Part 68
He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785, and a member of the General Assembly 1785, and an Elector for the first election of a President and Vice President of the United States in 1789.
General Hand helped frame the Constitution of Pennsylvania of 1790, and held other positions of honor and trust.
He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and served as President in 1799. He was the lover of fine horses and was himself an excellent horseman.
As a citizen he was highly esteemed, and as a physician greatly sought after and much beloved. He was a great Pennsylvanian.
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First Permanent Settlement and Earliest Church, Dedicated September 4, 1646
The first European settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made on Tinicum Island, now Essington, not far distant from the mouth of Darby Creek on the Delaware River. The beautiful buildings of the Corinthian Yacht Club are now located on this historic spot.
A monument was unveiled June 14, 1923, to mark the place where the first permanent settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made. This shaft was erected by the Swedish Colonial Society and was unveiled by Miss Nancy J. Paxson, tenth in descent from one of the original founders of the colony.
Here it was that Colonel John Printz, a Swedish military officer of note, who had recently been knighted by the Swedish Government for the conspicuous role he enacted in the Thirty Years’ War, accompanied by a few adventurers of the same nationality, located in 1643, erected a fort of green logs and named the settlement he founded New Gottenberg. The fort was mounted with four cannon. Provisions were made for the planting of corn and tobacco.
A short time thereafter Printz built a pretentious mansion on Tinicum Island, “very splendid,” with an orchard and pleasure house, and it bore the name of Printz Hof or Printz Hall. This mansion house was two stories high and built of hewn logs, while two or more fireplaces and ovens were made of bricks imported from Sweden for that purpose. There were even glass windows. The utensils were of copper and tin. Their light was candle. Printz Hall also contained a fine library and every convenience known at that period. This great house stood 160 years, when it was accidentally destroyed by fire.
Printz planted orchards, cleared fields and firmly established himself on the place he determined should be the seat of government for the Swedish colony on the South River, as the Delaware was then known.
Printz sent Maus Kling, the engineer for the colony, to make a settlement on the Schuylkill. Log houses were built there, and Kling built on the east bank of the Schuylkill, near its mouth, probably on what was afterward called Providence Island, a small fort which was called New Korsholm.
These operations of Kling, the plantation and the fort, form the first authenticated occupancy by Europeans of the site of the City of Philadelphia.
On April 17, 1640, the Swedish ship Kalmer Nyckel sailed into the Christiana Creek. Among the immigrants was the Reverend Reorus Torkillus, a clergyman of the Swedish Lutheran Church, who thus became the first minister of the gospel on the Delaware River. Soon after this preacher’s arrival in the colony a meeting house was built, in which the services of the Lutheran Church were conducted.
Governor Printz built a church on Tinicum Island, which had a bell and belfry. It was succeeded by a more imposing and commodious edifice in 1646, built of logs, with a roof of clapboards and an altar with a silver cloth. This church was dedicated by the Reverend John Campanius on September 4, 1646.
Printz reported to his home Government he had the church finished and dedicated, “adorning and decorating it according to our Swedish fashion, so far as our limited means and resources would allow.”
There was a graveyard located adjacent to the church, in which was interred the corpse of Andrew Hanson’s daughter Catherine, who was buried October 28, 1646. This was the first burial of any European in Pennsylvania, certainly the first in any regularly established cemetery.
The marriage of Governor Printz’s daughter, Armegot, to Johan Papegoja, the commandant at Fort Christina, was solemnized in this old church at Tinicum, in 1644, and it is believed to have been the first instance in which a matrimonial ceremony was performed between Europeans within the limits of the present State of Pennsylvania.
The Old Swedes’ Church called the worshippers together with the sound of the first “church-going bell” on the American Continent. But in May, 1673, Armegot Papegoja was in such dire distress for funds that she sold the bell to the congregation of the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, at Laus Deo.
The worshippers believed this bell should be nowhere but in their own Swedes’ Church and they determined to repurchase it, when the members of the congregation gave their labor for two years at harvest time as the consideration. The bell was brought back to Tinicum, but the facts relating to its subsequent history are lacking.[6]
Footnote 6:
Colonel Henry D. Paxon says this original bell was recast, with some additional metal, and now hangs in “Gloria Dei,” Old Swedes’ Church, Philadelphia.
It is quite probable that this Old Swedes’ Church remained the active center for worship long after the Swedes were swept from power on the Delaware.
Peter Stuyvesant, at the head of a large fleet and formidable expedition, September, 1654, captured Fort Cassimer, or Trinity, as the Swedes called it, then after a siege of fourteen days compelled the surrender of Fort Christina, which was defended by Governor Johan Claesson Rysingh.
In the articles of capitulation, which were formally drawn up and signed September 25 by the two commanders on the “parade ground” outside the fort, it was agreed that the Swedish soldiers were to march out with the honors of war.
The “guns, ammunition, implements, victuals and other effects belonging to the Crown of Sweden and to the South Company,” in the fort or its vicinity, were to remain their property. The Swedish settlers might stay or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they stayed, need not take the Dutch oath of allegiance. Swedes who remained should enjoy the Lutheran faith, the “liberty of the Augsburg Confession,” and have a minister to instruct them.
When the English came to the South River in the fall of 1664, the Swedes at Tinicum still were worshiping in their Lutheran Church.
After the departure of Governor Rysingh, in 1653, there was only one minister among the Swedes on the river, the man who was variously called Laers, Laurentius Carolus, Lock, Lokenius, etc., was a poor fellow whose missteps and mischances, moral lapses and legal misdemeanors are repeatedly mentioned in the scanty chronicles of the time. He preached in the Swedes’ Church at Tinicum and at Crane Hook, between Christina and New Castle, where a log church was built about 1667. Lock died in 1688.
When Governor Andros visited the Delaware, in 1675, the New Castle Court decreed, when designating places of meeting for worship, “that the church at Tinicum Island do serve for Upland and parts adjacent.”
Great Tinicum Island stands with Jamestown and Plymouth as one of the birthplaces of America.
Lewis, in the history of Chester County, says that the Swedes came from New Castle and places along the Delaware, both above and below, to worship in that building.
About this time the settlement at Upland, now Chester, began to thrive, and it was not long before it became a more important place than Tinicum.
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First Continental Congress Meets in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia, September 5, 1774
The Assembly of Pennsylvania promptly responded to the “Instructions” of the great meeting of the Provincial deputies held in the State House July 15, 1774, and appointed Joseph Galloway, speaker, Samuel Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, John Morton, Charles Humphreys, George Ross, Edward Biddle, and, subsequently, John Dickinson as delegates to the Congress to be held in Philadelphia in September.
This body assembled September 5 in Carpenters’ Hall and chose Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, president, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, secretary, of what proved to be the first Continental Congress.
The Declaration of Rights was agreed upon. This claimed, first, as natural rights, the enjoyment of life, liberty and fortune; secondly, they claimed, as British subjects, to be bound by no law to which they had not consented by their chosen representatives. They denied to Parliament all power of taxation and vested the right of legislation in their own Assemblies.
The common law of England they declared to be their birthright, including the rights of trial by jury of the vicinage, of public meetings and petition. They protested against the maintenance in the Colonies of standing armies without their full consent, and against all legislation by councils depending on the Crown.
Having thus proclaimed their rights, they calmly enumerated the various acts which had been passed in derogation of them. There were eleven in number, passed in as many years—the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, those which provided for the quartering of troops, for the supersedure of the New York Legislature, for the trial in Great Britain of offenses committed in America, for the regulation of the government of Massachusetts, for the closing of the port of Boston, and the last straw, known as the Quebec bill.
On October 18, articles of confederation were adopted, the signing of which, two days afterward, should be regarded as the commencement of the American Union, based upon freedom and equality.
On October 26, an address to the people of Great Britain was adopted, also a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal address to His Majesty. The Congress then adjourned to meet in Philadelphia on the 10th of May following.
Dickinson was a powerful member of this first Congress, his master hand being first employed in the “Address to the inhabitants of Quebec,” forwarded under date of October 26. This address set forth the reasons why the people of that province should join with those of the Colonies in their political interests.
Over the Pennsylvania delegation Galloway, with his wealth, education and political prestige, and with some claim on their gratitude as their advocate against the Proprietaries, was both presiding officer and presiding genius. His influence was clearly seen in the selection of delegates, for both Dickinson and Wilson were omitted in the original list. The failure to name Mr. Dickinson was a grave error, but was corrected when Mayor Rhoads could not serve.
As Congress assembled Galloway did the honors, but his conduct soon revealed him acting as a volunteer spy for the British Government, and he did everything in his power to exert a control over the first Congress.
He even went so far as to hold secret meetings with the Governor of New Jersey and the Lieutenant Governor of New York, when he proposed in Congress a government for America to consist of a President General appointed by the King, and holding office during his pleasure, and a Grand Council chosen once in three years by the assemblies of the various colonies, the members thereof to be apportioned according to population.
His celebrated scheme was not popular, but in presenting it to Congress, said: “I am as much a friend to liberty as exists, and no man shall go further in point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now addresses you.”
The plan was favored by New York and South Carolina and on final vote was rejected by the close vote of six colonies against five. “With this defeat,” says Bancroft, “Galloway lost his mischievous importance.”
At the October election Galloway was re-elected to the Assembly, but the many changes in the membership foretold the decided advancement of the Whigs. Edward Biddle was elected Speaker. Galloway did not attend until after the report of the preceding Congress had been made.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met on December 8, 1774, was the first Provincial Legislature to which report of the congressional proceedings was made. The Assembly unanimously approved them December 15, and recommended them to the inviolable observance of the people. This body then appointed Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Galloway, Humphreys, Morton and Ross as delegates to the new Congress. Mr. Samuel Rhoads, who was then the Mayor of Philadelphia, was too occupied with those duties and was omitted from this delegation.
Upon the return of Benjamin Franklin from London, he was immediately added to the congressional delegation, together with Messrs. James Wilson and Thomas Willing. Mr. Galloway, who had repeatedly requested to be excused from serving, was permitted to withdraw. Galloway had become too much alarmed at the length to which the opposition to the mother country was carried.
Hitherto Governor John Penn had looked upon the proceedings of the Assembly without attempting to direct or control them. He was supposed to favor the efforts made in support of American principles; but now a semblance of regard to the instructions of the Crown induced him to remonstrate in mild terms against the continental system of petition and remonstrance.
In England the proceedings of the Americans were viewed with great indignation by the King and his ministry, and the petition of Congress, although declared by the Secretary of State, after a day’s perusal, “to be decent and proper and received graciously by His Majesty, did not receive much favor at the hands of the ministry, which resolved to compel the obedience of the Americans.”
The remonstrances of three millions of people were therefore treated, perhaps believed, as the clamors of an unruly multitude.
Both houses of Parliament joined in an address to the King, declaring “that they find a rebellion actually exists in the Province of Massachusetts.” That was followed by an act for restraining the trade and commerce of the New England Provinces and prohibiting them from carrying on the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, which was subsequently extended to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and the Lower Counties on the Delaware.
Conciliatory measures were introduced in Parliament, which provided a relief from tax or duties for those colonies which would yield strict obedience to the laws of the mother country. This proposition was opposed as an admission of the correctness of the American views. Upon Pennsylvania’s reply to the resolutions of Parliament much depended, and the Assembly acted promptly and with unanimity.
By reason of Edward Biddle’s illness, John Morton was elected Speaker, March 15, 1775.
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Fort Montgomery Withstands Attack of British and Indians, September 6, 1780
In the early days of the Revolution the settlers on the frontiers suffered much at the hands of the Indians, and this was particularly true in the region of the Susquehanna valleys. A chain of forts or blockhouses was established from Fort Jenkins on the North Branch of the Susquehanna, about midway between the present towns of Berwick and Bloomsburg, to Fort Reid, in the present borough of Lock Haven.
Each of these forts was garrisoned by troops from large Fort Augusta at the forks of the Susquehanna, and each in its turn was attacked by Indians or by British and Indians, during the period of the Revolution, and all but one or two of them were destroyed.
The most important attack on any of the above forts occurred July 28, 1779, when the British under Captain John MacDonald and Seneca Indians, under Chief Hiakatoo, defeated the garrison at Fort Freeland, took all the men and boys prisoners and destroyed the fort. This story is told on July 28.
In 1769, William Patterson patented 700 acres of land in what is now Lewis Township, Northumberland County, which he named Paradise. Two years later he sold his Paradise farm to John Montgomery, of Paxtang, and removed to White Deer Creek, to reside with his daughter, Mrs. Hunter. John Montgomery established his family at Paradise, and his descendants still reside in that beautiful valley.
At the time of the battle at Fort Freeland, John Montgomery heard the firing, mounted two of his young sons on horses and sent them to the top of a hill to learn the cause of the shooting. They soon discovered the fort on fire and a fight raging in the timber below them. They hurriedly returned and reported what they had seen, when their father loaded his family in a wagon, with what provisions and clothing they could carry, and rapidly drove across the country to the cabin of Philip Davis, on Chillisquaque Creek, near the present village of Pottsgrove. Davis gathered up his family and together they hurriedly journeyed to Fort Augusta, then down the river to Paxtang, where they remained until after the war was closed.
The precaution of Montgomery was intuitive, for the victorious British and Indians soon reached Paradise and burned his home and buildings.
With Fort Freeland destroyed and Montgomery’s home in ruins, it was necessary that one of these places be immediately rebuilt and fortified.
A detachment of the German Regiment, then in that vicinity, was sent to Paradise under command of Captain John Rice, and in the winter of 1779–80 they built a stockade around a fine spring of water, which forms the headwaters of Muddy Run. This was built permanently out of limestone found in that locality and today is in an excellent state of preservation and used by the tenant of the farm.
After completing this real fort they ably defended it, as an attack took place there early in September, 1780, which is told in a letter written by Colonel Samuel Hunter, county lieutenant, dated Fort Augusta, September 21, 1780, as follows:
“We were alarmed by a large party of the enemy making their appearance in our county on the 6th inst. They came first to a small fort that Colonel Weltner’s troops had erected on the headwaters of the Chillisquaque, calling it Fort Rice, about thirteen miles from Sunbury. (Three errors: Headwaters of Muddy Run; should be Fort Montgomery, the owner and original builder, and not Fort Rice, just because such a soldier was in charge of the detail, and the distance is seventeen miles from Sunbury, or about four from Milton).
“When the German Regiment marched off the enemy attacked the fort about sundown, and fired very smartly. The garrison returned the fire with spirit, which made them withdraw a little off, and in the night they began to set fire to a number of houses and stacks of grain which they consumed.
“In the meantime our militia had collected to the number of one hundred men under command of Colonel John Kelly, who marched to the relief of the garrison, and arrived there next day. The people of the garrison acquainted Colonel Kelly that there must be two hundred and fifty or three Hundred of the Enimy, which he did not think prudent to engage without being Reinforced. The confusion this put the inhabitants in, it was not easy to collect a party equal to fight the savages.
“I immediately sent off an express to Col. Purdy on Juniata whom I heard was marching to the Frontiers of Cumberland County with the militia, he came as quick as possible to our assistance with one Hundred and ten of the militia and about Eighty Volunteers, which was no small Reinforcement to us.
“Genl. Potter just coming home from camp at this critical time came up to Sunbury and took command of the party that went in Quest of the Enimy. But previous to his marching, discharged the Volunteers as he concluded by the information he had received from spyes we had out that the enemy did not exceed one Hundred and fifty and that they had withdrawn from the inhabitants to some Remote place.
“General Potter, However, marched on to Muncy Hills, but was a little baffled by the information to their route and did not come on their track till the 13th and followed on about 50 miles up Fishing Creek, the road the enemy took, but finding they had got too far ahead returned here the 17th inst. The enemy got but one scalp and one prisoner. (Colonel Hunter did not know of the Sugar Loaf Massacre when he wrote.)
“We all concluded the enimy had got off, but on the 18th there was a small party made their appearance on the West Branch about fourteen miles above this place, they killed one man and wounded another, and killed their horses they had in the plow, which plainly shows they have scattered into small parties to Harass the inhabitants, which I am afraid will prevent the people from getting crops put in the ground this fall.
“When the German Regiment marched off from here I gave orders for the Frontier’s Companys to embody and keep one-fourth of the men Constantly Reconnoitering.
“After garrisoning Fort Jenkins, Fort Rice and Fort Swartz with twenty men in each of them, this was the only method I could think of encouraging the people as we were left to our own exertions. Only about thirty of Capt. McCoy’s company of Volunteers from Cumberland County, until the 10 inst., that two companies of militia came here from the same county in the whole about eighty men.
“When I received the intelligence of a large party of savages and tories coming against Fort Rice, I gave orders to evacuate Fort Jenkins as I did not look upon it to be tenable, which is since burned by the Enimy, and would have shared the same had the men staid there on act. of the Buildings, that were adjoining it, etc.”
John Montgomery and his family returned after peace was declared. Finding the buildings of his farm destroyed and a good, strong stone house supplying its place, he at once occupied the fort, which, with additions, made him a comfortable home for years.
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Colonel Hartley Leads Expedition Against Six Nation Indians—Born September 7, 1746
Colonel Thomas Hartley, who was one of the most prominent Pennsylvanians during the period of the Revolution, was born in Colebrookdale Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1746.
He was the son of George Hartley, a well-to-do farmer, who was able to give his son a good classical education at Reading. At the age of eighteen he began to read law in the office of Samuel Johnson, at York, a prominent lawyer and relative of his mother. He was admitted to practice in the courts of York County July 25, 1769, and in the courts of Philadelphia a month later. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was enjoying a lucrative practice when the War for Independence opened.
He served on the Committee of Observation for York County in 1774–75; he represented York County as a deputy in the Provincial Conference held at Philadelphia July 15, 1774, and in the Provincial Convention, January 23, 1775.
In December, 1774, he was chosen first lieutenant of Captain James Smith’s company of Associators and a year later lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion of York County. He was elected by Committee of Safety January 10, 1776, to be lieutenant colonel of the Sixth Battalion, commanded by Colonel William Irvine, of Carlisle, and served with distinction in the Canadian campaign.
In December, 1776, Congress authorized General Washington to raise sixteen battalions of infantry additional to those in service, and the command of one of these was given to Colonel Hartley.
In the campaign for the defense of Philadelphia Hartley’s regiment bore a conspicuous part. At the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown it was attached to the First Philadelphia Brigade, of General Wayne’s division, Colonel Hartley commanding the brigade, and was also at Paoli.