Area History: Chapter 43: 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 43 VARIETY OF PASSING BRIEF FACTS, VIZ : Newspapers at one cent apiece were a wonder for cheapness when first out. It is new to use professional singers in churches. It is still newer to sing responses while kneeling, as in the ten commandments. The use of Cloroform in painful surgical operations, is new and assisting wonderfully. Dentists are arriving at great improvements in "saving and preserving tooth". Private penny posts, for delivery of letters in the city -- and express carriages for carrying heavy parcels about the cities -- and omnibuses for carrying people at small charges, are all new enterprises and succeed. The vending of clothing for gentlemen, ready made, is a new enterprise. Dispepsia and Spinal Diseases -- Dispepsia in men, and spinal diseases in women are new forms of diseases, coming in as a consequence of luxurious and indulgent living. Boquets, (flowers) at Parties is new -- so also Boquets on the Centre tables. The tables themselves are also new. Suppers to such parties, is also new. Slate roofs is now a beginning affair -- because Cedar shingles come so high now. Cedar Posts, too, are becoming so high as to induce the use of Iron posts. Building brick houses, in the City, in Winter -- is a new enterprise to save time. Envelopes for Letters -- It is new to put letters under an envelope -- It is a useless adjunct and will destroy the evidence of Post marks to letters. The courts will some day complain of this. We are invaded with new rules and new forms by Fashion's invisible Agent. Who knows who first imposes the cuts of our dresses ! Use of Granite and Iron posterns -- The use of Granite and Iron posterns and pedestals to house fronts is new. The cutting of our garments, as now, is an entirely new device, and capital too. The planeing, jointing and grooving of boards by Steam power, is wholly new. Great signs to houses and some elevated upon roofs for display -- and signs to read perpendicularly -- and the formation of new forms of Sign letters -- is all a new contrivance. So also, is various imitations of grained wood -- such as oak, maple, mahogany &c. -- they were all began first in New York and then followed here. It is new to cover houses with plaster, in imitation of marble, brown stone and yellow &c. The numerous wholesale Silk stores, exclusively of silk and ribbons from France, is new. So too, the importations from France of cloths and cassimers, is new -- also French boots. Eating houses and Refectories is new among us, especially oyster houses. Paving foot ways with flag stones is a new affair -- adopted from New York, when they had not good bricks. The paving the streets with blocks of wood and blocks of stone, for carriage ways, is new. Ship Launching Now -- They have now changed the way of launching ships. They now slide them off -- without the use of a girdle of wedges -- by heavy hammers. That was a means far more interesting to hearers and spectators than now The Pegging of Shoes and Boots, is a modern affair -- so also of turning lasts. The wood pegging was the invention of Joseph Walker, now alive, at Hopkinton Massachusetts. He lives to see the trade of that State in shoes and boots, equal to eighteen millions of dollars ! Steeples -- wherever built, were universally white, so as best to be seen furthest -- and among trees. Lately has come up a new conceit, of having them brown and chocolate -- Aheu ! Carriers -- It is a modern thing to send home parcels from the stores for purchasers -- and equally new for Butchers to send home meats purchased. Men and women took home their own marketing; and many boys of good families went with wheel-barrows and stopt near the markets till filled. One remembers well many young ladies of good families, who used to do all the marketing. Stores did not formerly have porters to carry parcels, and make fires, and sweep, &c. That was always done by the apprentice merchant. Boys are far prouder now than they used to be, and more dressed in business. The only known Gibbet Left -- The only known gibbet in the United States, of the olden time, is now kept as a relic at the Moyamensing Prison. Samuel Breck's Letter -- He describes our poverty, and our depression of spirit at the conclusion of the War of the Revolution -- and shows how wonderfully all things revived and flourished, by the adoption of the Federal Constitution. A charter which some proud and angry men are now disposed to annul and destroy ! Read it -- Read it ! in the "North American" of the eleventh of February, 1851. Mild Winter of 1850-51 -- The Past Winter -- of 1850-51 is one to be remembered for its mildness. The mean temperature of February has been (though usually one degree the coldest in winter ) 41 1/4 degrees, which is eleven degrees above the common mean average -- very little of snow and very little of frost has been seen. At this time, (March 1) vegetation is one month ahead of ordinary seasons. Flags of the Revolution. There are now at Alexandria, Virginia -- The Hessian Flag, captured at Trenton -- dated 1775, of embroidered silk -- Also the Flag of the seventh Regiment, surrendered at York Town -- Also the Flag of Washington's Body Guard -- which is of silk and has the motto "Conquer or die." "Macpherson's Blues" -- This corps of infantry originated in 1794. At this time I am furnished with a copy of the Roll of names, being four hundred and twenty-nine in all. I joined the same corps, a minor, in 1798-9 -- and now I see that all are gone, to be no more, except seventeen persons, now "oldest inhabitants". Henry Gideon, the last of Washington's Life Guard -- He died at New York, on the fifteenth of March, aged one hundred and one years -- he was laid out in state at the City Hall. He is the same person, whom I formerly knew in Arch street, Philadelphia above fifth street -- He was called, as I remember, Washington's trumpeter. He had a fine-looking daughter. Segars -- Men of the present age, seeing the immense use of segars, might think they were always so used; but not so -- they began with the fever of 1793 -- and were first used, along the streets, to keep off the yellow fever. Improvement of Street Paving -- In August 1852, I wrote a letter to the City Commissioners -- offering for the public good my suggestion for an easy means of making the pebble pavements more enduring. It was simply to underlay with cheap, rough, flat stone. With such underneath, the pebbles could not sink as now, and form wheel routs. For a beginning trial, let them only underlay the usual wheel routs, and prove them -- afterwards underlay the whole crown -- leaving the side alone, as least used. General Thomas Harrison, the Regicide -- I saw lately his portrait in possession of Doctor Charles Willing of Philadelphia. It is a fine cavalier face and dress -- with pointed beard and moustache -- a face of about forty years. His three sons, Samuel, Benjamin and Joseph, came to this country at the earliest settlement -- Samuel settled at Gloucester, New Jersey, and has left descendants there, known to me. Joseph was killed by a horse at Crosswicks, New Jersey. They have also an old Pear tree on the farm -- brought out at first coming, and still alive and bearing fruit. Benjamin settled in Virginia -- and was the progenitor of General Harrison, President of the United States. Swedes on the Isle of Kent -- I came to the knowledge of the fact that there were Swedes settled on this Island as early as 1653. Among them was Swan Swanson, Andrew Hanson and Valerious Leo, who appear named there in 1655. Swanson had his grant from Queen Christina, for Wiccoca at Philadelphia 1753. The Year 1854, "A Year of Terror". In this year it has been estimated as losses, to wit : Property destroyed by fires, twenty-five millions of dollars -- with one hundred and seventy-one lives lost thereby. One hundred and ninety-eight Railroad accidents caused the death of 186 persons and wounded five hundred and eighty-nine. Forty-eight steam boats sunk or burned, killing five hundred and eighty-five and wounding two hundred and twenty-five. There were eighty-two murders and eighty-four executions. Add to all this loss of life and property by ship wrecks -- by burning of Ocean steamers, pestilence in many places, and it would constitute a vast amount of the horrible for this eventful year. Undertakers for Funerals -- This is wholly a modern affair -- it was formerly the case that long trains of Friends -- male and female -- walked in procession. It seemed more solemn than now -- and when the coffin was accompanied by pall and pall-bearers for respectable funerals, it was more dignified and imposing. It was a kind of willing homage of friends, who thereby signified a willing respect and regard to the deceased. "God Willing" -- This was once a universal declaration in announcing forth-coming sermons to be preached at given places. Now it is almost universally discontinued and ministers come-and-go without any such rest on contingencies. No cause has been published for the change from Nisi Dominus grustra. Shipments of Specie, abroad -- The Jeremiads, so repeatedly given in our public journals -- of the amount of the last shipments of Specie abroad, is a very queer affair -- as being, as alleged, a matter to concern to me and every man. Why should I or they lament over this, if it was not our money ! How would we individually suffer by it -- or even the nation itself -- if it was not our own ? Recent Discoveries -- In 1807 the first effective Steam boat was by Fultoon -- now there are more than four hundred in our rivers and lakes. In 1825 the first rail-road was put in acceptable operation. Now there are are over twenty thousand miles of them in the United States, at an outlay for building of three hundred millions of dollars. In 1845, the Electric Telegraph was started successfully. In 1839, Daguerre, showed his invention of printing from sunbeams. Since then we have Gun cotton and chloroform working their wonders. Look, too, at Hoe's admirable printing press producions, turning off twenty thousand copies in an hour. Gas, which was only made known in 1809, is now lighting up our streets and halls every where. How all these things, manifest the operations of our truly fast and progressive age -- Who can sufficiently appreciate the coming future ? City Police -- What a change is there wrought also, in having now eight hundred policemen to hang and lounge about the great Town, to be ready to suppress outbreaks and to preserve the peace of the city ! What a change since a few constables could answer equally well. The fire men too, of the present day, so much more numerous, and so much given themselves to outbreaks and violence. So different in men and morals from the grave, substantial householders of the earlier Fire companies -- "What a falling off was there !" Artificial Ice -- A machine has been completed at Cleveland, Ohio capable of producing a ton of solid ice in twenty-four hours and to sell ice at five dollars a ton -- It was done in an apartment where the mercury stood at eighty degrees. We, ourself, had conceived the idea of making ice in winter, at any given places, by ejecting spray from hydrants and fountains so as to freeze readily as it rested in their wettings on a prepared floor. Last Log House -- The last original Log House is out Spruce St., South side near Willow St. and near to Schuylkill River -- It is a two storied, white plastered house on its Spruce street front. Such a house was originally built from using the forest trees, once near by. "Social and Fireside History" -- Daniel Webster, in one of his speeches, said, as if to commend our kind of notices -- "There is still wanting a history which shall trace the Progress of social life -- We still need to learn how our Ancestors in their houses were fed, lodged and clothed, and what were their employments. We wish to see and know more of the changes which took place from age to age in the homes of first settlers &c. -- We want a History of Firesides !" N.W. corner of Ninth and Green streets -- This place where is now a Tavern and Freight Depot of the Railroad Co. was in former time a brick kiln pond -- fifteen or sixteen feet lower than the general surface now. And at the next square above -- from Tenth to Eleventh Sts. and from Spring-Garden Sts. up to Wallace St. was a very fine apple orchard -- as still remembered by the Ancients. Log Prison and Ancient Group of Houses in Germantown. The picture which we here give of the last of the oldest houses still remaining in Germantown -- now belonging to the family of John Green, present a very picturesque groupe -- and stand in interesting contrast with many modern houses built there. They would seem to have been built at several intervening periods. The front house on the right of the picture, now faced with white mortar, is the original Log house. It was brought and placed there as the dwelling house of John Adams Hogermoed, who had before passed a night in it -- for some occasion of intemperance -- while it occupied the Market square as the prison. When it was afterwards sold, the same Hogermoed became the owner. One of the higher houses in the rear, it may be seen, is diagonally boarded. The whole groupe seems to be formed of four different constructions -- a part is of stone. All such remains of the primitive times are fast fading from the things that be ! The Aged Mrs. Maddox Having before noticed several of the remarkably aged of our country, we feel here inclined to notice one, who besides her advanced age, had also characteristics of mind and person which made her a peculiarity in her day -- "the observed of all observers". We allude to Mrs. Mary Maddox, who died at the age of one hundred and two years on the fifth of August 1783, at the country seat of John Wallace, Esq., in Somerset County, N.J. She was the daughter of John Rudderow of New Jersey; and had lived in Philadelphia from her early life till the period of the Revolutionary War, when she moved to the banks of the Raritan. During her long life, she enjoyed uninterrupted good health; and preserved to the last a freshness and clearness of complexion with scarce a wrinkle on her visage, which made her the wonder of the sitters at Christ Church where she was a long approved communicant -- never missing an attendance in thirty consecutive years. Her mind, memory and enlightened conversation were strong and vigorous, even to the verge of her last illness and death. She was the wife of the Hon. Joshua Maddox Esq., one of the Provincial Judges of Pennsylvania. Both of these persons, now lie buried in Christ church ground, at the S.E. corner of Fifth and Arch Sts. -- very near to the grave of Franklin. Anthony's house. In the fast changing construction of houses in Philadelphia as residences of the respectable inhabitants, it is a satisfaction to give the present picture of a house once respectable for its size and indwellers therein. It stands at the N.E. corner of Gray's Alley and Second street -- below Chestnut St. It bore for many years the name of "Stephen Anthony's house" -- who died in 1763. In truth it may have been originally built by him, for on page 223 of this Volume, it may be seen that it was built so near the time of Blackbeard's career, [who was killed in 1717] that when Stephen Anthony was having the cellar dug for it about the year 1729, his black man Friday, then working there, came to a pot of money which might have been hidden there by Pirates. The name of the Alley was perhaps received from Gray, who had a large brewery on the North side of Chestnut St. between Third and Bank Alley. In contemplating the House, we must mark its superiority in its early day, because it is ornamented with drops under its eaves -- and its superior form of dormer windows. As a dwelling house, it shows the marks where once ranged an entire extension all round it, of pent house we must remove present store windows, and set before the house its former street porch. The bricks too, now all painted red, were originally regularly intermixed with the blue glazed bricks -- a token only belonging to the grades of best houses. All the three first houses in the Alley were also marked with the drops under the eves, and were also built with the alternate intermixture of blue glazed bricks. Probably, one of them was built for and dwelt in by Gray the brewer; and so early too, as to have given the name to the Alley. Such Alleys as that, and Carter's opposite, and Norris' near there, were at first chosen and dwelt in, in preference to wide main streets; being free from general travel, they were therefore not liable to be cut up by wheels; and they were easily swept clean at a period before the existence of paved streets. Norris' Alley was always remarkable for its very notable cleanliness. Another thing to be contemplated in the picture is that of the house of the subsequently renowned personage, Robert Fulton -- when an apprentice to Duffel, a Silversmith. There he probably lived as unconscious of "the divinity that stirred within him" as it rested before his time in another City visitor, who came in time to be equally famed, in Benjamin Franklin. The whole group, and their spontaneous associations, furnish much of ready consideration to the thinking and excursive mind. Such a house as Anthony's and the Laetitia house of William Penn in Laetitia Court, present the best last remains of what was the original feature of Philadelphia. Now, successful traders far surpass them all, and live in costly luxury. Tempora mutantur ! The Willing House We give a picture of this once respectable family residence of the Willing family at the S.W. corner of Third street and Willing's Alley, taken down "to build greater" for the Reading Railroad Co. in 1856. It was originally built in 1745 for Charles Willing after the pattern of the former homestead in Bristol, England. It was afterwards occupied as the family residence of his son, Thomas Willing, a member of the Congress of 1776 -- and afterwards the President of the first Bank of the United States. When first erected it was on "the hill" so called "beyond Dock Creek", and was then deemed a Rural home "outside of the Town". Having connected with it on its southern aspect -- a large enclosure of Oak trees of forest remains, with ample space of grass ground extending from Third to Fourth streets. While in its prime, it was a fine specimen of rural elegance and family affluence -- a pleasant retreat from the throng and bustle of the early City avocations. Now its location has come to be a thronged place of many genteel residences. Near by it, southward, was the large enclosed grounds and elegant mansion of William Bingham, Esq., who was a senator of the United States while it held its session in Philadelphia in 1800. That house, of two elevated stories of brick, of double front most elegantly adorned, with door and window embellishments, was in its day the wonder of the mass of passing travellers; and Mr. Bingham, having married the elegant daughter of Mr. Willing, made the whole area along Third St. - to Spruce St., a kind of family distinction of both families for many years. Now all the same grounds are fully filled with blocks of many dwelling houses. The Early Emigrants to Pennsylvania. These have been recently noticed and all named in a book published by I.D. Rupp at Harrisburg. Such a book should be peculiarly interesting to those who forefathers are therein shown, -- when they arrived and where they settled &c., giving therein as many as thirty thousand named persons. From that book, I select the following facts, viz : From 1682 to 1776, Pennsylvania was the central point of emigration from Germany, France and Switzerland. From 1682 to 1702, comparatively few Germans arrived -- not above two hundred families, and they mostly located at Germantown. But the period from 1702 to 1727 marks an era in the early German emigration. Between forty and fifty thousand left their native homes in exchange for homes here. Because of the relentless persecution and oppression in Switzerland, a large body of defenceless Mennonites fled from the Cantons of Zurich of Bern, and Schaffhausen in 1672, and took up their abode in Alsace on the Rhine, where they remained till they emigrated to London and thence to Pennsylvania -- about the year 1709. They lived sometime at Germantown. In 1712, they purchased of Penn's agents in Pequa, Lancaster Co. There this Swiss settlement formed the nucleus and centre of a growing population of Swiss, French and Germans. From such a head-land, they sent out M. Kendig as their Agent to Germany and Switzerland to invite others to follow them. Wherefore in 1711 and 1717 and a few years later, so many more came over, as even to alarm the officials here, lest the Country might become a German population rather than an English one. From such a course of action, it was made the law of Pennsylvania that no emigrants should be allowed to settle, unless they previously took, severally, an Oath of Allegiance. Their compliance became therefore a matter of record, and from this fund of names and arrivals, the compiler, Mr. Rupp has formed his book of Emigrants. From and after the year 1716, the Germans, some French, and a few Dutch, began to penetrate the forests more inland. Large German settlements were commenced at different points within the present limits of Montgomery and Berks Counties. At Goshenhoppen , there was a German Reformed Church organized in 1717. Some low-Dutch Mennonites settled along the Skippack some few years later. Some German and French located themselves on the fertile lands of Wahlink where an opening was made for others of the persecuted Huguenots. Of these, the most prominent families in order were the DeTurcs, Bartolets, Delaplaines, Levans &c. Some of these became Pietists. Among the early settlers of Alsace -- now Elsace township in Berks County -- were many French reformed or Huguenots; also Swedes who were Lutherans. About the year 1728-9, the Germans crossed the Susquehanna, and located within the present limits of York and Adams Counties. Besides these, they passed into Maryland and settled in Washington and Frederick and at Hagerstown &c. In 1738, some Moravian Germans arrived and settled at Bethlehem Pennsylvania. Before them, there had arrived a number of Schwenckfelders, who settled in Bucks and Montgomery Counties and in Berks and Lehigh. Thus from the year 1735, the settlements in Pennsylvania increased rapidly -- extending over much country West of the great Susquehanna -- whither the Scotch Irish had before led the way. Many had gone into Cumberland Valley. Prior to 1770, German settlers had gone out beyond the Alleghany Mountains -- some in present Westmoreland, and some on the Monongahela in Fayette County. It is impossible to contemplate these primitive explorers and pioneers seeking a resting place from the sufferings and perplexities of "woeful Europe" without a sense of thankfulness that such men, "of like passions with ourselves" should have eventually established such comfortable, even affluent homes, for their posterity. Let any one now visit their land, and see how prosperity and happiness abounds -- We see indeed "the Wilderness to blossom as the Rose". Laus Deus ! Rowdy Assassinations. The frequency of these deathly assaults on fellow citizens, without compunction, by those who have gone into the use of Colt's pistols, and the Bowey knife -- are wholly affairs of modern times. The fatal instruments and their terrible effects, are of latter day origin. We once used to contemplate assassinations as almost wholly confined to Spaniards -- and we had undefined dreads of Spanish ports in Cuba and South America. Every American visiting such Ports held himself very cautious in his walks about their towns and suburbs. Now they have become familiar to our ears, as of frequent occurrence among ourselves, in almost all parts of our extended Country. While so many are essaying to put down public executions for deadly crimes, few or none came forth in strength to abate the number of impulsive assassinations. The oldest inhabitants, still alive, may well remember the execution at Philadelphia of "young Reed", about the year 1791-2 for the murder of a man on High St. wharf, by stabbing him fatally, in his passion, with his pocket knife. The whole city was moved thereat. Every body thought it terrible. All thought that passion could not justify the fatal result; and although he had strong and respectable family friends, no possible move of the public offered any hope that he could be rescued from the ignominious Gallows ! "Life for life" was the rule then. The Environs of Philadelphia. It having been lately my fancy to travel about the surroundings of the City, it may be curious to others of Younger years, to have the knowledge of some of the changes wrought in the life of an "oldest inhabitant" like myself. All the Streets and houses, over in Kensington from the Stone bridge over the Cohocsink, out to the New York Rail-road Depot -- now all covered with compact houses -- was in my early days all fields, open grass lots, and rural vegetable garden enclosures. At the same time, all the area from Franklin Square -- Northward and Westward -- was in like manner open grass grounds called Commons. All out from the head of Fourth St. at Craig's Mill, Northward and Westward, were in Commons and in Sundry Rope walks -- with here and there a small cottage with kitchen gardens. The West side of Philadelphia from Ninth and Tenth Sts. to Schuylkill were in commons and brick kilns. On the South, beginning at South St. from Fourth St. Southwestward, you entered into the proper Country dotted with a few Rope walks, and having many little places, here and there, engaged in Cultivating Vegetables for the City market. At that time, it was deemed to be a great way to go as far out as the Schuylkill River -- or as far as Bush hill North-westward; -- or as far out South-westward as the present Naval Asylum. In all the preceding routes, every body went by cross-cuts to nearest points -- seeing few or none of present streets as their landmarks. It was all a different world, from any thing and every thing of present observation. The brick ponds, everywhere scattered about, were the skating places of all the boys. Now the former boys are "non est", and the present boys and girls can see almost nothing of what we once saw. Then think of the abounding flocks of Sheep -- the wandering, grazing Milch kine -- the straggling worn out horses, the many flocks of killdeers and plovers, seen on the wing or on the grass, and the sharp shooters sometimes in their pursuit. The many boys and girls seen gathering unlimited quantities of mushrooms -- parties of men and boys at their pastime sports -- such as shinny, Bat-ball, Prison-bait, foot racing &c. Oh! it was a joy to see their excited fun and glee. The whole area was then their Gymnasium, without expense and without paid "Instructors". Waste lands -- laying in Commons were not then subjects of speculation and Sale at exalted prices -- as now, by the foot. Their owners then, were unknown to the mass -- the same areas are now all supplanted by piles of profitable brick and mortar. In those days too, an out of town drive was of ready attainment -- no going over the long streets of cobble stones -- always uneasy and noisy. Then the Country air was easily and quickly found. On such changes, the pen of "Sam Slick" could find themes to fill a book. Do none remember ! Marriage Obstructed The increase of luxurious living is operating powerfully against early marriages, as mothers and daughters may readily notice. The Home Journal, speaking of this subject, instances the ascertained fact, that although the year 1856 has been a privileged Leap year, there was at Boston 20 per cent less of marriages there than the year preceeding. The cause is indeed to be found in the fact that the shrine to love and marriage is crushingly draped with silks at from 3,000 to 15,000 dollars a yard! It is festooned with laces at prices to cause terror to hear it -- expensive jewelry flashes through the meshes everywhere. Silver plate, paved thick upon leases of "genteel residences" support the altar -- and Milliners' and other bills litter the base of it. Great sighs heaved from the bottom of prudent but hopeless hearts, are all that is given to Hymen. Marriage is becoming a luxury to men. -- And those, whose means are limited, are as much prohibited from its adoption as by a police regulation : -- Do we not really need a "Retrenchment Society" which shall make economy fashionable ? -- O, for a restoration of ginghams and prints ! Is there no deliverance from the silken web of evil which French looms are weaving for us ? In addition to the above, we here add from the North American of third of January 1857 -- to wit : "Sundry Religious and Secular papers have begun a regular foray upon the extravagances of female dress. They say justly, it interposes a powerful obstacle with young men to marriage and tends to increase vice. The fault lies in Parental indulgence -- and the remedy must be administered from the same quarter." It might have added that the evil is effected by a class who never earn any part of such expenses ! See also, Harper's Weekly of the same date -- We are glad thus to see our former suggestions so likely to be sustained -- The Ladies "Dear Women" must look to these things, even for their own eventual interests ! The first Effective Locomotive The first in our country -- (like the first Steamboat) was that called "Old Ironsides" built in 1832-3, the first artistic construction of M.W. Baldwin. When she began her first operations along North Ninth St. for the Philadelphia Germantown and Norristown Railroad Co. -- she ran a mile in a minute, and was the wonder of assembled hundreds of people gathered at and near the Depot. That same Engine is still in operation in Vermont. She ought to be preserved as a relic. Ladies and their affairs in Olden time. The memoirs of Mrs. Joseph Reed (the wife of the Governor and General) tells us of sundry things as she found them in Philadelphia in and about the year 1770. She had been Miss De Bert of London -- and found things different then from her former home -- said the houses were low -- and found but one street of business like home, where she liked then to go for the sake of her recollections of Thames Street, London. She visits Boston and goes all the way on horse back -- think of that, ye moderns ! She liked Old England least for its luxuries and conveniences -- but resolves to keep her preferences to herself. In time her feelings came over to the American and whig cause. She then expects generally to order her fineries from London -- and orders from her family there -- to have a fine damask cloth for 21 shillings -- a neat fan of leather mount for 25 shillings -- also, needles NO. 5 to 10. She sends for four pair of black Calma shoes -- eight dozen of eight bowed Cap wires -- asks for a handsome Spring silk; and proposes to send a gown over to be dyed of any colour which it will best take. Says Miss Pearson makes money by visiting London once a year for its fashions. She praises our climate, and finds the people very Civil -- and much accustomed, like country people, to acquaint themselves with the affairs of their neighbours. Says Burlington has the reputation of a very sleepy place -- dull and quiet. She says, Men in trade are in their habits cheerful and gay -- especially at their tables -- being also acute men of business in their Counting houses and stores. In her letters home, she shows much of such feelings of sacrifice, for a time, as we may not witness from our own ladies, who leave gay homes to become wives in California, or in the far West. Through in Nineteen hours. This is the promise of the advertisement of the new route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and I believe it is fulfilled every day. What that journey has been, I have some opportunity of knowing from a manuscript journal kept by Matthew Clarkson, Esq., in the year 1766. Mr. Clarkson was a merchant of Philadelphia -- for several years Mayor of the city -- and appears to have gone westward on behalf of some company with which he was connected, whose object was to carry on trade between Philadelphia and the Mississippi. He set out on horseback, with a servant, August 6, 1766. On the first day he met wagons loaded with skins coming from the west and overtook others "loaded with pork going for the king's use to Fort Pitt" -- the name of the settlement which the English gave it in the place Du Quesne, and which was afterwards changed to Pittsburg. He lodged at "The Ship", 35 miles from Philadelphia. The next day (Aug. 7) he dined at "The Duke of Cumberland" and reached Lancaster in the evening. On the 8th crossed the Susquehanna at Wrights ferry, and reached York. On the 9th crossed Conewaga creek and arrived at Carlisle, where he rested till the 12th, when he resumed his journey with a stronger horse, dined at Shippensburg, and lodged seven miles further on. On the 13th at the "Burnt Cabins" he overtook thirty-two horse loads of flour on the way to Fort Pitt, and mentions cattle going in the same direction and "skins" coming eastward. "This day's journey [thirty-four miles] has been extremely tedious and fatiguing; the road, except the first ten miles, was nothing but hills, mountains and stones, until you pass the Burnt Cabins, when it is tolerable, but hilly". Aug. 14th -- From Littleton to breakfast at the foot of Sideling hill; dined at the crossings of the Juniata; lodged at Bedford. Here he stopped for a day and purchased an interest in five tracts of land in Cumberland valley, Danning's creek, and Woodcock valley, mostly in the vicinity of Bedford, containing in all eighteen hundred acres, for one-half of which he paid £90, ($240) . Aug. 16th -- At the foot of the Alleganies he found an encampment of Indians under the command of Capt. Green, who were engaged in gathering and drying whortleberries. Lodged at Stony creek. Next day, dined at Ligonier, and lodged at the Twelve-mile run. 18th. -- To Brushy run, Turtle creek, and reached Fort Pitt just after dark. Thus he got "through in ten days" without counting stoppages, happily without being tantalized, as he jogged along under the hot sun, with the fore-knowledge that his grand-children would make the same journey "through in nineteen hours". His journal mentions indeed a "conductor of the trail" but it was of Conestoga wagons, not of cars and crates. When he reached the embryo city of smoke, he found no sumptuous hotels inviting him to repose. Upon his arrival he says :"I was stored away in a small crib, on blankets, in company with fleas and bugs." He took a walk to "the ship-yard; found four boats finished and in the water, and three more on the stocks; business going on briskly". Palmy days, those, in Pittsburg; said boats being probably batteaux, not much greater than such as are now slung at the stern of the steam-monsters that lie or ply by hundreds on her waters. The fort was under the command of Major Murray, who gave Mr. Clarkson his lodging in the barracks; but, on account of the miserable accommodations for boarding, he usually made his meals on bread and milk "at the store". The other officers of the garrison were Captain Belneavis, Lieutenants McCoy, McIntosh, C. and G. Grant, and Hall. Doctor Murdock and Reverend Mr. McCleggan, chaplains, who preached alternately in Erse [Scotch] and English". In an afternoon's ride from Fort Pitt he found an Indian settlement of the Mingoes. He mentions the arrival of a Seneca chief, who had been to the Illinois, and brought from that barbarous region, over his own post track, a packet of letters to the civilized east from the commander at Fort Chartres, near the present St. Louis. The latest date was June 21st. The news of the day was that provison was scarce and dear : Indian flour being at 5 shillings per hundred; ordinary buffalo meat at 3 shillings per pound. "The French on the opposite side of the river in plenty". The mail from Fort Pitt was sent monthly by soldiers, to Shippensburg which was the nearest post office. Mr. Clarkson mentions the breaking of his thermometer as an irreparable loss. In these days it would probably be accounted too small an article for the great blasts of the glass furnaces to condescend to make. "No ropes for painters here, and no prospect of being able to supply this defect." Mr. Clarkson was engaged in loading boats at Fort Pitt to transport merchandise down the Ohio to Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi. He engaged a Seneca chief to accompany him; probably as a guide, interpreter and protector through the tribes along the river, some of whom were not in a friendly state. Before consenting to go, Kayashuta "said he must first see his family at the White Mingo town, and warm the hearts of his nation, and know how things stood with them. For this purpose he wanted a couple of bottles of rum." This article was not so easily obtained in Pittsburg as it is now, "Sixteen kegs of spirits arrived on pack-horses." On the 3d of September the wagons arrived from the east with the merchandise for the loading of the boats. The Indian and a companion were to have "forty bucks" for their services, besides an interpreter at 12 dollars a month. At this point the cooper's shop was burnt, and the traders had "no other way of procuring casks to pack the flour in." About this time the Reverend Messrs/ Duffield and Beatty arrived "on a message among the Indians to preach the gospel." On the 16th September the boat left Fort Pitt and on the 11th of December arrived at Fort Chartres. The trade of the boats seems to have been chiefly with the Indians for peltry. They brought beaver, minx, otter, bear, deer, muskrat, wolf, panther, martin, raccoon, fox, wild cat. A memoranda made at Fort Chartres says, "the boats from New Orleans of the largest size carry about eighty hogsheads of claret; twenty-two to twenty-four men, who have about 400 livres each. Three months are accounted a good passage. A hogshead of claret on freight pays 300 livres." This mention of claret is explained by remembering that the Mississippi was at that date a French river, as to its settlement. The Pioneers of Seventy Years ago. "Monument to a Pioneer -- The citizens of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania are taking measures for erecting a monument over the grave of John Harris, the first settler on the banks of the Susquehanna river, and after whom has been christened that town." This causes this letter from William Darby, Esq., Sir : -- The preceding epigraph I cut from your paper of the 9th instant. I hope you will do me the favor to reinsert it in the Republic, with some remarks, which will explain why I give you the trouble. One is personal to myself. I was born in that part of old Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, now Dauphin; and in the autumn of 1781, with my parents, crossed the Susquehanna at Harris' Ferry. Though only between the ages of six and seven, I remember distinctly coming to and crossing the river. There was then Harris' Ferry-house on the east bank, and Kelso's Ferry-house on the west. When either Dauphin or Lebanon counties, then included in Lancaster, were made separate counties, I have no date. The village of Lebanon, then of some extent, preceded Harrisburg. The notice of an intention to erect a monument to the founder of Harrisburg excited in my mind many recollections which I cannot embody in words. One was that Mr. Harris very narrowly escaped being murdered by savages on the very spot where Harrisburg stands. No one having a heart will ascribe it to vanity when I state that I was born, 1775, twelve miles from Harrisburg, then really frontier. The notice enclosed is, however, in one part an error. There were white settlers no doubt at both Sunbury and Wilkesbarre, and also other places on east Susquehanna, many years before at Harrisburg. My own personal knowledge of the place and its leading names go back beyond the foundation of Harrisburg as a town. There are some descendants of that family on the Susquehanna, I am inclined to think. There was, during more than a century previous to the treaty of Grenville, on the frontier settlements of that part of the United States, a most admirable body of men whose names have already in great part been sunk to oblivion. These men, under the title of Spies or Rangers, were the terror of the savages. With all the wily watchfulness of the Indian, the spy had the resources of civilization. Such men were John Harris, and within my own remembrance and personal acquaintance, Lewis Wetzel, Martin Wetzel, Henry Jolly, and I might name more, who were the true and brave champions of the early progress of an immense region on which I have trod when in great part a wilderness; and what is its aspect now ? A region of imperial extent, glowing with life. Could any or all of these men I have named rise from the grave and hover over the scenes of their invaluable services, how ecstatic would be their feelings. Henry Jolly was a man of education and extensive reading; in manners dignified, and in the discharge of his duty as a "Spy" a true model of cool and collected self-command. He was one, and a most efficient one, of a body of men whose names and even existence as a corps are not lost in great part to human memory, and the extent and value of whose services could not, were they even known, be estimated. I cannot, ought not, to omit one curious trait observed in the manners of the frontier spy -- taciturnity. This fact was in my hearing noticed and accounted for by Henry Jolly in words to the following import : -- "Habitual watchfulness, when on their duty, in the interminable forests." Peace and honor to their manes ! Wm. Darby. Camden New Jersey This place now a city, and covering so much ground in its Squares, was in my boyhood, a Country place of open Commons and fenced fields, and was only known as a place of three ferries -- of upper, middle, and lower -- having in connection with them, severally, Taverns and Stores, for the use of the market people resorting there -- and all long held by the three Coopers -- Joseph, Daniel, and Joshua. The open grass commons, back from the River side, were generally in the state of their former Corn hillocks -- left so, uncultivated for years, after their being made fenceless by the British in the War. Back from the upper ferry about half a mile, was a raised Redoubt, made there by the same Military. The common woods began at about 1/2 of a mile from the River, and extended without houses far back into the Country. Back from the ferries were long rows of large trees of black cherries, and here and there were Persimmon trees -- all for the use of the Philadelphia boys. From the lower ferry (Joshua's) down to Gloucester point lay impassable swampy meadows, with here and there invasions of River water. Like wet grounds, lay between the middle and upper ferries -- all decked with gay and towering wildrose bushes, and Alder. Now the whole of the former aspects are changed -- the lands are made dry, and many buildings occupying the same. The passages from Philadelphia to Camden, at that period, were wholly by Wherries and horse-boats -- using Oars and sails. And, in the winter, when the ice was fixed or driving, the wherries were often seen on the ice, drawn along by the oarsmen and passengers. With their sharp bows, they often broke the ice through the floating cakes by lifting and sinking them, for that purpose -- or if strong enough, raising them on to the floats, and sledding over them, into the next water. This mention of ferries, reminds one of the equally unimproved position of Brooklyn, New York, which at the time referred to above, had but one Ferry house and no appearance of a Town there -- and having an abrupt bluff covered with original forest trees and shrubs -- the whole -- wholly rural. Jersey City, was a Ferry house, surrounded with wet marsh. Our Boys are habitual Destructionists. The proof of this, is every where manifest, in their habit of effacing every thing ornamental and beautiful, which they can reach to mar and destroy. They show it even in their primary schools, in chipping and destroying desks, benches, balustrades &c. They love to disfigure newly painted Walls -- and fences along the streets, and in public walks. We are sorry to say, that such boys are peculiarly belonging to the Saxon race; for it is to be observed, that French, Spanish and Italian boys have no such propensities; on the contrary, they very early manifest an ambition to appear everywhere as little men ("petit maitres.") They affect to dress and act as men. They are therefore to be seen and act as men -- grown up persons; and always to avoid street gatherings and rough outdoor plays &c. While we talk of learning them gymnastics &c., should not Parents and Teachers, rather aim to learn them Conservative affections ! Let them know themselves better, and learn to forebear. Will parents consider ? The state of our maiden ladies. The Newburyport Herald, in moralizing upon their state and prospects thus states their position in "the land of steady habits" -- And we may add, such are the strictures of many Editors, in many other Cities. May not wary Citizens proceed to organise associations, which may assume the responsibility of forming Sumptuary laws, which might embrace themselves and families as persons boldly "renouncing" the extremes of the day; and cordially refusing to be ruled "or led thereby!" If men were to go into the same scale of expenditure for personal display, should we not soon find ourselves outdone ! Will not Parents and others consider ? The Herald, thus deplores our position, to wit : Our fathers used to tell of the profligacy of Paris; their children tell of the mysteries of New York, a city not far behind any in Europe. And making proper allowance for size, how far is New York ahead of our other cities and towns ? Once was a time when a wife was "help meet". We boast of our system of education; we have female high schools, female colleges, female medical schools. Our girls are refined, learned, wise; they can sing, dance, play pianos, paint, talk French and Italian, and all the soft languages, write poetry, and love like Venuses. They are ready to be courted at ten years, and can be taken from school and married at fifteen, and divorced at twenty. They make splendid shows on bridal tours, can coquette and flirt at the watering places, and shine like angels at winter parties. But heaven be kind to the good man who marries in the fashionable circles. What are they at making bread and boiling beef? Why, how thoughtless we are -- to be sure they will board, or have servants. What are they at mending old clothes ? But there we are again ; the fashions change so often, that nobody has old clothes but the rag men and the paper makers now ! What are they at washing babies faces, and pinning up their trowsers! And here is our intolerable stupidity once more; having children is left to the Irish ! What lady thinks of having nasty children about her now ? -- or if she is unfortunate, don't she put them to wet nurses to begin with, and boarding schools afterwards ? We repeat -- we have come to a point, where young men hesitate and grow old before they can decide whether they can marry and afterwards keep clear of bankruptcy and crime. What is the consequence? There are more persons living a single life -- are there more leading a virtuous life? It is time for mothers to know that the extravagance they encourage is destructive of the virtue of their children; that all the foolish expenditures making to rush their daughters to matrimony are, instead of answering that end, tending to destroy the institution of marriage altogether. We find now, that in the town of Hancock, with more than eight hundred inhabitants, no marriage is recorded for the year 1855; and in Cheshire, Middleton, Monroe, Montgomery, Roxborough, Halifax and Rutland, with populations varying from two hundred and seventeen to fifteen hundred, but one marriage is reported in each. But moralizing apart. During the year the youngest male who was married was a youth of sixteen to a bride of seventeen. Seven grooms of the age of seventeen years were united to brides severally, one of fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, and nineteen each, and three of twenty-one. The youngest female was a girl, of thirteen years to a man of twenty-one. One male of sixteen years of age, seven of seventeen, fifty-three of twenty, were married for the first time; and ten females of fourteen, forty-three of fifteen, and seventy-three of sixteen, were married also for the first time. More than four sevenths of the marriages are among the foreign born; and this, because it is argued, the foreign born can afford to get married, and the native born can not; and this must be so long as our extravagant modes of life continue. It is quite a modern affair to advertise -- as now sometimes occurs, for wives and husbands -- A queer affair in itself, and a hopeless refuge too. A Lady's Traveling Wardrobe A few months since, a lady from a neighboring city passed through Baltimore en route to Washington, expecting to be absent from her home for two days. In the rush of travel about that time, two trunks, containing her wardrobe, were missed; and as she held the checks of one of our railroads for them, the company, of course, were liable for the contents. She was requested to give, as far as she could remember, a list of the articles and their value; when the following list was forwarded, and is now among the archives of the office: One diamond bracelet and pin, 459 dollars; one hair bracelet, 60 dollars; one ditto, 20 dollars; two heavy gold rings, 20 dollars; one coral bracelet and pin, 35 dollars; one pearl fan, 15 dollars; one gold chain, 20 dollars; one brilliant pin, 10 dollars; two small coral bracelets, 7 dollars; two pearl card cases 15 dollars. Artificial flowers, 30 dollars. One set honiton laces, 20 dollars; one set valenciennes laces, 20 dollars; one set applique laces, 20 dollars; other collars and sleeves, 40 dollars; one handkerchief, 12 dollars; one ditto, 5 dollars; one ditto, 8 dollars; one ditto, 7 dollars; one ditto, 5 dollars; one ditto, 3 dollars; others amount to 30 dollars. Bouquet holder; 10 dollars; Opera cloak, 30 dollars; Ermine furs, 30 dollars. One velvet mantilla, 30 dollars; one parasol, 5 dollars; two embroidered skirts, 40 dollars; one black flounced dress, 45 dollars; one pink flounced dress, 55 dollars; one buff flounced dress, 45 dollars; one buff plain silk, 10 dollars; one blue brocade, 25 dollars; one ditto, 20 dollars; one white muslin flounced, 35 dollars; one ditto 30 dollars; one brown merino, 30 dollars. One black basque, 18 dollars; one black satin basque, 12 dollars; one plain ashes of rose basque, 12 dollars. Two lace skirts, 25 dollars. One morning dress, raw silk, 25 dollars. One drab woolen skirt, 8 dollars; one white embroidered skirt, 10 dollars. Two long night-dresses, 10 dollars; one pair of drawers, 2 dollars; two chemises, 5 dollars; one pair corsets, 3 dollars; two pair white silk hose, 6 dollars; one pair black silk hose, 3 dollars; three pair lisle thread hose, 3 dollars; five pair cotton hose, 6 dollars. One pair white kid gaiters, 4 dollars; one pair brown and bronze gaiters, 6 dollars; one pair walking boots, 7 dollars; one pair red kid slippers, 2 dollars; one pair bronze kid slippers, 2 dollars; one pair black prunell slippers, 2 dollars. Two ivory stick fans, 7 dollars; one white paper fan, 1 dollar; one shell comb, 4 dollars; one dressing comb, 4 dollars; one brush, 3 dollars; one braid hair, 4 dollars; one set curls, 7 dollars; one head dress, 10 dollars; two ditto, 10 dollars; three night caps, 2 dollars; one book, 1 dollar; one opera-glass, 18 dollars; two hand mirrors, 2 dollars; one glove box, 3 dollars; seven pair gloves, 7 dollars; two pair mitts, 6 dollars; one ditto, 5 dollars; five plain skirts, 10 dollars; two flannel skirts, 4 dollars; one black silk basque, 12 dollars; one all wool delaine dress, 7 dollars; one brown poplein dress, 7 dollars; one night dress, 2 dollars. Plain skirt, 1 dollar. Trunk, 30 dollars; ditto, 15 dollars. Portfolio, 4 dollars. Flounced skirts, 5 dollars. Letter paper, pens, water-colors, drawings, letter, bills, &c., Total, 1765 dollars. The forgoing catalogue was given as all that could be remembered at the time, but the next day another list was received, enumerating articles to the value of 300 dollars, making the grand total of the value of a young lady's wardrobe over 2000 dollars independent of the dresses, jewelry, &c., which she was wearing at the time the trunks were lost. Fortunately, however, for the company, the missing trunks were found, having been miscarried, and their contents all safe.---"Baltimore American" ---May 1857. The reader should observe, how little there is, of real necessary clothing---Say, only one pair drawers, and two Chemisettes. Our Shad Fisheries. It is interesting to consider the present exclusive prices of Shad in our markets, and their common former prices. About the period of the Revolutionary War, they could be commonly bought at the wharves, in Shad time, at 3 to 4 pence a piece; and 12 shillings and 6 pence per hundred. Colonel Anthony I. Morris told me that he had seen shad sell, in several successive years -- say about ninety years ago, at ten shillings the hundred. At the beginning, when William Penn was present, he wrote of their great abundance; and said that "six Alloes or Rock, could be bought for one shilling." With their small Seines then, it was common to take five hundred at a haul. Contemplating such former facts, it may be interesting to a present reader, to learn our present position from facts now published in our Public Ledger, to wit : At each of all the large fisheries on the Delaware, there are employed from fifty to sixty men. The Season of fishing is from the first of April to tenth of June. They make five hauls in twenty-four hours; and the hauls occupy from two and a half to three hours. The large size Seines are five hundred fathoms long -- admitting a Sweep of nearly half a mile. It is drawn to the shore by a windlass on the shore, in an operation of an hour and a half. Their largest hauls number from eight hundred to nine hundred shad. Rock, perch and catfish are often found in the hauls, in large numbers. There are about two dozen of such Fisheries -- one of the best of them at Fancy Hill brings a rental of 1200 dollars. The whole of the Fisheries employ about one thousand men; and they obtain about twenty thousand of fish in each twenty-four hours. The Herrings are taken in the low-water hauls -- and produce from two thousand to four thousand severally. In the present "Progressive times" we have to give for two to three shad, one dollar ! -- a price which tends to exclude them from the tables of Common life. We feel sorry for any exclusion, from so great a good ! We overtax our energies. To buttress this opinion, we here give the words of the Philadelphia Ledger to wit : "If we go on with the life we have lived for the last generation, we shall exhaust ourselves, prematurely. Why are we, as a race, so nervous? Is it not because our mode of life exhausts our vital energies prematurely? We work too hard, we think too hard, seek pleasure too hard -- We are moderate, in short, in nothing, [our very overgrowth of spirit and energy makes us so readily take to filibustering and its perils]. Now, though this superabundant energy enables us to excel other nations in whatever we undertake, it also wears us out more rapidly. At forty, our men are as old as Englishmen or Frenchmen at fifty-five; and our women at thirty are as faded as European ones, at forty. A month of sober methodical life in a quiet Country place is worth a whole season of dancing, banqueting &c., at the Watering places. The rush for excitement is sapping their lives; and must entail weak Constitutions on the rising generation." The Evening Bulletin says -- "to our Extravagance we owe all our embarrasments. Our importations of the French and other European markets -- (especially since the reduction of the Tariff) have been the cause of our past troubles; and the predictions of trouble to come are all based upon a continuance and an increase of these importations. We have a host of Speculators at work, and pushing for Western lands, with no proportionate settlers and cultivators of the Soil. The result is that the fruitful West, has not, in many places, a sufficiency of Edible productions to supply their own wants." We can thus perceive how very much we are our own tormentors ! We must Supply the remedy, or work our own griefs. Conclusion. The reader, who may have gone through the reading of the foregoing pages, may have noticed, that we have been chiefly busy with Facts -- And sometimes, with Facts which may not have been wholy grateful to our self-love and self-respect. Among the many things highly credible to ourselves as a Community have been occasionally interspersed, Facts, which should be corrected and reformed. As a truthful recorder, We have been governed by the rule of "nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice". Let the good be cherished and diffused; and let the bad be corrected and reformed. With this last address to his Countrymen, the Author takes his final respectful leave. He feels that his aim has been to "do the State some service" -- by the preservation of these fleeting and perishing Memorials of the past; snatched, like drift wood from the stream of the ever ebbing tide of time. He wrote not for fame or recompense, but "Con amore" -- because he found it grateful to his heart, to thus notice and record the doings, and the characteristics of a notable race of forefathers. Olim mem inisse juvabit ! THE AUTHOR.