Early Western Travels
1748-1846
Volume IV
Early Western Travels
1748-1846
A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best
and rarest contemporary volumes of travel, descriptive
of the Aborigines and Social and
Economic Conditions in the Middle
and Far West, during the Period
of Early American Settlement
Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by
Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D.
Editor of “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,” “Wisconsin
Historical Collections,” “Chronicles of Border Warfare,”
“Hennepin’s New Discovery,” etc.
Volume IV
Cuming’s Tour to the Western Country (1807-1809)
[Illustration]
Cleveland, Ohio
The Arthur H. Clark Company
1904
COPYRIGHT 1904, BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Lakeside Press
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO
CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV
Preface. _The Editor_ 7
SKETCHES OF A TOUR TO THE WESTERN COUNTRY, through the
States of Ohio and Kentucky; a Voyage down the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers, and a Trip through the Mississippi
Territory, and part of West Florida. Commenced at
Philadelphia in the Winter of 1807, and concluded in 1809.
_Fortescue Cuming_.
Copyright notice 18
Author’s Table of Contents 19
Author’s Preface 23
Text 25
ILLUSTRATION TO VOLUME IV
FACSIMILE OF ORIGINAL TITLE-PAGE 17
PREFACE TO VOLUME IV
We devote the fourth volume of our series of Western Travels to the
reprint of Fortescue Cuming’s _Sketches of a Tour to the Western
Country_--the tour having been made in 1807-1809, the publication
itself issuing from a Pittsburg press in 1810.
Of Cuming himself, we have no information save such as is gleaned
from his book. He appears to have been an Englishman of culture and
refinement, who had travelled extensively in other lands--notably the
West Indies, France, Switzerland, and Italy. It is certain that he
journeyed to good purpose, with an intelligent, open mind, free from
local prejudices, and with trained habits of observation. Cuming was
what one may call a good traveller--he endured the inconveniences,
annoyances, and vicissitudes of the road, especially in a new and rough
country, with equanimity and philosophic patience, deliberately making
the best of each day’s happenings, thus proving himself an experienced
and agreeable man of the world.
The journeys narrated were taken during two succeeding years. The
first, in January, 1807, was a pedestrian tour from Philadelphia to
Pittsburg. Arriving in the latter city on the second of February,
after twenty-seven days upon the road, the remainder of the winter,
the spring, and the early summer were passed at Pittsburg. On
the eighteenth of July following, our traveller took boat from
Pittsburg, and made his way down the Ohio to the Kentucky entrepôt
at Maysville--where he arrived the thirtieth of the month. Mounting
a horse, he made a brief trip through Kentucky as far as Lexington
and Frankfort, returning to Maysville on the fifth of August. The
following day, he crossed the Ohio, and after examining lands in the
vicinity, proceeded partly on foot, partly by stage and saddle, over
the newly-opened state road of Ohio, through Chillicothe, Lancaster,
and Zanesville to Wheeling; thence back to Pittsburg, where he arrived
the evening of August 21.
The following year (1808), Cuming begins his narrative at the point on
the Ohio where he had left the river the previous year--at Maysville,
whence he embarked on the seventh of May for Mississippi Territory.
With the same fulness of detail and accurate notation that characterize
his former narrative, Cuming describes the voyage down the Ohio and the
Mississippi until his arrival at Bayou Pierre on the sixth of June,
after a month afloat.
Starting from Bruinsbury, at the mouth of Bayou Pierre, August 22,
he took a horseback trip through the settlements of Mississippi
Territory lying along the river and some distance inland on its
tributaries--Cole’s Creek, St. Catharine’s Bayou, the Homochito,
etc.--penetrating the then Spanish territory of West Florida as far as
Baton Rouge, and returning by a similar route to Bruinsbury, where he
arrived the fifteenth of September.
At this point Cuming’s tour is concluded. In order to give completeness
to the work, however, the first editor added the journal of a voyage
taken in 1799 “by a gentleman of accurate observation, a passenger in a
New Orleans boat.” From just above Bayou Pierre, this anonymous author
departed on the ninth of February for New Orleans, where he arrived on
the twenty-third of the same month. Embarking therefrom March 12, he
reached Philadelphia after a month’s voyage via Havana and the Atlantic
shore. His narrative is far less effective than that of Cuming.
Like a well bred man of affairs, Cuming never intrudes his private
business upon our attention; but incidentally we learn that his
first Western journey from Pittsburg was undertaken at least in part
to observe some lands in Ohio, which he had previously purchased
in Europe, and with whose situation and location he was agreeably
surprised. The journey to Mississippi appears to have been undertaken
with a view to making his home in that territory. The place and date
signed to the preface--“Mississippi territory, 20th Oct. 1809”--would
indicate that he had decided upon remaining where he had found the
social life so much to his taste, and some of his former friends and
acquaintances had settled.
It is the natural impulse of almost every traveller to record the
events of a somewhat unusual tour. Cuming wished, also, to afford
information to Europeans and Eastern men of “a country, in its
infancy, which from its rapid improvement in a very few years, will
form a wonderful contrast to its present state.” His attitude was
sympathetic towards the new and raw regions through which he travelled;
nevertheless this fact does not appear to have unduly affected his
purpose of giving an accurate picture of what he saw. He does not
slur over the disadvantages, nor extenuate any of the crudeness or
vulgarity; but at the same time portrays the possibilities of the new
land, its remarkable growth, its opportunities for development, and the
vigor and enterprise of its inhabitants.
In plain, dispassionate style, he has given us a picture of American
life in the West, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that
for clear-cut outlines and fidelity of presentation has the effect
of a series of photographic representations. In this consists the
value of the book for students of American history. We miss entirely
those evidences of amused tolerance and superficial criticism that
characterize so many English books of his day, recounting travels in
the United States--a state of mind sometimes developing into strong
prejudice and evident distaste, such as made Dickens’s _American Notes_
a caricature of conditions in the new country.
It is essentially a backwoods life to which Cuming introduces us,
although not in the first stages of its struggle for existence.
Indian alarms are a thing of the past, a large percentage of the land
is cleared, the people have better dwellings than in the log-cabin
days, there is now rude abundance and plenty, and the beginnings of
educational opportunities, social intercourse, and the amenities of
civilized life. The pioneers themselves--Indian fighters and skilful
hunters--have become rare. Here and there Cuming encounters a former
Indian captive, like Andrew Ellison, or a scout and ranger, like Peter
Neiswonger; but as a rule it is the second generation whom he meets,
or members of the second tide of emigrants that came in after the
Revolution--officers in the army, younger sons of the better classes,
who by energy and capacity bettered their fortunes in the West, built
for themselves good homes, laid out towns, developed orchards, farms,
and plantations, and were living in that atmosphere of prosperity which
heralded the ultimate fortunes of the new land.
Nevertheless, the inheritances of the older days of struggle and
primitive society are still in evidence--the lack of facilities at
the small country inns, the coarseness and rudeness of the manner of
living, the heavy drinking and boisterous amusements of the young, the
fighting, the incivility to travellers, the boorishness of manners.
All these are relics of the early days when the rough struggle with
the wilderness developed the cruder rather than the finer virtues of
men. On the other hand, as we have already pointed out, Cuming shows
us the hopeful elements of this new land: not only its wonderful
material prosperity, its democratic spirit and sense of fairness, but
its adaptability, its hospitality for new ideas, the beginnings of the
fine art of good living, and eagerness to promote schools, churches,
and the organizations for the higher life.
Some of the particular features recorded by Cuming, that are now
obsolete, are the use of lotteries for raising money for public
purposes, and the prevalence of highway robbery in the unsettled parts
of the country. The restlessness of the population is also worthy of
note--the long journeys for trivial purposes, the abandoned settlements
in Kentucky and Illinois.
Especially valuable for purposes of comparison, is Cuming’s accurate
account of the towns through which he passed--their size and
appearance, number and kind of manufactures, business methods and
interests. Characteristic of the period also, is the enterprise of
the inhabitants--townsites laid out at every available position,
speculation in lands, and large confidence in the future of the region.
In that confidence Cuming appears fully to have shared. Already, he
tells us, food-stuffs were being exported to Europe, the growth of the
cotton industry promised large returns, the richness of the soil and
the resources and fertility of the land fostered high hopes.
In regard to social conditions, our author writes at a time when the
formerly uniform and homogeneous character of the Western population
was beginning to break up, especially in the slave states and
territories, and when the professional classes and large land-owners
were taking a leading position in affairs. He notes particularly the
importance and assumption of leadership on the part of the lawyers.
The virulent excitement of political life is one of the features of
his observations that his first editor attempted to excuse and modify.
It was doubtless true that the incidents attendant upon the arrest and
trial of Burr had especially aroused the section through which Cuming
passed. It is probable, however, that his portrayal of the animosity
of political divisions is substantially accurate; and that not only did
“politics run high” at the tavern and political club, but it controlled
the social coterie, and in early American society adjusted lines of
relationship more strictly than is evident to-day.
The areas which Cuming visited were those, with the exception of
Tennessee, in which were to be found the most characteristic features
of Western life. Western Pennsylvania and Northwestern Virginia
comprised a homogeneous population, living under similar conditions.
Closely allied was Kentucky, although it was beginning to be modified
by settled conditions, the prosperity of low, rich pasture lands,
and its distance from Eastern markets. In Ohio, however, Cuming
encountered the New England element--but well mixed with Southerners
on the Virginia bounty lands, French of the Gallipolis settlement,
and New Jersey and Middle States emigration to the region of the
Miamis. His narrative, continued down the Ohio, shows the scarcity of
population in Indiana and Illinois, and in Kentucky below Louisville;
also the frontier character of that region as far down the Mississippi
as the Natchez district. Here again, Cuming meets with an area of
settlement begun under the British rule of West Florida, and continued
under Spanish authority, until a few years before his voyage. In
Mississippi, he portrays to us the beginnings of plantation life--the
large estates, with gangs of negroes; the hospitality, cultivation, and
charm of the upper classes, jostled by the rude waifs and strays that
the river traffic wafted to their landings. In spite of diversities,
the characteristics of Western life had much sameness--the mingling
of the population, the shifting of people from all sections, and the
dependence upon the rivers as the great arteries of Western commerce,
with its ultimate outlet by way of the Mississippi and New Orleans.
Cuming’s work was not immediately published after writing. The
manuscript passed into the possession of Zadok Cramer, a Pittsburg
printer who was particularly interested in Ohio and Mississippi
navigation, for which he published a technical guide called _The
Navigator_, that ran through numerous editions. Cramer annotated
Cuming’s manuscript, adding thereto a considerable appendix of
heterogeneous matter--collected, as he says in his advertisement,
“from various sources while the press was going on with the work, and
frequently was I hurried by the compositors to furnish copy from hour
to hour.” This material, much of it irrelevant and reprinted from
other works, the present Editor has thought best to omit. It ranges
from a description of the bridge at Trenton to Pike’s tour through
Louisiana--embracing such diverse matter as “Of the character of the
Quakers,” “Sculptures of the American Aborigines,” and “Particulars of
John Law’s Mississippi Scheme.”
The hope of Cramer that a second edition would soon be called for, was
not fulfilled. Put forth in 1810, the book has never been reprinted
until the present edition, which it is believed will be welcomed by
students of American history.
As in former volumes of the series, Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D., of
the Wisconsin Historical Library, has assisted in the preparation of
the notes. The Editor desires, also, to acknowledge his obligations
to Mrs. Frances C. Wordin, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, for valuable
information concerning her grandfather, Dr. John Cummins, of Bayou
Pierre, Mississippi.
R. G. T.
MADISON, WIS., April, 1904.
CUMING’S SKETCHES OF A TOUR TO THE WESTERN COUNTRY--1807-1809.
Reprint of the original edition (Pittsburgh, 1810). The Appendix, being
composed of irrelevant matter, is herein omitted.
[Illustration:
SKETCHES OF A TOUR
TO THE WESTERN COUNTRY,
THROUGH
_THE STATES OF OHIO AND KENTUCKY_;
A VOYAGE
DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS,
AND A TRIP
_THROUGH THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY, AND
PART OF WEST FLORIDA_.
COMMENCED AT PHILADELPHIA IN THE WINTER
OF 1807, AND CONCLUDED IN 1809.
BY F. CUMING.
WITH NOTES AND AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING
SOME INTERESTING FACTS, TOGETHER WITH
_A NOTICE OF AN EXPEDITION THROUGH
LOUISIANA_.
_PITTSBURGH_,
PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY CRAMER, SPEAR & EICHBAUM, FRANKLIN HEAD
BOOKSTORE, IN MARKET, BETWEEN FRONT & SECOND STREETS--1810.
]
DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:
Be it remembered, That on the first day of May, in the thirty-fourth
year of the Independence of the United States of America, A.D. 1810,
Zadok Cramer, of the said district, hath deposited in this office, the
title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the
words following, to wit:
_Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, through the States of Ohio
and Kentucky; a Voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a Trip
through the Mississippi territory, and part of West Florida. Commenced
at Philadelphia in the winter of 1807, and concluded in 1809. By F.
Cuming. With Notes and an Appendix, containing some interesting Facts,
together with a notice of an Expedition through Louisiana._
In conformity to an act of the congress of the United States,
intituled, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the
copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of
such copies during the times therein mentioned.” And also to the act,
entitled “An act supplementary to an act, entitled an act for the
encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the time
therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of
designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.”
D. CALDWELL, _clerk of
the district of Pennsylvania_.
{iii} CONTENTS
OF EACH CHAPTER IN PART
CHAPTER I
Commencement of journey--Schuylkill bridge--Schuylkill
river--Downingstown--Brandywine creek--Pequea creek--New
Holland--Conestoga creek and bridge--Lancaster 25
CHAP. II
Elizabethtown--Susquehannah river--Harrisburgh 33
CHAP. III
Conestoga massacre--Carlisle and Dickinson college 42
CHAP. IV
Shippensburgh--Strasburgh--Horse valley 49
CHAP. V
Fannetsburgh--Juniata--Bloody run--Bedford 55
CHAP. VI
Allegheny mountains--Somerset--A murder 61
CHAP. VII
Laurel and Chesnut hills--Greensburgh--Pittsburgh 70
CHAP. VIII
Pittsburgh--Lawyers--Clergymen 76
CHAP. IX
Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers 87
CHAP. X
Georgetown--Little Beaver creek 100
CHAP. XI
Steubenville--Charlestown 106
CHAP. XII
Warren--Wheeling--Canton 111
CHAP. XIII
Little and Big Grave creeks--Monuments 114
CHAP. XIV
Muskingum--Marietta--Fortifications 120
CHAP. XV
Little Kenhawa--Blennerhasset’s island 126
CHAP. XVI
Little and Big Hockhocking--Belleville 130
CHAP. XVII
Le Tart’s falls--Graham’s station 135
CHAP. XVIII
Point Pleasant--Battle--Dunmore’s campaign 140
{iv} CHAP. XIX
Galliopolis--Green’s bottom--Hanging rock 147
CHAP. XX
Big Guiandot--Great Sandy--Snakes 153
CHAP. XXI
French Grant--Little Sciota--Portsmouth 156
CHAP. XXII
Sciota--Alexandria--Salt-works 161
CHAP. XXIII
Brush creek--Manchester--Maysville 165
CHAP. XXIV
Washington, K.--May’s and Blue licks--Salt furnaces 170
CHAP. XXV
Nicholasville--Millersburgh--Massacre 176
CHAP. XXVI
Lexington 181
CHAP. XXVII
Leesburgh--Frankfort 189
CHAP. XXVIII
Paris--Frank Bird--Hospitality 196
CHAP. XXIX
Commence a journey from Maysville through the state of Ohio
to Pittsburgh 201
CHAP. XXX
Bainbridge--Arrival at Chilicothe 208
CHAP. XXXI
The Sciota--Chilicothe--Monuments 215
CHAP. XXXII
Hockhocking--New Lancaster--Zanesville 219
CHAP. XXXIII
Wills’s creek--Cambridge--Beymer’s 226
CHAP. XXXIV
St. Clairsville--Indian Wheeling 230
CHAP. XXXV
Little Wheeling--Alexandria or Hardscramble 234
CHAP. XXXVI
Washington, Penn.--Canonsburgh--Pittsburgh 238
CHAP. XXXVII
Pittsburgh--Panorama around it 242
CHAP. XXXVIII
Descends the Ohio again--Columbia, Newport, Cincinnati,
Port Williams, Louisville, falls 255
{v} CHAP. XXXIX
Blue river--Horse machinery boat 261
CHAP. XL
Green river--Henderson--Cotton machine 265
CHAP. XLI
Wabash river, Shawanee town, Rocking cave 269
CHAP. XLII
Cumberland river, Tennessee, Fort Massac 273
CHAP. XLIII
Mississippi, New Madrid, Little Prairie 279
CHAP. XLIV
Indian warriours, their manners and customs 284
CHAP. XLV
Fort Pike, Chickasaw Indians, Fort Pickering 289
CHAP. XLVI
Settlements of Arkansas and White river 295
CHAP. XLVII
Grand lake, Anecdote of a Carolinean 300
CHAP. XLVIII
Walnut Hills, Fort M’Henry, Bayou Pierre 305
CHAP. XLIX
Commence a tour by land, Cole’s creek, Greenville 310
CHAP. L
Washington, Natchez, Mississippi territory 318
CHAP. LI
Homochito, Fort Adams, Pinkneyville 326
CHAP. LII
Enter West Florida, Thomson’s creek 331
CHAP. LIII
Baton Rouge, Spanish governour, Mrs. O’Brien’s 339
CHAP. LIV
Remarks on the climate, soil, manners, face of the country,
productions, &c. 347
The description of the Mississippi continued from Bayou
Pierre to New Orleans--Thence a sea voyage to
Philadelphia, by another hand 354
PREFACE
The writer of the following tour would not trouble the reader with
a Preface, did not some circumstances render it in a certain degree
necessary.
It might be asked why he had not commenced the tour with a particular
description of Philadelphia. His reasons for not doing so were, in the
first place, Philadelphia is a city so minutely described in every
modern geographical publication, that few readers are unacquainted
with its local situation between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill,
its regularity of plan, its rapid progress, &c. Whereas the country
through which the author travelled has been very little treated of by
tourists, of course is little known to strangers; though an account
of its appearance, its natural properties, its improvements, and the
manners of its mixed population, perhaps merits a place on the shelves
of the literati, as much as the numerous tours and travels through
Europe, Asia and Africa with which they are loaded. Indeed, in one
point of view, such a book may be much more useful, as it may serve for
a record of the situation of a country, in its infancy, which from its
rapid improvement in a very few years, will form a wonderful contrast
to its present state, while the trans-Atlantick travellers have to
treat of countries either arrived at the highest state of improvement,
or of others buried in the gloom of ignorance and barbarity, and of
course both stationary, and therefore not affording any variety of
consequence, during the two last centuries, (in which time they have
been the theme of so many able pens) excepting the style of writing and
manner of description.
In the second place--It was the author’s wish to condense as much into
one cheap volume as he could make it contain, and had he entered into
minute descriptions of places the best known, he would [have] had so
much the less room for the original matter, with which he intended to
constitute the bulk of the work.
It was intended to have put the work to the press in the winter
of 1807, the year in which the tour commenced, but a series of
disappointments essayed by the author, has unavoidably postponed it,
and has given him an opportunity of adding to the original plan, some
account of the lower parts of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and the
countries washed by them, particularly the Mississippi territory, which
has become of great importance to the United States, and is not without
its value to Europe, from its immense supply of cotton to the European
manufacturers.
{viii} As the intention of the author was the increase of information,
he makes no apology for the plainness of his style, and he expects,
on that account, to be spared any criticism. Should however any
one think proper to bestow a leisure hour in the remarking of his
inaccuracies, or the incorrectness of his language, he can have no
possible objection, as criticism of that kind always tends to general
improvement.
THE AUTHOR
Mississippi territory, 20th Oct. 1809.
SKETCHES OF A TOUR
CHAPTER I
Commencement of journey--Schuylkill bridge--Schuylkill
river--Downingstown--Brandywine creek--Pequea creek--New
Holland--Conestoga creek and Bridge--Lancaster.
On 8th January 1807, I left Philadelphia on foot, accompanying a wagon
which carried my baggage. I preferred this mode of travelling for
several reasons. Not being pressed for time I wished to see as much
of the country as possible; the roads were in fine order, and I had
no incentive to make me desirous of reaching any point of my intended
journey before my baggage. With respect to expence, there was little
difference in my travelling in this manner, or on horseback, or in the
stage, had I been unincumbered with baggage; for the delay on the road,
awaiting the slow pace of a loaded wagon, which is not quite three
miles an hour, and not exceeding twenty-six miles on a winter’s day,
will occasion as great expence to a traveller in a distance exceeding
two such days’ journey, as the same distance performed otherwise in
less than half the time, including the charge of horse or stage hire.
The first object which struck me on the road, was the new bridge over
the Schuylkill which does honour to its inventor for its originality
of architecture, and its excellence of mechanism. There are two piers,
the westernmost of which is a work perhaps unexampled in hydraulick
architecture, from the depth to which it is sunk; the rock on which it
stands being forty-one feet nine inches below common {10} high tides.
Both piers were built within cofferdams: the design for the western
was furnished by William Weston, esq. of Gainsborough in England, a
celebrated hydraulick engineer. Eight hundred thousand feet of timber,
board measure, were employed in and about it. Mr. Samuel Robinson of
Philadelphia, executed the work of the piers under the directions of
a president and five directors, who also superintended the mason work
done by Mr. Thomas Vickers, on an uncommon plan, which has answered
the intention perfectly well. The walls of the abutments and wings are
perpendicular without buttresses, and supported by interior offsets.
The eastern abutment is founded on a rock, the western on piles. There
are near eight thousand tons of masonry in the western pier, many of
the stones in it, as well as in the eastern, weighing from three to
twelve tons. Several massive chains are worked in with the masonry,
stretched across the piers in various positions; and the exterior is
clamped and finished in the most substantial manner.
The frame of the superstructure was designed and erected by Mr. Timothy
Palmer of Newburyport in Massachusetts, combining in its principles,
that of ring posts and braces with a stone arch. The platform for
travelling rises only eight feet from a horizontal line. The foot ways
are five feet in width, elevated above the carriage ways, and neatly
protected by posts and chains.
The whole of the bridge is covered by a roof, and the sides closed
in, to preserve the timber from the decay occasioned by exposure to
the weather. The side covering is done in imitation of masonry by
sprinkling it with stone dust, while the painting was fresh: this is a
novel mode of ornamenting and protecting the surfaces of wooden work
exposed to weather, which from its goodness and cheapness will probably
be brought into general use. The work of the {11} roof and covering was
done by Mr. Owen Biddle, house carpenter in Philadelphia.
The bridge was six years in building, was finished in 1805, and cost
in work and materials two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars.
The scite was purchased from the corporation of Philadelphia for forty
thousand dollars.
This is the only covered wooden bridge we know of, excepting one over
the Limmat in Switzerland, built by the same carpenter who erected
the so much celebrated bridge of Schauffhausen, since destroyed, the
model of which I have seen, and I think this of Schuylkill deserves the
preference both for simplicity and strength. It is 550 feet long, and
the abutments and wing walls are 750, making in all 1300 feet; the span
of the middle arch is 195 feet, and that of the other two 150 each; it
is 42 feet wide; the carriage way is 31 feet above the surface of the
river, and the lower part of the roof is 13 feet above the carriage
way; the depth of the water to the rock at the western pier is 42 feet,
and at the eastern 21 feet.--The amount of the toll, which is very
reasonable, was 14,600 dollars the first year after it was finished,
which must increase very much in a country so rapidly improving. The
proprietors are a company who have built commodious wharves on each
side of the river, both for protection to the abutments of the bridge,
and for the use of the city.[1]
{12} The Schuylkill is a fine river nearly two hundred yards broad
at the bridge. It rises in the Cushetunk mountains about a hundred
and twenty miles to the N. W. of Philadelphia. It is navigable for
flat boats from the populous town of Reading about fifty miles above
Philadelphia, but its navigation is impeded by falls about eight miles
above the city, and by others about five miles above it, to which
latter ones the tide flows, from its conflux with the Delaware four
miles below Philadelphia. It supplies the city with water, pumped by
steam[2] from a reservoir, with which {13} the river communicates by
a canal near the bridge, into a cistern, from whence it is conveyed
by pipes through the streets and to the houses, plugs being fixed
at convenient distances for supplying the fire engines, for which
there are too frequent use, from the quantity of timber still used in
building, and from the fuel, which is chiefly wood.
The banks of the Schuylkill being hilly, afford charming situations
for country houses, in which the wealthy citizens of Philadelphia find
a secure retreat from the unhealthy air of the town during the heats
of summer. A good house, a spacious green house, fine gardens and a
demesne formerly owned by the late Robert Morris, esq.[3] are a fine
termination to the view up the river from the bridge.
There is a turnpike road of sixty-six miles from Philadelphia to
Lancaster, which my wagonner left at Downingstown about half way,
keeping to the right along a new road, which is also intended for a
turnpike road to Harrisburgh, and which passes through New Holland,
where he had some goods to deliver. Downingstown is a village of
about fifty middling houses.[4] The east branch of Brandywine creek
crosses the road here, as the west branch does about eight miles
further.--These two branches unite twelve or fourteen miles below, and
fall into the Delaware near Wilmington, about twenty miles below their
junction. The Brandywine is noted for a battle fought on its banks near
its confluence with the Delaware, between the British army under Sir
William Howe and the American under General Washington, who endeavoured
to oppose the progress of the enemy to Philadelphia, from the head of
Chesapeak bay where they had landed. The conflict was obstinate, but
the British being in great force, the Americans {14} were obliged to
retreat, after heavy loss on both sides.
The Brandywine runs through a rich and well settled country, and
abounds with mills, where a vast quantity of flour is manufactured for
exportation.--Pequea creek which falls into the Susquehannah, crosses
the road about four miles from the west branch of Brandywine. Five
miles further accompanying my wagonner, I turned to the left from the
Harrisburgh turnpike road, and in six miles more came to New Holland,
which is a long straggling town of one hundred and fifty houses in one
street, from whence it is seven miles to Conestoga creek. From the hill
just above, I was struck with the romantick situation of a fine bridge
over the creek below, more particularly as I came upon it unexpectedly.
The creek is about eighty yards wide, tumbling its rapid current, over
an irregular rocky bottom and disappearing round the foot of a wooded
hill, almost as soon as seen. The man who built the bridge lives on the
opposite side. The toll not answering his expectations, he would have
been a great sufferer, had not the state taken it off his hands and
reimbursed his expences; since when, the toll has been taken off.--It
is five miles from this bridge to Lancaster.
The face of the country between Philadelphia and Lancaster is hilly,
and variegated with woods and cultivated farms. It is extremely well
inhabited and consists of almost every variety of soil, from sandy
and light, to a rich black mould, which last quality is observable
generally between New Holland and Lancaster, except on the heights on
each bank of the Conestoga. The first settlers of all this tract were
English, Irish, and German, but the latter have gradually purchased
from the others, and have got the best lands generally into their
possession. They {15} are frugal and industrious, are good farmers,
and consequently a wealthy people.
Lancaster is supposed to be the largest inland town in the United
States. It is in a healthy and pleasant situation, on the western
slope of a hill, and consists of two principal streets, compactly
built with brick and stone, and well paved and lighted, crossing each
other at right angles. There is a handsome and commodious court-house
of brick in the centre, which, in my opinion is injurious to the
beauty of the town, by obstructing the vista of the principal streets.
There are several other streets parallel to the principal ones the
whole containing about eight hundred houses. The houses for publick
worship are a German Lutheran, a German Calvinist, a Presbyterian,
an Episcopalian, a Moravian, a Quaker, and a Roman Catholick church,
amongst which the German Lutheran is the most conspicuous from its
size and handsome spire: it has also an organ.--There is a strong
jail built with stone, and a brick market house. What in my opinion
does most honour to the town is its poor house, which is delightfully
situated near Conestoga creek about a mile from the town on the right
of the turnpike road towards Philadelphia. It is a large and commodious
building, and is supported partly by the labour of those paupers who
are able to work, and partly by a fine farm, which is annexed to it.
There are several private manufacturies in Lancaster, amongst which are
three breweries and three tanyards, but it is principally noted for its
rifles, muskets, and pistols, the first of which are esteemed the best
made in the United States. The inhabitants are chiefly the descendants
of the first German settlers, and are a quiet, orderly people--They are
estimated at about four thousand five hundred.
This has been the seat of government of Pennsylvania since 1799, but
it is not rendered permanently {16} so by an act of the legislature,
which occasions attempts being made annually at every session of that
body to remove it.[5] The eastern members advocating Philadelphia
on account of its trade and population, and the western members
endeavouring to have it placed as near to the centre of the state
as possible, which they contend will also shortly be the centre of
population, from the rapid manner in which the country to the westward
of the Allegheny mountains is settling. I was present at a very
animated debate, on the subject in the house of representatives, during
which much good argument, mixed with several sprightly and keen flashes
of genuine wit, was used, but it all terminated, as it has hitherto
invariably done, in favour of Lancaster--Of many situations proposed,
Harrisburgh seemed to have the greatest number of advocates.
Notwithstanding Lancaster is so populous and the seat of government
besides, it is but a dull town with respect to society. The manners and
taste of the inhabitants are not yet sufficiently refined by education,
or intercourse with strangers, to make it a desirable situation for the
residence of a person who wishes to enjoy the otium cum dignitate. An
alteration in that respect will doubtless take place with the rising
generation, whose education, the easy circumstances of the present
inhabitants, enable to pay a proper attention to, particularly as
they seem desirous to balance their own deficiencies in literature
and the polite accomplishments, by their attention to their children
in those particulars. There is no theatre, no assemblies, no literary
societies, nor any other publick entertainment, except occasionally an
itinerant exhibition of wax-work, or a puppet-show: {17} but there are
taverns without number, at some of which I have been informed, private
gambling is very customary.
There are horse races here annually, which last a week on a course on
the common to the westward of the town, which like most other races
in this country, are for the mere purposes of jockeying horses, and
betting, and are not followed by balls and other social meetings of
both sexes, as at amusements of the same kind in Europe. Shooting with
the rifle, is a favourite amusement, at which they are very dexterous,
meeting at taverns at short distances from town, to shoot, sometimes
at a mark for wagers, and sometimes at turkeys provided by the tavern
keeper, at so much a shot, the turkey being the prize of the killer of
it--the distance is generally, one hundred yards, and always with a
single ball.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For a statistical account of the Schuylkill permanent bridge, the
reader is referred to a new and valuable work, the “Memoirs of the
Philadelphia Agricultural Society,” vol. i, and to Biddle’s “Young
Carpenter’s Assistant.”
As a specimen of the difficulties, and uncommon perseverance of the
company in building the Schuylkill bridge, we give the following
instance: The British troops when at Philadelphia had formed a bridge
of boats over the Schuylkill, one of which had been accidentally sunk
in 1777, twenty-eight feet below common low water. It occupied a part
of the area of the western _coffer dam_, with one end projecting under
two of the piles of the inner row, and had nearly rendered the erection
abortive. It was first discovered on pumping out the dam, in 1802; and
was perfectly sound, after the lapse of 25 years. The iron work had not
the least appearance of rust, or the wood (which was common oak) of
decay. The taking this boat to pieces, the straining the dam, and the
leaks in consequence, were the chief causes of an extra expenditure, by
the company, of more than 4000 dollars, hardly and perilously disbursed
in pumping (which alone cost from 500 to 700 dollars weekly) and
other labour, during forty-one days and nights in the midst of a most
inclement winter. _Mem. Phila. Ag. Soc._--CRAMER.
[2] This water steam engine, otherwise called the waterworks, is a
work of great magnitude. It cost 150 thousand dollars, and is capable
of raising about 4,500,000 gallons of water in 24 hours, with which
the city is daily supplied through wooden pipes. The reservoir, into
which the water is thrown, is capable of holding 20,000 gallons, and
is of a sufficient height to supply the citizens with water in the
upper stories of their highest houses. The first stone of this building
was laid on the 2d May, 1799, and it was completed in 1801-2. The
works belong to the city, and the citizens pay a water tax equal to
the expence of keeping the engine in motion, which amounts to about
8,000 dollars annually. The building stands in the centre square, and
consequently spoils the view down Market street. The trees and houses
adjacent, look as black and gloomy as those in Pittsburgh, arising from
the smoke of the mineral coal burnt in the works.--CRAMER.
[3] This estate of Robert Morris, who died the year before Cuming’s
tour, was purchased in 1770, and had formed part of the manor of
Springetsbury. It is now within Fairmount Park. Morris, known as
the “financier of the American Revolution,” was an Englishman who,
emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1747, became a prominent merchant of
Philadelphia. After serving as a delegate to the Continental Congress,
and signing the Declaration of Independence, he was assigned the
difficult task of procuring funds for the war. To his support was due
the maintenance of an army in the field during the disastrous years
of 1776 and 1777; while his chief accomplishment was financing the
campaign that led to the battle of Yorktown. After retiring from the
superintendency of finance in 1784, Morris served in the Pennsylvania
legislature (1786), the Constitutional Convention (1787), and the
United States Senate (1789-95), declining the position of Secretary of
the Treasury in Washington’s cabinet. In later life his affairs became
involved, and he spent four years (1798-1802) in a debtor’s prison. See
Sumner, _Robert Morris_ (New York, 1892).--ED.
[4] Downingtown, Chester County, took its name from Thomas Downing, who
bought the location in 1739 and bequeathed it to his son. A mill had
been established on the Brandywine at this place as early as 1716, and
the town was indifferently called Milltown or Downingtown until finally
incorporated under the latter title in 1859.--ED.
[5] During the session of 1809-10 the legislature passed a law for the
removal of the seat of the state government to Harrisburgh in the year
1812, and appropriated the sum of $30,000 for the erection of publick
buildings in that place.--CRAMER.