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.