The Project Gutenberg EBook of America, Volume I (of 6), by Joel Cook
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Title: America, Volume I (of 6)
Author: Joel Cook
Release Date: November 20, 2012 [EBook #41417]
Language: English
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AMERICA
[Illustration: _Cathedral Woods, Intervale, N. H._]
_EDITION ARTISTIQUE_
The World's Famous
Places and Peoples
AMERICA
BY
JOEL COOK
In Six Volumes
Volume I.
MERRILL AND BAKER
New York London
THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS
LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS
COPY IS NO. ____
Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1900
INTRODUCTION.
The American is naturally proud of his country, its substantial growth
and wonderful development, and of the rapid strides it is making among
the foremost nations of the world. No matter how far elsewhere the
American citizen may have travelled, he cannot know too much of the
United States, its grand attractions and charming environment. Though
this great and vigorous nation is young, yet it has a history that is
full of interest, and a literature giving a most absorbing story of
rapid growth and patriotic progress, replete with romance, poetry and
a unique folklore.
The object of this work is to give the busy reader in acceptable form
such a comprehensive knowledge as he would like to have, of the
geography, history, picturesque attractions, peculiarities,
productions and most salient features of our great country. The
intention has been to make the book not only a work of reference, but
a work of art and of interest as well, and it is burdened neither with
too much statistics nor too intricate prolixity of description. It
covers the Continent of North America, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Dominion and
Alaska. It has been prepared mainly from notes specially taken by the
author during many years of extended travel all over the United States
and Canada. A method of treatment of the comprehensive subject has
been followed which is similar to the plan that has proved acceptable
in "England, Picturesque and Descriptive." The work has been arranged
in twenty-one tours, each volume beginning at the older settlements
upon the Atlantic seaboard; and each tour describing a route following
very much the lines upon which a travelling sightseer generally
advances in the respective directions taken. The book is presented to
the public as a contribution to a general knowledge of our country,
and with the hope that the reader, recognizing the difficulties of
adequate treatment of so great a subject, may find in the interest it
inspires, an indulgent excuse for any shortcomings.
J. C.
PHILADELPHIA, September, 1900.
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
PAGE
I. THE ENVIRONMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY, 3
II. THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR, 99
III. THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE, 143
IV. CROSSING THE ALLEGHENIES, 275
V. VISITING THE SUNNY SOUTH, 343
VI. TRAVERSING THE PRAIRIE LAND, 401
VII. GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST, 447
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I
PAGE
In the Congressional Library, Washington, D.C. 24
Natural Bridge, Virginia 54
Washington Monument, Richmond, Va. 112
Penn's Letitia Street House, Removed to
Fairmount Park 152
Loop of the Schuylkill from Neversink
Mountains 188
Mauch Chunk 234
THE ENVIRONMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY.
AMERICA,
PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE.
I.
THE ENVIRONMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY.
The First Permanent Settlement in North America--Captain
John Smith--Jamestown--Chesapeake Bay--The City of
Washington--The Capitol--The White House--Elaborate
Public Buildings--The Treasury--The State, War and Navy
Departments--The Congressional Library--The Smithsonian
Institution--Prof. Joseph Henry--The Soldiers' Home--
Agricultural Department--Washington Monument--City of
Magnificent Distances--Potomac River--Allegheny
Mountains--The Kittatinny Range--Harper's Ferry--John
Brown--The Great Falls--Alexandria--Mount Vernon--
Washington's Home and Tomb--Washington Relics--Key of
the Bastille--Rappahannock River--Fredericksburg--Mary
Ball, the Mother of Washington--York River--The
Peninsula--Williamsburg--Yorktown--Cornwallis'
Surrender--James River--The Natural Bridge--Lynchburg
--Appomattox Court-House--Lee's Surrender--Powhatan--
Dutch Gap--Varina--Pocahontas--Her Wedding to Rolfe--
Her Descendants, the "First Families of Virginia"--Deep
Bottom--Malvern Hill--General McClellan's Seven Days'
Battles and Retreat--Bermuda Hundred--General Butler--
Shirley--Appomattox River--Petersburg--General Grant's
Headquarters--City Point--Harrison's Landing--Berkeley
--Westover--William Byrd--Chickahominy River--
Jamestown Island--Gold Hunting--The Northwest Passage--
First Corn-Planting--Indian Habits--First House of
Burgesses--Tobacco-Growing--Virginia Planters--
Importing Negro Slaves--Newport News--Merrimac and
Monitor Contest--Hampton Roads--Hampton--Old Point
Comfort--Fortress Monroe--Fort Algernon--Fort Wool--
Elizabeth River--Norfolk--Portsmouth--Great Dismal
Swamp--The Eastern Shore--The Oyster Navy--William
Claiborne--Kent Island--Lord Baltimore--The Maryland
Palatinate--Leonard Calvert's Expedition--St. Mary's--
Patuxent River--St. Inigoe's--Severn River--Annapolis
--United States Naval Academy--Patapsco River--
Baltimore--Jones's Falls--Washington Monument--Battle
Monument--Johns Hopkins and his Benefactions--Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad--Druid Hill--Greenmount Cemetery--
Fort McHenry--The Star-Spangled Banner.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
When Captain Christopher Newport's expedition of three little ships
and one hundred and five men, sent out by the "Virginia Company" to
colonize America, after four months' buffeting by the rough winter
storms of the North Atlantic, sought a harbor of refuge in May, 1607,
they sailed into Chesapeake Bay. These three little ships were the
"Susan Constant," the "Good Speed" and the "Discovery;" and upon them
came Captain John Smith, the renowned adventurer, who, with Newport,
founded the first permanent settlement in North America, the colony of
Jamestown. The king who chartered the "Virginia Company" was James I.,
and hence the name. As the fleet sailed into the "fair bay," as Smith
called it, the headlands on either side of the entrance were named
Cape Charles and Cape Henry, for the king's two sons. Their first
anchorage was in a roadstead of such attractive character that they
named the adjacent land Point Comfort, which it retains to this day;
and farther inland, where Captain Newport afterwards came, in hopes of
getting news from home, is now the busy port and town of Newport News.
Sir Walter Raleigh, in the previous century, had sent out his
ill-starred expedition to Roanoke, which had first entered this great
bay; and at the Elizabeth River, which they had named in honor of
Raleigh's queen, they found the Indian village of Chesapik, meaning
"the mother of waters;" and from this came the name of Chesapeake Bay.
Raleigh had landed colonists here, as well as at Roanoke, and when the
"Virginia Company" sent out Newport's expedition it laid three
commands upon those in charge: First, they were to seek Raleigh's lost
colonists; second, they were to find gold; and third, they were to
search for the "northwest passage" through America to the Pacific
Ocean. So strong was the belief in finding gold in the New World that
the only consideration King James asked for his charter was the
stipulation that the "Virginia Company" should pay him one-fifth of
the gold and silver found in its possessions.
As none of Raleigh's colonists could be found, the expedition sailed
up the James River after considerable delay, and, selecting a better
place for a settlement, landed at Jamestown May 13, 1607, where Smith
became their acknowledged leader, and preserved the permanency of the
colony. This famous navigator and colonist was a native of
Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, born in January, 1579. When
scarcely more than a boy he fought in the wars of Holland, and then he
wandered through Europe and as far as Egypt, afterwards returning to
engage in the conflict against the Turks in Hungary. Here he won great
renown, fighting many desperate combats, and in one engagement cutting
off three Turks' heads; but he was finally wounded and captured. The
sober, investigating historians of a later day have taken the liberty
to doubt some of Smith's wonderful tales of these remarkable
adventures, but he must have done something heroic to season him for
the hardy work of the pioneer who was the first to succeed in planting
a colony in North America. After the Turks made him a prisoner, he was
sold as a slave in Constantinople, being condemned to the hardest and
most revolting kinds of labor, until he became desperate under the
cruelties and escaped. Then he was for a long time a wanderer through
the wilderness, traversing the forests of Russia, and pushing his way
alone across Europe, until, almost worn out with fatigue and
hardships, he arrived in England just at the time Newport's expedition
was being fitted out; and still having an irrepressible love for
adventure, he joined it.
CHESAPEAKE BAY.
There can be no better place for beginning a survey of our country
than upon this great bay, which Smith and his companions entered in
1607. Chesapeake Bay is the largest inland sea on the Atlantic Coast
of the United States. It stretches for two hundred miles up into the
land, between the low and fertile shores of Virginia and Maryland,
both of which States it divides, and thus gives them valuable
navigation facilities. In its many arms and estuaries are the
resting-places for the luscious oysters which its people send all over
the world. It is one of the greatest of food-producers, having a
larger variety of tempting luxuries for the palate than probably any
other region. Along its shores and upon its islands are numberless
popular resorts for fishing and shooting, for its tender and
amply-supplied water-foods attract the ducks and other wild fowl in
countless thousands, and bring in shoals of the sea-fishes, which are
the sportsmen's coveted game. Its terrapin are famous, while its
shores and borderlands, particularly on the eastern side, are a series
of orchards and market-gardens, providing limitless supplies of
fruits, berries and vegetables for the Northern markets. It receives
in its generally placid bosom some of the greatest rivers flowing down
from the Allegheny Mountains. The broad Susquehanna, coming through
New York and Pennsylvania, makes its headwaters, and it receives the
Potomac, dividing Maryland from Virginia, and the James, in Virginia,
both of them wide estuaries with an enormous outflow; and also
numerous smaller streams, such as the Rappahannock, York, Patuxent,
Patapsco, Choptank and Elizabeth Rivers. Extensive lines of profitable
commerce, all large carriers of food-supplies, have transport over
this great bay and its many arms and affluents. Canals connect it with
other interior waters, and leading railways with all parts of the
country, while there are several noted cities upon its shores and
tributaries.
THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.
The most famous of all these cities of the Chesapeake region is
Washington, upon the Potomac, and we will therefore begin this story
at the American National Capital. The striking thing about Washington
is that, unlike other capitals of great nations, it was created for
the sole purpose of a seat of government, apart from any question of
commercial rank or population. It has neither manufactures nor
commerce to speak of. After the adoption of the Federal Constitution
there was a protracted conflict in Congress over the claims of rival
localities for the seat of government, and this developed so much
jealousy that it almost disrupted the Union at its inception. General
Washington, then the President, used his strong influence and wise
judgment to compromise the dispute, and it was finally decided that
Philadelphia should remain the capital for ten years, while after the
year 1800 it should be located on the Potomac River, on a site
selected by Washington, within a district of one hundred square
miles, ceded by Maryland and Virginia, and which, to avoid any
question of sovereignty or control, should be under the exclusive
jurisdiction of Congress. The location was at the time nearly in the
geographical centre of the then thirteen original States. As the city
was designed entirely on the Maryland side of the Potomac, the
Virginia portion of the "Federal District of Columbia," as it was
called, was retroceded in 1826, so that the District now contains
about sixty-five square miles. The capital was originally called the
"Federal City," but this was changed by law in 1791 to the "City of
Washington." The ground plan of the place was ambitious, and laid out
upon an extensive undulating plateau bordered by rolling hills to the
northward and westward, and sloping gently towards the Potomac River,
between the main stream and the eastern branch, or Anacostia River.
This plan has been well described as "a wheel laid upon a gridiron,"
the rectangular arrangement of the ordinary streets having
superimposed upon it a system of broad radiating avenues, with the
Capitol on its hill, ninety feet high, for the centre. The Indians
called the place Conococheague, or the "roaring water," from a rapid
brook running through it, which washed the base of the Capitol Hill,
and was afterwards very properly named the Tiber, but has since
degenerated into a sewer. A distinguished French engineer of the time,
Major L'Enfant, prepared the topographical plan of the city, under
the direction of Washington and Jefferson, who was Secretary of State;
and Andrew Ellicott, a prominent local surveyor, laid it out upon the
ground. The basis of the design was the topography of Versailles, but
with large modifications; and thus was laid out the Capital of the
United States, which a writer in the _London Times_, some years ago,
called "the city of Philadelphia griddled across the city of
Versailles."
The original designers planned a city five miles long and three miles
broad, and confidently expected that a vast metropolis would soon be
created, though in practice only a comparatively limited portion was
built upon, and this is not where they intended the chief part of the
new city to be. Of late years, however, the newer portions have been
rapidly extending. No man's name was used for any of the streets or
avenues, as this might cause jealousy, so the streets were numbered or
lettered and the avenues named after the States. The corner-stone of
the Capitol was laid in 1793, its front facing east upon the elevated
plateau of the hill, and the town was to have been mainly built upon
this plateau in front of it. Behind the Capitol, on its western side,
the brow of the hill descended rather sharply, and here they laid out
a wide and open Mall, westward over the lower ground to the bank of
the Potomac River, more than a mile away. Off towards the northwest,
at the end of one of the diagonal avenues, they placed the Executive
Mansion, with its extensive park and gardens stretching southward to
the river, and almost joining the Mall there at a right angle. The
design was to have the city in an elevated and salubrious location,
with the President secluded in a comfortable retreat amid ample
grounds, but nearly a mile and a half distant in the rural region. But
few plans eventuate as expected; and such is the perversity of human
nature that the people, when they came to the new settlement, would
not build the town on Capitol Hill as had been intended, but persisted
in settling upon the lower ground along and adjacent to the broad
avenue leading from the Capitol to the Executive Mansion; and there,
and for a long distance beyond the latter to the northward and
westward, is the city of Washington of to-day. Pennsylvania Avenue,
one hundred and sixty feet wide, joining these two widely-separated
Government establishments and extending far to the northwest, thus
became the chief street of the modern city. To Washington the Federal
Government was removed, as directed by law, in 1800, the actual
removal being conducted by Tobias Lear, who had been President
Washington's private secretary, and was then serving in similar
capacity for President John Adams. He packed the whole archives and
belongings of the then United States Government at Philadelphia in
twenty-eight wooden boxes, loaded them on a sloop, sailed down the
Delaware, around to the Chesapeake, and up the Potomac to the new
capital, and took possession. The original Capitol and Executive
Mansion were burnt by the British during their invasion in 1814, when
Washington had about ten thousand population; it now contains over
three hundred thousand, of whom fifty thousand are army and navy
officers and civil servants and their families, and about eighty
thousand are colored people.
THE CAPITOL.
The crowning glory of Washington is the Capitol, its towering dome,
surmounted by the colossal statue of America, being the prominent
landmark, seen from afar, on every approach to the city. The total
height to the top of the statue is three hundred and seventy-five feet
above the Potomac River level. The grand position, vast architectural
mass and impressive effect of the Capitol from almost every point of
view have secured for it the praise of the best artistic judges of all
countries as the most imposing modern edifice in the world. From the
high elevation of the Capitol dome there is a splendid view to the
westward over the city spread upon the lower ground beyond the base of
Capitol Hill. Diagonally to the southwest and northwest extend two
grand avenues as far as eye can see--Maryland Avenue to the left
leading down to the Potomac, and carrying the line of the Pennsylvania
Railroad to the river, where it crosses over the Long Bridge into
Virginia; and Pennsylvania Avenue to the right, stretching to the
distant colonnade of the Treasury Building and the tree-covered park
south of the Executive Mansion. Between these diverging avenues and
extending to the Potomac, more than a mile away, is the Mall, a broad
enclosure of lawns and gardens. Upon it in the foreground is the
Government Botanical Garden, and behind this the spacious grounds
surrounding the Smithsonian Institution; while beyond, near the river
bank, rises the tall white shaft of the Washington Monument, with its
pointed apex.
On either side spreads out the city, the houses bordering the
foliage-lined streets, and having at frequent intervals the tall
spires of churches, and the massive marble, granite and brick edifices
that are used for Government buildings. In front, to the west, is the
wide channel of the Potomac, and to the south and southeast the
Anacostia, their streams uniting at Greenleaf's Point, where the
Government Arsenal is located. On the heights beyond the point, and
across the Anacostia, is the spacious Government Insane Asylum. Far
away on the Virginia shore, across the Potomac, rises a long range of
wooded hills, amid which is Arlington Heights and its pillared
edifice, which was the home of George Washington Parke Custis, the
grandson of Mrs. Washington and General Washington's adopted son, and
was subsequently the residence of General Robert E. Lee, who married
Miss Custis. Spreading broadly over the forest-clad hills is the
Arlington National Cemetery, where fifteen thousand soldiers of the
Civil War are buried. At the distant horizon to the left rises the
spire of Fairfax Seminary, and beyond, down the Potomac, is seen the
city of Alexandria, the river between being dotted with vessels. To
the northwest, behind the Executive Mansion, is the spacious building
of the State, War and Navy Departments, having for a background the
picturesque Georgetown Heights, just over the District boundary, their
tops rising four hundred feet above the river. Farther to the
northward is Seventh Street Hill, crowned with the buildings of Howard
University, and beyond it the distant tower of the Soldiers' Home. All
around the view is magnificent; and years ago, before the city
expected to attain anything like its present grandeur, Baron von
Humboldt, as he stood upon the western verge of Capitol Hill and
surveyed this gorgeous picture, exclaimed: "I have not seen a more
charming panorama in all my travels."
After the British burnt the original Capitol, it was rebuilt and
finished in 1827; but the unexampled growth of the country and of
Congress soon demanded an extension, which was begun in 1851. It is
this extension which supplied the wings and dome, designed and
constructed by the late Thomas U. Walter, that has made the building
so attractive. This grand Republican palace of government, stretching
over seven hundred and fifty feet along the top of the hill, has cost
about $16,000,000. The old central building is constructed of Virginia
freestone, painted white, the massive wings are of white marble from
Massachusetts, and the lofty dome is of iron. The dazzling white
marble gleams in the sunlight, and fitly closes the view along the
great avenues radiating from it as a common centre. The architecture
is classic, with Corinthian details, and, to add dignity to the
western front, which overlooks the city, a magnificent marble terrace,
eight hundred and eighty-four feet long, has been constructed at its
base on the crest of the hill, which is approached by two broad
flights of steps.
The Capitol is surrounded by a park of about fifty acres, including
the western declivity of the hill and part of the plateau on top. Upon
this plateau, on the eastern front, the populace assemble every fourth
year to witness the inauguration of the President when he is sworn
into office by the Chief Justice, and delivers his inaugural address
from a broad platform at the head of the elaborate staircase leading
up to the entrance to the great central rotunda. In full view of the
President, as he stands under the grand Corinthian portico, is a
colossal statue of Washington, seated in his chair of state, and
facing the new President, as if in solemn warning. The rotunda is the
most striking feature of the Capitol interior; it is nearly one
hundred feet in diameter, and rises one hundred and eighty feet to
the ceiling of the dome, which is ornamented with fine frescoes by
Brumidi. Large panelled paintings on the walls just above the floor,
and _alti rilievi_ over them, represent events in the early history of
the country, while at a height of one hundred feet a band nine feet
wide runs around the interior of the dome, upon which a series of
frescoes tell the story of American history from the landing of
Columbus. But, most appropriately, the elaborate decorations, while
reproducing so much in Indian legend and Revolutionary story, are not
used in any way to recall the Civil War. Away up in the top of the
dome there is a Whispering Gallery, to which a stairway laboriously
leads.
The old halls of the Senate and House in the original wings of the
Capitol are now devoted, the former to the Supreme Court and the
latter to a gallery of statuary, to which each State contributes two
subjects, mostly Revolutionary or Colonial heroes. Beyond, on either
hand, are the extensive new wings--the Senate Chamber to the north and
the Representatives' Hall to the south. Each is surrounded by
corridors, beyond which are committee rooms, and there are spacious
galleries for the public. Each member has his chair and desk, the
seats being arranged in semicircles around the rostrum. In practice,
while the House is in session, the members are usually reading or
writing, excepting the few who may watch what is going on, because
they are specially interested in the matter under consideration; and
the member who may have the floor and is speaking is actually heard by
very few, his speech being generally made for the galleries and the
official stenographers and newspaper reporters. Debate rarely reaches
a point of interest absorbing the actual attention of the whole House,
most of the speech-making seeming to be delivered for effect in the
member's home district, this method being usually described as
"talking for Buncombe." The other members read their newspapers, write
their letters, clap their hands sharply to summon the nimble pages who
run about the hall upon their errands, gossip in groups, and otherwise
pass their time, move in and out the cloak- and committee-rooms, and
in various ways manage not to listen to much that goes on.
Nevertheless, business progresses under an iron-clad code of
procedure, the Speaker being a despot who largely controls
legislation. The surroundings of the Senate Chamber are grander than
those of the House, there being a gorgeous "Marble Hall," in which
Senators give audience to their visitors, and magnificently ornamented
apartments for the President and Vice-President. The President's Room
is only occupied during a few hours in the closing scenes of a
session, this small but splendid apartment, which has had $50,000
expended upon its decoration, being a show place for the remainder of
the year.
THE WHITE HOUSE.
The most famous building in Washington, though one of the least
pretentious, is the Executive Mansion, popularly known as the "White
House," being constructed, like the older part of the Capitol, of
freestone, and painted white. It stands within a park at some distance
back from the street, a semicircular driveway leading up to the Ionic
colonnade supporting the front central portico. It is a plain
building, without pretensions in anything but its august occupancy,
and the ornamental grounds stretch down to the Potomac River, which
flows about two hundred yards below its southern front. It is two
stories high, about one hundred and seventy feet long, and eighty-six
feet deep. This building, like the Capitol, was burnt in the British
invasion of 1814 and afterwards restored. Unlike the nation, or the
enormous public buildings that surround and dwarf it, the White House
has in no sense grown, but remains as it was designed in the lifetime
of Washington. It is nevertheless a comfortable mansion, though rigid
in simplicity. The parlor of the house, the "East Room," is the finest
apartment, occupying the whole of that side, and is kept open for
visitors during most of the day. The public wander through it in
droves, walk upon the carpets and recline in the soft chairs, awaiting
the President's coming to his almost daily reception and handshaking;
for they greatly prize this joint occupancy, as it were, and close
communion with their highest ruler. This is an impressive room, and in
earlier times was the scene of various inauguration feasts, when
Presidents kept open house for their political friends and admirers.
The "East Room" was a famous entertainment hall in President Jackson's
time. On the evening of his inauguration day it was open to all
comers, who were served with orange punch and lemonade. The crowds
were large, and the punch was mixed in barrels, being brought in by
the bucketful, the thirsty throngs rushing after the waiters, and in
the turmoil upsetting the punch and ruining dresses and carpets. The
punch receptacles were finally taken out into the gardens, and in this
way the boisterous crowds were drawn off, and it became possible to
serve cake and wine to the ladies. Various traditions are still told
of this experience, and also of the monster cheese, as big as a
hogshead, that was served to the multitude at Jackson's farewell
reception. It was cut up with long saw-blades, and each guest was
given about a pound of cheese, this feast being the talk of the time.
Jackson's successor was Martin Van Buren, who came from New York, the
land of big cheeses. Being bound to emulate his predecessor, an even
larger cheese was sent him, and cut up in the "East Room." The crowds
trampled the greasy crumbs into the carpets and hangings, and all the
furniture and fittings were ruined. Now no guest comes unbidden to
dine at the White House; but the change in the fashion aided in
defeating Van Buren, who was a candidate for a second election in
1840. He stopped keeping open house in order to save the furniture and
get some peace, and during several months preceding the election many
persons arrived at the White House for breakfast or dinner and
threatened to vote against Van Buren unless they were entertained.
This, with the fact noised abroad that he had become such an
aristocrat that his table service included gold spoons, then an
unheard of extravagance, proved too much for him. Van Buren was beaten
for re-election by "Old Tippecanoe"--General William Henry Harrison.
A corridor leads westward from the "East Room," through the centre of
the White House, to the conservatories, which are prolonged nearly two
hundred feet farther westward. A series of fine apartments, called the
Green, Blue and Red Rooms, from the predominant colors in their
decorations, are south of this corridor, with their windows opening
upon the gardens. These apartments open into each other, and finally
into the State Dining Hall on the western side of the building, which
is adjoined by a conservatory. North of the corridor the first floor
contains the family rooms, and on the second floor are the
sleeping-rooms and also the public offices. The Cabinet Room, about in
the centre of the building, is a comparatively small apartment, where
the Cabinet meetings assemble around a long table. On one side of it,
at the head of a broad staircase, are the offices of the secretaries,
over the East Room; and on the other side, the President's private
apartment, which is called the Library. Here the President sits, with
the southern sun streaming through the windows, to give audience to
his visitors, who are passed in by the secretaries. One of the desks,
which is usually the President's personal work-table, has a history.
The British ship "Resolute," years ago, after many hardships in the
fruitless search for Sir John Franklin, had to be abandoned in the
Arctic seas. Portions of her oaken timbers were taken back to England,
and from these, by the Queen's command, the desk was made and
presented to President Grant, and it has since been part of the
furniture in the Library. An adjacent chamber, wherein the Prince of
Wales slept on his only visit to America, and the chamber adjoining,
are the two sleeping-rooms which have been usually occupied by the
greatest Presidents. The accommodations are so restricted, however,
that a movement is afoot for constructing another presidential
residence, on higher land in the suburbs, so that the White House may
be exclusively used for the executive offices.
ELABORATE PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
The great public buildings used for Government purposes are among the
chief adornments of Washington. To the eastward of the White House is
the Treasury Building, extending over five hundred feet along
Fifteenth Street, enriched by a magnificent Ionic colonnade, three
hundred and fifty feet long, modelled from that of the Athenian Temple
of Minerva. Each end has an elaborate Ionic portico, while the western
front, facing the White House, has a grand central entrance. This was
the first great building constructed for a Government department, and
is the headquarters of the Secretary of the Treasury. Upon the western
side of the White House is the most splendid of all the department
buildings, accommodating three of them, the State, War and Navy
Departments. It is Roman Doric, built of granite, four stories high,
with Mansard and pavilion roofs and porticoes, covering a surface of
five hundred and sixty-seven by three hundred and forty-two feet. The
Salon of the Ambassadors, or the Diplomatic Reception Room, is its
finest apartment, and is the audience chamber of the Secretary of
State, who occupies the adjoining Secretary's Hall, also a splendid
room. This great building is constructed around two large interior
courts, the Army occupying the northern and western wings, and the
Navy the eastern side, where among the great attractions are the
models of the famous warships of the American Navy. To the northward
of the White House park and furnishing a fine front view is Lafayette
Square, containing a bronze equestrian statue of General Jackson by
Clark Mills; beyond, on the western side, is the attractive
Renaissance building of the Corcoran Art Gallery, amply endowed by the
late banker, William W. Corcoran, and containing his valuable art
collections, which were given to the public. The foundation of his
fortune was laid over a half-century ago, when he had the pluck to
take a Government loan which seemed slow of sale. His modest banking
house still exists as the Riggs Bank, facing the Treasury.
The most admired of the newer public buildings in Washington is the
Congressional Library, on the plateau southeast of the Capitol, an
enormous structure in Italian Renaissance, a quadrangle four hundred
and seventy feet long and three hundred and forty feet wide, enclosing
four courts and a central rotunda. It was finished in 1897, and cost
about $6,200,000. Its elevated gilded dome and lantern are conspicuous
objects in the view. This great Library, the largest in the country,
is appropriately ornamented, and its book-stacks have accommodations
for about five millions of volumes, the present number approximating
one million, with nearly three hundred thousand pamphlets. The Pension
Building is another huge structure, northwest of Capitol Hill, built
around a covered quadrangle, which is used quadrennially for the
"Inauguration Ball," a prominent Washington official-social function,
which was adopted to relieve the White House from the former feasting
on the inauguration night. This house, accommodating the army of
pension clerks, has running around the walls, over the lower windows,
a broad band, exhibiting in relief a marching column of troops, with
representations of every branch of the service. Seventh Street, which
crosses Pennsylvania Avenue about midway between the Capitol and the
Treasury, has to the northward the imposing Corinthian Post-office
Building, formerly the headquarters of the postal service. Behind this
is the Department of the Interior, popularly known as the Patent
Office, as a large part of it is occupied by patent models. This is a
grand Doric structure, occupying two blocks and embracing about three
acres of buildings, the main entrance being a magnificent portico,
seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. The new General Post-office Department
Building is on Pennsylvania Avenue, covering a surface of three
hundred by two hundred feet, and having a tower rising three hundred
feet. It has just been completed. The Government Printing Office,
where the public printing is done, and the Treasury Bureau of
Engraving and Printing, where all the Government money issues and
revenue stamps are made, are large and important buildings, though not
specifically attractive in architecture.
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
Upon the Mall stands the Smithsonian Institution, of world-wide
renown, one of the most interesting public structures in
Washington, its turrets and towers rising above the trees. The origin
of this famous scientific establishment was the bequest of an
Englishman, James Smithson, a natural son of Hugh Smithson, Duke of
Northumberland, born in 1765. He was known as Louis Macie at Oxford,
graduating under that name; early developed scientific tastes; was a
Fellow of the Royal Society, the friend and associate of many of the
most learned men of his time, and lived usually in Paris, where in the
latter part of the last century he took the family name of his father.
He died in Italy in 1829. In Washington's Farewell Address, issued in
1796, there occurs the phrase, "An institution for the increase and
diffusion of knowledge," and it was well known that the Father of his
Country cherished a project for a national institution of learning in
the new Federal City. This was evidently communicated to Smithson by
one of his intimates in Paris, Joel Barlow, a noted American, who was
familiar with Washington's plan, and in this way originated the
residuary bequest, which was contained in the following clause of
Smithson's will: "I bequeath the whole of my property to the United
States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the
Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and
diffusion of knowledge among men." Upon the death of Smithson's
nephew, without heirs, in 1835, this bequest became operative, and the
United States Legation in London was notified that the estate, then
amounting in value to about £100,000, was held in possession of the
Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery. This was something novel
in America, and when the facts became public opposition arose in
Congress to accepting the gift, eminent men, headed by John C.
Calhoun, arguing that it was beneath the dignity of the United States
to receive presents. Others, however, led by John Quincy Adams,
ardently advocated acceptance. The latter carried the day; Richard
Rush was sent to London, as agent, to prosecute the claim in the Court
of Chancery, in the name of the President of the United States; and
the legacy was obtained and delivered at the Mint in Philadelphia,
September 1, 1838, in the sum of 104,960 British sovereigns, and was
immediately recoined into United States money, producing $508,318.46,
the first installment of the legacy. There were subsequent additional
installments, and the total sum in 1867 reached $650,000. This
original sum was deposited in the Federal Treasury in perpetuity, at
six per cent, interest, and the income has been devoted to the
erection of the buildings, and, with other subsequently added sums, to
the support of the vast establishment which has grown from the
original gift.
[Illustration: _In the Congressional Library, Washington, D. C._]
The Smithsonian Institution was formally created by Act of Congress,
August 10, 1846, the corporation being composed of the President,
Vice-President, members of the Cabinet and Chief Justice, who are
constituted the "establishment," made responsible for the duty of "the
increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." The Institution is
administered by a Board of Regents, including in addition three
Senators, three members of the House, and six citizens appointed by
Congress; the presiding officer, called the "Chancellor," being
usually the Chief Justice, and the secretary of the board is the
Executive Officer. The late eminent Professor Joseph Henry was elected
secretary in 1846, and he designed the plan and scope of the Institution,
continuing as its executive head until his death in 1878. His statue
stands in the grounds near the entrance. Two other secretaries
followed him, Spencer F. Baird (who was twenty-seven years assistant
secretary), and upon his death Samuel P. Langley, in 1888. The ornate
building of red Seneca brownstone, a fine castellated structure in the
Renaissance style, was designed in 1847 and finished in 1855. Its
grand front stretches about four hundred and fifty feet, and its nine
towers and turrets, rising from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty
feet, stand up prettily behind the groves of trees. This original
building contains a museum of natural history and anthropology. In
connection with it there is another elaborate structure over three
hundred feet square--the National Museum--containing numerous courts,
surrounding a central rotunda, beneath which a fountain plashes. This
is under the same management, and directly supported by the
Government, the design being to perfect a collection much like the
British Museum, but paying more attention to American antiquities and
products. This adjunct museum began with the gifts by foreign
Governments to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, most of
them being still preserved there. The Smithsonian Trust Fund now
approximates $1,000,000, and there are various other gifts and
bequests held in the Treasury for various scientific purposes
similarly administered.
Briefly stated, the plan of Professor Henry was to "increase
knowledge" by original investigations and study, either in science or
literature, and to "diffuse knowledge" not only through the United
States, but everywhere, and especially by promoting an interchange of
thought among the learned in all nations, with no restriction in favor
of any one branch of knowledge. A leading feature of his plan was "to
assist men of science in making original researches, to publish them
in a series of volumes, and to give a copy of them to every
first-class library on the face of the earth." There is said to be
probably not a scientific observer of any standing in the United
States to whom the Institution has not at some time extended a helping
hand, and this aid also goes liberally across the Atlantic. As income
grew, the scope has been enlarged. In the various museums there is a
particularly good collection of American ethnology, and a most
elaborate display of American fossils, minerals, animals, birds and
antiquities. There are also shown by the Fish Commission specimens of
the fishing implements and fishery methods of all nations, an
exhibition which is unexcelled in these special departments. Many
specifically interesting things are in the National Museum. The
personal effects of Washington, Jackson and General Grant are there.
Benjamin Franklin's old printing-press is preserved in a somewhat
dilapidated condition, and there is also the first railway engine sent
from England to the United States, the original "John Bull," built by
Stephenson & Son at Newcastle-on-Tyne in June, 1831, and sent out as
"Engine No. 1" for the Camden and Amboy Railroad crossing New Jersey,
now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It weighs ten tons, and has
four driving-wheels of fifty-four inches diameter. This relic, after
being used on the railroad for forty years, until improved machinery
superseded it, has been given the Government as a national heirloom.
Among the anthropological collections is a chronologically arranged
series illustrating American history from the period of the discovery
to the present day. This includes George Catlin's famous collection of
six hundred paintings, illustrating the manners and customs of the
North American Indians. One of the most important features of the work
of this most interesting establishment is its active participation in
all the great International Expositions by the loan to them of
valuable exhibits under Government direction and control.
THE SOLDIERS' HOME AND WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
The city of Washington, with progressing years, is becoming more and
more the popular residential city of the country. It is one of the
most beautiful and attractive, the admirable plan, with the wide
asphalted streets, lined with trees, opening up vista views of grand
public buildings, statues, monuments or leafy parks, making it
specially popular. The northern and northwestern sections, on the
higher grounds, have consequently spread far beyond the Executive
Mansion, being filled with rows of elaborate and costly residences,
the homes of leading public men. The streets are kept scrupulously
clean, while at the intersections are "circles," triangles and little
squares, which are availed of for pretty parks, and usually contain
statues of distinguished Americans. Among the noted residence streets
are Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut Avenues and K Street and
Sixteenth Street, all in the northwestern district. Among the many
statues adorning the small parks and "circles" are those of
Washington, Farragut, Scott, Thomas, McPherson, Dupont, Logan,
Franklin, Hancock, Grant, Rawlins and Martin Luther, the latter a
replica of the figure in the Reformation Monument at Worms.
To the northward the suburbs rise to Columbia Heights, with an
elevated plateau beyond, where there is a Government park covering
nearly a square mile of rolling surface, and surrounding one of the
noted rural retreats on the borders of the Capital, the "Soldiers'
Home." This is an asylum and hospital for disabled and superannuated
soldiers of the American regular army, containing usually about six
hundred of them, and founded by General Winfield Scott, whose statue
adorns the grounds. Its cottages have been favorite retiring-places of
the Presidents in the warm weather. Amid lovely surroundings the
veterans are comfortably housed, and in the adjacent cemetery
thousands of them have been buried. Scott's statue stands upon the
southern brow of the plateau, where a ridge is thrust out in a
commanding situation; and from here the old commander of the army
forty and fifty years ago gazes intently over the lower ground to the
city three miles away, with the lofty Capitol dome and Washington
Monument rising to his level, while beyond them the broad and placid
Potomac winds between its wooded shores. This is the most elevated
spot near Washington, overlooking a wide landscape. In the cemetery at
the Soldiers' Home sleeps General Logan, among the thousands of other
veterans. To the westward the beautiful gorge of Rock Creek is cut
down, and beyond is Georgetown, with its noted University, founded by
the Jesuits in 1789, and having about seven hundred students. In the
Oak Hill Cemetery, at Georgetown, is the grave of John Howard Payne,
the author of "Home, Sweet Home," who died in 1852. Far away over the
Potomac, in the Arlington National Cemetery, are the graves of
Generals Sherman and Sheridan.
Down near the Potomac, on the Mall, to the westward of the Smithsonian
turrets, is the extensive brick and brownstone building representing
the dominant industry of the United States, which gives the
politicians so much anxiety in catering for votes--the Agricultural
Department. Here are spacious gardens and greenhouses, an arboretum
and herbarium, the adjacent buildings also containing an agricultural
museum. As over three-fifths of the men in the United States are
farmers and farm-workers, and many others are in the adjunct
industries, it has become a popular saying in Washington that if you
wish to scare Congress you need only shake a cow's tail at it. This
department has grown into an enormous distributing office for seeds
and cuttings, crop reports and farming information. Among its
curiosities is the "Sequoia Tree Tower," formed of a section of a
Sequoia or Big Tree of California, which was three hundred feet high
and twenty-six feet in diameter at the base.
Behind the Agricultural Department, and rising almost at the river
bank, and in front of the Executive Mansion, is the noted Washington
Monument, its pointed apex elevated five hundred and fifty-five feet.
This is a square and gradually tapering shaft, constructed of white
Maryland marble, the walls fifteen feet thick at the base and eighteen
inches at the top, the pyramidal apex being fifty-five feet high and
capped with a piece of aluminum. Its construction was begun in 1848,
abandoned in 1855, resumed in 1877 and finished in 1884, at a total
cost of $1,300,000. The lower walls contain stones contributed by
public corporations and organizations, many being sent by States and
foreign nations, and bearing suitable inscriptions in memory of
Washington. A fatiguing stairway of nine hundred steps leads to the
top, and there is also a slow-moving elevator. From the little square
windows, just below the apex, there is a grand view over the
surrounding country. Afar off to the northwest is seen the long hazy
wall of the Blue Ridge or Kittatinny Mountain range, its prominent
peak, the Sugar Loaf, being fifty miles distant. To the eastward is
the Capitol and its surmounting dome, over a mile away, while the city
spreads all around the view below, like a toy town, its streets
crossing as on a chess-board, and cut into gores and triangles by the
broad, diagonal avenues lined with trees, the houses being
interspersed with many foliage-covered spaces. Coming from the
northwest the Potomac passes nearly at the foot of the monument, with
Arlington Heights over on the distant Virginia shore, and the broad
river channel flowing away to the southwest until lost among the
winding forest-clad shores below Alexandria. From this elevated perch
can be got an excellent idea of the peculiarities of the town, its
vast plan and long intervals of space, so that there is quite plainly
shown why the practical Yankee race calls it the "City of Magnificent
Distances." Possibly one of the best descriptions of Washington and
its characteristics is that of the poet in the _Washington Post_:
A city well named of magnificent distances;
Of boulevards, palaces, fountains and trees;
Of sunshine and moonlight whose subtle insistence is--
"Bask in our radiance! Be lulled by our breeze!"
A city like Athens set down in Arcadia;
White temples and porticoes gleaming 'mid groves;
Where nymphs glide and smile as though quite unafraid o' you,
The home of the Muses, the Graces, the Loves;
The centre of Politics, Letters and Sciences;
Elysium of Arts, yet the Lobbyist's Dream;
Where gather the clans whose only reliance is
Gold and the dross that sweeps down with its stream;
An isle of the lotus, where every-day business
Sails on its course all unvexed by simoons;
No bustle or roar, no mad-whirling dizziness
O'er velvety streets like Venetian lagoons;
A town where from nothing whatever they bar women,
From riding a bicycle--tending a bar;
Ex-cooks queen society--ladies are charwomen--
For such the plain facts as too often they are.
A city where applicants, moody, disconsolate,
Swoop eager for office and senseless to shame;
The "heeler" quite certain of getting his consulate,
Although, to be sure, he can't sign his name;
A town where all types of humanity congregate;
The millionaire lolling on cushions of ease;
The tramp loping by at a wolfish and hungry gait;
And mankind in general a' go as you please.
A city in short of most strange inconsistencies;
Condensing the history of man since the fall;
A city, however, whose piece de resistance is
This--'tis the best and the fairest of all.
THE POTOMAC AND THE ALLEGHENIES.
The Potomac is one of the chief among the many rivers draining the
Allegheny Mountains. It originates in two branches, rising in West
Virginia and uniting northwest of Cumberland; is nearly four hundred
miles long; has remarkably picturesque scenery in the magnificent
gorges and reaches of its upper waters; breaks through range after
range of the Alleghenies, and after reaching the lowlands becomes a
tidal estuary for a hundred miles of its final course, broadening to
six and eight and ultimately sixteen miles wide at its mouth in the
Chesapeake. Washington is near the head of tidewater, one hundred and
twenty-five miles from the bay; and for almost its entire course the
Potomac is an interstate boundary, between Maryland and West Virginia
and Virginia. Its name is Indian, referring to its use in their
primitive navigation, the original word "Petomok" meaning "they are
coming by water"--"they draw near in canoes." The Alleghenies, where
this noted river originates, are a remarkable geological formation.
The Atlantic Coast of the United States has a general trend from the
northeast to the southwest, with bordering sand beaches, and back of
them a broad band of pines. Then, towards the northwest, the land
gradually rises, being formed in successive ridges, with intervening
valleys, until it reaches the Alleghenies. The great ranges of this
mountain chain, which is geologically known as the Appalachian System,
run almost parallel to the coast for over a thousand miles, from the
White Mountains of New Hampshire down to Alabama. They are noted
mountains, not very high, but of remarkable construction, and are said
to be much older in geological formation than the Alps or the Andes.
They are composed of series of parallel ridges, one beyond the other,
and all following the same general course, like the successive waves
of the ocean. For long distances these ridges run in perfectly
straight lines, and then, as one may curve around into a new
direction, all the others curve with it. The intervening valleys are
as remarkable in their parallelism as the ridges enclosing them. From
the seaboard to the mountains the ranges of hills are of the same
general character, but with less elevation, gentler slopes, and in
most cases narrower and much more fertile valleys.
The South Mountain, an irregular and in some parts broken-down ridge,
is the outpost of the Alleghenies, while the great Blue Ridge is their
eastern buttress. The latter is about twenty miles northwest of the
South Mountain, and is the famous Kittatinny range, named by the
Indians, and in their figurative language meaning "the endless chain
of hills." It stretches from the Catskills in New York southwest to
Alabama, a distance of eight hundred miles, a veritable backbone for
the Atlantic seaboard, its rounded ridgy peaks rising sometimes
twenty-five hundred feet north of the Carolinas, and much higher in
those States. It stands up like a great blue wall against the
northwestern horizon, deeply notched where the rivers flow out, and is
the eastern border for the mountain chain of numerous parallel ridges
of varying heights and characteristics that stretch in rows behind it,
covering a width of a hundred miles or more. Within this chain is the
vast store of minerals that has done so much to create American
wealth--the coal and iron, the ores and metals, that are in
exhaustless supply, and upon the surface grew the forests of timber
that were used in building the seaboard cities, but are now nearly all
cut off. The great Atlantic Coast rivers rise among these mountain
ridges, break through the Kittatinny and flow down to the ocean, while
the streams on their western slopes drain into the Mississippi Valley.
The Hudson breaks through the Kittatinny outcrop at the West Point
Highlands, the Delaware forces a passage at the Water Gap, the Lehigh
at the Lehigh Gap, below Mauch Chunk; the Schuylkill at Port Clinton,
the Susquehanna at Dauphin, above Harrisburg, and the Potomac at
Harper's Ferry. All these rivers either rise among or force their
winding passages through the various ranges behind the great Blue
Ridge, and also through the South Mountain and the successive parallel
ranges of lower hills that are met on their way to the coast, so that
all in their courses display most picturesque valleys.
HARPER'S FERRY AND JOHN BROWN.
The Potomac, having flowed more than two hundred miles through
beautiful gorges and the finest scenery of these mountains, finally
breaks out at Harper's Ferry, receiving here its chief tributary, the
Shenandoah, coming up from Virginia, the Potomac River passage of the
Blue Ridge being described by Thomas Jefferson as "one of the most
stupendous scenes in nature." The Shenandoah--its name meaning "the
stream passing among the spruce-pines"--flows through the fertile and
famous "Valley of Virginia," noted for its many battles and active
movements of troops during the Civil War, when the rival forces, as
fortunes changed, chased each other up and down the Valley; and
Harper's Ferry, at the confluence of the rivers, and the towering
Maryland Heights on the northern side and the Loudon Heights on the
Virginia side, the great buttresses of the river passage, being
generally held as a northern border fortress. These huge mountain
walls rise fifteen hundred feet above the town, which has a population
of about two thousand.
Harper's Ferry was also the scene of "John Brown's raid," which was
practically the opening act of the Civil War, although actual
hostilities did not begin until more than a year afterwards. "Old John
Brown of Osawatomie" was a tanner, an unsettled and adventurous spirit
and foe of slavery, born in Connecticut in 1800, but who, at the same
time, was one of the most upright and zealous men that ever lived. In
his wanderings he migrated to Kansas in 1855, where he lived at
Osawatomie, and fought against the pro-slavery party. His house was
burnt and his son killed in the Kansas border wars, and he made bloody
reprisals. Smarting under his wrongs, he became the master-spirit of a
convention which met at Chatham, Canada, in May, 1859, and organized
an invasion of Virginia to liberate the slaves. Having formed his
plans, he rented a farmhouse in July about six miles from Harper's
Ferry, and gathered his forces together. On the night of October 16th,
with twenty-two associates, six being negroes, he crossed the bridge
into Harper's Ferry, and captured the arsenal and armory of the
Virginia militia, intending to liberate the slaves and occupy the
heights of the Blue Ridge as a base of operations against their
owners. A detachment of United States marines were next day sent to
the aid of the militia, and, after two days' desultory hostilities,
some of his party were killed, and Brown and the survivors were
captured and given up to the Virginia authorities for trial. His
final stand was made in a small engine-house, known as "John Brown's
Fort," which was exhibited at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. Brown
and six of his associates were hanged at the county-seat, Charlestown,
seven miles southwest of Harper's Ferry, on December 2d, Brown facing
death with the greatest serenity. His raid failed, but it was
potential in disclosing the bitter feeling between the North and the
South, and it furnished the theme for the most popular and inspiring
song of the Civil War:
"John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on."
THE GREAT FALLS AND ALEXANDRIA.
The Potomac continues its picturesque course below Harper's Ferry, and
passes the Point of Rocks, a promontory of the Catoctin Mountain, a
prolongation of the Blue Ridge. There were battles fought all about,
the most noted being at South Mountain and Antietam, to the northward,
in September, 1862; while it was at Frederick, fifteen miles away,
during this campaign, that Barbara Frietchie was said to have waved
the flag as Stonewall Jackson marched through the town, immortalized
in Whittier's poem. Here is buried Francis Scott Key, author of the
"Star-Spangled Banner," who died in 1843, and a handsome monument was
erected to his memory in 1898. The Potomac reaches its Great Falls
about fifteen miles above Washington, where it descends eighty feet
in about two miles, including a fine cataract thirty-five feet high.
Below this is the "Cabin John Bridge," with one of the largest stone
arches in the world, of two hundred and twenty feet span, built for
the Washington Aqueduct, carrying the city water supply from the Great
Falls. On Wesley Heights, to the northward, the new American
University of the Methodist Church is being constructed.
Below Washington, the river passes the ancient city of Alexandria, a
quaint old Virginian town, which was formerly of considerable
commercial importance, but is now quiet and restful, and cherishing
chiefly the memory of George Washington, who lived at Mount Vernon, a
few miles below, and was its almost daily visitor to transact his
business and go to church and entertainments. The tradition is that
Madison, who was chairman of the Committee of Congress, selected
Alexandria for the "Federal City," intending to erect the Capitol on
Shooters' Hill, a mile out of town, as grand an elevation as the hill
in Washington; but he was overruled by the President because the
latter hesitated to thus favor his native State. Had Madison had his
way, the town probably would not now be so sleepy. The modest little
steeple of Christ Church, where Washington was a vestryman, rises back
of the town, and his pew, No. 5, is still shown, for which, when the
church was built and consecrated in 1773, the records show that he
paid thirty-six pounds, ten shillings. To construct this church and
another at the Falls, the vestry of Fairfax parish, in 1766, levied an
assessment of 31,185 pounds of tobacco, and the rector's salary was
also paid in tobacco. After the Revolution, to help support the
church, Washington and seven others signed an agreement in the
vestry-book to each pay five pounds annual rental for the pews they
owned. Robert E. Lee was baptized and confirmed and attended
Sunday-school in this old church, and tablets in memory of Washington
and Lee were inserted in the church wall in 1870. At the Carey House,
near the river, Washington, in 1755, received from General Braddock,
who had come up there from Hampton Roads, his first commission as an
aide to that commander, with the rank of Major, just before starting
on the ill-starred expedition into Western Pennsylvania. Alexandria
has probably fifteen thousand people, and on the outskirts is another
mournful relic of the Civil War, a Soldiers' Cemetery, with four
thousand graves. Below Alexandria, the Hunting Creek flows into the
Potomac, this stream having given Washington's home its original name
of the "Hunting Creek Estate."
WASHINGTON'S HOME AND TOMB.
Mount Vernon, the home and burial-place of George Washington, is
seventeen miles below the city of Washington, the mansion-house, being
in full view, standing among the trees on the top of a bluff, rising
about two hundred feet above the river. As the steamboat approaches,
its bell is tolled, this being the universal custom on nearing or
passing Washington's tomb. It originated in the reverence of a British
officer, Commodore Gordon, who, during the invasion of the Capital in
August, 1814, sailed past Mount Vernon, and as a mark of respect for
the dead had the bell of his ship, the "Sea Horse," tolled. The
"Hunting Creek Estate" was originally a domain of about eight thousand
acres; and Augustine Washington, dying in 1743, bequeathed it to
Lawrence Washington, who, having served in the Spanish wars under
Admiral Vernon, named it Mount Vernon in his honor. George Washington
was born in 1732, in Westmoreland County, farther down the Potomac,
and when a boy lived near Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock River.
In 1752 he inherited Mount Vernon from Lawrence, and after his death
the estate passed to his nephew, Bushrod Washington, subsequently
descending to other members of the family. Congress repeatedly
endeavored to have Washington's remains removed to the crypt under the
rotunda of the Capitol originally constructed for their reception, but
the family always refused, knowing it was his desire to rest at Mount
Vernon. The grounds and buildings being in danger of falling into
dilapidation, and the estate passing under control of strangers, a
patriotic movement began throughout the country for the purchase of
the portion containing the tomb and mansion. The Virginia
Legislature, in 1856, passed an act authorizing the sale, and under
the auspices of a number of energetic ladies who formed the "Mount
Vernon Association," assisted by the oratory of Edward Everett, who
traversed the country making a special plea for help, a tract of two
hundred acres was bought for $200,000, being enlarged by subsequent
gifts to two hundred and thirty-five acres. These ladies and their
successors have since taken charge, restoring and beautifying the
estate, which is faithfully preserved as a patriotic heritage and
place of pilgrimage for visitors from all parts of the world.
The steamboat lands at Washington's wharf at the foot of the bluff,
where he formerly loaded his barges with flour ground at his own mill,
shipping most of it from Alexandria to the West Indies. The road from
the wharf leads up a ravine cut diagonally in the face of the bluff,
directly to Washington's tomb, and alongside the ravine are several
weeping willows that were brought from Napoleon's grave at St. Helena.
Washington's will directed that his tomb "shall be built of brick,"
and it is a plain square brick structure, with a wide arched gateway
in front and double iron gates. Above is the inscription on a marble
slab, "Within this enclosure rests the remains of General George
Washington." The vault is about twelve feet square, the interior being
plainly seen through the gates. It has upon the floor two large stone
coffins, that on the right hand containing Washington, and that on
the left his widow Martha, who survived him over a year. In a closed
vault at the rear are the remains of numerous relatives, and in front
of the tomb monuments are erected to several of them. No monument
marks the hero, but carved upon the coffin is the American
coat-of-arms, with the single word "Washington."
The road, farther ascending the bluff, passes the original tomb, with
the old tombstone antedating Washington and bearing the words
"Washington Family." This was the tomb, then containing the remains,
which Lafayette visited in 1824, escorted by a military guard from
Alexandria to Mount Vernon, paying homage to the dead amid salvos of
cannon reverberating across the broad Potomac. It is a round-topped
and slightly elevated oven-shaped vault. The road at the top of the
bluff reaches the mansion, standing in a commanding position, with a
fine view over the river to the Maryland shore. It is a long wooden
house, with an ample porch facing the river. It is built with
simplicity, two stories high, and contains eighteen rooms, there being
a small surmounting cupola for a lookout. The central portion is the
original house built by Lawrence Washington, who called it his
"villa," and afterwards George Washington extended it by a large
square wing at each end, and when these were added he gave it the more
dignified title of the "Mansion." The house is ninety-six feet long
and thirty feet wide, the porch, extending along the whole front,
fifteen feet wide, its top being even with the roof, thus covering the
windows of both stories. Eight large square wooden columns support the
roof of the porch. Behind the house, on either side, curved colonnades
lead to the kitchens, with other outbuildings beyond. There are
various farm buildings, and a brick barn and stable, the bricks of
which it is built having been brought out from England about the time
Washington was born, being readily carried in those days as ballast in
the vessels coming out for Virginia tobacco. The front of the mansion
faces east, and it has within a central hall with apartments on either
hand. At the back, beyond the outbuildings and the barn, stretches the
carriage road, which in Washington's time was the main entrance, off
to the porter's lodge, on the high road, at the boundary of the
present estate, about three-quarters of a mile away. Everything is
quiet, and in the thorough repose befitting such a great man's tomb;
and this is the modest mansion on the banks of the Potomac that was
the home of one of the noblest Americans.
THE WASHINGTON RELICS.
As may be supposed, this interesting building is filled with relics.
The most valuable of all of them hangs on the wall of the central
hall, in a small glass case shaped like a lantern--the Key of the
Bastille--which was sent to Washington, as a gift from Lafayette,
shortly after the destruction of the noted prison in 1789. This is the
key of the main entrance, the Porte St. Antoine, an old iron key with
a large handle of peculiar form. This gift was always highly prized at
Mount Vernon, and in sending it Lafayette wrote: "It is a tribute
which I owe as a son to my adopted father; as an aide-de-camp to my
general; as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch." The key was
confided to Thomas Paine for transmission, and he sent it together
with a model and drawing of the Bastille. In sending it to Washington
Paine said: "That the principles of America opened the Bastille is not
to be doubted, and therefore the key comes to the right place." The
model, which was cut from the granite stones of the demolished prison,
and the drawing, giving a plan of the interior and its approaches, are
also carefully preserved in the house.
The Washington relics are profuse--portraits, busts, old furniture,
swords, pistols and other weapons, camp equipage, uniforms, clothing,
books, autographs and musical instruments, including the old
harpsichord which President Washington bought for two hundred pounds
in London, as a bridal present for his wife's daughter, Eleanor Parke
Custis, whom he adopted. There is also an old armchair which the
Pilgrims brought over in the "Mayflower" in 1620. Each apartment in
the house is named for a State, and cared for by one of the
Lady-Regents of the Association. In the banquet-hall, which is one of
the wings Washington added, is an elaborately-carved Carrara marble
mantel, which was sent him at the time of building by an English
admirer, Samuel Vaughan. It was shipped from Italy, and the tale is
told that on the voyage it fell into the hands of pirates, who,
hearing it was to go to the great American Washington, sent it along
without ransom and uninjured. Rembrandt Peale's equestrian portrait of
Washington with his generals covers almost the entire end of this
hall. Here also is hung the original proof-sheet of Washington's
Farewell Address. Up stairs is the room where Washington died; the bed
on which he expired and every article of furniture are preserved,
including his secretary and writing-case, toilet-boxes and
dressing-stand. Just above this chamber, under the peaked roof, is the
room in which Mrs. Washington died. Not wishing to occupy the lower
room, after his death, she selected this one, because its dormer
window gave a view of his tomb. The ladies who have taken charge of
the place deserve great credit for their complete restoration; they
hold the annual meeting of the Association in the mansion every May.
As the visitor walks through the old house and about the grounds,
solemn and impressive thoughts arise that are appropriate to this
great American shrine. From the little wooden cupola there is seen the
same view over the broad Potomac upon which Washington so often
gazed. The noble river, two miles wide, seems almost to surround the
estate with its majestic curve, flowing between the densely-wooded
shores. Above Mount Vernon is a projecting bluff, which Fort
Washington surmounts on the opposite shore--a stone work which he
planned--hardly seeming four miles off, it is so closely visible
across the water. In front are the Maryland hills, and the river then
flows to the southward, its broad and winding reaches being seen afar
off, as the southern shores slope upward into the forest-covered hills
of the sacred soil of the proud State of Virginia. And then the
constantly broadening estuary of the grand Potomac stretches for more
than a hundred miles, far beyond the distant horizon, until it becomes
a wide inland sea and unites its waters at Point Lookout with those of
Chesapeake Bay.
MARY, THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON.
To the southward of the Potomac a short distance, and flowing almost
parallel, is another noted river of Virginia, the Rappahannock, rising
in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, and broadening into a wide estuary
in its lower course. Its chief tributary is the stream which the
colonists named after the "good Queen Anne," the Rapid Ann, since
condensed into the Rapidan. The Indians recognized the tidal estuary
of the Rappahannock, for the name means "the current has returned and
flowed again," referring to the tidal ebb and flow. Upon this stream,
southward from Washington, is the quaint old city of Fredericksburg,
which has about five thousand inhabitants, and five times as many
graves in the great National Cemetery on Marye's Heights and in the
Confederate Cemetery, mournful relics of the sanguinary battles fought
there in 1862-63. The town dates from 1727, when it was founded at the
head of tidewater on the Rappahannock, where a considerable fall
furnishes good water-power, about one hundred and ten miles from the
Chesapeake. But its chief early memory is of Mary Ball, the mother of
Washington, here having been his boyhood home. A monument has been
erected to her, which it took the country more than a century to
complete. She was born in 1706 on the lower Rappahannock, at Epping
Forest, and Sparks and Irving speak of her as "the belle of the
Northern Neck" and "the rose of Epping Forest." In early life she
visited England, and the story is told that one day while at her
brother's house in Berkshire a gentleman's coach was overturned nearby
and its occupant seriously injured. He was brought into the house and
carefully nursed by Mary Ball until he fully recovered. This gentleman
was Colonel Augustine Washington, of Virginia, a widower with three
sons, and it is recorded in the family Bible that "Augustine
Washington and Mary Ball were married the 6th of March, 1730-31." He
brought her to his home in Westmoreland County, where George was born
the next year. His house there was accidentally burnt and they removed
to Fredericksburg, where Augustine died in 1740; but she lived to a
ripe old age, dying there in 1789. When her death was announced a
national movement began to erect a monument, but it was permitted to
lapse until the Washington Centenary in 1832, when it was revived, and
in May, 1833, President Jackson laid the corner-stone with impressive
ceremonies in the presence of a large assemblage of distinguished
people. The monument was started and partially completed, only again
to lapse into desuetude. In 1890 the project was revived, funds were
collected by an association of ladies, and in May, 1894, a handsome
white marble obelisk, fifty feet high, was created and dedicated. It
bears the simple inscription, "Mary, the Mother of Washington."
WILLIAMSBURG AND YORKTOWN.
Again we cross over southward from the Rappahannock to another broad
tidal estuary, an arm of Chesapeake Bay, the York River. This is
formed by two comparatively small rivers, the Mattapony and the
Pamunkey, the latter being the Indian name of York River. It is quite
evident that the Indians who originally frequented and named these
streams did not have as comfortable lives in that region as they could
have wished, for the Mattapony means "no bread at all to be had," and
the Pamunkey means "where we were all sweating." To the southward of
York River, and between it and James River, is the famous "Peninsula,"
the locality of the first settlements in Virginia, the theatre of the
closing scene of the War of the Revolution, and the route taken by
General McClellan in his Peninsular campaign of 1862 against Richmond.
Williamsburg, which stands on an elevated plateau about midway of the
Peninsula, three or four miles from each river, was the ancient
capital of Virginia, and it has as relics the old church and magazine
of the seventeenth century, and the venerable College of William and
Mary, chartered in 1693, though its present buildings are mainly
modern. This city was named for King William III., and was fixed as
the capital in 1699, the government removing from Jamestown the next
year. In 1780 the capital was again removed to Richmond. This old
city, which was besieged and captured by McClellan in his march up the
Peninsula in May, 1862, now has about eighteen hundred inhabitants.
Down on the bank of York River, not far from Chesapeake Bay, with a
few remains of the British entrenchments still visible, is Yorktown,
the scene of Cornwallis's surrender, the last conflict of the American
Revolution. Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander-in-chief in 1781,
ordered Lord Cornwallis to occupy a strong defensible position in
Virginia, and he established himself at Yorktown on August 1st, with
his army of eight thousand men, supported by several warships in York
River, and strongly fortified not only Yorktown, but also Gloucester
Point, across the river. In September the American and French forces
effected a junction at Williamsburg, marching to the investment of
Yorktown on the 28th. Washington commanded the besieging forces,
numbering about sixteen thousand men, of whom seven thousand were
Frenchmen. Upon their approach the British abandoned the outworks, and
the investment of the town was completed on the 30th. The first
parallel of the siege was established October 9th, and heavy batteries
opened with great effect, dismounting numerous British guns, and
destroying on the night of the 10th a frigate and three large
transports. The second parallel was opened on the 11th, and on the
14th, by a brilliant movement, two British redoubts were captured. The
French fleet, under Count De Grasse, in Chesapeake Bay, prevented
escape by sea, and Cornwallis's position became very critical. On the
16th he made a sortie, which failed, and on the 17th he proposed
capitulation. The terms being arranged, he surrendered October 19th,
this deciding the struggle for American independence. When the British
troops marched out of the place, and passed between the French and
American armies, it is recorded that their bands dolefully played "The
World Turned Upside Down." Considering the momentous results
following the capitulation, this may be regarded as prophetic.
Yorktown was again besieged in 1862 by McClellan, and after several
weeks was taken in May, the army then starting on its march up the
Peninsula.
[Illustration: _The Natural Bridge, Virginia_]
THE NATURAL BRIDGE.
The chief river of Virginia is the James, a noble stream, rising in
the Alleghenies and flowing for four hundred and fifty miles from the
western border of the Old Dominion until it falls into Chesapeake Bay
at Hampton Roads. Its sources are in a region noted for mineral
springs, and the union of Jackson and Cowpasture Rivers makes the
James, which flows to the base of the Blue Ridge, and there receives a
smaller tributary, not inappropriately named the Calfpasture River.
The James breaks through the Blue Ridge by a magnificent gorge at
Balcony Falls. Seven miles away, spanning the little stream known as
Cedar Brook, is the famous Natural Bridge, the wonderful arch of blue
limestone two hundred and fifteen feet high, ninety feet wide, and
having a span of a hundred feet thrown across the chasm, which has
given to the county the name of Rockbridge. Overlooking the river and
the bridge and all the country roundabout are the two noble Peaks of
Otter, rising about four thousand feet, the highest mountains in that
part of the Alleghenies. This wonderful bridge is situated at the
extremity of a deep chasm, through which the brook flows, across the
top of which extends the rocky stratum in the form of a
graceful arch. It looks as if the limestone rock had originally
covered the entire stream bed, which then flowed through a
subterranean tunnel, the rest of the limestone roof having fallen in
and been gradually washed away. The bridge is finely situated in a
grand amphitheatre surrounded by mountains. The crown of the arch is
forty feet thick, the rocky walls are perpendicular, and over the top
passes a public road, which, being on the same level as the
immediately adjacent country, one may cross it in a coach without
noticing the bridged chasm beneath. Various large forest trees grow
beneath and under the arch, but are not tall enough to reach it. On
the rocky abutments of the bridge are carved the names of many persons
who had climbed as high as they dared on the steep face of the
precipice. Highest of all, for about seventy years, was the name of
Washington, who, in his youth, ascended about twenty-five feet to a
point never before reached; but this feat was surpassed in 1818 by
James Piper, a college student, who actually climbed from the foot to
the top of the rock. In 1774 Thomas Jefferson obtained a grant of land
from George III. which included the Natural Bridge, and he was long
the owner, building the first house there, a log cabin with two rooms,
one being for the reception of strangers. Jefferson called the bridge
"a famous place that will draw the attention of the world;" Chief
Justice Marshall described it as "God's greatest miracle in stone;"
and Henry Clay said it was "The bridge not made with hands, that spans
a river, carries a highway, and makes two mountains one."
THE JAMES RIVER AND POWHATAN.
Following down James River, constantly receiving accessions from
mountain streams, we soon come to Lynchburg, most picturesquely built
on the sloping foothills of the Blue Ridge, and having fine
water-power for its factories, a centre of the great tobacco industry
of Virginia, supporting a population of about twenty thousand people.
Lynchburg was a chief source of supply for Lee's army in Eastern
Virginia until, in February, 1865, Sheridan, by a bold raid, destroyed
the canal and railroads giving it communication; and, after evacuating
Richmond, Lee was endeavoring to reach Lynchburg when he surrendered
at Appomattox, about twenty miles to the eastward, on April 9, 1865,
thus ending the Civil War. The little village of Appomattox Court
House is known in the neighborhood as Clover Hill. When Lee
surrendered, casualties, captures and desertions had left him barely
twenty-seven thousand men, with only ten thousand muskets, thirty
cannon and three hundred and fifty wagons.
The James River, east of the Blue Ridge, drains a grand agricultural
district, and its coffee-colored waters tell of the rich red soils
through which it comes in the tobacco plantations all the way past
Lynchburg to Richmond. In its earlier history this noted river was
called the Powhatan, and it bears that name on the older maps.
Powhatan, the original word, meant, in the Indian dialect, the "falls
of the stream" or "the falling waters," thus named from the falls and
rapids at Richmond, where the James, in the distance of nine miles,
has a descent of one hundred and sixteen feet, furnishing the
magnificent water-power which is the source of much of the wealth of
Virginia's present capital. The old Indian sachem whose fame is so
intertwined with that of Virginia took his name of Powhatan from the
river. His original name was Wahunsonacock when the colonists first
found him, and he then lived on York River; but it is related that he
grew in power, raised himself to the command of no less than thirty
tribes, and ruled all the country from southward of the James to the
eastward of the Potomac as far as Chesapeake Bay. When he became
great, for he was unquestionably the greatest Virginian of the
seventeenth century, he changed his name and removed to the James
River, just below the edge of Richmond, where, near the river bank, is
now pointed out his home, still called Powhatan. It was here that the
Princess Pocahontas is said to have interfered to save the life of
Captain John Smith. Here still stands a precious relic in the shape of
an old chimney, believed to have been originally built for the Indian
king's cabin by his colonist friends. It is of solid masonry, and is
said to have outlasted several successive cabins which had been built
up against it in Southern style. A number of cedars growing alongside,
tradition describes as shadowing the very stone on which Smith's head
was laid. It may not be generally known that early in the history of
the colony Powhatan was crowned as a king, there having been brought
out from England, for the special purpose, a crown and "a scarlet
cloke and apparrell." The writer recording the ceremony says quaintly:
"Foule trouble there was to make him kneele to receive his crowne. At
last, by leaning hard on his shoulders, he a little stooped, and three
having the crowne in their hands, put it on his head. To congratulate
their kindnesse, he gave his old shoes and his mantell to Captaine
Newport, telling him take them as presents to King James in return for
his gifts."
THE INDIAN PRINCESS POCAHONTAS.
The James River carries a heavy commerce below Richmond, and the
channel depths of the wayward and very crooked stream are maintained
by an elaborate system of jetties, constructed by the Government. Both
shores show the earthworks that are relics of the war, and Drewry's
Bluff, with Fort Darling, the citadel of the Confederate defence of
the river, is projected across the stream. Below is Dutch Gap, where
the winding river, flowing in a level plain, makes a double reverse
curve, going around a considerable surface without making much actual
progress. Here is the Dutch Gap Canal, which General Butler cut
through the narrowest part of the long neck of land, thus avoiding
Confederate batteries and saving a detour of five and a half miles; it
is now used for navigation. Just below is the large plantation of
Varina, where the Indian Princess Pocahontas lived after her marriage
with the Englishman, John Rolfe. Its fine brick colonial mansion was
the headquarters for the exchange of prisoners during the Civil War.
The brief career of Pocahontas is the great romance of the first
settlement of Virginia. She was the daughter and favorite child of
Powhatan, her name being taken from a running brook, and meaning the
"bright streamlet between the hills." When the Indians captured
Captain John Smith she was about twelve years of age. He made friends
of the Indian children, and whittled playthings for them, so that
Pocahontas became greatly interested in him, and the tale of her
saving his life is so closely interwoven with the early history of the
colony that those who declare it apocryphal have not yet been able to
obliterate it from our school-books. Smith being afterwards liberated,
Pocahontas always had a longing for him, was the medium of getting the
colonists food, warned them of plots, and took an interest in them
even after Smith returned to England. The tale was then told her that
Smith was dead. In 1614 Pocahontas, about nineteen years old, was
kidnapped and taken to Jamestown, in order to carry out a plan of the
Governor by which Powhatan, to save his daughter, would make
friendship with the colony, and it resulted as intended. Pocahontas
remained several weeks in the colony, made the acquaintance of the
younger people, and fell in love with Master John Rolfe. Pocahontas
returned to her father, who consented to the marriage; she was
baptized at Jamestown as Lady Rebecca, and her uncle and two brothers
afterwards attended the wedding, the uncle giving the Indian bride
away in the little church at Jamestown, April 5, 1614. A peace of
several years' duration was the consequence of this union. Two years
afterwards Pocahontas and her husband proceeded to England, where she
was an object of the greatest interest to all classes of people, and
was presented at Court, the Queen warmly receiving her. Captain Smith
visited her in London, and after saluting him she turned away her face
and hid it in her hands, thus continuing for over two hours. This was
due to her surprise at seeing Smith, for there is no doubt her husband
was a party to the deception, he probably thinking she would never
marry him while Smith was living. The winter climate of England was
too severe for her, and when about embarking to return to Virginia
she suddenly died at Gravesend, in March, 1617, aged about twenty-two.
She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who was educated in London, and in
after life went to Virginia, where he became a man of note and
influence. From him are descended the famous children of
Pocahontas--the "First Families of Virginia"--the Randolph, Bolling,
Fleming and other families.
SHIRLEY, BERKELEY AND WESTOVER.
The winding James flows by Deep Bottom and Turkey Bend, and one
elongated neck of land after another, passing the noted battlefield of
Malvern Hill, which ended General McClellan's disastrous "Seven Days"
of battles and retreat from the Chickahominy swamps in 1862. The great
ridge of Malvern Hill stretches away from the river towards the
northwest, and in that final battle which checked the Confederate
pursuit it was a vast amphitheatre terraced with tier upon tier of
artillery, the gunboats in the river joining in the Union defense.
Below, on the other shore, are the spacious lowlands of Bermuda
Hundred, where, in General Grant's significant phrase, General Butler
was "bottled up." Here, on the eastern bank, is the plantation of
Shirley, one of the famous Virginian settlements, still held by the
descendants of its colonial owners--the Carters. The wide and
attractive old brick colonial house, with its hipped and pointed
roof, stands behind a fringe of trees along the shore, with numerous
outbuildings constructed around a quadrangle behind. It is built of
bricks brought out from England, is two stories high, with a capacious
front porch, and around the roof are rows of dormer windows, above
which the roof runs from all sides up into a point between the tall
and ample chimneys. The southern view from Shirley is across the James
to the mouth of Appomattox River and City Point.
The Appomattox originates in the Blue Ridge near Lynchburg, and flows
one hundred and twenty miles eastward to the James, of which it is the
chief tributary. It passes Petersburg twelve miles southwest of its
point of union with the James, this union being at a high bluff thrust
out between the rivers, with abrupt slopes and a plateau on the top,
which is well shaded. Here is the house--the home of Dr. Epps--used by
General Grant as his headquarters during the operations from the south
side of the James against Petersburg and Lee's army in 1864-65. Grant
occupied two little log cabins on top of the bluff, just east of the
house; one his dwelling and the other his office. One is still there
in dilapidation, and the other is preserved as a relic in Fairmount
Park, Philadelphia. A short distance away is the little town of City
Point, with its ruined wharves, where an enormous business was then
done in landing army supplies. To the eastward the James flows, a
steadily broadening stream, past the sloping shores on the northern
bank, where, at Harrison's Landing, McClellan rested his troops after
the "Seven Days," having retreated there from the battle at Malvern
Hill. His camps occupied the plantations of Berkeley and Westover, the
former having been the birthplace of General William Henry Harrison,
who was President of the United States for a few weeks in 1841, the
first President who died in office. The Berkeley House is a spacious
and comfortable mansion, but it lost its grand shade-trees during the
war. A short distance farther down is the quaint old Queen Anne
mansion of red brick, with one wing only, the other having been burnt
during the war; with pointed roof and tall chimneys, standing at the
top of a beautifully sloping bank--Westover House, the most famous of
the old mansions on the James. It was the home of the Byrds--grandfather,
father and son--noted in Virginian colonial history, whose arms are
emblazoned on the iron gates, and who sleep in the little graveyard
alongside. The most renowned of these was the second, the "Honourable
William Byrd of Westover, Esquire," who was the founder of both
Richmond and Petersburg.
William Byrd was a man of imposing personal appearance and the highest
character, and his full-length portrait in flowing periwig and lace
ruffles, after Van Dyck, is preserved at Lower Brandon, farther down
the river. He inherited a large landed estate--over fifty thousand
acres--and ample fortune, and was educated in England, where he was
called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and made a Fellow of the Royal
Society. The inscription on his Westover tomb tells that he was a
friend of the learned Earl of Orrery. He held high offices in
Virginia, and possessed the largest private library then in America.
In connection with one Peter Jones, in 1733, he laid out both Richmond
and Petersburg on lands he owned, at the head of navigation
respectively on the James and the Appomattox. He left profuse
journals, published since as the _Westover Manuscripts_, and they
announce that Petersburg was gratefully named in honor of his
companion-founder, Peter Jones, and that Richmond's name came from
Byrd's vivid recollection of the outlook from Richmond Hill over the
Thames in England, which he found strikingly reproduced in the soft
hills and far-stretching meadows adjoining the rapids of the James,
with the curving sweep of the river as it flowed away from view behind
the glimmering woods. He died in 1744. Westover House was McClellan's
headquarters in 1862. The estates have gone from Byrd's descendants,
but the house has been completely restored, and is one of the
loveliest spots on the James. Major Augustus Drewry, its recent owner,
died in July, 1899, at an advanced age. Coggins Point projects
opposite Westover, and noted plantations and mansions line the river
banks, bearing, with the counties, well-known English names. Here is
the ruined stone Fort Powhatan, a relic of the War of 1812, with the
Unionist earthworks of 1864-65 on the bluff above it. Then we get
among the lowland swamps, where the cypress trees elevate their
conical knees and roots above the water. The James has become a wide
estuary, and the broad Chickahominy flows in between low shores,
draining the swamps east of Richmond and the James. This was the "lick
at which turkeys were plenty," the Indians thus recognizing in the
name of the river the favorite resort of the wild turkey.
THE COLONY OF JAMESTOWN.
We have now come to the region of earliest English settlement in
America, where Newport and Smith, in 1607, planted their colony of
Jamestown upon a low yellow bluff on the northern river bank. It is
thirty-two miles from the mouth of the James River, and the bluff, by
the action of the water, has been made an island. The location was
probably selected because this furnished protection from attacks. The
later encroachments of the river have swept away part of the site of
the early settlement, and a portion of the old church tower and some
tombstones are now the only relics of the ancient town. The ruins of
the tower can be seen on top of the bluff, almost overgrown with moss
and vines. Behind is the wall of the graveyard where the first
settlers were buried. A couple of little cabins are the only present
signs of settlement, the mansion of the Jamestown plantation being
some distance down the river.
When the English colony first came to Jamestown in 1607, they were
hunting for gold and for the "northwest passage" to the East Indies.
In fact, most of the American colonizing began with these objects.
They had an idea in Europe that America was profuse in gold and gems.
In 1605 a play of "Eastward, Ho" was performed in London, in which one
of the characters said: "I tell thee golde is more plentifull in
Virginia than copper is with us, and for as much redde copper as I can
bring, I will have thrice the weight in golde. All their pannes and
pottes are pure gould, and all the chaines with which they chaine up
their streetes are massie gould; all the prisoners they take are
fettered in golde; and for rubies and diamonds they goe forth in
holidays and gather them by the seashore to hang on their children's
coates and sticke in their children's caps as commonally as our
children wear saffron, gilt brooches, and groates with hoales in
them." The whole party, on landing at Jamestown, started to hunt for
gold. Smith wrote that among the English colonists there was "no talk,
no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, loade gold."
They found some shining pyrites that deceived them, and therefore the
first ship returning to England carried away a cargo of shining dirt,
found entirely worthless on arrival. The second ship, after a long
debate, they more wisely sent back with a cargo of cedar. They hunted
for the "northwest passage," first going up the James to the falls at
the site of Richmond, but returning disappointed. It was this same
hunt for a route to the Pacific which afterwards took Smith up the
Chickahominy, where he got among the swamps and was captured by the
Indians.
The Jamestown colonists met with great discouragements. Most of them
were unfitted for pioneers, and the neighboring swamps gave them
malaria in the hot summer, so that nearly half perished. Smith, by his
courage and enterprise, however, kept the colony alive and took
charge, being their leader until captured by the Indians, and also
afterwards, until his return to England. Among the first constructions
at Jamestown were a storehouse and a church. These, however, were soon
burnt, and a second church and storehouse were erected in September,
1608. This church was like a barn in appearance, the base being
supported by crotched stakes, and the walls and roof were made of
rafts, sedge and earth, which soon decayed. When Smith left Jamestown
for England in 1609 the place contained about sixty houses, and was
surrounded by a stockade. Smith early saw the necessity of raising
food, and determined to begin the growing of maize, or Indian corn.
Consequently, early in 1608 he prevailed upon two Indians he had
captured to teach the method of planting the corn. Under their
direction a tract of about forty acres was planted in squares, with
intervals of four feet between the holes which received the Indian
corn for seed. This crop grew and was partly harvested, a good deal of
it, however, being eaten green. Thus the Indian invented the method of
corn-planting universally observed in the United States, and this crop
of forty acres of 1608 was the first crop of the great American cereal
grown by white men. Wheat brought out from England was first planted
at Jamestown in 1618 on a field of about thirty acres, this being the
first wheat crop grown in the United States.
Captain John Smith, before he left Jamestown, estimated that there
were about fifty-five hundred Indians within a radius of sixty miles
around the colony, and in his works he enumerates the various tribes.
Describing their mode of life, he wrote that they grew fat or lean
according to the season. When food was abundant, he said, they stuffed
themselves night and day; and, unless unforeseen emergencies compelled
them to arouse, they dropped asleep as soon as their stomachs were
filled. So ravenous were their appetites that a colonist employing an
Indian was compelled to allow him a quantity of food double that given
an English laborer. In a period of want or hardship, when no food was
to be had, the warrior simply drew his belt more tightly about his
waist to try and appease the pangs of hunger. The Indians, when the
colonists arrived, were found to divide the year into five seasons,
according to its varying character. These were, first, Cattapeuk, the
season of blossoms; second, Cohattayough, the season when the sun rode
highest in the heavens; third, Nepenough, the season when the ears of
maize were large enough to be roasted; fourth, Taquetock, the season
of the falling leaves, when the maize was gathered; and fifth, Cohonk,
the season when long lines of wild geese appeared, flying from the
north, uttering the cry suggesting the name, thus heralding the
winter.
The colony was very unfortunate, and in 1617 was reduced to only five
or six buildings. The church had then decayed and fallen to the
ground, and a third church, fifty by twenty feet, was afterwards
built. Additional settlers were sent out from England in the next two
years, and the Virginians were granted a government of their own, the
new Governor, Sir George Yeardley, arriving in the spring of 1619. The
Company in London also sent them a communication "that those cruell
laws, by which the ancient planters had soe long been governed, were
now abrogated in favor of those free laws which his majesties subjects
lived under in Englande." It continued by stating "That the planters
might have a hande in the governing of themselves yt was granted that
a generall assemblie should be held yearly once, whereat to be present
the governor and counsell with two burgesses from each plantation,
freely to be elected by the inhabitants thereof, this assemblie to
have power to make and ordaine whatsoever laws and orders should by
them be thought good and profitable for their subsistence." The
Governor consequently summoned the first "House of Burgesses" in
Virginia, which met at Jamestown, July 30, 1619, the first legislative
body in America. Twenty-two members took their seats in the new church
at Jamestown. They are described as wearing bright-colored silk and
velvet coats, with starched ruffs, and as having kept their hats on as
in the English House of Commons. The Governor sat in the choir, and
with him were several leading men who had been appointed by the
Company on the Governor's Council. They passed various laws, chiefly
about tobacco and taxes, and sent them to England, where the Company
confirmed them, and afterwards, in 1621, granted the "Great Charter,"
which was the first Constitution of Virginia.
The colonists got into trouble with the Indians in 1622, and having
killed an Indian who murdered a white man, Jamestown was attacked and
the inhabitants massacred, three hundred and forty-five being killed.
Governor Butler, who visited the place not long after the massacre,
wrote that the houses were the "worst in the world," and that the
most wretched cottages in England were equal, if not superior, in
appearance and comfort to the finest dwellings in the colony. The
first houses were mostly of bark, imitating those of the Indian; and,
there being neither sawmills to prepare planks nor nails to fasten
them, the later constructions were usually of logs plastered with mud,
with thatched roofs. The more pretentious of these were built
double--"two pens and a passage," as they have been described. As late
as 1675 Jamestown had only a few families, with not more than
seventy-five population. Labor was always in demand there, and at
first the laborers were brought out from England. There was no money,
and having early learnt to raise tobacco from the Indians, this became
the chief crop, and, being sure of sale in England, became the
standard of value. Tobacco was the great export, twenty thousand
pounds being exported in 1619, forty thousand in 1620 and sixty
thousand in 1622. Everything was valued in tobacco, and this continued
the practical currency for the first century. They imported a lot of
copper, however, with which to make small coins for circulation. As
the tobacco fluctuated in price in England, it made a very unstable
standard of value. Gradually, afterwards, large amounts of gold and
silver coin came into Virginia in payment for produce, thus
supplanting the tobacco as a standard.
THE VIRGINIAN PLANTERS.
Land was cheap in Virginia in the early days. In 1662 the King of
Mattapony sold his village and five thousand acres to the colonists
for fifty match-coats. During the seventeenth century the value of
land reckoned in tobacco, as sold in England, averaged for cleared
ground about four shillings per acre, the shilling then having a
purchasing power equal to a dollar now. It was at this time that most
of the great Virginian estates along James River were formed, the
colonists securing in some cases large grants. Thus, John Carter of
Lancaster took up 18,570 acres, John Page 5000 acres, Richard Lee
12,000 acres, William Byrd 15,000 acres, afterwards largely increased;
Robert Beverley 37,000 acres and William Fitzhugh over 50,000 acres.
These were the founders of some of the most famous Virginian families.
The demand for labor naturally brought Virginia within the market of
the slave trader, but very few negroes were there in the earlier
period. The first negroes who arrived in Virginia were disembarked at
Jamestown from a Dutch privateer in 1619--twenty Africans. In 1622
there were twenty-two there, two more having landed; but it is noted
that no negro was killed in the Jamestown massacre. In 1649 there were
only three hundred negroes in Virginia, and in 1671 there were about
two thousand. In the latter part of the seventeenth century the
arrivals of negro slaves became more frequent--labor being in demand.
The records show that the planters had great difficulty in supplying
them with names, everything being ransacked for the purpose--mythology,
history and geography--and hence the peculiar names they have
conferred in some cases on their descendants. In 1640 a robust African
man when sold commanded 2700 pounds of tobacco, and a female 2500
pounds, averaging, at the then price of tobacco, about seventeen
pounds sterling for the men. Prices afterwards advanced to forty
pounds sterling for the men. In 1699 all newly arrived slaves were
taxed twenty shillings per head, paid by the master of the vessel.
As the colony developed, the typical dwelling became a framed log
building of moderate size, with a big chimney at each end, there being
no cellar and the house resting on the ground. The upper and lower
floors were each divided into two rooms. Such a house, built in 1679,
measuring forty by twenty feet, cost twelve hundred pounds of tobacco.
Finally, when more prosperity came in the eighteenth century, the
houses were developed and enlarged into more pretentious edifices,
built of bricks brought out from England. These were the great
colonial houses of the wealthy planters, so many of which exist until
the present day. The most prosperous time in colonial Virginia was the
period from 1710 until 1770. The exports of tobacco to England and
flour and other produce to the West Indies made the fortunes of the
planters, so that their vast estates and large retinues of slaves made
them the lordly barons whose fame spread throughout Europe, while
their wealth enabled them to gather all the luxuries of furniture and
ornament for their houses then attainable. It was in these noble
colonial mansions, surrounded by regiments of negro servants, that the
courtly Virginians of the olden time dispensed a princely hospitality,
limited only by their ability to secure whatever the world produced.
The stranger was always welcome at the bountiful board, and the slave
children grew up amid plenty, hardly knowing what work was. This went
on with more or less variation until the Civil War made its tremendous
upheaval, which scattered both whites and blacks. But the typical
Virginian is unchanged, continuing as open-hearted and hospitable,
though his means now are much less. To all he has, the guest is
welcome; but it is usually with a tinge of regret that he recalls the
good old time when he might have done more.
HAMPTON ROADS AND FORTRESS MONROE.
The constantly broadening estuary of the James assumes almost the
proportions of an inland sea, and in the bays encircled by the low
shores are planted the seed oysters, which are gathered by fleets of
small vessels for transplanting into salt-water beds. In front, near
the mouth of the river, is thrust out the long point of Newport News,
with its grain elevators and shipyards, dry-docks and iron-works, the
great port of the James River, which is the busy terminal of railways
coming from the West. Here is a town of thirty thousand people. It was
almost opposite, that in the spring of 1862 the Confederate ram
"Merrimac" (then called the "Virginia"), armored with railroad rails,
came suddenly out from Norfolk, and sank or disabled the American
wooden naval vessels in Hampton Roads; the next day, however, being
unexpectedly encountered by the novel little turret iron-clad
"Monitor," which had most opportunely arrived from the upper Hudson
River, where Ericsson had built her. The "Merrimac" was herself soon
disabled and compelled to retire. This timely and dramatic appearance
of "the little Yankee cheese-box on a raft" made a sudden and
unforeseen revolution in all the naval methods and architecture of the
world. Around the point of Newport News the James River debouches into
one of the finest harbors of the Atlantic Coast, Hampton Roads, named
from the town of Hampton on the northern shore. This is the location
of a Veteran Soldiers' Home, with two thousand inmates, an extensive
Soldiers' Cemetery, and of the spacious buildings of the Normal and
Agricultural Institute for Negroes and Indians, where there are eight
to nine hundred scholars, this being a foundation originally
established by the Freedmen's Bureau, the chief object being the
training of teachers for colored and Indian schools.
The little peninsula of Old Point Comfort, which makes the northern
side of the mouth of the James and juts out into Chesapeake Bay, has
upon it the largest and most elaborate fortification in the United
States--Fortress Monroe. It is related that when Newport and Smith
first entered the bay in 1607, and were desirous of ascending the
James, they coasted along the southern shore and found only shallow
water. Starting out in a boat to hunt for a channel up which their
ships could pass, they rowed over to the northern shore and discovered
deeper water entering the James, close to this little peninsula, there
being twelve fathoms depth, which so encouraged Smith that it
confirmed him in naming the place Point Comfort. This channel, close
inshore, could be readily defended, as it was the only passage for
vessels of any draft, and consequently when the colony got established
at Jamestown they built Fort Algernon at Point Comfort to protect the
entrance to the James. In 1611 this fort was described as consisting
of stockades and posts, without stone or brick, and containing seven
small iron guns, with a garrison of forty men.
After the British invasion of Chesapeake Bay, in 1814, when they burnt
the Capitol and White House at Washington, it was quickly decided that
no foreign foe should be again permitted to do such a thing, and that
an elaborate work should be built to defend the entrance to the bay.
General Simon Bernard, one of Napoleon's noted engineers, offered his
services to the United States after the downfall of the Emperor, and
he was placed in charge, with the duty of constructing, at the mouth
of James River, a fortification which would command the channel into
that river and to the Norfolk Navy Yard, and at the same time be a
base of operations against any fleet attempting to enter the bay and
menace the roadstead. Bernard built in 1819, and several following
years, an elaborate fortress, with a broad moat and outlying
water-battery, enclosing eighty acres, the ramparts being over two
miles in circumference. It was called Fortress Monroe, after the then
President James Monroe, of Virginia. Out upon an artificial island,
known as the Rip-raps, built upon a shoal some two miles off-shore,
and in the harbor entrance, the smaller works of Fort Wool were
subsequently constructed, and the two make a complete defense for the
Chesapeake Bay entrance. During all the years this fortress has
existed it has never had occasion to fire a gun at an enemy, but its
location and strength were invaluable to the North, who held it during
the Civil War. It is the seat of the Artillery School of the army. To
the southward, at the waterside, are the hotels of Old Point Comfort,
which is one of the favorite seaside watering-places of the South. In
front is the great Hampton roadstead, usually containing fleets of
wind-bound vessels and some men-of-war.
NORFOLK AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD.
Over on the southern side of Chesapeake Bay is the Elizabeth River, in
reality a tidal arm of the sea, curving around from the south to the
east, and having Norfolk on its northern bank and Portsmouth opposite.
The country round about is flat and low-lying, and far up the river
are Gosport and the Navy Yard, the largest possessed by the United
States. There are probably sixty thousand population in the three
towns. The immediate surroundings are good land and mostly market
gardens, but to the southward spreads the great Dismal Swamp, covering
about sixteen hundred square miles, intersected by various canals, and
yielding cypress, juniper and other timber. It is partly drained by
the Nansemond River, on which, at the edge of the swamp, is the little
town of Suffolk, whence the Jericho Run Canal leads into Lake
Drummond, a body of water covering eighteen square miles and
twenty-one feet above tidewater. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has woven
much of the romance of this weird fastness and swamp into her tale of
_Dred_. The Dismal Swamp Canal, twenty-two miles long, and recently
enlarged and deepened, passes through it from Elizabeth River to the
Pasquotank River of North Carolina, and the Albemarle Canal also
connects with Currituck Sound. This big swamp was first explored by
Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, in 1728, when he surveyed the
boundary between Virginia and North Carolina.
All about the Norfolk wharves are cotton bales, much timber, tobacco
and naval stores, and immense quantities of food and garden products,
not forgetting a profusion of "goobers," all awaiting shipment, for
this, next to Savannah, is the greatest export port for food and other
supplies on the Southern Atlantic. The "goober," or peanut, is the
special crop of this part of Virginia and Carolina. The cotton
compresses do a lively business in the cotton season, the powerful
hydraulic pressure squeezing the bale to barely one-fourth its former
size, and binding it firmly with iron bands, thus giving the steamers
increased cargo. In the spring the shipment North of early fruits and
vegetables is enormous, vast surfaces being devoted to their growth,
the strawberry beds especially covering many acres. The oyster trade
is also large. The settlement of Norfolk began in 1680, and in 1736 it
was made a borough. Portsmouth was established later, but the starting
of the navy yard there, which has become so extensive, gave it great
impetus. Portsmouth claims that in the Civil War, in proportion to
size, it sent more soldiers to the Southern armies and had more dead
than any other city. The capacious naval hospital and its fine grove
of trees front Portsmouth towards the harbor. Norfolk has St. Paul's
Church, founded in 1730, as its chief Revolutionary relic--an ancient
building, with an old graveyard, and having in its steeple the
indentation made by a cannon-shot, when a British fleet in 1776
bombarded and partly burnt the town. An old-fashioned round ball rests
in the orifice; not, however, the one originally sent there by the
cannoneers. Relic-hunters visiting the place have a habit of
clandestinely appropriating the cannon-ball, so the sexton, with an
eye to business, has some on hand ready to put into the cavity, and
thus maintain the old church's patriotic reputation. A novel sight in
Norfolk is its market, largely served by negroes--old "mammies" with
bright bandannas tied about their heads and guarding piles of luscious
fruits; funny little pickaninnies who execute all manner of athletic
gyrations for stray pennies, queer old market wagons, profusions of
flowers, and such a collection of the good things of life, all set in
a picture so attractive that the sight is long remembered.
THE EASTERN SHORE.
Northward from Old Point Comfort and Hampton Roads the great
Chesapeake Bay stretches for two hundred miles. It bisects Virginia
and Maryland, and receives the rivers of both States, extending within
fourteen miles of Pennsylvania, where it has as its head the greatest
river of all, the Susquehanna, which the Indians appropriately called
their "great island river." Its shores enclose many islands, and are
indented with innumerable bays and inlets, the alluvial soils being
readily adapted to fruit and vegetable growing, and its multitudes of
shallows being almost throughout a vast oyster bed. It has, all about,
the haunts of wild fowl and the nestling-places of delicious fish.
These shores were the home--first on the eastern side and afterwards
on the western--of the Nanticokes, or "tidewater Indians," who
ultimately migrated to New York to join the Iroquois or Five Nations,
making that Confederacy the "Six Nations." From Cape Charles, guarding
the northern entrance to the Bay, extends northward the well-known
peninsula of the "Eastern Shore," a land of market gardens,
strawberries and peaches, which feeds the Northern cities, and having
its railroad, a part of the Pennsylvania system, running for miles
over the level surface in a flat country, which enabled the builders
to lay a mathematically straight pair of rails for nearly ninety
miles, said to be the longest railway tangent in existence.
Chesapeake Bay is now patrolled by the oyster fleets of both Virginia
and Maryland, each State having an "oyster navy" to protect its beds
from predatory forays; and occasionally there arises an "oyster war"
which expands to the dignity of a newspaper sensation, and sometimes
results in bloodshed. The wasteful methods of oyster-dredging are said
to be destroying the beds, and they are much less valuable than
formerly, although measures are being projected for their protection
and restoration under Government auspices. We are told that a band of
famished colonists who went in the early days to beg corn from the
Indians first discovered the value of the oyster. The Indians were
roasting what looked like stones in their fire, and invited the hungry
colonists to partake. The opened shells disclosed the succulent
bivalve, and the white men found there was other good food besides
corn. All the sites of extinct Indian villages along the Chesapeake
were marked by piles of oyster shells, showing they had been eaten
from time immemorial.
The English colonists at Jamestown were told by the Indians of the
wonders of the "Mother of Waters," as they called Chesapeake Bay,
about the many great rivers pouring into it, the various tribes on its
shores, and the large fur trade that could be opened with them; so
that the colonists gradually came to the opinion that the upper region
of the great bay was the choicest part of their province. Smith
explored it and made a map in 1609, and others followed him, setting
up trading-stations upon the rivers as far as the Potomac and the
Patuxent. Soon this new country and its fur trade attracted the
cupidity of William Claiborne, who had been appointed Treasurer of
Virginia, and was sent out when King James I. made it a royal
province, the king telling them they would find Claiborne "a person of
qualitie and trust." He was also agent for a London Company the king
had chartered to make discoveries and engage in the fur trade.
Claiborne, in 1631, established a settlement on Kent Island, the
largest in the bay, about opposite Annapolis, and one hundred and
thirty miles north of the James, which thrived as a trading station
and next year sent its burgesses to the Assembly at Jamestown.
CALVERT AND MARYLAND.
Sir George Calvert, who had been private secretary to Lord Cecil in
Queen Elizabeth's reign, and also held office under King James, upon
retiring was created Baron of Baltimore in Ireland, and purchased part
of Newfoundland, which he called Avalon. He sent out a colony and
afterwards visited Avalon; but, being discouraged by the cold climate,
he abandoned the colony, and persuaded the next king, Charles I., to
give him land on both sides of Chesapeake Bay north of the Potomac.
Before the deed was signed, however, Baron Baltimore died, and his
son, Cecilius Calvert, succeeded him and received the grant. This was
one of the greatest gifts of land ever made, extending northward from
the Potomac River, including all Maryland, a broad strip of what is
now Pennsylvania, all of Delaware, and a good deal of West Virginia.
The charter made the grant a Palatinate, giving Lord Baltimore and his
heirs absolute control of the country, freedom to trade with the whole
world and make his own laws, or allow his colonists to do this. The
price was the delivery of two Indian arrows a year at the Castle of
Windsor, and one-fifth of all the gold and silver found. This grant
was dated on June 20, 1632, and the name first intended by Calvert for
his colony was Crescentia; but in the charter it was styled _Terra
Mariæ_, after Queen Henrietta Maria, or "Mary's Land." The expedition
came out the following winter, leaving the Isle of Wight in November
in two vessels, named the "Ark" and the "Dove," under command of
Leonard Calvert, Cecil's brother, there being two hundred emigrants,
nearly all Roman Catholics, like their chief, and mostly gentlemen of
fortune and respectability. While the colony was Catholic, Cecil
Calvert inculcated complete toleration. In his letter of instructions
he wrote: "Preserve unity and peace on shipboard amongst all
passengers; and suffer no offence to be given to any of the
Protestants; for this end cause all acts of the Roman Catholic
religion to be done as privately as may be;" and he also told his
brother, the Governor, "to treat all Protestants with as much mildness
and favor as justice would permit," this to be observed "at land as
well as at sea." In March, 1633, they entered the Chesapeake and
sailed up to the Potomac River, landing at an island and setting up a
cross, claiming the country for Christ and for England.
The "Ark" anchored, and the smaller "Dove" was sent cruising along the
shore of the Potomac above Point Lookout, "to make choice of a place
probable to be healthfull and fruitfull," which might be easily
fortified, and "convenient for trade both with the English and
savages." The little "Dove" sailed some distance up the Potomac,
examining the shore, and encountered various Indians, who were
astonished when they saw the vessel, diminutive, yet so much larger
than their canoes, and said they would like to see the tree from which
that great canoe was hollowed out, for they knew nothing of the method
of construction. The colonists talked with the Indians, having an
interpreter, and Leonard Calvert asked a chief: "Shall we stay here,
or shall we go back?" To this a mysterious answer was made: "You may
do as you think best." Calvert did not like this, and decided to land
nearer the bay, so his vessel dropped down the river again, and they
finally landed on a stream where they found the Indian village of
Yoacamoco. The Indians were very friendly, sold part of their village
for some axes and bright cloth, gave up their best wigwams to Calvert
and his colonists, and in one of these the Jesuit fathers held a
solemn service, dedicating the settlement to St. Mary; and thus was
founded the capital of the new Palatinate of Maryland. Under Calvert's
wise rule the colony prospered, kept up friendliness with the Indians,
enjoyed a lucrative trade, and, after a long struggle, ultimately
managed to make Claiborne abandon the settlement on Kent Island, which
became part of Maryland. To the northward of them was the estuary of
the Patuxent River, meaning "the stream at the little falls." St.
Mary's County is the peninsula between the Patuxent and the Potomac,
terminating at Point Lookout, and a quiet and restful farming country
to-day. Leonardstown, on the Patuxent, named after Leonard Calvert, is
the county-seat; but the ancient village of St. Mary's, the original
colony and capital, afterwards superseded by Annapolis, still exists,
though only a few scattered bricks remain to mark the site of the old
fort and town. At St. Inigoe's is the quaint colonial home of the
Jesuit fathers who accompanied Calvert, and its especial pride is a
sweet-toned bell, brought out from England in 1685, which still rings
the Angelus. At Kent Island scarcely a vestige remains of Claiborne's
trading-post and settlement.
THE MARYLAND CAPITAL.
The settlers of Maryland were not all Roman Catholics, however, for
Puritan refugees came in there. Above the Patuxent is the estuary of
the Severn River, and here, in a beautiful situation, is Annapolis,
the capital of Maryland, which has about eight thousand inhabitants,
and was originally colonized in 1649 by Puritans driven from the James
River in Virginia by the Episcopalians in control there. The
settlement was at first called Providence, and Richard Preston, the
eminent Quaker, was long its commander. Afterwards it was named Anne
Arundel Town, after Lady Baltimore, which still is the name of its
county, although the town came to be finally known as Annapolis, from
Queen Anne, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, who gave it
valuable presents. It is now best known as the seat of the United
States Naval Academy, which has a fine establishment there, founded by
George Bancroft, the historian, when he was Secretary of the Navy, in
1845. Its ancient defensive work, Fort Severn, has been roofed over,
and is the Academy gymnasium. The city was made the capital of
Maryland in 1794, the government being then removed from St. Mary's,
and the State Capitol is a massive brick structure, standing on an
eminence, with a lofty dome and cupola, from which there is a fine
view of the surrounding country and over Chesapeake Bay. In the Senate
Chamber General Washington surrendered his Commission to the American
Colonial Congress which met there in December, 1783, and in it also
assembled the first Constitutional Convention of the United States, in
1786. In front of the building is a colossal statue of Chief Justice
Taney, of the Supreme Court of the United States, a native of
Maryland, who died in 1864. Annapolis formerly had an extensive
commerce and amassed much wealth, until eclipsed by the growth of
Baltimore, and now its chief trade, like so many of the towns of the
Chesapeake, is in oysters.
THE MONUMENTAL CITY.
The head of Chesapeake Bay, on either side of the Susquehanna River,
is composed of various broad estuaries, with small streams entering
them. To the eastward the chief is Elk River, and to the westward are
the Gunpowder and Bush Rivers, with others. Not far above the Severn
is the wide tidal estuary of the Patapsco, so named by the Indians to
describe its peculiarity, the word meaning "a stream caused by back or
tidewater containing froth." A few miles up this estuary is the great
city and port of the Chesapeake, Baltimore, so named in honor of Lord
Baltimore, and containing, with its suburbs, over six hundred thousand
people. The spreading arms of the Patapsco, around which the city is
built, provide an ample harbor, their irregular shores making plenty
of dock room, and the two great railways from the north and west to
Washington, which go under the town through an elaborate system of
tunnels, give it a lucrative foreign trade in produce brought for
shipment abroad. From the harbor there are long and narrow docks, and
an inner "Basin" extending into the city, and across the heads of
these is Pratt Street. This highway is famous as the scene of the
first bloodshed of the Civil War. The Northern troops, hastily
summoned to Washington, were marching along it from one railway
station to the other on April 19, 1861, when a Baltimore mob,
sympathizing with the South, attacked them. In the riot and conflict
that followed eleven were killed and twenty-six were wounded. A creek,
called Jones's Falls, coming down a deep valley from the northward
into the harbor, divides the city into two almost equal sections, and
in the lower part is walled in, with a street on either side. Colonel
David Jones, who was the original white inhabitant of the north side
of Baltimore harbor, gave this stream his name about 1680, before
anyone expected even a village to be located there. A settlement
afterwards began eastward of the creek, known as Jonestown, while
Baltimore was not started until 1730, being laid out westward of the
creek and around the head of the "Basin," the plan covering sixty
acres. This was called New Town, as the other was popularly termed Old
Town, but they subsequently were united as Baltimore, having in 1752
about two hundred people.
Baltimore is rectangular in plan and picturesque, covering an
undulating surface, the hills, which are many, inclining either to
Jones's Falls or the harbor. Its popular title is the "Monumental
City," given because it was the first American city that built fine
monuments. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the State of
Maryland erected on Charles Street a monument to General Washington,
rising one hundred and ninety-five feet, a Doric shaft of white marble
surmounted by his statue and upon a base fifty feet square. This
splendid monument stands in a broadened avenue and at the summit of a
hill, surrounded by tasteful lawns and flower gardens, with a fountain
in front. It makes an attractive centre for Mount Vernon Place, which
contains one of the finest collections of buildings in the city, and
presents a scene essentially Parisian. Here are the Peabody Institute
and the Garrett Mansion, both impressive buildings. Baltimore has a
"Battle Monument," located on Calvert Street, in Monument Square, a
marble shaft fifty-three feet high, marking the British invasion of
1814, and erected in memory of the men of Baltimore who fell in battle
just outside the city, when the British forces marched from Elk River
to Washington and burnt the Capitol, and the British fleet came up the
Patapsco and shelled the town. The city also has other fine monuments,
so that its popular name is well deserved.
The City Hall is the chief building of Baltimore, a marble structure
in Renaissance, costing $2,000,000, its elaborate dome rising two
hundred and sixty feet, and giving a magnificent view over the city
and harbor. There are two noted churches, the Mount Vernon Methodist
Church, of greenstone, with buff and red facings and polished granite
columns, being the finest, although the First Presbyterian Church,
nearby, is regarded as the most elaborate specimen of Lancet-Gothic
architecture in the country, its spire rising two hundred and
sixty-eight feet. The Roman Catholic Cathedral is an attractive
granite church, containing paintings presented by Louis XVI. and
Charles X. of France. Cardinal Archbishop Gibbons, of Baltimore, is
the Roman Catholic Primate of the United States. The greatest
charities of the city are the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns
Hopkins University, endowed by a Baltimore merchant who died in 1873,
the joint endowments being $6,500,000. Hopkins was shrewd and
penurious, and John W. Garrett persuaded him to make these princely
endowments, much of his fortune being invested in the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, of which Garrett was President in its days of greatest
prosperity. This railroad is the chief Baltimore institution, giving
it a direct route to the Mississippi Valley, and was the first started
of the great American trunk railways, its origin dating from 1826,
when the movement began for its charter, which was granted by the
Maryland Legislature the next year. This charter conferred most
comprehensive powers, and the story is told that when it was being
read in that body one of the members interrupted, saying: "Stop, man,
you are asking more than the Lord's Prayer." The reply was that it was
all necessary, and the more asked, the more would be secured. The
interrupter, convinced, responded: "Right, man; go on." The
corner-stone of the railway was laid July 4, 1828, beginning the route
from Baltimore, up the Potomac and through the Alleghenies to the Ohio
River.
DRUID HILL AND FORT McHENRY.
Baltimore is proud of the great art collection of Henry Walters in
Mount Vernon Place, exhibited for a fee for the benefit of the poor;
and it also has had as a noted resident Jerome Bonaparte, brother of
Napoleon, who married, and then discarded by Napoleon's order, Miss
Patterson, a Baltimore lady. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has remarked
that three short American poems, each the best of its kind, were
written in Baltimore: Poe's _Raven_, Randall's _Maryland, My
Maryland_, and Key's _Star-Spangled Banner_. It is also proud of its
park--"Druid Hill"--a splendid pleasure-ground of seven hundred acres,
owing much of its beauty to the fact that it had been preserved and
developed as a private park for a century before passing under control
of the city. The route to it is by the magnificent Eutaw Place, and
the stately entrance gateway opens upon an avenue lined on either hand
by long rows of flower vases on high pedestals, laid out alongside
Druid Lake, the chief water-reservoir. The Park has an undulating
surface of woodland and meadow, with grand old trees and splendid
lawns, making a scene decidedly English, not overwrought by art, but
mainly left in its natural condition. The mansion-house of the former
owner, now a restaurant, occupies a commanding position, and on the
northern side the land rises to Prospect Hill, with an expansive view
all around the horizon and eastward to Chesapeake Bay.
In this beautiful park the higher grounds are used for
water-reservoirs. Baltimore has the advantage of receiving its supply
by gravity from the Gunpowder River to the northward, where a lake has
been formed, the pure water being brought through a tunnel for seven
miles to the reservoirs, of which there are eight, with a capacity of
2,275,000,000 gallons, and capable of supplying 300,000,000 gallons
daily. These reservoirs appear as pleasant lakes, Montebello and
Roland, with Druid Lake, being the chief. Across the ravine of Jones's
Falls is Baltimore's chief cemetery, Greenmount, a pretty ground, with
gentle hills and vales. Here, in a spot selected by herself, is buried
Jerome's discarded wife, Madame Patterson-Bonaparte, whose checkered
history is Baltimore's chief romance. Here also lie Junius Brutus
Booth, the tragedian, and his family, among them John Wilkes Booth,
who murdered President Lincoln.
The most significant sight of Baltimore, however, is its old Fort
McHenry--down in the harbor, on the extreme end of Locust Point,
originally called Whetstone Point, where the Patapsco River
divides--built on a low-lying esplanade, with green banks sloping
almost to the water. It was the strategic position of this small but
strong work, thoroughly controlling the city as well as the harbor
entrance, that held Baltimore during the early movements of the Civil
War, and maintained the road from the North to Washington. Its
greatest memory, however, and, by the association, probably the
greatest celebrity Baltimore enjoys, comes from the flag on the staff
now quietly waving over its parapets. Whetstone Point had been
fortified during the Revolution, but in 1794 Maryland ceded it to the
United States, and the people of Baltimore raised the money to build
the present fort, which was named after James McHenry, who had been
one of the framers of the Federal Constitution and was Secretary of
War under President Washington. When Admiral Cockburn's British fleet
came up the Chesapeake in September, 1814, the Maryland poet, Francis
Scott Key, was an aid to General Smith at Bladensburg. An intimate
friend had been taken prisoner on board one of the ships, and Key was
sent in a boat to effect his release by exchange. The Admiral told Key
he would have to detain him aboard for a day or two, as they were
proceeding to attack Baltimore. Thus Key remained among the enemy, an
unwilling witness of the bombardment on September 12th, which
continued throughout the night. In the early morning the attack was
abandoned, the flag was unharmed, and the British ships dropped down
the Patapsco.
Key wrote his poem on the backs of letters, with a barrel-head for a
desk, and being landed next day he showed it to friends, and then made
a fresh copy. It was taken to the office of the _Baltimore American_
and published anonymously in a handbill, afterwards appearing in the
issue of that newspaper on September 21, 1814. The tune was "Anacreon
in Heaven," and there was a brief introduction describing the
circumstances under which it was written. It was first sung in the
Baltimore Theatre, October 12th of that year, and afterwards became
popular. The flag which floated over Fort McHenry on that memorable
night is still preserved. Fired by patriotic impulses, various ladies
of Baltimore had made this flag, among them being Mrs. Mary
Pickersgill, who is described as a daughter of Betsy Ross, of
Philadelphia, who made the original sample-flag during the Revolution.
The Fort McHenry flag contains about four hundred yards of bunting and
is nearly square, measuring twenty-nine by thirty-two feet. It has
fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, which was then the official
regulation, there being fifteen States in the American Union. The poem
of the _Star-Spangled Banner_, thus inspired and written, has become
the great American patriotic anthem, and has carried everywhere the
fame of the fort, the city, and the flowery flag of the United States.
The following is the song, with title and introduction, as first
published:
DEFENCE OF FORT McHENRY.
TUNE--"_Anacreon in Heaven._"
O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes;
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully glows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream.
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul steps pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this is our motto: "In God is our Trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
II.
THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
On to Richmond--Horace Greeley's Editorial Standard--The
Conflict's Ebb and Flow--The Two Battles of Bull Run--
Arlington--Manassas--McDowell against Beauregard--Lee
and Jackson against Pope--Antietam--The Emancipation
Proclamation--Fredericksburg--Burnside against Lee--
Chancellorsville--Lee and Jackson against Hooker--Death of
Stonewall Jackson--Guinney Station--The Wilderness--Mine
Run--Grant's Southern March--Battles of the Wilderness--
Spottsylvania--Hanover Court-House--Ashland--Richmond--
The Capitol--Washington's Statues--Stonewall Jackson's
Statue--Confederate White House--General Lee's House--
The First House--St. John's Church--Patrick Henry--Libby
Hill and Prison--Belle Isle--Rocketts--Hollywood
Cemetery--Noted Graves--McClellan's Siege of Richmond--
Drewry's Bluff--Chickahominy Swamps--Fair Oaks--Seven
Days' Battles--Gaines' Mill--Cold Harbor--Malvern Hill
--Harrison's Landing--Grant's Siege of Richmond--Second
Battle of Cold Harbor--Bermuda Hundred--Petersburg--
Capture of Richmond--Kilpatrick's Raid--Piedmont--
Charlottesville--University of Virginia--Monticello--
Thomas Jefferson--Shenandoah Valley--Cross Keys--
Jackson's Exploits--Cedar Mountain--General Sheridan--
Cedar Creek--Sheridan against Early--Luray Cavern--
Battlefield of Gettysburg--Lee Marches into Pennsylvania--
Hooker Resigns--Meade against Lee--Gettysburg Topography
--Seminary Ridge--Cemetery Ridge--The Round Tops--
Confederate Advance to Carlisle and the Susquehanna--Three
Days' Battle--Reynolds Killed--The Round Tops Attacked--
General Sickles Wounded in Peach Orchard--Ewell Repulsed at
Cemetery--Pickett's Charge and Repulse--Cushing and
Armistead Killed--High-Water Mark Monument--Lee Retreats
--Gettysburg Monuments--Jenny Wade--National Cemetery--
Lincoln's Immortal Dedication--Valley of Death--
Massachusetts Color-Bearer--The Reunited Union.
ON TO RICHMOND.
Lay down the Axe; fling by the spade:
Leave in its track the toiling plough;
The rifle and the bayonet blade
For arms like yours were fitter now;
And let the hands that ply the pen
Quit the light task, and learn to wield
The horseman's crooked brand, and rein
The charger on the battlefield.
Thus trumpeted William Cullen Bryant in "Our Country's Call," while
the most powerful American editor of the time of the Civil War, Horace
Greeley, raised his standard at the head of the _New York Tribune's_
editorial page early in 1861 with the words "On to Richmond." The
region between Washington and Richmond, and much of the adjacent
country stretching southward beyond James River and northward into
Pennsylvania, will always be historic because of the momentous
movements, sanguinary conflicts and wonderful strategy of the great
American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. We have described the
environment of Chesapeake Bay, and now proceed to a consideration of
this noted region west of the bay, where the tide of battle repeatedly
ebbed and flowed. The first northern invasion of the Virginia
Peninsula and the abortive siege of Richmond in the summer of 1862
were followed by McClellan's retreat, Pope's defeat and the southern
invasion of Maryland, which was checked at Antietam in the autumn. The
northern attacks at Fredericksburg in December and at Chancellorsville
in the spring of 1863 were followed by the invasion of Pennsylvania,
checked at Gettysburg, the "high-water mark" of the rebellion; and
Grant's march down through "the Wilderness" in 1864, followed by his
gradual advances south of the James, forced the evacuation of
Richmond, and Lee's final surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
THE TWO BATTLES OF BULL RUN.
The main route from Washington to the South crossed the Potomac, then
as now, by the "Long Bridge," passing in full view of the yellow
Arlington House, fronted by its columned porch. This historic building
was the home of General Robert E. Lee in his early life, the chief
Confederate Commander during the Civil War. The estate is now a vast
cemetery, and upon it and all about to the westward are the remains of
the forts and earthworks erected for the defence of Washington. After
the war began, in April, 1861, the Northern troops were gradually
assembled in and around Washington; but there came an imperative
demand from the country that they should go forth and give the
Confederates battle and capture Richmond before their Congress could
meet, the opening of the session being fixed for July 20th. The
Southern armies were entrenched at Manassas Junction, west of
Washington, and at Winchester to the northwest, and they were making
forays almost in sight of Washington. General McDowell, with nearly
forty thousand men, marched out of the Washington fortifications on
July 17th to attack General Beauregard at Manassas. The Confederates
brought their Winchester army hastily down, and took position along
the banks of Bull Run, a tributary of the Occoquan, their lines
stretching for about eight miles. McDowell attacked on the morning of
the 21st, each side having about twenty-eight thousand available men.
The conflict lasted with varying success most of the day, McDowell
being finally beaten and retreating to Washington.
Thirteen months later, after McClellan's retreat from Richmond, was
fought in almost the same place, on August 29 and 30, 1862, the second
battle of Bull Run. General Pope had a considerable force in Northern
Virginia, and when McClellan, whom Pope superseded, retreated from
before Richmond, and started on his return from James River, Lee moved
nearly his whole army up from Richmond, hoping to fall upon Pope
before McClellan could join him. On August 22d the opposing forces
confronted each other along the Rappahannock, when General Stuart,
with the Confederate cavalry, made a raid around Pope's lines to the
rear, reaching that general's headquarters and capturing his personal
baggage, in which was his despatch book describing the position of
the whole Northern army. This gave Lee such valuable information that
on the 25th he sent Stonewall Jackson with thirty thousand men, who,
by a forced march, went around the western side of the Bull Run
Mountains, came east again by the Thoroughfare Gap, and on the night
of the 27th was in Pope's rear, and had cut his railroad connections
and captured his supplies at Manassas. Pope, discovering the flanking
movement, began falling back towards Manassas, and Jackson then
withdrew towards the Gap, waiting for Lee to come up. There were
various strategic movements afterwards, with fighting on the 29th; and
on the 30th the Confederate wings had enclosed as in a vise Pope's
forces to the west of Bull Run, when, after some terrific combats,
Pope retreated across Bull Run towards Washington. Pope had about
thirty-five thousand men and Lee forty-six thousand engaged in this
battle. During the night of September 2d Jackson made a reconnoissance
towards Washington, in which the Union Generals Stevens and Kearney
were killed at Chantilly, and the authorities became so apprehensive
of an attack upon the Capital that they ordered the whole army to fall
back behind the Washington defenses. Pope was then relieved, at his
own request, and the command restored to McClellan. The Confederates
marched northward across the Potomac and McClellan followed, ending
with the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, later in September,
when Lee retreated and recrossed the Potomac into Virginia on the
18th. The significant result of this conflict and withdrawal was the
issue of the famous Emancipation Proclamation. President Lincoln had
made a vow that if Lee was driven back from Maryland he would issue a
proclamation abolishing slavery, which was done September 22, 1862.
FREDERICKSBURG AND THE WILDERNESS.
The route from Washington to Richmond skirts the Potomac for a long
distance south of Alexandria, winding among hills and forests,
crossing various broad creeks and bayous, among them the Occoquan, the
outlet of Bull Run, and then diverges towards the Rappahannock. This
is more historic ground, for the terrible battle of Fredericksburg was
fought here in December, 1862, and the battle of Chancellorsville, to
the westward, in May, 1863, where Stonewall Jackson lost his life. The
"Wilderness" is to the southward of the Rappahannock, occupying about
two hundred square miles, a plateau sloping to cultivated lowlands on
every side. The original forests were long ago cut off, and a dense
growth of scrub timber and brambles covered nearly the whole surface,
with an occasional patch of woodland or a clearing. After the battle
of Antietam the anxiety for another forward movement to Richmond led
the Administration to remove McClellan, and then General Burnside
took command. His troops crossed the Rappahannock in December to
attack General Lee's Confederate position on the Heights of Marye,
where they were strongly entrenched; but the attack failed, the
shattered army after great carnage withdrawing to the north bank of
the river, and it lay there for months in winter quarters. Burnside
was superseded by General Hooker, and in May, 1863, the Northern army
again crossed the Rappahannock at several fords above Fredericksburg
and started for Richmond. Lee quickly marched westward from
Fredericksburg, and Lee and Hooker faced each other at Chancellorsville.
Then came another of Stonewall Jackson's brilliant flank movements.
Chancellorsville is on the eastern border of the Wilderness, and
Jackson, making a long detour to the south and west through that
desolate region, got around and behind Hooker's right flank, surprised
him, and sent General Howard's entire corps in panic down upon the
rest of the Union forces, making the greatest surprise of the war.
During that same night Jackson, after his victory, was accidentally
shot by his own men, a blow from which the Confederacy never
recovered. Twelve miles south of Fredericksburg, at Guinney Station,
is the little house where Jackson died. He and his aides, after
reconnoitering, had returned within the Confederate lines, and the
pickets, mistaking them for the enemy, fired into the party. Several
of his escort were killed and Jackson was shot in three places, an
arm being shattered. Being put upon a litter one of the bearers
stumbled, and Jackson was additionally injured by being thrown to the
ground. The arm was amputated, but afterwards pneumonia set in, which
was the immediate cause of his death. He lingered a week, dying May
10th, in his fortieth year, his last words, dreamily spoken, being:
"Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."
It is said this loss of his ablest lieutenant had such an effect upon
Lee that he afterwards aged rapidly, and his hair quickly whitened.
The spot where Jackson was shot is alongside the Orange Plank Road,
and is marked by a granite monument. Jackson is buried at Lexington,
Virginia, where he had previously been a professor in the Military
Academy. Hooker withdrew across the Rappahannock, Lee started
northward, Hooker was succeeded by Meade, and the battle of Gettysburg
was fought at the beginning of July.
Then came another movement towards Richmond, late in the year 1863.
Meade marched down to the Wilderness in November, had heavy
skirmishing and fought the battle of Mine Run on its western border,
and then went back and into winter quarters. General Grant came from
the West, took command, and early in May, 1864, started on his great
march to Richmond through the Wilderness, with Lee constantly fighting
on his right flank and front. There followed during that month a
series of sanguinary battles, in this inhospitable region, in which
the losses of the two armies exceeded sixty thousand men. While moving
southward, Grant faced and fought generally westward. It took him ten
days to progress a dozen miles, and he could only move during the
lulls in the fighting, the advance being usually made by changing one
corps after another from the right to the left by marching in the rear
of the main body, thus gradually prolonging the left wing southward
through the forbidding country. Lee pressed forward into the vacated
space, fortifying and fighting, his object being to force Grant
eastward and away from Richmond, which was towards the south. "More
desperate fighting has not been witnessed upon this Continent," said
Grant of this struggle in the Wilderness; and later he wrote to
Washington the famous declaration of his intention "to fight it out on
this line if it takes all summer." The whole of this desolate region
south and west of Fredericksburg and down to Spottsylvania is filled
with the remains of the fortifications constructed in these memorable
battles. Grant said that "In every change of position or halt for the
night, whether confronting the enemy or not, the moment arms were
stacked the men entrenched themselves," adding, "It was wonderful how
quickly they could construct defenses of considerable strength." Thus
the way was worked, by shovel and shell and musket and axe, through
the Wilderness. There is a plan afoot for acquiring these
battlefields and the connecting roads, so as to preserve this historic
ground as a public reservation.
The railway route to Richmond goes through the Wilderness, thinly
peopled, sparsely cultivated, and exhibiting a few negro settlements,
where they sun themselves alongside their cabins and watch the trains
go by. There is an occasional horse or cow, but almost the only
animals visible are the nimble-footed and hungry-looking
"razor-backed" hogs that range the scrub timber in search of a
precarious living. Once in awhile is seen an old homestead that has
survived the ruin of the war, but the few buildings are generally most
primitive, the favorite style being a small wooden cabin set alongside
a huge brick chimney. It is said the chimney is first built, and if
the draught is all right they then build the little cabin over against
it and move in the family. The agriculture does not appear much better
until Richmond is approached, where the surface of the country
improves. At Hanover Court House are more signs of battlefields, for
here McClellan had his early conflicts in besieging Richmond in 1862,
while Grant came down from the Wilderness and had the battles of the
North Anna near the end of May, 1864, and of Cold Harbor in June,
after which he moved his army to the south side of James River.
Ashland, sixteen miles north of Richmond, is in an attractive region,
and is a favorite place of suburban residence. This was the
birthplace of Henry Clay, in 1777, and is the seat of Randolph Macon
College.
THE CITY OF RICHMOND.
Richmond, the capital of Virginia, has about one hundred and thirty
thousand population, and occupies a delightful situation. The James
River flows around a grand curve from the northwest to the south, and
pours over falls and rapids, which display many little cascades among
a maze of diminutive islands. There are on the northern bank two or
three large hills and several smaller ones, and Richmond is built upon
these, it is said like Rome upon her seven hills. The State Capitol
and a broad white penitentiary crown two of the highest. The town was
founded at the falls of the James in 1737, and the capital of Virginia
was moved here from Williamsburg in 1779, when there was only a small
population. The place did not have much history, however, until it
became the Capital of the Confederacy, and then the strong efforts
made to capture it and the vigorous defence gave it world-wide fame.
Beginning in 1862 it was made an impregnable fortress, and its fall,
when the Confederate flank was turned in 1865 through the capture of
Petersburg, resulted from General Lee's retreat westward and his final
surrender at Appomattox. When Lee abandoned Petersburg there was a
panic in Richmond, with riot and pillage; the bridges, storehouses and
mills were fired, and nearly one-third of the city burnt. It has
since, however, been rebuilt in better style, and has extensive
manufactures and a profitable trade.
The centre of Richmond is a park of twelve acres, surrounding the
Capitol, a venerable building upon the summit of Shockoe Hill, and the
most conspicuous structure in the city. It was built just after the
American Revolution, the plan having been brought from France by
Thomas Jefferson, and modelled from the ancient Roman temple of the
_Maison Carrée_ at Nismes, the front being a fine Ionic portico. From
the roof, elevated high above every surrounding building, there is an
excellent view, disclosing the grand sweep of the river among the
islands and rapids, going off to the south, where it disappears among
the hills behind Drewry's Bluff, below the town. The square-block plan
with streets crossing at right angles is well displayed, and the
abrupt sides of some of the hills, where they have been cut away,
disclose the high-colored, reddish-yellow soils which have been so
prolific in tobacco culture, and give the scene such brilliant hues,
as well as dye the river a chocolate color in times of freshet. The
city spreads over a wide surface, and has populous suburbs on the
lower lands south of the James. This Capitol was the meeting-place of
the Confederate Congress, and the locality of all the statecraft of
the "Lost Cause." It contains the battle-flags of the Virginia troops
and other relics, and in a gallery built around the rotunda are hung
the portraits of the Virginia Governors and of the three great
military chiefs, Lee, Johnston and Jackson. Upon the floor beneath is
Houdon's famous statue of Washington, made while he was yet alive. In
1785, the talented French sculptor accompanied Franklin to this
country to prepare the model for the statue, which had been ordered by
the Virginia Government. He spent two weeks at Mount Vernon with
Washington, taking casts of his face, head and upper portion of the
body, with minute measurements, and then returned to Paris. The statue
was finished in 1788, and is regarded as the most accurate
reproduction of Washington existing. A statue of Henry Clay and a bust
of Lafayette are also in the rotunda.
[Illustration: _Washington Monument, Richmond, Va._]
On the esplanade north of the Capitol is Crawford's bronze equestrian
statue of Washington upon a massive granite pedestal, one of the most
attractive and elaborate bronzes ever made. The horse is half thrown
upon his haunches, giving the statue exceeding spirit, while upon
smaller pedestals around stand six heroic statues in bronze of
Virginia statesmen of various periods--Patrick Henry, Thomas
Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, George Mason, Andrew Lewis and Chief Justice
John Marshall--the whole adorned with appropriate emblems. This
artistic masterpiece was constructed at a cost of $260,000. In the
centre of the esplanade is Foley's bronze statue of Stonewall Jackson,
sent from London in 1875 by a number of his English admirers as a
gift to the State of Virginia. It is of heroic size, standing upon a
pedestal of Virginia granite, and is a striking reproduction. The
inscription is: "Presented by English gentlemen as a tribute of
admiration for the soldier and patriot, Thomas J. Jackson, and
gratefully accepted by Virginia in the name of the Southern people."
Beneath is inscribed in the granite the remark giving his sobriquet,
which was made at the first battle of Bull Run in 1862, where Jackson
commanded a brigade. At a time when the day was apparently lost, his
troops made so firm a stand that some one, in admiration, called out
the words that became immortal: "Look, there is Jackson standing like
a stone wall!" A short distance from the Capitol is the "Confederate
White House," a square-built dwelling, with a high porch in the rear
and a small portico in front. Here lived Jefferson Davis during his
career as President of the Confederacy; it is now a museum of war
relics. Nearby is St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where Davis was
attending service on the eventful Sunday morning in April, 1865, when
he was brought the fateful telegram from General Lee which said that
Richmond must be immediately evacuated. In the central part of the
residential quarter, on Franklin Street, is the plain brick house
which during the Civil War was the home of General Lee. It is related
that after the Appomattox surrender, when he returned to this
house, the people of Richmond got an idea that he was suffering
privations and his family needed the necessaries of life. His son,
Fitz Hugh Lee, afterwards said that the people then vied with each
other in sending him everything imaginable. So generous were the gifts
that the upper parts of the house were filled with barrels of flour,
meats and many other things, and the supplies became so bountiful that
Lee directed their distribution among the poor. This house is now
occupied by the Virginia Historical Society. A magnificent equestrian
statue of General Lee was erected on Park Avenue in 1890.
Some Richmond memorials, however, antedate the Civil War. Its "first
house"--a low, steep-roofed stone cabin on the Main street, said to
have been there when the town site was first laid out--is an object of
homage. The popular idea is that the Indian King Powhatan originally
lived in this house, but it was probably constructed after his time.
Not far away, upon Richmond or Church Hill, stands St. John's Church
among the old gravestones in a spacious churchyard. It was built in
1740--a little wooden church with a small steeple. Here the first
Virginian Convention was held which paved the way for the Revolution
in 1775, and listened to Patrick Henry's impassioned speech--"Give me
liberty or give me death." The pew in which he stood while speaking is
still preserved. An adjoining eminence is called Libby Hill, where
lived Luther Libby, who owned most of the land thereabout. Under its
shadow was the Libby Prison of the Civil War, since removed to Chicago
for exhibition. It had been a tobacco warehouse, occupied by Libby &
Co., but during the war it held at various times over fifty thousand
Northern prisoners. All the captured soldiers were first taken to
Libby, the commissioned officers remaining there, while the privates
were sent to points in the interior. The most noted event in the
history of this prison was the boring of a tunnel through the eastern
wall, in February, 1864, by which one hundred and nine prisoners, led
by Colonel Streight, managed to escape into an adjoining stable and
storehouse, and though more than half of them were recaptured, the
others got safely out of Richmond and into the Union lines.
The water power of the James River supplies huge flour mills and other
factories, and alongside the stream are the extensive Tredegar Iron
Works at the base of Gamble Hill, one of the largest iron and steel
works in the Southern States. Here were made the Confederate cannon,
shot and shell, and the primitive armor plates for their few warships.
This hill also overlooks the James River and Kanawha Canal, an
interior water way going westward beyond the Alleghenies. In mid-river
above is Belle Isle, a broad, flat island, which during the war was a
place of imprisonment for private soldiers, but upon it is now an iron
mill. Along the lower river are the wharves and shipping, in the
section called Rocketts, and here are also the tobacco storehouses and
factories, the chief Richmond industry, for it is the world's leading
tobacco mart, receiving and distributing most of the product of the
rich soils of Virginia, Kentucky and Carolina. The pungent odor
generally pervades the town, for whichever way the wind may blow it
wafts the perfume of a tobacco or cigarette factory. The Tobacco
Exchange is the business centre, and this industry is of the first
importance. The modern-built City Hall, adjacent to the Capitol Park,
is one of Richmond's finest buildings.
In the western suburbs, upon the river bank, and in a lovely position,
is the famous Hollywood Cemetery, the terraced sides of its ravines
being occupied by mausoleums and graves, while in front the rushing
rapids roar a requiem for the dead. The foliage is luxuriant; and,
while occupying only about eighty acres, it is a most beautiful
burial-place. Here are interred two Virginia Presidents--James Monroe
and John Tyler. An elaborate monument marks the former, and a
magnificent tree is planted at Tyler's grave--his daughter, buried
nearby, having for a monument a tasteful figure of the Virgin. The
Hollywood Cemetery Association is to place a monument on Tyler's
grave. Here are also buried Confederate Generals A. P. Hill, J. E. B.
Stuart, the dashing cavalryman, and George E. Pickett, who led the
desperate Confederate charge of the Virginia Division at Gettysburg.
It also contains the graves of the eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke;
Commodore Maury, the navigator; Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia
when the State seceded, and Thomas Ritchie, long editor of the
_Richmond Enquirer_, a most powerful writer and political leader in
the early part of the nineteenth century, who is regarded in Virginia
as the "Father of the Democratic Party." There are crowded into this
cemetery in one place twelve thousand graves of Confederate soldiers,
and in the centre of the ghastly plot there rises a huge stone
pyramid, ninety feet high, erected as a memorial by the Southern
women. Vines overrunning it almost conceal the rough joints of the
stones. No name is upon it, for it was built as a monument for the
unnamed dead. On three sides are inscriptions; on one "To the
Confederate Dead;" on another "Memoria in Æterna," and on a third
"Numini et Patriæ Asto." As they fell on the adjacent battlefields or
died in the hospitals, unclaimed, they were brought here and buried in
rows. In one urgent, terrible season, time not being given to prepare
separate graves, the bodies were interred on the hillside in long
trenches. This sombre pyramid and its immediate surroundings are
impressive memorials of the great war. From any of the Richmond hills
can be seen other grim mementos. Almost all the present city parks
were then army hospitals or cemeteries; all the chief highways lead
out to battlefields, and most of them in the suburbs are bordered with
the graves of the dead of both armies. All around the compass the
outlook is upon battlefields, and on all sides but the north upon
cemeteries.
McCLELLAN'S SIEGE OF RICHMOND.
The great memory of Richmond for all time will be of the Civil War,
when for three years battles raged around it. The first movement
against the city was McClellan's siege in 1862, and the environs show
abundant remains of the forts, redoubts and long lines of earthworks
by which the Confederate Capital was so gallantly defended. The
earliest attack was by Union gunboats in May, 1862, against the
batteries defending Drewry's Bluff on James River, seven miles below
the town, the defensive works being so strong that little impression
was made, but enough was learned to prevent any subsequent naval
attack there. McClellan came up the Peninsula between James and York
Rivers, approached Richmond from the east, and extended his army
around to the north, enveloping it upon a line which was the arc of a
circle, from seven miles east to five miles north of the city. The
Chickahominy flows through a broad and swampy depression in the
table-land north and east of Richmond, bordered by meadows, fens and
thickets of underbrush. It thus divided McClellan's investing army,
and the first great battle near Richmond was begun by the
Confederates, who took advantage of a heavy rain late in May which had
swollen the river and swamps. They fell upon the Union left wing on
May 31st, and the indecisive battle of Fair Oaks, in which the losses
were ten thousand men, was fought southwest of the Chickahominy.
General Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate Commander, was badly
wounded, and General Lee succeeded him, continuing in command until
the war closed. Extensive cemeteries now mark this battlefield among
the swamps. During June the heat and malaria filled McClellan's
hospitals with fever cases, and he had to move the greater portion of
his army to higher ground north of the Chickahominy, where he erected
protective earthworks. These still exist, with the formidable ranges
of opposing Confederate works on the south side of the river.
One of the most brilliant Confederate movements of the war followed.
McClellan's right wing stretched around to the village of
Mechanicsville, five miles north of Richmond, and Lee determined to
overwhelm this wing. Stonewall Jackson had been driving the Union
troops out of the Shenandoah Valley northwest of Richmond, and late in
June began a combined movement with Lee's army at Richmond. Longstreet
and Hill crossed the Chickahominy above Mechanicsville and attacked
the Union right, beginning the "Seven Days' Battles," lasting from
June 25 to July 1, 1862. Jackson was to have got down the same day
from the Shenandoah Valley, but his march was delayed, and this gave
time for McClellan to withdraw his wing and extensive baggage trains
across the swamps below, the stubborn defense by his rear guards
making the fierce conflict of Gaines' Mill, on the second day, during
which Jackson, coming from the northward and joining the others,
compelled the Union lines to change front, the contest thus turning
into the first battle of Cold Harbor, in which the rear held their
ground until the retreat was completed across the Chickahominy, and
withdrew, destroying roads and bridges behind them. McClellan then
made a further retreat, for which these obstructive tactics gave time,
across the White Oak Swamp down the river, moving on a single road,
leading to higher ground, which was held by hasty defenses. The
Confederate attacks upon this new line made the battles of Savage
Station, Charles City Cross Roads, and Frazier's Farm, the pursuit
being checked long enough to permit another retreat and the formation
of lines of defense on Malvern Hill, fifteen miles southeast of
Richmond, adjoining James River. The Confederates again attacked, but
met a disastrous check; and, wearied by a week of battles and marches,
they then desisted, closing the seven days' fighting, in which both
sides were worn out, and the losses were forty thousand men.
McClellan's army, having retreated from around Richmond, afterwards
withdrew farther down James River to Harrison's Landing, and here they
rested. Subsequently they were removed by vessels to Washington for
the later campaign which resulted in the second battle of Bull Run,
McClellan being superseded for a brief period by Pope. This brilliant
Confederate movement against McClellan raised the siege and relieved
Richmond, emboldening them to make their subsequent aggressive
campaigns across the Potomac, which were checked at Antietam and at
Gettysburg.
GRANT'S SIEGE OF RICHMOND.
There were no Union attacks directly against Richmond in 1863. The
second great movement upon the Confederate Capital began in June,
1864, when Grant came down through the Wilderness, as already
described, and attacked the Confederates at Cold Harbor. Lee was
entrenched there in almost the same defensive position occupied by
McClellan's rear when protecting his retreat across the Chickahominy
two years before. Grant made little impression, but in a brief and
bloody battle lost fifteen thousand men. He then turned aside from
this almost impregnable position to the northeast of Richmond, went
south to the James River, and, crossing over, started a new attack
from a different quarter. This removed the seat of war to the south of
Richmond, and in September, 1864, General Butler's Unionist troops
from Bermuda Hundred captured Fort Harrison, a strong work on the
northeast side of the James, opposite Drewry's Bluff, and not far from
Malvern Hill. The campaign then became one of stubborn persistence.
Throughout the autumn and winter Grant gradually spread his lines
westward around Petersburg, so that the later movements were more a
siege of that city than of Richmond. City Point, at the mouth of the
Appomattox, flowing out from Petersburg to the James, became his base
of supplies. As the Union lines were extended steadily westward, one
railway after another, leading from the far South up to Petersburg and
Richmond, was cut off, and Lee was ultimately starved out, forcing the
abandonment of Petersburg in the early spring of 1865, and the
evacuation of Richmond on April 3d, with the retreat of Lee westward,
and the final surrender at Appomattox six days later, causing the
downfall of the Confederacy, and ending the war.
From the top of Libby Hill in Richmond the route is still pointed out
by which the swiftly moving Union troops, after that fateful Sunday of
the evacuation, advanced over the level lands from Petersburg towards
the burning city. The bridges across the James were burnt, and acres
of buildings in the business section were in flames when they came to
the river bank and found that the greater portion of the affrighted
people had fled. The Yankees quickly laid a pontoon bridge, crossed
to Shockoe Hill, rushed up to the Capitol, and raised the Union "Stars
and Stripes" on the roof, replacing the Confederate "Stars and Bars."
Then they went vigorously to work putting out the fires, and the new
infusion of life given the city by its baptism of blood imparted an
energy which has not only restored it, but has given it an era of
great prosperity. It is a curious fact that the nearest approach any
Northern troops made to Richmond during the progress of the war was in
March, 1864. A precursor to Grant's march through the Wilderness was a
dashing cavalry raid from the northward, the troopers crossing the
Chickahominy, then unguarded, and advancing to a point about one mile
from the city limits. Here they met some resistance, and, learning of
defensive works farther ahead, General Kilpatrick, who commanded the
raiders, retreated. General Lee's troops were then fifty miles away
from Richmond, guarding the lines along the Rappahannock.
PIEDMONT AND THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY.
In the great strategic movements of the opposing armies of the Civil
War they repeatedly traversed a large part of Virginia and Maryland to
the northwest of the route between Washington and Richmond. Like the
general coastal formation east of the Alleghenies, Virginia rises into
successive ridges parallel with the mountains. The first range of low
broken hills stretching southwest from the Potomac are called in
different parts the Kittoctin, Bull Run and other mountains extending
down to the Carolina boundary. From these, what is known as the
Piedmont district stretches all across the State, and has a width of
about twenty-five miles to the base of the Blue Ridge, being a
succession of picturesque valleys and rolling lands, the general
elevation gradually increasing towards the northwest, where it is
bordered by the towering Blue Ridge and its many spurs and plateaus,
with passages through at various gaps. The Blue Ridge is elevated
about fifteen hundred feet at the Potomac, but Mount Marshall, at
Front Royal, rises nearly thirty-four hundred feet, and the Peaks of
Otter, farther southwest, are much higher. Beyond this is the great
Appalachian Valley, which stretches from New England to Alabama, the
section here being known as the "Valley of Virginia," and its northern
portion as the Shenandoah Valley. This is a belt of rolling country,
with many hills and vales, diversified by streams that wind among the
hillsides, and having a varying breadth of ten to fifty miles in
different parts. Beyond it, to the northwest, are the main Allegheny
Mountain ranges. The opposing troops marched and fought over all this
country in connection with the greater military movements, and here
was the special theatre of Stonewall Jackson's exploits and his
wonderful marches and quick manoeuvres which made his troops
proudly style themselves his "foot cavalry." The memory of Jackson is
cherished by the Southern people more than that of any other of their
leaders in the Civil War, and his brilliant exploits and inopportune
death have made him their special hero.
In the Piedmont region, to the southeast and in front of the Blue
Ridge, are the towns of Leesburg, Manassas, Warrenton, Culpepper,
Orange and Charlottesville, all well known in connection with the
opposing military movements. Charlottesville, about sixty-five miles
northwest of Richmond, in a beautiful situation, was an important
Confederate base of supplies. Here are now about six thousand people,
and the town has its chief fame as the seat of the University of
Virginia and the home of Thomas Jefferson. The University was founded
mainly through the exertions of Jefferson, and has some five hundred
students. Its buildings are a mile out of town, and the original ones
were constructed from Jefferson's designs and under his supervision,
the chief being the Rotunda, recently rebuilt, and the modern
structures for a Museum of Natural History and an Observatory.
Jefferson was proud of this institution, and in the inscription which
he prepared for his tomb described himself as the "author of the
Declaration of Independence, and of the statute of Virginia for
religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia." Among
its most famous students was Edgar Allan Poe, and a fine bronze bust
of him was unveiled at the University in 1899, on the fiftieth
anniversary of his death. Thomas Jefferson lived at Monticello, the
old house being an interesting specimen of early Virginia
architecture, and standing on a hill southeast of the town. Here he
died just fifty years after the Declaration was promulgated, July 4,
1826, and he is buried in the family graveyard near the house.
Monticello is now celebrated for its native wines.
The Shenandoah Valley during the war was noted for the way in which
the opposing forces chased each other up and down, with repeated
severe battles. Here was fought, in June, 1862, the battle of Cross
Keys, near the forks of the Shenandoah. Jackson had previously
retreated up the Valley, but by a series of brilliant movements, begun
after the battle of Fair Oaks before Richmond, he was able to meet and
defeat in detail the various armies under Banks, Fremont, McDowell and
Shields, thus managing to foil or hold in check seventy thousand men,
while his own troops were never more than twenty thousand. Then coming
southward out of the Valley, he joined in turning McClellan's right
wing before Richmond at the end of June, afterwards following up Banks
in August, and defeating him at Cedar Mountain, near Culpepper; then
joining in the defeat of Pope at the second battle of Bull Run; then
capturing Harper's Ferry and eleven thousand men September 15th, and
finally taking part in the battle of Antietam two days later. When
Grant began his siege of Richmond after the second battle of Cold
Harbor, in 1864, he made General Sheridan commander of the troops in
the Shenandoah Valley, and fortune turned. Sheridan opposed Early, and
in September and October had a series of brilliant victories, the last
one at Cedar Creek, where he turned a rout into a victory by his
prompt movements. Sheridan had been in Washington, and came to
Winchester, "twenty miles away," where he heard "the terrible grumble
and rumble and roar" of the battle, and made his noted ride, the
exploit being so conspicuous that he received the thanks of Congress.
Early in 1865 he made a cavalry raid from Winchester, in the Valley,
down to the westward of Richmond, around Lee's lines, and rejoined the
army at Petersburg, having destroyed the James River and Kanawha Canal
and cut various important railway connections in the Confederate rear.
The Shenandoah Valley to-day is very much in its primitive condition
of agriculture, but has been opened up by railway connections which
develop its resources, and its great present attraction is the Cave of
Luray. This cavern is about five miles from the Blue Ridge, and some
distance southwest of Front Royal. It is a compact cavern, well
lighted by electricity, and is more completely and profusely decorated
with stalactites and stalagmites than any other in the world. Some of
the chambers are very imposing, and all the more important formations
have been appropriately named. The scenery of the neighborhood is
picturesque, and the cavern has many visitors.
THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG.
In considering the great theatre of the Civil War, attention is
naturally directed to the chief contest of all, and the turning-point
of the rebellion, the battle of Gettysburg, fought at the beginning of
July, 1863. After the victory at Chancellorsville in May the
Confederates determined to carry the war northward into the enemy's
country. Gettysburg is seven miles north of the southern boundary of
Pennsylvania, and over forty miles from the Potomac River. To the
westward is the long curving range of the South Mountain, and beyond
this the great Appalachian Valley, a continuation of the Shenandoah
Valley, crossing Central Pennsylvania in a curve, and here called the
Cumberland Valley. In the latter are two prominent towns, Chambersburg
in Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown in Maryland, on the Potomac. General
Lee, in preparation for the march northward, gathered nearly ninety
thousand men at Culpepper in Virginia, including Stuart's cavalry
force of ten thousand. General Hooker's Union army, which had
withdrawn across the Rappahannock after Chancellorsville, was then
encamped opposite Fredericksburg, and one hundred and fifty miles
south of Gettysburg. Lee started northward across the Potomac, but
Hooker did not discover it for some days, and then rapidly followed.
The Confederates crossed between June 22d and 25th, and concentrated
at Hagerstown, in the Cumberland Valley, up which they made a rapid
march, overrunning the entire valley to the Susquehanna River, and
appearing opposite Harrisburg and Columbia. Hooker, being late in
movement, crossed the Potomac lower down than Lee, on June 28th, thus
making a northern race, up the curving valleys, with Lee in advance,
but on the longer route of the outer circle. There was a garrison of
ten thousand men at Harper's Ferry on the Potomac, and Hooker asked
that they be added to his army; but the War Department declined, and
Hooker immediately resigned, being succeeded by General George G.
Meade, who thus on the eve of the battle became the Union commander.
There are two parallel ridges bordering the plain on which Gettysburg
stands. The long Seminary Ridge, stretching from north to south about
a mile west of the town, gets its name from the Lutheran Theological
Seminary standing upon it; and the Cemetery Ridge to the south of the
town, which partly stretches up its slopes, has on its northern
flat-topped hill the village cemetery, wherein the principal grave
then was that of James Gettys, after whom the place was named. There
is an outlying eminence called Culp's Hill farther to the east,
making, with the Cemetery Ridge, a formation bent around much like a
fish-hook, with the graveyard at the bend and Culp's Hill at the barb,
while far down at the southern end of the long straight shank, as the
ridge extends for two miles away, with an intervening rocky gorge
called the Devil's Den, there are two peaks, formed of tree-covered
crags, known as the Little Round Top and the Big Round Top. These long
parallel ridges, with the intervale and the country immediately around
them, are the battlefield, which the topographical configuration well
displays. It covers about twenty-five square miles, and lies mainly
southwest of the town.
It was on June 28th that General Meade unexpectedly assumed command of
the Union army, and he was then near the Potomac. General Ewell with
the Confederate advance guard had gone up the Cumberland Valley as far
as Carlisle, and his troopers were threatening Harrisburg. Nobody had
opposed them, and the Confederate main body, which had got much ahead
of Hooker, was at Chambersburg. Lee being far from his base, and
hearing of the Union pursuit, then determined to face about and
cripple his pursuers, fixing upon Gettysburg as the point of
concentration. He ordered Ewell to march south from Carlisle, and the
other commanders east from Chambersburg through the mountain passes.
The Union cavalry advance under General Buford reached Gettysburg on
June 30th, ahead of the Confederates, and Meade's army was then
stretched over the ground for more than forty miles back to the
Potomac, all coming forward by forced marches. As soon as Meade became
aware of Lee's changed tactics he concluded that this extended
formation was too risky, and decided to concentrate in a strong
position upon the Pipe Creek hills in Maryland, about fifteen miles
south of Gettysburg, and issued the necessary orders. Thus the battle
opened, with each army executing a movement for concentration.
THE GREAT BATTLE.
The battle began on July 1st, the Union Cavalry, which had gone out to
the west and north of Gettysburg, becoming engaged with the
Confederate advance approaching the town from the passes through the
South Mountain. The cavalry, at first victorious, was soon overwhelmed
by superior numbers, and infantry supports arrived, under General
Reynolds; but he was killed, and they were all driven back and through
Gettysburg to the cemetery and Culp's Hill, which were manned by fresh
troops that had come up. Meade was then at Pipe Creek, laying out a
defensive line, but when he heard of Reynolds' death and the defeat,
he sent General Hancock forward to take command, who decided that the
Cemetery Ridge was the place to give battle. Ewell had in the meantime
extended the Confederate left wing around to the east of Culp's Hill
and held Gettysburg, but active operations were suspended, and the
night was availed of by both sides to get their forces up and into
position, which was mainly accomplished by morning.
When the second day, July 2d, opened, the armies confronted each other
in line of battle. The Union troops were along the Cemetery Ridge and
the Confederates upon the Seminary Ridge, across the intervale to the
west, their lines also stretching around through Gettysburg to the
north of the cemetery, and two miles east along the base of Culp's
Hill. In the long intervening valley, and in the ravines and upon the
slopes of the Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill, the main battle was
fought. The attack began by General Longstreet advancing against the
two Round Tops, but after a bloody contest he was repulsed. General
Sickles, who held the line to the south of the Little Round Top, then
thought he could improve his position by advancing a half-mile into
the valley towards the Seminary Ridge, thus making a broken Union
line, with a portion dangerously thrust forward. The enemy soon took
advantage of this, and fell upon Sickles, front and flank, almost
overwhelming his line in the "Peach Orchard," and driving it back to
the adjacent "Wheat Field." Reinforcements were quickly poured in, and
there was a hot conflict, Sickles being seriously wounded and his
troops almost cut to pieces. About the same time Ewell made a terrific
charge out of Gettysburg upon the Cemetery and Culp's Hill, with the
"Louisiana Tigers" and other troops, effecting a lodgement, although
the defending soldiers wrought great havoc by a heavy cannonade. The
Union gunners on Little Round Top ultimately cleared the "Wheat
Field," and then the combatants rested. Lee was much inspirited by his
successes, and determined to renew the attack next morning.
Upon the third and last day, July 3d, General Meade opened the combat
early in the morning by driving out Ewell's forces, who had effected a
lodgement on Culp's Hill. General Lee did not learn of this, but he
was full of the idea that both the Union centre and right wing had
been weakened the previous day, and during the night he planned an
attack in front, to be accompanied by a cavalry movement around the
Union right to assail the rear, thus following up Ewell's supposed
advantage. To give Stuart with the cavalry time to get around to the
rear, the front attack was not made until afternoon. During the
morning each side got cannon into position, Lee having one hundred and
twenty guns along Seminary Ridge, and Meade eighty in the Cemetery and
southward, along a low, irregular stone pile, forming a sort of rude
wall bordering the road leading from Gettysburg south to Taneytown, in
Maryland. The action began about one o'clock in the afternoon, when
the Confederates opened fire, and the most terrific artillery duel of
the war took place across the intervening valley, six guns being
discharged every second. The troops suffered little, as they kept down
in the ground, but several Union guns were dismounted. After two hours
deafening cannonade Lee ordered his grand attack, the celebrated
charge by General Pickett, a force of fourteen thousand men with
brigade front advancing across the valley. They marched swiftly, and
had a mile to go, but before they were half-way across all the
available Union guns had been trained upon them. Their attack was
directed at an umbrella-shaped clump of trees on the Cemetery Ridge at
a low place where the rude stone wall made an angle, with its point
outside. General Hancock commanded this portion of the Union line. The
grape and canister of the Union cannonade ploughed furrows through
Pickett's ranks, and when his column got within three hundred yards,
Hancock opened musketry fire with terrible effect. Thousands fell, and
the brigades broke in disorder; but the advance, headed by General
Armistead on foot, continued, and about one hundred and fifty men
leaped over the stone piles at the angle to capture the Union guns.
Lieutenant Cushing, mortally wounded in both thighs, ran his last
serviceable gun towards the wall, and shouting to his commander,
"Webb, I will give them one more shot!" he fired the gun and died.
Armistead put his hand on the cannon, waved his sword, and called out,
"Give them the cold steel, boys!" then, pierced by bullets, he fell
dead alongside of Cushing. Both lay near the clump of trees, about
thirty yards inside the wall, their corpses marking the farthest point
to which Pickett's advance penetrated. There was a hand to hand
conflict; Webb was wounded, and also Hancock, and the slaughter was
dreadful. The Confederates were overwhelmed, and not one-fourth of the
gallant charging column, composed of the flower of the Virginia
troops, escaped, the remnant retreating in disorder. Stuart's cavalry
failed to coöperate as intended, having met the Union cavalry about
four miles to the east of Gettysburg, and the conflict ensuing
prevented their attacking the Union rear. After Pickett's retreat
there was a general Union advance, closing the combat.
The point within the angle of the stone wall where Cushing and
Armistead fell has been commemorated by what is known as the
"High-Water Mark Monument," for it was placed at the point reached by
the top of the flood-tide of the rebellion, as afterwards there was a
steady ebb. During the night of July 3d Lee began a retreat, and aided
by heavy rains, usually following great battles, the Confederates next
day withdrew through the mountain passes towards Hagerstown, and
afterwards escaped across the Potomac. Upon the day of Lee's retreat,
Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant, and these two events began the
Confederacy's downfall. There were engaged in the battle of Gettysburg
about eighty thousand men on each side, the Union army having three
hundred and thirty-nine cannon and the Confederates two hundred and
ninety-three. It was the largest battle of the Civil War in the actual
numbers engaged, and one of the most hotly contested. The Union loss
was twenty-three thousand and three killed, wounded and prisoners, and
the Confederate loss twenty-three thousand seven hundred and
sixty-eight.
THE GETTYSBURG MONUMENTS.
The battlefield of Gettysburg is better marked, both topographically
and by monuments, than probably any other battlefield in the world.
Over a million dollars have been expended on the grounds and
monuments. The "Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association,"
representing the soldiers engaged, has marked all the important
points, and the tracts along the lines, over four hundred and fifty
acres, have been acquired, so as to thoroughly preserve all the
landmarks where the most important movements were executed. There are
some five hundred monuments upon the field, placed with the utmost
care in the exact localities, and standing in woods or on open ground,
by the roadsides, on stony heights and ridges in gardens, and of all
designs, executed in bronze, marble, granite, on boulders and
otherwise. Marking-posts also designate the positions of the various
organizations in the opposing armies. To the north and west of
Gettysburg is the scene of the first day's contest, but the more
interesting part is to the southward. Ascending the Cemetery Hill,
there is passed, by the roadside, the house of Jenny Wade, the only
woman killed in the battle, accidentally shot while baking bread. The
rounded Cemetery Hill is an elevated and strong position having many
monuments, and here, alongside the little village graveyard, the
Government established a National Cemetery of seventeen acres, where
thirty-five hundred and seventy-two soldiers are buried, over a
thousand being the unknown dead. A magnificent battle monument is here
erected, surmounted by a statue of Liberty, and at the base of the
shaft having figures of War, History, Peace and Plenty. This charming
spot was the centre of the Union line, then a rough, rocky hill. The
cemetery was dedicated in November, 1863, Edward Everett delivering
the oration, and the monument on July 1, 1869. At the cemetery
dedication President Lincoln made the famous "twenty-line address"
which is regarded as the most immortal utterance of the martyr
President, and has become an American classic. The British
_Westminster Review_ described it as an oration having but one equal,
in that pronounced upon those who fell during the first year of the
Peloponnesian War, and as being its superior, because "natural, fuller
of feeling, more touching and pathetic, and we know with an absolute
certainty that it was really delivered." The President was requested
to say a few words by way of dedication, and drawing from his pocket
a crumpled piece of paper on which he had written some notes, he spoke
as follows:
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this
continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation, so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the
final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and
dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we
say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us,
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that
they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they
here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly
resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain--that the nation
shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."
A mile across the valley the Lutheran Seminary is seen, the most
conspicuous landmark of the Confederate line. To the southeast from
the cemetery is Culp's Hill, strewn with rocks and boulders and
covered with trees. The Emmettsburg road goes southward down the
valley, gradually diverging from the Union line, and crossing the
fields that were the battleground on the second and third days. It is
bordered by numerous monuments, some of great merit, and leads to the
"Peach Orchard," where the line bends sharply back. Peach trees are
replanted here as the old ones fall. The "Wheat Field" is alongside,
now grass-grown. Beyond it the surface goes down among the crags and
broken stones of the "Devil's Den," a ravine through which flows a
stream, coming from the orchard and wheat field, and separating them
from the rocky "Round Tops," the sandstone cliffs of the "Little Round
Top" rising high above the ravine. The fields sloping to the stream
above the Den are known as the "Valley of Death." Among these rocks
there are many monuments, made of the boulders that are so numerous. A
toilsome path mounts the "Big Round Top" beyond, and an Observatory on
the summit gives a good view over almost the entire battlefield. This
summit, more than three miles south of Gettysburg, has tall timber,
preserved as it was in the battle. There are cannon surmounting the
"Round Tops," representing the batteries in action. Across the valley
to the west is the long fringe of timber that masked the Confederate
position on Seminary Ridge. A picnic-ground, with access by railway,
is located alongside the "Round Tops." The lines of breastworks are
maintained, and upon the lower ground, not far away, are preserved the
rough stone walls, and to the northward is the little umbrella-shaped
grove of trees at which Pickett's charge was directed. The Twentieth
Massachusetts regiment brought here a huge conglomerate boulder from
New England and set it up as their monument, their Colonel, Paul
Revere, being killed in the battle.
There was no fighting along the Confederate line on Seminary Ridge
until the scene of the first day's conflict is reached, to the
northwest of Gettysburg. Here is marked where General Reynolds fell,
just within a grove of trees, and a fine equestrian statue of him has
been erected on the field. From his untimely death, Reynolds is
regarded as the special Union hero of the battle, as Armistead was the
Southern. Nearby a spirited statue, the "Massachusetts Color-Bearer,"
holds aloft the flag of the Thirteenth Massachusetts regiment,
standing upon a slope, thus marking the spot where he fell at the
opening of the conflict. Such is the broad and impressive scene of one
of the leading battles of the world, and the greatest ever fought in
America. But happily the passions which caused it have been stilled,
and the combatants are now again united in their patriotic devotion to
a common country. As Longfellow solemnly sounds his invocation in the
_Building of the Ship_, so now do all the people in the reunited
Union:
"Thus too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!"
THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE.
III.
THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE.
Delaware Bay--Cape May--Cape Henlopen--Delaware
Breakwater--Maurice River Cove--The Pea Patch--Newcastle
--Mason and Dixon's Line--Fort Christina--Wilmington--
The Duponts--Brandywine--William Penn--West Jersey--
Pennsylvania--Upland--The Ship "Welcome"--Philadelphia
--Shackamaxon--The Lenni Lenapes--The City Hall--
Independence Hall--Benjamin Franklin--Betsy Ross and the
American Flag--Stephen Girard--Girard College--Notable
Charities and Buildings--Christ Church--Old Swedes' Church
--Longfellow's Evangeline--Cathedral of St. Peter and St.
Paul--University of Pennsylvania--City of Homes--John
Bartram and his Garden--Fairmount Park--Laurel Hill--
Wissahickon Creek--Germantown--Johannes Kelpius--The
Schuylkill River--Tom Moore--Pennsylvania Dutch--Valley
Forge--Reading--Port Clinton--Pottsville--Anthracite
Coal-fields--New Jersey Coast Resorts--Atlantic City--
Ocean Grove--Asbury Park--Long Branch--St. Tammany--
Poquessing--Rancocas--The Neshaminy--The Log College--
Bristol--Burlington--Pennsbury Manor--Bordentown--
Admiral Stewart--Joseph Bonaparte--Camden and Amboy
Railroad--Delaware and Raritan Canal--Trenton Gravel--
Trenton, its Potteries, Crackers and Battle--The Swamp Angel
--Morrisville--General Moreau--Princeton and its Battle
--General Mercer--Princeton University--Jonathan Edwards
--Marshall's Walk--Pennsylvania Palisades--Forks of the
Delaware--Easton--Lafayette College--Ario Pardee--
Phillipsburg--Morris Canal--Lake Hopatcong--Lehigh River
--Bethlehem--Lehigh University--The Moravians--Count
Zinzendorf--Teedyuscung--Allentown--Lehigh Gap--Mauch
Chunk--Asa Packer--Coal Mining--Summit Hill--The
Switchback--Nescopec Mountain--Wyoming Valley--
Wilkesbarre--Harvey's Lake--Scranton--Wyoming Massacre
--The Foul Rift--The Terminal Moraine--The Great Glacier
--Belvidere--Delaware Water Gap--The Wind Gap--Minsi
and Tammany--The Minisink--The Buried Valleys--Nicholas
Depui--George La Bar--Stroudsburg--Pocono Knob--
Bushkill--Walpack Bend--Pike County--Dingman's Choice--
Waterfalls--Milford--Tom Quick, the Indian Killer--
Tri-States Corner--Neversink River--Port Jervis--
Delaware and Hudson Canal--High Point--The Catskill Flags
--Hawk's Nest--Shohola--The Lackawaxen and its Battle--
The Sylvania Society--Horace Greeley--Blooming Grove--
Pocono High Knob--Hawley--The Wallenpaupack--The Indian
Orchard--Honesdale--Washington Irving--The Gravity
Railroad--Carbondale--Mast Hope--Narrowsburg--
Cochecton--Hancock--Delaware Headwaters--Popacton River
--Mohock River--Deposit--Oquaga Creek and Lake--Lake
Utsyanthia--Ote-se-on-teo, Source of the Delaware.
DELAWARE BAY.
The famous navigator of the Dutch East India Company, Hendrick Hudson,
was the first white man who entered Delaware Bay. He discovered it on
August 28, 1609, two weeks before he entered Sandy Hook Bay and found
the Hudson River. When Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, Governor of
Virginia, was driven by stress of weather into the bay in 1611, his
name was given the river. In 1614 another redoubtable old skipper of
the Dutch East India Company, Captain Carolis Jacobsen Mey, searching,
like all the rest of the navigators of those days, for the northwest
passage to Asia and the Indies, came along there with a small fleet of
sixty-ton frigates, and tried to give the river and its capes his
names; but only one of these has survived, Cape May. The southern
portal at the entrance, which he wished to make Cape Carolis, was
named a few years afterwards, by the Swedes, Cape Henlopen. The
Indians called the river "Lenape-wihituck," or the "river of the
Lenapes," meaning "the original people," or, as sometimes translated,
the "manly men," the name of the aboriginal confederation that dwelt
upon its banks. It had various other names, for when the Swedes came,
the Indians about the bay called it "Pantoxet." In an early deed to
William Penn it is called "Mackeriskickon," and in another document
the "Zunikoway." Some of the tribes up the river named it "Kithanue,"
meaning the "main stem," as distinguished from its tributaries, and
those on the upper waters called it the "Lemasepose," or the "Fish
River," for the Upper Delaware was then a famous salmon stream, and
its early Dutch explorers thus came to calling it the "Fish River"
also. The Delaware, from its source in the Catskills to the sea, is
about three hundred and sixty miles in length.
The estuary of Delaware Bay is about sixty miles long and thirty miles
broad in the widest part, contracting towards the north to less than
five miles. The capes at the entrance are about fifteen miles apart.
As a protection to shipping, the Government began, on the Cape
Henlopen side, in 1829, the construction of the famous Delaware
Breakwater. It consists of a stone breakwater about twenty-six hundred
feet long facing the northeast, and an icebreaker about fourteen
hundred feet long, at right angles, facing the upper bay. These were
completed in 1870, there being an opening between them of about
sixteen hundred feet width, which was afterwards filled up. The
surface protected covers three hundred and sixty acres, and the whole
work cost about $3,500,000. It was estimated in 1871 that fully twenty
thousand vessels every year availed of the protection of this
breakwater, the depth of water being twenty-four feet behind
it--sufficient for most of the shipping of that day. But as vessels
have become larger and of deeper draft, they have not been able to use
it, and the Government has recently begun the construction of another
and larger breakwater for a harbor of refuge in deeper water adjoining
the regular ship channel, some distance to the northward. Delaware Bay
divides the States of Delaware and New Jersey. The first settlement in
Delaware was made by the Dutch near Lewes in 1630, but the Indians
destroyed the colony; and in 1638 a colony of Swedes and Finns came
out under the auspices of the Swedish West India Company, landed and
named Cape Henlopen, and purchased from the Indians all the land from
there up to the falls at Trenton, finally locating their fort near the
mouth of Christiana Creek, and naming the country Nya Sveriga, or New
Sweden. The Swedes and Dutch quarrelled about their respective rights
until New York was taken by the English in 1664, after which England
controlled. The first settlement in New Jersey was made by Captains
Mey and Jorisz in 1623, who built the Dutch Fort Nassau a short
distance below Philadelphia; but it did not last.
Delaware Bay is an expansive inland sea, subject to fierce storms, and
broadening on its eastern side into Maurice River Cove, noted for its
oysters. A deep ship channel conducts commerce through the centre of
the bay, marked by lighthouses built out on mid-bay shoals, and, as
the shores approach, by range lights on the banks, the Delaware Bay
and River being regarded as the best marked and lighted stream in the
country. Up at the head of the bay, years ago, a ship loaded with peas
and beans sank, and this in time made at first a shoal, and afterwards
an island, since known as the "Pea Patch." Here and on the adjacent
shores the Government has lately erected formidable forts, which make,
with their torpedo stations in the channel, a complete system of
defensive works in the Delaware, first put into active occupation
during the Spanish War of 1898, as a protection against a hostile
fleet entering the river. Over in the "Diamond State" of Delaware,
near here, on the river shore, is the aged town of Newcastle, quiet
and yet attractive, having in operation, and evidently to the popular
satisfaction, the whipping-post and stocks, a method of punishment
which is a terror to all evil-doers, and is said to be most successful
in preventing crime, as thieves and marauders give Newcastle a wide
berth. This was originally a Swedish settlement, the standard of the
great Gustavus Adolphus being unfurled there in 1640, when it was
called Sandhuken, or Sandy Hook, it being a point of land jutting out
between two little creeks. The Dutch soon captured it, changing the
name to New Amstel; and about 1670 the settlement, then containing
nearly a hundred houses, became New Castle, under English auspices.
The northern boundary of the State of Delaware, dividing it from
Pennsylvania, is an arc of a circle, made by a radius of twelve miles
described around the old Court House at Newcastle, which still has in
its tower the bell presented by Queen Anne.
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.
In coming over by railroad from the Chesapeake to the Delaware, the
train, after crossing the broad Susquehanna and the head of Elk, and
rounding in Maryland the Northeast Arm of Chesapeake Bay, soon enters
the State of Delaware near the northeastern corner of the former
State. This corner is at the termination of the crescent-shaped
northern boundary of Delaware. The northern boundary of Maryland here
beginning and laid down due west, to separate it from Pennsylvania, is
the famous "Mason and Dixon's Line," surveyed by Charles Mason and
Jeremiah Dixon, two noted English mathematicians and astronomers in
the eighteenth century. This boundary gained great notoriety because
it so long marked the northern limit of slavery in the United States.
For almost a century there were conflicts about their respective
limits between the rival proprietaries of the two States, producing
sometimes riot and bloodshed, until, in 1763, these men were brought
over from England, and in December began laying out the line on the
parallel of latitude 39° 43' 26.3" North. They were at the work
several years, surveying the line two hundred and forty-four miles
west from the Delaware River, and within thirty-six miles of the
entire distance to be run, when the French and Indian troubles began,
and they were attacked and driven off, returning to Philadelphia in
December, 1767. At the end of every fifth mile a stone was planted,
graven with the arms of the Penn family on one side and of Lord
Baltimore on the other. The intermediate miles were marked by smaller
stones, having a P on one side and an M on the other, all the stones
thus used for monuments being sent out from England. After the
Revolution, in 1782, the remainder of the line was laid down, and in
1849 the original surveys were revised and found substantially
correct.
When the little colony of Swedes and Finns under Peter Minuet came
into Christiana Creek in April, 1638, and established their fort,
they began the first permanent settlement in the valley of the
Delaware. It was built upon a small rocky promontory, and they named
it Christina, in honor of the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. The Dutch
afterwards captured it and called it Fort Altena; but the town
retained part of the original name in Christinaham, and the creek also
retained the name, the English taking possession in 1664. The Swedes,
however, regardless of the flag that might wave over them, still
remained; and their old stone church, built in 1698, still stands,
down near the promontory by the waterside, in a yard filled with
time-worn gravestones. This old Swedes' Church of the Holy Trinity,
the oldest now on the Delaware, was dedicated on Trinity Sunday, 1699,
and Rev. Ericus Tobias Biorck came out from Sweden to take charge as
rector. It was sixty by thirty feet and twenty feet high, and a little
bell tower was afterwards added. The ancient church was recently
thoroughly restored to its original condition, with brick floor, oaken
benches, and stout rafters supporting the roof. This interesting
church building is in a factory district which is now part of
Wilmington, the chief city of Delaware, a busy manufacturing community
of sixty-five thousand people, built on the Christiana and Brandywine
Creeks, which unite about a mile from the Delaware. This active city
was laid out above the old settlement, in 1731, by William Shipley,
who came from Leicestershire, England. Ships, railway cars and
gunpowder are the chief manufactures of Wilmington. The Brandywine
Creek, in a distance of four miles, terminating in the city, falls one
hundred and twenty feet, providing a great water power. Up this stream
are the extensive Dupont powder-mills, among the largest in the world,
founded by the French statesman and economist, Pierre Samuel Du Pont
De Nemours, who, after the vicissitudes of the French Revolution,
migrated with his family to the United States in 1799, and was
received with distinguished consideration. He afterwards was
instrumental in securing the treaty of 1803 by which France ceded
Louisiana, and was in the service of Napoleon, but finally returned to
America, where his sons were conducting the powder-works, and he died
near Wilmington in 1817. Admiral Samuel Francis Dupont, of the
American Navy, was his grandson. Farther up the Brandywine Creek, at
Chadd's Ford and vicinity, was fought, in September, 1777, the battle
of the Brandywine, where the English victory enabled them to
subsequently take possession of Philadelphia.
WILLIAM PENN.
Above Wilmington, the Delaware River is a noble tidal stream of about
a mile wide, flowing between gently sloping shores, and carrying an
extensive commerce. The great river soon brings us to the famous
Quaker settlements of Pennsylvania. William Penn, who had become a
member of the Society of Friends, was bequeathed by his father,
Admiral Sir William Penn, an estate of £1500 a year and large claims
against the British Government. Fenwick and Byllinge, both Quakers,
who had proprietary rights in New Jersey, disputed in 1674, and
submitted their difference to Penn's arbitration. He decided in favor
of Byllinge, who subsequently became embarrassed, and made over his
property to Penn and two creditors as trustees. This seems to have
turned Penn's attention to America as a place of settlement for the
persecuted Quakers, and he engaged with zeal in the work of
colonization, and in 1681 obtained from the king, for himself and
heirs, in payment of a debt of £16,000 due his father, a patent for
the territory now forming Pennsylvania, on the fealty of the annual
payment of two beaver skins. He wanted to call his territory New
Wales, as many of the colonists came from there, and afterwards
suggested Sylvania as specially applicable to a land covered with
forests; but the king ordered the name Pennsylvania inserted in the
grant, in honor, as he said, of his late friend the Admiral. In
February, 1682, Penn, with eleven others, purchased West Jersey,
already colonized to some extent. Tradition says that some of these
West Jersey colonists sent Penn a sod in which was planted a green
twig, to show that he owned the land and all that grew upon it. Next
they presented him with a dish full of water, because he was
master of the seas and rivers; and then they gave him the keys, to
show he was in command and had all the power.
[Illustration: _Penn's Letitia Street House, Removed to Fairmount
Park_]
When William Penn was granted his province, he wrote that "after many
waitings, watchings, solicitings and disputes in council, this day my
country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England." He had
great hopes for its future, for he subsequently wrote: "God will bless
and make it the seed of a nation; I shall have a tender care of the
government that it will be well laid at first." Some of the Swedes
from Christina had come up the river in 1643 and settled at the mouth
of Chester Creek, at a place called Upland. The site was an eligible
one, and the first parties of Quakers, coming out in three ships,
settled there, living in caves which they dug in the river bank, these
caves remaining for many years after they had built houses. Penn drew
up a liberal scheme of government and laws for his colony, in which he
is said to have had the aid of Henry, the brother of Algernon Sidney,
and of Sir William Jones. He was not satisfied with Upland, however,
as his permanent place of settlement, but directed that another site
be chosen higher up the Delaware, at some point where "it is most
navigable, high, dry and healthy; that is, where most ships can best
ride, of deepest draught of water, if possible, to load or unload, at
the bank or key-side, without boating or lightening of it." This site
being selected between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, and the
city laid out, Penn, with about a hundred companions, mostly Welsh
Quakers, in September, 1682, embarked for the Delaware on the ship
"Welcome," arriving at Upland after a six weeks' voyage, and then
going up to his city site, which he named Philadelphia, the "City of
Brotherly Love."
The first explorers of the Delaware River found located upon the site
of Philadelphia the Indian settlement of Coquanock, or "the grove of
long pine trees," a sort of capital city for the Lenni Lenapes. Their
great chief was Tamanend, and the primeval forest, largely composed of
noble pine trees, then covered all the shores of the river. The ship
"Shield," from England, with Quaker colonists for Burlington, in West
Jersey, higher up the river, sailed past Coquanock in 1679, and a note
was made that "part of the tackling struck the trees, whereupon some
on board remarked that 'it was a fine spot for a town.'" When Penn
sent out his advance agent and Deputy Governor, Captain William
Markham, of the British army, in his scarlet uniform, to lay out the
plan of his projected city, he wrote him to "be tender of offending
the Indians," and gave instructions that the houses should have open
grounds around them, as he wished the new settlement to be "a green
country town," and at the same time to be healthy, and free from the
danger of extensive conflagrations. Penn bought the land farther down
the Delaware from the Swedes, who had originally bought it from the
Indians, and the site for his city he bought from the Indians direct.
They called him Mignon, and the Iroquois, who subsequently made
treaties with him, called him Onas, both words signifying a quill pen,
as they recognized the meaning of his name. Out on the Delaware, in
what is now the Kensington shipbuilding district, is the "neutral land
of Shackamaxon." This word means, in the Indian dialect, the "place of
eels." Here, for centuries before Penn's arrival, the Indian tribes
from all the region east of the Alleghenies, between the Great Lakes,
the Hudson River and the Potomac, had been accustomed to kindle their
council fires, smoke the pipe of deliberation, exchange the wampum
belts of explanation and treaty, and make bargains. Some came by long
trails hundreds of miles overland through the woods, and some in their
birch canoes by water and portage. It was on this "neutral ground" by
the riverside that Penn, soon after his arrival, held his solemn
council with the Indians, sealing mutual faith and securing their
lifelong friendship for his infant colony. This treaty, embalmed in
history and on canvas, was probably made in November, 1682, under the
"Treaty Elm" at Shackamaxon, which was blown down in 1810, the place
where it stood by the river being now preserved as a park. Its
location is marked by a monument bearing the significant inscription:
"Treaty Ground of William Penn and the Indian Nation, 1682--Unbroken
Faith." Thus began Penn's City of Brotherly Love, based on a compact
which, in the words of Voltaire, was "never sworn to and never
broken." It is no wonder that Penn, after he had seen his city site,
and had made his treaty, was so abundantly pleased that he wrote:
"As to outward things, we are satisfied, the land good, the air clear
and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provision good and easy to come
at, an innumerable quantity of wild fowl and fish; in fine, here is
what an Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be well contented with, and
service enough for God, for the fields here are white for harvest. O,
how sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and
troublesome solicitations, harries and perplexities of woeful Europe."
The Lenni Lenapes, it is stated, told Penn and his people that they
often spoke of themselves as the Wapanachki, or the "men of the
morning," in allusion to their supposed origin in the lands to the
eastward, towards the rising sun. Their tradition was that at the time
America was discovered, their nation lived on the island of New York.
They called it Manahatouh, "the place where timber is got for bows and
arrows." At the lower end of the island was a grove of hickory trees
of peculiar strength and toughness. This timber was highly esteemed
for constructing bows, arrows, war-clubs, etc. When they migrated
westward they divided into two bands. One, going to the upper
Delaware, among the mountains, was termed Minsi, or "the great stone;"
and the other band, seeking the bay and lower river, was called
Wenawmien, or "down the river." These Indians originated the name of
the Allegheny Mountains, which they called the Allickewany, the word
meaning "He leaves us and may never return"--it is supposed in
reference to departing hunters or warriors who went into the mountain
passes.
THE QUAKER CITY.
The great city thus founded by William Penn is built chiefly upon a
broad plain between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, about one
hundred miles from the sea, and upon the undulating surface to the
north and west. The shape of the city is much like an hour-glass,
between the rivers, although it spreads far west of the Schuylkill.
The Delaware River, in front of the built-up portion, sweeps around a
grand curve from northeast to south, and then, reversing the movement,
flows around the Horseshoe Bend below the city, from south to west, to
meet the Schuylkill. The railway and commercial facilities, the
proximity to the coal-fields, and the ample room to spread in all
directions, added to the cheapness of living, have made Philadelphia
the greatest manufacturing city in the world, and attracted to it
1,300,000 inhabitants. The alluvial character of the shores of the
two rivers surrounds the city with a region of the richest market
gardens, and the adjoining counties are a wealthy agricultural and
dairy section. Clay, underlying a large part of the surface, has
furnished the bricks to build much of the town. Most of the people own
their homes; there are over two hundred and fifty thousand dwellings
and a thousand miles of paved streets, and new houses are put up by
the thousands every year as additional territory is absorbed. When
Penn laid out his town-plan, he made two broad highways pointing
towards the cardinal points of the compass and crossing at right
angles in the centre, where he located a public square of ten acres.
The east and west street, one hundred feet wide, he placed at the
narrowest part of the hour-glass, where the rivers approached within
two miles of each other. This he called the High Street, but the
public persisted in calling it Market Street. The north and south
street, laid out in the centre of the plat, at its southern end
reached the Delaware near the confluence with the Schuylkill. This
street is one hundred and thirteen feet wide, Broad Street, a
magnificent thoroughfare stretching for miles and bordered with
handsome buildings. Upon the Centre Square was built a Quaker
meeting-house, the Friends, while yet occupying the caves on the bluff
banks of the Delaware that were their earliest dwellings, showing
anxiety to maintain their forms of religious worship. This
meeting-house has since multiplied into scores in the city and
adjacent districts; for the sect, while not increasing in numbers,
holds its own in wealth and importance, and has great influence in
modern Philadelphia. Afterwards the Centre Square was used for the
city water-works, and finally it was made the site of the City Hall.
The bronze statue of the founder, surmounting the City Hall tower at
five hundred and fifty feet elevation, clad in broad-brimmed hat and
Quaker garb, carrying the city charter, and gazing intently
northeastward towards the "neutral land of Shackamaxon," is the
prominent landmark for many miles around Philadelphia. A blaze of
electric light illuminates it at night. This City Hall, the largest
edifice in America, and almost as large as St. Peter's Church in Rome,
has fourteen acres of floor space and seven hundred and fifty rooms,
and cost $27,000,000. It is a quadrangle, built around a central court
about two hundred feet square, and measures four hundred and
eighty-six by four hundred and seventy feet. The lower portion is of
granite, and the upper white marble surmounted by Louvre domes and
Mansard roofs. This great building is the official centre of
Philadelphia, but the centre of population is now far to the
northwest, the city having spread in that direction. The City Hall,
excepting its tower, is also being dwarfed by the many enormous and
tall store and office buildings which have recently been constructed
on Broad and other streets near it. Closely adjacent are the two vast
stations of the railways leading into Philadelphia, the Broad Street
Station of the Pennsylvania system, and the Reading Terminal Station,
which serves the Reading, Baltimore and Ohio and Lehigh Valley
systems. Also adjoining, to the northward, is the Masonic Temple, the
finest Masonic edifice in existence, a pure Norman structure of
granite two hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, with a
tower two hundred and thirty feet high, and a magnificent carved and
decorated granite Norman porch, which is much admired.
The great founder not only started his City of Brotherly Love upon
principles of the strictest rectitude, but he was thoroughly
rectangular in his ideas. He laid out all the streets on his plan
parallel to the two prominent ones, so that they crossed at right
angles, and his map was like a chess-board. In the newer sections this
plan has been generally followed, although a few country roads in the
outer districts, laid upon diagonal lines, have been converted into
streets in the city's growth. Penn's original city also included four
other squares near the outer corners of his plan, each of about seven
acres, and three of them were long used as cemeteries. These are now
attractive breathing-places for the crowded city, being named after
Washington and Franklin, Logan and Rittenhouse. The east and west
streets Penn named after trees and plants, while the north and south
streets were numbered. The chief street of the city is Chestnut
Street, a narrow highway of fifty feet width, parallel to and south of
Market Street. Its western end, like Walnut Street, the next one
south, is a fashionable residential section, both being prolonged far
west of the Schuylkill River. In the neighborhood of Broad Street, and
for several blocks eastward, Chestnut Street has the chief stores. Its
eastern blocks are filled largely with financial institutions and
great business edifices, some of them elaborate structures.
INDEPENDENCE HALL.
Upon the south side of Chestnut Street, occupying the block between
Fifth and Sixth Streets, is Independence Square, an open space of
about four acres, tastefully laid out in flowers and lawns, with
spacious and well-shaded walks. Upon the northern side of the square,
and fronting Chestnut Street, is the most hallowed building of
American patriotic memories, Independence Hall, a modest brick
structure, yet the most interesting object Philadelphia contains. It
was in this Hall, known familiarly as the "State-house," that the
Continental Congress governing the thirteen revolted colonies met
during the American Revolution, excepting when driven out upon the
British capture, after the battle of the Brandywine. The Declaration
of Independence was adopted here July 4, 1776. The old brick building,
two stories high, plainly built, and lighted by large windows, was
begun in 1732, taking three years to construct, having cost what was
a large sum in those days, £5600, the population then being about ten
thousand. It was the Government House of Penn's Province of
Pennsylvania. There has recently been a complete restoration, by which
it has been put back into the actual condition at the time
Independence was declared. In the central corridor stands the
"Independence bell," the most sacred relic in the city. This Liberty
bell, originally cast in England, hung in the steeple, and rang out in
joyous peals the news of the signing of the Declaration. Running
around its top is the significant inscription: "Proclaim Liberty
throughout the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof." This bell was
cracked while being rung on one of the anniversaries about sixty years
ago. In the upper story of the Hall, Washington delivered his
"Farewell Address" in closing his term of office as President. The
eastern room of the lower story is where the Revolutionary Congress
met, and it is preserved as then, the old tables, chairs and other
furniture having been gathered together, and portraits of the Signers
of the Declaration hang on the walls. The old floor, being worn out,
was replaced with tiles, but otherwise the room, which is about forty
feet square, is as nearly as possible in its original condition. Here
are kept the famous "Rattlesnake flags," with the motto "Don't Tread
on Me," that were the earliest flags of America, preceding the Stars
and Stripes. Of the deliberations of the Congress which met in this
building, William Pitt wrote: "I must declare that in all my reading
and observation, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and
wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult
circumstances, no body of men could stand before the National Congress
of Philadelphia." In this building is Penn's Charter of Philadelphia,
granted in 1701, and West's noted painting of "Penn's Treaty with the
Indians." There are also portraits of all the British kings and queens
from Penn's time, including a full-length portrait of King George
III., representing him, when a young man, in his coronation robes, and
painted by Allan Ramsay.
Other historic places are nearby. To the westward is Congress Hall,
where the Congress of the United States held its sessions prior to
removal to Washington City. To the eastward is the old City Hall,
where the United States Supreme Court sat in the eighteenth century.
Adjoining is the Hall of the American Philosophical Society, founded
by Benjamin Franklin, and an outgrowth of his Junto Club of 1743. It
has a fine library and many interesting relics. Franklin, who was the
leading Philadelphian of the Revolutionary period, came to the city
from Boston when eighteen years old, and died in 1790. His grave is
not far away, in the old Quaker burying-ground on North Fifth Street.
A fine bronze statue of Franklin adorns the plaza in front of the
Post-office building on Chestnut Street. Farther down Chestnut Street
is the Hall of the Carpenters' Company, standing back from the street,
where the first Colonial Congress met in 1774, paving the way for the
Revolution. An inscription appropriately reads that "Within these
walls, Henry, Hancock and Adams inspired the delegates of the colonies
with nerve and sinew for the toils of war." On Arch Street, east from
Franklin's grave, is the house where Betsy Ross made the first
American flag, with thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, from a design
prepared by a Committee of Congress and General Washington in 1777. In
this committee were Robert Morris and Colonel George Ross, the latter
being the young woman's uncle. It appears that she was expert at
needlework and an adept in making the handsome ruffled bosoms and
cuffs worn in the shirts of those days, and had made these for General
Washington himself. She had also made flags, and there is a record of
an order on the Treasury in May, 1777, "to pay Betsy Ross fourteen
pounds, twelve shillings twopence for flags for the fleet in the
Delaware River." She made the sample-flag, her uncle providing the
means to procure the materials, and her design was adopted by the
Congress on June 14, 1777, the anniversary being annually commemorated
as "Flag Day." Originally there was a six-pointed star suggested by
the committee, but she proposed the five-pointed star as more
artistic, and they accepted it. The form of flag then adopted
continues to be the American standard. She afterwards married John
Claypole, whom she survived many years, and she died in January, 1836,
aged 84, being buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery, on the southwestern
border of the city.
GIRARD COLLEGE.
The name of Girard is familiar in Philadelphia, being repeated in
streets, buildings, and financial and charitable institutions. On
Third Street, south from Chestnut Street, is the fine marble building
of the Girard Bank, which was copied after the Dublin Exchange. This,
originally built for the first Bank of the United States, was Stephen
Girard's bank until his death. One of the greatest streets in the
northern part of the city is Girard Avenue, over one hundred feet
wide, stretching almost from the Delaware River westward far beyond
the Schuylkill River, which it crosses upon a splendid iron bridge. In
its course through the northwestern section, this fine street diverges
around the enclosure of Girard College, occupying grounds covering
about forty-two acres. Stephen Girard, before the advent of Astor in
New York, amassed the greatest American fortune. He was born in
Bordeaux in 1750, and, being a sailor's son, began life as a cabin
boy. He first appeared in Philadelphia during the Revolution as a
small trader, and after some years was reported, in 1790, to have an
estate valued at $30,000. Subsequently, through trading with the West
Indies, and availing of the advantages a neutral had in the warlike
period that followed, he rapidly amassed wealth, so that by 1812, when
he opened his bank, he had a capital of $1,200,000; and so great was
the public confidence in his integrity that depositors flocked to his
institution. He increased its capital to $4,000,000; and when the war
with England began in that year he was able to take, without help, a
United States loan of $5,000,000. He was a remarkable man, frugal and
even parsimonious, but profuse in his public charities, though strict
in exacting every penny due himself. He contributed liberally to the
adornment of the city and created many fine buildings. He despised the
few relatives he had, and when he died in 1831 his estate, then the
largest known in the country, and estimated at $9,000,000, was almost
entirely bequeathed for charity.
Stephen Girard left donations to schools, hospitals, Masonic poor
funds, for fuel for the poor, and other charitable purposes; but the
major part of his fortune went in trust to the city of Philadelphia,
partly to improve its streets and the Delaware River front, but the
greater portion to endow Girard College. This was in the form of a
bequest of $2,000,000 in money and a large amount of lands and
buildings, together with the ground whereon the College has been
built. He gave the most minute directions about its construction, the
institution to be for the support and instruction of poor white male
orphans, who are admitted between the ages of six and ten years, and
between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years are to be bound out as
apprentices to various occupations. A clause in the will provides that
no ecclesiastic, missionary or minister of any sect whatever is to
hold any connection with the College, or even be admitted to the
premises as a visitor; but the officers are required to instruct the
pupils in the purest principles of morality, leaving them to adopt
their own religious beliefs. The College building is of white marble,
and the finest specimen of pure Grecian architecture in the United
States. It is a Corinthian temple, surrounded by a portico of
thirty-four columns, each fifty-five feet high and six feet in
diameter. The building is one hundred and sixty-nine by one hundred
and eleven feet, and ninety-seven feet high, the roof being of heavy
slabs of marble, from which, as the College stands on high ground,
there is a grand view over the city. Within the vestibule are a statue
of Girard and his sarcophagus. The architect, Thomas U. Walter,
achieved such fame from this building that he was afterwards employed
to extend the Capitol at Washington. There are many other buildings in
the College enclosure, some being little less pretentious than the
College itself. This comprehensive charity has been in successful
operation over a half-century, and it supports and educates some
sixteen hundred boys, the endowment, by careful management, now
exceeding $16,000,000.
Philadelphia is great in other charities, and notably in hospitals.
Opposite Girard College are the magnificent buildings of the German
Hospital and the Mary J. Drexel Home for the education of nurses,
established by the munificence of John D. Lankenau, the widowed
husband of the lady whose name it bears. The Drexel Institute, founded
by Anthony J. Drexel, is a fine building in West Philadelphia, with
$2,000,000 endowment, established for "the extension and improvement
of industrial education as a means of opening better and wider avenues
of employment to young men and women," and it provides for about two
thousand students. The Presbyterian, Episcopal, Jewish, Methodist and
Roman Catholic hospitals, all under religious care, are noted.
Philadelphia is also the great medical school of the country, and the
University, Jefferson, Hahnemann and Women's Colleges, each with a
hospital attached, have world-wide fame. The oldest hospital, the
Pennsylvania Hospital, occupying an entire block between Spruce and
Pine and Eighth and Ninth Streets, was founded in 1752, and is
supported almost entirely by voluntary contributions. In 1841 it
established in West Philadelphia a separate Department for the Insane.
The Medico-Chirurgical Hospital is a modern foundation which has grown
to large proportions. There are many libraries--not only free
libraries, with branches in various parts of the city, for popular
use, supported by the public funds, but also the Philadelphia Library,
founded by Franklin and his friends of the Junto Literary Club in
1731, and its Ridgway Branch, established, with $1,500,000 endowment,
by Dr. James Rush--a spacious granite building on Broad Street, which
cost $350,000. One of the restrictions of his gift, however, excludes
newspapers, he describing them as "vehicles of disjointed thinking."
The Pennsylvania Historical Society also has a fine library pertaining
to early Colonial history, and many valuable relics and manuscripts,
including the first Bible printed in America, and the original
manuscripts of _Home, Sweet Home_, and the _Star-Spangled Banner_.
NOTABLE PHILADELPHIA BUILDINGS.
There are many notable structures in Philadelphia. The United States
Mint, opposite the City Hall, and fronting on Chestnut Street, has
executed nearly all the coinage of the country since its establishment
in 1792, the present building having been completed in 1833. It
contains a most interesting collection of coins, including the
"widow's mite." A fine new mint is now being erected on a much larger
scale in the northwestern section of the city. The Bourse, on Fifth
Street near Chestnut, erected in 1895 at a cost of $1,500,000, is the
business centre, its lower hall being the most spacious apartment in
the city, and the edifice is constructed in the style of Francis I.
The white marble Custom House, with fine Doric portico, was originally
erected in 1819, at a cost of $500,000, for the second United States
Bank, this noted bank, which ultimately suspended, having been for
many years a political bone of contention. On the opposite side of the
street, covering a block, is a row of a half-dozen wealthy financial
institutions, making one of the finest series in existence, granite
and marble being varied in several orders of architecture. The
Post-office building, also on Chestnut Street, a grand granite
structure in Renaissance, with a façade extending four hundred feet,
cost over $5,000,000. The plain and solid Franklin Institute, designed
to promote the mechanical and useful arts, is not far away.
Down nearer the river is the venerable Christ Church, with its tall
spire, built in 1727, the most revered Episcopal church in the city,
and the one at which General Washington and all the Government
officials in the Revolutionary days worshipped. William White, a
native of the city, was the rector of this church and chaplain of the
Continental Congress, and in 1786 was elected the Episcopal Bishop of
Pennsylvania, being ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury at
Lambeth in February, 1787. He presided over the Convention, held in
this church in 1789, which organized the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the United States. Christ Church still possesses the earliest chime
of bells sent from England to America, and the spire, rising nearly
two hundred feet, is a prominent object seen from the river. Bishop
White died in 1836, aged 88. He was also, in his early life, the
rector of St. Peter's Church, another revered Episcopal church at
Third and Pine Streets. In its yard is the grave of Commodore Stephen
Decatur, the famous American naval officer, who, after all his
achievements and victories, was killed in a duel with Commodore Barron
in 1820, his antagonist also dying. The most ancient church in
Philadelphia is Gloria Dei, the "Old Swedes'" Church, a quaint little
structure near the Delaware River bank in the southern part of the
city, built in 1700. The early Swedish settlers, coming up from Fort
Christina, erected a log chapel on this site in 1677, at which Jacob
Fabritius delivered the first sermon. After he died, the King of
Sweden in 1697 sent over Rev. Andrew Rudman, under whose guidance the
present structure was built to replace the log chapel; and it was
dedicated, the first Sunday after Trinity, 1700, by Rev. Eric Biorck,
who had come over with Rudman. Many are the tales told of the
escapades of the early Swedes in the days of the log chapel. The
Indians on one occasion undermined it to get at the congregation, as
they were afraid of the muskets which the men shot out of the
loopholes. The women, however, scenting danger, brought into church a
large supply of soft-soap, which they heated piping hot in a cauldron.
When the redskins made their foray and popped their heads up through
the floor, they were treated to a copious bath of hot soap, and fled
in dismay. This is the "Old Swedes'" Church at Wicaco of which
Longfellow sings in _Evangeline_. The poet, in unfolding his story,
brings both _Evangeline_ and Gabriel from Acadia to Philadelphia in
the enforced exodus of 1755, and thus graphically describes the Quaker
City:
"In that delightful land which is washed by the Delaware's waters,
Guarding in sylvan shades the name of Penn, the Apostle,
Stands on the banks of its beautiful stream the city he founded.
There all the air is balm, and the peach is the emblem of beauty,
And the streets still re-echo the names of the trees of the forest,
As if they fain would appease the Dryads whose haunts they molested.
There, from the troubled sea, had Evangeline landed an exile,
Finding among the children of Penn a home and a country.
Something, at least, there was, in the friendly streets of the city,
Something that spake to her heart and made her no longer a stranger;
And her ear was pleased with the Thee and Thou of the Quakers,
For it recalled the past, the old Acadian country,
Where all men were equal, and all were brothers and sisters."
In Philadelphia it is said Evangeline lived many years as a Sister of
Mercy, and it was thus that she visited the ancient almshouse to
minister to the sick and dying on a Sabbath morning:
"As she mounted the stairs to the corridors, cooled by the east
wind,
Distant and soft on her ear fell the chimes from the belfry of
Christ Church,
While intermingled with these, across the meadows were wafted
Sounds of psalms that were sung by the Swedes in their church
at Wicaco."
There she found the dying Gabriel, and both, according to the
tradition, are buried in the yard of the Roman Catholic Church of the
Holy Trinity, at Sixth and Spruce Streets:
"Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow,
Side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping.
Under the humble walls of the little Catholic churchyard,
In the heart of the city, they lie unknown and unnoticed.
Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them,
Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and
forever;
Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy;
Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their
labors;
Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their
journey."
In the ancient graveyard of "Old Swedes" is buried Alexander Wilson,
the American ornithologist, who was a native of Scotland, but lived
most of his life in Philadelphia, dying in 1813. The largest church
in the city is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul,
fronting on Logan Square, an imposing Roman Corinthian structure of
red sandstone, two hundred and sixteen by one hundred and thirty-six
feet, and crowned by a dome rising two hundred and ten feet. The chief
institution of learning is the University of Pennsylvania, the most
extensive and comprehensive College in the Middle States, dating from
1740, and munificently endowed, which occupies, with its many
buildings, a large surface in West Philadelphia, and has three
thousand students. This great institution originated from a building
planned in 1740 for a place in which George Whitefield could preach,
which was also used for a charity school. This building was conveyed
to trustees in 1749 to maintain the school, and they were in turn
chartered as a college in 1753 "to maintain an academy, as well for
the instruction of poor children on charity as others whose
circumstances have enabled them to pay for their learning." This
charitable feature is still maintained in the University by free
scholarships.
Philadelphia is eminently a manufacturing city, and its two greatest
establishments are the Cramp Shipbuilding yards in the Kensington
district and the Baldwin Locomotive Works on North Broad Street, each
the largest establishment of its kind in America. The city has spread
over a greater territory than any other in the United States, and
sixteen bridges span the Schuylkill, with others in contemplation, its
expansion beyond that river has been so extensive. The enormous growth
of the town has mainly come from the adoption of the general principle
that every family should live in its own house, supplemented by
liberal extensions of electrical street railways in all directions.
Hence, Philadelphia is popularly known as the "City of Homes." As the
city expanded over the level land, four-, six-, eight-and ten-room
dwellings have been built by the mile, and set up in row after row.
Two-story and three-story houses of red brick, with marble steps and
facings, make up the greater part of the town, and each house is
generally its owner's castle, the owner in most cases being a
successful toiler, who has saved his house gradually out of his hard
earnings, almost literally brick by brick. There is almost unlimited
space in the suburbs yet capable of similar absorption, and the
process which has given Philadelphia this extensive surface goes on
indefinitely. The population is also regarded as more representative
of the Anglo-Saxon races than in most American cities, though the
Teuton numerously abounds and speedily assimilates. The greatest
extent of Philadelphia is upon a line from southwest to northeast,
which will stretch nearly twenty miles in a continuous succession of
paved and lighted streets and buildings.
FAIRMOUNT PARK AND SUBURBS.
Philadelphia, excepting to the southward, is surrounded by a broad
belt of attractive suburban residences, the semi-rural region for
miles being filled with ornamental villas and the tree-embowered and
comfortable homes of the well-to-do and middle classes. Down the
Schuylkill is "Bartram's Garden," now a public park, where John
Bartram established the first botanic garden in America, and where his
descendants in 1899 celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of his
birth on June 2, 1699. His grandfather was one of the companions of
William Penn, and John Bartram, who was a farmer, mastered the
rudiments of the learned languages, became passionately devoted to
botany, and was pronounced by Linnæus the greatest natural botanist in
the world. Bartram bought his little place of about seven acres in
1728, and built himself a stone house, which still exists, bearing the
inscription, cut deep in a stone, "John and Ann Bartram, 1731." He
wrote to a friend describing how he became a botanist: "One day I was
very busy in holding my plough (for thou seest I am but a ploughman),
and being weary, I ran under a tree to repose myself. I cast my eyes
on a daisy; I plucked it mechanically and viewed it with more
curiosity than common country farmers are wont to do, and I observed
therein many distinct parts. 'What a shame,' said my mind, or
something that inspired my mind, 'that thou shouldst have employed so
many years in tilling the earth and destroying so many flowers and
plants without being acquainted with their structure and their uses.'"
He put up his horses at once, and went to the city and bought a botany
and Latin grammar, which began his wonderful career. He devoted his
life to botany, travelled over America collecting specimens, and died
in 1777. At the mouth of the Schuylkill River is League Island, where
the United States has an extensive navy yard, and a reserve fresh
water basin for the storage of naval vessels when out of commission.
The attractive Philadelphia suburban features spread westward across
the Schuylkill, and are largely developed in the northwestern sections
of Germantown and Chestnut Hill, Jenkintown and the Chelten-hills. In
this extensive section the wealth of the people has of late years been
lavishly expended in making attractive homes, and the suburban belt
for miles around the city displays most charming scenery, adorned by
elaborate villas, pleasant lanes, shady lawns and well-kept grounds.
The chief rural attraction of Philadelphia is Fairmount Park, one of
the world's largest pleasure-grounds. It includes the lands bordering
both sides of the Schuylkill above the city, having been primarily
established to protect the water-supply. There are nearly three
thousand acres in the Park, and its sloping hillsides and charming
water views give it unrivalled advantages in delicious natural
scenery. At the southern end is the oldest water reservoir of six
acres, on top of a curious and isolated conical hill about ninety feet
high, which is the "Fair Mount," giving the Park its name. The
Schuylkill is dammed here to retain the water, and the Park borders
the river for several miles above, and its tributary, the Wissahickon,
for six miles farther. The Park road entering alongside the Fairmount
hill passes a colossal equestrian statue of George Washington, and
beyond a fine bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, and also an equestrian
statue of General Grant. The roadways are laid on both sides of the
river at the water's edge, and also over the higher grounds at the
summits of the sloping bordering hills, thus affording an almost
endless change of routes and views. The frequent bridges thrown across
the river, several of them carrying railroads, add to the charm. An
electric railway is constructed through the more remote portions, and
displays their rustic beauty to great advantage. All around this
spacious Park the growing city has extended, and prosperous
manufacturing suburbs spread up from the river, the chief being the
carpet district of the Falls and the cotton-mills of Manayunk, the
latter on the location of an old-time Indian village, whose name
translated means "the place of rum." In this Park, west of the
Schuylkill, was held the Centennial Exposition of 1876, and several
of the buildings remain, notably the Memorial Art Gallery, now a
museum, and the Horticultural Hall, where the city maintains a fine
floral display. William Penn's "Letitia House," his original
residence, removed from the older part of the city, now stands near
the entrance to the West Park.
A large part of the northeastern bank of the Schuylkill adjoining the
Park is the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Its winding walks and terraced
slopes and ravines give constantly varying landscapes, making it one
of the most beautiful burial-places in existence. In front, the river
far beneath curves around like a bow. Some of its mausoleums are of
enormous cost and elaborate ornamentation, but generally the grandeur
of the location eclipses the work of the decorator. Standing on a
jutting eminence is the Disston Mausoleum, which entombs an English
sawmaker who came to Philadelphia without friends and almost
penniless, and died at the head of the greatest sawmaking
establishment on the Continent. At one place, as the river bends, the
broad and rising terraces of tombs curve around like the banks of
seats in a grand Roman amphitheatre. Here is the grave of General
Meade who commanded at Gettysburg. In a plain, unmarked sepulchre
fronting the river, hewn out of the solid rock, is entombed the Arctic
explorer who conducted the Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John
Franklin, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane. A single shaft on a little eminence
nearby marks the grave of Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the
Continental Congress that made the Declaration of Independence. Some
of the graves are in exquisite situations, many having been chosen by
those who lie there. Here are buried Thomas Godfrey, the inventor of
the mariner's quadrant; General Hugh Mercer, who fell at the head of
the Pennsylvania troops in the Revolutionary battle of Princeton, the
Scots' Society of St. Andrew having erected a monument to his memory;
Commodore Isaac Hull, who commanded the American frigate
"Constitution" in the War of 1812 when she captured the British
frigate "Guerrière;" Harry Wright, the "father of base-ball," who died
in 1895; and Thomas Buchanan Read, the poet-artist. At the cemetery
entrance is the famous "Old Mortality" group, carved in Scotland and
sent to Philadelphia. The quaint old Scotsman reclines on a
gravestone, and pauses in his task of chipping-out the half-effaced
letters of the inscription, while the little pony patiently waits
alongside of him for his master and Sir Walter Scott to finish their
discourse.
The peculiar charm of Philadelphia suburban scenery, however, is the
Wissahickon--the "catfish stream" of the Indians. This is a creek
rising in the hills north of the city, and breaking through the rocky
ridges, flowing by tortuous course to the Schuylkill a short distance
above Laurel Hill. It is an Alpine gorge in miniature, with
precipitous sides rising two to three hundred feet, and the winding
road along the stream gives a charming ride. Populous suburbs are on
the higher ridges, but the ravine has been reserved and carefully
protected, so that all the natural beauties remain. A high railway
bridge is thrown across the entrance of the gorge at the Schuylkill,
and rounding, just beyond, a sharp rocky corner, the visitor is
quickly within the ravine, the stream nestling deep down in the
winding fissure. For several miles this attractive gorge can be
followed; and high up on its side, in a commanding position near the
summit of the enclosing ridge, one of the residents has placed a
statue of William Penn, most appropriately bearing the single word at
its base--"Toleration." This splendid gorge skirts the northwestern
border of the popular suburb of Germantown, and the creek emerges from
its rocky confines at the foot of Chestnut Hill, where it rends the
ridge in twain, and the hillsides are dotted with attractive villas.
This is a fashionable residential section whose people have a
magnificent outlook over the rich agricultural region of the upper
Wissahickon Valley and the hills beyond.
In Germantown is the historic Chew House, bearing the marks of cannon
balls, which was the scene of the battle of Germantown in October,
1777, when the British under Lord Howe, then holding Philadelphia,
defeated General Washington, and the darkest period of the Revolution
followed, the Americans afterwards retiring to their sad winter camp
at Valley Forge. This suburb of Germantown is almost as old as
Philadelphia. It was originally settled in 1683 by Germans who came
from Cresheim, a name that is preserved in the chief tributary of the
Wissahickon. Their leader was Daniel Pastorius, who bought a tract of
fifty-seven hundred acres of land from William Penn for a shilling an
acre, and took possession on October 6th. Their settlement prospered
and attracted attention in the Fatherland. In 1694 a band of religious
refugees, having peculiar tenets and believing that the end of the
world was approaching, determined to migrate to Germantown. They were
both Hollanders and Germans, and came from Rotterdam to London,
whence, under the guidance of Johannes Kelpius, they sailed for
America upon the ship "Sara Maria." They were earnest and scholarly
men, and Kelpius, who was a college graduate, was a profound
theologian. They called themselves the "Pietists." Upon their voyage
they had many narrow escapes, but every danger was averted by fervent
prayers. Their vessel ran aground, but was miraculously floated; they
were nearly captured by the French, but, mustering in such large
numbers on the deck of the "Sara Maria," they scared the enemy away;
they were badly frightened by an unexpected eclipse of the sun; but in
every case prayers saved them, and on June 14th they safely landed in
Chesapeake Bay, marching overland to the Delaware and sailing up to
Philadelphia, where they disembarked.
In solemn procession, on June 23, 1694, led by Kelpius, they walked,
two and two, through the little town, which then had some five hundred
houses. They called on the Governor, William Markham, representing
Penn, and took the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. In the
evening they held a solemn religious service on "the Fair Mount," at
the verge of the Schuylkill. In it they celebrated the old German
custom of "Sanct Johannes" on St. John's eve. They lighted a fire of
dry leaves and brushwood on the hill, casting into it flowers, pine
boughs and bones, and then rolled the dying embers down the hillside
as a sign that the longest day of the year was past, and the sun, like
the embers, would gradually lose its power. The next morning was the
Sabbath, and they went out to Germantown, where they were warmly
welcomed. They built their first house, since called the Monastery,
near the Wissahickon Creek, where they worked and worshipped. Their
house they called "The Woman of the Wilderness," and upon its roof,
day and night, some of them stood, closely observing the changing
heavens. With prayers and patience they watched for the end of the
world and the coming of the Lord, and they obeyed the ministry of
Kelpius. He lived in a cave, and as his colony of enthusiasts
gradually dwindled, through death and desertion, he came to be known
as the "Hermit of the Wissahickon." Here he dug his well two centuries
ago, and the "Hermit's Pool" still exists. He constantly preached the
near approach of the millennium, and exhibited his magical "wisdom
stone." Finally, wearying yet still believing, he gave up, cast his
weird stone into the stream, and in 1704 he died, much to the relief
of the neighboring Quaker brethren, who did not fancy such mysterious
alchemy so near the city of Penn. These "Pietists," or "Kelpians," as
they were afterwards called, dispersed over the country, and had much
to do with guiding the religious life and mode of worship among the
early German settlers in Pennsylvania. Everywhere in German
Pennsylvania there are traces of their influence, and especially at
Ephrata and Waynesboro they have had pious and earnest followers.
After the death of Kelpius, their last survivor in Germantown was Dr.
Christopher DeWitt, famed as a naturalist, an astronomer, a
clock-maker and a magician. He was a close friend of John Bartram,
lived an ascetic life, became blind and feeble, and finally died an
octogenarian in 1765, thus closing with his life the active career of
the Kelpian mystics.
THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER.
One of the romances of Fairmount Park is attached to the little stone
cottage, with overhanging roof, down by the Schuylkill River bank,
where tradition says that the Irish poet, Tom Moore, briefly dwelt
when he visited Philadelphia in the summer of 1804. This cottage
tradition may be a myth, but the poet when here composed an ode to the
cottage and to the Schuylkill, which is as attractive as the
bewitching river scene itself. The famous ballad begins:
"I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled
Above the green elms that a cottage was near,
And I said, 'If there's peace to be found in the world,
A heart that was humble might hope for it here.'"
Tom Moore's letters written at that time generally showed dislike for
much that he saw on his American journey, but he seems to have found
better things at Philadelphia, and was delighted with the Quaker
hospitality. His ode to the Schuylkill shows that its beauties
impressed him, and gives evidence of his regard for the people:
"Alone by the Schuylkill, a wanderer roved,
And bright were its flowery banks to his eye;
But far, very far, were the friends that he loved,
And he gazed on its flowery banks with a sigh.
"The stranger is gone--but he will not forget,
When at home he shall talk of the toil he has known,
To tell with a sigh what endearments he met,
As he stray'd by the wave of the Schuylkill alone!"
The Schuylkill River is the chief tributary of the Delaware, an
Allegheny Mountain stream about one hundred and twenty miles long,
coming out of the Pennsylvania anthracite coal-fields, and falling
into the Delaware at League Island in such a lowland region that its
mouth is scarcely discernible. In fact, the early Dutch explorers of
the Delaware passed the place repeatedly and never discovered it; and
when the stream above was afterwards found by going overland, and
traced down to its mouth, they appropriately called it the Schuylkill,
meaning the "hidden river." The Indian name was the "Gans-howe-hanne,"
or the "roaring stream," on account of its many rapids. The lowest of
these, which gave the name of the "Falls" to a Philadelphia suburb,
was obliterated by the backwater from the Fairmount water-works dam.
The river valley is populous, rich in manufactures and agriculture,
and, as it winds through ridge after ridge of the Allegheny foothills,
displays magnificent scenery. Both banks are lined with railways,
which bring the anthracite coal from the mines down to tidewater.
Journeying up the Schuylkill, we pass the flourishing manufacturing
towns of Conshohocken and Norristown and come into the region of the
"Pennsylvania Dutch," where the inhabitants, who are mostly of
Teutonic origin, speak a curious dialect, compounded of German, Dutch,
English and some Indian words, yet not fully understood by any of
those races. These industrious people are chiefly farmers and
handicraftsmen, and they make up much of the population of eastern
Pennsylvania, while their "sauerkraut" and "scrapple" have become
staple foods in the State. Twenty-four miles above Philadelphia,
alongside a little creek and almost under the great Black Rock, a
towering sandstone ridge, was the noted Valley Forge, the place of
encampment of Washington's tattered and disheartened army when the
defeats at Brandywine and Germantown and the loss of Philadelphia made
his prospects so dismal in the winter of 1777-78, one of the severest
seasons ever experienced in America. The encampment is preserved as a
national relic, the entrenchments being restored by a patriotic
association, with the little farmhouse beside the deep and rugged
hollow, near the mouth of the creek, which was Washington's
headquarters. Phoenixville and Pottstown are passed, and Birdsboro',
all places of busy and prosperous iron manufacture, and then the river
valley leads us into the gorge of the South Mountain.
READING AND POTTSVILLE.
The diminutive Schuylkill breaks its passage through this elevated
range, with Penn's Mount on one side and the Neversink Mountain on the
other, and here is located the most populous city of the Schuylkill
Valley--Reading, with seventy thousand population, a seat of
iron-making and extensive railway shops, having a fertile agricultural
region in the adjacent valleys. This expanding and attractive city
gives its name to, and obtains much of its celebrity from the
"Philadelphia and Reading Railway," the colossal financial institution
whose woes of bankruptcy and throes of reconstruction have for so many
years occupied the attention of the world of finance. This great
railway branches at Reading, and its western line runs off through red
sandstone rocks and among iron mills and out upon a high bridge,
thrown in a beautiful situation across the Schuylkill, and proceeds
over the Lebanon Valley to the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg. This
rich limestone valley, between the South Mountain and the Blue Ridge,
is a good farming district, and also a wealthy region of iron
manufacture. The Reading system also sends its East Pennsylvania route
eastward to Allentown in the Lehigh Valley, and thence to New York.
Factory smokes overhang Reading, through which the Schuylkill flows in
crooked course, spanned by frequent bridges, and puffing steam jets on
all sides show the busy industries. A good district surrounds Reading
in the mountain valleys, and the thrifty Dutch farmers in large
numbers come into the town to trade. The high forest-clad mountains
rise precipitously on both sides, with electric railways running up
and around them, disclosing magnificent views. The "old red sandstone"
of these enclosing hills has been liberally hewn out to make the
ornamental columns for the Court House portico and build the
castellated jail, and also the red gothic chapel and elaborate
red gateway of the "Charles Evans' Cemetery," where the chief
townsfolk expect, like their ancestry, to be buried. The visitor who
wishes to see one of the most attractive views over city, river,
mountain and distant landscape can climb by railway up to the "White
Spot," elevated a thousand feet above the river, on Penn's Mount. This
point of outlook is an isolated remnant of Potsdam sandstone, lying,
the geologists say, unconformably on the Laurentian rock.
[Illustration: _Loop of the Schuylkill from Neversink Mountains_]
Beyond Reading, the Schuylkill breaks through the Blue Ridge at Port
Clinton Gap, eighteen miles to the northwest. The winding and romantic
pass is about three miles long, and just beyond there is, at Port
Clinton, a maze of railway lines where the Reading Company unites its
branches converging from various parts of the anthracite coal-fields.
The Little Schuylkill River here falls into the larger stream, and a
branch follows it northward to Tamaqua, while the main line goes
westward to Pottsville. The summit of the Blue Ridge is the eastern
boundary of the coal-fields, and the country beyond is wild and
broken. The next great Allegheny ridge extending across the country is
the Broad Mountain beyond Pottsville, though between it and the Blue
Ridge there are several smaller ridges, one being Sharp Mountain. The
country is generally black from the coal, and the narrow and crooked
Schuylkill has its waters begrimed by the masses of culm and refuse
from the mines. Schuylkill Haven, ninety miles from Philadelphia, is
where the coal trains are made up, and branches diverge to the mines
in various directions. Three miles beyond is Pottsville, confined
within a deep valley among the mountains, its buildings spreading up
their steep sides, for here the malodorous and blackened little river
breaks through Sharp Mountain. This is a city of fifteen thousand
people, and the chief town of the Schuylkill or Southern coal-field,
which produces ten millions of tons of anthracite annually. The whole
country roundabout is a network of railways leading to the various
mines and breakers, and there are nearly four hundred miles of
railways in the various levels and galleries underground. We are told
that in the eighteenth century John Pott built the Greenwood Furnace
and Forge, and laid out this town; and afterwards, when coal-mining
was developed, there came a rush of adventurers hither; but of late
years Pottsville has had a very calm career.
To the northward of the Schuylkill or Southern coal-field, and beyond
the Broad Mountain, is the "Middle coal-field," which extends westward
almost to the Susquehanna River, and includes the Mahanoy and Shamokin
Valleys. Both these fields also extend eastward into the Lehigh
region; and it is noteworthy that as all these coal measures extend
eastward they harden, while to the westward they soften. The hardest
coals come from the Lehigh district, and they gradually soften as
they are dug out to the westward, until, on the other side of the main
Allegheny range, they change into soft bituminous, and farther
westward their constituents appear in the form of petroleum and as
natural gases. The region beyond Pottsville is unattractive. Various
railways connect the Schuylkill and Lehigh regions, and cross over or
through the Broad Mountain. The district is full of little mining
villages, but has not much else. It is a rough country, with bleak and
forbidding hills, denuded of timber by forest fires, with vast heaps
of refuse cast out from the mines, some of them the accumulations of
sixty or seventy years. Breakers are at work grinding up the fuel,
which pours with thundering noise into the cars beneath. The surface
is strewn with rocks and _débris_, and the dirty waters of the streams
are repulsive. These blackened brooks of the Broad Mountain are the
headwaters of the Schuylkill River.
THE NEW JERSEY COAST RESORTS.
The Delaware River divides Pennsylvania from New Jersey, and at
Camden, opposite Philadelphia, there has grown another large city from
the overflow of its population. Ferries, and at the northern end of
Philadelphia harbor an elevated railway bridge, cross over to Camden,
while for miles the almost level surface of New Jersey has suburban
towns and villas, the homes of thousands whose business is in
Philadelphia. The New Jersey seacoast also is a succession of
watering-places where the population goes to cool off in the summer.
The whole New Jersey coast of the Atlantic Ocean is a series of sand
beaches, interspersed with bays, sounds and inlets, a broad belt of
pine lands behind them separating the sea and its bordering sounds and
meadows from the farming region. This coast has become an almost
unbroken chain of summer resorts from Cape May, at the southern
extremity of New Jersey, northeastward through Sea Isle City, Avalon,
Ocean City, Atlantic City, Brigantine, Beach Haven, Sea Girt, Asbury
Park, Ocean Grove, Long Branch, Seabright, etc., to Sandy Hook, where
the long sand-strip terminates at the entrance to New York harbor. To
these many attractive places the summer exodus takes the people by the
hundreds of thousands. The chief resort of all is Atlantic City, which
has come to be the most popular sea-bathing place of the country, the
railroads running excursion trains to it even from the Mississippi
Valley. Three railroads lead over from Philadelphia across the level
Jersey surface, and their fast trains compass the distance, fifty-six
miles, in an hour. The town is built on a narrow sand-strip known as
Absecon Island, which is separated from the mainland by a broad
stretch of water and salt meadows. Absecon is an Indian word meaning
"the place of the swans." The beach is one of the finest on the coast,
and along its inner edge is the famous "Board Walk" of Atlantic City,
an elevated promenade mostly forty feet wide, and four miles long. On
the land side this walk is bordered by shops, bathing establishments
and all kinds of amusement resorts, while the town of hotels,
lodging-houses and cottages, almost all built of wood, stretches
inland. The population come out on the "Board Walk" and the great
piers, which stretch for a long distance over the sea. It is the
greatest bathing-place in existence, and in the height of the season,
July and August, fifty thousand bathers are often seen in the surf on
a fine day, with three times as many people watching them. Enormous
crowds of daily excursionists are carried down there by the railways.
The permanent population is about twenty thousand, swollen in summer
often fifteen- or twenty-fold. Atlantic City is also a popular resort
in winter and spring, and is usually well filled at Eastertide.
The other New Jersey resorts are somewhat similar, though smaller.
Cape May, on the southern extremity of the Cape, is popular, and has a
fine beach five miles long. The coast for many miles northeastward has
cottage settlements, the beaches having similar characteristics. Many
of these settlements also cluster around Great Egg Harbor and Barnegat
Bay, both favorite resorts of sportsmen for fishing and shooting.
Asbury Park and Ocean Grove are twin watering-places on the northern
Jersey coast which have large crowds of visitors. The former is
usually filled by the overflow from the latter, who object to the
Ocean Grove restrictions. Ocean Grove is unique, and was established
in 1870 by a Camp Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Here many thousands, both young and old, voluntarily spend
their summer vacations under a religious autocracy and obey the strict
rules. It is bounded by the sea, by lakes on the north and south, and
by a high fence on the land side, and the gates are closed at ten
o'clock at night, and all day Sunday. The drinking of alcoholic
beverages and sale of tobacco are strictly prohibited, and no
theatrical performances of any kind are allowed. No bathing, riding or
driving are permitted on Sunday, and at other times the character of
the bathing-dresses is carefully regulated. There is a large
Auditorium, accommodating ten thousand people, and here are held
innumerable religious meetings of all kinds. The annual Camp Meeting
is the great event of the season, and among the attractions is an
extensive and most complete model of the City of Jerusalem.
To the northward is Long Branch, the most fashionable and exclusive of
the New Jersey coast resorts, being mainly a succession of grand
villas and elaborate hotels, stretching for about four miles along a
bluff which here makes the coast, and has grass growing down to its
outer edge almost over the water. In the three sections of the West
End, Elberon and Long Branch proper, the latter getting its name from
the "Long branch" of the Shrewsbury River, there are about eight
thousand regular inhabitants, and there come here about fifty thousand
summer visitors, largely from New York. The great highway is Ocean
Avenue, running for five miles just inside the edge of the bluff,
which, in the season, is a most animated and attractive roadway. The
hotels and cottages generally face this avenue. The most noted
cottages are the one which General Grant occupied for many years, and
where, during his Presidency in 1869-77, he held "the summer capital
of the United States," and the Franklyn Cottage, where President
Garfield, after being shot in Washington, was brought to die in 1881.
The most famous show place at Long Branch is Hollywood, the estate of
the late John Hoey, of Adams Express Company, who died there in 1892,
its elaborate floral decorations being much admired.
SHACKAMAXON TO BRISTOL.
Journeying up the Delaware from Philadelphia, we pass Petty Island,
where the great Indian chief of the Lenni Lenapes, Tamanend, had his
lodge--the chieftain since immortalized as St. Tammany, who has given
his name to the Tammany Society of politicians who rule New York City.
Petty on the old maps is called Shackamaxon Island, a derivation of
the original Indian name of Cackamensi. St. Tammany is described as a
chief who was so virtuous that "his countrymen could only account for
the perfections they ascribe to him by supposing him to be favored
with the special communications of the Great Spirit." In the
eighteenth century many societies were formed in his honor, and his
festival was kept on the 1st of May, but the New York Society is the
only one that has survived. Farther up, the Tacony Creek flows into
the Delaware, the United States having a spacious arsenal upon its
banks. The name of this creek was condensed before Penn's time, by the
Swedes, from its Indian title of Taokanink. Beyond, the great
manufacturing establishments of the city gradually change to charming
villas as we move along the pleasant sloping banks and through the
level country, and soon we pass the northeastern boundary of
Philadelphia, at Torresdale. This boundary is made by the Poquessing
Creek, being the aboriginal Poetquessink, or "the stream of the
dragons."
Across the river, on the Jersey shore, formerly roamed the Rankokas
Indians, an Algonquin tribe, whose name is preserved in the Rancocas
Creek, which is one of the chief tributaries flowing in from New
Jersey. At Beverly, not far above, is one of the most popular suburban
resorts, the villas clustering around a broad cove, known as
Edgewater, which appears much like a miniature Bay of Naples. Over
opposite is the wide Neshaminy Creek, flowing down from the Buckingham
Mountain in Pennsylvania, its Indian title of Nischam-hanne, meaning
"the two streams flowing together," referring to its branches. The
earliest settlers along this creek were Scotch-Irish, and their pastor
in 1726 was Rev. William Tennent, the famous Presbyterian preacher,
who founded the celebrated "Log College" on the Neshaminy, "built of
logs, chinked and daubed between, and one story high," as it was well
described. From this simple college, which was about twenty feet
square, were sent out many of the famous Presbyterian preachers of the
eighteenth century; and from it grew, in 1746, the great College of
New Jersey at Princeton, and in 1783 Dickinson College, at Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, besides many other schools which were started by its
alumni. William Tennent's son, Gilbert, was his assistant and
successor. The great Whitefield preached to an audience of three
thousand at this College in 1739. He was attracted there by Gilbert
Tennent's fame as a preacher, and of him on one occasion wrote, "I
went to the meeting house to hear Mr. Gilbert Tennent preach, and
never before heard I such a searching sermon; he is a son of thunder,
and does not regard the face of man."
The Delaware River broadens into two channels around Burlington
Island, having on either hand the towns of Bristol and Burlington,
both coeval with the first settlement of Philadelphia, and Bristol at
that early day having had an ambition to become the location of
Penn's great city. The ferry connecting them was established two years
before Penn came to Philadelphia, and in the eighteenth century they
had a larger carrying trade. Bristol began in 1680 under a grant from
Edmund Andros, then the Provincial Governor of New York, for a town
site and the ferry, which is curiously described in the Colonial
records as "the ferry against Burlington," then the chief town in West
Jersey. The settlement was called New Bristol, from Bristol in
England, where lived Penn's wife, Hannah Callowhill. It was the first
county seat of Bucks when Penn divided his Province into the three
counties--Chester, Philadelphia and Buckingham. It was for many years
a great exporter of flour to the West Indies. Its ancient Quaker
Meeting House dates from 1710, and St. James' Episcopal Church from
1712; but the latter, which received its silver communion service from
the good Queen Anne, fell into decay and has been replaced by a modern
structure. Its Bath Mineral Springs made it the most fashionable
watering-place in America in the eighteenth century, but Saratoga
afterwards eclipsed them, and their glory has departed. Prior to the
Revolution, Bristol built more shipping than Philadelphia; and, while
quiet and restful, its comfortable homes and the picturesque villas
along the Delaware River bank above the town tell of its prosperity
now.
OLD BURLINGTON.
The ancient town of Burlington, clustered behind its "Green Bank" or
river-front street on the New Jersey shore, antedates Philadelphia
five years. The Quaker pioneers are believed to have been the first
Europeans who saw its site. The noted preacher George Fox, in 1672,
journeyed from New England to the South, and rode on horseback over
the site of Burlington at Assiscunk Creek, reporting the soil as good
"and withal a most brave country." When Penn became Trustee for the
insolvent Billynge, a Proprietor of West Jersey, much of his land was
sold to Quakers, who migrated to the American wilderness to escape
persecution at home. Thus Burlington was the first settlement founded
by Quaker seekers after toleration in the New World:
"About them seemed but ruin and decay,
Cheerless, forlorn, a rank autumnal fen,
Where no good plant might prosper, or again
Put forth fresh leaves for those that fell away;
Nor could they find a place wherein to pray
For better things. In righteous anger then
They turned; they fled the wilderness of men
And sought the wilderness of God. And day
Rose upon day, while ever manfully
Westward they battled with the ocean's might,
Strong to endure whatever fate should be,
And watching in the tempest and the night
That one sure Pharos of the soul's dark sea--
The constant beacon of the Inner Light."
In the spring of 1677 the "goode shippe Kent," Gregory Marlowe,
master, sailed from London, bound for West Jersey, with two hundred
and thirty Quakers, about half coming from London and the others from
Yorkshire; two dying on the voyage. They ascended the Delaware to the
meadow lands below the mouth of Assiscunk Creek, landing there in
June, and in October made a treaty with the Indians, buying their
lands from the Rancocas as far up as Assunpink Creek at Trenton. Their
settlement was first called New Beverly, and then Bridlington, from
the Yorkshire town whence many of them came, but it finally was named
Burlington. They made a street along the river, bordered with
greensward, and called the "Green Bank," and drew a straight line back
inland, calling it their Main Street, and the Londoners settled on one
side and the Yorkshiremen on the other. The old buttonwood tree, to
which was moored the early ships bringing settlers, still stands on
the Green Bank, a subject of weird romance. Elizabeth Powell, the
first white child, was born in July, 1677. The next May, 1678, they
established a "Monthly Meeting of Friends" at Burlington, of which the
records have been faithfully kept. In June the graveyard was fenced
in, and the old Indian chief, Ockanickon, a Quaker convert to
Christianity, was among the first buried there. In August the first
Quaker marriage was solemnized in meeting, this first certificate
being signed by ten men and three women Friends as witnesses. In
1682, just as Penn was coming over, they decided to build their first
meeting house--a hexagonal building, forty feet in diameter, with
pyramidal roof, which was occupied the next year. In 1685 they decided
that a hearse should be built, the entry on the record being an order
for a "carriage to be built for ye use of such as are to be laid in ye
ground."
Burlington grew, and was long the seat of government of the Province
of West Jersey, being the official residence of the Provincial
Governors, the last of whom was William Franklin, natural son of
Benjamin Franklin. It had wealthy merchants and much shipping, and,
despite its peacefulness, equipped privateers to fight the French. Its
famous old Episcopal Church of St. Mary had the corner-stone laid in
1703 under the favor of Queen Anne, who made a liberal endowment of
lands, much being yet held, and gave it a massive and greatly prized
communion service. This old church is cruciform, with a little belfry,
and a stone let into the front wall bears the inscription "One Lord,
one faith, one baptism." In the extensive churchyard alongside is the
modern St. Mary's Church, of brownstone, with a tall spire, also
cruciform. This is the finest church in Burlington. When "Old St.
Mary's" was built with its belfry, the Friends did not like the
innovation, and long gazed askance at the "steeple house," as they
called it; so that Talbot, the first rector, sturdily retaliated,
calling the Quakers "anti-Christians, who are worse than the Turks."
Many of St. Mary's parishioners of to-day are descended from these
maligned Quakers. The early records of the Meeting are filled with
entries showing that charges were brought against members for various
shortcomings. One was admonished for "taking off his hat" at a funeral
solemnized in the "steeple house;" others gave testimony of
"uneasiness" on account of the placing of "gravestones in the
burial-ground;" a query was propounded, "Are Friends in meeting
preserved from sleeping or any other indecent behavior, particularly
from chewing tobacco and taking snuff?" A record was also made of
testimony against "a pervading custom of working on First days in the
time of hay and harvest" when rain threatened. The descendants of
these good people have established St. Mary's Hall and Burlington
College, noted educational institutions. Probably the most famous son
of Burlington was the distinguished novelist, James Fenimore Cooper,
born in 1789, but taken in his infancy by his parents to his future
home at Cooperstown, in Central New York. The town was bombarded by
the British gunboats that sailed up the Delaware in 1778, but since
then the career of Burlington has been eminently peaceful.
BORDENTOWN AND ITS MEMORIES.
Above Burlington Island the Delaware winds around a jutting tongue of
flat land, "Penn's Neck," which is one of the noted regions of the
river, the ancient "Manor of Pennsbury." This was Penn's country home,
originally a tract of over eight thousand acres, the Indian domain of
"Sepessing." His house, which he occupied in 1700-01, was then the
finest on the river, but it long ago fell into decay, and the manor
was all sold away from his descendants during the eighteenth century.
At the eastern extremity of "Penn's Neck," on the New Jersey shore, is
White Hill, with the village of Bordentown beyond, up Crosswick's
Creek. Here is a region redolent with historical associations. The old
buildings along the river bank were the railway shops of the famous
"Camden and Amboy," whose line, coming along the Delaware shore, goes
off up Crosswick's Creek to cross New Jersey on the route to New York.
Above is the dense foliage of Bonaparte Park, now largely occupied by
the Convent and Academy of St. Joseph. Bordentown was a growth of the
railway, having been previously little more than a ferry, originally
started by Joseph Borden. Its most distinguished townsman was Admiral
Charles Stewart, "Old Ironsides" of the American navy, a relic of the
early wars of the country, his crowning achievement being the command
of the frigate "Constitution" when she captured the two British
vessels, "Cyane" and "Levant." He was the "Senior Flag Officer" of the
navy when he died in 1860 on his Bordentown farm, to which he had
returned. The old house where he lived is on a bluff facing the
river. He was the grandfather of the noted Irish leader, Charles
Stewart Parnell.
To Bordentown, in 1816, Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-King of Naples and of
Spain, and eldest brother of Napoleon, came to live, as the Count de
Survilliers, and bought the estate known since as Bonaparte Park. It
was through Stewart's persuasion, mainly, that he located there, the
estate covering ten farms of about one thousand acres. Lafayette
visited him in 1824, and Louis Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon III., in
1837. Joseph returned to Europe in 1839, dying in Florence in 1844.
Another famous resident of Bordentown was Prince Murat, the nephew of
Napoleon and of Joseph, and the son of the dashing Prince Joachim
Murat, who was King of the Sicilies, and was shot by sentence of
court-martial after Waterloo. Prince Murat came in 1822, bought a
farm, got married, lived a rather wild life, but was generally liked,
and, going through various fortunes, returned to France after the
Revolution of 1848 and was restored to his honors. He was with Marshal
Bazaine in the capitulation of Metz in 1870 and became a prisoner of
war, and died in 1878.
THE STORY OF CAMDEN AND AMBOY.
The great memory of Bordentown, however, is of the famous railroad,
originally begun there, whose managers for nearly a half-century so
successfully ruled New Jersey that it came to be generally known
throughout the country as "the State of Camden and Amboy." In the
little old Bordentown station, which still exists, set in the bottom
of a ravine, with the house built over the railroad, were for many
years held the annual meetings of the corporation; and its magnates
also met in almost perpetual session, to generally run things, social,
political and financial, for the State of New Jersey, and
semi-annually declare magnificent dividends. Not far from this station
a monument marks the place of construction of the first piece of
railway track in New Jersey, laid by the Camden and Amboy Company in
1831. Upon this track the first movement of a passenger train by steam
was made by the locomotive "John Bull," on November 12th of that year.
This granite monument, erected in 1891 to commemorate the sixtieth
anniversary, stands upon a foundation composed of the stone blocks on
which the first rails were laid, and two of these original rails
encircle it. A bronze tablet upon the monument represents the old
"John Bull," with his primitive whisky-cask tender, and the two little
old-time passenger coaches which made up the first train he drew. Thus
began the great railroad highway between the two chief cities of the
United States.
The original method of transport between Philadelphia and New York was
by steamboat on the Delaware to South Trenton, stages from Trenton to
New Brunswick on the Raritan River, and then by steamboat to New
York. This was the "Union Line," which for many years carried the
passengers, and of which John Stevens was the active spirit. He
conceived the first idea of a railway, and in 1817 procured the first
railway charter in America for a railroad upon his stage route between
Trenton and New Brunswick. In subsequent years there were advocates
both of a railway and a canal across New Jersey, his son, Robert L.
Stevens, being the railway chieftain, while Commodore Robert F.
Stockton championed the canal, the rival projects appearing before the
New Jersey Legislature in 1829-30, and causing a most bitter
controversy. It is related that the conflict was ended in a most
surprising manner. Between the acts of a play at the old Park Theatre
in New York, Stevens and Stockton accidentally met in the vestibule,
and after a few minutes' talk agreed to end their dispute by joining
forces. The result was that on February 4, 1830, both companies were
chartered--the "Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company"
and the "Delaware and Raritan Canal Company." In furtherance of this
compromise, what is known as the celebrated "Marriage Act" was passed
a year later, creating the "Joint Companies," their stock being
combined at the same valuation, though each had a separate
organization. They were given a monopoly of the business, paying
transit dues to the State of ten cents per passenger and fifteen cents
per ton of freight carried, and this afterwards practically paid all
the expenses of the New Jersey State Government. The railroad was
completed between Bordentown and Amboy in 1832, and on December 17th
the first passengers went through, fifty or sixty of them. It was a
rainy day, and the cars were drawn by horses, for they could not in
those days trust their locomotive out in the rain. The next year
regular travel began, galloping horses taking the cars from Bordentown
over to Amboy in about three hours, there being three relays. Later in
the year the locomotive "John Bull" took one train daily, each way. In
1871 all the railway and canal properties of the two companies, which
had become very extensive, were absorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad,
which pays as rental 10 per cent. annual dividends on the stocks.
The line of the Delaware and Raritan Canal begins at Crosswick's Creek
in Bordentown, and is constructed alongside the Delaware River up to
Trenton, and thence across New Jersey to the Raritan River at New
Brunswick. This is a much-used "inside water route," and it had one of
the old lines of the railroad constructed on the canal bank all the
way. It was in former times a very profitable route, and is said to
have made most of the dividends of the old monopoly, as it carried the
greater part of the freight between the cities. It was originally
projected in 1804, but the scheme slumbered for years. When the route
was surveyed through Princeton, where Commodore Stockton lived, he
became interested, and he induced his father-in-law, John Potter, of
South Carolina, who had over $500,000 in the United States Bank, to
withdraw the money and invest it in the canal, he being the chief
shareholder. Thus his fortune was not only saved from the bank's
subsequent collapse, but was increased by the profitable investment.
The canal is forty-three miles long, with fourteen locks in its
course, having an aggregate rise and fall of one hundred and fifty
feet. Its enlargement to the dimensions of a ship canal is suggested.
THE TRENTON GRAVEL.
In journeying up the Delaware and approaching Trenton, we have passed
through a region of most interesting geological development. All along
are evidences of the deposit of the drift from above, which is
popularly known as the "Trenton gravel." The Delaware flows southeast
from the Kittatinny Water Gap to Bordentown, and then, impinging
against the cretaceous stratified rocks of New Jersey, abruptly turns
around a right-angled bend and goes off southwestward towards
Philadelphia. The river has thus deposited the Trenton gravels,
composed of the drift of most of the geological formations in its
upper waters, throughout its course, on the Pennsylvania side from
Trenton down below Philadelphia. This deposit is fifty feet deep on
the river bank in Philadelphia, and underlies the river bed for nearly
a hundred feet in depth. At Bristol the deposit stretches two miles
back from the river, and at Trenton it is almost universal. The
material, which in the lower reaches is generally fine, grows coarser
as the river is ascended, until at Trenton immense boulders are often
found imbedded. We are told by geologists that at the time of the
great flood in the river which deposited the gravel, the lower part of
Philadelphia, the whole of Bristol and Penn's Neck and almost all
Trenton were under water. The gravel has disclosed bones of Arctic
animals--walrus, reindeer and mastodon--and also traces of ancient
mankind. The latter have been found at Trenton and on Neshaminy Creek,
indicating the presence of a race of men said to have lived about
seven thousand years ago. The river has also made immense clay
deposits all along, which was done at a time when the water flowed at
a level more than a hundred feet higher than now.
In the early geological history of the Delaware it is found that all
southern New Jersey lay deep beneath the Atlantic, whose waves broke
against the ranges of hills northwest and north of Philadelphia, and
an inlet from the sea extended into the great Chester limestone valley
behind them. This whole region, then probably five hundred feet lower
than now, was afterwards slowly upheaved, and the waters retreated.
Subsequently the climate grew colder, and the great glacial ice-cap
crept down from Greenland and Labrador, forming a huge sea of ice,
thousands of feet thick, which advanced on the Delaware to Belvidere,
sixty miles north of Philadelphia. Then there came another gradual
change; the land descended to nearly two hundred feet below the
present level, and again the waters overflowed almost the whole
region. This was ice-cold, fresh water, bearing huge icebergs and
floes, which stranded on the hills, forming a shore on the higher
lands northwest of Philadelphia. The river channel was then ten miles
wide and two hundred feet deep all the way down from Trenton, and a
roaring flood depositing the red gravel along its bed. As the torrent,
expending its force, though still filled with mud and sand from the
base of the glacial ice-cap, became more quiet, it laid down the
clays, the stranded icebergs dropping their far-carried boulders all
along the route. This era of cold water and enormous floods is
computed to have occupied a period of about two hundred and seventy
thousand years, and then the "Ice Age" finally terminated. The land
rose about to its present level, the waters retreated, and elevated
temperatures thawed more and more of the glaciers remaining in the
headwaters, so that there came down the last great floods which
deposited the "Trenton gravel." The river was still wide and deep, and
Arctic animals roamed the banks. Mankind then first appeared, living
in primitive ways in caves and holes, and hunting and fishing along
the swollen Delaware ten thousand years ago. Occasionally they dropped
in the waters their rude stone implements and weapons, which were
buried in the gravel, and, being recently found, are studied to tell
the story of their ancient owners. The river deposited its gravel and
the channel shrunk with dwindling current, moving gradually eastward
as it eat its way into the cretaceous measures. The primitive man
retired, making way for the red Indian, and the present era dawned,
with the more moderate climate, and with again a slow sinking of the
land, which the geologists say is now in progress.
TRENTON AND ITS BATTLE MONUMENT.
Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, is thirty miles from Philadelphia,
a prosperous city with seventy thousand people. The first and most
lasting impression many visitors get of it is of the deep rift cut
into the clays and gravels of the southern part of the town, to let
the Pennsylvania Railroad go through. Here, as everywhere, are
displayed the lavish deposits of the "Trenton gravel" as the railway
passes under the streets, and even under the Delaware and Raritan
Canal, to its depressed station alongside Assunpink Creek of
Revolutionary memory, the chief part of the city spreading far to the
northward. Trenton is as old as Philadelphia, its reputed founder
being Mahlon Stacy, who came up from Burlington Friends' Meeting,
while the settlement was named for William Trent, an early Jersey
law-maker. The Trenton potteries are its chief industry, established
by a colony of Staffordshire potters from England, attracted by its
prolific clay deposits; and the conical kilns, which turn out a
product worth five or six millions of dollars annually, are scattered
at random over the place. Their china ware has been advanced to a high
stage of perfection, and displays exquisite decoration. The Trenton
cracker factories are also famous. The finest building is the State
House, as the Capitol is called, the Delaware River's swift current
bubbling over rocks and among grassy islands out in front of the
grounds. At Broad and Clinton Streets, the intersection of two of the
chief highways, mounted as an ornament upon a drinking-fountain, is
the famous "Swamp Angel" cannon, brought from Charleston harbor after
the Civil War. This was one of the earliest heavy guns made, plain and
rather uncouth-looking, about ten feet long, and rudely constructed in
contrast with the elongated and tapering rifled cannon of to-day, and
it rests upon a conical pile of brownstone. It was the most noted gun
of the Civil War, an eight-inch Parrott rifle, or two-hundred-pounder,
and, when fired, carried a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound projectile
seven thousand yards from a battery on Morris Island into the city of
Charleston, which was then regarded as a prodigious achievement. It is
a muzzle-loader, weighing about eight tons, and burst after firing
thirty-six rounds at Charleston, in August, 1863, the fracture being
plainly seen around the breech.
Trenton's great historical feature is the Revolutionary battlefield,
now completely built upon. Washington, having crossed the Delaware on
Christmas night, in the early morning of December 26, 1776, marched
down to Trenton, and surprised and defeated the Hessians under Rahl,
who were encamped north of Assunpink Creek. A fine battle-monument
stands in a small park adjoining Warren Street, at the point where
Washington's army, coming into town from the north, first engaged the
enemy. Here Alexander Hamilton, then Captain of the New York State
Company of Artillery, opened fire from his battery on the Hessians,
who fled through the town, along Warren, then called King Street. The
monument is a fluted Roman-Doric column, rising one hundred and
thirty-five feet, surmounted by a statue of Washington, representing
him standing, field-glass in hand, surveying the flying Hessians, his
right arm pointing down Warren Street. The elevated top of this
monument gives a grand view over the surrounding country, the course
of the Delaware being traced for miles. The subsequent fortnight's
campaign ending in the battle of Princeton revived the drooping
spirits of the Americans, and was said by as accomplished a soldier as
Frederick the Great to be among "the most brilliant in the annals of
military achievements." Trenton is at the head of tidewater on the
Delaware, the stream coming down rapids, known as the "Falls." On the
Pennsylvania side is Morrisville, called after Robert Morris, who
lived there during the Revolution. His estate subsequently became the
home of the famous French General Jean Victor Moreau, the victor at
Hohenlinden, who was exiled by Napoleon in 1804. He returned to Europe
afterwards at the invitation of the Czar Alexander, and devised for
him a plan for invading France. They were both at the battle of
Dresden in 1813, and were consulting about a certain manoeuvre when
a cannon ball from Napoleon's Guard broke both Moreau's legs, and he
died five days afterwards.
PRINCETON BATTLE AND COLLEGE.
A few days after Washington's victory at Trenton, Cornwallis, in
January, 1777, advanced across Jersey to crush the Americans, but he
was repulsed at the ford of Assunpink Creek in Trenton. Then
Washington resorted to a ruse. Leaving his camp-fires brightly burning
near the creek at night to deceive the enemy, he quietly withdrew, and
made a forced march ten miles northeast to Princeton, and fell upon
three British regiments there, who were hastening to join Cornwallis,
defeating them, and storming Nassau Hall, in which some of the
fugitives had taken refuge. Trenton is in Mercer County, named in
honor of General Hugh Mercer, who fell in this battle, at the head of
the Philadelphia troops. Princeton is a town of about thirty-five
hundred inhabitants, a quiet place of elegant residences, in a level
and luxuriant country. It is the seat of the College of New Jersey,
originally founded at Elizabeth, near New York, in 1746, and
transferred here in 1757. It is best known as Nassau Hall, or
Princeton University, being liberally endowed, and having notable
buildings surrounding its spacious campus, and is a Presbyterian
foundation, which has about eleven hundred students. The original
Nassau Hall erected in 1757, but burnt many years ago, was so named by
the Synod "to express the honor we retain in this remote part of the
globe to the immortal memory of the glorious King William the Third,
who was a branch of the illustrious House of Nassau." Dr. John
Witherspoon, the celebrated Scotch Presbyterian divine, who was one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was for thirty years
its President, and among the early graduates were two other signers,
Richard Stockton and Benjamin Rush. The final conflict of the battle
of Princeton raged around this venerated building, and Washington
presented fifty guineas to the College to repair the damage done by
his bombardment. In the adjacent Presbyterian Theological Seminary
have been educated many able clergymen. In Princeton Cemetery are the
remains of the wonderful preacher and metaphysician, Jonathan Edwards,
who became President of the College in 1758, dying shortly afterwards.
A panegyrist, describing his merits as a great Church leader,
compressed all in this remarkable sentence: "These three--Augustine,
Calvin and Jonathan Edwards." His son-in-law and predecessor as
President was Rev. Aaron Burr; and near his humble monument is
another, marking the grave of his grandson, who was an infant when the
great preacher died, and whose career was in such startling
contrast--the notorious Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United
States.
MARSHALL'S WALK.
The Delaware River above Trenton is for miles a stream of alternating
pools and rapids, with canals on either side, passing frequent
villages and displaying pleasant scenery as it breaks through the
successive ridges in its approach to the mountains. Alongside the
river, in Solebury, Bucks County, in the early part of the eighteenth
century, was the humble home of the pioneer and hunter, Edward
Marshall, who made the fateful "walk" of 1737, the injustice of which
so greatly provoked the Indians, and was a chief cause of the most
savage Indian War of Colonial times. All the country west of the
Delaware, as far up as the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, was obtained
from the Indians by the deception of this "walk." The Indians in those
early times measured their distances by "days' journeys," and in
various treaties with the white men transferred tracts of land by the
measurement of "days' walks." William Penn had bought the land as far
up as Makefield and Wrightstown in Bucks County, and after his death
his descendants, Thomas and Richard Penn, became anxious to enlarge
the purchase, and this "walk" was the result. After a good deal of
preliminary negotiation, several sachems of the Lenni Lenapes were
brought to Philadelphia, and on August 25, 1737, made a treaty ceding
additional lands beginning "on a line drawn from a certain spruce tree
on the river Delaware by a west-northwest course to Neshaminy Creek;
from thence back into the woods as far as a man can go in a day and a
half, and bounded in the west by Neshaminy or the most westerly branch
thereof, so far as the said branch doth extend, and from thence by a
line to the utmost extent of the day and a half's walk, and from
thence to the aforesaid river Delaware; and so down the courses of the
river to the first-mentioned spruce tree." The Indians thought this
"walk" might cover the land as far north as the Lehigh, but there was
deliberate deception practiced. An erroneous map was exhibited
indicating a line extending about as far north as Bethlehem on the
Lehigh, and this deceived the Indians. The white officials had
previously been quietly going over the ground far north of the Lehigh,
blazing routes by marking trees, all of which was carefully concealed,
and Marshall and others had been employed on these "trial walks." A
reward of five hundred acres of land was promised the walkers.
Marshall and two others, Jennings and Yeates, were selected to do the
walking, all young and athletic hunters, experienced in woodcraft and
inured to hardships. The walk was fixed for September 19th, under
charge of the Sheriff, and before sunrise of that day a large number
of people gathered at the starting-point at Wrightstown, a few miles
west of the Delaware. An obelisk on a pile of boulders now marks the
spot at the corner of the Quaker Burying Ground, bearing an
inscription, "To the Memory of the Lenni Lenape Indians, ancient
owners of this region, these stones are placed at this spot, the
starting-point of the 'Indian walk,' September 19, 1737." The start
was made from a chestnut tree, three Indians afoot accompanying the
three walkers, while the Sheriff, surveyors and others, carrying
provisions, bedding and liquors, were on horseback. Just as the sun
rose above the horizon at six o'clock they started. When they had gone
about two miles, Jennings gave out. They halted fifteen minutes for
dinner at noon, soon afterwards crossed the Lehigh near the site of
Bethlehem, turned up that river, and at fifteen minutes past six in
the evening, completing the day's journey of twelve hours actual
travel, the Sheriff, watch in hand, called to them, as they were
mounting a little hill, to "pull up." Marshall, thus notified, clasped
his arms about a sapling for support, saying "he was almost gone, and
if he had proceeded a few poles farther he must have fallen." Yeates
seemed less distressed. The Indians were dissatisfied from the
outset, claiming the walk should have been made up the river, and not
inland. When the Lehigh was crossed, early in the afternoon, they
became sullen, complaining of the rapid gait of the walkers, and
several times protesting against their running. Before sunset two
Indians left, saying they would go no farther, that the walkers would
pass all the good land, and after that it made no difference how far
or where they went. The third Indian continued some distance, when he
lay down to rest and could go no farther.
The halt for the night was made about a half-mile from the Indian
village of Hokendauqua, a name which means "searching for land." This
was the village of Lappawinzoe, one of the sachems who had made the
treaty. The next morning was rainy, and messengers were sent him to
request a detail of Indians to accompany the walkers. He was in ugly
humor and declined, but some Indians strolled into camp and took
liquor, and Yeates also drank rather freely. The horses were hunted
up, and the second day's start made along the Lehigh Valley at eight
o'clock, some of the Indians accompanying for a short distance through
the rain, but soon leaving, dissatisfied. The route was
north-northwest through the woods, Marshall carrying a compass, by
which he held his course. In crossing a creek at the base of the
mountains, Yeates, who had become very lame and tired, staggered and
fell, but Marshall pushed on, followed by two of the party on
horseback. At two o'clock the "walk" ended on the north side of the
Pocono or Broad Mountain, not far from the present site of Mauch
Chunk. The distance "walked" in eighteen hours was about sixty-eight
miles, a remarkable performance, considering the condition of the
country. The terminus of the "walk" was marked by placing stones in
the forks of five trees, and the surveyors then proceeded to complete
the work by marking the line of northern limit of the tract across to
the Delaware River. This was done, not by taking the shortest route to
the river, but by running a line at right angles with the general
direction of the "walk;" and after four days' progress, practically
parallel to the Delaware, through what was then described as a "barren
mountainous region," the surveyors reached the river, in the upper
part of Pike County, near the mouth of Shohola Creek, just below the
Lackawaxen.
The Indians were loud in their complaints of the greediness shown in
this walk, and particularly of the carrying of the surveyors' line so
far to the northward, which none of them had anticipated. Marshall was
told by one old Indian, subsequently, "No sit down to smoke--no shoot
squirrel; but lun, lun, lun, all day long." Lappawinzoe, thoroughly
disgusted, said, "Next May we will go to Philadelphia, each one with a
buckskin, repay the presents, and take the lands back again." The
lands, however, were sold to speculators, so this was not practicable,
and when the new owners sought to occupy them, the Indians refused to
vacate. This provoked disputes over a half-million acres, a vast
domain. The Penns, to defend their position, afterwards repudiated the
surveyors, and they never fulfilled their promise to give Marshall
five hundred acres. This did not mend matters, however, and the Lenni
Lenape Indians' attitude became constantly more threatening, until the
scared Proprietary invited the intervention of their hereditary
enemies, the Iroquois Confederation, or Six Nations. In 1742 two
hundred and thirty leading Iroquois were brought to Philadelphia, and
the dispute submitted to their arbitration. They sided with the
Proprietary, and the Lenni Lenapes reluctantly withdrew to the Wyoming
Valley, part going as far west as Ohio. But they thirsted for revenge,
and when the French began attacking the frontier settlements, these
Indians became willing allies, making many raids and wreaking terrible
vengeance upon the innocent frontiersmen throughout Pennsylvania.
Marshall, who never got his reward, removed his cabin farther up the
Delaware, above the mouth of the Lehigh. The Indians always pursued
him, as an arch-conspirator, for a special vengeance. They attacked
his cabin, killing his wife and wounding a daughter, he escaping by
being absent. They made a second attack, and killed a son. His whole
life was embittered by these murders, and he lost no opportunity for
retaliation, removing, for greater safety, to an island in the river.
They pursued him for forty years, a party of Indians, during the
Revolution in 1777, coming all the way from Ohio to kill him, but he
eluded them and escaped. His closing years, however, were passed
peacefully, and he died at the age of ninety at his island home in the
Delaware.
THE NARROWS AND THE FORKS.
The Tohickon Creek, the chief stream of Bucks County, flows into the
Delaware at Point Pleasant, its Indian name of Tohick-hanne meaning
"the stream crossed by a drift-wood bridge." Here in the river are
many rapids or "rifts," some having been given curious names by the
early raftsmen who used to "shoot" them--such as the "Buck Tail rift,"
the "Cut Bite rift," the "Man-of-War rift," the "Ground Hog rift," and
the "Old Sow rift." The river makes many sweeping curves in passing
through the gorges, and it displays the Nockamixon Rocks or
"Pennsylvania Palisades," a series of about three miles of beetling
crags, of rich red and brown sandstone, rising four hundred feet,
almost perpendicularly, and making a grand gorge known as the Narrows.
The ridge which the river thus bisects is known as Rock Hill in
Pennsylvania, and across in New Jersey stretches away to the northeast
as the Musconetcong Mountain. Above, the Musconetcong River, the
Indian "rapid runner," flows in at Reigelsville, a town on both sides
of the Delaware. This was the Indian village of Pechequeolin in the
early eighteenth century, where iron works, the first on the Delaware,
were started in 1727, famous for making the "Franklin" and "Adam and
Eve" stoves that were so popular among our ancestors, the latter
bearing in bold relief a striking representation of our first parents
in close consultation with the serpent. Just above, the Delaware comes
out through the massive gorge of the Durham Hills or South Mountain,
north of which the Lehigh River flows in from the southwest amid iron
mills and slag heaps, with numerous bridges bringing the various
Lehigh coal railways across from Easton to Phillipsburg. This is the
confluence with the Lehigh, known in early times as the "Forks of the
Delaware." To this place the Lenni Lenapes often came to treat and
trade with the Penns, and a town was founded there when John Penn was
the Proprietor. He was then a newly-married man, and had courted his
bride, a daughter of Lord Pomfret, at her father's English
country-house of Easton in Northamptonshire. So the new town was
called Easton and the county Northampton, at the junction of the
Delaware with the Indian Lechwiechink, signifying "where there are
forks." This name was shortened to Lecha, and afterwards became the
Lehigh. The two towns literally hang upon the hillsides, Mount
Parnassus looking down upon Phillipsburg, named after the old chief
Phillip, who had the original village there, while Easton is
compressed between the South Mountain and the long ridge of Chestnut
Hill, rising seven hundred feet, where the Paxinosa Inn recalls the
sturdy Paxanose, the last of the Shawnee kings who lived east of the
Alleghenies. Through these towns and across the bridges spanning the
Delaware roll constant processions of coal trains bringing the
anthracite out from the Lehigh and Wyoming coal-fields to market.
Easton dates from 1737 and has about fifteen thousand people, but its
growth did not come until the coal trade was developed. The Lehigh
Canal started this, and upon it Asa Packer was a boatman before the
railway era, and carried goods for the industrious Frenchman, Ario
Pardee, who then had a mill and store at Hazleton, back in the
interior. These were the two leaders in developing the Lehigh coal
trade. The chief institution of Easton is Lafayette College, a
Presbyterian foundation, its main building being Pardee Hall, a gift
of Ario Pardee. It is largely a school of the mine, and is devoted to
that branch of scientific research. Here often came the famous
Teedyuscung, the eloquent sachem of the Lenni Lenapes, who, in the
councils at the "Forks," pleaded for his people's rights. The last
remnant of his tribe, having been pressed farther and farther towards
the setting sun, now live as the "Delaware Indians" out in Oklahoma,
there being barely ninety of them, where Hon. Charles Journeycake, at
last advices, was the "King of the Delawares," the successor of
Teedyuscung and of St. Tammany. Phillipsburg was originally settled by
Dutch, and its prosperity was based chiefly on the Morris Canal, which
crossed New Jersey through Newark to New York harbor, a work since
abandoned for transportation purposes. It was a wonderful canal in its
day, crossing mountain ranges of nine hundred feet. This was made
possible by the high elevation of Lake Hopatcong, which furnished most
of the water for the levels. While some of the elevations were
overcome by locks, the greater ones were mounted by inclined planes up
which the boats were drawn, the machinery of the planes being worked
by water-power taken from the higher canal levels. Its chief
usefulness now is the supply of water to Newark, the descent from Lake
Hopatcong on that side being nine hundred and fourteen feet. This
beautiful lake, supplied with the purest spring water, is nine miles
long and about four miles wide, dotted with islands, its rock-bound
shores encompassed by surrounding mountains giving charming scenery.
Small steamboats navigate it, and the name Hopatcong means "Stone over
the Water," referring to an artificial causeway of stone the Indians
had, connecting with one of the islands, but which is now submerged.
BETHLEHEM AND THE MORAVIANS.
The Lehigh River flows out of the Alleghenies through a deep and
tortuous valley which rends the mountain ridges until it strikes
against the South Mountain range, here called the Durham Hills, and
then turns northeast along its base to the Delaware. At this bend the
Saucon Creek comes in from the south and the Monocacy Creek from the
north, and here, twelve miles from Easton, is Bethlehem. This
manufacturing town of twenty thousand population is one of the noted
places of the Lehigh Valley. A large part of the lowlands along the
river are occupied by the extensive works of the Bethlehem Steel
Company, where the big guns, armor and crank-shafts are made for the
navy, while on the slopes of the South Mountain are the noble
buildings of the Lehigh University, the munificent benefaction of Asa
Packer, supporting four hundred students of the technical studies
developing mining and railways. On the hill slopes of the northern
river bank is the original Moravian town, oddly built of bricks and
stone, with a steep slate roof on nearly every house. It was one of
the earliest and the most important of the settlements in America of
the refugee followers of John Huss, the "Congregation of the United
Brethren," and for a century was under its absolute government. In the
winter of 1740 the first trees were cut down that formed the log hut
which was the first house on this part of the Lehigh. Count
Zinzendorf, their leader, arrived from Moravia, with his young
daughter Benigna, before the second house was built, and celebrated
with the settlers the Christmas Eve of 1741. They had called the place
Beth-Lechem, "the house upon the Lehigh," but it is related that
towards midnight on this occasion Zinzendorf, becoming deeply moved,
seized a blazing torch and earnestly sang a German hymn:
"Not Jerusalem--lowly Bethlehem
'Twas that gave us Christ to save us."
Thus the young settlement got its name. Receiving large accessions by
immigration, it soon grew into activity, and outstripping Easton,
became the commercial depot of the Upper Delaware and the Lehigh,
sending missionaries among the Indians, and during the Revolution was
a busy manufacturing town. For the first thirty years it was a pure
"commune," the church elders regulating the labor of all the people,
and afterwards, until 1844, the church council of the "Congregation"
ruled everything, this exclusive system being then abandoned.
Proceeding up a winding highway from the river, the old "Moravian Sun
Inn" is passed, the building, dating from 1758, being modernized; and
mounting the higher hill above the Main Street, the visitor soon gets
into the heart of the original Moravian Colony, among the ancient and
spacious hip-roofed, slate-covered stone houses, with their ponderous
gables. Though dwelling in communism, the Moravians strictly separated
the sexes in house, street, church and graveyard, taking good care of
the lone females, whether maidens or widows. Here are the "Widows'
House" and the "Single Sisters' House," quaintly attractive with their
broad oaken stairways, diminutive windows, stout furniture and
sun-dials, tiled and flagged pavements, low ceilings, steep roofs and
odd gables. The "Sisters' House" was built in 1742. The "Congregation
House" and "Theological Seminary" are also here; and, best known of
all, the Moravian "Young Ladies' Seminary," an extensive and widely
celebrated institution, dating from 1749, whose educational methods
are those founded by the noted John Amos Commenius, who flourished in
the seventeenth century, and whose life-size portrait bust is sacredly
preserved in the school, as is also the old sun-dial of 1748 on the
southern front of one of the buildings.
The Moravian Church, a large square building, fronts the Main Street,
and here are held the great festivals at Christmas and Easter which
bring many visitors to Bethlehem. Its most interesting adjunct is the
"Dead House" alongside, a small pointed gothic steep-roofed building,
which is used whenever a member dies. The public announcement of the
death is made at sunrise from the church cupola by the "trombone
choir," who go up there and vigorously blow their horns, one standing
facing each of the four points of the compass. The funeral services
are held in the church, but the corpse is not taken there, it being
deposited in the "Dead House," and guarded by the pall-bearers during
the ceremony. This ended, a procession solemnly marches farther up the
hill, led by the trombones, playing a dirge, escorting the corpse and
mourners to the ancient graveyard. Here are the graves of the
faithful, resting beneath grand old trees, all the men on one side of
the central path and the women on the other. There are no monuments or
family lots, but the graves stretch across the cemetery in long rows,
each row being completed before another is begun, the latest corpse,
without reference to relationship, being laid alongside the last
interred, so that the row of graves shows the chronological succession
of the deaths. All are treated alike, the dead bishop resting
alongside the humblest of the flock, a small square stone being laid
upon each flattened grave, marked with name and date of birth and
death, and usually a number. Only one person--a woman--has any sign of
distinction above the others in this unique cemetery. She was
Deaconess Juliana Nitschman, wife of Bishop John Nitschman, who died
in 1751, greatly beloved by the Congregation, and was honored by being
given a special grave in the path in the centre of the yard, between
the men and the women. There are some fifty graves of Indian converts
in the early days, among them "Tschoop of the Mohicans," whom Cooper,
the novelist, has immortalized, the brave and eloquent father of his
hero Uncas. The record of the conversion of the famous King
Teedyuscung is kept in the Moravian Congregation, and his exploits are
frequently described in their annals. He lived on the meadow land down
by the river, having gone there in 1730 from near Trenton, where he
was born about 1700, and in 1742 he released the lands at Bethlehem to
the Moravians. He was impressed by the persuasions of the preachers,
and after a long probation, in 1750 was baptized under the name of
Gideon. Bishop Cammerhoff, on March 12th, made an entry which,
translated, reads, "To-day I baptized Tatius Kundt, the chief among
sinners." He was made Grand Sachem of the Lenni Lenapes in 1754, but
he backslid from the Church, and joined in the pillage and massacre of
the Colonial wars. He became dissipated, but was afterwards reconciled
to the whites and removed to Wyoming, where the Iroquois in 1763 made
a raid, and finding him in a drunken stupor in his wigwam, they set
fire to it and he was burnt to death.
During the Revolution the Moravians were of great use to the army,
conducting hospitals at Bethlehem and providing supplies. In 1778 the
"Single Sisters" made and presented to Count Pulaski a finely
embroidered silk banner, afterwards carried by his regiment, and
preserved by the Maryland Historical Society. Longfellow has
beautifully enshrined this memory in his "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns"
at its consecration:
"When the dying flame of day
Through the chancel shot its ray,
Far the glimmering tapers shed
Faint light on the cowled head,
And the censer burning swung
Where before the altar hung
That proud banner, which, with prayer,
Had been consecrated there;
And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while
Sung low in the dim mysterious aisle--
"'Take thy banner. May it wave
Proudly o'er the good and brave,
When the battle's distant wail
Breaks the Sabbath of our vale;
When the clarion's music thrills
To the heart of these lone hills;
When the spear in conflict shakes,
And the strong lance, quivering, breaks.'"
MAUCH CHUNK AND COAL MINING.
The Lehigh above Bethlehem comes through the clear-cut "Lehigh Gap" in
the Blue Ridge, which stretches off to the northeast, where are two
other notches, one cut partly down and the other deeply cut--the first
being the "Wind Gap" and the other the "Delaware Water Gap." The
Indians used to tell the early pioneers that the wind came through the
one and the water through the other. The Jordan Creek flows out from
the South Mountain, and in the valley is Allentown, the chief city of
the Lehigh, having thirty thousand people, and numerous factories and
breweries. Here is the township of Macungie, which is Indian for "the
feeding-place of bears." It was to Allentown, when the British
captured Philadelphia, that in 1777 were hastily taken the Liberty
Bell and the chimes of Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, being
concealed beneath the floor of old Zion Church to prevent their
capture and confiscation. Above Allentown the Lehigh traverses the
valley between the South Mountain and the Blue Ridge, passing
Catasauqua, "the thirsty land," and Hokendauqua, seats of extensive
iron manufacture, the first of these establishments on the Lehigh,
founded in 1839 by David Thomas, who came out from Wales for the
purpose. Then we get among the slate factories in crossing the vast
slate measures that adjoin the Blue Ridge, and go quickly through the
deep notch in the tall and here very narrow ridge, the waters foaming
over the slaty bed, its thin layers standing up in long straight lines
across the stream. Beyond is another valley, and then comes the
wide-topped range known as the Broad Mountain. In this valley was
Gaudenhutten, where the Indian trail, known as the "Warrior's Path,"
crossed the Lehigh, and where the first Moravian missionaries from
Bethlehem came and built a church and converted the Indians. It was
the scene of one of the terrible massacres of the Colonial wars.
Within the gorge of the Broad Mountain is the oddest town on the
Lehigh, Mauch Chunk.
This noted coal town has two principal streets--one laid along the
front of a mountain wall above the river bank, and the other at right
angles, stretching back through a cleft in the mountain. Most things
are set on edge in Mauch Chunk, and the man who may have the front
door of his house on the street often goes out of an upper story into
the back yard, which slopes steeply upward. Mount Pisgah rises high
above, crowned with the chimneys of the machine-house of an
inclined-plane railway. A view from it discloses a novel landscape
beneath, the railroads, canal, river and front street all being
compressed together into the narrow curving gorge which bends around
Bear Mountain, the "Mauch Chunk" over opposite. The red sandstone is
universal, and the chocolate-colored roads leading out of town are
carved into the mountain walls. Through the centre of the place the
river pours over a canal dam, its roaring mingled with the noise of
constantly moving coal trains. The curious conical Bear Mountain,
around which everything curves, rises seven hundred feet high, and the
town, which has about four thousand people, rests at various
elevations, wherever houses can get room to stand--in gullies or
gorges, or hanging on the hillsides. From every point of view rises
the tall and quaintly turreted tower of St. Luke's Episcopal Church,
looking like an ancient feudal castle of the Rhine, which was built as
a memorial of Asa Packer by his widow; for here was his home, and his
grave is in the cemetery almost over the roof of his house.
At Summit Hill, nine miles northwest of Mauch Chunk, the anthracite
coal of this region was first discovered. Philip Ginter, a hunter,
found it while roaming over Sharp Mountain in 1791. This "stone coal"
was carried down to Philadelphia and exhibited, and a company was
formed, taking up ten thousand acres on the mountain and opening a
mine. For thirty years they had disappointments, as nobody would use
the coal, which cost about $14 per ton to transport to Philadelphia.
To cheapen this, efforts were made to improve the navigation of the
Lehigh, out of which grew the canal which was the early route of the
coal to that city. Asa Packer once said that in 1820 three hundred and
eighty-five tons went to Philadelphia, and this choked the market. In
1827, when the mining at Summit Hill had got a good start, the
"Switchback" gravity railroad was built to bring the coal out from the
mines to the river at Mauch Chunk. The loaded coal cars ran by their
own momentum nine miles down a grade of about ninety feet to the mile.
To get the cars back, they were hauled up the inclined plane on Mount
Pisgah, then run by gravity six miles inland to Mount Jefferson, where
they were hauled up a second plane, and then they ran three miles
farther by gravity to the mines. This route was used for many years,
but was afterwards superseded by another railway, and now the
famous "Switchback" is a summer excursion route for tourists who
delight in the exhilarating rides down the gravity slopes. At Summit
Hill and in the Panther Creek Valley, a large output of coal is mined
and sent through a railway tunnel to the Lehigh, and there is at
Summit Hill a burning mine which has been smouldering more than a
half-century. Asa Packer developed this region, while, farther up the
river, branch lines come in from the Mahanoy and Hazleton regions,
which were the field of operations of Ario Pardee; and the two went
hand in hand in fostering the prosperity of the Lehigh Valley.
[Illustration: _Mauch Chunk_]
The upper waters of the Lehigh flow through a wild canyon, the river
at times almost doubling upon itself as it makes sharp bends around
the bold promontories. Enormous hills encompass it about, the stream
often flowing through the bottom with the rush and foam of a miniature
Niagara rapids. The canal, abandoned above Mauch Chunk, was destroyed
by a freshet many years ago, but the amber-colored waters still pour
over the dilapidated dams and through the moss-grown sluices. There
are log houses for the lumbermen, also an almost obsolete industry,
and finally the railways abandon the diminutive Lehigh and climb over
the desolate Nescopec Mountain, to go through the Sugar Notch and down
the other side into the Vale of Wyoming and to the banks of the
Susquehanna. Upon the eastern slopes of the Nescopec the Lehigh has
its sources, gathering the tribute of many small streams between this
ridge and Broad Mountain.
THE VALE OF WYOMING.
The railroads cross the height of land between the sources of the
Lehigh and the affluents of the Susquehanna, through the Sugar Notch,
at about eighteen hundred feet elevation. When the train moves out to
the western verge of Nescopec Mountain there suddenly bursts upon the
gladdened sight the finest scenic view in Pennsylvania--over the fair
Vale of Wyoming, with all its gorgeous beauties of towns and villages,
forests and farms, under the bright sunlight, and having laid across
it the distant silver streak of the glinting Susquehanna River, all
spread out in a magnificent picture seen from an elevation of twelve
hundred feet above the river level. For nearly twenty miles the
Susquehanna can be traced through the long, trough-like valley, from
where it breaks in through the Lackawannock Gap in the North Mountain,
under Campbell's Ledge, far to the northward, away down south to where
it passes out the narrow gorge at Nanticoke Gap. The long ridges of
the Nescopec and Moosic Mountains enclose the valley on one side, and
over on the other are the great North Mountain or Shawnee range, and
the higher ridge of the main Allegheny range behind. In the distant
northeast the view is prolonged up the Lackawanna Valley. In this
splendid Wyoming Vale, spread out like a map, is a landscape of rich
agriculture, dotted over with towns and villages, coal-breakers and
huge culm-piles, the long snake-like streaks of railways crossing the
scene bearing their little puffing engines. It looks much like what
one sees out of a balloon. Here is the village of Nanticoke, then
Plymouth, then the spreading city of Wilkesbarre, and, far beyond, the
foliage-hidden houses of Pittston, near the gorge where the river
flows in. Between them all are clusters of villages and black coal
heaps, with myriads of the little green and brown fields, making
distant farms. The river reaches sparkle in the light as the long
shadows are cast from the mountains, and the train runs rapidly down
the mountain side and across the valley to its chief city,
Wilkesbarre.
When the broad and shallow and rock-strewn river Susquehanna, on its
way down from Otsego Lake in New York to the Chesapeake, breaks
through the North Mountain, its valley expands to three or four miles
in width, making a fertile region between the high enclosing ridges
which the Indians called Maughwauwama, or the "extensive flat plains."
This sonorous name underwent many changes, finally becoming known as
Wyoming. Luzerne County is the lower and Lackawanna County the upper
portion of this noted valley, which is the greatest anthracite
coal-field in the world. These Wyoming coal measures underlie
seventy-seven square miles, having veins averaging eighty feet in
thickness, and about eighty thousand tons to the acre, the aggregate
deposit of coal being estimated to exceed two thousand millions of
tons. The large population and enormous production have caused all the
railways to send in branches to tap its lucrative traffic, so that it
is the best-served region in Pennsylvania. It has two large
cities--Wilkesbarre, in Luzerne, and Scranton, in Lackawanna.
Wilkesbarre is on the eastern Susquehanna river bank, a town of forty
thousand people, named after the two English champions of American
Colonial rights. It covers much surface in the centre of the valley,
with suburbs spreading far up the mountain sides. But from almost
every point of view in the city the outlook is over black culm-heaps
or coal-breakers or at rows of coal cars, so that there is a monotony
in the steady reminder of the source of their riches, the omnipresent
anthracite. About twelve miles northwest of Wilkesbarre, up in the
North Mountain range, is the largest lake in Pennsylvania--Harvey's
Lake--elevated nearly thirteen hundred feet and covering about two
square miles. It is named after one of the early pioneers from
Connecticut, and its outflow comes down to the Susquehanna near
Nanticoke Gap. Its pleasant shores are a favorite resort of the
Wilkesbarre people. The flourishing city of Scranton is about nineteen
miles north of Wilkesbarre, in the Lackawanna Valley. It has grown to
a population of a hundred thousand people, and is picturesquely
situated among the coal mines, with a higher elevation than
Wilkesbarre, being nearly eleven hundred feet above tide, at the
confluence of the Roaring Brook with the Lackawanna River; and it has
extensive iron industries, being the chief city of northeastern
Pennsylvania. The Wyoming and Lackawanna coal pits, while the greatest
anthracite producers, are not generally so deep as those of the Lehigh
or Schuylkill regions. The deepest Pennsylvania shaft goes down
seventeen hundred feet near Pottsville. Some of the Wyoming galleries
run a mile and a half underground from the shaft, following the coal
veins underneath and far beyond the Susquehanna.
This noted Wyoming Vale, in the early history of the Pennsylvania
frontier, was bought from the Iroquois Indians, the "Six Nations," by
an association of pioneer settlers from Connecticut. Good management,
due largely to the judicious methods of the early missionaries, kept
them at peace with the Indians. Count Zinzendorf, with a companion,
came up from Bethlehem in 1742, before the Connecticut purchase, and
founded a Moravian mission among the Shawnees in the valley. It is
said that they were suspicious of European rapacity and plotted his
assassination, and the historian relates that the Count was alone in
his tent, reclining upon a bundle of dry weeds, destined for his bed,
and engaged in writing or in devout meditation, when the assassins
crept stealthily up. A blanket-curtain formed the door, and, gently
raising the corner, the Indians had a full view of the patriarch, with
the calmness of a saint upon his benignant features. They were struck
with awe. But this was not all. The night was cool, and he had kindled
a small fire. The historian continues: "Warmed by the flame, a large
rattlesnake had crept from its covert, and, approaching the fire for
its greater enjoyment, glided harmlessly over one of the legs of the
holy man, whose thoughts at the moment were not occupied upon the
grovelling things of earth. He perceived not the serpent, but the
Indians, with breathless attention, had observed the whole movement of
the poisonous reptile; and as they gazed upon the aspect and attitude
of the Count, their enmity was immediately changed to reverence; and
in the belief that their intended victim enjoyed the special
protection of the Great Spirit, they desisted from their bloody
purpose and retired. Thenceforward the Count was regarded by the
Indians with the most profound veneration."
When the Revolution came, the settlement was a thriving agricultural
colony of about two thousand people, scattered over the valley, with a
village on the river shore just above the present site of Wilkesbarre.
In June, 1778, a force of British troops, Tories and Indians entered
the valley and attacked them, and on July 3d the terrible Wyoming
massacre followed, in which the British officers were unable to set
any bounds to the atrocious butchery by their savage allies, who
killed about three hundred men, women and children. The poet Campbell
has painted the previous pastoral scene of happiness and content in
"Gertrude of Wyoming," and told the tale of atrocity perpetrated by
the savages, which is one of the most horrible tragedies of that great
war. This poem tells of
"A stoic of the woods--a man without a tear."
Beside the river below Pittston and near the village of Wyoming,
having the great North Mountain for a background, was Fort Forty, the
scene of the chief atrocities of the massacre, the site being now
marked by a granite obelisk. Here is the burial-place of the remains
of the slaughtered. "Queen Esther's Rock" is pointed out, where the
half-breed Queen of the Senecas, to avenge the death of her son, is
said to have herself tomahawked fourteen defenceless prisoners. Most
of the survivors fled after this horror, and they did not return to
the valley until long after peace was restored, when the infant
settlement was renewed in the founding of Wilkesbarre. Far up on the
side of the grand peak guarding the northern portal of the
Lackawannock Gap is the broad shelf of rock which embalms in
"Campbell's Ledge" the memory of the great English poet who has so
graphically told the harrowing tale.
THE TERMINAL MORAINE.
The Delaware River above the "Forks," at the mouth of the Lehigh,
breaks through a narrow notch in the Chestnut Hill ridge known as the
"Little Water Gap," while farther to the northeast the ridge continues
through New Jersey as the Jenny Jump Mountain. Above this is the noted
"Foul Rift," where the river channel is filled with boulders and rocks
of all sizes and shapes, the dread of the raftsmen who gave it the
name, for many a raft has been wrecked there. But while this place is
shunned by the navigator, it has an absorbing attraction for the
geologist. This was where the great "Terminal Moraine" of the glacial
epoch crossed the Delaware, recalling the "Ice Age," to which
reference has already been made. When the vast Greenland ice-cap crept
down so as to overspread northeastern America and northwestern Europe
and filled the intervening Atlantic bed, it broke off many rocky
fragments in its southward advance, scratching the surfaces of the
ledges, and the fragments held in its grip, with striated lines and
grooves in the direction of its movement. The ice steadily flowed
southward, coming over mountain and valley alike in a continuous
sheet, enveloping the ocean and adjacent continents, and finally
halted on the Delaware about sixty miles north of Philadelphia. Its
southern verge spread across America from Alaska to St. Louis, and
thence to the Atlantic on the northern coast of New Jersey. Its
southern boundary entered Western Pennsylvania near Beaver, passing
northeast to the New York line; then turning southeast, it crossed the
Lehigh about ten miles northwest of Mauch Chunk and the Delaware just
below Belvidere. It crossed New Jersey to Staten Island, traversed the
length of Long Island, and passed out to sea, appearing on Block
Island, Cape Cod, St. George's Bank and Sable Island Shoal, south of
Nova Scotia. The boundary of the glacier west of the "Foul Rift" on
the Delaware appears as a range of low gravel hills, which are piled
upon the slate hills of Northampton farther west, and reach the base
of the Blue Ridge three miles east of the "Wind Gap." The boundary
here mounted and crossed the Kittatinny ridge sixteen hundred feet
high, being well shown upon its summit, and then passed over the
intervening valley to the Broad Mountain or Pocono range. The Delaware
at the "Foul Rift" is elevated two hundred and fifty feet above tide;
and where the glacier boundary crossed the mountains in the interior
it was at about twenty-six hundred feet elevation on the highest land
in Potter County, the Continental watershed.
This vast glacier was so thick as to overtop even Mount Washington,
for it dropped transported boulders on the summit of that highest peak
in New England. Its southern edge in Pennsylvania was at least eight
hundred feet thick in solid ice. A hundred miles back among the
Catskills it was thirty-one hundred feet thick, and two hundred miles
back in northern New England it was five thousand to six thousand feet
thick, being still thicker farther northward. The Pocono Knob, near
Stroudsburg, in Pike County, Pennsylvania, out-topped the glacier, and
jutted out almost like an island surrounded by ice. The late Professor
H. Carvill Lewis, who closely studied this glacier, has described how,
all over the country which it covered, it dropped what is known as the
"northern drift," or "till," or "hardpan," in scattered deposits of
stones, clay, gravel and _débris_ of all kinds, brought down from the
northward as the ice moved along, and irregularly dumped upon the
surface, thickly in some places and thinly in others, with many
boulders, some of enormous size. It abraded all the rock surfaces
crossed, and transported and rounded and striated the fragments torn
off in its resistless passage. The line of farthest southern advance
of the ice is shown by the "Terminal Moraine," stretching across
country, which put the obstructions into the "Foul Rift." A glacier
always pushes up at its foot a mound of material composed of fragments
of rocks of all shapes and sizes, which the ice has taken up at
various points along its flow and carried to its terminus, thus
forming the moraine. This "Terminal Moraine" has been traced and
carefully studied for four hundred miles across Pennsylvania, showing
throughout a remarkable accumulation of drift materials and boulders,
heaped into irregular hills and hollows over a strip of land nearly a
mile wide. The action of the Delaware River currents at the "Foul
Rift" has washed out the finer materials and cobblestones, leaving
only the larger boulders and rocks to perplex the navigator.
Some of the performances of this great glacier in the region adjacent
to the Delaware are remarkable. It has carried huge granite boulders
from the far north and planted them all along the summit of the
Kittatinny where it crossed. It has torn out big pieces of limestone,
some of them thirty feet long, from their beds in Monroe County, north
of this range, carried them in the ice more than a thousand feet up
its steep northern face and over the summit, finally dropping them on
the south side in the moraine in the slate valley of Northampton.
These immense limestone rocks made comparatively short journeys, but
one ponderous boulder of syenite from the Adirondacks was found in
Northampton, well rounded and dressed, having travelled in the ice at
least two hundred miles. There has also been found a "glacial groove"
upon the rocks of the Kittatinny near the Water Gap, where some
ponderous fragment, imbedded in the ice, as it moved along has gouged
out a great scratch six feet wide and seventy feet in length. Although
this ice had evidently resistless power in its slow motion, yet it
seems to have had small influence upon the topography of the country.
It appears to have merely "sand-papered" the surfaces of the rocks. It
passed bodily across the sharp edges of the upright sandstone strata
of the Kittatinny, yet has not had appreciable effect in cutting the
ridge down, the glaciated portion east of the "Wind Gap" appearing as
high and as sharply defined as the unglaciated part to the westward of
the moraine. The glacier made many lakes north of the moraine, due to
the "kettle holes" and obstruction of streams by unequal deposits of
drift. It is inferred in the estimates of the duration of the glacier,
from astronomical data, that the cold period began two hundred and
eighty thousand years ago, the greatest cold being many thousand years
later. The intense cold began moderating eighty thousand years ago,
but the sea of ice remained long afterwards, and steadily diminished
under the increasing heat. So many thousand years being required for
melting, there are data inducing the belief that the ice-cap did not
retreat from this part of the country back to Greenland until within
ten thousand or fifteen thousand years ago. Then came the floods of
water from the melting glacier, and it is significant that the Indians
in the spacious valley northwest of the Kittatinny called that fertile
region the "Minisink," meaning "the waters have gone," indicating
their legendary memory of the floods following the melting and retreat
of the glacier and the final outflow of its waters.
THE DELAWARE WATER GAP.
Belvidere, the "town of the beautiful view," nestles upon the broad
terraces under the Jersey ridges at the mouth of Pequest Creek, and
looks prettily out upon the high hills and distant mountains across
the Delaware. Above the town, the river makes a great bend to the
westward in rounding the huge and almost perpendicular mass of Manunka
Chunk Mountain, a name which has been got by a process of gradual
evolution from its Indian title of "Penungauchung." Here, through a
gorge just above, is got the first view of the distant Water Gap,
cleft down in the dark blue Kittatinny ten miles away. Approaching it
as the river winds, all the views have this great Gap for the gem of
the landscape, the ponderous wall of the Kittatinny stretching broadly
across the horizon and steadily rising into greater prominence as it
comes nearer.
"I lift my eyes and ye are ever there,
Wrapped in the folds of the imperial air,
And crowned with the gold of morn or evening rare,
O, far blue hills."
As it is gradually approached, the Gap and its enclosing ridge attain
enormous proportions, dwarfing the smaller hills, among which the
narrow, placid river flows below; and it is realized how tame are all
the other ridges through which the Delaware has passed compared with
this towering Blue Ridge, having the low-lying Blockade Mountain just
behind, and partly closing the Gap. Soon we reach the foot of the
range, and, bending with the river suddenly to the left, enter the
Gap. Scarcely have we entered when the river, which has been swinging
to the left, bends around again gradually to the right, and in a
moment we are through the gorge, the river then circling around the
Blockade Mountain, which has been so named because it seems always
stupidly in the way.
The Indians called the Water Gap "Pohoqualin," meaning "the river
between the mountains." The Delaware flows through it with a width of
eight hundred feet and at an elevation of about three hundred feet
above tide. It is twenty-nine miles northeast of the Lehigh Gap where
the Lehigh River passes the Blue Ridge, and there are five other gaps
between them, of which the "Wind Gap," heretofore referred to, is the
chief. For many years this Wind Gap provided the only route to reach
the country north of the Kittatinny. About two and a half miles
southwest of the Delaware is "Tat's Gap," named in memory of Moses
Fonda Tatamy, an old time Indian interpreter in this region, and
familiarly called "Tat's" for short. The greatest of all these passes,
however, is the Water Gap, where the Blue Ridge, rent asunder, has two
noble peaks guarding the portals, towering sixteen hundred feet high,
and named in honor of the Indians--Mount Minsi in Pennsylvania, after
the tribes of the Minisink, and Mount Tammany in New Jersey, for the
great chief of the Lenni Lenapes.
"Crags, knolls and mounds, in dire confusion hurled,
The fragmentary elements of an earlier world."
The Water Gap is a popular summer resort, there being numerous hotels
and boarding-houses in eligible locations all about it, and the
romantic scenery has been opened up by roads and paths leading to all
the points of view. It is on such a stupendous scale, and exhibits the
geological changes wrought during countless ages so well, that it
always attracts the greatest interest. To the northward spread the
fertile valleys of the Minisink; and the Delaware, which below the Gap
flows to the southeast, passing through all the ridges, comes from the
northeast above the Gap, and flows along the base of the Kittatinny
for miles, as if seeking the outlet which it at length finds in this
remarkable pass.
THE MINISINK.
From the elevated points of outlook at the Water Gap the observer can
gaze northward over the fertile and attractive hunting-grounds of the
Minsis, the land of the Minisink stretching far up the Delaware, and
from the Kittatinny over to the base of the Pocono Mountain. This is
the region of the "buried valleys," remarkable trough-like valleys,
made during an ancient geological period, and partially filled up by
the _débris_ from the great glacier. From the Hudson River in New
York, southwest to the Lehigh, and just beyond the Kittatinny range,
two long valleys, with an intervening ridge, stretch across the
country. The Delaware River, from Port Jervis to Bushkill, flows down
the northwestern of these valleys, then doubles back on itself, and
breaks through the intervening ridge at the remarkable Walpack Bend
into the other valley, and follows it down to the Water Gap. The
northwestern valley begins at Rondout on the Hudson, crosses New York
State to Port Jervis, where the Delaware, coming from the northwest,
turns to the southeast into it, occupying it for thirty miles to
Bushkill, and then the valley continues past Stroudsburg, just above
the Water Gap, to the Lehigh River at Weissport, below Mauch Chunk.
The other valley is parallel to it at the base of the Kittatinny.
These valleys, underlaid by the shales as bed-rocks, have been filled
up with drift by the glacier from one hundred to seven hundred feet in
depth, and they constitute the famous region of the Minisink.
In this fertile district was the earliest settlement made by white men
in Pennsylvania, the Dutch from the Hudson River wandering over to the
Delaware at Port Jervis through these valleys, and settling on the
prolific bottom lands along the river, many years before Penn came to
Philadelphia. They opened copper-mines in the Kittatinny, just above
the Water Gap, and made the old "Mine Road" to reach them, coming from
Esopus on the Hudson. The records at Albany of 1650 refer to specimens
brought from "a copper-mine at the Minisink." The Provincial
authorities at Philadelphia do not appear to have had any clear
knowledge of settlers above the Water Gap until 1729, when they sent a
surveyor up to examine and report, and he found Nicholas Depui in a
snug home, where he had bought two islands and level land on the shore
from the Indians some time before. Like the Dutch settlers above,
Depui had no idea where the river went to. He was a French Huguenot
exile from Holland, and, without disputing with the surveyor, he again
bought his land, nearly six hundred and fifty acres, in 1733, from the
grantees of the Penns. His stockaded stone house was known as Depui's
Fort, and after him the Water Gap was long called "Depui's Gap." Old
George La Bar was the most famous resident of the Water Gap. Three
brothers La Bar, Peter, Charles and Abraham, also French Huguenots,
lived near the Gap, and each married a Dutch wife. In 1808, however,
this region became too crowded for them, and Peter, at the age of
eighty-five, migrated to Ohio to get more room. When ninety-eight
years old his wife died, and in his one hundredth year he married
another out on the Ohio frontier, and lived to the ripe age of one
hundred and five. Peter, when he migrated, left his son George La Bar
at the Gap, where he had been born in 1763. George was the famous
centenarian of Pennsylvania, who died at the age of one hundred and
seven, being a vigorous axeman almost until the day of his death. He
was too young for a Revolutionary soldier, but when the War of 1812
came he was too old. In 1869, at the age of one hundred and six, a
visitor describes him as felling trees and peeling with his own hands
three wagon-loads of bark, which went to the tannery. He never wore
spectacles, always used tobacco, voted the straight Democratic ticket,
and at every Presidential election from Washington to Grant, and could
not be persuaded to ride on a railway train, regarding the cars as an
innovation.
In this region of the Minisink is the pleasant town of Stroudsburg,
the county-seat of Monroe, its beautiful valley being well described
by a local authority as "full of dimpling hills and fine orchards,
among which stalwart men live to a ripe old age upon the purest apple
whisky." Its finest building, the State Normal College, handsomely
located on an elevated ridge, has three hundred students. The town was
named for Jacob Stroud, a pioneer and Indian fighter, who was with
General Wolfe when he scaled the Heights of Abraham, and, capturing
Quebec, changed the map of Colonial America. Marshall's Creek comes
down to join its waters with Brodhead's Creek below Stroudsburg, and a
few miles above displays the pretty little cataract of Marshall's
Falls. Six miles northwest of Stroudsburg is the Pocono Knob, rising
in stately grandeur as it abruptly terminates the Pocono Mountain wall
on its eastern face. It was this Knob which stood out as an island in
the edge of the great glacier, a deep notch separating its summit from
the plateau behind, and the Terminal Moraine encircles its sides at
about two-thirds its height. In the river bottom lands are fertile
farms, and a great deal of tobacco is raised. Thus the river leads us
to Bushkill and the great Walpack Bend. The Delaware, coming from the
northeast, impinges upon the solid sandstone wall of the "Hog's Back,"
the prolongation of the ridge dividing the two "Buried Valleys." This
ridge bristles with attenuated firs, and hence its appropriate name.
The Big Bushkill and the Little Bushkill Creeks, uniting, flow in from
the west, and the Delaware turns sharply eastward and then back upon
itself around the ridge into the other valley, and resumes its course
southwest again down to the Water Gap. This double Walpack curve,
making a perfect letter "S," is so narrow and compressed that a
rifleman, standing on either side, can readily send his bullet in a
straight line across the river three times. The Indian word Walpack
means "a turn hole." The Delaware here is a succession of rifts and
pools, making a constant variation of rapids and still waters, with
many spots sacred to the angler, and displaying magnificent scenery
as the lights and shadows pass across the beautiful forest-covered
hills enclosing its banks.
BUSHKILL TO PORT JERVIS.
Bushkill village is in a picturesque location, opening pleasantly
towards the Delaware. It is also just over the Monroe border, in Pike
County, long ago described by Horace Greeley as "famous for
rattlesnakes and Democrats," but now more noted for its fine
waterfalls and attractive scenery, its many streams draining numerous
beautiful lakes, and dancing down frequent roaring rapids in the
journey to the Delaware. The falls of the Little Bushkill near the
village is the finest cataract in Pennsylvania. From Bushkill,
bordering the eastern bank of the Delaware, for thirty miles up to
Port Jervis, is one of the best roads in the world. The Marcellus
shales of the Buried Valley, which form the towering cliffs bordering
the river along the base of which the road is laid, make a road-bed as
smooth and hard as a floor, the chief highway of this district, for
the railway has not yet penetrated it. Over on the other side of the
river the great Kittatinny ridge presents an almost unbroken wall for
more than forty miles from the Water Gap up to Port Jervis. Frequent
creeks come in, all angling streams, the chief of them being
Dingman's, which for several miles displays a series of cataracts, and
at its mouth has the noted Pike County village of "Dingman's Choice,"
at which is located the time-honored Dingman's Ferry, across the
Delaware. The source of Dingman's Creek is in the Silver Lake, about
seven miles west of the Delaware, and in its flow it descends about
nine hundred feet, breaking its way over the various strata of
Catskill, Chemung and Hamilton sandstones. The upper cataracts, called
the Fulmer and Factory Falls and the Deer Leap, are located in a
beautiful ravine known as the Childs Park, while, below, the creek
pours over the High Falls, one hundred and thirty feet high, a short
distance from the river. Near this is the curious Soap Trough, an
inclined plane descending one hundred feet, always filled with foam,
down which comes the Silver Thread, a small tributary stream. The
gorge by which Dingman's Creek comes out is deep and massive, the
entrance being a narrow canyon cut down into the Marcellus shales
which make the towering cliffs along the river. There are also fine
cataracts on the Raymondskill and the Sawkill, flowing into the
Delaware above. The cliffs here rise into Utter's Peak, elevated eight
hundred feet, giving a magnificent view along the valley.
The little town of Milford, the county-seat of Pike, is one of the
gems of this district, spread over a broad terrace on the bluff high
above the Delaware, with a grand outlook at the ponderous Kittatinny
in front, rising to its greatest elevation at High Point, six miles
away, where a hotel is perched on the summit. Surrounded by mountains,
the late N. P. Willis, when he visited Milford, was so impressed by
its peculiar situation that he described it as "looking like a town
that all the mountains around have disowned and kicked into the
middle." Thomas Quick, Sr., a Hollander, who came over from the Hudson
in 1733, was the first settler in Milford. His noted son, Thomas
Quick, the "Indian Killer," was born in 1734. "Tom Quick," as he was
called, was brought up among the Indians, and had the closest
friendship for them; but when the terrible Colonial war began, the
savages, in a foray, killed and scalped his father almost by his side,
Tom being shot in the foot, but escaping. Tom vowed vengeance, and
ever afterwards was a perfect demon in his hatred of the Indians,
sparing neither age nor sex. After the French and Indian war had
closed and peace was proclaimed, he carried on his own warfare
independently. The most harrowing tales are told of his Indian
murders, some being horribly brutal. He never married, but hunted
Indians and wild beasts all his life, and was outlawed by the
Government, it being announced that no Indian who killed him would be
punished; but he finally died in bed in 1796. He was entirely
unrepentant during his last illness, regretting he had not killed more
Indians; and after saying he had killed ninety-nine during his life,
he begged them to bring in an old Indian who lived in the settlement,
so that he might appropriately close his career by killing the
hundredth redskin. The most noted Milford building is "Pinchot's
Castle," on the hillside above the Sawkill, a Norman-Breton baronial
hall, the summer house of the Pinchot family of New York, whose
ancestor, a French refugee after Waterloo, was an early settler here.
Seven miles above Milford the Delaware River makes the great
right-angled bend in its course, from the southeast to the southwest,
which is known as the "Tri-States Corner," and here, on the broad
flats at the mouth of the Neversink River, is the town of Port Jervis.
From the village of Deposit, ninety miles above, the Delaware descends
in level five hundred and seventy feet; and from Port Jervis down to
the Water Gap, forty-three miles, the descent is one hundred and
twenty-seven feet. In the first it falls six feet per mile and in the
latter only three feet, the difference being caused by the entirely
changed conditions above and below the great bend. Above, the Delaware
flows through the ridges by a winding ravine cut transversely across
the hard rocks almost all the way, while below, it meanders parallel
to the ridges along the outcrop of the softer rocks of the Marcellus
shales and Clinton formations in the long, trough-like buried valleys.
The Neversink comes from the northeast through one of these valleys
which is prolonged over to the Hudson, the source of the Neversink
being on a divide of such gentle slope that the large spring making
the head sends part of its waters the other way, through Rondout
Creek into the Hudson. A long, narrow peninsula, just at the
completion of the great bend, juts out between the Neversink and the
Delaware, ending in a sharp, low, wedge-like rocky point, the
extremity being the "Tri-States Corner," where the boundary line
between New Jersey and New York reaches the Delaware, and ends in
mid-river at the boundary of Pennsylvania. This spot was located after
a long boundary war, and the fact is duly recorded on the "Tri-States
Rock," down at the end of the point. The Delaware and Hudson Canal,
constructed in 1828, and coming over from Rondout Creek through the
Neversink Valley, made Port Jervis, which was named after one of its
engineers. The canal goes up the Delaware to the Lackawaxen, and then
follows that stream to Honesdale. The Erie Railway also comes through
a gap in the Kittatinny (here called the Shawangunk Mountain, meaning
the "white rocks"), descends to Port Jervis, and then follows up the
Delaware. These two great public works have made the prosperity of the
town, which has a population of over ten thousand. The long and
towering ridge of Point Peter, forming the northwestern boundary of
the Neversink Valley, and thrust out to the Delaware, bounding the
gorge through which the river comes, overlooks the town. On the other
side is the highest elevation of the Kittatinny and the most elevated
land in New Jersey, High Point, rising nineteen hundred and sixty
feet.
THE CATSKILL FLAGS.
The broadened valley of the Delaware extends a short distance above
Port Jervis, the canal and railway rounding the ponderous battlements
of Point Peter and then proceeding up the river, one on either bank.
About three miles above the "Port," as it is familiarly called, the
valley contracts to a rock-enclosed gorge, for here the Delaware
emerges from its great canyon in the Catskill series of rocks, in the
bottom of which it flows from Deposit, at the northern boundary of
Pennsylvania, eighty-seven miles above. The remarkable change seen in
the surrounding topography indicates the presence of a different rock
formation from that passed below, and the river runs out of the
Catskill rocks over the "Saw-mill rift." For thirty miles above, to
the northern line of Pike County, at Narrowsburg, the river banks
mostly are only mere shelves a few rods wide, and frequently present
nothing but the faces of rocky walls, rising perpendicularly from the
water to a height of six hundred feet or more. From the expanding
limestones below, the valley here suddenly contracts in the flags and
ledges of the Catskill series. All the small streams coming from the
bluffs back of the cliffs descend with rapid fall, and frequently over
high cascades. These Catskill flags, built up in vast construction,
rear their gaunt and weather-beaten jagged walls and wood-crowned
turrets on high. Perched far up on the New York side, at the
narrowest part of this remarkable gorge, is an eyrie called the
"Hawk's Nest," which gives a wonderful view, reached by a road carved
out of the rocky side of the abyss. This road, hung on the
perpendicular wall five hundred feet over the river, is the only
available route to the part of New York north of Port Jervis. The
canal and railway, far below, are each set on a shelf cut out of the
rocky banks. The enclosing cliffs rise higher as the river is
ascended, sometimes reaching an elevation of twelve hundred feet; and
here for miles are seen the famous Delaware and Starucca flags, rising
hundreds of feet in a continuous wall of bluish-gray and greenish-gray
flaggy sandstones. They are extensively quarried and shipped to New
York. Both railway and canal construction through this deep cleft were
enormously costly.
THE BATTLE OF LACKAWAXEN.
Here is Shohola Township, on the Pennsylvania shore, a wild and rocky
region fronting on the river for about ten miles, and Shohola Creek
rushes down a rocky bed through a deep gorge to seek the Delaware. It
was at this place the surveyors' line was drawn from the Lehigh over
to the Delaware, after Marshall's fateful walk. The "Shohola Glen," a
favorite excursion ground, has the channel of the creek, only forty
feet wide, cut down for two hundred feet deep into the flagstones, and
it plunges over four attractive cascades at the Shohola Falls above.
A short distance northward the Lackawaxen flows in through a fine
gorge, broadening out as the Delaware is approached; and the canal,
after crossing the latter on an aqueduct, goes up the Lackawaxen bank.
A grand amphitheatre of towering hills surrounds the broad flats where
the Lackawaxen brings its ample flow of dark amber-colored waters out
of the hemlock forests and swamps of Wayne County to this picturesque
spot. Here was fought, on July 22, 1779, the battle of Lackawaxen or
the Minisink, the chief Revolutionary conflict on the upper Delaware.
The battlefield was a rocky ledge on the New York side, elevated about
five hundred feet above the river, amid the lofty hills of Highland
Township, in Sullivan County. The noted Mohawk chief, Joseph Brandt,
with a force of fifteen hundred Indians and Tories, came down from
Northern New York to plunder the frontier settlements. Most of the
inhabitants fled down to the forts on the Lehigh or across the Blue
Ridge, upon his approach; but a small militia force was hastily
gathered under Colonels Hathorn and Tusten to meet the enemy, whom
they found crossing the Delaware at a ford near the Lackawaxen.
Hathorn, who commanded, moved to attack, but Brandt rushed his Indians
up a ravine, intercepting Hathorn just as he got out on the rocky
ledge, and cutting off about fifty of his rear guard. Hathorn had
ninety men with him, who quickly threw up a rude breastwork,
protecting about a half-acre of the ledge. Their ammunition was scant,
it was a terribly hot day, they had no water, and were soon
surrounded; but for six hours they bravely defended themselves, when,
the ammunition being all gone, the Indians broke through their line.
Tusten was attending the wounded, and with seventeen wounded men, whom
he was alleviating, was tomahawked, all being massacred. The others
fled, many being slain in the pursuit. Forty-four of the little band
were killed, and the fifty in the rear guard who had been cut off were
never afterwards heard of. Years afterwards, the bones of the slain in
this terrible defeat were gathered on the field and taken across the
Blue Ridge to Goshen for interment, and in 1822 a monument was erected
at Goshen in their memory, Colonel Hathorn, who was then living,
making an address. On the centenary anniversary in 1879 a monument was
dedicated on the field, where faint relics of the old breastwork were
still traceable on the rocky ledge perched high above the river,
almost opposite the mouth of the Lackawaxen.
THE SYLVANIA SOCIETY.
The county of Wayne is separated from the county of Lackawanna by the
great Moosic Mountain range, the divide between two noted rivers, the
Lackawaxen and the Lackawanna. The former, draining its southeastern
slopes to the Delaware, was the "Lechau-weksink" of the Indians,
meaning "where the roads part," evidently referring to the parting of
the Indian trails at its confluence with the Delaware; the latter,
flowing out to the Susquehanna on its northwestern side, was the
"Lechau-hanne," or "where the streams part," signifying the forks of
two rivers. We ascend the Lackawaxen, finding the route up the gorge
along the canal towpath, once the great water way of the Delaware and
Hudson Company for bringing out coal, but now abandoned, as the
railway route is cheaper. This canal, opened in 1828, was one hundred
and seventeen miles long, and ascended from tidewater on the Hudson at
Rondout to four hundred and fifty feet elevation at Port Jervis, and
nine hundred and sixty-five feet at Honesdale. Its route throughout is
through grand river gorges and the most magnificent scenery.
It was in this beautiful region, just south of the river, that Horace
Greeley, in 1842, started what he called the "Sylvania Society,"
founded to demonstrate the wisdom of "the common ownership of property
and the equal division of labor," which Greeley was then advocating by
lectures and in his newspaper. Many eminent persons took stock in the
society at $25 per share, and the experiment of co-operative farming
was begun in a region of rough and rocky Pike County soil, where the
amateur farmers also found amusement, for it is recorded that "the
stream was alive with trout, and the surrounding hills were equally
well provided with the largest and liveliest of rattlesnakes." They
had weekly lectures and dancing parties, the colony at one time
numbering three hundred persons, Mr. Greeley, who took the deepest
interest, frequently visiting them. The society was a success socially
and intellectually, but the labor problem soon caused trouble. A Board
of Directors governed the farm and assigned the laborers their work,
the principle of equality being observed by changing them from one
branch of labor to another day by day. But trouble soon came, for
there were too many wayward sons sent out from New York to the colony
who never had worked and never intended to, but preferred going
fishing. Various of the females also decidedly objected to taking
their turns at the washtub. The abundance of rattlesnakes had
influence, and one day a venturesome colonist brought in seventeen
large rattlers, causing dire consternation. They tanned the skin of
one big fellow, and made it into a pair of slippers, which were
presented to Mr. Greeley on his next visit. As is usually the case,
the colonists had ravenous appetites, and it was impossible to raise
enough food crops to feed them, so that food had to be bought, and the
capital was thus seriously drawn upon. In 1845 they had a prospect of
a generous yield at the harvest, when suddenly, on July 4th, a deadly
frost killed all their crops; and this ended the experimental colony.
In two days everybody had left the place, and Greeley was almost
heartbroken at the failure of his cherished plans. A mortgage on the
farm was foreclosed and the land sold to strangers. A Monroe County
farmer, who had invested $1800 in the enterprise and lost it, became
so angry at the collapse that he went to New York, as he said, "to
give Horace Greeley a Monroe County Democrat's opinion of him." He
found the great editor at work in the _Tribune_ office, and began
berating him. Greeley, as soon as a chance was given, asked his
visitor how much he had lost by the failure. He replied, "Eighteen
hundred dollars;" when, without further parley, Greeley drew a check
for the amount and handed it to him. The farmer was so astonished and
impressed by this most unexpected action that he immediately became,
as he afterwards stated, "a Greeley Whig," and remained one all his
life.
ASCENDING THE LACKAWAXEN.
At Glen Eyre, the Blooming Grove Creek flows merrily into the
Lackawaxen, coming out from Blooming Grove Township to the southward,
an elevated wooded plateau in the interior of Pike, which is the
common heading ground for numerous streams radiating in every
direction, and containing a score of attractive lakes. This region is
a wilderness where deer, bears and other wild animals roam, while the
streams are noted angling resorts. In it are the two famous "Knobs,"
the highest elevations of the whole Pocono range, the southern or
"High Knob" rising two thousand and ten feet, out-topping the
Kittatinny "High Point." This "Knob" stands like a pyramid, at least
five hundred feet above all the surrounding country, excepting its
neighbor, the "North Knob," which is only one hundred feet lower.
These are the northeastern outposts of the Pocono range. Upon the top
of the "High Knob" is a large boulder of white conglomerate, dropped
by the ice in the glacial period, and this summit gives the most
extensive view in Pennsylvania, over dark, fir-covered ridges in every
direction, interspersed with lakelets glistening in the sunlight.
There is not a house to be seen, and scarcely a clearing, but all
around is one vast wilderness. The greater part of this region is the
estate of the "Blooming Grove Park Association," covering thirteen
thousand acres, surrounded by a high fence, and stocked with game and
fish, there being over $300,000 invested in the enterprise. Here elk
and deer are bred, there are abundant hares and rabbits, and also
woodcock, grouse and snipe shooting. The spacious club-house is
elevated high above the rocky shores of Lake Giles, a most beautiful
circular sheet of clear spring water, fourteen hundred feet above
tide, and to it the anglers and hunters take their families and enjoy
the pleasures of the virgin woods.
The Wallenpaupack Creek, coming out of the Pocono plateau and the
Moosic Mountain, makes the boundary between Pike and Wayne Counties,
and flows into the Lackawaxen at Hawley. For most of the distance its
course is deep and sluggish, but approaching the edge of the terrace,
within a couple of miles of the Lackawaxen, it tumbles over cataracts
and down rapids through a magnificent gorge, so that, from its
alternating characteristics, the Indians rightly called it the
Walink-papeek, or "the slow and swift water." It descends a cascade of
seventy feet, and then goes down the Sliding Fall, a series of rapids
interspersed with several small cataracts. Farther down are two
cascades of thirty feet each, and then the main plunge, the Paupack
falls of sixty-one feet, almost at its mouth, the whole descent being
about two hundred and fifty feet. Hawley has thriving mills, whose
wheels are turned by this admirable water-power, and it is also a
railway centre for coal shipping. Its people are noted makers of
silks, and of cut and decorated glassware. Judge James Wilson, one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was an early settler
on the Wallenpaupack.
Above Hawley, in a broadened intervale of the Lackawaxen, was the
famous "Indian Orchard," where the first settlement, made in 1760,
grew afterwards into Honesdale, now the county-seat of Wayne. This was
a tract of land in the valley upon which the lofty Irving Cliff looks
down; and it was named from a row of one hundred apple trees which the
Indians had planted at regular intervals along the river bank. The
tradition was that ninety-nine trees bore sweet fruit, while one every
alternate year had a crop of sour apples. Upon a large clearing at the
water's edge, paved with flat stones, the Indians held their feasts
and performed their religious rites. The orchard and stones have
disappeared, but the plow still turns up Indian relics. This place was
selected by the Delaware and Hudson Company for the head of their now
abandoned canal, at the base of the Moosic Mountain, and it was named
Honesdale, in honor of the first president of the canal company,
Philip Hone, described as "the courtliest Mayor New York ever saw."
Within the town the two pretty streams unite which form the
Lackawaxen, making lakelets on the plain, and from the shore of one of
these the rocks rise almost perpendicularly nearly four hundred feet.
In 1841 Washington Irving came here with some friends, making the
journey on the canal, and climbed these rocks to overlook the lovely
intervale, and thus the Irving Cliff was named. Writing of his visit,
he spoke in wonder of the beautiful scenery and romantic route of the
Delaware and Hudson Canal, saying: "For many miles it is built up
along the face of perpendicular precipices, rising into stupendous
cliffs, with overhanging forests, or jutting out into vast
promontories, while upon the other side you look down upon the
Delaware, foaming and roaring below you, at the foot of an immense
wall or embankment which supports the canal. Altogether, it is one of
the most daring undertakings I have ever witnessed, to carry an
artificial river over rocky mountains, and up the most savage and
almost impracticable defiles. For upward of ninety miles I went
through a constant succession of scenery that would have been famous
had it existed in any part of Europe."
From Honesdale a gravity railroad crosses the Moosic Mountain into the
Lackawanna Valley at Carbondale. This was originally used to bring the
coal out for the canal, but has been abandoned for this purpose, being
now confined to passenger service. It has twenty-eight inclined
planes, and crosses the summit at Far View, at an elevation of nearly
two thousand feet. The first locomotive brought to America, built at
Stourbridge, England, in 1828, the "Stourbridge Lion," was used on the
levels of this railroad, the face of a lion adorning the front of the
boiler giving it the name. When brought out in 1829 the triumphant
claim was made that it "would run four miles an hour." The road passes
over extended mountain tops, giving far-seeing views; and among these
sombre rounded ridges in the wilderness of Wayne are the sources of
the Lackawaxen. Carbondale, built on the coal measures of the upper
Lackawanna Valley, has about eighteen thousand population; but all its
coal now goes to market by other railway routes, the gravity road and
the canal being found too expensive carriers in the fierce competition
of the anthracite industry.
THE HEADWATERS OF THE DELAWARE.
The Delaware, above the Lackawaxen, flows between massive cliffs in a
deeply-cut gorge through the flagstones. At Mast Hope, years ago, was
got the biggest pine tree ever cut on the Delaware for a vessel's
mast. The "Forest Lake Association," another hunting- and fishing-club
near here, has an extensive estate covering the high ridge between the
Delaware and the Lackawaxen. At Big Eddy the river makes a sort of
lake two miles long, of pure spring water, the widest and deepest part
of the Delaware beyond tidewater. Stupendous cliffs contract the river
above at the Narrows, where the village of Narrowsburg is built, and
this region and the neighboring lake-strewn highlands of Sullivan
County, New York, were the chief scenes of Cooper's novel, _The Last
of the Mohicans_. As we advance through its upper canyon, the Delaware
grows gradually smaller, but the enclosing ridges recede and leave a
broad and fertile valley. Here are the villages of Damascus and
Cochecton, connected by a bridge, and having together probably a
thousand inhabitants. The original Indian village was Cushatunk,
meaning the "lowlands," and from this Cochecton is derived. It was the
sad scene of various Indian forays and massacres before and during the
Revolution. For many years lumbering and tanning were great industries
in this region, but they have almost entirely passed away.
We are coming to the headwaters of the Delaware. At Hancock, elevated
about nine hundred feet above tide, the Delaware divides. The
Popacton, or east branch, comes in, the Mohock, or western branch,
however, being the larger stream, and making the boundary between
Pennsylvania and New York above their junction. These two branches,
after flowing nearly parallel for a long distance across Delaware
County, New York, separated by a broad mountain ridge about eleven
miles wide, unite around the base of a great dome-like hill at
Hancock, the spot having been appropriately named by the Indians
Sho-ka-kin, or "where the waters meet." Thirteen miles above is
Deposit, at the New York boundary, where Oquaga Creek comes down from
the mountains to the westward. This was formerly an important "place
of deposit" for lumber, awaiting the spring freshets to be sent down
the Delaware, and hence its name. High hills surround Deposit, the
river makes a grand sweeping bend, and nearby is the beautiful
mountain lake of Oquaga, of which Taylor writes: "If there is a more
restful place than this, outside 'God's acres,' I have failed to find
it;" adding, "The mountain road to the lake is picturesque enough to
lead to Paradise." The headwaters of the Delaware rise upon the
western slopes of the Catskill Mountains in Delaware and Schoharie
Counties, New York. The source is about two hundred and seventy miles
almost directly north of Philadelphia. In a depression on the western
slope of the Catskill range, at an elevation of eighteen hundred and
eighty-eight feet above tidewater, is the head of the Delaware, Lake
Utsyanthia, a secluded little sheet of the purest and most transparent
spring water. It is also called Ote-se-on-teo, meaning the "beautiful
spring, cold and pure." It is a mirror of beauty in a wooded
wilderness, its surroundings being most wild and picturesque. From
this little lakelet flows out the Mohock, winding down its romantic
valley, and receiving many brooks and rills, passing a village or two,
and bubbling along for forty miles to Deposit, and thence onward as
the great river Delaware to the ocean. Thus Tennyson sings of the
Brook:
"I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For man may come, and man may go,
But I go on forever."
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of America, Volume I (of 6), by Joel Cook
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