Local History: Chapters IX & X: The Schuylkill & The Canal : Bean's 1884 History of Montgomery Co, PA

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                           BEAN'S  HISTORY  OF

                     MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

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118 (cont.)

                               CHAPTER IX.

                      THE SCHUYLKILL by William J. Buck

    THE river Schuylkill has its origin from two small streams, which
rise in the Broad Mountain, in Rush Township, Schuylkill Co.  Following
its windings to Where it empties into the Delaware, which is five miles
below Philadelphia, its total length is about one hundred and
twenty-five miles, flowing in its general course, a southeasterly
direction.  Its principal tributaries in Schuylkill County are the
Little Schuylkill, Bear, and Tumbling Creeks; in Berks County, Maiden
and Tulpehocken Creeks; in Montgomery County, Manatawny, Perkiomen, and
Stony Creeks; in Chester County, Pigeon and French Creeks; and in
Philadelphia, the Wissahickon.  Following its courses the Schuylkill
laves the shores of Montgomery County for about forty miles.

    On it in this distance are located nine townships and six boroughs,
namely: Pottsgrove, Limerick, Upper Providence, Lower Providence,
Norriton, Plymouth, White Marsh, Upper Merion, and Lower Merion
townships; and Pottstown, Royer's Ford, Norristown, Bridgeport,
Conshohocken, and West Conshohocken boroughs.  Within these limits it is
spanned by no less than thirteen noble bridges; railroads pass on its
eastern and western margins, while itself has been made navigable for
boats of one hundred and eighty tons.  These grand improvements,
wonderful to relate, have been chiefly effected within three-fourths of
a century.  They show the energy, the thrift and enterprise of our
countrymen in these latter days, for two hundred and sixty-eight years
have passed away since its first discovery by the European.  What a
subject is here offered for reflection.

    Within these limits there are no mountains, though the country is
most agreeably diversified by undulating hills and valleys, interspersed
with towns, villages, and various manufacturing establishments, all
beautifully situated by its banks, or nestled near by in some lateral
valley.  Though not on a grand scale, yet few valleys in any country for
the same distance can boast of more lovely and varied picturesque
scenery, sometimes meandering through broad cultivated fields and
fertile plains, on which are studded, like gems in a casket, substantial
stone houses and barns; next, on some eminence, may be seen an elegant
country-seat; then it sweeps past bits of wood-

119

land tufting the hill slopes or contracted by a boulder, bluff of rocks;
then, again, follow in the park-like island, so gently reposing on its
bosom, and the long, stretches of green meadow.  Here is to be found the
utile et dulce of the ancients to a greater degree than perhaps in any
other section of equal extent in our wide-spread republic.  And however
much the hand of improvement may alter this valley it will still present
those ever-varying succession of scenes which charm the landscape and are
the admiration of every traveler.

    In the year 1609, Capt. Henry Hudson, an Englishman the service of
the Dutch East India Company, is believed, touched at the mouth of is
now known as Delaware Bay; but, finding shoal water and fearful of
grounding, he retired, and in a few days after entered the harbor of New
York and sailed up the river to which his name has been given.

    In the summer of 1610, it is said, Lord Delaware, while on his
voyage to Virginia as Governor, entered the bay which now bears his
name, as well as the large river that empties into it.  In 1612 the
Dutch commenced settlements at Fort Orange, now Albany, and at Manhattan
Island, the present site of the city of New York.  Capt. Hendrickson, a
Dutchman, having built a yacht at Manhattan, called the "Onrust," which
in English means restless, of only sixteen tons burden, set out on a
voyage of discovery in 1616.

    From a map which be made of this expedition, it would appear as if
be had sailed along the coast from Nova Scotia to the capes of
Virginia.  While on this trip he entered Delaware Bay and ascended its
river as far as the Schuylkill, which he entered a short distance, and
in consequence is, therefore, entitled to the honor of being its
discoverer.

    The origin of any name that has for a long time been applied to an
object which in itself is permanent and likely to remain so is ever
interesting to the inhabitants of the vicinity, especially when of a
local nature.  In consequence, before proceeding further in this
undertaking it may be well to venture on all explanation, if not rather
an investigation of the name of Schuylkill, as well as of several others
that have been applied to it.

    The Indians, it appears, had several names for this stream.  One was
"Nittbockunk" we know was applied in 1655, if not earlier.  In the deeds
of purchase from the Indians to William Penn, in 1683 and 1685, it is
called "Manaiunk."  John Heckewelder, the missionary, says it was called
by the natives "Ganschowehanne" which signified, in their language, a
stream whose falls and ripples and make a noise.  Mr. Heckewelder's
statement is doubted, for the reason that no authority has yet been
found to corroborate that the Indians had ever called it by this name.

    The Swedes, as may be seen of Peter Lindstrom's map of "New Sweden"
made in 1675, also called the "Linde Kilen" or Linden Stream, from the
large tree of that kind that grew along its banks.  Its present name of
Schuylkill was given by the Dutch, very probably by Capt. Heridrickson,
in 1616; if not, it bore this name at least seventeen years later.  By
means of a rare work, entitled "Woordeabock der Nederduitsche in
Fransche Taalen," by Francois Halma, published at Amsterdam, in 1729; we
are enabled to give some light as to the origin of the Dutch name of this
stream.  Schuil, or Schuilen, in the Dutch signifies concealed or hidden,
that is, by land or otherwise; Kil signifies a channel, stream, or river.

    Therefore the meaning of Schuil-Kil, or Schuilen-Kil (the way it is
spelled in the Dutch, and as it should be now written), is Hidden River,
or Concealed Stream.  This name was given it by its discoverers from the
fact of its mouth being so concealed by several low islands And that the
river can not be found till actually entered, to the truth of which the
writer can vouch from personal observation while ascending the Delaware
and entering the Schuylkill.

    Respecting knowledge of this river, we can also glean sonic valuable
additional information from early maps.  The map of New Netherlands
accompanying John Ogilby's "America," published at London in 1671, is
remarkable for having it denoted thereon as the "Schuylkill," precisely
the orthography of this day.

    According to Roggeveen's map, published at Amsterdam in 1676, its
stream is represented up to about the present town of Manayunk.  In
Gabriel Thomas' "Historical and Geographical Account of the Province of
Pennsylvania," printed at London in 1698, the Schuylkill is represented
from its union with the Delaware upwards of one-third its length, with
the Wissahickon, Perkiomen, and the Manatawny, and their several leading
branches emptying therein, with great accuracy considering so early a
date, clearly demonstrating that at that time all of the present
territory of Montgomery County must have been pretty well explored.  In
consequence this map possesses an unusual interest, which it appears has
hitherto entirely escaped the observations of our historians.




    PICTURE OF 1698 MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA AND WEST JERSEY, APPEARS HERE.




    Orders were given in 1633 to Arent Corsson, the commissary of Fort
Nassau, by authority of Governor Van Twiller, of Manhattan, to, purchase
a tract of land on the Schuylkill on which to erect a fort; for the Dutch
had this year commenced upon its waters the vigorous prosecution of the
fur trade with the natives, particularly for that of the beaver,
regarded as not only the most valuable but profitable of all the
peltries.  This traffic had so increased along this valley that in 1643
no less than two thousand one hundred and twenty-seven packages of skins
were shipped at one time to Europe.

    By 1648, Corsson concluded his purchase from several Indian chiefs
to the satisfaction of the West India Company, a record of which was
placed in their office.  The fort was now soon completed, called
"Beversrede," and was stated to be a place remarkably well situated, and
was named thus on account of the beaver trade which was carried on there
so extensively with the Indian.  This fort, it is

120

supposed, stood at or near the present Gray's Ferry, near the lower or
western extremity of the city of Philadelphia.  This trade, it appears,
had increased so by 1656 that the documents of the company speak of it
as the "great beaver trade of the Schuylkill."  The result was that the
business so stimulated the enterprise of the Indians that by constant
and persistent trapping and hunting the animals became scarce and higher
prices were demanded.

    These skins were also used for currency, and in the payment for
imported goods; the standard value fixed on each by the Governor was
eight guilders, or 13s. 4d equivalent to three dollars, no
inconsiderable value for that time.  Their greatest resort, the Little
Schuylkill, in consequence was called by the Delaware Indians
"Tamaquan," signifying the Beaver Stream, from whence Tamaqua, the name
of this animal.  The Dutch under the auspices of the company, being
actuated by mere traffic and a love for gain, did little for the
progress or development of the country; hence at last their easy
subjugation by the English.

    Though unknown to the generality of our people, the Schuylkill was
about a century and a half ago the scene of a violent struggle between
those who resided on its shores in this county and those who navigated
its waters in canoes from the upper country, now better known as Berks,
while on their voyages with produce to the Philadelphia markets.  This
was a contest that lasted many years, and in which both parties
contended for their respective interests, which here unfortunately came
in conflict.  With what novelty at the present day must we view such a
struggle, when we reflect on the many and mighty changes that man and
time have wrought on this river.

    When we behold its canals, with their deeply-laden boats, its
several railroads, with their long dark trains the many thriving towns
and villages that adorn its banks, and the many busy manufactories and
quiet, pleasant villa residences, what a tale is told of progress!  To
the period to which we refer hamlets and villages were unknown; even the
spot where is now our populous county-seat was perchance unmarked by a
single house.  The hills and the valleys were covered with their
majestic ancient forests to the very shores, with the exception of here
and there, where occasionally the hardy settlers had effected clearings
and erected rude log dwellings.

    The contrast is enough to make one smile.  Especially now, when we
reflect that the dispute which we intend to speak of simply originated
from the obstructions place in the channel of the Schuylkill by the
shoremen for the purpose of assisting them to catch fish and which
considerably impeded, if it did not really render the navigation thereof
dangerous.

    It appears that as early as 1683, when William Penn and his
colonists had not been a year in this country, that an act had been
passed against the erecting of racks, wears, or dams in any navigable,
waters which might otherwise hinder the free intercourse thereon, and
also tend greatly to diminish the brood of fish.  Through the influence
of Governor Penn another act was passed in the year 1700, with the
intent of more effectually securing this object.

    After this, from, what we have been enabled to ascertain, the matter
remained quiet for a number of years.  With but little agitation, till in
May, 1724, when the Governor's Council introduced "A bill entitled an act
for demolishing and removing fishing dams, wears, and kedles set across
the river Schuylkill," which was read and ordered to be returned with
amendments.

    It next appears that the Council on the 15th of August 1730, passed
a law entitled "An Act to prevent the erecting of wears, dams, etc.,
within the river Schuylkill."  Yet even this was found to be not
altogether sufficient.  It was by an act passed in 1734 further
strengthened and rendered more effectual.  The shoremen made a strong
effort, in the years 1735 and 1736, to get an amendment, or rather
repeal, so as to get permission to erect wears in the months of April
and May of every year, which was as warmly resisted by the navigators,
or those living on the upper parts of the Schuylkill.  The Governor,
Patrick Gordon, being also opposed to any permission of the kind being
given, the shoremen at length yielded so far as to look for any redress
for their grievances from the Legislature.

    It became a matter of complaint against the shoremen that for
several miles above the racks and wears, they were in the habit of
riding their horses in the river and striking the water as they came
downward with stakes and long brushes, so as to drive and frighten the
fish into them, to their great diminution; that they carried stones into
the river to hold the stakes and wears, which not only obstructed but
rendered navigation difficult and dangerous.  They were also charged on
these occasions, while chasing fish, of bringing the young people
together, whom would become riotous and quarrelsome, "which was a
reproach to good order, peace, and tranquillity."

    A number of depositions were taken in March, 1732, by George Boone,
a justice of the peace residing in the township of Oley, in the present
Berks County, but then belonging to Philadelphia, as did likewise the
intervening territory now comprised it Montgomery.  These Mr. Boone, who
was equally interested with his neighbors, transmitted to the Governor
and Legislature, and the result was the stringent enactment of 1734, to
which reference has been made.  To these depositions we are indebted for
the following adventures encountered by the navigators of Amity and Oley
townships while on their canoe voyages to Philadelphia in 1731 and 1732.

    Marcus Hulings states that as be was going down the Schuylkill with
a canoe loaded with wheat it struck against a fishdam and took in a
great deal or water, which damaged the wheat considerably, causing
nearly a total loss of the load. He further says that on another
occasion his canoe got in a similar

121

predicament, and he would have lost his whole load of wheat if he had
not leaped into the river, and with much labor succeeded in preventing
it from swinging around, otherwise it would have been capsized by the
current.  In so doing he "suffered very much in his body by reason of ye
water and cold."  Again, on another occasion, he got fast on one of the
rack-dams, and only by great hazard escaped with his life and freight.

    In the mouth of February, while it was extremely cold, Jonas Jones
relates that he got "fast on a fishdam, and to save his load of wheat
was obliged to leap into ye river to ye middle of his body.  And with
all his labor and skill could not get off in less than half an hour;
afterwards proceeding on his journey with ye said clothes, they were
frozen stiff on his back, by means whereof he underwent a great deal of
misery."

    The next sufferer we shall mention was Jacob Warren, who relates
that his canoe, loaded with wheat, got fast on a fishingdam.  When he
and his partner were forced into the river, and while one, with all his
power, was obliged to hold the canoe, the other had to open a passage to
get through, which with great difficulty was effected.

    Isaac Smally affirms that in going down the river with one hundred
and forty bushels of wheat he got fast on a rack-dam, "and in order to
save ye load from being all lost.  He was, much against his mind,
obliged to leap into ye river, the water being to his chin, frequently
dashed into his mouth, where between whiles be breathed, and be and his
partner held ye canoe with great labour, while a young man there present
ran above a mile to call help to get off."

    Jonas Yocum and Richard Dunklin also state that they got fast on a
fishdam with a canoe, on board of which was Dunklin's wife and child,
besides sixty bushels of wheat, and that for more than an hour they were
in imminent danger of being overset and drowned.  Barnaby Rhoades relates
bow he got fast with his canoe on a fishdam for several hours in the
winter season, when, being without any assistance, he had to suffer
considerably from the severity of the cold, besides being in danger of
losing both his life and load.

    The sufferings of the complainants might be much extended.  But
shall let this suffice, without going into details, that among them
could also be mentioned Walter Campbell, George Boone, John Boone, and
several others, who had been at divers times fast with their canoes on
the fishdam and rackdam in the Schuylkill, and to preserve their loads
had been forced at different times to leap into the river at the peril
of their lives to save their property.

    The freight carried in some of their canoes shows to what a
prodigious size the timber had attained at the arrival of the early
settlers, for it should be recollected that they were always hewn, from
out a single trunk.

    William Penn, in a letter from Philadelphia, dated 30th of 5th
month, 1683, to Henry Savell, in England, Mentions of his having seen a
canoe made from a poplar-tree that carried four tons of bricks.

    Isaac Smally's canoe, as has been stated, carried one hundred and
forty bushels of wheat, which is a still heavier load, and consequently
must have been larger.  Our information so far has been to favor the
cause of the navigators, but the shoremen no doubt believed that they
had just reasons to complain from the stringent enactments passed
against them.

    Their dams and wears were formed at a considerable expense and
labor, for the sole purpose of supplying fish to their families.  They
were always placed convenient to their residences, and near their own
lands.

    Generally the most advantageous place for them was where they were
the most detrimental to the interests of navigation, such as below the
mouths of creeks, and where islands and shallows rendered them of easy
construction.  The navigators, too, on many occasions did much injury by
breaking through their dams and maliciously destroying them, with the
racks, wears, and baskets.  Nay, the shoremen charged them with stealing
at divers times the proceeds of their honest labor, the fish.

    Thus between 1731 and 1740 there was an intense excitement produced
by these conflicting interests along the hitherto peaceful valley of the
Schuylkill.  Many deeds of heroism were achieved on both sides and
prodigies of valor performed which no chronicler has thought proper to
transmit to posterity.  The result, however, was that at length it
terminated in open war between the parties.  Fleets of canoes would put
off on the voyage together, for the purpose of mutual protection to
themselves and the mutual destruction of all fishdams, weirs, and
baskets.  On the other hand, the shoremen would congregate in their
respective neighborhoods for the protection of their property thus
assailed, and should any unlucky wights get fast with their canoes or
venture too near the shore, they would bring their artillery to bear on
them in a shower of stones.

    The navigators, being generally the greatest sufferers, at length
concluded to call on the magistrates for assistance, when William
Richards, the constable of Amity township, received a warrant from
George Boone, Esq., "one of his Majesty's justices of the peace" for
Philadelphia County, to remove the said obstructions as the true authors
of the mischief.  What Mr. Richards accomplished in the undertaking we
shall leave him state in his own words, given on oath before Ralph
Asheton Esq., and corroborated by Benjamin Millard, who, was one of his
assistants on this memorable affair, which happened the 20th of April,
1738.

    Having "received a warrant requiring him to take to his assistance
such persons as this deponent should think proper, and go down the
Schuylkill and remove all such obstructions as should be found, in the
said river.  In obedience to which warrant took several persons,
inhabitants of the said county, as his assistants, and together with one
Robert Smith, constable of Oley, who had received a warrant to the same
purpose, went down the said river, in three canoes, to

122

Mingo Creek, where they found a large number of racks and obstructions
in the said river, and saw four men upon an island near the said rack;
that this deponent and company removed the said racks without receiving
any opposition.

    "From thence they proceeded down the river to the mouth of
Pickering's Creek, near which they found several racks across the said
river to an island, which racks this deponent and company also
removed.  Immediately about the number of two hundred men came down on
both sides of the river, and were very rude and abusive, and threatened
this deponent and his company.

    "Expecting from the ill language and threats given that son mischief
or a quarrel would ensue, he took his staff in his hand and his warrantm
and commanded the said men, in the king's name, to keep the peace, and
told them that he came there in a peaceable manner, and according to
law, to move the racks and obstructions in the river, upon which some of
the said men damned the laws and the law-makers, and cursed this deponent
and his assistants; that one James Starr knocked this deponent down in
the river with a large club or stake, after which several of the said
men attacked this deponent and company with large clubs, and knocked
down Robert Smith, the constable, as also several of big assistants;
that one John Wainwright was struck down with a pole or staff, and lay
as dead; that this deponent and company, finding that they were not able
to make resistance, were obliged to make the best of their way in order
to save their lives; proceeded down the river, in order to go to
Philadelphia, to make complaint of the ill usage they had received.

    "As they came to Perkiomen Creek they found another set of racks,
which were guarded by a great number of men.  That this deponent and
company requested the said men to let them go down the river, they would
not meddle with their racks; upon which the said men abused and cursed
this deponent in a very gross manner, that they should not pass them.

    "One of the said men called out aloud, and offered five pounds for
Timothy Miller's head.  Who was one of the deponent's assistants; and
afterwards the said men pursued this deponent and company, who, for fear
of being murdered, made the best of their way with their canoes to the
mouth of the Perkiomen Creek, and then went ashore, and left their
canoes there, with clothes, which are since reported split in pieces and
the clothes turned adrift."

    This affair reached the heads of the government, whereupon the Hon.
James Logan, president of the Council, issued a proclamation and a
warrant, April 25, 1738, for the arrest of the "rioters," who are "to be
proceeded against according to law, and that they, the said justices,
exert the powers wherewith they are invested for the preservation of his
Majesty's peace and the good order of government in those parts where,
the late tumult arose, or others may be likely to arise.  And the
sheriffs of the said counties of Philadelphia and Chester, respectively,
are hereby enjoined and required, with a sufficient assistance, if need
be, to cause the warrants to be duly executed."

    This is the last official act we have been enabled find on the
subject, from whence we conclude that the shoremen, after contending for
half a century, to some extent at least gave way before the majesty of
the law, and the navigators, the fish, and the waters of the Schuylkill
were permitted, till a recent time, to pass on less obstructed.  Mingo,
Pickering, and Perkiomen Creeks still retain their time-honored names. 
The same islands and channels are there, but the people are changed. 
The inhabitants of Limerick and Upper and Lower Providence townships,
with those on the opposite side of the river, are reckoned now among our
most peaceable citizens.  The contest between the navigators and shoremen
is long, long past, -it might be said long, long forgotten, -but the wand
of the antiquary is mighty.  Out of old musty tomes it may recreate a
world to live again in imagination, as it once did in reality.

    That considerable importance was attached to the navigation of the
Schuylkill at an early period has been already shown in the contest
between the navigators and the shoremen.  Even William Penn, in his
proposals for a second settlement in the province of Pennsylvania,
published in 1690, alludes to the practicability of effecting a
communication by water between a branch of the Schuylkill and the
Susquehanna.  This, the reader should remember, was over half a century
before canals were known in Great Britain.  However, nothing was done,
we believe, towards improving its navigation for a considerable length
of time, though the matter was occasionally agitated.

    To promote the same an act was passed by the Assembly, March
14,1761, from which we give the following extract: "Whereas, the river
Schuylkill is navigable for rafts, boats, and other small craft in times
of high freshes only, occasioned by the obstruction of rocks and bars of
sand and gravel in divers parts of the same; and whereas, the improving
of the navigation of said river, go as to make it passable at all times,
will be very advantageous to the poor, greatly conductive to the
promotion of industry, and beneficial to the inhabitants residing on or
near said river, by enabling them to bring the produce of the country to
the market of the city of Philadelphia, and thereby increase the trade
and commerce of the province; and whereas, divers of the inhabitants of
this province, desirous to promote the welfare of the public, have
subscribed large sum of money for the purpose aforesaid, and, by
petition to the Assembly, have requested that commissioners may be
appointed by law to take, receive, and collect the said subscriptions,
and such others as shall hereafter be given or subscribed, and to apply
and appropriate the same for and towards the clearing, scouring, and
rendering the said river navigable as aforesaid."

    To carry out this measure Joseph Fox, John Hughs, Samuel Rhoads,
John Potts, William Palmer,

123

David Davis, Mordecai Moore, Henry Pawling, James Coultas, Jonathan
Coates, Joseph Millard, William Bird, Francis Parvin, Benjamin
Lightfoot, and Isaac Levan were appointed commissioners.  This act had
also for its object the preservation of fish, especially the shad,
herring, and rockfish, which ascended this stream annually in great
shoals from the sea.

    For this purpose the commissioners were empowered not only to
destroy but to prevent the erection of all wears, racks, fishdams, and
baskets within the same. Several of the commissioners mentioned having
died, a new board was appointed by the Assembly in 1773 to carry out the
measures contained in the act of 1761.

    For this purpose David Rittenhouse, Anthony Levering, John Roberts,
William Dewees, Jr., David Thomas, James Hockley, Thomas Potts, Mark
Bird, James Starr, Jacob Kern, and John Pawling, Jr., were selected. 
Several of this number, with David Rittenhouse, proceeded in 1773 to an
examination of the channel, and estimated the cost of clearing the river
from the Falls above, Philadelphia to Reading at eleven hundred and
forty-seven pounds.

    This amount included the sum of one hundred and ninety-two pounds
from the Falls to Spring Mill, a distance of over seven miles, regarded
the most expensive portion.  It is supposed that but little was done at
this time towards the improvement of its navigation, which the
approaching troubles of the Revolution must have checked.

    We hear of nothing further on this subject until during the
encampment of Washington and his army at Valley Forge, when it became a
question as to a means of procuring supplies.  Charles Pettit thus wrote
from the camp, May 16,1778, to Thomas Wharton Jr., president of the
Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania:

    "The necessary transportation of stores and forage is so great that
we wish to improve the little water-carriage left in our power to the
best advantage.  For this end we have got a number of boats now in use
on the Schuylkill, which answer the purpose very well when the river is
pretty full, but it is now so low that the navigation is much obstructed.

    Maj. Eyre has surveyed the river from Reading hither and informs me
it may without difficulty be rendered navigable through the summer
season for the boats lately constructed, which are calculated to draw
but little water in proportion to the burden they carry.

    The river is now so low, and if a number of the people of the
counties bordering on the river could be assembled at each of the passes
nearest to their respective habitations, the work might be completed in a
very few days.  Maj. Eyre inform, me the expense will not probably exceed
two thousand pounds

    Accompanying Mr. Pettit's communication was a report on the
condition of the several fords of Schuylkill between Reading and Valley
Forge.  We extract that portion relating to Montgomery County as
possessing interest in showing the changes that may have since been made
at these several places above a century ago:

 "Jacob Floyd's Ford, 21 miles below Reading 14 inches of water;
 Pottsgrove Ford, 2 miles, 14 inches;
 Mr. Bechtels, 1 mile, 6 inches;
 Mr. Potts' Dam, 4 miles, 5 inches;
 Bombay Hook Ford, 6 inches;
 John Heister's Ford, 2 miles, 12 inches;
 Daniel Matts Shoals,1 mile, 10 inches;
 Edward Barker's Ford, 1 mile, 6 inches, with small rocks;
 Barker's Shoals, 1 mile, 6 inches
 George Ross Fishdam, 1 3/4 miles, 12 inches
 Erasmus Lewis Shoals, 11 miles, 6 inches, rocky
 Frederick Lower's Shoals, 1/2 mile, 6 inches, rocky
 Lawrence Nipple's Ford, 1/2 mile, 6 inches, level bottom
 Adam Hallman's Long Shoals, 2 1/2, miles, inches
 Black Rock, 4 to 20 feet
 John Buckwalter's Fishdam, 2 miles, 6 inches
 Gordon's Ford, 7 to 15 inches
 French Creek, 1 mile, and
 Moore Hall, 9 inches
 Richardson's Ford, 1 mile, 7 inches, rocky
 Pennypacker's, 1/2 mile, 7 inches
 Pawling's Ford, 7 inches
 Sullivan's Bridge, 8 to 12 inches, stony."

    An account of the early fords and ferrying places of the
Schuylkill.  As an and to traveling facilities before the construction
of bridges is an interesting subject to the antiquary, and will be more
fully treated in the history of the several townships and boroughs,
where they more properly belong.  During high water fording was rendered
dangerous from the greater depth and velocity of the water, and with the
increase of travel ferriage became more common, being made likewise less
dangerous during the winter season from the masses of floating ice, or
when not of sufficient thickness to permit wagons to cross upon it. 
Swedes' Ford was a noted fording-place even back to 1730.

    A tavern was there in 1760, and on its sign was a representation of
a ferry.  A rope was here stretched across the river in a sloping
direction, securely fastened to a tree or a post or building on either
shore.  To this a stout iron ring was secured, to which the boat or scow
would be fastened, while it would slide along, propelled more or less by
the current.

    These ropes, so necessary in securely transporting passengers,
horses, wagons, and freight, were occasionally cut and purloined by some
oval shaped persons.  In consequence the ferrymen petitioned the Assembly
for protection from these outrages on their property, when an act was
passed Feb. 8, 1766, making such offenses along the Schuylkill fineable
in the sum of ten pounds to each.  The first bridges to cross the river
within the county were built at Flat Rock and Pawling's about 1810, at
Pottstown, 1819, and at Norristown in 1829, not until more than a
century had elapsed; since its settlement, so slow was the spirit of
enterprise.

    John Adlum, Benjamin Rittenhouse, who had seen appointed
commissioners to examine into the feasibility of still further improving
the navigation of the Schuylkill, proceeded on this labor in the fall of
1789 and the following year.  Their report, addressed to Thomas Mifflin,
president of the Supreme

124

Executive Council, was printed in 1791, from which we condense the
following: "We conceived it most advisable to examine that part of the
Schuylkill lying between Spring Mill and the Great Falls, being that
part of the river said to be the most dangerous to the navigation of
boats from Reading to this city.  The 2d of November we began at Spring
Mill, and proceeded down the river, carefully noting every obstruction
to be removed and necessary improvements to be made, with the probable
expense attending the same.

    On the 7th we set off for Hamburg, near the foot of the Blue
Mountain, and proceeded down towards Reading, taking the courses,
measuring the distance, and taking the quantity of fall in the river
down to the ford opposite said town, careful noting the fishing, the
rocks, and other obstructions necessary to be removed.  As it appears
probable the principal advantages that can accrue from that part of the
river, at least for some time, will be in rafting of lumber down to the
city, little more is necessary at present than removing a few rocks,
some fixed and others loose, lying in the channel, as the expense will
be small to render the passage safe for that purpose.  At Reading we
hired a boat, and came down the Schuylkill to where we first began, and
it is with great pleasure we can say we have, on a careful examination,
found the Schuylkill River an object of much greater consequence to the
State than we before bad an idea of.  The channel we find almost
uniformly on the east side, in one instance near two miles without
variation, generally very near the shore, and we are of opinion that it
be made navigable for boats of eight or ten tons burthen at all seasons,
except when obstructed by ice, at the expense estimated.

    "We conclude our report by remarking that we have in the prosecution
of this business observed with regret the great number of fishingdams
erected in defiance of the law, as a nuisance of the worst; kind.  In
many instances, where they have been continued for a number of years,
the sand and gravel has gradually settled amongst the stones, and by
that means formed a firm bar or shoal from one side of the river to the
other, which will be expensive to remove.

    "We therefore are of opinion that if an effectual stop is not put to
that mischievous practice every attempt to render the navigation
beneficial will be abortive.  The only certain method we can conceive to
put a stop to the practice in future will be to lay a heavy penalty on
the proprietors of the lands where such dams shall be erected."

    The expense estimated in this report from Philadelphia to Reading
was £1519 13s., which sum included £270 for clearing the Schuylkill from
the Falls to Spring Hill.  Through these efforts, besides the removal of
rocks and other obstructions, dams were made at various place to deepen
the water and increase the volume of its current, so that boats of a
greater draught could be used.

    An act was passed the 29th of September, 1791, to incorporate a
company to connect the Schuylkill with the Susquehanna by a canal and
slack-water navigation, end also to improve the navigable waters of the
Schuylkill from the Lower Falls, a few miles above Philadelphia, to
Reading, for which purpose the Assembly appropriated two thousand five
hundred pounds as all encouragement to the enterprise.  A company was
also incorporated April 10, 1792, to make a canal from Norristown to the
river Delaware at Philadelphia.  From the former place the Schuylkill was
to be temporarily improved, and thus form with the works of the former
company an uninterrupted water communication with the interior of the
State.  One of the objects, also, in constructing the canal from
Norristown was by this means to furnish Philadelphia with water.

    The undertaking was commenced by the two companies and at the close
of 1794 they had expended four hundred and forty thousand dollars, and
had nearly completed fifteen miles of the most difficult part of the two
works, six miles of which was on the cast bank of the Schuylkill.

    Some of the principal stockholders having become involved at the
time in commercial difficulties, and declining in pay in their
installments, they were compelled to suspend operations.  As an
additional inducement to revive the companies the State passed an act
April 17, 1795, to empower them to raise by way of lottery the
additional sum of four hundred thousand dollars, for the purpose of
completing their works, as mentioned in the acts of incorporation. 
Naught availed, though this offer induced several abortive attempts,
which only tended to continue in these companies languishing
existence.  Below Norristown, beginning near the Swedes' Ford bridge by
the banks of the Schuylkill, may still be seen the excavation made for
this canal for some distance above the river.  It remains there, a
monument of an undertaking commenced in 1792, but never finished.

    In the year 1811 the two companies were united as the Union Canal
Company and in 1819 and 1821 the State granted further aid by a
guarantee of interest and a monopoly of the lottery privilege.  In
consequence of this legislative encouragement, there were additional
subscriptions obtained to the stock of the company to resume operations
in 1821.  The line was relocated, the dimensions of the canal changed,
and the whole work finished in about six years from this period, after
thirty-seven years bad elapsed from the commencement of the work and
sixty-five from the date of the first survey by David Rittenhouse and
Rev. William Smith.  This canal is eighty miles in length, extending
from the Schuylkill four miles below Reading, where it connects with the
works of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, thence up the Tulpehocken
Creek to the Swatara, and thence down the same to Middletown, on the
Susquehanna, thus connecting the two rivers which William Penn conceived
in 1690, but which required the interval of one hundred and thirty-seven
year, to be put into prac-

125

tical operation.  The whole cost of this work was about two million
dollars.

    The Schuylkill Navigation Company was incorporated under the act of
the 8th of March, 1815, by which they were required to commence
operations at each end of the route simultaneously; their labors, in
consequence, were rendered nearly useless until the whole line would be
completed.  This certainly was an ingenious plan in the Assembly to
insure the completion of the undertaking.  This work is about one
hundred and ten miles in length, beginning at Fairmount, Philadelphia,
and extending to fill Creek, a Port Carbon, in Schuylkill County.  It
consists of a series of canals sixty-three miles in length, and slack
water-pools for forty-seven miles, produced by thirty-four dams, which
feed the canals.

    This work in its whole length was made three and a half feet deep,
with a width of do less than thirty-six feet at the surface.  There were
one hundred and nine locks, of six hundred and twenty feet ascent, each
eighty feet long and seventeen broad, and one tunnel three hundred and
eighty-five feet in length, the first, it is said attempted in the
United States.  The whole cost of the line was two million nine hundred
and sixty-six thousand one hundred and eighty dollars.  It was commenced
immediately after its incorporation, and finished in 1826.  In 1818 it
was sufficiently completed to allow the descent of a few boats, on which
tolls were collected to the amount of two hundred and thirty dollars,
which comprised the total of its first year's receipts.

    In consequence chiefly of the great increase of the coal trade, it
was determined to enlarge the capacity of the canal for a greater amount
of business, which was accordingly done in 1846.  Hitherto it had only
admitted the passage of boats of sixty-six tons, but by the enlargement
boats of one hundred and eighty-six tons are enabled to pass through its
whole length of one hundred and ten miles, being one of the grandest
works of the kind in the Union.

    As will be observed, a great improvement was made.  The locks were
reduced in number from one hundred and nine to seventy-one, and enlarged
to one hundred and ten by eighteen feet, the width of its canals to not
less than sixty feet, with a depth of at least five and a half feet.  To
guard against the danger of a deficiency of water, to which the
navigation is exposed in dry seasons, the company has erected several
large dams upon, tributary streams at the head of navigation from which
to draw supplies in cases of deficiency.

    The dam at Silver Creek covers nearly sixty acres, and is estimated
to hold sufficient water of itself to float about 120,000 tons of coal
annually to market.  As may be expected, the business of this great work
has increased wonderfully.  In 1825 this line brought about 5000 tons of
coal to market; in 1827, 31,300 tons; and in 1851 it was 1,275,988 tons,
showing that forty tons had now gone over the works, to one thirty years
previously.  It is stated on reliable authority that the coal consumed
by the various furnaces, forges, and manufactories in the valley of the
Schuylkill amounted in is 1860 to 500,000 tons annually, and now no
doubt has reached double that amount.  Thus, we see how greatly
important this trade has become.  We have said that the Schuylkill flows
by Montgomery County about forty miles, in which distance the Navigation
Company has erected six dams across it, which at Norristown and
Conshohocken afford valuable waterpower.  This great work has been
leased by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company for several
years, under whose management it is now conducted.

    After having treated on the several means adopted for the
improvement of the navigation of the Schuylkill, it now becomes us to
give some account of the various kinds of craft used for this purpose. 
In the prosecution of the beaver trade by the Dutch and the Indians the
canoe must have been their chief dependence for travel and freight.  We
know that some of these were so large as to carry in periods of high
water as much as one, hundred and forty bushels of wheat before 1732 to
Philadelphia from a distance of at least ten miles beyond the upper
limit of the present county.

    The Swedish settlers of Morlatton had a strong attachment the
Schuylkill and were skilled in its navigation with the canoe some time
even before 1716, transporting themselves and their produce chiefly by
this means to the mill, the store, the church, and the market.  We even
ascertain that to their weddings and funerals they were frequently thus
conveyed.  As has been stated, with the greatest care they were therein
at almost any time liable to accident Abraham Adams was drowned in the
Perkiomen Creek by falling out of his canoe, April 5, 1738.  Thomas
Lewis, in an advertisement in 1752 of his mill property for sale near
the mouth of Mingo Creek, mentions among its advantages that "loaded
canoes can come to the mill-door."

    With the improvement of the navigation the "Reading boat," as it was
called, became more and more introduced as a decided improvement over the
clumsier canoe, for the general purposes of transportation.

    By the Revolution it had been largely substituted as much more
convenient and expeditious.  These boats were long and narrow, sharp at
both ends, and carried from seventy five to one hundred barrels of
flour.  From their size were chiefly used in freshet, or high water, and
for their management required a crew of from three to five, men.  Coming
generally from Reading, they were besides called "long boats."  They
drifted down rapidly with the current; but to take them back was chiefly
done with poles shod with iron, which was laborious work.  Their return
cargoes in consequence had to be light.  Between Spring Mill and the
Lower Falls the river descended twenty-four feet in about six miles, and
it was here, at the most difficult places, as at Flat Rock, an exciting
scene to see these boats shoot rapidly through the turbulent

126

current, at times almost lost to sight.  The down-trip took from one to
two days, and the return sometimes as many as five or six.  They carried
flour, grain, provisions, and other articles, besides, occasionally,
passengers.  During the war of 1812, Capt. Daniel D. B. Keim's company
of soldiers from Reading and Capt. Hanley's, of Pottstown, were
transported in this manner to Philadelphia.

    In 1858, Rachel Roberts, of Bridgeport, then in her seventy-eighth
year, informed the writer that in her youth she went with her father to
Philadelphia in a canoe, and in passing through the Falls became greatly
frightened from the danger attending its unsteady motion and velocity. 
In returning, it had to be poled the greater portion of the distance. 
Canoes, Reading boats, and rafts were quite common in the river at that
time, but the people had no knowl-



          FLAT ROCK DAM ON THE SCHUYLKILL, 1828 APPEARS HERE.



edge of bateaux.  Strange to say, she stated that there were taverns
then along the shore for the especial accommodation of voyagers, which
were known as boathouses; although travelers carried their provisions
along, yet they were often obliged to resort to these public-houses for
lodging and other necessaries.  My informant was the great-granddaughter
of Mats and Breta Holstein, among the early settlers of Upper Merion. 
This canoe-trip was probably made about 1790.  Some knowledge of the
commerce on the river may be gained from a statement made in a Reading
newspaper tinder date of March 6, 1802: "Within the present week were
taken down on the Schuylkill to the mills and city of Philadelphia in
the boats of this place in one day the following articles: 1201 barrels
of flour, 1425 bushels of wheat, 17 tons of barley, 1492 gallons of
whiskey, 365 pounds of butter, and 500 pounds of snuff.  The whole
amounted to upwards of one hundred and sixty tons, and would require, in
the present condition of the roads, at least one hundred and sixty teams
of good horses to haul the same to market."

    Owing to the abundance of pine and hemlock timber among the
mountains and sources of the Schuylkill, the first settlers, excepting a
few hunters, came hither to avail themselves of this means for a
livelihood.  At first rafts were entirely constructed of logs, seldom
over twelve feet in width and generally sixteen feet in length. 
Sometimes ten such rafts or sections would be fastened behind each other
and laden with shingles; being yielding, though of so considerable a
length, would readily, in favorable stages of water, pass over the
shallowest places.  When sawmills became more numerous, these rafts were
more and more constructed of boards placed crossways to each other in
alternate layers, securely fastened together by hickory withes.  When
the whole was arranged, a long oar was placed at each end for directing
its course through the windings of the stream and where its channel was
the safest.  On these, shingles would also be piled and no
inconsiderable quantities of lathe and scantling, until they would draw
a depth rarely exceeding fifteen inches.  Two or three men would be
attached to one raft, and on a favorable rise of the water their
provisions and other comforts would be hurried on board, and the hardy
adventurers would proceed on their voyage to the distant market from the
vicinity of the present towns of Port Carbon, Pottsville, and other
sections of Schuylkill County, as well as the adjoining portion of
Berks.  The distance to Spring Mill would be often made in a day and a
half, and to Reading in six or seven hours, a distance of nearly forty
miles.  Of course the

127

completion of the.  Canal with its dams put in end to rafting, but not
until it had caused the hills and valleys of that section to be pretty
well denuded of its choicest timber, that had given employment to
hundreds of saw-mills since gone to decay.  It was from this source
chiefly that the people of Montgomery County were supplied for some time
with their best lumber for building purposes.

    As soon as the canal was sufficiently completed an accommodation
boat, as it was then called, was established in June, 1825, for the
conveyance of passengers from Reading to Pawling's Bridge, making three
trips a week.  At the latter place they were transferred to a line of
stages passing through Norristown to Philadelphia.

    The following year the packet-boat "Planet" commenced making regular
through trips between Reading and the city.  Mention is made that on her
return, May 10, 1826, she carried sixty-four through passengers.  In the
beginning of June 1829, the "Comet," of Norristown, succeeded in making
five trips per week to Philadelphia.  A newspaper of the time states
that "we notice this in order that our friends in the city and country
may have a chance of enjoying a pleasant ride.  Those who go on business
and would prefer expedition will take the stage," -intimating that while
the cost of travel was less it was not as speedy.  As a consequence the
stages at this time reduced the fare from one dollar to seventy-five
cents; what the cost was by packet has not been ascertained.  Several
attempts were also made to establish steamboat lines between the
aforesaid places.  The first was by Capt. Hewit, about 1822.  He made
several trips to Norristown, but the detention was such in passing
through the several locks that it discouraged him.  Another effort was
made in 1829, and also still later but were soon abandoned.

    As may be judged from what has been stated, the Schuylkill was noted
from an early period for the abundance of its fish.  Shoals of shad,
herring, rockfish, and sturgeon would ascend its free and uninterrupted
course every spring from the sea, furnishing to the hardy settlers along
its banks no inconsiderable supply of food.  The antiquarian, Samuel W. 
Pennypacker, of Philadelphia, has quite a collection of spear-heads or
darts from four to six inches in length, collected from the shallow
channels of the river in the vicinity of Phoenixville, that must from
their size been chiefly used there for the capture of sturgeon.

    In 1784, 2792 shad were caught in the seine at the fishery at
Pottstown, and in the following year 3701.  Benjamin B. Yost, formerly
register, aged seventy-two years, informed me in 1858, but a few weeks
before his death, that he well remembered seeing shad and herring caught
there in abundance.  Rachel Roberts recollected also of numerous shad,
herring, and rockfish being caught in the vicinity of Norristown near
the close of the last century.

    Jacob S. Otto, in 1803, advertises a farm of three hundred and two
acres for sale, bounded by the Schuylkill and Perkiomen, "where there is
a shad fishery."  Catfish Island is advertised in 1806 as containing
nearly five acres, with the "privilege reserved by John and Henry
Pawling to fish in the pool above and to draw out the net on its
shore."  In the spring of 1811 upwards of five barrels of shad were
caught and salted down at the poor-house for the use of the papers, as
we learn from the directors' report for said year.  William Bakewell, in
offering his farm of two hundred acres for sale in 1813 at Fatland Ford,
does not omit mentioning its "shad fishery."

    All this is indicative of the value the people then set on those
fisheries.  However, the construction of the several dams across the
Schuylkill and the completion of the canal prevented the further ascent
of the fish, and hence the supply ceased.  Besides the goldfish and
carp, the black bass was introduced from the Potomac in 1870, and their
catching prohibited by law for three years.  They appear to thrive
rapidly, a few having been caught after the prohibited time with the
hook that weighed from four to six pounds each.  It is supposed from
their voracious habits that the catfish, chub, sucker, and other fish
formerly so numerous have thus been greatly diminished.

    Although William Scull, in his map of the province, published in
1770, had denoted coal thereon at three places in the vicinity of the
present Pottsville, and also on the Mahanoy Creek, yet some time elapsed
before any attention was directed towards it.

    A meeting of the inhabitants of Schuylkill County was, held Dec. 18,
1813, in the courthouse at Orwigsburg, to take into consideration the
propriety of rendering the Schuylkill navigable by dams and locks by
which means the coal and iron ore abounding there might be much more
cheaply and expeditiously sent to market and prove peculiarly
advantageous to that section.

    This early movement on the part of the aforesaid no doubt helped to
direct further attention to the subject.  The first coal sent by water
of which there is an account was by Abraham Pott on flats in 1821-23,
two or three trips being made in each year.  He soon after had the
"Stephen Decatur" built, which in 1824 carried twenty-eight tons of coal
as far as Reading, a feat also performed by the companyÕs boat "Pioneer."

    Several arks and boats are mentioned as having passed through
Norristown on their way to Philadelphia loaded with coal in September of
said year, indicating that the canal and navigation had been sufficiently
completed for its accomplishment.  The result of this was an announcement
in the Reading Journal of Nov. 27, 1824, that "the present price of
freight from, Philadelphia to Reading is only twelve and one-half cents
per hundred weight on the canal, whereas by land transportation the
general price is forty cents."

    Daniel Pastorius, of Norristown, advertised in January 1825, that he
"had just received several arks of Schuylkill coal, and families and
smiths supplied

128

with any quantity on reasonable terms."  On June 11th, thirteen boat; 4
are announced as having passed through the locks at Reading destined for
Philadelphia from Mount Carbon with coal, and that the whole line could
now be considered as finished.

    On the following July second forty boats are mentioned as having
passed through Norristown with coal for the city.  Respecting the early
introduction of coal into Norristown, the Herald of October 26th gives
us the following interesting information: "We are pleased to find that a
number of our enterprising citizens have commenced the burning of stove
coal.  Grates and stoves are now fixing up in several of the offices,
barrooms, and private dwellings in this borough.  It is generally
believed that coal at seven dollars per ton is cheaper than hickory wood
at five dollars per cord."  Poulson's "Advertiser" of September, 1827,
states that the "Schuylkill navigation has improved and the trade on the
river increased within a short period, far exceeding the most sanguine
expectations.  The scene of canal-boats with coal and iron and
merchandise above and below Market Street Bridge indicated great
commercial activity.  Between Market Street and Spruce Street there,
were this morning three large brigs of two hundred to two hundred and
forty tons each and five large schooners and sloops loading coal from
Mount Carbon for Newport, Boston, Providence, Albany, and other Eastern
ports; also four schooners and sloops loading iron ore."

    The Norristown Herald of July 8, 1829, announces that "ninety-seven
boats, carrying two thousand five hundred and fifty-three tons of coal,
a quantity of iron, flour, eleven hundred and twenty bushels of
flaxseed, and other eatables, departed from Mount Carbon during the last
week.  We expect that about two hundred boats now pass up and down the
river Schuylkill weekly.  The tolls will greatly exceed any former year,
and will pay a considerable part of the debts of the company."

    "The advantages we reap," says James Mease, in his "Picture of
Philadelphia", "from the coal trade is of considerable moment.  From the
consideration that wood has become almost a drug, and we purchase it this
year, Dec. 30, 1830, at from four to five dollars per cord, almost as low
as it sells in the early part of the fall.  Eighty-one thousand tons of
coal have descended the Schuylkill Canal this season, producing to the
various persons engaged in mining, hauling, transshipping, and
transporting nearly five hundred thousand dollars.  The freight and
tolls continue high, the former being now two dollars and the latter one
dollar per ton; but, notwithstanding this, it is expected that coal in
1831 will be sold for four dollars; now it brings from five to six and a
half."

    The original capacity of the navigation was for boats of
twenty-eight to thirty tons, which by subsequent improvement was
increased to sixty-six tons.  The enlargement of 1846 and somewhat later
period enables the scow of "Hercules" belonging to Messrs. Kirk & Baum,
of Pottsville, in the beginning of December, 1858 to pass through with
two hundred and twelve tons, and  the "Pilgrim." of Schuylkill Haven,
with two hundred and thirteen tons, in 1860 drawing only five feet eight
inches of water --a capacity exceeding fourteen times that of the
largest-sized Reading boats used sixty years previously, and which could
then only ascend but little over half the present distance.

    The opening of the Schuylkill navigation was celebrated in what
would now be regarded as a rather novel manner.  It was completed as far
as Reading July 1, 1824, and the 5th was selected for the event.  A
number of persons from Philadelphia, Reading, and neighborhood assembled
on this day and embarked on board of the boats "Thomas Oaks," "Stephen
Girard," "DeWitt Clinton," and "Reading Packet," and thus from Pottstown
to the aforesaid place the first experiment of canal navigation was made
in Pennsylvania to the entire satisfaction of those present.

    By order of the managers, the name of "The Girard Canal" was given
to the said twenty-two miles of cut as a mark of respect to Stephen
Girard, to whose liberality the company was so greatly indebted.  To
attend the reception of Lafayette at Philadelphia in September, four
boats were dispatched from Reading filled with volunteers and
passengers, besides several laden with coal from Mount Carbon, which was
regarded collectively as a subject for triumph and congratulation.

    For a few years the stagnation of the water by the erection of dams
caused some alarm among the residents of the vicinity from the increase
of fever and ague, but the reclamation and cultivation of the low
grounds and other improvements have restored it fully to its former
condition of healthfulness.

    The Norristown dam was not completed until 1828, its breast being
eight feet high, with a width of eight hundred and eighty feet.  It
appears strange now to state that no towpath was constructed for the use
of horses until the latter part of June 1825, when Col. Hunzinger
dispatched a boat from Pottsville loaded with lumber drawn by a horse,
it being the first attempt of the kind, at least from the upper section
of the navigation.  It appears to have been the original intention that
oars or setting-poles should propel the boats as formerly.

    As an after thought for the construction, the company had to receive
a special act of the Legislature.  In some instance the boats previously
were drawn by two men attached to long lines to the end of which sticks
were fastened and held at the breast.  The first trips occupied three
and four weeks, which was reduced by the use of horse-power down to ten
or eleven days in the spring, of 1826.

    The Schuylkill at time has been subject to severe freshets.  In
February 1784 destructive flood occurred in the breaking up the ice.  In
October 1786, another occurred which occasion the river to rise at
Pottstown eighteen feet a brought down immense number of pumpkins.  July
1824, the

129

Schuylkill rose at Norristown thirteen feet, and brought down trees,
boats, logs, boards, rails, hay, oats, and cord-wood that had been swept
away by the rapidly descending current.  The bridge at Flat Rock,
undergoing repairs and a few days more would have completed, was again
destroyed, causing a heavy loss to its contractor, Mr. Wernwag. 
However, the freshet of Sept. 2, 1850, surpassed all former ones in
destructiveness, rising twenty-one feet above ordinary level, carrying
away the bridges at Pottstown, Conshohocken, Flat Rock, and Manayunk,
besides occasioning a vast amount of damage throughout the valley. 
Those that witnessed the scene will have occasion to hold it long in
remembrance.



                               CHAPTER X.

                              STAGE LINES

    WITH the introduction of railroads the palmy days of the stagecoach
are over, which, by reason of its long and continued use as an important
adjunct to travel, deserves notice in these annals.  Montgomery County,
located so near Philadelphia, with all its main roads leading they're
from the northeast, north, And west, including intermediate points, must
necessarily in the past have been a great thoroughfare for numerous lines
of stage coaches in the conveyance Of passengers, when no readier or
better facilities for expeditious travel existed.  This mode of travel
has now gone out of usage, and although our local historians have as yet
given little attention to its history, there are many facts and
reminiscences connected with it well worthy of preservation.

    The first through line of stages from Philadelphia to Baltimore and
New York was established in 1756.  To the latter city John Butler was
the proprietor, the distance requiring three days, and the fare twenty
shillings, or three pence per mile.  Charles Bessonett in 1773 reduced
the time to two days.

    The first line is supposed that passed through the present territory
of this county was that established by George Klein between Bethlehem and
Philadelphia, on what Was known as the King's Highway, but later the Old
Bethlehem road.  His first trip was made in September 1763 in what be
termed a "stage waggon."  He started regularly every Monday morning from
the Sun Tavern, Bethlehem, and returned from the city every Thursday
morning, thus consuming a week in his round.  His starting-place was
from the King of Prussia, a noted inn on Race Street, and the charge
through was ten shillings.

    This no doubt was the pioneer passenger line entering the city from
either the north or the west.  Bradford, in his account of the distance
from the courthouse in Philadelphia in 1772, thus mentions the King's
road: to Rising Sun, 31 miles Mount Airy, 8  miles Scull's, 10
Ottinger's, 12 1/2 White Marsh Church, 13 Benjamin Davis, at the Spring
House, 16 Baptist meeting, near Montgomeryville, 23  Housekeeper's, 25
Swamp Meeting, 37 Stotfel Wagner's, 47 and to Bethlehem, 52 3/4 miles.

    Housekeepers must have evidently been at the present Line Lexington,
from its distance above the Baptist Church.  In 1797 a stage started for
Bethlehem from LecherÕs tavern, sign of the "Stage Wagon," located in
Second Street below Race, on every Wednesday morning at ten o'clock, and
was probably an opposition line.

    The post-office was established at Bethlehem in July 1792, and as a
consequence an additional encouragement was given for the transportation
of the mail.  The stages now reduced their time to two days to the city,
which in 1798 was brought down to one by the mail line.

    In 1802 the Bethlehem and Allentown town stage left Philadelphia on
Wednesday and Saturday mornings at five o'clock from the Franklin and
Camel Inns.  The latter place was in Second Street above Race.  It
appears that two lines were running to Bethlehem in 1820, both leaving
Philadelphia on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings at four o'clock.

    One started from Yohe's Hotel, in Fourth Street a few doors above
Market; the other from the White Swan, in Race Street above Third.  The
Union line of stages for Bethlehem, Allentown, and Monitors, via
Nazareth, Easton, and Wilkes-Barre, departed from the latter place. 
This was in association formed by the proprietors of several lines to
resist competition, which at this time was quite active.

    About 1781, William Coleman, an energetic business, man, established
a line from Philadelphia to Reading of which be was the proprietor, and
drove himself for twenty-seven consecutive years.  He started from the
White Swan, in Race Street, every Wednesday morning at seven o'clock,
making a trip every week.  Having received the contract for carrying
the, mail in 1804, he started from the Widow Wood's inn, Reading, every
Monday and Thursday morning, arriving in the city the same days. 
Returning, left Philadelphia every Wednesday and Saturday morning.  This
arrangement existed from May 1st to November 1st.  This line panned
through Norristown, Trappe, and Pottsgrove, since called Pottstown.  In
the winter season he left the White Swan every Tuesday and Friday at two
o'clock A. M.  From Reading this line was continued to Harrisburg and
Carlisle.  Its stopping-place in Pottstown in 1806 was at the Rising Sun
tavern, kept by Jacob Barr.  Mr. Coleman, in August 1808, opened an inn
at Reading for the accommodation of his passengers, his stages arriving
and departing there in several directions.  In 1811 he put on an
additional line from Pottstown to Philadelphia, leaving John Boyer's
tavern every Tuesday morning at six o'clock, arriving in the city in the
evening, and returning from the White Swan

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every Thursday morning at this hour, the fare is two dollars and,
twenty-five cents.  This is the last account given of Mr. Coleman after
as experience in staging of at least thirty years.  In this last venture
he announces in both English and German that "a sober and careful driver
will attend the stage, so that passengers may travel with safety and
pleasure."  The "Gentlemen's Pocket Almanac", published in 1769, thus
gives the distances from Philadelphia over the Reading road to
Pottstown: To Robin Hood, 4 miles; to Plymouth Meeting, 14; to
Bartlestall's, 18; to Perkiomen Church, 24; to Shrack's, 26; to Widow
Lloyd's, 30; to Potts, 38 miles.

    On the completion of the canal in the summer of 1825, passengers
from Reading were conveyed in a boat to Pawling's Bridge, and there
transferred to stages passing through Norristown to Philadelphia, making
three trips weekly.  The pack boat "Planet," during the summer of 1829,
continued to convey passengers from Reading to the city at the reduced
rate of $2.25, going through in a day.

    In 1831 we learn that the stage for Reading and Pottsville still
left its old place, the White Swan, daily at the early hours of 2 and 4
A. M.  Ah, ye sluggards by rail, think of these sweet morning hours for
travel on a cold winter day!

    In December, 1839, the railroad was completed to Reading, and the
shrill whistle of the locomotive along the Schuylkill Valley proclaimed
the triumph of the iron horse over wearied flesh and bones, through mud
and dust and snow-drifts, as well as over hill and dale and rugged pikes.

    A daring robbery was perpetrated on the Reading and Harrisburg
mail-stage at three o'clock on Sunday morning of Dec 6, 1829, that at
the time made no little excitement.  It was committed by three armed men
in disguise with lanterns on the Ridge road, a short distance beyond the
present Girard College.  The horses were seized, and with a flourish of
pistols the lines were demanded from the driver, and were taken from off
the gears.  The passengers, no less than ten in number, were ordered
respectively to get out, and their hands secured on their backs with
their own handkerchiefs, when their pockets were rifled.  When his
operation was through the diver was permitted to secure his lines, while
they decamped with the mail and the contents of several trunks.  The plot
was brought about by the rogues having ascertained in some way that a
drover, known to carry considerable money with him, would be in this
morning's stage.  The drover was one of the passengers, and whether they
succeeded in securing as much plunder from him as was expected is not
known.  Although he had frequently boasted of what he would do should
just such an attempt be made on him, yet on this occasion he proved as
meek as the rest.

    The line to Lancaster was established in April, 1785 by Frederick
Doersh and Adam Weaver, who state that their "Stage Wagon" will set out
every Monday and Friday morning from the King of Prussia tavern, in
Market Street above Third; and from the Black Horse Tavern, Queen
Street, Lancaster, every Tuesday and Saturday morning.  Each passenger
was allowed fourteen pounds of baggage.  The fare was twenty shillings,
"one-half to be paid on entering the name in the book."  This stage
passed over the Old Lancaster road for a distance of nearly six miles
through Lower Merion.

    The mail line in 1820 started from 2864 Market Street daily (Sundays
excepted) at 7 o'clock A. M. for Lancaster and Pittsburgh, the "Lancaster
coaches" starting every morning from the Red Lion, 286 1/2 Market Street
daily.   There was in addition the "Accommodation" for Lancaster at 4
OÕclock A. M. from 286-1/2 Market Street, thus showing no inconsiderable
amount of travel at this time towards the West.

    In 1831 the Lancaster and Pittsburgh railstage is mentioned as
starting from 284 Market Street every morning at six and a half o'clock,
and for Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Erie, Reading, Pottsville, and
Northumberland from 200 Market Street.  The completion of the turnpike
to Lancaster in 1794 must have subsequently proved highly advantageous
to these several lines, especially during the winter season and early
spring, when the condition of the roads was often very bad.  In April
1834, the railroad was completed to Lancaster, and through to Pittsburgh
in 1854, which in consequence must have caused along this great
thoroughfare considerable decline in stage travel.

    John Nicholas in 1792 established a line from Easton to
Philadelphia, starting on Mondays, and making one trip a week, stopping
at the present Stony Point, Doylestown, and Willow Grove; leaving the
"White Swan" every Thursday morning at six o'clock; fare, two dollars. 
It carried also the mail, a post-office having been established at
Easton three years previously.  In 1800 John Brooke, Joseph Hillman,
James Burson, Charles Meredith, Charles Stewart, Alexander McCalla,
Elijah Tyson, and William McCalla, the fare through being $2.75 with 
the same charge for one hundred and fifty pounds of baggage.  About
1810, Mr. Nicholas commenced three trips a week, making Doylestown a
stopping place for the night.  In 1820 it started from the "Green Tree"
inn, No.  50 North Fourth Street, on every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday
at four o'clock.  Samuel Nicholas, on the death of his father, became the
proprietor of the line, and was long its driver, to who were joined in
partnership William White, of Philadelphia, John Moore, of Danborough,
and a Mr. Wilson.

    About 1825, William Shouse, the proprietor of a hotel in Easton, and
Col. Reeside introduced a daily opposition line of stages to the city,
which was continued until 1832, when the old line was bought out for a
fair consideration.  It is said that when the spirit of opposition began
it required fifteen hours on the Journey, which was reduced on good roads
to

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eight, an average of seven miles per hour.  The relay stations were at
Bucksville, Doylestown, and Willow Grove.  Mr. Shouse, who became an
extensive and successful stage proprietor, was still living in Easton in
1876, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years  In 1851 a daily line of
stages still passed through Doylestown from Easton for the city carrying
the mail, but reduced from four to two horses.  On the completion of the
Belvidere and Delaware Railroad in 1854 the line was withdrawn after an
establishment of about fifty-eight years.

    It was customary along these routes for the stagedriver, when within
a mile of the place at which the stage usually stopped for breakfast, to
blow a born, the sweet and mellow tones of which would announce his
approach, that breakfast might be in readiness on his arrival.  No
sooner there than he would drop his lines, aid the passengers out of the
coach, and proceed to the awaiting meal; in the mean time the horses
would be changed, when the seats would be again occupied, and the
journey resumed.  In some cases fifteen miles having been made over the
rugged road, it may be well supposed that an appetite had been awakened
to be here appeased.

    At every post office, generally about, four or five miles apart, a
brief stop would be made to have the mail changed and the horses
watered.  They were what were generally termed Troy coaches, painted red
with a profusion of gilding, having the proprietors' names blazoned oil
tile panels.  Four horses were always driven to each coach, who were
generally selected for beauty, speed, and powers of endurance, in the
proper care of which the hostlers appeared to take a delight.

    Before 1802 a line was running over the Old York road to New York,
passing through Jenkintown, Hatboro', or Crooked Billet, Coryell's
Ferry, now New Hope, and Lambertville.  It started from Mann's inn daily
at eight o'clock in the morning.  This coach was drawn by four horses,
and carried the mail on town to the completion of the Belvidere and
Delaware Railroad.  John M. Jones, of Hatboro', was long popular driver
on this line.  In proceeding from Philadelphia they breakfasted at the
"Red Lion," Willow Grove, where the Easton stages also stopped and
changed horses.

    It is known that a stage for Pottsgrove passed through Norristown in
1802, leaving Hay's inn, Philadelphia, every Wednesday at sunrise.  In
1804, William Coleman drove his stage through the place from the city to
Reading, making two trips a week.  There were evidently, distinct lines,
as the latter Started from the White Swan and Race Street.

    We possess no earlier knowledge of a stage terminating its journey
at Norristown until in August, 1808, when Hezekiah Jeffries established
one, starting from Jesse Roberts inn, sign of the Rising Still, every
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, at six oÕclock returning on the
intervening days, at 2 p m.  from the White Horse, kept by John Haines,
on Fourth Street below Race.

    The fare through was one dollar, allowing fourteen pounds of
baggage; way passengers, six cents per mile; one hundred and fifty
pounds of baggage was rated the same as a passage.  The following year
Jesse Roberts & Co. assumed the proprietorship, leaving the city from
Alexander McCalla's sign of the Green Tree.  Packages under ten pounds
were chargeable six cents.

    In the beginning of 1812, Daniel Woodruff became the proprietor, who
in the spring of the following year changed it into a daily line,
starting for the city at 7 o'clock A.M., and returning at 3 P.M., thus
making now at least two daily lines for the conveyance of passengers to
Philadelphia.  Lewis Shrack Became the owner in 1824, and announced its
starting from John Branch's tavern, and returning from Robert Evans,
inn, Race Street.  He commenced triweekly trips the following 8th of
November, leaving Norristown at 8 o'clock A.M., and arriving at Robert
Evans' inn at 12, returning at 1 o'clock P.M. thus showing, that the
distance of about eighteen miles was accomplished in four hours,
evidently in opposition now to the packets on the canal.

    In the fall of 1827, Henry Styer and Levi Roberts established a
daily line to the city and a copartnership in the livery business,
keeping "horses, gigs, and dearborns to hire at all times."  By their
advertisement they now made the distance through in three and a
half-hours.  The aforesaid daily mail line in 1829 was, owned by John
Crawford & Co., who announce it to start from Levi Roberts' Rising Sun
Hotel every morning at, even and a to pass through Yerkes', Freas'
Store, Barren Hill, Hagey's, Manayunk, Falls, and Robin Hood; leaving
John Hunter's hotel, sign of the Wagon, in Race above Fourth, with the
fare reduced to seventy-five cents.

    The railroad was opened from Philadelphia to Norristown in August
1835 and on the opposite side of the river through to Pottsville in
1842.  These several improvements of course now greatly lessened the
amount of travel by stages over their old and long established routes,
and necessarily had to with draw more or less where opposition would
have been useless.

    Yet to our surprise, with the growth and prosperity of Norristown
and the country around, it really in 1860 became quite a considerable
centre For staging in various directions.  A line proceed tri-weekly to
Sumneytown, passing, through Centre Square, Skippackville,
Lederachsville, and Salfordville, from the Pennsylvania Farmers' Hotel,
on the north side of Main Street above Markley.  For Millerstown
tri-weekly by Perkiomen Bridge Zeiglers Pennsbary, Treichlersville, and
Shimersville.  For Pottstown tri-weekly, by the Trappe and Limerick. 
For Boyertown tri-weekly, by Limerick Square and New Hanover.  A daily
line for the Trappe, leaving at 4 o'clock P.M., via Jeffersonville,
Eagleville and Freeland; also a daily line for Phoenixville by way of
Shannonville, and a tri-weekly still

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running on the pike to Philadelphia at 1 o'clock P.M.  The advantages
derived from carrying the mail contributed materially to the
encouragement of the several lines, but the building of additional
railroads since, for instance along the Perkiomen anti Stony Creeks, has
again lessened the number of stages, until we have almost ceased to
wonder at the marvelous changes going on.

    A writer in the Pennsburg Valley Press, on the completion of the
railroad there in 1874, stated that "the old stage-coach has
disappeared, and instead of taking three days to go from Pennsburg to
Philadelphia and return, as it did it few years ago, the people of the
former place can now go by train in the morning and return early in the
evening, after having spent the full business part of the day in the
city."

    The earliest line probably from Doylestown to the city was
established in the fall Of 1813, making two trips weekly, the fare each
way being seventy-five Cents.  In 1815 tri-weekly trips were made, and
the price advanced to one dollar and twenty-five cents.

    This stage in 1820 made the Buck Tavern, 130 North Second Street,
its stopping-place, starting from their turning the summer at 8 o'clock
A.M., and in the winter at 9, making then one trip less.  In 1831 the
Doylestown stage was announced to start from the Camel Tavern, in Second
Street above Race.  About 1846 two daily lines were running on this route
in opposition to each other for several years, with the fare reduced as
low as seventy-five and fifty cents, and yet, from the number of
passengers they carried the proprietors did not lose money.  One was
termed the High Gras, Line, driven by Benjamin T. Clark, And the other
by Joseph Lewis, succeeded by John Servis.  The proprietors of the
former were Charles H. Mann, Jacob E. Buck, and Joseph Harnett.

    The proprietor of the latter was Daniel Shelmire, of Abington.  On
Mondays and Saturday, during the summer season these coaches were
generally drawn by four horses and sometimes six.  The aforesaid fare
for a distance of twenty-five miles is quite a contrast to what the
Norristown lines charged, ranging from one dollar and twenty-five cents
to seventy-five cents for only eighteen miles.

    In October, 1856, the branch from the North Pennsylvania Railroad to
Doylestown was completed, which of course now tended to greatly reduce
the amount of travel over the well-worn turnpike to the city, when the
coaches were withdrawn.

    In 1820 Flourtown became a noted terminus for several lines passing
through Rising Sun, Germantown, and Chestnut Hill; a stage leaving the
Cross Keys, in Fourth Street above Market, daily at 8 A.M. and 2 P.M.
and another the Old Potterdam at 3 P.M.; from White Swan a line left
daily at 9, 10, and 11 A.M. returning at 3, 5, and 6 P.M.  From this it
would appear that these several line, made no less than six daily trips
to and from the city, thus showing More than sixty years ago great a
great amount of travel along this route.

    Jacob Acuff had a daily mail line running from the Broad Axe tavern
staring every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 5:30 oÕclock, arriving
at Evans' tavern, Race Street, in three hours; returning on the same
days at 3 P.M.  This line proceeded from the Broad Axe to Kutztown on
Thursday morning at 5 o'clock, returning on the following day.  This
route lay through Nicetown, Germantown, Chestnut Hill, Flourtown, White
Marsh, Broad Axe, Pigeontown or Blue Bell, Centre Square, Zeiglersville
or Skippack, Sumneytown, and Trexter's Furnace.

    A new mail route having been formed by the Post Office Department in
the spring of 1828 over the Gulf road, a stage left the city on Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Saturdays at 4 o'clock A.M., passing the Gulf Mills,
breakfasting at the Bird-in-Hand, thence through Valley Forge and
Kitnberton, arriving at Lancaster next morning.

    In consequence of this contemplated line a meeting of the citizens
of Upper and Lower Merion was called at the house of Joseph King.  Sign
of the Bird-in-Hand, January 19th, previous to further improving this
highway so to render its travel easier, "it being the only free road
from the Conestoga Valley to Philadelphia" thus intimating that now all
the other prominent roads in that direction had been turnpiked.

    At this time a stage line was also established from Pottstown to
meet this line at Kimberton when the passengers could either proceed to
Lancaster or Philadelphia; the starting-place in the city being from Van
Buskirk's hotel, 244 Market Street, arriving at the Union Hotel,
Pottstown, in time to dine; fare through, two dollars and twenty-five
cents.

    To show what importance staging had assumed, it may be stated that
James Reeside owned in the business in 1825 above one thousand horses. 
Through his extensive business in this direction he, had bestowed on him
tile title of "admiral." The credit is due him for the introduction of
the more comfortable and stylish Troy coaches a decided improvement over
the earlier "stage wagon."  Elliptic steel springs did not come into
general use for the purposes of conveyance until after 1835.  The noted
White Swan, in Race Street, was long kept by Jacob Peters, who was also
widely known as a stage proprietor.  Even down to 1854 the Willow Grove
had still five daily lines stopping there for Philadelphia.  The line
from Easton was established in 1792, and from New York at least in 1802,
besides the two Doylestown lines, and one from Hartsville, now reduced to
but one, carrying mail between said, village and Doylestown.

    The business of staging directly and indirectly gave employment and
support to it number of person, in Montgomery County, among could be
enumerated the proprietors, the drivers, Groomsmen, inn keeper smiths,
and coach makers besides the toll arising therefrom the turnpike
companies

133

amounted to considerable It made, too, no inconsiderable home market to
the  farmer for oats, corn, hay and straw, besides the provisions
required for the  passengers.  The arrival of the stage always made a
bustle in, the quiet country village, and hamlets.  It not only brought
strangers, but acquaintances, relatives, and friends, who, having been
long absent, thus returned to visit familiar scenes once more.  To the
post-office it brought letters and newspapers, and, as a substitute for
the express, the driver was an important personage, from the amount of
errands imposed on him in the delivery of his messages and parcels.