above Norristown. This
plantation consists of 300 acres of land. On the estate
is a well-finished square stone house, about fifteen yards
in length, with a wide boarded-floor piazza both in
back and front. ... In these piazzas they frequently
take tea and spend the evenings. Beside the dwelling-
house, there is an excellent kitchen, and ofiSces adjoin-
ing; with a large bam, and stables suflScient to accom-
modate 40 horses and cows; all well built of stone.
The estate extends the whole breadth between the
Schuylkill and Perkioming. . . . The house is sosituated
that it conunands one of the finest prospects in Penn-
sylvania. . . . The whole together forms one of the most
beautiful spots I have seen in the United States. The
estate, with all its appendages, cost about 3100£ ster-
ling, which is but 12£ per acre, the buildings included.
107
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
The plantation was fonnerly in the possession of a
friend from London, of the name of Vaux, who built
the house and made the improvements upon it. When
he resided here with his family, during the American
war, being in full view of the great American encamp-
ment at Valley Forge, and on the opposite side of the
river Schuylkill, he had frequently the company of
General Howe, and the other British conunanders.
One day it happened that he had Howe to break-
fast and Washington to tea; and being a friend who
wished well to all men, he made no distinction be-
tween the contending parties, but left his house open
to all. This was the general practice of friends diuring
the war.
The estate was advertised for sale, August 7, 1818,
thus:
Contains upward of 200 acres, one-third very good
woodland. House 45 by 35, stone, with piazza on
each side, a two story kitchen and wash-house, adjoin-
ing a large stone bam with Stable for 40 head and horses
and cattle, two tenements, a threshing-mill, which
threshes 12 bushels of barley in an hour.
Stone hog-house 56 feet long, a stone building for
sheep 90 feet long, with 2 wings 30 feet each and ice
house. On the Schuylkill is a shad fishery. This farm
for healthiness and fertility is not exceeded by any
other in Pennsylvania. Is admirably adapted for keep-
ing sheep, having kept between 2 and 300 near 10 years,
without having lost any by dogs. If not sold before
the 24th of Sept. it will be sold at public vendue,
together with about 200 sheep of the English Morena
breeds, span of oxen and other cattle, 4 asses, 7 horses,
a drilling machine, a large 3 furrow plow, 2 wagons, 2
carts, a large roller, above 30 pigs of the English Berk-
shire breed.
196
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
In 1825 the estate came into the Wdtherill family.
In 184S William Wetherill rebuilt the house on the
original foundations. To-day it is the property of Dr.
Wetherill.
Mill Grove is an older estate than Fatlands. The
house was built in 1762 by James Morgan. In 181S»
five years after the marriage of Audubon, it was bought
by Samuel Wetherill, the grandfather of the present
owner, W« H. Wetherill, because of the lead mines on
the place. The mines date back to the days of William
Penn. Mr. Wetherill was the founder of the firm of
Samuel Wetherill & Son, the oldest white lead manu-
facturers in America, whose first factory stood on the
site of the present Girard Trust Company's building,
at Broad and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia. For
many years lead had been imported from England,
but when the War of 1812 prevented further impor-
tation, the manufacturers looked about them for a
source of supply nearer home. Learning of the Mill
Grove Mines Farm, where he had heard that supplies
were obtained during the Revolution, the place
was bought and the mine was developed. Operations
continued till the discovery of great deposits in the
West, which made the product of the mine in the
neighborhood of Philadelphia too insignificant for com-
parison.
The farm took its name not only from the mine,
but also from the grist mill, remains of which can still
be seen in a field across the lane leading to the house.
It is said that this mill ground more grain for Wash-
ington's army than any other mill in the neighborhood,
199
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
not even excepting the Valley Forge mill. This mill
was old in the days of Audubon.
A paper in the library at Mill Grove gives a list of
the twenty men and women who have owned the farm
since it passed from the hands of William Penn in 1699.
Still another landmark is half a mile beyond Fat-
lands. A lane leads through the woods to the pictur-
esque old home of John Price Wetherill, Sr. This can-
not be seen from the road; it is hidden in a hollow
amid the trees.
In early days, in the vicinity of this estate, on the
Schuylkill, was one of the pens for catching shad into
which as many as 8,500 fish were driven at one time.
Such pens, with the*'dams, weirs and Kedles*' that
abounded, caused so much trouble that they were made
illegal by the Act of August 15, 1730. But the law
was evaded. A record of 1732 tells of the complaint
of one who was aggrieved by reason of the failure of
the law to correct the abuse:
Marcus Huling saith that as he was going down the
Schuylkill with a Canoe Loaded with wheat, that
striking on a fish dam, she took in a great deal of water
into ye wheat, by means of which his wheat was much
damnified, and that it was in great danger of being
all lost, and that at another time he strok fast on a fish
dam, and should have lost his whole Load of Wheat,
if he had not leaped into ye river, and with hard Labor,
prevented ye Canoe from Swinging round, and he
suffered very much in his body by reason of ye water
and cold.
In 1738 the farmers who lived above these weirs
and pens resolved that they could not consent to be
200
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PEREIOMEN
deprived any longer of the shad they felt were their
due. They therefore organized a canoe expedition and
floated down stream, intent on destroying the struc-
tures. The fishermen defended their property and
drove ofT the invaders. When the men took refuge in
Perkiomen Creek, their canoe grounded, and they
were compelled to flee into the forest. The pursuers
destroyed the navy of the invaders and retiuned in
triumph to the enjoyment of their shad.
Near Perkiomen Creek, on the Egypt Road, are
the ruins of the smelter and shaft of the first copper
mine in America, while beyond the Perkiomen, on the
banks of the Schuylkill, is TJmstad Manor, the home
of Francis V. Eavenson. Henry Pawling bought the
ground from the Penn Estate in 1706. The place was
sold to Jonas Umstad, the ancestor of Mrs. Eavenson,
in 1768. Thus for nearly one hundred and fifty years
the estate has been in the Umstad family. The manor
was built in 1785. The present house is the old house
remodeled.
The last bit of the Ridge Road may be traversed by
trolley from Jeffersonville. At Mt. Kirk the trolley
turns to the left to avoid the hill, for the track was
laid in the early days of electric roads, when builders
avoided hills whenever possible. But the hill should
be climbed, for on the summit is Providence Presby-
terian Church, twenty miles from Philadelphia, founded
in 1730. In the picturesque cemeteiy above the church
an hour may easily be spent.
A curious stone near the road attracts attention.
This was erected to the memory of a victim of the
aoi
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Johnstown flood, who gave his life in the effort to save
his sister; both were passengers on a train caught by
the water. Beneath the inscription is carved a Pull-
man car» while a resistless wall of water carrying build-
ings and train is fairly well represented.
On the stone of Captain John Hamilton, 1779, are
these lines:
Were I so tall to reach the Pole
Or grasp the Ocean with my Span,
I must be measured by my Soul,
The Mind's the Standard of the Man.
Those who moiumed for Henry Hamilton, the vic-
tim of a shooting affray in 1768, said of him:
The blooming youth whose soul in bliss we trust
A highway RUFFIN quick reduced to dust
By one sore Stroke, which pierced the parents' heart
Cold death asunder dearest friends can part.
But we'll submit May God forgive the crime
Who wisely rule the hardest fate of time.
Near by lies the body of Joseph Crawford, Sr., who
helped row Washington over the Delaware.
One of the most interesting stones marks the grave
of Rev. John Campbell. In 175S, while in Providence
pulpit, he was reading the fifteenth verse of the one
hundred and sixteenth Psalm,
''Dear in thy sight is thy saints' death;
Thy servant. Lord, am I" —
when he was stricken with paralysis. His friend.
President Davies of Princeton, prepared the inscrip-
tion for his tomb, which was here used for the first
time, thouich it has been copied often since:
Mi
1
THE RIDGE ROAD TO PERKIOMEN
In yonder sacred house I spent my Breath,
Now silent sleeping here I lie in Death.
These silent lips shall wake, and yet declare
A dread Amen to Truth they published there.
On a high hill beyond Mt. Kirk, twenty-one miles
from Philadelphia, a sign gives the information:
You can see 7 G>unties from here.
Look north and see Allentown.
Look west and see Neversink Mountain.
Look east and see William Penn's Hat,
Look south and see Valley Forge Mills.
Seyeral miles farther on the Ridge joins the 6er-
mantown Road just before the sturdy stone bridge
over the Perkiomen is crossed. A tablet on the
wall tells its story:
bridge was founded in the year of our Lord
1798 & finished in 1799.
The six-arch bridge was modeled after a bridge
over the Seine in France. It has resisted great floods
and the impact of tremendous ice jams, and it is as
stanch as when it was built by the conscientious "Un-
dertaker of Masonry*' nearly a hundred and twenty
years ago*
vm
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
IN 1688, when the first immigrants sought to go to
what is now Germantown to make their new home,
it is probable that they made their way along a
weU-defined path that followed much the same route
as the present Germantown Road. In fact, the expla-
nation has been given that the Germantown Road of
to-day owes its strange windings to the habit of the
Indian to dioose the easiest way, even if this was a
crooked way.
These immigrants from Crefeld, in Germany, settled
on lands secured for them by Francis Daniel Pastorius
and allotted to them in Pastorius' cave house. They
planned to make their living by farming, but they did
not propose to be far from one another; for compan-
ionship 83 well as protection they built their first quaint
houses in two rows, one on either side of the rough
track. By day they would scatter to the lands in the
rear of the houses; by night they would be in close
touch with each other. This arrangement, so popular
in the homeland, had even greater advantages in the
new country. Early maps of Philadelphia and its
vicinity show the construction of the village after this
manner, and early travelers noted it.
Gradually the early track from Philadelphia became
a road. Pastorius wrote once: ''The path to German-
204
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
town has by frequent going to and fro been so strongly
beaten that a road has been fonned/'
Not many years passed before the residents of Ger-
mantown decided that they must have some better
avenue of approach to Philadelphia than the rough
track. So, in March, 1709, certain men who described
themselves as residents of the county of Philadelphia
presented to the Assembly a paper that read :
The Peticon of John Spreogle and Mons Jones in
behalf of themselves and Divers other freeholders of
the s^ county of Philadelphia, Humbly Sheweth That
your Peticoners Haveing Plantacons lying Very Re-
mote in the Country and In the Edge or Outskirts of
this County, And It being Very Difficult for them to
pass and Repass unto their Said Plantacons by Reason
there is No Publick Road Laid out far Enough to Reach
to the said Plantacons.
Yoer Peticoners, Therefore pray this Court Would
be pleased to Order Six Housekeepers of the Neighbor-
hood to view and Allot Some Convenient Plan for Lay-
ing Out A Road from the Late House of Edward Lane
Deceased being on the Queen's Highway unto M annita-
nia. According to An Act of Assembly in that case
Made and Provided.
And your Peticoners shaU pray.
This ciuious document was signed by fourteen men,
of whom five made their mark.
The following action was taken by the Assembly:
Order'd that Mouns Jones Walter Thomson Mat-
thew Brook Andrew Lycon John Justus and James
Brook or some four of 'em do lay out the sd Road and
report next Sess.
205
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
One reason the new road was needed was that the
product of the paper mill of William Rightinghuisen.
built in 1690, might have better access to Philadelphia.
For twenty years he had managed somdiow to get his
paper to market, but better facilities were needed.
Then there wero other manufactured products which
the thrifty Germantowners desired to send to the town
on the Delaware.
Part of a curious poem, written by Richard Fra^ne,
one of the early settlers of Philadelphia, tells of these
primitive industries. He called it ""A short descrip-
tion of Pensilvania; or a Relation of what Things are
Known, Enjoyed and like to be Discovered in said
Province." This was printed in 1692 :
The German-Town, of which I spoke before.
Which is, at least, in length one mile or more.
Where lives High-German People, and Low Dutch,
Whose Trade in Weaving Linen Cloth is Much.
There grows the Flax, as also you may know.
That from the same they do divide the Tow;
Their trade fits well within their Habitation,
We find Convenience for the Occasion :
One Trade brings in Imployment for another.
So that we may suppose each Trade a Brother;
From Linen Rags good Paper doth derive.
The first Trade keepeth the second TVade Alive;
Without the first, the second cannot be.
Therefore since these Two can so well agree.
Convenience doth appear to place them nigh.
One in Germantown, t'other hard by,
A Paper Mill near German Town doth stand,
So that the Flax, which first springs from the Land*
First Flax, then Yam, and then they must begin
To weave the same, which they took pains to spin.
206
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
Also, when on our back it is well wom»
Some of the same remains. Ragged and Tom;
Then of the Rags our Paper it is made.
Which in process of time doth waste and fade:
So what comes from the earth, appeareth plain.
The same in time returns to EarUi again.
A poem written six years later by Judge Holme
referred to the departure of William Bradford, printer,
to New York, after making an agreement with Mr.
Rittenhouse that he was to have, if he wished, the
entire product of what was at the time the only paper
mill in America. This early monopolist made such
demands on the mill that the owner frequently longed
for a better road to the dty.
Here is a part of Judge Holme's literaiy gem:
Here dwelt a printer and I find
That he can both print books and bind;
He wants not paper, ink nor skill
He's owner of a paper mill.
The paper mill is here hard by
And makes good paper frequently;
But the printer, as I do here tell.
Is gone into New York to dwell.
No doubt but he will lay up bags
If he can get good store of rags.
Kind friend, when thy old shift is rent.
Let it to th' paper null be sent.
That the road asked for by the '*Peticoners" who
had to make their marks was built and became a great
thoroughfare is evident from a reference in the account
of the travels of Grovemor Thomas Pownall, in I754.
After telling of the Lancaster road, to Harris' Ferry
207
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
(Harrisburg) he told of ''another great road, which
goes from Philadelphia to the same f erry» but keeps on
the N. E. side of the Schuylkill, and runs through Ger-
mantown, &c. to Reading/'
As population increased there was demand for some-
thing better than the dirt road which, at certain sea-
sons, was impassable. A picture of the trying condi-
tions is given by Scharf & Westcott:
The travel between the dty and that borough (Ger-
mantown) became so great that heavy ruts were cut
in the highway, which became a slough of mire in wet
weather. In the spring of the year, especially, the way
was only possible with the greatest difficulty. Wagons
were buried, stalled, and broken. Horses were sprained
and weakened by the extraordinary efforts to drag their
loads; and such was the bad character of the roads that
practically, at certain periods of the year, there was
non-intercourse between Philadelphia and Germantown.
In these early days it was the custom at some points
to cut the cedar trees that grew at the side of the road
and put them under the mired horses. Many a team
was saved in this way. Years later, when excavations
were made in the avenue, some of these cedar trunks,
well preserved, were found at depths of fifteen and even
twenty feet.
In April, 179S, a petition was presented for a turn-
pike road from Chestnut Hill, through Germantown
to Philadelphia. A committee reported in favor of
building the road to the tenth milestone. But there
were objections from those who were opposed to what
they called ''special legislation," and the project was
abandoned for the time.
206
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
In 1801 petitioners had better success, for on Feb-
ruary 12 of that year there was approval of "an act
to enable the Governor of the Commonwealth to in-
corporate a company for making an artificial road from
the city of Philadelphia through Germantown, to the
ten mile stone on Chestnut Hill, and from thence to
the new stone bridge on Perkiomen creek in the county
of Montgomery/*
A graphic list of the vehicles found on the public
road at that time, as well as a hint that the users of the
road were much like the travelers of later days, is given
in the provision of the act, "that any person or per-
sons whomsoever owning, riding on, or driving a sulky,
chair, chaise, phaeton, cart, waggon, wain, sleigh, sled,
or other carriage of burthen, pleasure, or owning, riding,
leading or driving any horse, mare, gelding, hogs, sheep
or other cattle, shall therewith pass through any private
gate or bars, or along or over any private passage, way,
or other ground, near to or adjoining any turnpike or
gate erected, with an intent to defraud the company
and avoid the payment of the toll or duty . . • shall
pay a fine of ten dollars."
The next step came in March, 1802, when "The
President, Managers, and Company of the Germantown
and Reading Turnpike Road" were incorporated to
build a road through Germantown to the top of Chest-
nut HiU and thence through Hickorytown, the Trappe
and Pottstown to Reading.
It was provided that the income from tolls above
nine per cent, should be invested in a fund to pay
off the shares of the Company, that the road might
14 a09
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
become free. But it was not until 1874 that the toll
coUectors ceased to worry those who used the road.
Milestones were carefully placed along the road,
and many of these may still be seen. Of one of the
stones an old resident of Germantown some years ago
told this story :
The old milestone standing on Germantown avenue
below Armat street in years gone by was a sort of social,
political and sporting centre in Germantown, just as
the town pump is in rural villages. A queer thing
about it is that originally it was the sixth milestone on
Germantown road, but now the inscription reads **S
miles to Phila.'' The explanation given is that about
1840 the figures were changed because the city was
growing toward Germantown. From this stone excit-
ing fox chases used to start in the old times, the pop-
ular route being down through the Wingohocking Valley
to Fisher's Hollow, then across to the York road
and on to Haines street, returning thence to Grerman-
town. It was on one of these chases that a disastrous
ending came to the love affair of a youth named Mac-
Kenzie. He and another youth were both suitors for
the hand of Nancy M., an ardent follower of the diase.
A group of fox-hunters were about to ^^take" the creek
in Fisher's Hollow one day when young MacKenzie's
horse stumbled and the rider was thrown into the water.
When he emerged he presented such a ludicrous ap-
Csarance that the young woman, who was in the party,
ughed outright. This so abashed MacKenzie that
he never again could summon up enough courage to
plead his cause, and the other fellow married the girl.
Soon after Wayne Junction is passed the old houses
of Germantown appear one after another in quick sue*
cession. Between the 4500 block and the 6900 block
210
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
there are more than fifty houses of special interest,
while on the cross streets there are a number of others.
In early days there were not many of these cross streets,
however, so most of the historic houses are on the Main
dtreet*
For this section of the old Germantown Road, at
least an afternoon is necessary even for a passing view
of the points of special interest. An invaluable hand-
book for the investigator is "Historic Germantown,**
prepared for the Sites and Relic Society of the quaint
old town.
Special note should be made of the Toland house,
4810 Main Street, built in 1740, at the time of the
Battle of Germantown the home of George Miller, an
officer in the American army, whose wife was forced
to bake bread for the British officers; the Ottinger
house, 4825 Main Street, the birthplace of Captain
Douglas Ottinger, the inventor of the Ottinger life
Car, with which many life-saving stations have been
equipped; and the Wagner house, 4840 Main Street, on
whose floors bloodstains testify to its use as a hospital
by the British.
In the 4900 block, opposite the Henry house, which
dates from 1760, is the old Lower Grermantown Burial
Ground, whose curious gravestones will repay study.
An inscription that compels most readers to smile says
of the young man buried there:
He was noble hearted & amiable &
Intelligent, having been awarded
A silver goblet for a literary
Production at the age of 18.
211
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
Gilbert Stuarts the famous portrait artist, to whom
Washington sat, lived at 5140 Main Street from 1795
to 1800. His studio was in a bam in the rear of the
house. In this bam Washington sat for the portrait
now owned by the Athenaeum of Boston.
5219 Main Street is of special interest to the student
of the old roads, for here were made some of the first
Germantown wagons. Here, in 1780, John Bringfaurst
built a chariot, for which George Washington paid
£210 in gold. One of the specifications for this chariot
was that it have the Washington arms and crest *' prop-
erly disp'd of" on the doors.
525S Main Street is the site of the home and print-
ing house of Christopher Sauer, who came to Philadel-
phia in 1724. In 1731 he built here a mansion with
movable partitions, which he used both as a hospital
and as a place for religious worship. It was his custom,
when a vessel arrived from Grermany, to take vehicles,
and go to the landing for sick passengers, whom he
would take to his house, caring for them until they were
able to earn their own living.
Sauer was a pharmacist, but when he noted how
difiicult it was to obtain German books, he secured in
1738 printing materials from Germany. In 1739 he
published an almanac, a volume of hymns and a news-
/ paper, which gained a circulation of four thousand
copies. It is said that it was a common sight to see a
long line of Conestoga wagons standing before his house,
waiting for books and medical supplies to be carried
to Philadelphia and other places.
In 1743 he printed a German quarto Bible, the first
212
THE OLD GERMANTOWN BOAD
Bible in a European language printed in America. He cast
his own type and made his own ink. Before many years
he was the publisher of more than two hundred books.
In 1752 his son Christopher began to take an active
part both in the printing office and in the pharmapy»
and in 1758 he succeeded to the business. From his
press were issued two editions of the Bible.
The Wister house, 5261 Main Street, which dates
from 1744, was the home of Sally Wister, who wrote
the famous diary that gave so many intimate glimpses
of people and events during the days of the British
occupation of Philadelphia. The vivacious chron-
icle was prepared at the Foulke house, Penllyn, on the
Wissahickon, where the author had retired with friends
while the British were in the neighborhood.
5425 Main Street is notable because it is the site
of the house in which Louisa May Alcott was bom,
during her father's brief residence in Grermantown.
Market Square is a spot of special interest. This
was long the center of Germantown business life. The
market house was here, as well as the house of one of
the earliest fire companies, and it was the site of the
prison, the stocks and the pound.
At 5442 Main Street is the Morris house, where
Washington lived during the yellow fever epidemic
of 179S and during the summer of 1704. Watson's
Annals says that during these periods he was '"a fre-
quent walker abroad up the Main Street, and daily
rode out on horseback or in his phaeton.'' Probably
some of the people who received his affable greetings
thought with regret that at one time it looked as if
218
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Germantown might have been the permanent capital of
the United States. In 1789, when one house of Congress
fixed on the Falls of the Susquehanna as the site of {the
capital, the Senate amended the proposal by suggest-
ing Gennantown. The next year, however, the site
on the Potomac was named, and Congress began to
provide for the building of the ''palace in the woods."
One of the striking features of this locality is the
Market Square Presbyterian Church, an organization
which dates from the days of Pastorius, the founder
of Germantown. In the ship on which he came to
Philadelphia were people of many sorts. To his parents
he wrote:
The religious beliefs of the foreigners, and Voca-
tions were so varied that the ship might be compared
to Noah's ark. I brought with me four men servants,
two woman servants, two children and an apprentice.
Among these were adherents of the Romish, the Lu-
theran, the Calvinistic (Reformed), the Anabaptist, and
the English churches, and only one Quaker.
In 1686 Pastorius built a small church for the use
of all the people. In 17S2 land was bought in the Square
for a Reformed church, and during the following year
a house of worship was built there. In 17S8 a traveler
from Holland wrote home: ''At Germantown there is
a fine church, but a miserable minister, a Quaker,
indeed." Three years later Count Zinzendorf came to
Philadelphia and preached in the church.
The present church building is the third erected on
the site. The congregation that worships here has been
Firesbyterian since 1856.
214
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
Many relics are preserved in the church, among
these being the original bell, cast in 1725, and the metal
weather vane» which bears the marks of bullets. One
of the treasured memories of the church is that Wash-
ington frequently attended service here during his resi-
dence in Germantown.
Six squares farther on» at 6019 Main Street, is the
Green Tree Tavern, built in 1748 by Daniel and Sarah
Pastorius. Here in early days driving and sleighing
parties used to come for the meals which made the
hostelry famous. To-day the building is used by the
First Methodist Church of Grermantown for society
meetings and similar gatherings.
At the comer of Walnut Lane and Main Street is
Wyck, the oldest house in Germantown. This is es-
pecially interesting because it has undergone scarcely
any change. It is really two houses joined farther;
the first of these dates from 1690.
The Chew house, at the comer of Johnson Street,
was at the central point of the Battle of Germantown.
Behind the walls of this house some of the British sol-
diers barricaded themselves, and the Americans were
unable to drive them out, even after a fierce aieget
whose marks may still be seen by the visitor.
The burying ground of St. Michael's Lutheran
Church, at Fhil-EUena Street, is the last resting place
of the bodies of many of the famous men of early Penn-
sylvania. One of these was Christopher Ludwig, on
whose stone is the legend :
He was bom at Giessen in Hesse D'Armstadt in
Germany, and learned the Baker's Trade and business
215
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
• • • in the year 1775, he came and settled in Philadel-
phia,^ and by his industry at his trade and business
acquired a handsome competency, part of which he
devoted to the service of his adopted country in the
Contest for the independence of America; was appointed
Baker General to the Army, and for faithful services
received a written Testimony from the Commander
in Chief, George Washington . . . Reader, such was
Ludwich. Art thou poor, venerate his character* Art
thou rich, Lnitate his example."
When Christopher Ludwig was appointed by Con-
gress, it was proposed that for every pound of flour
given to him he should furnish the army with a pound
of bread. '"No, gentlemen," said he, '"I will not accept
of your commission upon any such terms. I do not
wish to grow rich by the war: I have money enough.
I will furnish one hundred and thirty-five pounds of
bread for every one hundred pounds of flour you put
into my hands."
Half a mile from the Chestnut Hill station of the
Pennsylvania Railroad the Germantown Road passes
for the first time into the open country.
Just after passing the tenth milestone is the en-
trance to the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, whose
members do not know whether to be prouder of the fact
that the golf course is 6,149 yards long, or of the knowl-
edge that the views secured from the golf course are
among the finest to be found on any dub grounds
anywhere. The club house was built in 1764, and,
fortunately, it has not been essentially changed.
Until within a year or two a house near the twelfth
mflestone reminded passing travelers of Robert Morris,
316
L'sE. CHCSTNIT B
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
the Revolutionary financier on whom Washington and
Congress depended for funds. With remarkable self-
effacement and marvelous success he raised the needed
money when it seemed that there was no possible way
to do this, pledging his own credit, enduring hardship,
bearing without complaint the misconceptions of his
countrymen, some of whom thought him anything but
a patriot. After the Revolution he began to build on
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, the marble palace des*
tined never to be completed, to which the name Morris*
Folly was given. His fortune was lost in land specula-
tions, and he spent weaiy months in a debtors' prison.
Many of the marble adornments of the house became
part of the furnishings of other houses in and near the
dty. The owner of the house between the quarry and
Plymouth Meeting secured possession of an exquisite
marble lion, and this was placed triumphantly between
the front door and the gate. For many decades this
was treasured and admired. Then came tenants who
did not appreciate the relic. Finally one occupant of
the house decided that the lion would be improved by a
coat of whitewash. No wonder that some descendant
of the original owner rescued it from the low estate to
which it had fallen, and carted it away to adorn a home
where the marks of time are considered more fitting than
whitewash. The foundation on which the lion stood for a
century may still be traced in the grass before the door.
At Plymouth Meeting is a house before which the
traveler feels like baring his head — ^the home of Thomas
Hovenden, the lamented artist. Here he made his
home after receiving his training in Paris, and here,
317
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
in the picturesque studio at the rear of the house, he
painted the picture *' Breaking Home Ties.** Visitors
to the World's Fair at Chicago recall what a sensation
was caused by this painting, and how every day people
crowded about the canvas. It has been said that this
is the most popular picture ever painted in America.
The picture was finished in 1800. Four years later,
in answer to an inquirer who wished to know how he
came to paint it, he wrote:
The idea was with me for several years before I
commenced to paint it. I had in my mind the mother;
that was almost the picture to me. I think I have
succeeded pretty well in giving my idea of her — ^the
human mother — ^as I have seen her in the country. I
have been fortunate in seeing very many noble mothers,
and my idea of them was what I tried to convey in the
picture. I did think that to many a young man the
picture could do nothing but good.
In 1805 he was at work on ''The Founding of the
State.'' On August 14 he left his studio to go to Norris-
town. Within sight of his own door he saw a little girl
run in front of an approaching freight train. Thinking
only of the child and of the parents to whom the child
meant so much, he jumped to the track and grasped her.
Both lives were lost. The artist was buried in the
Orthodox section of Plymouth Meeting burying ground,
just across the way.
A little distance beyond the meetiag house the road
passes under the railroad tracks, which have been ele-
vated since the accident that cost the life of the artist.
After passing Hickorytown the trolley leaves the
turnpike on the left and goes past the Plymouth Coun-
218
THE OLD 6ERMANT0WN ROAD
try Chihf where Norristown residents delight to gather.
Not far from the dub house is an old butternut tree on
which, so it is said, a British spy was hanged during the
Revolution.
Near the nineteenth milestone is a house that was
long the home of David Rittenhouse, the astronomer.
He was bom in the house built in 1707 by his grand-
father, near the junction of Rittenhouse Street and
Lincoln Drive in Germantown, not far from the site
of the first paper mill in America, on Paper Mill Run,
but he removed to the Germantown Road property
when a boy. The house is partially hidden behindgnarled
old trees and a great boxwood bush, the slip for
which is said to have been brought from England by
Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin was a frequent visitor here, for he found
a kindred spirit in the thoughtful Rittenhouse, who
was never so happy as when he was making clocks or
devising astronomical instruments or taking observa-
tions of the heavens. Here the transit of Venus was
observed on June S, 1769, and here the two philosophers
must have had many a talk about the things which they
dreamed of discovering and devising for the good of
their feUows in the colonies.
The date stone on the right portion of the house
bears the legend:
R
ME
1749
The letters stand for Rittenhouse, Matthias and
210
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Interest centers about the older rooms. The original
boards are in the floors, and the two stairways are just
as they were when Franklin visited Rittenhouse. These
stairways are side by side, separated only by a parti-
tion. The rear stair leads to the kitchen, one side of
which is taken up by the wonderful old chimney, in
which still hang the chain and hooks used in preparing
the meals so long ago.
The day came when David Rittenhouse was to be
President of the Philosophical Society, Treasiurer of
Pennsylvania, and Director of the Mint.
Perhaps his greatest service was rendered in 1763-67,
for Mason and Dixon, who were sent from England to run
a line between Delaware and Maryland, that disputes
as to the boundaries might be settled. He was engaged
to help them. His knowledge of astronomy enabled
them to transfer the line from the map to the ground.
The problem of greatest difficulty was the determina-
tion of the arc of the circle centering at New Castle,
the first line of the kind ever run. This is the northern
boundary of Delaware. One of the lines run at this
time became known as the Mason and Dixon line.
Later he made an orrery, an ingenious mechanical con-
trivance by which he illustrated the movements of the
heavenly bodies. There was keen rivalry between the
University of Pennsylvania and the College of New
Jersey (now Princeton University) for its possession.
At length it went to Princeton, where it is still treasured.
Perhaps it was while on his way along the German-
town Road to the home of Rittenhouse that Franklin
had the encounter of which Bernard tells:
220
kgun by Henry Mdcfaior Muhlenberg
THE OLD 6ERMANT0WN ROAD
When riding out one day he passed a farmer sitting
listlessly by the roadside, his ohm on his hand and his
elbow on his knee. Taking this to be a veiy repre-
hensible fit of laziness, he drew rein to expostulate, but
the first glance at the rustic's face excited his pitying
interest. Inquiring into his circumstances, he heard
a sad history of failures in regard to land, implements,
and live stock. The details convinced the Doctor of
the man's industry, but seemed to throw doubt on his
knowledge. "Have you read any of my books, my
friend?" said he. "I am Dr. Framdin.'* At the name
the man looked up eagerly, but the next moment re-
lapsed into his former apathy, as if completely heart-
broken. " Oh, yes. Doctor," he replied, " I've read your
Almanacs — ^I've worked by *em, and slept upon 'em,
I and my wife and all my boys. But I don't see the
good of it; none of your sayings have come true."
''No?" exclaimed Franklin; "now which do you mean
in particular?" "Why, don't you remember. Doctor,
where you say, 'A light hand makes a heavy pocket.'
'He who runs in youth may lie down in old age.' 'In-
dustry must prosper,' and all that? Now here have I
been sinking deeper and deeper instead of getting on,
work as I would." "Humph!" rejoined Franklin, "it
strikes me, my friend, that where I say 'Industry must
prosper,' there is a note at the bottom to explain."
"A note? I don't recollect any note." "Then it is
very likely yoiur copy is an imperfect one; many of my
first editions were; so to-morrow I'll send you a proper
one I have at home, and, if you'll take the trouble to
look over it you will find under the line ' Industry must
prosper' a note which throws further light on the sub-
ject." The Doctor then bade him good-day and rode
on. The next morning a packet was brought to the
farmer's door containing the Almanac as promised,
and after thumbing a few pages he found the line.
221
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
Sure enough, beneath it was an explanatory note —
being one for twenty dollars on the Philadelphia Bank.
On Sunday Franklin sometimes went with Ritten-
house to the Norriton Presbyterian Church, whose
site was a little comar out of the Rittenhouse estate
on the Germantown road. When Matthias Ritten-
house purchased the farm, he found the church there.
He was a Mennonite, but in 1787 he deeded the property
to the trustees of the church. The contract entered into
was between "Matthias Rittenhausen and Eliza-
beth, his wife, of the township of Norrington, County
of Philadelphia," and **ye said Presbyterian Profes-
sion of ye township aforesaid," conveying 72 pole of
land *'for a meeting house and graveyard for ye use
of ye said Presbyterian Profession of ye township afore-
said, ... for and in consideration of one silver crown."
This transfer was but the fifth since the property left
the possession of William Penn.
The church bears a remarkable resemblance to St.
David's church at Radnor, though it has no gallery
entrance. It was probably built in 1698. The cemetery
indicates that it was used at least as early as 1700. The
date stone was destroyed during repairs many years ago.
Over the antique windows are substantial arches of
stone, and in the rear wall are two small windows, in-
tended to afford light for the pulpit. Unfortunately
a fire in 1908 destroyed most of the interior. However,
a few relics may be seen. The great wooden lock in
the door is one of these. One of the original collection
boxes is treasured in a cabinet on the wall.
^^ •
The building was used as a hospital during the Revo-
222
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
Itttion, and Washington visited it in 1778. Bloodstains
may be seen on one of the window sills; no cleaner has
been able to remove them. In 1785 the Assembly passed
an act permitting the church to hold a lotteiy to re-
pair damages.
In early days the windows in the gables caused so
much trouble that they were later filled in with stone;
probably gravestones were taken for the purpose. This
is supposed to be the explanation of the absence of
stones from almost all the old graves. There is one
notable exception. A workman who was quarrying
stone when the church was built was killed by a fall-
ing slab. The slab covers his grave in the cemeteiy.
Over one grave is written the grandiloquent mes-
sage:
No display of words can add to the charm of that
el^ffant mind and amiable disposition, which was thus
early lost to the world; and the worth which adorned
them wfll long be remembered without the aid of praise
and eulogy.
On another stone is this sentiment:
Death, thou hast conquered me,
I by thy Dart am slain;
But Christ will conquer thee.
And I shall rise again.
In the neighborhood are other buildings that boast
of Revolutionary memories. In the house across the
road from the church, one of Washington's oflScers
came to do his courting. Just beyond is a house whose
date stone may be seen by one who makes a dose
inspection of the bricks near the kitchen door.
'' W Dean, May 4, 1758," is the legend. On the top of
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
the hill beycmdy Fairview Hill, is Fairview Inn, which
proudly prodaims the date 1732 on its signboard.
Across the way is one of the numerous houses where*
so it is daimedy Washington ate a meal, while down
6om the fidd, bac^ of the house, pickets were stationed*
From Fairview Hill it is but a short distance by
the Fairview road to Methacton Mennonite Meeting
House. In the oemetmy at this rear of the church is
the last resting place of Christopher Sauer, one of the
most usdul mesa in Colonial Pennqrlvania, and one
of the most unfortunate.
He prospered greatly until the Revolution. Then
came disaster. He was a true patriot, but he was a
Momonite, and his religion forbade him to take the
oath of aUqpance to the Colonies. Because of his re-
fusal he was looked on as a Tory, and there were those
who wished to nuike information against him that they
might seize his property.
On May 24, 1778, a party of soldiers took him from
bed and started with him to Valley Foige, just as he
was, in his night dothes, bareheaded and barefooted.
It was a crud trip. He had been at Valley Forge sev-
eral days when Washington, who was an old friend,
saw him. **TVhy, Mr. Sauer! How do you look!" was
the General's greeting. ''Just as your people made
me,'* the Mennonite preacher replied. Thereupon
Washington made inquiries, dismissed the charge that
he was ''an oppressor of the righteous and a spy," and
dothed him. He would have sent him back to German-
town, but this he was unable to do. So he gave him
a pass which read:
224
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
Permit the bearer hereof » Mr. Sauer, to pass to
Metatchy, not to return to Germantown during the
stay of the army in this State.
In Methacton, Conrad Stamm gave to Sauer and
his daughter a hut in which to live. He was unable to
look after his property, which was seized and dissipated,
but remained in Methacton until his death in 1784.
He preached almost to the end of his life. Everywhere
he was welcome, for he was Bishop of the Church of
the Brethren.
There is a tablet to his memoiy in the Church of
the Brethren at 661S Main Street, Grermantown, the
mother church of this sect in America. But his body
rests in Methacton burying ground. The grave is dose
to the rear wall, directly back of the meeting house.
The inscription on the flat stone is:
Time hastens on the Hour
The just shall rise and Sing.
O Grave Where is thy Power
O Death Where is thy Sting.
Another interesting cemetery is near the twenty-
second milestone on the Germantown Road, across
the way from St. James' Episcopal Church. The date
in the gable of the church building is 1721. In the bury-
ing ground is a botilder marking the spot where one
hundred Revolutionary soldiers are buried. Near by
is a stone whose inscription reads :
A life of pain I long endured
But when Death Came my woimd was cured.
The Doctors' skill was all in vain
They Nare could ease me of my pain.
16 225
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Just before the great stone bridge on the Perkio-
men is crossed the Ridge Road and the Germantown
Road come together. Coll^^ville^ which lies on the
far side of the bridge, has long been an educational
center. Here were Loveland Hall, a school for boys,
and Glenwood Hall, said to have been the first school
for girls in the country; these united to form Ur sinus
College, whose stately buildings may be seen on the
campus on the right.
Beyond G>llegeville and joining it is Trappe. The
settlement was first called Landau by the man who
divided it into town lots, but the place was given a
new name. Dr. Muhlenberg told the story of the le-
christening. John Jacob Shrack came here in 1717.
With his son he built a cabin and a cave. In the cave
the men cooked. They kept a small shop and a tavern.
Once an English resident who had been drinking in the
cave fell asleep, and came home late. His wife scolded
him. He excused himself by saying he had been in the
trap. From this time the neighborhood was called
Trapp. At a public meeting held in February, 18S5,
it was decided that the name should be Trappe.
In Trappe is St. Luke's Reformed Church, founded
in 1755 and built in 18S5, but this is overshadowed
by the old Lutheran church, across the street, at the
rear of the lot, built in 1743.
On December 12, 1742, Henry Melchior Muhlen-
berg held his first service in Trappe in a bam. Soon
afterward it was decided to build a church of stone,
** 54 schuh long bei 37 schuh breit.'' (The German schuh,
for foot, is still used in some parts of Pennsylvania.)
286
THE OLD 6ERMANT0WN ROAD
The new building was to cost £200. The plans were
sent to Germany for approval^ and £115 was given
there for the project. During one whole winter all
the people worked preparing material. Men hauled
stone, and children helped by splitting and shaving the
oak shingles.
At the consecration of the church, on October 6,
1743, Mr. Pawling, Church Warden of St. James at
Evansburg, presented three negroes for baptism,
saying that ''Dutch baptism is good enough tat
bkcks.''
The church is the oldest unaltered Lutheran church
in America. In 1860, however, it was in grave danger.
A storm had torn off the roof. The people, who were
in debt for the new building, thought this an ''excuse
for resigning it to the desolation which the hand of
Providence has already begun." Fortunately there
were those who thought of making an appeal to the
descendants of Dr. Muhlenberg in New York. This
was done successfully, and the building was pre-
served.
The interior furnishings are identicaOy the same as
when the church was first opened. Worms have de-
stroyed part of a few of the planks, but their ravages
have been arrested. Among the features of the build-
ing that attract notice are the pulpit, with its sounding
board and folding seat for the minister; the gallery,
supported by squared oak pillars, painted and grained
to represent marble; the seats in the gallery, put to-
gether with oak pins, which rise like bleachers in the
baseball field; the pews with doors on the floor; the
227
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
"seats of the mjghty*' fmaog the pulpit, with tbdr
ornate door hinges; the nmnben, indicating sittings,
bonit into the backs of the pews; the ponderous lock
and key; the case of the first pipe oigan in the colony,
whose pq>es have all been taken as souvenirs.
Dr. Muhlenbog married in 1745 and built a house
farther down the road on which the church faces.
This house was burned years ago, but the walls are
part of the pteaait house. The pastor built a second
house some years later; this stands on the main road,
on the rj^t, toward CdlegeviDe, a short distance from
thechurdi.
Dr. Muhloibag was a faithful pastor. Up and
down the main road and the many cross roads he trav-
dled among his people. ** Frequently the roads, the
liver, the storm, the cold, the snow, the weather are
such that one would not like to drive the dpg out of
the house," he wrote at one time, '*yet the pastor must
go his rounds. God in His mercy often saved me in
most imminent danger, and preserved my poor bones
^en horse and lider fell."
The salary promised to him was equal to $106.66.
But this was not paid in full. *'My clothes during the
first and second years were so totally worn out by my
constant travelling/* the doctor wrote, ''that I had to
contract a debt of sixteen pounds to buy under-
clothing and other garments." Yet he did not com-
plain. He said of the people, ''They do not know
how to make their good-will toward me sufficiently
manifest."
Dr. Muhlenberg is buried back of the church,
228
THE OLD 6ERMANT0WN ROAD
a few feet of the pulpit. By his side rests his son,
General John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, who was or-
dained in 1769. Later he was pastor at Woodstock,
Virginia. There, during the stirring days before the
b^^ning of the Revolution, he concluded a sermon
to his people by saying, '"There is a time to preach,
and a time to pray; there is also a time to fight, and
that time has now come." As he spoke he threw aside
his gown, and stood before his awed congregation
garbed in his colonial uniform.
Near him in the burying ground lies the body of
''Margaret, wife of George Moses, bom July 5, 1750,
died November 21, 1854, aged 104 years." She is a fit
neighbor to General Muhlenberg, for when her husband
was called to the war, while he was shingling his new
bam, she climbed to the roof and completed the work.
She was a relative of William Hurry, keeper of the
State House in Philadelphia, and doorkeeper while
Congress was in session, who rang the bell when the
Declaration of Lidependence was signed.
Six days after the battle of Brandywine Washing-
ton's army marched from the ferry over the Schuylkill
four miles to Trappe, coming out on the main road
above the church. On September 17 Dr. Muhlenberg
with his telescope could see the British camp across the
river. All night the American army moved past the
old church to the Perkiomen, one regiment at midnight
encamping on the bare ground in front of Dr. Muhlen-
berg's house.
During the next four weeks the church was used as
barracks, and then as a hospital. On October 5 Wash-
229
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
ington entered the church and cheered the wounded and
dying.
For some reason the British feared Dr. Muhl^i-
beig. On December 11» 1777, he wrote in his diary:
^'I am informed that the British threaten to capture
mfe and wreak vengeance." Later he was told that the
British threatened him with torture, prison and death,
"if we can catch the old fellow."
Soldiers were not the only travelers on the turnpike
during the troubled days of the Revolution. Once,
when Howe threatened Philadelphia, people fled in
numbers out this road. One day Dr. Muhlenberg wrote
in his diary, "To-day many teams loaded with furni-
ture and people flying from Phfladelphia have passed
the town." Six days later he said, "During the whole
day wagons have been passing with goods, and men,
women and children flying from Philadelphia." After
the battle of Brandy wine he wrote, "A disturbed
Sunday. Coaches, chaises and wagons loaded with
fugitives, passing without intermission."
Once, after Isaac R. Pennypacker had visited the
old TVappe church, and had saturated himself with the
memories and the traditions of the spot, he wrote his
poem, "The Trappe," which Longfellow includes in his
" Poems of Places " :
And it seemed that a breath of a spirit.
Like a zephyr at cool of the day.
Passed o'er us and then we could hear it
In the loft through the organ pipes' play.
All the aisle and the chancel seemed haunted.
And weird anthems by voices were chanted.
Where dismantled Uie oigan pipes lay.
290
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
Came the warrior who robed as a colonel
Led his men to fight from the prayer.
And the pastor who tells m his journal
What he saw in the sunlight's bright glare.
How a band of wild troopers danced imder
While the organ was pealing its thunder
Li gay tunes on the sanctified air.
Then came the days of peace, when soldiers dis-
appeared from the turnpike and travelers took their
place. Jacob Heebner was one of the early drivers of
stages who became noted as an expert in drawing the
reins over his coach and four. When on duty he al-
ways wore a corduroy suit and a short coat called a
roundabout. His route extended from Pottstown to
the Trappe, and on to Norristown.
Other users of the road were teamsters who trans-
ported pig iron from Reading and Pottsville to Phila-
delphia.
Nine miles from Trappe is Pottstown. The first
forge and furnace in the vicinity was built in 1716, by
Thomas Rutter, Sr., of Germantown. Four years later
Thomas Potts, Jr., also of Germantown, became inter-
ested in the Rutter iron industry, and in 1729 he became
the head of the firm. ^ «i
'. ^^On September 8, 1752, John Potts, son' %3i Thomas
Potts, purchased a tract of 990 acres, the present site of
Pottstown. At the time there was a settlement on a
portion of the land which was known as Manatawny, an
Lidian name which meant **the place where we drink/'
Mr. Potts first laid out the town of Pottsgrove.
Later came the borough of Pottstown. Many workmen
in the forges and iron-works built houses in the town.
231
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
A local historian says that before the Revolution the
inhabitants numbered about one hundred families,
'* hardy pioneers engaged in lumbering, or those whose
unerring rifle brought down the red deer that roamed in
the neighboring forest, or who subsisted by fishing in
the waters of the Schuylkill or Manatawny."
During the Bevolution Thomas Potts, the son of
the founder of the town, was a member of the Colonial
Assembly, and when John Hancock, President of Con-
gress, asked the Assembly to raise military forces, Mr.
Potts was appointed one of three captains to raise a
regiment of riflemen. He did not rest until he had five
companies. Most of their equipment was provided by
him. Samuel Potts, younger brother of Thomas, was
also a leader^ in the struggle for liberty.
On September 19, 1777, TVa^Shmgton with hisarmy be-
gan a week's stay at Pottstown. During part of this period
the General^was the guest of Colonel jiThomas^Potts.
Eighteen miles from Pottsville is Reading. The
town was laid out in 1748. William Penn's sons, Thomas
and Richard, who were responsible for the town, named
it for Reading, England. In 1750 there was but one
house in the place» but in 1757 there were ISO dwellings,
106 families and S78 people.
The early residents communicated frequently with
Philadelphia, though there was no regular stage line
until 1789. Martin Hanna was the driver of this pio-
neer line. He made weekly trips and charged two dol-
lars for the trip. Letters were carried for threepence.
The round trip was made in two days. William Cole-
man became the owner of the line in 1791, and for
232
THE OLD GERMANTOWN ROAD
seventy years the Coleman family was identified with
staging in and about Reading.
The road to Perkiomen was begmi in 1810 and was
completed in 1814. Thus the travelers to Philadel-
phia and the farmers who sought Reading with their
produce were given better facilities.
Mayor William Stable, who wrote a description of
the Borough of Reading, in 1841, waxed eloquent as he
told of these farmers:
''Up in the morning early!" is the song of the
blith country women to the sleepy citizens of Reading,
as they make their midnight entry into town, well pre-
pared and eager for the Strife of trade.
The author said that those who got up in the morn-
ing early to buy from the early travelers along the roads
leading into Reading needed to keep their eyes open,
for it was found necessary to have a clerk of the market,
who, by a special ordinance of the Borough, "is directed
to keep a shaip eye on all balls of butter purporting
to be a pound weight."
Mayor Stable concluded his book by saying, "Final-
ly, reader, my task is done, and thine also; if not, a sec-
ond perusal is modestly recommended: and now, from
famine, floods, and folly, may Providence and pru-
dence preserve thee/'
238
EL
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
THE trip out the Bethlehem road might be caUed
A Revolutionary Pilgrimage, llie traveler finds
himself on historic ground at once, and the
memories of Washington and his brave men persist
as he goes on his way.
The start is made from the Pennsylvania station in
Chestnut Hill. Here the Bethlehem Road joins the
Germantown Road. The first part of the road offers
opportunity for a leisurely day's tramp, or the cars of
the Lehigh Valley Transit G>mpany may be taken,
for these keep close to the road as far as Ambl^; or
the entire route from Chestnut Hill to Bethlehem, forty-
three miles» may be covered delightfully by automobile.
At the foot of the long hill near the beginning of
the road is the Wheel Pump Inn, where British officers
frequently gathered in the days when the armies of
Great Britain and America faced each oth^ at White-
marsh. The inn gets its name from the curious whed
by which water is raised for thirsty horses.
At the comer of Church Lane, near the milestone
marked twelve and one-half, is the entrance to the
road leading to old St. Thomas' Church. The hill on
which the church stands was one of the hills in the
Whitemarsh (Widemarsh) Valley, where Washington
in 1777 proved himself a master of military tactics,
and held at bay Howe with bis threatening force.
234
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
This became famous as Church Hill; to the left is
Barren Hill, and to the right is Camp Hill. Militia Hill
and Fort Hill were other points of importance.
Church Hill was part of a hill known to the Indians
as Umbilicamence, as appears from a letter written by
William Penn to his Surveyor General, Thomas Holme,
in 168S. This letter told of the settling in this neigh-
borhood of the widow and children of Jaspar Farmar,
an Irishman who died while he was corresponding with
Penn about coming to America. They came to Phila*
delphia in the ship Bristol Merchant in 1685, accom-
panied by forty servants and dependents.
Ed ward • Farmar, one of the sons, used to gather
about him on Sundays all who would attend, and read
to them the services of the Church of England. A few
years later, certainly before 1700, a small log cabin
was built for the use of these gatherings of neighbors;
this was located near the center of the present church-
yard. Here Mr. Farmar continued to hold services
until a stone building was erected in 1710. For one
hundred and seven years the building was the home
of the congr^ation, and scores of members were buried
in the churchyard surrounding the edifice.
In 1718 a rector from England took charge of the
church, and also of Oxford Church, near Cheltenham.
To facilitate the passage of the devoted rector from
one parish to the other, the members in 1784 buflt a
road ten miles long, known even now as the Church
Road. This road used to pass over the site of the pres-
ent rectory.
235
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
One of the famous pastors of this church was Bev.
Slator Clay, who had a remarkable career. During
the Revolution he went to the West Indies with a
friend who was a sea captain. When the vessel was
captured by a British privateer, Mr. Clay was put
ashore on the island of Antigua with only one piece of
money in his possession. After a time he took passage
in a vessel bound for New York, which was then occu-
pied by the British. The saUors mutinied, and the
vessel was later cast on Bermuda Rocks. After teadi-
ing school at Bermuda for six years, he returned to
Philadelphia in 1786. A few months later he married
the widow of Isaac Hughes of Poplar Lane on the
Gulph Road. Within a year he was ordained deacon
in Christ Church, Philadelphia. In 1790 he began his
pastorate at St. Thomas'.
During the Revolutionary War the churdi services
were suspended, and Church Hill was on three occa-
sions occupied by militaiy forces, first by the Americans
after the Battle of Germantown, second by a body of
the Hessian cavalry, and third by British officers under
Lord Howe. The church itself was greatly defaced
and damaged, and finally almost destroyed by fire.
On one occasion it was used as a fort, when guns were
'planted in the windows and fired upon the retreating
Americans. The gravestones, many of which were
long, flat pieces of slate or marble resting upon four
small posts, or pillars, received rough treatment. Fires
were lighted under them, and they were used as cook-
ing ranges. Some of the upright stones became marks
for target practice. Two or three of the most ancient
236
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
tombstones in the churchyard to-day have evidently
be^i chipped by bullets.
On the day after the Battle of Germantown, fought
on the third and fourth of October, 1777» the defeated
American army retired to Church Hill. Of this move-
m^Eit General Anthony Wayne wrote:
The troops who took the upper road formed at
Whitemarsh Church under General Stephen. It was
thought advisable to remain here some time to collect
stragglers from the army. But the enemy made their
appearance with a party of light horse and from 1,500
to 2,000 infantry, with two field pieces. The troops
were ordered off, while I covered the rear with some
infantry and Colonel Butler's dragoons, but, finding
the enemy determined to push us hard, I obtained from
General Stephen some field pieces and took advantage
of a hill which overlooked the road upon which the
enemy were marching. They met with such a recep-
tion tiiat they were induced to retire over the bridge,
which they had just passed, and gave up further pursuit.
After the Revolution seven years passed before ser-
vices were resumed. In 1786 it was decided to repair
the building. From that time there has been no inter-
ruption in the life of the church. The old building was
enlarged in 1817, and in 1868 it was decided to build
the presait edifice.
Among the stones in the churchyard is the marble
slab above the body of Edward Farmar. This origi-
nally stood in the north aisle of the church. Later build-
ings were erected a little to one side. Since that time
the Farmar tomb has been in the open.
A curious epitaph records:
237
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
here Lyeth the
body of iames
allison, who departed
this lifeOctoba"
the 2 1729
aged 45 years
On the face of the stone is a strange design — a
rude head» surmounting a pair of wings, beneath which
are the conventional crossbones.
Another stone says:
Life is a cheat
And always show it»
I thought so once»
And now I know it.
On the summit of Camp Hill is the Van Rensselaer
Mansion. On this estate is the old burial plot of Nich-
olas Scull, who came to America with the Farmars in
1685. His son became Surveyor General of the Prov-
ince and laid out many of the old roads. Some of the
most famous of the early maps are known by his name.
Not far from the gates of Camp Hill is the entrance,
through a white gate on the left, to the ground of Emlen
House, owned by Emlen Devereux, where Washington
had his headquarters during the Whitemarsh campaign.
Additions and improvements have been made to the
house, but the outline of the original mansion can still
be traced. The old moat beyond thehouse gives variety
to the picture.
From November 2 to December 11, 1777, when the
army left for Gulph Mills and Valley Forge, Washing-
ton here kept open house to his generals. SaUy Wister,
238
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
in her Journal, has told many incidents of this sojourn.
One of the most important events of those days was
the Council of War held on the evening of November 24»
1777» when Washington and his associates considered
the question of making an immediate attack on the
enemy in Philadelphia. The attack was not made, for
eleven officers were opposed to the movement, while
but four favored it.
Greneral Washington's Orderly Book throws in-
teresting light on the events of these days at Emlen.
For instance, there is the record of November 7, 1777:
Since the General left Germantown, in the middle
of September last, he has been without his baggage,
and on that account is unable to receive company in
the manner he could wish* He nevertheless desires the
Generals, Field Officers and Brigade-Major of the day
to dine with him in the future at three o'clock in the
afternoon.
Two weeks later this fact was recorded:
The Commander in Chief oflPers a reward of ten
dollars to any person, who shall by nine o'clock on Mon-
day morning produce the best substitute for shoes,
made of raw hides. The Commissary of hides and the
Major-General of the day, are to judge of the essays
and assign the reward to the best arUst.
Fortunately there have come down to us glimpses
of the lives of the private soldiers during these days of
waiting. EUjah Faber, a Yankee private, kept a journal
while he was at Whitemarsh. In this he said:
We had no pots nor anithing to Cook our Fh>vi-
sions in, and that was Forty Poor, for beef was veiy
leen and no salt, nor any way to cook it but to throw it
239
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
on the oole and brile it; and the water we had to drink
and mix our flower with was out of a brook that run
along by the Camp, and so many a dn>pien afid wadiin
(in) it which maid it very Dirty and Muddy.
Then there is the stoiy of a private not over sixteen
years old, who was homesick. His companions teased
hinu One day he lost patience and threatened to
thrash his persecutor. He was winner after a long and
severe contest. The soldiers talked about it, and the
captain finally heard of it. The officer promptly as-
sembled the company and ordered the guilty men to
step forward. Then he looked at them sharply. They
hung their heads for shame. The officer made known
his sentence: ''You are ordered for punishment to drink
together a mug of dder!*'
The waiting army at Whitemarsh was saved from
what might have been dire disaster by the presence of
mind and bravery of Lydia Darragh, who lived at this
period in a house at Second and Little Dock streets,
below Spruce street, in Philadelphia. On the evening
of December 2, 1777, British officers used this house for
a consultation. Lydia, from a closet where she was
hidden, overheard the plan to surprise Washington
within two or three days. On the evening of Deoemba*
4 she carried an empty bag out Front street to the Ger-
mantown Road, presented a pass to the British picket,
then hurried out the Frankford Road to Frankford
Creek. There, at the mill, she left the sadc which had
been her excuse for coming from Philadelphia.
From the mill she went by the Nicetown Lane, to
seek the American outpost at Rising Sun Tavern, oor-
240
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
ner of Twelfth street and Germantown Road. She wss
nearly there when she met Colonel Thomas Craig,
whom she knew. To him she gave the information she
had overheard. The Colonel took her to a house near
by and hurried in search of General Boudinot. In the
mean time Lydia, it is conjectured, wrote out her story,
placed it in an old needle book, and sent it to General
Boudinot by the old woman to whom she had been
taken. General Boudinot told of receiving the message :
In the autumn of 1777 the American army lay some
time at Whitemarsh. I was the commissary general of
frovisions, and managed the intelligence of the army,
was reconnoitering along the lines near the city of
Fhfladelphia. I dined at a small post out the Rising
Sun, about three miles from the city. After dinner a
little, poor-looking, insignificant old woman came up
and solicited leave to go into the country to buy some
flour. While we were asking some questions she walked
up to me and put into my hand a dirty old needlebook
with various small pockets in it. Surprised at this, I
told her to retire, she should have an answer. On open-
ing the needlebook I could not find anything tiU I eot
to the last pocket, when I found a piece of paper, rolled
up into the form of a pipe shank. On unrolling it I
found information that General Howe was coming out
the next morning, with 5000 men, 10 pieces of cannon,
bats^age wagons, and 11 boats on wheels. On compar-
ing this with other information, I found it true and im-
mediately rode post to headquarters.
It was his judgment that the British intended to
cross the Delaware and return immediately, to surprise
Washington in the rear. But the general insisted that
the boats would be intended merely as a blind; that
16 241
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
the real purpose of the British would be to approach
by a certain road. Greneral Boudinot thought that the
general was in enor, but the result showed that his
judgment was correct. '" I then said that I would never
set up my judgment against his/' the narrator told of
his wise determination.
The British advanced as Lydia had said they would,
but the preparations made by Washington were effec-
tive. For several days they encamped on Chestnut
Hill; then they returned to the city.
Having delivered her message, Lydia Darragh re-
turned to the mill, filled her sack, and walked back to
Philadelphia.
Doubt has been thrown on this story by careful his-
torians, but a publication of the City History Society
of Philadelphia, dated 1916, presents thorough and
circumstantial proof of its truth.
In the inmiediate neighborhood, beyond St. Thomas'
Church, is wonderful old Hope Lodge, built in 1721 by
Samuel Morris, son of Morris Morris, who was for
many years justice of the peace in Whitemarsh and an
overseer of Plymouth Meeting. The name Hope Lodge
was given to the property to mark the reconciliation
between Heniy Hope and James Horatio Watmough.
Soon after the house was left to Watmough, with a re-
mainder to Henry Hope, in 1784, the men quarreled,
and when they were once more on good terms the prop-
erty was deeded by Watmough to Hope. To-day the
house is occupied by George J. Wentz, in whose family
it has been for eighty-seven years.
While the house is dignified in appearance, there is
242
iSv
THE BOAD TO BETHLEHEM
nothing especially impressive about the exterior. But
the interior is a marvel. The wonderful wainscotings
and panelings were imported from England. The
old mantels, the Dutch tiles» the floors, the massive
doors and locks, the H and L hinges hold the eye. The
staircase is a thing of beauty, and the method of light-
ing it is most unusual.
There is a tradition that the attic room was int^ided
to be the home of the first Masonic Lodge in Pennsyl-
vania, and that the preliminary meetings of Fort Wash-
ington Lodge were held here. The wide stairway to
this attic chamber is a notable feature of the house.
When Samuel Morris built the house he planned it
for his bride, but he lived and died a bachelor. There
is a story that a brutal remark made in the presence
of the girl he hoped to marry, on the evening of the
housewarming, was responsible for her refusal to be-
come his bride.
During the Revolution Washington sometimes en-
tered the mansion, though not on invitation, for the
owner was a Royalist.
A tablet by the roadside a short distance beyond
Hope Lodge tells of other movements of Washington
and his army during the weeks he spent in the locality.
Near by is what remains of Fort Washington.
The famous Skippack Road joins the turnpike near
the foot of Church Hill. This road, one of Hie oldest
in the vicinity of Philadelphia, having been laid out
by Hendrick Pannebecker in 171S, was frequently
named in Washington's orderly book, for many move-
ments of his army were made along its course. When
243
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
the soldiers marched this way from Whitemaish to-
ward Valley Forge, British camion on Church BSll were
fired after them.
Within a mile of the b^inning of the Skippack
Road is the entrance to stately Highlands, a mansion
of the Later Greorgian period, as Hope Lodge is a rep-
resentative of the Early Greorgian.
Anthony Morris, the builder of Highlands, was bom
in 1766. In 179S, as speaker of the state senate, he
signed the bill calling for troops to suppress the whiskey
rebellion. For this reason the Meeting of which he
was a member dismissed him. In 1796 he built the
mansion, but retained it for only twelve years. In
1808 he sold the estate to a man named Hitner. In
181S George Sheaff secured it, and for more than one
hundred years it has been in the same family. John
D. T. Sheaff, who died in the house in 1915, at the age
of 96 (in the same room in which he was bom), was a son
of George Sheaff.
There are but two disappointing features in the inte-
rior of the house. The original mantels were replaced
perhaps fifty years ago by modem marble atrocities.
Then the stair railing was never completed. For more
than a generation a scaffolding stood in the stair well,
except when there was a funeral; then it was removed,
to be replaced immediately. On the landing, for fifty
years has stood a crated newel post of impossible design.
Fortunately this was never put in place.
The family portrait gallery in the spacious hall con-
tains some good pictures by Thomas Sully. At the
far end is Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, the first
244
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
Speaker of Congress. Then come his children, Henry
W. and Anne Catherine. Henry married Mary Sheaff,
while Anne married Mary's brother George, who bought
the mansion in 1813. The portraits of all of these are
on the walls.
Farther along the Skippack Road is Blue Bell, where
John Philip Boehm, a German schoolmaster, began
preaching to a congregation of his countrymen. The
first church was bmlt a short distance from the village,
to the right of the road. The present building was
erected in 1818, though numy alterations have been
made in it. The original church was used as a hospital
for General Weedon's brigade after the Battle of Ger-
mantown. From October 21 to November 2 the army
was encamped in the vicinity of Blue Bell.
Washington had his headquarters at Dawesfield,
the home of James Morris, a short distance from the
main road, east of Blue Bell. This house is now the
home of George J. Cook, a Philadelphia banker. The
oldest part was built in 1736, though additions were
made in 1785 and 1821. The chief attraction is the
room just above the main entrance, which was occupied
by Washington. Attached to the bedstead is a plate
bearing this inscription:
General Washington slept in this
Bedstead during the Encampment at
Whitpain. "Headquarters at James
Morrises." October 21st to
November 2d, 1777.
Dawesfield is famous as the scene of the court mar-
tial of General Anthony Wayne, held at his request
245
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
because of charges made against him as a result of the
Paoli Massacre. General Wayne was acquitted with
honor.
Another Washington headquarters is not far from
Center Point, and half a mile from the Skippack, on
the road to Lansdale. This is a fine old brown stone
farmhouse built in 1758, by Peter Wentz. Here Wash-
ington stopped after the Battle of Germantown, oc-
cupying two rooms in the west comer of the house.
In the first stoiy room he took his meals, and he slept
and wrote in a large square room above. Here, on
October 16, 1777, he penned a message to Congress, re-
ferring to the Battle of Saratoga:
It is with the highest satisfaction that I congratulate
Congress on the success of our armies at the North-
ward, an event of the most interesting importance at
this juncture. From the happy train in which things
were then, I hope we shall soon hear of the more de-
cisive advantage. We moved this morning from the
encampment at which we had been for six or seven
days past» and are just arrived at the grounds we occu-
pied before the action of the 4th.
During Washington's stay at the Wentz house
some of his soldiers camped in the woodland northeast
of the house. In the rear of the bam two soldiers are
buried.
The date stone, bearing the initials of Peter Wentz
and his wife Rosanna, is easily seen. Below the initials
are the lines:
Jesu komm in Mein Haus
Weig nimmer mer haraus;
Kom mit deine Gnadenguet
Und stelle meine selzu fried.
246
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
Or» freely translated:
Jesus, come into my house.
Never to leave again;
Come witli thy blessed favor.
And bring peace to my soul.
'Tradition says that before coming to Pennsylvania^
Peter Wentz was a wild sea rover, and that he com-
manded a privateer. After buying the 940 acre farm on
which he erected the house he reformed and became
an earnest Dunker.
For more than one hundred and twenty years the
house has been in the possession of the Schultz family.
Six miles beyond Center Point is perhaps the most
historic spot on the Perkiomen, Pennypacker's Mills,
near Schwenksville, the home of ^the late Samuel W.
Pennypacker. Mr. Pennypacker lived in a house built
in 1720 by Hans Yost Heijt, which has been in the
possession of the P^mypacker family since 1759.
The map of the Revolutionary period marks Penny-
packer's Mills as an important point. These mills, on
the banks of the Perkiomen, were for many years a
landmark throughout the neighborhood.
On September S6, 1777, after the Battle of Brandy-
wine, Washington went to the head of the Skippack
Road, with his army of ten thousand men. He made his
headquarters at the old house. It is said that of the
twenty or twenty-five headquarters of General Wash-
ington still in existence over the country, this is the
only one remaining in the name of the family having
it at the time of the Revolution.
On September 28, 1777, a council of generals was
247
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
hdd at the house» in consequence of which the: army
marched down the Skippack Road to Germantown.
The Skippack Road has so many points of surpass-
ing interest and the landscape is so beautiful that it is
well to return to Fort Washington by the route already
covered. From Fort Washington the turnpike should
be followed once more toward Bethlehem.
Three-quarters of a mile from Spring House, near
Penllyn railway station, is the Foulke House, now the
home of Edward J. Pershing. This is the place on the
banks of the Wissahickon made famous by Sally YfiB-
ter when she was living with her family in a^part of the
home of Hannah Foulke, widow, during the occupation
of Philadelphia by the British. Here the vivacious
Sally wrote the Journal in which she gave so many racy
incidents of life on the border between the armies of
the Americans and the British.
Perhaps the most interesting of the narratives in
the Journal is the story of the British Grenadier, a
wooden figure, life size, which once served as an ad-
vertisement at the door of the Southwark Theater on
Cedar and Apollo Streets, Philadelphia. It seems likely
that this figure was painted by Major Andr6, who was
one of the scene painters for the theater.
Somehow the gorgeous Grenadier was in the posses-
sion of the Wister family at the time when Sally Wister
was writing her Journal. George Washington's troops
were in camp not far from Sally's refuge, and she had
many acquaintances among the officers. One of these
was a diffident man, Major TiUy, whom Sally described
thus:
248
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
He seems a wild, noisy Mortal, tho' I am not much
Acquainted with him. He appears bashful when with
girls. • • • He is above the conunon size, rather genteel,
an extreme pretty, ruddy face, hair brown and a suf-
ficiency of it, a very great laugher, and talks so ex-
cessively fast that he often begins sentences without
finishing the last, which confuses him very much, and
then blushes and laughs; and in short, he keeps me in
perpetual good humour; but the Creature has not ad-
dressed one civil thing to me since he came.
Sally took her revenge on the uncivil major by play-
ing harmless jokes on him. The wooden figure of the
British Grenadier was the inspiration of one of these
jokes, and of this she told in paragraphs so delicious
that they must not be spoiled by an attempt at para-
phrase:
We had brought some weeks ago a British grenadier
from Uncle Miles's on purpose to divert us. It is re-
markably well executed, six feet high, and makes a
martial appearance. This we agreed to stand at the
door that opens into the road (the house has four rooms
on a floor, with a wide entry running through), with
another figure that would add to the deceit. One of
our servants was to stand behind them, others were to
serve as occasion offered. . . .
Never did I more sincerely wish to possess a de-
scriptive genius than I do now. All that I can write
will fall infinitely short of the truly diverting scene lliat
I have been witness to to-night. But, as I mean to
attempt an account, I had as well shorten the preface,
and begin the story.
In the beginning of the even*g I went to Liddy
(Foulke) and beg'd her to secure the swords and pistols
which were in tiieir parlor. The Maiylander (Major
249
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Stodard) hearing our voices, joined us. I told him of
my proposal. Whether he thought it a good one or not
I can't say» but he approved of it, and laddy went in
and brought her apron full of swords & pistok.
When this was done, Stodard join'd the officers.
We girls went and stood at the first landing of the
stairs. The gentlemen were very meny and chatting
on public affairs, when Seaton's negro (observe that
Seaton, being indisposed, was apprized of the scheme)
open'd the door, candle in his hand, and said, ''There's
somebody at the door that wishes to see you."
"Who? AU of usr said TiUy.
''Yes, sir,*' answered the boy.
They all rose (the Major, as he afterwards said,
almost dying with laughing) and walked into the entry,
Tilly first, in full expectation of news.
The first object that struck his view, was the
British soldier. In a moment his ears were saluted
with "Is there any rebel officers here?" in a thundering
voice.
Not waiting for a second word, he darted like light-
ning out at the front door, through the yard, bolted
o'er the fence. Swamps, fences, thorn-hedges, and
ploughed fields no way impeded his retreat. He was
soon out of hearing.
The woods echoed with "Which way did he go?
Stop him! Surround the house!" The Amiable Lips-
oombe had his hand on the latch of the door, intending
to effect his escape; Stodard, considering his indisposi-
tion, acquainted him with the deceit.
We females ran down stairs to join in the general
laugh. I walked into Jessie's parlor. There sat poor
Stodard (whose sore lips must have received no ad-
vantage from this), almost convulsed with laughing,
rolling in an arm chair. He said nothing. I believe he
could not have spoke.
2f0
i
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
''Major Stodard/' said I, ''go caU TiUy back. He
will lose himself » — ^indeed he mil;'' every word inter-
rupted with a "Ha! Ha!"
At last he rose, and went to the door, and what a
loud voice could avail in bringing him back, he tried.
Figure to thyself this TiUy, of a snowy even'g, no
hat, shoes down at heel, hair unty'd, flying across
m^idows, creeks and mud-holes. Flying from what?
Why, a bit of painted wood. But he was ignorant
of what it was. The idea of being made a prisoner
wholly engrossed his mind, and his last resource was
to run.
After a while, we being in rather more composure
and our bursts of laughter less frequent, yet by no
means subsided, — ^in full assembly of girls and officers, —
Tilly entr'd.
The greatest part of my risibility turned to pity.
Inexpressible confusion had taken entire possession of
his countenance, his fine hair hanging dishevelled
down his shoulders, all splashed with mud; yet his
fright, confusion and race had not divested him of
his beauty.
At last his good nature gained a compleat ascend-
ance over his anger, and he joined heartily in the
laugh. I will do him the justice to say that he bore
it charmingly. No cowanlly threats, no vengeance
denounced.
Stodard caught hold of his Coat. "Come, look at
what you ran from," and drag'd him to the door.
He gave it a look, said it was very natural, and by
the regularity of his expression, gave fresh cause for
diversion. We all retired to our different parlours, for
to rest our faces, if I may say so.
The figure of the British Grenadier that caused so
much diversion may still be seen at Grumblethorpe,
251
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
in Germantown. Not long ago it was taken to Fouike
House, on the occasion of a pilgrimage of a historical
society, and was set up in the front hall, in the position
Sally Wister placed it.
Montgomery Square is the next point of special
interest on the road to Bethlehem. Here are two old
inns, separated by the State Road. The first of these
is Old Lower Inn, now a private dwelling house. The
residents in the vicinity tell with bated breath of a
gang of counterfeiters who made their headquarters
here and flooded the surroimding country with spurious
coin. Some seventy-five years ago the secret service
agents spent weary months in trailing these lawbreakers.
The search was finally successful. The counterfeiters,
finding themselves closely pursued, tried to destroy
the evidence that would be used against them by throw-
ing their dies and their spurious coins into an old quarry
down the road. For years it was a popular amusement
among the boys to explore, the quarry in the vain hope
of recovering some of the loot.
The abandoned inn, across the State Road, is notable
because of the fine moulding to be seen under the eaves
on the front of the building, and because of the study
in shingles and gables afforded by an inspection of
the rear.
Beyond Montgomery Square, at Montgomeiyville,
is the Walker Lm, a house more than a century old.
If he has a chance the proprietor is glad to show to
travelers many curiosities he has gathered under his
roof, including an Indian harrow ingeniously made of
wood. This is used as a hatrack.
252
-^
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
The turnpike increases in interest as the distance
of twenty-nine miles from Montgomeryville to Bethle-
hem is traversed. Many landmarks are seen which were
viewed by the passengers between Philadelphia and
Bethlehem, in the years following 1750. In those days
the road was di£Bcult at most seasons, but the difficul-
ties of the road were nothing to the difficulties of the
ferry at Bethlehem in time of high water, until a rope
ferry was substituted for the primitive pole ferry which
four men found it difficult to move across the river in
less than half an hour.
It was a great day when, by means of the rope
feny, the time for crossing was reduced to ninety sec-
onds. Soon after this came another improvement —
the first regular stage between the cities, which made
the round trip once each week.
The merchants at Bethlehem knew how to draw
trade, for in January, 1767, the traveler was attracted
by a sign at the ferry:
All such persons as bring wheat, rye, Indian com
& buckwheat, to the grist mill at Bethlehem, for grind-
ing, are free from ferriage, provided they observe the
following regulations.
Then came a table fixing the minimum quantity
of each grain to be hauled by one or by two horses, in
a cart, or in a sled. Provisions brought for sale might
be on the same vehicle. All persons on their way to
church were carried free, provided they did not come
for the purpose of transacting business or carrying
parcels.
During the year 1777 the ferry saw busy times, for
253
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Bethlehem was crowded with del^ates to Congreas,
officers and civilians, the heavy baggage and wounded
of the army, and soldiers and prisoners of war. On
July 25, 1782, General Washington crossed the feny
to the town.
Twice between 1775 and 1781 many of the houses
in Bethlehem were occupied by American troops and
British prisoners of war. The Single Brethren House
was used as a hospital. For this no charge was made,
though the building was occupied for eight months and
ten days, but in 1779 a bill was sent for repairs amount-
ing to $S58.
On September IS, 1777, there was excitement in
Bethlehem because of the word that Washington's
army had been compelled to fall back on Philaddphia.
Three days later came a letter from David Rittenhouse
announcing that all the military stores of the army,
in upwards of seven hundred wagons, had been ordered
to Bethlehem. The church bells of Philadelphia as weU
as Independence Bell were taken to Bethlehem, on the
way to Allentown. The wagon on which the Independ-
ence Bell was loaded broke down on descending the
hill in front of the hospital, and had to be unloaded
while repairs were being made.
The most distinguished patient cared for in Beth-
lehem was the Marquis de Lafayette, who was brought
from Brandywine, and was nursed by the Moravian
sister Liesel Beckel.
In April, 1780, all Bethlehem was dismayed because
G>ngress talked of locating the Capital there. Lewis
Weiss of Philadelphia wrote to Rev. John Ettwein oi
254
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM
Bethlehem, informing him of the threatened danger to
the morals of the staid town.
I was yesterday spoken to by a friend of mine, a N
member of Congress, intimating that Congress had a
mind to change their residence, and that it was pro-
posed by some members Bethlehem would be a very
proper place for making a Hague, like in Holland. I
immediately exclaimed that Congress was mad! . . •
I should be very sorry if Congress should come to re-
side even in your neighborhood, for it would spoil the
morals of many of your people, and the markets of all
of them.
To this letter Mr. Ettwein replied:
Bethlehem has about thirty-six private dwelling-
houses, which are inhabited by sixty-one families, wiUi
their different trades and workshops, so that many a
family has but one single room for themselves and their
all. You know the public buildings, as the meeting-
house, schools, the house of the single brethem, sinffle
sisters, and widows, taverns, and mills, are full of peojue;
and I may, with truth, observe that no village or town
in the State is so crowded with inhabitants as Bethlehem
now is. Nazareth is not much better, and as it lies
nine miles nigher to the Blue Mountains, that settle-
ment is the fii^t refuge of the settlers behind the moun-
tains, as soon as they fear the least danger on account
of the Indians. . . • Yet, if ever the honourable Con-
gress and its appendages could find the necessary ac-
commodations here and in the neighborhood, which I
know to be impossible, if they will not live in tents, it
would, in my humble opinion, be a dangerous residence
for them, as we are so nigh the mountains and the Big
Swamp, from which an army could with ease walk in
one night to Bethlehem. And such a treasure as the
255
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Gmgress might be a great temptation for the Indiana
or their desperate associates to make a sudden attempt
on the place» if they were not cowed by a considerable
force.
The letter closed with an appeal that Congress
might not ''distress the inhabitants of this little place,
disturb its happy constitution, and have nothing for
it but trouble, exposure, and disappointment/'
Wiser counsek prevailed, and the Capital remained
near the coast
THE OLD YORK ROAD
IN 1680 two young men, Heinrich Frey and Joseph
Plattenbachy had a blacksmith shop near the pres-
ent comer of Front and Arch Streets. One of the
curious visitors to their shop was a young Indian to
whom they showed great kindness* One day the
Indian, who was Joseph the son of Tamane, the chief
of the Leni Lenape, followed an old Indian trail through
the woods to the headquarters of the tribe. The vis-
itors made such a good impression on the Leni Lenape
that they were adopted into the tribe. Before their
return Tamane took them to the spot where the Ger-
mantown Road joins the York Road and told them
that a council of the tribe had decided that to them
should belong all the land in that region until the
Great Spirit should call them to the Eternal Wilder-
ness. At the moment the sun was rising in the east,
so the young men named the spot Auf-gehende Taunet
or Rising Sun.
On March 24, 170S, the proprietors of the Indian
grant, which had been confirmed by William Penn,
were married. They settled at Rising Sun. Eight
years later the Old York Road was opened, and forty-
three years later Mary Davis bought thirty-eight acres
at the forks of the roads, and opened Rising Sun Inn.
Hotchkin quotes a local historian who gives a pleas-
17 267
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
ing picture of events on the road since its first opening,
"tJie removal of rocks, trees and stumps; the building
of bridges, and the covering of the surface with stone.
The changes, too, in travel, at first on horseback, then
the cart, the two and four horse team, the gig, the
stage coach, the elliptic-spring market wagon and car-
riage. The surprising change, likewise, in the people —
groups of Indians, negro slaves, and redemptioners,
sold for their passage, and brought out from the dty
by their masters, all gone! The like to pass over it no
more.
Samuel Breck has a passage which throws light on
this reference to redemptioners. On August 1, 1817,
he wrote:
a long time dissatisfied with some of my ser-
vants I went on board the ship John lately arrived with
four hundred passengers. I saw the remains of a very
fine cargo, consisting of healthy, good-looking men,
women and children, and I purchased one German
Swiss for Mr. Ross and two French Swiss for myself.
My two servants come from Lausanne in Switzerland.
... I gave for the woman seventy-six dollars, which
is her passage money, with a purse of twenty dollars
at the end of three years, if she serve me faithfully,
clothing and maintenance of course. • . .
An advertisement in the Philadelphia Mercury in
1789 teUs of one of the many redemptioners who were
unwilling to wait for their freedom until the expiration
of the stipulated term of years:
Ran-away on the 24th of June, from David Bush
of Wiling Town, a Servant Man named John Christ-
ian Travett, he is a Palatine, and came in tiiis last Fall,
258
THE OLD YORK ROAD
in Capt. John Stedman's Ship from Holland. He had
on a blue Camblet Coat full trimmed and lined with
White, a grey pair of breeches, white Cotton Stock-
ings, a felt Hat, black flank hair and a black Cravet
on, he is of a middle Stature, a down cast look, and
TflJks no English, had with him two pair of worsted
Stockings, one Dutch Bible, and Prayer Book, a striped
red and white Calimanoo Jacket.
Whoever takes up and secures said Servant so that
his Master may have him again, shall have Forty
Shillings Reward and other reasonable Charges paid.
Neither fleeing redemptioners nor honest travelers
had an easy time on the Old York Road, if weather
conditions were the least bit bad. The deep black
mould made excellent mud, and there were treacher-
ous quicksands in many places. Farmers on their way
to market were accustomed to go in parties, that one
might help another when difficulties were encountered.
Some who ventured to make the trip alone found it
advisable to use four and perhaps six horses; even then
they were sometimes badly mired. An old resident,
quoted in Watson's Annals, declared that he saw once
near Rising Sun Village ''a team stalled, and that in
endeavoring to draw out the fore horse with an iron
chain to his head, it slipped, and the horse was so
badly injured that he had to be killed." No wonder a
boy was sometimes stationed at dangerous places to
warn teamsters, and that fence rails were placed on
end in the road as silent messengers of threatened dis-
aster.
In 180S steps were taken to correct these condi-
tions; the turnpike was authorized and construction
259
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
begun at once on the section from Rising Sun to the
Red Lion Inn at WiUow Grove.
The first home of importance on the old road was
Stenton» the seat of James Logan, located close to the
present Logan Station on the Reading. His property
extended along the road a distance of one mile. The
Indian trail from the interior led past this front. Dusky
visitors to the mansion were numerous and their stay
was frequently prolonged.
At one time the Indians had a camp on the grounds.
James Logan was president of the Council, they had
business with him, and they thought they were justi-
fied in remaining near their friend, making free of his
grounds and house, and living on his bounty.
Sutdiffe tells of an amusing occurrence connected
with such a visit paid to some place like Stenton, that
kept open house to the red men. The story was told
to him by a young woman:
She informed me, that her father was frequently
in the practice of entertaining different parties of
Indians, who came to Philadelphia on public business;
and that having once invited a number of chiefs who
were then in the city to breakfast, they came to the
house rather earlier than the servants expected, accom-
panied by their interpreter. However, they were
introduced into the breakfast room, where a servant
was engaged in brightening up some of the brasswork
about the fireplace, and were desired to sit down till
the master made his appearance. They had not sat
long, before one of the Indians made an observation
in his own language, which the interpreter was desired
to put into English. Unwillingly he explained:
"Look at that servant, how she labors at those
260
THE OLD YORK ROAD
andirons. I dare say, if we had come yesterday, we
should have found her at the same employment, and
if we came to*moiTOw morning, ten to one we should
still find her at the same work. How foolish these
white people are, thus to labour and toil about things
which can come to no good purpose; certainly these
white people must be fools.*'
Chief Wingohoddng was one of the frequent vis-
itors at Stenton. One day, while standing with Logan,
by the stream that winds through the estate, the chief
proposed an exchange of names, an Indian token of
friendship. But Logan had a counter proposition: he
would name the stream for the Indian. So, to this
day, the creek is named Wingohocking.
In her sketch of Deborah Logan in '* Worthy Women
of Our First Century,*' Mrs. Sarah Butler Wister
describes the old Stenton house, which is to-day open
to the public, by the courtesy of the Society of Colonial
Dames. She says:
Round the house there was the quiet stir and move-
ment of a country place, with its large gardens full of
old-fashioned flowers and fruits, its poultry yard and
stables. The latter were connected with the house by
an underground passage, which led to a concealed
staircase and a door under the roof, like the priest's
escape in some old English country seats.
The offices surrounded the main building, connected
with it by brick courts and covered ways. They were
all at the back, and so disposed as to enhance the
picturesque and dignified air of the old mansion, the
interior of which is as curious to modem eyes as it is
imposing. One enters by a brick hall, opposite to which
is the magnificent double staircase, while, right and left
are lofty rooms covered with fine old-fashioned wood-
261
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
work, in some of them the wainscot being carried up
to the ceiling above the chimney-place, which in
the apartments was a vast opening set round with
blue and white sculptured tiles of the most grotesque
devices. Thero aro comer cupboards, and in some of
the rooms cupboards in arched niches over the mantel-
piece, capital show-<x>mer8 for the rare china and mag-
nificent old silver which adorned the dinner table on
state occasions. Half of the front of the house, in the
second story, was taken up by one large room, the
library of the book-loving masters of the place.
Elizabeth Drinker was one of the early residents
on this road. In her journal she speaks often of her
husband's plantation, located between the fifth and
sixth milestones from Philadelphia, for which he paid
£8146. This was not Henry Drinker's only invest-
ment in real estate, for he was one of the promoters and
stockholders in a three thousand acre tract in Wayne
county, whero it was proposed to manufacture maple
sugar, so as to avoid the use of sugar grown by slave
labor. That the venture made a good start is shown
by a letter from George Washington to Mr. Drinker,
written on June 18, 1790, thanking him for a box of
maple sugar, and wishing success to the promoters
of the new venture, as something that might prove of
considerable benefit to the country. The experiment
was not successful; Mr. Drinker and his associates, so
the story goes, did not leam until the investment had
been made that the sap of the maple will flow only a
few weeks in the year. The Maple Sugar Company
went into bankruptcy, and Mr. Drinker was thrown
back on his York Road farm.
ir WilliilD Krilb in
THE OLD YORK ROAD
One of the oldest houses in the vicinity of Phila-
delphia, Grange Farm» is located not far from the site of
the York Road farm of Mr. Drinker. It may be found
easily by those who turn to the right on Olney Aveiue,
and then to the left up the farm lane. The house is to
the north of Tabor Station, between Grange and Chew
streets. Jan Luken, the builder of the old farmhouse,
came to Germantown in 1688. Ten years later he
settled on his fifty acre farm on York Road and built
a stone house and bam. The property was occupied
by the Highland troops when the British were in Phila-
delphia. In the bam grain and forage were stored.
Some years ago the roof of the bam was destroyed by
fire, but the old walls are a part of the new bam.
On York Road, opposite Butler Place, the British
built a barricade. There was a severe skirmish in one
of the fields of Butler Place. The entrance to this
old-fashioned home, now the property of Owen Wister,
the novelist, is through the gateway on the left.
Bir. Wister^s house was built in 1701. Major But-
ler bought it in 1810, and it has been in his family
since that* time. Mrs. Wister was Major Butler's great-
granddaughter. Many men prominent in the early his-
tory of the country were entertained here, for Major
Butler was for many years prominent in colonial and
federal history. He had been a delegate to the Con-
tinental Congress and a representative to the Federal
Convention. Later he was a United States Senator
from South Carolina.
From Butler Place it is not far to Champlost Manor
House, which was the residence of James Porteus in
263
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
1722. This may be reached by Gre^i Lane. The
name was not given to the estate mitil 1780, when
George Fox» the owner, was in France. While a guest
at the chftteau of the Count de Champlost he was
taken seriously ill, but was tenderly cared for by his
host. On his return to America, in gratitude to his
French host, he named his estate Champlost.
At Branchtown, near Chelten Avenue, on the
Charles W. Wharton place, three ciuious irregular stones
mark the graves of American soldiers who were shot
by a British trooper who came upon them as they were
sitting at a spring.
Until recently the home of Lucretia Mott, Road-
side, stood in La Mott, near City Line. The little
settlement named for her is now the sole reminder of
this early advocate of equal rights for women.
As a Friend Lucretia Mott must have been inter-
ested in the history of The Ivy, the house built in 1682
by Richard Wain, which stands in the old village of
Shoemakertown, now Ogontz, at the comer of Church
Lane. This, it is said, is the oldest meeting place of
Friends in or near Philadelphia still in existence, for
'*at a Mo. Meeting held at Sarah Sleary's, ye Sd of
10 mo. 168S At urgent request of Some friends belong-
ing to the Meeting A Meeting was Settled at New
Cheltenham at the house of Richard Walln."
Two years later the house was made a monthly meet-
ing place. In 1700 Abington Monthly Meeting succeeded
Cheltenham Meeting until then held at The Ivy. Thus
the Abington Meeting shares the distinction of age with
the AbingtonPresbyterian Church, which datesf rom 1710.
264
THE OLD YORK ROAD
At Willow Grove the York Road branches. Hie
left branch is called the Willow Grove and Doyles-
town Road. In 17S2 this was opened from Willow Grove
to the county line in Warrington. John Melish^s Trav-
eler's Directory of 1824 spoke of the entire road from
Willow Grove to Easton as a section of the Old York
Road.
Those who use the street cars will be able to follow
the road as far as Willow Grove, and from there to
take a car either to Doylestown on the left or to Hat-
boro on the right.
Those who elect to go toward Doylestown will find
Horsham Meeting, one of the first objects of special
interest after passing Willow Grove. The present build-
ing, erected in 1803, is the third meeting house built
here* Visitors to the building will be interested in
noting the difference between the front and rear rooms.
The front room has been varnished, while in the rear
room both pillars and pews have been left witiiout
adornment. The contrast is suggestive.
Not far from Horsham Meeting is Graeme Park,
a mansion that dates back to 1721, the year the first
Meeting House was built. This ancient house may be
reached by way of the Keith Road, soon after passing
the Meeting. This road was laid out through the for-
est, in 1722, to provide an outlet for the family at
Graeme Park.
Sir William Keith, the original owner of the prop-
erty, was appointed by Queen Anne Surveyor Gen-
eral of the royal customs in the American colonies.
His salary of £500 per year enabled him to assume
266
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
great style* though he lived b^ond his income, oom-
pelling his creditors to bear a large portion of his
expenses. He lost his office when Queen Anne was
succeeded by George I.
While he was out of office he came from Virginia to
Philadelphia. Here friends became interested in him,
and in 1716 the Council asked Hannah Penn to make
him d^uty governor of the Province of Penn^lvania.
Some time later Mrs. Penn wrote to James Logan, one
of Keith's sponsors, after seeing Keith in London:
Have at your request got William Keith commis-
sioned by my husband, and appointed by the Crown,
and with a general consent he now goes deputy gover-
nor over that province and territories. Though he was
pretty much of a stranger to me» yet his prudent con-
duct, and obliging behavior, joined with your obser-
vation thereon, gave me and those concerned good
hope that he will prove satisfactory. He is certainly
an understanding man, and seems to have himself
master of the affairs of your province, even beyond
what we might expect in so short a time.
The new official borrowed money in England and
brought his family to America. He had four sons and
a step>-daughter, Ann Diggs, who became the bride of
Dr. Graeme, a traveling companion and relative of the
dq>uty governor. After her marriage she continued
to live in the home of her step-father.
Soon after coming to America Colonel Keith bought
1200 acres of land near Round Meadow Run, the pres-
ent Willow Grove» nineteen miles from Philadelphia.
Some of his friends thought he was foolish to go so far
from the dty, in the midst of a wilderness, but he
266
THE OLD YORK ROAD
insisted that he would be able to make a charming
home on his estate.
At once he began to build a house sixty by twenty-
four feet, and three stories high, with walls two feet
thick. The rooms were laige and beautifully paneled,
some of them from the floor to the high ceiling. For
the fireplaces brick and tile were brought from Eng-
land. Other features of note are the bull's-eye glass
above the front door, the hole in the floor of the Cover*
nor's oflSce upstairs, where he deposited his valuables,
the hand-made lath in the attic, the stack chimneys,
each with three flues, the bit of wall in front of the
house which is a remnant of the old slave quarters,
and the depression in the rear of the house, where
there was at one time a lake, as shown in drawings of
the house.
Crowning a gatepost before the farmhouse of the
present owner of the property, Morris B. Penrose, is
the curious mushroom-shaped boulder used by^Sir
William as a test of the strength of applicants for work.
Those who could not lift the stone could not hope for
employment.
For many years the mansion was open to visitors
without restriction, but the privilege was abused. Van-
dals defaced the walls and the woodwork, and other-
wise injured the property. For some time the doors
have been locked, but they are opened to those who
will apply at the farmhouse.
On this estate Colonel Keith lived in luxury until
1729. An inventory of his property shows that he had
possessions as follows :
267
OLD EOADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
Fourteen slaves, a silver punch bowl» ladle and
strainer, four salvers, three casters and thirty-three
spoons, seventy large pewter plates, fourteen smaller
plates, six basins, six transports with covers, thirteen
different sizes of bowls, six complete tea sets, two dozen
chocolate cups, twenty dishes of various sizes, four
dozen plates, six rings, one dozen fine coffee-cups,
eighteen jars, twelve venison pots, six whitestone tea-
sets, twelve mugs, six dozen plates, and twelve fine
wine decanters, twenty-four Holland sheets, twenty
common sheets, fifty tablecloths, twelve dozen nai>-
kins, sixteen bedsteads, one hundred and forty-four
chairs, thirty-two tables, three clocks, fifteen looking-
glasses, ten dozen knives and forks, four coach horses,
seven saddle horses, six working horses, two mares
and one colt, four oxen, fifteen cows, four bulls, six
calves, thirty-one sheep and twenty hogs, a large glass
coach, two Chaises, two wagons, one wain.
The owner of all these fine things was accustomed
to drive over his own road toward Philadelphia in a
manner in keeping with his state at Graeme Park.
His coach and four, with outriders, was a sight of which
the people never wearied.
In 1729 the spendthrift governor left for England,
after mortgaging his farm and property to Dr. Graeme
and deeding the estate to Mrs. Keith. Twenty years
later he died in the Old Bailey, London, where he had
been imprisoned for debt.
In 1739 Dr. Graeme bought the property for £760.
He continued to live on the estate during the summer,
though he made his home in Philadelphia during the
winter, for this was more convenient to him, when
he was a member of the Council and, later, when he
268
THE OLD YORK ROAD
was one of the three justices of the Supreme Court.
When his health failed he retired to Graeme Park.
In 1755 he wrote to Thomas Penn concerning the
property, in whose development he took much pride :
I have a park which encloses three hundred acres
of land, which is managed in a manner quite different
from any I have seen here or elsewhere. I have double-
ditched and double-hedged it in, and ... I dare ven-
ture to say that no nobleman in England but would
be proud to have it for his seat.
Dr. Graeme longed for the happiness of his daugh-
ter Elizabeth, and he dreamed of the day when she
would follow him at Graeme Park. But when she
made known her wish to marry Henry Hugh Fergu-
son, he opposed the marriage, for he felt the man was
unworthy. However she listened to the adventurer's
proposal of a secret marriage, and on April 21, 1772,
she married him in Gloria Dei, Philadelphia. Then
her husband urged her to confess her fault. Some
months later she made up her mind to speak to her
father when he returned from a walk in the garden.
She told what followed :
I sat on the bench at the window and watched him
coming up the avenue. It was a terrible task to pre-
pare. I was in agony; at every step he was approach-
ing nearer. As he reached the tenant house he fell and
died. Had I told him the day before, as I thought of
doing, I should have reproached myself for his death
and gone crazy.
The repentant daughter wrote the epitaph that
was placed on her father's tomb in Christ Churchyard,
Philadelphia:
260
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
The soul that lived within this Crumbling dust
In every Act was Eminently just.
Peaceful through Life» as peaceful, too, in death.
Without (me Pang, he rendered back his breath.
The years brought still greater sorrow to Mrs.
Ferguson. Her husband wasted her substance, and
during the Revolution he acted in such a manner that
he was accused of high treason and the estate was
seized. Later, by act of Assembly, it was restored to
his wife. Her own loyalty she showed when she enter-
tained General Washington while his army was en-
camped near by, October 21, 1777.
She did her best to fill her days with literary labors,
and she became a leader among the more cultured
people of the neighborhood, and of Philadelphia. Many
famous men were guests in her home. In 1788 she
became a patron of the Hatboro Library, sending sudi
a large donation that a carpenter had to be employed
to build extra shelves. This was quite an event in
Hatboro.
In 1791 she sold the property. Ten years later she
died, broken-hearted. About the same time the estate
came into the hands of the Penrose family.
Some distance beyond Graeme Park, toward Doyles-
town, at Halliwell, a picturesque bam in the rear of
Horsham Hotel has a date stone telling that it was
built by G. P. (George Palmer) in 1788.
Thirteen years later the overseers of the road built
a stately stone bridge over the Neshaminy at Edison-
ville which bears the traffic as well as ever, and promises
to stand for another hundred years.
270
THE OLD YORK ROAD
Two miles beyond Neshaminy Creek ia Doyles*
town, a town built on a tract conveyed by William
Penn to the Free Society of Traders in 1682. Orig-
inally this contained 20,000 acres. Two of the earliest
residents on this tract were Jeremiah Langhome and
Joseph Kirkbride, who ran away from his master in
England and came to America on the Welcomet with
Penn. The name Doyles Town was given to the place
when William Doyle, in 1745, opened a tavern at a
spot ** between two great roads, one leading from Dur-
ham to Philadelphia,'' the other ''From Wells' Ferry
toward the Potomac."
Four miles from Doylestown, in Buckingham Town-
ship, is the grave of King Taminunt, or Chief Tam-
many, the Delaware Indian who was the friend of
William Penn, of whom an early admirer said that ''he
never had his equal. He was in the highest degree
endued with wisdom, virtue, prudence, charity, affa-
bility, meekness, hospitality — ^in short with every good
and noble qualification that a human being may
possess."
This friend of the early settlers, who signed many
of the grants of land made to William Penn, was
constituted by some of his early admirers the patron
saint of America. His name is to-day best known
because of its use by a celebrated New York political
organization.
From Doylestown the Buckingham Pike may be
taken three miles east to the main stem of the York
Road at Centerville. From Centerville, twenty-seven
miles trom Philadelphia, the return trip may be made
271
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
to Philadelphia, or the road may be followed to New
Hope on the Delaware. For the sake of completeness
this narrative will speak of the entire distance from
Willow Grove to New Hope.
When Peter Ealm went over this road in Septem-
ber» 1748, its appearance and surroundings were quite
different. He wrote in his "Travels into North America'':
The country on both sides of the road was covered
with a great forest. ... As we went on in the wood,
we continually saw at moderate distances little fields,
which had been cleared of the wood. These farms
were commonly very pretty, and a walk of trees fre-
quently led from them to the high-road. The houses
were all built of brick, or of the stone which is here
everywhere to be met with. Every countryman, even
though he were the poorest peasant, had an orchard
with apples, peaches, chestnuts, walnuts, cherries,
quinces, and such fruits, and sometimes we saw the
vines climbing along them. The vallies were frequently
provided with little brooks which contained a crystal
stream.
In spite of the fact that there was so much forest
in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, the price of wood
was high. Elizabeth Drinker told of paying, in 1791,
£1.2-6 for half a cordi of hickory wood. Kalm said
the reason firewood was dear was "because the great
and high forest near the town is the property of some
people of quality and fortune, who do not r^ard the
money which they could make of them. . . • they leave
the trees for times to come, expecting that wood will
become much more scarce." When he wrote, the price
for "hiccory" was eighteen shillings a cord.
More than fifty years after Kalm told of the for-
272
THE OLD YORK ROAD
ests on the Old York Road, William Priest, another
tourist, described with relish observations he had made
while traveling:
The chief amusement of the country girls in winter
is sleighing, of which they are passionately fond, so
indeed are the whole sex in this Country. I never
heard a woman speak of this diversion but with rap-
ture. You have doubtless read a description of a deign,
or sledge, as it is common in all northern countries, and
can only be used on the snow. . • • The snow seldom
lies on the ground more than seven or eight days to-
gether. The consequence is, that every moment that
will admit of sleighing is seized on with avidity. The
tavern and innkeepers are up all night, and the whole
country is in motion. When the snow begins to fall,
our planters' daughters provide hot sand, which at
night they place in bags at the bottom of the sleigh.
Their sweethearts attend with a couple of horses, and
away they glide with astonishing velocity; visiting
their friends for many miles around the Country. But
in large towns, in order to have a sleighing frolic in
style, it is necessary to provide a fiddler, who is placed
at the head of the sleighs and plays all the way. At
every inn they meet with on tne road, the company
alight and have a dance.
Probably one of the taverns frequently by these
sleighing parties was the Crooked Billet, in Hatboro.
This has been remodeled into a private dwelling. The
gable end extends over the sidewalk on iron pillars.
It was built in 1750 by John Dawson, who came from
London, and kept a hat factory in the building. This
industry gave the name to the town. Later the sign
of a crooked billet of wood was hung before the door
and travelers were welcomed. At one time a school
18 273
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
was held in the inn. General Washington, in a letter
to Congress dated August 10, 1777, mentions the
Crooked Billet Tavern, and the fact that he had taken
refreshment there when on the way from Valley Forge
to Trenton.
Near the southern limits of Hatboro is Loller
Academy, founded by Robert Loller. He was a school-
teacher, a surveyor, a colonel during the Revolutionary
War, a member of the Assembly, and an Associate
Judge of Montgomery County. At his death he made
provision for the founding of **an academy or semi-
nary of learning.** The building was erected in 1801 at
a cost of eleven thousand dollars. To-day it is used as
a public school. Near the academy is the bridge over
the Pennypack, built in 1780.
The academy was not the first gift to education in
Hatboro. On August 2, 1755, at the Crooked BiUet,
four men agreed that the town must have a library.
At this time there were not over eight or nine public
libraries in the colonies, two of these being in Phila-
delphia. The town was small, and they knew that the
beginning must be modest. But they were too wise
to wait until there were more people who could be
called on for gifts. At this preliminary meeting the
four men present paid in forty-four pounds as a begin-
ning.
The purpose of the library they proposed to found
was thus announced :
Whereas, black and dark ignorance, with all the
horrid concomitants that generally accompany or flow
from it, does about this time greatly prevail in these
274
THP. OT.n vnnic nnAn ^
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Robert LoUer became a member in 1787. Throu^
the libraiy was incorporated in May of that year.
The next advance steps were the purchase of a lot and
the erection of a building. The present building was
completed in 1851.
Perhaps some of the officers in the Continental
army were early patrons of the library, for Hatboro was
a center of operations for some time during the early
months of 1778. While Washington was at Valley
Forge he commissioned General Lacey to see that the
country between the Delaware and the Schuylkill
rivers, a distance of thirty miles from the city, was
thoroughly patrolled, so as to prevent the entrance of
supplies into Philadelphia while it was in the hands of
the British. General Lacey's headquarters were at
Graeme Park and his supply depot was at Doylestown.
Later the Crooked Billet became headquarters.
A further task of moment was the guarding of the
mills on the Neshaminy lest the large supplies of grain
and flour prepared for Washington's men should be
seized by foraging parties of the enemy.
The instructions given to scouting parties were
necessarily severe:
If your party should meet with any people going to
market, or any persons whatever going to the dty, and
they endeavor to make their escape, you will order
your men to fire on the villains. You will leave them
on the roads, their bodies and their marl
together.
In April four hundred militia were encamped on
the York Boad above Hatboro. The conunander^s
276
I U ALU WELL. 1T8H
VJlBH UUUSt^ SEAR NORWTON BOAD
THE OLD YORK ROAD
plan to prevent a surprise by the enemy miscarried.
General Laoey was in bed when a body of British, who
had approached from Philadelphia by way of Fox
Chase, were discovered withia two hundred yards.
Later it was found that another party had stolen over
to Horsham, to cut off the retreat of the Americans.
In the retreat and battle that followed, many men
were killed.
In the northern limits of Hatboro, by the side of
the road, is a monument which bears this inscription:
Crooked Billet Battle
May 1st, 1778
General John Lacey Commanded
the American Patriots, who were
here engaged in the conflict
for Independence.
About seven years after the engagement commem-
orated by this monument, a hero of peace did some-
thing not far away of which information is given on a
tablet fixed to the fence by the roadside:
John Fitch Here
Conceived the idea of the
first steamboat with
Sidewheels
on a pond below Davis-
ville in 1785.
This experiment paved the way for a trial of which
Rembrandt Peale told in a letter to a friend written
on July IS, 1848:
In the spring of 1785, hearing there was something
curious to be seen at the floating bridge on the Schuyl-
kill at Market Street, I eagerly ran to the spot, where
277
OLD BOADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
I found a few persons collected and eagerly gazing at
a shallop at anchor below the bridge with about 20
persons on board. On the deck was a small furnace,
and machinery connected with a coupling crank, pro-
jecting over the stem to give motion to three or four
paddles, resembling snow shovels, which hung into the
water. When all was ready, and the power of steam
was made to act, by means of which I was then ignorant,
knowing nothing of the piston except in the^common
pump, uie paddles began to work, pressing against the
water backward as tiiey rose, and the boat, to my
ffreat delight, moved against the tide, without wind or
hand, but in a few minutes it ran.aground at an angle
of the river, owing to the difficulty of managing the
unwieldy rudder, which projected eight or ten feet.
It was soon badked off and proceeded slowly to its
destination at Gray's Ferry. So far it must have been
satisfactory to Mr. Fitch in this his first public experi-
ment.
Later experiments were still more successful, and
soon Fitch's boats were running regularly on the Del-
aware. But difficulties of various kinds followed, and
the boats ceased to run.
Another reminder of the days when the improve-
ments that make life pleasant to-day were in their
infancy is to be seen on the farm of John S. Engart,
at Norriton road. In the rear of the farmhouse is a
little frame building, weather-worn and falling into
ruins, where the children of the neighborhood used to
gather for instruction in the days before the oigani-
zation of the first free schools. It was the custom then
to have subscription schools, where the expense would
be shared by those benefited.
The picturesque house near the old school attracts
978
THE OLD YORK ROAD
the attention of the visitor by its semicircular
veranda, and because of the curious cave house before
the front door.
The most famous school building in early Pennsyl-
vania, the Log College of Gilbert Tennent, was located
about a mile north of Hartsville. The building has
entirely disappeared, but the work done by the modest
institution has had its effect through all the years
since it was opened in 1727. Many ministers were
educated here, at a time when [there was no opportu-
nity at any other place within reach to secure the needed
preparation for the work. About the time the Log
Collie closed Princeton College began its work. While
it cannot be said that Princeton is a direct outgrowth
of the Log College, it is certain that the school at Harts-
ville paved the way for the permanent institution.
Gilbert Tennent supported himself by farming and
preaching at Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, a mile
from Hartsville, on the Neshaminy. This church was
founded in 1710, and the building was erected in 174S,
though it was remodeled in 1842. Four years before
this building was occupied, George Whitefield, the
great evangelist, wrote in his Journal:
I set out for the Neshaminy, twenty miles distant
from Trent Town, where old Mr. Tennent Uves, and
where I was to preach to-day, according to appoint-
ment. About twelve o'clock we came thither, and
found about three thousand people gathered together
in the meeting-house yard.
The church on the Neshaminy is now called Ne-
shaminy of Warwick. Li the village is Neshaminy of
279
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Wanninster Church. In early days a disagreement of
the members was followed by an amicable division of
the property.
Some distance beyond the church in the village the
York Road crosses the Little Neshaminy on an old-
time covered bridge, and then passes the farmhouse
of R. Sherman Robbins, built by William Keith in
176S. On the front wall of the house is a tablet bearing
this inscription:
In this House Washington had
his Headquarters from August 10 to
August 28, 1777, with lS,000i men
encamped near.
Here the Marquis de Lafayette
first joined the army.
This tablet erected by the
Bucks Co. Historical Society, 1897.
This camp on the Little Neshaminy was note-
worthy because here the army remained longer than
at any other spot in Pennsylvania except Valley Forge
and Whitemarsh; because Alexander Hamilton and
John Marshall and James Monroe were among the
officers; because here the flag adopted by Congress
June 14, 1777, was first carried by the Continental
Army; because here Washington felt it necessary to
write to Benjamin Franklin, then in Paris, asking him
to discourage the coming to America of European
officers, lest it become necessaiy to refuse to employ
them, or to employ them at the expense of one-half
of the officers of the army.
The appearance of the soldiers when Lafayette came
THE OLD YORE ROAD
to this camp has been described in Lafayette's Me-
moirs in these vivid words:
About eleven thousand men, ill armed and still
worse clothed, presented a strange spectacle to the
eye of the young Frenchman: their clothes were
parti-colored, and many of them were almost naked;
the best clad wore hunting shirts, large grey linen
coats which were much used in Carolina. ... In spite
of these disadvantages, the soldiers were fine, and the
officers zealous; virtue stood in place of service, and
each day added both to experience and discipline.
On August 2S, learning that the British fleet, on
whose movements he had been waiting, was probably
going north, Washington moved down Old York Road,
and encamped near Nicetown. That evening from his
headquarters at Stenton he issued a general order:
The army is to remove precisely at 4 o'clock in the
morning, if it should not rain. • . . The army is to
march in one column through the City of Philadelphia,
going in at'and marching down Front Street to Chestnut,
and up Chestnut to the Common. A small halt is to be
made about one mile this side of the city until the
rear is clear up and the line in proper order.
When Washington's men passed down the York
Road they must haveseen Buckingham Meeting-House
on the hill beyond Buckingham Road. This meeting,
built in 176S, was used as a hospital when Washington
was at Neshaminy. Many soldiers were buried here.
The Lidians called this region ''The Vale of La
Haska.'' Perhaps the most pleasing view is from the
slope near ''Ingham's Great Spring," as John Melish
called it in 1822. The lake on the right below the
281
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
spring and the old stone house behind the gnarled tree
are features in an unusual landscape.
In early days the York Road led to Coryell's Feny
on the Delaware, where Emmanuel Coryell carried
travelers across the river. In 17S2 he applied for the
exclusive right of keeping ferry for a distance of three
miles above and three miles below this point. Thir-
teen years earlier the ferry was operated by John Wdls.
While at Coryell's Feny Washington planned some
of the important movements that made this section
famous. It is said that at a conference with his gen-
erals here he decided on the Battle of Trenton. From
''Headquarters near Coryell's " (probably in Lambert-
ville» New Jersey, opposite) the Commander-in-Chief
wrote to Major General Arnold on June 22, 1778, that
nearly all his troops had passed safely over the river.
''As soon as we have cleaned the arms and can get
matters in train/' he wrote, "we propose moving
towards Princeton, in ord^ to avail ourselves of any
favorable occasions that may present themselves, for
attacking or engaging the enemy."
The name Lambertville was given to the settlement
on the New Jersey side of the river in 1812, at the
request of Hon. John Lambert, made to the Post Office
Department. Abram Coryell, son of Emmanuel, the
proprietor of the ferry house on the New Jersey side,
was indignant; for some time he persisted in referring
to the place as "Lambert's Villainy."
John Coryell, brother of Abram, was proprietor of
the ferry on the Pennsylvania side at this period, but
it is not recorded that he interposed objections to the
282
11
THE OLD YORE ROAD
mibstitution of the name New Hope for Coryell's Ferry.
The change was made when Benjamin Parry, who
owned mills in New Jersey that were destroyed by
fire, replaced them by mills at Coiyell's Ferry, which
he called New Hope, as an expression of his desire for
the future.
In 1784 Mr. Parry built a fine stone mansion near
the ferry landing. To-day the place is the home of
Richard Randolph Parry, third in direct succession
from the builder.
From New Hope to Trenton a trolley runs along
the historic New Hope Road, passing, within two miles
of New Hope, the abandoned Neeley house, built in
1757, where were quartered, just before the Battle ci
Trenton, Lieutenant James Monroe, later the fifth
President of the United States, and other officers,
including Captain James Moore, who died there and
was buried near by.
At Taylorsville, the next ferry below the Meeting
House, a monument calls attention to the fact that
here Washington and his men began the night crossing
of the Delaware amid the ice floes, and so began the
movement that crowned with glory expeditions center-
ing about the Old York Road.
Just before the qfossing of the Delaware, a Phila-
delphia friend spent an hour with the Comimander-in-
Chief at his headquarters near the Delaware. He told
later of his impressions of Washington:
He appeared much depressed and lamented the
ragged and dissolving state of his army in affecting
terms. I gave him assurance of the disposition of
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
Congress to support him, under his present
and distresses. While I was talking to him I observed
him to play with his pen and ink upon several small
pieces of paper. One of these by accident fell upon the
floor near my feet. I was struck with the inscription
upon it. It was, ''Victory or death."
''Victory or death" was the countersign of the
American troops at the Battle of Trenton.
284
XI
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
THE first portion of what became the King's
Road to New York was in use in 1677. In 1681
overseers were appointed by the Court at Up-
land to repair the highway from Bristol to the Falls of
the Delaware (Trenton). On the 22d of 6th month,
1700, William Penn wrote to James Logan asking him
to *'urge the justices about the bridge at Pannepeck
and Poquessin that he might be able to come to the
dty." On November 19, 1686, at a meeting held in
Philadelphia, the Provincial Council ordered the road
called the King's Highway to be laid out to Morris-
ville. This was the first public road surveyed in
Bucks County.
There was no regular transportation line along the
road until 1725. In that year an enterprising man
advertised that four wheel chairs would be run, on
notice to the proprietor, from the Three Tuns tavern,
on Chestnut street, between Second and Third streets,
all the way to Frankford. The fare was to be ten shil-
lings. At intervals through the next thirty years an-
nouncement was made of further ventures in trans-
portation until it became possible to go all the way from
Philadelphia to New York by stage wagons. The
first stage coach through from Philaddphia to New York
began to run in 1756; the time required was three days.
286
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
In 178S Johann Schoepf wrote:
A diligence known as the Flying Machine makes
daily trips between Philadelphia and New York, cover-
ing the distance of 90 miles in one day, even in the
hottest weather, but at the expense of the horses, only
three times changed in the journey. Thusthelast trqp
two horses died in harness, and four others were jaded.
These flying machines are in reality only large wooden
carts with tops, light to be siu%, but neither conve-
nient nor of neat appearance. They carry from ten to
twelve passengers, are drawn by four horses only, and
flo very fast. The charge for the joum^ is 5-6 Span-
ish dollars the passenger.
In 1819 there were fourteen regular lines in oper-
ation between the cities. One of these, the CidzcDB*
Line, advertised in this way:
For the express accommodation of the dtixens of
Philadelphia and New York the subscribers offer for
their patronage a Line of Coaches, which for comfort
and security shall not be surpassed by any line of
coaches on ike continent, to leave the U. S. Mail Coach
office, 30 South Third Street, daily at 5 o'clock and
arrive at New York the same day in The Coach^ which
will cross the North River by Steam Boats. This Line
will be under the same direction as the Mail Lines, and
will carry six passengers only inside, and for 40 dollars
the Coach can be tidcen by a party, who shall not be
disturbed by way passengers.
This was thought to be rapid transit, but it was
slow in comparison to what was prophesied in 1814 by
Oliver Evans, a Philadelphia merchant. He declared:
The time will come when people will travel in stages
moved by steam engines at fifteen to twenty miles an
hour. A passenger wiU leave Washington in the mom-
286
SECTIONS OF ROAD MAP FROM PHILADELPHIA TO NEW YORK
From 'The Traveller's Directory," S. S. Moore and T. W. Jones, 180«
(Continued on reverse side)
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
iiig» breakfast in Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and
8up at New York on the same day. Railways will be
biult of wood or iron, or on smooth paths of broken
stone or gravel, to travel as well by night as by day.
A steam engine will drive a carriage one hmidred and
eighty miles in twelve hours. Engines will drive boats
ten or twelve miles an hour, and hundreds of boats will
be run on the Mississippi and other waters, as was
prophesied thirty years ago by Fitch.
He attempted to prove the practicability of the
steam carriage by building his curious Gructor Amphi-
bolis, or Amphibious Digger, by means of which the
Board of Health was to dean the docks. But he was
years ahead of the time, and both his invention and
his theories were ignored.
Travel became easier when the road was made a
turnpike. In 180S a company was chartered to com-
plete the road to the ferry at Morrisville, though the
work was not finished until 1812. The first bridge at
this point was not built until 1806. This was the sec-
ond covered bridge in America. The cost of the road
was $209,300.
The tolls on this turnpike and on the road between
Trenton and New York, and the charges on the ferry
boats, were heavy. In 1800 the tolls on a coach
from Philadelphia to New York were five dollars and
a half. No wonder the turnpike paid a ten per cent
dividaid!
One of the early industries on the Bristol Road was
the transportation of powder from the warehouse built
by William Chancellor, at the direction of the Council,
beyond the dty limits, at the edge of a swamp. Here
287
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
all the gunpowder brought to the city was to be stored.
Chancellor was required to be on haxtd two hours each
morning and two hours each afternoon, to leceiveor
deliver casks. It was provided that he should have
twelve pence per barrel per month for his services. As
there was a penalty of £12 for keeping elsewhere within
two miles of the city a quantity of powder greater than
twelve pounds. Chancellor had a fair income, and the
carters who carried the powder to and from the city
were in demand, though they were not at all willing to
take the risk.
History tells of other travelers on this old road who
did not move with as much deliberation as the powder
carriers. At five o'clock in the evening of April 24,
1775, an express rider startled the people of Frankford
by the tidings of the Battle of Lexington. He had
ridden from Boston in five days, and had come from
New York since two o'clock that morning.
Eight years later, on December 8, 1783, there waa
a triumphal procession at the same point; George
Washington had come to town. The Pennsylvania
Packet of December 9 told the story:
His Excellency was met at Frankfort, by the Pres-
ident of this State, the honorable the financiers, gen-
erals St. Clair and Hand, the Philadelphia troop of
horse, and a number of the citizens, who nad the pleas*
ure of conducting the General into the city. SQs ar-
rival was announced by a discharge of cannon, the
bells were rang, and the people testified their satisfac-
tion, at once more seeing their illustrious chief, by
repeated acclamations.
In and round Frankford are many homes that
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
speak eloquently of those days when history was made.
One of these, Cedar Grove, at Harrowgate, on Tabor
Road, dose to the turnpike, was built by Mrs. Joseph
Paschall in 1748. The first owner of the land on which
the house stands was Thomas Coates, a Friend, who
came to Philadelphia in 1683, but left for England in
1691, when word reached him that his brother-in-law,
George Palmer, had been taken prisoner by Algerian
pirates who held him for ransom. Soon after his
return he planned for a home of his own, as is evident
from this notice:
At a Monthly meeting at the home of Robert Ewer
the twenty-fifth day of the seventh month, 1696, Mary
Sibthorp and Joan Forrest presented Thomas Coate
and Beulah Jacoes a second time to this Meeting, and,
after inquiry, nothing appeared to obstruct the pro-
ceeding, they were left to consmnmate their Marriage
in the face of God.
In 1714 Mr. Coates bought land in Frankford and
established a plantation. In 1748 his daughter built
on part of the land two rooms on the first floor of the
present Cedar Grove mansion, two rooms on the sec-
ond floor, and the attic. This was thought to be suf-
ficient, for her only purpose was to provide a sort of
rest house for use during periodical visits to the planta-
tion. But later, when she proposed to make a summer
home here, the house was enlarged. The garden was
a feature of special beauty. This was kept up till the
house was abandoned in 1888 because of the encroach-
ment of the railroad.
The mineral spring near Cedar Grove was a pop-
19 289
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
ular resort in the early days. To this came many trav-
elers from the dty and beyond.
On Powder Mill Lane is the early home of Com-
modore Stephen Decatur, who will always figure in
American histoiy because of his victories over the
Algerian Pirates in the early years of the nineteenth
century. The caretakers of the house proudly point
to a pane of glass on which the name of Decatur was
scratched with a diamond.
Wain Grove, located to the east of the Pennsyl-
vania tracks near the Frankford Station, was also a
mere plantation house when the first section was built
by Robert Wain, a Philadelphia merchant, once a
member of the Assembly. Later the house was en-
larged. Then the merchant lived here and made regu-
lar trips to the city, in his family coach. This was
provided with **a coachman in purple livery in front
of the long body, swinging on the leathern strap, and
two purple footmen standing on the footboard at the
back.'* This house, also, has been abandoned.
A third abandoned house is Port Royal, not far
from Wain Grove, on Tacony Street. Edward Stiles,
the builder, named the house after his birthplace in
Bermuda. The story is told of Mrs. Stiles that on
December 6, 1777, as she was driving in a chaise to
Philadelphia, from Port Royal, her only companion
being a boy servant, she was overtaken by a troop of
British Light Horse, who took from her both horse and
chaise, so that she had to walk to the dty.
An old mansion that may soon be sacrificed to the
railroad is Chalkley Hall, located in the Y between
290
Tbt vine >t iIh Mi iti
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
the New York Division of the Pennsylvania
and the tracks leading to the Delaware bridge. The
small wing was built before 1723, but the main part of
the house dates from 1776. The stone of which the
older portion was built was brought from England.
The first owner, Thomas Chalkley, was bom in
London in 1675, and came to Philadelphia in 1701. He
was a merchant and a mariner, but in later life he gave
more time to his travels from Meeting to Meeting as
a preacher than to his business. He removed from the
city to a small plantation at Frankford in 172S, *'in
order to be more retired and for health's sake." At
the time of his removal he spoke as if he would be
unable to travel much more, yet he made many other
long trips, endiuing great hardships. In 1724, for
instance, he told this incident:
On the road my horse gave a sudden and violent
start out of the path, and threw me down, and before
I could get up again, he struck my face and on my
right eye with his foot, being newly shod, which stunn'd
me for the present; but as soon as I open'd that eye
which was unhurt, I perceived that I lay on my bade,
under my horse's belly, with my head between his fore
feet.
His wounds were nursed, at a farmhouse near by,
for several days; then he was taken to his home at
Frankford, "where," he wrote, "my longing wife with
some surprize, received me very affectionately and
thro her care and continual application, I recover'd,
that I could see fairly well with spectacles, which I
was obliged to use for some months.'*
Then he moralized a bit:
301
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
Such accidents plainly show us the neoeasi^ for
Ereparing for sudden death, as we know not when, or
ow, we may go off the stage of this life.
Of another accident he told thus:
It had been a time of pretty much rain, and the
waters thereby being out and high, going over a ford,
my mare got among the rock (it being a very rodi^
creek). She fell down, and the stream being very
strong, she rowled upon me, and, being intangled with
the Stirrip, I could not easily clear myself, but I gave
a spring from her, and tried to clear myself from her;
and when I was clear, I got to her again, and laid hold
of her mane, and thro' the good providence of God»
got well out with the mare on dry land, which was a
remarkable deliverance.
In 1725 he had a third trying accident:
My cart wheel, being iron bound, ran over me, and
my horse kick'd me on the head; the wheel put my
shoulder out, and the horse wounded my head so that
the scul was bare, and my leg was sorely bruised.
Thomas Chalkley's daughter Rebecca married Abel
James in 1747, and Chalkley Hall passed to them.
Mr. James was a member of the tea-importing firm oi
James & Drake. On October 16, 177S, an indignation
meeting was held at the State House in Philadelphia
because word had come of the approach of the tea ship
Polly, under consignment to the firm. The meeting
was held some time before the meeting in Boston
which led to the famous tea party.
At the uigent request of the citizens the consignees
promised not to receive the vessel.
Later Mr. James employed himself in buflding the
202
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
larger portion of the house. This was completed long
before Whittier's visit in 1888. It was after the visit
that the Quaker poet wrote the poem **Chalkley Hall,"
finding his inspiration in the story of the voyages and
missionary labors of its first owner:
O, far away, beneath New England's sky.
Even when a boy.
Following my plough by Merrimack's green shoie*
His simple record I have pondered o'er
With deep and quiet joy.
And hence this scene, in sunset glory warm, —
Its woods around.
Its still stream winding on in light and shade.
Its soft, green meadows and its upland shade, —
To me is holy ground.
On September 27, 1745, Isaac Norns, who married
Mary Logan of Stenton, passed the site of this house
when he was on his way to Albany to obey a commis-
sion given to him and his party by the Assembly; they
were to hold a conference with the Indians of the Five
Nations who had been requested by the French to
take up the hatchet with other Indians. From his
home in Fair Hill Norris went on to Stenton, then
crossed to Frankford, and took the Bristol Road to
New York,
In 1787 a traveler on the road who came from the
opposite direction, Dr. Manasseh Cutler of Connecti-
cut, wrote of his impressions of the country about
Frankford:
The numerous stacks of grain in the field demon-
strated the richness of the soil. ... At almost every
293
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
houae the f annen and their wives were sittiiig in the
cool enterior, or under the piaszas and shady trees
about their doon. I observed the men generally woie
fine HoUand shirts with the sleeves phiited, the women
in dean, coci^ white dresses, enjoying the ease and
pleasure of domestic life, wHh few cares, less labor,
and abounding ploity.
The milestones now on the road are not the stones
that were seen by these old travders; the present
stones were placed by the Bristol Turnpike Company
during the ccmstruction of the road in 1804 and later.
An interesting stoiy about these earlier stones, none
of whidi have been located, is found in the minutes of
the Hiiladdphia Contributionshq>:
May 16th 1764: Peter Beeve, Joseph Saunders,
and Thomas Wharton, who were requested by the
Board of Directors to apply the Fines arising from non-
attendance of the Directors since the year 1761 in
purchasing milestones, made the foUowing rqport, viz:
*^e the Subscribers b^ leave to Beport to the
Directors of the Fire Insurance Office, that. Agreeable
to their Bequest *that we would procure a suffident
Number of Milestones and fix them on the Boad lead-
ing to Trenton Ferry and apply to such persons as
would be capable of Measiuing the Distance, and
placing them properly,' That you would pay the Cost
and expence thereof out of the Fines that were paid by
the Directors for Non attendance since the year 1761.
''We procured the Stones, and apply 'd to John
Lukins, Surveyor General, Philip Syng, Jacob Lewis,
and Thomas Gordon, Gentn. to join us in measuring
the Distance from Philaddphia, to the Edge of the
Biver at the Feny leading to Trenton, who Cheerfully
undotook the Serving, and on the 15tii Instant at 5 o
Clo. in the Morning we bqpm to Measure from the
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
Middle of Market Street in Front Street, and at the
Distance of each Mile, affix'd or planted a Stone marked
with proper Characters to describe the Distance from
this City, and when arrived at the Feny found it to
be 29 Miles & 24 Chains to the Edge of the River,
having passed thro* the New Road leading thro' Penns-
burg Mieumer, as it is the most direct and likely to be
used, the distance being shortened more than One mile.
'^The Cost of the Stones, with the ezpence attend-
ing the planting them amounts to Thirty three poimds
Seven shillings, and five pence. We having purchased
two Stones more than was necessaiy, bemg numbd.
SO & 81 Gave them to Nathl. Parker who promised to
fix them on the Road leading to New York.
Up to this time there were no milestones* In 1748
Peter Kalm said *'the inhabitants only computed
distances by guess/'
A short distance beyond the ninth milestone is
the old General Wayne Tavern. When such an inn was
opened in the days of the stage coach's glory, the pro-
prietor was apt to prepare some such announcem^it as
the following, which was published in 1816 by the
Washington Inn of Holmesburg:
Ye good and virtuous Americans, come! Whether
business or pleasure be your object — Call and be re-
freshed at the sign of Washington. Here Money and
merit will secure you respect and honor and a hearbr
welcome to choice liquors and to siunptuous fare. Is
it cold? You shall find a comfortable fire. Is it warm?
Sweet repose in a cool and grassy shade. In short,
every exertion shall be made to grace the sign of the
hero and statesman who was *'First in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Perhaps the man who wrote this was familiar with
296
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
the exuberant lines in "'The Flourishing State of Penn-
sylvania/* written in 1686 by Judge John Holme, who
lived in this neighborhood. In the course of this long
poem of strange meter, or no meter, he called attention to
The gardners of the soil, the cheapness of the land.
The trees so abundant in variety
That scarcely any man can name them all;
The fruits and nuts, strawberries and plumbs,
Which pleaseth those well, who to eat tliem comes.
Beyond the River Road is an old estate noted
eighty years ago for its luxuriant fruits and flowers.
This is now the Edwin Forrest Home for Actors, but
at that time it was the country seat of Caleb Cope, who
bought it from Josiah W. Gibbs, to whom the estate
came from the descendants of Judge Holme. Mr.
Gibbs bought the property in 1810 and built the man-
sion. During Mr. Cope's ownership the grounds were
planted with rare and beautiful flowers, shrubs and
trees. Greenhouses were filled with blooming plants,
there were luxuriant grape arbors, and at the end of
the house was a stone wall banked with ferns and
mosses. From far and near visitors came to this boww
of beauty.
Holmesburg is located on a cieek of many names.
The English form is Pennepack, and the Indian meaning
of the word is **deep, dead water.'' The earliest
Swedish map called the stream Pemschpaska Kfl,
while a variation was Penickpackakyl. William Penn
in 1701 called it Pemmapecka.
The turnpike recrosses the stream on one of the
oldest bridges in the country. In 1697 the stones were
206
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
laid, and ever since it has done its work well. It was
widened when the trolley was built along the road,
and the only part of the structure that has called for
repair is the modem retaining wall.
On the bank of the creek a short distance toward
the Delaware are the waUs of a mill built the same
year as the bridge. The stone for the walls was quar-
ried near by, but the bricks used in its construction
were imported from England. Until 1880 the mill was
in use, vessels coming up the creek for cargoes of flour
and com meal. On October 11, 1880, it was burned,
but the walls are as strong as ever.
For generations schoolboys crossed this bridge on
their way to Lower Dublin Academy, a short distance
beyond the bridge, within sight of the turnpike. Thomas
Holme, William Penn's Surveyor General, was the
founder of the school. When he died he left a legapy of
£4 to be used for school purposes, or to put out some
young man to learn a trade. Not until 1723 was any
action taken by his executors. At that time an acre
and a half was set aside for a school site, and a log
schoolhouse was erected. This was used later as the
residence of the principal, and it is now a part of the
janitor^s house, located beyond the present schoolhouse.
In this primitive building Stephen Decatur went to
school.
The Academy became so popular that a larger
building was needed, and in 1794 steps were taken to
provide funds for' it. The Trustees were incorporated,
and Governor Mifflin authorized a lottery. The
profits from this were not satisfactory ; though $35,000
297
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
in tickets were sold» expenses and prizes used more than
thirty-one thousand of the amount, and the Txustees
looked with dissatisfaction on the thirty-eight hundred
dollars remaining.
The new building was in use in 1800, though it was
not completed until 1808. The cost was $5»124^1.
Included in the total were such expenses as ** 1 Qut of
rum for the porters hauling loges/' 2 shillings, and **7
Quts Rum, for the Raising," sixteen shillings and four
pence.
It was required of pupils that they attend from
eight to five daily with an intermission for lunch. Holi-
days were granted ** every other Saturday, a week -dur-
ing Harvest, the day of the general election, and the
25th of December, conunonly called Christmas day/*
Those who look at the academy building from the
road think there is a clock in the front gable, but dose
inspection shows that a good place for a dock is boarded
up. For many years there was a dock here, and it was
the pride of all Holmesburg.
The story of this dock is interesting. Edward
Duffield, a jewder and dock-maker, had a store ''at
Second and Arch Streets, Philadelphia, where Wash-
ington and Franklin were frequent visitors. During
one of his visits Franklin, annoyed by the frequent
interruption of those who came in to ask the time,
suggested to the proprietor that he construct a dodc
with two faces, to be placed before the store in such a
way that passersby on either street might see it. The
suggestion was followed, and soon Duffield's dock was
looked on as a standard timekeeper.
298
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
The dockmaker, who lived near the academy, was
President of the Trustees, and when the new building
was nearly completed he decided to give the clock to
the institution. A place was made for it, and on Octo-
ber 20, 1802, the thirty pound shot used for a weight
was raised and the clock began to keep time in the new
location. There it remained imtil it was worn out.
Thomas Holme, who was responsible for the acad-
emy, is buried under the trees in the field back of the
institution. The monument above his grave was built
by the trustees.
The academy building is now the property of the
school district, but the trustees, who maintain their
organization because of the Thomas Holme Libraiy,
which was an outgrowth of the academy foundation,
still hold their annual May meeting in the original
academy building, a structure so low that a man of
medium height feels that he must stoop if he would
not strike the ceiling.
Lower Dublin Academy's first building was in its
youth when the Red Lion Lm, across the Poquessing»
was built. Li 17S0 Philip Amos applied for a license
to keep a public-house ''near Poquessing Creek, on
the highway from Philadelphia to Bristol.*' Seven-
teen years later, when a survey of the road was ordered,
it was noted that the Widow Amos had succeeded in
control of the Red Lion. A tablet on the wall of the
inn states that the delegates from Massachusetts to
the first Continental Congress dined here on August
27, 1774.
Captain Benjamin Laxley, of the Philadelphia
200
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
artillery, once stopped here on his way to Ambqy.
Having started from Frankford at five o'dodc in the
morning, the men were hungry when they reached the
inn at nine o'clock. A demand was made on the pro-
prietor for breakfast, but he said that he did not have
enough bread for five m^i; how then could he feed
one hundred?
In 1788 Johann Schoepf, after passing many such
inns as the Red lion, wrote:
The taverns in the Country are recognizable, even
at a distance, by a sort of gaUows arrangement which
stands out over the road and exhibits the patron oi the
house. So far we have observed many times the coun-
terfeit presentment of Frederick the Second, King ci
Prussia, hung up in this way, that monarch having
been a great favorite of the Americans ever since the war
before the last. We still found a few Greorges, let hang
perhaps, out of sympathy, but of Queens of England
we saw a good many. We have as yet seen no Kmg of
France, but a number of Washingtons and still more
numerous Benjamin Franklins — ^the latter makes a par-
ticularly alluring sign if everything else is as well kepL
A traveler who told of his journeys in this r^on
in 1817 gave a good idea of the fare provided at such
an inn as the Red lion:
The innkeepers of America are, in most villages,
what we call, vulgarly, "topping men," field officers
of militia, with good farms attadbed to their taverns,
so that they are apt to think, what perhaps in a ne^dy-
settled country is not very wide of the truth, that
travelers rather receive than confer a favor by being
accommodated at their houses. They always give us
plentiful fare, particularly breakfast, where v^-cut-
300
E FOQUESSINQ AT
S POQUBHSINO, 1730
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
lets, Bweetmeats, cheese» eggs, and ham were most
liberally set before us. Dimier is a little more than a
repetition of breakfast, with spirits instead of coffee.
I never heard wine called for. The American drink is
a small cider. Rmn, whiskey, and brandy are placed
upon the table, and the use of these left to the discre-
tion of the company, who seem rarely to abuse them.
Tea is a meal of the same solid construction as break-
fast, answering also for supper. The daughters of the
host officiate at tea and breakfast, and generally wait
at dinner.
William Ellery , who passed this way to Philadelphia,
did not have such a pleasing experience. His comment
at one roadside inn was:
Fared poorly and paid highly. The most noted
Taverns do not always afford the best entertainment.
Not far from the Red Lion Inn on the Delaware is
the beautiful estate Andalusia, whose first owner was
John Craig, a Philadelphia merchant, who purchased
it in 1794. His partner, a Spaniard named Sarmiento,
suggested that the Spanish name Andalusia be given
to it. The mansion was erected at once. It soon
became a social center for Philadelphia people.
In 1811 Craig's only daughter married Nicholas
Biddle, whose father won fame as a Revolutionary
patriot, and as Vice President of the CommonwealUi
in 1776, when Franklin was president. During the
residence at Andalusia of Mr. and Mrs. Biddle the
house was enlarged, and the Grecian front was added
by the same architect who designed the main building
of Girard College.
The present owner of Andalusia, Charles J. Biddle,
301
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
preserves the old formal garden, surrounded on two
sides by high, ivy-oovered brick walls. A hedge-
bordered path through the center of the garden dates
from 1815. In the center of the garden is a tree under
which, it is said, Daniel Webster more than once con-
sulted Nicholas Biddle on affairs of state.
A legend popular in the neighborhood is that Black-
beard the Pirate buried treasure in the island near the
mouth of the Poquessing. Many people have tried
to prove the truth of the story by digging for the treas-
ure, but as yet no one has succeeded in the attempt.
Opposite Andalusia is Penn Bhyn, the home of
Mrs. Seton Henry. The mansion dates from 1744,
when Abraham Bickley married Miss SheweU, sister
of the wife of Benjamin West, the artist. At first he
called the estate Belle Voir. The house was remodeled
in 1793.
Beyond Penn Rhyn, on the Delaware, is the famous
State in Schuylkill Fishing Club, organized in 17S2,
for social purposes, by leaders in the colony, including
James Logan. The first club house was built on the
Schuylkill, near the present Girard Avenue Bridge.
The organization was the same as that of the Colony
of Pennsylvania, and the dub thought of itself as hav-
ing colonial rights. An early proclamation was in this
dignified form:
COLOMT OF SCHtnnLKILL 88.
To , SCHULKILLIAN,
AND ALL OTHER ScHULKILLIAN8
WHOM IT HAT CONCERN.
Whereas great quantities of rabbits, squirrels, ph<
302
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
■
ants» partridges, and others of the game kind, have
presumed to mf est the coasts and territories of Schuyl-
kill in a wild, bold and ungovernable manner;
THESE are therefore to authorize and require you,
or any of you to make diligent search for the said rabbits,
squirrels, pheasants, partridges, and others of the game
kind in all suspected places where they may be found,
and bring the respective bodies of so many as you shall
find,^^ before Justices, &c, at a general Court to be held
on Thursday the fourth day of October next, there to
be proceeded against as by the said court shall be
adjudged, and for you or any of you so doing this shall
be your sufficient warrant.
Witness, myself, the twenty-ninth day of Septem-
ber, in the twelfth year of my Government, and Year
of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-
four.
Thomas Strbtch.
(L. S.)
In 1747 the Colony built a Castle which cost £16,
7, 9. For the ground it was decreed that an annual
rent of three fresh perch should be paid.
During the Revolution meetings were not held, but
after the war the Colony was reorganized as the State
in Schuyklill, havihg declared its independence of
Great Britain. Fort St. David's, another fishing dub
on the Schuylkill, which had maintained the organ-
ization of a garrison, united with the State in Schuyl-
kiU.
The building of the Fairmount Dam destroyed the
fishing at the original location, and in 1822 the castle
was loaded on a baige and taken to Rambo's Rock,
opposite Bertram's Gardens. Three years later La-
fayette was the guest of the Club. He was told that
308
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
▼iat cnmplrtrd fab ''tmir of aD the states in the
Then he was made a ■■xii i l^'* am^ gffgnfti the
For fifty yean the CMb lemained at Guy's Fcny.
Then^ for twdve yeais^ a tenqpotaiy home at the month
of the Ifjawahirtaw was ocoqiied, hot in 1888 the
castle at day's Fcny was taken on a barge to the
new location on^the Ddawaie. Here the ancient
castle was erected not fair from the mansion long known
as the CkM^ Hoose. whidi was pmdiaaed by the State
inSdufylkilL
A portion of this bride manainn dates from 17SS.
The name Qock House was given to it becaoae of a
ciicnlar window in the front gaUe, in whidi, for sixty
yean» a h^A bmned on stormy n^its for the goidanoe
of the b ar g eme n on the river/ Flmm the stream* in
the daytime, the window looked like a hqge dock*
Hie membership of the dob that oocl^lies this
bnilding» said to be the oldest KngKsh-^ieaking dnb
in the world, is limited to thirty, with a few ai^irentioes.
It still observes the carious by4aws that have come
down from colonial days. These state that an appren-
tice shall ring the alarm bdl in the steeple o£ the Castle
to summon the citirens to meetmg when thereunto
directed by the Governor or other presidiiig officer.
*'It is further decreed that the ^prentices shall not
take seats at the dinner table with the members and
guests until after the seccmd royal toast has been
drunk, unless invited by the Governor."
Less than a mile from the State in Sdiuylldll, Dunk's
Ferry Road leads directly to the river. Here is the
904
Tbe bai» of :iln>. Stton Hn
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
old Dunk's Feny Hotel, which dates from 17S3. In early
days, when there was a popular crossing at this point»
the hotel had many patrons. On December 12, 1776,
General Washington asked that Dunk's Ferry be care-
fully guarded, lest the British should land there. When
he was about to cross the Delaware on his way to sur-
prise the Hessians at Trenton, the order was given that
cooperating troops should cross the river at this point.
An attempt was made, but ''floating ice rendered the
passage of the river impracticable," according to the
report of the leader to whom the command was given.
Fortunately Washington was made of sterner stuff
than the leader of the forces at Dunk's Ferry. Float-
ing ice could not hold him back when he had made up
his mind that the river must be crossed.
From Dunk's Feny it is not far to Eddington, on
the turnpike, where Neshaminy Creek (called Sham-
mony by Poor Will's Almanac, in 1770) may be crossed
by a bridge that is a trifle more substantial than the
^indifferent floating bridge" of which the Traveller's
Directory of 1802 told. Over this bridge the toll for
man and horse was six cents, and for a coach and four
horses thirty-seven and a half cents.
The first attempt to supplant the ferry by a bridge
was made by John Butler, in 1778. He completed the
approach for a floating bridge, but most of this was
destroyed by a storm.
Many of the travelers who crossed the Neshaminy
at this point traveled in the plebeian horse and chair.
In 1767 Elizabeth Drinker told of an adventure she had
when driving with a child in one of these vehicles:
so 306
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
A young fellow on a mad Colt galloped against our
Mare with such force as occasioned my falling out of
the Chair; having the child in my arms asleep, and
endeavoring to save it, I fell with ail my weight on my
right foot, and hurt it so much that I was unable to
set it to ye ground for upwards of S weeks. Ye child,
through mercy, escaped unhurt. I have lately met
with so many frights that I cannot bear to think of
riding with any satisfaction.
Samuel Breck in 1789 described a chair vividly:
A friend lent me a sulky, which was nothing more
than a common arm-chair placed on leather traces,
and suspended over a couple of wheels. The whole
carriage was scarcely heavier than a wheelbarrow.
When the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad was
chartered in 18S2, both the law-makers and the pro-
moters thought it might be necessary to continue such
primitive means of transportation. This is evident
from the fact that the company was authorized:
To place on the railroad machines, wagons, vehicles^
carriages, and teams of any kind, and to transport
goods and passengers, said road to be a public hi^-
way for conveyance of passengers, and transportation,
under rates to be charged by the Company.
Probably, however, the people thought that such
a roadway for their accustomed vehicles would be a
vast improvement over the conditions described by
a traveler long before the turnpike was built:
Stumps of trees, left uprooted for Time to consume,
yet impede your progress even in the much frequented
road between the two largest cities in the United States.
Several miles immediately before you enter Trenton
the road is so bad that the driver, with whom I dbose
806
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
to flit, told me his horses stalled, that is, were for some
time unable to drag the wagon over the worst places.
He also said that the road had not been repaired within
his memory.
Only eight years before the railroad was chartered
Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph,
wrote to Mrs. Morse after a trip over the turnpike:
In the land carriage we occupied three stages over
a very rough road. In crossing a small creek in a ferry-
boat the stage ahead of ours left the boat a little too
soon and came near upsetting in the water, which
would have put the passengers into a dangerous sit-
uation. As it was, the water came into the carriage
and wet some of the baggage. It was about an hour
before they could get the stage out of the water.
Next came our turn. After traveling a few miles,
the springs on one side gave way and let us down,
almost upsetting us. We got out with difficulty and,
in a few minutes, by putting a rail under one side, we
proceeded on again, jocosely telling the passengers in
the third stage that it was their turn nert.
The good-natured prophecy was fulfilled, for later
in the day, when the stage in which Mr. Morse was a
passenger had halted, it was overtaken by the third
stage, '*with a rail under one side, having met with
a similar accident a few miles after we left them.''
In 1806 John Melish gave a sketch of travel condi-
tions that should be preserved with the letter from
Morse:
There had been an accident to the coach. A spring
broke, and a rail was taken from a fence and stuck
under the wagon to support the weight of the passen-
gers. It was very usual to see on the roads at this time
307
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
vehicles from whose running gears fence rails and the
trunks of small trees, often with the boughs still at-
tached, were dragged along behind.
The weary passengers did not even have the com-
fort of seeing all the sights along the way; some of the
most pleasing estates were located along byways. One
such byway, China Lane, leads toward the Delaware
from Croydon. At the end of the lane is China Hail,
a wooden building, lined with brick, whose builder was
Andreas Everardus Van Braam Houckgeest, who was
once ambassador from Holland to China. William
Penn transferred the property to William Noble in
1688. In these early days the estate was called Rocky
Mount, and later Benger's Mount. It is said that
Joseph Bonaparte, the King of Spain, who lived in
Bordentown, New Jersey, after his exile from France,
looked longingly at China Hall, but he was unable to
buy it, because at that time a foreigner could not hold
property in Pennsylvania.
Bonaparte was frequently seen in this neighbor-
hood. Sometimes he would cross the river on his state
barge, rowed by four men, with American and French
flags flying fore and aft. At other times he drove
over, by way of Trenton. On one of these visits he
had an accident that might have been serious. While
crossing a '"fall back," the name given to a temporary
ditch dug across the road for drainage purposes, the
driver was thrown from his seat; Bonaparte jumped
out hastily and fell on his head. A passing physician
took the injured man to Bristol, and cared for him at
the Delaware House.
308
TO BRISTOL AND TBENTON
Across the lane from China Hall is the noble build-
ing of Bristol College, abandoned and fast falling into
nuns. The institution was opened in 18S4 as a manual
training school. One who has told of the early days of
the school says that the students would stand in line
before China Hall while the president would first
review the crowds and then send off the road section
and the farm section and the shop section. Later on
thb was the seat of a military school, and still later of
a Friends* boarding school for boys. A companion
school for girk was held in China Hall. During the
Civil War the Bristol College became a government
hospital.
Bristol College is a giddy young thing when com-
pared with the town of Bristol. In 1681 Samuel Clift
secured from Sir Edward Andros» Provincial Governor
of New York, a grant of 262 acres including the pres-
ent site of Bristol. There he made his home, some
months before William Penn secured his grant from
Charles H. In June, 1695, at a conference at the house
of Phinehas Pemberton, at the Falls of Delaware, *4t
was shown that the county had as yet no market house;
that for this purpose the ferry opposite Burlington was
regarded as a good location; that ways and streets had
been projected there.*' So the governor and council
were asked to alter or confirm streets and grant a weekly
market. The request was pronounced '^verie reason-
able,'* and in 1696 the town plot of Bristol was laid
down« Thus it became the third oldest town in
Pennqrlvania, Chester and Philadelphia only being
older.
300
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
One of the early buildings in the new town was the
Friends' Meeting House. In 1701 ''it's concluded th^re
be a good, substantial house built, either of brick or
stone,*' and Friends were appointed to find '*the con-
y^entest place." The bricks for the original building
were brought from England. Completed in 171S, the
structure stood till 1728, when it was taken down and
rebuilt. The work was not finished till 1756. Dur-
ing the Revolution the new building was used
as a hospital. On iSeptember 15, 1778, four Friends
were appointed ''to get the meeting house cleared of
the troops at the little end of the house so that it may
be used to meet in."
When the turnpike to Trenton was to be built
through the town, it was the intention to lay it out in
the shortest and straightest possible manner. But the
proprietors of four taverns on the main street petitioned
that the route might be changed so as to pass these
taverns. The directors agreed to make the change,
provided the town would pay five thousand dollars
toward the cost of the road.
An early visitor to Bristol, Alexander Mackraby,
wrote in January, 1768, to Sir Philip Francis, concern-
ing one of the pleasures of the road at the time, sleigh
riding:
I had^ a very cheery one a few days ago. Seven
sleighs with two ladies and two men in each, preceded
by fiddlers on horseback, set out together upon a
snow of about a foot deep on the roads, to a public
house a few miles from town, where we danced, sung
and romped, and eat and drank, and fimsh'd our frolic
in two or three side boxes at the play. You can have
310
KHinihim B. Murril
tnilt U MV« B ItgujF of W
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
no idea of the pulse, seated with pretty women, mid-
deep in snowt your body covered with fur and
flaimell, dear air, bright sunshine, and spotless
sky, horses galloping, every feeling turned to joy
Bad jollity.
A few years later the residents of Bristol had other
things to think of than frolics. All through the Revo-
lution the town was a witness of stirring events. In
1775 many prisoners were brought here from Quebec.
Some passed through Bristol to Easton, but many
others were quartered on the town for some months.
At this time there were but fifty houses in the village,
so the presence of the foreigners created much excite-
ment. During December, 1776, just before the Battle
of Trenton, many soldiers were to be seen on Rad-
diffe Street. Lafayette, after receiving his wounds at
Brandywine, was taken to Bethlehem by way of Bristol.
During the British occupation of Philadelphia a com-
pany of loyalists took the town. And in September,
1781, the French and American armies tramped
through Bristol on the way to meet Comwallis in
Virginia.
After the Revolution there was excitement of a dif-
ferent nature. The Bath Springs, just outside the bor-
ough limits, became famous among health-seekers and
fashionable people both at home and abroad. They
had been known as early as 1700, but the medicinal
value of the water was not appredated; early settlers
spoke of it slightingly as ''that nasty water.'* In 177S
Dr. Rush recommended it as a cure for many diseases,
yet for some years few visitors were attracted by the
311
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
springs. But when the people did hepn to oome, there
was a rush:
The daily appearance of the old stage wagon, the
arrival and departure of guests, the travel to and fro
from the Bath Springs, the daily landing of the river
boats, gave the old town the appearance of prosperity.
Two race courses, one below Bristol, and the omer at
the Springs, enlivened the town.
The popularity of the resort was at its height in
1816, when a ball was held at the Springs in celebration
of the dose of the War of 1812. Visitors came from
far and near.
Outside of the great, lumbering coach, which every
family of means possessed in those days, the only means
of conveyance was by stage. The turnpike between
Philadelphia and Trenton had been completed but a
short time and three rival lines of stages jolted the
guests over the road.
The discovery of Saratoga Springs in 1822 and the
State law closing the race track sounded the death
knell of the Springs, though the bath houses were not
removed until 1870.
The Bristol Town Hall on Raddiffe Street is a curi-
ous building with a curious story. In 1811 Samuel
Scotton devised $200 to the borough for the purchase
of a town clock, the money to be paid provided the
council should build a hall to receive the dock, within
five years after the death of his wife. The widow lived
for fifteen years, and the officials lost sight of the leg-
acy during the interval. One day, four years and ten
months after her death, the Burgess discovered the
812
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
Beoord. Two Taluable weeks were frittered away in a
dSscussion of location. There were those who wanted
the hall built so that traveleis on the Delaware could
see that Bristol had a town dock. When the present
location on Raddiffe Street was dedded on, but six
weeks remained for the erection of the building. Oper-
ations were begun about the middle of November^
18S1, and on December SI the structure was roofed in»
the legacy was paid, and the dock was secured. An
early historian calculated that the town had spent
$S781 to secure a gift of $200!
A six-mile ride from Bristol on the Beaver Dam
Road leads to a house that antedates the founding of
the borough. This is Bolton Farm, the country home
of Effingham B. Morris, in whose possession are the
original deeds from William Penn. The estate is one
of the most beautiful in the vicinity of Philaddphia.
Bolton Farm was originally the property of Phinehas
Pemberton, who came from England on the Svbmis"
sion^ sailing a few days later than William Penn. On
November 17, 1683, he bought five hundred acres
on the Delaware. At first he lived in a house near the
Falls, built in 1690. The original house is the smaller
portion of the present mansion. The larger portion
was built in 1790. The property came into the Morris
family through the marriage of Mary Pemberton to
Anthony Morris, who was fifth in descent from the
original settler of that name.
Much of the land between Tullytown and Morris-
ville, from the railroad to the river, was included in
William Penn's Manor of Pennsbury, which he laid
813
OLD ROADS OUT OF PHILADELPHIA
out in 1683. On the bank of the river, opposite New-
bold Island, he built a mansion at a cost of £7000, of
materials imported from England. Here he lived but
a few months. In 1701 he left the Manor, never to
return. The mansion was torn down just before the
Revolution. Its site was probably about where the
farmhouse of William Leedom now stands. To readi
this point, follow the lower or river road out of Tully-
town, and take the fourth lane on the right. The turn-
pike may be regained by a road that leads directly to
Morrisville.
From the site of the Manor of Pennsbury to Morris-
ville the distance is short. In Morrisville, near the
main business comer, is the house where Geoige Cly-
mer died. He was one of the first and foremost in
opposition to Great Britain, a member of the Coimdl
of Safety, a signer of the Declaration of Independence,
Continental Treasurer, and member of Congress. At
the time of his death, January 23, 1813, the house was
the property of his son.
Near the river end of the street on which is the
bridge over the canal, is an inn, now closed, the rear
portion of which dates from before the Revolution.
In this old portion Washington and many of his gen-
erals, as well as countless men of prominence in the
colonies, must have dined when on their way to or from
Philadelphia, for the inn was located near the entrance
to the ferry.
Judging from the accounts of some early travelers,
many of those who used this f eny at Morrisville thought
it a dangerous passage.
314
TO BRISTOL AND TRENTON
John Bernard wrote in 1797:
Our enjoyment of this ride was interrupted by an
event which had nearly proved a very awful coinci-
dence. On crossing the ferry at Trenton, in one of
those flat-bottomedy low-sided, Dutch floats called
scows, Morris began to relate the circumstances of hav-
ing lost his first wife in this river some twenty years
before, through the four horses of the stage taking
fright, leaping over, and dragging the coach after them;
the rapidity of the tide and the weight of the vehicle
sending it to the bottom with more than half the pas-
sengers. He had scarcely concluded this horrifying
narration when the square sail of the boat, flapping
suddenly in the leader's faces, like a shot over they
instantly sprang, and, but for the dexterity of the
blacks in cutting their traces, there is no doubt we
should have shared the fate we had just heard de-
scribed.
Robert Sutdiffe also had an experience that was
near to tragedy :
Our coachman was unable to see his way, in driving
into the ferry boat, and the wheels on one side of the
carriage passing into the boat whilst those on the other
side went into the Delaware, we narrowly escaped a
plunge into the water. . . . We all got out of the car-
riage into the boat as well as we could; which was no
very easy task, as it was quite dark, and we were with-
out lamp or candle. The driver putting back his horses,
got clear of the boat, and in his second attempt drove
fairly into it, and we crossed the river without further
accident.
At about the same time the Traveller's Directory
gave a better account of the crossing. Although this
816
OLD ROADS OUT OP PHILADELPHIA
was used every day by five four-horse stages between
Pluladelphia and New York, '* besides a great number
of private carriages, chaises, horses, &c,'* the ferry
boats made the trip *'with the greatest safety from
shore to shore, by means of poles, &c."
Fortunately the optimist follows hard on the heds
of the pessimist, not only on the Bristol turnpike, but
on all roads, and at all times.
316
INDEX
Abingtoii Fretbyterum Church» 864
AcAoemy of Nfttural Science, 160;
Loller, 874; Lower Dublin, 897
Aoddenti oo roftd, 60, 18U 180, 134^
607,808
Adventure of Thomas ChalUey, 891,
898; of Elisabeth Drinker, 606; at
MoniayiUe ferry, 315
Agnew, Mary, Bayard Taylor
mourns for, 94
Aleott, Louisa May, birthplace, 818
Allison, James, epitaph of, 888
Amo8,PhiUp^ 809
Andalusia, 801
Andi^ Major, 141, 848
Andios, Sir Edward, 800
Angel House, 185
Annesley, Jamas, "the wandering
heir." 144
Anthracite introduced into Philadel-
phia, 181; discoYered by Indians,
167
Arch, at Valley Forger 168
Am<^d, Major Genml, 888
Arrest of William Moore, 160
Ashe, Thomas. 184
Auction block for slayes, 88
Audubon, John J^ 100-106
Auf-gehende Taune, 857
Automobile anticipated, 78
Avondale Place, 80
Baily, Francis^ 50, 115
BakeK>ven, outdoor, 107
BakeweO, William, 108; William,
Jr.. 104; Lucy, 108; Bin. William.
106
Baliygomingo^ 157
Barren Hill, 184. 885
Bartleson. Levi. 187; Mary. 187
Bartram's Gardens, 84. 808
Bartram* John* 84; William. 85» 86^
Battle of Brandywine^ 88^ 57, 50,
08. 880. 847, 811; of Germantown,
811, 887
B«you Sara, Mrs. Audubon, teacher
at, 106
Bayard, Thomas F., 66, 68, 75
Becket, liesd, nurse of Lafayette^
854
Belle Voir. 808
Benger's Mount, 808
Bernard, John, 815
Bethlehem, 884, 858-855
Bethlehem Road, 884
Bible, first in European language in
America, 818; Septuagint trans-
lated bv Charies Thomson, 140
Bickley, Abraham, 808
Biddle, Charles G., 801; Nicholas,
801
Biordc, Rev. Ericus, 78
Bird-in-Hand Tavern, 158
Blackboard, the Pirate, 58, 808
BUck Valley. 881
Blue BelL 845
Blue Bell Tavern, 48
Boehm, John Philip, 845
Bolton Farm. 818
Bonaparte, Joseph, 808
Bordentown, New Jersey, 808
Boudinot, Greneral, 841
Bradford, William, 807
Bradshaw. Samuel, 108
Brandywine Baptist Church, 08
Brandywine, battle of, 88, 57, 50, 08,
880, 847, 811
Brandywine, Meadows, 70
Bray, C. W., 161
''Breaking Home Ties," 818
Breck, Samuel. 10. 71. 77. 175. 806
Bridge, Gray's Feny, 88; Ridley
Creek, 48; Naaman's Creek,
65 ; Washington's escape at, 60;
Brandywine, 71, 08; Market street.
817
818
INDEX
Philadelphia, 111, lit; Monu-
ment, 118;"F(BdeiBL" 158;Perki-
omen, 803; Neshaminy, 870;
MorrisviUe, 887; Pennypack, 806;
toll on, 806
Bringhunt, John, 818
Bristol, 800
Bristol College, 800
Bristol Town Hall, stoiy o( 818
British Grenadier, 840
BroomaU, 100
Brown, Heniy Armitt, 168
Brown, Peter, 85
Buddn^iam Meeting House, 881
Burr, Aaron, 151
Burying ground, Ebrriton, 150; Fat-
lands, 186; Ptovidenoe, 801; Lower
Germantown, 811; St. Michael's,
815; Norriton, 888; Methacton,
885; St James', 885; Trappe, 880;
St Thomas'. 887; SculL 838;
Christ churchyard, 860
Bush, David, 70, 858
Bush Hill, 88
Butler, John, 805
Butler Place, 868
Camp HOL 888
Campbell, Bev. John, 808
Canal, Leiper, 81, 88; SchuyUdlL 888
Cariisle, 118
Cass, General LouiSt 76
Castle Bocks, 108
Cave houses, 18
Cedar Grove, 888
Cemetenr, West Laurel Hill, 150
Center Point. 846
Chadd's Fotd, 70, 01
Chalkley Hall, 800, 888
Chalkley, Thomas, 881; Rebecca.
Champlost, Count de, 864
Champlost Manor, 868
Chancellor, William. 887
Chester, 58, 56, 57
Chester Heights, 80
Chester VaUor, 140
Chestnut Hill. 816. 884
Chew house, 815
Chidiester. 58
Christiana, Fort, 60
Churches, Gloria Dei. 80. 860; St.
James of Kingsessing, 80; St
Paul's, Chester, 46; St Bfartin's.
Marcus Hook, 60; Old Swedes.
Wilmington, 78; (>ane Hook. 78;
Trinity, ^mington, 78; First
Presbyterian. WUmington, 78;
Middletown, 87; Brandywine, 88;
St David's, 138, 184, 140, 168, 170,
888; Great VaUey, 148; St James.
Perkiomen, 168; St James the
Less, 181; Graces Boxborough.
185; Providence, 801; Market
Square, Germantown. 814; St
Michael's, Germantown, 815; First
M. £., Germantown. 815; Norri-
ton, 888; Brethren, Germantown,
885; St James', Germantown, 886;
Trappe, 886; St Thomas', 884;
Oxford, 885; Christ PhiUdelphia,
836; Abington, 864; Neshaminy of
Warwick, 870; Neshaminy d
Warminster, 880
Church Hill, 887, 844
Circle Line, 81, 880
City History Society of Philadel-
phia, 848
Clay. Rev. Slator. 836
Claymont 60
Clayton, William. 50; Thomas J.. 60
Cleaver, William, 161
Cleveland, Grover, 76
Clif t Samuel, 800
Clifton Heights, 70
Clock at Lower Dublin Academy.
808
Clock Houses 804
Clymer, George, 814
Coaches in Philadelphia, 84, 85
Coates. Thomas, 888
Cole, Thomas, 78
CoUegeviUe, 888
CoUinuBon, Peter, 88
Coleman, William 838
Cdonial Dames, 148
Colony m Schuylkill, 178, 808
Columbia Hotd. Chester, 57
INDEX
810
Copper Mine, 170» 901
Concordyille. 90
ConettogA Roed, 117
Conahohockcn, 186
Corder, 61
CorawaUis, surrender of, 8S
Corson, Hiram, 185; JoMh, 186
Coryell, Abram, 888; Emmanuel,
888; John. 888
CoryelU Ferry, 888
Coultas, James, 80, 41
Council of war at Emlen House, 880
Counterfeiters at Old Lower Inn, 858
Country Club, Delaware County, 00;
Whitemarah Valley, 816
Court House, removal from Chester,
107,106
Craig, ColonelThomas,841; John,801
Cramer, Cutty, 81
Crane Hook Church on Christiana,
78
Crawford, Joseph, Sr., 808
"Creek FoUowmg," 00
Crefdd, Germanyp immigrants from,
804
Crooked Billet, Uvem, 878; battle,
877
Croydon, 808
Da Costa, overseer at Mill Grove,
105
Darby, 80, 48
Darngh, Lydia, 840, 841
Davies, President, of Princeton
College, 808
Davis, Mary, 857
Dawesfield, 845
Dean, W., 888
Debt, in prison for, 817, 868
Decatur, Stephen, 800, 807
Delamore Place, 75
Delaware Historical Society, 78
Devereux, Emlen, 888
DeWarville, Jean P. Brissot, 101
DeWees, Mrs. Maiy, 184
Diggs, Anne, 866
Dilworthtown, 08
Dove paper mill, 147
Downmgtown, 148, 144
Doyle, William, 871
Doylestown. 871
Drinker, EUsabeth, 181, 188, 968,
878, 805; Henry, 868
Duels near Claymont, 66
Duffield, Edward, 808
Dunk's Feny, 804
Durham, 871
"Dutch baptism good enough for
blacks," 887
Dwight, Margaret 186
Eagle School at Strafford. 185
East Cab Meeting House. 148
Easton. 865
Eavenson, Francis, V., 801
Eberiein, Harold Donaldson, 00
Eddington, 805
Edisonville. 870
Egypt, Fat Lands of. 180; road, 188
EUery. William. 801
Ellis, Rowland, 148
Emigrants on Lancaster road, 188»
184
Emlen House, 888
Engart, John S., 878
Epitaphs, 40, 88, 80, 186. 170, 106^
808, 811. 888. 885. 888, 870
Escape of soldiers at Naaman's
Creek, 64
Essin^n. 44
Ettwein, Bev. John, 854
Evans, CMiver, 886
Faber, Elijah. 880
Fahnestock, Gideon, 149
Fair Hill, 80S
Fairview Hill, 884
Fairview Inn. 884
Falckner, Daniel, 188
Falls of Schuylkill, 177. 180; of Sus-
quehanna, 814; of I)elaware, 885
Farmar, Edward, 885, 887; Jaspar*
''Farthest inland point reached by
British," 171
Fat Lands of Egypt. 180
Fatlands. 108
"Fearnought,*' 180
820
INDEX
Ferguioii, Henry Hu^ 060
Ferxy. Gray's, 80. 81; at l/^mmg-
ioo. 70; at Market street, Phila-
delphia, 110; Harris', 807; Beth-
lehem. US; WeUs',271; CoryeU's,
882; Motrisville, 887, 815: Dunk's,
804
Fenyboats at Schuylkill described,
111
Fishing for shad, 178, 000; Washing-
ton fishes for trout, 170
Filing Qub. Stote in Schu^kiD,
808
Fitch, John, 877
Fit^Mtrick, James^ higliwayman,
108, 105, 106
*' Flash Sandy," highwayman. 108^
105,106
"Flourishing SUte of Fton«yl-
vania," Judge Holmes lives in, 086
Flying Machine, 886
Forge, first at Pottsville. 881
Forrest Home for Acton, 806
Fort St David's, 808;
848
Foulke House, 848
Fox, George, 864
Fox hunting. 85. 86
F^ankford, 885. 888
Franklin, Benjamin, 88, 88» 54. 111.
180, 819, 880, 880. 896
Fraeme, Richard, 806
Fraser, Susan Carpenter, 148
Frey, Heiniich, 857
Fritsch, Sister Gathering 119
Garden, Andrew, 185
Gardens, The Woodlands, 87;
Gray's, 81; Bartram's, 84
General Wayne Tavern, 895
Germantown, 004-814
Germantown, Battle of, 811, 887
Germantown Road. 804, 008-810
Gibbons. David. 145
Gibbs, Josiah W.. 896
GUbert Stuart, 818
Gilpin. Gideon, 98
Girard CoUeae. 176, 177, 801
Girard. Stephen, 176
Glen Mills, 90
Glenwood HaH 806
Gloria Dei, 89
Gloucester Fox Hunting CluK 85
Graeme, Dr., 868; Elisabeth. 069
Graeme Park, 865, 876
Grange Farm, 868
Gray, George, 81
Giay's Ferry, 80, 81
Great Southern Post Road 80
Great Valley Presbyterian Chuch,
148
GrumUethoipe, 851
Gulph Road. 147
Gulph Rock, 158
Gulph Mill 157, 888
Halliwell, bam at, 870
Hamilton, Alexander, 880; Andrew,
87, 145; Henry. 808; James. 80, 87,
170; John. 000; TTiUiam. 07, 108,
188, 188, 145
Hardships of soldiers at VaUey
Forger 160-166; at Whitemarsh,
Harmanville, 185
Harrisburg, 146
Harris' Feny, 007
Harrison, Richard, 148; Hannah. 149
Harriton house, 148
HarUville. 079
Hatboro, 065; Hbrary at, 070, 074
Haverford College^ 109; Meeting,
188,189
Headquarters of Washington, 168^
888. 845, 846, 847, 880, 888
Heebner, Jacobs 881
Heijt, Hans Yost, 847
Henry, Mrs. Seton, 808
Hermits of the Wssahickon, 188
Hickorytown, 818
High Bridge Tavern, 188
Highhmds,844
Highwayman, 108, 105, 106. 174
HcSme, John, 807, 896; Thomas, 1^
108, 885, 897, 899
Holmesburg. 896
Holstein, Peter, 187
Hood. Thomas. 87
Hope, Henry, 848
INDEX
Ml
HopeLodnMi
Horsham Meeting, 805
Houckgeegt, AndieMEveimrdtti Van
Bmaiii,808
Houaes, Woodlands* 88; John Bar-
tram. 84; Whitby HalL 40; CMb
Vuaty, 66; Naaman's Creek. 64;
Poplar Groveb 68; TatnalL 74;
Richardson. 74; Delamore I1aoe»
75; Latimeria, 76; Benjamin
West. 79; Avondale Place. 79. 80;
Lapidea. 88; Sharpless. 84; Deane
Mansion. 93; John Yamall, 106;
Pont Bfiading, 188; Waynesbor-
ough. 187; Harriton. 148; Po^ar
Lane, 159; Moore Hall. 167; The
KnoU, 170; Jones Mansion. 171
Sweetbriar. 175; Angel. 185
Yerkes. 185; Legaux, 186; Mill
Grove. 189; FatUnds. 189. 198
John Price Wetherill. Sr.. 800
Umstad Bfanor. 801; Wagner,
811; Ottinger. 811; Toland. 811
Christopher j Saner, 818; Wister,
818; Louisa May Alcott. 818
Morris. 818; Foulke, 818, 848
Chew. 815; Wyck. 815; Dayid
Rittenhouse, 819; Dean. 888; Dr.
Muhlenburg, 888; Enilen, 888;
Van Rensselaer, 888; Hope Lodge.
848; HigUands, 844; Dawesfidd,
845; Wents, 846; Pennypacker's
Mills, 847; Grumbfethorpe, 851;
Single Brethren. 854; Stenton. 860,
861; Butler Place. 868. Cham-
[dost. 868; Grange Farm. 868;
Roadside. 864; The Ivy. 864;
Graeme Puk, 865; Engak, 878;
Robbins. 880; Pteny. 888; Neel^.
888; Cedar Grove. 889; Decatur.
890; Wain Grove. 890; Chalkley
Hall. 890; Port Rmral. 890; Fav
Hin. 898; Edwin Forrest Home.
896; Andalusia. 801; Penn Rhyn.
808; Qock House, 804; Rodcy
Mount. 806; China Hall. 808;
Bolton Farm. 818; Clymer. 814
Hovenden. Thomas, 817, 818
Hughes. Griffith. 184; Hi^ 158,
Isaacs 158^ 885; John, 158. 187
Huling; Marcus. 800
Hunting at Oi^ymont, 68; fox hunt-
ing, 85, 86
Huny. WUliam. 889
Indqiendenoe Bell taken to Beth-
ldiem.854
Independence^ Dedaiation oC 68»
Independence Hall 186
Indian critics, 860
Indian trails, 65, 110^ ITS
Indians discover hard coal. 167
Ingham's Great Spring; 881
Ivy. the, 864
Ivy Mill 90
James k Drake, tea importenb 898
Jeflerson. Thomasi 88^ 84
Jeffersonville. 801
Johnstown flood memorial curious.
Jones Mansion. 171
Jones. Robert. 171
Joseph, son of Tamane, 857
Kalm, PMer, 17. 88, 85, 70. 878, 805
Kane. Elisha Kent, 84
Keith, Sir William. 865. 868; prop-
erty of. 868
Kelpius. John. 188
Kemp. Sergeant Andersen. 164
Kennett Square, 79. 98
Kennett, story of. 85, 98, 108
King of Prussia Tavern, 160
Kingsessing, St. James. Church ol 80
King's Hiipway, 80
Kirk, John. 179
Kirkbride; Josei^ 871
Kitanning Path. 110
Kite, Wil&am. 81
Knoll the. 170
Kyn. J6ran. 55
Laoey. General 876
Lafayette. Marquis de^ 98^ 188; 187.
164, 185. 854. 880, 881. 808
La Haska. Vale of. 881
Lambert's ^Uainy, 888
INDEX
La Mott, S64
Lancaster, 118» 145
Lancaster Road. 110. f07
Lapidea, 82
Landau. 826
Langhome, Jeremiah. 271
Latimer, John R^ 76
Latimeria. 76
Laxley. Captain Benjamin
Lead mines, 199
Lee. Light Horse Harry, 64
Leedom. William, 914
Legaux House, 186
Legauz. Peter, 186
Lehigh Valley Transit Company, 884
Leiper, Elisa, 47; Thomas, 79, 80. 81»
88; George Grey. 88
Leiperville, 83
LeiperyUle Presbyterian Church. 84
Leni Lenape Indians, 857
Levering's Ford, 170
Lexington, Battle of, 888
library at Hatboro. 870. 874
Lima, 89
Limekiln, 178
Lime making and hauling, 154
line Wagon Company, 118
Log College, 879
Lcwan, James, 860, 866. 885. 808;
Deborah, 861; Mary, 898
LoUer Academy, 874
Loller, Robert. 876
Longfellow's poem on St David's.
184
Longstreth. John. 171
Lottery for Church. 888; for Aca-
demy. 897
Loveland HaU. 886
Lower Dublin Academy, 897
Ludwig. Christopher, 815, 816
McDougall, General, 158
McFadden, George H., 188
McKean, Thomas, 68
McLane, Captain Allen, 184
Mackraby. Alexander, 88, 810
Malvern, 189
" Bfan who always speaks the truth*
149
ManoaRoad.99
Maple sugar experiment faflure d
Marcos Hook. 58
Market in Philaddphia. 88
Markham, Governor William. 17S
MarshaU. John. 880
Martin, D. C, 180; Walter, 60
Mason and Dixon Line, 880
Mason, Jonathan, 80
Masonic Lodge, 848
Mather P^ter, 141
Matlack, Timothy, 197
Media, 84, 86
Meeting Houses, Chichester, 58;
Newtown, 108; Middletown. 107;
Haverford. 188; Radnor, 188;
East Cain, 148; near Fatlands^
196; Flvmouth, 818; Methacton,
884; Ainngton, 864; Horsham,
865, Buckingham, 881; Bristol,
810
Melish, John. 86» 80, 97, 865, 807
Methacton Mcnnonite Meeting
House, 884
Middletown Meeting 107
Middletown Presbyterian Churdi, 87
Bfifflin, Thomas, 180
MUestones, 148, 810, 894
Militia Hill. 885
MiUboume MiU. 98
Mill Grovcb 189, 199, 800
Mill on Pennypack, 887
Miller. George. 811
Mineral Springs. 889, 818
Mines, leaid. 199; Copper; 901
Bftinuit, Peter. 78
Monroe^ James, 880, 888
Montgomery Sauaie, 858
Montgomenrville, 858
Moore, William, 167, 169; James^
t»
Moore Hall, 167, 170
Morgan, James, 199
Morris, Gouvemeur, 170; Robert,
177, 185, 816; Morris 848: Samu<d,
848, 848; Anthony, 844^ SIS;
Effingham B., 818
Morris' FoUy, 185, 186, 817
Morris House, Germantown, 818
Morrisville, 885. 814
INDEX
Mone. Samnel F. B.» 807
Morton, John, 44, 45
Moaei, Margaret, 8tt
Mott, Lucretia, 864
Mt.Kirl^fl08
Mud on Germantown road* MB; on
dd York road, 859
Muhlenberg, Henry Melcliior, ttOL
880; VteSmck Auguatua, 844
Naaman. Indian Chief, 88
Naaman s Creek, 88» 68
Narberth. 147
Naturalist, Audubon the^ 108
Neef, Joseph, 181
Neeley House. 888
Neshaminy Creek, 870, 880, 805
Neahaminy of Warminster Presby-
terian Church, 880; oif Warwick
Ftesbyterian Church, 870
New CasUe, Delaware, 88» 01, 880
New Hope, 878
Newtown Meeting, 108
Newtown Square, 108
Nicetown, 881
Nicholson, John, 188
Noblit, William, 87
Norrington, township of, 187
Norris, Isaac. 150, 187, 180, 808
Norristown, 187
Norriton R«sbyterian Church, 888
Nugent, Geoige^ 150
(^ts,864
Ohio River, Audubon on, 105
(Nd Lower Inn, 858
Old York Road, 857
Old Swedes' Church, Wilniingtoii. 78
Olethelo, 188
Optimist and pessimist. 50, 816
Oructor Amphibdis, 887
Ottinger, Douglas, 811
Packhorses, 117
Paine, Thomas, 163
Palmer. George, 880
Pannebecker, Hendrick,
P^i, ISO
Paoli Massacre, 180. 846
P^iper MiU, oa 810
Ptoy, Benjamin.
Parry, Rich Randolph, 888
Fsschall, Mrs. Joseph, 880
Pkstoral work of Dr. Muhlenberg,
Fhmds Daniel, 804, 814u
815
Pkwlin|L Henry, 801
Peale, Rembrandt, 877
Pemberton. Phineas, 800; Maiy.
818
Peminacha, Indian sachem, 68
Penalties for avoiduig toU, 175b 808
Ptollyn,848
Penn, ^l^lliam, 15, 16, 19, 55, 01, 98,
98, 108, 187, 188, 189, 885, 871,
808, 800, 814; John, 140, 148;
Letitia, 166; Hannah, 866;
Thomas and Richard, 888
Pennsbury, 818
Pennypack Creek, 896
Pennypacker,ElijahF.,171; Isaac R^
880; Samuel W., 138, 847
Pennypacker's Mills. 847
Penrose, Morris B., 867
"PensOvania" described, 806
Perkiomen Creek, 190, 191. 889, 847
Perkiomen bridge, 174, 808, 886
Pessimist and optimist, 50, 816
Pestaloisi, 181
"PeverU of the Peak;" 195
Philadelphia, Penn's prospectus of,
15; streets in, 16; sale of lots in,
17; primitive water works, 80, 81;
fairs m, 88; market in. 88; coaches^
84; women criticised. 84
Philadelphia Contribtttianship's mile-
stones, 804
Philadelphia and TVenton RailitMuL
306
Phillips, George, 85, 48
Phoenixville. 151, 167, 171, 188
Pickering; Colonel, 179
Pike, General, Hotel, 171
Pittsburgh, 118
PlattenlMkch, Joseph, 857
Plymouth Meeting, 817, 818» 84ft
Polk. James K., 75
Pont Reading, 188
INDEX
Pooler WmiAm. W
Poplar Lane;, 150
Port Chester* 8S8
Port Royal, 890
PorteuSt Jaiiiei» WS
Pottaffe, cost of, by fUge^
Pott. John. 881; Joehna. 975
Potta, Isaac 108, IM
Potti Quarry, 186
Pottstown, £81
PottsviUe, 881
Powder, transportation of, 887
Pownall. Thomas, 17, la M, 70, 111.
140,807
Phiyer, Bayard Turlor's, 94; Wmiam
Penn's, 188; Washington's at
VaUeyForge, 107
Priest, WiUiam, 19, 84, 58, 71, 878
Princeton College, 880, 879
Prints. Governor, 48, 48^ 68, 68
ftophepy, mistaken as to Fhiladel*
phia. 17; of country's growth. 86;
of locomotive's speed, 77; of John
Pott, 888; of Oliver Evans, 886
Fh>test against shad dam. 800; to a
tea importer, 898
Pjrovidenoe Pkesbyteiian Ciinidi.
801
Pusey, Caleb, 55
Pyle, Howard. 75
Queen's Boad. 80
Radnor Hunt. 85
Radnor Meeting; 188
Raiboad. Leiper. 81. 88; West
Chester, 109; Philadelphia and
Columbia. 186; John Pott's, 881;.
Fhiladdphia and Trenton. 806
Railroads, prophepy as to qieed of^
77; dispaiBffed. 77
Rambo's Rodk. 808
Read, Thomas Buchanan, vusea oi,
166, 184
Reading, 881, 888
Redemptionen, 88, 144, 858
Redoubts, at Philadelphia. 88; at
li^^lmington, 70
Reformed Church in Germantown.
Pastorius. 814
Befogees from Fhiladelphiajn 1777.
Bichardsoo. John. 74; Joseph. 188
Ridk^. Joseph Pkuil. 178
Righter. Harry S^ 186
Ri^tinghuisen. William. 806
Rising, John, t^
Rasing Sun. 84Q. 857
Rittenhousei David. 180l 819. 854;
William. 806
Rittenhouse Orreiy. the. 880
Roads, i^peal for good. 41; bad. 51.
58, 57, 96, 188; 188, 808^ 806
RoadbuUders' oompli^t. 118
Road regulations in Lancaster. 115;
Germantown. 800
Road notes of a Lancaster surveyoi;
116, 117
Road, profits of turnpike. 180
Roads. Queens, 80; Great Southcni
Post, 80. 81; King's Hi^way. 80;
Gray's Fernr, 80, 81; Kmg's Great
Road. 81; Baltimore^ 77; Fh>vi.
dence, 84; Rose 1^ 85; £dge>
mont. 87; Wilmington, 90; West
Chester, 96; Strasbuig, 07; Manoa.
99; Goshen. 108; Lancaster, 110;
Conestoga, 117;Ithan, 188;Chiuvfa.
18Sb 885; Valley. 185; Sugartown.
187; Lionvillcb 148; Roberts, 147
Ridge, 178; Egypt. 188; Gennan
town. 804; Bethlehem. 884; FVank
ford. 840; Nicetown Lane, 840
Skippadc 848; Old York. 857
Doylestown. 865; Keith. 865;
Buckingham, 871; New Hope^
888; Bristol. 885; Dunk's Feny.
804; China Lane^ 806; Beaver
Dam, 818
Bobbins. R. Sherman, 880
Roberts, Mary, 150
Robinson, John. 65; Thomas, 64, 65;
Mrs. Edna A., 65
Robinson House at Naaman's Creek.
64
Rocky Mount, 808
Rose, AquiU, 110
Rose Tree Hunt, 85. 86
Rough traveling of S. F. B. Morse^
807
INDEX
825
Samtogft Soriiifli^ 81f
Sauer, Chmt^her. %!% ttl tt5
Schoeff, Johanii, U9.^Uab 154^ 8MI
800
SchooL old time buflding, 46, 90;
OcUgon* 108; Eagle, 185; Letitia
Pena \ 106; at Engaii Place, 878;
rules at Lower Dublin Academy^
88B: Bristol CoUege^ 800
Schoolmaster, sold as redemptkaer.
Scott, John R. K^ 161
SculL Nichoks, 91. 888
SchuyUdlL bowers of beauty on, 87
Schuylkill Canal. 888
SeUers, Samuel, 98
Sentence of homesick soldier, 840
Seven Counties View, 80S
ShMi filling, 178, 800, 801
Sharpless, Isaac 84; John. 84
Sheaff, Geoflge, 844, 845; John D. T^
844
Shewell, Elisabeth, romance ol^ 58
Shoemakertown, iJM
"Short Description of Germantown"
in rhyme, 806
Shrack, John Jacob, 886
Single Brethren House, Bethldiem
854
Skippack load, 848
Slaves attempt to poison family,
14B; runaway advertised for, 168
Sleaiy, Sarah, 864
Sleighintf. 815. 878, 810
Slough, MattUas, his complaint, 118
Smith, Dr. William, 169. 180
Soldiers ouartered at Bristol, 811
Sons of tne Revolution, 151
Spencer, James, 875
Spring House, 848
Spring MiU. 186
Springs, Bath, near Bristol, 811
Stage coach described, 49, 50, 61; to
West Chester, 97; rates of fare, 98;
Jouney described, 101; first on
Lancaster Pike. 115; burned, 189;
hiirhwaymen attack, 174; early
dnvers, 881. 888; first from ™~'*-
delphia to New York. 885
StahL WiDianu 888
Stamm, Cound, 885
Stanley, John £., 99
SUte in Schuylkill, 1781 808
Stenton, 860, 881, 898
Stiles, Edward, 890
Straffoid, 185
Strasburg Road, 97
Strength-testing boulder, 867
Stretdi, Thomas^ 808
Stuyvesant, Peter, 68
Sugartown Road, 187
Sumvan, General, pontoon bridge^
197
St David's Church, 188, 140^ 168l
170,888
St* James , Pnkiomen, 168
St James the Less, 181
St Luke's Refonned Church, 886
St. Mkhael's Lutheran Chuicfa. 815
Sally lister. 846
Sully, Thomas^ 844
Surveyor's notes on Lancaster PSke^
116
Sotcliffe, Robert. 188, 189,'178, 178,
197, 860, 815
Swarthmore, 79; CoUcge^ 79
Swede's Ford, 186
Swedes settle Fort Christiana, 69
Sweetbriar, 175
Tamane, Indian chief, 857, 871
Tatnall, Edwaid, 74
Taverns. Blue BdL 48; White Horse,
44, 190; Washington. Chester, 56;
Columbia. Chester. 57; Bull's
Head, 81; Rose TVec 84; Provi-
dence, 84; Coffee House, 85;
BUck Horse, 87; Pineapple. 89;
Unicom, 98; Diove, 100; Turk's
Head, 107, 106; Paoli, 188; Buck,
180; General Wayne, 190. 140,
895; Plouflh. 190; Sorrel Horse,
198; Admiral Vernon, 140; Ad-
mirsl Warren, 140; "The Dutch
Tavern." 148; Sheaf of Wheat,
149; Ship, 149; Exton, 149; Swan,
144; Bird-in-Hand, 158; King of
Prussia, 160; General Pike, 171;
Fountain, 171; High Bridge, 188;
Yerkes, 185; Green Tkee, 815;
8S8
INDEX
Faimew, fU; Wheel Pump. 834;
Riang Sun. 240; Walioer, 262; Old
Lower, 252; Bed Lion. 200, 299;
Honham, 270; Crooked BiUet,
279; WaahingtMi, Holmesburg;
296; Dunk's Ferry, 805; Morris-
ville.S14
Taverns, Alexander Wilson's Verses
on, 101; fare provided, 125, SOO,
801; trying entertainment at, 182;
188; signs, 800
Taylor, Bayard, 85, 92, 94^ 95, 108,
104
Taylorsville (Washington crossing).
Taxes after the Bevolution, 155
Tennent, Gilbert, 279
Thomas, Jane, 161
Thomson. Charies, 149, 150, 151
Thomson. John, 81, 82
Tilly, Biajor, and the British grena-
dier. 248-251
Toast of the wagon drivers, 182
TobaeoOk primitive method of haul-
ing to market, 149
Toll, at Ridley Creek, 48; at Sus-
quehanna, 48; at ferry on Schuyl-
kill, 110; at Market Street bridge,
112; on Bristol Road, 287; on
Neshaminy bridge, 805
Toll gates, on King's Highway, 46;
on Lancaster Pike, 119, 120; on
Ridge Road, 175; penalty for
avoiding. 175. 209
Trails. In£an. 65. 110, 178
Translation of Bible. 149
Trappe. 226; poem on. 230
Trappe Lutheran Church, 226
Trent Town, 279
Trenton, 805
Trenton, Battle of, 282, 283, 284. 805
Trick House, 106
Trinity Church. Wilmington, 72
Tullytown. 818
Turk's Head Tavern. 108
Twining. Thomas, 32, 49
Umbnicamenoe, 235
Umstad Manor. 201
Underground Railway, 144, 171, 172
Unicom Tavern. 98
University of Fennsylvania. 220
Upland. 55
Ursinus College^ 226
VaHey Forge, 132; 151. 155, 161-Ai
197, 224, 238, 244
VaUey Forge Park, 162
VaUey Road. 185
Varian, P. R., 159
Vamum. General. 168
Vaux. James. 192
Vaux Hall, 197, 198
Vehicles on turnpikes, 98^ 115, 209
Venus, transit of. 219
" Victoiy or Death," 284
Vineyaixi, the first of any siae in
country, 186
Waldo, Albigence^ 153, 165
Walker Inn, 252
Wab, Richard. 264
Wahi, Robert, 290
Wahi Grove, 290
Walnut Grove, 158, 187
"Wandering Heir, The," 144
War of 1812 stops lead imports. 199
Washington. Geoige» in the mud, 20;
at Gray's Feny, 32; death an-
nounced, 33; at Bartram's Gar-
dens, 38; Whitby Hall. 42; letter
about coach repairs, 49; at Wash-
ington House, Chester. 57; at
Naaman's Creek, 64; visits ITil-
mington, 69; narrow escape at
bridge, 69; wooden statue of at
Wilmington, 74; at Brandywine,
91; guuds approach to Philadel-
phia, 97; on Goshen road, lOS
letter from Buck tavern. 130
Gulph MiUs marker to, 151
thanks officers and men. 152; at
Valley Forge. 163; at prayer. 166;
revisits Valley Forge, 170; goes
fishing. 170; at Mt. Joy, 186;
Crossing of Delaware, 202^portrait
of, 212; chariot of. 212;in German-
town. 213; and Christopher
Sauer, 224; at Whitemaish. 234;
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