BULLETIN HISTORICAL 50CIETY MONTGOMERY COUNTY JiORRISrOWN

Somery

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AT IT5 ROOM5 IS EAST PENN STREET NORRISTOWN.PA.

APRIL, 1945 VOLUME IV NUMBER 4

PRICE 50 CENTS Historical Society oF Montsomery County

OFFICERS

Kirke Bryan, Esq., President S. Cameron Corson, First Vice-Presidenftt Charles Harper Smith, Second Vice'President George K. Brecht, Esq., Third Vice-President Nancy G. Cresson, Recording Secretary Helen E. Richards, Corresponding Secretary Annie B. Molony, Financial Secretary Lyman a. Kratz, Treasurer R. P. Hommel, Librarian

TRUSTEES Kirke Bryan, Esq. Mrs. H. H, Francinb H. H. Ganser Nancy P. Highley Foster C. Hillegass Mrs. a. Conrad Jones David Todd Jones Hon. Harold G. Knight Lyman A. Kratz Douglas Macfarlan, M.D. Katharine Preston Charles Harper Smith Franklin A. Stickler Mrs. Franklin B. Wildman, Jr. Norris D. Wright H

iig

"Graeme Park," the Governor Keith Mansion (South Side) in 1945

/ THE BULLETIN

of the

Historical Society of Montgomery County

Published Semi~Annually — October and April

Volume IV April, 1945 Number 4

CONTENTS

The Penn Tercentenary (editorial note) 255

Sidelights on the History of Graeme Park Charles Harper Smith . 257

Count Von Zinzendorf in Germantown Two Hundred Years Ago Elmer Schultz Gerhard 276

Early Recollections of Ardmore (concluded) Josiah S. Pearce ..... 297

Reports 345

Publication Committee

Mrs. Andrew Y. Drysdale Hannah Gerhard

Anita L. Eyster Charles Harper Smith Charles R. Barker, Chairman

253 The Penn Tercentenary

The William Penn Tercentenary was observed by the Society at its meeting- on November 18,' 1944, when Hon. Harold G. Knight, President Judge of the Courts of Mont gomery County, gave a brief address commemorative of the abilities of William Penn as a lawyer, and Dr. William Wistar Comfort, President Emeritus of Haverford College, read a paper, "Why Remember William Penn?" Dr. Comfort's paper, having already appeared elsewhere, is not available for publication in the Bulletin, but our readers will be interested to know that his paper, "William Penn's Religious Background," forms the leading article in the Wil liam Penn Number (October, 1944) of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Dr. Comfort's book, "William Penn, 1644-1718. A Tercentenary Estimate," ap peared in 1944; reviews of it will be found in The Pennsyl vania Magazine, October, 1944, and in the Bulletin of Friends Historical Association, Autumn Number, 1944. And in the same number of the latter periodical will also be found a re view of another pertinent book, "Remember William Penn," published by the William Penn Tercentenary Committee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1944. Other periodicals teem with timely papers on the subject, but space will not permit a complete summary of them here.

The Publication Committee

255 lUT UAN t-

PARK ROAD

JAMES NASH - 1727 -100 A. 1727 — 700A. •3*richard shoemaker. 1731 - 100(122) A. •4*benjanmn armitagl—ca--1740 - 3C,A. 1740 — 37A. I77S - 20O(219^)a. •Tjohn tomkins- 1762 — 241$ A. ^'JOSEPH PAUL- 1758 — I03A. •9*jabez white.— 1799 - 21 A. 6 •tO'WILLIAM JAR.R.ETT- 1799 — ZIA. •ll'SENECA LUKENS— leoo — 20^4 A. •fZ'SAMUEL PENR.OSL- 1801 — 204^4 A •13'SEAJECX LUKENS— 1601 — IIIA .] •|4"JE5SE. KIR.K- leoj -J&A. •IS'JOHNATHAN JARRETT- 1801 — 36A- •16'EDWARD MALOHL— 1801 - SI-^A •17* THOMAS WH/TE 1802 -3A. PKIVtT

/LIQUIDATION OF THE, KLITH-GRAEME. ESTATE IN HOR5HAW. "B •Draui\bil frame BkiUnar- Sidelights oh the History of Graeme Park*

Charles Harper Smith

Graeme Park, in' Horsham township, was one of the best- known country estates in the neighborhood of during the Eighteenth Century. Its fame rested partly on its own beauty, both natural and developed, but in a much greater degree on the social and political standing of its three succes sive owners, each of whom was, in his or her way, an important public personage. Its founder. Sir William Keith, was by all odds the most colorful and resourceful of our Colonial gover nors; his successor, Dr. Thomas Graeme, was equally prom inent in medicine, in law, and in the inner circle of Philadel phia society; Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, Dr. Graeme's daughter and heir, was one of the tragic figures of the Amer ican Revolution and probably the most talked-about woman in Pennsylvania during and immediately after that war. Neither is the Park forgotten today, though it was broken up into separate farms almost a century and a half ago and its few remaining landmarks can be approached only by a little- traveled byroad. Each year brings numerous pilgrims to this out-of-the-way spot, many, of them from far beyond the borders of Montgomery County. The Park has long been a favorite theme of local historians, who have made its story one of the outstanding legends of Southeastern Pennsylvania.^ The architecture and interior woodwork of the old mansion are widely known among architects and builders, and are de-

''Read before the Society, February 22, 1945. 1 Wm. J. Buck's description in the Horsham chapter of Bean's His- tory of Montgomery County is recommended. He gathered his information nearly a century ago, largely from persons who had known Mrs. Fergus- son personally and remembered the Park as a going concern.

257 258 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county scribed or pictured in almost all manuals of local Colonial design.- Since the general outlines of the story are already so well known, it would be superfluous to repeat them here. This paper will therefore confine itself to certain minor facts or sidelights of the main theme, some of which have been given little or no publicity. It will first attempt to correct the apparently universal belief that Governor Keith's Horsham plantation consisted of an even 1,200 acres. This is a very old misconception, writ ten into the deed of 1791^ by which the estate passed out of Mrs. Fergusson's hands. It is easy to understand why this error was perpetuated, because two conveyances of these 1,200 acres in the early months of 1719 are the only deeds of record and their exact location can be determined only by an examina tion of local land titles. Such an examination shows that 800 of the 1,200 acres lay between the present Park Road and Chestnut Lane, in the upland northwest of the valley of Park Creek in which Graeme Park was situated, and that they were sold by Sir William before he left the Province in 1728.^ The remaining 400 acres lay on the northwestern rim of the valley, but 100 acres were sold during Lady Keith's day,® and an additional 73 acres a few years later.® Thus only a small part of the 1,200 acres was incorporated into Graeme Park proper. But Keith had. also gained possession of more than 500 acres on the southeastern slope of the valley, and it was on this land that his buildings were erected and the major improvements made.

2 Detailed interior and exterior photographs are published in Wallace & Miller's Colonial Houses, Philadelphia, Pre-Revolutionary Period. 3 Montg. Co. deed bk. 6, p. 233.

Phila. deed bk. G 3, p. 1. 5 PhDa. deed bk. F 6, p. 392. ®Draught of Park Road in 1750 (Road Rec. of Phila. Court of Qr. Sess., packet 26, M 110). SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 259

Many people have expressed their surprise that Governor Keith chose Horsham as the site of his country seat at a time when the township was still on the very edge of settlement and plenty of undeveloped land was available nearer the city. The explanation is a somewhat involved story in itself,' but it seems worth telling. It begins with Samuel Carpenter, that staunch Quaker and friend of William Penn, who invested heavily in Pennsylvania real estate during the first few years of the Colony. One of his purchases was a tract of some 4,500 acres which he called "Horsham," in memory of his old home in ; a name which was later applied to the entire township, at his request.® His grant lay on the east side of the township, be tween Horsham Road and the Bucks county line, its southern boundary being the Upper Moreland line, and its northern Chestnut Lane. Now Carpenter was Treasurer of the Province from the year 1700 to his death in April 1714. During the intervening years, Queen Anne's War broke out between England and France and in 1709 the British government called on its Amer ican colonies to provide the men and equipment' needed for an expedition against Canada. Pennsylvania's quota was only 150 fully equipped men, but the Quakers who controlled the Pro vincial Assembly refused to violate their religious principles by underwriting a military expedition. The whole project was later abandoned, but the Crown continued to press for a financial contribution to the war effort, so two years later the Assembly compromised by voting a cash gift of £ 2,000 to the Queen, to be used at her discretion. A special levy was made to raise the money, which was to be turned over to the Provincial Governor as the Queen's agent in return for adequate receipts to clear the Treasurer's accounts. Carpenter was undoubtedly an inefficient tax collec-

TCf. Penna. Arch., Ser. VIII, Vol. II, passim; also Charles P. Keith's Chronicles of Pennsylvania, pp. 578-9. 8Carpenter & Carpenter, Samuel Carpenter and His Descendants, pp. 1-2. 260 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY tor, for the money came in very slowly; apparently his book keeping was equally bad, for when he died suddenly in the spring of 1714, no receipts from Governor Gookin were found and his accounts were in such confusion that only an estimated total of £ 1,600 in tax collections could be arrived at. This sum became a legal charge against the Carpenter estate, but no demand for restitution was made until after Sir William Keith became governor in 1717. He soon persuaded the Provincial Council to permit him to make collection by legal process, and the case was turned over to his attorney general, Andrew Hamilton. Samuel Carpenter had been almost bankrupted by Queen Anne's War; he had invested heavily in the shipping industry before the war broke out and his vessels had been either sunk or captured by French privateers. He had sold most of his land, including all but 1684 acres of his Horsham estate, but even so his widow and children were un able to raise £ 1,600 in cash, so, in February 1719, they re leased 1,200 acres to Hamilton in lieu of a cash payment of £500.® . A month later, this land was reconveyed to Sir William Keith without change in price.^® Before the end of the year 1721, Keith was also in possession of an adjoining tract of 484 acres, the remaining unsold portion of the Carpenter estate. While it cannot be said with certainty that this land was ob tained directly from the Carpenter heirs, there being no deed of record, that such was the case is implied in Keith's deed of assignment in 1731," and there seems to be no reason to doubt that the entire 1684 acres were forfeited in the tax settlement. So Far there was nothing irregular in this procedure, for Governor Keith, as the agent of the Crown, was custodian of this land and"of whatever cash he may have obtained from the Carpenter heirs. But no accounting for either was ever made to the British government. Keith admitted this later, in the series of charges and countercharges which resulted in his

• ®Phila. deed bk. G 9, p. 143. 10 Phila. deed bk. G 6, p. 142. 11 Phila. deed bk. F 5, p. 389. SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 261 expulsion from office, but he defended himself by declaring that he had "laid out an equal sum from his own purse for public purposes," mentioning two sloops of war and certain harbor fortifications provided for the defense of Philadelphia against pirates. This story must have sounded unconvincing to his enemies, who knew that he had landed in Pennsylvania penniless and indebted to others for his passage-money from England and that he had later maintained a lavish scale of living on a modest salary^- by using his official position to extract loans from prosperous citizens. It seems safe to con clude that he settled in Horsham because his land there had cost him little or nothing. At some date which cannot now be determined in the ab sence of a recorded deed, the Governor bought an additional 50 acres from his neighbor Richard Kenderdine, bringing his holdings to 1734 acres according to the original surveys and considerably more than that total by later and more accurate measurements. This final addition lay on both sides of Park Creek at the bottom of the valley. It was, and is, low, boggy land unsuited to agriculture, and the Governor's purpose in acquiring it can only be conjectured. One theory is that it was expected to provide headway for the race to a grist-mill which he intended to build. Another is that it was bought as pasture- land for his work-oxen or as a park for the herd of deer which local tradition says he maintained. Whatever the true explana tion may be, it is a curious fact that part of this land was cleared during the first few years of the Governor's owner ship,^^ while hundreds of acres of better ground were left untouched. It is evident that Governor Keith originally planned to develop his Horsham property as-a commercial venture, with little or no intention of making it his home. He expected to clear the land of its heavy growth of timber and to plant it to

12 In the beginning, his entire allowance for living expenses and "public purposes" was only £400 per annum. 13 So marked on Lady Keith's draught of the plantation, described in a later paragraph. 262 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county such grains as would produce beer and rum for the Phila delphia market. To further his plans, a complaisant Assembly subsidized beer made from domestic grain and laid a heavy duty on rum and molasses imported from the West Indies.^"* Three major buildings were erected during the develop ment of the plantation. The largest, and probably the first, was the malt house in which the grain was to be processed. The contract for its construction was let to John Kirk, a mason of Abington township, in December 1721. Four months later, the Governor stated that "considerable advancement had been made" in its erection and that it was intended "to carry on the manufacture of grain etc."^^' Some doubt that John Kirk was the real builder arises from the letters MT cut in a stone over the main north doorway. It is suspected that these are the initials of Matthias Tyson, Kirk's friend and neighbor, to whom the contract may have been sublet. The second building was a long, two-story, stone structure with many windows, which faced the malt house at a distance of a few hundred feet to the northward, in the direction of Park Creek. It was obviously built as a barracks or bunk- house for the workmen about the place and for the Governor's fourteen slaves. Together, they formed such a large company that Sir William asked that an Episcopal clerygman be de tailed to his plantation, to assure their spiritual welfare. When an inventory of the Governor's personal property was taken in 1726,^® such a huge quantity of household equipment was found about the place that it must be concluded that the serv ants' quarters were almost as spacious as the malt house itself. During Dr. Graeme's ownership, this building was known as

Penna. Arch., Ser. VIII, Vol. II, p. 1434. I-*' Penna. Col. Rec., Ill, pp. 187-8. The Governor was then so pressed for ready money that Dr. Graeme and his friend Thomas Sober took title to the personal property for £ 500 sterling. The original inventory sheets are o^vned by Mrs. Mary Penrose Carothers of Hallowell, Pa. They were copied in part by Mr. Buck for Bean's History of Montgomery County. Besides hundreds of smaller items, there were 16 bedsteads, 144 chairs and 82 tables. SIDELIGHTS ON-THE HISTORY OP GRAEME PARK 263

"the long house" and was used as a guest-house as well as servants' quarters. There is no record of its existence after the year 1781; it was probably pulled down and the material used in the residence which Samuel Penrose built nearby in 1810. The third building was the large stone barn, called in olden times the "barn-stable," which stands at some distance west of the old malt house. Its capacity may be measured by the amount of live stock and farm machinery found on the planta tion in 1726; 20 horses, 29 cattle, 31 sheep, 20 hogs, 11 wheeled vehicle^ and numerous plows and harrows. That these werie the only large buildings erected during Governor Keith's tenure is established by the pen-and-ink draught of the property, prepared for Lady Keith at the time she offered the plantation for sale, and now in the possession of Mr. Welsh Strawbridge, the present owner of the buildings and 294 acres of Park land. The surveyor who made the draught sketched in the three buildings as described above; he would hardly have omitted any other large building in the group. The barn is also shown on the draught of a proposed road through the Park property, presented to the Court in 1734.^'^ It was projected along the Bucks county line from Eureka to a point a short distance above Park Road, thence across country to the Keith barn, where it joined his lane to the Easton Road. This road was short-lived at best, because the Limekiln Pike was opened three years later and provided a more convenient route to the city, but the petition establishes the fact that the present Governor's Road was in use as early as 1734. Original ly, the Keith buildings could be approached only along the Bucks county line, where the two roads authorized in 1722 met at a point near the southeastern end of the plantation. Despite this evidence to the contrary, there is apparently a wide-spread belief that the malt house has now disappeared, and that there was a fourth building into which the Governor moved his family when his fortunes declined and his creditors

17 Road Rec. of Phila. Court of Qr. Sess., packet 24, M 67. 264 bulletin OF historical society of Montgomery county foreclosed on his city property. All available treaties on Colonial architecture, with one possible exception, take it for granted that the mansion house now standing was built as a residence and comment on its many variations from the normal design of pre-Revolutionary dwellings. Even Wm. J. Buck seems to beg the question, although he quotes the adver tisement in the American Weekly Mercury of September 15, 1737, describing the present building in detail and stating specifically that it was "originally designed for a Malt- Hoiise."^® If any further proof were needed, it is found in the east wall of the house itself. Imbedded there at the second-story level is a wide, heavy stone arch which must once have sup ported a huge doorway similar to the one built into Penn's reconstructed malt house at Pennsbury. While this doorway was later filled with stone and a window was cut through the original wall at each side, there is little doubt that this was the opening through which grain entered the building for processing. Even those who know the facts seem to take it for granted that Governor Keith made the necessary alterations in the building when he moved in, about the year 1725. But he was hard-pressed for money during these years, and so was Lady Keith after his departure. In 1726 a large quantity of and distilling equipment was stored on the premises. Finally, the advertisement of 1737 stressed the fact that the building was "well floored" and "extremely commodious as a Linen- Factory," which could hardly be said of it as it now stands. These considerations make it seem likely that the present room arrangement and elaborate paneling were installed by Dr. Graeme after he took possession in 1739. Indeed, it is reason able to believe that the Keiths did not live in the malt house at all, but established quarters in "the long house" after most of the workmen and servants had been discharged. The advertisement of 1737 is interesting in still other re spects. The new owner had christened his purchase "Hor-

Bean's History of Montgomery County, p. 882. SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 265

sham," whereas Keith had fancifully named it "Fountain Low." The main buildings were vacant, but a tenant named Thomas Darroch, later known as Darrah, lived on another part of the property. While the site of this tenant-house is unknown, it would logically have been at the intersection of Privet and Governor's roads, near the very old stable and carriage-house on the property of the late Morris Penrose. This barn was evidently used in olden days as a sort of re mount station, where carriages were exchanged for riding horses whenever the road through the woods was snow- or mud-bound. It was Dr. Graeme's money and vision which developed the plantation into a gentleman's estate. He had an innate love of agriculture and an ambition to emulate his friends here and abroad who maintained large country establishments. A third motive was a fixed conviction, amounting almost to an obses sion, that fresh country air is a specific for most human ills. Now the atmosphere of a city of 20,000 could not have been dangerously miasmatic, but it must be remembered that Dr. Graeme, as Physician of the Port, saw the seamiest side of Philadelphia life. He held that post at the peak of the great German immigration, carried on by small vessels devoted ex clusively to that trade, moving to and fro across the Atlantic as speedily as possible. In an era when scrubbing with hot vinegar or an infusion of tobacco stems were the best-known disinfectants, these ships soon became veritable pest-holes and the passengers who survived the voyage had to be placed in quarantine camps to prevent wide-spread pestilence. A little-known byproduct of Dr. Graeme's service at the Port is the series of large, leather-bound ledgers, covering the years 1739 to 1755, which were stored in the Park House for several generations and were then divided between Mr. Straw- bridge and the late Morris Penrose. It is difficult to determine the exact purpose of these account books, but they contain lists of articles ordered from abroad by residents of Philadelphia and manifests of shipments from Europe. It is believed that they are the records of a commissary set up at the Port, through which Philadelphians placed orders for foreign mer- 266 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

chandise and British merchants forwarded goods to be sold on consignment. Mrs. Graeme and the children are said to have spent their summers at the Park, even in Lady Keith's day, and the Doctor joined them there whenever his professional duties permitted. As he grew older, he gradually withdrew from the city and devoted increasing attention to his country estate. Being fond of the society of his social equals, both the mansion and the long house were usually well-filled thereafter with the elite of Philadelphia and British officials stationed in the city. Under the circumstances, it seems strange that he did not abandon the ugly and inconvenient old malt house for a more conventional residence, as the Quaker farmer, Samuel Pen- rose, proceeded to do shortly after he obtained possession. Various service buildings were erected on the premises from time to time, and a few of them are shown in the oil painting, supposedly executed about the year 1755, which Mr. Buck found a century later and published in Bean's History of Montgomery County. This scene shows only a small number of the known buildings, however, and may be somewhat imag inative;^® more dependable are letters and other documents written before or during the Revolution. They mention a spring house, a milk house, a wash house, a chaise house, a hay house and a tenant house. All but the last two were located along the little stream back of the mansion, where one or two old build ings are still standing.

The north facade of the mansion is shown; therefore the water in the foreground would be Park Creek, which at this point has little resem blance to the picture. Most of the service buildings were on the opposite side of the mansion and therefore out of sight. The barn would be too far to the right to be shown and the long house too far on the opposite side, with the hay house still further to the left, in the direction of the county line. The small structures in the middle foreground ai*e apparently temporary animal shelters. The larger building on the right may be the tenant house, near which Dr. Graeme was stricken with heart failure in September 1772. It stood "near the gate" at the end of an avenue of trees extending to the bank of the creek. SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 267

Dr. Graeme's pride in his estate is well illustrated in the much-quoted letter to his friend in the year 1755, boasting of a "park" then being cleared of underbrush and seeded for later use as pasture land for sheep, cattle or even deer.^o Tall trees and good saplings were left standing and the entire tract had been "double-ditched and double- hedged in." This "park" covered the 300 acres of the estate abutting on Park Road, along the northwestern rim of the valley. It is a remarkable fact that the hedgerows along the southwest end and part of the southeast side of the ancient preserve can still be plainly followed on the farm of Mr. Joseph G. Hess, Jr., despite almost two centuries of cultivation. The hedges them selves have long since disappeared, but the rows remain as low straight ridges, eight or ten feet wide, with a shallow de pression in the ground at either side. They are not generally recognized as hedgerows, however; in local tradition they are the remains of fortifications thrown up against hostile In dians, but there is no doubt that they once supported hedges not unlike those .our fighting men found in Normandy last summer. • Elizabeth Graeme was her father's youngest child, his housekeeper in his old age, and heir to his landed estate. Thor ough training in the aristocratic arts had made her a gracious hostess, a brilliant conversationalist, and a leader in the punc tilious society of her time. It had also developed a natural aptitude for literature: she and her father owned a private library of some 400 volumes, one of the largest in the Prov ince; she wrote volubly in both prose and verse, using the exaggerated style then so popular, though so artificial to modern ears.-^

20 Cf. Bean's History of Montgomery County, p. 882. Shortly after ward, Dr. Graeme tried unsuccessfully to induce the Provincial govern ment to stock and maintain the 300 acres as a semi-public deer park. 21 Her most ambitious literary project was the translation of Fene- lon's Telemachus from the original French. It was never published and one volume of her manuscript is preserved in the Simon Gratz Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 268 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

She was also exceedingly feminine and it was her misfor tune to lavish her affection on two unworthy lovers, whose combined Influence blighted her entire adult life. While still a young girl, she was jilted unceremoniously by William Frank lin, natural son of Dr. , and was so shaken in mind and spirit that a long visit to England was required to restore her poise. Not many years after her return, she fell in with Henry Hugh Fergusson, a penniless Scotch adventurer ten years her junior, who had come to America in search of a rich wife. Realizing that her father would frown on such a mesalliance, they were married clandestinely-- and kept their relationship secret until after Dr. Graeme's death four and a half months later. Installed at the Park as a country squire, Fergusson was appointed the local Justice of the Peace and a Director of the Union Library of Hatborough, the two highest honors the community had to offer. But financial difficulties soon arose; Elizabeth's legacy included no cash bequest and was contingent upon the payment of £ 1,000 to her brother-in-law James Young and his two children. Young's insistence on immediate payment came as a bitter surprise, since his two children had been brought up at the Park and he had lived there without charge for extended periods after his wife's death thirteen years before. She was reluctant to discharge the six personal servants whom her father had maintained in addition to the force needed to cultivate .the land. They were two housemaids, a Negro slave named Sam, Old Joseph, an aged pensioner, John Jenny the coachman, and Andrew Bodin the gardener.^s The plantation did not produce enough revenue to meet all these

22At Old Swedes' Church, Philadelphia, April 21,1772 (Penna. Arch. Ser. 11, Vol. VIII, p. 383). 23These and other details of Mrs. Fergusson's life at the Park are taken from her correspondence in the Simon Gratz Collection of the His torical Society of Pennsylvania and from Mr. Gratz' Some Material for a Biography of Mrs. Elizabeth Fergusson, nee Graeme, published in the Penna. Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 39 (1915). m

'Graeme Park," the Governor Keith Mansion (North Side) in 1945 SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 269

obligations and hei* credit was soon exhausted. Even the local miller "would not let an Account run on for Bread for my family," saying "he could not Support his Mill without Cash."-^ In the fall of 1773 the plantation was advertised for sale, but without result. Two years later, a still greater emergency arose: Fergusson decided to sail for England, telling Elizabeth that he must "settle some affairs with his Brother in North-Britain." It may be suspected, however, that his true purpose was to escape the rising tide of anger against the mother country which soon developed into open warfare. Being an alien and a staunch Tory, he chose to leave while escape was still possible. In order to finance the voyage, he persuaded Governor John Penn to advance the sum of £2,000, secured by a mortgage on 200 acres of the Park land.-^ When the Governor was later in terned and deprived of his salary, he was obliged to hypothe cate this mortgage to meet his living expenses. But Mrs. Fer gusson was unable to satisfy it and the land was taken over by Colonel Isaac Melchior of the Pennsylvania Militia,-® and was thus lost to the Graeme-Fergusson estate. Another unsuccessful attempt was made to sell land in the spring of 1776, but no further incident is recorded until August of the next year, when General Anthony Wayne's Brigade was detoured by way of the Park as the advanced to meet the British at the Brandywine. The Brigade bivouaced in and about the buildings overnight, and when if moved on Mrs. Fergusson's Negro, then a man named Alexander, was persuaded to follow with her wagon and best team of oxen, one of which became overheated and dropped dead in the yoke four miles from home. She had the steer appraised and sent an energetic letter to the General, but so

In all probability this was the Kenderdine Mill, built by Joseph and Thomas Kenderdine in 1735 on Park Creek a few hundred yards from the Park boundary. The building and a good part of its ancient wooden machinery are still intact. -3 Phila. deed bk. D 1, p. 225. Phila. mort. deed bk. M 1, p. 251. 270 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY far as is known, nothing more substantial than a courteous reply was ever received. A few weeks later General Howe marched into Philadel phia, and with him came the importunate Mr. Fergusson, who immediately began to make trouble for his wife. Although he was Commissary of Prisoners on Howe's staff, she was allowed to pass freely through the American lines in order to visit him, and did so at every opportunity. She later declared that this winter "was the most Compleatly miserable I ever passed in my Life—my husband Soliciting me to come into the city and my Country Neighbors thinking that We had knowledge of a hundred things we knew nothing of." The fact is that her neighbors had ample grounds for suspicion, for after one of her first visits she was recalled by messenger to Rising Sun, just inside the British lines, where Fergusson handed her the famous letter from the Reverend Jacob Duche to Washington, begging him to abandon the Revolution as a lost cause, and to enforce his decision on Con gress with the Army. The furor caused by this letter had hardly begun to die down when she was accused of being the intermediary in clandestine intercourse between Governor George Johnstone of the British Peace Commission and the American General . While the full import of this intrigue was never made public, Mrs. Fergusson's part in it made her doubly suspect. Fuel was added to the fire by the conduct of her nephew John ,Young, and Charles Stedman, Jr., her relative by mar riage. Young joined the British in 1776 but was soon captured and paroled to the Park in his aunt's charge. During the British occupation of Philadelphia, he escaped from the Park, broke parole, andleft with Howe's army. Stedman fought with an American Tory regiment and after the war lived in Eng land, where he wrote a partisan history of the Revolution. The public feeling against Mrs. Fergusson may have prompted the decision to quarter the Pennsylvania Militia on her property during the early months of 1778. For whatever reason, upward of 1,000 officers and men were encamped there during the month of January, under the successive commands SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 271

of Generals Armstrong, Potter and J^acey. Tentage and log huts after the Valley Forge pattern were constructed for the men, while local tradition says that the buildings themselves were overrun by the officers and the main drawing room of the mansion was taken over as a guard-room. Much valuable timber was felled and other damage was inflicted, but Mrs. Fergusson was reimbursed only for 2360 pounds of beef slaughtered. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that the Park was seized by the State after the British evacuation and ordered sold as the property of a traitor. A careful inventory of the personal property on the premises was made in Sep tember 1778 by Mrs. Fergusson's Horsham neighbors, Colonel Robert Loller and Dr. Archibald McCIean,^'^ followed by a public auction on October 15th. She was permitted to reserve many of her strictly personal possessions and she or her agent bid in others at the sale.-® Two features of the auction deserve special mention. No horses nor cattle were found about the place; they had either been carried off in the series of raids and counter-raids which had devastated the countryside during the previous twelve months, or had been confiscated in execution of Washington's order of March 1778, directing the seizure of all live stock likely to fall into enemy hands. While at least a dozen of Mrs. Fergusson's Presbyterian neighbors can be identified among the successful bidders, not one Quaker name appears. She was very popular with the Quakers in the community, and they apparently boycotted the sale. Sale of the real estate was delayed by Mrs. Fergusson's friends in the General Assembly, who endorsed her plea that

Loller and McCIean had several assistants, one of whom was Sarah Jenkins, proprietress of the locally-famous Widow Jenkins Tavern at Jenkintown (Penna. Arch., Ser. VI, Vol. XIII, p. 296). -s The original lists are in the Simon Gratz Collection and are pub lished in the Penna., Arch., Ser. VI, Vol. XII, pp. 647-660. They give an accurate picture of the furnishings of an upper-class country house of that period. 272 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county the Park was her property by right of inheritance and her husband had at best only his marital interest. Moreover, he was not legally a traitor, since he had never renounced his British citizenship. Her advocates made but slow progress against the prejudice of the Assembly and the even greater hostility of the Supreme Executive Council, which at one time threatened to deport her. They did succeed, however, in grant ing her the privilege of living at the Park free of rental to the State, and on March 31, 1781 the Assembly finally renounced all rights of the Commonwealth to the property.-®' These friends included a dozen or more of the most patri otic and influential citizens of the State. Among those who championed her cause most faithfully and energetically were her attorney, Andrew Robeson, Elias Boudinot, later Presi dent of Congress, George Meade, and her neighbor. Colonel Robert Loller. In spite of the weight of circumstantial evidence against her, we must accept their judgment that she was loyal to America and the innocent dupe of her designing husband and his British confederates. The intervening years had indeed been full of sorrow and frustration. As late as August 1777 she had employed an over seer of the plantation, but after its threatened seizure by the State the carefully cultivated fields grew up in weeds and brambles. Having no other source of income, she was unable to employ farm labor and no tenant-farmer was willing to lease a property whose title was so doubtful and whose taxes were so enormous.®" As soon as her property rights were re established, she made repeated attempts to sell the place, or at least a part of it, proposing at one time to divide the land in such a way that the long house would be on one parcel and the mansion on another. When these attempts failed,®^ she suc ceeded in leasing the plantation to a series of neighboring

29Journals of the Assembly, p. 603. 39 Her taxes for the year 1780 were £ 464-1-3. 31It was about this time that she sold 24% acres of woodland along Governor's Road to John Tomkins, proprietor of the Golden Ball Tavern nearby. SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 273

farmers, of whom the following are known: James RatlifF (1783), Jonathan Hough (1785-7), Ezra Comly (1788-9), and Robert Strayhorn (1790-1.) During these years, Mrs. Fergusson continued to live in the old mansion with her friend Betsy Stedman, a poor relation of the Philadephia Stedmans, who had first come to the Park as a companion to Mrs. Graeme while Elizabeth was traveling in England. The meagre rental of the plantation was insufficient to cover her expenses and she continued to respond to Fer- gusson's demands for. money. On one occasion, she confided to.Elias Boudinot that she owed £ 3,000, of which £ 1,000 was Miss Stedman's entire savings, lent to her without mortgage. An even more graphic picture of her diminishing resources is obtained from the Horsham assessors' books.-^^ In 1785 she still had two horses, 144 oz. of silver plate, a servant girl and a Negro slave. The next year the Negro was gone; by 1788 the servant had been dismissed. In 1789 the silver plate had been disposed of, and only the two horses were left.^*^ The assessors' records for the next three years are missing, but in the Census of 1790 she was the head of a household consisting of three women and a boy under 16. Evidently she and Miss Stedman had a woman and her child living with them. By 1791 her finances were at such a low ebb that, as she later wrote, "had Land got lower I must (have) gone on this Parish for a support." She had originally demanded £ 3,000 for the property with" an annuity of £ 500, which was more than anyone was willing to pay in the uncertain final years of the war. Later reductions in the asking price failed to keep pace with the falling value of real estate in the depression of the . Finally, however, her friends Boudinot and Meade found two prospective buyers: Joseph Ball, who had recently purchased the Golden Ball Tavern adjoining the Park, and Dr. William Smith of Philadelphia, a pharmacist and the hus-

32In the archives of the Montgomery Court House at Norristown. 33 It was during these years that she presented most of her library to the Union Library of Hatboro, which still has several of her books on its shelves. 274 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county band, before her untimely death, of Mrs. Fergusson's favorite niece, Anna Young. Economic conditions had now begun to improve and Dr. Smith felt justified in making an offer of £ 3,500, which was promptly accepted. Since a great part of the purchase price was needed to liquidate Mrs. Fergusson's many debts, the ex tent of her financial benefit from the sale cannot be accurately determined, though Mr. Buck made diligent inquiry many years ago. He estimated her income after the sale at $200 a year, while Dr. had said it was only $160. But Dr. Smith's first statement of account, rendered six months after the sale, shows that he" was then paying her the interest on a fund of £ 2,500, amounting to £ 125 per annum. This suggests that an annuity in that amount had been agreed upon, though not made a part of the deed of sale. She had also reserved a number of prized heirlooms, in cluding a clock made in London in 1722. The bulk of the furni ture went with the real estate and was passed on to Samuel Penrose ten years later. Some of the choicer pieces are still owned by his descendants, while Governor Keith's alleged writing desk was on exhibition a few years ago in the galleries of a well-known Philadelphia antique dealer. Dr. Smith took immediate possession and installed as tenants George and Jacob Folkrod, brothers of German ex traction. In 1797 he moved out from the city and took personal charge, but he immediately began sellin'g the land off in small lots and remained only that year. George Folkrod then took over again until liquidation was completed in 1802.^^ Mrs. Fergusson and Miss Stedman vacated the Park House after the sale and moved to the village of Hatboro, where they lived until the year 1797, and possibly longer. They had quar ters there with "a worthy gentlewoman," who may have been Martha Todd, then owner of the present Wunderle house on York Road. Life in rented rooms was in mournful contrast to the spaciousness of the Park. Fergusson had ceased to write after her money gave out, and she did not know whether he

34 See the map accompanying this article. SIDELIGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF GRAEME PARK 275 was alive or dead.^^ She had outlived all of her immediate family and was shunned by many of her old friends in the city because of the lingering public suspicion of her wartime activities.. That all these things preyed on her mind is obvious from a letter written in 1797, in which she said, "by peculiar Cir cumstances I am as it were a Link Cut off from the Chain of that Society both by Birth and Education which I was once taught to expect," adding in her loneliness, "among the Por tions of time I find'most tedious where I live is the long, long Winter Evenings Once the joy of my heart." It was only among her Quaker friends in the vicinity that she still moved freely, attending weddings and funerals and, from her meagre income, distributing largess to the needy in the manner of the great lady of the past, thus earning the title "Lady Fergus- son," by which she is still remembered among the older fam ilies in the neighborhood. The years spent in Hatboro also brought increasing bodily infirmities. Born prematurely, she had never been in robust health and had been under intermittent medical care all her life. But in 1795 she began to complain of an alarming short ness of breath on the slightest exertion, a symptom of cardiac weakness which may well have proved fatal in the end. It was doubtless due to declining health that she was later taken to the home of her old friend and neighbor, Seneca Lukens, the Horsham clockmaker, where her last years were spent. When she died there on February 23, 1801, a few days after her sixty-second birthday, finis was written to the most dramatic chapter in the uneventful history of Horsham town ship, a drama that must have provided its other residents with an endless source of gossip and speculation for almost a century.

In 1793 she heard indirectly that he was with the British army in Flanders. He is believed to have died in that campaign. Count Von Zinzendorf in Germantown Two Hundred Years Ago*

Elmer Schultz Gerhard

After tarrying a few days in New York, Nicholaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf and von Pottendorf, Baron von Thur- stein, Graf von Biebersheim, Lord of the Manor of Berthels- dorf, Hereditary Warder of the Chase to his Imperial Majesty in the Duchy of Austria, and sundry other titles,^ arrived in Philadelphia with his retinue on December 10, 1741, and after much longing on the part of those whom he had sent ahead, and who had traveled many miles to meet him. He was greeted by Bishop David Nitschman, Jr., and was welcomed as a guest at the house of Stephen Benezet, a wealthy Huguenot mer chant of Philadelphia; he was greatly interested in Zinzendorf and his affairs. Christian Froelich, who had come over with the Nitschmans, had previously rented a three-story house on Second Street, near Sassafrass Street, now Race Street, for the Count's use while he was in Philadelphia. Zinzendorf's daugh ter, Henrietta Benigna Justina, a girl of seventeen years, and Anna Nitschman lodged together in a few rooms. This Anna Nitschman was the daughter of David Nitschman, Sr.^ She was a very capable woman, but rather stern and severe, a

•"Read before the Society, February 22, 1944. (Note by author: This is not a biographical sketch of Zinzendorf, neither is he to be judged solely by this narrative, and the Herrnhuters (Moravians) are not to be judged by it in the least. It merely I'elates what the Count did in Ger mantown, "and what people thought, said, and wrote about him two hundred years ago.)

1 He had no less than a dozen titles. 2 David Nitschman, Sr., known as the carpenter, was an uncle of Bishop David Nitschman, Jr. 276 COUNT VON ZINZBNDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 277

sort of blue-stocking; she was twenty-five years old when she came to America. The Count's arrival was announced in the English news papers; some of the important people called on him; some others, however, did not, among whom were the Separatists. In accordance with the etiquette, which he felt was incumbent upon him, he formally announced his arrival to the Governor of the , whose secretary conveyed to Zinzendorf the Governor's felicitations and compliments. The sensation aroused over his coming, which was eagerly awaited by persons of various dispositions, was even greater than what it was in New York. Many people were anxious to see what spiritual wonders this new apOstle would accomplish, while others were simply curious to see and hear this remarkable nobleman of rank who had at least a dozen titles, a large for tune, a high position at court, and had relinquished all to engage in religious work; and still others had formed the im pression that the spirit of persecution had come into the land with the coming of the Count. Zinzendorf evidently sensed the feeling which was abroad, so in order to forestall any sinister reports, which he felt might be carried to the Governor, he asked the latter to send representatives to attend his meetings and hear his discourses. The Governor willingly agreed to such precaution, but at the same time he assured him of the broad tolerance regarding creed and religious affiliations and freedom granted by the laws of the Province. A few days later, December 18, Zinzendorf's daughter came to Germantown and engaged a room for herself and one for her father who then came the same evening. Spangenberg'^ informed one of his friends that Zinzendorf would lodge with him, and this man, knowing Spangenberg, but not having

3 August Gottlieb Spangenberg (1704-1792). He had taken a small company of Moravians to Georgia in 1735; within a year's time he was recalled and urged by Zinzendorf to repair to Pennsylvania and corral the various religious groups which had in the meantime migrated to Pennsylvania and convert them (!) convert them to what ? Spangen- berg's motives here have often been impugned, and rightly so. 278 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county previously divined his purpose, was willing to have the Count do so, feeling he was showing a kindness both to a stranger and also to a friend. And so the Count and a few others came during the course of the evening; but he himself did not stay even an hour; his excuse was that he was not accustomed to eat and sleep in any house except his own. Whether the lodging was too cramped, or the hospitality too poor, or whether an offensive remark had been made was never disclosed, neither how nor when. It is said, however, that he complained later on of the manner in which his host received him, but not in what connection; nor did his host himself know.'^ It is not definitely known where he lodged for the night,® but the next morning as he went through town, (he was on his way to Falkner Swamp to see Henry Antes) he visited a few people, among them John Bechtel who was at the time preacher in the German Reformed Church in Germantown. This man was a wood-turner, i. e., he worked on a lathe. When the Count said he would like to see his workshop, his Werk- statte, he did not perceive at first that he meant the church in which he preached; but finally he caught on and took the Count to the church; whereupon the Count asked him how

Judging from what happened later on, it is safe to presume that his host was Johann Adam Gruber, who was a Separatist and lived in Germantown. He wrote under the pseudonym of "Ein Geringer." On January 10 Gruber had a note from Zinzendorf asking for lodgment, as had been promised him whenever he happened to be in Germantown, but which Gruber says is not true. The Count made much ado as to how he was going to deport himself, saying his coat would do for a bed-cover and his portfolio for a pillow. Gruber had his suspicions but wrote him that the lodging was at his disposal if it was good enough, but added that he did not wish to be annoyed' with a big troop come trapsing in. Zinzendorf and Eshenbach came at ten o'clock at night and soon retired, but the former left in the morning before anyone was aware of it. '• Levering in his comprehensive history of Bethlehem says he lodged with John Bechtel, but this is not at all likely because of what happened the next morning. 'Watson in his "Annals" says he lodged with John Wistar, which is likewise unlikely, nor can Watson's statements always be relied upon. COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 279 many people this newly-erected church held;® Bechtel said thousands. Then the Count said he saw quite well that he could secure work here when he came again. But even though he preached a number of times in this church, that many people never attended his services. He also had Bechtel in formed twice from the city that he would like to be his chaplain. The evening before he left town he had inquiries made of the German printer here in town whether he could shortly print a small book of hymns for him, otherwise he would be obliged to have it printed in English characters; and this is what happened and with quite a few changes. This was the first meeting between Zinzendorf and Christopher Saur, the combative printer of Germantown. An account of the tilts clashes and fiery encounters between the two would form an interesting paper. • Zinzendorf now started off with his retinue and attendants for Skippack and Falkner Swamp to see Henry Antes and others, but his daughter remained here to look up the children of friends."^ It was through Spangenberg that Zinzendorf and Antes fell into each other's good graces. These men decided to. hold a series of conferences to which they intended to invite— rather summon—the representatives of all the various relig ious groups, some eight or ten in number. To make sure that it was meet and proper so to do they cast lots; the answer was "Yes," and to the question how soon, the answer was "the

« This was the German Reformed Church of Germantown, now the Market Square Presbyterian Church. It was built in 1733. As the con gregation was not able to secure and maintain the services of an ordained preacher, John Bechtel, who settled here in 1720, officiated as preacher for sixteen years. Zinzendorf always preached in this Church whenever he preached in a church in Germantown.

It was the usual practice for the women folks to stay behind and to follow in the wake of the Count's travels and to go around among friends, especially where there were children and urge them, and the parents too, to come to them. 280 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY sooner the better."® So Zinzendorf commissioned Antes to issue a circular letter urging the representatives of these various groups to attend said conferences; Antes did so and also stated the reasons for calling such conferences. The circular letter of Antes:

In the Name of Immanuel, Amen! —I wish to let you know that in as much as frightful evil is being wrought in the Church of Christ, among the souls who have been called to the Lamb (to follow Christ) which occurs mainly through mistrust and .suspicion toward each other, and that, too frequently without reason, we have for well-nigh two years now (which Gruber says is not true) been considering whether it were not possible to appoint a general council, not with the intention of quar reling and wrangling with each other but to treat each other in love, on the essential articles of faith in order to see how closely we can approach each other fundamentally, and as for the rest, seek to bear with each other in love on opinions wherein we might understand each other at the present time, so that all judging and fault-finding might cease among the chosen souls through which they expose themselves before the world and afford it occasion to say: "Well, those who preach peace and love are themselves at variance." And so this matter, so important, has again been taken under con sideration and deliberated before the Lord. It has been decided to meet on New Year's Day in Germantown at Gotthard's housed to consider the aforesaid matters. I beg of you to make it known to such people in Germantown as you know have a foundation for their faith and can state it. The calling of this meeting has been announced to all the leaders of the old Dunkards, to the leading Mennonite teachers, to the Seventh-Day Adventists, and the Separatists, and of course the Herrnhuters will

« "In those days every important step was submitted to and decided by lot, not only by Zinzendorf himself, but by all engaged in his cause. ... In the archives of Herrnhut is a small glass case containing the three lots which the Count carried in his vest-pocket and used on every occasion, where the will of the Lord was referred to." — James Henry: "Sketches of Moravian Life and Character," Philadelphia, 1859.

This was the house which Zinzendorf had rented and in which he was lodging at this time. The house has as yet not been identified. Gott- hard was one of the Moravians who had come back from Georgia. COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 281 also be present. It will very likely be a large meeting which cannot be concluded in one day. May the Lord bestow His blessing upon itl^o From your humble and yet affectionately-minded Brother, Henry Antes December 25, 1741 Frederick Township., Phila. Co. Rev. John Philip Boehm, a prominent Reformed preacher of Whitpain Township, Montgomery County (then Philadel phia County) took Antes to task for sending out this letter, especially so, because he had formerly been a member of the Reformed Church, and had left it. He says he had for several years allowed himself to be dragged around by the spirit of dwaling {dwaaling—a mop; door-mat; swab?) by all sorts of erring persons, and at present allows himself again to be led about like a blind man with staff by the more adroit Count von Zinzendorf. But he received the severest criticism from Johann Adam Gruber, who says he was astonished to see that Antes had undertaken to present such a serious matter as though it came from a Court of Chancery in the form of a manifesto. He asks, "Why are the Quakers and the Schwenck- felders omitted from the list you made up? Who gave you the power to do it under your name exclusively and yet you. send the letter out under the name of Immanuel? What are the essential articles of faith? Who has determined them? By whose authority shall judgment be expressed? Instead of lessening the quarrelling and wrangling greater dissensions will arise." According to all accounts Zinzendorf was himself the instigator and director of the project.^^ Zinzendorf came back to the city by way of Ephrata; his daughter met him "down town" on his return. On the morn ing of December 20 he preached his first sermon in German-

10 This is an exact copy of the letter as found in the "Bewahrte Nachrichten," Vol. Ill, p. 303, and as Antes sent it to "Germantown Friends and addressed to Johann Adam Gruber." The letter given out by the Herrnhuters in the "Pensilvanische Nachrichten" is different; for one thing, the statement that "the Herrnhuters will also be present" was artfully left out. 11"Bewahrte Nachrichten," Vol. Ill, pp. 305-313. 282 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county town; this was alsohis first appearance in an American pulpit. It was also here iii Philadelphia that he produced at this time a sealed charter, or patent, written in English and in Latin, which document he had received from the Bishop of London by whom he was fully commissioned to preach in this country, because his teaching, or doctrine, agreed substantially with that of the High Church. Many people, the Mennonites in par ticular, looked upon this paper with misgivings and suspicion and upon the Count as entertaining sinister motives. He gave the Governor in the city to understand that he intended to hold services here and asked him to send some one who understood German and English quite well, to "listen in" whether he might be uttering anything against the laws of the Province, for it was bruited about that he was trying to form a group of followers among the Germans. The Governor's letter in reply: Had I known that you were coming to the city, I would have fore stalled your letter with a visit prior to your honoring me so soon after your arrival in this country. In comformity with the established regu lations and customs of this country no one, who believes in the one and Almighty God. . . and holds himself obligated to the civil authorities to lead a peaceable life, molests anyone in the least, nor does he injure another whether in person or property because of matters of conscience which pertain to doctrine as well as to life. But since you expressly desire to have some one present at your services who understands German and English quite well, I shall comply with your request in this regard, but much more so that the person may be an open-minded witness of your earnest endeavor in the behalf of the salvation of souls, rather than have him entertain fear that you might circulate teachings which would tend to overthrow the magisterial gov ernment or the obedience and loyalty which every inhabitant of the Prov ince owes to our gracious lord and sovereign, King George (III). It will afford me great pleasure, my lord, to prove to you on every occasion my regard and esteem. Your most obedient and loyal servant, George Thomas Dated Philadelphia, December 24, 1741 To the Right Reverend Ludwig, Senior Bishop of the Moravian Church^- "Biidingische Nachrichten," 1742, Vol. II, p. 825, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pa. COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 283

On December 25 he preached again in Germantown, and on the same text he used on December 20. It is said that he preached with great vehemence against the Free-Thinkers, who would give him neither access nor audience, that they must do the penance openly as imposed by the church. In this manner he reflected on what he had preached in the former sermon and sharply reinforced it. He preached again in Ger mantown on December 27. Some praised the service, others criticized it. Nd hearts were stirred up, as was noised abroad. Zinzendorf wanted to preach in the High Church in the city, but the Commissary, or Consistory, did not allow him to do so, in spite of the fact that he was willing to conform to their mode of garb and other conventionalities of the church. On December 30 he is reported to have openly declared"before a large gathering in the city that prostitution and adultery are not sins—only unbelief is; at which expression, we are told, a great many people took oifense. At about the same time he is said to have remarked by those who heard him in addressing a meeting that while speak ing of the Judgment Day that he knew for a certainty that he would not be called to judgment, for by faith he had broken through death into life. But he would be present on that day and embrace many souls whom he knew here and would help them through.^^ In his letters he frequently called himself Ludwig Nitsch- man, claiming he was the adopted son of the elder Nitschman, that Anna Nitschman, the former's daughter, was his sister, that they had one father and one mother, that she often had to be with him' for she was his treasurer and housekeeper and that he took council with her in all things. It is noticeable that slie always travelled with him while he was here and left with him for Europe. He himself wrote: "... not only did her brother bequeath her to me when he went to prison and won

"Bewahrte Nachrichten Herrnhutischen Sachen," Vol. HI, p. 145. In Vol. I of the same series, p. 616, is found a sermon he preached on the 26th Sunday after Trinity, 1744, with the very same expressions. He had the same printed. 284 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county the martyr's crown in 1728, but her father, known as Nitsch- man the carpenter, adopted me as his son as a matter of con venience when I became Moravian Bishop."^' While he lived in Germantown the two frequently went out walking in the evening, which performance was rather offensive to many people. It is worthy of note that when the Count's wife died in 1756 he married this woman the next year. It was now time for the meeting of the first conference,^® which was set for January 1, 1742, the same to meet in Zin- zendorf's rented house, which was supposedly that of Theobald Endt, a clockmaker, though not all writers are agreed on this point.^® Friends and strangers came the day before; they ex pected something great and wonderful. It was a motley array; eight or more religious groups were represented; among them were Anabaptists, Mennonites, Pietists, Lutherans, Reformed, a few Separatists, and also four delegates sent by the Seventh- Day Adventists; these were the only delegates. Some of those present were ineligible and were expelled or excluded. Conrad Weiser, at the time a Justice of the Peace; and a well-meaning hermit, Conrad Mathaei, were present, as was also Rev. Sam uel Guldin, the first ordained Reformed minister in this country.^'^ Several Quakers who understood German were sent for by Zinzendorf, and a few Schwenkfelders in Germantown were persuaded to come, but when they perceived that they were to be there only so it could be said that they, too, were repre sented, they went home.

These are his own words as recorded in "Pensilvanische Nach- richten," p. 10 (1742). Rev. William J. Hinke, an authority on the history of the German Reformed Church of Germantown, says there were thirty-six conferences in all, but the minutes of only seven are recorded. 10 This house still stands at 5222 Germantown Avenue.

11 He was violently opposed to the movement and wrote his "Unpar- theyisches Zeugniiss Ueber die Neue Vereinigung Aller Religions-Par- theyen in Pensylvanien" (etc.), which was directed against the Count's attempt to unite all the German religious groups in Pennsylvania. COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 285

The purpose of the meeting was hardly stated when trouble arose. The Mennonites and the Schwenkfelders were scorn fully reproached by the Count, presumably because they vir tually refused to take part in the conferences. This uncalled- for act caused considerable disturbance, which was decidedly increased when a tailor, named Schierwagen, a Separatist, produced a paper in which he criticized Zinzendorf's sermons, especially in what he termed uncharitable expressions. This elicited a sharp reply from Zinzendorf, Then the hermit, Con rad Methaei, tried to defend the tailor and was also severely reprimanded. By this time it became plainly evident that the Count was setting himself up as author, proposer, arbritrator, and judge; that everything was ordered and maintained according to his idea, intent, and purpose, and impulse. He meant to have the first word and the last word and the pronouncing of sentence. He prepared the questions and set them, and sorted the answers to such as had been cast and sought for by lot. He proposed and decided everything and replied to everything. If anyone refused to submit to the Count's rulings, often arbitrary, and to give his consent, or spoke in opposition, he soon lost favor and credit and had to remain outside (except Henry Antes, -and other favorites like him). The consequence was that many kindly-disposed people went away disconsolate and never came again.^® The fourth conference,^® like the second one, was scheduled for Ephrata, but the opposition was stronger than ever. Con rad Beisel, jealous of his Seventh-Day Adventist Community, would not permit a conference to be held there because he was afraid of having his Archimedean circles disturbed. So the fourth conference was also held in Germantown, March 11-12, and at the Ashmead house.®® One of the main points of discus-

is An account of the first conference is found also in the "Biiding- ische Nachrichten," Vol. 11, p. 723. 19 Of the seven conferences, four were held in Germantown; the others were held elsewhere. 20It stood at 5454 Germantown Avenue; it was razed in 1904, when the Germantown Saving Fund Society enlarged its building. 286 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY sion was the wrong done to the Indians at Nazareth. Henry Antes was commissioned to see to it that they received just treatment. The fifth conference, the most fiery of all, was held in Germantown, April 18-20. The forenoon session of the first day was held in the Reformed Church. It was a general session. Many people saw that this was a clever way to attract those who would otherwise not have come and announced them selves. The afternoon session was held in Zinzendorf's house. It is chiefly known for the clash between Zinzendorf and Saur and Schoenfeld as to who, to put it bluntly, was the biggest liar.-^ Saur gave a savage and convincing answer to the Count's former letters; so the matter came up in conference. The Count was now bent, as always, on justification and retali ation. One man, a good-natured soul, and of keen perception, asked why all this bitterness; he could not and would not countenance it any longer; that one heard and saw nothing but self-justification and selfishness. Whereupon the Count ordered him, and another man who came to his aid, out and away from the conference and out of the congregation. . The second day of the conference started off a little dull; but things soon became interesting. Benedict Muntz, a newly acquired member of the faith, had sent Zinzendorf a very sub missive letter in which he said he surrendered himself and all his possessions to the good of the cause; at least so he wrote. This letter the Count read to others with great animation, say ing he would be glad to receive any number of such letters. But when this man began to waver and vacillate, probably regretting his submissiveness, Zinzendorf accosted him severe-

21 "Bewahrte Nachrichten" (etc.), Vol. Ill, p. 515. Also "Biiding- ische Nachrichten," item XII, p. 826. Zinzendorf began to feel that he was more talked about, as he thought, than was necessary. So he had a challenge put in the German newspaper stating if anyone had anything against him, he should come out with it. So Schoenfeld published in the same paper a report of the Count's actions in Europe and how he and his wife were treated by him. The "Count denied the charges in the Eng lish newspaper, saying there were nineteen lies in Schoenfeld's report. Hence the aforesaid clash. COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 287

ly and said, "You, Benedict Miintz, do not deserve to cut your grain, the Brethren will gather your harvest." And to give still greater vent to his feelings, he then and there married Miintz's daughter, who was with her father; to a man named Eschen- bach who had been trying for a long time to get possession of her by casting lots and by other means, but in vain. The' said letter Zinzendorf tore in pieces. Miintz protested vehemently against all such actions.-- He Was finally appeased, and his son- in-law became Bishop Eschenbach who preached in Oley until the people there as gOod as told him to leave the place. The "railroading" of marriages like this was nothing unusual; the elders of the church and the casting of lots decided who was to marry whom. , If they could not get possession of the children, or grown up daughters, because of the vigilance and objection of the parents, they tried to entice them under the pretense of con verting their souls. In the city Zinzendorf married off the three daughters of a well-to-do friend; the father came quite a dis tance to ward off the marriage of the last one, but could not prevent it. An English widow in Germantown complained, with tears in her eyes, to friends, and to others, that Zinzendorf connected three of her daughters, and finally a fourth, in marriage with his own people. The first one he contracted, without the miother's knowledge, to a German. Then he wrote a note to the mother, excusing himself and asking her pardon. This is the way many of them fared. One would be married to a preacher or teacher, another one to a bishop, and a third to some one sent to another country; most of them were married by the casting of lots; some few had the pleasure of seeing each other beforehand. Some who had been married were sep arated again, one being sent to this place and the other one to another place.^^ These people tried to win over the children and the women wherever they could. Zinzendorf even had a list of the names of the young women and children in the community by the time he came to Germantown. They are

-'2Ibid, Vol. Ill, p. 180. 2" "Bewahrte Nachrichten" (etc.). Vol. Ill, p. 215. 2gg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY said to have remarked that if they only had the children, the parents would not cause them so much concern.^^ ' The sixth" conference was held at the house of Lorenz Schmelse; it was the most poorly attended of all. Zinzendorf, chagrined at the small attendance and the entire absence of several groups, proposed to dissolve the meeting but he was overruled. The seventh conference was held "down town" at the house of Edward Evans on the north side of Race Street above Second. It was fairly well attended. According to the report of the spectators, things were done in a high-handed manner and set off with parades. The several parties were hackled once more, combed down and sentence pronounced. The conferences followed each other too closely; they be came tiresome. In addition, each religious group held tenaci ously to its own creed and fundamentals. Denominationalism held its head high from the very beginning and was fiercely opposed to the movement. Little was accomplished; the main result was a flood of vituperation, most of which, fortunately, has never found its way into print. It is difficult to find whether any of the points mentioned in the circular letter were amic ably discussed. Between the fifth and the sixth conferences Zinzendorf always preached "down to"wn" on Sunday forenoon and in Germanto"wn in the afternoon. In one of these sermons in Germantown he complained a great deal, sayingthathe thought things were really bad in Philadelphia, but here in German- town they were ever so much worse. Yet six weeks before he called this land a dear land, Immanuel's land, the lovely Penn sylvania which had been prayed over a thousand times, and that here in Germantown his heart was always alive. Love feasts for every age and sex were frequently held in the church; invitations' to the same, oral and written, were given out, or issued, by the Count's daughter. In the beginning many good-natured and well-meaning people were attracted, but the more thoughtful and far-seeing held back. At a love feast on March 20, 1742, the Count and his coterie baptized

24 Ibid,, p. 202, ff. COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GEEMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 289

two young people, a man and a woman, both single, whom they had attracted to their group. After this ceremony was over this man baptized Anna Nitschman and her "brother," now Ludwig Nitschman (the Count himself), by sprinkling water over them and by the laying on of hands. Immediately following the fifth conference, April 18-20, he held one of these love-feasts in the church with his own people and such others as they could attract. They broke con- secreated wafers and dealt them out, and sang until they lay upon their faces. The men and women sang antiphonally (re- sponsively) verses from their hymns. The affair lasted until 1 o'clock at night. Some of the more thoughtful who were pres ent refused to take part, even though they had been invited and urged to do so. To all such Zinzendorf administered a stinging rebuke for being so nicely nice as not to take part in any venture. Their part, he said, is stated in Apoc. (Rev.) 21:8:" "But for the fearful, and the unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." On the following Sunday in their evening prayer-meeting the Count and Bishop Nitschman ordained John Bechtel, who served as preacher in the Reformed Church here in German- town, as Inspector, Director, and Instructor, and set him over other Reformed preachers, with the presentation and reading of their large sealedletters to bishops with full power granted * by universities abroad to ordain or appoint others, adding that Bechtel was now to serve more important offices than before, with many promises to him and with threats against any- opposition.^®

"Bewahrte Nachrichten (etc.), Vol. Ill, p. 182. -«This was a bitter pill for many of the other Reformed preachers, especially for Rev. John Philip Boehm. When Zinzendorf informed hira of the appointment of Bechtel, and begged him not to be surprised, and that he should try to make himself submissive to Bechtel, Boehm came out in print with a very sharp reply. He and his church people were 290 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

On April 12, the Sunday following Easter, after his sermon here in-the church, in connection with which he complained of the lawlessness and the uncommunicativeness of the people in the vicinity, he held a meeting with his "select group" (?) in the church. On this occasion, it is said, he made some very shameful remarks which were directed at the single women regarding plans for marriage, holding before them the con tents of the 19th chapter of Genesis, and calling their attention to the great nation which was thereupon propagated.-' He directed similar remarks to the married women, calling their attention to the concubines of Solomon, and how here again a great nation sprang forth, and how many "gentlemen" abroad ... and yet loved their women after all; and other objectionable remarks, at all of which the women, it is said, were thoroughly ashamed.-® . Zinzendorf and his cohorts adopted the cruel and outland ish practice of enticing children and maiden daughters to such an, extent that the parents began to complain because he was taking them otf to Germany as members of his congregation. Hence the following incident. The Count had solicited from her parents a young girl whom he had attracted to himself; in the name of the Church and of Christ he meant to marry her off to one of his .home-made tramp preachers and wholly without the parents' consent. The poor girl> it is said, had no intentions whatever of marrying; neither did she wish to leave her parents. But as the Count and his co-laborers kept on din- ' ning into her, ears the Savior's warning: ."Who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me," the bewild-

violently opposed to this appointment of Bechtel. It is' not even known that Bechtel was an ordained minister; he was best known as a pious mechanic. As he aiBliated himself more and more with the Herrnhuters he lost the support of his congregation and was finally dismissed as pastor in 1744. He spent the rest of his life with the Moravians in Bethlehem. 2T" . . . von Loth_s Schandung seiner Tochter"; "Bewahrte Nach- richten (etc.)," Vol. Ill, p. 178. 28"und vieleegrosen Herren drausen, zu Verschonung ihrer Weiber, die sie doeh lieb batten, dergleichen batten." Ihid. COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 291

ered girl finally said she did not wish to oppose her Savior, Consequently the parents-no longer allowed her to go around with the Count, neither did they allow her to attend singing school in the evening unless accompanied. They did not, how ever, refuse her the privilege of going to church in day-time. In return for such rebuffs and refusals he wrote the parents the following, vile, mean and frightful letter. The father was Frederick Vende, a cooper of Germantown.-®

My dear cooper and your wife— Even though I take both of you to be notorious children of the. devil, and you the woman as a two-fold child of hell, yet I would gladly have your condemnation as tolerable as possible; and as it is a patent fact that all your children belong to the Savior and he is to have them, too, and as I am troubled only about your daughter Magdalene who thinks so seriously of the Savior's warning, "Who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me," I demand of you your daughter down right and possitively. And even if you cannot rettain her in the face of the law which is wisely Qpposed to such irrational parents, you can still vex her soul, if that seven-fold devil, which possesses you, permits you. So consider and leave your daughter peaceably with the congregation and possibly to your timely and eternal good fortune."

9 I am your better disposed than you think Ludwig • Philadelphia, December 26, 1742 To Frederick Vende, cooper, in Germantown.30

The father, who was mightily agitated because of the secret leave-taking of the daughter, on the advice of others, left the said letter unopened for ten days. When the contents were

Zinzendorf preached in this man's house on several occasions. The house still stands on the corner of Germantown Avenue and Queen Lane. Due to the attractiveness presented by the Herrnhuters, this whole family with all its strength allowed itself for months to be used almost as serfs by the said people. Zinzendorf's adherents themselves inserted this letter in the "Biid- ingische Nachrichten, Vol. Ill, item XIII, pp. 101-102.-Vide Ibid. p. 726; and also Vol. I, p. 217. Strange to say, the letter was already in print when they began to deny the authenticity of it. 292 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county divulged among German—as well as among English-speaking people, the Count's adherents, evidently ashamed at the per formance, denied the same and put a false construction on it. They denied that the Count had written the letter and accused a man in Oley, Charry by name, who was seemingly innocently ignorant of the matter. The Count may have had the letter copied, but the subscription to it is in his own hand-writing, as all who know his writing can easily testify. When the father finally opened the letter, the daughter, under the pretense of visiting a friend, had left with Zinzen- dorf for Europe without taking leave of her parents. She wrote back from New York, saying she would make it right with them when she came back. In Germany she was married to Jonas Paulus Weiss. There were numerous escapades of this sort: the daughter of Henry Antes was married to Rev. Ben jamin LaTrobe in England; and the daughter of William Frey, of Frederick Township, became in Europe the. wife of Joseph Mueller, of the Great Swamp. All these people went with Zin- zendorf when he left for Europe; they reached England, Feb ruary 17, 1742.^1 The daughter of a Mr. Newman (Neuman), who came here from London and to whom Zinzendorf wrote a similar letter, if not more vile, also slipped away -with Vende's daughter for Europe. Early in the spring of 1742 Zinzendorf decreed that there be a half-hour meeting in the church every Sunday afternoon, said meeting to consist of men, women, bachelors, spinsters, children, boys and girls, and who not. So for many weeks the church bell rang the whole live-long Sunday afternoon as it does in a cloister during mass. Next he divided his people in Germantown into bands, or groups, of two or three each, according to his whim. These groups were to "canvass the town," and work among those who were still undecided, and to stir them up so that they might become converted under the name of Christ. The scheme did not work; very few concerned themselves about the matter.

31 Joseph Mortimer Levering: "A History of Bethlehem"; Bethle hem, Pa., 1903, p. 160. COUNT VON ZINZENDORP IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 293

Zinzendorf did a very commendable thing in Gerniantown when he directed his efforts vigorously toward education.^- We find that in the beginning of March, 1742, he moved with his co-laborers into another house in Germantown. He fixed it up and changed it for a school, and at his own expense. He called a conference of all evangelical Christians in the Province. Here he first launched the project of educating the children in the Province. By April 3 he had notices printed in German and sent to all the "German Townships" requesting all such as were concerned about the welfare of their children to meet at the house of John Bechtel,®^ or of Lehman the potter, by April 17, to talk over the matter. He then and there disclosed his plan for starting a-school. He wanted one hundred children at once from the country, fifty boys and fifty girls. There was to be a teacher for every twelve children. Zinzendorf was going to provide board and lodging for teachers and pupils.^^ But very few people came, and these were mainly German- towners. Mainly because of indifference, lack of time, poor means of travel, suspicion.cast upon the Herrnhuters, misrep resentation of motives and fear of proselyting, this project came to naught. Several more appeals were sent out. Eventually a school was opened in the Ashmead house, already mentioned, on May 4,1742, and with twenty-five girls. But by the end of June, 1743, this school was transferred to Bethlehem, and became the well-known Moravian Female Seminary. This was, then, the actual beginning of the school work of the Moravian Church in America.

32 The story is too long to be given in detail; it is really worthy of a treatment by itself. 33This house is still standing at 5226 Germantown Avenue. It is now used as an antique shop. 34 "Bekanntmachung an alle deutschen Townshippes (etc.)," was the advertisement, or broadside, which Saur printed for the occasion. But he is more than amused at the Count's "German Townships"; there were no political units so designated. Saur says further that there were only forty children in all of Philadelphia and Germantown; and yet Zin zendorf wanted one hundred. Vide "Bewahrte Nachrichten," Vol. Ill, pp. 816-817. 294 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county Zinzendorf preached his first sermon in America, and in Germantown, in the Reformed Church, and his last one in Germantown in the same place, June 17,1742. He had intended to preach here again in December, but he went to Conestoga instead. It is conjectured that he left a few mementos in town in that he gave Casper J. Wistar a comfortable settee, two large rushbottomed chairs, and a circular walnut tea-table, and a much prized Latin letter which later hung in "Grumble- thorpe" and in the room in which the British General Agnew died. It is not definitely known just when he left Germantown; but he preached his last sermon in America on December 31, 1742, and in the newly-erected Moravian Church in Phila delphia, with his text based on Matt. 14:8, "She hath dond what she could." He gave an account of his activities while in this country (and he was here only a year), his preaching, his work among the Indians, and of the several congregations he established in the Province. To avoid the pain of taking leave of so many people he left the church before the conclusion of the services, and unnoticed by the crowd. He then drove off in a coach, waiting for him, for Frankford on the , which place he reached the same night, and then pursued his way to New Yorlj. ZinzendorPs coming to America has often been viewed with misgivings. Here are the views of several well-known men whose word has to be respected. Conrad Weiser says that one of the Ephrata Brethren remarked to him: "The Count has a big bag with him into which he intends to poke all the sects, even the Separatists and rule all alone." Oswald Seiden- sticker, at one time a professor at University of Pennsylvania, and a man of repute, remarked that Zinzendorf sought to bring them all under one hat, i.e., his own hat. Christopher Saur, one of Zinzendorf's mortal enemies, said it was undoubtedly his purpose to form one party, or sect, and that was to be his own. An Anabaptist writing from Ger mantown said Zinzendorf had great things in mind and thought he would dominate everything; he would lord it over Separatists, Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Mennonites, COUNT VON ZINZENDORF IN GERMANTOWN 200 YEARS AGO 295

Schwenckfelders, Quakers, Reformed, Lutherans, etc., but he came too late and did not succeed; he accomplished little. He went to school in Pennsylvania, and found people here who were his equal, and received a good pummelihg. Count von Zinzendorf was a genius with many admirable qualities, but unfortunately he did not always display them to the .best advantage while in this country, at least not in Germantown. It may be that he was in many ways misunder stood, notably in his phraseology and also in his demeanor, and because of misconstruction placed upon them. He failed'to realize that the thoughts and manners of America of that day were no longer those of Europe of his day, and that with the beginning of the 18th century a novus ordo seclorum (a new order of the ages) began in America. The efforts he made in trying to transplant the language and thought which still obtained in the old country to a country of incongruous elements and upon a people living amid different associations did not win for him much sympathy or many friends. Nor did his originality of thought and manner, often crude, and his expressions often uncouth and indelicate, gain much apprecia tion for his efforts. That he was irresolute can be judged by the fact that he was constantly changing his mind. With him the wish was too often the father to the thought. He was swayed by a strange emotionalism, for he was ruled more'by his heart than by his head. He decided everything on the spur of the moment, and gave expression to every thought: vague, subtle and eccentric, that occurred to him. If he was hot- tempered he soon cooled off. He carried no hate in his heart and was easily reconciled. One might think of him as a sort of enigma of his day. 296 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

BIBUOGRAPHY

Bewahrte Nachriehten Herrnhutischen Sachen, 1747. 4 Vols. Biidingische Nachriehten, 1747. 4 Vols. Pensilvanische Nachriehten, 1746. 6 Vols. James Henry: "Sketches of Moravian Life and Character"; Phila., 1856. Julius Sachse: "German Pietists in Provincial Pennsylvania"; Phila., 1895. Joseph Mortimer Levering: "A History of Bethlehem"; Bethlehem, Pa., 1903.

Edwin McMinn: "Life and Times of Henry Antes"; 1886. Abraham Ritter: "The Moravian Church in Philadelphia"; 1857. """"--Charles P. Keith: "Chronicles of Pennsylvania," Vol. II; Phila., 1917. Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," Vol. III. Levin Theodore Reichel: "The Early History of the Church of the United Brethren (Unitas Fratrum), Commonly called Moravians"; Naza reth, Pa., 1889. Early Recollections of Ardmore

(concluded)

By JosiAH S. Pearce

In writing of the people and the properties on the north east side of Lancaster avenue we have taken them up consecu tively, beginning with Lehigh avenue, on the west, and ending with the old Sibley property at Church road, on the east. Be fore crossing to the southwest side of the turnpike it might be well to note the changes which have taken place on one side only of the main street of the village since the forties, not all of which have been noted in descriptions already written. Between the points named and within the time given there have been built every house, store or other building now stand ing, with the exception of the McManemin house, lately occu pied by Mr. Gruber, and the old Sibley homestead, now 'occu pied by the family of James B. Law, while both of these have, during the time, been remodelled and enlarged. Eighteen houses and stores have been torn down, and in addition every shop, stable and smaller building standing on this side of the street in 1848 has been removed, with the single exception of the stable on the Dr. Alison property, recently sold to Dr. J. Howard Cloud. Upwards of fifty stores and dwellings have taken the place of those removed, while several buildings erected within the time have also been removed to make place for present improvements. A pasture field of but a few years ago is now the big Auto car Works; a little orchard is the gas works; a narrow back lot is Murray's feed mills and coal sidings, while the Trust Com pany, the Mahan block and the Azpell stores have covered with Ardmore's finest buildings the gardens where Athensville raised its vegetables. 297 298 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

Adjoining the Lesher farm on the west is the property now owned by at least thirty new residents of Ardmore and which was, in the .early days, the little farm of Mr. Charles Kugler, containing about twenty acres. It is today one of the most attractive sections of the village, and illustrates with much force the fact that in the hands of the right person any section can be profitably transformed from a.tract of cheap farm land into a most desirable residential section. Lying as it does between Lancaster and Athens avenues and extending from the Lesher farm to the decidedly unimproved lot owned by Mr. Henry Becker, it embraces both sides of both Simpson and St. Paul's roads and both sides of Argyle road west of the Reynolds property. Its development was effected by Mr. Walter Bassett Smith, being one of the num erous operations which have proven his plans and methods for beautifying the countryside to be the only practicable ones. In the early forties it was a tavern and was known as "The Seven Stars." The old stone tavern and its accessories stood on the lot now occupied by Mr. Smith's office, where for many years it did a good business, notwithstanding the fact that there was then a tavern every mile along the turnpike for sev eral miles west of the city, which was an apparent necessity for the accommodation of a turnpike travel differing in every respect from that of the present. This tavern was kept by John Kugler, father of the subject of this sketch, and in the old building, on February 5th, 1805, Charles Kugler was born. In the same room where he first saw the light he died on October 28th, 1879. Charles Kugler inherited the property, and immediately upon acquiring it he tore out the old bar and barroom fixtures and removed from the place everything having a tinge or sug gestion of hotel equipment, for Charles Kugler was a decided and positive temperance man, then and always through a long and consistent life. He made of the old barroom an office and library, which he used in his profession up to the time of his death. The old house, which was built in the seventeen hundreds. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 299

remained standing until after the death of both Mr. Kugler and his widow, being then torn down after the acquisition- of the property by Mr. Smith, who, in transforming the little farm into a delightful suburb of the old village, has destroyed every trace of the old place as either a farm or a tavern stand of the ante-railroad period. In laying out his roads or streets Mr. Smith has appropri ately named his two principal roads for the churches built upon the property — Simpson road for the Methodist Church and St. Paul's road for the Lutheran Church, which latter may be said to have been a part of the very life of Charles Kugler. . During his lifetime he farmed the little place and practiced the profession of civil engineering and general conveyancing, having studied under Alan W. Corson, Esq., of Norristown, at that time a noted engineer and an unquestioned authority on titles and all matters connected with the transfer of real estate. Mr. Kugler's clientele was large and most respectable, his judgment in his profession being as reliable and his opinion as safe as had been the judgment of his worthy preceptor. It may be truthfully said of him that he never hazarded an opinion. He was invariably positive, occasionally aggressively so, and was seldom wrong in his conclusions. William Sibley, referred to in a previous sketch, was a close professional associate with Mr. Kugler, and also his nearest neighbor, and upon their joint opinions, which were frequently sought in transfers of properties and the validity of titles, the sales of valuable tracts of land in eastern Montgomery County depended. Indeed, there are comparatively few of the old writings transferring real estate, not in the village alone, but through out the township, that do not carry the earmarks of one or both

The property on which stood the "Seven Stars" tavern was pur chased in 1797" by Charles Kugler, a Philadelphia innkeeper, and his wife, Catharine, who probably built upon it the house which was there when they sold it, in 1806, to John Kugler, their nephew. The latter was the father of the Charles Kugler referred to by Mr. Pearce. [Mont gomery Co. Deed Books 13, p. 288; 22, p. 512.]—Ed. 3QQ BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY these conveyancers. In 1840, Mr. Kugler married Eleanor, daughter of Abraham Levering, and sister of at least two gen tlemen who have been the subject of previous sketches of this series, three daughters blessing the union. But one of these survives in the person of Mrs. Kate H. Eckfeldt, of Washing ton, D. C. His second wife was Harriet, daughter of Philip Sheaff. Six children were born of this marriage, but one of whom, Paul J. Kugler, late assistant postmaster at this place, resides in the village, his home being the house built shortly after the death of his father, on a lot reserved out of the old farm. A daughter, Anna, is a medical missionary in India, and two others, Eleanor and Florence, are the wives of Lutheran clergymen residing in distant states. The eldest son, Charles, and the youngest daughter, Harriet, died within a few days of each other in the year 1882. In 1842 Mr. Kugler was a member of the Legislature (House of Representatives) of Pennsylvania, when it meant much to the members to convene from all parts of the state when the journey involved travel by stage, canal boat or slow railroad. He was elected as a Democrat and proved to be a most ardent supporter of the public school system about that time being inaugurated fn the state. He was one of the pio neers in the movement and contended successfully against formidable opposition in the lawmaking bodies for the exten sion of the system which has done more for the whole country than all'other influences combined. His successful efforts re sulted in the opening of the first public school in Montgomery County in the year 1834 in Lower Merion Township and in extending the system throughout the state in the years which closely followed. The first school was opened in the old Wynnewood School- house, which was a log structure erected in the woods near the site of the present building. Mr. Kugler at that time began his career as a school director and served uninterruptedly until the year 1872, when he declined to continue in service and retired against the desires of all the people without regard to politics, EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE gQJ^ for in those days the people voted for the man, considering' only his fitness for the position, while now they vote as the boss directs and subordinate everything to political predilection. He was a most devoted and consistent member of the Luth eran Church, having been a member of the congregation for more than fifty years, during forty-six of which years he was a church officer and member of the Board of Trustees. When the old church, which stood in the original churchyard, now a part of the cemetery, showed unmistakable evidences of decay, Mr. Kugler presented to the Board of Trustees the lot, a por tion of his farm, where the stone church now stands, and in addition contributed handsomely toward the fund raised for its erection. For sixteen years he was president of the Board of Publication of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, a body of which he was a member from its inception. He was for many years an influential member and most efficient officer of the General Synod of the denomination in the state, in addition to which he held many other responsible and honorable positions in the councils of the church. When he died there was written of him by the, at that time, pastor of St. Paul's Church, the late Rev. William H. Steck, the following truthful words, "He was a man of decided con victions, an unflinching advocate of what he regarded to be the right, both in religion and politics, and a diligent worker in the kingdom of God." A beautiful tribute, and yet the more beau tiful when paid by such a man as Mr. Steck, a man not given to exaggeration, but as pure and good a man as ever spoke or wrote in eulogy of another. In politics, Mr. Kugler was, in early life and up to the year 1860, a staunch Democrat of the type of Jefferson and Jack son, but when the Rebellion became an assured calamity, he, with Mr. Hunt and many others in the village, left the party and became one of the most aggressive Republicans. As a Democrat he served the people faithfully and well, and as a Republican he served the same people with equal fidelity and with possibly greater zeal, being absolutely fearless in defend ing the right as he saw it, and continuing not only as a defen- 302 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY'county der of his principles, but as a leader in the councils of his party up to the time of his death. He was, notwithstanding the fact that he had been reared in a hotel, a most strenuous upholder of the cause of temper ance, being always, from his youth up, a total abstainer. So confirmed was he in this decision that, in his last illness, when spirituous liquors were prescribed by his physician, he declared death preferable to a life saved through the taking of even a drop of strong drink. • He never sought preferment in either church or state and, although for so long a time an officer in both, his choosing was in consequence of the voice and command of the people whom he so faithfully represented. Never presuming to be a dicta tor, he was rather the public servant, as such doing his whole duty, no matter where or when that duty called or who or what would be either benefited or displeased in the doing. In busi ness, as in politics, he was honest, fearless and conscientious, while as a friend he was faithful, steadfast and just. When such men die they are honestly aand sincerely mourned by every man who ever knew them or lived in their generation, and thus was the loss of Charles Kugler mourned in' the village for which he had done so much. The little farm is transformed into a beautiful countryside; every trace of his old home has been obliterated; his family is scattered and his life work is ended, but a more blessed memory will not live in the place where he was born, and in which he lived and died, than that of Charles Kugler. Reference has been made to the fact that the Lutheran Church stands on a lot that was reserved out of the sale of the Kugler property, or in other words, that the ground was donated for the purpose by Mr. Kugler some years before his death and before the old farm was divided into building lots. The present church was erected on this lot by Mr. C. An derson Warner in the year 1873, when the congregation aban doned the old building, which stood in the eastern corner of the cemetery, and moved into its new church home. The old church was then torn down, but the trustees very properly EAELY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 3Q3

decided to permit the very old school building to remain. It is still standing and may be said to be almost an object of rever ence, and it will become more and more a hallowed place as the years go by.^- For many years, or, in fact, until within a comparatively recent period, St. Paul's, or the "Dutch Church," as it was everywhere known, was the only house of worship of any denomination in or near to the village, while the churchyard, now greatly enlarged and known as the Lutheran Cemetery, was and is yet the only burial place in the immediate neigh borhood. The history of the old church has been written and preached by successive pastors, and most interesting facts and figures relating to the congregations of a century or more ago have been extensively published, so that an attempt to write its story or even that portion of it which could be encompassed in the early recollections of the oldest person now living, could tell but a portion of the story. It would therefore be presumptuously foolish to attempt such a writing in these reminiscences, and yet the gleaning of a few facts from these old writings and sermons appears to be warranted. The church was not organized until about the year 1760, although it had been determined about five years prior to that time "to build a house of worship where the Word and sacra ments might be administered according to Lutheran forms and customs." On October 17th, 1765, three male infants were baptized, the rite being administered and the record of it made by Rev. Voight,.who was, at the time, pastor of St. Michael's Church, in Germantown. The baptism was performed in some private house, the records showing that the little building now standing was not

12The building of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, on Lancaster Turnpike, was torn down in 1940, the congregation having built a new church on Wynnewood avenue, facing the cemetery.—Ed. 304 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY completed and ready for occupancy for some time subsequent to that date. The projectors of the new church, the preacher, as well as a majority of the congregation, were Germans, who brought with them from the fatherland their religious preferences, and in associating and organizing as they did, very naturally be came known as "The Dutch Church," which name is yet applied to it, with due reverence, by many of the descendants of the original members. Among the first names recorded in the old German record book are to be found Grow, Schlerman, Printz, Fimbel, Horn, Goodman, Negler, Sorg, Keller, Haffman, and Litzenberg. A number of these names are to be found in the records of the present congregation. The original records do not tend to prove that the spirit of liberality possessed the early Germans to any greater extent than it actuates the church-goers of a century and a half later, as they show collections "lifted" ranging from one to nine shill ings, or from thirteen cents to a dollar and seventeen cents. Later records contain the names of many familiar to the village of today, among which the names of Stadelman and Goodman appear more frequently than any others, although Mowrer, Super, Hoffman, Litzenberg and a few others appear with frequency. In the year 1765, on September 3d, John Hughes bought at Sheriff's sale sixty-six and three-quarters acres of land, which in a few days he sold to William Stadelman, Frederick Grow, Stephen Goodman, Christopher Getzelman, George Baas- ler and Simon Litzenberg, "to secure a location for a church and burial place for us German Protestants, German Reformed and Lutherans conjointly." The price paid for the tract was eleven dollars per acre. There was standing on the property at the time a dwelling house, which was in use as a church, which the purchasers agreed to keep "for such use as long as the sun and moon endure." Six acres of ground immediately surrounding the house were to be retained for burial purposes, but all the remainder EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 305 could be sold. It was sold, and after years of service as the Lesher farm it is now Linwood avenue and Argyle road, prop erty sold and selling at seven thousand dollars, or more, per

acre. In 1769 the first church was built upon a portion of the reserved land. It was a very plain log structure, but it served the congregation for more than thirty years as a church home, during which time nearly all the male members of the congre gation had been enrolled among the "men of '76" in the service of the country. In 1787 the little building still standing was erected and was used for a long time as a school house, the old records showing that Hugh Knox, William Stadelman, Matthias Hoff man, Zachariah Long and others aided in the undertaking "by hauling the material and other kinds of labor." In 1800 a stone church was built in front of and connected with the school house, when preaching in the English language began. For many years the struggling church was unable to main tain a pastor, but was supplied.as best they could afford, the pulpit being regularly filled for over two years by Rev. Horatio Gates Jones, who was at the time the pastor of the Lower Merion Baptist Church. In 1830 the records show that eleven persons communed, the only male communicant being Mr. Charles Kugler, who, from that time to the hour of his death, never relaxed his efforts for the success of the old church. In 1833 the last build ing referred to was torn away and, on May 14th of that year, the corner-stone for the building which immediately preceded the present church was laid with appropriate ceremonies. On November 24th of the same year the church was dedicated, when the name of St. Paul's Lutheran.Church was officially given to it. In April, 1844, a small addition to the grounds was pur chased and a house at once built upon the new lot for the use of the sexton, which is still standing. It was built by Jacob Latch, Jacob Sibley, Peter Ott, William Sibley and Lewis Warner, who at that time constituted the Board of Trustees. 306 bulletin op historical society of Montgomery county

All of these latter named were personally known to the writer who, as undertaker, laid all of them in the old cemetery adjoining the church. In 1852 the parsonage still standing was erected during the pastorate of the late William D. Roedel. It has served as a home for a number of his successors, but is now relegated to the rear, a much more pretentious and comfortable substitute for it having been recently purchased adjoining the new church on the turnpike. What a story could and should be written of the men, who as pastors have lived and almost all .have died during all the years of the life of this old church. The records give names and dates very imperfectly during the first hundred years of its existence, but enough is written to tell to the successors of the record-keepers much of the trial and trouble attending the early life of the church. From these records we have extracted copiously, making little reference to the godly men of the long ago, who labored in and out of season to keep afloat a ship that more than once was threatened with disaster, but it is not for us to write of them what they have written of each other. Such writing would name the man and date the incidents of gener ations long ago, and would be historical rather than remin iscent, so that while their life's history should be written it. should not be written here. But since the early forties the various pastors have been, to a greater or less extent, identified with the interests of the village, temporal as well as spiritual. Rev. William D. Roedel, Rev. Jacob H. Heck, Rev. Timothy T. Titus, Rev. H. J. Watkins, Rev. William H. Steck and Rev. Melancthon Goover are possibly best remembered of all who have filled the sacred office during the past half century. To speak of the work of one of these is to tell of the work of all, for their work as citizens was accomplished with honor to the stations they filled in the church, and was devoted in every way to bettering conditions in the village where some of them lived in universal esteem for many years. But three or four of more than a score of these good men are yet living. They, with the congregations to whom they ministered, have gone the way of all the earth, the congrega- EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF "ARDMORE gQ/y

tions lying in the old churchyard where they so many times officiated, while almost all the pastors are asleep else where. The last of the properties claiming our attention, situated on the turnpike, is on the southwest side of the road, adjoin ing the Kugler tract on the west. It was the little farm of Jacob and Catharine Sibley, who have been so frequently spoken of in our story, and of which, insofar as farm appearance is con cerned, there is little remaining to remind one of the well-kept and exceedingly productive little farm which was the admira tion of the good people of half a century ago. We have necessarily written of this property and its own ers in previous letters of this series in connection with other descriptions, for it was another portion of the large Goodman tract that extended northeastward to what is now Montgomery avenue, and originally included the greater portion of the land lying between Anderson and Cricket avenues and the Church road. John and Conrad Goodman were the original owners of a tract, of which this property was a part, sufficient in size to be called,-in the old conveyances, a plantation. Catharine Sibley was the daughter of John Goodman, and, as such, inherited not only the old Sibley homestead and the little farm surround ing it, but also two or three additional lots or pieces of land in its immediate vicinity, all of which have also been spoken of at length in these letters. In the partition of the estate of Catharine Sibley her son, William, received, as his share, the ground lying on the north west side of the railroad, now bisected by Sibley avenue and abutting on Church road; Catharine, wife of Edwin Urian, took what is now the Becker property, and built upon it the house now the residence of Mr. F. D. Langenheim; Elizabeth, wife of Thomas McClintock, received as her share the home stead recently demolished to make place for the electric rail way station, and which also included the ground now occupied by the residence of Dr. George I. MacLeod; Mary Ann, wife of Amos Parsons, got the lots fronting on Cricket avenue, north eastward from Athens avenue; Charles took the J. S. Pearce place, now owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and 308 BUI'LETIN of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY the heirs of a deceased child became the owners of the Rorke place, now the property of Edwin S. Dixon, Esq. The corner of Cricket avenue and the turnpike, a lot con taining one acre, was left by the will of Mrs. Sibley to her grandson, Mr. William C. McClintock, who yet owns a portion of the bequest, together with a portion of his mother's prop erty, in rear of the trolley station, which he also inherited. The present McClintock holdings comprise all that is left in possession of any of the seven heirs of the little farm of Jacob and Catharine Sibley, their being at least a dozen owners of the sub-divisions of the comparatively small tract, which, though small, was always sufficiently large to afford the family a good home and an excellent living. The old mansion, recently demolished, was among the last of the "ancient landmarks" of the village to be destroyed. A portion of the house was built just one hundred and seven years ago, and in its demolition this portion was the most dif ficult to raze. It was the birthplace of all the children named, and it was also the place of death of both the parents, as well as of at least two brothers of Mrs. Sibley. The old farm barn stood on the present site of the Dr. MacLeod residence, while the Eppelsheimer lot and the Baptist Church property were the old apple orchard. Cricket avenue was but a narrow lane, and Athens avenue was "bringing forth fruit in its season," principally cherries, of which it may be positively asserted Uncle Jacob gathered only a portion, for the fruit was of a choice variety, the trees were some dis tance from the house, and the old gentleman went twice each week to market in Philadelphia, and the boys of the village knew all of these things. Two or three old trees yet stand as the only landmarks of the possessions of the good old people who occupied the place fifty years ago, one of these being now the most conspicuous in the village, standing in the cement pavement in front of the trolley station. Every vestige of the old homestead has been obliterated, while the name of Sibley, once so common in the vicinity, has but a few representatives left in either the village or the township. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 309

The old but very comfortable home of the Misses Hoff man, on Church road, was, in the year 1828, the home of their parents, John and Hannah Hoffman, the property, or atieast that portion occupied as the homestead, having been in the family for over eighty years. The place was originally a little farm, from which, at dif ferent times, small lots have been sold, one of,which, on the Thompson avenue front, is now the home of one of the daugh ters, Anna Catharine, widow of Jehu Jones. The remaining lots now fronting on Coulter avenue, but originally the rear of the place, have all been recently sold to and handsomely improved by Mr. Charles S. Powell, who has done so much in adding to the attractiveness of this part of the village. The present home of the Township Treasurer, John J. Ziegler, was, prior to his purchase, owned by the estate of Jehu Jones, who lived and died in this house. It was originally a part of the John Whiteman place, was bought by Mr. Jones and sold to Mr. Ziegler some time subsequent to the removal of Mrs. Jones to her new home on a part of the old Hoffman place. The Hoffman mansion is one of the oldest in the village, but it has not an appearance which would indicate its age, and certainly shows no indication of neglect, for during all these many years it has been continuously occupied by the owners, and has, therefore, avoided the treatment too frequently be stowed by renters, particularly on old properties. These conditions continue, the house being occupied by the Misses Mary and Henrietta Hoffman, and from it, only a short time since, Miss Margaret, the eldest of the family, was buried. These ladies are among our best-known residents and also among our most respected people. The three surviving have all passed the threescore and ten limit, but are yet among our active villagers. (Since this article has been printed and ready for publica tion, Miss Mary Hoffman, one of the very estimable ladies re ferred to, has died, her funeral taking place while some of our readers are reading the story of her life in the village.) 3X0 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Their old home was one of the first in the village to open for the accommodation of summer boarders, possessing as it did forty years ago superior attractions to the best people of the city when in quest of a nearby summer home for their families. Its always neat and home-like appearance, its well- kept and attractive flower-garden — then the best and by far the most beautiful in the village —; its reputation earned by an exceptionably well-spread table, attracted at all times a patronage greatly in excess of the capacity of the house. Some of the present residents of Ardmore and Haverford, who, as men and women, occupy enviable positions in society and the business world of today, were boarders as boys and girls with the Misses Hoffman. Another class of boarders can also look back to the Hoff man home with much pleasure and sincere appreciation, for in it have boarded from time to time and at all times a greater number of Lutheran clergymen than any home in the county, if not in the state, other than homes maintained for the super annuated of the sacred calling, who in this denomination, as well as all others, too often after a life of toil for the Master find their most comfortable place in which to die to be a home. But the Hoffman home was not a place in which to die. Sup plies, pastors, prospective pastors, students and professors iii colleges and theological seminaries of the denomination, D.D.'s and missionaries from every clime have sat at the table and enjoyed the hospitality of these good women, several of whom could be named, who in other fields and far away think back to the Hoffman home and call them blessed. With neighboring homes the old place has been subjected to accompanying changes. The old Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad ran through the property, a single track on a low embankment, near the present line of Coulter avenue, continu ing on through the John Whiteman places to the Wister farm, and then on to Libertyville. Not a trace of the road is to be seen on the property, although some distance further east the old line is readily traced. The cars, drawn by horses, so well remembered by the present owners, have been supplanted by coaches, one of which is worth as much as the entire train of EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE that time, while seventy-ton locomotives have relegated the horse to his place on the farm. The John Whiteman property, recently purchased and beautifully improved by Mr. Charles S. Powell, extended along Church road from the Hoffman property to the Wister line, or to the edge of the little copse on the point between Church road and Montgomery avenue. This little piece of woodland was the property of Mr. Louis Wister, but, during the lifetime of the younger John Whiteman, it was used by him as a sort of storage yard for old lumber and other accumu lations to such- an extent that Mr. Wister frequently remarked that "Whiteman had everything connected with the lot except ing a deed." There were two John Whitemans, father and son. John, Senior, owned and occupied the old stone house on the portion of the property nearest to the Hoffman place, occupied, until within a few years, by his daughter. Miss Hannah, who effected the sale of the property to Mr. Powell, but died before the transaction was entirely consummated. The old man is named in the original deed as "John White- man, cartwright," he being a cart- and wagonrbuilder, having his shop annexed to his house, on the northeast side, where, early and late, both father and son could be found at wo^k when turning the hubs, shaving the spokes and sawing the felloes, all by hand, constituted a not unimportant part of the trade of a wheelwright. Both father and son were excellent mechanics as well as good citizens, the younger man being, at one time, one of the most popular men in the Township, a distinction which did not, however, attach to the old gentleman, on account of his too-freely expressed belief in transmigration or metempsy chosis, which tended to bar the old man from intimate asso ciation with the best people of his time. Being a very well-read man, and possessing a degree of intelligence beyond the average, he supported his belief with arguments he believed to be irrefutable, and used illustrations which he felt should convince the most skeptical. He claimed 3X2 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county to be able to designate the particular animal, bird or reptile to which the soul of his departed friends or acquaintances had been assigned and was animating, and also to be able to point out the vicious horse, refractory cow, wild bull or cross dog to which had descended the souls of either sex, for whom in life he had not the sincerest admiration. He frequently said (par ticularly to children), "Never strike a gray mare—you might by doing so be beating your grandmother." His belief in his Creator was fixed and unchangeable, but his belief that the human soul went in to and possessed the lower animals, when released from the body by death, and kept on. and on in its line of descent until it became finally annihilated, was just as fixed and unchangeable as was that of Pythagoras, whom he frequently quoted in his arguments. In this belief the old man was entirely alone in his household; neither his wife nor any of his children were ever persuaded by him into even a respect for his belief, but on the contrary they did everything possible to prevent him from promulgating his doctrine, in which, however, they were unsuccessful, for he lived in his belief to a ripe old age, and in it he died, more than forty years ago. It must not be inferred that the belief of the old man consti tuted him either a scorner or trifler with Scriptural writings or teachings. He was a careful Bible student, but, at the same time, he was a really amusing Bible reader, in that he never attempted the pronunciation of difficult words, but invariably called them "gibbs," and proceeded with his reading just as though he had bestowed upon the word its correct pronuncia tion. Some of his readings, particularly in the book of Exodus, were therefore not always clear to him, but were clearly amus ing to his listeners, who too often sought amusement rather than instruction from him. The younger John, who was so well-known here, as well as in all the country for miles in every direction, left the old wheelwright shop soon after the death of his father, and built a small shop at his own home, where he carried on the busi ness for a time, but gradually retired from the calling in order to devote all his time to his duties as Constable, to which office he was continually elected for more than thirty years, and its EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE

accompanying office of Tax Collector, whicli was an appointive position, in which he served for almost an equal length of time. He was a typical constable, being possibly as well known to the community, the Courts and to officers of the law, not in this county alone but as well in Philadelphia and adjacent counties, where his official duties called him quite frequently, as any officer in the state. He was absolutely fearless of either evil-doers or of the consequences of his methods of treating them, and, while he passed through many battles with all sorts and kinds of bad characters, he was none the less a terror to them, for it was the exceptional case when he was defeated or baffled in making an arrest, for he invariably got his man, or two or three of them, if required, even if somebody was hurt in the getting. He did not always escape injury to himself in these encounters, being more than once seriously injured in the performance of his duty. He was crippled several times, shot at repeatedly, had his bones broken and his clothing torn, was once thrown into the canal at West Slanayunk and again into the river at Conshohocken, and otherwise maltreated in his own bailiwick, in Philadelphia and elsewhere, but he sel dom failed in executing his warrant. He was always loaded down with his official equipment, consisting of tax duplicates, revolver, blackjack, handcuffs and a short piece of rope or stout cord, which latter he used with more real pleasure and satisfaction than any other portion of his ever-ready arsenal. He had a supreme detestation of thieves, his treatment of of vicious ones occasionally provoking mild reprimands from the Courts before whom they were arraigned. Particularly was this the case when, single-handed, he arrested three men for burglarizing Stadelman & Baker's store, in Centennial year. The thieves had secreted the stolen goods in Philadel phia and refused to divulge the hiding place. One of them, as Whiteman said, "got sassy," when he tied his feet together and hung him, head down, from the rafters of the store porch. The hiding place was at once revealed, the goods recovered and the trio convicted and punished. Whiteman'was advised on this occasion by Judge Ross, of the Montgomery County 314 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Courts, that there was such a thing as too great zeal, even in conferring the third degree on a thief. He was in charge of the posse when Mundell was killed at Bryn Mawr, the story of which has been told in a previous letter, in which case his fearlessness cost him and his deputies a term in prison and, while a good and efficient officer there after, he was not quite the same Whiteman as before the un fortunate occurrence. The Court, in sentencing him for this misdemeanor, complimented him for duty well performed, but punished him for its over-performance. As has been said, his neighbors paid him and his deputies for loss of time incurred while serving their sentences, and the voters of the Town ship at the next succeeding election, re-elected him unani mously. As Tax Collector, he gathered many thousands of dollars from the taxpayers of Lower Merion, and through his kind ness of heart and trustfulness he lost many thousands, but his services were so acceptable that, whether by appointment by the County Commissioners or election by the people, he was continuously retained as Collector up to almost the time of his death. In politics he was a staunch Democrat, but was never a leader, being frequently named on both tickets for the office of constable, for, on account of his long service and unusual popularity, it was a difficult matter to secure a nominee against him. For years he was an active member of both the Masonic and Odd Fellows' Lodges in the village and a contributor to all the religious organizations, but not a member of any. He died on July 17, 1900, in the old house above referred to, surviving his wife but about four years. Two daughters, Elizabeth and Henrietta, married Horace and Harvey Gilling"- ham, brothers, but neither they nor their families are now vil lage residents. All of his ground has been sold; the death, quite recently of his sister Hannah, the last owner of her father's property, previously referred to, ended the genera tion, another daughter, Mrs. Robert Ferguson, having been drowned in Mill Creek several years ago. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 33^5

Adjoining the John Whiteman property on the north side and extending to the old Lancaster road, now Montgomery avenue, was, in 1850, the little farm and home of Lewis Coul ter, containing about ten acres. At the same time the lot, con taining about four acres, lying east of the Coulter place, a part of which is yet unimproved, was owned by Margaret Knox, but has since changed hands several times, and is today owned principally by Joseph and Baltis Whiteman, sons of James A. Whiteman, who for years resided on the property. The Coulter place and the original Knox lot have been divided and subdivided until the fourteen acres comprising the two tracts has now more than twenty-five owners, nearly all of whom are also residents of the homes built upon the subdivisions. Baltis Whiteman, grandfather of the present owners, owned and occupied a small triangular piece of land on the northeast side of the road, opposite the eastern end of the Coulter place, where he lived and died at an advanced age, and with the respect of all the villagers, for everybody knew him anh admired him, as admiration went in those days. The reason for this was that, in addition to being so well known, he was appreciated for his usefulness in the old village to such an extent that he was a much-sought man by his neighbors, for he could do anything required by them or their households, from telling a good story to repairing the family timepiece. He was principally employed in the village and nearby farm sections as a harnessmaker and repairer. Taking his stitching- horse on his back and a kit of tools in a hand-bag he would locate in the farmer's barn or kitchen, if in the winter season, and remain until harness and everything else within his line (and the line was a long one) was put in perfect order. The candle moulds, which were then a part of every farmer's equipment, were brought into use, and "Baity" made the candles; shoes and harness were repaired and all given the inevitable coat of grease then considered so necessary to the preservation of leather, no matter where or how it was employed; window panes were doctored or replaced, as occa sion required and the old man decided; the leaky tins were BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY soldered and everything about the farm put in working order. It was while performing these multifarious duties as a handy man that his good nature found vent in the stories he told in the quaintest and most amusing manner, while his aptitude at repartee made him at all times a welcome visitor, whether as a workman or otherwise. He died in 1864, leaving to survive him two sons, Thomas and James A., and one daughter who was the wife of William Sibley, Esq., all of whom are dead. Thomas has been referred to as one of the first road foremen to be employed under the new form of township government, he having served in the capacity of Supervisor of the roads under the old form, in which position he rendered satisfactory service. His brother, James A., to whom we have referred as a shoemaker was, in the later years of his life, best known as a professional or expert fence maker, cutting the timber, making the rails, hewing the posts and erecting miles of fences when "post and rail" and "stake and rider" fences were the almost universal dividing lines of Athensville's little farms. In referring to "Dock," as he was everywhere known, it is more than natural to refer to John Green, for he was for years Whiteman's able assistant in fence building. They worked and practically lived together for many years in the village, but now both have gone, "Dock" to the grave several years ago and Green, now nearly eighty years of age, left the village only a few days ago to die in the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Erie, Pa., he having been an emergency soldier in Company 9 (?), 28th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, during the Gettysburg campaign of the Army of the Potomac. He had been a resident of the village for forty-six years. The Coulter property was, in our early days, one of the.^ village curiosities. Today there is nothing about the old farm site to suggest that it was, at one time, one of the most dis reputable appearing places on the earth. This was when, in company with an aged aunt, named Hannah Waybill, the old house was occupied and the old farm neglected by Lewis Coul ter. The old residence stood very near to the spot now occu pied by the very pretty and homelike residence of Mr. Edward EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 317

S. Murray, or rather, between Mr. Murray's home and the roadside. The old occupants were what may be called a most exclusive couple, but it must not be inferred from this that Mr. Coulter was always to be found at his home, for he spent much of his time in looking after the affairs of the neighbor hood to the manifest injury of his own. He was an unques tioned authority on botany, and, although the weeds and rub bish growing all about his much-neglected home would not indicate that he at any time practiced after the manner of his preaching on the subject of the best way to destroy noxious weeds and other undesirable vegetation, he was really a very well-read and admittedly learned man in his favorite study. He could name, either technically, or in plain English, •any tree, shrub, weed or blade of grass with scarcely a moment's hesitation, and delighted in explaining to others the intricacies and beauties of plant life and growth. On one occasion, his neighbor, Baltis Whiteman, who never understood or appreciated Lewis' botanical terms, and who was never quite willing to believe that he knew as much as he claimed to know, submitted to him a specimen with the idea of stumping him as. to its identification. Coulter said: "Baltis, that is simply taraxacum dens leonis," and proceeded with a description of its growth, uses and characteristics. Baltis replied: 'T knew you wouldn't know it; it's nothing but a dast old dandelion." He claimed also, but with less justification for his claim, to be somewhaf of a geologist as well as a thor ough botanist. In an effort to establish his claim the old man crossed swords with his neighbor, Mr. Philip L. Goodman, and was vanquished effectually. The incident tended to there after hold Mr.' Coulter in check when discussing geology, paiv ticularly. with Goodman. The story ran thus: Quite near to the place now occupied by the stable of Mr. Charles S. Powell, which was at the time a low piece of decidedly unimproved ground. Coulter discovered an ooze from the ground of a greenish-yellow color. He examined it very carefully and decided that the spot was underlaid with a vein of copper ore, and lost no time in acquainting his neighbors with his dis covery. A number of them were disposed to think there might 318 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY be some justification for his claim until he prevailed upon Mr. Goodman to view the spot. Goodman declared without very careful examination that the liquid was merely stagnant water, which naturally chagrined Mr. Coulter, when he took a sample of the water to Philadelphia for analysis. The chemist confirmed Mr. Goodman's opinion, when Coulter de clared that it was simply guess work on the part of both of them, but that particularly in regard to Goodman he said it was not to be expected that an ordinary carpenter could be expected to know anything about geology. The matter was thus settled, but the settlement did not prevent the neighbors from wearing little paths across the swamp in looking for "Coulter's copper mine." Coulter was one of the residents of the village who was known to everybody and whom to know was to respect and in many particulars admire, for he was a most honest man and one of the most entertaining talkers of his time. He was never the best-dressed man in the place, nor was he ever over- bathed, in consequence of which he was not a society leader of his day and generation. He took no interest whatever in local or any other brand of politics or in public improvement of any kind, indicating at all times his faith by his works in that he remained at his home on election day and took it for granted that the public weal would be amply provided for by those who had the time at their disposal to "go and vote." While he was a good neighbor and a scholarly man and was so reputed, he had also the reputation of maintaining the worst- appearing home in the township. He died January 20, 1875, having sold his property one year previously to Joseph N. Abbey, Leslie P. Farmer and George W. Boyd, who were then known to represent the Penn sylvania Railroad. The purchase excited the hopes of the vil lage for a substantial improvement in the property,- and all sorts of stories about public parks and large summer hotels found ready believers, but the hopes were never realized. The property was held, presumably for the company, until Feb ruary, 1886, during which time it remained not only unim proved, but became more and more a village eyesore, when it EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 32^9 was sold to James A. Campbell and others, who have already been named as the promoters of the Ardmore Land and Im provement Co., and at once laid out in small lots, which became a part of and was known for a short time as Argyle. The new street opened in the development of this improve-' ment was given his name, by which it is yet and possibly always will be known. It was for a time a blind street having no connection with a public road on the north or railroad end, but later the railroad company, appreciating the mutual ad vantages to be secured in the opening of the road through their property, agreed to its connection with Anderson avenue. It is now one of the prettiest residential avenues of the village, while its name is all that is left in the place to suggest that Lewis Coulter was ever one of the village's best-known residents. When Philip Goodman removed from the Cuthbert prop erty on the old Lancaster road, now owned by David Dallas, he bought for a home and place of business the property ad joining that of Lewis Coulter on the west, which was later purchased by the promoters of the Argyle addition to the vil lage, and is now so completely intermingled with that exten sion that all the old property lines have been obliterated and the two old tracts have together become a score or more of separate and distinct properties. An old frame house that stood near the centre of the Good man purchase was torn away, and in its place a more modern and pretentious residence was erected. A large frame car penter shop and extensive shedding for the storage of lumber and building material were built and the place became at once one of the most active of the few business places in the old village. Mr. Goodman was an exceptionally good carpenter and builder, as well as one of the best of what were then invari ably known as "bosses," being an imparter of instruction to his men, as well as the maker of an honest profit on their labor. He kept a number of journeymen and apprentices at work all the year 'round, boarding all of the latter and some 320 bulletin of historical socrETY of Montgomery county of the former in his own house, as was the usual custom with bosses of not only his trade, but of almost all others, forty or fifty years ago. With Goodman's force the winters were well nigh as busy as were the summers, for in all seasons the old shop rang with the noise made by tools unknown by use and some of them by name to modern carpenters. Hand-power saws, planes requiring the combined efforts of two men in their operation, foot-power mortising machines, lathes and tread mills filled the shop with a busy hum and the stock sheds with supplies of mouldings, worked flooring, sash, doors, blinds, stair work, etc., during the winter, in order to be ready for the spring opening. Many of the old houses in and near to the village were built by Mr. Goodman when "jours" received eight dollars per week, which did not include board, or five dollars a week "and found." The working hours were then from sun to sun for the "jours," and all the time for the apprentices, who, when regu- laly indentured, were paid $30.00 per year and board, and, if so specified in the indenture, received one suit of clothing per year, made by Charles Wilkins or James P. Cuthbert at a cost of about seven dollars, or perhaps by Mrs. Goodman and her daughters, at the cost of the cloth and buttons. The journeymen worked in the shop, five evenings each week until ten o'clock, during the busy season, for from ten to fifteen cents per hour, but the apprentice worked all the time until he was twenty-one years of age, when he received his freedom suit, which cost about ten dollars, was proved and accepted as a skilled mechanic or journeyman, but was not obliged to join the union. Saturday evenings were allowed both men and boys for recuperation, and when Goodman's gang recuperated all the village knew about it. Several well-known builders of this and nearby places "served their time," learned the trade or worked journey work under Philip Goodman, almost all of whom are gone, and some of whom are forgotten. Possibly it is well that the old fellows are "out of the hurley burley" of'the year of grace 1907. With wages at fifty cents per hour and a week's work restricted to forty-four hours, and with unions and strikes, and rules and EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE g21

•walking delegates controlling everything connected with the business, these men of the time when there were no such pre carious conditions attaching to house and barn building would surely realize that there were some new things under the sun, and that, in their way of thinking, the things were not re markable for anything excepting their newness. After the death of Mr. Goodman, which occurred in 1879, when four of his sons, all of whom were carpenters, had at tained the age of manhood, they built and for a short time operated a large steam saw and planing mill on the rear por tion of their father's property, near the site of the present residence of Mr. C. H. Browning. This ihill was the first steam-power mill of any considerable proportions in the vil lage, and did a large and very profitable business, for it sup plied a pressing demand for mill work of all kinds at a time when facilities for obtaining manufactured building material were not by any means commensurate with the demands of a booming village. But the sale of the property wrought the destruction of the industry, as well as the removal of the family from the old home. The land became of too great value to be held as a single tract, when it was divided and sub divided until today it is one of the most thickly settled as well as one of the prettiest sections of the new village. Four of Mr. Goodman's children — John, Hilda, Elizabeth and Mary — are yet residents of Ardmore, none of whom are married. Philip, Junior, is a resident of Atglen, Chester County, where he has been in business for several years; George, who as a member of the firm of Goodman & Clothier, of Narberth, was largely interested in booming that place in its early days, and William, a twin brother of Miss Mary, who were the youngest of the family, are dead. A sister of Mr. Goodman — Miss Elizabeth — the only survivor of his generation, is yet a resident of the village, in the home of Mr. C. Anderson Warner. She is the oldest resi dent, and, for her age, the most active, for she is ninety years of age and is yet "hale and hearty." Her early recollections of Ardmore and of the days when she received "a 'levenpenny bit," or twelve and a half cents, per day for services rendered 322 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

•would add an interesting chapter to our story did not the old lady's modesty render the chapter unobtainable. The only property in the old village of Athensville to which some reference has not been made in our already too long story is the one on Montgomery avenue now owned and occupied by Mr. Thomas S. Thompson. It lies between the Goodman prop erty and that of Edwin S. Dixon, Esq., and extends from Montr gomery avenue, to Coulter avenue. Our earliest recollections of it go back to the time when Obadiah Wilday was the owner and occupier. From the fifties to the time of the Civil War he resided in a small frame house which stood on the Montgomery avenue front of the lot, for then there "was no road on the Coulter avenue front of the place, the old line of the railroad constituting its boundary on the southwest. When the new line was opened the junction with the old inclined plane route was almost exactly opposite the rear of the Wilday property. The only improvements on the old place, in addition to the dwelling house, were a small frame stable with a shed annex, the entire lot being cultivated by Obadiah as a truck patch or garden. He and his family occu pied the dwelling until the year 1862, when he died. Some time later the place was sold "to Mr. Thomas Thompson, Sr., when the frame house was torn away and the large square stone mansion, now the residence of his son, was built near to the site of the old Wilday homestead. There are not many now living who remember Mr. Wilday, but the few who can do so must recall the old man's eccentric ities, and in doing so will not fail to remember those of his wife, Betsy, who was quite as well known in the village as was her husband, and possibly more favorably known. The old man was a very modest and retiring person, harmless and inoffen sive, but with a fondness for some things that Betsy did not altogether approve of, and in her efforts to convince her spouse that she knew best what was good for him to drink she fre quently created amusement for everybody in the vicinity, with the exception of Obadiah. Mrs. Wilday died in 1873, leaving no male issue, so that years ago the name of Wilday was extin guished in the neighborhood and is at this time rarely spoken EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 323 by the people who comprise the population of the new and greatly enlarged village. When Coulter avenue was opened through to the present station, Mr. Thompson built the frame house fronting on that street, which is still standing. It was occupied for several years by Mr. Thomas Allen Glenn, who was another writer of early histories, but who has gone out of the business, as well as out of the neighborhood. Our readers will possibly earnestly hope that his successors in local literature will follow his migratory inclinations. Some idea of the growth of this section of the village may be had if we recall the fact that, forty years ago, the territory bounded by Montgomery avenue, the Church road, the present line of the railroad and Anderson avenue, now owned by more than fifty persons and improved by the erection of an equal number of homes, then had but seven owners and the same number of houses built upon it. All the, at that time, owners are dead, and, with the single exception of the home of Miss Henrietta Hoffman, on Church road, all the old houses have been torn down. Our earliest recollections of the railroad, which has grown in a lifetime from a simple horse tramway to its present mag nitude, so that it is fittingly known as the great artery of the state, are of the time when the road and the great canals traversing the state constituted the most important part of what was then known as The Public Works. A board, known as the Canal Commissioners, managed these public works in just about the same manner that latter- day politicians manage all works of a public character. The railroad was then known as the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, it having been opened as a horse railway as far west as Columbia in 1834. Twenty years later, or in 1854, the road was opened as a single-track road across the mountains to Pittsburgh. Overstepping the boundary lines of both township and county, as well as the limits of the old village, in our descrip tion' of this road as we remember it, we will begin at or near what is now Rosemont, where the old line and the new, as 324 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY built by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company when the line by way of White Hall was abandoned, had -their point of inter section. Prom this point the old single-tracked line ran almost due south, passing West Haverford Post Office, then located in Henderson's store, which is still standing as almost the only landmark of that time. Bearing somewhat toward the east and passing through a considerable cut, it passed White Hall, which was the most important station east of Coatesville, be ing a regular stop for almost all trains, as well as a wood and water station and freight centre for a radius of several miles. Continuing in practically the same direction it crossed Buck Lane under a wooden bridge and then, curving to the left, just after passing Haydock Garrigues's cattle siding and drove yards, it passed under the present foot bridge at Haverford College and over the turnpike at grade at the corner of what are now the properties of A. A. Hirst, Esq., and W. H. Sutton, Esq. The line thus far described can be readily traced, as all of it, with the exception of a few feet, has since been converted into a very pleasant and well-kept public road. From the turnpike crossing it wound rather abruptly to the right in passing through the Warner property, and entered the village of Athensville on almost the same bed it now occu pies, being at the railroad bridge, then Anderson's Crossing, in exactly the same location it was in 1834. For a few hundred feet only after passing this crossing it occupied relatively the same position as the present road, until a point was reached a few feet west of the site of the present freight station, when it curved again to the left, taking very nearly the course of Coulter avenue, passing through the Wister property and crossing the old Lancaster road at Wynnewood Manor, then known as Hughes's blacksmith shop, and then through Liberty- ville, where there was a station, or rather, a stopping place, near to the homes of Priscilla Tunis and Squire A. E. McKeever. It then extended southeastwardly through what is now the northerly side of the borough of Narberth to the General Wayne, where the present bed of Montgomery avenue became its bed to Bowman's Bridge, the narrow bed of the old Lan- EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 335 caster road and the right of way of the railroad being both included in the bed of the present highway. Bowman's Bridge was a wagon bridge at the junction of the new Montgomery avenue with the old Lancaster road, which was later the Blockley and Merion plank road and turnpike, but which is now the Philadelphia, Bala and Bryn Mawr turnpike, a highway noted more particularly for the number of its tollgates that for its excellence as a driveway. Passing under this bridge the road again curved to the right and then again to the left, continuing on to the head of the planes, from which point the little cars were dropped down the incline by steam power to a point near to the Columbia Bridge," crossing which the road terminated near the west end of Callowhill street, in the city. AH the wagon road crossings were at grade, with the ex ception of those at Bowman's Bridge and Buck lane, where wooden bridges were built over the railroad, for it appears to have been the practice in that era of railroaii construction to invariably carry the wagon road over the railroad rather than under it, miles of additional track and numberless curves being introduced in the original surveys to obviate the neces sity of erecting bridges suiRciently strong to carry a locomo tive of the period and with the further object of reducing as far as possible the percentage of grade that would be conse quent upon a more direct route. Some of these •crossings were very dangerous to travel, notably the one at Anderson's Crossing and the two over Lan caster turnpike at "Warner's" and "Billy Moulden's," where several fatal accidents occurred and many narrow escapes were effected. When the Pennsylvania Railroad Company rebuilt the old and changed the location of the new line,, in addition to intro ducing everything else necessary to a firstrclass equipment, all grade crossings were abolished. There was then a station (or rather a platform, for there were no station buildings any where) at the head of the planes or on the bluff on the west side of the Schuylkill River, near the old Columbia Bridge; next westward was Bowman's Bridge; then Libertyville; then 326 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

Anderson's Crossing, later Athensville; and then Haverford School, which was opposite the residence of the late Ellis Yarnall, Esq., and then,White Hall. From White Hall it was a two-mile run to Villa Nova, and then came Morgan's Corner, now Radnor, and.so on westward to The Eagle, near the present location of Strafford; then Reeseville, now Berwyn, and then Paoli, then, as now, a sort of sub-division terminus, at which for many years an eating bar or lunch station for the accommodation of passengers was conducted by John Evans, the owner of the hotel and the rail road station, and an influential man with the early manage ment of the road. Before the change in the line of the road between Ardmore and Rosemont a little box was built as a shelter at Haverford Crossing station, at the corner of the A. A. Hirst property on the turnpike, at which only a few trains were scheduled to stop. At White Hall the eating room was in the old hotel build ing, which is still standing, the station being removed later, about the year 1858, a short distance west to the small frame station building opposite the rear entrance to Bryn Mawr Hospital, which is also yet standing. Here a ticket office, tele graph office and freight station were opened, where the only tickets sold between Philadelphia and The Eagle could be secured. A part of this service had, however, been installed some time previous to the removal from the old hotel, when it was advertised by the company as being "introduced to facili tate the running of trains." In 1850 the telegraph service had been extended only as far west as Lancaster. Haverford School was then an important station, but its accommodation for passengers, even during the long waits then so frequently consequent upon the train service, was an open shed, erected and maintained by the school for the com fort of the students, who constituted the bulk of the patronage at that point. A small station at Athensville was later built by the rail road company and stood quite close to the road, with entrance to it from Anderson avenue, or, as it was then known, Ander son's lane. EARLY RECOLLECTIOKS OF ARDMORB 327 The story of the removal of the old station building to Upton for .a similar use has been told, as has also that of the building of the new station and the change at the time of the name of the station and the village from Athensville to Ard- more. It might be added to the previously told story that more recent information discloses the fact that the building which for years served the people of the old village with adequate station facilities and accommodations is now a tpol house in the Paoli terminal yards. Much more could be written concerning the change of the name of the old village than has been written in previous let ters, but our story is already too long, and we must make the concluding chapters brief. It must be apparent to our readers that when the old road leading from Athensville to the "head of the planes" was abandoned and the new line opened to West Philadelphia, or, as it was then known, to Mantua Village, an epoch was marked in village history. This took place in 1851, and was a matter of much importance, as overhead bridges were introduced in several places hnd the road double-tracked the entire distance. The laying of the new rails on ties of wood was a new departure in railroad construction, the old line having the iron laid on large limestone blocks, which were buried in the ground, the rails being secured to the stones by iron chairs, into which the rails were dropped, and to which they were fastened with long iron wedges called keys, which were driven into a slot on both sides of the rails. There was no attempt at ballasting the road, in consequence of which the grass grew more luxuriantly between, the rails than it did in the fields, while the weeds in the roadbed were worn off evenly by the "car riggings" about a foot above the ground. The best pas ture for road cows, of which there were then a great many, was to be found on the railroad, and numerous accidente were averted in consequence of this pasturage by stopping the trains and driving the cows off the right of way. A few of the stone blocks, an occasional piece of the origi nal rail, or a chair, or key are yet to be found in excavating 328 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county in the vicinity of the'old roadbed, but the scarcity of all of them is fast making them curiosities. The grade of the new line built by the Pennsylvania Rail road Company from Athensville to West Philadelphia was such that empty cars could iDe, and frequently were, dropped down to the freight yards by gravity, with only a self-ap pointed brakeman in charge. It was then permissible for Stadelman, Litzenberg and Lindsay, of the White Hall Yards, to open their switches, push the cars to the main track and drop them down, controlled only by the old-fashioned lever brakes, to the head of the yard, which was then a short distance east of what is now Fortieth street. In order to reach the head of the grade, which was then about in the rear of the present residence of Mr. C. Anderson Warner, Lindsay was obliged to draw his cars to Athensville by horse power. A favorite diver sion for the boys of the period was to ride down on a draft of these cars and .walk back. The casual reference made to the roadbed of the old in clined plane route in our last letter must not be accepted as at all showing the difference between the then and the now in railroad construction, for the reason that the cheapest con structed trolley line operated today is infinitely superior in every way to this old State line. We have referred elsewhere to the crookedness of the road in order to avoid overhead bridges and steep grades. In this connection it will not be out of place to state that the old maps of Lower Merion show at least eleven distinct curves in the road between this village and the head of the planes. In accounting for this crookedness one of the engineers in charge of the road in the late forties gave as his opinion that when the road was laid out "the devil was interested in its location to such an extent that he temporarily transferred himself into a big snake and wriggled himself from Philadelphia to Columbia." The fact that neither ties nor ballast were used in the con struction of the old line can scarcely be comprehended by this generation, who fail to understand how the rails could be laid with any degree of firmness or security on comparatively small EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 329

stones. These limestone blocks were about twenty inches long, fifteen inches wide and from twelve to eighteen inches thick, the top being partially dressed. They were buried in the ground about three feet apart, when holes were drilled in them to receive plugs of wood, to which were spiked the chairs, or irons to carry the rails, the spikes through the chairs being driven into the wooden plugs. The rails fitted the chairs loosely, the keys of iron referred to being necessary to hold the rails in place by being driven tightly through the chair on either side. These keys required daily or^semi-daily attention to keep them in place, so that morning and evening a repairman, called "a key driver," traversed his section of the road, "maintaining the way" by tightening these keys with a hammer. Patrick McBride, then the owner of the property at White Hall now owned and occupied by the Philadelphia and Western Railway Company as offices, is remembered as a "key driver" for many years on the section between White Hall and Athens- ville. While in the performance of his duty he was struck by a locomotive, near the west end of his section, and instantly killed. All the sidings and turnouts were constructed entirely of wood, the stringers or lengthwise pieces being covered with flat iron about two inches in width by half an inch in thickness and fastened with spikes, upon which the car wheels rolled. "Drop rails" did the work of the present frogs, while signals were altogether unknown. Every owner of a siding carried the keys of his switch, which he opened and closed at his conveni ence. Cow catchers, or holes dug across the railroad on both sides of all grade crossings, were intended to keep road cows and strays from trespassing on the right of way, but they did not invariably serve their purpose, particularly during the night, when accidents to both trains and animals were not of infrequent occurrence. The road was used as a highway for pedestrians, a fairly good path being worn either between the rails or beside them, where everybody who chose to do so, walked in comparative security. The now omnipresent notice of warning "not to walk 330 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY or trespass on the railroad" was in those days as unknown as it was considered unnecessary. The original stations on the jiew line, east of Athensville, were, for a short time, only Overbrook, then called City Line and later City Avenue; and Hestonville, now Fifty-second Street. Wynnewood was an early addition to this number, as was also Mantua, which was later changed to Fortieth Street. Then Elm Station was made a stop for a few trains, continu ing as a flag-station until all the stations east of Paoli were made regular stops. In the meantime the name had been changed to Narberth, when a new station was erected and the place submitted a bid for recognition among the best of the main line stations. Merion was established about the same time, and has been one of the few stations which have not been subjected to a contention over a change in either its name or its location. Fortieth Street, Girard Avenue, Powelton Avenue and Thirty- second Street have all been, but are not, their patronage hav ing been absorbed by West Philadelphia, which has become almost a great railroad centre in itself, and Fifty-second Street, which may be said to be a great railroad elevation in itself. The building of the new line brought to the village a con siderable addition to its population in the laborers employed in the work, nearly all of whom were Irishmen. A few colored men were employed, but not one of the natives of sunny Italy had a hand or shovel in the construction. Boarding places in the village were, therefore, at a premium, while further east the inevitable shanty was much in evidence, one of the largest and least ornate of which was built on the property now owned by Mr. N. Parker Shortridge, east of Wynnewood. Before the stations were located, and while the work was in progress, points on the line were designated as "Jones's Crossing" (west of Wynnewood Public School), "The Big Embankment" (be tween Wynnewood and Narberth), "The Dump" (on the southeast side of the embankment), where, in addition to the shanty, a good-sized pond was maintained for years after wards as a swimming and skating pool for the boys of the period; "Sullivan's Cut" (east of Narberth), and "the straight EARLY-RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE • between the bridges" (east of Overbrook), some of which names are still in use by some of the older railroad employes. The construction of this occupied considerably over two years, which seemingly long time is accounted for by the fact that every pound of earth and rock was removed by horse and cart. Steam shovels, hoisting engines, steam drills and dyna mite had no part in the, at that time, great undertaking of building seven miles of railroad. The widening, quadruple tracking and other recent im provements of this great highway are all of too recent date to entitle them to notice as a reminiscence, it being sufficient to say that in the half-century covered by our writing the world's greatest and best railway has grown from the trifling seed sown by the men of seventy years ago, wherein the horse has given way to the acme of locomotive construction, and the cars of our forefathers to the luxuriance of Pullman comfort and convenience. In place of Canal Commissioners and Superintendents of Public Works, inexperienced and unskilled in the management of such enterprises, fifty years has substituted as the brains of the road the best of America's intellect, soughtand found, as it has been, in the brightest and most progressive men who have adorned the present or any preceding age. One of these, and the greatest of them all, Mr. Alexander J. Cassatt, has died in the midst of a career of unparalleled usefulness since these writings were begun. The opening, by the Pennsylvania Railroad, of the new line to West Philadelphia marked an epoch in the history of the city, as well as the country. Both were advantaged alike, and both alike appreciated the advantage. The locomotives did not then, nor for many years there after, cross the river into the city proper, but drew the trains to a point near to what is now Thirty-second and Market streets, from where the cars were drawn across the river by way of Market Street Bridge to Eleventh and Market streets by horses worked in "a string team" of six or eight to each two or three cars. 332 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

In the year 1864 the depot at Eleventh and Market streets was abandoned, the Bingham House being erected on the site a short time afterward, and everything was moved to Thirty- second and Market streets, where more extensive and some what expensive buildings and terminal accommodations were erected, which served their purpose until comparatively recent years, when the depot, as it had up to that time been known, was removed to Broad street, and at once became "Broad Street Station." Then for the first time trains were drawn by locomotives across the river Schuylkill into the very heart of the city. At that not very remote period the terminal freight station of the road occupied the block at Thirteenth and Market streets now occupied by the Wanamaker building. The old station was a .one-story building, quite unpretentious, and equally in convenient. It was abandoned for railroad purposes just pre vious to the holding of the first great revival services in Phila delphia by Moody and Sankey, the depot being somewhat altered to accommodate the services held in the city by these great evangelists, whose meetings packed the building to its utmost capacity. The accommodations afforded by the railroad company at that time constitute an appropriate reminiscence of the train service in the forties and fifties, when telegraph and telephone, block signal systems and interlocking devices were not con sidered as necessities in the operation of either this old rail road or any other. In fact, none of these things had ever been dreamed about, with the exception of the telegraph. On the old inclined plane road "The West Chester" ran east in the morning and west in the afternoon, being the only local passenger train in service for many years. Later there was another train put on and called "The Fast Line," and then another called "The Slow Line," the names of the trains being used-more to distinguish the trains than tq indicate the speed at which they traveled. Still later came "The Lightning Ex press," advertised as running through to Harrisburg and the West, but "The West Chester" was, to the old-time village, the acme of railroad comfort and convenience. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 333

A very diminutive engine, as compared with those now in use, laboriously drew three or four passenger coaches, as dim inutive comparatively as the locomotive, or possibly twice the number of freight or coal cars, a long freight or "burden train" of the forties being of no greater length than the present "Eighteen-hour Flyer." Then the locomotives were all named, instead of numbered as is now the custom. The "William Penn," the " F. A. Muhlen- berg," the "Joseph Ritner," the "Lewis Cass" and others are remembered as objects of wonder and admiration during the early fifties. Some of these were without cabs or seats for the enginemen, and all carried a full supply of wood for fuel, while others carried both wood and coal in the very small "tender." Of the few trains running "The West Chester" was the best known and appreciated by the at-that-time traveling villagers. David, or, as everybody knew him, "Davy" Zell, was the conductor of this train, and was our young idea of the per fect conductor. He was not uniformed, and he did all the work of the train that could possibly be done by one man. A brake- man applied and released the brakes by pressing down or rais ing a long iron handle or lever on the corner of the car. "Davy" assisted in this duty when a sudden stop was necessary. When a stop was made, if the passenger leaving the train had bag gage, "Davy" opened the doors of a sort of paunch beneath the body of the car and hooked out the piece designated by the passenger, who stood by and selected the particular piece to be hooked. When ready to start "Davy" walked forward to the engine and directed the engineer where to stop next. If it was necessary to convey this information to the engineer when the train was running "Davy" called out or signaled from the front platform, for bell ropes, baggage masters and air brakes were all alike unknown to the crew of "The West Chester." The coupling of the cars was effected by the use of long links, so that the start could be more easily, if even less comfortably, made, for the two or three jerks always attend ing a start were not pleasant to the passengers. The cars were heated by stoves, two to a car, and lighted by candles, four to a car, it being a not unimportant part of the duty of the brake- 334 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county man to rake the fires, shovel on the coal and renew the lighting equipment while the train was running, the poker and shovel being a part of the brakeman's outfit, which he carried with him from the cars at the end of each trip. The fare from Athensville to the. city was a quarter, to Libertyville a fip, and to Bowman's Bridge a levy, all of which were at all times cash fares, which "Davy" collected, and was noted for never missing a fare. Free passes were almost un known at that time, so that nods to "Davy" did not have the same effect as they have exercised on his successors. Tickets were almost as rare as were passes, for it was many years later before they were sold at any suburban station. In fact, there was never a railroad ticket sold at or from Athensville to. any place, the ticket office and the change in the name of the place being simultaneous. Prior to this time some few of the.-other stations were selling tickets to Athensville, but none were ever printed reading in an opposite direction. The writer bought the first ticket sold at Ardmore station from Mrs. Charles D. Alexander, who was the first ticket agent. It was to Bryn Mawr, cost eight cents, and was taken up by Peter K. Stine, at that time conductor of the first Paoli train west in the forenoon. Mr. Stine is now admirably filling the position of Assistant-Road Master at Broad Street Station, and is just rounding out a :forty years' service in the employ of the rail road company. . The freight traffic over the old State road is remembered as being yery light, as we would say at this time. Only after the acquisition of the road by the present great corporation did this traffic assume any proportions of consequence. A few trains in each direction daily, composed of much smaller cars than are now in use, and only half the number or less to a train were frequently more than sufficient load for the small locomotive to draw. Trucks, upon which were mounted canal boats loaded just as when they were drawn from the water, were a not unusual feature of the old-time equipment of the road, even after its purchase by the present owners. Cabooses were unknown, as were flags, signal caps and the numerous other accessories of modern railroading. The tenders of all EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 335 the engines were filled high with, wood, which was sawed by hand into proper lengths at all the water stations, for use under the boilers. White Hall was an important wood and water station until the old line was abandoned, the wood being sawed by nianpower, with "saw and buck," and the water pumped by horse power. Jacob Ristine, Sr., whose children are now grandparents, residing near their father's old home at Bryn Mawr, is remembered as having had charge of the wood and water sta tions at old White Hall. That history is wont to repeat itself, even in so trifling a matter as railroad location and the location of important sta-, tions, is shown by the fact that the new and somewhat mys terious Philadelphia & Western Railroad have located the ex ecutive offices of that company on almost the exact spot to which we have referred as being the important of the Penn sylvania Company's local offices at White Hall, while the road itself is but a few feet distant from the original line of the old Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. In our rambling story of Ardmore we have many times been obliged to refer to the Lancaster turnpike, but only in connection with and in relation to abutting properties. Very little has been written concerning it as being the rhost im portant highway of the village, the township, the county and possibly of the state. As such'it demands more than the casual reference thus far made to it. It is to be regretted that the story of the old highway can not be written from preserved historical data rather than from memory and tradition, for it was, at one time, as much a main artery of the young state as the great railroad about which so much has been said is of the matured Pennsyl vania. It was chartered as The Philadelphia arid Lancaster Turn pike Road long before the time when our reminiscences, or those of any other living person, can be applied, the date of its incorporation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania being 1792. It is admitted to have been the first turnpike road of any considerable length constructed in America, but it will be 336 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

admissible only that we tell of it as it was almost sixty years ago and since. Then a turnpike was, by no means, a macadamized or tel- fordized road, but it was simply a turnpike, which signified only a stoned road. The middle of the road, for a width of about twenty feet, where everybody walked as well as drove, was piked or rather covered with stones or rocks, which in description might, in many instances, be called boulders. Ap pearances would indicate that the piking material was com posed largely, if not altogether, of stones gathered from the surface of the ground which had been dumped on the highway with no idea that they should be broken into smaller pieces • than those left by the flood. The fifteen feet on either side of the stoned centre of the road were much below the grade of the piked portion, thereby affording, instead of sidewalks for pedestrians, fairly good pasture grounds for the then numerous road cows in the sum mer season, and equally good skating ponds during the winter. In some places where the grass and weeds were worn down by travel the sides were called "side roads" or "summer roads," for they were but ordinary dirt roads and were used only for the purpose of injecting a little smoothness and comfort and a great deal of dust'into a turnpike drive. The writer was one of a number who learned to skate on a stretch of ice covering the "side road" on the south side of the turnpike, reaching from the store of Miss Emma A. Good- rich to Cricket avenue, or as it was then known, from Hunt's Corner to Mud Lane. There were then no buildings on the south side of the. road and consequently no driving there, while the few buildings on the opposite side of the road war ranted the maintenance of a summer road in front of them, which was either a muddy or dusty road almost to the fences. It was, however, used almost during the entire year by the lighter teams in preference to the rough stoned centre for which the toll was charged and collected. On the slopes between the sides and the centre the accumu lation of loose stones, some of which were as large as buckets, were deposited in heaps as they were gathered from the pike EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDIIORE 337

from time to time by the gatekeepers or kindly-disposed teamsters using the road. Here, in later years, they were "napped" or broken a little smaller than when gathered, pre paratory to being again spread over the road just as the sleighing season opened, where, in a few years, they became sufficiently travel-worn and smooth to be again gathered up and wheeled to the ever-present roadside pile or mixed with a succeeding coat of freshly-broken material. The gathering of the loose stones was a practice that was carefully observed, studiously prosecuted, but never com pleted, the gatherer being obliged to note a landmark at even tide when he quit for the day, so that next morning he could have a faint idea of where to start in with his wheelbarrow in his effort to go over his section, if not to complete his job. There were then no automobiles running and no speed limit notices posted, neither were there ornamental township policemen employed to prevent speeding. Had there been all three, the latter two would have been of no more use than they are today, for the condition of the road limited the speed of every wheeling thing. During the seventies the Lancaster Avenue Improvement Company acquired the charter of the road or, if not the charter, the physical control of the old highway, as far west as Paoli, and at once thoroughly rebuilt and improved it, mak ing of it the beautiful driveway we now enjoy. In the early days, as in the later, the tollgate abounded obnoxiously, but somewhat differently. There were then com paratively few cross-roads or streets and equally few parallel roads to the turnpike, at all fit to travel, so that drivers were obliged to drive either through the gates or the mud, while now, with the abundance of cross streets and "cut-offs," avoiding a toll-gate is as easy today as was calling "church" or "funeral" to the gateman of forty years or more ago. The old gate at Rosemont has not been moved from its position of obstruction more than a few feet, in all the years of our "recollections." It was faithfully attended for years by Benny McDaniels, who knew all the drivers and booked all the dodgers. He has been dead many years, and numerous keepers 338 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county have succeeded him at this gate. Later a bar was located op posite the reading room at Bryn Mawr, with Jacob Grant as keeper. It was later moved east to its present location, where it has for years been "Bob Connolley's day star," but it is open all night. The late John H. Clemens attended for a time,a gate situated almost directly in front of the residence of Mr. C. A. Warner. He was a hard man to dodge, a fact demonstrated daily during the bicycle craze, when scraps with cyclists, whom Clemmens had no love for, were of frequent occurrence. There are residents of the village at this time who can recall the halo of satisfaction that illuminated the old man's counte nance when he played havoc with a century run by closing the gate and collecting tolls for every rider beforeagain opening it. For many years a gate was maintained at the old stone house recently torn down by Messrs. Warner and Enochs, where it was faithfully looked after by Casper Whiteman, a most popular old man, and later by his son, Davis. The latter, after removing from the old house, was for a long time keeper of the Rosemont gate. His son-in-law, Joseph Kerrigan, was his successor and one of the latest keepers of this gate. Remington's Hollow, opposite St. Charles' Borromeo Col lege, City Line and Anderson Sullender's Gates, were all sub ject to change without notice to any point between Wynne- wood Schoolhouse and Hestonville, the gates occupying not exactly "any old place," but any new place without notice to the tollpayers. Another gate at about Fortieth Street, kept for years by Enoch Richards, who appeared to never require sleep or any other absence from his post.of duty, was removed only when the city took over the road and abolished the taking, of toll. We have not been able to recall additional stopping places of this character, but have mentioned enough to prove our assertion that there were at all times enough gates. Places along the old road were commonly designated as being above or below so-and-so's gate and, as everybody knew so-and-so, directions thus given were always considered as sufficiently lucid for all purposes. Villages, farms and residences described as being above Casper Whiteman's gate and below McDaniel's gate were satisfactorily definite, notwithstanding the fact that EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 339 the gates were three miles distant from each other. How dif ferent today, when the village houses are all numbered! The grading of the old Lancaster Turnpike was not a mat ter of either cost or consideration to the incorporators. The hills and bumps appear to have been purposely raised by the addition of the piking material, while all the hollows and de pressions were evidently treated with the thinnest possible coat of unbroken stone. The same may be said of all the roads laid out by the people of fifty years ago, little if any attention being bestowed upon the question of making an easy road, while all the stress was laid on the idea of getting from point to point on the axio matic principle of the straight line. It is to be regretted that," in the case of the turnpike, the new owners were so well satis fied with the work done by the original engineers that they proceeded to spread thousands of dollars' worth of modern road surfacing on the old bed without materially reducing any of the too numerous and very varying grades, so that it is yet and possibly always will be a hilly road. It was until a comparatively recent date the only turnpike or stoned road in the township, and being a main road to the West, and practically the only one with the exception of the old Lancaster road, which paralleled it, was a much traveled highway. Even the rough roadway of stone was preferable to the mud of the old road, so that for many years the turnpike was the most used road. The old road, now Montgomery ave nue, continued to be a mud road until the late seventies. The width prescribed in the original "road order" issued by Wil liam Penn was fifty feet, but when it became Montgomery avenue it was widened to its present dimensions by the town ship and soon thereafter "gobbled" by a private corporation and macadamized. The original width of fifty feet was not maintained in the olden time, the road being in many places much narrower, for then the farmers farmed all they could possibly get behind their fences. The only cross roads then in the village were the Church road and the two Anderson's lanes, one of which is now Anderson avenue and the other Glenn's lane, none of which were macadamized. In fact, prior 340 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY to the time when Mr. A. J. Cassatt consented to fill the position of Township Supervisor under the old form of Township gov ernment, there were no stone roads in Lower Merion Town ship, other than those upon which toll was charged, and they were such as would not be tolerated today in any part of the township. He was the pioneer of good roads in eastern Pennsylvania, and to his efforts not only Lower Merion, but the state, owes a debt of gratitude that will remain unpaid. In the face of the most strenuous opposition he compelled the farmers to have good roads constructed through their farms, and forced the villagers to drive at a trot in safety and comfort over roads where previously they had walked their horses in danger and disgust. Lower Merion was the first township in the county and state to adopt the good roads idea, and that idea was A. J. Cassatt's. There are many yet living who remember the condition of apprehension generated in all parts of the township by the initial efforts of Mr. Cassatt to macadamize the township roads, and the threats that were made but never executed to relegate him to obscurity at the succeeding township election. The road leading from Ardmore to Merion Square was among the first to be changed from one of the worst to one of the best of the township highways, at which time it was gen erally believed that when the tax was levied to pay for that improvement the taxpayers would be obliged to sell their properties to meet the payment, but when the work was paid for by a very small increase above the payment collected pre viously, which had been expended in paying for shoveling the dirt, stones and leaves from the sides to the middle of the road, to be washed back again by the next rainfall, there was a manifest change in the township sentiment. It was the be ginning of the movement for better roads, the end of which is not yet, although it has given to Lower Merion over forty miles of the best roads in Pennsylvania. While Mr. Cassatt was the first to produce results in road repairing, as well as in road making, he was not the first to introduce new methods in regard to the latter. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 34]^

The old plan of patching up the roads as practiced by the supervisors became decidedly unsatisfactory about the year 1868, when, at the instance of Col. Owen Jones, William Sib- ley, Louis Wister and others the township advantaged itself of the provisions of a special act of Assembly authorizing the election, in each township, of three commissioners whose duty it became to sell the repairing of the roads at public auction to the lowest bidder, and to have general supervision of the work, collect the taxes and pay the successful bidders for their contracts. In carrying out the provisions of the act the township was divided and subdivided into numerous districts or sections, which districts were regularly put up at auctions which were held at the Red Lion, the Green Tree and the General Wayne Hotels. The auctioneer, of course, cried the sale backwards until the lowest bidders were awarded the work. The plan proved to be worse than a failure and so were the roads. It was clearly demonstrated by the method that the maintenance of one gutter in the middle of the road was no improvement over two gutters on the sides, and that, under the plan no loss was ever known to accrue to a purchaser of a section, no mat ter how low a bid had been made by him. When many of the roads became almost impassable a return was made to the old plan of electing supervisors, which continued up to the time when, by enactment. Lower Merion township became the first township of the first class in Penn sylvania, and the present method of treating the public roads to repairs that were in a measure permanent was inaugurated and is yearly being improved upon. Even yet it has to be admitted that the roads are not altogether too good, many of them being no better, If quite as good as when Mr. A. J. Cassatt could not, in any possible way, be defeated for re-election to the office of road supervisor. We have referred to the fact that the old Lancaster road was originally a narrow dirt road, and that it was not in any part a piked or stoned road until a comparatively recent date, when the road was widened to seventy-five feet and graded to about its present form. 342 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

A number of the smaller crooked places between Haver- ford and Merionville were straightened a trifle and at Merion- ville the road was deflected to the left as far as the city line, where it was given the name it now bears. The people were then told that the improvement would be then and forever the Township Boulevard, but almost immediately a turnpike com pany was chartered which took possession of the road and piked it from Ardmore to the city line. It is now owned by the Philadelphia, Bala and Bryn Mawr Turnpike Company, al though the western limit of the road does not approach within a mile of the latter village. It is to be regretted that the numerous efforts to have the road made free and much better have all failed, for at this time both our main drives to the city are toll roads, main tained at such an expense as to be altogether unprofitable to their stockholders, and not so well kept as the highways of the township which are maintained at the expense of the taxpayers. 'It may be that the franchise, in both cases, as an anti- trolley investment, is profitable to somebody, who has little occasion to use the road for driving. The roads of the present village have no place in our "early recollections," for they are all new roads, or rather streets and avenues. We have no longer dirt roads with no sidewalks or lights, for our drives are now the equal of any in the state, whereon sidewalks are being ordinanced to be laid by the mile, while lights are springing up on all sides. These have all been recognized and appreciated by the people as great public im provements, but not so in regard to the lines of unsightly telegraph, telephone and electric light poles, which appear to have been necessary accompaniments of the admitted im provements, for they serve not only as carriers of the wires, for which purpose they were permitted, but as well for the posting of all manner of advertisements, and other forms of village desecration. And now we are writing the last installment of the story of Ardmore, or, perhaps, it were better to say, our story of Ardmore. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORB 343

It is quite possible that this writing will be the last thing that will be said about the story, and it may therefore be fit tingly termed its obituary, so that in keeping with other eulogistic writings we may be justified in speaking of all the good there has been in it and carefully ignoring all the bad. When, one year ago, we began to tell it, it seemed that the story of so small and comparatively insignificant a village could be written in a few articles, but it has been long drawn out, as some may think to no better purpose than the consum ing of valuable space in the newspaper which has printed it without serious complaint, until to some it has become tire some, and yet, from the viewpoint of the writer, the half has hot been told. We have endeavored to write something about the few people and the fewer places of the old village, and of their and its environments, noting the changes that have come to both as they have been the subject of our recollections during half a century. The comparatively few people of these early recollections have made way for and been succeeded by the many new peo ple of the present, while the very few old places which made up the acreage of the old village have become the many new ones of one of the most prosperous villages of the best state in the Union. Writing of these old places and their people with a view of bringing the story of both down to date has made of it a ram bling and disconnected, as well as a very poorly told, story, but in partial justification for this condition, we beg to refer our forbearing readers to our first letter, advising them to avoid disappointment by expecting little. If,- therefore, much was expected, the expectations have been surfeited by quantity if not by quality. And yet much more could have been written, while that could have been better told that has been written, but it would prove an impossible task as well as a most ungracious one to write much of all the people, or even a little of some of those who have come and gone in the village life covered by the story now at an end. Many, very many, who have contributed of both 344 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

good and bad to that life, and who have thus helped to make village history, have not been even named amongst the more than 600 persons who have been either named or referred to in our long and, to many, uninteresting story, so that even though long and uninteresting, the story has not told the whole story of Ardmore, and has not been intended to do so, but must be recognized rather as a crude recount of our early recollec tions of the place, with reference to its later life thrown in, we think necessarily, to better identify the old people and the older places. These references to the newer people of the vil lage, or, rather, to those who have become owners of proper ties of which we have very crudely "run the title," while not early settlers, appear to have been properly the subject of reference as being part and parcel of the great following of the little populace who have rightfully had their place amongst the people of our early recollections. To these later villagers we owe an apology for naming them and their families without license, and at the same time, we beg to express to the descendants of the many who have passed away, sincere regret if any word has been written which has caused them to experience the slightest twinge of pain. Justification for the writing is found in the fact that the. story could not have been written, even crudely as it has been, without naming these old and in many cases sincerely mourned residents, yet we trust that no offense has been given, as cer tainly none has been intended, to any reader of the long story of a small hamlet. The years covered by the story have made old men and women of the children of Athensville, who, with us, are yet living as the old people of Ardmore, awaiting expectantly "the change that cometh to all." A younger writer could not well have written the story and there is no older writer "to the manor born" that could have written it at all. To the writer the writing has been a pleasure. If the reading of it has been in some measure a pleasure to the reader, our effort has been rewarded. Pall Meeting, November 18, 1944

This meeting was held at the building of the Society at 2:00 P.M. on the third Saturday in November, and was devoted to the celebration of the William Penn Tercentenary. President Judge Harold G. Knight made a short address concerning the anniversary and was followed by Dr. William Wister Comfort, President Emeritus of Haverford College, with his address entitled "Why Remember William Penn?" It was a rare treat to have such an acknowledged authority on William Penn and early Pennsylvania history, as Dr. Comfort, highlight our memorial meeting. Sixteen applicants were elected to membership in the Society.

Nancy C. Cresson, Recording Secretary

Annual Meeting, February 22, 1945

The annual meeting was held in the assembly hall of the Society. The following officers and trustees were elected for the ensuing year;

President: Trustees: Kirke Bryan, Esq. Kirke Bryan, Esq. Mrs. H. H. Francine Vice-Presidents; S. Cameron Corson H. H. Ganser , Charles Harper Smith ^ancy P. Highley George K. Breeht, Esq. HiHeeass Mrs. A. Conrad Jones Recording Secretary: David Todd Jones Nancy C. Cresson Hon. Harold G. Knight Corresponding Secretary: Lyman A. Kratz Helen E. Richards Douglas Macfarlan, M.D. _ Katharine Preston F^nanc^al Secretary:. Annie B. Molony Franklin A. Stickler Treasurer: Mrs. F. B. Wildman, Jr. Lyman A. Kratz Norris D. Wright

345 346 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

The treasurer, Mr. Lyman A. Kratz, read the financial report for 1944 which had been duly audited by the auditing committee, headed by Mr. R. Ronald Dettre. It was approved as submitted. Twenty-seven new members we're elected at this meeting.' The first speaker on the program was Rudolf P. Hommel, newly elected librarian and curator of the Society.. He presented valuable in formation on Jacob Godschalk, native of Towamencin township, an out standing eighteenth century clockmaker. Ticking beside the speaker's desk, was a Jacob Godschalk clock, which convincingly demonstrated the skill of this early clockmaker. Charles Harper Smith, vice-president and trustee of the Society, then read his paper, "Sidelights on the History of Graeme Park." Mr. Smith's paper did full justice to his reputation as a painstaking, searching scholar, who always documents his findings with data from original sources. The paper will be published in the Bulletin, adomed with a specially prepared map, drawn by Prank B. Milnor. It shows chronologically the breaking up of Graeme Park into smaller holdings. An exhibition of autographs, selected by Mr. Hommel, from the archives of the Society was on display for this meeting, and will be kept on view for several weeks. The exhibit comprises documents and letters signed by George 'Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Tyler, James Buchanan, Grover Cleveland, Isaac .Norris, David Rittenhouse, Winfield Scott Hancock, J.'F. Hartranft, John G. Whittier, and General H. H. Arnold. Nancy C. Cresson, Recording Secretary Report on Membership

The Society is preparing a booklet in which will be printed the charter, by-laws, names of oiRcers. and trustees, committees, list of honorary members and annual members of the Society. It is planned to send this booklet to the members with the April Bulletin.

Since the printing of the last report in the October 1944 Bulletin there were two meetings at which new members were elected. They are:

NEW MEMBERS (elected November 18, 1944):

Dr. Joseph E. Beideman Willard T. Lenhart Mrs. Campbell M. Carr Dr. D. Bruce Moyer Thomas E. Clemens Mrs. Isaac H. Shelly P. Prank Hunter J. Henry Specht Dr. Elmer E. S. Johnson E. Ray Sullivan - George McMasters Jones Harold L. Watts Mrs. Robert E. Kain Major T. F. Dixon Wainwright Mrsl. Edward Krueger Mrs. T. P. Dixon Wainwright

NEW MEMBERS (elected February 22, 1945):

Ralph Emerson Baldwin Warren L. Irish Dr. Everett P. Barnard Mrs. Warren L. Irish Samuel L. Borton Walter A. Knerr Mrs. Garrett B. Brownback Mrs. Prances Edwards Krauss H. B. Bryans • Mrs. R. W. Leiferts Joseph M. Canfield, Jr. Leon T. Lewis Mrs. Joseph Carson Harry A. Prock Mrs. Mary Clemmer Mrs. David P. Pugh Georgina P. Cuthbert Mrs. Harry T. Saylor Louis V. Dorp Albert Schlumpf, Jr. Robert G. Dreslin Mrs. Albert Schlumpf, Jr. Margaret Ruth Edwards Elizabeth Thomas Shank Rudolf P. Hommel Ray Shank Dr. John Joseph Stoudt

CHANGE TO LIFE MEMBERSHIP:

Mrs. George N. Highley Mrs. TI p. Dixon Wainwright

347 348 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

DEATHS:

Mary E. Bx'ight Mrs. William Doughton Mrs. Edward W.,Delacroix Jesse R. Evans Katherine Place

The status of membership as of February 22, 1945, the date of the yearly meeting, was as follows:

Honorary Members 8 Life Members 36 Annual Members 424

Total Membership 468

The service which we are able to render our members is, of course, closely linked to the revenue we receive through membership fees. There is no good reason why a progressive and prosperous county as ours should hot have at least a thousand members. We earnestly request each individual member to exert his or her influence to reach that goal.

Helen E. Richards, Corresponding Secretary The Historical Society of Montgomery County has for its object the preservation of the civil, political and religious history of the county, as well as the promotion of the study of history. The building up of a library for historical Vesearch has been materially aided in the past by donations of family, church and graveyard records; letters, diaries and other manuscript material. Valuable files of newspapers have also been contributed. This public-spirited support has been highly appreciated and is earnestly desired for the future. Membership in the Society is open to all interested per sons, whether residents of the county or not, and all such peraons are invited to have their names proposed at any meeting. The annual dues are $2.00; life membership, $50.00. Every member is entitled to a copy of each issue of The Bulletin free. Historical Hall, 18 East Penn Street, Norristown, with its library and museum, is open for visitors each week day from 10 to 12 A.M. and 1 to 4 P.M., except Saturday after noon. The material in the library may be freely consulted during these hours, but no book may be taken from the building.

To Our Friends

Our Society needs funds for the furthering ofits work, its expansion, its growth and development. This can very nicely be done through bequests from members and friends in the disposition of their estates. The Society needs more funds in investments placed at interest; the income arising therefrom would give the Society an annual return to meet its needs. Following is a form that could be used in the making* of wills:

I HEREBY GIVE AND BEQUEATH TO THE

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

PENNSYLVANIA, THE SUM OF

DOLLARS ($ )