^Reminiscences of ^Admiral Sdward Shippen ^Bordentown in the L8jo's
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^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.