[Pennsylvania County Histories]

SSaax'Asa S' — A ? ~i v-. / // \/. "TLS1 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun75unse MARK TWAIN’S SoftdF m>oqk. PATE NT S: UNITED STATES. GREAT BRITAIN. FRANCE. June 24.TH, 1873. May i6th, 1877. May i 8th, 1877. TRADE MARKS: UNITED STATES. GREAT BRITAIN. Registered No. 5,896. Registered No. 15,979. DIRECTIONS. Use but little moisture, and only on the gummed lines. Press the scrap on without wetting it. DANIEL SLOPE cN: COMPANY, NEW YORK. insriDiEZx: about twenty feet by fifty feet In size. The first floor was originally used for court purposes, but later had been turn¬ ed into a dwelling. For fiften years it has not been used at all. Leading downstairs to the cellar was a flight of broad steps. The cellar itself , during the years that have passed and I gone had become half filled with dirt. In fact, nobody knew of the existence i of the dungeons that now see the light of day after three centuries. The dun¬ geons so far discovered are three in num¬ ber. Two are about ten feet-square and the other extends twenty feet toward the street and Is about ten feet wide. All are half filled with debris but are deep enough for a mart to stand erect in. The roof is vaulted and in the top of each is a hole which may have been a breathing place or a place through which to let down food to the prisoners. Near the cells is a big chimney place fully eight feet wide, in which were found a handful of coins bearing date of | 1627 and some of much more recent date. Unexpected Find of Workmen The old house has been burned out several times, but the walls were never in Tearing Down an damaged much. The whole neighborhood is an interesting one. The building ad¬ Empty House. joining the one torn down has a fourth floor which is windowless. Instead of the usual windows it has port holes slanting downward, from which, “in days of old, when knights were bold,” BU3LT OVER 300 YEARS AGO. men probably picked off prowling In¬ dians or enemies of some kind. Tlie Circumstances of the Discovery An¬ swer All the Eequirements of Ko- mance except the Skeletons and the Chains. | An old llnglish dungeon was brought to light yesterday by the tearing down of a building in the rear of a pickle fac¬ tory on Spru.be Street below Second. The building is thought to have been more than 300- years old. Every brick in it was brought from England and the building was once the pride of the little colony that lived here. It was originally, §>een and peard it is said, the court house of the settle¬ ment and underneath the ground were those dungeons, or cells, in which pris¬ In Man^ places oners were kept. It is supposed that the cells were used as temporary places of confinement and not for prisoners serv¬ The fire yesterday which did damage to ing long terms, much the same as the the old Eastwiek mansion brings to mind "lock-ups,” or station houses of to-day. thoughts of the famous Bartram’s Gar¬ The workmen who are tearing down den, on whose grounds it is located. The the building say that it is the toughest Eastwiek house was built in 1851 by An- job they ever undertook. The bricks drew M. Eastwic-k, after he bad become stick together as though a solid stone land it is only after long prying with a the owner of the property. The original Pbar that they are separated. The bricks Bartram house, which is in the heart of themselves are as solid as in the days the famous botanical garden which bears bf old and will be used again in an¬ the name of John Bartram, and which other building. was occupied later by his son, William, The old prison or court house was was erected between 1728 and 1731, in the neighborhood well known to be the oldest in the city. Other big build¬ though it is doubtful if he had the ability ings hemmed it around until it was of erecting it “with his own hands,” as hidden entirely from sight from the stated by Watson. It was built of hewn street. It was a three-story structure, stone, and the garden was six or seven I) 2 acres in extent. It adjoined “the lower "erry.” Upon the extensive grounds which succeeded to reclaim by drainage and urrounded it plants were first cultivated ditching. Although he was a Friend he in America for medicinal purposes. On had a picture of family arms, which he the west side of the Schuylkill, near to the preserved as a memorial of his forefath¬ site of the ancient dwelling, was after¬ ers having been French. In this visit he wards erected the Philadelphia, Wilming¬ particularly speaks of noticing the abun¬ ton and Baltimore bridge. Upon a stone ; dance of red clover sowed in his upland in the wall of the house can yet be seen fields—an improvement in agriculture,' this inscription: “John and Ann Bartram, since thought to have not been so early 1731.” Bartram’s independent religious j cultivated among us. He spoke of his views caused him to be excluded from tne first passion for the study of botany, as Monthly Meeting of Friends at Darby in excited by his contemplating a simple 1758. He died in 1777, in his 76th year. daisy, as he rested from his plowing,: ****** under a tree; then it was he first thought i Watson in his various annals of the it much his shame to have been so long olden time has much to say about the the means of destroying many flowers and' 4 man who gave his name to the Garden plants, without ever before stopping to which the flames visited yesterday. He consider their nature and uses. This I describes him as a most accurate observer thought, thus originated, often revived, J of nature, and one of the first botanists : until at last it inspired real efforts to this country ever produced, a self-taught study their character, both from observa¬ genius, whom Linnaeus called “the great¬ tion and reading.” est natural botanist in the world.” He John Bartram was born in the year seated himself on the bank of the Schuyl¬ 1701, in Chester county, being of the sec¬ kill, below Gray’s Ferry, “where he built ond line of descent from his grandfather, a comfortable stone house,” says W at- John Bartram, who, with his family, son, “and formed his botanic garden, in: came from Derbyshire, England, with the which there still remain some of the most adherents of William Penn, when he es¬ rare and curious specimens of our plants tablished the colony and founded the city and trees, collected by him in Florida and of Philadelphia in 1682. Canada. The garden is kept up with ****** much skill by Colonel Carr, who married He was perhaps the first Anglo-Ameri¬ his granddaughter, and is always worthy can who imagined the design, or at least of a visit. He enjoyed,for many years pre¬ carried into operation a botanic garden ceding the Revolution^ salary as botanist for the reception of American vegetables to the royal family of England. In the as well as exotics, and for traveling for year 1741 a subscription was made to the discovery and acquisition of them. enable him to travel through Maryland,^ He purchased a convenient place on the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York! banks of the Schuylkill, where, “after to observe and collect plants and fossils. | building a house of hewn stone with his In 1729 James Logan, in a letter to his own hands”—so says Watson—he laid friend in England, thus writes respecting out a large garden containing six or seven him, saying: ‘Please to procure me Par¬ acres of ground “that comprehended a kinson’s Herbal; I shall make it a present variety of soils and situations, but though to a worthy person, worthy of a heavier highly gratifyed and delighted with be¬ purse than fortune has yet allowed him. holding the success of his labours, yet his John Bartram has a genius perfectly well benevolent mind contemplated more exten¬ turned for botany; no man in these parts sive plans, which was to communicate his is so capable of serving you, but none discoveries and collections to Europe and can worse bear the loss of his time with¬ other parts of the earth, that the whole out a due consideration.’ world might participate in his enjoy¬ 1 ****** ments. Fortunate in the society of many It is further told that Hector St. John, literary and eminent characters of Amer¬ of Carlisle, left a picturesque description ica, namely Dr. B. Franklin, Dr. Coldon, of things seen and observed of John Bar- J. Logan, Esq., and several others, who, tram and his garden, as they appeared on observing his genius and industry, lib¬ a visit made to him before the revolution. erally assisted him in establishing a cor¬ There Mr. Bartram, “with his visitor,: respondence with the great men of science his family and slaves, all sat down to one: , in England, particularly P. Collinson, large table, well stored with wholesome whose intimate friendship and correspond¬ fare.

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