Area History: Chapters 23 - 31: Vol II - Watson's Annals of Philadelphia And Pennsylvania, 1857 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by EVC. USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ____________________________________________________________ ANNALS of PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA, VOL. II ______________________________________________ Chapter 23. WHALES AND WHALERY "The huge potentate of the scaly train." It will surprise a modern Philadelphian to learn how very much the public attention was once engaged in the fishery of whales along our coast, and to learn withal, that they disdained not occasionally to leave their briny deeps to explore and taste the gustful fresh waters of our Delaware -- even there "Enormous sails incumbent, an animated isle, And in his way dashes to heaven's blue arch the foaming wave." "The Free Society of Traders" had it as a part of their original scheme of profit, to prosecute extensively the catching of whales. To this purpose they instituted a whalery near Lewistown, and as I am inclined to think, there was once in some way connected with the whalery a place of sale or deposit, at the junction of "Whalebone alley" and Chestnut street, on the same premises now Pritchet's. The old house which formerly stood there had a large whalebone affixed to the wall of the house, and when lately digging through the made earth in the yard, they dug up several fragments of whales, such as tails, fins, &c. Its location there originally was by the tidewater ranging in Dock creek. Be this as it may, we are certain of the whales and whaleries, from facts like the following, to wit : In 1683, William Penn, in writing to the above society, says "The whalery hath a sound and fruitful bank, and the town of Lewis by it, to help your people". In another letter of the same year he says, "Mighty whales roll upon the coast, near the mouth of the bay of the Delaware; eleven caught and worked into oil in one season. We justly hope a considerable profit by whalery, they being so numerous, and hopes of finding plenty of good cod in the bay". In 1688, Phineas Pemberton, of Pennsbury, records a singular visiter, saying, "a whale was seen in the Delaware as high as the falls!" In 1696, Gov. Andrew Hamilton of Burlington, New Jersey, authorizes George Taylor of Cape May, to be his deputy and to take into his possession wrecks, or drift whales, or other royal fish that shall be driven on shore along the coast, or in the Delaware. In 1722, deficiency of whales is intimated, saying in the Gazette that there are but four whales killed on Long Island, and but little oil is expected from thence. In 1730, a cow whale of fifty feet length is advertised as going ashore to the northward of Cape May, dead. The harpooners are requested to go and claim it; thus showing, I presume, that a fishery was then near there, by the same persons who may have harpooned it. In 1733, month of April, two whales, supposed to be a cow and a calf, appeared in the river before the city. They were pursued and shot at by people in several boats, but escaped notwithstanding. What a rare spectacle it must have been to the fresh water cockneys of the city. In 1735, month of July, some fishermen proved their better success at this time in capturing an ocean fish, such as a shark of seven feet length in a net, a little above the city. The Gazette of the day says it is but seldom a shark is found so high in fresh water. If that was strange in that day, it was still stranger in modern times, when "a voracious shark" of nine feet long and five hundred weight was caught at Windmill cove, only five miles below Philadelphia, in July 1823. Not long after, say in January 1824, near the same place, was taken a seal of four feet four inches long, and sixty-one pounds weight, near the Repaupa flood gates. About the same time another was taken in the Elk river. Many years ago seals were often seen about Amboy, but to no useful purpose. In 1736, February, "two whales are killed at Cape May, equal to forty barrels of oil, and several more are expected to be killed by the whalemen on the coast". Finally, the last "huge potentate of the scaly train" made his visit up the Delaware about the year 1809 -- then a whale of pretty large dimensions --and to the great surprise of our citizens was caught near Chester. He was deemed a rare wanderer, and as such became a subject of good speculation as an exhibition in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Thomas Pryor, who purchased it, made money by it, and in reference to his gains was called "Whale Pryor". The jaws were so distended as to receive therein an arm chair, in which visiters sat. Two dead whales were driven on shore at Assateague beach near Snowhill, Maryland, in December 1833; one a hundred and seventeen feet in length and the other eighty-seven feet in length. The cause of their death unknown. They were expected to make three hundred barrels of oil. It is a fact, but little known, that even now, there is a family on Long beach, New Jersey, who are every winter seeking for, and sometimes capturing whales. In this business they have been engaged, the father and two sons, ever since the time of the Revolution. In May 1834, a young whale of sixty feet, went into New Haven harbour -- was chased, grounded, and used up. In April 1833, three seals were seen near Chester. One of them was caught in the shad seine and was kept for exhibition. Some had before appeared in New York harbour near their old haunt at Robyn's reef. Chapter 24. GRAPES AND VINEYARDS Numerous incidental intimations and facts evince the expectations originally entertained for making this a flourishing grape and wine country. Before Penn's arrival, the numerous grapevines, every where climbing the branches of our forest trees gave some sanction to the idea that ours may have been the ancient "Wineland" so mysteriously spoken of by the Norwegian writers. Almost all the navigators, on their several discoveries, stated their hopes, from the abundance of grapevines, with exultation. But neglecting these we have substituted whisky ! Penn, in his letter of 1683 to the Free Society of Traders, says, "Here are grapes of divers sorts. The great red grape, now ripe (in August) called by ignorance the fox grape because of the rich relish it hath with unskillful palates, is in itself an extraordinary grape, and by art, doubtless, may be cultivated to an excellent wine -- if not so sweet, yet little inferior to the Frontignac, as it is not much unlike in taste, ruddiness set aside, which in such things as well as mankind, differs the case much. There is a kind of muscadel, and a little black grape, like the cluster grape of England, not yet so ripe as the other, but they tell me, when ripe, sweeter; and that they only want skilful vigerons to make good use of them". Then he adds -- "I intend to venture on it with my Frenchman this season, who shows some knowledge in these things. At the same time he questions whether it is best to fall to fining the grapes of the country, or to send for foreign stems and sets already approved. If God spare his life, he will try both means" -- [a mode of practice recently obtaining favour with several experimenters.] "Finally", he says, "I would advise you to send for some thousands of plants out of France, with some able vigerons". [Note: fining = to make finer in quality or size] [Note : vigeron = vigneron = winegrower] With such views, Penn, as we shall presently show, instituted several small experiments. He and others naturally inferred, that a country so fruitful in its spontaneous productions of grapes, must have had a peculiar adaptation for the vine. When the celebrated George Fox, the founder of Friends, was a traveller through our wooded wilderness, he expressly notices his perpetual embarrassments in riding, from the numerous entangling grapevines. The same too is expressly mentioned by Pastorius, in his traversing the original site of Philadelphia. And when Kalm was here in 1748, he speaks of grapevines in every direction, the moment he got without the bounds of the city; and in his rides to Germantown and Chester, &c., he found them all along his way. Thus numerous and various as they once were, it may be a question, whether, in the general destruction of the vines since, we have not destroyed several of peculiar excellence, since modern accidental discoveries have brought some excellent specimens to notice -- such as the Orwigsburg and Susquehanna. In 1685, William Penn, in speaking of his vineyard to his steward, James Harrison, writes : "Although the vineyard be as yet of no value, and I might be out of pocket, till I come, be regardful to Andrew Dore, the Frenchman. He is hot, but I think honest". This, I presume, refers to the vigneron, and to the vineyard at Springettsbury. In another letter, he writes to "recommend Charles de la Noe, a French minister, who intends, with his two servants, to try a vineyard, and if he be well used more will follow". In 1686, he writes to the same steward, saying, "All the vines formerly sent and in the vessel (now) are intended for Andrew (Dore) at the Schuylkill for the vineyard. I could have been glad of a taste last year, as I hear he made some". Again he says, "If wine can be made by Andrew Dore at the vineyard, it will be worth to the province thousands by the year --- there will be hundreds of vineyards if it takes. I understand he produced ripe grapes by the 28th of 5 mo., from shoots of fifteen or sixteen months planting. Many French are disheartened by the Carolinas, (for vines) as not hot enough !" About the time William Penn was thus urging the cultivation of the vine, his enlightened friend Pastorius, the German and scholar, was experimenting, as he expressly says, on his little vineyard in Germantown. How these vineyards succeeded, or how they failed, we have no data on which to found an explanation now. We beheld, however, lately, that Mr. E.H. Bonsall was succeeding with a vineyard among us; and at Little York the success is quite encouraging. The following description of the discovery and character of the Susquehanna grape, will probably go far to prove the superiority of some natural grapes once among us, or leave grounds to speculate on the possibility of birds conveying off some of Penn's above mentioned imported seeds ! Another new and excellent grape has been discovered on the line of the new canal, beyond the Susquehanna. About 15 years ago, there were obtained some cuttings of a grapevine which was discovered by Mr. Dininger, on an island in the Susquehanna, called Brushy island. The island upon which this vine was found is uninhabited and uncultivated, the soil alluvial, and subject to overflow. The vine runs upon a large sycamore, spreading through the top branches to the height of forty or fifty feet from the ground, and appears to have grown with the tree, the root being from twenty to thirty feet from the tree. The wood, leaf and early shoots very much resemble what is called Miller's Burgundy, also the fruit, in colour and flavour; but in size it is much larger. It was observed, that the fruit obtained in September 1827 was a deep brown; that of the next season, some were brown and others a deep black. The difference was accounted for by Mr. Dininger, who stated that the brown bunches were those that were shaded from the sun by the thick foliage of the tree; but those exposed to the sun were black. Some of the bunches procured that season were very fine, and set closely upon the stem -- fruit the size of the Powel grape, skin thin, no pulp, a sweet water, seed small, flavour equal to the celebrated "Black Prince", and not inferior to any foreign grape for the table. It is believed to be a truth, that no native grape was previously found that did not possess a secondary skin, enclosing a stringy pulp, and most of them possessing a husky flavour, proving their affinity to the fox. But because this one, found on the Susquehanna is an exception -- because it possesses all the delicate sweetness, tenderness of skin, and delicious flavour of the most esteemed exotics, we are not willing to concede that it is not entitled to be classed among the native productions of our soil. In favour of its being purely of American origin, we will state that the island on which it was found has never been inhabited; that lying immediately below Eshleman's falls, the approach to it is difficult; and that it has rarely been visited except by the proprietor, an aged man named Fales, lately deceased, who did not trouble himself much about grapes, native or foreign, and merely used it as a place to turn young cattle upon in the summer season. The sycamore, of which it is the parasite, appears to be about forty years old, and the vine is rooted about thirty feet from the stem of the tree, under a pile of drift wood, from which it runs along the ground, in company with three other vines of the fox or chicken variety, apparently of the same age, and interwoven, climb the tree together. From appearances, one should judge that the tree is not older than the vine; and that the young sycamore, in its growth carried the vine with it. At the period in which this vine must have taken root, foreign grapes were little known in the United States, and then their cultivation was confined to the neighbourhood of the great Atlantic cities. None of the foreign varieties we have seen correspond in appearance with this fruit; for though the wood and leaf of Miller's Burgundy are so similar as scarcely to be distinguished apart, yet the bunches and fruit of that of the Susquehanna are much larger. Again -- we have many stories related through the country by persons worthy of credit, of the delicious grapes found upon the islands of the Susquehanna; some described as white, some red, black, purple &c., without pulp, and all ripening in August and September. It was these reports which urged several gentlemen to the pursuit, that has been so far crowned with success, in the discovery of the kind above described. Mr. D. was one of several citizens who visited the Brushy island in the autumn of 1827 and saw the vine, and from the observations then made, and facts that have since come to his knowledge, says he has no doubt that there does exist in those islands a variety of grapes, equal for the table or for wine to any that have been imported, and that they are purely native. Of the grape now discovered, we understand there are from two to three hundred plants in the possession of different gentlemen in that neighbourhood, in vigorous growth, independent of those in the possession of Col. Carr and the Messrs. Landreths of Philadelphia. Charles Thomson used to tell, that the most luscious and excellent wild grape he ever tasted grew in a meadow on the road to Chester. He thought the fruit so fine that he intended at a proper season, to procure cuttings for its cultivation; but found the stupid owner had destroyed it because "it shaded too much of his ground !" Chapter 25. BEASTS OF PREY, AND GAME "The squirrels, rabbits, and the timid deer, To beasts of prey are yet exposed here." -- Poem, 1729 The following notices of the state of wild animals roaming through our woody wastes in early days, will aid the mind to perceive the state of cultivation which has since banished the most of them from our territories, to wit : Mr. Kalm, the Swedish traveller who was here in 1748, says that all the old Swedes related, that during their childhood and still more in the time of the arrival of their fathers, there were excessive numbers of wolves prowling through the country, and howling and yelping every night often destroying their domestic cattle. In that early day, a horrible circumstance occurred for the poor Indians. They got the smallpox from the new settlers. It killed many hundreds of them. The wolves, scenting the dead bodies, devoured them all, and even attacked the poor sick Indians in their huts, so that the few who were left in health, were much busied to keep them off. The Swedes, he said, had tamed some few wolves. Beavers they had so tamed that they were taken to fish with, and bring the fish they caught to their keepers. They also tamed wild geese, and wild turkeys. Those wild turkeys which he saw in the woods were generally larger than those of the domestic race. [Penn speaks of turkeys weighing forty to fifty pounds.] The Indians also tamed the turkeys and kept them near their huts. Minks were very numerous along the waters. [Hector St. John of Carlisle, in 1784, speaks of it as practised there, to render rattlesnakes harmless, and to keep them as matters of curiosity and amusement. If they find such a snake asleep, they put a small forked stick on their necks, by which they hold them firm to the ground, and in that state give them a piece of leather to bite. This they jerk back with great force, until they find their two poisonous fangs torn out. Once he saw a tamed one quite gentle. It was delighted to be stroked with a soft brush, and would turn on its back to make it more grateful. It would take to the water, and come back at a call.] In 1721, in September, several bears, says the Gazette, were seen yesterday near this place and one was killed at Germantown, and another near Darby. Last night a very large bear being spied by two amazons as he was eating his supper of acorns up a tree, they called some inhabitants of this place (the city !) to their assistance, and he was soon fetched down and despatched by them. As late as the years 1724 and `29, they gave a premium, by law, of 15 to 20s. for wolves and 2s. for foxes. This was for the purpose of destroying them out of the country. In 1729, a panther was killed at Conestoge. It had disturbed the swine in their pen at night. The owner ran to the place with his dogs, and the beast then ascended a tree. It being very dark, the women brought fire and made a flame near it. It was shot at twice. The second fire broke both its legs, when to their surprise, it made a desperate leap and engaged with the dogs, until a third shot in the head despatched it. About the same time, a monstrous panther was killed at Shrewsbury by an Indian. Its legs were thicker than those of a horse, and the nails of its claws were longer than a man's finger. The Indian was creeping to take aim at a buck in view, when hearing something rustling behind him, he perceived the panther about to spring upon him. He killed him with four swan shot in the head. In 1730, a woman in Chester county going to mill, spied a deer fast asleep near the road. She hit it on the head with a stone, and killed it. The latest notice of buffaloes, nearest to our region of country, is mentioned in 1730, when a gentleman from the Shenandoah, Va., saw there a buffalo killed, of 1400 pounds; and several others came in a drove at the same time. 1732 -- At Hopewell, New Jersey, two bucks were seen fighting near the new meeting-house, in the presence of a black doe. They fastened their horns so closely, that they could not separate, and were so taken alive ! The doe was also taken. Another brace had been before caught in a similar extremity ! In 1749, the treasurers of the several counties declared their treasuries were exhausted by the premiums paid for squirrels. £8,000 was paid in one year (says Kalm) for gray and black squirrels at 3d a head, making the enormous aggregate of 640,000 ! The premium was then reduced one half. Samuel Jeffries, who died near West Chester in 1823 at the age of eighty-seven, very well remembered a time in his early life when deer were plenty in his neighbourhood : and Anthony Johnson of Germantown tells me of often hearing from his grandfather there, of his killing deer, beavers, and some bears and wolves in that township. Mr. Kalm when here in 1748 says, all then agreed that the quantities of birds for eating was then diminished. In their forefathers' days, they said the waters were covered with all sorts of water-fowl. About sixty to seventy years before, a single person could kill eighty ducks of a morning ! An old Swede of ninety years told Mr. Kalm he had killed twenty-three ducks at one shot ! The wild turkeys and the hazel hens (pheasants) too were in abundance, in flocks in the woods. Incredible numbers of cranes visited the country every spring. They spoke also of fish being once much more abundant. At one draught they caught enough to load a horse; and codfish, since all gone, were numerous at the mouth of the Delaware. In the year 1751, as I was assured by the late aged Timothy Matlack, Esq., there was killed a bear at the square now open eastward and adjoining the late Poor-house, nine years before it was built in 1760. He was killed by Reuben Haines, grandfather of the late gentleman of that name. He and five others had started him from near Fairmount and chased him through the WOODS nearly five miles, when he took to a cherry tree at the square aforesaid. They had no gun, but remaining there till one was procured, he was shot down. Mr. Matlack declared this was a fact. Penn's woods, we know, were then existing thereabout. In 1750, a woman killed a large bear at Point-no-point. She lived there with Robert Watkins, and while she was at work near the kitchen out-house, he came up to it so near, that she killed him. These were of course deemed rare occurrences even in that day, and have been since remembered and told from that cause. Old Mr. Garrigues, a respectable Friend, when about eighty-six years of age, assured me that when he was a lad, and coming home one night late from Coates' woods, then in the Northern Liberties, he actually encountered a bear as he was passing over the path at Penn's run, then a lonely place. It was moonlight, and he was sure he could not have been deceived, and he fully believed it was also a wild one. This may seem strange to our conceptions now, but as the time is seen to agree with the story preceding it, of Haines and others starting a bear at Fairmount in 1751, there may be more reason for inferring the fact than would otherwise be admitted. If no better reason could be found, it might in both cases be admitted to be a bear escaped from keeping. Those different parties certainly never thought of comparing their accounts, and probably never knew of each other's adventures. Their coincidence, so far as they accord, furnishes a reason which has not escaped my observation, that an annalist should not reject isolated facts if interesting themselves, because he could not immediately discern their bearing; for other incidents may occur to give them their due interpretation at some subsequent period. In 1816, January 1st, -- A large she wolf was taken in West Nottingham, Chester county, nearly three feet high, measuring upwards of six feet in length. 1817, January 7 -- A large eagle was shot fifteen miles from Philadelphia in Moreland township, weighing eight pounds, and its wings extending seven feet. About the same time a wild cat was killed at Easton, measuring three feet. 1827, February -- A panther, measuring six feet, was killed seventeen miles from Easton. At Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in December 1832, it was published that Mr. Long, of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, called Bill Long had killed during the hunting season, one hundred and sixty-five deer, five elks, twenty-eight bears, and thirteen wolves; one of the elks weighed seven hundred pounds. All this was done in a county within fifty miles of the great State canal, and at places but thirty miles from the great thoroughfare, the Allegheny river. So rapid is our improvement. In October 1834, a bear, weighing one hundred and forty pounds, was started by dogs from near the head of Joseph Lindsay's mill pond in Chester county, and after being pursued by men and dogs, and ascending and descending several high trees, and after receiving several shots and grappling some two or three times with the dogs, was at last killed by six guns at once. Such a visiter, in so improved a county, was a strange affair, and it is supposed that it must have crossed the Delaware from the Jersey pines. In the same winter of 1836, a man was killed and torn to pieces by wolves, in Perry county, Liberty valley, he having first killed six of them with his knife --- so it was published. Chapter 26. CULTURE OF SILK. From the commencement of our annals, at different periods of time, the advantages of silk culture have been recommended or attempted. As early as the year 1725, James Logan, in writing to the Penn family, recommends "the culture of silk in this country as extremely beneficial and promising". He says, "iron-works also promise well". In the next year he speaks of silk sent to England, saying, he is glad it proves so good, and he doubts not, in time, the country may raise large quantities. In 1734, Governor Gordon addresses the lords commissioners of trade on various objects of produce &c., and speaks in strong terms of his expectations from the culture of silk, "as a fit return to Great Britain" for their usual importations; he says the tree is so natural to our soil, and the worm thrives so well. Some among us have shown its practicability by making some small quantities, &c. In the year 1770, the subject was taken up in Philadelphia and adjacent country with great spirit. It was greatly promoted by the exertions of the American Philosophical Society, stimulated by the communications from Dr. Evans and Dr. Franklin in Europe. Application was made to the assembly for the establishment of a public filature at Philadelphia for winding cocoons, and the managers to have power to grant premiums &c. equal to about £500 per annum for five years. The necessary incipient funds, equal to £900 were furnished by generous individuals on subscription, being generally £2 each, some £15, and Governor John Penn £20. With such means the filature was opened in June 1770, at a house in Seventh street between Arch and High streets, and a rate of premiums was announced. It appears that in the year 1771, about 2300 lbs. were brought there to reel, and that of it 1754 lbs. were purchased by the managers in about two months, in July and August; nearly two-thirds of this had been raised in New Jersey. At the same time much discussion of the subject appeared in the gazettes, and many mulberry trees were planted in New Jersey and the counties around Philadelphia. The ladies in particular gave much attention to the subject, and especially after the war had begun, when the foreign fabrics of silk were cut off from their use. As early as the year 1770, Susanna Wright of Lancaster county, at Columbia, made a piece of mantua of sixty yards length from her own cocoons, of which I have preserved some specimens in my MS Annals in the City Library page 165 and 170. She also made much sewing silk. Mrs. Hopkinson, mother of the late Francis Hopkinson, raised much cocoons. A woman in Chester county raised thirty thousand worms. To give eclat to these colonial designs, the queen gave her patronage by deigning to appear in a court dress from this American silk. The best dresses worn with us were woven in England. Grace Fisher, a minister among Friends, made considerable silk stuff; a piece of hers was presented by Governor Dickinson to the celebrated Catharine Macauley. The daughters of Reuben Haines, in Germantown, raised considerable and his daughter Catharine, who married Richard Hartshorne, wore her wedding dress of the same material -- preserved on page 230 of the MS. Annals. The late Mrs. Logan was among those who in the time of the war raised their own silk in conjunction with several other ladies, to provide for their personal or family wants. In 1772, Robert Proud, our historian, makes a MS. memorandum of his visit to James Wright's place at Columbia, where he saw one thousand five hundred worms at their labour, under the charge of "the celebrated Susanna Wright". They said they could raise a million in one season, and would have undertaken it with suitable encouragement. About the present time, the culture of silk begins again to awaken public attention. A few families in the country are engaged in it. A Holland family, on the Frankford road, were making it their exclusive business on a large scale; and in Connecticut whole communities are pursuing it, and supplying the public with sewing silk. Chapter 27. SHIPS AND SHIPBUILDING PHILADELPHIA has long been justly renowned for her superior excellence and elegance in shipbuilding. None of the colonies equalled her; and perhaps no place in the world surpassed her in her skill and science in this matter. At the present day other cities of the union are approaching her excellence. When Samuel Humphreys, Sen., was visiting England, he was offered, it is said, a great sum to remain and execute models for the British navy. In early times they used to construct at Philadelphia great raft ships, of much larger dimensions than the late renowned ones from Canada, called the Columbus and Baron Renfrew, and which in the present day have been regarded as nonpareils. A little before the war of Independence, the last raft ship was built and launched at Kensington. [One was launched in 1774-5 at Slater's wharf, a little south of Poole's bridge, and was navigated by Captain Newman.] Our great raft ships were generally constructed for sale and use in England, when our timber was more plentiful and cheaper. They would carry off "eight hundred logs of timber, competent to make six ships of two hundred and fifty tons each". An eye-witness, who saw one of those mammoth fabrics descend into her destined element, said she bent and twisted much in launching, but when on the water looked to the eye of the beholder much like another ship in form, &c. Before the Revolution, a former raft ship, bearing the name of the Baron Renfrew (probably the largest ship ever built, being upwards of five thousand tons, and double the measurement of an ordinary seventy-four) made her voyage safely into the Downs. But the pilots being unwilling to take her into the Western channel, because of her great draught of water, undertook to carry her round the Goodwin sands, where being unable to bear up against the strong north wind, got her ashore on the Flemish banks near Graveslines, where she was broken up by the heavy sea. Nearly all her cargo was saved. Rafts of great size were made of her lumber, and towed into France, and into the river Thames. Some of them contained fifteen to twenty thousand cubic feet of timber. On the top of one of them which was towed to London, was the foremast spar of this mammoth ship -- being a single tree of ninety feet in length, and was there regarded with great admiration, as a noble specimen of our American white pine. The ship-yards used to occupy the river banks, beginning about Girard's wharf above High street up to Vine street, and as population increased, extended northward. As early as the days of the founder, the shipyard of William West was begun at Vine street. The activity of shipbuilding there, by which he enriched his posterity was wonderful. He had generally more orders than he could supply (so says his late grandson) and mostly required for English and Irish houses abroad. William Penn's letter of 1683 says, even then "Some vessels have been built here and many boats". In July 1718, Jonathan Dickinson writes to his correspondent saying, "Here is great employ for shipwork for England. It increases and will increase, and our expectations from the iron-works forty miles up Schuylkill are very great". The same writer sometimes calls a ship a galley, and a small vessel a hoy -- of such he speaks as being used in navigating the Delaware, and going to Cape May for cedar rails, &c. In 1721 he incidentally mentions that the sails and rigging coming to him from London for his new ship had escaped the pirates -- thus showing that sails and rigging were at least preferred from abroad in that day. In 1722, I notice as among the vessels at Philadelphia, those they call a pink, a galley, and a great fly-boat of 400 tons, all of which traverse the Atlantic ocean. In connexion with shipbuilding, we may justly congratulate ourselves on having had the ablest ship-carver, in the late respectable and aged William Rush, that the world has ever seen. His figures on the heads of ships have excited admiration in numerous instances in foreign countries, and have been sent for from England, to adorn vessels there. We should have heard more of such facts of preference, but that the duties there were managed to cost more than the first cost of the images themselves. More concerning his talents as an artist will be found under the article "William Rush". {Note : William Rush - volume 1, Chapter "Persons and Characters"} The frigate United States, built at Philadelphia by Humphries, was the fastest sailing ship ever constructed any where. I have been often assured by competent observers, that it is a fact of which we have abundant reason to be proud, that we as a nation surpass all other people in the skilful construction and fast sailing of our mercantile shipping. Our constructors and captains, though self-taught, do actually cover the ocean with vessels which are nowhere equalled. In a word our packet ships, for superior sailing and quick despatch of voyage, do actually eclipse the world. Our sea captains, too, are the most active and vigilant of all mariners, doing double of service, in any given period of time, to any other navigators any where to be found. Chapter 28. PAPER MONEY "Gold, insp'd by thee, can compass greatest things -- Can purchase states, and fetch and carry kings." In the first introduction of paper money, there was much difference of opinion concerning its eventual benefit to trade and to the community. It appears to have been first emitted under the auspices of Governor Keith about the year 1723. Many remonstrances and counter views were urged by some. In 1723, when Benjamin Franklin first visited us from Boston, where he had seen abundance paper money, he noticed with surprise the free circulation of metallic money among the people. The whole of his own money then consisted of a Dutch dollar and a shilling's worth of coppers -- both coins unknown among us now. The very next year (1724) James Logan, in writing to the proprietaries, shows the quick effect of the paper emission, by saying, "No gold or silver then passes among them, because of their paper money -- when they buy the former they give three shillings per £., or 15 per cent. advance in exchange for their paper". The common fate of "paper credit" soon follows -- for counterfeiters, though threatened with "death" in staring capitals, use the means which "lends corruption lighter wings to fly" by pushing their supply also into the market. Behold ! they come even from Ireland ! The Gazette of 1726 announces a great quantity of counterfeit colonial bills, executed in Ireland, as arrived, and the two agents being apprehended are soon after punished. Some of this doubtless found its use in the purchase of land for the new-comers, for the papers along to the year 1729 often make mention of its being occasionally detected in use. About this time Governor Gordon, who succeeded Sir William Keith, emitted £45,000 on land pledged at half its value, and subject to redemption. This was increased from time to time till the whole amounted to £85,000. In 1729, James Logan, writing to the proprietaries, thus speaks saying, "I dare not speak one word against it. The popular phrensy {frenzy} will never stop till their credit will be as bad as they are in New England, where an ounce of silver is worth twenty shillings of their paper. They already talk of making more, and no man dare appear to stem the fury of the popular rage. The notion is, that while any man will borrow on good security of land, more money should be made for them, without thinking of what value it will be when made. They affirm that whilst the security is good the money can not fall. The king's own hand should forbid this measure. Yet the last act should not be abrogated ( ill as the measure is) because the money now out (if annulled) would occasion the utmost destruction". It may be remarked, that although the measure pleased the people, as they thought it increased riches as if by magic, they knew not how, yet the crown officers were always averse to the creation of a paper medium. It may be mentioned also as a curious indication of the early times, and the actual need once felt of some kind of supply for the necessary interchanges required in the dealings among men in society -- that there is now in the museum of the City Library an original petition of the people, of the year 1717, to the assembly of Pennsylvania, praying them to make produce a currency ! I have in my possession an original account-current of the years 1730-1 by Andrew Hamilton, Esq., one of the trustees of the General Loan office, showing the operation in those days, when no banks existed, of borrowing money upon mortgages, deeds, and other securities. It seems to show that the "credit system" even then was required and indulged, as a useful means of improving trade and increasing property. The account begins with a detail of securities received from the previous trustees, to wit : 61 mortgages on the £15,000 act, yet due, £930 228 do. on the £30,000 act 9,438 335 do. on the several emissions 19,212 264 do. on the 2d £30,000 act, 26,000 The new trustees lend out in the years 1730-1 On 39 mortgages the sixth emission of 1st act £2,546 On 77 do. being the first emission of the 2d remaining act of 1741 5,481 And on a pledge of plate, 24 Considering the present great use of paper currency in our bank notes, and the question of their utility being sometimes agitated, it may be curious to state here the view of such money as given by the assembly as early as the year 1739, being their preamble to the act of that year, to wit : "Whereas it has been found by experience, that bills of credit, emitted upon land security as a medium of commerce, have been of great service for carrying on the trade and other improvements in this province, and money and gold being now become a commodity and generally remitted [exactly as now !] to Great Britain, in return for the manufactures of that kingdom imported hither". See Credit System, App. p.562. Among the emissions of later times were the bills for raising funds in 1775, for erecting "the new jail in Walnut street" and the "light house on Cape Henlopen"; both of them were decorated with pictures of the buildings, and the history of the money in both cases was, that the bills by reason of the war &c., were never "called in" and the whole sunk in the hands of the holders ! To these succeeded the far-famed and much scouted continental money -- an emission so immense in aggregate, so overwhelming to the payers, and so hopeless to the payees, as to make it in the end wholly non-effective to all concerned. The whole emission, as presented in a detailed official account exhibited in 1828, stated the enormous total of 241 1/2 millions of dollars ! -- all issued in five years, from 1775 to 1780. We may well exclaim, "Lo, what it is that makes white rags so dear !" In the course of the rapid depreciation which ensued, it was a common incident to hear a hundred dollars of it asked for a single yard of silk -- to see children give a dollar bill for a few cakes, and finally to see 300 dollars of continental given for one dollar of silver. At one time 75 dollars of it was exchanged for one dollar of state paper. Sometimes the possession of so much nominal money, of so little worth, gave rise to many occasional freaks for its destruction -- such as using it to light a pipe or a candle at a tavern; and even the soldiers sometimes, to show their recklessness of such money, or to vaunt their abundance in it, have been known to deck off their recruiting drummers and fifers in an over-jacket formed entirely of sheets of continental money ! One of the worst uses of this money was to present it as "a legal tender" to pay with almost no value what had been before purchased for a bona fide valuable consideration. Many base men so acquired their property -- especially when to "cheat a tory" was deemed fair prize with several. Houses still stand in Philadelphia, which, could their walls speak out, would tell of strangely inconsiderable values received for them by the sellers. The large double house, for instance, at the north-west corner of Pine and Second streets, was once purchased, it was said, with the money received for one hogshead of rum ! The lot in Front, below Pine, whereon four or five large houses stood, called Barclay's row, was sold for only £60 of real value. Many specimens of the colonial bills, now rarely seen, may be inspected in my books of MS. Annals, both in the City Library and with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. All of us have heard so much of "continental money" without having ever seen it -- roughly and rudely as it was executed, and ruinous as it was to many by its rapid depreciation, (falling in 1781 to 7000 for 100 dollars of specie, and soon after to nothing !) that it may be curious and a novelty to many, to ever see a copy. Flooded as the country had been by its destructive inundations, it is a matter of just surprise that so little now remains, even as a preserved curiosity. Such were the helps by which we carried on the war. None of it was ever redeemed; and those who had most of it, had the evidence in themselves how far they had individually contributed to its eventual success. See Appendix "Continental Money". Chapter 29. LOTTERIES It must be told; These from thy lottery wheels are sold: Sold, and thy children dearly taxed, That few may win. It must be told, that fearful as is the waste of treasure and metals by the present infatuation of many for lotteries, they were, at an early period of our city, the frequently adopted measures of "raising ways and means". It is true, they were then fairly conducted, had public benefit in design, and tickets were generally vended by disinterested citizens without reward for the sake of advancing the public weal. It was their way, when the mass of the people was comparatively poor, and direct taxes were onerous and unpopular, to thus bring out the aid of the abler part to pay willingly for expensive public improvements &c. The facts in the case are to the following effect, to wit : The earliest mention of a lottery in Philadelphia occurs in 1720 when Charles Reed advertises "to sell his brick house in Third street by lottery". That house, if now known, should be the headquarters of lotteries now, as the proper "head and front of their offending". In 1728 the city council, averse to all private projects in lotteries, interfere and frustrate the design of Samuel Keimer, printer, and once a partner of Franklin. He had advertised his purpose to make a lottery at the approaching fair, and the council, having sent for him and heard his case, gave orders that no such lottery should be attempted and thus the affair dropped. In 1748 began the first occasion of a sanctioned public lottery. It was altogether patriotic. It was in time of war, when great apprehension existed that the plunder of the city might be attempted by armed vessels. Individual subscriptions and a lottery were resorted to as means for raising the "Associations Battery", then constructed near the present navy yard. On this occasion, the Friends put forth their strength to discourage lotteries, and read a rule against them in their meeting. Some controversy ensued. Christ church steeple was the next subject of public interest, awakening general regard as an intended ornament and clock-tower. A lottery for this object was first instituted in November 1752, and the drawing finished in March 1753, of which further particulars may be seen in the chapter "Christ Church". {Volume 1} In the same spirit, the citizens in March 1753, encouraged the institution of another lottery for another steeple, viz.: "for raising £850 towards finishing a steeple to the new Presbyterian church", at the north-west corner of Third and Arch streets. The lottery was drawn in May following. The facilities of lotteries must then have been very encouraging, as we find about this time that the lottery expedients are numerous. On such occasions they invited citizens of Philadelphia and other places to contribute for quite distant places. Thus, to raise five hundred dollars to build a long wharf in Baltimore, a lottery is sold off in Philadelphia. In Connecticut I see in 1754, that £13,332 is raised by lottery there, to aid the building of the Princeton College, and tickets are sold in Philadelphia. In 1754 they form a lottery of 5,000 tickets at four dollars each, to raise a fund to complete the City Academy in Fourth street, then lately purchased of Whitfield's congregation; and in the next year a further lottery of four classes is made to raise 75,000 dollars, and net 9,375 for the general objects of the Academy, and to endow professorships &c. In 1760 St. Paul's church is helped to finish by a lottery. The bare walls were at first set up by subscription. First a lottery of 5,000 tickets at four dollars is formed by which to clear 3000 dollars; and the next year, another lottery of 30,000 dollars is formed to clear enough to buy off the ground rent &c. In 1761 the zeal for lotteries began to show itself as an evil. In this matter "every man did as seemed right in his own eyes". Thus, one man makes it for his store of books and jewelry, and Alexander Alexander so disposes of his forty-six acres of land on the south-west end of Petty's island in lots for 10,500 dollars. There are lotteries, too, announced for all the neighbouring churches : one for Bordentown, one for Lancaster, one for Middletown, one for Brunswick, one for Carlisle, Newtown, Forks of Brandywine, Oxford, and even Baltimore. Some too, are for schools. It is even proposed to erect by lottery a great bath and pleasure garden ! On this occasion, all the ministers combine to address the governor to resist it, as a place of vice. Lotteries are also granted for raising funds to pave the streets. In 1761, 12,5000 tickets at four dollars, making 50,000 dollars, are sold for raising 7,500 dollars to that purpose. In the same year (1761) a lottery is made to pay off a company of rangers at Tulpehauken for services against the Indians in 1755, on a scheme of 5,000 tickets at two dollars each ! Another lottery is made to erect the light-house at Cape Henlopen to raise £20,000; and the house itself was begun in 1762. The bridge over the Conestogoe is erected by lottery, and also the bridge at Skippack. As a necesssary sequel to the whole, the legislature had to interfere, to prevent so many calls upon the purses of their citizens, and soon after those lotteries, an act was passed to restrain lotteries ! It would strike us as a strange location for drawing of lotteries now, to name them as in stores on the wharves; but the lottery for St. Paul's church was drawn at a store on Gardener's wharf above Race street. And a subsequent lottery for the Presbyterian steeple (corner of Third and Arch streets) was drawn in April 1761 in Masters' store on Market-street wharf. Lotteries having so received their quietus, none appear to have been suggested till the lonely case of 1768, when a lottery was granted by the legislature in four classes, for raising the sum of £5,250 for purchasing a public landing in the Northern Liberties, and for additional paving of the streets. The history of the lotteries, since our independence and self-government and its lately pervading evil in all our cities, is too notorious and too generally lamented by the prudent and considerate to need any further notice in this connexion. In the hands of the wily traffickers in these unstable wares, legal enactments have been but "ropes of sand" without power to fetter them. Chapter 30. STEAMBOATS "Against the wind, against the tide, She breasts the wave with upright keel." In the year 1768, the bosom of the Delaware was first ruffled by a steamboat. The projector at that early day was John Fitch, a watch and clock maker by profession. He first conceived the design in 1785; and being but poor in purse and rather limited in education, a multitude of difficulties which he did not sufficiently foresee occurred, to render abortive every effort of his most persevering mind to construct and float a steamboat called the Perseverance. Applying to congress for assistance, he was refused; and then, without success, offering his invention to the Spanish government for the purpose of navigating the Mississippi. He at last succeeded in forming a company, by the aid of whose funds he launched his first rude effort as a steamboat in the year 1788. The idea of wheels had not occurred to Mr. Fitch; but paddles, working in a frame, were used in place of them. The crude ideas which he entertained and the want of experience, subjected this unfortunate man to difficulties of the most humbling character. Regarded by many as a mere visionary, his project was discouraged by those whose want of all motive for such a course rendered their opposition more barbarous; while those whose station in life placed it in their power to assist him, looked coldly on, barely listening to his elucidations, and receiving them with an indifference that chilled him to the heart. By a perseverance as unwearied as it was unrewarded, his darling project was at length sufficiently matured, and a steamboat was seen floating at the wharves of Philadelphia more than fifty years ago. So far, his success, amid the most mortifying discouragements, had been sufficient to prove the merit of the scheme. But a reverse awaited him, as discouraging as it was unexpected. The boat performed a trip to Burlington, a distance of twenty miles, when, as she was rounding at the wharf, her boiler burst. The next tide floated her back to the city, where after great difficulty, a new boiler was procured. In October 1788, she again performed her trip to Burlington. The boat not only went to Burlington, but to Trenton, returning the same day, and moving at the rate of eight miles an hour. It is true, she could hardly perform a trip without something breaking; not from any error in Fitch's designs or conceptions, but at that time our mechanics were very ordinary; and it was impossible to have machinery so new and complex made with exactness and competent skill. It was on this account that Fitch was obliged to abandon the great invention on which the public looked coldly. From these failures, and because what is now so easy, then seemed to be impracticable, the boat was laid up as useless and rotted silently and unnoticed in the docks of Kensington. Her remains rest on the south side of Cohocksink creek, imbedded in the present wharf of Taylor's board yard. Fitch became more embarrassed by his creditors than ever; and after producing five manuscript volumes which he deposited in the Philadelphia Library to be opened thirty years after his death, he died in Kentucky in 1798. Such was the unfortunate termination of this early-conceived project of the steamboat. Fitch was, no doubt, an original inventor of the steamboat; he was certainly the first who ever applied steam to the propulsion of vessels in America. Though it was reserved to Fulton to advance its application to a degree of perfection which has made his name immortal, yet to the unfortunate Fitch belongs the honour of completing and navigating the first American steamboat. His five manuscript volumes were opened about thirteen years ago. Although they exhibit him as an unschooled man, yet they indicate the possession of a strong mind, of much mechanical ingenuity. He describes his many difficulties and disappointments with a degree of feeling which cannot fail to win the sympathy of every reader, causing him to wonder and regret that so much time and talent should have been so unprofitably devoted. Though the project failed -- and it failed only for want of funds -- yet he never for a moment doubted its practicability. He tells us, that in less than a century, we shall see our western rivers swarming with steamboats; and that his darling wish is to be buried on the margin of the romantic Ohio, where the song of the boatman may sometimes penetrate into the stillness of his everlasting resting place, and the music of the steam engine echo over the sod that shelters him for ever ! In one of his journals, there is this touching and prophetic sentiment : "The day will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches from my invention; but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do anything worthy of attention !" The truth is that Fitch, like Robert Morris, lived thirty or forty years too soon : they were ahead of the condition of their country. These great projects of improvements, which we now see consummated, were beyond the means of the country to execute, and were therefore thought visionary and extravagant. Public opinion has since become better instructed, and the increase of wealth has enabled us to do what was then thought impossible. I derive these facts from J. Fitch's MS. books in the Philadelphia Library, to wit : On the 27th of September 1785, he gave his model and description to the Philosophical Society -- which fact is also recorded on their minutes, and without proceedings or comment. -- On the 1st of May 1787, he first got his boat and works so far completed as to make his boat perform an excursion to the satisfaction of the company then on board. -- On the 12th of October 1788, she again made an excursion with many eminent citizens on board, who much admired at their sense of its satisfactory operation. -- In that winter he left the concern, and made some journeys southward. He afterwards again joined the company, and got the boat to go well, on the 12th of April 1790. She again made a satisfactory demonstration in the summer of that year, for her last time. There were many intervals, in the preceding times, in which she was laid by to make repairs and alterations, and many accidents to overcome and to rectify, all tending to show the first difficulties in a new enterprise, and displaying at once his indomitable perseverance and patience. -- On the 19th of March 1791, he signs his articles in behalf of the company with Aaron Vail, the American consul in France, the terms not expressed; but he speaks of his dissatisfaction therewith, and his fears of some intended injustice to himself. On page 296 in my MS Annals, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is a picture of his first boat, as he invented her in the year 1786, showing the propelling paddles on the side. He afterwards quite altered its appearance, by placing the paddles behind the stern. He thus spoke of his first scheme saying, "It is in several parts similar to the late improved engines in Europe, though there are some alterations. Our cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal force at each end. The mode to procure a vacuum is, I believe, entirely new, as is also the method of letting the water into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere without any friction. The engine is placed about one third from the stern, and both the action and reaction turn the wheel the same way. The engine is a twelve inch cylinder, and will move a clear force of 11 or 12 cwt. after the frictions are deducted, and this force acts against a wheel of eighteen inches' diameter. As remembered to the eye when a boy, when seen in motion, she was graceful, and "walked the water like a thing of life". His predilections for watchmaking machinery was very manifest; for two or three ranges of chains, of the same construction as in watches, were seen along the outside of his vessel, from stem to stern, moving with burnished glare, in motion proportioned to the speed of the boat; and ornamenting the waist not unlike the adornments about an Indian bride. It is melancholy to contemplate his overwhelming disappointment in a case since proved so practicable, and so productive to those concerned. Some of those thousands so useless to others, had they been owned by him, so as to have enabled him to make all the experiments and improvements his inventive mind suggested, would have set his care-crazed head at rest, and in time have rewarded his exertions : but for want of the impulse which money affords, all proved ineffective. "Slow rises worth by poverty depressed !" After Fulton and Livingston had proved the practicability of a better completion by their boat on the North river, the waters of the Delaware were again agitated by a steam vessel called the Phoenix. She was first started in 1809, and being since worn out, her remains, with those of Fitch's boat, repose in the mud flats of Kensington. The Phoenix, then deemed the 'ne plus ultra' of the art, won the admiration of all, of her early day : but as "practice makes perfect" it was frequently discovered that better adaptations of power could be attained; and although she underwent many changes in her machinery and gear, she soon saw herself rivalled, and finally surpassed, by successive inventions; till now, the steamboats can accomplish in two hours, what sometimes took six to perform in her. For instance, the Phoenix has been known to take six hours in reaching Burlington against the wind and tide. Such, too, was the rapid progress in steam invention, that Mr. Latrobe, who wrote a paper for the Philosophical Society to demonstrate the impossibility of a momentum such as we now witness, became himself, in two years afterwards, a proselyte to the new system, and proved his sincerity and conviction by becoming the agent for the steam companies in the west ! Most amazing invention ! from a cause now so obvious and familiar ! It is only by applying the principle seen in every house, which lifts the lid of the tea kettle and "boils over" that machines have been devised which can pick up a pin, or tend an oak; which combine the power of many giants with the plasticity that belongs to a lady's fair fingers; which spin cotton, and then weave it into cloth; which, by pumping sea-water and extracting its steam, send vessels across the Atlantic in fifteen days; and amidst a long list of other marvels "engrave seals, forge anchors, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air" -- presenting in fact, to the imagination, the practicability of labour-saving inventions in endless variety, so that in time, man, through its aid, shall half exempt himself from "the curse !" and preachers, through steam-press printing, shall find an auxiliary effecting more than half their work ! Much of our steam invention we owe to our citizen, Oliver Evans. He even understood the application of it to wagons -- (now claimed as so exclusively British). As early as 1787, the legislature of Maryland granted him its exclusive use for fourteen years, and in 1781, he publicly stated he could by steam drive wagons, mills &c. Finally, he published his bet of 3000 dollars engaging "to make a carriage to run upon a level road against the swiftest horse to be found" -- none took him up ! and Latrobe as a man of science, pronounced the idea chimerial; others said the motion would be too slow to be useful &c. He got no patrons, and others now take his fame ! -- See Emporium of Arts, 1814, p.205. "Of each wonderful plan E'er invented by man, This nearest perfection approaches -- No longer gee-up and gee-ho, But fiz----fiz!----off we go Nine miles to the hour, With fifty horse-power By day time and night time, Arrive at the right time Without rumble or jumble, Or chance of a tumble, As in chaise, gig, or whiskey When horses are frisky." A friend of mine has lately seen in Philadelphia an original letter of Mr. Fitch to Dr. Franklin dated 12th October 1785. It was neatly written; had some few faults in spelling, and reads in part thus : --"Steamboat navigation is, in the opinion of the subscriber, a matter of first magnitude, not only to the United States, but to every maritime power in the world, and he is full in the belief that it will answer for sea voyages, as well as for inland navigation -- in particular for packets where there may be many passengers. She could make head off lea shore against the most violent tempests, because the machine can be made of almost omnipotent force, by the very simple and easy means of the screws or paddles, which act as oars -- working on the oscillating motion of the old pumping engine, in a manner similar to that given by the human arm." N.B. Boileau of Montgomery county asserts that he remembers John Fitch well as a frequent visiter at his father's house, and he knows that, although Fitch first used paddles to his boat, he also had the idea of wheels, for he actually showed Boileu his draught of them, and employed him as a boy to cut out of wood small water wheels as models, by which to construct large ones for his boat. He worked as a silversmith; learned to survey; went to Kentucky in 1780; left there in 1781; made a map of that country and the west as a new land of enterprise; engraved the plate and struck off copies himself, and then sold them about the country -- one of them is now with Mr. Boileau and another is with Daniel Longstreth at Warminster, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. For more of Fitch and steam power, see the article `John Fitch' in the chapter "Persons and Characters" {volume 1}. An elderly gentleman of Philadelphia communicates that he knew very well both John Fitch and Robert Fulton. The latter was, about the year 1770 and for several years, his schoolmate in the town of Lancaster. His mother was a widow of limited circumstances. "I had (he said) a brother who was fond of painting. The war of the Revolution, which prevailed at that period, made it difficult to obtain materials from abroad, and the arts were at a low ebb in the country. My brother, consequently, prepared and mixed colours for himself; and these he usually displayed on muscle [mussel] shells. His cast off brushes and shells fell to my lot; some of which I occasionally carried in my pocket to school. Fulton saw and craved a part. He pressed his suit with so much earnestness that I could not refuse to divide my treasure with him; and in fact, he soon, from this beginning, so shamed my performances, by the superiority of his own, that it ended in my voluntarily surrendering to him the entire heirship to all that came into my possession. Henceforth his book was neglected, and he was often severely chastised by the schoolmaster, for his inattention and disobedience. His friends removed him to Philadelphia, where he was apprenticed to a silversmith, but his mind was not in his trade. He found his way to London, and placed himself under the patronage of his celebrated countryman, West." "While Robert Fulton was thus engaged in London, John Fitch, a clockmaker and silversmith, was contriving schemes in Philadelphia for the propulsion of boats by steam. He conducted his mysterious operations at a projection on the shore of the Delaware at Kensington, which among the wiser and prudent of the neighbourhood, the scorners of magicians and their dark works soon acquired the ominous and fearful title of Conjuror's point. I often witnessed the performance of his boat, 1788, `89, and `90. It was propelled by five paddles over the stern, and constantly getting out of order. I saw it when it was returning from a trip to Burlington from whence it was said to have arrived in little more than two hours. When coming to off Kensington, some part of the machinery broke, and I never saw it in motion afterwards. I believe it was his last effort. He had, up to that period, been patronized by a few stout-hearted individuals who had subscribed a small capital in shares of, I think, £6 Pennsylvania currency, or 16 dollars each; but this last disaster so staggered their faith and unstrung their nerves, that they never again had the hardihood to make other contributions. Indeed, they had already rendered themselves the subject of ridicule and derision, for their temerity and presumption in giving countenance, as they said, to this wild projector, and madman. The company, thereupon, gave up the ghost -- the boat went to pieces -- and Fitch became bankrupt. and broken-hearted. Often I have seen him stalking about like a troubled spectre, with down-cast eye and lowering countenance; his coarse soiled linen peeping through the elbows of a tattered garment. During the days of his aspiring hopes, two mechanics were of sufficient daring to work for him. Ay, and they suffered in purse for their confidence. These were Peter Brown, ship-smith and John Wilson, boat-builder, both of Kensington. They were worthy, benevolent men, well known to the writer, and much esteemed in the city. Towards Fitch, in particular, they ever extended the kindest sympathy. While he lived, therefore, he was in the habit of calling almost daily at their workshops to while away time; to talk over his misfortunes; and to rail at the ingratitude and cold neglect of an unfeeling, spiritless world. From Wilson I derived the following anecdote: Fitch called to see him as usual -- Brown happened to be present. Fitch mounted his hobby, and became unusually eloquent in the praise of stream, and of the benefits which mankind were destined to derive from its use in propelling boats. They listened, of course, without faith, but not without interest, to this animated appeal; but it failed to rouse them to give any future support to schemes by which they had already suffered. After indulging himself for some time in this never-failing topic of deep excitement, he concluded with these memorable words -- "Well, gentlemen, although I shall not live to see the time, you will, when steamboats will be preferred to all other means of conveyance, and especially for passengers; and they will be particularly useful in the navigation of the river Mississippi." He then retired; on which Brown, turning to Wilson exclaimed, in a tone of deep sympathy, "Poor fellow ! what a pity he is crazy." It is curious to observe, that both Fitch and Fulton should have been originally silversmiths. In 1785, Robert Fulton is found in the Philadelphia directory of that year set down as a miniature painter, at the corner of Second and Walnut streets -- perhaps not even dreaming of steamboats, nor even making the acquaintance of the inventor though in the same city and at a time when Fitch had actually written out his views, in the above-mentioned letter to Doctor Franklin, dated 12 October 1785. Rumsey has been named as our earliest inventor of boat navigation by machinery; that is, so far at least as actually forming a boat with apparatus &c., for such an operation, he probably executed one as early as 1783. A friend of mine, who saw Fitch's boat at Kensington as early as 1786-7, saw the remains of Rumsey's boat in a rotten state in 1790, in a creek at Shepherdstown, Va., near Harper's ferry. Rumsey, it is said, went to England to procure patronage and aid, and soon after died there, poor. Some of his heirs were lately soliciting some contribution from the congress of the United States, on the grounds of Rumsey's being the first projector. Fitch, however, declared that Rumsey derived his conception from himself. John Fitch, in his controversy with James Rumsey, respecting priority of claim as set forth in his pamphlet of 1788, admits or sustains the following facts and circumstances, to wit : That the first thought of a steamboat came to him suddenly, in April 1785. That in June following he went to Philadelphia and showed his scheme to Dr. Ewing and Mr. Patterson. That in June and July he formed models, and in August laid them before congress, and in September he presented them to the Philosophical Society. That in October he called on the ingenious William Henry, Esq., of Lancaster to take his opinion of his draughts, who informed him that he was not the first person who had thought of applying steam to vessels, for that he himself had conversed with Andrew Ellicott, Esq., of his own views on that matter as early as the year 1775; and that T. Paine, author of Common Sense, had suggested the same to him in the winter of 1778; that some time after, he (Mr. Henry) thinking more seriously of it, was of opinion that it might easily be perfected, and he accordingly had made some draughts "which he then showed me", but added that as he had neglected to bring them to public view, and as Mr. Fitch had first published the plan to the world, he would lay no claim to the invention. To this alleged fact A. Ellicott adds his testimony, saying that Mr. Henry did so converse with him on the subject of steam, and intimated his belief that it might be advantageously applied to the navigation of boats. Mr. Fitch went from Mr. Henry's in Lancaster, to the governors of Maryland and Virginia, to see them upon the subject. He then procured laws in his behalf from the different legislatures to wit -- New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. He admits that he had been greatly indebted to the assistance of his ingenious friend and partner, Mr. Henry Voight, who had afforded him valuable hints, and had united with him in perfecting his plans; and that "to his inventive genius alone he was indebted for the improvement in their mode of creating steam, from a thought which struck him two years before"; for, says Mr. Fitch, we never made a secret of part of our works -- but that a fear of departing from old established plans had made him for some time fearful of adopting it; until he (Mr. Fitch) perceived that Voight's invention of creating steam by a condensor, might be constructed on the same principles, (viz. a spiral pipe or worm) only by reversing the agent -- because the best means of applying fire to evaporate water into steam, must also be the best way of applying cold water to condense steam -- that is, the bringing of the greatest quantity of fire into action upon the greatest surface of water, or the contrary. Mr. Fitch asserts and adduces his proofs, that Mr. Ramsey only began to procure his apparatus in the summer of 1786 and that by reason of the ice in the Potomac in the winter of that year, he could not have made any use of his steam and boat till the spring of 1787 -- "which was long after Mr. Fitch's boat was built and his model of a steam-engine was completed." Mr. Fitch also asserts, that the certificate of Gen. Washington of 7th September 1784, adduced by Mr. Rumsey as his proof of an earlier period, was in relation to his earlier boat and apparatus as then shown to the general at Bath, and which boat, as the certificate expressed it, was constructed to work against streams by mechanism (not steam !) and manual assistance, and that she was then so worked in his presence. Mr. Fitch alleges that Mr. Rumsey's application to the legislature of Pennsylvania, by his petition of 26th November 1784, shows on its face that it was not a steamboat then he meditated, but "a species of boats of ten tops, to be propelled against the current of a rapid river, by the combined influence of mechanical powers, at the rate of twenty-five to forty miles a day". Mr. Fitch alleges that it was an after-thought of Mr. Rumsey's to use and apply steam, and the knowledge of which he alleges he derived from himself, by seeing and hearing of his models &c., and that he then puts in his pretension because of the certificate of Gen. Washington and others to facts about his boat of 1784, as if he had been showing the same kind of boat then, which he could only have effected in 1787 ! Mr. Fitch concludes thus triumphantly, saying, "If Mr. Rumsey claims on `his thought' as expressed to Gen. Washington in his letter of 19th March 1785, then he has to encounter the prior thoughts of Mr. Paine, Mr. Henry and Mr. Ellicott -- if on former draughts without exposing them to the public, he must also admit the prior draughts of Mr. Henry -- but if it is to be determined by the established mode of public declaration, put on record, as was done in my case, then he must obtain to my title, as being prior and indisputable." In this publication Mr. Fitch makes the remark that Mr. Rumsey had insinuated that he (Mr. Fitch) had formed his first conception of a steam vessel indirectly from Mr. Rumsey; because as he hinted, Mr. Fitch got his first thought from a Captain Bedinger, in Kentucky, who went there in 1784, and who had derived his ideas, as a secret, from Mr. Rumsey. To this insinuation Mr. Fitch replies that "he has not been in Kentucky since the year 1781". Oliver Evans, a blacksmith of Philadelphia (for steam power seems to have run most in the heads of the `smiths') certainly foresaw the power which could be made effective from the use of steam; but when he made his assertions, the public would not credit his report and many actually believed that it was the ravings of an over-excited mind. "More than twenty years ago" says the New York Commercial Advertiser in 1835, "we published his assertions as hereinafter written and signed by his name, and yet none then gave him any credence -- not even the legislatures of Pennsylvania and Maryland, to which he applied for countenance and support gave him any patronage, and he died neglected and poor ! But what he then so confidently asserted is now matter of true history". I give his published declarations, to wit : "The time will come, when people will travel in stages, moved by steam-engines, at fifteen to twenty miles an hour !" "A carriage will leave Washington in the morning, breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York, on the same day !" "Railways will be laid of wood or iron, or on smooth paths of broken stone or gravel, to travel as well by night as by day !" "A steam-engine will drive a carriage 180 miles in twelve hours -- or engines will drive boats ten or twelve miles an hour; and hundreds of boats will so run upon the Mississippi and other waters as prophesied thirty years ago; but the velocity of boats can never be made to equal those of carriages upon rails, because the resistance in water is 800 times more than that in air." "Posterity will not be able to discover why the legislature or congress did not grant the inventor such protection as might have enabled him to put in operation these great improvements sooner, he having asked neither money nor monopoly of any existing thing." {signed} OLIVER EVANS** ** Apollos Kingsley, a young man of Hartford, Conn., about the year 1798, made and propelled through the streets of that city a steam locomotive, which he then said would in future be the means of propelling the mail stages, &c. He was not credited, died soon after, and all then went for nothing. O. Evans was first induced to notice the powerful expansion of vapour, by applying his heated iron with a hammer stroke to the spittle he could cast upon his anvil; and also by heating the but-end of a musket barrel in his fire, filled with confined water. He had thought of all these things in embryo as early as the period of the Revolution, and yet he and his suggestions passed for years unpatronized ! Such is the too frequent fate of new and important improvements. It is in general for more fortunate men in after years to reap the harvest of such minds as Evans, Fitch and Fulton's. In 1827 there were but two railroads, and short ones, too, viz., one at Mauch Chunk and at Quincy, and now they are every where. Oliver Evans not finding any one willing to promote his views for a steam-wagon, bethought himself to apply his power more profitably to mills for grinding grain, plaster of Paris, &c., and procured his patent accordingly. In 1804 he applied his power to a machine for cleansing docks, and for that object constructed a large flat or scow with a steam-engine; and such a one having been ordered by the board of health, he conceived that it presented him with a fine occasion for showing the public that his engine could propel both land and water carriages. He therefore set his scow, as if it were a car, upon wheels; and although it was only set upon wooden axles and bore a weight equal to 200 barrels of flour, he actually conveyed the whole from his workshop along the streets of Philadelphia out to the Schuylkill river with great facility. Having then launched it into the river, he applied paddle-wheels in the stern, and thereby propelled it down that river like a steamboat, and then up the Delaware to the city to the place of delivery. This it should be observed, was six years before Fulton started his first boat, the Clermont, on North river in 1807. This was a sufficient demonstration, as he conceived of what he had asserted, that he could make a carriage to go by steam upon a level road equal to the swiftest horse; and upon this confidence he offered his bet of 3000 dollars, with none to take him up ! About this time he also laboured much to induce proprietors of turnpikes to introduce steam-carriages upon their roads; but none followed his counsels, although he pledged himself to construct them steam-carriages which should run upon a railway, or level road, at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. At the same time he published his principles of applying the same power to the propelling of boats on water and against currents. Mr. Niles of the Register heard Mr. Evans say many years ago, that "the child was then born who would travel from Philadelphia to Boston IN ONE DAY !" Already they go from Boston to New York in seventeen hours, and soon they will go by the railroad to Philadelphia in six hours more, which will of course fulfil the prophesy. Oliver Evans had at one time a great steam engine standing for six months at the corner of Ninth and High streets, where it had broken, and would go no further ! It had been made to go under water, as it was said, and was to dig out river beds, docks and shoals. It had started from his premises at Vine street, and had gone that far on the streets. To what will not steam eventually contribute ! Steam power has just been doing wonders, both by land and water, for travelling facilities; but who knows how soon even these energetic auxiliaries may be superseded, and by abler and simpler inventions ! Already we hear of the electro-magnetic combinations of Davenport and Cook, at Saratoga. This reminds us of the prophetic ken of science, as happily exhibited by Dr. Lardner : "Philosophy (said he) already directs her finger at sources of inexhaustible power that the steam-engine itself may ere long dwindle into insignificance, in comparison with the hidden powers of nature still to be revealed. We may expect that the day will come when the steam-engine will cease to have existence, save in the page of history". -- [Vide Dr. Lardner's Treatise on the Steam-engine, 1838] By the "Briarean" might thy hands supply, We cook, we ride, we sail, and soon shall fly ! Mind marches -- soon the glorious day will break When we may sit, our hands within our breeches ; When steam will plough, sow, reap, grind, knead and bake. And our sole task be to digest earth's riches ! Soon iron muscle will leave nought to do, And slave and master both may cease from labour --- When giant steam, with never-tiring hand Shall toil, the only SLAVE throughout the land ! Chapter 31. WATERWORKS The Philadelphia Waterworks were begun in the spring of 1799, by constructing a huge house for water power near the banks of the Schuylkill southward of High street, and also another edifice of marble at the Centre square, as a receiving fountain. It was an ornamental structure; but with some it nevertheless bore the disparaging name of "the pepper box" in allusion to its circular form and appearance. These works had at first but little encouragement; and to induce the moneyed men to adventure their capital, they were offered water free of rent for a term of years. As late as 1803, only 960 dollars had then been expended on the enterprise. At same time, one hundred and twenty-six houses were receiving the water free of cost. In 1814, there were two thousand eight hundred and fifty dwellings receiving the water, and paying a rent of 18,000 dollars. In that year, the cost of raising the water was 24,000 dollars. In 1818, the steam engine at Fairmount was set in operation, and raised the water at a saving of 8000 dollars, still leaving an expense of 16,000 per annum; but, in 1827 such were the improvements introduced, that the expense of raising the water was but 1478 dollars, while the water rents from the city and districts had risen to 33,500 dollars, and this is still rapidly increasing. In the eventual success of these measures we owe much to the skill and perseverence of J.S. Lewis and Frederic Graff, names which will be always identified with the origin and the renown of a lasting public benefit. Our great benefactor, Franklin, early foresaw the need of a fresh supply of water for Philadelphia, and recommended the Wissahiccon creek for that object; but that, now that the city has so much increased in population, would be drained dry in a week. There was little or no desire expressed by the citizens of Philadelphia for any other than their good pump-water, till after the yellow fever of 1793. Then, when the mind was alive to every suggested danger of ill health, the idea of pump-water being no longer good found its increasing supporters. But after river water was introduced, many were still very slow and reluctant to give up their icy-cold well water for the tepid waters of Schuylkill. Numerous pits, however, for other purposes, in time destroyed the former pure taste of the pump-water, and led finally to their total abandonment, and the consequent increased patronage to the present necessary waterworks. END