CHAPTER I

SKETCHES OF A TOUR

Commencement of journey—Schuylkill bridge—Schuylkill river—Downingstown—Brandywine creek—Pequea creek—New Holland—Conestoga creek and Bridge—Lancaster.

On 8th January 1807, I left Philadelphia on foot, accompanying a wagon which carried my baggage. I preferred this mode of travelling for several reasons. Not being pressed for time I wished to see as much of the country as possible; the roads were in fine order, and I had no incentive to make me desirous of reaching any point of my intended journey before my baggage. With respect to expence, there was little difference in my travelling in this manner, or on horseback, or in the stage, had I been unincumbered with baggage; for the delay on the road, awaiting the slow pace of a loaded wagon, which is not quite three miles an hour, and not exceeding twenty-six miles on a winter’s day, will occasion as great expence to a traveller in a distance exceeding two such days’ journey, as the same distance performed otherwise in less than half the time, including the charge of horse or stage hire.

The first object which struck me on the road, was the new bridge over the Schuylkill which does honour to its inventor for its originality of architecture, and its excellence of mechanism. There are two piers, the westernmost of which is a work perhaps unexampled in hydraulick architecture, from the depth to which it is sunk; the rock on which it stands being forty-one feet nine inches below common {10} high tides. Both piers were built within cofferdams: the designfor the western was furnished by William Weston, esq. of Gainsborough in England, a celebrated hydraulick engineer. Eight hundred thousand feet of timber, board measure, were employed in and about it. Mr. Samuel Robinson of Philadelphia, executed the work of the piers under the directions of a president and five directors, who also superintended the mason work done by Mr. Thomas Vickers, on an uncommon plan, which has answered the intention perfectly well. The walls of the abutments and wings are perpendicular without buttresses, and supported by interior offsets. The eastern abutment is founded on a rock, the western on piles. There are near eight thousand tons of masonry in the western pier, many of the stones in it, as well as in the eastern, weighing from three to twelve tons. Several massive chains are worked in with the masonry, stretched across the piers in various positions; and the exterior is clamped and finished in the most substantial manner.

The frame of the superstructure was designed and erected by Mr. Timothy Palmer of Newburyport in Massachusetts, combining in its principles, that of ring posts and braces with a stone arch. The platform for travelling rises only eight feet from a horizontal line. The foot ways are five feet in width, elevated above the carriage ways, and neatly protected by posts and chains.

The whole of the bridge is covered by a roof, and the sides closed in, to preserve the timber from the decay occasioned by exposure to the weather. The side covering is done in imitation of masonry by sprinkling it with stone dust, while the painting was fresh: this is a novel mode of ornamenting and protecting the surfaces of wooden work exposed to weather, which from its goodness and cheapness will probably be brought into general use. The work of the {11} roof and covering was done by Mr. Owen Biddle, house carpenter in Philadelphia.

The bridge was six years in building, was finished in 1805, and cost in work and materials two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. The scite was purchased from the corporation of Philadelphia for forty thousand dollars.

This is the only covered wooden bridge we know of, excepting one over the Limmat in Switzerland, built by the same carpenter who erected the so much celebrated bridge of Schauffhausen, since destroyed, the model of which I have seen, and I think this of Schuylkill deserves the preference both for simplicity and strength. It is 550 feet long, and the abutments and wing walls are 750, making in all 1300 feet; the span of the middle arch is 195 feet, and that of the other two 150 each; it is 42 feet wide; the carriage way is 31 feet above the surface of the river, and the lower part of the roof is 13 feet above the carriage way; the depth of the water to the rock at the western pier is 42 feet, and at the eastern 21 feet.—The amount of the toll, which is very reasonable, was 14,600 dollars the first year after it was finished, which must increase very much in a country so rapidly improving. The proprietors are a company who have built commodious wharves on each side of the river, both for protection to the abutments of the bridge, and for the use of the city.[1]

{12} The Schuylkill is a fine river nearly two hundred yards broad at the bridge. It rises in the Cushetunk mountains about a hundred and twenty miles to the N. W. of Philadelphia. It is navigable for flat boats from the populous town of Reading about fifty miles above Philadelphia, but its navigation is impeded by falls about eight miles above the city, and by others about five miles above it, to which latter ones the tide flows, from its conflux with the Delaware four miles below Philadelphia. It supplies the city with water, pumped by steam[2]from a reservoir, with which {13} the river communicates by a canal near the bridge, into a cistern, from whence it is conveyed by pipes through the streets and to the houses, plugs being fixed at convenient distances for supplying the fire engines, for which there are too frequent use, from the quantity of timber still used in building, and from the fuel, which is chiefly wood.

The banks of the Schuylkill being hilly, afford charming situations for country houses, in which the wealthy citizens of Philadelphia find a secure retreat from the unhealthy air of the town during the heats of summer. A good house, a spacious green house, fine gardens and a demesne formerlyowned by the late Robert Morris, esq.[3]are a fine termination to the view up the river from the bridge.

There is a turnpike road of sixty-six miles from Philadelphia to Lancaster, which my wagonner left at Downingstown about half way, keeping to the right along a new road, which is also intended for a turnpike road to Harrisburgh, and which passes through New Holland, where he had some goods to deliver. Downingstown is a village of about fifty middling houses.[4]The east branch of Brandywine creek crosses the road here, as the west branch does about eight miles further.—These two branches unite twelve or fourteen miles below, and fall into the Delaware near Wilmington, about twenty miles below their junction. The Brandywine is noted for a battle fought on its banks near its confluence with the Delaware, between the British army under Sir William Howe and the American under General Washington, who endeavoured to oppose the progress of the enemy to Philadelphia, from the head of Chesapeak bay where they hadlanded. The conflict was obstinate, but the British being in great force, the Americans {14} were obliged to retreat, after heavy loss on both sides.

The Brandywine runs through a rich and well settled country, and abounds with mills, where a vast quantity of flour is manufactured for exportation.—Pequea creek which falls into the Susquehannah, crosses the road about four miles from the west branch of Brandywine. Five miles further accompanying my wagonner, I turned to the left from the Harrisburgh turnpike road, and in six miles more came to New Holland, which is a long straggling town of one hundred and fifty houses in one street, from whence it is seven miles to Conestoga creek. From the hill just above, I was struck with the romantick situation of a fine bridge over the creek below, more particularly as I came upon it unexpectedly. The creek is about eighty yards wide, tumbling its rapid current, over an irregular rocky bottom and disappearing round the foot of a wooded hill, almost as soon as seen. The man who built the bridge lives on the opposite side. The toll not answering his expectations, he would have been a great sufferer, had not the state taken it off his hands and reimbursed his expences; since when, the toll has been taken off.—It is five miles from this bridge to Lancaster.

The face of the country between Philadelphia and Lancaster is hilly, and variegated with woods and cultivated farms. It is extremely well inhabited and consists of almost every variety of soil, from sandy and light, to a rich black mould, which last quality is observable generally between New Holland and Lancaster, except on the heights on each bank of the Conestoga. The first settlers of all this tract were English, Irish, and German, but the latter have gradually purchased from the others, and have got the best lands generally into their possession. They {15} arefrugal and industrious, are good farmers, and consequently a wealthy people.

Lancaster is supposed to be the largest inland town in the United States. It is in a healthy and pleasant situation, on the western slope of a hill, and consists of two principal streets, compactly built with brick and stone, and well paved and lighted, crossing each other at right angles. There is a handsome and commodious court-house of brick in the centre, which, in my opinion is injurious to the beauty of the town, by obstructing the vista of the principal streets. There are several other streets parallel to the principal ones the whole containing about eight hundred houses. The houses for publick worship are a German Lutheran, a German Calvinist, a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, a Moravian, a Quaker, and a Roman Catholick church, amongst which the German Lutheran is the most conspicuous from its size and handsome spire: it has also an organ.—There is a strong jail built with stone, and a brick market house. What in my opinion does most honour to the town is its poor house, which is delightfully situated near Conestoga creek about a mile from the town on the right of the turnpike road towards Philadelphia. It is a large and commodious building, and is supported partly by the labour of those paupers who are able to work, and partly by a fine farm, which is annexed to it. There are several private manufacturies in Lancaster, amongst which are three breweries and three tanyards, but it is principally noted for its rifles, muskets, and pistols, the first of which are esteemed the best made in the United States. The inhabitants are chiefly the descendants of the first German settlers, and are a quiet, orderly people—They are estimated at about four thousand five hundred.

This has been the seat of government of Pennsylvania since 1799, but it is not rendered permanently {16} so by anact of the legislature, which occasions attempts being made annually at every session of that body to remove it.[5]The eastern members advocating Philadelphia on account of its trade and population, and the western members endeavouring to have it placed as near to the centre of the state as possible, which they contend will also shortly be the centre of population, from the rapid manner in which the country to the westward of the Allegheny mountains is settling. I was present at a very animated debate, on the subject in the house of representatives, during which much good argument, mixed with several sprightly and keen flashes of genuine wit, was used, but it all terminated, as it has hitherto invariably done, in favour of Lancaster—Of many situations proposed, Harrisburgh seemed to have the greatest number of advocates.

Notwithstanding Lancaster is so populous and the seat of government besides, it is but a dull town with respect to society. The manners and taste of the inhabitants are not yet sufficiently refined by education, or intercourse with strangers, to make it a desirable situation for the residence of a person who wishes to enjoy the otium cum dignitate. An alteration in that respect will doubtless take place with the rising generation, whose education, the easy circumstances of the present inhabitants, enable to pay a proper attention to, particularly as they seem desirous to balance their own deficiencies in literature and the polite accomplishments, by their attention to their children in those particulars. There is no theatre, no assemblies, no literary societies, nor any other publick entertainment, except occasionally an itinerant exhibition of wax-work, or a puppet-show: {17} but there are taverns without number, at some of which I have been informed, private gambling isvery customary.

There are horse races here annually, which last a week on a course on the common to the westward of the town, which like most other races in this country, are for the mere purposes of jockeying horses, and betting, and are not followed by balls and other social meetings of both sexes, as at amusements of the same kind in Europe. Shooting with the rifle, is a favourite amusement, at which they are very dexterous, meeting at taverns at short distances from town, to shoot, sometimes at a mark for wagers, and sometimes at turkeys provided by the tavern keeper, at so much a shot, the turkey being the prize of the killer of it—the distance is generally, one hundred yards, and always with a single ball.

FOOTNOTES:[1]For a statistical account of the Schuylkill permanent bridge, the reader is referred to a new and valuable work, the “Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society,” vol. i, and to Biddle’s “Young Carpenter’s Assistant.”As a specimen of the difficulties, and uncommon perseverance of the company in building the Schuylkill bridge, we give the following instance: The British troops when at Philadelphia had formed a bridge of boats over the Schuylkill, one of which had been accidentally sunk in 1777, twenty-eight feet below common low water. It occupied a part of the area of the westerncoffer dam, with one end projecting under two of the piles of the inner row, and had nearly rendered the erection abortive. It was first discovered on pumping out the dam, in 1802; and was perfectly sound, after the lapse of 25 years. The iron work had not the least appearance of rust, or the wood (which was common oak) of decay. The taking this boat to pieces, the straining the dam, and the leaks in consequence, were the chief causes of an extra expenditure, by the company, of more than 4000 dollars, hardly and perilously disbursed in pumping (which alone cost from 500 to 700 dollars weekly) and other labour, during forty-one days and nights in the midst of a most inclement winter.Mem. Phila. Ag. Soc.—Cramer.[2]This water steam engine, otherwise called the waterworks, is a work of great magnitude. It cost 150 thousand dollars, and is capable of raising about 4,500,000 gallons of water in 24 hours, with which the city is daily supplied through wooden pipes. The reservoir, into which the water is thrown, is capable of holding 20,000 gallons, and is of a sufficient height to supply the citizens with water in the upper stories of their highest houses. The first stone of this building was laid on the 2d May, 1799, and it was completed in 1801-2. The works belong to the city, and the citizens pay a water tax equal to the expence of keeping the engine in motion, which amounts to about 8,000 dollars annually. The building stands in the centre square, and consequently spoils the view down Market street. The trees and houses adjacent, look as black and gloomy as those in Pittsburgh, arising from the smoke of the mineral coal burnt in the works.—Cramer.[3]This estate of Robert Morris, who died the year before Cuming’s tour, was purchased in 1770, and had formed part of the manor of Springetsbury. It is now within Fairmount Park. Morris, known as the “financier of the American Revolution,” was an Englishman who, emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1747, became a prominent merchant of Philadelphia. After serving as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and signing the Declaration of Independence, he was assigned the difficult task of procuring funds for the war. To his support was due the maintenance of an army in the field during the disastrous years of 1776 and 1777; while his chief accomplishment was financing the campaign that led to the battle of Yorktown. After retiring from the superintendency of finance in 1784, Morris served in the Pennsylvania legislature (1786), the Constitutional Convention (1787), and the United States Senate (1789-95), declining the position of Secretary of the Treasury in Washington’s cabinet. In later life his affairs became involved, and he spent four years (1798-1802) in a debtor’s prison. See Sumner,Robert Morris(New York, 1892).—Ed.[4]Downingtown, Chester County, took its name from Thomas Downing, who bought the location in 1739 and bequeathed it to his son. A mill had been established on the Brandywine at this place as early as 1716, and the town was indifferently called Milltown or Downingtown until finally incorporated under the latter title in 1859.—Ed.[5]During the session of 1809-10 the legislature passed a law for the removal of the seat of the state government to Harrisburgh in the year 1812, and appropriated the sum of $30,000 for the erection of publick buildings in that place.—Cramer.

[1]For a statistical account of the Schuylkill permanent bridge, the reader is referred to a new and valuable work, the “Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society,” vol. i, and to Biddle’s “Young Carpenter’s Assistant.”As a specimen of the difficulties, and uncommon perseverance of the company in building the Schuylkill bridge, we give the following instance: The British troops when at Philadelphia had formed a bridge of boats over the Schuylkill, one of which had been accidentally sunk in 1777, twenty-eight feet below common low water. It occupied a part of the area of the westerncoffer dam, with one end projecting under two of the piles of the inner row, and had nearly rendered the erection abortive. It was first discovered on pumping out the dam, in 1802; and was perfectly sound, after the lapse of 25 years. The iron work had not the least appearance of rust, or the wood (which was common oak) of decay. The taking this boat to pieces, the straining the dam, and the leaks in consequence, were the chief causes of an extra expenditure, by the company, of more than 4000 dollars, hardly and perilously disbursed in pumping (which alone cost from 500 to 700 dollars weekly) and other labour, during forty-one days and nights in the midst of a most inclement winter.Mem. Phila. Ag. Soc.—Cramer.

As a specimen of the difficulties, and uncommon perseverance of the company in building the Schuylkill bridge, we give the following instance: The British troops when at Philadelphia had formed a bridge of boats over the Schuylkill, one of which had been accidentally sunk in 1777, twenty-eight feet below common low water. It occupied a part of the area of the westerncoffer dam, with one end projecting under two of the piles of the inner row, and had nearly rendered the erection abortive. It was first discovered on pumping out the dam, in 1802; and was perfectly sound, after the lapse of 25 years. The iron work had not the least appearance of rust, or the wood (which was common oak) of decay. The taking this boat to pieces, the straining the dam, and the leaks in consequence, were the chief causes of an extra expenditure, by the company, of more than 4000 dollars, hardly and perilously disbursed in pumping (which alone cost from 500 to 700 dollars weekly) and other labour, during forty-one days and nights in the midst of a most inclement winter.Mem. Phila. Ag. Soc.—Cramer.

[2]This water steam engine, otherwise called the waterworks, is a work of great magnitude. It cost 150 thousand dollars, and is capable of raising about 4,500,000 gallons of water in 24 hours, with which the city is daily supplied through wooden pipes. The reservoir, into which the water is thrown, is capable of holding 20,000 gallons, and is of a sufficient height to supply the citizens with water in the upper stories of their highest houses. The first stone of this building was laid on the 2d May, 1799, and it was completed in 1801-2. The works belong to the city, and the citizens pay a water tax equal to the expence of keeping the engine in motion, which amounts to about 8,000 dollars annually. The building stands in the centre square, and consequently spoils the view down Market street. The trees and houses adjacent, look as black and gloomy as those in Pittsburgh, arising from the smoke of the mineral coal burnt in the works.—Cramer.

[3]This estate of Robert Morris, who died the year before Cuming’s tour, was purchased in 1770, and had formed part of the manor of Springetsbury. It is now within Fairmount Park. Morris, known as the “financier of the American Revolution,” was an Englishman who, emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1747, became a prominent merchant of Philadelphia. After serving as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and signing the Declaration of Independence, he was assigned the difficult task of procuring funds for the war. To his support was due the maintenance of an army in the field during the disastrous years of 1776 and 1777; while his chief accomplishment was financing the campaign that led to the battle of Yorktown. After retiring from the superintendency of finance in 1784, Morris served in the Pennsylvania legislature (1786), the Constitutional Convention (1787), and the United States Senate (1789-95), declining the position of Secretary of the Treasury in Washington’s cabinet. In later life his affairs became involved, and he spent four years (1798-1802) in a debtor’s prison. See Sumner,Robert Morris(New York, 1892).—Ed.

[4]Downingtown, Chester County, took its name from Thomas Downing, who bought the location in 1739 and bequeathed it to his son. A mill had been established on the Brandywine at this place as early as 1716, and the town was indifferently called Milltown or Downingtown until finally incorporated under the latter title in 1859.—Ed.

[5]During the session of 1809-10 the legislature passed a law for the removal of the seat of the state government to Harrisburgh in the year 1812, and appropriated the sum of $30,000 for the erection of publick buildings in that place.—Cramer.

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