■JV^t";:;,' ;'j>.;ir,'.?i-*. tWK ;ri^*. ....»-; ,,«|., ,.•'!: t^' », J; iV..'* .' ::;:03ffi'.::';:/:-'':.''-;r,,1;:'.-i--; •, ....■, jSir-;;,, ':;:•;'•.■ :v,,-7:T.'.., ;tit:-:.j:i;V.:.r;, ,;:-:.;':,■;.: KU\'.. H"!""r.i,'.',-''-";i*,iV».':,'.;!ii, -''):■ p. ,,j».>w.,,., 1 j-.ii,,. . u; .. ,.1..,,. t^'^iCt''j\ ■'•'■* ;CC{»r..;,;-x-:v:'u|W,.;,:- 9x;;/0-.',.,r.;r:),;ti'^ ^•7-..if. '■n:' HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, BY SAMUEL wi'-'PENNYPACKER. Dan sy lialtend styft' das widerspyl, vnd leerend, di IT. . " . . 7 2. David Ritteniioise, the American Astronomer, . 59 5. Christopher Dock, the Pious Schoolmaster on the Skippnck, and his Works, .... 89 4. Der Blutige Schau-platz, odek Martyrek Spie- gel. Epiirata. Pa., 174^8. A Noteworthy Book, . 155 •5. Mennonite Emigration to Pennsylvania, . . 175 6. Abkahaai and Dirck op den Graefe, . . 201 7. ZlONITISCHEK WeYRAUCHS HciiEL ODER MyRRHEN Berg. Germantown, 1739, . . . . 223 5. William Moore of Moore Hall, . . . 229 5. Samuel Richardson, a Councilor, Judge and Legis- lator of the Olden Time, .... 241 10. Captain Joseph Richardson, . . . 257 11. Samuel John Atlee, Colonel of" the Pennsylvania Musketry Battalion in the Revolutionary Army, . 269 12. James Ahkam Garfield, .... 285 13. Henry Armitt Brown. .... 293 14. Charles Frederick Tayloij, . . . 299 15. Six Weeks in Uniform, being the record of a term in the Military Service of the United States in the Gettyshuru; Campaign of 1863, . . . 305 THE Settlement of Germantown. Pa AND THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO IT, From the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. IV, p. 1. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 11 No other known literary work undertaken in the Colonies equals in magnitude the Mennonite Martyrs' Mirror of Van Braght, printed at Ephrata in 1748, whose publication re- quired the labors of fifteen men for three years. The Speaker of the first House of Representatives under the Federal Constitution and seven of the Governors of Penn- sylvania were men of German descent. The statue se- lected to represent in the capitol at Washington the mili- tary reputation of Pennsylvania is that of a German. Said Thomas Jefferson of David Rittenhouse : " He has not indeed made a world, but he has by imitation ap- proached nearer its maker than any man who has lived from the creation to this day."^ There are no Pennsyl- vania names more cherished at home, and more deservedly known abroad, than those of Wister, Shoemaker, Muhlen- berg, Weiser, Hiester, Keppele and Keim, and there are few Pennsylvanians, not comparatively recent arrivals, who cannot be carried back along some of their ances- tral lines to the country of the Rhine. An examination of the earliest settlement of the Germans in Pennsylva- nia, and a study of the causes which produced it may, therefore, well be of interest to all who appreciate the value of our State history. The first impulse followed by the first wave of emigration came from Crefeld, a city of the lower Rhine, within a few miles of the borders of Holland. On the 10th of March, 1682, William Penn conveyed to Jacob Telner, of Crefeld, doing business as a merchant in Amsterdam, Jan Streypers, a merchant of Kaldkirchen, a village in the vicinity, still nearer to Hol- Bible, both j..nnted iu 1791, was the " First great Quarto Bible in America," apparently unaware that Saur was a half century earlier. ' Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 12 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. land, and Dirck Sipman, of Crefeld, each five thousand acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania. As the deeds were executed upon that day,^ the design must ^ Mr. Lawrence Lewis lias suggested that under the system of double dating between Jan. 1st and March 25th, which then prevailed, it is probable that the date was March 10th, 1682-3. The evidence pro and con is strong and conflicting. The facts in favor of 1682-3 are mainly — 1. It is manifest from an examination of the patents that the custom was, whenever a single date, as 1682, was mentioned within those limits, the latter date, 1682-3, was meant. 2. A deed to Telner, dated June 2d, 1683 (Ex. Rec. 8, p. 655), recites as follows : " Whereas the said William Penn by indentures of lease and release, bearing date the ninth and tenth days of the month called March for the consideration therein mentioned, etc." The presumption is that the March referred to is the one imme- diately preceding. 3. The lease and release to Telner March 9th and 10th, 1682, and several deeds of June, 1683, are all recited to have been iu the 35th year of the reign of Charles II. It is evident that March 10th, 1681-2, and June, 1683, could not both have been within the same year. This would be enough to decide the matter if the facts in favor of 1681-2 were not equally conclusive. They are — 1. It is probable, a ijriori, and from the German names of the witnesses that the deeds to the Crefelders, except that to Telner, were dated and delivered by Benj. Furly, Penn's agent at Rotter- dam for the sale of lands. In both Holland and Germany the pre- sent system of dating had been in use for over a century. 2. A patent (Ex. E-ec. vol. i. p. 462) recites as follows : " Whereas by my indentures of lease and release dated the 9 and 10 days of March Anno 1682 .... and whereas by my in- dentures dated the first day of April, and year aforesaid, I remised and released to the same Dirck Sipman the yearly rent. . . ." The year aforesaid was 1682, and if the quit rent was released April 1st, 1682, the conveyance to Sipman must have been earlier. If on the 25th of March another year, 1683, had intervened, the word aforesaid could not have been correctly used. This construc- tion is strengthened by the fact that the release of quit rent to THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 13 have been in contemplation and tlie arrangements made some time before. Telner had been in America between the years 1678 and 1681, and we may safely infer that his acquaintance with the country had much influence in bringing about the purchase.^ In November, 1682, we find the earliest reference to the enterprise which subsequently resulted in the forma- tion of the Frankfort Company. At that date Pastorius heard of it for the first time, and he, as ag-ent, boumit the lands when in London between the 8th of May and 6th of June, 1683.^ The eight original purchasers were Jacob Van de Walle, Dr. Johann Jacob Schutz, Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeldt, Daniel Behagel, Gasper Merian, George Strauss, Abraham Hasevoet, and Jan I_jaurens, an intimate friend of Telner, apparently living at Rot- terdam. Before Nov. 12th, 1686, on which day, in the language of the Manatawny patent, they " formed them- Streypers, which took place April 1st, 1683, is recited in another patent (Ex. Rec. 1, p. 686) as follows: "Of which said sum or yearly rent by an indenture bearing date the first day of April for the consideration therein mentioned in the year 1683 I remised and released." 3. The lease and release to Telner on March 9th and 10th, 1682, are signed by William Peon, witnessed by Herbert Springett, Thomas Coxe, and Seth Oraske, and purport to have been executed in Eng- land. An Op den Graeff deed in Germantown book recites that they were executed at London. Now in March, 1681-2, Penn was in England, but in March, 1682-3, he was in Philadelphia. 4. Pastorius says that Penn at first declined to give the Frank- fort Co. city lots, because they had made their purchase after he (Penn) had left England and the books had been closed, and that a special arrangement was made to satisfy them. Penn left Eng- land Sept. 1st, 1682. The deeds show that the Crefelders received their city lots. ^ Hazard's Register, vol. vi. p. 183. ^ Pastorius MS. in the Historical Society of Pa. 14 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. selves into a company," the last named four bad with- drawn, and their interests had been taken by Francis Daniel Pastorius, the celebrated Johanna Eleanora Von Merlau, wife of Dr. Johann Wilhelm Peterson, Dr. Ger- hard Von Mastricht, Dr. Thomas Von Wylich, Johannes Lci)iun, Balthasar Jawert, and Dr. Johannes Kemler. That this was the date of the organization of tlie Com- pany is also' recited in the power of attorney which they executed in 1700.^ Up to the 8th of June, 1683, they seem to have bought 15,000 acres of land, which were afterwards increased to 25,000 acres. Of the eleven members nearly all were followers of the pietist Spener, and five of them lived at Frankfort, two in Wesel, two in Lubeck, and one in Duisberg. Though to this com- pany has generally been ascribed the settlement of Ger- maatown, and with it the credit of being the originators of German emigration, no one of its members except Pastorius ever came to Pennsylvania, and of still more significance is the fact that, so far as known, no one of the early emigrants to Pennsylvania came from Frankfort. On the 11th of June, 1683, Penn conveyed to Govert Remkc, Lenart Arets, and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, a baker, all of Crefeld, one thousand acres of land each, and they, together with Telner, Streypers, and Sipman, constituted the original Crefeld purchasers. It is evi- dent that their purpose was colonization, and not specu- lation. The arrangement between Penn and Sipman provideil that a certain number of families should go to Pennsylvania within a specified time, and probably the ^ The power of attorney says, "and desswegen in Kraffts dess den 12 Noveiribris, 1GS6, beUebten briefFes eiiie Societal geschlos- sen." Both the original agreement and the letter of attorney, with their autographs and seals, are in my possession. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMA.NTOWN. 15 other purchasers entered into similar stipulations.-^ How- ever that may be, ere long thirteen men with their fami- lies, comprising thirty-three persons, nearly all of whom were relatives, were ready to embark to seek new homes across the ocean. They were Lenart Arets, Abraham Op den Graeff, Dirck Op den Graeff, Hermann Op den Graeff, Willem Streypers, Thones Kunders, Reynier Ty- son, Jan Seimens,. Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes Bleikers, Jan Lucken, and Abraham Tunes. The three Op den Graeffs were brothers, Hermann was a son-in- law of Van Bebber, they were accompanied by their sis- ter Margaretha, and they were cousins of Jan and Willem Streypers, who were also brothers. The wives of Thones Kunders and Lenart Arets were sisters of the Streypers, and the wife of Jan was the sister of Reynier Tyson. Peter Keurlis was also a near relative, and the location of the signatures of Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes on the certificate of the marriage of a son of Thones Kun- ders with a daughter of Willem Streypers in 1710 indi- cates that they too were connected with the group by family ties.'^ On the 7th of June, 1683, Jan Streypers and Jan Lensen entered into an agreement at Orefeld by the terms of which Streypers was to let Lensen have fifty acres of land at a rent of a rix dollar and half a stuyver, and to lend him fifty rix dollars for eight years at the in- terest of six rix dollars annually. Lensen was to trans- port himself and wife to Pennsylvania, to clear eight acres of Streyper's land and to work for him twelve days in each year for eight years. The agreement proceeds, " I further promise to lend him a Linnen-weaving stool with ^ Dutch, deed from Sipman to Peter Schumaclier in the German- town Book in the Recorder's office. ^ Streper MSS. in the Historical Society. The marriage certifi- cate belongs to Dr. J. H. Conrad. 16 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 3 combs, and he shall have said weavincr stool for two years . . and for this Jan Lensen sliall teach my son Leonard in one year the art of weaving, and Leonard shall be bound to weave faithfully during said year." On the 18th of June the little colony were in Rotterdam, whither they were accompanied by Jacob Telner, Dirck Sipman, and Jan Streypers, and there many of their business arrangements were completed. Telner con- veyed 2000 acres of land to the brothers Op den GraefF, and Sipman made Hermann Op den Graeff his attorney. Jan Streypers conveyed 100 acres to his brother Willem, and to Seimens and Keurlis each 200 acres. Bleikers and Lucken each bought 200 acres from Benjamin Furly, agent for the purchasers at Frankfort. At this time James Claypoole, a Quaker merchant in London, who had previously had business relations of some kind with Telner, was about to remove with his family to Pennsylvania, intending to sail in the Concord, Wm. Jeffries, master, a vessel of 500 tons burthen. Through him a passage "from London was engaged for them in the same vessel, which was expected to leave Gravesend on the 6th of July, and the money was paid in advance.^ It is now ascertained definitely that eleven of these thirteen emigrants were from Crefeld, and the presumption that their two companions, Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes, came from the same city is consequently strong. This presumption is increased by the indications of relation- ship, and the fact that the wife of Jan Seimens was Mercken Williamsen Lucken. Fortunately, however, we are not wanting in evidence of a general character. Pastorius,^ after having an interview with Telner at Rot- * Letter-book cf James Claypoole in the Historical Society. * Christian Pastorins, a citizen of Warburg, was the father of THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 17 terdam a few weeks earlier, accompanied by four ser- vants, who seem to have been Jacob Schumacher, Isaac Dilbeeck, George Wertmuller, and Koenradt Rutters, had gone to America representing both the purchasers at Frank- Martin Pastorius, assessor of the court at Erfurt, who married Bri- gitta, daughter of Christian Flinsberger of Muhlhausen. Their son, Melchior Adam, was born at Erfurt, Sept. 21st, 1624, and edu- cated at the University of AVuertzburg. He studied both law and theology, and having married Magdalena, daughter of Stephen Dietz and of Margaretha Fischer, and having been converted to the pro- testant faith, he settled at Windsheim, where he held several ofSces, and finally became elder burgomaster and judge. Francis Daniel Pastorius, the son of Melchior and Magdalena, was born at Somer- hausen, Sept. 26th, 1651. When he was seven years old his father removed to Windsheim, and there he was sent to school. Later he spent two years at the University of Strasburg, in 1672 went to the high school at Basle, and afterwards studied law at Jena. He was tboroughly familiar with the Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch, English, and Italian tongues, and at the age of twenty-two publicly disputed in different languages upon law and philosophy. On the 24th of April, 1679, he went to Frankfort, and there began the practice of law ; but in June, 1680, he started with Johan Bona- ventura Von Rodeck, " a noble young spark," on a tour through Holland, England, France, Switzerland, and Germany, which oc- cupied over two years. On his return to Frankfort in November, 1682, he heard from his friends the Pietists of the contemplated emigration to Pennsylvania, and with a sudden enthusiasm he de- termined to join them, or in his own words, "a strong desire came upon me to cross the seas with them, and there, after having ^een and experienced too much of European idleness, to lead with them a quiet and Christian life." Fie immediately began his prepara- tions by writing to his father to ask his consent and obtain some funds, and by sending his books to his brother. He sailed from London June 10th, 1683, and arrived in Philadelphia August 20th. His great learning and social position at home made him the most conspicuous person at Germantown. He married Nov. 26th, 1688, Ennecke Klosterman, and had two sons, John Samuel and Henry. He describes himself as " of a Melancholy Cholerick Complexion, and, therefore (juxta Culpepper, p. 194), gentle, given to Sobriety, 18 HISTORICAL AND BIOQRAPHICAL SKETCHES. fort and Crefeld. In his references to the places at which he stopped on his journey down the Rhine he nowhere mentions emigrants except at Orefeld, where he says : "I talked with Tunes Kunders and bis wife, Dirck, Her- mann, and Abraham Op den GraefF and many others, who six weeks later followed me."^ For some reason Solitary, Studious, doubtful, Shamefaced, timorous, pensive, con- stant and true in actions, of a slow wit, with obliviousness, &c.. If any does him wrong. He can't remember't long." From his father and other relations he received altogether 1263 Eeichsthaler, of which he says, " Totpereunt cum tempore Nummi." He wrote punning poems in various languages, and a host of books, of which a few were printed, and many have been lost. The fol- lowing letter is characteristic : — " Dear Children John Samuel and Henry Pastorius: Though you are {Gerw.ano sanguine nati) of high Dutch Parents, yet remem- ber that your father was Naturalized, and y* born in an English Colony, Consequently each of you Anglus JVatus an Englishman by Birth. Therefore, it would be a shame for you if you should be ignorant of the English Tongue, the Tongue of your Countrymen ; but that you may learn the better I have left a Book for you both, and commend the same to your reiterated perusal. If you should not get much of y" Latin, nevertheless read y" the English part oftentimes OVER AND OVER AND OVER. And I assure you that Semper ali- quid hoerehit. For the Dripping of the house-eaves in Time maketh a hole in an hard stone. Non vi sed scepe cadendo, and it is very bad Cloath that by often dipiDing will take no Colour. Lectio lecia placet, decies repetita p)lacehit Quod Natura negat vobis Industria prcesiet. — F. D. P." Israel Pemberton, a pupil fourteen years old, on whom he had used the rod, wrote concerning him 13th of 6th mo. 1698: "The first time I saw him I told my father that I thought he would prove an angry master. He asked me why so : I told him I thought so by his nose, for which he called me a prating boy." He died Sept. 27th, 1719. ^ Pastorius MS. cited by Seidensticker in the Deutsche Pionier, vol. ii., p. 142. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 19 the emigrants were delayed between Rotterdam and Lon- don, and Claypoole was in great uneasiness for fear the vessel should be compelled to sail without them, and they should lose their passage money. He wrote sev- eral letters about them to Benjamin Furly at Rotterdam. June 19th he saj^s, " I am glad to hear the Crevill ffriends are coming," July 3d he says, " before I goe away wch now is like to be longer than we expected by reason of the Crevill friends not coming we are fain to loyter and keep the ship still at Blackwall upon one pretence or an- other ;" and July lOtli he says, " It troubles me much that the friends from Crevillt are not yet come."-^ As he had the names of the thirty-three persons, this contemporary evidence is very strong, and it would seem safe to con- clude that all of this pioneer band, which, with Pastorius, founded Germantown, came from Orefeld. Henry Mel- chior Muhlenberg says the first comers were platt-deutch from the neighborhood of Oleves.^ Despite the forebod- ings of Claypoole the emigrants reached London in time for the Concord, and they set sail westward on the 24th of J\i\y. While they are for the first time experiencing the dangers and trials of a voyage across the ocean, doubt- less sometimes lookins; back with reo-ret, but oftener wist- fully and wonderingly forward, let us return to inquire who these people were who were willing to abandon for- ever the old homes and old friends along the Rhine, and commence new lives with the wolf and the savage in the forests upon the shores of the Delaware. The origin of the sect of Mennonites is somewhat involved in obscurity. Their opponents, following Sleid- anus and other writers of the 16th century, have re- ^ Letter Book of James Claypoole. '^ Hallescbe Nachrichten, p. 665. 20 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. proached them with being an outgrowth of the Anabap- tists of Munster. On the contrary, their own historians, Mehrning, Van Braght, Schynn, Maatschoen, and Roosen, trace their theological and Hneal descent from the Wal- denses, some of whose communities are said to have ex- isted from the earHest Christian times, and who were able to maintain themselves in obscure parts, of Europe, against the power of Rome, in large numbers from the 12th century downward. The subject has of recent years received thorough and philosophical treatment at the hands of S. Blaupot Ten Gate, a Dutch historian,^ The theory of the Waldensian origin is based mainly on a certain similarity in creed and church observances ; the fact that the Waldenses are known to have been numer- ous in those portions of Holland and Flanders where the Mennonites arose and throve, and to have afterward dis- appeared ; the ascertained descent of some Mennouite families from AValdenses ; and a marked similarity in habits and occupations. This last fact is especially inter- esting in our investigation, as will be hereafter seen. The Waldenses carried the art of weaving from Flan- ders into Holland, and so generally followed that trade as in many localities to have gone by the name of Tisser- ^ Geschiedkundig Onderzoek naar den Waldenzischen oorsprong van de Nederlandsche Doopsgezinden. Amsterdam, 1844. A nearly contemporary authority, which seems to have escaped the observation of European investigators, is '' De vitis, sectis, et dogmatibus omnium Ilsereticorum, &c., per Gabrielem Prateolum Marcossium,'' published at Cologne in 1583, which says, p. 25 : " Est perniciosior etiam tertia qute quoniam a Catholocis legitime baptizatos rebaptizat, Anabaptistorum secta vocatur. De quo genera videiitur etiam fuisse IVatres Vualdenses ; quos et ipsos non it,a pridfm rebaptizasse constat, quamuis eorum nonnulli, nuper adeo, sicut ipsi in Apologia sua testantur, iterare Baptismum desierint; in multis tamen eos cum Anabaptistis conuenire certum est." THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 21 ands, or weavers/ It is not improbable that the truth lies between the two theories of friend and foe, and that the Baptist movement which swept through Germany and the Netherlands in the early part of the 16th cen- tury gathered into its embrace many of these communi- ties of Waldenses. At the one extreme of this move- ment were Thomas Munzer, Bernhard Rothman, Jean Matthys. and John of Leyden ; at the other were Menno Simons, and Dirck Philips. Between them stood Batten- burg and David Joris of Delft. The common ground of them all, and about the only ground which they had in common, was opposition to the baptism of infants. The first party became entangled in the politics of the time, and ran into the wildest excesses. They preached to the peasantry of Europe, trodden beneath the despotic heels of Church and State, that the kingdom of Christ upon earth was at hand, that all human authority ought to be resisted and overthrown, and all property be divided. After fighting many battles and causing untold commo- tion, they took possession of the city of Munster, and made John of Leyden a king. The pseudo-kingdom en- dured for more than a year of siege and riot, and then was crushed by the power of the State, and John of Ley- den was torn to pieces with red hot pincers, and his bones set aloft in an iron cage for a warning.'^ Menno Simons was born at the village of Witmarsum in Friesland, in the year 1492, and was educated for the priesthood, upon whose duties early in life he entered. The beheading of Sicke Snyder for rebaptism in the year 1531 in his near neighborhood called his attention to the subject of infant baptism, and after a careful examination ' Ten Gate's Onderzoek, p. 42. ^ Catrou's Histoire des Anabaptistes, p. 462. 22 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. of the Bible and tlie writings of Luther and Zwinglius, he came to the conclusion there was no foundation for it in the Scriptures. At the request of a little community near him liolding like views he began to preach to them, and in 1536 formally severed his connection with the Church of Rome. Ere Ions; he beg-an to be recognized as the leader of the Doopsgezinde or Taufgesinnte, and gradually the sect assumed from him the name of Men- nonites. His first book was a dissertation against the errors and delusions in the teachings of John of Leyden, and after a convention held at Buckhold in Westphalia in 1538, at which Battenburg and David Joris were pre- sent, and Menno and Dirck Philips were represented, the influence of the» fanatical Anabaptists seems to have waned. ^ His entire works, published at Amsterdam in 1681, make a folio volume of 642 pages. Luther and Calvin stayed their hands at a point where power and in- fluence would have been lost, but the Datch reformer, Menno, far in advance of his time, taught the complete severance of Church and State, and the principles of re- ligious liberty which have been embodied in our own federal constitution were first worked out in Holland.^ The Mennonites believed that no baptism was efficacious unless accompanied by repentance, and that the ceremony administered to infants was vain. They took not the sword and were entirely non-resistant.^ They swore not at all."^ They practiced the washing of the feet of the brethren,'' and made use of the ban or the avoidance ^ Nippold's Life of David Joris. Roosen's Menno Simons, p. 32. ■■^ Barclay's Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, pp. 78, 676 ; Menno's " Exhortation to all in Authority," in his works. Funk's edition, vol. i. p. 75 ; vol. ii. p. £03. ' Matthew xxvi. 52. ' Matthew v. 32 to 37. ^ John xiii. 4, 17; I. Timothy v. 10. THE SETTLEMENT OF GEEMANTOWK. 23 of those who were pertinaciously derelict/ In dress and speech they were plain, and in manners simple. Their .ecclesiastical enemies, even while burning them for their heresies, bore testimony to the purity of their lives, their thrift, frugality, and homely virtues.^ They were gen- erally husbandmen and artisans, and so many of them were weavers that, we are told by R-oosen, certain woven and knit fabrics were known as Mennonite goods.^ The shadow of John of Leyden, however, hung over them, the name of Anabaptist clung to them, and no sect, not even the early Christians, was ever more bitterly or persistently persecuted. There were put to death for this cause at Rotterdam 7 persons, Haarlem 10, the Hague 13, Cortrijk 20, Brugge 23, Amsterdam 26, Ghent 103, and Antwerp 229, and in the last-named city there were 37 in 1571 and 37 in 1574, the last by fire."^ It was usual to burn the men and drown the wom^en. Occasionally some were buried alive, and the rack and like preliminary tortures were used to extort confessions, and get information concernino; others of the sect. Ydse Gaukes gives, in a letter written to his brother from prison, a graphic description of his own treatment. After telling that his hands were tied behind his back, he continues : " Then they drew me up about a foot from the ground and let me hang. I was in great pain, but I tried to be quiet. Nevertheless, I cried out three times, ^ Matthew xviii. 17 ; I. Corinthians v. 9, 11 ; 11. Thes. iii. 14. ^ Says Catrou, p. 259, " On ne peat disconvenir que des sectes de la sorte n'ayent ete remplies d'assez bonnes gens et assez reglees pour les moeurs." And page 103, " Leurs invectives centre le luxe, contre I'yvrognerie, et contre incontinence avoient je ne scai quoi de pathetique." ^ Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 9. * Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Holland, etc., Ten Gate, p. 72. 24 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and then was silent. They said that is only child's play, and letting nae down again they put me on a stool, but asked nae no questions, and said nothing to me. They fastened an iron bar to my feet with two chains, and hung on the bar three heavy weights. When they drew me up a^ain a Spaniard tried to hit me in the face with a chain, but he could not reach ; while I was hanging I struggled hard, and got one foot through the chain, but then all the weight was on one leg. They tried to fasten it again, but I fought with all my strength. That made them all laugh, but I was in great pain." He was afterward burned to death by a slow fire at Deventer, in May, 1571.^ Their meetings were held in secret places, often in the middle of the night, and in order to prevent possi- ble exposure under the pressure of pain, they purposely avoided knowing the names of the brethren whom they met, and of the preachers who baptized them.^ A re- ward of 100 gold guilders was offered for Menno, male- factors were promised pardon if they should capture him,^ Tjaert Ryndertz was put on the wheel in 1539 for hav- ing given him shelter, and a house in which his wife and children had rested, unknown to its owner, was confis- cated. He was, as his followers fondly thought, miracu- lously protected however, died peacefully in 1559, and was buried in his own cabbage garden. The natural re- sult of this persecution was much dispersion. The pros- perous communities at Hamburg and Altona were founded by refugees, the first Mennonites in Prussia fled there ^ Van Braght's Blutige Schauplatz oder Martyrer Spiegel. — Epbrata, 1748, vol. ii. p. 632. ^ Van Braght, vol. ii. p. 468. ' A copy of the proclamation may be seen in Ten Gate's Gescbie- denis der Doopsgeziuden in Friesland, etc., p. 63. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 25 from the Netherlands, and others found their way up the Rhine. -^ Orefeld is chiefly noted for its manufactures of silk, linen, and other woven goods, and these manufac- tures were first established by persons fleeing from re- ligious intolerance. From the Mennonites sprang the general Baptist churches of England, the first of them having an eccle- siastical connection with the parent societies in Holland, and their organizers being Englishmen who, as has been discovered, were actual members of the Mennonite church at Amsterdam.^ It was for the benefit of these English- men that the well-known Confession of Faith of Hans de Ries and Lubbert Gerritz was written,'^ and according to the late Robert Barclay, whose valuable work bears every evidence of the most thorough and careful research, it was from association with these early Baptist teachers that George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, imbibed his views. Says Barclay : " We are compelled to view him as the unconscious exponent of the doctrine, practice, and discipline of the ancient and stricter party of the Dutch Mennonites."'* If this be correct, to the spread of Men- nonite teachings we owe the origin of the Quakers, and ^ Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 5. Reiswitz und Waldzeck, p. 19. '■^ Barclay's Religioi^s Societies, pp. 72, 73, 95. ^ The preface to that Confession, Amsterdam, 1686, says : " Ter cause, also daer eenige Engelsche uyt Engeland gevliicht ware, om de vryheyd der Religie alhier te genieten, en alsoo sy een schrifte- lijcke confessie (van de voornoemde) hebben begeert, want veele van hare gheselschap inde Duytsche Tale onervaren zijnde, het selfde niet en konde verstaen, ende als dan konde de ghene die de Tale beyde verstonde de andere onderrechten, het vvelche oock niet onvruchtbaer en is ghebleven, want na overlegh der saecke zijn sy met de voernoemde Gemeente vereenight." * P. 77. 2 26 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. the settlement of Pennsylvania. The doctrine of the inner light was by no means a new one in Holland and Ger- many, and the dead letter of the Scriptures is a thought common to David Joris, Caspar Schwenckfeldt, and the modern Quaker. The similarity between the two sects has been manifest to all observers, and recognized by themselves. William Penn, writini!; to James Logan of some emigrants in 1709, says: 'Herewith comes the Palatines, whom use with tenderness and love, and fix them so that they may send over an agreeable character ; for they are a sober people, divers Mennonists, and will neither swear nor light. See that Guy has used them well."^ Thomas Chalkley, writing from Holland the same year, says : " There is a great people which they call Mennonists who are very near to truth, and the fields are white unto liarvest among that people spirit- ually speaking."""^ When Ames,'^ Caton, Stubbs, Penn, and others of the early Friends went to Holland and Germany, they were received witJi the utmost kindness by the Mennonites, which is in strong contrast with their treatment at the hands of the established churches. The strongest testimon}^ of this character, however, is given by Thomas Story, the recorder of deeds in Pennsyl- vania, who made a trip to Holland and Germany in 1715. There he preached in the Mennonite m^^eting houses at Hoorn, Holfert, Drachten, Goredyke, Heerveen, Jever, Oudeboone, Grow, Leeu warden, Dokkum, and Henleven, wliile at Malkwara no meeting was held because "a Per- son of note among the Menists being departed this life," ' Penn Logan Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 354. - Works of Thomas Chalkley, Phila. 1749, p. 70. ■' William Auios, an accession to Quakerism from the Baptists^ was the first to go to Holland and Germany, and it was he who made the convei'ts in Amsterdam and Krisheim. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 27 <\nd none at Saardam because of " the chief of the Men- ists beinu' over at Amsterdam " These meetino-s were attended almost exclusively by Mennonites, and they enter- tained him at their houses. One of their preachers he describes as " convinced of truth," and of another he says that after a discourse of several hours about religion they "had no difference," Jacob Nordyke, of Harlin- gen, a " Menist and friendly man," accompanied the party on their journey, and when the wagon broke down near Oudeboone lie went ahead on foot to prepare a meeting. The climax of this staid good fellowship was capped, however, at Grow. Says Story in his journal : " Hemine Gosses, their preacher, came to us, and taking me by the hand he embraced me and saluted me with several kisses, which I readily answered, tor lie expressed much satisfaction before the people, and received us gladly, inviting us to take a dish of tea with him. He showed us his garden, and gave us of his grapes of several kinds, but first of all a dram lest we should take cold after the exercise of the meeting," and " treated us as if he had been a Friend, from which he is not far, hav- ing been as tender as any at the meeting," William Sewel, the historian, was a Mennonite, and it certainly was no accident that the first two Quaker his- tories were written in Holland.-^ It was among the Men- nonites they made their converts.' In fact transition between the two sects both ways was easy, Quakers became members of the Mennonite church at Crefeld'^ and at Haarlem,'* and in the reply which Peter Henrichs and Jacob Glaus of Amsterdam made in 1679 to a pamphlet by Heinrich Kassel, a Mennonite preacher at ^ Sewel and Gerhard Croese. " Sewel, Barclay, Seidensticker. ■^ Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 66. * Story's Journal, p. 490. 28 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Krisheira, they quote him as saying " that the so-called Quakers, especially here in the Palatinate, have fallen off anci gone out from the Mennonites."^ These were the people who, some as Mennonites," and others, perhaps, as recently converted Quakers, after be- ing unresistingly driven up and down the Rhine for a century and a half, were ready to come to the wilds of America. Of the six original purchasers Jacob Telner and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber are known to have been members of the Mennonite Church ; Govert Rerake,^ Jan- uary 14th, 1686, sold his land to Dirck Sipman, and had little to do with the emigration ; Sipman selected as his attorneys here at various times Hermann Op den Graeff, Hendrick Sellen, and Van Bebber, all of whom were Mennonites ; and Jan Streypers was represented also by Sellen, was a cousin of the Op den Graeffs, and was the uncle of Hermannus and Arnold Kuster, two of the most active of the early Pennsylvania members of that sect. Of the emigrants Dirck, Hermann, and Abraham Op den Graeff were Mennonites, and were grandsons of Hermann Op den Graeff, the delegate from Orefeld to the Council ^ This rare and valuable pamphlet is in the library of A. H. Cassel. "^ In this connection the statement of Hortensius in his Histotre des Anahaptistes, Paris, 1695, is interesting. He says in the pre- face : " Car cette sorte de gens qu'on appelle aujourd bui Menno- nites ou Anahaptistes en Holande et ceux qui sent connus en Angleterre sous le nom de Koakres ou Trembleurs, qui sont par- tages en plus de cent sortes de Sectes, ne peuvent point conter d'autre origine que celle des Anabaptistes de Munster quoi qu'a present ils se tiennent beaucoup plus en repos, et qu'ils n'ayent aucune ambition pour le gouvernement ou I'admini.stration des affaires temporelles, et mesrae que le port ou I'usage de toute sortes d'armes soit entierement defendu parmi eux." * Johann Rcmke wa^^ the Mennonite preacher at Crefeld in 1752. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN, 29 which met at Dordrecht in 1632, and adopted a Oonfee- sion of Faith/ Many of the others, as we have seen, were connected with the Op den Graeffs by family ties. Jan Lensen was a member of the Mennonite church here. Jan Lucken bears the same name as the engraver who illustrated the edition of Van Braght published in 1685, and others of the books of that church, and the Dutch Bible which he brought with him is a copy of the third edition of Nicolaes Biestkens, the first Bible pubHshed by the Mennonites.^ Lenart Arets, a follower of David Joris, was beheaded at Poeldyk in 1535. The name Tunes occurs frequently on the name lists of the Menno- nite preachers about the time of this emigration, and Hermann Tunes was a member of the first church in Pennsylvania. This evidence, good as far as it goes, but not complete, is strengthened by the statements of Men- nonite writers and others upon both sides of the Atlantic. Roosen tells us " William Penn had in the year 1683 in- vited the Mennonites to settle in Pennsylvania. Soon many from the Netherlands went over and settled in and about Germantown."^ Funk, in his account of the first church, says : " Upon an invitation from William Penn to our distressed forefathers in the faith it is said a num- ber of them emigrated either from Holland or the Pala- tinate, and settled in Germantown in 1683, and there •established the first church in America.""^ Rupp asserts that, " In Europe they had been sorely persecuted, and ^ Scheuten geneal(>gy in the possessien of Miss Elizabeth Muller, of Crefeld. I am indebted for extracts from this valuable MS., which begins with the year 1562, to Frederick Muller, the cele- brated antiquary and bibliophile of Amsterdam. ^ The Bible now belongs to Adam Lukens, of North Wales, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania. ^ P. 60. ' Mennonite Familv Almanac for 1875. 30 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. on the invitation of tlie liberal-minded William Penn they transported themselves and families into the pro- vince of Pennsylvania as early as 168B. Thosp who came that year and in 1698 settled in and about Ger- mantown."^ Says Haldeman : " Whether the first Tauf- gesinneten or Mennonites came from Holland or Switzer- land I have no certain information, but they came in the year 1683."^ Richard Townsend, an eminent Quaker preacher, who came over in the Welcome, and settled a mile from Germantown, calls them a "religious good peo- ple," but he does not say they were Friends, as he prob- ably would have done had the facts justified it.'^ Abra- ham, Dirck, and Hermann Op den GraefF, Lenart Arets, Abraham Tunes, and Jan Lensen were linen weavers, and in 1686 Jan Streypers wrote to his brother Willein inquiring " who has wove my yarns, how many ells long, and how broad the cloth made from it, and through what fineness of comb it has been through."* The pioneers had a pleasant voyage, and reached Phila- delphia on the 6th of October. In the language of Clay- poole, " The blessing of the Lord did attend us so that we had a very comfortable passage, and had our health all the way."^ Unto Johannes Bleikers a son Peter was born while at sea. Cold weather was approaching, and they had little time to waste in idleness or curiosity. On the 12th of the same month a warrant was issued to Pas- torius for 6000 acres " on behalf of the German and Dutch purchasers," on the 24th Thomas Fairman mea- sured oti" fourteen divisions of land, and the next day ' History of Berks County, p. 423. '■^ Geschichte der Gemeinde Gottes, p. 55. •' Hazard's Register, vol. vi. 198. ■' Deeds, Streper MSS. '" Claypoole letter-book. THE SETTLEMENT OF GEEMANTOWN. 3X meeting together in the cave of Pastorius they drew lots for the choice of location. Under the warrant 5350 acres were laid out May 2d, 1684, " having been allotted and shared out by the said Daniel Pastorius, as trustee for them, and by tlieir own consent to the German and Dutch purchasers after named, as their respective several and distinct dividends, whose names and quantities of the said land they and the said Daniel Pastorius did desire might be herein inserted and set down, viz. : The tirst purchasers of Frankfort, Germany, Jacobus Van de Walle 535, Jolian Jacob Schutz 428, Johan Wilhelm Uberfeld 107, Daniel Behagel 3561, George Strauss 1783, Jan Laurens 535, Abraham Hasevoet 535, in all 2675 acres of land. The first purchasers of Crefeld, in Germany, Jacob Telner 989, Jan Streypers 275, Dirck Sipman 588, Govert Remke 161, Lenert Arets 501, Jacob Isaacs 161, in all 2675 acres." In addition 200 acres were laid out for Pastorius in his own right, and 150 to Jurian Ilartsfelder, a stray Dutchman or German, who had been a deputy sheriff under Andross in 1676, and who now cast his lot in with the settlers at German- town.^ Immediately after the division in the cave of Pastorius they began to dig the cellars, and build the huts in wliich, not without much hardship, they spent the following winter. Thus commenced the settlement of Germantown. Pastorius tells us that some people making a pun upon the name called it Arrtientown, be- cause of their lack of supplies, and adds, " it could not be described, nor would it be believed bv comino- genera- tions in what want and need, and with what Christian contentment and persistent industry this Gerinantown- ' Exemplification Record, vol. i. p. 51. It is also said that Hein- ricli Frey was here before the landing of Penn. OZ HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. .ship started."^ Willem Streypers wrote over to his brother Jan on the 20th of 2d mo. 1684, that he was already on Jan's lot to clear and sow it, and noake a dwelling, but that there was nothing in hand, and he mus': have a year's provision, to which in due time Jan replied by sending a " Box with 3 combs, and 3 , and 5 shirts and a small parcel with iron ware for a weaving stool," and telling him " to let Jan Lensen weave a piece of cloth to sell, and apply it to your use." In better spirits Willem wrote Oct. 22d, 1684 : I have been busv and made a brave dwellino; house, and under it a cellar fit to live in, and have so much grain, such as Indian Corn and Buckwheat that this winter I shall be better off than what I was last year."'^ Other emigrants ere long began to appear in the little town. Cornelis Bom, a Dutch baker, whom Claypoole mentions in association with Telner, and who bears the same name as a delegate from Schiedam to the Menno- nite convention at Dordrecht, arrived in Philadelphia be- fore Pastorius. David Scherkes, perhaps from Muhlheira on the Ruhr, and Walter Seimens and Isaac Jacobs Van Bebber, lioth from Crefeld, were in Germantown Nov. 8th, 16S4. Van Bebber was a son of Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber. and was followed by his father and brother Mat- tiiias in 1687. Jacob Telner, the second of the six origi- nal Crefeld purchasers to cross the Atlantic, reached New York after a tedious voyage of twelve weeks' duration, and from there he wrote Dec. 12th, 1684, to Jan Laurens of Rotterdam, that liis wife and daughter were " in good health and fat," that he liad made atrip to Pennsylvania, which " lie loutul a beautiful land with a healthy attnos- ' SeiJensticker'tj Pa.storiu.s in the Deutsche Pioneer, vol. ii. p. 17G. = Streper MSS. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMAKTOWN. 33 pliere, excellent fountains and springs running through it, beautiful trees from which can be obtained better lire- wood than the turf of Holland," and that he intended to take his family there the following spring,^ He seems to have been the central figure of the whole emigration. As a merchant in Amsterdam his business was extensive. He had transactions with the Quakers in London, and friendly relations with some of the people in New York. One of the earliest to buy lands here, we find him meet- ing Pastorius immediately prior to the latter's departure, doubtless to give instructions, and later personally super- intending the emigration of the Colonists. During his thirteen years' residence in Germantown his relations both in a business and social way with the principal men in Philadelphia were apparenth' close and intimate. Penn wrote to Logan in 1703, " I have been much pressed by Jacob Telner concerning Rebecca Shippen's business in the tovvn,"^ and both Robert Turner and Samuel Carpenter acted as his attorneys. He and his daughter Susanna were present at the marriage of Francis Rawle and Martha Turner in 1689, and witnessed their certificate. The harmonious blending of the Mennonite and the Quaker is nowhere better shown than in the fact of his accompanying John Delavall on a preaching and proselytingtour to New England in 1692.'" He was the author of a " Treatise" in quarto mentioned l)y Pastorius, ' Two letters in Dutch from Bom and Telner to Jan Laurens were printed in Rotterdam, in 1685. The only known copy is in the Moravian Archives at Bethlehem. ■^ Penn Logan Correspondence, vol. i. p. 189. ' Smith's History, Hazard's Register, vol. vi. p. 309. Smith adopts him as a Friend, but in his own letter of 1709. written while he was living among- the Quakers in England, he calls himself a Mennonite. 34 HISTORICAL AND JJIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and extracts from his letters to Laurens were printed at Rotterdam in 1685.^ About 1692 he a})pears to liave published a paper in the controversy with George Keith charging the latter with " impious blasphemy and deny- ing the Lord that bought him."" He was one of the first burgesses of Germautown, the most extensive landholder there, and promised to give ground enough for the erection of a market liouse, a promise whicli we will presume he ful- filled. In 1698 he went to London, where he was living as a merchant as late as 1712, and from there in 1709 he wrote to Rotterdam concerning the miseries of some emigrants, six of whom were Mennonites from the Pala- tinate, who had gone tliat far on their journey, and were unable to proceed. " The English Friends who are called Quakers," he says had given mateiial assistance." Doubt- less European research would throw much light on his career. He was baptized at the Mennonite church in Amsterdam March 29th, 1665. His only child Susanna married Albertus Brandt, a merchant of Germantown and Philadelphia, and after the death of her first husband in 1701 she married David Williams.'' After deductinii; the land laid out in Germantown, and the 2000 acres sold to the Op den Graefis. the bulk of his 5000 acres was taken up on the Skippack, in a track for many years known as " Telncn-'s Township."'' In 1684 also came Jan Willeinse Bockenogen, a Quaker cooper from Haarlem.® ' The Treatise is described by Pastorius in the enumeration of liis library. MS. Hist. Society. ^ A true Account of the Sence and Advice of the People called Quakers. •■' Dr. Scheffer's paper in the Pp^nn'a Magazine, vol. ii. p. 122. * Exemp. Record, vol. vii.p. 208. •' Exemp. Record, vol. viii.p. 360. " Among his descendants was Henry Armitt Brown, the orator. THE SETTLEMENT OF GEEMANTOWN. 35 Oct. 12t!i, 1685, ia the " Francis and Dorothy" arrived Hans Peter Umstat from Crefeld, with his wife Barbara, his son John, and his daughters Anna Magaretta, and Eve ;^ Peter Schumacher with his son Peter, his daugh- ters Mary, Frances, and Gertrude, and his cousin Sarah ; Gerhard Hendricks with his wife Mary, his daughter Sarah and his servant Heinrich Frey, the last named from Altheim in Alsace : and Heinrich Buchholtz and his wife Mary. Peter Schumacher, an early Quaker con- vert from the Mennonites, is the first person definitely ascertained to have come from Krisheim, the little village in the Palatinate, to which so much prominence has been given. Fortunately we know under what auspices he ar- rived. By an agreement with Dirck Sipmao, of Crefeld, dated August 16th, 1685, he was to proceed with the first good wind to Pennsylvania, and there receive 200 acres from Hermann Op den Graefi", on which he should erect a dwelling, and for which he should pay a rent of two rix dollars a year.^ Gerhard Henricks also had bought 200 acres from Sipman.^ He came from Kris- heim, and I am inclined to believe that his identity may be merged in that of Gerhard Hendricks Dewees. If so^ he was associated with the Op den Graeffs and Van Beb- bers, and was the grandson of Adrian Hendricks Dewees, a Hollander, who seems to have lived in Amsterdam.^ This identification, however, needs further investigation. Dewees bought land of Sipman, which his widow, Zytien, sold in 1701. The wife of Gerhard Hendricks in the The Bockenogens were Mennonite weavers, who fled to Haarlem because of persecution about 1578. ' He brought over with him the family Bible of his father, Nicholas Umstat, which I have inherited through his daughter Eve. ^ See his deed in Dutch in the Germantown book. '' Deed book E 4, vol. 7, p. 180. * Raths-Buch. 36 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. court records is called 8yt)e. On the tax list of 1693 there is a Gerhard Hendricks, but no Devvees, though the latter at that time was the owner of land. Hendricks after the Dutch manner called one son William Gerrits and another Lambert Gerrits, and both men, if they were two, died about the same time. Much confusion has re- sulted for a want of familiarity on the part of local his- torians with the Dutch habit of omitting the final or local appellation. Thus the Van Bebbers are frequently re- ferred to in contemporaneous records as Jacob Isaacs, Isaac Jacobs, and Matthias Jacobs, the Op den GraefFs as Dirck Isaacs, Abraham Isaacs^ and Hermann Isaacs ; and Van Burklow as Reynier Hermanns. In 1685 also came Heivert Papen, and on the 20th of March, 1686, Johannes Kassel. a weaver, and another Quaker convert from the Mennonites. from Krisheim, aged forty-seven years, with his children, Arnold, Peter, Elizabeth, Mary, and Sarah, both having purchased land from individual members of the Frankfort Company. About the same time Klas Tamsen arrived. In the vessel with Kassel was a widow, Sarah Shoemaker, from the Palatinate, and doubtless from Krisheim, with her children, George, Abra- ham, Barbara, Isaac, ^ Susanna, Elizabeth, and Benjamin. Among the Mennonite martyrs mentioned by Van Braght there are several bearing the name of Schoenmaker, and that there was a Dutch settlement in the neighborhood of Krisheim is certain. At Flomborn, a few miles distant, is a spring which the people of the vicinity still call the ' He married Sarah, only daughter of Gerhard Hendricks. Their son Benjamin, and their grandson Samuel, were successively Mayors of Philadelphia, and a great-granddaughter was the wife of William Rawle. I am indebted for some of these facts to the kind- ness of W. Brooke Rawle, Esq. THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 37 " Hollander's Spring."-^ The Paniiebakkers went there at some renaote date from North Brabant in Holland. I have a Dutch medical work published in 1622 which be- longed to Johannes Kassel, many Dutch books from the same family are in the possession of that indefatigable antiquary, Abraham H. Cassel, and the deed of Peter Schumacher is in Dutch. The Kolbs, who came to Penn- sylvania later, were grandsons of Peter Schumacher, and were all earnest Mennonites. The Kassels brouQ-ht over with them many of the manuscripts of one of their family, Ylles Kassel, a Mennonite preacher at Krisheim, who was born before 1618, and died after 1681, and some of these papers are still preserved. The most interesting is a long poem in German rhyme, which describes vividly the con- dition of the country, and throws the strongest light upon the character of the people and the causes of the emigra- tion. The writer says that it was copied off with much pain and bodily suffering Nov. 28th, 1665, It begins : " Lord ! to Thee the thoughts of all hearts are known. Into Thy hands I commend my body and soul. When Thou lookest upon me with thy mercy all things are well with me. Thou hast stricken me with severe illness, which is a rod for my correction. Give me patience ajid resigna- tion. Forgive all my sins and wickedness. Let not Thy mercy forsake me. Lay not on me more than I can bear," and continues, " Lord God ! Protect me in this time of war and danger, that evil men may not do with me as they wish. Take me to a place where I may be concealed from them, free from such trials and cares. My wife and children too, that they may not come to shame ^ I am indebted for this and other information to Herr Johannes Pfannebecker Geheimer Regierungs Rath (of Germany), living in Worm?, who, at the request of Dr. Seidensticker and myself, made an investigation at Krisheim. 38 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. at their hands. Let all my dear friends find mercy from Thee." After noting a successful flight to Worms he goes on, " dear God and Lord ! to Thee be all thanks, honor, and praise for Thy mercy and pity, which Thou hast shown to me in this time. Thou hast protected me from evil men as from my heart I prayed Thee. Thou hast 'led me in the right way so that I came to a place where I was concealed from such sorrows and cares. Thou has kept the way clear till I reached the city, while other people about were much robbed and plundered. I have found a place among people who show me much love and kindness . . . Gather us into Heaven of which I am unworthy, but still I have a faith that God will not drive me into the Devil's kingdom with such a host as that which now in this land with murder and robbery destroys many people in many places, and never once thinks how it may stand before God . . . Well is it known what misery, suffering, and danger are about in this land with robbing, plundering, murdering, and burning. Many a man is brought into pain and need, and abused even unto death. Many a beautiful home is destroyed. The clothes are torn from the backs of many people. Cattle and herds are »taken away. Much sorrow and complaint have been heard. The beehives are broken down, the wine spilled."^ Occasionally we catch a glimpse of the home life of the early dwellers at Germantown. Pastorius had no glass, and, therefore, he made windows for his house of oiled paper, and over the door he wrote : " Parva domus, arnica bonis, procul este profani," an inscription which much amused Penn. Willem Streypers in 1685 had two pair of leather breeches, two leather doublets, handker- ^ These papers also belong to A. H. Cassel, liis descendant. THE SKTTLHMKNT OF GERMANTOWN. 39 chiefs, stockings, and a new hat. Bom wrote to Rotter- dam Oct. 12tb, 1684, " I have here a shop of many kinds of goods, and edibles. Sometimes I ride out with mer- chandise, and sometimes bring something back, mostly from the Indians, and deal with them in many things. I have no regular servants except one negro, whom I bought. I have no rent or tax or fxcise to pay. I have a cow which gives plenty of milk, a horse to ride around, my pigs increase rapidly so that in th^ summer I had seven- teen when at first I had only two. I have many chickens and geese, and a garden, and shall next year have an orchard if I remain well, so that my wnfe and I are in good spirits " The first to die was Jan Seimens, whose widow was again about to marry in October, 1685.^ Bom died before 1689, and his daughter Agnes married Anthony Morris, the ancestor of the distinguished family of that name.^ In 1685 Wigard and Gerhard Levering came from Muhlheim on the Ruhr,^ a town also far down the Rhine near Holland, which, next to Crefeld, seems to have sent the largest number of emigrants. The follow- ing year a fire caused considerable loss, and a little church was built at German town. According to Seidensticker it was a Quaker meeting house, and he shows conclusively that before 1692 all of the original thirteen, except Jan Lensen, had in one way or another been associated with Vne s^uakers. In 1687 Arent Klincken arrived from Dalem in Holland, and Jan Streypers wrote: "I intend to come over myself," which intention he carried into effect before 1706, as at that date he signed a petition for naturalization.'^ All of the original Ciefeld pur- ^ Pastorius' Beschreibung, Leipsic, 1700, p. 23, Streper MSS. - Ashmead MSS. ■' Jones' Levering Family. * Jan Streypers and his son-in-law, H. J. Van Aaken, met Penn 40 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. chasers, therefore, came to Pennsylvania sooner or later, except Rerake and Sipman. He, however, returned to Europe, where he and Willem had an undivided inheri- tance at Kaldkirchen, and it was agreed between them that Jan should keep the whole of it, and Willem take the lands liere. The latter were 275 acres at German- town, 50 at Chestnut Hill, 275 at the Trappe, 4448 in Bucks County, together with 50 acres of Liberty Lands and three city lots, the measurement thus considerably overrunning his purchase. Another arrival of importance was that of Willem E-it- tinghuysen, a Meunoiiite minister, who with his two sons, Gerhard and Klaas, and a daughter, who later married Heivert Papen, came from Broicli in Holland. His fore- at Wesel in 1686, and brought liim from that place to Crefeld. Van Aaken seems to have been a Quaker Sept. 30th, 1699, on which day he wrote to Penn : " I understand that Derick Sypman uses for his Servis to you, our Magistrates at Meurs, which Magistrates offers their Service to you again. So it would be well that you Did Kyndly Desire them that they would Leave out of the high Dutch proclomation which is yearly published throughout y^ County of Meurs & at y® Court House at Crevel, that y® Quakers should have no meeting upon penalty, & in Case you ffinde freedom to Desire y* sd Magistrates at Meurs that they may petition our King William (as under whose name the sd proclomation is given forth) to leave out y'' word Quackers & to grant Leberty of Counsience, & if they should not optaine y'' same from the said King, that then you would be Constrained for the truth's Sake to Request our King William for the annulling of y* sd proclomation Concerning the quackers, yo"" answer to this p. next shall greatly oblige me. Especially if you would write to me in the Dutch or German tongue, god almayghty preserve you and yo' wife In soule and body. I myself have some thoughts to Come to you but by heavy burden of 8 Children, &c., I can hardly move, as also that I want bodyly Capacity to Clear Lands and IfliU tree?;, as also money to undertake something Ells." An English translation of this letter in the handwriting of Matthias Van Bebber is in the collection of Dr. W, Kent Gilbert. THE SETTLEMEKT OF QEEMANTOWN. 41 fathers had long carried on the business of manufacturing paper at Arnheim, and in 1690 he built the first paper- mill in America on a branch of the Wissahickon Creek. There he made the paper used by William Bradford, the earliest printer in the mid lie colonies. It appears from a letter in the Mennonite Archives at Amsterdam that he endeavored to have the Confession of Faith translated into English and printed by Bradford, and that he died- in 1708 aged sixty-four years. ^ The erection of the paper-mill is likely to keep his memory green for many generations to come, and its value was fully appreciated, by his contemporaries. In a Description of Pennsyl- vania in verse by Richard Frame in 1692 we are told, "A paper-mill near Germantown does stand," and says the quaint Gabriel Thomas, six years later, "all sorts of very good paper are made in the German town." About 1687 came Jan Duplouvys, a Dutch baker, who was married by Friends ceremony to Weyntie Van Sanen in the presence of Telner and Bom, on the 3d of 3 mo. of that year ; and Dirck Keyser, a silk merchant of Amsterdam, and a Mennonite, connected by family ties with the leading Mennonites of that city, arrived in Ger- mantown in 1688 by way of New York. If we can rely on tradition the latter was a descendant of that Leonard Keyser who was burned to death at Scharding in 1527, and who, according to Ten Cate, was one of the Walden- ses.'^ There was a rustic murmur in the little burgh that year, ^ Jones's Notes to Thomas on Printing. Barton'8 Liie of David Rittenhouse. Penn. Magazine, vol. ii. p. 120. The Mennonites had their Confession of Faith printed in English in Amsterdam in 1712, and a reprint by Andrew Bradford in 1727, with an appen- dix, is the tirst book printed in Pennsylvania for the Germans. "^ See Pennypacker Reunion, p. 13. 3 42 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHIOAL SKETCHES. which time has shown to have been the echo of the great wave that rolls around the world. The event probably at that time produced no commotion, and attracted little attention. It may well be that the consciousness of hav- ing won immortality never dawned upon any of the par- ticipants, and yet a mighty nation will ever recognize it in time to come as one of the brightest pages in the early history of Pennsylvania. On the 18th day of April, 1688, Gerhard Hendricks, Dirck Op den Graeff, Francis Daniel Pastorius, and Abraham Op den Graeff sent to the Friends meeting the first public protest ever made on this conti- nent against the holding of slaves. A little rill there started which further on became an immense torrent, and whenever hereafter men trace analytically the causes which led to Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Appomattox they will begin with the tender consciences of the linen weavers and husbandmen of German town. The protest is as follows : — This is to y® Monthly Meeting held at Rigert Worrells. These are the reasons why we are against the traffick of mens-body as followeth : Is there any that would be done or handled at this manner? viz. to be sold or made a slave for all the time of his life ? How fearfuU & faint- hearted are many on sea when they see a strange vassel being afraid it should be a Turck, and they should be tacken and sold for Slaves in Turckey. Now what is this better done as Turcks doe? yea rather is it worse for them, wch say they are Christians for we hear, that y® most part of such Negers are brought heither against their will & consent, and that many of them are stollen. Now tho' they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men, THE SETTLEMENT OF QERMANTOW.W 43 licke as we will be done our vselves : mackirig no difference of what generation, descent, or Colour they are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or pur- chase them, are they not all alicke ? Here is liberty of Conscience, wch is right & reasonable, here ought to be liekewise liberty of y** body, except of evildoers, wch is iin other case. But to bring men hither, or to robb and sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are many oppressed for Conscience sacke ; and here there are those oppressed wch are of a black Colour. And we, who know that men must not comitt adultery, some doe comitt adultery in others, separating wifes from their housbands, and giving them to others and some sell the children of those poor Creatures to other men. Oh ! doe consider well this things, you who doe it, if you would be done at this manner? and if it is done according Christi- anity? you surpass Holland & Germany in this thing. This mackes an ill report in all those Countries of Europe, where they hear off, that y® Quackers doe here handel men, Licke they handel there y*' Cattle ; and for that reason some have no mind or inclination to come hither. And who shall maintaine this your cause or plaid for it ? Truely we can not do so except you shall inform us better hereoff, viz. that christians have liberty to practise this things. Pray ! What thing in the world can be done worse towarts us then if men should robb or steal us away - 35, " As tlie true pilgrims upon earth going from place to place in the hope to find quiet and rest appear the Mennonites. They were the most important among the German pioneers in North America." * In the compilation of this article I have been especially indebted to Dr. J. G. De Hoop SchefFer, of the College at Amsterdam, for European researches, to Prof. Oswald Seidensticker, of the University of Pennsylvania, whose careful investigations I have used freely, and to Abraham H. Cassel, of Harleysville, Pa., whose valuable library, it is, perhaps, not too much to say, is the only place in which the history of the Germans of Pennsylvania can be found. In giving the orthography of proper names I have, as far as practi- cable, followed autographs. DAVID RITTENEOUSE, f THE American Astronomer. From Harper's Monthly, for May, 1882. DAVID RITTENHOUSE,' There have been very few men, even among those pos- sessed of extraordinary talents, who have been so entirely unskilled in the arts that attract popular attention, and have nevertheless attained to such eminence during their own lives, as did David Rittenhouse. The people of provincial Pennsylvania fully believed they had found among themselves in the farmer's lad of the Wissahickon one upon whom the divine light of genius had fallen, and they came to him with offerings of homage, as well as of pounds, shillings and pence, perhaps all the more willingly because he shrank from the honor with an appearance of shyness, if not of timidity. His career more nearly resembled that of Franklin than that of any other of his contemporaries. Both began life in an. obscure way and under adverse circumstances ; the fame of both as philoso- phers and men of science extended over the world ; both were drawn into the politics of their day, and living in the same city, and being of the same way of thought, bore ^ The principal authorities consulted and used in the preparation of this paper were Barton's Life, Renwick's Life, Rush's Memoir, Colonial Records and Archives, Votes of Assembly, Sargent's Loyalist Poetry, Pennsylvania Gazette, Pennsylvania Packet, The Chronicle, Jacobs MSS., Jefferson's Works, Adams' Works, Miller's Retrospect, Life and Times of Dr. William Smith, Rittenhouse's Oration, Du Simitiere Papers, Accounts of Pennsylvania, Graydon's Memoirs, Life of Judge Henry, Journals of Congress, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Columbian Magazine, MS. Minutes of the Democratic Society, and the Portfolio. 62 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. a conspicuous part in the Revolutionary struggle ; and each at the time of his death was president of that learned society which had afforded them many of their opportu- nities. Here, however, the parallel ends. Rittenhouee was more of a scientist, and Franklin more of a politician. With the boldness which comes of strength, blended with a sufficiency of shrewdness, Franklin went out into the world knowing there was much in it he wanted, and determined to get what he could. Despite of his admir- able talents, his knowledge of men and affairs, his sagacious forecast of the future, and his magnificent work in various fields, he had many of the characteristics of an adventurer. In scanning the events of his life we cannot help but wish that as an apprentice he had not run away from hia master, that his relations with women had never become the subject of conversation, that he had given more credit to Kinnersley for his electrical experiments, and that he had not united with the Quakers while they were in power, or had remained with them after they lost it. Rittenhouse, on the other hand, was altogether clean, simple, and pure, and in the supreme event of his life, the observation of the transit of Venus, after making the instruments, noting the contacts, and calculating the parallax, he left for his colleague. Dr. Smith, the prepara- tion of the report for publication. While, therefore, it may well be that through lack of aggressiveness or through overnicety he failed to gather all that he might have secured, we approach him with full faith that whatever he did was his own work, and whatever he gained belonged to him. He came of good ancestry. His paternal forefathers had long been paper-makers in the city of Arnheim, in Holland, and there belonged to the Mennonites — a relig- DAVID RITTENHOUSE. b'S ious sect wliieli in creed and observances the Quakers much resemble, and which, according to some authorities, they have followed. The Mennonites call themselves "Defenseless Chris- tians," being strictly opposed to all warfare, and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they suffered terribly at the stake and by other methods of persecution. It was of Dirck Willems, a Mennonite burned in 1569 for having- been rebaptized and holding meetings in his house, that Motley tells a pathetic story, copied from Van Braght. To escape threatened capture he fled across a lake covered with thin ice. One of his pursuers, more eager than wise, followed, and breakino; through was unable to> extricate himself. Willems, seeing the danger of his adversary, returned and assisted him to the shore, when the base wretch, with unequalled ingratitude, arrested his rescuer and hurried him away to prison. There were very nearly as many martyrs among the Mennonites in the city of Antwerp alone as there were Protestants burned to death in England during the whole reign of DO O bloody Mary. Willem Rittinghuysen, the first Mennonfite preacher in Pennsylvania, came with his family and others of the sect to Germantown in 1688, and on a branch of the Wissahickon Creek, in Roxborough Township, built in 1690, the earliest paper mill in America. It is with ref- erence to this mill that Gabriel Thomas, a quaint old chronicler of the seventeenth century, says, "All sorts of very good paper are made in the German Town," and it supplied the paper used by William Bradford, the first printer in Pennsylvania, as well as the first in New York. Here, on the 8th of April, 1732, David Rittenhouse, a great-grandson of the emigrant, was born. His mother^ Elizabeth Williams, was the daughter of Evan Williams^ 64: HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. a native of Wales, and probably one of tlio Quaker con- verts who came from tliat country and settled a nnml)er of townships in Pennsylvania. When he was three years old, his father, Matthias, removed with his family to a farm in Norriton, now Montgomery County, and natu- rally enough he determined that David, the oldest son, shouhi follow the same pursuit. As soon, therefore, as he was strong enough to be of assistance, he was put to the ordinary farm-work, and he ploughed and harrowed, sowed and reaped, like all the boys by whom he was surrounded. His tastes, however, ran in another direction, and one of those occurrences which are sometimes called accidents gave him an opportunity to gratify them. An uncle, who was a carpenter, died, leaving a chest of tools, and among them a few books containing the elements of arithmetic and geometry, and some mathematical calcula- tions. These things, valueless to every one else, became a treasure to David, then about twelve years old, and they seem to have determined the bent of his life. The handles of his plough, and even the fences around the fields, he covered with mathematical calculations. At the age of eight he made a complete water-mill in minia- ture. At seventeen he made a wooden clock, and after- ward one in metal. Having thus tested his ability in an art in which he had never received any instruction, he secured from his somewhat reluctant father money enough to buy in Philadelphia the necessary tools, and after building a shop by the roadside, set up in business as a clock and mathematical instrument maker. His days were given to labor at his chosen trade, and his nights to study. By too close application he injured his health, contracting an afleclion of the lungs, attended with great })ain, that clung to hin:i all of his life, and seriously inter- fered with his writing, but he solved the most abstruse DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 65 mathematical and astronomical problems, discovering for himself the method of fluxions. For a long time he boHeved himself its originator, being unaware of the controversy between Newton and Leibnitz for that great honor. " What a mind was here!" said Dr. Benjamin Kush, later, in a burst of enthusiastic admiration. " Without literary friends or society, and with but two or three books, he became, before he had reached his four- and-twentieth year, the rival of two of the greatest mathematicians of Europe." He mastered the Principia of Newton in an English translation, and became so engrossed in the study of optics that he wrote of himself in 1756, during the French and Indian war, that should the enemy invade his neigh- borhootl, he would probably be slain making a telescope, as was Archimedes while tracing geometrical figures on the sand. In 1751, the Rev. Thomas Barton, of Lancas- ter County, an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin, who afterward married the sister of Eittenhouse, and became a professor in the University of Pennsylvania, went to Norriton to teach school, and making the acquaintance of the young philosopher and clockmaker, they became warm friends. Barton supplied him with books from which he obtained a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, and two years later brought to him from Europe a num- ber of scientific works. Though his clocks had become celebrated for their accuracy, and he had obtained a local reputation for astronomical information, it seems to have been through Barton that the attention of men of learning was first drawn to him. Among these were Dr. Wilham Smith, provost of the University, John Lukens, surveyor- general (another Pennsylvania Dutchman, whose direct paternal ancestor, Jan Lucken, settled in Germantown in 1683), and Richard Peters, provincial secretary. Through 66 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHKS. the last-named he was called upon in 1763 to perform his first public service, and one of very serious importance. It was provided in an agreement between the Penns and Lord Baltimore, settling the disputed boundary of their respective provinces, that a circle should be drawn with a radius of twelve miles around the town of Newcastle. With instruments of his own manufacture, Rittenhouse laid out this circle topographically, and alone he made a number of tedious and intricate calculations in such a satisfactory manner that he was tendered extra compen- sation. The astronomers Mason and Dixon, furnished with the best instruments for the purpose that could be made in England, accepted Rittenhouse's circle without change when, in 1768, they completed their famous line, which for so many years divided the Free from the Slave States. The point where the forty-first degree of latitude, the northern limit of New Jersey, reaches the Hudson, was fixed by Rittenhouse at the request of a commission appointed by New York and New Jersey, in 1769, and in this peaceful way, by an appeal to the telescope rather than ordnance, were settled between adjacent independent States, questions which in other lands have frequently led to sanguinary wars. On the 20th of February, 1766, he married Eleanor, daughter of Bernard Colston, a Quaker- ess, and the following year the University of Pennsyl- vania conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts, because, as was said by the provost, of his improve- ment by the felicity of natural genius in mechanics, mathematics and astronomy. Very early in his career his attention was drawn to the variations in the oscillations of the pendulum, caused by the expansion and contraction of the material of which it is made, and appreciating the importance of an accurate chronometer, he devised a novel and satisfactory plan of DAVID RITTEN HOUSE, 67 compensation by attaching to the pendulum a bent tube of glass, partially filled with alcohol and mercury. In 1767 he wrote a paper for the Pennsylvania Gazette upon the famous problem of Archimedes, and made soma experiments upon the compressibility of water, reaching the conclusion, notwithstanding the tests of the Florentine Academy, that it was compressible. The same year he made a thermometer based upon the principle of the expansion and contraction of metals. An index moved upon a flat surface over a semicircle, which was graduated according to the Fahrenheit degrees of heat. During the present century Breguet has obtained much reputation by inventing anew this forgotten instrument. A greater mechanical design was, however, now in con- templation than any he had before undertaken. He conceived the idea of endeavoring to represent by ma- chinery the planetary system. Similar attempts [lad previously been made, but all had represented the plane- tary movements by circles, being mere approximations, and none were able to indicate the astronomical phenomena at any particular time. The production of Rowley, a de- fective machine, giving the movement of only two heavenly bodies, was bought by George I. for a thousand guineas. Rittenhouse determined to construct an instrument not simply to gratify the curious, but which would be of practical value to the student and professor of astronomy. After thiee years of faithful labor, in the course of which, refusing to be guided by the astronomical tables already- prepared, he made for himself the calculations of all the movements required in this delicate and elaborate piece of mechanism, he couipleted, in 1770, his celebrated orrery. Around a brass sun revolved ivory or brass planets in elliptical orbits properly inclined toward each other, and with velocities varying as they approached their aphelia 68 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. or perihelia. Jupiter and his satellites, Saturn with his rings, the moon and her phases, and the exact time, quan- tity, and duration of her eclipses, the eclipses of the sun and their appearance at any particular place on the earth, were all accurately displayed in miniature. The relative situations of the members of the solar system at any period of time for five thousand years backward or for- ward could be shown in a moment. It is not difficult to appreciate the enthusiasm with which this proof of a rare genius was received more than a century ago, but it is entertaining to witness the expression of it. " A most beautiful machine .... It exhibits almost every motion in the astronomical world," wrote John Adams, who was always a little cautious about prais- ing the work of other people. Samuel Miller, D. D., in his Retrospect, said : "But among all tlie contrivances which have beea executed by modern talents, the machine in- vented by our illustrious countryman Dr. David Ritten- house, and modestly called by liim an orrery, after the production of Graham, is by far the most curious and valuable whether we consider its beautiful and ingenious structure, or the extent and accuracy with which it dis- plays the celestial phenomena." " There is not the like in Europe," said Dr. Gordon, the English historian : and Dr. Morse, the geographer, added, anticipating what has actually occurred ; " Every combination of machinery may be expected from a country a native son of which, reaching this inestimable object in its highest point, has epitomized the motions of the spheres that roll throughout the universe." His friend Thomas Jefferson wrote : "A machine far surpassing in ingenuity of contrivance, accuracy and utility anything of the kind ever before constructed He has not indeed made a world, but he has by imitation DAVID EITTENHOUSE. 69' approached nearer its maker than any man who has lived from the creation to this day." Barlow, the author of that ponderous poem the " Co- lumbiad," put in rhyme : " See the sage Rittenhouse with, ardent eye Lift the long tube and pierce the starry sky ! He marks what laws the eccentric wanderers bind, Copies creation in his forming mind, And bids beneath his hand in semblance rise With mimic orbs the labors of the skies." Two universities vied with each other for its possession, and after Dr. Witherspoon, of Princeton College, had se- cured it for £300, Dr. Smith, of the University of Penn- sylvania, wrote, with a slight touch of spleen : " This province is willing to honor him as her own, and believe me many of his friends regretted that he should think so little of his noble invention as to consent to let it go to a village.'' Smitb was mollified, however, by an engage- ment immediately undertaken to construct a duplicate, and he delivered a series of lectures on the subject to raise the money required. Wondering crowds went to see it, and after the Legislature of Pennsylvania had viewed it in a body, they passed a resolution giving Eittenhouse £300 as a testimony of their high sense of his mathemati- cal genius and mechanical abilities, and entered into an agreement with him to have a still larger one made, for which they were to pay £400. It even found its way into the field of diplomacy, for when Silas Deane was in France endeavoring to arrange a treaty of alliance between that country and our own against Great Britain, he sug- gested to the secret committee of Congress that the orrery be presented to Marie Antoinette as a douceur. It was somewhat injured by the British troops while in Princeton durincr the war. 70 HISTOEICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. The year 1769 is memorable in the annals of astronomy. During that year occurred the transit of Venus — a phe- nomenon which offers the best means for calculating the distances between the heavenly bodies. It had up to that time never been satisfactorily observed. No man then living could ever have the opportunity again because it would not recur for one hundred and five years As- tronomers all over the world were alive to its importance. Arrangements were made for taking such observations as were possible in the capitals of Europe, and the govern- ments of England and France sent expeditions for the purpose to Otaheite. Hudson's Bay, and California. As early as June 21st in the preceding year, Rittenhouse read before the American Philosophical Society a series of calculations showing the time and duration of the com- ing transit. The Legislature of Pennsylvania gave £200 sterling toward the expense of buying a telescope and micrometer and the other outlays, and on the 7th of January, 1769, the society appointed three committees to make observations in three different localities. One of these committees consisting of Rittenhouse, Dr. AVilliam Smith, John Lukens, and John Sellers, was to repair to the home of Rittenhouse at Norriton, and to him were in- trusted all of the preliminary arrangements. In Novem- ber he began the erection of an observatory, which was completed in April. He continued for months a series of observations to determine the exact latitude and longitude of the place, and to test the accuracy of his time-pieces. Thomas Penn sent from Europe a reflector, used by Smith ; a set of glasses intended for Harvard University, but which came too late to be forwarded, Rittenhouse fitted into a refractor for Lukens ; and his own telescope he retained. Several other necessary instruments, including a device for keeping time, he made with his own hands, and, like DAVID EITTP^NHOUSE. 71 all of his construction, they were admitted to have been better than could have been obtained abroad. According to Smith, the committee trusted in this respect entirely to the extensive knowledge of Rittenhouse, and when he and the others arrived, two days before the transit, they had nothing to do but adjust the telescopes to their vision. A rainy day, even a passing cloud, would have made all the labor vain, but fortunately it happened to be perfectly clear. The previous anxiety, the sense of responsibility at the critical moment, the delight consequent upon the great success, constituted a sequence of emotions too ex- citing for the physically delicate Rittenhouse, and when the contact had ended he swooned away. The observa- tions, according to the testimony of Maskelyne, the royal astronomer of England, were excellent and complete. Rittenhouse at once made calculations to determine the parallax of the sun, and gave them to Dr. Smith, who added his own and prepared a report to the society, which was printed in its proceedings ; and so it happened that the first approximately accurate results in the measure- ment of the spheres were given to the world, not by the schooled and salaried astronomers who watched from the magnificent royal observatories of Europe, but by unpaid amateurs and devotees to science in the youthful province of Pennsylvania. Said a learned English author : " There is not another society in the world that can boast of a member such as Mr. Rittenhouse, theorist enough to encounter the prob- lem of determining from a few observations the orbit of a comet, and also mechanic enough to make with his own hands an equal-altitude instrument, a transit telescope, and a time-piece." In the year 1769 there was also a transit of Mercury, a phenomenon by no means so rare or of such moment as 72 HISTORICAL A^^D BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. that of Venus, but still of importance. Observations of it were made by Rittenliouse, Smith, Lukens, and Owen Biddle, and were published by the American Philosophical Society. The following year he calculated the elements of the motion and the orbit of a comet then visible, show- ing himself, by comparison with European investigators engaged in the same task, capable of performing the most difficult of computations in physical astronomy, and add- ing to his already extended reputation. In fact, these achievements had given him so wide a fame that his powers could no longer remain pent up in Norriton, and with the prospect of many advantages both in the way of his handiwork and of his science, he removed to Philadel- phia, the American centre of learning and intelligence. He still gained his livelihood by mechanical labor, and it is curious to find him as late as 1775 assuming charge, at a small salary, of the State-house clock. About this time the almanacs of the day began to announce to their readers that, " as to the calculations, I need only inform the public they are performed by that ingenious master of mathematics, David Rittenhouse, A. M., of this city, etc." And " our kind customers are requested to observe that the ingenious David Rittenhouse, A. M., of this city, has favored us with the astronomical calculations of our almanac for this year ; therefore they may be most firmly relied on." Soon after his removal his wife died, and in December, 1772, he married Hannah Jacobs, a member of a distinguished and influential Quaker family m Chester and Philadelphia counties. In 1771 he made some ex- periments on the electrical properties of thegyinnotus; in 1772, after constructing the necessary instruments, he and Samuel Rhoads, for the Assembly of Pennsylvania, surveved and ascertained the levels of the lands lying between the Susquehanna and the Delaware, with a view DAVID RTTTEN HOUSE. 73 to the connection of those two rivers by a canal ; in 1773 he was appointed president of a commission to make the river Schuylkill navigable, a duty which they performed by constructing rough dams, and which was continued for a number of years ; and in 1774 he and Samuel Holland, commissioners from their respective provinces, fixed the northeastern extremity of the boundary between New York and Pennsylvania, In 1770 he prepared for the publications of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society a paper giving a method of ascertaining the true time of the sun's passing the me- ridian that attracted the attention of Von Zach, the Saxon astronomer. He was chosen one of the secretaries of that society in 1771, and on the 24tli of February, 1775, he read before it an oration upon the subject of astronomy. This oration is the most elaborate of his literary produc- tions. The language is simple, the style strong and clear, and it displays much research and special knowledge. In it he traces the history of astronomical discoveries and progress down to the time at which he wrote, but the most interesting portion of the address, as a test of his own acumen, is that in which he endeavors to forecast the future, and to point out the most promising paths for further investigation. The possibility of the existence of the planets that were then unknown seems to have occurred to him, for he says, " The telescope had dis- covered all the globes whereof it is composed, at least as far as we yet know." He believed in the existence of beings differing from man more or less in their natures on the other planets. The spots on the sun he conjectured to be solid and permanent cavities, darkened by matter that occasionally and accidentally collected in them. But it was among the fixed stars that with correct inference he expected the greatest discoveries to be made ; and the 5 74 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Milky Way whose mysteries the telescopes of his day were not powerful enough to unravel, whetted his fancy and aroused his eloquence. The Milky Way, composed of millions of small stars, seemed to him to be a vein of closer texture running through material creation, which he supposed to be confined between parallel planes of immeasurable extent. The discoveries of Herschel and others subsequently verified many of his hypotheses. " We shall find sufficient reason to conclude," he says, " that the visible creation, consisting of revolving worlds and central suns, even including all those that are beyond the reach of human eye and telescope, is but an inconsid- erable part of the whole. Many other and very various orders of things, unknown to and inconceivable by us, may and probably do exist in the unlimited regions of space. And all yonder stars, innumerable, with their dependencies, may perhaps compose but the leaf of a flower in the Creator's garden, or a single pillar in the immense building of the Divine Architect." His senti- ments on some other subjects were occasionally inter- woven. Frederick the Great he called the tyrant of the north and scourge of mankind. He commiserated with those who, because their bodies were disposed to absorb or reflect the rays of light in a way difterent from our own, were in America doomed to endless slavery. The rapid growth of the American colonies seemed to him to indicate an early fall. He dreaded the introduction of articles of luxury, and the growth of luxurious tastes, through a too easy intercourse with Europe. " I am ready to wish — vain wish," he added — " that Nature would raise her everlasting bars between the New and the Old World, and make a voyage to Europe as imprac- ticable as one to the moon." In March of the same year the American Philosophical DAVID EITTENHOUSE. 75 Society presented for the consideration of the Assembly a plan for the prosecution of discoveries in astronomy, geog- raphy, and navigation, to which they said they were urged by some of the greatest men of Europe. It contemplated the erection of a public observatory, by subscription, upon a lot of ground to be granted by the proprietaries, who had expressed their concurrence. It should be fur- nished with the necessary instruments, which would be of but little expense, because the gentleman who it was proposed should conduct the depign was capable of con- structing them all in the most masterly manner. He should receive an annual salary both in the capacity of public astronomer and as surveyor of roads and waters. Here the captains and mates of vessels, and young men desirous of obtaining practical knowledge, should be taught the use of instruments and receive other instruction, and the observations made should be published annually for the benefit of learned societies at home and abroad. " We have a gentleman among us," they went on to say, " whose abilities, speculative as well as practical, would do honor to any country, and who is nevertheless indebted for bread to his daily toil, in an occupation the most unfriendly both to health and study." To give him an occasion to use his genius for the'advantage of his country would be an honor which crowned heads might glory in, but which Pennsylvania ought not to yield to the greatest prince or people on earth. Should the present opportu- nity be neglected, whole centuries might not afiord another. The fact that such a design should be seriously proposed and favorably entertained at that early period shows a remarkable appreciation of the abilities of Rittenhouse, and a regard for the interests of science which is certainly creditable to the society, the Legislature, and to public 76 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. taste. It was the habit of the day to compare Ritten- house to Newton, and who can say that if this scheme could have been carried into execution, and he could have devoted the remainder of his days to quiet study and investigation in those pursuits in which unquestionably he was a master, the parallel would not have been justi- fied ? Fate, however, determined otherwise. It was not to be. America had other work to do, and her science must bide its time, though it be for ages. The whirl- winds of war were about to be let loose over the land, and even then the drums were beating in the town of Boston. A month later occurred the battles of Concord and Lexington. The next we see of Rittenhouse he was busily engaged in military rather than astronomical problems, and henceforth his time, his energies, and his talents were in the main occupied with sublunary affairs. He had made many clocks ; their leaden weights were now needed for bullets, and it was ordered by the Com- mittee of Safety that he and Owen Biddle "should prepare moulds for the casting of clock weights, and send them to some iron furnace, and order a sufficient number to be immediately made for the purpose of exchanging them with the inhabitants of this city for their leaden clock weights." He understood the measurement of heights and the establishment of levels, and was therefore sent to survey the shores of the Delaware to ascertain what points it would be best to fortify in order to prevent a landing of the enemy. The Committee of Safety ap- pointed him their engineer in October, 1775, and in this capacity he was called upon to arrange for casting cannon of iron and brass, to view a site for the erection of a Con- tinental powder mill, to conduct experiments for rifling cannon and musket balls, to fix upon a method of fasten- ing the chain for the protection of the river, to superintend DAVID EITTENHOUSE. 77 the manufacture of saltpetre, and to locate a magazine for military stores on the Wissahickon. The assembly ap- pointed him one of the Committee in April, 1776, and in August he was elected its vice-president. As presiding officer he issued in November two proclamations, printed in the form of handbills, one of which announced to the citizens that the enemy were advancing, and that only the most vigorous measures could prevent the city from falling into their hands. " We therefore entreat you by the most sacred of all bonds, the love of virtue, of liberty, and of your country, to forget every distinction, and unite as one man in this time of extreme danger. Let us defend ourselves like men determined to be free." The other was addressed to the colonels of battalions, and informing them that General Howe with his army was already at Trenton, continued, " This glorious opportunity of signal- izing himself in defense of our country, and securing the rights of America forever, will be seized by every man who has a spark of patriotism in his bosom." In March, 1776, he was elected a member of the Assembly froni the city of Philadelphia, and later a member of the Conven- tion which met July 15th, 1776, and drafted the first Constitution for the State of Pennsylvania. No delegate to the Convention was intrusted with more important duties than he, and frequently he presided over its de- liberations. He was one of the committee which drafted the frame of government, and subsequently, together with Benjamin Franklin and William Vanhorn, he revised its language. A committee of which he was a member pre- pared an address to the people setting forth the reasons for the different actions which had been taken. On the 8th of April, 1777, David Rittenhouse, Owen Biddle, Joseph Dean, Richard Bache, and John Shee were ap- pointed a board of war for the State of Pennsylvania ; 78 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and in the fall of that year, after the British army had entered within its borders and secured possession of Phila- delphia, he was one of the Council of Safety, to whom the most absolute powers were temporarily granted. In order to provide for the preservation of the commonwealth, they were authorized to imprison and punish, capitally or other- wise, all who should disobey their decrees, to regulate the prices of all commodities, and to seize private property, without any subsequent liability to suit because of any of their proceedings. Surely no other twelve men were ever vested with greater powers over their fellow-beings than these. On the 14th of January, 1777, he was elected by the Assembly the first State Treasurer under the new Con- stitution, and he was unanimously re-elected to the same position in each of the succeeding twelve years, and until he finally refused longer to serve. In consequence of the fi actuating values of both the State and Continental cur- rencies, and their almost constant depreciation, together with the unusual demands for funds and the difficulties in the way of their collection incident to a state of war, it was an office of great trial and responsibility, for which the small commissions aftorded a very inadequate compen- sation. It occupied his time and annoyed him so much that he once wrote to his wife while hundreds of miles away in the forest, surrounded by savages, that nothing so reconciled him to his present deprivations " as the aversion I have to the plagues of that same office." When the approach of tlie British army and the subse- quent capture of Philadelphia in the fall of 1777 made necessary a withdrawal of the government departments, the Treasury was removed to the second-story front room of the house of Mr. Henry in Lancaster. The family of Rittenhouse were at Norriton, so near to the lines of the DAVID EiTTENHOUSE. 79 enemy that the presence tliere of a member of the Council of Safety and Treasurer would have been attended with great risk, and he was therefore compelled to endure an anxious separation from them until the following June. In addition to holding the ofHce of Treasurer, he was trustee of the Loan Office for ten years, from 1780 to 1790, at which latter date it was superseded. The Loan Office was established in 1723 for the purpose of providing a circulat- ing medium of exchange, and was authorized to loan bills of credit, which were legal tenders, upon the security of mortgages upon real estate. The duties of this office re- quired the exercise of the greatest prudence in the issue of the bills and the nicest care in the valuation of the mort- gages, and it is a tribute to the practical judgment of Hittenhouse, who was sole trustee, that its affairs were finally closed entirely without loss. The disputes between Pennsylvania and Virginia upon the question of boundaries became serious, and in 1779 George Bryan, John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse for the former State, and James Madison and Robert Andrews for the latter, were appointed commissioners to arljust them. They entered into an agreement to extend Mason and Dixon's line due west five degrees of longitude from the river Delaware, and from its western extremity to draw a meridian to the northern limit of Pennsylvania, for the southern and western boundaries of that State. This agreement was subsequently ratified, but uncertainty as to the exact location of the line led to numerous collis- ions between settlers claiming under grants from the two States, and even hostilities were threatened. Atone time the authority of Congress was invoked in the interest of peace. It finally became necessary to run and mark the lines, and in 1784 Pennsylvania appointed as commis- sioners for that purpose John Ewing, David Rittenhouse, 80 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. John Lnkens, and Thomas Hutchins. They accepted the appointment in a letter in which they say, "An anxious desire to gratify the astronomical world in the performance of a problem which has never yet been attempted in any country by a precision and accuracy that would do no dishonor to our characters, while it prevents the State of Pennsylvania from the chance of losing many hundred thousands of acres secured to it by our agreement at Balti- more, has induced us to suffer our names to be mentioned in the accomplishment of the work." The commissioners on behalf of Virginia were James- Madison, Robert Andrews, John Page, and Andrew Elli- cott. In April, Rittenhouse was busily engaged in con- structing the necessary instruments, and in June he, with Lukens, Page, and Andrews, erected an observatory at Wilmington, Delaware, where they made a series of sixty observations of the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter before their departure. Page and Lukens were unable to endure the fatigue and labor of a six months' journey through the wilderness, and returned home, but the others accomplished their task with entire accuracy and certainty, and having ascertained the lines and the southwestern corner of Penn- sylvania, marked them with stones and by killing trees. The following summer the western boundary of that State was fixed by Rittenhouse and Andrew Porter on behalf of Pennsylvania, and Joseph Neville and Andrew Ellicott on behalf of Virginia, For that portion of the line north of the Ohio River, Ellicott also acted for Pennsylvania. It was the most important work of the kind in which Rittenhouse was ever engaged, and to the general confi- dence in his skill was largely due the settlement of this serious and alarming controversy. In 1786 he and Andrew Ellicott on behalf of Pennsylvania, and James Clinton and Simeon Dewitt on behalf of New York, were DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 81 engaged in fixing the boundary between those two States- The New York representatives relied entirely upon the Pennsylvanians for a supply of instruments, and there was no sector suitable for the purpose, at least in that part of America Rittenhouse therefore made one, which was used in determining the line, and which, in the lan- guage of Ellicott, was most excellent. On the 2d of December, 1785, Congress appointed Rittenhouse, with John Ewiner and Thomas Hutchins, a commission to run a line of jurisdiction between the States of New York and. Massachusetts, which work was performed in 1787, and constituted, says Dr. Rush, his farewell peace-offering to- the union and happiness of his country. After Congress had determined upon the establishment of a mint, Rittenhouse was appointed its first director, April 14th, 1792, by President Washington. He was extremely reluctant to undertake the task, but his me- chanical knowledge and ability seemed to make him especially fitted for the organization of an institution whose successful working depended upon the construction and proper use of delicate machinery, and at the urgent solicitation of both Jefferson and Hamilton he consented. When it had been running for three years, however, finding that he could be relieved from what he felt to be a burden, and that the pressing necessity for his services no longer existed, he resigned. The absorption of so much of his time since the begin- ning of the Revolutionary war in the performance of public duties, important and honorable as were the offices he held, was not only a source of regret to himself, but seems to have been generally regarded in the light of a sacrifice. As early as 1778, Jefferson felt impelled to write to him : " i doubt not there are in your country many per- sons equal to the task of conducting government, but you 82 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. should consider that the world has but one Rittenhouse, and never had one before. . . . Are those powers, then, which, being intended for the erudition of the world, are, like air and light, the world's common property, to be taken from their proper pursuit to do the commonplace drudgery of governing a single State — a work which may be executed by men of ordinary stature, such as are always and everywhere to be found ?" The royalist party were fully as reluctant to see him participating in political affairs, and their sense of the loss to science would seem to have been equally as keen. A Tory poet published in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, December 2d, 1777, these lines : "To David Rittenhouse. " Meddle not with state affairs; Keep acquaintance with the stars ; Science, David, is thy line ; Warp not Nature's great design, If thou to fame wouldst rise. " Then follow learned Newton still ; Trust me, mischievous Machiavel Thou'lt find a dreary coast, Where, damped the philosophic fire, Neglected genius will retire. And all thy fame be lost. " Politics will spoil the man Formed for a more exalted plan. Great Nature bids thee rise, To pour fair science on our age, To shine amidst the historic page, And half unfold the skies. • " But if thou crush this vast design, And in the politician's line With wild ambition soar. Oblivion shall entomb thy name, And from the rolls of future fame Thou'lt fall to rise no more." DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 83 The Eev. Jonathan Odell, also a loyalist, contributed to Rivington's Royal Gazette, of New York, for Septem- ber 8th, 1779, a long poem on " The Word of Congress," which contains the following : " There dwelt in Norriton's sequestered bowers A mortal blessed with mathematic powers. To whom was David Rittenhouse unknown ? Fair Science saw and marked him for her own. His eye creation to its bounds would trace. His mind the regions of unbounded space. Whilst thus he soared above the starry spheres, The word of Congress sounded in his ears ; He listened to the voice with strange delight, And swift descended from his dazzling height, Then mixing eager with seditious tools, Vice-President-elect of rogues and fools, His hopes resigned of philosophic fame, A paltry statesman Rittenhouse became." Though the public affairs with which he was associated would have been sufficient to have exhausted the energies of a man of even more than ordinary abilities, and must necessarily have engrossed much of his attention, it must not be supposed that he abandoned his astronomical and philosophical studies. At the suggestion of Colonel Timothy Matlack, the Assembly, in April, 1781, granted him £250 for an observatory, which he erected probably at that time in the yard attached to his residence, at the north-west corner of Seventh and Arch streets, in Phila- delphia, and which Lalande says in his Astronomie in 1792 was the only one in America. The publications of the American Philosophical Fociety contain between the years 1780 and 1796 no less than seventeen papers written by him upon optics, magnetism, electricity, meteors, logarithms and other mathematics, the improve- ment of time-keepers, the expansion of wood by heat, 84 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. astronomical observations upon comets, transits, and eclipses, and similar abstruse topics. Even during the trying period of 1776, 1777, and 1778, while these publi- cations were suspended, and the war was surging around his own home, he and Smith, Lukens, and Biddle found time to note some observations upon a transit of Mercury and two eclipses of the sun. Within a week after the • evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, Rittenhouse was in the city, seated by his telescope, watching an eclipse. In 1776 he wrote a defence of the Newtonian system for the Pennsylvania Magazine, and in 1782 invented a wooden hygrometer. From 1779 to 1782 he was Professor of Astronomy in the University of Penn- sylvania, and also a trustee and vice-provost of the same institution. In this connection an interesting incident is narrated in the Life and Times of Dr. William Smith. The announcement of the death of Franklin was brought by a messenger to a party of gentlemen, consisting of Thomas McKean, Henry Hill, Thomas Willing, Rittenhouse, and Dr. Smith, who were dining with Governor Thomas Mifflin, at the Falls of Schuylkill. A fierce thunder- storm happened to be raging at the same time. Impressed by the event and the circumstances under which they heard it. Smith wrote at the table this impromptu : " 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 ! " He succeeded Franklin as president of the American Philosophical Society upon the death of the latter in 1790. He was elected a fellow of the Academy of Arts and DAVID KITTEN HOUSE. . 85 Sciences of Boston in 1782 ; the College of New Jersey- gave him the honorary degrees of Master of Arts in 1772, and Doctor of Laws in 1789 ; the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, gave him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1784, designating him as principem philosophorum ; but the highest distinction of this char- acter he ever received, and the highest in the world then attainable by a man of science, was his election as a foreign member of the Royal Society of London in 1795. One of the closing events in the life of Rittenhouse has frequently been the subject of adverse criticism. The French people were then in the throes of their Revolution. The assistance given by France at the critical period of our war for independence, and the fact that she was now apparently in a death-struggle in an effort to secure her own liberties, appealed most forcibly to the sympathies of the American people. Genet, a warm-blooded and, as it proved, a not very discreet young Frenchman, was sent as minister from the republic to this country. When the news came of his arrival at Philadelphia, where Congress was sitting, a meeting of citizens was called in Independence Square, and Rittenhouse was appointed chairman of a committee to draft resolutions. These resolutions, a little glowing in their tone, but carefully drawn so as not to conflict with the American position of neutrality, declared the cause of France to be that of the human race, and expressed the strongest sympathy with her in her strug- gles for " freedom and equality," as well as attachment, fraternal feeling, and gratitude. The assemblage then formed in line, and walked three abreast around to the City Tavern, where they presented their address to Genet, who said the citizens of France would consider that day as one of the happiest in the career of the infant republic. 86 . HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Democratic societies, whose raison d'etre was in the main hostility to England and syiiipathy for France, sprang into existence all over the United States, and one was organized in Philadelphia, with Rittenhouse as president. Among its members were A. J. Dallas, Peter S. Dupon- ceau, Colonel Clement Biddle, Benjamin Rush, Caesar Rodney, B. F. Bache, Stephen Girard, George Logan, Cadwalader Morris, and others of the most distinguished residents of the city. Doubtless the French example and party zeal somewhat heated their imaginations, and they took strong ground concerning the pending European struggle. They resolved to use no address save that of " Citizen," to suppress the polite formulas of ordinary correspondence, and to date their letters from the 4th of July, 1776. Rittenhouse had no participation in these grave trifles, and increasing infirmities having prevented him from attending the meetings, he within a year resigned the presidency. He did not withdraw, however, in time to save his reputation from political attack, and Oobbett, the porcupine, as he called himself, of the day, says, fiercely : " This Rittenhouse was an atheist How much he received a year from France is not precisely known. The American Philosophical Society is composed of a nest of such wretches as hardly ever met together before ; it is impossible to find words to describe their ignorance or their baseness." Later generations of men have not been prone to look at the French Revolution through the lens of Burke, and the fact that the Demo- cratic party came into power at the close of the adminis- tration of John Adams did much to whiten the work of the earlier Democratic societies, and to make it appear that Rittenhouse and his friends had only been a little in advance of the current. The few remaining years of his life were spent in DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 87 comparative retirement, during which the physical diffi- culties he had been laboring under from youth gradually cumulated, and his power of resistance diminished. He died on the 26th of June, 1796, his last words being an expression of gratitude to a friend for some slight atten- tion, and of confidence in the future — " You make the way to God easier." There is a bust of him from life by Ceracchi, and a portrait by Peale. Dr. Benjamin Rush read a eulogy before the American Philosophical Society, in the presence of the President and Congress of the United States, the Legislature of Pennsylvania, foreign ministers, judges, and men of learning of the time. One of the city squares bears his name. His home on Arch street was long known as " Fort Rittenhouse," because, pending a dispute as to jurisdiction between Pennsylvania and the United States in 1809, it was guarded for three weeks by State militia, to prevent the service of a mandamus issued by the Federal courts. Though he had never received any regular training, his attainments were extensive. In addition to the classics he mastered the French, German, and Dutch languages. From the German he translated the drama of Lucia /Sampson, published by Charles Cist, and the Idyls of Gesner, and in the Columbian Magazine for February, 1787, is a copper-plate print of the Ohio Pyle Falls from one of his sketches. A man of culture said he was never in his presence without learning something. He elicited the admiration of all the great men of his day, unless it be John Adams, who could find no remarkable depth in his face, called him an anchorite, and sought perhaps to disparage his reputation by alluding sharply to Philadel- phia as " the heart, the censorium, the pineal gland of the United States." In person he was tall and slender, and 88 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. the expression of his countenance was soft and mild. He had such a nice sense of honor tliat he refused to invest in the loans of the State while he was Treasurer, and when compelled to pay certain extravagant bills for the Mint, had them charged against his own salary. His modesty, partly due, doubtless, to the repression and religious seclusion through which his forefathers had for •centuries passed, and partly to certain apparently femi- nine traits in his character, amounted to a diffidence which was his chief defect. His tender sympathies went out to all of his fellows, and were catholic enough to embrace the negro slaves and the Gonestoga Indians who had fallen a prey to the vengeful instincts of the border. His tastes were simple and plain, his wants few, and his greatest pleasures were found within the circle of his own home. No higher tribute was ever accorded to human rectitude than was offered to him by the author of the Declaration of American Independence. " Nothing could give me more pleasure," wrote that statesman in a private letter to his daughter Martha, " than your being much with that worthy family, wherein you will see the best examples of rational life, and learn to imitate them." Such was the career and such the character of David Ritten house. When, a few years ago, Pennsylvania was called upon to place in the Capitol at Washington the statues of her two worthiest sons, she ought to have taken her warrior Wayne, and beside him set her philosopher Rittenhouse, who in his ancestry best represents that quiet and peaceful religious thought which led to her set- tlement, and in himself the highest intellectual plane she has yet reached. CHRISTOPEER DOCK, THE Pious Schoolmaster on the Seippack, and his works. 6 CHRISTOPHER DOCK. The student of American literature, should he search through histories, bibliographies, and catalogues of libra- ries for traces of Christopher Dock or his works, would follow a vain quest. The attrition of the great sea of human affairs during the course of a century and a half has left of the pious schoolmaster, as the early Germans of Pennsylvania were wont to call him, only a name, and of his reputation, nothing. Watson, the annalist, says, that in 1740 Christopher Duck taught school in the old Mennonite log church, in Germantown ; the catalogue of the American Antiquarian Society contains the title of his " Schul-ordnung " under the wrong year ; and these meagre statements are the only references to him I have ever been able to find in any English book. There may be men still living who have heard from their grandfathers of his kindly temper and his gentle sway, but memory is uncertain, and they are rapidly disappearing. Between the leaves of old Bibles and in out-of-the-way places in country garrets, perhaps, are still preserved some of the Schrifften, and birds and flowers which he used to wiite and paint as rewards for his dutiful scholars, but whose was the hand that made them has long been forgotten. The good which he did has been interred with his bones, and all that he did was good. The details of his life that can now be ascertained are very few, but huch as they are it is a fitting task to gather them together. The eye will sometimes leave the canvas on which are depicted the gaudy robes of a Catharine Cornaro, or the fierce passions 92 HISTORICAL A]SD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. of a Rizpah, and gratefully turn to a quiet rural scene, where broad fields stretch out/and herds feed in the shade of oaks, and all is suggestive of peace, strength and happi- ness. It may well be doubted whether the story of the Crusades has attracted more readers than the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis ; the Life of John Wool- man has found its way into the highest walks of literature, while that of Anthony Wayne is yet to be written ; and the time may come when the American historian, wearied with the study of the wars with King Philip to the north of us, and the wars with Powhatan to the south of us, will turn his lens upon Pennsylvania, where the principles of the Reformation produced their ultimate fruits, and where the religious sects who were in the advance of thought, driven out of conservative and baiting Europe, lived together at peace with the natives and in unity among themselves without wars. The sweetness and purity which filled the soul of the Menno- nite, the Dunker, the Schwenkfelder, the Pietist, and the Quaker, was nowhere better exemplified than in Chris- topher Dock. It is told that once two men were talking together of him, and one said that he had never been known to show the slightest anger. The other re- plied that perhaps his temper had not been tested, and. presently when Dock came along, he reviled him fiercely, bitterly and profanely. The only reply made by Dock was : " Friend, may the Lord have mercy upon thee." He was a Mennonite who came from Germany to Pennsylvania about 1714. There is a tradition that he had been previously drafted into the army but had been discharged because of his convictions and refusal to bear arms. In 1718, or perhaps four years earlier, he opened a school among the Mennonites on the Skippack. It was an occupation to which he felt that he was divinely CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 93 called, and he continued it, without regard to compensation which was necessarily very limited, for ten years. At the expiration of this period he went to farming. On the 28th of 9th month, 1735, he bought from the Penns 100 acres of land in Salford Township, now Montgomery County, for £15, 10s., and, doubtless, this was the tract upon which he lived. For ten years he was a husband- man, but for four summers he taught school in German- town, in sessions of three months each year, and it would seem to have occurred during this period. While away from the school he was continually impressed with a consciousness of duties unfulfilled, and in 1738 he gave up his farm and returned to his old pursuit. He then opened two schools, one in Skippack and one in Salford, which he taught three days each alternately, and for the rest of his life he devoted himself to this labor unceas- ingly. In 1750, Christopher Saur, the Germantown publisher, conceived the idea that it would be well to get a written description of Dock's method of keeping school, with a view to printing it, in order, as he said, that other school- teachers whose gift was not so great might be instructed ; that those who cared only for the money they received might be shamed ; and that parents might know how a well arranged school was conducted, and how themselves to treat children. To get the description was a matter requiring diplomacy because of the decided feeling on the part of Dock that it would not be sinless to do anything for his own praise, credit or elevation. Saur, therefore, wrote to Dielman Kolb, a prominent Mennonite minister in Salford, and a warm friend of Dock, urging his request and presenting a series of questions which he asked to have answered. Through the influence of Kolb the reluctant teacher was induced to undertake a reply and 94 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. the treatise was completed on the 8th of August, 1750. He only consented, however, upon the condition that it should not be printed during his lifetime For nineteen years afterward the manuscript lay unused. In the meantime the elder Saur had died, and the business had passed into the hands of his son, Christopher Saur the second. Finally in 1769 some " friends of the common good," getting wearied with the long delay, succeeded in overcoming the scruples of Dock, and secured his consent to having it printed. It met with further vicissitudes. Having read the MS., Saur mislaid it, and after a careful search concluded that it must have been sold along with some waste paper. He offered a reward for its return throu<^h his newspaper. People began to report that he had found something in it he did not like, and had put it away purposely. The satisfied author sent a messenger to him to say " that I should not trouble myself about the loss of the writing. It had never been his opinion that it ought to be printed in his lifetime, and so he was very well pleased that it had l)een lost." At length, after it had been lost for more than a year, it was found in a place through which he and his people had thoroughly searched. It was at once published in a large octavo pamphlet of fifty-four pages. The full title is: " Eine Einfaeltige und gruendlich abgefasste Sciml-ordnung darinnen deutlich vorgestellt wird, auf welche weisse die Kiinder nicht nur in den en in Schulen gewoehnlichen Lehren bestens angebracht sondern auch in der Lehre Gottseligkeit wohl unterrichtet werden moegen aus Liebe zu dem menschlichen Geschlecht aufgesetzt durch den wohlei-farncn und lang geuebten Schulmeister Christoph Dock : und durch finiire Freunde des gemeinen Bestens dem Druck uebergeben. Gerinantown, Gedruckt und zu finden bey Cliristoph Saur, 1770." CHETSTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 95 The importance of this essay consists in the fact that it is the earliest, written and published in America, upon the subject of school teaching, and that it is the only- picture we have of the colonial country school/ It is remarkable that at a time when the use of force was con- sidered essential in the training of children, views so correct upon the subject of discipline should have been entertained. The only copy of the original edition I have ever seen is in the Cassel collection, recently secured by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a ten years' search for one upon my own part has so far resulted in failure. A second edition was printed by Saur the same year, ©f which there is a copy in the library of the German Society of Philadelphia. In 1861, the Mennon- ites of Ohio published an edition, reprinted from a copy of the second edition, at the office of the " Gospel Visitor," at Columbia, in that State. This publication also met with an accident. A careless printer, who was setting type by candle light, knocked. over his candle and burned up one of the leaves of the original. The work was stopped because the committee having the matter in charge could find no other copy. Finally, in despair, they wrote to Mr. A. H. Cassel, of Harleysville, Pa., who, without hesitation, took the needed leaf from his copy and sent it to them by mail. Mirahile dictu ! It was scrupulously cared for and speedily returned. It is difficult to determine which is the more admirable, the ^ It is always treading on dangerous ground to say of a thing that it is the first of its kind, and especially is this true of books, whose numbers are infinite. I know of no publication on the subject written earlier, and the bibliography of the American Antiquarian Society shows none. If there be any in New England or elsewhere to dispute priority with that of the Pennsylvania Dutchman, let it be produced. 96 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHKS. confiding simplicity of a book lover who willingly ran- such a risk of making his own copy imperfect, or the Roman integrity which, being once in the possession of the only leaf necessary to complete a mutilated copy, firmly resisted temptation. The treatise is here for the first time translated into English, omitting the prefatory portions, and a catechism and two hymns which were appended. Vol. I, No. 33, of the Geistliches Ifagazien an exceed- ingly rare periodical published by Saur, about 1764, is taken up with a " Gopia einer Schrifft welche der Schul- meister Christoph Dock an seine noch lebende Schueler zur Lehr und Vermahnung aus Liebe geschrieben hat." It is signed at the end by Dock, and the following note is added : " N. B. The printer has considered it necessary to put the author's name to this piece first, because it is specially addressed to his scholars, though it suits all men without exception, and it is well for them to know who addresses them ; and, secondly, the beloved author has led, and still in his great ag;e leads, such a good life that it is important and cannot be hurtful to him that his name should be known. May God grant that all who read it may find something in it of practical benefit to them- selves." No. 40 of the same magazine consists of " Hundert noethige Sitten-Regeln fuer Kinder." It may be claimed for these Rules of Conduct that they are the first original American publication upon the subject of etiquette. It is not only a very curious and entertaining paper, but it is exceedingly valuable as an illustration of the customs and modes of life of those to whom it was addressed, and of what was considered " manners " among them. From it a picture of the children silent until they were addressed, seated upon stools around a table, in the centre of OHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 97 which was a large, common dish wherein each child dipped with his spoon, and of the homely meal begun and closed with prayer, may be distinctly drawn. In No. 41 of the Magazien there is a continuation, or second part, containing " Hundert christliche Lebens- Reo;eln fuer Kinder." There is nothing said in either of these papers concerning the author, but if the internal evidence were not in itself suiEcient, the descendants of Saur have preserved the knowledge that they were written by Dock. In No. 15, Vol. II of the Magazien, are " Zwey erbauliche Lieder, welche der Gottselige Christoph Dock,. Schulmeister an der Schipbach, seinen lieben Schuelern, und alien andern die sie lesen, zur Betrachtung hinterlassen hat." He wrote a number of hymns, some of which are still used among the Mennonites in their church services. These hymns, so far as they are known to me, are as follows, the first line of each only being given : 1. Kommt, liebe Kinder, kommt herbey. 2. Ach kommet her ihr Menschen Kinder. 3. Mein Lebensfaden lauft zu Ende. 4. Ach Kinder wollt ihr lieben, 5. Fromm seyn ist ein Schatz der Jugend. 6. An Gottes gnad und milden Seegen. 7. AUein auf Gott setz dein Vertrauen. DurincT the later years of his life Dock made his home with Heinrich Kassel, a Mennonite farmer on the Skip- pack. One evening in the fall of 1771 he did not return from his labors at the usual time. A search was made and he was found in the school-house on his knees — dead. After the dismissal of the scholars for the day he had remained to pray and the messenger of death had over- taken him at his devotions — a fitting end to a life which 98 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. bad been entirely given to pious contemplation and useful works. He left two daugbters, Margaret, wife of Henry Stryckers, of Salford, and Catbarine, wife of Peter Jansen, of Skippack. Works of Christopher Dock. SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. August 8, 1750. In acceding to Friend Dielman's request to me I could at once commence witbout preliminary remarks, but since Friend Cbristopber Saur requests Dielman to get information of everytbing, even of tbe letter-writing among tbe scbolars, I must give Friend Saur a prefatory account by way of explanation of tbe subject. After I bad given up tbe scbool on tbe Skippack, wbicb I bad kept for ten years, I lived upon tbe land for ten years, and according to my little ability did farm work. Many opportunities offered tbemselves during tliis time for keeping scbool, and I was solicited in tbe matter until, finally, it came about again tbat I kept scbool in tbese two townsbips of Skippack and Salford, tbree days a week in eacb townsbip. It was before known to me tbat scbool teacbing in tbis country was far different from in ■Germany, since tbere tbe scbool stands upon sucb pillars tbat tbe common people cannot well overtlirow it. I tbougbt of tbe duties wbicb tbis call imposed and formed tbe earnest resolution to truly live up to tbese duties, but I saw tbe depraved condition of the young, and tbe many D BI<>3FA?HICAL SKETCHES. It IS ttmher asKev.1 oi me ia hi-* letter to give informa- tion Ukrouah. K-hat means I keep the children from talking and bring them into quiet. Hereufon I answer that this is the hardest lesson for children and one which they do not learn willingly. It is a good while before they learn to speak and when they once can '^o it they are not easily kept from it. Bat in order that something crierly may be constructed and for improvement be implanted among children in school, it is necessary that speaking have its time and quiet also have its time, although it is so hard for chiLlren to accustom themselves to this rule. And it appears that we older ones have ourselves not properly leamei this lesson that speaking and silence have each irs time, which we ought to take more into thought in speaking and silence. That little member the tongue is not so easily tamed. It cannot be corrected with rods like the other members of the body. And the misdeeds which happen in words are performed by the tongue according to the state and inner condition of the heart- Matthew 12. 25. Although the talking and speaking, which children use among each other, is r ' ■ - r " - led by man v as verv wrong, nevertheless nothing I an be done imless. as has been said, speaking and silence have each its time. In order to bring them to it, many means and ways have b^n heretofore tried which have done well for a time, bat when they became accustomed to them some change became necessarv to bring them into qoiet. My rule and way, which I hitherto have used to bring them to silence, is this : First when th*^ir lesson is given to them, according to the use and accustom here as well as '- ^ _ - - - learn :' ' ^^- : lertokeep them toj iT I go . here and CHEISTOrHE^ I-OCK A5D HI? " OEKS. 119 *here until I think they have had time enough to learn their lesson. Then I make a stroke with tiie rod on the bench or table. It is at once still. Then the first one begins to rep»eat. Then one who has been selected must stand as a watcher npon a bench or other raised place so that he can look over them all. He must call oat the first and last names, and after he has called them ont write them up, of all who chatter, or learn loud, or do any- thing else which is forbidden. But since it has been found when they are used one after the other for watchers, some point out according to their likes or dislikes, those who have been found untrue are removed, and in the future are not put any more in this place, even if they announce and promise in the future to make a true report. In like manner if any one is put upon the punishment bench for lying he is not chosen for watching, although he has con- ducted himself well for a considerable time and nothinD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. This caused sreat offence through the land, and many thought that the war would not end well for the country, gince they had maltreated the testimonies of the holy martrrs. However they finally again came to honor, since some judicious persons bought what there was left of them/' It is manifest that the publication of this book was re- garded as an event of great magnitude and importance, or the record of it, gathered as it is from such widely sepa- rated sources, would not have been so complete, and it is also plain that only religious zeal could have made the production of such a literary leviathan possible at that- time. It was reprinted at Pirmasens in the Palatinate in 17S0. A note in thii? edition says : " After this martyr book wa5 received in Europe, it was found good by the united brotherhood of the Mennonites to issue this Ger- man martyr book after the copy from Ephrata again in German print, that it might be brought before the united brotherhood in Europe." They secured the old copper- plates of the Dutch edition of 1685, which had since been used on a work entitled Theatre des Martyrs, published about 1700, without text, date, or imprint, and with them illustrated the publication. It thus appeare that the un- complimentary implication contained in the old query of "who rea'is an'American book?" applies only to our English literature. The republication at that early date of a work so immense certainly marks an epoch in the literary history of America. The war of 1812 called forth another American edi- tion, which was published by Joseph Ehrenfried at LaDcaster, Pa,, in 1814, by subscription at ten dollars per copy. It is a folio of 976 pages, fifteen inches tall, and magnificently bound. There is a preface, authorized by manv of the Diener and Vorsteher of the Mennonites in DEE BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. * 173 the name of the whole community, which gives some in- formation concerning this and other publications.^ The Pirmas*-ns edition seems to have been unknown to them. Shem Zook, an Amish Mennonite, had a quarto edition published in Philadelphia in 1849, and John F. Funk, of Elkhart, Indiana, issued another in 1870. An imperfect English translation by I. D. Rupp appeared in 1837, and in 1853 a translation by the Hanserd Knollys Society of London was in course of preparation, and was afterward published. Copies of the Ephrata edition are, as has been said, ex- ceedingly scarce. A copy has been known to bring thirty- two dollars among farmers at a countrv sale, and one which had found its way into the hands of Frederik Mul- ler & Co., in Amsterdam, was held at 180 florins. There is one in the library of the German Societ)' in Philadel- phia, one in that of the Mennonite College at Amsterdam, and another in that of the Historical Societv of Pennsyl- vania, but to the great libraries elsewhere it is as yet un- known. Having regard to the motives which led to its publication, the magnitude of the undertaking, the labor and time expended in printing it leaf by leaf upon a hand- press, its colossal size, excellent typography, the quality of its paper made at Ephrata it^ historical and genealogical value, and its great rarety, it easily stands at the head of our colonial books. Among the literarv achievements of the Germans of Pennsylvania it surpasses, though eight years later, the great quarto Bible of Saur, the first in Americ-a. printed at Germantown in 1743. which for nearly half a century had no English rival. ^ I have the editions of 1660, 16S5, 1748, 1780, and 1S14. They ■cannot be found together anv where else. Mennonite Emigration to Pennsyivania. From Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. II., p. 117, MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. By Dr. J. G. De Hoop Scheffer, of Amsterdam.^ The extensive tract of land, bounded on tlie east by the Delaware, on the north by the present New York, on the west by the Allegheny mountains, and on the south by Maryland, has such an agreeable clinaate, such an un- usually fertile soil, and its watercourses are so well adapted for trade, that it is not surprising that there, as early as 1638 — five and twenty years after our forefathers built the first house in New Amsterdam (New York) — a European colony was established. The first settlers were Swedes, but some Hollanders soon joined them. Sur- rounded on all sides by savage natives, continually threatened and often harassed, they contented themselves with the cultivation of but a small portion of the land. After, however, King Charles H. had, in settlement of a debt, given the whole province to William Penn, there came a great change. There, before long, at his invita- tion and through his assistance, his oppressed fellow- believers, followers like himself of George Fox, found a place of refuge. They settled on the Delaware, and, united by the common sufferings endured for their convic- tions, they founded a city, to which they gave the sugges- ' The article here translated from the Dutch, and annotated, ap- peared in the " Doopsgezinde Bijdragen " for 1869, under the title of " Vriendschapsbetrekkingen tusschen de Doopsgezinden hier te lande en die in Pennsylvanie.'' 178 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. tive name of the city of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia). The province i'^self received the name of Pennsylvania from the man who brought its settlers over from a land of persecution to his own estate, and has borne it to the present time, though its boundaries have been extended on the north to Lake Erie, and on the west beyond the Allegheny mountains to the present Ohio. In accordance with the fundamental law established April 25th, 1682, c<)raplete freedom of conscience was as- sured to all religious communities, and William Penn and his associates saw a stream of those who had been perse- cuted and oppressed for their belief pour into the colony, among whom were many Mennonites from Switzerland and the Palatinate. In Switzerland for nearly half a century religious intol- erance had been most bitter. Many who had remained there were then persuaded to abandon their beloved native country and betake themselves to the distant land of freedom, and others, who had earlier emigrated to Alsace and the Palatinate, and there endured the dreadful horrors of the war in 1690, joined them, hoping in a province described to them as a paradise to find the needed com- forts of life. The travelling expenses of these exhausted wanderers on their way through our fatherland were furnished with a liberal hand from the " funds for foreign needs " which our forefathers had collected to aid the Swiss, Palatines, and Litthauers. These emigrants settled for the most part at Philadelphia, and to the northward along the Delaware. One of the oldest communities, if not tlie oldest of all, was that at Schiebach or Germantown. The elder ot their two preachers, Wilhelm Rittinghausen, died in 1708, and in his place two new preachers were chosen. The same year eleven young people were added to the church MENNOKITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 179 through baptism, and two new deacons accepted its obliga- tions. Moreover, the emigration of other brethren from the Palatinate, with Peter Kolb at their head, who were enabled to make the journey by the aid of the Nether- landers, gave a favorable prospect of considerable growth. Financially, however, the circumstances of the community left much to be desired. In a letter written to Amsterdam,, dated September 3d, 1708, from which these particulars are derived, and which was signed by Jacob Gaetschalck, Harmen Karsdorp, Martin Kolb, Isack Van Sinteren, and Oonradt Jansen, they presented " a loving and friendly request " for " some catechisms for the children and little testaments for the young." Beside, psalm books and Bibles were so scarce that the whole membership had but one copy, and even the meeting-house needed a Bible. ^ They urged their request by saying "that the community is still weak, and it would cost much money to get them printed, while the members who came here from Germany have spent everything and must begin anew, and all work, in order to pay for the conveniences of life of which they stand in need." What the printing would cost can ■ ■ It is certainly worthy of attention that the first request these people send back to their brethren in Europe was for Bibles and Testaments. Jacob Gaetschalck was a preacher at Skippack. Martin Kolb, a grandson of Peter Schuhmacher who died at Ger- mantown in 1707, was born in the village of Wolfsheim, in the Palatinate, in 1680, and came with his brothers, Johannes and Jacob, to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1707. He married May 19th,. 1709, Magdaleiia, daughter of Isaac Van Sintern, who also united in this letter. Isaac Van Sintern was born September 4th, 1662, and was a great-grandson of Jan de Voss, a burgomaster at Handschooten,. in Flanders, about 1550. He married in Amsterdam, Cornelia Glaassen, of Hamburg, and came to Pennsylvania with four daugh- ters after 1687. He died August 23d, 1737, and is buried at Skip- pack. 180 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. to some extent be seen from the demands of a bookseller in New York, who beside only printed in English, for the publication of the Confession of Faith in that language. He asked so much for it that the community could not by any possibility raise the money, for which reason the whole plan had to be abandoned.-^ The proposition was • first considered because of conversations with some people there whose antecedents were entirely unknown, but *' who called themselves Mennonites," descendants perhaps of the Dutch or English colonists who in the first years of the settlement established themselves on the territory of Pennsylvania. That the young community was composed of other people besides Palatines has been shown by the letter just mentioned, bearing the Netherlandish signature of Karsdorp, a name much honored among our forefathers, and which has become discredited through late occur- rences at Dordrecht. It is no wonder that a half year later the " committee ■on foreign needs " cherished few hopes concerning the colony. They felt, however, for nine or ten families who had come to Rotterdam — according to information from there, under date of April 8th, 1709 — from the neighbor- hood of Worms and Frankenthal, in order to emigrate, and whom they earnestly sought to dissuade from making the journey. They were, said the letter from Rotterdam, "altogether very poor men, who intended to seek a better place of abode in Pennsylvania. Much has been ex- pended upon them hitherto freely, and these people bring with them scarcely anything that is necessary in the way of raiment and provisions, much less the money that niust be spent for fare from here to England, and from there on the great journey, before they can settle in that foreign ' See note upon page 41. MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 181 land." Naturally the Rotterdamers asked that money be- furnished for the journey and support of the emigrants. But the committee, who considered the matter " useless and entirely unadvisable," refused to dispose in this way of the funds entrusted to them. It was the first refusal of the kind, and little did the committee think that for twentj^-four years they must keep repeating it before such requests should entirely cease. It would in fact have- been otherwise if they had begun with the rule which they finally adopted in 1732, or if the determination they expressed in letter after letter had been followed by like action, and they had not let themselves be persuaded away from it continually — sometimes from perplexity^ but oftener from pity. The Palatines understood the- situation well. If they could only reach Holland without troubling themselves about the letters, if they were only urgent and persevering, the committee would end by helping them on their way to Pennsylvania. The emigrants of April, 1709, accomplished their objects though as it appears through the assistance of others. At all events, I think, they are the ones referred to by Jacob Telner, a Netherlander Mennonite dwelling at London, who wrote, August 6th, to Amsterdam and Haarlem r " Eight families went to Pennsylvania ; the English Friends, who are called Quakers, helped them liberally.''* His letter speaks of others who also wanted to follow ' " But not only did the leaders of the early Society of Frienda take great interest in the Mennonites, but the Yearly Meeting of 1709 contributed fifty pounds (a very large sum at that time) for the Mennonites of the Palatinate Avho had fled from the persecution of the Calvinists in Switzerland. This required the agreement of the representatives of above 400 churches, and shows in a strong light the sympathy which existed among the early Friends for th& Mennonites.'' — Barclayh Religioics Societies of the ComTnonwealthy 251. 182 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. their example, and urges more forcibly than ever the people at Rotterdam to give assistance. " The truth is," he writes, " that many thousands of persons, old and young, and men and women, have arrived here in the hope and expectation of going to Pennsylvania, but the poor men are misled in their venture. If they could transport themselves by their own means, they might go where they pleased, but because of inability they cannot do it, and must go where they are ordered. Now, as there are among all this multitude six families of our brethren and fellow-believers, I mean German Mennonites, who ought to go to Pennsylvania, the brethren in Holland should extend to them the hand of love and charity, for they are both poor and needy. I trust and believe, how- ever, that they are honest and God-fearing. It would be a great comfort and consolation to the poor sheep, if the rich brothers and sisters from their superfluities would satisfy their wants, and let some crumbs fall from their tables to these poor Lazaruses. Dear brethren, I feel a tender compassion for the poor sheep, for they are of our flesh, as says the Prophet Isaiah, Ixviii, 7 and 8." It was not long before pity for our fellow-believers was excited still more forcibly. Fiercer than ever became the persecution of the Mennonites in Switzerland. The prisons at Bern were filled with the unfortunates, and the inhuman treatment to which they were subjected caused many to pine away and die. The rest feared from day to day that the minority in the council which demanded their trial would soon become a majority. Through the intercession, however, of the States General, whose aid the Netherland Mennonites sought, not without success, some results were effected. The Council of Bern finally determined to send the prisoners, well watched and guar- ded, in order to transport them from there in an English MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 183 ship to Pennsylvania. On the 18th of March, 1710, the exiles departed from Bern ; on the 28th, with their ves- sel, they reached Manheim, and on the 6th of April Nimeguen ; and when they touched Netherland soil, their sufferings came to an end at last ; they were free, and their useless guards could return to Switzerland. Laurens Hendriks, the preacher of our community at Nimeguen, wrote in his letter of April 9th : "It happened that very harsh decrees were issued by the rulers at Bern to search for our friends in all corners of the land, and put them in the prisons at Bern, by which means within the last two years about sixty persons were thrown into dungeons, where some of them underwent much misery in the great €old last winter, while their feet were fast in the iron shackles. The Council at Bern were still very much at variance as to what punishment should be inflicted on them, and so they have the longer lain in prison ; for ■some would have them put to death, but others could not consent to such cruelty, so finally they determined in the Council to send them as prisoners to Pennsylvania. Therefore they put them on a vessel, well watched by a guard of soldiers, to send them on the Bhine to Holland ; but on coming to Manheim, a city of the Palatinate, they put out all the old, the sick, and the women, but with twenty-three men floated further down the Rhine, and en the 6th of April came here to Nimeguen. When they heard that their fellow-believers lived here, one of them came to me, guarded by two soldiers. The soldiers then went away and left the man with me. After I, with the other preachers, had talked with him, we went together to the ship, and there found our other brethren. We then spoke to the officers of the guard, and arranged with them that these men should receive some refreshment, since they had been on the water for twenty days in i 184 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPTIIOAL SKETCHBiS. great misery, and we brought them into the city. Then we said to our iraprii-oned brethren : The soldiers shall not get you out of here again easily, for if they use force, we will complain to our magistrates. This, however, did not happen. They went about in Iretr^doin, and we re- mained with them and witnessed all the manifestations of love and friendship with the greatest joy. We spent the time together delightfully, and after they were entirely refreshed, tliey the next day departed, though they moved with difficulty, because btifTened from their long imprisonment. I went with them for an hour and a half beyond the city, and there we, with weeping eyes and swelling hearts, embraced eacti other, and with a kiss of peace separated. They returned to the Palatinate to seek their wives and children, who are scattered every- where in Switzerland, in Alsace, and in the Palatinate, and they know not where they are to be found. ^ Thev were very patient and cheerful under oppression, though all their worldly goods were taken away. Among them were a preacher and two deacons. They were naturally very rugged people, who could endure hardships ; they wore long and unshaven beards, disordered clothing, great shoes, which were heavily hammered with iron and large nails ; they were very zealous to serve God with prayer and reading and in other ways, and very innocent in all their doings as lambs and doves. They asked me in what way the community was governed. I explained it to them^ and it pleased them very much. But we could hardly talk with them, because, as they lived in the mountains ' This simple picture is fully as pathetic as that other, which it forcibly suggests, beginning: — " Heu ! misero conjunx, fatone erepta, Creusa Substitit, erravit ne via, sen lassa residit, Incertum ; nee post oculis est reddita nostris." MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 185 of Switzerland, far from cities and towns, and had little intercourse with other men, their speech is rude and un- couth, and they hav€ difficulty in understanding; any one who does not speak just their way. Two of them have 2one to Deventer, to see whether thev can iiet a liveli- liood in tliis country." Most of them went to the Palalinate to seek their kinsmen and friends, and betore long a deputation from them came hack here. On the first of May we find three of their preachers, Hans Burchi or Burghalter,^ Melchoir Zaller, and Benedict Breclitbiihl,^ with Hans Rub and Peter Donens, in Amsterdam, where they gave a further account of their aiiairs with the Bern magis- tracy, and apparently consulted with the committee as to whether they should establish themselves near the Pala- tinate brethren or on the lauds in the neighborhood of Campen and Groningen, which was to be gradually pur- chased by the committee on behalf of the fugitives. The majority preferred a residence in the Palatinate, but they soon f»und great difficulty in accomplishing it. The Pal- atinate community was generally poor, so that the breth- ren, with the best disposition, could be of little service in insuring the means of gaining a livelihood ; there was a scarcity of lands and farm-liouses, and there was much to be desired in the way of religious liberty, since they were subject entirely to the humors of the Elector, or, worse still, his officers. For nearly seven years, often suppoi'ted by the Netherland brethren, they waited and persevered, always hoping for better times. Then, their numbers ^ Hans Burghalter came to America, and was a })reacuer at Con- estoga, Lancaster County, in 1727. ^ According to Rupp, Bernhard B. Breclitbulil translated the Wandelnde Seek into the German from the Dutch. i2 186 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. being continually increased by new fugitives and exiles from Switzerland, they finally determined upon other measures, and, at a meeting of their elders at Manheim, in February, 1717, decided to call upon the Netherlanders for help in carrying out the great plan of removing to Pennsylvania, which they had long contemplated, and which had then come to maturity. Strange as it may appear at first glance, the very land to which the Swiss tyrants had once wanted to banish them had then become the greatest attraction. Still there was reason enough for it; reason, perhaps, in the information which their brethren sent from there to the Palatinate, but before all, in the pressing invitation or instruction of the English King, George I., through his agent (Muntmeester) Ochse, at the court. "Since it has been observed," so reads the beginning of this remarkable paper, " that the Christians, called Baptists or Mennonites, have been denied freedom of conscience in various places in Germany and Switzer- land, and endure much opposition from their enemies, so that with difficulty they support themselves, scattered here and there, and have been hindered in the exercise of their religion," the king offers to them for a habitation the country west of the Allegheny mountains, then con- sidered a part of Pennsylvania, but not yet belonging to it. Each family should have fifty acres of land in fee simple, and for the first ten years the use, without ■charge, of as much more as they should want, subject ■only to the stipulation that after this time the yearly rent for a hundred acres should be two shillings, i. e., about a (guilder, less six kreutzers. " There is land enough for a hundred thousand families. They shall have permission to live there, not as foreigners, but on their engagement, without oath, to be true and obedient to the king, be bound aa lawful subjects, and possess their MENNONITE EMIGEATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 187 land with the same right as if they had been born such, and, witliout interference, exercise their religion in meet- ings, just as do the Reformed and Lutherans." After calHng attention to the fact that in eastern Pennsylvania the land was too dear (£20 to £100 sterling for a hun- •dred acres), the climate in Carolina was too hot, New York and Virginia were already too full for them to settle there with good chances of success, an attractive descrip- tion of the country followed in these words : " This land is in a good and temperate climate, not too hot or too •cold ; it lies between the 39th and 43d parallels of nortli latitude, and extends westward about two hundred Ger- man miles. It is separated from Virginia and Pennsyl- vania by high mountains ; the air is very pure, since it lies high ; it is very well watered, having streams, brooks and springs, and the soil has the reputation of being bet- ter than any that can be found in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Walnut, chestnut, oak, and mulberry trees grow naturally in great profusion, as well as many fruit- bearing trees, and the wild white and purple grapes in the woods are larger and better than in any other place in America. The soil is favorable for wheat, barley, rye, Indian corn, hemp, flax, and also silk, besides producing many other useful things much more abundantly than in Germany. A field can be easily planted for from ten to twenty successive years without manure. It is also very suitable for such fruits as apples, pears, cherries, prunes, quinces, and especially peaches, which grow unysually well and bear fruit in three years from the planting of the stone. All garden crops do very well, and vineyards can be made, since the wild grapes are good, and would be still better if they were dressed and pruned. Many horses, cattle, and sheep can be raised and kept, since an excellent grass grows exuberantly. Numbers of hogs 188 HISTOEICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES can be fattened on the wild fruits in tlie hushes. Thi& land is also full of cattle (rundvee), called buffaloes and elks, none of vvhicli are seen in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Carolina. Twenty or thirty of these butfaloes are found together. There are also nianv hears, which hurt nobody. They feed upon leaves and wild fruits, on which they get very fat, and their flesh is excellent. Deer exist in great numbers, beside Indian cocks and hens (turkeys?), which weigh from twenty to thirty pounds each, wild pigeens more than in any other place in the world, partridges, pheasants, wild swans, geese, all kinds of ducks, and many other small fowls and animals ; so that if the settlers can only supply theiiiselves for the first year with bread, some cows for milk and butter, and vegetables, such as potatoes, peas, beans, etc., they can find flesh enough to eat from the many wild animals and birds, and can live better than the richest nobleman. The only difficulty is that they will be about thirty miles from the sea ; but this, by good management, can be made of little consequence." Apparently this description sounded like enchantment in the ears of the poor Swiss and Palatines who had never known anything but the thin soil of their native country, and who frequently met with a refusal if they sought to secure a farm of one or two acres. And how was that land of promise to be reached? Easily enough. They had only before the Ist of March to present themselves to one or another well-known merchant at Frankfort, pay £3 sterling or twenty-seven guilders each (children under ten years of age at half rates), that is, £2 for transportation,, and £1 for seventy pounds of biscuit, a measure and a half of peas, a measure of oatmeal, and the necessary beer, and immediately they would be sent in ships to Rotter- dam, thence to be carried over to Virginia. First, how- MENNOMTE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 189 «ver, in Holland, one-half of the fare must be paid and additional provisions, etc., secured, viz. : twenty-four pounds of dried beef, fifteen pounds of cheese, and eight and a quarter pounds of butter. Indeed, they were ad- vised to provide themselves still more liberally with edibles, and with garden seeds and agricultural imple- ments, linen, shirts, beds, table goods, powder and lead, furniture, earthenware, stoves, and especially money to buy " seeds, salt, horses, swine, and fowls," to be taken along with them. All of these things would indeed cost a large sum, but what did that signify in comparison with the luxury whicli was promised them ? Should not the Netherland brethren quickly and gladly furnish this last assistance ? So thought the Palatine brethren. Tt is not to be wondered at, however, that the " committee on foreign needs" judged differently. They knew how much exaggeration there was in the picture painted by the English agent. They thought they were not authorized to consent to a request for assistance in the payment of travelling expenses, since the money was intrusted to them to be expended alone for the persecuted, and the brethren in the Palatinate were then tolerated; they feared the emigrants would call for more money ; and in a word they opposed the plan most positively, and explained that if it was persisted in no lielp need be ex- pected. _ Their objection however accomplished nothing. In reply to their views, the committee received informa- tion, March 20th, that more than a hundred [persons had started; and three weeks later they heard from Rotterdam that those already coming numbered three hundred, among whom were four very needy families who required 600 f. for their passage, and that thirty others were get- ting ready to leave Neuwied. Though the committee had declared positively in their letters that they would 190 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. have nothing to do with tlie wliole affair, thev neverthe- less immediately passed a secret rf-solution, that, " as far as concerns our committee, the frieu'ls are to be helped as- much as possible ;" and apparently they took care that there should be furnished from private means what a& ofHcials tliev could not o;ive out of the fund. Among the preachers who were at the head of these colonists, we find principally Hans Burghalter and Benedict Brechtbuhl. The desire for emigration seemed to be entirely ap- peased in the Palatinate until 1726, when it broke out again with renewed force. The chief causes were higher burdens imposed upon them by the Elector, the fear of the outburst of war, and perhaps also pressing letters of invitation written by the friends settled in Pennsylvania. Moreover, the committee were guilty of a great impru- dence. Though they so repeatedly assured the emigrants that they could not and would not help them, and prom- ised liberal assistance to the needy Palatines who aban- doned the journey, still, through pit}' for a ceitain Hubert Brouwer of Neuwied, they gave him and his family 300f. passage-money. Either this became known in the Palatinate, or the stream could no longer be stayed. Though some of their elders, together with the committee, tried to dissuade them, and painted horrible pictures of the possibility that, in the war between England and Spain, they might " by Spanish ships be taken to the West Indies where men are sold as slaves," the Palatines- believed not a word of it. On the 12th of April, 1727, there were one hundred and fifty ready to depart, and on the 16th of May, the committee were compelled to write to the Palatinate that they "ought to be informed of the coming of those already on the way, so that they can best provide for them ;" and they further inquired " how many would arrive without means, so that the Society might MENIs'OMTE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 191 consider whether it would be possible for them to arrange for the many and great expenses of the passage." Some did not need help, and could supply from their own means what was required ; but on the 20th the com- mittee learned that forty-five more needy ones had started from the Palatinate. These with eight others cost the Society 3271f. lost. Before the end of July twenty-one more came to Rotterdam, and so it continued. No wonder that the committee, concerned about such an out- pouring, requested the community in Pennsylvania "to announce emphatically to all the people from the pulpit that they must no more advise their needy friends and acquaintances to come out of the Palatinate, and should encourage them with the promise that, if they only re- mained accross tlie sea, they would be liberally provided for in everything." If, however, they added, the Penn- sylvanians wanted to ])ay for the passage of the poor Palatines, it would then of course be their own affair. This the Pennsylvanians were. not ready nor in a condi- tion to do. The committee also sent forbidding; letter after letter to the Palatinate, but every year they had to be repeated, and sometimes, as, for instance, May 6th, 1733, they drew frightful pictures : " We learn from New York that a ship from Rotterdam going to Pennsylvania with one hundred and fifty Palatines wandered twenty- four weeks at sea When they finally arrived at port nearly all the people were dead. The rest, through tlie want o^uivi^es, were forced to subsist upon rats and vermin, and are all sick and weak. The danger of such an oc- currence is always so great that the most heedless do not run the risk except through extreme want." Nevertheless the stream of emigrants did not cease. When finally over three thousand of different sects came to Rotterdam, the committee, June 15th, 1732, adopted the strong reso- 192 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. lution, that under no pretence would they furnish means to needy Palatines, except to pay their fares back to their fatherland. By rigidly maintaining this rule, and thus ending where they undoubtedly should have commenced, the committee put a complete stop to emigration. On the 17th of March they reported that they had already accomplished their object, and from that time they were not again troubled with requests for passage-money to North America.-^ In the meanwhile their adherence to this resolution caused some coolness between the commu- nities in the Netherlands and in Pennsylvania. Still their intercourse was not entirely terminated. A special circumstance gave an impulse which turned the Pennsyl- vanians again toward our brotherhood in 1742. Their colony had increased wonderfully ; they enjoyed prosper- itv, rest, and what the remembrance of foreign sufferings made more precious than all, complete religious freedom ; but they talked with some solicitude about their ability to maintain one of their points of belief — absolute non- participation in war, even defensive. They had at first been so few in numbers that they were unnoticed by the government, but now it was otherwise. Could they, when a general arming of the people was ordered to repel a hostile invasion of the neighboring French colonists or an incursion of the Indians, refuse to go, and have their con- ^ This is of course correct as far as tlie committee at Amsterdam is concerned, but neither emigration nor Mennonite aid ended at this time. The Schwenckfelders, some of whom came over only the next year, .speak in warm and grateful terms of the aid rendered them by the MtMinonites. Their MS. journal, now in the posses- sion of Abraham H. Cassel, says '' Mr. Henry Van der Smissen gave us on the ship 16 loaves of bread, 2 Dutch cheeses, 2 tubs of butter, 4 casks of beer, two roasts of meat, much flour and biscuit, and 2 bottles of French brandy, and otherwise took good care of us " MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 193 scientious scruples respected? They were in doubt about it, and little indications seemed to warrant their uncer- tainty. The local magistracy and the deputed authori- ties looked favorably upon their request for complete freedom from military service, but explained that they were without the power to grant the privilege which they thought existed in the King of England alone. In con- sequence of this explanation the Pennsylvania Alennonites resolved to write, as they did under date of May 8th, 1742, to Amsterdam and Haarlem, and ask that the com- munities there would bring their powerful influence to bear upon the English Court in their behalf, as had been done previously through the intervention of the States-General when alleviation was obtained in the case of the Swiss and Litthauer brethren. This letter seems to have mis- carried. It cannot be found in the archives of tlie Am- sterdam community, and their minutes contain no refer- ence to it, so that its contents would have remained entirely unknown if the Pennsylvanians had not written again October 19th, 1745, complaining of the silence upon this side, and repeating in a few words what was said in it. Though it is probable that the letter of 1742 was not re- ceived, it may be that our forefathers laid it aside unan- wered, thinking it unadvisable to make the intervention re- quested before the North American brethren had substantial difficulty about the military service, and it must be re- marked that in the reply, written from here to the second letter, there is not a word said upon this subject, and allusions only are made to things which, in comparison, the Pennsylvanians surely thought were of much less im- portance. In the second part of their letter of October, 1745, which is in German, the Pennsylvanians write, "as the flames of war appear to mount higher, no man can tell whether 194 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. the cross and persecution of the defenceless Christians will not soon come, and it is therefore of importance to prepare ourseK^es for such circumstances with patience and resignation, and to use all available means that can encourage steadfastness and strengtlien faith. Our whole- community liave manifested an unanimous desire for a German translation of the Bloody Theatre of Tielemani Jans Van Braght, especially since in this community there is a very great number of newcomers, for whom we consider it to be of the greatest importance that they should become acquainted with the trustworthy witnesses who have walked in the way of truth, and sacrificed their lives for it." They further say that for years they had hoped to undertake the work, and the recent establish- ment of a German printing office had revived the wish, but "the bad paper always used here for printing" dis couraged them. The greatest difficulty, however, was to find a suitable translator, upon whose skill they couhl entirely rely, without the fear that occasionally the meaning would be perverted. Up to that time no one bad appeared among them to whom they could give tlie work with perfect confidence, and they therefore requested the brethren in Holland to look around for such a translator, have a thousand copies printed, and send them bound, with or without clasps and locks, or in loose sheets, to Pennsylvania, not, however, until they had sent over a complete account of the cost. The letter is dated at Schiebach, and bears the signatures of Jacob Godschalck, Martin Kolb, Michael Ziegler/ Heinrich ^ Michael Ziegler, as early as 1722, lived near the present Skip- packville, in Montgomery County, and was, for at least thirty years^ one of the elders of the Skippack Church. He died at an advanced age about 1763, and left £9 to the poor of that congregation. MENXONITP: KMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 195 Funck,^ Gi'ilis Kassel,^ and Dielman Kolb. Not until the 10th of February, 1748, did the "Committee on Foreign ^ Henry Funk, always one of the most able and enterprising of the Mennonite preachers, and long a bishop, settled on the Indian Creek, in Franconia Township, now Montgomery County, in 1719. He was ever faithful and zealous in his work, and did much to ad- vance the interests of his church. He wrote a book upon baptism, entitled " Ein Spiegel der Taufe," published by Saur in 1744, which has passed through at least five editions. A more ambitious effort was the " Erklarung einiger hanpt-puncten des Gesetzes," published after his death by Armbruster, in 1763. This book was reprinted at Biel, Switzerland, in 184J, and at Lancaster, Pa., in 1862, and is much esteemed. He and Dielman Kolb supervised the transla- tion of Van Braght's Martyr's Mirror from the Dutch to the Ger- man, and certified to its correctness. Beside these labors, which, were all Avithout pecuniary compensation, he was a miller, and acquired a considerable estate. He died about 1760. ' Yillis Kassel came to Pennsylvania in the year 1727, and was a preacher at Skippack, and one of the representative men of the church. His father or grandfather, Yillis Kassel, was also a Men- nonite preacher at Kriesheim in 1665, and wn^ote a Confession of Faith and a number of MS. poems, which are now in the possession of his descendant, the noted antiquary, Abraham H. Cassel. They describe very vividly the horrible condition of the Rhine country at that time, and the sufi^erings of the peojDle of his faith. The com- position was frequently interrupted by such entries as these : ''And now we must flee to Worms," "In Kriesheim, to which we have again come home." From one of them I extract : — ■ "Denn es ist bekannt und ofFenbar, Was Jammer, Elend, und Gefahr Gewesen ist umher im Land Mit Rauben, Pliindern, Mord, und Brand. Manch Mensch gebracht in Angst und Noth Geschandeliert auch bis zum Tod. Zerschlagen verhauen manch schoenes Haus, Vielen Leuten die Kleider gezogen aus ; Getreid, und Vieh hinweggefiihrt, Viel Jammer und Klag hat man gehort." A copy of the first German edition of Menno Simon's Foundatiorj 196 IIISTORK^AL AND HKM IRAIMI ICA I. SKKTCMI KH. N(;edH," in w1u)H(! hands Uio letter was j)laced, I'iikI time to H(Mi(l !ui ariswor. lis tcaor was entirely unfavorable. Tliey tli." By so doir)g they would secure " the double advantage that, through the co|)ying they woidd give more thought, to it, and receive a stronger impr(>ssion." The Norl h American ln'cthren, aJ least, got th(> benefit of the infoi'mation contained in this \V(dl m(>ant counsel sent two and a half years late, in the meaji time they had themselves zealously taken hold of the work, and before t.Iu^ re(u>ption of the lett-er from Holland accom- plished t-li(>ir purpose. That sanu' year, 171S, the com- plete translation of the MartAi^'s Mirror of Tieleman Jans Van Braght sa.w the light, at lliphrat.a,. It was after- wards printed, with the pictures from the original added, at Pirmas(Mis in the i^avarian Palat.ina,te, in I7''^0, and this second ('(lition is slill frequently found among our fellow membcM's in (iermaiiy, Switzerland, and the moun- tains of the Vosges. Though \\ic completion of this very costly undertaking gives a favorable idea of the energy and lina.ncial strength I {1575), which l)oloiigt'(l to the younger YiUis, and is, so tar as known, tho only copy in Anioriua, is now in my library. MKNNONITK KMIGllATlON TO PKNN8YLVANI A. 19'7 of the North American coinniunity, they had to struggle with adversity, and were coiripolled, ten years later, to call for the charity of their Netherlarid brethren. Nineteen familien of thern had settled in Virginia, " hut because of the cruel and barbarous Indians, who had already killed and carried away as prisoners so many of our people," they fled back to Pennsylvania. yVll of one family were rnurdei'ed, an measure to which the Quaker majority were opposed. This was the first step in a struggle, of which he was the^ central figure, that shook the whole province, and finally required the intervention of the throne to decide.^ During the two succeeding years a great many petitions were pre- sented to the Assembly by citizens of Chester county charging him with tyranny, injustice, and even extortion,. in the performance of the duties of his magisterial oflBce,, and asking for his removal. The names that were signed to these petitions are too numerous to be repeated here, but among them were those of some of the best people in the county. It is manifest to the impartial reader that while the haughty and aristocratic bearing of Moore doubtless gave ofience, and may have at times led to arbitrary decisions, political rivalry had much to do with the complaints. In a broadside pub- lished in reply, Moore explains the circumstances of each case in detail, and says that the petitions were procured by Isaac Wayne, with whom he had had a quarrel, through spite and rancor, by " riding night and day among ignorant and weak Persons using many Per- suasions and Promises." The Assembly, after a hearing ^ For a detailed account of this contest see Annals of Phoenix- Tille, p. 45. 15 234 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. of the petitioners, whicli was many times adjourned in order to give him an opportunity to be present, but whicli he declined to attend, on the ground that they had no authority to make the investigation, determined that he had been guilty of extortion, and many other fraudu- lent, wicked, and corrupt practices and asked for his re- moval from office. Soon afterwards, on the 19th of October, 1757, Moore wrote a paper, printed in Frank- lin's Gazette and some other newspapers, in which he fiercely reviewed the action of the Assembly, calling it "virulent and scandalous," and a "continued string of the severest calumny and most rancorous epithets conceived in all the terms of malice and party rage," and based upon petitions procured by a member and tool of the Assembly at a tavern when the signers were incapable of knowing what they did. Immediately after the meeting of the new Assembly, which was composed mainly of the same persons as the preceding, a warrant was issued to the sergeant at arms for the arrest of Moore. He was seized at his home at Moore Hall by two armed men one Friday evening, early in January, 1758, hurried away to Philadelphia and there confined in jail. A warrant was also issued for the arrest of Dr. William Smith, provost of the University of Pennsylvania who it was believed had been concerned in the preparation of the libelous ad- dress. They were both brought before the Assembly where they refused to make a defence, though Moore ad- mitted that he had written the paper and refused to retract its statements. It was ordered that he should be confined until he should make a recantation, and that the address should be burned by the hangman. They were both given into the custody of the sheriff", with directions that they should not be discharged upon any writ of habeas corpus. They were, however, released in this way, WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL. 235 after the adjournment of the Assembly, in about three months. In August the Governor, after a series of quarrels with the Assembly about it, examined a number of witnesses, and went through the form of a trial, as a result of which he announced, that Moore had purged himself of every one of the original charges, and that he bad never known a more full and clear defence. Smith went to England to prosecute an appeal to the crown and ■on February 13th, 1760, there was signified formally to the Assembly " His Majesty's high displeasure" at their unwarrantable behavior in assuming power, that did not belong to them, and invading the royal prerogative and the liberties of the people. The time had not yet come when this authority could be resisted, and Moore and his friends came off victorious. As in most political contests, there was much unnecessary heat and some truth on both sides. There is plenty of contemporary evidence to show that Moore, admirable as was the part he played in those old days, and loath as I would be to take even one horse-tooth button set in brass from the dimity coat he wore,^ was haughty in temper, and none too gentle in the exercise of power. " Unless they put me to the necessity of bringing ejectments, and in that case they are to expect no favor," he wrote in 1769 to Benjamin Jacobs about some people who had made improvements on some of his ' " Run away from William Moore of Moore Hall, in Chester Oounty, a likely young Negro Man, named Jack, speaks but indif- ferent English, and had on when he went away a new Ozenburg Shirt, a pair of striped homespun Breeches, a striped ticking Wastecoat, an old Dimity Coat of his master's, with buttons of Horse-teeth set in Brass and Cloth sleeves, a Felt Hat, almost new. Whoever secures the said Negro and will bring him to his Master or to John Moore, Esq., in Philadelphia, shall receive Twenty- Shillings Reward and reasonable charges. William Mooke." Fenna. Oazeite, Aug. 10, 1730. 236 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. lands. "This is a season," he adds, " when most or all farmers have their barns or stock yards filled with the produce of their plantations." John Ross, the celebrated Philadelphia lawyer, noted in his private docket, in November, 1765, that a case in which he represented some young Quakers, accused of a criminal charge, had been adjourned three times by Moore without cause, though seventeen witnesses were present ; " the first instance of that kind of oppression that ever happened in this province," and that is was supposed to- have occurred, " from his great love to Quakers." At the time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he was an old man of about seventy-six years, and much troubled with the gout. He was, however, keenly alive to the im- portance of the struggle, and his sympathies, like those of the greater number of men who had secured wealth, position and reputation under the old order of things, were entirely on the side of the crown. The rebels he regarded as a rude rabble. Jacob Smith, a sort of political eavesdropper, made an affidavit that he heard Moore say, at Moore Hall, on the 7th of May, 1775, that the people of Boston were a " vile set of rebels," and that " he was determined to commit every man to prison who would associate or muster." There was much excitement abroad, and it was the way of the new men who were coming into power to compel by force those who were suspected of Toryism to recant. On June 6th, the committee of Chester county, of which Anthony Wayne was chairman, visited Moore Hall for this purpose. Broken in strength and ill in health, the Judge was brought to bay, confronted with a power which Great Britain, in eight years of war, was unable to subdue. The spirit, how- ever, with whicli two decades earlier he had defied the Assembly and suffered imprisonment was still undaunted, WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL. 237 and the paper he signed said, " I also further declare that I have of late encouraged and will continue to encourage learning the military art, apprehending the tiroe is not far distant when there may be occasion for it." The latent sarcat^^m was entirely unnoticed and the committee unanimously resolved that a perfectly satisfactory answer had been given. On another occasion a party from the American army, among whom was Isaac Anderson, after- wards a member of Congress from that district, which was sent to deprive the Tories of arms, went to Moore Hall, and found its haughty occupant confined to his easy ■chair. Among other things they discovered a beautifully wrought sword, whose handle was inlaid with gold and silver, which had probably been an heirloom. They were about to carry it off, when the Judge asked permission to see it once more. It had scarcely been given to him be- fore, with his foot on the floor, he snapped the blade from the handle. Then, clinching tightly the hilt, he threw to them the useless blade, and with a gesture of contempt, and eyes gleaming, cried, " There : Take that if you are anxious to fight ; but you have no business to steal my plate." While the array was at Valley Forge, Col. Clement Biddle and others were quartered at Moore Hall and a committee of Congress met there in the early part of 1778. Moore died on the 30th of May, 1783. He and his old antagonists the Waynes, rest together in peace in the graveyard at Radnor, Moore lies directly in front of the door, and all the worshippers at that ancient and celebrated church, as they enter, pass over the re- mains of one who during his life was probably the most conspicuous and heroic figure in the county of Chester. Among his descendants are the Cadwaladers and Rawles 238 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPIIICAL SKETCHES. of Philadelphia, the Qoldsboroughs and Duponts of Dela- ware, and some of the English and German nobility.^ ' A MS. volume of surveys in the library of the Historical Society of Penna., made in 1733 and 1734, contains the following doggerel. The authorship is unknown. " Old moor of moor Hall Did with nothing at all Distroy a most Terrible Dragon which notable feat has Caused a whole State In songs for to bluster & brag on. But now he's outdone By a stripling his son Who is made up of nothing but Wonder for moor of moor hall whos Deeds were not small to his son must in Justice Knock under. The wonderous youth to tell you the truth Does fight in a way thats not common fFor though he hates Steel as men hate the De'il Or a Debtor the sight of a Sumon, Yet once on a Day there stood in his way a Creature as big as a Tyger he had two fierce Eyes off a very large size And seemed to have abundance of vigour. this youth of moor Hall was not Daunted at all at a Creature that looked so frightfuU He made not a word but out with his bword and at him both furious and spitefull. WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL. 239 the fight lasted long for the monster was strong well Known by the name of Poor Torry but maugre his Strength the youth was at length Victorious as I heard the Story. But this is a feat Scarce worth to relate A meer silly thing and a triffle to what he has done with his round barrelled gun and an excelent piece called a Riffle. this Hero he saw Just after a thaw a flock of large Ducks on the water and also Espied A Deer tother side a Deer you scarce ere Saw a flatter, he looked down his gun which quickly was done and loaded with Ball and Small Shot sir at the Ducks he let fly and caused some to die ffor twelve out of thirteen he got sir. And what will you puzzel He mounted the muzzel Ere the Ball from the Barrel got clear, Sir And aimed so right That the Ball in its flight Passd quite thro the heart of the Deer, Sir. SAMUEL RICHARDSON. A Councilor, Judge and Legislator of THE olden time. From Lippineott's Magazine for April, 1874. SAMUEL RICHARDSON. A Councilor, Judge and Legislator of the Olden Time. On the 3d of July, 1686, not quite four years after the arrival of Penn, a bricklayer from the island of Jamaica, named Samuel Richardson, bought five thousand eight hundred and eighty acres of land in Pennsylvania, and two large lots on the north side of High street (now Market) in the city of Philadelphia, for three hundred and forty pounds. He had probably been but a short time a resident of Jamaica, since the certificate he brought with him from the Friends' meeting at Spanish Town, to the effect " y' he and his wife hath walked amongst us as becomes Truth," was only given " after consideration thereoff and Enquiry made." Of his pre- vious life we know nothing, unless it be the following in- cident narrated in Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers : In the year 1670 a squad of soldiers arrested George Whitehead, John Scott and Samuel Richardson at a meeting of Friends at the Peel in London, and after de- taining them about three hours in a guard-room, took them before two justices, and charged Richardson with having laid violent hands upon one of their muskets. "This was utterly false, and denied by him, for he was standing, peaceably as he said, with his Hands in his Pockets." One of the justices asked him, " Will you promise to come no more at meeting?" 8. H. : " I can promise no such thing." Justice: "Will you pay your 5s. ?" Richardson : "I do not know that I owe thee 6s." A fine of that amount was nevertheless imposed. 244 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. The sturdy independence and passive combativenees manifested upon this occasion formed, as we shall here- after see, one of the most prominent characteristics of the emigrant from Jamaica ; and there are some other cir- cumstances which support the conclusion that he was the person thus commemorated. Driven, as we may safely suppose, from England to the West Indies, and thence to Pennsylvania, by the persecution which followed his sect, he had now experienced the hardest buffetings of adverse fortune, and soon began to bask in the sunshine of a quiet but secure prosperity. Surrounded by men of his own creed, he throve greatly, and rapidly passed into the suc- cessive stages of a merchant and a gentleman. In Jan- uary, 1689-90, he bought from Penn another lot on High street for the purpose of erecting quays and wharves, and he now owned all the ground on the north side of that street between Second street and the Delaware River. In January, 1688, William Bradford, the celebrated pioneer printer, issued proposals for the publication of a large *' house Bible " by subscription. It was an under- taking of momentous magnitude. No similar attempt had yet been made in America; and in order that the cautious burghers of the new city should have no. solici- tude concerning the unusually large advances required, he gives notice that " Samuell Richardson and Samuell Car- penter of Philadelphia are appointed to take care and be assistant in the laying out of the Subscription Money, and to see that it be imployed to the use intended." A single copy of this circular, found in the binding of an old book, has been preserved. In 1688, Richardson was elected a member of the Pro- vincial Council, a body which, with the governor or his deputy, then possessed the executive authority, and which, in its intercourse with the Assembly, was always exces- A LEGISLATOE OF THE OLDEN TIME. 245 sively dictatorial and often dispose to encroach. Quar- rels between these two branches of the government were frequent and bitter, and doubtless indicated the gradual growth of two parties differing in views and interests, one of which favored the Proprietary and the other the people. Soon after taking his seat he became embroiled in a controversy that loses none of its interest from the quaint and plain language in which it is recorded, and which may have had its origin in the fact that he was then a justice of the peace and judge of the county court, a position he certainly held a few years later.^ The Council had ordered a case depending in that court to be withdrawn, with the intention of hearing and determin- ing it themselves, and Richardson endeavored in vain to. have this action rescinded. At the meeting of the 25th of December, 1688, a debate arose concerning these pro- ceedings, and the deputy governor, John Blackwell, called attention to some remarks previously made by Richard- son which reflected upon the resolution of the Council^ telling him that it was unbecoming and ought not to be permitted, and " Reproveing him as haveing taken toa great liberty to Carry it vnbeseemingly and very pro- vokeinly." He especially resented " ye said Sam" Rich- ardson's ffbrmer declareing at several times y' he did not owne ye Gover"" to be Gover^" Richardson replied with some warmth that " he would Stand by it and make it- good — that W™' Penn could not make a Cover';" and this opinion, despite the almost unanimous dissent of the members present, he maintained with determination, until at length the governor moved that he be ordered to with- draw. " I will not withdraw. I was not brought hither by thee, and I will not goe out by thy order. I was sent ^ He was appointed a Justice 12th of 11th mo. 1688. 246 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. by ye people, and thou hast no power to put me out," was the defiant answer. The governor then said that he could not suffer Penn's authority to be so questioned and him- self so contemned, and, being justified by the concurrence of all the Council except Arthur Cook, who " would be vnderstood to think and speak modestly," he succeeded in having his motion adopted. Thereupon Richardson " went ffbrth, declaring he Cared not whether ever he sat there more againe." After his departure it was resolved that his words and carriage had been " vnworthy and vn- becoraing ;" that he ought to acknowledge his offence, and promise more respect and heed for the future, before being again permitted to act with them ; and that he be called inside and admonished ; " but he was gon away." A few weeks after this occurrence the governor in- formed the Council that he had made preparations to issue a writ for the election of members in the places of Rich- ardson and John Eckley, and also presented a paper charging Thomas Lloyd — who had recently been chosen one of their number, and who, as keeper of the Great Seal, had refused to let it be used in some project then in contemplation — with various crimes, misdemeanors and offences. At this meeting Joseph Growden, a member who had been absent before, moved that Richardson be admitted to his seat, but was informed by the governor that he had been excluded because of his misbehavior. On the 3d of February, 1689, during the proceedings, Rich- ardson entered the Council-room and sat down at the table. In reply to a question, he stated that he had come to discharge his duty as a member. This bold movement was extremely embarrassing to his opponents, and for a time they displayed hesitation and uncertainty. Argument and indignation weie alike futile, since, unac- companied by force, they were insufficient to effect his re- A LEGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TIME. 247 moval ; but the happy thought finally occurred to the governor to adjourn the Council until the afternoon, and station an officer at the door to prevent another intrusion. This plan was adopted and successfully carried into exe- cution. Upon reassembling, Growden contended that the Council had no right to exclude a member who had been duly chosen by the people ; and this led to an earnest and extended debate, in which, the secretary says, " many intemperate Speeches and passages happen'd, ffitt to be had in oblivion." Ere a week had elapsed the governor presented a charge against Growden, but the fact that three others, though somewhat hesitatingly, raised their voices in favor of admitting all the members to their seats, seemed to indicate that his strength was waning. The election under the new writ was held on the 8th of February, 1689, and the people of the county showed the drift of their sympathies by re-electing Richardson. The Assembly also interfered in the controversy, and sent a delegation to the governor to complain that they were abused through the exclusion of some of the members of Council. They were rather bluntly informed that the proceedings of the Council did not concern them. In the midst of the conversation upon "this and kindred topics, Lloyd, Eckley and Richardson entered the cham- ber and said they had come to pay their respects to the governor and perform their duties. A resort to the tac- tics which had been found available on the previous occa- sion became necessary, and the meeting was declared ad- journed ; *' upon which several of ye members of ye Council departed. But divers remayned, and a great deel of confused noyse and clamor was expressed at and with- out the doore of ye Gover'^'s roome, where ye Councill had sate, w"^ occasioned persons (passing by in the streets) to stand still to heare ; which ye Gover' observing desired 248 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. ye sayd Tho. Lloyd would forbear such Lowd talking, tell- ing bim be must not suffer sucb doings, but would take a course to suppresse it and sbutt ye Doore." Tbe crisis bad now approached, and soon afterward Penn recalled Blackwell, authorized the Council to choose a president and act as his deputy themselves, and poured oil upon the troubled waters in this wise : " Salute me to ye people in Gen". Pray send for J. Siracock, A. Cook, John Eckley and Sam" Carpenter, and Lett them dispose T. L., d Sa. Richardson to that Complying temper that may tend to thatloveing & serious accord y' become such a Goverm*."^ After the departure of Blackwell the Council elected Lloyd their president. Richardson resumed his place for the remainder of his term, and in 1695 was returned for a further period of two years. During this time Colonel Fletcher made a demand upon the authorities of Pennsyl- vania for her quota of men to defend the more northern provinces against tbe Indians and the French, and Rich- ardson was one of a committee of twelve, two from each county, appointed to reply to this requisition. They reported in favor of raising five hundred pounds, upon the understanding that it " should not be dipt in blood," but be used to " feed the hungrie & cloath the naked." He was a judge of tbe county court and justice of the peace in 1688 and 1704, and for the greater part — prob- ably the whole — of the intervening period. In the his- toric contest with George Keith, the leader of a schism which cause a wide breach among those early Friends in Pennsylvania, be bore a conspicuous part. A crew of river- pirates, headed by a man named Babbit, stole a sloop from a wharf in Philadelphia and committed a number of ' Joseph Growden, Samuel Carpenter and four otliers wrote to Penn, 9th of 2d mo., 1G99, complaining of Geo. Blackwell that " He has excluded Sam. Pdch'dson an able & honest man.'' A LEGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TLME, 241^ depreciations ou the Delaware. Three of the inagistrates, all of whom were Quakers, issued a warrant for their ar- rest, and Peter Boss, with some others to assist, went out in a boat and effected their capture. Although, as the chronicler informs us. Boss and his party had " neither gun, aword or spear," it is fair to presume they did not succeed without the use of some force. This gave Keith an opportunity of which he was no by means loath to take advantage, and he soon afterward published a circu- lar entitled an " Appeal," wherein he twitted his quon- dam associates with their inconsistency in acting as magistrates and encouraging fighting and warfare. Five of the justices, one of whom was Richardson, ordered the arrest of the printers, William Bradford and John Mc- Comb, and the authors, Keith and Thomas Budd, and the latter were tried, convicted and fined five pounds each.^ These proceedings being bruited abroad and " making a great noise," the six justices, including the five above re- ferred to and Anthony Morris, published a manifesto giv- ing the reason for their action, Keith, they Kay, had publicly reviled Thomas Lloyd, the president of the Coun- cil, by calling him an impudent man and saying his name " would stink," and had dared to stigmatize the members ' "By a Warrant signed by Sam. Richardson & Rob. Ewer, Jus- tices, the Sheriff and Constable entered the Shop of William Bradford & took all the above written Papers they could find call'd An Appeal, and carried the said W. Bradford before the said Justices, and also sent for John McComb, who (as they were informed) had disposed of two of said Papers and they not giving an Account where they had them were both committed to Prison. Also they sent Robert Ewer and the"^said officer to search the said W. Bradford's House again for more Papers &c. but found none^ yet took away a Parcell of Letters, being his utensils, which were worth about ten pounds." Fosiscript to /Second Edition of Appeal^ 1692. 16 250 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. of Council and the justices as impudent rascals. These things they had patiently endured, as well as his gross revilings of their religious society, but in his recent com- ments upon the arrest of Babbit he not only encouraged sedition and breach of the peace, but aimed a blow at the Proprietary government, since if Quakers could not act injudicial capacities the bench must remain vacant. Buch conduct required their intervention, as well to check him as to discourage others. The Friends' yearly meeting, held at Burlington, on the 7th of July, 1692, disowned Keith, and their testimony against him Richardson and many others signed, Robert Quarry, judge of the court of admiralty, received his appointment from the Crown. He seems to have been personally objectionable, and his authority, being beyond the control of the Proprietary, was not submitted to even at that early day without evidences of discontent and some opposition. An affair occurring in the year 1698 led to a conflict of jurisdiction between him and the provincial judges, in which he obtained an eas}^ triumph ; but his success appears only to have been satisfactory when it had culminated in their personal humiliation. John Adams imported a quantity of goods, which, for want of a certificate, were seized and given into the custody of the marshal of the admiralty court, and altoough he afterward complied with all the necessary legal forms, Quarry refused to redeliver them. The governor would not interfere, but Anthony Morris, one of the judges of the county court, issued a writ of replevin, in obedience to which the sheriff put Adams in possession of his prop- erty. Thereupon, Quarry wrote to England complaining of what he considered to be an infringement by the Pro- prietary government upon his jurisdiction. On the 27th of July, 1693, Morris, Richardson and James Fox pre- A LKGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TIME. 251 sented to the governor and Council a written vindication of the action of the county court, saying it was their duty to grant the replevin upon the plaintiff giving bond, as he had done, and adding that they had good grounds for believing the sheriff to be as proper a person to secure the property " to be forthconaing in Specie, as by the re- plevin he is Comaiided, as that they should remain in the hands of Robert Webb, who is no Proper officer, as wee Know of, to Keep the Same." More than a year afterward, Penn, who had recently arrived in the Pro- vince on his second visit, called the attention of the Council to the subject, and to the great resentment felt by the superior powers in England at the support said to be given in Pennsylvania to piracy and illegal trade. The next day Morris surrendered the bond and the inven- tor}' of the goods, and resigned his commission. To his statement that he had for many years served as a justice to his own great loss and detriment, and that in granting the writ he had done what he believed to be risht, Penn replied that his signing the replevin was a " verie inde- liberate, rash and unwarrantable act." His cup of humilia- tion had not yet, however, been drained. Quarry required his attendance again before the Council, and said the goods had been forcibly taken from the marshal, and "what came of y™ the S*^ Anthonie best knew ;" that he could not plead ignorance, " having been so long a Jus- tice y' hee became verie insolent ;" and that the security having refused payment, and it being unreasonable to bur- den the king with the costs of a suit, he demanded that the " S*^ Anthonie" should be compelled to refund their value. Morris could only reply " y' it lookt very hard y' any jus- tice should suffer for an error in judgment ; and further added that if it were to do again, he wold not do it." David Lloyd, the attorney in the case, when arguing 252 HISTORICAL a^:d biographical sketches. had been shown the letters-patent from the king to the marshal, with the broad seal of the high court of ad- miralty attached. He said, " What is this ? Do you think to scare us w' a great box and a little Babie ? 'Tis true, fine pictures please children, but wee are not to be frightened at such a rate." For the use of these words he was expelled from his seat in the Council, and for per- mitting them to be uttered without rebuke the three judges, Morris, Richardson and Pox, were summoned to the presence of the governor and reprimanded. Edward Shipper], being absent in New England, escaped the latter punishment. Richardson was elected a member of the Assembly for the years 1691,'92,'93;94,'96, "97, '98, 1700, '01, '02, '03, '06, '07, '09. He probably found the leaders of that body more congenial associates than had been the members of the Council, and, from the fact that he was sent with very unusual frequency to confer with the different governors in regard to disputed legislation, it may be presumed that he was a fair representative of the views entertained by the majority. Though doubtless identified in opinion with David Lloyd, he does not appear to have been so obnox- ious to the Proprietary party as many of his colleagues, since James Logan, writing to Penn in 1704, regrets his absence that year, and on another occasion says that the delegation from Philadelphia county, consisting of David Lloyd, Joseph Wilcox, Griffith Jones, Joshua Carpenter, Francis Rawle, John Roberts, Robert Jones and Samuel Richardson, were " all bad but the last." On the 20th of October, 1703, a dispute arose concern- ing the power of the Assembly over its own adjournment — a question long and warmly debated before — which illustrates in a rather amusing way the futile attempts frequently made by the governors and their Council to ex- A LEGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TIME. 253 ercise control. A messenger having demanded the at- tendance of the whole House of Representatives forthwith to consult about adjournment, they, being engaged in closing the business of the session, sent Joseph Growden, Isaac Norris, Joseph Wilcox, Nicholas Wain and Samuel Richardson to inform the Council that they had concluded to adjourn until the first day of the next Third month. The president of the council objected to the time, and denied their right to determine it, and an argument having ensued without convincing either party, the delegation withdrew. The Council then unanimously resolved to prorogue the Assembly immediately, and to two inerabers of the latter body, who came a few hours afterward with the information of its adjournment to the day fixed, the president stated " that ye Council had Prorogued ye As- sembly to ye said first day of ye said Third month, and desired ye said members to acquaint ye house of ye same." The order is solemnly recorded in the minutes as follows : " Accordingly ye Assembly is hereby prorogued." To prorogue them until the day to which they themselves had already adjourned was certainly an ingenious method of insuring their compliance. On the 10th of December, 1706, the Assemby sent Richardson and Joshua Hoopes on a message to the governor, who, upon their return, reported that his secre- tary, James Logan, had affronted them, asking one of them " whether he was not ashamed to look, the said James Logan, in the face." The wrath of the Assembly kindled immediately. They directed Logan to be placed in custody, that he might answer at the bar of the House, and sent word to the governor that since he had promised them free access to his person, his own honor was in- volved ; that they resented the abuse as a breach of privi- lege ; and that they expected full satisfaction and the pre- 254 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH F:S. ventioii of similar indignities for the future. The governor sent for Logan, who explained that " all that past was a jocular expression or two to S. Richardson, who used always to take a great freedom that way himself, re than my own in such matters, have earnestly urged me to print it. The Compte de Paris and General Longstreet, unite in saying that "the slightest inci- dent which affected the issue of that conflict (Gettysburg) had a greater importance than the most bloody battle fought afterwards." A Pennsylvanian naturally resents the statement, so often made in prose and verse, that John Burns was the only man in Gettysburg to display loyalty and courage, and information concerning a regi- ment, one of whose companies came from that town, and which was the first force to engage the rebel army there when it entered the State, ought not, perhaps, to be withheld. An effort was made to recast the paper, but it was soon found that the result was to destroy all of the color and freshness which constituted its only literary merit, and the attempt was abandoned. It is hoped that the freedom of comment upon men and affairs will be excused as the quick and enthusiastic impressions of a boy of twenty. SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 309 a mere cavalry raid which would be settled without much difficulty, and there was no necessity for such a great dis- turbance or interfering with the transaction of business. During the day first mentioned, I had thought continually upon the subject, and come to the conclusion to join a company, if any of my friends would be willing to go with me. So after work in the evening, 1 went over to Phoenixville, and after talking awhile about it proposed to some of them to go up to Harrisburg and unite with some company there, as there was but little prospect of one being raised in our own neighborhood. Horace Lloyd seemed to think well of it, but being unable to give a definite answer without first consulting with Mr. Morgan, promised to let me know early in the morning whether he could be spared from the bank — so I returned home un- decided. Immediately after breakfast the next day I went to hear Lloyd's answer, and found the town in a perfect furore of excitement. Some further news had been re- ceived, the Phoenix Iron Co, stopped their works, and ofiered to pay $1 per day to each man in their employ who would enlist, and two companies were then fiUing up rapidly, one under their auspices particularly, and the other seemingly under the charge of Samuel Cornett, Jos. T. McGord, John D. Jenkins, (fee. Going into Ullman's sitting room where V. N. ShafFer was writing down the names of recruits rapidly, I was in- formed that they expected to leave for Harrisburg in the 9i A. M. train. As it was then 8 o'clock, the time for preparation was exceedingly short, so telling Shaffer to put my name among the rest, I hurried home to get my things ready. I believe mother would have made more objection to my going than she did, but I was in such a hurry that she had very little opportunity. However, she made considerable opposition, but perceiving that I 310 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. was decided, assisted me in tying up a red horse blanket with a piece of clothes line so that it could be thrown across the shoulder, prepared some provision consisting of a piece of cheese, several boiled eggs, with sundry slices of bread and butter which were put in one of the boys' school satchels, and a tin cup fastened upon the strap, and thus accoutred, I bade all good-bye, except grandfather who was out in the field, and hastened over to town. In the meantime the departure of the company had been postponed until evening, and being formed in ranks by McCord, we marched through the borough in the dust to the sound of the fife and drum, and returning to the hotel held an election for ojQBcers, in which John D. Jenkins was chosen Captain, Jos. T. McCord, 1st Lieutenant, and A. L. Chalfant, 2d Lieutenant. The captain had been in the Mexican war, was a long while High Constable, and had the reputation of being very brave and determined, but was entirely unacquainted with the modern drill, and it seems to me, rather slow in thought and action, McCord was along time in Company G, First Reserves, participated in the Peninsular battles — was thoroughly booked up in Hardee, thought by many to be of a tyrannical disposition but I preferred him to any of the others. Chalfant was in Mexico and now keep-^ a kind of a saloon in Phoenixville. After the election we were dismissed with orders to meet at the same place at four P. M. I bought some necessary articles, a flannel shirt and a large knife and went home to dinner more deliberately than before. At the appointed hour we left UUman's and marching down to the depot filled a special car which had been pro- cured. As we passed Dr. Whitaker's, Andy's mother called to him that he must not go, but he continued with us. SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOKM. 311 He had been trying to persuade her to give her permis- sion all day, but she refused, although his father consented. There was a tremendous crowd at the depot who cheered with their accustomed vigor as the cars passed away at half past four. At Pottstown a large number of persoas were collected who told us that a company from that place expected to leave on the following day. Through the kindness of Mr. Thomas Shaffer and some others we had on board several fine hams and a quantity of water crackers which were served around at about supper time and made a very good meal. A number of the men had taken care before leaving Phoenixville to lay in a good supply of liquor and consequently were soon in a drunken and noisy humor. However, we were all noisy enough and being in ex- cellent spirits, sang patriotic songs and cheered and shouted incessantly. Before we reached Reading a heavy storm of rain passed over us and the appearance of the sky seemed to indicate continued wet weather. At the latter place the train was delayed at least an hour, taking on the troop cars, and running backward and forward, so that as night was approaching our present prospect of seeing the Lebanon valley which was new to the most of us, was very slim. George Ashenfelter here brought on to the cars a company of rowdy firemen, who were nearly all of them drunk, and took a great delight in fighting with a number of negroes on the train. Nobody had any control over them except George, though he managed them with- out much difficulty, by occasionally knocking one or two down. We arrived at Harrisburg about half past ten o'clock. I recall with considerable amusement the ex- pectation I had formed of what would be our reception. I had supposed as a matter of course, and I think many of the rest had the same idea, that the Governor would have some officer at the depot ready to receive us, com- 312 HISTOEICAL A^'D BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. fortable qnarters prepared for us, and treat us as if we were of some consequence. We were, therefore, surprised, and our feelings some- what chilled, to find that we were left to provide for ourselTes and seek accommodations as best we might. As a company we represented so much strength, but personally we were of no importance whatever. This doctrine, universal in the army but new to us, was forced rather abruptly upon our notice, and the contemplation of it formed our first experience in military life. To reconcile our minds to it was the first difficulty to be overcome. After deliberating a while we started for the Capitol. As we marched through the streets people inquired where we were from and cheered us loudly, shouting " Bully for Phoenix," &c., but we made the observation, and some gave expression to it very pointedly, that for a town which was said to be in great danger «f capture, and whose inhabitants had been packing up their efiects, and removing them and their persons to other cities for safety, there were entirely too many men in the streets and on the corners who appeared to be taking matters as coolly as if there was no cause for disturbing them- selves. A feeling of displeasure could not be repressed when thinking that we had come a hundred miles from a sense of duty while those in the immediate vicinity of the Capital, who had every incentive to arouse themselves, were doing nothing. What before was uncertain and undefined became open indignation on reaching the Capitol buildings. The Copperhead convention, which had assembled for the purpose of nominating a candidate for governor, had just chosen Judge Woodward, and held pOBSf-Bsion of the hall and seats of the House of Eepre- sentatives, shouting, hurrahing and making inflammatory SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 313 speeches, while the pavement, the stone porch, and the floor of the galleries were covered with militia, trying to sleep amidst the din. The thought was enough to anger a saint — the Capital of the State threatened by the rebels, the Governor almost beseeching men to come to the rescue, and those who respond compelled to lie outside upon the stones and listen to the disloyal yells of the enemies of the country comfortably quartered within. Lloyd, Andy^ and myself went all over the building searching for a lodging place, and finally pitched upon the stone porch as the most eligible spot, being covered by a roof, more clean, cool and less crowded than the inside. Several of the men chose the pavement, but as it rained during the night they were driven within. I spread out my horse blanket, put my bread satchel under my head, and endeavored to go to sleep, but the novelty of the position, the solidity of the bed, and the unpleas- ant practice the man above me had of putting his boots on my head, rendered it almost impossible. I finally dozed and dreamed a little, with the shouts of the Cop- perheads ringing in my ears. About one o'clock they adjourned, and came out stepping over us, and went to their hotels, all of which they had previously engaged and crowded. The men groaned and cursed them, damned Woodward, McClellan, and traitors generally, and there were several fights in consequence. I awoke Andy and Lloyd, and proposed moving our quarters into the hall, which Andy and I did, and slept the rest of the night in the seats there, very pleasantly, but Lloyd remained out- side. A number of our fellows amused themselves in de- stroying copies of the "Age" and other papers of like ^ A. R. Whitaker. 20 314 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. character, which packed up ready for maiHng, had been left behind. Tn the morning, we were awake by day- light, with eyes swollen, and feeling very little refreshed by the night's slumber. After breakfast, I wrote home to mother, to report pro- gress thus far, and we then strolled over the grounds, walked down to the Susquehanna, and wandered about over the town. There were great efforts made by some to find a breakfast in the town, which was almost impos- sible, so that we three contented our appetites with what we had brought with us. Before long, we learned that there was a good bit of discontent manifested among the militia, and we were told that orders had been issued not to accept any for a less term than six months, and already many talked about returning home, as they had come with the expec- tation of serving as the militia hitherto had done, many having their business matters at home demanding their at- tention, and they had no idea of remaining for that length of time. About nine o'clock we were ordered to fall in^, and having taken my place in line, Shaffer^ came to me and said, " Your place is in the rear." " What is that for ?" I asked. " Sergeants always are in the rear of the com- pany," was the reply, so I took my station accordingly. The names of the non-coms, were then read to us, viz. : Sergeants Smith, Vanderslice,' Shaffer,^ Pennypacker and Keeley.^ The Corporals I have forgotten, though Lloyd, Cas- well,'* and Sower'^ were among them. We then mai'ched out to Camp Curtin, and were taken to one corner of the ^ Hamilton Vanderslice. * V. N. Shaffer. ■'' Jerome Keeley. * J. Ralston CaswelL * Samuel Sower. SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 315 camp, very near to the railroad, and by the side of a small tree which stood there. A wheat field was within a few rods, and it answered the same purpose for which an out-house is used generally. On the opposite side of the railroad, and some distance off was a farm house where we got water, went to wash, and sometimes bought milk. It had also attached to it, a fine orchard, the shade of whose trees affbrded a pleasant spot to loll and rest upon. About noon we were furnished with wedge tents, and Lloyd, Shaffer, Keeley, Andy and myself having con- cluded to bunk together, chose one, put it up, and floored it with boards. At that time, there were few companies in camp, but they soon commenced to flock in rapidly. A company numbering one hundred and twenty men came up from Phoenixville in the evening. They comprised, principally, the men and bosses employed by the iron company, and as the result proved were of great disad- vantage to us. Joe Johnson, John Denithorne, &c., were the officers. Many of them had no desire to go into ser- vice, but came up simply on account of the excitement, and because they disliked to remain at home amid so gen- eral a movement. During the day, the subject of being sworn into the service of the United States had been discussed among our men with various expressions of opinion. Some seemed willing to accept it, some were indignant thinking they had been deceived, and others appeared only anxious to back out entirely. The only alternative ofi"ered was the " existing emergency "or "six months." The latter was a long time under the circumstances, and the croakers among us said the former might last until the war was over, as, if we were once sworn in, the government could keep us as long as it chose. Bam. Cornett and others who had been very active in 316 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL fiKETCHES. forming the company, and eager to show their patriotism and spirit, went home, giving as a reason that the hay crop must be attended to or some similar excuse. Their course, it seems to me, was extremely reprehen- sible ; as they should have thought of their busine-ss mat- ters before they left home, and to ray certain knowledge several who saw these prominent citizens, so earnest in offering themselves and so ready to withdraw, were considerably influenced by it in their future movements. We had already commenced drawing rations, and had made our first trial of " hard tack," " salt horse," pork, &c., and were surprised to find them much more agree- able than we had expected. At our first meal we had salt beef, and after eating for some time, one of the party expressed his satisfaction at the good quality of the meat, which was echoed by all the rest, except Lloyd, who did not appear to relish it much, and innocently inquired, 'Did yours smell bad?" We told him that it did not, and upon examining his portion, discovered he had re- ceived an offensive spoiled piece, which he was uncom- plainingly endeavoring to force down. "Well," he said, " I thought I was in the army, and had to eat it." with such an air of innocence and resignation, that it threw us all into a roar of laughter. He has'nt heard the last of it yet. In the morning and evening we w^ere drilled pretty severely by Lieut. McOord who understood the tactics thoroughly. After morning drill, Andy, IJoyd and myself went with the Captain and Second-Lieutenant into Harris- burg to see Governor Curtin upon some business. At the Capitol we met Sing. Asheufelter who accompanied us. While there we took the opportunity of "drawing" some envelopes from the Governor's private box. Afterward SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOKM. 317 we four walked about town for a time, when Sing, left us promising to come out to camp in the afternoon. Returning we stopped in a confectionery and bought three small pies which we were devouring as we walked along the street, when we overheard some benevolent old lady in spectacles who eyed us attentively remark : " Poor fellows ! how they enjoy them." The idea of ap- plying the epithet to a set of fellows who were only two days from home, as if they were suffering from starvation, seemed rather comical. However, the old lady displayed a sympathising heart. A little fellow sang out in the popular slang " How are you pies /" By night the camp ground was nearly filled up with tents and the room for drill was necessarily curtailed. During the night it rained and we were consequently somewhat chilly. Another great difficulty in the way of sleep was that our tent was only a few yards from the Pennsylvania Railroad and on ac- count of the extraordinary amount of business, trains were running upon it continually day and night. As they approached the camp the engineer commenced to blow his whistle, '^and the shriek could be heard at a distance first, then rapidly coming nearer and growing fiercer until op- posite the tent, when the sound had accumulated to such a pitch, it seemed like the unearthly yells of some foul fiend, or the dying shrieks and groans of some deep chested Titan giving vent to intense agony. Lloyd would jump straight up from his blanket with " Damn, I thought it was the Devil." (Saturday, June 20th.) We arose as usual at day-break, and as there was some difficulty in get- ting the men to go for water Lloyd and myself volun- teered and filled the kettles at the farm house. After some battalion drill in which I, as a sergeant, cut a very awkward figure, finding it almost impossible to keep 318 III I'OItlCAl, ANI) I'.KKIKAI'IIICAI, SK K If ;il KS. from L!;f'Miii;^ i!Ui iJio Vi'vy hI,('('|) hill on llu; wcslcrM hank ol that; river upon which iJioy were, Itiisily ('ngugcd ihrowini!; up forli- floiiionH. A iiirgf^ uiiiuhcr of men wero omjiloyed and 1,1 ic plan of opera.! ions wa,H, a,il<'r placing a, line ol hognlieads lillcil will: gra,V(d loi'ming llw cncloHiiie, Jo di^ a, (l(M'p dil.cli on I he ()ul,Mid(i und hardv Iho ea,rth up ii,ij;ainHl, LIkuu. Till- hack of iJic fori toward the rivor aud town torini- iial,('d Oil a. vci'y wlcep hank in somo places like a, jiroci- pico. We exa,miiie(| the whole area, very a,i,l,enl,ively and aviu<' itHine;t took tlio earn for CarliHle, aud we returned to eaiiip. I Miring oiii- aliHence a, dispatch lia.d \)eo.n re- ceived from the riiociiix lion (!oiiipany, telling tluur (em- ployees not to he sworn into the IJ. tS. service, and if Ih^^y were they would not he pa,id IIk; promised hounty aud might lose their positions ,al home. Such a courwe of action alter making hona, lide engagements a,n so excited or ignorant that he rammed down the ball first, and poured the powder on top, thus rendering his musket use- less. In the meantime the " rebs '' had divided, some com- ing up the road as far as the brick house where they captured a few of our men who had gone inside, j and the rest went over to the right, and were separated from us bv the wood I have mentioned. Our regi- ment were now nearly all collected together, and were drawn up in line, some two or three fields distant.^ Sup- posing the idea was to await an attack there, we concluded we had better go ove rand join them, which we did. Fullv believing we would continue the fight, I took off mv knapsack in order to be unencumbered and placed it in a fence corner where I could easily get it afterward. Upon taking my position in rank and after waiting for a short time we commenced a retreat toward the mountains. I hastened back readjusted my knapsack, and before long we were entirely concealed by the woods. Here we halted to have the roll called and among quite a number who were missing I was not sorry to learn the " one- eyed sergeant" was included. Web. Davis, Buckley and Reddy were also among the captured. Although an hour previous I had felt excessively tired, the excitement of the skirmish had completely removed all fatigue and had so refreshened and invigorated my spirits that I seemed to be as elastic as in the morning. I suppose it affected the others in the same manner. While here Rennard who * The regiment was promptly formed on th& left of the road and opened fire, checking his advance and compelling him to fall back with some loss in killed and wounded. Bates, Vol. v, p. 1225. SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 345 stepped to one side for some purpose, left me in cliarge of his gun, but as we moved off almost immediately I stood it up against a tree within his sight, but some chap who was passing by managed to exchange it for his own which had a ball firmly wedged in the barrel. Crossing creeks and fields, tearing down the fences and tramping grain and corn, over gullies and hills, but keeping principally to the woods and mountains, we continued our retreat.^ I suppose the Colonel had little doubt of our ability to repel the cavalry, but their evident intention was to delay ■us until the arrival of infantry and other support. Gen- eral Early had expressed his determination of taking the regiment entire, and that night said in Gettj^sburg that we had thus far escaped but on the morrow our capture was certain. In circumstances in. which there is anything ^ " Hanover Junction, June 27, 9 A. M. The telegraph operator is still at Hanover. Col. Jenning's regiment left Harrisburg on Thursday for Gettysburg. The engine ran over a cow, seven miles from Gettysburg, and the locomotive and several cars were injured, . but no one was hurt. On Friday morning the regiment went to ■Gettysburg. The Phila. City Troop and another cavalry company preceded them * * * at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon, our cavalry left Gettysburg as the rebels entered * * * Before leaving, a train with thirteen freight cars, some with Col. Jennings' supplies, was run to this side of the bridge at the end of the town. The bridge and the train were afterwards destroyed by the rebels." " York, June 27, 1 P. M. Nothing has been heard yet of Jen- nings' regiment. The attack on them commenced about three yester- day, by a large cavalry force, and continued to the last advices. The loss is not known, but it is reported that a number were taken prisoners.' ' " Harrisburg, June 28th. Col. Jennings' regiment which had the skirmish at Gettysburg arrived here to-day. He lost about three hundred men in prisoners and stragglers. The officers were sent to Richmond and the men paroled. Some of the men have arrived here." The Press, June 29th, 1863. 22 346 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. like an equality of force, running is properly considered disgraceful ; but as we were situated, our strength was entirely inadequate for successful opposition, and we found ourselves drawn into a trap from which we could only be extricated by skill and celerity. Considering the matter calmly now, I am perfectly willing to bear all the stigma which inconsiderate and ignorant persons may deem con- nected with it, especially since I well know that all the hardships to be endured and difKculties to be surmounted in a military life are not confined to the battlefield. The man who dies in his tent from fever or freezes while on picket, may suffer infinitely more than he who is pierced by a bullet or blown to atoms by a shell, though the latter attracts more public attention from the eclat with which it is attended. If I am capable of judging at all of my own mind, I would in any part of the time have preferred an engagement to the retreat, notwithstanding I might have had occasion to change my opinion had we been brought into a severe struggle, and though I believe Colonel Jennings deserves the highest praise not only for having adopted the sole proper course of action but for the dexteritv with which it was conducted. A large proportion of the men had taken off" and lost their knapsacks during the skirmish, and others already tired with the labors of the day and seeing the prospect of a long march ahead, were one after another throwing them aside. I carried mine until pretty late, when lieutenant Richards came to me and said that we still had a tramp of indefinite length to make, and thinking that it was probably costing me more than it was worth, I unstrapped it and left it behind some bushes. It was the object of the Colonel to keep the regiment undercover, if possible, until we could get beyond the reach of the rebels, and several times their scouts were in very close proximity. About SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 347 dusk when we were upon top of a hill, and were just on the point of crossing a field which intervened between us and another wood that we wished to enter, two or three of of their horsemen were discovered moving along the oppo- site fence. They did not see us, however, and we lay down quietly among the trees until they had departed. There was so little noise among the men that the least sound could be heard distinctly. While at that place "Tucker"^ loaned me his g-um blanket as he had an overcoat beside and did not wish to be burdened with both, but I un- fortunately had no string with which to fasten it over my shoulders. There was something very thrilling and ro- mantic to me then in the idea of our position, and the resemblance we had to hunted game endeavoring to elude their pursuers. A sense of danger gave intensity to the interest with which we watched the chances of being captured. It soon after became very dark, which caused us to feel more secure but increased the unpleasantness of travelling. About nine o'clock we had descended a road between two woods and arrived at a stream of some size and depth, crossed by a shaky foot log which had formerly possessed a railing for the use of the hand, that the eftects of time had partially destroyed, leaving gaps of several feet, so that in the dark it required a degree of care to walk over safely. Just as the first of the regiment had stepped upon this log, the sound of horses' hoofs was heard upon the summit of the hill rapidly approaching. Im- mediately a panic seized upon the men and all made a rush for the log. Not a single word was spoken, and as the stampede commenced from the rear it sounded to me precisely like the rustle of a sudden gust of wind. I ran with the rest for several yards, and lost Tucker's gum ^ Robert Renshaw. 348 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHFS. blanket, but having time to recover my thoughts, I saw that nothing was to be gained by crowding upon the log, and returned to hunt the blanket, but though any num- ber of shelter tents were scattered around I was unable to find what I sought. In their eagerness to get over, several were pushed into the water, and some even jumped in from the bank and waded through up to their waists. A number of guns were lost in the stream, having been dropped in the unaccountable fright. I waited until the hurry had subsided, and crossing at my leisure, found Ren- nard on the other side with two guns which he had carried — showing that he had maintained his composure. He gave one of them to some fellow who had lost his own. It appeared that two or three of our scouts were the cause of the alarm. I was so impressed with its utter folly, and so out of patience with myself, that I determined if such a thing should occur again, I would retain my presence of mind and stand still until I saw some necessity for moving. I do not attempt to palliate or justify such a foolish fright, but considering the perfect darkness of the night, the delicate position upon the bank of a stream with part of the regiment already on' the log, and the knowledge each one had of the presence of the enemy in the immediate neighborhood, I doubt whether any body of men would have acted better in like circumstances. When I re- member too what Xenophon tells of the conduct of the celebrated "ten thousand" Greeks in a somewhat similar case, and how men who have since proven themselves as brave as any who ever fought, ran in the early part of the war all the way from Bull Run to Washington, I think we are at least excusable. Had we actually been attacked at the time, I firmly believe twenty-five men would have cut us all to pieces. After all had crossed over in safety, we waited along the road for a few minutes, and while SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 349 tliere some fellow came riding toward us at full gallop. In an instant every piece was cocked and raised to the shoulder, and I only wonder some one did not shoot him. It proved that our equanimity had not been entirely restored. The man was frightened nearly out of his senses, and giving a confused and unsatisfactory account of himself, was taken into custody. A drizzling rain kept falling through the night, and any one can easily imagine, as we blundered on, how fatiguing marching became. In the woods we were con- tinually stumbling over brush and stumps or being caught by bushes and briers ; in the ploughed fields we v/ere com- pelled to carry an extra weight of clay with each step. It was actually a pleasure to enter a grain field, for the long straw tramped down prevented us from sinking in, and made a good road. We left a trail throug-h them like that of some huge roller. Several of the farmers accom- panied us on horseback acting as scouts, and every once in a while they would be sent ahead to reconnoitre the way. At such times when a halt was ordered, each man would drop down in his tracks and snatch a few moments slumber while awaiting the command to proceed. The intention of the Colonel at first was to endeavor to reach the railroad somewhere in the neighborhood of Hanover, and a man was dispatched on horseback to telegraph for cars, but after travelling for some time in that direction, he learned the place was occupied by the rebels, so we turned toward York. The Lieutenant Colonel was sent to that city, and as we did not hear any- thing concerning him for several days, it was supposed he was captured. Some time during the night about a hun- dred of our men who were separated from the rest at the log, and had been wandering around through the woods since, by the greatest good fortune met with us. We 350 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. were then in a road, and as usual, when they came up nearly all jumped over the fences, and cocked their muskets ready to fire. Having learned something by my former escapade, I stood where I was, watching intently to see what was the matter. A figure only a few feet from me, whom I recognized by his gruff voice to be the Major, said: "Men, you act like a set of sheep," and I felt somewhat gratified to know that I was not included. Toward morning we lay down and slept for perhaps an hour among some stone piles along a fence, but by the first appearance of dawn were on the march again. (Saturday, June 27th.) Those who worn out were un- able to go further dropped off one after another, and took shelter in the various farm houses. Some were captured and others escaped by exchanging their clothing for a citi- zen's suit. About ten o'clock we halted in a wood where we re- mained for two hours or more. A fire was soon started, and we dried our clothing by it as well as we could. A number crowded around it and went to sleep, waking up afterward feeling stiff and wretched. I went to a spring which was near, and washing the mud from my stock- ings and shoes, put them on again with a great deal more comfort. Then taking a seat upon a log, I drew from my haversack a piece of bread covered with dirt and soaked with water, which I was eating witli the relish of a man really hungry, when George Meigs came up and asked me if I would not give him a little piece of it. I divided it with him, and he was so grateful that he reminded me of it more than once afterward. Graham, a youth, who came from the Pottstown newspaper office, loaned me his ^um-blanket with more than ordinary kindness, and this time I secured it witli a string. While here some booby fired off his gun to remove the load, and his foolish ex- SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 351 ample was followed by perhaps fifty others before it could be stopped, and consequently the "rebs," who heard the discharge, were in our camp in a very short time after we left it. Some of the prisoners, who were then in their hands, told us that when the reports were heard, they con- cluded we had been overtaken, and gave up all hopes of our escape. By some means, the Colonel received intelli- gence that the " rebs " were advancing on York, so upon leaving the wood, we took the road for Harrisburg. About two o'clock we came to a tavern where the people had prepared, and gave to us, a meal of bread and apple butter, the first we had eaten with the exception of the afore-mentioned piece of bread, since we had left Gettys- burg on the previous morning. Of course we were in a condition to enjoy and be thankful. From there we pushed on rapidly, and as evening approached, I began to feel that my powers ©f endurance would not hold out a great while longer, but was felicitating myself upon the prospect of our successful escape, when being within a mile of Dillsburg, some of the citizens came out in great haste to meet us with the information that the rebels were in advance of us, and that it would not be safe to pro- ceed. In my heart T cursed the rebels, for it seemed that just when we were in hopes of obtaining some rest, and were congratulating ourselves upon the favorable op- portunity, we were called upon to make still further ex- ertions to insure our safety. The Colonel immediately formed the regiment across the road, so as to occupy all the space, and brought them to a charge bayonets. Co. A knelt down in front, so that those behind could fire over their heads, and Co. F were drawn up within a few feet of them with loaded muskets, the rest in succession. From the disposition of affairs, it looked very much as if he ex- 352 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHKJAL SKETCHES. pected an attack, and he made a short speech to us saying,, that if we maintained that position firmly, all the cavalry in the rebel army could make no impression upon us. After waiting about ten minutes without perceiving any hostile demonstrations, we marched at a charge through the town, and ofT to the right half a mile to the top of a hill, upon the crest of which, five companies were faced in one direction, and the remainder in the op- posite. Small scouting parties could be seen some dis- tance off, but not in sufficient force to render them dan- gerous. The people had provided supper for us in the town, but as it happened we could not stay to eat it, they carried to us on the hill as much as we needed. It consisted of bread spread with apple butter, and coffee. I tried in vain to secure a piece of meat, which I began to want. As soon as it was dark, we started on again, the Colonel having told us that after a march of about four miles, we would halt long enough to get some rest and sleep, which he saw were now indispensable. " Doc " Nyce and George Meigs remained in Dillsburg, and they said a large force of " Grey backs " passed through there- during the night. A couple of fellows whom we had brought along with us as suspicious characters refused tO' proceed, and commenced to make some noise, but on find- ing there was likely to be an application of the bayonet, they became peaceable and submissive. We may have only gone four miles, but it seemed much further before we reached the camping ground, which was a wood en- closed in the semi-circular bend of a stream. It was sur- rounded by wooded hills, and approached by a foot log crossing the creek. Co. F. was detailed for picket duty, and about a dozen of us were sent to guard the log. Some were stationed, and the rest including myself were SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 353 told that we might sleep under a large tree which stood there, bat were carefully cautioned to have our muskets in our hands with bayonets fixed, ready to jump up at a moment's notice. The ground was wet and cold, but we were asleep in a very short time. Once we were aroused through a mistake, occasioned by the approach of one of our officei'S, and though my musket was in my arms, in springing up suddenly, T managed to seize that of the man next to me. (Sunday June 28th.) After a rest of three or four hours, which refreshed us considerably, we returned to the road and continued our march. Sometime before day, we were startled by the rapid discharge of three or four muskets in the advance, and the regiment came to a halt. In a few minutes it was reported that we had reached General Couch's outer picket lines, and a young fellow on guard had been killed. I never knew whether the latter was true or not, but hope it was false. The station was in the barn of a tavern, opposite to which we waited for some fifteen minutes, and filled our canteens with water. We were very much rejoiced to find ourselves at last within the union lines, and the Lieutenant told us that we were only about twelve or fourteen miles from Har- risburg. At seven o'clock we came to a small town whose name I have forgotten, where we were furnished with breakfast. Rennard and I sat down on a board alongside of the Major and were talking about the distance to Harrisburg, when he cast a damper on our spirits by. telling us that it was very uncertain about our going to that place, as the rebel column was already beyond Mechanicsburg and it was expected the capital would be attacked, perhaps captured before night ; and that if we did reach it, it would only be by a long round-about march. We were then off to the risrht of the direct road- 354 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. I began to think we were never going to get beyond the reach of the villains. That morning I was very much troubled with the diarrhoea which rendered me so weak that several times I was on the point of giving up. Once when compelled to stop, I told Rennard that I did not believe I would be able to go any further, and I would probably remain in some farm house. He advised me to hold on as long as I could, and though the regiment had gained perhaps a quarter of a mile, I overtook them, determined to endure it as long as possible. I never before in all my life felt so utterly miserable and I remember thinking that if ever I came out of that scrape, I would be careful not to become entano-led in such another. o After 5^everal more weary hours and miles, we were gladdened by the sight of Harrisburg at a distance over the hills — and a faint cheer arose along the line. Some fellow had even ambition enough left to attempt to create a laugh, and the Colonel appeared to be in the best of spirits — well he might be ! At a place I think on the Susquehanna a mile and a half from Fort Couch the people gave us some dinner. Here parties were cutting •down trees across the roads and preparing abattis to resist the advance of cavalry, which was looked for every moment. I went to the Captain and asked him whether he would grant me leave of absence for a few hours promising to report myself in that time, but he refused. I could not help thinking rather bitterly of a number of .his own friends who had stopped with his permission at different points, but said nothing. My intention was to go to some house and request the favor of lying down in the entry or stable until I felt better. Between that place and the fort we passed several regiments of militia who ■crowded about us, inquiring who we were and where we had come from. Seme of them said " Thev look hard SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 355 don't tliey ? as if they had been out for a year;" and I expect we did present a pretty rough appearance. We had lost all the regimental baggage, drums, tents, blankets, . Linn, John B., 271. Lloyd, David, 252. Lloyd, Horace, 309, 313, 314, :;15,316, 317, 318, 321, 392. Lloyd, John S., Corp., 322, 382, 343,398, INDEX. 409 Lloyd, Peter Z., 275. Lloyd, Thomas, 214, 246, 247, 248, 249. Loan office, 79. Lockhardt, 39L Logan, George, 86. Logan, James, 26, 33, 57, 252, 253, 254. Long Island, battle of, 276. Longstreet, Gen. J. B., 808. Loof, Anthony, 46. Lorentz, Heinrich, 54. Loyalist poetry, 61, 82, 83. Lucken, Jan, 15, 16, 29, 65,207. Lucken, Mercken Williamsen, 16. Lukens, Adam, 29. Lnkens, John, 65, 70, 72, 80, 84. Lutheran preacher, firnt, 54. Lutherans, 187. Luther, Martin, 22. Lutke, Daniel, 51. Lutz, battalion of, 276. Luyken, Jan, 160. Lyonists, 160. Maclay, Wm., 281. Madison, James. 79, 80, 283. Mann, Wm. B., 325, 367. Marching, 373, 377, 378. March to Harrisburg, 351. Marshall, Abraham, 275. Marshall, Patterson, 399. Martyrer Spiegel, Van Braght's, 11, 155, 195, 196. Mason and Dixon's line, 66, 79. Massey, Mary, 260. Matlack, Col. Timothy, 83, 266. Mathys, Jean, 21. Mayer, George, 399. McClellen, Joseph, 275, 278,313. McClure, Col. A. K., 374. McComb, John, 213, 249. McCord, Jos. T., 309, 310, 316, 819. McDonald, Chas. W., 322, 361, 398. McGraw, Reverend, 272. McKane, Theodore, 399. McKean, Thomas, 84. McKnight, Adjutant Harry W., 328. Meade Gen. Geo. G., 357, 365, 377, 381. Meels, Hans Heinrich, 54. Meetings, Quaker, 207. Meigs, George, 350, 352, 357, 394, 399. Meigs, Wm. G., 322, 331, 334, 335, 380, 398. Memorials, collection of, 360. Mennonite Churches, 29, 46, 53, 57. 91. Mennonite College, 178. Mennonite Colony on the Dela- ware, 50. Mennonite confession of Faith, 41. Mennonite martyrs, 38, 36. Mennonite preachers, 29, 37, 40, 54, 63, 195, 197. Mennonites, sect of, 19, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 41, 45, 46, 50, 54, 56, 58, 62, 63, 92, 97, 159, 160, 161, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, 172, 178, 18(,i, 181, 182, 192, 198, 199. Mennonites Amish, 173. Mennonites, hymn books of, 148. Mennonites, number of, 199. Mennonite weavers, 23, 32, 47, 54, 57. 27 410 TNDRX. Menno, Simons, 21, 22, 24, 169. Mercer Gen. Hugh, 276. Mercury, American Weekly, 55, 231, 272, 287. Merian, Casper, 13. Meylin, John, 167, 227. Mifflin, Thomas, 84. Miles, Col. Samuel, 273, 274, 279. Militia, 308. Millan, Hans, 45, 53. Millan, Imity, 53. Millan, Margaret, 54. Millan, Matteus, 48, 53. Miller, Peter, 166, 227. Milligan, Charles H., 319. Milligan, Samuel, 319. Milroy, Gen., 326, 383. Mint, U. S., 81. Missimer, Merit, 399. Missimer, Van Buren, 391, 399. Moore, Hall, 231,235,238, 261. Moore, John, 231, 235. Moore, Lieut, 278. Moore, William, of Moore Hall, 231,232,233,234,235,261. Moore, William, anecdotes con- cerning, 237. Moore, Wm., petitions against, 233. Moravians, 204. Morgan, J. B., 309. Morris, Agnes, 39. Morris, Anthony, 39, 45, 213, 249, 250, 251, 252. Morris, Cawalader, 86. Morrow, George, 399. Mowry, Lieutenant, 335, 355. Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior, 19. Muller, Elizabeth, 29. MuUer Frederick, 29, 173; I Muller George, 54 i Munster, Anabaptists, of, 20. \ Munzer, Thomas, 21 j Murray, Cap., 278. 1 Murray, Francis, 275. ; Murray Humphrey, 213. i Musketry, Battalion, 269, 273, 274. Muster roll, 398. Newberry, John, 56. New Sweden, history of, 170. Newton, Sir Isaac, 65, 76, 82. Neuss, Jan, 52, 56. Neville, Joseph, 80. Nice, John, Captain, 275, 278. Nicholson, Colonel John P., 308. Nordyke, Jacob, 27. Norris, Isaac, 52, 253. Noteworthy, Book, 157. Nova Scotia lands, 261. Nyce, Cyrus, 319, 335, 336, 342, 352, 374, 382, 385, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 394. 396, 397, 399. Observatory, Astronomical, 83. Ochse, Muntmeester, 186. Odell, Rev. Jonathan, 83. Offer des Heeren, 158. Ohio, Mennonites of, 95. Olethgo, 259. Op den Graeff, Abraham, 15, 16, 18, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 42, 44, 46, 49, 206, 207, 208, 209, 211, 216,217, 218,219,220. Op den Graeff, Dirck, 15, 16, 18, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 42, 44, 46, 48, 49, 206, 207, 208, 209. 210, 211,216, 217. INDEX. 411 Op den GraeflT, Hermann, 15.16, 18, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 46, 49, 205, 206, 207, 208. 209, 211, 216,217, 219. Op den Graeff, Jacob. 217, 220. Op den Graeff, Margaret, 206, 220. Op den GraefF, Nilcken or Nieltje, 219. Op den Graeff, Trintje, 219. Op de Trap, Hermann, 46. Oration, Rittenhouse's, 61, 73. Orrery, Rittenhouse's, 67. Oudeboone, 26. Onterman, Jacques, 159. Page, John, 80. Pannebecker, Heinrich, 53, 56, 57. Papen, Heivert, 36, 40, 46, 48, 209. Papermill, tirst in America, 10, 41, 63. Paroled prisoners, 361. Parr. Dr., 122. Parry, Colonel Caleb, 274, 275, 277, 278. Pastorius, Christian, 16. Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 9, 10, 13, 14,16, 17, 18. 19,30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 38, 89, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 55, 204, 205, 207, 209, 210, 220, 254. Pastorius, Henry, 17, 18. Pastorius, John Samuel, 17, 18. Pastorius, Magdalena, 17. Pastorius, Martin, 17. Pastorius, Melchior, 17. Peck, Dr. W. A., 372, 373. Pell, Captain, 327. Pemberton, Israel, 18. Penn, Letitia, 256. Pennsylvania, Description of, 187. Pennsylvania, Legislature of,. 69, 70. Pennsylvania, University of, 65. Penn, Thomas, 70. Penn, William, 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 38, 39, 40, 50, 52, 160, 177, 178, 206, 209, 216, 244, 245, 246, 248, 251, 252, 260. Persecution of the Anabaptists, 171. Petersen, Isaac, 54. Peters, Matthew, 218. Peterson, Dr. Johann Wilhelm, U. Peters, Reinei, 217. Petrobusians, 160. Pettinger, Johannes, 50, 217. Pfannebecker, Johannes, 37. Philips, Dirck, 21, 22. Philosophical Society, American, 61, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, S3, 84, 86, 87. Phoenix Iron Company, 309, 318, 319. Picket, 352, 353, 368. Pickets, dodging, 382. " Pie Company," 332. Pietists, 14, 49, 92. Piggot, John, 53. Pine Grove, 344. Pirates, 248. 250. Pitt, William, 271. Pletjes, Grietjen, 206. Plockhoy, Pieter Cornehsz, 50, 51. Poems, 148, 238. Police duty, 369. 412 INDEX. Porter, Andrew, 80. Potts, Henry, Lieut., 321, 398. Potts, Jonas, 218. Potts, Major James, 275. Potts, Thomas, 217. Printing, early, 49, 52. Profanity, 110. Protestant Episcopal Ohurch, 216. Provincial Council, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 252, 253. Prutzman, Henry A., 399. Pusey, Caleb, 204, 213: Quaker meeting h(.use, 39. Quaker merchants, 16, 40. Quaker preachers, 26, 30, 33. Quakers, 26, 33, 34, 39, 40, 44, 45, 48, 62, 63, 72, 92, 159, 160, 181, 204. 205, 206, 211, 212, 232, 233, 236, 249, 250, 260, 263. Quakers, Besses suffering of, "^243. Quakers, origin of, 25. Quarry, Robert, 250, 251. Radnor Church, 237. Rahn, Henry G., 399. Ramsey, Colonel, 319. Railroad accident, 330. Railroads, injuries to, 377. Rawle, Francis, 33, 252. Rawlft, Wm., 36. Rawle, W. Brooke, 36. Rebellion, 289, 301, 307. Rebels at Harrisburg, 357. Rebels, engagement with. 342, 355. Rebels wounded, 387. Rebenstock, Johannes, 54. Reddy, Thomas, 318. 320, 321 .. 323, 324, 326, 334, 344, 355. 399. Reed, Joseph, 266, 278, 270. Reformed, the, 187. Remke, Govert, 14, 28,31, 40, 56. Remke, Johann, 28. Renl)erg, Dirck, 54, 56. Renberg, Michael, 54. Renberg, Wilhelm, 54, 56. Rennard, Joseph G., 320. 321, 326, 331, 333, 334, 335, 337. 344, 345. 353, 354, 362, 365, 369, 393, 394, 397. Renshaw, Richard or Tucker,320, 347, 387, 399. Replevin, 250. Revolutionary War, 76, 81, 171, 236, 259, 277. Revolution, French, 86. Reyniers, Joseph, 53. Reyniers, Stephen, 53. Reyniers, Tiberius. 53. Rhoads, Samuel, 72. Rhodes, John, 320, 324. 338. 339, 361,382, 389, 399. Rice, Captain George, 321. 324, 339, 354, 371 , 398. Richards, Henry, 398. Richards, Mark H., Lieutenant, 321, 335, 341, 345, 396, 398. Richardson, Captain Joseph, 257. Richardson, Ellinor, 254. Richardson hole, 265. Richardson, Samuel, 213, 2-lo, 259. Richardson, Samuel, disfiute? with Governor, 245. Richardson's Island, 261. Rieser or Razor, 221. Riesman, Conrad, 227. INDEX. 413 Rittinghuysen, Gerhard, 40. Rittinghuyeen, Klaas, 40. Rittinghuysen, Willem, 10, 40, 50, 51, 63, 178. Rittinghtiysen, Willem, Menno- nite minister, 40. RitteDhouse, David, 11, 60. Rittenhouse Matthias, 64. Roberts, Charles, 376. Roberts, John, 252. Rodney, Caesar, 86. Roosen, Gerhard, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29. Roosen, Paul, 54. Ross, John, 236. Rothman, Bernhard, 21. Rowe, Benjamin S., 399. Royer, Sergeant Major John W., 328. Rub, Hans, 185. Rupp, I. D., 29, 173, 185. Rutters, Koenradt, 17. Rutter, Thomas, 49. Ryndevtz, Tjaert, 24. Safety, Committee of, 76. Safety, Council of, 78, 79. Salford Township, 93. Sangmeister, Heinrich, 227. Saur Bible, 10, 173. Saur Christopher, 10, 11, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 195, 225, 226. Saur, Maria Christiana, 226. Schaffer, Isaac, 45. Scheflfer, Dr. J. G. De Hoop, 34, 58, 163, 177. Scherkes, David, 32, 49, 219. Scheuten, genealogy, 29, 206. Schlegel, Christopher, 54. Schneyder, Johannes, 197. Scholl, Johannes, 56. School, discipline, 109, 121, 122, School, earliest essay upon, 95. Schools, 55, 98. Schools, Bible exercises in, 132. School, silence in, 118. School teaching, 92, 93, 98, 272. Schrope, Ephraim, 399. Scott, John, 243. Schumacliei', Frances, 35. Schumacher, Gertrude, 35. Schumacher, Isaac, 55. Schumacher, Jacob, 17. Schumacher, Jr., Peter. 15, 35, 37, 49, 55, 57, 179, 217. Schumacher, Mary, 35. Schumacher, Sarah, 35. Scouting party, 334. Scripts, German, 91, 101. Schutz, Dr. Johan Jacob, 13, 31. Schwenkfeldt, Caspar, 26. Schwenkfelders, 92, 163, 192. Seidensticker, Professor Oswald, 9, 18, 27, 32, 37, 39, 58, 203, 205, 228. Seimens, Jan, 15, 16, 39, 207. Seimens, Walter, 32, 218. Seelig, Johannes, 51. Sellen, Dirck, 45, Sellen, Hendrick, 28, 45, 46, 57. Sellers, John, 70. Sell, Martin, 51. Sewel, William, 27. Shaffer, Thomas, 311 , Shaffer, V. N., 309, 314, 315. Shaffner, Petei-, 275. Shaner, George W., 399. Shee, John, 77. Sheetz, Geo. Sergeant, 322, 323, , 343, 388, 389, 398. Shic'k, Augustine W., 399. 414 INDEX. Shippen, Edward, 252, 255, 272. Shippen, Joseph, 208. Shippen, Rebecca, 33. Shoemaker, Abraham, 36. Shoemaker. Barbara. 30. Shoemaker, Benjamin, 36. Shoemaker, Elizabeth, 36. Shoemaker, George, 36. Shoemaker, Isaac, 36. Shoemaker, Sarah, 36. Shoemaker, Susanna, 36. Sigel, General, 395. Silans, Johau, 45. Simcock, J., 248. Simons, Menno, 21, 22, 45, 159. Sipman, Dirck, 12, 14, 15, 16, 28, 31, 35, 40, 56. Siverte, Cornelius, 45, 48, 49, 52. Sii Weeks in Unilorm, 305. Skippack Church, 57, 194. Skippack, settlement at, 56. Slaveholders, 255. Slavery, first protest against, 42, 205, 209. Small, Robert P., 399. Smallwood, battalions of, 276. Smith, Dr. William, 10, 60, 62, 65.69,70.71. 72,84,234,235, 261. Smith, Edwin ¥., 399. Smith, Jacob, 236. Smith, John, 218. Smith, Mahlon V. Corp.. 398. Smith, Mattheus, 2] 8, 219. Smith, Sergeant, 314. Smitty, 325. Snyder, Sicke, 21. Souplis, Andries, 45. Sower, Samuel, 314. Spaucake, Israel, 399: Sponsler, Calvin B., 399. Speikerman, Marieke, 54. Springett, Herbert, 13. Spring, the bloody, 273. Sprogell, John Henry. 54. Sprogell, Ludwig Christian, 54. Stahl, General, 395. Stampede, a, 347. Standish, Miles, 204. Statues, Pennsylvania, 88. Stauffer, Daniel, 197. Steele, George, 399. Stirling, General, 277. Stocks, 55. Stores, 272. Story, Thomas, 26, 27. Strauss, George, 13, 31. Strayer, Andrew, 57. Streypers, Jan, 15. 16, 28, 30, 31, 39, 40, 50. Streypers, Willem, 14, 15, 16, 30, 32, 38, 40, 50, 207, 218. Stryckers, Henry, 98. Stryckers, Margaret, 98. Surveyer, first German, 53. Sutor, James, 275. Sutlers, 363, 381. Swiss Mennonites, 167. Switzerland, Calvinists in, 160. Tam.sen, Klas, 36. Taylor, Bayard, 302. Taylor, Charles Frederick, 299. Telner, Jacob, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 28, 31,32,33,41,46,50,181, 207, 219. Telner 's Township, 34. Ten Cate, S. Blaupot, 20, 21, 24, 41. Tents, method of ejecting, 333. Thiessen, Frantz, 159= INDEX. 415 Thiessen, Niclaus, 159. Thomas, Col. W. B., 329. Thomas, David, 264. Thomas, Gabriel, 41, 47, 63, 208. Thomas, Werner, 399. Thomas, Wm. J., 399. Thompson, Gen., 265. Tibben, Heinrich, 54. Tombstone, oldest, 55. Tories, 264, 265. Town Council, 255. Townsend, Richard, 30. Transit of Mercury, 71, 84. Transit of Venus, 62, 70. Treasurer, State, 78. Treaties, Indian, 281. Trees, 187. Tresse, Thomas, 52. Tubben, Henry, 218. Tunes, Abraham, 15, 16, 30, 207. Tunes, Hermann, 29, 217. Turner, Martha, 33. Turner, Robert, 33. Tyson, Cornelius, 55, Tyson family, 159. Tyson, Reynier, 15, 49, 207, 217. Ueberfeld, Johann Wilhelm, 13, 31. Umstat, Anna Margaretta, 35. Umstat, Barbara, 35. Umstat, Eve, 35. Umstat, Hans Peter, 35. Umstat, Johannes, 35, 56, 217. UpdegraefF, Updegrave and Up- degrove, 220. Valentine, Henry, 275. Valley Forge, 237, 259. Van Aaken, H. J., 39, 40. Van Bebber, Isaac Jacobs, 32, 36, 57. Van Bebber, Jacob Isaacs, 14, 28, 32, 35, 36, 46, 49, 57, 209. Van Bebber, Matthias, 32, 35, 36, 40, 56, 57. Van Braght's martyrs' mirror, 11, 155. Van Braght, Tieleman Jans, 20, 29, 36, 63, 159, 160, 161, 194. Van Burklow, Reynier Her- manns, 36, 46, 57. Vanderslice, Hamilton, Sergt., 314. Vanderslice, John, 361. Vanderslice, 265. Van der Smissen, Dr., 199. Van der Smissen, Henry, 192. Vyn der Werf, Richard, 54. Van de Walle, Jacob, 13, 31. Van de Wilderness, John, 218. Van de Woestyne, John, 50. Van Gelder, Dr. A. N. 198. Vanhorn, Wm., 77. Van Kolk, Dirck, 45, 46, 20y. VanSanen, Weyntie, 41. Van Sintern, Heinrich, 54. Van Sintern, Isaac, 54, 179. Van Sintern. Magdalena, 179. Van Vossen, Arnold, 54, 56, 219. Venus, transit of, 62, 70. Vicksburg, capture of, 366. Von Mastricht, Dr. Gerhard, 14. Von Merlau, Eleanora, 14. Von Rodeck.Johan Bonaventura, 17. Von Wylich, Dr. Thumas, 14. 416 INDEX. Von Zach, 73. Wagoner, Frank, 399. Waldenses, 20, 21, 41, 47, 160. Wain, Nicholas, 253. Ward Bernard, 275. Warner, Christian, 51. Washington, 81, 276, 279, 280, 283. Wayne, Anthony, 88, 92, 236, 262, 279, 283. Wayne Isaac, 232, 233. Wentz, 167. Weaving, 10, 20. Webb, Robert, 251. Weidman, Matthias, 275. Welles, Joseph K. 39v^. Wens, Adrian, 168. Wens, Hans Matthias, 168. Wens, Maeyken, 167, 168. Wertmuller, George, 17. Wert, Wm., 356. Whitakei-, A. R., 310. 313, 315, 316, 318, 321. Whitehead, George, 243. White's Battalion of Cavalry. 340. Whittier, J. G., 9, 164, 203, 205. Wilcox, Joseph, 252, 253. Wilderness, woman in the, 51. Wilhelms, Gisbert, 46. Willems, Dirck, 63. Williams, David, 34. Williams Elizabeth, 63. Williams, Evan, 63. Williams, Jan, 46. Williamson, Col. W. L., 366. Williams, Thomas, 217. Willing, Thomas, 84. Wiseman, Thomas, 56. ! Witherspoon, Dr., 69. Witmer, Henry, 356. I Wohlfahrt, Michael, 227. ' Wolff, Paul, 45, 48, 55, 218, 219. Woodward, Judge, 312, 313. Woolman, John, life of, 92. Worralls, Richard, 42, 210. Wynn, W. W., 399. Zaller, Melchoir, 185. Ziegler, Michael, 57, 161, 194. Zimmerman, 167. Zimmerman, Christopher, 56. Zimmerman, Philip Christian, 54. Zionitischer Weyrauchs Hugel, 224, 225. Zook, Shem, 173. 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