In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

425
7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/in-old-pennsylvania-towns-ocr 1/425 O LD Tf CO OsJ O IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNS ANNE HOLLINGSWORTH WHARTON

Transcript of In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    1/425

    OLDTfCOOsJO

    IN OLDPENNSYLVANIATOWNSANNE HOLLINGSWORTHWHARTON

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    2/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    3/425

    r

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    4/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    5/425

    IN OLDPENNSYLVANIATOWNS

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    6/425

    By Anne Hoilingsworih WhartonA ROSE OF OLD QUEBEC. With eight illus-

    trations. Decorated cloth.IN CHATEAU LAND. 25 full-page illustra-

    tions in duotone. Large 12mo. Deco-rated cloth, gilt top.AN ENGLISH HONEYMOON. Decorated

    title and 17 illustrations. Cloth, extra.ITALIAN DATS AND WATS. Decorated titleand 8 illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, extra.ENGLISH ANCESTRAL HOMES OF NOTEDAMERICANS. With 29 illustrations. Dec-orated cloth.

    SOCIAL LIFE IN THE EARLT REPUBLIC.Profusely illustrated. 8vo. Buckram.

    SALONS, COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN.Profusely illustrated. 8vo. Buckram.HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES. Profusely

    illustrated. 8vo. Buckram.THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWATS. Illus-

    trated. 12mo. Cloth.COLONIAL DATS ANDCDAMES. Illustrated.

    12mo. Cloth.A LAST CENTURT MAID. Illustrated. 8vo.

    Cloth.

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    7/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    8/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    9/425

    IN OLDPENNSYLVANIA TOWNSBYANNE HOLLINGSWORTH WHARTON

    WITH 39 ILLUSTRATIONS

    PHILADELPHIA AND LONDONJ. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

    1920

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    10/425

    COPYRIGHT. IQ20, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

    PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANYAT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS

    PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    11/425

    TO THE MEMORY OFKATHARINE AUSTIN DERBYSHIREIN WHOSE GOOD COMPANY I TOURED TOSOME OF THESE OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNS

    M697321

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    12/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    13/425

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTSSo many citizens of old Pennsylvania towns

    have aided the writer in her researches thattheir names would fill many pages ; she wishes,however, to make particular mention of the aidgiven her by such historians of Lancaster asMiss Martha Bladen Clark and the HonorableC. I. Landis ; by Mr. Henry W. Shoemaker, thatindefatigable Pennsylvania chronicler; by Dr.Thomas Lynch Montgomery, State Librarian atHarrisburg; by Judge and Mrs. Edward W.Biddle and Miss Emmeline K. Parker, of Car-lisle ; by the Honorable John Stewart, of Chain-bersburg, and Mr. George H. Stewart, of Ship-pensburg; by Miss Anna Valentine and Mrs.Harry Valentine, of Beliefonte; by George E.Bedford, Esq., and Mr. Christopher Wren, ofWilkes-Barre; by Baird Halberstadt, Esq., ofPottsville; by Mr. Oliver Ormsby Page and Mr.Sunnier B. Ely, of Pittsburgh ; by Miss Louisede Schweinitz, of Bethlehem; by General H. C.Trexler and Mr. Charles E. Roberts, of Allen-town; by Mr. John P. Lyons, of Montrose, andlast, but by no means least, by Governor WilliamC. Sproul, of Lapidea, near Chester.The author also wishes to make her acknowl-

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    14/425

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTSedgments to such officers and members of theHistorical Society of Pennsylvania as Dr. JohnW. Jordan, Dr. Gregory B. Keen, Colonel J.Granville Leach, the Honorable Hampton L.Carson, Mrs. James M. Longacre, and GilbertCope, whose researches and publications haveadded much to the value of her work.

    For the use of photographs of some beautifulold homes in Carlisle, the author extends herthanks to the editors of ' ' Carlisle Old and New. ' '

    A. H. W.

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    15/425

    CONTENTSi.

    INTRODUCTION 11II.

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTER 19III.

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWN 44IV.

    'LANCASTER AND LEBANON TOWNS 74V.

    GETTYSBURG BY WAY OF COLUMBIA AND YORK 99VI.

    CHAMBERSBURG AND SHIPPENSBURG 119VII.

    A PICTURESQUE OLD TOWN 143VIII.

    FROM CARLISLE TO HARRISBURG 169IX.

    WESTWARD HO TO PITTSBURGH 191X.

    WASHINGTON, PENNA., AND THE BRADDOCK TRAIL 212XI.

    FORT BEDFORD, HOLLIDAYSBURG AND JENNY LIND 230XII.

    THE CITY OF THE BEAUTIFUL SPRING 248XIII.

    UP THE 8USQUEHANNA TO SUNBURY AND WILKES-BARRE 2607

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    16/425

    CONTENTSXIV.

    A PENNSYLVANIA RETREAT FOR ROYALTY 283

    XV.DOWN THE SCHUYLKILL TO POTTSVILLE AND READING 300XVI.

    ALLENTOWN, BETHLEHEM AND CHESTER 313

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    17/425

    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSHOMEWOOD, NEAR PITTSBURGH, ONCE THE HOME OF JUDGE

    WILLIAM WILKINS FrontispieceTHE OLDEST HOUSE IN DOWNINGTOWN 34THE COATES-LUKENS-HUSTON HOUSE, COATESVILLE 38WINDSOR FORGES, CAERNARVON TOWNSHIP 40HOUSE OF CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL, LANCASTER 48HOUSE OF CALEB COPE, LANCASTER, WHERE ANDRE LODGED 52THE BRETHREN'S CHURCH AND PARSONAGE, LANCASTER 54HOUSE OF EDWARD SHIPPEN OF LANCASTER 54MINIATURES OF MR. AND MRS. JOHN WILKES KITTERA 76

    FROM MINIATURES BY ROBERT FULTONENTRANCE TO MOUNT HOPE MANSION, COUNTRY HOME OF THE

    GRUBB FAMILY FOR OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS 92HOME OF ROBERT COLEMAN AT ELIZABETH FURNACE 94ABBEYVILLE, OLD HOME OF HON. LANGDON CHEVES 102HEMPFIELD, WRIGHT HOUSE, COLUMBIA 106FALLING SPRING CHURCH, CHAMBERSBURG 120THE MCLELLAND HOUSE, CHAMBERSBURG 124DOORWAY OF HOUSE OF DAVID WATTS, ON HANOVER STREET,

    CARLISLE 156MANSION OF ISAAC BROWN PARKER, HIGH STREET, CARLISLE. . . 158HALDEMAN-CAMERON HOUSE, FRONT STREET, HARRISBURG 174OLD HOUSE OF HON. WILLIAM MACLAY, FRONT STREET, HARRISBURQ 176FORMER HOME OF BENJAMIN PAGE, ALLEGHENY 200FRIENDSHIP HILL, FORMER HOME OF HON. ALBERT GALLATIN,

    NEAR UNIONTOWN 222BEN LOMOND, BUILT 1785 BY HENRY BEESON, FOUNDER OF

    UNIONTOWN 222THE SEARIGHT HOUSE, BUILT BY JOSIAH FBOST, PRIOR TO 1821 .. 224

    9

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    18/425

    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSCROCKFORD, BACHELORS* QUARTERS, BEDFORD SPRINGS 236BURNHAM, BUILT IN 1811, ENLARGED BY REUBEN BOND VALEN-

    TINE IN 1857 250THE LINN HOUSE, BUILT IN 1810, STILL RESIDENCE OF LINN

    FAMILY 250DONNEL HOUSE ON MARKET SQUARE, 8UNBURY, OCCUPIED BY

    DONNEL FAMILY OVER 120 YEARS 260FORMER HOME OF REV. JOSEPH PRIESTLY, NORTHUMBERLAND. . . . 264THE PICKERING-ROSS HOUSE, SOUTH MAIN STREET, WILKES-BARRE 278HOME OF COLONEL ZEBULON BUTLER, WILKES-BARRK 278THE MULFORD-LYONS HOUSE, MONTROSE 292TROUT HALL, ALLENTOWN, BUILT BY JAMES ALLEN, IN 1770 310SCHNITZ HOUSE, BETHLEHEM, NOW HEADQUARTERS OF RED CROSS 318"BELL HOUSE" BUILT IN 1746, NOW SINGLE SISTERS HOUSE,

    BETHLEHEM 322EASTER MORNING IN BETHLEHEM GRAVEYARD 322THE LLOYD HOUSE, CHESTER, PA 334LAPIDEA COTTAGE, BUILT 1727, NOW ON ESTATE OF GOVERNOR

    WILLIAM C. SPROUL 334COURT HOUSE, CHESTER, BUILT 1724, RESTORED 1920 340

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    19/425

    IN OLDPENNSYLVANIA TOWNSI

    INTRODUCTIONFROM the days of Oliver Goldsmith and

    Mary Eussell Mitford to our own time, the vil-lage and small town have held a lure for poet,romance writer and chronicler." There is," says Miss Julia Patton, whowrites with enthusiasm of the English village,"something close, intimate and endearing in thevillage idea"; and Mrs. Edward C. Clarke givesa charming picture of village life in America inthe chronicles of her girlhood's home in Canan-daigua, New York.Few among us, even the most inveterateCockney, can remain long insensible to the charmof an English village, to which the passing cen-turies have added a grace that only time can be-stow, and some of our old American villagesand towns, especially those which have beenremote from the broad highways of travel, stillpossess much of the fascination of the Englishvillage. On this side of the water, however, vil-

    11

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    20/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSlages and small towns have a fashion of growinginto large towns and great cities ; yet, in many ofthem, when we get away from main thorough-fares and central squares, with their trolleys,noisy activities and bustle, we still find quietstreets, "soft embowered in trees, " and oldhouses with the lovely porticoes and doorwaysthat belonged to the village of the past.Many of the old Pennsylvania towns treatedof in this book may no longer be spoken of astowns, as they have outgrown such limits andbecome large and prosperous cities, as Chester,Lancaster, Beading, Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre. But most of these, despite their size andimportance, retain something of their villagecharm. In Bethlehem, with all its business ac-tivity and prosperity, the old Moravian settle-ment still holds the stage, its picturesquebuildings being in the center of the town, andwhen there is a Bach festival it is to this oldersection that the visitor turns his footsteps. InBeliefonte, we leave a wide street, full of hand-some, modern residences, climb a steep hillside,and are in the old town, where an early Valen-tine settler built a Friends' Meeting House,which with its moss-grown roof, its stones tintedby the fingers of time into indescribably lovelyshades, is as picturesque on its hilltop as is Jor-dan 's Meeting in its fair English valley.

    Now that good roads in many parts of Penn-12

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    21/425

    INTRODUCTIONsylvania and broad highways, the William Penn,the Lincoln and the National Highway, offerfacilities for reaching our old towns, some in-teresting associations belonging to their history,early and late, may be of interest to the tourist.To gather together some record of these associa-tions, while those still living are able to recallstories, handed down from father to son, of thedays when many of these towns were frontierforts, has been the object of the writer, as wellas to record the recollections of later and event-ful days just before and soon after the CivilWar, while older citizens recall PresidentBuchanan when he was living at Wheatland,near Lancaster; or tell you of President Lin-coln's visits to Lancaster and Harrisburg inFebruary, 1861 ; or describe the handsome faceand figure of Andrew G. Curtin, as he walkedthrough the streets of Beliefonte, before he be-came the noted War Governor of Pennsylvania.Such recollections as these, from eye witnesses,bridge over the years and bring back to us theevents of the past with a fresh and vivid interest.In presenting to her readers the stories ofsome old Pennsylvania towns, the writer wishesit to be understood that many, both old andinteresting, have not been given a place in thisbook simply on account of the limitations of timeand space. A comprehensive review of the his-toric towns of a state in which so much history

    13

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    22/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNShas been made would fill many volumes andwould require the research of a lifetime. Onlythose known to the writer, which have left theirimpress upon her mind, have been included inthese pages.

    Philadelphia and Germantown have beentreated of by so many able writers that they havebeen purposely omitted in the preparation ofthis book.We know our Southern and New Englandtowns and the charm of them ; we love them asa valued share in the life of a great nation; ithas been the good fortune of many of these to be,

    Sung in song, rehearsed in story.

    For some reason the history and romances ofour old Pennsylvania towns have not, to anyconsiderable extent, occupied a place in generalliterature, with the exception, of course, ofPhiladelphia, and yet no state is richer in his-toric associations than the old Keystone.

    The ignorance of otherwise intelligent per-sons with regard to the past events and presentattainments of Pennsylvania has of late yearsbeen impressed upon the writer. As, for in-stance, in talking to an ordinarily intelligent andtraveled young person from Boston, when somepictures were shown her of Colonial houses stillstanding in some of the southern Pennsylvaniatowns, she said, "Dutch Colonial, I suppose."

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    23/425

    INTRODUCTION"No, English Colonial, " was the answer."Oh! I supposed Pennsylvania was settled

    entirely by Dutch. ""Where do you think all of our English,Scotch and French names came from?" was therejoinder. "In point of fact, Pennsylvania hada greater diversity of nationality in her earlysettlement than any other state in the Union. "Even more surprising are some remarks re-corded in a rather recent publication called "AHoosier Holiday, ' ' in which two persons touringthrough Pennsylvania remark upon the small-ness and insignificance of the population.The census reports, of course, give the mostconvincing facts with regard to population, sothere is no need to answer this criticism. Theauthor, Mr. Theodore Dreisler, continues insomewhat the same vein: "But what aboutPennsylvania anyhow ? Why hasn 't it producedanything in particular? . . . For now thatwe had come to think of it we could not recallanyone in American political history or art orscience who had come from Pennsylvania. Wil-liam Penn (a foreigner) occurred to me, Ben-jamin Franklin and a certain Civil War gov-ernor of the name of Cameron, and thereI stuck."

    Mr. Dreisler remembers Benjamin Franklin,to be sure; but of "the Civil War governorby the name of Cameron" we must confess ig-norance. He certainly could not confuse any

    2 15

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    24/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSother name with that of Governor Curtin; or,with that of Cameron, represented by the twoSenators, father and son, which is equallywell known.

    It seems strange that Mr. Dreisler did nothappen to remember Eobert Morris, whofinanced the Revolution; or Stephen Girard,who did more than any one man to finance theWar of 1812.

    "But where arethepoets,writers,painters?"asked Mr. Dreisler 's traveling companion.

    ' i I paused. Not a name occurred to me. ' 'Had he never heard of a certain Penn-sylvania Quaker painter, Benjamin West, whowas president of the Royal Academy in Londonfor many years, whose paintings were so highlyvalued that the King of England refused tohave them leave the country unless replicaswere furnished by the artist? Jacob Eicholtz,of Lancaster, was an artist of considerable note,as wereWilliamT.Richards and a host of others,including JohnW.Alexander, of Pittsburgh ; andas to science, the Hoosier tourists must, at thetime, have been passing quite near the birthplaceof one of the greatest scientists and inventorsthat America has produced. A few miles south ofLancaster Eobert Fulton was born, who in-vented the first working submarine and the firststeamboat that made a successful trip. Indeed,William Henry, of Lancaster, and John Fitch

    16

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    25/425

    INTRODUCTIONboth worked on the steamboat with considerablesuccess about the same time ; and another scien-tist, too important to be overlooked, wasAmerica's greatest astronomer, David Rit-tenhouse, a Pennsylvanian; and by far itsmost celebrated early botanist was John Bar-tram, another Pennsylvanian.As to Pennsylvania writers, they rise uplike a cloud of witnesses, early and late, toomany to speak of; but we cannot refrain frommentioning such well-known authors as Dr.S. Weir Mitchell, whose works have been sowidely read, the two distinguished Shakespear-ean scholars, Dr. Horace Howard Furness andhis son, and to go further back in the years, thisState may claim the honor of being the home ofthe first American playwright, Thomas Godfrey,and the first American novelist, CharlesBrockden Brown. Then Bayard Taylor hasdone much and well in poetry and fiction andGeorge H. Boker's poems and plays are receiv-ing more and fuller recognition as the years goon; while Margaret Deland, one of our leadingnovelists, it should not be forgotten, was bornand spent her early years in Allegheny,Pennsylvania.

    Mr. Dreisler may well ask "What aboutPennsylvania anyhow1" The trouble seems tobe that this state does not sufficiently appre-ciate and make much of the work being done

    17

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    26/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSwithin her own borders, and for that reasonit is not recognized by those outside of it. Thisis the more remarkable because no state hasbeen endowed with more painstaking and effi-cient chroniclers. To such local historians ofthe past as the late John Blair Linn, Esq., ofBeliefonte; James Pyle Wickersham, LL.D.,and the Honorable W. U. Hensel, of Lancaster ;Dr. Charles H. Himes, of Carlisle; Dr. AlfredNevin, the Reverend Horace E. Hayden, ofWilkes-Barre; Dr. W. H. Egle, of Harrisburg;Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, and Dr. F. D.Stone, of Philadelphia, and Mr. Samuel Evans,of Columbia, the Pennsylvania historian of thefuture will owe a lasting debt of gratitude.

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    27/425

    IIEN ROUTE TO LANCASTERTo visit some of the old historic towns of

    Pennsylvania had been a cherished plan of minefor several years, and this year of grace 1917,and of war also, alas ! fortune seemed to favormy desires. Kathleen Davis, who is a youngwidow and consequently quite free to follow herown sweet will, came to me one morning to dis-cuss her summer plans. July and August, shesaid, were filled with engagements in variousdirections, but a part of June was not providedfor. Here was my opportunity, Kathleen beingthe fortunate possessor of a Eolls-Eoyce andof an exceptionally good chauffeur, so I modestlysuggested atourtosome old Pennsylvania towns."That sounds attractive," said Kathleen."I know ever so many New England towns, ofcourse, and love them, and some of the Southerntowns, like beautiful old Williamsburg andCharleston and Savannah; but I must confessthat I don't know any of the towns in my ownstate. I fancy they are all very much alike. ' '

    1 ' That is just where you are mistaken, ' ' saidI in as severe a tone as it was possible to usein speaking to any one as charming as Kath-leen. "On the contrary, they are quite indi-

    19

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    28/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSvidual in their characteristics; Lancaster andBeliefonte differ as widely as Salem and Stock-bridge, and then Washington, Bethlehem andWilkes-Barre are again quite different types. ""That sounds still more attractive. Let mego with you, Serena, and try to complete my im-perfect education; and let us ask your friend,Sarah Bruce, to bear us company, and give usthe history of every town as we pass through it.I am sure that Wright will enjoy this tour also,as he came from one of the old Pennsylvaniatowns, Chambersburg; or perhaps it is Carlisle.I do hope that he may not be called to the colorsbefore we finish our tour."

    Kathleen is a very patriotic woman and hadaccomplished an almost incredible amount ofwar work during the spring; but when the ques-tion of relinquishing her invaluable chauffeur tothe Government was mooted, her spirit ofself-sacrifice failed to rise to the occasion.A few days before starting on our tour ofdiscovery I became the happy possessor of alittle book with the alliterative title of "A Pleas-ant Peregrination Through the Prettiest Partsof Pennsylvania, ' ' in which the writer, one Pere-grine Prolix, described a journey from Phila-delphia to Pittsburgh in 1836, the first lap ofthe trip being over the recently-constructedColumbia Railroad. We were much interestedin contrasting the journey of Mr. Prolix withour own projected trip.

    20

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    29/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERAfter a tour through Philadelphia in an ac-

    commodating omnibus which picked up men,women and children at Eleventh and GeorgeStreets, Arch and Ninth Streets and at otherplaces, all were transferred to a railroad car,that started from the depot on Broad Street,which was drawn by four fine horses. This carconveyed the passengers to the inclined planeon the western bank of the Schuylkill which wasapproached by a spacious viaduct. * lAt the footof the inclined plane the horses were loosedfrom the cars, several of which were tied to anendless rope, moved by a steam engine placedon top of the plane, and finally began to mountthe acclivity with the speed of five miles anhour. . . . when the cars had all arrived atthe top of the plane, some twelve or fourteenwere strung together like beads, and fastenedto the latter end of a steam tug. . . . The in-clined plane is more than nine hundred yards inlength and has a perpendicular rise of aboutone hundred and seventy feet. ' ' *"We left the inclined plane at ten o'clock,"said Mr. Prolix, "and were scheduled to reachLancaster the same afternoon." This novelconveyance appears to have made good speed,as Mr. Prolix recorded that they reached Lan-caster at three o'clock in the afternoon, a greatimprovement upon the journey described by an-

    1 Prolix's Pleasant Peregrinations.21

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    30/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSother annalist, which involved a stop overnightat an inn, far from luxurious, where bed linenbeing scarce, a table-cloth was given one of theparty in lieu of a sheet.We set forth upon our tour of discovery inPennsylvania in the sort of car that was onlydreamed of in the days of Mr. Prolix, by OliverEvans, of Philadelphia, and a few others of hisilk, who projected their minds into the futureand had visions of journeys in what were spokenof as horseless carriages. Our point of de-parture was from a portion of Philadelphiagiven over, in 1836, to Schuylkill Rangers, goatsand stray cows. From this now closely-built-uppart of the city we made our way by Twenty-first Street to the Parkway, still incomplete butpromising great beauty and utility, and onthrough the Green Street entrance to the mostextensive and beautiful park in the world. Bythe boathouses on the banks of the Schuylkilland by the winding ways of the East Park wesped along, having on our left the old Mt.Pleasant Mansion, spoken of usually as theBenedict Arnold house, but known further backin history by the more popular name of theMcPherson mansion, having been built by oneJohn McPherson, a Scotchman of the clan ofthe McPhersons of Clunie. This house, some-what modernized, is now used by an automobileclub. We passed by many interesting old man-

    22

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    31/425

    EN EOUTEITO LANCASTERsions Solitude, the home of John Penn and thelast bit of property owned by the Penn familyin the state of Pennsylvania, where they hadheld such vast estates. Our way led us by Bel-mont, the hospitable home of the witty JudgePeters, where General Washington was so oftena guest, and by Sweetbriar, once the home of thedelightful annalist, Mr. Samuel Breck. Motor-ing by these old houses, that are now the prop-erty of the city of Philadelphia, we rejoiced inthe thought that they will ever stand as historiclandmarks linking the coming generations withthe storied past, with the days when Washing-ton, Jefferson, Adams and Lafayette drove outhere, by practically the same roads that are usedtoday, to dine and sup in these old mansions.We crossed the Schuylkill at the Falls bridge,and by devious ways reached the MontgomeryPike and the General Wayne Inn, a famoushostelry in stage-coaching days, offering, asit did, refreshment for man and beast, inthe first stage of the journey from Philadelphiato Lancaster.

    As late as the last quarter of the nine-teenth century the General Wayne was a favor-ite summer resort for Philadelphians, the daysof its greatest glory being those when MissEmily Schomberg and her mother spentsome weeks of the summer at the hotel.The celebrated Philadelphia beauty brought

    23

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    32/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSto this old inn certain foreign fashions,as she always had her breakfast in her roomsand never appeared in the drawing-roomuntil later in the day, beautifully gowned andwearing an extremely becoming hat whichcrowned rather than concealed her luxuriantdark hair. Here Miss Schomberg held some-thing of a court, as many persons in the neigh-borhood came to call upon her, all of whom shereceived with a certain charm and graciousnessfor which she was noted as much as for hergreat beauty. In the evening she would oftengive the guests of the old inn the pleasure ofhearing* her fine, well-trained voice, while aCount d'E , who came from Philadelphiaevery afternoon to call upon Miss Schomberg,would turn the sheets of her music. The pictureof the Philadelphia beauty at the piano, charm-ing the guests of the General Wayne, whilewaiting maids and stable boys stood outside bythe open windows listening to songs from Italy,England, Germany and France, seems to belongto another world than ours, in view of the popu-larity of the pianola, the victrola and all of theother devices that have been introduced to takethe place of the human voice since those goodold days in the seventies when Miss Schombergsang her songs to a most appreciative audienceat the old hostelry.

    Within a short distance of the General24

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    33/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERWayne Inn is the Merion Meeting House, and afew miles farther on our way we came upon an-other historic landmark, known as the OwenJones house, although built by Robert Owen, ofMerionethshire,Wales, in 1695, as appears fromthe date carved on the cornerstone. This house,once surrounded by over four hundred acres, isstill in good preservation and has become anattractive roadside tea-house.Between Haverford and Bryn Mawr wepassed the Buck Tavern, built in 1730. This oldhostelry was particularly interesting to Kath-leen, as she remembered that her grandfatherhad told her that he and his family, when jour-neying to Bedford Springs in their coach, al-ways stopped at the Buck Tavern for breakfast,with appetites sharpened by a nine-mile drive.And then, to go still further back in history,the main body of Washington's army was en-camped near here. In a letter to Congress,under date of September 15, 1777, the Gen-eral wrote:

    At the Buek Tavern,Three o'clock, P.M.We are moving up this road [the old Lancaster Road]

    to get between the enemy and Swede's Ford, and to preventthem from turning our right flank."All the country through which we were pass-

    ing is filled with associations of Eevolution-ary days, especially of those weeks in the au-tumn of 1777, when the two generals, Washing-

    25

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    34/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSton and Howe, were playing their spirited gameof hide-and-seek north and west of Philadelphia,within an area of twenty-five or thirty miles.

    After leaving the Buck Tavern we passed bythe lovely grounds and fine buildings of Haver-ford College; by White Hall, once famous forits summer gayeties, its dances and amateurtheatricals, as Mr. John W. Townsend has re-called to us so vividly in his interesting story ofthe "Main Line"; by Bryn Mawr College, withits wonderful gates and its beautiful campus,and so on to St. Davids, through a fine stretchof rolling, intensively-cultivated country.

    Every road in this region passes over his-toric ground ; every path has its legend ; nearlyevery house its own traditions. We should needweeks instead of hours in which to enjoy it all,as Sarah reminded us; but we could not passthis way without stopping at the beautiful oldchurch of St. Davids, often as we had seen it.This is the most perfect example of a Colonialcountry church, dignified and yet simple in itslines, as every rural church should be. It is notstrange that this ancient sanctuary, with itsstone walls draped with ivy and its beautifulchurch yard, shaded by great trees, should haveimpressed one of our distinguished Americanpoets. Simplicity and dignity are harmoniouslyunited in this historic building dedicated to thepatron saint of Wales, settlers from which

    26

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    35/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERcountry built the church here in 1715, the curiousoutside stairway having been added much later.North of Stratford Station we found thequaint little Eagle School House,which, throughthe interest and public spirit of some citizensof Kadnor Township, notably Mr. Henry Pleas-ant, Jr., has been restored and opened for apublic library and reading-room. In the groundsa number of Revolutionary soldiers were buried,and after sleeping for over a hundred years inan unmarked grave, a tablet with a beautifuland appropriate inscription has been placedover their last resting-place.Near Devon, where the Sugartown road in-tersects the old Church road, we noticed a hand-some house with a beautiful lawn sloping gentlydown to a pond. The beauty of the place andTarleton, the name on the gate-post, interestedus, and we turned to our ever-helpful Antiquary,who, as usual, was able to meet our demand.

    "This house," she said, "was a farm housein Colonial days, the hill on which it stands beingan important outpost of the patriot army dur-ing the winter of 1778, when the main body ofWashington's army was at Valley Forge.Young Harry Lee was posted at the farm house,which then stood here, for the purpose of de-flecting supplies intended for the British armyin Philadelphia. Lee's command consisted offourteen men detailed from Colonel Theodoric

    27

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    36/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSEland's Virginia regiment. General Howe,having learned from Tory spies in the neighbor-hood of the isolated position of this farm house,and being in need of supplies from the richcountry surrounding it, detached two hundredtroopers under Tarleton to make a detour ofPhiladelphia and surprise Lee. The youngofficer and the men under him made so gallanta resistance against overwhelming numbers,that they finally succeeded in holding the fort.After this engagement the Commander-ini Chiefwrote Lee a personal letter commending him andhis command for their i gallant behaviour, ' andwith the approval of Congress advanced him tothe rank of major with a command of two troopsof horse, in addition to which he recommendedthe men under him for promotion. This wasone of the many engagements in which Lee,afterwards known as ' Lighthorse Harry,' dis-tinguished himself and won the commendationof General Washington, with whom he was agreat favorite. ' '

    The present owners of the property, Dr. andMrs. George C. Stout, although they havegreatly enlarged the house and beautified thegrounds, have retained the old name, Tarleton.Lee would be more appropriate, as it was Light-horse Harry who conferred distinction upon theplace ; but old names cling to certain localities,and it is usually a mistake to change them.

    28

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    37/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERNear Paoli we turned from the pike to have

    a look at Waynesborough, the birthplace ofGeneral Anthony Wayne, a fine stone house ingood preservation, where we had often been re-ceived by the late General and Mrs. WilliamWayne, and sat upon the self-same, high-backedhorsehair sofa upon which General AnthonyWayne, Lafayette and many Revolutionaryheroes had sat. The old house is kept much as itwas in the days of General Wayne, and as itstands to-day with its substantial walls, shadedby great trees, it is a picturesque landmark ofhistoric value that should be preserved for alltime. General Anthony Wayne is buried in thebeautiful grounds of St. David's Church. Hedied at Erie, Pennsylvania, whither he had goneto take possession of certain posts for theUnited States at Majora, Oswego, Miami andDelevit, which were surrendered by the English.While at Erie the General became seriously ill,died December, 1796, and was buried, accordingto his wish, on Garrison Hill, north of the pres-ent Soldiers' Home. In 1809 Colonel IsaacWayne had his father's remains removed andplaced in the family burial ground at St. David'sChurch, Radnor. This region is filled with asso-ciations of General Wayne, but we were glad tohave the discrepancy between the date of his*death and that of his burial at St. David'sChurch explained by Sarah, who well deserves

    29

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    38/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSthe title of Antiquary which we have bestowedupon her.

    On the right-hand side of the pike, nearPaoli, a tavern stands, once the General Jack-son, now the Franklin. The old Paoli Inn waslong since destroyed by fire, and no new build-ing has taken its place. The name Paoli hasoften puzzled us ; but here again our Antiquarywas able to answer our question. The Paoli, shesaid, was named after Pachal Paoli, a Corsicanpatriot, who at the time of the opening of theinn was living in exile in England and, althoughunsuccessful, was looked upon as the idealpatriot and champion of liberty. Paoli 's effortsfor the freedom of Corsica were frustrated bythe purchase of the island from the Genoese byFrance, and General Paoli, after an heroicstruggle, became an exile."That is all very interesting, " I said, "butwhy was the inn named after General Paoli ?""No one knows exactly why," said the Anti-quary, who usually had a reason for everything,"except that liberty was in the air just then,and some enthusiast had been reading aboutGeneral Paoli. ' '

    After passing Paoli and climbing the steephills between that station and Green Tree, a fineview of the beautiful Chester Valley, with thehills near Valley Forge in the distance, openedbefore us. Old Green Tree Inn, a familiar

    30

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    39/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERlandmark for many years, was destroyed whenthe Pennsylvania Railroad straightened itsroadbed in 1877, the new line running directlythrough the inn. At Malvern we were remindedthat the first railroad car on the new road tothe West Chester Intersection had arrived herein October, 1832. This car, which took the placeof the Lancaster mail coach, was drawn by twohorses and accommodated thirty passengers.The old-time route was giveni ' ' from the ancientCourt House, Second and Market Streets, tothe Lancaster Court House. ' 'A short distance south and west of the littletown of Malvern, on Monument Avenue, is atall monument which marks the site of what hasbeen known for many years as the Paoli Mas-sacre. This, according to Dr. Charles J. Stille,and other able historians, is a misnomer, as theso-called massacre was nothing more or lessthan a night attack, not as much of a surpriseas Washington gave the Hessians at Trentonin December, 1776. The difference between thetwo affairs seems to have been that Wayne'smen resisted, fought like free Americans, as hesaid, and sixty-one of the command of twelvehundred were killed and a number wounded,while at Trenton the Hessian mercenaries werecaptured to the number of nearly 2 one thousand.A local tradition, still believed by some per-

    2 General Washington's report to Congress, Headquarters,Newtown, 27 December, 1776.3 31

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    40/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSsons in the neighborhood, was related to us by afriendly guide to the effect that, at the timeof General Grey's attack, General Wayne wasasleep in a little house still standing near themonument He is said to have escaped, half-clad, to Waynesborough, his home, several milesdistant. There is no foundation whatever forthis story; indeed, the official report of theaffair entirely contradicts it. General Waynewas in command of his troops and seems to havedone all that was possible to prepare them toresist the enemy, in the very short notice givenhim by a resident of Chester County, whom hespoke of as "a Mr. Jones, an old Gent'n wholives nearby where we were encamped."

    After leaving Malvern we passed under therailroad bridge and reached The Warren, as itis called to-day, a famous hostelry in its time,whose swinging sign once bore the name andpicture of Admiral Vernon, and after the Revo-lution that of the patriot general, Joseph War-ren, who died for his country at Bunker Hill.

    These old roadside taverns, with their pic-turesque names, The Horse and Groom, The OldWhite Horse, the Rising Sun, The Hat, and TheShip, tempt one to linger over their history andassociations; but our Antiquary reminded usthat this work had been admirably and exhaust-ively done by Mr. Julius F. Sachse, Dr. JohnT. Faris and other Pennsylvania chroniclers,32

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    41/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERand that our object was to see some of the oldPennsylvania towns.

    Downingtown, our next objective point, was,she said, sufficiently ancient to please us, hav-ing been surveyed as early as 1702 for JosephCloud, Jeremiah Collett, Robert Vernon andDaniel Smith, all of whom took up land here.A short distance from The Warren we wereattracted by a signboard, To Swedesford Manor,and being out for pleasure and not scheduledto reach Lancaster at any particular time, weconcluded, with the approval of the Antiquary,to make a short detour in order to see the oldCoxe and Emlen country seat, once known asSolitude, now Swedesford Manor. As we ap-proached the grounds, nothing looked familiarto us, except the water tower, a fine new barnand outbuildings having taken the place of theold farm buildings and the site of the originalhouse being now occupied by a handsome Eliza-bethan structure, built by the present owner ofthe property, Mr. Clarence S. Kates. He hap-pened to be in the courtyard when we motoredup to the house, and, recognizing Sarah as anold acquaintance, he courteously showed us hisbeautiful library, hall and dining-room, in allof which the wood-carving is very fine. Indeed,the house, inside and out, reminded us stronglyof Haddon Hall in England.

    Returning to the pike, we passed a number33

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    42/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSof attractive country places with lawns shadedby fine old trees, among these the home of theBeverend William Bull, the date, 1799, in thefront of the house, attesting to its antiquity.Near Downingtown is the Cain meeting-house, one of the most picturesque of the oldmeetings, set aloof a,s it is, shaded by great foresttrees and surrounded by a rich farming country.Of it John Eussel Hayes, the bard of manyFriends Meetings, might well say, as he said ofanother old sanctuary:

    The best of old and new are truly blentIn this old house among the ancient trees,Set round with slopes of wheat and fragrant cornThat sway and waver in the summer breeze.Although East and West Downingtown now

    form a busy, prosperous center, the older townstill holds much of the village charm of whatwas once "Downing's Town," as Eobert Brookecalled it in his survey of 1806, and here are manypicturesque old houses. One that particularlyinterested us with its beautifulColonialdoor wasformerly the home of one of the Edge family, agreat-uncle of Walter E. Edge, recently Gov-ernor of New Jersey, and now United StatesSenator. The tea-house, where we stopped forsome light refreshment, was the residence ofone of the early Downings. Thomas Downingbought nearly six hundred acres of land here asearly as 1739. Phineas Eachus was another34.

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    43/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    44/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    45/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERearly settler; his field, according to an old sur-vey, separating the Great Valley Road from thePhiladelphia Road, the latter the highway uponwhich we were so joyously traveling. FromEast Downingtown we crossed the Brandywineto West Downingtown, and, turning to the rightat the Baptist Church, according to the direc-tions given us by one of the townspeople, wegained the Harrisburg Turnpike, crossedBeaver Creek and by a country road reachedthe charming old Valentine house, of which wewere in search, now the home of Miss Edge.Beaver Creek, which later joins the Brandy-wine, flows by the lawn on one side ; on the otherside and across the road is an old mill in whichflour was ground for the Revolutionary Army.The house, to which a modern gable end hasbeen added, was built by Robert Valentine in1768. After his death his widow left the home-stead and removed to Bellefonte with her fivesons and a pack of hounds. Other possessionsMrs. Robert Valentine may have carried withher to her new home, but the five sons and thepack of hounds seem to have been the only be-longings considered worthy of mention.Soon after our return to the highway wepassed the site of the old Ship Tavern, now aprivate residence. A local chronicler says thatthe Ship was generally known as "The WidowEvans ', ' * as it was kept for over forty years by

    85

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    46/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSMistress Susie Evans, of whom he tells thefollowing story :"Along about sixty-five years ago Mr. Cham-bers, the celebrated divine and temperance lec-turer, came up from Philadelphia to deliver alecture on temperance at Grove, in ChesterCounty. He left the train at Oakland Station,now Whitford, and before going across he en-tered the hotel at that place and requested Mr.Boyer to give him 'a strong cup of coffee/ AMrs. Evans, who kept the Ship Tavern, in thesame township, heard of the incident, and in thepresence of some parties she made use of theexpression that she wished he had come to herwith that request, adding, 'I would have madeit strong enough for him/ From which ex-pression, it appeared very evident that Mis-tress Susie Evans would not have voted for pro-hibition, if the question had been put to thevote in her time.

    Again we crossed the very winding Brandy-wine, this time the west branch, which risessomewhere in the Welsh Mountains, and werespeeding through Coatesville. This town, beau-tifully situated as it is, is so beclouded by thesmoke of its many steel and iron furnaces thatwe are wont to forget its beauty and think of itonly as a busy manufacturing town, one of thegreat centers of production that has done muchto make Pennsylvania "The Industrial Titanof America, " as John Oliver La Gorce has been

    36

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    47/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERpleased to name it. There are, however, oldstreets in Coatesville and fine, old homes, as itwas settled in early times, and named afterMoses Coates, who came to Pennsylvania withhis wife, about 1717, bringing a certificate fromCarow, Ireland, to the Haverford Monthly Meet-ing. He afterwards owned a large part of theland in and around what is now Coatesville andlived in a house still standing on First Avenuewhich was later the home of Dr.and Mrs. CharlesLukens. Mrs. Lukens was a daughter of IsaacPennock, who purchased from the Coates familythe saw mill and water-power mill in 1810,which he then proceeded to change into an ironmill. Dr. Charles Lukens, Mr. Pennock 's son-in-law, came into the business in 1813, being thefirst person in America to make iron plate forthe construction of boilers. On the death ofher husband, Mrs. Lukens carried on the busi-ness successfully for many years. As a tributeto the memory of this able woman, the nameof the works was changed to Lukens SoilingMills, the name before that time having been theBrandywine Mills. Later, through the marriageof Dr. and Mrs. Lukens ' daughter Isabella toDr Charles Huston, the mills came into the pos-session of the Huston family, who still own themand have the distinction of making in them thelargest steel plates ever produced, large enoughto form the crown and sides of a locomotive inone piece.

    37

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    48/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSThe house to which Dr. and Mrs. Lukens

    came soon after their marriage was consideredold, even in 1816, as a part of it was built overa hundred years before, and the portion addedby Moses Coates dated back to days before theEevolution. Mrs. Charles Huston, in writingher recollections of this, her early home, spokeof the fine trees and beautiful garden surround-ing it, and of its remoteness from the busyworld. In 1873 life in Coatesville had changed :"The advent of the Pennsylvania Railroadinto our midst was a most exciting event. Fiftyyear ago, probably, my mother, standing in herown doorway, and looking northward, said toher uncle, Joseph Webb :" 'I shall not be surprised one day to see arailroad upon the side of yonder hills. '" 'That,' he replied, * would be a miraclewhich could never happen in my time. Theycould not cross that gorge through which theBrandywine flows.'" 'Yes,' said my mother, 'they could easilyspan it with a bridge'; and so they did, but itdid not happen until after my uncle's death.

    ' ' I remember, when a child, waiting for hourson the hill to see the first engine upon the road.In fact, the whole community turned out ingreat excitement to gaze at the novelty and tohear the first echoes reverberating among thehills. Now, the Wilmington and Beading Rail-road traverses the valley of the Brandywine,

    38

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    49/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    50/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    51/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERintersecting the Pennsylvania Railroad atCoatesville, and the old mansion is near thenoisy angle formed by both."On the left-hand side of the Lincoln High-way, which runs directly through the town, wewere attracted by a fine old house with balconiesin front, now the Washington House.

    After leaving Coatesville we passed throughthe Gap, a natural passageway between the hills,and were in Lancaster County. Here again asignboard, this one marked " To Honey Brook,"beguiled us from the straight road of travel,and we were soon speeding along the HoneyBrook road toward Windsor Forges andChurchtown, both in Caernarvon Township.

    Honey Brook is a typical old Pennsylvaniatown, with its houses, post-office and countrystore all being set near the sidewalk. Why thehouses are thus placed in so many Pennsylvaniatowns, the garden and everything in the way ofbeauty at the rear of the house, is a question thathas never been satisfactorily answered, al-though various reasons have been given, moreor less plausible.

    After a bit of poor road and after crossinga bridge, we suddenly came upon the beautifulold mansion of Windsor Forges, whose extendedfagade, with latticed windows and wide invitingdoorway, is separated from the road by alawn and some fine trees. The hospitablechatelaine, who had always welcomed us to her

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    52/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNShome, was away, so the caretaker informed us ;but learning that we were friends of MissNevin, we were allowed to enter the grounds,and from an octagonal porch at the back of thehouse to enjoy the lawn, terraced down to theConestoga, making, with the shrubbery, shadetrees and parterres of old-fashioned flowers, acharming setting for the long, low mansion,which holds many memories of the past. Noth-ing is left of the old forge, or of the workmen 'shouses, which were situated on the windingConestoga, the Crooked Creek of the Indiansof this region ; but some remains are still to beseen of the cave or dugout in which the firstsettler, John Jenkins, is said to have lived untilhe was able to build a house for the shelter ofhimself and his family. Mr. Jenkins, with otherpioneers from Wales, first settled in ChesterCounty and later, tempted by a desire to furtherexplore this beautiful and fertile region, theypushed on westward and established themselvesin what is now Caernarvon Township, to whichthey gave its Welsh name. This was in the earlyyears of the nineteenth century, the mansionhouse and the forges were built later, some timein the forties, by William Branson, of Philadel-phia, who owned the property for some years,and not being disposed to belittle the importanceof his possession, named his residence after thepalace of the King of England. David Jenkins,a son of the original owner, bought back Wind-

    40

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    53/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    54/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    55/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERsor Forges, with the mansion house, which hasbeen in possession of the family ever since. MissBlanche Nevin, the well-known sculptor, a great-granddaughter of the original settler, still makesher home during a portion of the year in thebeautiful old mansion.

    On the lawn is a substantial little stonehouse, which was built for the storing of foodand ammunition in the event of an attack by theIndians. This house may not have been usedfor the purpose for which it was designed, asthe Indians in this neighborhood seem to havebeen friendly. Mrs. John W. Nevin, a directdescendant of the first John Jenkins of WindsorForges, in her recollections, spoke of an Indiansettlement near Churchtown, and she said thather father, the Hon. Robert Jenkins, told her ofhunting and fishing, in his boyhood, with thesefriendly neighboring Indians.We passed through the pretty little villageof Churchtown, so named after the church builtthere about 1730 by Welsh settlers, a charterinsuring them the privilege of "the free exer-cise" of their religion having been given themby William Penn some years earlier.An interesting social life existed in this partof Pennsylvania not unlike the plantation lifeof Virginia. We find associated with Mr. Wil-liam Branson at Windsor Forges, SamuelFlower, Richard Hockley and Lynford Lardner,of Philadelphia, and in the building up of the

    41

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    56/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNStown and the church many persons were inter-ested whose names belong to the social life ofPhiladelphia, Pittsburgh and other cities,among these were the large and influential Jen-kins, Nevin, Old, Jacobs and Coleman families.Mr. Robert Coleman, of Elizabeth Furnace, oneof the noted iron masters of Pennsylvania, was agenerous contributor to the little church, towhich the town owes its name, as was Mr. CyrusJacobs, who built a fine old mansion, White Hall,near Churchtown.

    By devious ways, and some roads not to berecommended to the automobilist, we returnedto our good friend, the Lincoln Highway.As we motored through Lancaster County,we did not wonder that some of the early settlersof Chester County, beautiful as it is, had pushedon to the west into what was later to be knownas Lancaster County, a veritable garden region.The fact that the settlers here had named theirtownships Eden and Paradise shows how trulythey appreciated their richly productive lands.

    The Lincoln Highway runs through Para-dise, a pretty little country town twelve milessouth and east of Lancaster; the most noteddwelling here to-day is the beautiful countryseat of Justice I.Hay Brown,whose well-woodedlawn slopes down to the road. A little fartherwest on the Highway was David Witmer's bricktavern, l ' The Sign of the Stage ' ' ; another houseowned by David Witmer is now the residence

    42

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    57/425

    EN ROUTE TO LANCASTERof Judge C. I. Landis, who has written an inter-esting story of the first long turnpike in theUnited States. This house, once a wayside inn,bears a tablet which records the fact that it wasbuilt in 1781 by David and Esther Witmer. Oneof the interesting traditions of the house is thatGeneral Washington stopped here when return-ing from one of his expeditions to the westernpart of the state. Opposite the house a "hempmill" stood, and, as the story runs, GeneralWashington wished to see a "hemp mill' ' with aview to putting one up at Mount Vernon. "Un-fortunately, the person who operated the millfor his benefit removed some of the bracing, anda plank, coming in contact with the rapidly-moving machinery, injured the operator andstartled the guest. Because of this unfortunateaccident, the General concluded that he hadno use for the machine. ' '

    Another interesting association with this his-toric town is the Marquis de Lafayette's visitin 1825. Before the hostelry was a marble"upping block" upon which the French visitoralighted and upon which he stood to receive anumber of persons who were eagerly awaitinghis arrival. The old ' ' upping block ' ' still standsbefore the home of Judge Landis.

    Through an exquisitely beautiful country,filled with interesting associations, we sped ontoward Lancaster, crossed the Conestoga andwere in the old city.

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    58/425

    IllTHE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNAT a first glance, Lancaster appears to the

    tourist as a busy, modern city, with its factoriesand many lines of trolleys running in as manydirections, but after crossing the Square andwalking along Lime Street we found in shadedstreets and quiet corners many associations withthe old life of a town which, after Philadelphia,was for years the most important political andsocial center in Pennsylvania. The town of Lan-caster is fairly old, having been laid out between1729 and 1732, the two Hamiltons, Andrew Ham-ilton, Esq., and his son James, both having ahand in its planning. Here we find the CentreSquare, dear to the early settler of Pennsyl-vania, reminiscent, as it was, of the old Englishtown which he had left for the New World. Sucha Centre Square as William Penn planned forPhiladelphia, Lancaster has to-day, except thatthe good Founder's Centre Square wa,s to bekept "fair and green, " and that of Lancasteris far too busy and bustling to admit of grassgrowing upon it. Everything in Lancastercomes to and goes from the Square, and thereis no trace of the older town here, although the

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    59/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNold Court House once stood in Centre, or PennSquare, as it was then called. A still olderbuilding, the log court-house, or Postlethwait 'sTavern, accommodated the early justices ofLancaster. It was in an early and primitivecourt-house that the governors of Pennsylvania,Maryland, Delaware and Virginia met the In-dian chiefs of the Six Nations in 1744 and lis-tened to their complaints against the whitesettlers. Of this conference Miss Martha BladenClark gives an interesting description gleanedfrom old records and diaries.1 After the formalmeetings of the conference were over, a dancewas given near the home of Mr. Thomas Cook-son, where Governor* Thomas was stopping1.This Indian dance seems to have been of a war-like nature, as it represented the Indians in theact of besieging a fort of their enemies, and inview of tragic Indian massacres in several ofthe Colonies about this time, the dance, givenin honor of the Commissioners, could not havebeen looked upon by the inhabitants of Lancas-ter as an unalloyed pleasure. The savages,however, seem to have retired peacefully totheir wigwams at the conclusion of the dance,after being treated to light refreshment in theform of sangaree. Of a dinner given to thetwenty-four chiefs of the Six Nations, Mr. Wil-

    1 " The Hamilton Grant " by Martha Bladen Clark, Secre-tary of the Lancaster Historical Society.

    45

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    60/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSliam Marshe, Secretary to the Maryland Com-missioners, recorded in his diary that the din-ner, which seems to have been given by theCommissioners from Maryland, was in theCourt House, and was attended by the Governorof Pennsylvania (George Thomas) and a greatmany gentlemen from other Colonies. " Therewas, ' ' said Mr. Marshe, * ' a large number of in-habitants of Lancaster present to see the Indiansdine. We had five tables, great variety of dishesand served up in very good order. The Sachemssat at two separate tables, at the head of onethe famous Cannasateego sat, and the otherswere placed according to their rank. As theIndians are not accustomed to eat in the samemanner as the English or other polite nationsdo, we who were secretaries on this affair, withMr. Thomas Cookson, Prothonotary of Lan-caster County; William Logan, Esq., son of Mr.President Logan, and Mr. Nathaniel Eigbie, ofBaltimore County, in Maryland, carved the meatfor them, served them with cider and wine mixedwith water and regulated the ceremony of thetwo tables. The chiefs drank heartily and werevery greasy before they finished their dinner,for by the bye they make no use of forks. Con-rad Weiser, the interpreter, was a guest at thedinner. He was highly respected by the In-dians. Many other prominent men were at thedinner, I presume, as they were members of the

    46

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    61/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNIndian Treaty, viz.: Eev. Thomas Craddock,rector of St. Thomas Parish, Baltimore; Ed-mund Jennings, at one time secretary of theHonorable Commissioners of Maryland; PeterWorrall, who keeps an inn in Lancaster, andwhere we procured a room and a dinner;Andrew Hamilton, son of the distinguished law-yer of that name; James Hamilton, the pro-prietor of Lancaster, who also made the balland opened it by dancing two minutes with twoof the ladies here, which last danced wilder timethan any Indians ; George Sanderson, who keptan inn, and the first town clerk of the borough ofLancaster; Honorable Colonel Thomas Lee andColonel William Beverly, both Virginia Com-missioners, both worthy descended, with HisExcellency Thomas Bladen, Esq., Governor ofthe Province of Maryland."Our Antiquary left us in Lancaster, as shewas bent upon some explorations farther north,in Bradford County, where she had heard inter-esting tales of an early French colony. Beforeleaving us she bespoke the good will of a localhistorian, who loves his Lancaster and is doinghis best to make us love it. While walking alongOrange Street, he reminded us that we werenear the scene of the Indian dance of 1744, asMr. Thomas Cookson's house, where he enter-tained Governor Thomas, was on this street. OnOrange Street, also, is the house, still in good

    4 47

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    62/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNScondition, in which Christopher Marshall livedand wrote his valuable and gossiping and some-times acrimonious diary. Passing events dur-ing the War of the Revolution furnished aninteresting background for a chronicler, and atMarshall's hands no dramatic possibility waslost. Reports of the advance of the British weredaily received; one day the enemy was said tobe near Downitigtown and pushing on towardsSwedes Ford, another day troops were withineighteen miles of Lancaster, upon whichMarshall reflects "the progress and fertilityof the lying spirit, that moves about in andthrough the different classes of men in thisplace, attended with twistings, windings andturnings that it seems impossible to fix any truthupon them."Back of the lying spirit and the twistings andturnings, there was a background of stern real-ity, as the British entered Philadelphia Septem-ber 26th. Many of the inhabitants had alreadyleft, some of them, like Jacob Hiltsheimer andhis family, going north to Trenton and after-wards to Beading and Bethlehem, as he recordedin his diary under date of October 8, 1777:"Dined at Bethlehem and them proceeded toSquire Peter Trexler's, who received us withgreat good will." This Peter Trexler, Justiceof the Peace in Colonial days and under the Con-stitution, lived near Breinigsville, a villageeight miles west of Allentown.

    48

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    63/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    64/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    65/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNThe Supreme Executive Council must have

    reached Lancaster by a roundabout way, and,according to a story preserved in the Bakerfamily, then living at Point-no Point on theDelaware, Governor Wharton was rowed acrossthe river by Mr. Conrad Baker.

    This was evidently just before the Britishentered Philadelphia, and as the Governor andCouncil did not reach Lancaster until the 29thof September, several days must have beenspent on the journey. Mr. Conrad Baker's ac-count of the departure of the Governor andCouncil is interesting as from a person livingon the Delaware at that time. Mr. Baker saidthe Governor rode directly to his house andhastily asked of Mr. Baker some means of trans-portation across the Delaware. Mr. Bakerreplied that he would first have to hobble thehorses in the field to delay or to prevent theBritish from using them in place of their ownjaded steeds. This he hastily did, and then con-ducted the Governor to the river bank, but be-fore they could start to cross they heard thereport of the British firearms from the house." There, " said Mr. Baker, "they have shot thedogs, ' ' which ultimately proved to be true. Heassured the Governor that he had no fear forhis family, as the soldiers would not kill womenand children, so they both concealed themselvesin the bushes until a favorable opportunity for

    49

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    66/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSescape presented itself, when they at once tookto the boat and rowed across to Jersey, as issupposed, to the residence of Mr. Browning, wholived on the opposite shore. Another version ofthe story, and a less probable one, is that Mrs.Baker rowed the Governor across the river.However this may be, the Bakers seem to havehad a hand in getting him across.For one day, Lancaster had the distinctionof being the seat of the Continental Congress.Marshall recorded in his diary September 29th :' 'Many of the inhabitants of Philadelphia cameto-day, as did our President or Governor, theExecutive Council and the members of theAssembly who met here this day in the CourtHouse." The same day Congress set off forYorktown. The reason for the removal of theCongress is obvious, Lancaster is only sixty-eight miles from Philadelphia, the goal of theBritish army, and directly on the route to thatcity, while York, some miles south and west,looked like a safer place of meeting. As it hap-pened, the British did not stop in Lancasteren route to the capital city, and the governmentof Pennsylvania was carried on in this townduring the War of the Eevolution and for sometime after.

    Timothy Matlack, Secretary of the SupremeExecutive Council, also lived on Orange Street,nearly opposite Marshall's old residence. An-

    50

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    67/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNother interesting house is that of Caleb Cope.In this house, on the north side of Grant Street,near Lime Street, was lodged Major JohnAndre. The young British officer had been madea prisoner of war by General Richard Mont-gomery when St. Johns was captured by him inNovember, 1775. Writing to a friend at thistime, Andre said, "I have been taken prisonerby the Americans and stripped of everythingexcept the picture of Honora,2 which I concealedin my mouth. " A number of other prisonerswere taken at this time, some of whom werebrought to Lancaster, which, like Beading andYork, was considered a safe place for the lodg-ing of prisoners, being convenient to both capi-tals and yet not so close to the scene of militaryoperations as to be unsafe for prisoners of war.Many of these prisoners reached Lancaster ina destitute condition, and when the Governmentwas unable to supply them with food and cloth-ing, they were given the comforts of life byMatthias Slough. "The men," says the lateMr. W. U. Hensel, one of Lancaster's valued his-torians, "were kept at the barracks, surroundedby a stockade ; and the British officers lodged atpublic or private houses. Andre not only foundshelter under the roof of Cope, but had con-genial associations with his family. That it was

    2 Honora Sneyd, to whom Andre was devotedly attached.She afterwards became the wife of Richard Edgeworth, andthe step-mother of Maria Edgeworth.51

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    68/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSnot a popular thing for a Quaker to give eventhis semblance of aid and comfort to the enemymay be judged from the fact that the mobsmashed all of the windows of the Cope man-sion. The citizens who had tolerated, if notencouraged, such demonstrations, redeemedthemselves somewhat, however, by afterwardsliberally assisting Cope to reconstruct his housewhen it had been accidentally damaged by fire. ' '

    Besides Major Andre, there was lodged withCope another prisoner, Lieutenant-Colonel Ed-ward Marcus Despard, an Irish soldier of for-tune. Mr. Thomas C. Cope, in writing his recol-lections of Major Andre, said: "I was, at thattime, a small boy, but well remember Andre'sbland manners, sporting with us children as oneof us, more particularly attached to John. Weoften played marbles and other boyish gameswith him."

    To John Cope the young officer gave somelessons in drawing and painting and to WilliamBarton also. Barton became an excellentdraughtsman, and afterwards drew the designfor the seal of the United States. An odd coin-cidence, it seems, that he should have receivedinstruction from this British prisoner of warin Lancaster. That Andre received many kindattentions and made a number of friends in thistown appears from a letter written from Car-lisle, to which town he and Colonel Despard

    52

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    69/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    70/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    71/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNwere removed later. In this letter, addressedto Mr. Eberhardt Michael, of Lancaster, Andresent messages to his friends. "If you see Mr.Wirtz and Eev. Mr. Hellemuth and H. Graff,please give my respects to them from the last-mentioned I have received the maps, and thankhim. ' ' In a postscript he added, ' l If you shouldsee Mr. Slough, have the kindness to requesthim to write to me. His silence makes me ata loss about him." The Mr. Slough alluded towas Colonel Mathias Slough, who did so muchto make the British prisoners of war comfort-able while in Lancaster.

    This letter, of which Judge Landis, of Lan-caster, has furnished a translation, is writtenin German, and is of especial interest as the onlyletter in that language written by Andre knownto exist. It proves this versatile and charmingyoung officer to have possessed one more amongthe many accomplishments that delighted hisfriends and served to relieve the monotony ofhis imprisonment. "We pass our time," hesays, "in making music, reading books, andawait humbly our liberation, and upon morepeaceable times. "

    Beading such letters as this, one doesnot wonder that the Cope boys, and all withwhom he was associated, loved this ill-fatedyoung officer.From the Cope house and its interesting

    53

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    72/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSassociations, we come back to Orange Street.At the corner of East Lime Street is the charm-ing home of the Misses Kline, daughters of Mr.George Kline, with its garden on OrangeStreet, and directly opposite is the handsomebuilding of the Young Women's Christian Asso-ciation. While rejoicing that any city shouldown so well equipped and comfortable a homefor working women as this, of which Lancastermay well be proud, we cannot help regrettingthe fine old Shippen house, whose site it occu-pies. This house, which has met the fate of somany old residences, was, in 1752, the home ofEdward Shippen, a grandson of Edward Ship-pen, of Cheshire, England, who was perse-cuted in Boston for the sin of being a Quaker,and removed to Philadelphia to become its hon-ored Mayor. It being a habit in the Shippenfamily to be Mayors of Philadelphia, this Ed-ward Shippen, son of Joseph, held that andother important positions in Philadelphia be-fore he removed to Lancaster. Here Mr. Ship-pen became Recorder and Register for theCounty and acted as paymaster for supplies forthe troops under Generals Forbes, Stanwix andBouquet. Living near Mr. Shippen 's fine oldmansion on Orange Street, Christopher Mar-shall, who was often severe in his strictures uponthe joys of life, recorded in his diary, of Sunday,July 26, 1778, a bit of pleasant sociability with54

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    73/425

    THE BRETHREN'S CHURCH AND PARSONAGE, LANCASTER

    HOUSE OF EDWARD SHIPPEN OF LANCASTER

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    74/425

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    75/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNMr. Shippen, with, whom he walked home fromthe " Dutch Presbyterian Meeting House,"where they had listened to a discourse from"one Fifer, minister of the Church of Eng-land." "Keturned with Shippen," he wrote,"who pressed me to stop at his house, and drinka glass of beer of his own brewing. ' 'A less peaceful Sunday than this of July26th, when Mr. Marshall and Mr. Shippendrank beer of the latter 's own brewing, was thatSunday in December, 1763, when Mr. Shippen,as chief burgess of Lancaster, was called out ofchurch in consequence of a sudden foray of thePaxton boys, who suddenly appeared in theyard of the Swan Inn, as Mr. Shippen isaidin his report to the Governor, "upwards of ahundred armed men from the post road rodevery fast into town, turned their horses intoMr. Slough '& and proceeded with the greatestprecipitation to the workhouse, where they stovein the door and killed all the Indians."

    The premeditated murder, in cold blood, ofthese captive Conestogas by men who belongedto a civilized nation is one of the blackest pagesin the history of Pennsylvania.

    After the death of Edward Shippen, the fineold mansion on Orange Street passed into thehands of his son Edward, the Chief Justice,whose daughter Peggy was the wife of Bene-dict Arnold. The house was afterwards bought

    55

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    76/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSby Joseph Shippen, another son of Edward ofLancaster. This Joseph Shippen, who lived for atime in the old Lancaster home, was an able man,a public-spirited citizen, a soldier and, withal,something of a gallant, as is proved by his" Lines Written in an Assembly Room," cele-brating the charms of such Philadelphia bellesof his time as Sally Cox, Polly Franks, Kathe-rine Inglis and the Chew sisters, both so fairthat the poet was at a loss to decide which wasthe fairer :

    With either Chew such beauties dwell,Such charms of each are shared,No critic's judging eye can tellWhich merits most regard.That Mr. Shippen did not descant upon thecharms of Lancaster belles was probably due tothe fact that he came to live in this town latein life, when his dancing and ball-going dayswere over. After his death in 1810 the old homepassed into the hands of Edward Shippen Burdand was later bought by the Honorable WalterFranklin, Attorney-General of the Common-wealth and an honored citizen of Lancaster.Judge Franklin was a nephew of Mr. WalterFranklin, of New York, whose home at thecorner of Pearl and Cherry Streets was chosen,in 1789, as the most suitable in the cityfor the residence of President Washington,and is spoken of in letters of the period as56

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    77/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWN"the Palace," being looked upon as a veryelegant mansion.

    After being in the Franklin family fortwenty-six years, the Shippen House became theproperty of Mr. Emanuel C. Reigart, and wasthe scene of much charming hospitality. If thosewho have lived in and have been entertained inthis house could come back to their old-timehaunts, what surprises would be theirs, andwhat would they think of this beautifully-equipped home for working girls that occupiesthe site of the old house, with its library, gym-nasium and swimming pool?"And what," said Kathleen, "would thepretty little Mennonite waitresses think of them?How scared they would be to see old-fashionedspirits stalking through this modern dining-room ! ' '"Do spirits never change their fashions!"asked the Antiquary, laughing at Kath-leen's fancy.

    "Never, and neither do the Mennonites andAmish, as far as I can see. I asked one of thepretty waitresses if she wore her coquettish lit-tle cap because it was becoming. She seemedquite shocked at my levity, and said that shehad to wear it."

    "Yes, they have to have the head covered,and no one could object to the little cap whichsets off a pretty face; but the bonnets are not

    67

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    78/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSso becoming, and I even knew of an engagementbeing broken off on account of the bonnet. Itappears that the suitor had never seen the girlin her black bonnet, and when he found thatthere was no way of getting out of wearing ithe simply backed out. ' '

    "Very ungallant," said Kathleen, "but thebonnets are a mortification to the flesh. "

    This being a market day, we had seen manyof the country people in the streets, in their dis-tinctive costume, and when we stopped at theChristian Association for a cafeteria luncheonwe found a number of the Mennonite womenseated at table. Seeing them there enjoying agood luncheon we felt very much as John Adamsfelt about the Quakers in Philadelphia: gladthat there was one carnal vanity in which theycould indulge, that of good living.On our way back to the Stevens House,which, although it bears the name of ThaddeusStevens, is built upon the site of the old Krughhouse, we passed by the Lutheran Church, wherewe stopped to read some tablets on the wall, inhonor of General Mifflin and President Whar-ton. The latter died in May, 1778, while Gov-ernor of Pennsylvania, and was buried insideof the church in front of the pulpit and altar.

    Although the death of the President of theSupreme Executive Council of Pennsylvaniawas a serious loss at this time and was deeply58

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    79/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNregretted, the funeral seems to have been arather convivial affair, as appears from a billof expenses recently found among some oldpapers, in which the sums spent for fiddles usedat the funeral of President Wharton and formany gallons of punch consumed at the sameare set forth at length.The Episcopal Church, Saint James, wasclosed in 1776, in consequence of the resigna-tion of the rector, Mr. Thomas Barton, whichprobably accounts for the fact that PresidentWharton was not buried in its beautifulchurch yard.Born in Ireland and educated in Dublin, Mr.Barton was not in sympathy with Kevolutionarymethods. He was an able and scholarly man,and was greatly respected for his missionarylabors among the Indians. One of the diaristsof the time recorded: "Mr. Barton, the Englishparson, sold his house to his son-in-law, Zant-zinger, and left with his wife for Boston, andfrom thence to England. He refused to takethe oath." Mr. Barton, however, did not reachEngland, as he was taken ill in New York, diedthere and was buried in the grounds of SaintGeorge's Chapel.

    Mr. Barton's first wife was a sister of thecelebrated astronomer and mathematician,David Eittenhouse; their son, Dr. BenjaminSmith Barton, became a distinguished physician

    59

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    80/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSand botanist; another son, William, it was whodesigned the seal of the United States.

    Before going back to our hotel, our ciceroneinsisted that we should visit the tomb of Thad-deus Stevens in Schreiner's Cemetery. Despitehis Vermont birth, Lancaster claims ThaddeusStevens as her own, and with all his variedachievements perhaps Pennsylvania's heaviestdebt of gratitude to Thaddeus Stevens is thework accomplished by him for the public schoolsof this state. Some of Mr. Stevens' eloquentand impassioned pleas for the free school sys-tem, delivered in the House at a critical periodin the history of education, have been preservedand prove how highly this Vermont farmer's sonvalued the educational advantages that hadcome to him through the care and self-sacrificeof a wise and devoted mother. In recognitionof Mr. Stevens' valuable service to the causeof education, one of the finest buildings of theGirls' High School is named Stevens Hall.Other citizens of Lancaster who did much forthe cause of the public school and the highschool were Thomas H. Burrowes and James P.Wickersham. Both of these men were indefati-gable in their labor for the cause of free educa-tion. The Wickersham School in Pittsburghwas so named in Mr. Wickersham 's honor, andanother enduring monument is his exhaustiveand interesting work upon education in Penn-

    60

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    81/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNsylvania from the settlements of the Swedesand Dutch on the Delaware to our own time.We often passed by the beautiful groundsand fine buildings of Franklin and MarshallCollege ; and we could not think of leaving Lan-caster without stopping at the Juliana Library,whose name had always interested me, and thenit was one of the earliest libraries in Pennsyl-vania, which was the leader in all the Coloniesin establishing circulating! libraries. DoctorFranklin 's came first, then the little library atHatboro, started in 1755, and the Juliana wasthe third library.

    Mr. Henderson says that the first name wasthe Lancaster Library Company, but later, whena charter was granted by Governor James Ham-ilton, in 1763, the name given was the JulianaLibrary. No reason for this change of title hasbeen given, and no record of a considerable do-nation in money or in books by the lady afterwhom the library was named has been found,Lady Juliana Penn, wife of Thomas Penn, oneof the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania." Perhaps, " said Kathleen, "the name Juli-ana was given in the hope of eliciting substan-tial aid from the noble godmother."

    t i Probably, but we found no mention of anyconsiderable donation from the high-bornlady," said Mr. Henderson. "The earliest sub-scribers, whose names were appended to the

    61

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    82/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSconstitution and by-laws, are those of ThomasBarton, rector of St. John's Church; Samueland Joseph Boude, William Atlee, Robert Ful-ton, father of the inventor; Adam Kuhn, Jr.,Edward Shippen, William Bauseman andGeorge Koss, the signer, whose house was onKing Street. "Another morning we made our way to SaintJames Church, which stands on a shaded cor-ner of Orange Street. This interesting oldbuilding dates back to days long before theRevolution. James Hamilton, who owned alarge tract of land in Lancaster, gave threetown lots to this parish in 1744, and the stonechurch was completed in 1753. Thomas Cook-son and John Postlethwaite, who kept hisfamous tavern on the great Conestoga road,were wardens of St. James some years beforethe building was finished. In 1753 it still lackeda steeple, and we find, as in the case of the par-ishioners of Christ Church, Philadelphia, thatthere seem to have existed no conscientiousscruples against a lottery for the benefit of thechurch, and in 1761 it was recorded that thedrawings of the lottery were reported finished,and a little later that the graveyard was " en-closed with a stone wall covered with cedarshingles." This was while the Rev. ThomasBarton was rector of the church.

    Interesting as the building is, with its tablets62

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    83/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNand handsome memorial windows, we were moreinclined to wander through the* old graveyardunder the elms and blooming catalpas on thisJune day. Here sleep many of the sons anddaughters of old Lancaster. Franklins, Cole-mans, Atlees, Grubbs, Sloughs, Slaymakers,Hands and Clarksons, and one of the oldesttombstones in the churchyard is that of ThomasCookson,who seemstohave been fervent in spiritas well as diligent in business, as he was one ofthe chief supporters of the old church. Here alsois the grave of WilliamAugustus Atlee,who heldmany important positions in Lancaster and in1791 was appointed Judge of the Court of Penn-sylvania, which seems to have been composed ofthe counties of Chester, Lancaster, York andDauphin. A grandson of Judge Atlee, Dr. JohnLight Atlee, widely known in his day as one ofthe great physicians and surgeons of Pennsyl-vania, is buried here, and here under pyramidalmonuments rest the Honorable Jasper Yeatesand his wife, Sarah Burd Yeates. Of thislearned jurist, Mr. William F. Woerner, thechronicler of the history and associations of thisold churchyard says: "As a judge, he com-manded the highest respect and deference; hisdecisions from the Bench were clear and de-cisive, and indicated a profound knowledge ofthe Constitution and laws of the country. Inhis social relations he was most kind, cheerful

    5 63

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    84/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSand of a very affectionate disposition. But,better than all, he was a thorough Christiangentleman." Here also near the church thatthey served as rectors rest the mortal remainsof the Eev. Joseph Clarkson and Bishop Sam-uel Bowman, whose wife was the daughter ofDoctor Clarkson. Under the shadow of thechurch are the tombs of the Hon. Robert Cole-man and his wife, and near by those of his twodaughters, Anne and Sarah.The unhappy love affairs of these two fairgirls are still discussed with interest by oldLancastrians, as the world loves a mysteryand a mystery has always surrounded these ro-mances. The interest in the breaking of theengagement between Anne Coleman and JamesBuchanan was enhanced by subsequent events inhis career. The story has often been told, andwith many variations, but the simple and un-adorned tale is that when a young man Mr.Buchanan became engaged to Anne C. Coleman,a daughter of the Hon. Robert Coleman. MissColeman is described by those who knew her asbeautiful and singularly attractive, and thecourse of true love seemed to be runningsmoothly, as Mr. Coleman had given his con-sent to the marriage, when the young lady sud-denly broke her engagement, for what reasonthe world has never known. All that the littleworld of Lancaster knew was that Mr. Buchanan64

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    85/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNreceived a note while in court, which he read,looked very much troubled and left the court-room soon after. A few days later Miss Cole-man died while visiting a friend in Philadel-phia. Mr. Buchanan, in writing to Mr. Cole-man, said, "You have lost a dear, dear daughter.I have lost the only earthly object of my affec-tions, without whom life now presents to me adreary blank." Mr. Buchanan was faithful tothe memory of his early love as he never mar-ried, and at Wheatland, and in Washington, hishouse was presided over by his beautiful andaccomplished niece, Miss Harriet Lane, who isstill remembered in Lancaster. After a variedand interesting experience, at home and abroad,Miss Lane married Henry E. Johnston, of Bal-timore. Mr. Buchanan entirely approved of hisniece's choice, and in writing to her gave her awarning that shows how deeply his own un-happy experience had impressed itself upon hismind: " Beware of unreasonable delays in theperformance of the ceremony, lest they maybe attributed to an improper motive. ' 'Sarah Coleman 's experience was equally un-happy, but less mysterious than that of hersister. She was engaged to the Eeverend Wil-liam Augustus Muhlenberg who was co-rectorof St. James Parish for some years. " Duringhis residence here, ' ' says Mr. William F. Woer-ner, "he did much to further the cause of edu-

    65

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    86/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNScation. He also instituted an evening servicein the church, which so angered the father ofhis beloved Sarah that it * prevented him fromattaining the dearest object of his heart.'Shortly after the episode that was so painful tohim, he tendered his resignation. He was pre-vailed upon to reconsider it, but this he refused.It is said that when Muhlenberg departed fromLancaster he left behind him the grave of all hisearthly hopes, and that when he did return tovisit the first and last place to which he turnedhis steps was to the grave in Saint Jameschurchyard. He never visited it withouttaking with him a spray of the sweetbrierwhich grew there. He, like James Buchanan,never married."This is one story; another and even moreromantic tale is that Mr. Muhlenberg threw intothe grave of the beloved Sarah Coleman theengagement ring1 and a copy of his famoushymn, "I Would Not Live Alway," the patheticlines of which were the outcome of his sorrow.As we left the shaded churchyard, with its beau-tiful trees and its many associations,we realizedthat much romance as well as history was buriedhere romances of real life more thrilling andpathetic than those to be found between thecovers of novels.

    Strolling about the old parts of the town,we remarked upon the good taste of the Lan-66

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    87/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNcastrians in retaining suchinterestingnames forthe streets as King and Queen, Orange,Duke andPrince, to which our Antiquary, who had kindlyoffered to guide us- to some of the old houses,said: "Yes, that was wise; but with the abol-ishing of the old inns of which there were at onetime as many as fifty-three, we have lost suchpicturesque names as 'The Indian Queen,'6

    Grape,' 'Conestoga Waggon,'' Doctor Frank-

    lin,' 'Golden Fleece,' and 'Earl of Chatham.'By the way, this latter well-painted sign stillpreserved, is a good example of the early workof Jacob Eichholtz, one of our best Lancasterartists. The Bull's Head, which once stood atthe corner of East King and Christian Streets,was kept by the artist's mother, Catharine Eich-holtz, whose license gave her permission 'tosell rum by the small.' So, quite naturally,Jacob Eichholtz began by painting tavernsigns, although he afterwards painted portraitsof many of the most distinguished men ofhis time."

    "Where did he learn his art?" I asked."When Sully was in Lancaster, in 1808,painting Governor Snyder, he gave Eichholtzsome instruction in painting. In view of thecelebrity gained by Eichholtz later, Sully 's criti-cisms seem ungenerous. He said, 'Eichholtzwas then employing all his leisure hours, stolenfrom the manufacture of tea-kettles and coffee

    67

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    88/425

    IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSpans, in painting. His attempts were hideous.He kindly offered me the use of his paintingroom, which I gladly accepted, and gave himduring my stay in Lancaster all the informationI could impart. When I saw his portraits a fewyears afterwards (in the interim he had visitedand copied Stuart), I was much surprised andgratified. I have no doubt that Eichholtz wouldhave made a first-rate painter had he begunearly in life, with the usual advantages. ' ' 'The influence of Gilbert Stuart upon thestyle of Eichholtz is much more marked thanthat of Sully, and those who had an opportunityof seeing a collection of paintings by Lancasterartists, held in 1912, were impressed by the ex-cellence of the work of Eichholtz as well as byhis great industry. Here were portraits ofGeneral John Steele, James Buchanan, WilliamJenkins, of Thaddeus Stevens, and of such othernoted citizens as the Franklins, Yeates, Stein-mans, Frazers, Reigarts, Mayers, and Jacobs.Mr. Hensel says that it was only when hisfellow-townsman, "the late Hon. Thomas JLBurrowes, became conspicuous in state politicsand the Secretary of the Commonwealth underGovernor Eitner, that Eichholtz got his rightplace as painter at 'the Republican Court' inHarrisburg. ' ' Portraits by Eichholtz are inmany galleries and museums to-day, and aremuch prized heirlooms in numerous private

  • 7/28/2019 In Old Pennsylvania Towns OCR

    89/425

    THE STORY OF AN OLD TOWNfamilies. In view of his limited opportunities,the success of this Lancaster boy, who beganlife as a coppersmith, seems very remarkable.

    This old tow