Ursinus College Digital Commons @ Ursinus College Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection Winter 1978 Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 27, No. 2 James Moss Holly Cutting Baker Robert A. Barakat Karl J. R. Arndt Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Folklore Commons, Genealogy Commons, German Language and Literature Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, History of Religion Commons, Linguistics Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits oy u. Recommended Citation Moss, James; Baker, Holly Cutting; Barakat, Robert A.; and Arndt, Karl J. R., "Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 27, No. 2" (1978). Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine. 77. https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/77 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection at Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WINTER 1977-78 r-----Contributors to this Issue----. JAMES MOSS, West Chester, Pennsylvania, is a doctoral student in the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Penn­ sylvania. His analysis of the outlaw-hero in Pennsylvania - dealing with the Doans, Sandy Flash, and David Lewis - grew out of his long­ standing interest in legendary figures in Pennsylvania's past. DR. ROBERT A. BARAKAT, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, is professor of anthropology at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. His article in this issue is a sequel to hi s "Glossary of Pennsylvania German Terms Related to Construction and Tobacco Agriculture," in the Spring 1977 issue of Pennsylvania Folklife. Both articles are drawn from his Ph.D. dissertation, on the Tobacco Culture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, done at the University of Pennsylvanja. The informant whose description of tobacco-shed rrusing is given here is Phares Hurst, Old Order Mennonite farmer and builder of Lancaster County, Penn­ sylvania. HOLLY CUTTING BAKER, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a doctoral student in the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. Her paper in this issue, on patent medjcines in Pennsy lvania before the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906, was prepared for the Seminar on Folk Medicine in 1974. DR. KARL J. R. ARNDT, Worcester, Massachusetts, is the dean of American-German historians and bibliographers. llis many articles and books in the area of American-German studies touch at many points on Pennsylvania German subjects. His latest contribution to our columns was "Teach, Preach, or Weave Stockings? The Trilemma of a Pennsylvania Scholar," which appeared in the Fall 1977 issue of Pennsylvania Folklife. EDITOR: Dr. Don Yoder ASSISTANT EDITOR: WINTER 1977-1978, VOL. XXVII, NO.2 Dr. William Parsons EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Dr. Mac E. Barrick Contents Dr. Henry Glassie Dr. John A. Hostetler Dr. David J. Hufford 2 Gentlemen of the Road: Outlaw-Heroes of Early Dr. Phil Jack Pennsylvania in Life & Legend Dr. Hilda A. Kring JAMES MOSS Dr. Earl F. Robacker Dr. Alta Schrock 21 Patent Medicine in Pennsylvania Before 1906: FOLK FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: A History Through Advertising Mark R. Eaby, Jr. HOLL Y CUTTING BAKER FOLK FESTIVAL PUBLIC RELATIONS: Peg Zecher 34 Raising a Tobacco Shed ROBERT A. BARAKAT SUBSCRIPTIONS: Doris E. Stief 42 Bicentennial Exhibitions and Publications in Gennany PENNSYL VANIA FOLKLIFE, KARLJ.R.ARNDT Winter 1977, Vol. 27, No.2 pub­ lished five times a year by Penn­ Work and Work Attitudes: sylvania Folklife Society, Inc., 3 Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 50 Central Plaza, Lancaster, Pennsyl­ (Inside back cover) vania, 17602. $1.50 for single copies; Autumn, Winter, Spring and Sum­ Contributors to this Issue mer. $1.00 for Folk Festival Sup­ plement. Yearly subscription $7.00. (Inside front cover) MSS AND P-HOTOGRAPHS: COVER: The Editor will be glad to consider One variant of the 19th Century American Almanac was the MSS and photographs sent with a view to publication. When unsuit­ sensational "true story" type, making use of criminal confessions able, and if accompanied by return and stories of native outlaws. The cover illustration, from the postage, every care will be excerised Editor's Collection, is in fact the cover of the "Piratical & toward their return, although no Tragical Almanac, for 1846" (Philadelphia: John B. Perry, 1845). responsibility for their safety is as­ sumed. Editorial correspondence: Dr. Don Yoder, Logan Hall, Box 13, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19174. Folk Festival correspondence: College Blvd . and Vine, Kutztown, Pennsylvania 19530. Folk Festival public relations: Peg Zecher, 717 N. Swarthmore Ave., Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081. Subscription, business correspondence: Box 1053, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Contents copyrighted. Entered as second c1 .... matter at Lancaster. Po. GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD: OUTLAW-HEROES OF EARLY PENNSYLVANIA IN LIFE AND LEGEND BY JAMES MOSS Oh! we are free to ride "The highwayman and the traveler meet and clash Wherever we may please; in the wilderness but the fear of one, the bravado We care not for the world beside, of the other find outlet in actions quite beyond So we can take our ease our understanding". We'll shout and holler and laugh, -Robert Coates, The Outlaw Years Right joyfully we'll sing; The early days of outlawry in America are sub­ While whiskey we can quaff, Success to our old King! stantiated with few records but many legends which the dignity of history passes over. Throughout the The rebels fear and tremble American Revolution, cattle rustling, horse stealing, When the cow-boy's on their track, and highway robbery flourished. These notorious And when they hear us coming, escapades produced a unique type of hero, the outlaw­ They will cry alas! alack! We'll shout and holler, &c., &c. hero, a genuine product of folk tradition. From a bare substratum of fact, many legends of For all the dirty rascals, various persuasions evolved around famous highway­ We have ever proved a match; men. Fact and folklore are so intermingled concern­ They have a right to hang us, ing these outlaw-heroes that it is impossible to disen­ When our horses they can catch! We'll shout and holler, &c., &c. tangle them; especially when their popularity is confined to a small locale. Pennsylvania is rich in We're in a glorious land, local folklore about highwayman heroes. These And from forest to the sea; legendary " Gentlemen of the Road" are far above the We are a chosen band, status of ordinary robbers and thieves. As outlaw­ The fearless and the free! We'll shout and holler, &c., &c. heroes, they were adorned with a romantic aura and remembered for chivalric gallantry. Our rifles carry well, Legends emerged during and soon after the Revolu­ Our horses they can run; tion celebrating the adventures of these "Badmen with Our conduct let them tell, Principles". Three heroic names emerge from the When we are out for fun. We'll shout and holler, &c., &c. annals of early Pennsylvanian robbery - the Doans of Bucks County, their contemporary James "Sandy We fear not now of danger, Flash" Fitzpatrick of Chester County, and later We are ready for the foe; (1810-1820) "Lewis the Robber" of Centre County. As over hill and valley, Violence is the lifeblood of the outlaw legend. The Right merrily we go. We'l/ shout and holler, &c., &c. frontier of Colonial Pennsylvania was conducive to the highwayman's life and the creation of legends about The day sees us asleep, him. The newly settled east was wild country in which At midnight we will ride; no really strict social, moral or economic standards And eat and drink at will, prevailed. The arm of the law was too weak to reach At the rebels' own fireside. We'll shout and holler, &c., &c. the forests and caves - the traditional homes and sanctuaries of outlaws. The violence indigenous to the -Ditty sung by James Fitzpatrick, frontier provided a natural setting for the unexpected. or Sandy Flash, legendary high­ Life was hazardous. The fight for survival made wayman of Colonial Pennsylvania anyone who lived a fit subject for adulation. 2 One of the Doans Shooting a British Officer. Woodcut from Philadelphia Almanac of 1846. The natural and social conditions of the Revolution afforded ample field and full opportunity to robbers and the early republic were fertile ground for the cre­ and "cowboys" to evade the pursuit of the law. ation of new outlaw-heroes in an old mold. Sub­ Throughout this turbulent era rode the Doans - sequently, many Robin Hood motifs were attributed to legendary outlaws and cowboys of Bucks County. these new outlaw heroes. The legendary heroes were They were celebrated in a seven year career by the said to have been driven to outlawry because of per­ relation of feats, adventures, daring exploits, hazardous secutions or some other social injustice. Another less enterprises and ingenious escapes. Many of the folk amiable view is that these bandits may have just in the county felt or expressed admiration for the seized upon the violent times as a curtain for their Doans. Their valor and generosity made them activities. respected above ordinary robbers. They were known However, the folk idealized brigand figures 'in for their kindness to and protection of the weak, poor, legend. Yet these outlaw heroes were no mere stereo­ peaceful, and the fairer sex. type, but actually built on real characters. The The nucleus of the Doan gang was five brothers - frontier outlaw now acquired a romantic flavor of Moses, Levi, Joseph, Aaron, Mahlon - and a cousin forest adventure.