^Reminiscences of ^Admiral Sdward Shippen ^Bordentown in the l8jo's
N 1880 Medical Director Edward Shippen of the United States Navy composed his reminiscences. He had so often regretted I that his forebears had not left some account of their lives that he determined to bequeath to his descendants a narrative of his own experiences. Of the Shippen family, the Doctor modestly wrote, "In the main we have lived an honorable life since we came to America in the last quarter of the 17th century." Among these honorable Shippens were a number of direct ancestors who bore the name Edward: an Edward Shippen had been speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1695 and mayor of Philadelphia in 1701; an Edward Shippen had been the business partner of James Logan in the 1730's, mayor of Philadelphia in the 174C/S, and a power in the province; his son Edward became chief justice of Pennsylvania and the father of Peggy, who married Benedict Arnold. Dr. Edward Shippen, who died in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1809, was next in line. He, too, had a son Edward, president of the branch Bank of the United States at Louisville, Kentucky, a bachelor, who died of cholera in 1832. For- tunately, the banker had a brother Richard, who kept alive the name Edward in the senior branch of the family. Richard Shippen went to sea when very young and had earned the command of a good Philadelphia ship by the time he had reached his majority. After his marriage in 1825, Captain Shippen gave up the sea and bought a farm in Mercer County, New Jersey, not far from Washington Crossing on the Delaware. It was on this farm that Edward Shippen, the author of these reminiscences, was born in 1826. Prospects of a good livelihood on the farm were not promising, and within a few years Richard Shippen took the position of paymaster on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, then under construction. 203 204 EDWARD SHIPPEN April Every day he rode to Bordentown or other points on business, com- ing home in the evening to his family. Edward Shippen never forgot the thrill of seeing his father return: "I can distinctly remember him galloping up the lane, just at sunset, on his big iron-gray horse, with his blue camlet horseman's cloak, fastened by a large brass clasp, floating out behind. And I remember his once throwing me that cloak, which was so big and heavy that it covered me and bore me to the ground as completely as if a haystack had fallen upon me." In consequence of his new position, Richard Shippen gave up the farm and moved his family to Bordentown. The memoirs which fol- low are edited from his son's recollections of life in this New Jersey town in the 1830's. Minor liberties have been taken with the original text in punctuation, spelling, and the sequence of events described. The editors regret that any material at all had to be deleted from the reminiscences, but have attempted to select the most interesting epi- sodes. Omissions from the original text are not indicated by ellipses. To the owner of the Shippen journals, Edward Shippen Willing, the editors express their thanks for his gracious permission to publish them in their present form.
In the winter of 1831-1832, somewhere about New Year, we left the farm and moved to Bordentown. It was an uncommonly severe winter and the snow was very deep and frozen hard, and I remember my surprise and delight at driving straight over a fence and the field to reach the road. We took an old-fashioned house in Bordentown, of fair size, but rambling, and with the rooms at different levels, on the corner of Prince Street, near Hilton's tanyard. My sister Anna1 was born in this house. I remember the day well. There was a heavy, warm rain falling in the afternoon and, unable to play out of doors, I went upstairs and fell asleep on the nursery bed, and, towards evening, they came to wake me up and to tell me that I had a little sister. I remember having measles in this house, and on the 4th of July being allowed to go to the window, for a moment, wrapped in blan- kets, to see the Bordentown Blues, with Joe Pea, the Negro fifer and fiddler, marching at their head. I have since seen his victorious guard
1 Anna Elizabeth Shippen, who married Robert M. Lewis. 1954 REMINISCENCES 2O5 defile before the Emperor Wilhelm, but I am sure no soldiers ever impressed me so much as those I first saw—the Bordentown Blues. The first epidemic of Asiatic cholera occurred in 1832, and we were forbidden to eat fruit and vegetables, and principally lived on salt meat and rice. It was an uncommonly hot summer, for we children would sometimes voluntarily stop our play on account of the heat. We had chloride of lime, in solution, sitting in vessels in various parts of the house, and I distinguished myself by drinking a quantity of it, and alarming the family, who thought I was poisoned. While my mother2 was in good health we always had a gay and cheerful house, and plenty of company; and she was very fond of driving up to Trenton, to visit old friends there. I remember my disgust, on one of these visits to Trenton, when I had my first trousers on and was taken to a tailoress, who was to make another pair. She insisted upon my trousers being left as a pattern, which I resisted, tooth and nail. Finally, after a royal fight, I was unbreeched by this strange woman and had to return home kilted in a shawl. I remember that red shawl to this day, and my humiliation and bitter tears dwell in my memory much more than many important things which have happened to me since. Soon after we came to Bordentown I remember the formal turning of the sod for the railroad by Robert L. Stevens3 just where the bridge in Prince Street now carries the street over the deep cut through the town. It was in the afternoon, and there was a great crowd and jollification. My next recollection in connection with the Camden and Amboy Railroad is the trial of the first locomotive, brought from England and called the John Bull.4 A piece of track, perhaps a mile long, had
2 "My mother's maiden name was [Anna Elizabeth] Farmer. Her parents were young Irish people of education who came to this country to enter into business." Both parents died of yellow fever soon after their arrival in America. Reminiscences of Admiral Edward Shippen, I. 3 Robert L. Stevens (1787-1856), designer of the T-rail, the standard section on American rail- roads, was the president and chief engineer of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. Unless other- wise noted, biographical information has been taken from the Dictionary of American Biography. 4 The "John Bull" was built by George and Robert Stephenson of England to the order and specifications of Robert L. Stevens. Its trial run on Nov. 12, 1831, was the first movement by steam on a New Jersey railroad. For an account of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, see Ceremonies upon the Completion of the Monument erected by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. at Bordentown^ New Jersey . . . November 12,1891 (Washington, n.d.); hereafter cited as Monu- ment at Bordentown. The two line drawings in this article are taken from this account. 2O6 EDWARD SHIPPEN April been laid just out of town at Mile Hollow, and a sort of barn was erected to shelter the wonderful machine just opposite to the corner of the Park, where the White Horse and Trenton Road turns to the north. There were English carriages, brought over also, with the regular three compartments, which were used on the railroad for years. On the day of the trial of the engine thousands of persons assembled, coming from city and country for long distances. They stared in silence, and after a while the barn doors were flung open, and the monster appeared. The Messrs. Stevens,5 Fish,6 Colonel Cook,7 my father, and others were upon the engine at different times, and they were thought wonderfully courageous. While they ran very slowly along, someone tested the very primitive "try cocks," and the jet from them so astonished those nearest the track that they fell back as if shot, thinking they would be scalded.
LOCOMOTIVE "JOHN BULL" AND TRAIN
This engine, the John Bull, is still in existence, and was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition by the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany into whose hands it passed, with other property, when the New Jersey roads were leased by them.8 The Camden and Amboy Railroad was first finished from Borden- town to South Amboy, and then, by degrees, from Bordentown to
5 Robert L. and Edwin A. Stevens. Edwin A. Stevens (1795-1868) was treasurer and manager of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. He later devoted his inventiveness and engineer- ing skill to armored vessels. 6 Benjamin Fish of Trenton was a member of the original board of directors of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and, later, president of the Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Rail- road. Monument at Bordentown, 38. 7 Lt. William Cook had directed the survey for the railroad between South Amboy and
Bordentown. Ibtd.y 22. 8 The "Jonn Bull" was subsequently deposited in the Smithsonian Institution. *954 REMINISCENCES 2O7 Camden, stages taking the passengers over the unfinished portion. I often went down that way in winter, but in summer by the steam- boat from the wharf at the shops, where a horsecar, drawn by a big black mare and driven by Joe Miller, communicated with the town, a short mile. In severe winters the ferryboats at Camden were use- less, and we had to cross in large wherries, which had runners under them, so that they moved like sleds. Sometimes they broke through in tender spots, and then were pulled out onto sound ice again. In one of these trips I remember seeing them roasting an ox on the ice in the middle of the river, above the island. The "pass" system was early inaugurated on the railroad, and I believe most of the people in Bordentown thought themselves en- titled to ride free. At any rate, my father had always a book of blank passes on his desk, and all sorts of people used to come for them, people whom one would think above begging, too. Of course, our family always went free between New York and Philadelphia, and I always had a yearly pass until long after I was married, indeed until the Pennsylvania Railroad assumed control. When the arch was built which carries the main street of Borden- town over the railroad it was considered quite a great work, wooden bridges being the rule everywhere else on the line. Land was con- demned just there belonging to old John Oliver and his sister Polly, a noted vixen. They were most bitterly opposed to it, and excessively
ARCH OVER THE RAILROAD, BORDENTOWN, 1842 2O8 EDWARD SHIPPEN April indignant, and used to set a bull dog on the engineers and laborers. My father had to tender the money for the land several times before they would take it, and was threatened by old Polly with the broom- stick and hot water, so that it became a standing joke. I was terribly afraid of the Olivers, and once followed, far in the rear, when father, followed by Joe Miller with a bag of dollars on his shoulder, went to try to settle the business, and the old woman routed him on that occasion. They could never understand the right of anyone to take their land. Old John either owned or rented a fishery, and was always making nets in a barn at the back of his lot, and we used to peep through the cracks to see if he was there, when we would pound the boards and cry out, "J. O. for John Oliver," when the old man would run out and chase us. This we kept up for years, and he never failed to come out when thus challenged. He and old Joshua Lippincott, another master fisherman, when they were too old to go over the river, would sit with long spy glasses on the hill top at the end of Prince Street and count the shad as they were thrown out of the boats. They were quaint-looking old fellows. Bordentown was then full of old people who could tell of Hessian occupation; and of foraging upon hen roosts and dairies; and of gun- boats and gondolas chased by the British into Crosswicks Creek, and there burned. The wrecks of some of them were to be seen in the "Mash" in my time. The town was a snug, sleepy, comfortable- looking place, with some houses of pretension, and had a good, rich country back of it. For some years, before the railroad was finished, I remember [that] the four- and six-horse stages, sometimes eight or ten of them, dashed into town every day (the stages always made a great flourish of horns and everybody turned out), carrying the New York mails and passengers, and plunged down the hill at the foot of the main street. Thence the mails and passengers were taken out in barges to the steamboat (either the Champion or the old 'Philadel- phia), the boats being pulled by old Sam Wood and his sons and nephews, the watermen par excellence of the town. The steamboats lay in the main channel because of the bar at the entrance of Cross- wicks Creek, and because the creek was much taken up with pile drivers, scows, etc., employed in building the entrance lock of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. 1954 REMINISCENCES 209 One of the Woods, I think Charley, was a famous skater and swimmer, afterward quite a champion as a swimmer, winning many matches both here and in England. Right opposite to Bordentown, on the Pennsylvania shore, was a great shad and sturgeon fishery. The river here takes a great bend and is very wide, though full of bars. There was another important fishery at Duck Island, above, on the Jersey shore, both of which were very attractive places for us when we were a little older. Bordentown was then a place of great resort for summer boarders from Philadelphia, and families even came from Charleston and Savannah every year. These were attracted by its comparative height above the river, its neat, quiet, shady streets, and especially by the neighborhood of the lovely Park.9 There was also plenty of shooting and fishing, and good boating and driving. Except Florence heights, Bordentown has the only high ground between it and Phila- delphia. There were a number of private boardinghouses, such as Mrs. Polly Lippincott's, and Arnell's and Mrs. Longstreth's hotels, or taverns, as they were called then. The town was usually called Bordentown, and was named after Joseph Borden, an early settler, but was originally called Farns- worth's Ferry. It has some Revolutionary associations, especially connected with the "Battle of the Kegs/' which kegs were made in Joseph Borden's cooper shop and towed down the river.10 In conse- quence of this, the British made a raid on Bordentown, burned much property and caused other damage. The "hill top" was the favorite promenade, from which there was a fine view over the river as far down as Penn's Manor,11 and over the splendid flat farming country of Bucks County, while the steeples of Trenton could be seen to the north, with the reaches of the river as far as Periwig Island. When the ice in the upper Delaware broke up 9 The Park was the estate of Joseph Bonaparte. 10 In 1777, American patriots attempted to fire the British ships at Philadelphia by floating down the river mines or "marine turtles"—powder kegs fitted with a firing mechanism con- trived of spring locks. The enterprise failed, but the panic of the British was commemorated by- Francis Hopkinson in his satirical poem, "The Battle of the Kegs." James D. Magee, Borden- town, 1682-1932: An Illustrated Story of a Colonial Town (Bordentown, N. J., 1932), 39-40; J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 (Philadelphia, 1884), I, 372. 11 Pennsbury Manor. 2IO EDWARD SHIPPEN April it was a grand sight to watch the freshet from the hill top, sweeping down great masses of ice which piled up and crushed each other, and often carried with them barns, houses, boats, rafts, and bridges. I remember a great covered bridge, with its windows, coming down and looking like a huge, derelict, dismasted man-of-war. Judge Joseph Hopkinson, the son of Francis, the author of "Hail Columbia," his sons, the McKnights, DuBarrys, Murats, McCalls, Pearsons, Cooks, and many others constituted the local society. The society was very good, but easy and lively. Card parties, oyster- suppers, dances and picnics were very common, and my mother was the life of everything of the kind. Although not irreligious people, it seems to me that none of these people ever went to any church. In fact, at that time, the only two places of worship were a Methodist and Baptist church. One of the pleasant recollections of my early days is a trip which I took with my mother and Lucien and Madame Murat12 just after we moved to Park Street, Miss Eliza Frazer's house, to which I shall refer again. I was a little fellow but remember the incidents of the trip as if it had been yesterday. I had had intermittent fever, and had taken quantities of bark and port wine without effect. Dr. DuBarry at last said that when he went to town (Philadelphia) he would get some of the new remedy quinine, which he did and gave to me, and I believe I was the first person who took it in Bordentown, and people questioned me about my sensa- tions as if I was undergoing a course of poison. It broke up the chills, but I needed a change, and so the party of four was made up for a trip. The canal was then finished, and we went to New Brunswick in a passenger boat, which was a cabin built upon two cigar-shaped cylinders with which the horses trotted along briskly. As one was [not] much in a hurry then, it was a very pleasant and favorite way of travel, although we were eight or ten hours in reaching New Brunswick. Here we paid a visit to some old friends of my mother's, the Taylors and Judge Lyttelton Kirkpatrick, and then drove in Murat's barouche across the country to Long Branch. There were then only one or two rather primitive hotels or boardinghouses there.
12 Napoleon Lucien Charles, Prince Murat (1803-1878), was the son of Caroline Bonaparte and Joachim Murat, a marshal under Napoleon and King of the Two Sicilies. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1954 REMINISCENCES 211 From Long Branch we drove to Barnegat, where we took a large sailboat and went round to Somers Point in Great Egg Harbor, pass- ing out to sea around Absecon, the first time I ever felt the motion of the ocean. This took two or three days, and we lived on board the boat. At Somers Point Murat's carriage again met us, and we drove slowly up through the heart of "the Pines/' then only very sparsely settled by charcoal burners and glassmakers. The woods were full of deer and other game, and there were few roads, and these were only tracks through the deep sand where the trees had been cut away. The few people we met looked half wild, and the children, dressed gen- erally in a single garment, ran away from us and hid, like wild rab- bits. "The Pines" was then almost a complete wilderness, in fact. The cedar swamps had sluggish streams and ponds of the color of Madeira wine, but delicious to drink. The marl which has redeemed so much of this land had not then come into use. We spent one night at the "Blue Anchor" tavern, I remember, where we were awakened in the morning by the soft notes of a very long glass horn suspended in the porch. We went on, by Long-a-coming,13 to Camden and Philadelphia, and then by steamboat to Bordentown. I remember that my mother and Madame Murat wore, during the trip, large calashes, with a holding string in the front bow. The bon- nets worn then were huge, and the hair was dressed in puffs or curls on the temples, with a high comb behind. The ladies' sleeves between the shoulder and elbow were ballooned out by a sort of crinoline; the waist and skirts were short, and they wore low, sandaled shoes. After two or three years in our first house in Bordentown, we moved to a delightful residence on the Trenton Road, afterward Park Street. The house was a curiously built one, and belonged to Miss Eliza Frazer, Lucien Murat's sister-in-law. It is now, I believe, after many alterations and vicissitudes, turned into a tenement house. It had a fine garden, with very fine fruit and large trees, care- fully grafted—one very large apple tree bearing three kinds of fruit. Altogether it was one of the best residences in the town. Nearly opposite, but far back from the street and near the railroad was a large house, rough-cast, like ours, originally intended for the stables of the house in which we lived, but then occupied by Samuel White, the wheelwright. 13 Berlin, N. J. 212 EDWARD SHIPPEN April Next door to us, toward the Park, was an old-fashioned, white- washed brick house, then occupied by Dr. DuBarry, but belonging to Mr. Frank Hopkinson,14 who was then in Philadelphia with his family. He was, I think, clerk of the District Court of the United States. Dr. Edmund L. DuBarry had been in the Navy, but resigned, I think on account of some trouble, and was settled to practice in Bordentown on account of the Count, as he was of French descent and spoke the language. He married a Miss Duane15 of Philadelphia, who was a little of a tartar if I remember right. The Doctor had two sons, Beekman, now a colonel in the Commissary Department of the Army, and Joseph, a successful railroad man.16 I think there was a daughter, younger. Dr. DuBarry afterward was reinstated in his position on the Navy List and was Fleet Surgeon in China during my first cruise. As I have said already, Dr. DuBarry gave me quinine when quite a little fellow, and long after, when we were together in China, I had occasion to prescribe [a] ten-grain dose of the same for the wife of a captain in the Ceylon Rifles, stationed in Hong Kong. My prescrip- tion cured her, but her regular attendant, Morrison, the Colonial Surgeon (a pompous ass, whose wife was some relation of Earl Gray), complained to DuBarry of the reckless conduct of "that young man" in giving such doses. The English then gave very small ones. DuBarry laughed, and said, "Why! I gave Ned that much myself, when he wasn't ten years old." Next to the Hopkinson or DuBarry house came a small cottage in its own enclosure, at one time occupied by Chaplain Talbot17 of the Navy, whose only daughter, Johanna Hornblower Talbot, married my old friend Dr. Charles Eversfield of the Navy. Next to this cottage began the Park palings. "The Park" was the lion of Bordentown, and a source of great pleasure to its inhabitants, especially the young. My recollections are very distinct of the great
14 Francis Hopkinson, a son of Judge Joseph Hopkinson, served more than fifteen years as clerk of the U. S. Circuit and District courts in Philadelphia. Frank Willing Leach, "Old Philadelphia Families," North American, Jan. 12, 1908. 15 Emma Duane married Dr. DuBarry at Christ Church, Philadelphia, on Dec. 4, 1827. Marriage records, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. 16 Joseph N. DuBarry became a vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Monument at Bordentown, 17 Probably Mortimer R. Talbot. 1954 REMINISCENCES 213 barn-like, rough-cast house, with its fine furniture, paintings, and sculpture—the surrounding houses for the Count's suite and serv- ants, forming a sort of courtyard, the numerous fine roads embowered in shrubbery—balustrades and bridges, necessary and ornamental— the extensive stables and gardens—the lake, the winding drives, and romantic walks and allees—the striking belvidere and subterranean approaches—the groups of statuary in the grounds—fountains and boathouses—the deer and pheasants in the park—swan and rare ducks in the lakes, and other strange birds in aviaries, the various carriages and liveried servants, all were attractive and wonderful sights to a country boy, and did not ever cease, by custom, to have a great effect. For many years, in reading novels or history, my mind always referred to Point Breeze as the standard for a noble- man's seat. The first house built by Count Survilliers18 was burned down before my time by the carelessness of a visitor, who left a blazing wood fire in his room and went away after locking the door. Not much was saved, only a few valuable pictures. The second house was built nearer the Trenton Road, and away from the bluff over Crosswicks Creek, where the first house stood. I often went to Point Breeze with my mother, who was welcome because she spoke French perfectly, and I remember Joseph's appearance perfectly, both at that time and afterwards. He was stout and rather fat, not very tall, larger but like the Emperor Napoleon, but with a mild expression. He was unusually negligent in dress, and reminded one of the engraving of Napoleon at St. Helena, the one in straw hat and nankeen trousers. He used to drive about the Park in a low pony chaise, and carried a little hatchet with which he marked trees to be cut down, or drove stakes to guide the workmen. He employed a great many people, and much work was always going on when he was at home. His kitchen garden was the means of introducing now so common to that part of the country, among others, eggplants and tomatoes. Joseph used to delight in sending out refreshments to the children of his friends, and encouraged us to picnic in his grounds. !8 Joseph Bonaparte (Count Survilliers), brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and onetime King of Naples and Spain, came to the United States in 1816. He lived for a while at "Lansdowne" in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and after securing permission from the New Jersey legisla- ture to hold real estate without first becoming naturalized, he purchased Point Breeze at Bordentown. E. M. Woodward, Bonaparte*s Park> and the Murats (Trenton, N. J., 1879). 214 EDWARD SHIPPEN April Some of his followers married in the town, and French names were, and may be yet, common there, such as Rabeau, Bellemere, etc. His presence brought many distinguished visitors. Among others, I re- member seeing General Bertrand19 there. Joseph Bonaparte came to New York in the brig Commerce, under the name of M. Bouchard. He arrived in July, 1815, assuming the name of Count de Survilliers; he first lived at Lansdowne, now in Fairmount Park, on the Schuylkill. He soon bought Point Breeze at Bordentown. Crosswicks Creek bounded the estate on the north and ran fifty or sixty feet below the bluff, with extensive swamps and marshes on the other side of the creek. The original house built by the Count commanded a fine view from this bluff, and was a con- spicuous object from the river and from all the country towards Trenton, and in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Joseph did not have to entirely reclaim the estate. It was an old place, originally occupied and owned by a Mr. Stephen Sayre. He [Sayre] went to London before the Revolution, and was a banker there, and one of the sheriffs. He was intimate with the Earl of Chatham, and, in 1775, was informed upon as a rebel by a fellow countryman who was an officer in the Guards, and was confined in the Tower. He was afterward released, but his business was ruined, and he afterward did good service for his country under Franklin, on the Continent. He came to America after the peace and settled at Point Breeze, and was known in Bordentown as the handsome Englishman. Joseph Bonaparte spent years in beautifying his estate, which was bounded on the Trenton Road by a high paling fence. He had also extensive possessions on the east side of the Trenton Road, which were not kept in such order as the Park, but used as farm and wood lands. The lake was a beautiful feature of the Park. It was formed from a marshy space which ran in from the creek between high banks, and there was a dike planted with trees cutting it off from the creek with two floodgates. There was a beautiful shady walk all around the lake. It had an island with trees in the middle, where the waterfowl nested. Every now and then the lake was drained by means of the floodgates, 19 Count Henri Gratien Bertrand (i773-1844) was a general under Napoleon and accom- panied him to Elba and St. Helena. Webster's Biographical Dictionary. 1954 REMINISCENCES 215 and I have seen dozens of men and boys wading in the mud and catching the fish left by the water. In winter the lake was the favorite skating ground, and when the Count was at home he used to enjoy the scene and roll oranges on the ice to be skated for by the boys. I remember our getting a deer upon the ice once, and the fun we had with the poor thing which was so helpless on the slippery surface. Once, when I was fishing at a place where the bank came down close to the lake, a deer chased by some dogs jumped directly over my head into the lake and swam across. Strange dogs often chased the deer, and sometimes as I once saw got much the worst of it from the bucks. Close to the lake, and just below the great house, the Count built a large white house for his daughter Zenaide and her husband Prince Charles Bonaparte, the ornithologist.20 There was a passage from this house, partly subterranean, to the lake and up to the main house, so that the Princess could go to her father in any weather and without being seen. The Park was full of fine forest trees, and abounded in rhododen- drons, which made the sides of the banks and ravines a beautiful sight when they were in bloom. Wild grapes and marsh plums also grew in great profusion, and I never saw such a place for rabbits and squirrels. The Count usually spent a part of the winter in Philadelphia. His first house was burned three years after it was built. It had a passage to the bank below, running under the belvidere, which was not in- jured by the fire and remained a landmark for many years. Many a time have I been up it. Some of the men employed on the place lived in the lower part, which had very good rooms. The new house was partly formed from the original stables, and had a subterranean passage down to the lake walk, which was always a subject of awe to us children. This was not the one to the Princess Zenaide's house, and all sorts of stories were told of others, in differ- ent parts of the grounds, where Joseph could take refuge with his valuables from an attack by secret enemies. I believe that they were 20 Princess Z6naide Charlotte Julie (i 804-1854) married her cousin Charles Lucien Jules Laurent, Prince of Canino (1803-1857), son of Lucien Bonaparte. Prince Charles wrote exten- sively on American and European ornithology, one of his principal works being American Ornithology; or> The Natural History of Birds inhabiting the United States, not given by Wilson (1828-1829), which appeared in several editions. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2l6 EDWARD SHIPPEN April founded on extensive underground drains, which occasionally opened, in retired places, by means of large iron gratings. There was a stone arch over the lake entrance of the tunnel, with seats, in which one could take shelter from sun or rain. I never saw the door open. Over the arch was an inscription in Latin, which added to the mystery with us children, who believed that Joseph's European enemies would some day come and murder him. Indeed, I wonder that the spoils of Spanish pictures, jewelry, etc., did not cause some attempt to rob him. But I never heard of any. The Spanish crown jewels and many valuable documents he is said to have kept in a secret place with spring doors and panels, and he always had plenty of men about the place, who were devoted to him. Joseph was very liberal in opening the Park, and even the house, to respectable people. Persons used to come from a long distance to see it, and the town was much benefited by having such a show place. The furniture was very rich and elegant, mostly in the classical style of Napoleon's time. There was a good deal of fine statuary, one of Canova's Venuses, and many family busts, also elegant marble man- telpieces. Among the paintings, some of them spoils from Spanish churches, were examples of Rubens, Snyders, Rembrandts, Teniers, Murillos, etc. Many of these were sold in America when Joseph finally left the country, but some of the rarest he took back with him. His grandson and heir, Prince Musignano,21 in 1847 disposed of the property and furniture and pictures, except a few of the latter which he took back to Italy. The Prince was a nice-looking, dark-eyed little fellow, like a dozen other Roman princes I have seen since. Every foreigner of note who came to this country, and many distinguished Americans, came to Point Breeze, and it was not un- usual to see groups of distinguished-looking foreigners, with ribbons and rosettes at their buttonholes, and talking away in foreign lan- guages. The Count's younger daughter, Charlotte, returned to Europe quite young and married her cousin Napoleon Louis,22 brother of Louis Napoleon. The principal people about the Count were La Coste,23 afterward
21 Joseph Lucien Charles Napoleon, Prince of Canino (1824-1865), was the eldest son of Z6naide and Prince Charles. Ibid, 22 Napoleon Louis (1804-1831) was the second son of Louis Bonaparte. Ibid, 23 France La Coste. Woodward, 74. 1954 REMINISCENCES 2iy Consul General of France in New York; Thibaud,24 who was after- ward custodian of the French [sic] Gallery at Rome; and Louis Maillard,25 who remained in America and had charge of the Count's interests until his death. His son Adolph [zMaillard] grew up an American, had a stock farm near Bordentown, and then went to California, where he has a ranch. He married a Miss Ward of New York. Joseph Bonaparte left this country finally in 1839, and died at Florence in 1844. His wife, who was an invalid, never came to America. Joseph had a great deal of trouble with his nephew, Lucien Murat, who lived so long in Bordentown. Murat was a born spend- thrift, and the Count gave him both money and advice, generally relenting after each act of extravagance. Lucien was the younger son of Joachim Murat. His elder brother, Achille,26 also came to this country, became naturalized (which Lucien would never do), was admitted to the bar and settled at Tallahassee, Florida. I remember seeing him several times during his visits to the North. He was very different from his brother, smaller and more quiet. He drank pretty hard, I believe, but never seemed to be much affected by liquor. He married a Miss Willis and, I think, left no descendants. Once, when at my father's in Bordentown, the conversation fell upon drinking water, and Achille was asked about the water in Florida. He an- swered, as if it was a new idea, "By gar! I never taste him." Lucien Murat first lived at Columbus, New Jersey, a village near Bordentown, and then he bought a farm near the north end of the Park, and not far from the White Horse Tavern. He made a sort of runaway match with Miss Caroline Frazer of Charleston, whose family were staying in Bordentown for the summer, as many south- erners then did. This match was in entire opposition to the Count's wishes, although she was a handsome and charming woman. She was remarkably like the medallions of Madame Mere, Napoleon's mother.
24 William Thibaud later managed the Fesch Gallery in Rome. Ibid, 25 Louis Maillard was confidential friend and secretary to Joseph Bonaparte. Ibid. 26 Napoleon Achille Murat (i 801-1847) came to America in 1821. He married Bettie Willis, daughter of Byrd Willis, naval agent at Pensacola, and grandniece of Washington. Achille Murat wrote essays on American institutions which were published in America in 1849 under the title, America and the Americans. As a lieutenant colonel, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the governor of Florida, and served with the Florida volunteers in the Seminole war. Ibid., 115. 218 EDWARD SHIPPEN April She was an intimate friend of ours for very many years. She died about a year or two ago in Paris, and Murat died a short time before her. About the end of Louis Napoleon's reign she was obliged to have a legal separation from him [zMurat], on account of his extravagant habits threatening to utterly impoverish her for about the twentieth time. Murat used to be always at Louis Napoleon for money. They say that upon his refusal to give more to squander, Murat snarled, "You have nothing of your Uncle about you." "Pardon," said Louis, "I have his relations." After Murat's marriage the Count would not give him any assist- ance. He soon spent his wife's little fortune, and much of that of her three sisters, and his wife afterward took the house in Park Street, where we had lived for several years, and opened a boarding school,27 with the assistance of Jane and Eliza Frazer, her sisters. When it was made into a school, the house was enlarged, dormitories being built on the side next the Park. This school was quite successful for a time. My sister Anna went there as a day scholar. Madame Murat had another sister, Harriet, a very handsome woman, but a great invalid from some terrible spinal complaint, of which she died in this house. I have heard her screams of pain half a mile off, on a still summer night. Miss Jane Frazer also edited a magazine, the articles in which were principally written by herself and sisters. She was very ugly, but a most talented woman. She went to Paris with her sister, and died quite recently, surviving them all (aged 93). The Frazers had a brother named Bill, a regular black sheep and thorn in their side, in addition to their other troubles. He was a well- built, good-looking fellow, but stammered. He had been appointed to West Point, but did not stay there very long. Then he went through all the rounds of dissipation and rascality, and finally brought up in the state prison. He was a great fighter, and a terror to the country about Cranberry, New Jersey, where he had married some common girl, and at one time kept a small roadside tavern. Father used to say that, one day, Bill Frazer wanted money from Murat, who would always give it if he had it, and Mrs. Murat said "No." "Caroline," said Bill, "how mean of you, when I never told that you had six toes!" Murat shouted, "We shall see! I order my 27 Linden Hall. Magee, 92. 1954 REMINISCENCES 219 wife to show her foot." But she wouldn't, and rushed away, so that father rather suspected it was so. One day, while I was in college at Princeton,28 I saw a crowd in the main street, and approaching, discovered Bill Frazer with his hands tied in his shirt sleeves, and in a cart, which was driven by two men up to the justice's office. It appeared that he had been arrested somewhere in the neighboring county on suspicion of passing counter- feit bank notes, and when he got before the magistrate was found to be chewing a lot of them, which he was made to disgorge. The county constables had thought he was chewing tobacco. I forget: what be- came of him, but I think he is dead, long ago. Of course, his family could have nothing to do with him. Lucien Murat could be a high-bred gentleman when he wished, but he was not a man of strong mind, and was too often in low company, going shooting, fishing, quarter-racing, playing tenpins, or drinking at the White Horse, with any blackleg or country bumpkin who came along. While in these moods, everybody, high or low, was hail fellow with him. All the people called him Prince Mu-rat, and, some- times, plain Mu-rat. His escapades of all kinds were endless, and not confined to his "hot youth." There is a true story of his being at Arnell's barroom until a late hour on a very rainy night, and, as the rain did not cease and he had had whisky enough, he stripped off his clothes, tied them in a bundle, and ran home naked. Of great height and immense bulk, he was yet very active, and was a remarkably good waltzer, and a good rider, when he could get a horse to carry him. I don't think he ever read anything. He some- times began a drawing (for which he had much taste), but seldom finished one. He could drink anything and in any quantity and smoke forever, but it never affected him. He was usually genial in tempera- ment, but sometimes morose and irritable. For years he prided him- self on never wearing an overcoat in any weather. Speaking of that, he once drove a sleigh from Camden to Bordentown on a severe winter night, in only a common frock coat, and nearly died of pneumonia in consequence. I remember hearing Murat and others at my father's one night, when they supposed me in bed, talking over the duel in which
28 Shippen was a member of the class of 1845 at Princeton, the first class to be graduated in June. 22O EDWARD SHIPPEN April Charles Hunter of the Navy killed Miller on Windmill Island29 opposite Philadelphia, and Murat drove Hunter from Camden all the way to Mrs. Griffiths' place near New Brunswick, where Hunter was in hiding until the affair blew over, and where Hunter met his wife, one of Mrs. Griffiths' daughters. I will speak of them again. I remember once that Murat was at a whist party at our house, and, getting angry at something, threw down his cards, seized his hat, and left the house. Everyone laughed, someone took his hand, and the game went on. Half an hour after, Murat's big face appeared at the window, which was open, and he poked his hand in, saying, "Shippen, I want my quarter." Receiving the stake he had left on the table, he disappeared, still in high dudgeon, but returned to the house next day in perfect good humor and without any reference to the evening before. In 1839 and m 1840, Murat was allowed to pay short visits to France (by Louis Philippe). On the news of Louis Napoleon's election in '48, Murat left for France with his family and never came back. Money was advanced by friends to enable him to go, and he left many debts, few of which were ever paid, I fancy, for he spent all he could get in Paris, and made debts there also, which were sometimes cleared off by Louis Napoleon. After the coup d'etat Murat was made a Senator and a Prince of the Empire, and at this time he did pay some of his more pressing creditors in Bordentown. When Louis Napoleon fell, Murat went to England, and died there in 1878, aged 75. Madame Murat died the next year. While we lived in the Murat house my mother's health began to fail. She had always been very forward in all society matters, had been the prime mover in all parties, excursions, etc., and yet was always a good housekeeper, and read a great deal. She sang and played the piano very well; and used to sing for my amusement such songs as "I'm a jolly midshipman" and "Pray Papa!" Madame Murat played and sang at our house a good deal. She was a fine performer on the harp, and it was often brought to our house, when we had company.
29 William Miller, Jr., a young lawyer, was killed in a duel by Midshipman Charles G. Hunter on Mar. 21,1830. Scharf and Westcott, I, 626-627. According to Scharf and Westcott, the duel took place "at the nearest boundary of the State of Delaware on the southern shore of Naaman's Creek." 1954 REMINISCENCES 221 My mother once had all the orphans of the St. John's Orphan Asylum30 up for the day, and gave them a fete in the garden, the first time that most of them had ever been out of the city. I remember especially a grand dinner we had while in that house, the occasion being the reception by my father of a large green turtle. I got into the kitchen and made myself very sick upon lobster salad, before the dinner, and had to go to bed. It was years before I could bear the sight of lobster. Mother managed all these things on very slender means, never was in debt, and must have been an excellent manager. My little sister was very ill, while we lived in Park Street, and her life was despaired of. One night she woke from a stupor, and cried "ham! ham!" for hours. They could not make out what she was saying, and father roused me out of bed, as I could always make out her talk. I said, "She wants ham." In the morning Dr. DuBarry gave her a good big piece of fat rind of ham, and she sucked away at it and was well in a few days. She was a great pet, and we boys had to drag her in a little carriage in the Park for hours, and she drove us as horses. Like all boys we were always in scrapes, and frequently got hurt. I recollect once especially that we were playing "Indians" far back in the garden, and were stripped to the shirt with belts on, to look the character, as we thought. I was on top of a large, steep icehouse roof covered with rough boards, defending it with bow and arrow, when one of the DuBarry boys hit me with an arrow behind and caused me to lose my balance and to slide down the roof in a sitting position. The agony was extreme, for I was filled with large splinters, which the Doctor was taking out for days. But the worst part of it all was the way people laughed. Once I remember, about this time, I was to appear in tableau with Madame Murat at Mrs. Charles Hunter's, who lived next to Mail- lard's in a quaint little cottage. On the very day it was to take place I fell down the steep "hill top" where a good deal of underbrush had lately been cut, and my face was so badly cut and scratched that I was a mass of plaster and bandages, and Will had to take my place, sadly against his will, and he behaved so uproariously that the scene was broken up with shouts of laughter. 30 The orphan asylum was located in 1833 at Thirteenth and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia. Ibid., II, 1483. 222 EDWARD SHIPPEN April Charles Hunter was a dashing, reckless fellow, a lieutenant in the Navy. He was called "Alvarado" Hunter in the Navy in consequence of having, during the Mexican War, captured the town of Alvarado, which he had been sent with a small force to reconnoitre, and he got into trouble for acting without orders. I have already mentioned the circumstances under which he courted his wife, Miss Griffiths of Ellerslie, and afterwards of Burlington. He remained in the Navy until 1854, always on the verge of court-martial, either from drink- ing, or some escapade. He was dismissed in 1854 under peculiar cir- cumstances. He was in command of the U. S. brig Cambridge(, on the Brazils, and after some rather peculiar behavior out there, he sud- denly took it into his head to bring the vessel home, without orders, deserting his station. He was broken for this, and died soon after, I have heard, in some hospital in New York. They had quite a gay house, and he was one of those who used to assemble at my father's on summer nights, and sit out by the front door, relating all sorts of stories of duels, adventures, etc. I used to be sent to bed, and then creep down again and listen until my hair stood on end. Captain Edward R. McCall of the Navy was one of the Borden- town characters. He was born in South Carolina and always retained his southern accent, although he lived in the North from boyhood. While still a youth he was the first lieutenant of the brig Enterprise in her action with the English ^Boxer in the War of 1812, when Cap- tain Burrows was killed.31 A gold medal was voted by Congress to the heirs of Burrows and to McCall, and silver medals to the other officers. The eclat McCall gained then served him through life and he saw little subsequent service. His only command had been the sloop of war 'Peacock. He died in Bordentown in 1853. He married a Miss McKnight,32 sister of John, Joseph, and Wil- liam,33 and bought a house and settled in Bordentown. After her death, leaving a girl and boy, he married another sister, a widow Hardenburg, a smart, bright woman, who murdered the King's English a little, as did most of the McKnights of that generation.
31 William Burrows (1785-1813). 32 Edward R. McCall (1790-1853) married Harriet McKnight. 33 William McKnight was one of the wealthy men of Bordentown, "a coarse, burly, good- natured old fellow." Joseph and John L. McKnight, who kept the village store, were his brothers. Reminiscences of Admiral Edward Shippen, I. 1954 REMINISCENCES 2^3 McCall lived in a snug brick house on the east side of Main Street, half way between Park Street and the "Hill Top." Sarah was the name of the daughter; the boy died young. As was the custom then he had pallbearers of his own age, of whom I was one, and we carried the coffin ourselves, on a little bier. I was not well, suffering from ague, and the strangeness of the performance to a mere child made me feel still worse, and I almost fainted. Old McCall who was march- ing close behind, saw this, halted the procession, and had me re- lieved, all in a most businesslike manner. Then he ordered the pro- cession to move again. Old Captain McCall was one of the steadiest and hardest drinkers of a drinking day. As his wife would not let him drink at home, his visits to Arnell's, afterwards Kester's, bar were very frequent and as regular as clockwork. Everybody drank a good deal then, mostly brandy, sherry, and Madeira. No one with any pretension to respectability drank whiskey. I remember once, when we were making a clearance of lumber from our cellar, a barrel of very old apple whiskey which had never been broached was sent with other articles to be sold by "vendue." Of course, I was present at the sale, boylike, and being rather ashamed of whiskey being sold from our house, I remarked that it had been soaking in water in our cellar, and so people were suspicious of it and it brought nothing, and was hauled back again, to my father's disgust, for he had sent it as something very fine. As was the custom in my childhood, everyone who entered the house was invited to drink, and it was the same upon their leaving. In Park Street, an old-fashioned sideboard with liquor cases stood near the front door of the large square hall. In summer the door always stood open, and old Captain McCall would often come along, walk in and help himself, and then pursue his walk. He had a queer, round, red face, a queer, pointed nose, well- blossomed, thin, disheveled hair, and a round little stomach, with spindle shanks, always in tight nankeen trousers when the weather permitted. He wore low shoes, well-polished, but slit in all directions over his gouty toes, and his stockings were always down at heel. In his usual condition, half-fuddled, he was always mild and kind to us children and very polite to ladies, but sometimes, especially at a late party when he had exceeded his allowance, he would 224 EDWARD SHIPPEN April be very rude and overbearing, when his favorite expression was "Get out of my northwest course, I'm a Captain in the Navy." Whenever he had to wear his uniform he was particular, however, to keep sober. Old McCall had a good deal of dry wit, and often made people laugh by that, as well as by his tipsy eccentricities. At a court- martial in Philadelphia, to which he had been called as a witness, he was asked "if he had ever seen the accused drunk?" "Yes! Yes! gentlemanly drunk, as I have seen all this honorable Court." The Cooks were important members of Bordentown society. They lived in Main Street, opposite Joseph McKnight's, and afterward for years, in a large old-fashioned house in Prince Street. Colonel (after- ward called General) Cook was a very fine-looking man, a graduate of West Point, and of very courtly manners, when he chose. He left the Army early to become a civil engineer, and married Miss Martha Walker, a sister of Robert J. Walker,34 the well-known Secretary of the Treasury. She was a remarkably intelligent but affected person, rather bright in face, and with a slight figure, which she always retained. She always wore long curls and a profusion of laces and furbelows, and was what would be called, nowadays, aesthetic. For many years they did not get on well together, I fancy. Mrs. Cook became a Roman Catholic long before her death. General Cook's father, also called General, lived on a farm beyond Hightstown. He was a dear, good-natured old man, hale and ruddy and strong, without a single tooth in his head. I used to wonder whether he lived altogether on slops. General Cook, the son, was early connected with the Camden and Amboy Railroad as engineer, and was a close friend of Mr. Edwin Stevens to the end of their lives. Cook was a man of rather dissolute life, but quite popular, in spite of rather aristocratic ways, and he had great ability. For years he had his headquarters at Snowden's, afterwards Katzenbach's Tren- ton House, during the session of the New Jersey Legislature, where he kept open house, expended hogsheads of wine and liquors, and engineered the legislation in the interests of the railroad at the time 34 Robert J. Walker (i 801-1869) was Secretary of the Treasury in Polk's administration, 1845-1849. 1954 REMINISCENCES 225 when New Jersey used to be called "the State of Camden and Amboy." One of the most distinguished residents of Bordentown for very many years was Commodore (afterwards Rear Admiral) Charles Stewart,35 who died there in 1869, at the age of 91. His history is too well known to mention here. He never would be called Admiral, be- cause he took it in high dudgeon that they would not put him on active duty during the Rebellion. Of course, I saw him very often and remember him very well. He was not above middle height and spare, but with square shoulders and well-built. He had sharp, shrewd blue eyes, the lids of which, in his advanced life, were always inflamed and red. A drooping, "liquor- ish* ' underlip belied him, for he was a model of temperance and regularity. Although dignified, he was always cheerful and affable in manner. I remember once, when he must have been over sixty, I was walking a little distance behind him on the railroad, when I saw the old gentleman take a run and then make a tremendous jump. I thought he had suddenly taken leave of his senses, when he saw me and pointed at his feet, and said, "Could you do that?" He had come down with both heels and crushed quite a large snake, which was basking there. I said I should not much care to do it. "Oh," said he, "it's nothing! But you mustn't miss." His house, on the bluff just across Black's Creek below Borden- town, was called Montpellier. It was a large double, brick mansion, carefully and substantially built. Commodore Stewart bought it in 1816, from a French West Indian who built it about the beginning of this century. When I knew the place he did not occupy the house, having been long separated from his wife, who was, I think, a sister of Mrs. General Scott (?), a Miss Mayo.36 He left the big house and occupied a frame farmhouse not far off on the same hill. Here he had a large family by a Mrs. Smith, the children all good-looking and like him, with light hair and blue eyes. 35 Admiral Charles Stewart (1778-1869) had a distinguished naval career, serving in the Barbary wars and the War of 1812, and in Mediterranean and Pacific waters. In 1813 he was in charge of refitting the Constitution and made a brilliant record in her. In 1859 Stewart was made Senior Flag Officer, an office created for him. 36 Stewart married Delia Tudor, daughter of William Tudor of Boston. 226 EDWARD SHIPPEN April His son by marriage, Charles,37 was a fine-looking and agreeable man. He was prize commissioner in New Orleans during the late war, and I think he lives in Paris, where I met him ten years ago. His [Commodore Stewart's] daughter by marriage married Mr. Parnell,38an Irishman, the mother of the Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell, who is making so much stir nowadays. Mrs. Parnell and her daugh- ters own and occupy Montpellier now. For a long time it was rented to Mr. Edwin A. Stevens during the life of his first wife. Edwin Stevens was at the time I speak of the personal manager of the Camden and Amboy Railroad and, as I have said, after his marriage with Miss Mary Picton, daughter of Rev. Mr. Picton,39 chaplain at West Point, lived for some years at Mont- pellier. My grandmother and Mr. Stevens' mother had been old friends, and the family intimacy continued. The things I remember best about Montpellier during their time were the large mirrors, fixtures in the walls without frames, and a large Russian stove covered with tiles, which stood in the hall. Mr. Stevens was an excellent manager in the early days of the railroad, though accused by some of being too sparing and fond of makeshifts. When asked to build better and more convenient stations on the road, he answered, "Hemlock boards and white wash pay the best dividends." Perhaps he would be thought not much of a railroad manager in these days, but in those times, when all had to learn the business as a new thing, he was remarkable as an executive officer. Indefatigable himself, he always kept others up to their work. He had hardly any real education, and what he knew he had worked out for himself, practically. Rather an ugly and common-looking man in appearance, he yet had a keen, intelligent look which made one see he had something more than usual in him. His elder brother Robert L. was very distinguished-looking and handsome, and so was
37 Charles Stewart was a successful engineer and lawyer. He managed the European busi- ness of a New Orleans firm supplying foreign governments with naval timber. Earlier, as a civil engineer, he had assisted in locating the Reading Railroad. Later, as a prominent lawyer, he acted as one of the counsel in the suit of Myra Clark Gaines. E. M. Woodward, Bordentown and its Environs (newspaper clippings), 217. 38 Delia Tudor Stewart married John Henry Parnell. Her son was the noted Home Rule advocate in the British Parliament. Ibid. 39 Thomas Picton was chaplain and professor of geography, history, and ethics at West Point, 1818-1825. Appletons* Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 1954 REMINISCENCES 227 James Stevens.40 John, the great yachtsman, was ugly in face, but gentlemanlike.41 Robert had the best education and the most real genius, especially in mechanics. I have always heard that Edwin was, in early life, looked upon as the fool of the family, and first distinguished himself in inventing and patenting a plough. Old Colonel John Stevens,42 the father, wasted much money in experiments. Grandma Shippen, upon a visit to them, heard him say in regard to something he was at work at, "Now, if Robert would only look over the fence at this, it would go." Sometimes Edwin Stevens would give an entertainment on a grand scale. I remember several, and one especially, given at the Hotel in Bordentown—an excursion, entertainment, and dance, where there [were] hundreds of persons from all parts, with lots of champagne and punch, and Frank Johnson's black band, then the band of Phila- delphia. When Mrs. Stevens' health failed, he took her on a trip to the West Indies on the On-ka-hye, a curiously constructed yacht, and I remember the bunches of bananas they brought back as the first I ever saw. They must have been very rare here then. The Stevens brothers among them were very fond of experiment- ing with models, and building yachts of unusual model. Besides the Onkahye there were the Qimcrack, the Wave, and probably some others. Then came the ^America, whose curious history deserves a memoir (winning the great cup, sold in England, a blockade-runner, and sunk in a Florida creek during the Rebellion, and now the property of Ben Butler).43 The last was the celebrated sloop 40 James Alexander Stevens (i790-1873), with Thomas Gibbons, founded the Union steam- boat line between New York and Philadelphia. Ibid. 41 John Cox Stevens (1785-1857), a founder of the New York Yacht Club, established the America's Cup races. His brother Robert designed the famous yachts America and Maria, which John sailed so expertly. 42 John Stevens (1749-1838), of Hoboken, N. J., was an engineer, inventor, and pioneer in mechanical transportation. He served in the Revolution and held political office in New Jersey. He was largely responsible for securing passage of the first patent laws in 1790. He began his career of steam navigation experiments with his brother-in-law, Robert R. Living- ston, and with Nicholas J. Roosevelt. In 1815 he secured from the New Jersey legislature the first American railroad act, which led to the founding of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. 43 Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893) was U. S. Senator, 1866-1875, and governor of Massa- chusetts, 1882. 228 EDWARD SHIPPEN April which was at last sold, turned into a trader on the Spanish Main, and lost sight of, with stories of piracy, smuggling, etc. I have several times sailed in the 44 Robert F. Stockton (1795-1866) was a grandson of Richard Stockton, Signer. In addition to his naval career, Stockton organized the New Jersey Colonization Society, and invested his private fortune in the Delaware and Raritan Canal, of which he was the first president, and in the Camden and Amboy Railroad. After his resignation from the Navy in 1850, he served in the U. S. Senate from 1851 to 1853. 1954 REMINISCENCES 229 She was the first successful propeller used in this country, though several had been tried. As the J^ew-Jersey she ran for many years as a tug on the Delaware and Schuylkill and was the only propeller fit to use in ice. I don't know what has become of her. I believe she afterward was used as a tow boat on the Raritan River, toward New York. But I am not certain of this, or what was her end. Mr. Edwin Stevens, after her machinery was fitted, made many trial trips in her, and we boys were frequently taken along and made to count revolutions, by his watch, for longer periods than was some- times agreeable. Mr. Stevens used often to get us to sail small yacht models for him, too light to carry heavier persons, and many a ducking we got at it. I believe that my father got [his] position [paymaster] on the rail- road through the Stevens of Hoboken, with whom there had been a family intimacy in the previous generation. I think, too, that it was suggested by my mother, and that neither of them had hopes of more than a bare living on the farm. My father wrote a beautiful hand and had some knowledge of bookkeeping, but not enough for the business he was called to, and while he was out riding about all day long, my mother studied book- keeping and mastered it and assisted him at night, so that he be- came a most excellent accountant, handling immense amounts in the course of the next forty years, without ever having the slightest irregularity in his accounts. So well convinced did the directors be- come of this that I have often known him to go to a stated meeting with his books and come back without having undone them, making his statement from an abstract on a sheet of paper. My mother was, in every way, of the greatest assistance to my father. I was only ten years old when she died, but I retain the most exalted idea of her talents and goodness. For a long time before her death she was confined to her bed, and physicians from Philadelphia were often brought up in consultation over her case. Among others I remember Dr. Samuel Jackson,46 the professor of institutes at the University. We only saw her in a darkened room, going to her bedside 45 Samuel Jackson (i787-1872) was a founder of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1821 and taught there as professor of materia medica. From 1827 to 1863 he taught the insti- tutes of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Several popular remedies were named after him, including Jackson's Pectoral Syrup and Jackson's Ammonia Lozenges. 23O EDWARD SHIPPEN April to kiss her hand and ask her how she did, and then being sent out again. I believe she had some obscure uterine disease, but never knew what it was. I do not think I clearly saw her face for a year before she died, and her room was only to be approached with great quiet, so we children were kept away most of the time. She died August 1, 1836, aged 36 years and eleven months, and was buried in a vault on the north side of St. John's Church in Thirteenth Street above Chestnut, Philadelphia, on August 3. My recollection of the funeral is very clear, and I never shall forget the trip to town and back, and seeing my little sister Anna in deep mourning, waiting on the bank for us with her nurse, Mary Bennett. It was the custom then to put little children in mourning. POSTSCRIPT Edward Shippen's memoirs as published above relate chiefly to the events of his first ten years. He lived another seventy-five years before his death in Chestnut Hill on June 16, 1911. After his graduation from Princeton in 1845, he took a medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania and embarked on his naval career as an assistant surgeon in 1849. During the years which fol- lowed, Shippen made a number of cruises and saw much foreign service. He was several times in action during the Civil War, and was on board the Congress when that ship was sunk by the Con- federate ironclad zMerrimac in Hampton Roads. Advancing step by step, Shippen attained the rank of Medical Director and was even- tually retired in 1888 as Captain, later receiving a promotion to Rear Admiral on the retired list.