maintain slavery, “to the end we shall be satisfied on this point and
satisfy likewise our good friends and acquaintances in our natif
country, to whom it is a fairfull thing that men should be handled so in
Pennsilvania.”
The Quakers were embarrassed by the memorial and its blunt style of
interrogatory. It was submitted to the Monthly Meeting at Dublin
Township, “inspected” and found so “weighty” that it was passed on to
the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, which “recommended” it to the Yearly
Meeting at Burlington, where it was adjudged “not to be so proper for
this meeting to give a positive judgment in the case, it having so
general a relation to many other parts, and, therefore, at present they
forebore it.” So the matter slept.
Very soon thereafter slavery in Philadelphia was not very different from
what it was in the South at a later period. The white mechanics and
laborers complained to the authorities that their wages were reduced by
the competition of Negroes hired out by their owners, and the owners
objected to the capital punishment of slaves for crime, as thereby their
property would be destroyed.
In 1708 two slaves, Tony and Quashy, were sentenced to death for
burglary, but their owners were allowed to sell them out of the province
after a severe flogging had been given them upon the streets on three
successive market days.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania soon viewed with much concern and
apprehension the introduction of so many slaves into the province, but
the House would not consider any proposition to free Negroes, deciding
that to attempt to do so would be “neither just nor convenient,” but it
did resolve to discourage the introduction of Negroes from Africa and
the West Indies. It laid a tax of £20 a head upon all such importations.
The Queen and Royal Council failed to approve the act, for the British
Government was set like flint against any provincial attempt to arrest
the African slave trade or tax it out of existence—that trade was a
royal perquisite.
The year 1780 is memorable in the annals of Pennsylvania for the passage
of an act for the gradual abolition of slavery in this State. On
February 5, 1780, the Supreme Executive Council in its message to the
Assembly, called the attention of that body to this subject, and
although it was forcibly presented, the matter was dismissed, “as the
Constitution would not allow them to receive the law from the Council.”
On March 1, 1780, by a vote of thirty-four to twenty-one, an abolition
act passed the Assembly. It provided for the registration of every Negro
or mulatto slave or servant for life, or till the age of thirty-one
years, before the first of November following, and also provided “that
no man or woman of any nation or color except the Negroes or mulattoes
who shall be registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter be
deemed, or adjudged, or holden within the territory of this
Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free
women.”
The Quakers partly forgot their woes on hearing of an act which they so
much approved, as in 1774 the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting had taken a
definite and decided stand against slavery.
They proceeded without delay to urge war on the system.
On February 12, 1790, the Quakers made their first formal protest to
Congress for the abolition of slavery in every form.
The movement against slavery had been making quiet progress during all
these years, and on January 1, 1794, a convention was held in
Philadelphia by invitation of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, of
delegates from all societies throughout the United States.
At this convention two memorials were adopted, one to the Legislature of
Pennsylvania, and the other to Congress, asking for suitable laws to
suppress the slave trade.
The petition to Congress was referred to a committee, which made a
report recommending the passage of a law against the fitting out of any
ship or vessel in any port of the United States, or by foreigners, for
the purpose of procuring from any part of the coast of Africa the
inhabitants of the said country, to be transshipped into any foreign
ports or places of the world to be sold or disposed of as slaves. The
law was finally passed on March 22, 1794, and vessels were thereafter
liable to heavy fine and forfeiture, and the freedom of the slaves on
board.
Thus after the taunt of the early German settlers, the Quakers cleared
their own skirts and then led in the movement which abolished slaves
from Pennsylvania and were the first to lay this great question before
Congress.
----------
First Magazine in America Published in
Philadelphia, February 13, 1741
There has been recent controversy, especially among New York newspapers,
regarding the oldest magazine in America, one such newspaper concluding
that the oldest such publication was Oliver Oldschool’s “Portfolio,”
published by Bradford and Inskeep, of Philadelphia, and Inskeep and
Bradford, in New York, 1809–1810.
That is not the fact and Pennsylvania cannot be denied the honor of
being the home of the earliest magazine published on this continent.
On November 6, 1740, Andrew Bradford’s “Mercury,” published in
Philadelphia, contained a two page editorial which must surely have
caused some sensation, heralding as it did a genuine innovation.
“’Tis not in mortals to command success,” and if the innovator in this
case failed, he was at least the first to make the attempt, not alone in
Philadelphia, but throughout America.
The editorial plunged headlong into the business at hand as follows:
“The PLAN of an intended MAGAZINE.”
“The Success and Approbation which the Magazines, published in Great
Britain, have met with for many years past among all Ranks and Degrees
of People, Encouraged us to Attempt a Work of the like Nature in
America. But the Plan on which we intend to proceed, being in many
respects different from the British Models, it therefore becomes
necessary, in the first Place, to lay before the Reader a general
Prospect of the present Design.
“It is proposed to publish Monthly, ‘An Account of the Publick Affairs
transacted in His Majesty’s Colonies, as well on the Continent of
America, as well as in the West India Islands,’ and at the end of each
session, ‘an Extract of the Laws therein passed, with the Reasons on
which they were founded, the Grievances intended to be Remedied by them,
and the Benefits expected from them.”
The prospectus then proceeds to apologize beforehand for “the mistakes
which will probably be committed in handling so great a Variety of
Matter.” It sketches the general lines of the future magazine in regard
to “remarkable Trials as well Civil as Criminal,” also the “Course of
Exchange, Party-Disputes, Free Inquiry into all sorts of Subjects, its
views of the Liberty and Licentiousness of the Press, its contempt for
the rude Clamours of envious Ignorance,’ and the ‘base suggestions of
the Malevolence’,” and then terminates as follows:
“To conclude, the Reader is desired to consider the Undertaking as an
attempt to Erect on Neutral Principles A PUBLIC THEATRE in the Center of
the British Empire in America, on which the most remarkable Transactions
of each Government may be impartially represented, and fairly exhibited
to the View of all His Majesty’s Subjects, whether at Home or abroad,
who are disposed to be Spectators.
“This is TRUE Liberty, when freeborn Men,
Having to advise the Publick, may speak free,
Which he who can, and will, deserves high Praise;
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his Peace;
What can be juster in a State than this?
“From Euripides, by Milton, for a motto to his Vindication of the
Subject’s Right to the Liberty of the Press.”
The first number of this, The American Magazine, was to be published “in
March next, if by that Time there are a Sufficient Number of
Subscriptions.”
But something went wrong with the plans. The very week following this
announcement, out came Benjamin Franklin with the charge that this
scheme now put forth by John Webbe and Bradford was really his own,
“Communicated in Confidence,” to the said Webbe, who was to be the
editor of his magazine.
Webbe was not slow to indignantly repudiate the charge, and an unseemly
controversy followed between the two rival printing houses, which, no
doubt, interfered considerably with the ultimate result or their
respective ventures.
Be that as it may, “The American Magazine, or a monthly view of the
Political State of the British Colonies,” 8vo size, price eight pence
sterling, made its appearance, not in March as advertised and expected,
but on February 13, 1741.
Thus the first magazine in America made its initial bow to the public,
and only three days later, Franklin’s press brought out “The General
Magazine and Historical Chronicle, for All the British Plantations in
America.”
Both of these periodicals were advertised as monthly publications, and
the Mercury carried a small advertisement March 19, which announced the
issuance of “The American Magazine” for February; but alas! that is the
last we read of Andrew Bradford’s pioneer magazine publication.
Franklin’s “General Magazine” reached its sixth month of existence,
after which it simply ceased, no explanation of its discontinuance, not
a semblance of a valedictory appeared in “The Gazette,” where its
monthly advent had been so well heralded and advertised.
The name of these original “magazines” naturally suggests to the
present-day reader a very incorrect idea of their general appearance and
contents, thanks to the luxurious works of art that American enterprise
has put into publications now classed as magazines.
Franklin’s magazine, for example, had but one illustration, and a poor
one at that, a representation of the Prince of Wales’ feathers and the
motto “Ich dien” on its front page.
It was only a 12mo; yet under existing conditions the labor of filling
seventy-six pages with small print month after month and the neat manner
in which the work was performed reflect the highest credit upon the
publisher and was deserving of more favorable circumstances. The
contents of each number bear a favorable comparison with the best
magazines of today.
Dr. William Smith, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, soon
manifested a practical interest in intellectual affairs in the province
in an effort to found a literary review called “The American Magazine
and Monthly Chronicle for the British Colonies.”
The first number appeared October, 1757, and was printed by William
Bradford, presumably for “a society of gentlemen,” which in truth
consisted of Dr. Smith and several of his pupils in the college. This
periodical was principally devoted to political matters, literary
discussions and poetry. It was discontinued November 14, 1758, and
Pennsylvania had not yet had a successful magazine.
Between 1741 and the close of the century nearly fifty magazines were
born in America, only deservedly to die. Philadelphia and Boston
struggled for literary supremacy, yet the four magazines of today which
may be called the veterans of the field are the North American Review,
Harper’s, and Scribner’s, each published in New York, and the Atlantic,
published in Boston.
But Philadelphia was long the home of three widely circulated
magazines—Graham’s, Peterson’s and Godey’s Lady’s Book. The last named
was perhaps the most famous, established in July, 1830, by Louis A.
Godey, and it reached the enormous circulation of 150,000 a month in the
heyday of its prosperity.
If the Saturday Evening Post is regarded as a magazine, Philadelphia is
today the home of the oldest and largest in the world.
----------
Christopher L. Sholes, Inventor of Typewriter,
Born in Mooresburg, February
14, 1819
More than a score of attempts, both in this country and abroad, were
made to perfect a typewriter after the birth of the idea in the mind of
Henry Mill, an English engineer, who obtained a patent from Queen Ann of
England, January 1, 1714, but none was successful.
It remained for an humble country boy, a printer, by the name of
Christopher Latham Sholes, who was born in the little village of
Mooresburg, Montour County, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1819, to perfect
a model in the winter of 1866–67, which, after later improvements, was
the basis for the typewriting machines which are now so much a part of
commercial life throughout the world.
The patent granted to Henry Mill by Queen Ann never availed the
imaginative engineer anything, because he lacked the essential ability
to perfect a model which might be manufactured on a commercial basis. It
is true, nevertheless, that he had the idea for a “writing machine for
the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one
after the other,” but this was not sufficient to be practical in any
sense of the term.
The same difficulty that beset Mill prevented others from attaining
success, and it was a century and a half before the actual birth of a
commercial typewriter.
This interesting event was enacted in a small machine shop in the
outskirts of Milwaukee. An interesting history was published recently by
the Herkimer County (New York) Historical Society in commemoration of
the fiftieth anniversary of the manufacture of the first typewriter for
commercial use. According to this story the principals were Carlos
Gliden, the son of a successful iron monger of Ohio, who was engaged in
developing a mechanical plow; Samuel W. Soule and Christopher Latham
Sholes, both printers, who were engaged in developing a machine for
numbering serially the pages of blank books, etc.
Sholes was the central figure in the association subsequently formed
among the three. Sholes began his active life as an apprentice in the
office of the Danville, Pa., Intelligencer.
The Intelligencer was then the oldest paper in Montour County, founded
in 1828 by Valentine Best. At the time of Sholes’ apprenticeship the
newspaper was a leading Democratic organ. The Intelligencer office was
an excellent school for a boy when Christopher Sholes became the “devil”
and began the career which was to stamp him as one of the great
inventors of the country.
Thomas Chalfant purchased the property July 15, 1861. He was a prominent
Democratic politician, serving as member of the Legislature and as State
Senator. He was a Civil War veteran and many years postmaster at
Danville. Through all his various offices Chalfant devoted much time to
his newspaper.
Sholes was diligent and progressed in his chosen profession, becoming in
turn, editor of several newspapers and ultimately an owner. In 1866 he
was collector of the port of Milwaukee and had held other public
offices, including State Senator and Assemblyman.
Sholes’ subsequent invention of the typewriter is ascribed to
inspiration he and Glidden obtained from a description of a machine
invented by John Pratt, of Alabama, which, however, was very crude and
impracticable.
The three friends engaged the services of skilled mechanics to help them
in the construction of their typewriter, the first working model of
which was completed in that small Milwaukee shop in the fall of 1866,
but it was not until the following June that a patent was obtained for
the invention.
This original machine had innumerable defects and was a crude and
cumbersome affair, but it wrote accurately and rapidly, and after all
that was their objective.
Sholes was the one of the trio who did most to produce this machine, and
while he was not satisfied, he soon scored a notable triumph and made
the machine its own best advertiser. A number of letters were written
with it, among them one to James Densmore, then a resident of Meadville,
Pa. Densmore was immediately interested. Like Sholes and Soule, he had
been both printer and editor, and could realize the importance of such a
machine.
The relationship between Sholes and Densmore was a strange meeting of
opposites, the former was a dreamer and an idealist, the latter was
bold, aggressive and arrogant and by some considered a plain “crank.”
Densmore was not impressed with the machine more than to regard the idea
as feasible, but he determined to make an attempt at selling it to some
firm with the facility and financial resources to manufacture it.
Densmore paid all the debts incurred by Sholes whereby he obtained an
interest in the invention. He then engaged the services of a Mr. Yost,
with whom he had been associated in a Pennsylvania oil business, and
together they presented the proposition to the old firm of gun makers,
E. Remington & Son, of Ilion, N. Y.
A tentative agreement was effected between the Remingtons and Sholes and
his new partners, and the first contract signed for the manufacture of a
typewriter for commercial use, the one built by Sholes was made in
March, 1873.
The original contract was for the manufacture only, but in time the
Remingtons acquired complete ownership.
Sholes, soon thereafter, sold out his royalty right to Densmore for
$12,000, which was a goodly sum in those days, but was the only reward
that he ever received for his priceless invention and the years of
earnest labor and expense he had bestowed upon it.
Densmore did not part with his royalty rights and was subsequently
enriched.
Further improvements were made on Sholes’ invention when the skilled
mechanics of the Remington factory were brought into service, but the
fact remains that the Montour County printer was the inventor of the
almost universally used typewriter and Densmore, another Pennsylvanian,
was the medium by which the invention was saved from the scrap heap and
commercially developed to the almost perfect machine of today. Thus
Pennsylvania has given to the world the typewriter.
----------
German Christians Organized Harmony
Society in Butler, February 15, 1805
The Harmony Society, as it was organized by George Rapp in Wurtemberg
and established in America, was an outgrowth of a Separatistic movement
in Germany and an attempt to put into practice, under favorable
circumstances, Separatistic principles.
The members of the society had constituted a congregation of
Separatists, where they listened to the teachings of their pastor,
George Rapp. According to his instructions, they left their homes in
Wurtemberg and followed him to America. They settled at Harmony, Butler
County, Pennsylvania.
Without election, by common consent George Rapp had maintained himself
as their leader.
In order to put their society on a firm basis, and to prevent
misunderstanding, articles of association were drawn up and signed by
the members February 15, 1805. This was the date recognized as the
birthday of the society, and in after years its anniversary was
celebrated as the “Harmoniefest.”
The agreement contains five articles to which the subscribers pledged
themselves:
(1) To give absolutely all their property to George Rapp and his
associates.
(2) To obey the rules and regulations of the community and to work for
its welfare.
(3) If they desired to withdraw from the society, not to demand any
reward for labor or services.
In return, George Rapp and his associates pledged themselves:
(1) To supply the subscribers with all the necessities of life, both in
health and sickness, and after death, to provide for their families.
(2) In case of withdrawal to return them the value of property
contributed without interest and to give a donation in moneys to such as
contributed nothing.
The original of this agreement was in German, which was the language
used by the society.
George Rapp was born November 1, 1757, in Iptingen, Wurtemberg, the son
of Adam Rapp, a peasant. He learned the trade of weaving. Like many of
his neighbors he also engaged in wine growing.
Early in life he became deeply interested in religion. He identified
himself with the Separatists of Wurtemberg, who believed that the true
Christian must live a life of self-denial and that he must suffer
ridicule and persecution on account of the purity of his life. They
regarded the established clergy as hypocrites.
The Government interfered with their plans for living in the manner of
the early Christians with community of goods, and their religious
meetings were prohibited at the instigation of the clergy. George Rapp
decided to lead his congregation to America.
In this great undertaking, as in others of a similar nature in later
years, he displayed rare judgment in making his plans and great ability
in executing them. He did not underestimate the difficulties of such an
enterprise.
He advised his people of the hardships to be expected. He directed those
who were determined to follow him to sell their property and prepare
themselves for the journey.
He came to America in 1803, with money of his own amounting to 2000
gulden, to choose a site for the proposed settlement. He left behind him
in charge of his congregation a young man of high character, Frederick
Reickert, who in Pennsylvania was adopted by him as his son and is known
in the history of the society as Frederick Rapp.
George Rapp landed at Baltimore and early in September, 1803, was in
Lancaster, Pa., considering offers of land for his settlement.
After inspecting several tracts of land, Rapp purchased 5000 acres in
Butler County, on the Connoquenessing Creek, about twelve miles from the
Ohio River at Beaver. He then sent for his people.
They came in several companies. The ship “Aurora” brought about 300
persons to Baltimore, July 4, 1804.
Another party of 260 persons, headed by Frederick Rapp, arrived on the
ship “Atlantic” at Philadelphia in August.
The remainder of the people came in a third ship, the “Margaretta,” but
these settled in Lycoming County, under the direction of Mr. Haller, who
had assisted George Rapp in exploration for a site.
The settlers who went to the new settlement worked hard to build their
town, Harmony. They were sustained in their labors by religious
enthusiasm. After a few months they were joined by their friends and on
February 15, 1805, the Harmony Society was formally organized.
During the first year fifty log houses were erected, nearly 200 acres
cleared and a house of worship, grist mill, barn and shops were built.
The following year 400 acres more were cleared, a saw mill, tannery,
distillery and brick store house were erected and a vineyard planted.
They raised 600 bushels of wheat more than their requirements and had
3000 gallons of whisky to sell.
They soon made woolen cloth, spinning the yarn by hand. In 1809 they
erected a woolen factory for manufacturing of broadcloth from the wool
of merino sheep, which they were among the first to introduce in this
country. They had their own mechanics and tradesmen.
The society was always a religious community and George Rapp, in
temporal affairs was extremely practical, but he was an enthusiast only
in religion. He would not allow his authority to be questioned.
While the settlers were prosperous, they were disappointed in their
settlement in some respects. In Germany they had raised grapes and made
wine, and had hoped to engage in that industry here, but the land was
poorly adapted to the culture of the vine. As their manufactures
increased their transportation troubles also increased, as they were
twelve miles distant from the Ohio River.
They accordingly decided to move, and in 1814 George Rapp, John L. Baker
and Lewis Shriver explored the Western country in search of a new site
for settlement. They found a suitable place on the Wabash, in Posey
County, Indiana, and in 1815 the whole society moved there.
They had lived in Harmony ten years, during which time 100 members had
died. They were buried in a small plot, and, as was their custom, the
graves were not marked, but only numbered.
This little graveyard, together with the substantial brick buildings of
the village, is all the memorial the Harmonists have left of their first
home in America.