History of old Germantown

Preface

HE importance of Pennsylvania, the keystone in the arch of the original thirteen colonies, is well established and unquestioned. But the influences emanating from the little settlement at Germantown, which did so much towards giving to the colony of Pennsylvania its prosperity and importance, is not so well known. It was with this thought in mind that the authors of the following pages about Old Germantown several years ago took up the task of writing its history. The purpose at that time was to write but a brief account of the place, giving the location of its interesting and important buildings in such a way as to make them easily found and readily identified. The task became a labor of love, and so much was found that is interesting and important that the work soon outgrew the original plan. So much remains in Germantown to point out strong colonial traits, and so many have been the noted events, persons, and ideas closely associated with the place, that no brief account could possibly do justice to its history. Moreover, the assistance of many of Germantowm's oldest and best citizens, who were deeply interested in its history, was soon cheerfully granted, and valuable contributions to the work have come from such sources.

With the passing of each generation the difficulty of securing reliable information on the local afi^airs of earlier days increases. Old landmarks also are rapidly disappearing within the swirl of our tornado-like new world progress. To work out and embody as complete a record as possible of this most interesting and important old settlement has been the purpose of the authors and the many friends who have assisted them. How well they have succeeded must be judged from their work.

The work has been arranged under three general headings : I. The general history of Germantown.

II. A detailed account of its buildings and of the noted persons connected with its history.

III. Contributions, reminiscences, and articles dealing with special subjects.

The special articles of this third part of the history are written in the main by recognized authorities on the various subjects of which they treat. It also contains many detailed accounts which could not well be embodied in either of the other two portions of the work.

The authors gratefully acknowledge their indebtedness to the many kind friends who have in various ways furnished material aid. Our thanks are especially due to the following persons :

For the loan of maps — Rev. \\"illiam Ashmead Schaeffer, D. D., Abraham W. Thomas, William N. Johnson, j\I. D., George Armstrong.

For sketches furnished — Charles J. Wister, Edwin C. Jellett, Rev. Francis Heyl, Rev. William J. Hinke, D. D., Rev„ Joseph H. Dubbs, D. D., William H. Trueman, D. D. S.. Abraham H. Cassel. Romaine Keyser, Naaman K. Ployd, John R. Butcher, AA^illiam H. Emhardt, Sr., B. Frank Kirk, Beatrice Clayton, F. L. Englehart, Wilbur Biddle Conrow.

For information furnished — Charles B. Adamson, Albanus C. Logan, Joseph Channon, Charles Bringhurst, Dr. George B. Cox, J. H. Bockius, Canby S. Tyson, Jacob Keyser, Joseph E. King, Charles S. Ke5'ser, ]\Iiss Sally W. Johnson, Annie S. Provest, Ethan Allen Weaver, David C. King.

For the loan of photographs — Francis D. P. Brunner, Jane R. Haines, Hannah Ann Zell, Samuel Castner, Chas. F. Jenkins.

For sketches, and most valuable aid in looking up briefs of title, acknowledgment is especially due to B. Frank Harper, Esq.

For the loan of valuable cuts we are indebted to Governor Edwin S. Stuart, John W. Jordan and the American Book Co.

For valuable assistance and access to important sources of information we are much indebted to George Scattergood. a prominent member of the Friends' Meeting, at Fourth and Arch Streets.

The illustrations form an important and most valuable part of the work. The publisher, Horace F. McCann, has had reproduced for it a complete set of his priceless collection of drawings of scenes and buildings of Old German town, made by John Richards, and re-drawn by Miss L. A. Jamison. To this has been added a large number of rare illustrations from the rich private collections for which so many Germantown homes are justly famous. Most of these illustrations have never before been published.

Our investigations have convinced us of the marked influence of our Teutonic ancestors upon the industrial, political, and religious life of the ^Middle Colonies — and in these colonies developed the best type of the true American. We owe so much to their ideas and efforts that a day each year might well be set aside to commemorate the founding of Germantown, which was the beginning, as it also remained the center, of their influence. There could be no more suitable day for this purpose than the anniversary of the day on which Pastorius states that he laid out Germantown.

Part I

Influences Preceding the Settlement of Germantown The Settlement of Germantown :

1. The Importance of Germantown

2. The Origin of the Settlement .

3. The Founding of the Settlement The Borough of Germantown Occupations of the Early Inhabitants Religion .......

Schools and Schoolmasters .

The Sprogell Trouble ....

Interesting Events ....

Growth and Development Manners and Customs

9-20

44-51

77-92

• 93- lOI-

. IIO-

Part II

Detailed History of Properties and Streets, beginning at "Stenton" and continuing from \^^ayne Junction alone the Main Street to Chelten Avenue . . 130-371

Part III The Old Roberts Mill . . . • • • • 375-377

The Town of I\Ianheim 378-380

The Early History of the German Reformed Church

at Germantown .....•• 381-402 The Death and Burial of General Agnew and Lieutenant-Colonel Bird 403-407

The "Cross Streets" of Germantown .... 408-413

The First Protest Against Slavery 414-420

School House Lane 4^1

Sower's Newspaper 427-437

The Germantown Library Company .... 438-439

Hat Making 440-442

Francis Daniel Pastorius 443-44^

Friends' Preparative Meeting 447-449

Biographical Sketch of Major Philip R. Freas . . 450-453

List of Illustrations

Roberts' (Townsend's) Mill Frontispiece

William of Orange 14

Birthplace of David Rittenhouse 22

Roberts' (Townsend's) Mill 23

Seventeentli Century Ship 29

Rotterdam Port 30

Cave Dwelling 31

Fac-simile of deed 35

Town Hall 51

Germantown Seal 54

Bullet-riddled fence 56

Fac-simile of letter of Pastorius to his son Henry 59

Stenton 61

Title page of Saur's Almanac 62

Portrait of David Rittenhouse 65

Thomas Godfrey's sun dial 67

Gilbert Stuart

Charles Willson Peale 69

Mennonite Church ''^l

Mennonite Communion Table '''2

Dunker Church and Sexton's house '''3

Germantown Academy • 81

Call to Arms 83

Old Poor House 86

Elwood ( Armitage ) School 88

Fire Engine— "Shag Rag" 102

Burying Ground of the Logans at Stenton 105

Battlefield of Germantown 107

Old Conestoga team Ill

Mail Stage advertisement 114

Old Ironsides 115

Dutch doorway of Johnson House 119

Spinning 121

Stenton, General appearance of 137

Details of 141

Roberts Mansion at Wayne Junction 147

Naglee House 149

Loudoun 151

Toland House 158

Inscription on window pane of 159

Mehl and Lorain Houses 160

Mechlin-Wagner House 163

Inscription on window pane of Ottinger house 163

Dedier House 165

Wachsmuth-Henry House 167

Entrance to Hood Cemetery 171

View of Lower Burying Ground (Hood's Cemetery) 173

John Richards 177

Page

Jacob Ployd 180

Philomathean Hall 1§2

Edward Royal House 183

Duy's House and George Royal's House 184

Fleckenstein's 185

Frederick Fleckenstein y 186

"Freddie" Fleckenstein's shop 1 187

General Wayne Hotel and Sommers' carriage shop 190

Captain John Waterhouse 191

View at Manheim and Main Streets ., 193

White Cottage 196

Residence of Commodore Barron 201

Lesher's Tavern 203

" building in rear of ; 204

Roebuck Inn 205

Henry Squires' Drug Store and Bockius House 208

Barracks on Collom Street 210

"Corvy" — Wm. Wynne Wister's residence 211

Ruins of Stuart's Studio 212

First building of St. Stephen's M. E. Church 216

Rev. Newton • Heston 218

Conyngham and Howell (Hacker) Houses 220

Inscription on window pane of Howell House 221

Christopher John Jungkurth's House 222

Christopher John Jungkurth 223

Joseph Handsberry 227

Plan showing division of lot No. 5 228

Handsberry (Endt) House, Bechtel House, Van Lauchet House,

Indian Qneen Inn 231

Title pages of Bechtel's Catechism 234, 235

Call for Meeting to organize Moravian School 237

Bringhurst's "Big" House 241

Provest Houses 243

Naaman Keyser's Store 246

Naaman Keyser 247

Residence of Christopher Sower 249

Trinity Lutheran Church 256

Wister Homestead and Fry House 259

Charles J. Wister, Senior 260

Charles J. Wister, Junior 261

Home of John Panning Watson 269

Shoemaker House 274

Shoemaker's First Farm, (Rock House) 277

Site of East Coulter Street 282

Circular saw used by Bockius 284

Charles Spencer 285

House of Christopher Bockius 286

James S. Jones 287

St. Luke's Church 288, 289

Friends' Meeting House on Coulter Street 295

Friends' Library 297

William Kite 299

Osier House and Mullen (Harmer) House 300

Deshler-Morris House 305

John Ashmead House , , , 309

Page

Count Zinzendorff ^^^

Choir Angels

Old Bell ^J^g

Weathercock .

Old Market House, Market Square ^^-^

Corners of Germantown Avenue and School House Lane as they ap- ^

peared in 1852 ^

Soldiers' Monument, Market Square -^f^'

De La Plaine's House • ^^

Northwest corner of School House Lane and Germantown Avenue oo6

So-called Indian Head in wall at 5506 Germantown Avenue 341

Old Sign of King of Prussia Hotel f^i

Fireplace in basement of King of Prussia Hotel f'^'

Christian Lehman House ,/

Harriet Livermore ^'.^

**TllG PiiiGs"

Ancient view of Main Street looking south from Armat Street 3o9

House of Wyndham H. Stokes ^^^

Site of Walker Hall ^^

Rev. Charles Karsner, M. D f"

Southeast Corner of Germantown and Chelten Avenues ^bb

Captain Francis Acuff f^^

Barr or Kurtz House ^°^

Spencer Roberts ^

Rev. Michael Schlatter ^nt

Rev. Albert Helffenstein, Jr., ^UZ

Rev. Jacob Helffenstein ^nl

Eastern end of DeBenneville Graveyard as it was in 1904 404

Northeast corner of DeBenneville Graveyard 406

Fac-simile of Grant to hold Market on Cross Street 410

Fac-simile of First Protest against Slavery 416, 417

Advertisement from old Philadelphia Newspaper 419

Inscription on window pane ^-^^

Tablet in wall ^^*

Tenement Houses 4-5

Friends' Meeting House (Hicksite), School House Lane 448

Major Philip R. Freas "^^^

PART I General History of Germantown

by JOHN PALMER GARBER

Chapter I Influences Preceding The Settlement Of Germantown

It is easy to attach undue importance to an historical event when it is removed from its setting and considered apart from its causes and effects. On the other hand, we often stand amazed at the train of consequences of some seemingly insignificant event : the balancing of a magnetized needle upon a steel point makes the boundaries of the known world grow suddenly larger; a new combination of sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal requires the political history of the world to be written anew ; letter forms are carved upon movable wooden blocks and mankind advances a thousand years in wisdom. But the causes leading to such events are usually important and the preparation of favorable conditions for their reception may have begun centuries before. At least this is true of the settlement of Germantown. This little colony of some thirty persons in itself seems scarcely worthy of notice. But the influences at work in the preparation of its colonists for their settlement had their beginnings far back in the first pages of European history, and embrace in their train many of the ideas and ideals that had such an important bearing upon most of the significant events in the foundation and establishment of our nation. Born under the shadows of a struggle for human freedom such as the world had never before witnessed, and with a sense of individual worth and responsibility which had been the development of the centuries, they came to Pennsvlvania as the divinely opened land where they might establish homes and build up a communit}' more in accordance with their free and enlightened spirits.

They were skilled artisans of the highest type, and in energy, frugality, intelligence, and strong religious feeling, were well fitted to establish the train of influences which contributed so much to the material and spiritual welfare of their adopted commonwealth and country. Nor is this magnifying the importance of this Httle settlement or making unwarranted assumptions m its behalf, for its origin and influence are marked and characteristic. To understand this it is necessary to trace the development of the Germanic tribes of the north Rhine Valley from the time of the Roman invasion to the rise of a United Netherlands, and then to follow the little band of Dutch settlers as they led the way to the New World and there established, by their industry and ideals, new methods of prosperity and enlightened influence. As the Romans extended their invasions towards the north, they met with unexpected and unusual resistance from the Teutonic tribes. Fearless, war-like, energetic, and possessing great moral vigor, these tribes for some time successfully opposed the Roman legions. The bravest of these tribes, the Batavians, turned from their successful contest with the German Ocean to battle with these new foes. It was the custom of their young men either not to cut their hair or to wear shackles around their necks until they had slain an enemy. Cowardice was the only crime that they punished by death. In common with other Teutons, they were purer in morals and less superstitious than the Gallic tribes living near them. The importance and influence of the family were also stronger and the power of priestcraft less arbitrary than among the Gauls. Although they recognized hereditary sovereignty to the extent of choosing their princes from among the nobility, their rulers were little more than war chiefs who were obliged to submit all important questions to their subjects who, drawn up in line of battle, signified their assent by striking upon their shields with their spears. This was a noisy assertion of the principle of individual liberty, which from the earliest times was the heritage of the German warrior and which led him to exercise the right of choosing the ruler to whom he gave allegiance in return for support and protection. Many of these fearless war-men jQund?^€ir way Into the Roman ranks, where they rec^ved a training which in later days enabled them to overthrow the Roman power and to seize upon the fruits of the civilization of the fallen empire. But these they did not understand and used as mere toys. Moreover, while they recognized the justice of the details of Roman law and adopted some of its ceremonial, the Latin idea that the king was the source of all law was repugnant to tribes among whom all

HISTORY OF OLD GERM AN TOWN ii

authority was vested in the assemblage of the people. Hence, with the fall of Rome, its civilizing influences rapidly died out and darkness began to set in. This grew more complete as wicked leaders gathered about them forces to rob the husbandmen of the fruits of their labors and to oppress their weaker neighbors in defiance of all law and justice. Even the Church sufifered during this dark period and came, if possible, to greater degradation than the civil authority. Many of the clergy were unable to read and write, and they probably rendered their best service in establishing monasteries which served as places of refuge for the oppressed. To many of these they gave clerkships and thus formed bonds of union between the church and the common people. These monasteries were often founded on waste land which the monks brought into a high state of cultivation by their own labors, thus giving a dignity and importance to agriculture in the German countries which it has never lost.

Charlemagne efifected a temporary stay in the general demoralization of the times by his endeavor to found a great Frankish empire. He restored order, did what he could to put the Church on a higher plane, opened schools, and secured a grammar of the German tongue. But the influence of these reforms was largely lost after the death of this strong-handed ruler, and night again began to settle down upon Europe. It would have become complete but for the embers of liberty left as a result of the wise orders of Charlemagne to his governors not to interfere with local laws and customs in the different parts of his empire. Local pride was thus preserved and the entire crushing out of the German spirit of independence was prevented. The Franks Avere too few in number to absorb their subject races as the Normans did in England, and local patriotism, which survives many disasters, again began to develop. The spirit of individual liberty also soon began to assert itself anew. And now arose Feudalism, as a complete triumph of the German practice whereby a man could exchange his allegiance for protection and other benefits, without sacrificing his dignity or imperiling his liberty. Those who were tmable to protect themselves from the robber-barons could now place their possessions in the hands of leaders amply able to protect them, and from whom they could receive them again as fiefs. The free life of the castle broke down many of the barriers of rank ; the common dangers and common interests of the camp drew lord and vassal into a closer union and greatly fostered the vassal's sense of personal worth.

About this time the influence of commerce began to be felt in the German states and especially in the Dutch provinces along the North Sea. Located as they were almost in the center of Europe, and yet on a great arm of the ocean, they enjoyed peculiar facilities for commerce. Nor were material products the only articles they exchanged in their trade with other lands. With their increase in knowledge and the coming in of new ideas, manufactures and other industries sprang up and resulted in a great increase in the wealth and importance of the industrial classes. Now occurred the Crusades, and, during the absence of the nobility, the kings, who had come to be little more than nominal rulers because of the feudal barons, were able to strengthen their position. But to do so they were obliged to borrow money from the artisans and tradesmen, who in return received chartered privileges for their guilds and for their cities. Under these charters arose the free burgher classes and the free cities, while the guilds served to further the cause of freedom by their free discussion and their promulgation of church and state policy.With increased prosperity the condition of the serfs was also greatly improved.

There were now three classes of people in the European countries — the clergy, the nobility, and the common people ; and there were three forces at work in society — religion, war. and gold. The clergy and the nobility still remained the dominant powers, but in Germany and the Netherlands they could not unite their forces, and the common people, through the products of their industry, made rapid strides in power and influence. In England, on the contrary, clergy and nobility joined hands and secured from King John the great charter of liberty. But English respect for hereditary rights of dominion were unafi^ected by the Magna Charta, and it only remained to be settled what great house should rule. This was decided on Bosworth Field, in 1485, in favor of the Tudors. The latter half of the fifteenth century saw the rise of strong kingdoms also in Spain, France, and Austria. Only Germany remained under the feudal conditions of the Middle Ages.

A most potent influence in the cause of freedom had by this time appeared. This was the art of printing. Both the Dutch and the Germans claim the credit of its invention, but in either case no more favorable soil for its development could be imagined than these countries along the Rhine. More prosperous and intelligent than their neighbors, of a strong religious tendency, and with the traditions of personal freedom as a common heritage, the Rhine countries were peculiarly ready for this great medium of interchange of thought. The movements of their soldiery were free, and the people stood near to the sources of law, owing to the large number of small municipalities. Moreover, superstition and sorcery were very prevalent in these days and, where governments were strong, men of advanced ideas were in danger of the prison — the}^ were even in danger of the stake, at which so many who dared to think diflerently from the accepted views of the church and the state perished ; Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, with their small and independent governments, became places of refuge for scholars and men with thoughts in advance of their times. Erasmus in the Netherlands and Zuinglius in Switzerland soon advanced ideas that prepared the way for the Reformation and a curtailment of the power of the thoroughly organized despotism into which the church of Rome had developed. The art of printing had paved the way for independent investigation of the Scriptures : for a Bible, which in manuscript form cost five hundred crowns, could be printed for five crowns. The night of superstition was soon pierced by the rays of the coming morning; the newly awakened sense of individual responsibility to God aroused its twin brother, the sense of the worth of the individual soul independently of the accidents of birth. There were thus two new champions in the arena for the cause of rights divine as opposed to Divine rights. Luther now made his famous pilgrimage to Rome, and came back determined upon measures of reform which would make the leaders of the Church, and their teachings and practices, more like those- of Christ and His Apostles. The Church, alarmed, rallied its forces at the Council of Trent and started a new order, that of the Jesuits, whose followers had avowedly but one object in life, that of furthering the interests of the Church. To this they devoted their fortunes, their entire thought, and when necessary their lives ; but the order was a deadly foe to independent thought and action, and hence to the cause of freedom both civil and religious, for it aimed at temporal as well as spiritual power. Philip II. of Spain, who had come into hereditary possession of the low countries on the North Sea, was an ardent Catholic, and he at once determined to stamp out the various "new reprobate and damnable sects" that had arisen

WILLIAM OF ORANGE in these possessions as a result of the Reformation. The Netherlanders had gotten their new religious ideas by the way of Protestant France which was dominated by Calvinistic rather than by Lutheran thought. Calvin had gone to Geneva, and, carrying out to their logical conclusion Luther's ideas of the right to free investigation of the Scriptures and of salvation by faith, had announced the doctrines of predestination and the right to independence in religious thought and practice. These ideas were fatal to a general church organization and government, and fostered the greatest freedom in what has always been the most potent factor in ruling men's thought and practice, religious belief. Philip remained on friendly terms with the German princes, upon whom he had to depend for many of his troops, and thus gave apparent tolerance to Lutheranism ; but he was very bitter against the new religion in the Netherlands and issued the most stringent orders to the Duke of Alva and his "Council of Blood" to root it out. This was the beginning of a bitter religious war ; and the world looked on aghast, for nine long years, as William of Orange and a few free cities waged unequal contest with the "Master of two worlds." But they were animated by the spirit of their early Batavian and Frisian ancestors ; they were determined to free themselves from their shackles and to assert their right to the free spirit which had made them masters of the ocean, as well as of the land which they had through long years of toil rescued from it.

Convinced at last that Philip was determined to rule them from his Spanish capital with a rod of iron, they, in 1579, in the Union of Utrecht, gave up the thought of hereditary allegiance to him and laid the foundations of the Netherland Republic. This was the "Republic which lasted two centuries, which threw a girdle of rich dependencies entirely around the globe, and which attained so remarkable a height of commercial prosperitv and political influence." The most important provisions of the twenty-six articles of the Union of Utrecht were : it provided for the perpetual union of the provinces into a state which, while single towards the rest of the world, yet maintained the local sovereignty and local institutions of each ; absolute freedom in religious affairs; a common currency; voting by states in the general assembly ; and provision for additions and amendments to the articles of union. AA'hile this union was a mere compact and not a constitutional republic, and afforded less power to the general assembly than the old Achaian League, it was a closer and more effective union than the Swiss Confederacy, which joined independent cantons for external purposes only. Besides, it presented in its provisions for additions and amendments the new idea of a government adaptable to the changing needs of a people. The evolutionary stage in political control had noAv been reached and proclaimed to the world. Two years later, on the 26th day of July, 1581, the United Provinces, assembled at the Hague, in an Act of Abjuration solemnly declared themselves free from Philip's rule. This was their famous Declaration of Independence, the prototype of our own announcement of separation from Great Britain. In it they enumerated, for the information of the world, the wrongs they had for many years suffered under Spanish rule, and clearly set forth the idea that all government worthy the name must be for the benefit of the governed. " 'Tis well known to all," it said, "that if a prince is appointed by God over the land, 'tis to protect them from harm, even as a shepherd to the guardianship of his flock. The subjects are not appointed by God for the behoof of the prince, but the prince for his subjects, without whom he is no prince. Should he violate the laws, he is to be forsaken by his meanest subject, and to be recognizexl no longer as prince." They had already worked out the ideas : that the citizen should be protected against arbitrary imprisonment and was entitled to trial in his own province; that the property of the citizen was subject to taxation only by the body in which he had a representation ; that foreigners had no right to high office in the state ; that the state had no dominion over a man's conscience ; and, though still speaking of the Divine right of kings, it was quite evident that they believed the people had divine rights which were paramount.

These were the people and these were the influences which so profoundly affected civil and religious thought in these early days of European history. Better and more generally educated than other nations, energetic and prosperous, and actuated by an earnest religious feeling and a strong sense of personal responsibility and worth, "To no people in the world more than to the stout burghers of Flanders and Holland belongs the honor of having battled audaciously and perennially in behalf of human rights." Their influence upon the more southern Rhine provinces and upon the free Swiss was direct and powerful because of the free intercourse with them and because persecution drove some of the best families of each up and down the Rhine for many years. This persecution strengthened the natural ties of brotherhood existing between the Dutch and the German inhabitants of the Rhine Valley and served more and more to harmonize their characteristic traits. The debt of England to these people is both industrial and spiritual ; for, while church and

HISTORY OF OLD GERMANTOWN ly

state were so closely united in England during the reign of Henry VIII. that religious tolerance there was delayed for centuries, her dissenting and persecuted Puritans not only found a welcome in Holland, but also imbibed many of its advanced ideas of government. Besides, the exodus of artisans and commercial houses from the Netherlands to England, during the Dutch Inquisition and the war with Spain, introduced that country to the industrial and commercial life which has been the source of so much of its greatness. Our own political debt to them is so evident in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution, that we cannot help feeling that our Revolutionary ancestors regarded the little Dutch nation as worthy of all possible imitation; our industrial' debt is seen in the marvelous prosperity which we enjoy through our inheritance from them of mechanical skill and esteem for agriculture, sources of wealth which have moved the money center of the world from London to New York ; our spiritual debt comes not only from the general intelligence and absolute freedom in thought and conscience for which they so ably led the way but, even more, from the reverence for Divine things which they have transmitted to us, and which has been with us as a strong undercurrent of faith in our darkest hours as a nation.

Speaking of the debt which America owes to Holland, a recent writer^ says that, if it were duly recognized. "American history would occupy a different position from that usually accorded to it. Instead of standing alone as a phenomenon, to be studied by itself, or as a continuation of the record of Englishmen, and to be studied on narrow insular lines, it would fill a much broader field, reaching back to Continental Europe, linking itself to the old civilzation of the Romans, and forming more distinctly a part of that modern history which has been said to begin with the call of Abraham."