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BULLETIN

HISTORICAL SOCIETYMONTGOMERY COUNTY

PENNSYLVANIAJ^ONRISTOm

£omery

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETYAT IT5 ROOM5 18 EAST PENN STREET

NORR15TOWN,PA,

APRIL, 1947

VOLUME VPRICE 50 CENTS

NUMBER 4

Historical Society oF Montsomery County

OFFICERS

Kirke Bryan, Esq., President

S. Cameron Corson, First Vice-President

George K. Brecht, Esq., Second Vice-President

Foster C. Hillegass, Third Vice-President.

Eva G. Davis, Recording Secretary

Helen E. Richards, Corresponding SecretaryMm. LeRoy Burris, Financial Secretary

Lyman a. Kratz, Treasurer

Rudolf P. Hommel, Librarian

TRUSTEES

Kirke Bryan, Esq.Mrs. H. H. Prancine

H. H. Ganser

David E. Groshens, Esq.Nancy P. Highley

Foster C. Hillegass

Mrs. a. Conrad Jones

David Todd Jones

Hon. Harold G. Knight

Lyman A. Kratz

Douglas Macparlan, M.D.Katharine Preston

Franklin A. Stickler

Mrs. Franklin B. Wildman, Jr.Norris D. Wright

"RIVERSIDE PAPER-MILLS"

W. C. Hamilton & Sons

Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, Pa.

THE BULLETIN

of the

Historical Society of Montgomery County

Published Semi-Annually — October and April

Volume V April , 1947 Number 4

CONTENTS

Gulielma Maria Penn's Manor

of Springfield Horace Mather Lippincott 247

When Montgomery County Mournedthe Death of Lincoln Kirke Bryan, Esq. 260

Two Centuries of Papermaking atMiquon, Pennsylvania Rudolf P. Hommel 275

Antique Iron Works and Machines of theWater Power Age. . . . George Winterhalter Schultz 291

History of Whitpain Township Clara A. Beck 311(continued) ' '

Neighborhood News and Notices (continued) 327

Reports 335

Publication Committee

Mrs. Andrew Y. Drysdale Hannah Gerhard

Anita L. Eyster David E. Groshens, Esq.

Charles R. Barker, Chairman

ACKNOWLEDGMENT FOR ILLUSTRATIONS

The abundance of illustrations in this issue has been made possiblethrough W. C. Hamilton and Sons, Miquon, Pa., who furnished the cutsfor the article on papermaking, and to G. W. Schultz, who supplied thecuts for his paper.

245

Gulielma Maria Pehn's Manor of

' Springfield*

By Horace Mather Lippincott

Springfield Township is the smallest and most irregulardivision of Montgomery County. It is bounded by UpperDublin, Cheltenham and Whitemarsh Townships and Philadelphia County. The Wissahickon Creek flows through thecenter of it for half a mile and it is traversed by threeimportant highways—the Chestnut Hill and SpringhouseTurnpike (Bethlehem Pike), the Germantown and Perkio-men and the Ridge Pikes. A road from the lime-kilns toPhiladelphia was opened in 1693. Mermaid Lane andWaverly Road, formerly called Nine Mile Road and laterLimekiln Road, was opened then to connect Limekiln Pike,which led to Thomas Fitzwater's kilns in Upper Dublin,with Germantown Road. Both the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads enter the township and it now has over fiftymiles of highways.

In 1944 there were 1960 houses and 7210 inhabitants.The assessed valuation of these properties is $9,103,435,and the villages or "districts" are Flourtown, Wyndmoor,Oreland and Erdenheim, the first three having a school anda volunteer fire association. There are seven churches, manycivic organizations and five country clubs. The townshipCommissioners provide excellent health, highway and policeservice for the citizens who pay $79,655 annually in taxesto the Township.

Springfield appears on the first map of Pennsylvaniamade by Thomas Holme, the Surveyor General, in 1681, as"Gulielma Maria Penn's Manner of Springfield." It was

*Kead before the Society, November 16, 1946.

247

248 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

one of the six manors retained by Penn when he plannedthe settlement of his Province, and was given to his firstwife. She required an outlet to the Schuylkill River, sincerivers were then the only means of travel through thewilderness, and so there was a strip one-third of a milewide and three and one-quarter miles long which gave thetownship a singular appearance not understood by mostpeople. It was, however, a perfectly reasonable and shrewdrequest by the lady. The extreme end of this little-strip wasceded to Whitemarsh in 1876, so that the present appearance hides the meaning or origin of the lane.

The association of this charming person as the proprietress of our homeland at its settlement deserves our attention, and I think we should know something of her. I wishthat the township could pay her a tribute in some memorial,appropriately modest as she would wish it.

Gulielma Maria Springett was the daughter of a verygallant young Puritan officer, Sir William Springett, whodied at the siege of Bamber while his young wife was hastening to him through difficulties and perils. Guli was borna few weeks after the death of her father. The devotion ofher parents and the dying soldier's tender farewell are arelief from the hard intolerance, cruelty and ribald conversation then prevalent in England. In their sorrow it wasno wonder that such gentle people should turn to religion.They found that they could endure neither the formal prayers of the Church of England nor the whining cant of thePuritans. They heard much about Christ, but they wantedto find Him.

Isaac Penington, who became a Quaker saint, also sawnothing but deceit in all the religions of the time, and theywere drawn together in the reality of the Quaker faith thenbeing so fervently preached. After his marriage to SirWilliam's widow they lived at Chalfont in Buckinghamshireuntil Penington was thrown into prison for his Quakeropinions, and his wife and Guli had to wander about as

GULIELMA MARIA PENN'S MANOR OP SPRINGFIELD 249

best they could until he was released. They were peopleof means and well educated for that time. Thomas Ellwood,Milton's amanuensis, lived with them and has left us a quaintand serious description of Guli as "in all respects a verydesirable woman, whether regard was had to her outwardperson, which wanted nothing to render her completelycomely, or to the endowments of her mind which were veryextraordinary." She had many suitors of all ranks andconditions, but as the excellent Ellwood tells us, she boreherself "with so much eveness of temper, such courteousfreedom, guarded with the strictest modesty, that none wereunduly encouraged, nor could any complain of offence."

A tantalizing young woman, indeed, a strenuous, heroiclittle soul who saw in William Penn, the Quaker herowho feared not the face of man. They were married in 1672and settled down at Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, farfrom the dirt and turmoil of London, with its terrible Towerand foul Newgate. They were rich, well favoured and seemto have been very happy lovers as long as Guli lived. Theletter Penn wrote to her as he was about to sail upon hisgreat adventure of the Holy Experiment in the New World,shows how he appreciated her and that she was the sweetinspiration that bore him up in the trials and persecutionsthat beset him.

"My dear wife,

Remember thou wast the love of my youth, and much the joy of my2ife — the most beloved as well as the most worthy of all my earthly comforts; and the reason of that love was more thy inward than thy outwardexcellencies, which yet were many. God knows and thou knowest Ican say it was a match of His making; and God's image in us both wasthe first thing, and the most amiable and engaging ornament in our eyes.Now I am to leave thee, and that without knowing whether I shall eversee thee more in this world. Take my counsel into thy bosom, and let itdwell with thee in my stead while thou livest."

The letter proceeds to oifer his advice to her—"Let the fear of the Lord and zeal and love for His glory dwell richly

in thy heart, and thou wilt watch for good over thyself and thy dear

250 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

children and family. Be diligent in meetings for worship and business;stir up thyself and others therein; and, my dearest, to make thy familymatters easy, divide thy time and be regular. Grieve not thyself withcareless servants; rather pay them and let them go, if they will not bebetter by admonition. Cast up thy income, and see what it daily amountsto, by which thou mayest have it in thy sight to keep vrithin compass."

He urges that his children be brought up "in the loveof virtue, and in that holy plain way of it which we have livedin, that the world in no part of it get into my family. Religion in the heart leads into true civility, teaching men andwomen to be mild and courteous in their behaviour. Bringthem up in love of one another. I recommend the usefulparts of mathematics, building houses or ships, measuring,surveying, and navigation. But agriculture is especially inmy eye. Be sure to observe their genius and do not cross it;let them not dwell too long on one thing, but make an agreeable change before they become weary. Let all their diversions have some little bodily labor in them."

She died at Hbddesden in 1694. During her last illnessshe would not suffer him to neglect any meeting or dutyupon her account—"Oh! go, my dearest; do not hinder anygood for me," she exclaimed. Having blessed her familyand friends gathered about her bedside, Penn says shecaused all to withdraw "and we were half an hour together,in which we took our last leave. She gently expired in myarms, her head upon my bosom, with a sensible and devoutresignation of her soul to Almighty God."

"I hope I may say, she was a public as well as privateloss, for she was not only an excellent wife and mother,but an entire and constant Friend, of a more than commoncapacity, and greater modesty and humility; yet most equaland undaunted in danger. Religious as well as ingenuous,without affectation. An easy mistress, and good neighbor,especially to the poor. Neither lavish, nor penurious, butan example of industry, as well as of other virtues; therefore, our great loss, though her own eternal gain."

We cannot know who was the first white man to explore

GULIELMA MARIA PENN'S MANOR OF SPRINGFIELD 251

this land although it is a pretty good guess that.it was asurveyor under Thomas Fairman since the Manor appearson Thomas Holme's first map of "Pennsilvania" begun in1681. Even tiny Cresheim Creek is correctly shown onthis precious document; It may be that some Swede returning from hunting beavers on the Schuylkill traversedthe tract, but we do know that ^Villiam Penn, the Proprietor, came out in 1683 to examine the proposed grant .of5000 acres to Jasper Farmer where Whitemarsh is nowlocated. This was purchased by Penn from the Umbilica-mense Indians. These were of the Unami tribe of the Leni-Lenape or Delaware Indians. Their villages were situatedalong the trails which later became the Bethlehem andReading Pikes. Penn obtained their land by the treaty ofJuly 14, 1683. Many of you are no doubt familiar withCouncil Rock on the Wissahickon where their councils wereheld until 1756, and with the name of their famous KingTedyuskung. A statue now surmounts the rock and is intended to represent an ideal Indian.

Penn came a second time in 1683 in order to look at thelands granted to his wife, Gulielma., It would be well forthe Township to commemorate in some way the visit ofAmerica's mo^t distinguished colonizer and one of the greatmen of all time. These were the items interesting to uswhich Thomas Fairman, Penn's surveyor, mentioned in hisbill—1683—

"To the survey of the Manor of Springfield, withHands &c S, 15-0-0

To a journey with the Proprietor to look out someland to be called Springutsbury above the designedfor Germantown afterward make Springfield £ 0-6-0

To a journey with the proprietor and his friends toUnbolekemensin 3 of my horses ;.. £0-12-0"

Portions of Penn's Manor were held by the Penn familyuntil after the Revolution when a final settlement was madefor all their remaining land in Pennsylvania, so the names


of the earliest settlers, since they did not take title to theland, are not recorded and are hard to come at. In 1734there were sixteen, of whom there is a record — HermanGreathausen, Johann Groethausen, Samuel Adams, JohnHarmer, William Nice, Thomas Silance, Job Howell,Thomas Hicks, Christopher Ottinger, George Ganty, AllenForster, Henry Snyder, Adam Read, Hugh Boyd, MichaelCline and George Donat, In 1738 Thomas Penn, son of theProprietor by a second marriage, still owned 1600 acres.Some of the earliest names were Rex, Bisbing, Dewees, Hey-drick and Yeakel. The first record of my own propertythat I can find is in 1754.

Flourtown was the largest and earliest village of consequence. Its name appears in the Pennsylvania Archives for1781, and in 1795 there were 16 dwellings. Tradition saysthat early German settlers from Salford and FranconiaTownships came thither to have their grain ground asEdward Farmer had established a grist mill in 1713 onpart of the strip from Stenton Avenue to the Wissahickonnow owned by Dr. Edward Krumbhaar: Jonathan Robe-son and William Dewees, Jr., had it and it is still remembered as Cleaver's Mill. It is on the Blue Bell or ValleyGreen Road and only a ruin remains of the building erectedby Silas and John Cleaver in 1851, which burned in 1907.This mill, though in Whitemarsh Township, is but a shortdistance from the Bethlehem Pike where the village ofFlourtown sprang up around the inns on the main roadwhich provided hospitality for the visiting farmers. TheWissahickon was sometimes called Gravel Run and PaperMill Run at the vicinity of Bethlehem Pike. Henry Deweeshad a paper mill on the tract adjoining the Farmer Milland there was another grist mill known as Ambler's nearby.

Major Jasper Farmer of. the British Army, a residentof Cork, Ireland, purchased a large tract of land in White-marsh and died while corresponding with Penn about settling on it. His family came over in 1685, however, and were


the first settlers in Whitemarsh as well as the greatestlandowners thereabouts. Edward Farmer, the Major's son,built his first grist mill about 1700 and thither came theresidents for miles about including the Governor, Sir William Keith of Graeme Park, Horsham, ten miles away. TheMill came to Samuel Morris, who built the manor housenow called "Hope Lodge," then to Isaac Mather, his nephewby marriage. It stands on Mather Lane opposite the entrance to Hope Lodge and was restored thirty years ago bythe late Calvin Pardee.

Flourtown was for some time in its early career, thepeculiar headquarters of witchcraft and witch-credulity,says Watson the Annalist. Almost everybody there creditedthe evil influence, and they used frequently to summon anold character named Shronk who lived at the Falls of the

Schuylkill, to counteract and point out these spells. Hewould fling his arms about and proclaim that, here andthere, in given directions, are many, many witches! Thewhole place was in serious trouble and confusion for several years; one and another accusing and charging theother with witchcraft.

Being on a main highway, Flourtown inns soon becamea noted stopping place for travelers approaching Philadelphia, and three stage coach lines from Philadelphia hadtheir termini there. In 1820 nine coaches arrived dailyand two tri-weekly lines to Bethlehem were established.Michael Spiegel had an inn there in 1766, John Kenner in1767, John Streeper and Philip Miller in 1773, JosephCampbell, John Kenner, Jacob Neff, Frederick Kehlhofferand Christopher Mason in 1779. John Bitting was an innkeeper for thirty-three years from 1811; Christopher Masonin 1779, Nicholas Kline, Isaac Bilger, Samuel Rex, andDavid Stripe following. About 240 passengers passedthrough every day and provided much revenue for the innsand smiths. By 1884 there were sixty dwellings, four"hotels" and three stores.


In 1868 the Edge Hill Iron Furnace, set up the yearbefore, at Edge Hill Station, now North Hills, on the Reading Railway, took one-third of its ore from the adjoiningland, and the resultant pits vied with those created by taking the limestone, both of which still attract the attentionand guessing of passers by. A village grew quite naturallynear this industry which ceased operation in 1897, but thenearby settlement of Oreland continues to flourish. Abranch of the Reading Railway leaving the BethlehemBranch at Oreland runs through Flourtown to Conshohockenbut is only used for freight mainly from the famous CorsonLime quarries, oldest in this country. This railway waslaid down in 1867 and called the "Plymouth Railway."

What is now called Erdenheim from the Widener Stock

Farm nearby, became a village on account of the WheelPump Tavern, where a double-acting pump, turned by acrank, with a fly-wheel, made a continuous current ofwater. Neff had it in 1776 and Kenner in 1785. Many

villages originated in this way and often took the name ofthe inn or its proprietor. All these mills brought trade tothe inns which naturally sprang up on the main highway,and so Flourtown originated.

The stage coach between Philadelphia and New York,which was not set up until 1756, made the run in threedays at two pence a mile. On summer days the stagesusually made forty miles, but in winter, when the snow wasdeep and the darkness came on early in the afternoon,rarely more than twenty-five. At one season of the yearthe traveler was oppressed by the heat and half choked bythe dust, while at another he could scarce keep from freezing. Generally put down at an inn about ten at night,cramped and weary, he ate a frugal supper and betookhimself to bed with a notice to the landlord that he would

be called at three the next morning. At this time, rain, ^nowor fair, he was forced to rise and make ready by the lightof a horn-lantern or a farthing candle for another eighteen-


hour ride, when horses were changed at another inii. Sometimes, too, he was forced to get down and lift the coachout of a quagmire or a rut. Thomas Twining, traveling inAmerica in 1795, says that the wagon in which he rode wasa long car with four benches holding nine passengers anda driver. The light roof was supported by eight slenderpillars and from it hung three leather curtains rolled upat the pleasure of the passengers. There was no place forluggage except in front of the passengers and no backsto the benches, which made the riding very uncomfortable.

These early inns accommodated man and beast and thejolly landlord and bright-eyed barmaid were a large partof thbir attractions. The table was clean and groanedunder a weight of wholesome viands. Hot punch or a tankard of foaming ale in a cozy corner of the tap room orbefore a roaring fire were features which we can perhapscount a loss today. The healthy out-door life of our ancestors did not call for a varied menu with French names orwines with high-sounding titles. The beds were hard butclean in small rooms with bare floors, white-washed wallsand small windows with plain curtains. Men frequented thetaverns to meet their neighbours and discuss the news andbusiness of the day, while enjoying a quiet glass or pipe.The large influx of immigrants and the continued stream ofstrangers in the early days caused the setting up of a greatnumber of taverns in Philadelphia. The tavern not onlyprovided lodging for these people but served as a substitutefor our present clubs and business exchanges. It was apaying business and many embarked in it. Complaints weremade in the councils and public prints of the nuisances ofintemperance but not more, indeed not as many, as mighthave been expected in a time of hard drinking. Many important events and illustrious personages are connectedwith the old inns and not a little of early history was madein them. Their quaint signs and rhymed sentiments awakenmany interesting memories.

256 BULLETIN OP HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY

At frequent intervals on the roads, houses of publicentertainment served for the places "where elections wereheld and for neighbourhood merry-making. It was aroundthem that homes were built, the villages being frequentlyknown by the tavern sign until they were large enough tohave names of their own. In early times travelers securedentertainment at private houses; and an account of JohnGait in 1738 tells us that in the houses of the principalfamilies in the country, unlimited hospitality formed a partof their regular economy. He says, "It was the custom ofthose who resided near the highways, after supper and thereligious exercises of the evening, to make a large fire inthe hall, and to set out a table with refreshments for suchtravelers as might have occasion to pass during the night;and when the families assembled in the morning they seldom found that their tables had been unvisited."

William Hartley in 1740 petitioned for a license because-his house is "continually infested with travelers who callfor and demand necessaries, and that he had been at greatcharges in supplying them with bedding and their horseswith proper provender without any payment."

The town of Wyndmoor takes its present name from thestation on the Reading Railway at Willow Grove Avenue.This station was first established in 1863 for the Mower

United States General Hospital of 3600 beds which extended to County Line Road, now Stenton Avenue betweenthe present Abington and Springfield Avenue lines andcared for 17,000 wounded soldiers. It was called WillowGrove until the eighties and then Tedyuscung after thefamous Indian Chief whose friendly tribe is commemoratedby the statue at Council Rock on the Wissahickon Creek.The station's name was changed to Wyndmoor about 1894.

Since the Reading Company has no record whatever ofthe origin of Wyndmoor which they gave to their stationabout 1894 according to the recollection of old inhabitants,we can only speculate about it. My own suggestion is that


the donor of the land Samuel Y. Heebner or his sister Julia

who had moved out there, thought the name "Tedyuscung"too much of a mouthful. Mr. Heebner was given the privilegeof naming it and always said it was actuated by the bleaknessof the place. It was a romantic age. This explanation seemsplausible to me and if it is so a verse from Robert LouisStevenson ("To S. R. Crocket" in the volume called "MyWife") I think might furnish an explanation —The nameof the station was originally spelt "Windmoor."

"Blows the wind today, and the sun and the rain are flying,Blows the ivind on the moors today and now,Where about the graves of the martyrs the Whamps (European

curlew) are crying.My heart remembers how!"

At that time the small collection of houses begun in1780, mostly about the corner of Willow Grove Avenueand the present Cheltenham Avenue, then called TownshipLine, was called Spring Village and before that it had beenBungtown. Its principal distinction seems to have been theCamp Meeting which our coloured brethren held in thewoods at Willow Grove Avenue and Eastern Avenue. Soon

after the turn of the century more suburbanites built housesthere and used the Reading Station to reach the city, sothat the growing village took on the name of Wyndmoor ina gradual, unformal kind of way after the turn of thecentury. It is now a flourishing town of some 1200 inhabitants with a considerable industrial activity on the White-marsh branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad at the strangelyinappropriate station of "Asbestos."

Springfield Township was touched by stirring eventsduring the Revolution. In the march to Germantown onOctober 3, 1777, Washington's Army coming from Penny-packer's Mills, now Schwenksville, down the Skippack Pike,split at Whitemarsh, the left under General Greene proceeding over Church Road to Limekiln Pike were engagedby the British at Abington Road, now Washington Lane;Smallwood and Forman with the New Jersey and Maryland

258 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Militia continued over Church Road to York Road and toBranchtown before being recalled; Washington with Sullivan, Wayne and Knox continued down the Bethlehem Pikethrough Flourtown. Colonel Alexander Hamilton, Lt. JamesMonroe and Lt. John Marshall were some of the great figures that were with him on that disastrous day. After thedefeat they retreated over the way they had come, so ourtownship twice that day witnessed the passing of the tattered patriots and their great commander.

On the 4th of December, 1777, the British Army, 12,000strong under Lord Cornwallis, marched out the BethlehemPike and halted at Flourtown. They were confronted bythe Continentals strongly placed on the hills beyond, andafter skirmishing at Edge Hill and maneuvering toward thenortheast, withdrew on the 7th. This was a magnificentparade of the British forces. The simple farm folk musthave stood agape to see the crack regiments of the Guardsand Grenadiers march by, steadfast and composed, splendidly equipped, and with their music sounding "God Savethe King." Here, too, they listened to the wild strains ofthe bearded Hessians, terrible in brass-fronted helmets, andsuggesting plunder and pillage. These Hessians took allthe boys above ten years and seized houses, grain andcattle. An eye witness says the British were trim, gracefuland gay in spirit and action; the Germans immovably stiff,both sombre and gaudy, the whole forming a moving kaleidoscope of colours and scenery.

There has been little excitement nor any historical eventin the township since those days so long ago. Our mostdistinguished citizen, Edward T. Stotesbury, financier,philanthropist, art connoisseur and sportsman, only latelydeceased, was one of the out-standing figures of his day.His great mansion, "Whitemarsh Hall," has fortunatelybeen preserved through its purchase by the PennsylvaniaSalt Company which used it as a laboratory for the development of its many products. A part of Mr. Stotesbury's


property was purchased by the United States for the Eastern Regional Laboratory of the Department of Agriculturehoused in a huge building at East and Mermaid Lanes. Thiswas Winoga Stock Farm, where Mr. Stotesbury kept andtrained his famous "Gentlemen*s Roadsters" which wonblue ribbons at horse shows for twenty-five years and werethe joy of his life. Nearby on this farm named for the mare"Winoga" who died there, is the origin of the CreshelmCreek which flows tranquilly down the valley of like nameto the Devil's Pool on the Wissahickon.

We have become a suburban area since the advent ofthe automobile and the first World War which brought somany people to Philadelphia. A large number remainedas they are now doing in a similar experience, for they haveseen that there is no portion of America that is blessedwith rarer natural beauty or more agreeable diversity ofsurface than eastern Pennsylvania. "Thy God bringeth theeinto a good land,". William Penn exclaimed, "of brooks ofwater, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys'and hills, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whosehills thou mayest dig brass." The vales and hills of theSchuylkill, the Perkiomen, the Neshaminy, the Pennypack,the Tacony and the Wissahickon with their wooded slopeshave lured many of us to a step aside from the immediateto invite our souls. The famous farm houses and bounteousbarns which are characteristic of our country-side are ajoy to architects and to all lovers of home. They turn ourappreciation to the quiet stone houses lying gracious andcontented under the night; the dark trees like tressesframing a woman's face.

And so I say to you of the Historical Society of Montgomery County, you have done well to guard your ghostslest the great dead be slain.

When Montgomery County Mourned theDeath of Lincoln^*

By Kirkb Bryan

We are now in the week after Easter. In the week after

Easter in the year 1865 the nation was in mourning, for on theevening of Good Friday, which in that year fell on April 14,Abraham Lincoln was shot. During that week after Easterin 1865, the greatest man hunt in the history of the countrywas in progress: John Wilkes Booth had committed the greatest criminal act in the nation's history.

To my knowledge, and at least as far as our printed publications show, this is the first paper on Abraham Lincolnever to be read before the Historical Society of MontgomeryCounty. The name Abraham Lincoln appears in all the indexesof our eleven published volumes fewer than a dozen times.

The inevitable comparison with the name of Washingtoncomes before us. George Washington spent nine months of hislife within the borders of what later became MontgomeryCounty, whereas, to my knowledge, Abraham Lincoln wasnever in Montgomery County, except perhaps as the occupantof a train. And yet for at least fifty years, from 1860 to 1910,while the Civil War remained vivid in the minds and heartsof the veterans of that war and of their families, the name ofLincoln was I daresay more frequently on the lips of the residents of our county than was the name of Washington. It issaid that more books have been written about Abraham Lincoln than about any human being in the .history of the world.The latest bibliographer of Lincoln, Jay Monaghan, in his recently published two volume work lists 3,958 books andpamphlets about Lincoln.

I chose as the title for this paper, "When MontgomeryCounty Mourned the Death of Lincoln." Of course, I meanthat period just after Easter in 1865. But it later occurred to

•Read before the Society, April 27, 1946.

260

WHEN MONTGOMERY COUNTY MOURNED DEATH OF LINCOLN 261

me that we in Montgomery County, as well as elsewhere,mourned the death of Lincoln far longer than for a few weeksin the spring of 1865. We mourned his loss for years, andindeed we still mourn his tragic death.

I hope, however, that you are far enough from 1865 not totake offense at my recounting a little story which took placein this year of 1946.1sponsor a boys' club here in Norristown,the members of which are of the seventh and eighth grade agelevels. Last February at one of our weekly meetings our subject was, "Washington and Lincoln." Toward the conclusionof the meeting, after reviewing the lives of these two presidents, I turned to one of theboys andsaid, "Bythe way, whathappened to Lincoln? How did he die?" And the boy, entirelyserious, answered: "Why, he was shot coming out of themovies."

It speaks well for the library and archives of this societythat when I sought old Montgomery County newspapers forthe year 1865 I found bound volumes, for that year, of fivedifferent Montgomery County newspapers, the NorristownHerald and Free Press, the Norristown Register, the Norristown National Defender, the Pottstown Montgomery Ledger,and the Pennsburg Bauernfreund.

From these papers we are able to obtain first hand accounts of the impress of Lincoln's death upon the county.These papers are weekly journals: at that time there was nodaily paper in Montgomery County.

After the assassination, the first issue of the NorristownHerald and Free Press was the issue of April 20,1865. I havebefore you a copy of this issue, which forms part of my collection of Lincolnana. It is stated in this paper: "The Effectof the News of the Assassination. — The news of the terriblecalamity fell like a pall upon our loyal citizens, casting ashadow of deathly gloom over every household which was notinfested with the demon treason. Flags were displayed athalf-mast, draped in mourning, the court house bell was tolled,and other outward manifestations of the grief which pervadedevery heart were made."

202 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

The same Norristown paper further records: "EASTERSUNDAY — The celebration of the resurrection of Christtook place in the various churches on Sunday, but instead ofthe usual joy which it manifested on that occasion the shadesof sorrow and mourning overspread the congregations. Thesolemnity of the occasion was heightened by the decorationsof the churches. Festoons of crape adorned pulpit, galleryand walls; the American Flag was displayed draped in mourning; and there could be no mistaking that the most heartrending blow that had ever fallen upon the American peoplewas visited upon them now. At the Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and Methodist churches, sermons befitting thecalamity were preached. Rev. Mr. Wheat, of the BaptistChurch, preached from Psalm XIL 'Help, Lord: for the godlyman ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children ofmen.' After contrasting the feelings of the Congregation onthis day with those experienced a week before, he continued:This nation never has experienced as sad a Sabbath as this.There never was but one darker day in the world's history,and that was when the sun refused to shine upon the wickedness that crucified the Son of God. That steady hand that hasguided the nation through so many years of storm and dangeris powerless; that honest heart, against which the nation hadlearned to lean its weary head, has ceased to throb. Therenever was a ruler in all history trusted with more confidenceand so much love by the masses of the people as AbrahamLincoln. ... If it were mine to choose which I would be of all

the men that have ever lived I would rather be Abraham Lin

coln and die his martyr death. . . ."

The same newspaper reports a meeting of the UnionLeague of Norristown: "A meeting of the Union League washeld April 17th, at 71/^ o'clock P.M., at the Public House ofD. R. Brower, for the purpose of adopting some measures expressive of the deep feeling of the League in regard to thedeath of our late President, Abraham Lincoln.

"On motion of Dr. W. R. Power, a Committee was appointed to prepare and report resolutions.

% liscflnrs?.RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO A GRAIEFIX PEI»PLE

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OVR Limwsm CHlEi* MA61STRATE,

Hnliam în(0(n,DELIVEBED APRIL Slat, 18M,

BT

Bev. Abraham Grater*

CoplBd by aeveral German Nawapapeva and traiXated fraax tha Oarman.

SKIPPACEVILLB, Pa,PSIOTBD BY J. H. ScHnXREKARir.

Fob Saib: By L Kobues,No. 202 North 4tii St., FhDadeliîlfi.NsoTBAun OrncB, ^ppaehrUlo, Nootg.Cowi^, Pa.

PuoBt Single eoTiySeta.; 30copiesglwad to eajaodieu free of poetage.

Facsimile of title page of the English ediUon of the Skippaek funeralsermon. Monaghan 529


"The chair appointed Dr. W. R. Power, George N. Corson,David Newport, Esqs., and Hons. David Krause and DanielM. Smyser said Committee. At the request of Dr. Power hisname was stricken off and that of B. F. Hancock was inserted,and at the request of the committee Maj. John R. Breitenbachwas added. On motion of D. M. Smyser, George N. Corson,Esq., was made chairman of the Committee through whom thefollowing resolutions were reported and read to the meeting[Six resolutions were drawn up and read to the meeting].

"On motion of John Potts, Esq., George N. Corson, Esq.,was requested to address the meeting. He came forward anddid so and was followed by B. F. Hancock, Esq., in remarksmost feeling and fitting the solemn occasion.

"On motion of David Newport, Esq., the President wasinstructed to request the President of Town Council to call atown meeting to be held at the Odd Fellows Hall, on Tuesdayevening, at 7Y2 o'clock, in order to give the citizens of the townand vicinity a more extended opportunity of expressing theirfeelings in regard to the death of our late President.

"On motion of Howard M. Jenkins, David Newport, JohnPotts, John A. Arnold and Charles Ramey were appointed acommittee to make'the arrangements of the meeting."

Let us turn to the issue of April 27 of the NorristownHerald and Free Press, which was the second issue after thedeath. This number records the meeting held as the result ofthe call by the town council: "Meeting at Odd Fellows Hall —Addresses in Eulogy of our Beloved President — Resolutionsadopted.—On Tuesday evening, the 18th inst., in pursuance ofa call issued by D. R. Brower, President of the Town Council ofNorristown, a very large meeting of the citizens of the borough and vicinity assembled in Odd Fellows' Hall to indulgein suitable demonstrations of sorrow over the assassination of

our beloved President. On motion an organization was effectedby the election of the following officers: —

"Chairman Benjamin F. Hancock; Vice-Presidents, JamesHooven, Robert Iredell, Daniel R. Brower, Elizah Thomas, Daniel H. Mulvany, Horatio S. Stephens, Jesse R. Egbert, Major

WHEN MONTGOMERY COUNTY MOURNED DEATH OF LINCOLN 265

Lane S. Hart, Col. Wm. Allabough, Col. John Sherburne, MajorJohn R. Breitenbach, Major Wm. H. Yerkes, Benjamin E.Chain, Rev. J. Grier Ralston, Dr. Wm. Corson, Capt. R. T.Stewart; Secretaries, Morgan R. Wills, John W. Loch, Harvey-Shaw, George N. Corson.

"The proceedings were opened with a prayer by Rev. H.L. Baugher, of the Lutheran church. Mr. Hancock then addressed the meeting in feeling language upon the loss the nation had suffered.

"On motion of D. H. Mulvany, it was resolved that a Committee of five be appointed to prepare resolutions expressiveof the sense of the meeting, whereupon the Chairman appointed the following: D. H. Mulvany, Hon. D. M. Smyser,Thomas H. Wentz, Henry 0. Hill, and Charles H, Stinson,Esqs., who, after a short time, made report as follows:—[Four resolutions were then read].

"Mr. Hancock was followed by David Newport in a briefspeech, and the meeting was further addressed by JudgeKrause, B. E. Chain, and Rev. J. Pastorfield, of the DeKalbStreet M. E. Church. After which Rev. H. Wheat, of the Nor-ristown Baptist Church, offered an earnest prayer, and themeeting adjourned."

Wednesday, April 19, was the day generally designated forthe church services. Concerning this day the April 27 issue ofthe Norristown Herald and Free Press records: "The observance of Wednesday. — Business was totally suspended inNorristown on the 19th instant. We have rarely seen so quietand subdued a day. The stores and other places of businesswere almost universally draped in mourning, and many private residences wore the same evidences of sorrow. At 12o'clock services were held at all the churches of the Boroughexcept the Presbyterian, the pastors of those being absent ata meeting of the Presbytery in Philadelphia. Services werealso held in the evening in several of the places of worship."

The journalists of the 1860's pulled no punches. The issueof April 27 of the Norristown Herald and Free Press, a strongly Republican organ, has this to say concerning the Jeffer-


sonian, a contemporary journal from our neighboring ChesterCounty town of West Chester: "The only paper that has cometo us in exchange, bearing no sign of mourning for the President's death, is the Jeffersonian, of West Chester. It makes nota sign of sorrow, and its cold and heartless words of commentserve only to confirm its plain and unqualified character oftreason. We do not know of any sheet, allowed by the forbearance of loyal people to be issued, which is so thoroughlytreacherous to the spirit and character of our institutions, orso vilely insulting to the men and women who have preservedthe unity and integrity of the country as the Jefersonian."

The East Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, the Montgomery County fair of the day, met to express the sorrow ofits members at the death of Lincoln. The issue of April 27 ofthe Norristown Herald and Free Press devotes a third of a

column to the remarks of the society's president, WilliamWetherill. This meeting, which must have been an importantone, was likewise reported in various issues of the PottstownMontgomery Ledger, the Norristown Register, and the Norristown National Defender.

There was a meeting at Mechanicsville on April 16, 1865,at the store of Jones and Brother, where A. R. Shantz presided,and W. W. Dalby and the Reverend J. G. Noble were thespeakers: Norristown Herald and Free Press for April 27.

The same paper and the Norristown National Defender forApril 25 report a meeting in Norristown of the Humane FireCompany where three resolutions were passed, among whichwas the resolution that the fire apparatus be draped in mourning for sixty days.

There was a meeting at Port Kennedy: "A meeting of thecitizens of Port Kennedy was held at Port Kennedy Hall onthe 22nd inst. Joseph B. Powell was called on to preside, andJoseph Eckman requested to act as secretary": NorristownHerald and Free Press for May 4.

At Hatboro, "funeral obsequies of the President were heldat the Hatboro Baptist Church at 11 a. m. on the 19th ult., andwere largely attended by the different denominations of the

WHEN MONTGOMERY COUNTY MOURNED DEATH OF LINCOLN, 267

place and vicinity, in which, the new minister of the MethodistChurch, Mr. Bunell, took an active part": Norristown Heraldand Free Press for May 18.

At Pottstown, "In accordance with the recommendation ofthe Acting Secretary of State, appropriate services on the funereal occasion were held everywhere, commencing at the hourof noon [April 19]. In our own borough, services were held inthe Methodist Church, the discourse being delivered by Rev.Enoch Wells, of the Pottstown Circuit; in the German Reformed Church by the pastor. Rev. J. H. Dubbs; in the Episcopal by Rev. G. A. Latimer, rector; in the English Lutheran,by Rev. George F. Miller, pastor, and the Presbyterian, byRev. Robert Dunlap, pastor of the Baptist Church. In all thesechurches the attendance was quite large. The respect paid tothe memory of the deceased Chief Magistrate of the nationwas, in fact, universal, being confined to no party, sect, classor condition of people": Pottstown Montgomery Ledger forApril 25.

In Conshohocken, "The sad calamity that has visited ournation in the assassination of our beloved president has filledour community with its deepest sorrow.

"On Friday evening our loyal citizens spontaneously assembled in the Odd Fellows Hall, crowding every portion ofthe room and stairways. Many were unable to gain admission.. . . The meeting was organized by calling the Burgess, H.Beaver, Esq., to the chair. Earnest and patriotic addresseswere delivered by Rev. I. G. Noble, R. Owen, I. M. Perry, H.B. Townsend and Wm. W. Dalby.

"The meeting adjourned at a late hour, every heart carrying home the resolve, that cowardly traitors in our midst shallno longer, by their polluted lips or press, give expression tothe sentiments of their black hearts. On Wednesday there wereservices held in the Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Christian churches, in all of which the addresses delivered were devoted to the memory of our lamented President" : from a Conshohocken correspondent, published in theNorristown Herald and Free Press in its issue of April 27.


In Pennsburg, the Pennsburg Bauernfreund, a newspaperprinted in German, devotes three-foui'ths of a page of its issueof April 19 to the death of the president, but publishes no newsabout local ceremonies held because of the death. And thei*e

is no local news in the succeeding weekly issues of that paper,although other material is printed concerning Lincoln and hisassassination.

In addition to the reported accounts of the assassinationand the various kinds of local news, the newspapers also devoted columns of their publications to reproducing funeralsermons, poems, essays, and like expressions of grief. Thus,almost the entire front page of the Norristown Herald andFree Press for May 18 is covered by a printing in full of aeulogy on Lincoln delivered on April 24 by the Honorable Wm.D. Kelley before the Girls' High and Normal School of Philadelphia. The same paper, in its issue of May 11, prints "Oh!Why should the spirit of Mortal Be Proud?", one of Lincoln'sfavorite poems. The same journal, in its issue of May 4, publishes a one-half column essay of a young school girl fromHatboro concerning the death of Lincoln. The Norristown National Defender, in its publication of May 2, prints a seventy-nine line poem conceiming Lincoln's death, signed "Alfaretta,""Trappe, April 28, 1865."

The various Democratic newspapers, though generallyquick to express sorrow over the death of the president wererestrained in their words of praise for him. Thus, the Democratic Norristown National Defender; in its issue of Tuesday,April 18: "We cannot view the shocking murder of PresidentLincoln in any other light than as a great national calamity.... He was not a radical by nature, and when left to himselfhis convictions tended toward conservatism and reconstruc

tion. What was otherwise in his administration seemed to have

been forced upon him by the importunate pressure of men lesswise and moderate than himself."

The same journal in its issue of Tuesday, April 25, publishes the following account: "On Wednesday last there was atotal suspension of business. The business places and private

IN MEMORIAM.

A- DISCOTJIlSiE

VPoa TBS CBA&ACm AXD DBATB OP

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

PBBAOBBD tH POTltlOWJI PBBSBTIX&IAV CBOBCH. 05 THE DAY Of

MATfOBAXi BUMILIATXOB, JTOB 1, }865.

Rev. JOHN C. THOMPSON.

PHILADELPHIA:SmN k JoMsa^ Phintebs, No. 821 CHESfrmiT Stbekt.

1866.

Facsimile of title page (slightly reduced) of thePottstown funeral sermon. Monaghan 775


residences were with few exceptions draped in mourning. OnSaturday the burgess issued a proclamation in accordancewith the instructions of the Governor, ordering all businessto be suspended while the corpse of the chief magistrate waspassing through our State [Saturday, April 22]. At 3 o'clockall business was suspended and several extra trains were runby the railroad in order to accommodate the man who had adesire to see the procession in the city on Saturday and obtaina view of the deceased in Independence Hall on Sunday. Togive those not present during the procession an idea of itslength, we would state that it was about one and a half hoursin passing a given point."

The Democratic Norristown Register in its issue of April18 runs mourning lines between its columns, publishes newsof national interest concerning the death, but publishes nonews of any kind concerning what took place in Norristownas a result of the assassination. Nor in the issue of April 25is there any local news concerning Lincoln's death.

Saturday morning, April 15, 1865, was, as we have seen,the time of the death of Abraham Lincoln. That day was oneof double consternation for the clergymen of our country. Notonly were they visited by sorrow at the death of their president, but also they had to rewrite the Easter sermons whichthey had prepared for the morrow.

Instead of the gladsome Easter season, the churches wereconfronted with death and mourning. It was literally a blackEaster for the people and their churches. The day has beencalled "Black Easter,"

Thousands of sad Easter sermons were delivered throughout the United States on April 16. No event in the history ofour country has resulted in the printing of so many sermons.As the result of the Easter Day sermons and the sermons ofsucceeding Sundays and the sermons delivered at other services, several hundred sermons were later printed in pamphletform throughout the United States. These pamphlets have become eagerly sought by collectors of Lincolnana. Many of themare quite scarce, including some which I shall show you from

WHEN MONTGOMERY COUNTY MOURNED DEATH OF LlfNCOLN 271

my own collection. As far as bibliographies show, only threeMontgomery County sermons were printed in pamphlet form.One of the three was printed both in English and German.And only the sermon which was printed in the two languageswas printed within Montgomery County.

The three Montgomery County sermons which were published in pamphlet form are as follows:

1. An Address Delivered at the Funeral Solemnities of the.

Late President Lincoln at the Church of Our Savior, Jenkin-town, Wednesday Noon, April 19, 1865. By Rev. 0. B. Keith,Rector. [Printed in] Philadelphia: King and Baird, Printers,607 Sansom Street, 1865.

This pamphlet of eight pages is listed as number 585 inMonaghan's bibliography. The bibliographer Hart states that250 copies were printed.

2. In Memoriam. A Discourse upon the Character andDeath of Abraham Lincoln. Preached in Pottstown Presbyterian Church, on the Day of National Humiliation, June 1,1865, By Rev. John C. Thompson. [Printed in] Philadelphia:Stein and Jones, Printers, No. 321 Chestnut Street, 1865.

This pamphlet of twenty pages is listed as number 775 inMonoghan's bibliography. The bibliographer Hart states that500 copies were printed.

3. A Discourse, Respectfully Dedicated to a Grateful People In Memory of the Worth of Our Lamented Chief Magistrate, Abraham Lincoln, Delivered April 21st, 1865, by Rev.Abraham Grater. Copied by several German newspapers andtranslated from the German. Skippackville, Pa., Printed byJ. M. Schuenemann, 1865. For sale: By I. Kohler, No. 202North 4th St., Philadelphia. Neutralist Office, Skippackville,Montg. County, Pa. Price: Single copy 5cts.; 30 copies $1;send to any address free of postage.

This pamphlet of eight pages is listed as number 529 inMonaghan's bibliography.

The German counterpart of this printed sermon has a titlepage reading, in German, almost word for word like the Eng-


lish title page. The German edition is listed as number 3779.in Monaghan.

These Skippack imprints are very scarce Lincoln items. Inaddition, they are two of the most desirable of all Montgomery County imprints. Many great Lincoln collections do notpossess these two little pamphlets.

The pamphlet containing the Jenkintown sermon is muchscarcer than the Pottstown pamphlet; but even the latter itemis far from being among the commonest of the printed Lincolnfuneral sermons.

As the grounds of Haverford College are partly withinMontgomery County, two scarce Haverford College pamphletsshould be mentioned here. They are not sermons; but they areinteresting Montgomery County items of the period:

(a) An Address on the Character and Example of President Lincoln, Delivered Before the Athenaeum and EverettSocieties of Haverford College, by Professor Thomas Chase,on Fifth Day Evening, Seventh Month 6th, 1865, [Printed in]Philadelphia: Sherman & Co., Printers, 1865.

This pamphlet of thirty-five pages is listed as number 444in Monaghan's bibliography. The bibliographer Fish statesthat 500 copies were printed.

(b) Address of Edward R. Wood, A. M., delivered beforethe Alumni Association of Haverford College, Tenth Month,14th, 1865. Printed by Order of the Executive Committee,Philadelphia: Henry B. Ashmead, Book and Job Printer, Nos.1102 and 1104 Sansom Street, 1865.

This pamphlet of nineteen pages is listed as number 824in Monaghan's bibliography. It is a very scarce pamphlet. It islacking from many of the fine Lincoln collections, and, alas,from mine.

In the many sermons delivered throughout the UnitedStates, it was the frequent comment of the clergy that Lincolnshould not have been in a theatre. Theatres were places ofshame, and no president, or, indeed, no other person, shouldbe there. Yet, in these sermons I have never found a statement that Lincoln should not have been in a theatre on Good

WHEN MONTGOMERY COUNTY MOURNED DEATH OF LINCOLN £73

Friday, Today our presidents go freely to the theatre. But nopresident would be seen in a theatre on Good Friday.

A word concerning our Montgomery County generals,Hancock and Hartranft, and the death of Lincoln, Immediately after the assassination, General Winfield Scott Hancockwas summoned from his quarters at Winchester, Virginia.He came to Washington at once. He assumed control of thelarge military force in Washington, and he was a leader in thesearch for John Wilkes Booth.

As for General John F. Hartranft, it is stated in theNorristown Herald and Free Press for May 18,1865, "By orderof the War Department General Hartranft has been detailedat Washington'to take charge of the jail in which the prisoners charged with the assassination conspiracy are confined.He is also appointed Assistant Provost Marshall General tocarry out the mandates of the court appointed to try them,and will probably have the privilege of conducting the detailsand arrangenients of their execution." Note the assumptionthat these prisoners are going to be executed.

Then, on July 9, 1865, Hancock and Hartranft were thecommanding generals at the execution of the four conspiratorsconvicted of guilt in the assassination of Lincoln. It wasHartranft who read the orders of execution, and who, atword from Hancock, gave the order that the platform bedropped and that, the conspirators be hanged.

I shall conclude with a poem of advertisement whichappeared in the Norristown Herald and Free Press forApril 27,1865. The advertising man we had then, as we havenow. The poem appeared in the advertisement of Tower Hall,a Philadelphia clothing store:

THE NATIONAL MOURNING

By the Bard of Tower Hall

So vast and solemn the events

That mark the records of our time,The Muse her helplessness laments

To trace them in befitting rhyme.


From War we saw our country freedAnd gloried in that issue grand,

When lo, a fierce assassin's deed,In mourning clothes the weeping land!

These sable emblems waving round,Did deeper ev'ry heart impress

With melancholy's spell profound.And thoughts of Glory's emptiness.

Ye fates, shall we see nought but bloodOn ev'ry page that ye unfold?

Suffices not the sanguine floodThat o'er our land so late has rolled?

But, of our ruler though bereft,Let not our souls to weakness sink;

Our living country yet is left.And for her we must act and think.

Still, upon those who yet survive,Presses each duly of the hour:

And faithfully we still shall striveTo do you service at our Tower.

\

We have now on hand our usual full andcomplete assortment of seasonable Clothing. Allour materials have been purchased for cash, atthe present reduced rates, which enables us tofully meet the popular demand for goods atreduced prices.

TOWER HALL

518 Market StreetBennett & Company

And so we conclude our journey back into that EasterWeek of long ago. Black Easter, as it was called, when ourcounty mourned the death of Lincoln.

Two Centuries of Papermaking at

Miquon, Pennsylvania*

By Rudolf P. Hommel

Papermaking has a venerable history. Perhaps the mostimportant contribution of China to the basic inventions ofthe world was the one of making paper. It was achieved inthe year 105 A. D. and it took just about a thousand yearsbefore it was introduced into Europe. China did not give upits secret of manufacture until 751 A. D., when the Arabiansconquered Samarkand and took two Chinese prisoners ofwar who were papermakers and taught the art to theArabians. The spread of the Arabian power to the Mediterranean region carried the invention to Spain and Italy, andsince the beginning of the fourteenth century we havedocumentary proof of paper mills in Germany.

It is common knowledge that the first paper mill dnAmerica was erected by William Rittenhouse in 1690 onPapermill Run, a tributary of the Wissahickon Creek, inRoxborough. William Rittenhouse came from a long lineof German papermakers, and was the first to transplant theart to the New World. For twenty years, or until 1710, thiswas the only paper mill in America. William deWees, theson-in-law of William Rittenhouse, built the second papermill on the Wissahickon in the part of Germantown calledCrefeld.

It is a matter of pride for Pennsylvanians to realize thatpapermaking was almost a monopoly in their state to well-nigh the end of the eighteenth century. George Clymer saidin Congress in 1789 that there were 53 paper mills within

*Read before the Society, November 16, 1946.

275

276 bulletin op historical society of Montgomery county

the range of the Philadelphia . market, which producedabout 70,000 reams (33,600,000 sheets) of various kinds"which is sold as cheap as can be imported."^

Seventeen years later, in 1806, Joseph Scott in his "AGeographical Description of Pennsylvania," records thatthere were at that time 62 paper mills in the state; 14 ofthem, (the largest number for any single county), were inour Montgomery County. The Census of 1810 accounts for15 paper mills in Montgomery County, producing 25,433reams (12,207,840 sheets) yearly.

Papermaking was a lucrative enterprise and BenjaminFranklin aided the spread of it in every way. He wrote in aletter of April 22, 1771, that he had a principal share inestablishing the paper manufacture and told the Frenchtraveler Brissot de Warville in 1788 that he had established

about 18 paper mills. This was no idle boast. One ofFranklin's account books, which has been preserved to thisday, shows that he sold between the years 1742 and 1749almost one hundred tons of rags to the paper mills.

Some writers on Colonial papermaking seem to be underthe impression that rags were scarce and that local manufacture could not begin to supply the demand for paper.My investigations disprove such a view. Enough paper wasproduced in Pennsylvania in the mid-eighteenth centurythat thousands of reams could be exported. In the shortspan of five years, from 1759 to 1763, 6,432 reams of paper,the product of Pennsylvania, left the port of Philadelphia.John Swift, the deputy collector of the Port, had to makethis report for the customs authorities in England, who jealously watched the mounting self-sufficiency of the Colonies.

Papermaking needs pure water and water power. Whenall desirable sites in the Wissahickon Valley had been takenup, the papermakers, whose number was steadily augmented by apprentices who had served their term and by

lApril 17, 1789, Annals of Congress, I, p. 167.

TWO CENTURIES OF PAPERMAKING AT MIQUON, PENNSYLVANIA 277

immigrant journeymen, cast about for new territory, andone of them went farther up the Schuylkill to Trout Run,the next creek, flowing into it. It is only a small creek,meandering with considerable fall along the old border ofWhitemarsh Township, where it adjoined the SpringfieldManor Corridor. The lower limb of this corridor, about 160


acres of it (the shaded part on the attached map), has beencut off in 1876 and given to Whitemarsh Township. Thepaper mill area with which our account deals is nowwholly in Whitemarsh Township and borders no longer onSpringfield Township. Here were ideal conditions for anew enterprise.

The time was 1746, two hundred years ago, the entrepreneur was Anthony Newhouse, and the site the identicalone, where today stands the imposing papermaking plantof W. C. Hamilton & Sons. Now, as then. Trout Run flowsthrough the property. When Mr. Hamilton took over in1865, the establishment was called the Riverside Paper Mill.The railroad had a station at the mill, called Lafayette.The Hamilton Mill later adopted as a trademark a profile ofWilliam Penn in a circle, surrounded by the words MIQUONRIVERSIDE MILLS. This circular device is superimposedupon a feather, the tail and quill of which project obliquelyfrom under it. Miquon was one of the Indian names ofWilliam Penn. In deference to the dominating interest ofthe little settlement clustering about the Hamilton Mills theplace was called Miquon, when a post office was establishedin 1921. The old name of Lafayette was not acceptable tothe postal authorities in Washington, as there were someother places with that name.

Having defined the area on Trout Run, where paper hasbeen made for 200 years, we return now to the enterpriseof Anthony Newhouse of 1746. He was a papermaker ofRoxborough and bought, on September 30, 1746, a tractof 54 acres in Whitemarsh for 62 pounds, 10 shillings. Thisproperty adjoined lands of John Morris, and Zanes Savage,Springfield Manor and the Schuylkill River. A glance ^tthe map will show you that this property is the same nowheld by the Hamilton Paper Mills.

To judge by the price, the tract was unimproved, soAnthony Newhouse got busy, built himself a dwelling house,a stone barn and a paper mill. He continued his paper-


making, formerly carried on in Roxborough, and was apparently eminently successful. He had dealings withBenjamin Franklin, was no doubt a protege of his, andsupplied him with paper. Newhouse in turn bought thenecessary rags from Franklin, and, in this respect, was hisbest customer. Among the seven papermakers listed in

oiAie

f^/Acrej

Towttfh

ANTHONY NEWHOUSE PAPER MILL TRACT(1746-1752)


Franklin's account book "D," who bought rags and furnished paper, Anthony Newhouse received almost fifty thousand pounds, besides quantities of glue and alum. Franklinalso paid large sums of cash to Newhouse, but it is not quiteclear for what. The assumption is that Franklin kept otheraccount sheets, which have not been preserved.

As little as we know of Anthony Newhouse, we mustassume that he made excellent paper. The Assembly ofPennsylvania had entrusted Franklin with printing papermoney. To supply paper for this task was a confidentialassignment. It went exclusively to Anthony Newhouse, whofurnished within four years, from 1744 to 1748, thirty reams(15,000 sheets) of it. Of immediate interest to us is thatmost of this "Money Paper" as Franklin calls it in hisledger, was made in the mill on Trout Run.

At one time the integrity of Anthony Newhouse wasseverely tested. The incident is recorded in the Pennsylvania Archives^ and speaks for itself:

"1747.—The House being informed, that Application had been madeto Anthony Newhouse, Paper-maker, who made the Paper for the Currency of this Province, that he would privately make a Parcel of thesame Kind of Paper, in order to the Counterfeiting of the said Currency,which he refused, and has honestly given Notice of the Design to aTrustee of the Loan Office; - , '

"Resolved, That the Trustees be empowered to reward the Honestyof the said Paper-maker with such Suni as they shall think proper,not exceeding Ten Pounds; and the like to any other Paper-maker, whomay make the like discoveries hereafter."

"1748.—Paid the Papermaker, for discovering the person whowanted paper made to counterfeit our Money: 10 Pounds."

Anthony Newhouse held his papermill property onTrout Run until February 18, 1752, when he sold it toJacob Hagey, papermaker of Germantown, for 693 Pounds,more than ten times, the amount he had paid for it only sixyears previously. It shows that Newhouse's industry, business ability and enterprise bore ample dividends. In the

Eighth Series, Volume IV, pp. 3163 and 3210.

TWO CENTURIES OF PAPERMAKING AT MIQUON, PENNSYLVANIA £81

meantime Anthony Newhouse had bought a townhouse inGermantown, where he conducted his affairs, styled "merchant." That is disclosed in an advertisement in Saur'snewspaper of June 1, 1752, and the situation is given as"opposite Holtzappel."

A deed of 1762 for a piece of land in Whitemarsh Township refers for the last time to "Anthony Newhouse, paper-maker of Whitemarsh," and then he seems to have movedaway from these parts.

Jacob Hagey, the new owner, also enjoyed the patronage of Benjamin Franklin, although in a lesser degree.

WATERMARK OF JACOB HAGEY

Found on a bill for flour furnished by Spring Mills,Whitemarsh Township, 1764.

The Initials are on the left half of the sheet,and the crown on the right half.

He attended to papermaking all his life, raised a family,lived frugally and added to his holdings. By 1764 he hadtwo papermills and a sawmill on Trout Run, and the needfor the daily bread of the family was met by their owngristmill farther up the creek. Time went on, Jacob Hagey

282 bulletin op historical society of Montgomery county

grew old and made his will in 1792 and soon after died.

He left the papermill tract of 92 acres to his son, Daniel,who also was a papermaker. The original Newhouse tractof 54 acres was included in this bequest.

This period of forty years, from 1752 to 1792, underthe able management of Jacob Hagey, marked the heydayof hand-papermaking at this location.

WATERMARK OP DANIEL HAGEY

The initials are on the left half, and the trefoil on theright half of the sheet. Circa 1798.

Daniel Hagey (1760-1810) continued the businessvigorously for some years, but died July 19, 1810, leavinga widow, Mary, and" nine children.' A son-in-law, with thename of William Hennis (also spelled Henvis), who hadmarried Catharine, a daughter of Daniel Hagey, took overtemporarily, but to satisfy the interests of the various heirs,the property was finally sold on April 1, 1812. Then beginsa period of bewildering break-up of the property and resale after re-sale of the smaller holdings. It reflects the stateof hand-papermaking in general of that period.

The machine age was dawning for the papermakingindustry. In England a papermaking machine had beenperfected which did away with the laborious hand-dippingfor each individual sheet of paper, and it spelled the ruinof the old-style papermill. The effects in America were felt


first through the import of cheap machine-made paper andbefore long the introduction of the uncanny Fourdriniermachine which made paper on an endless band.

The Trout Run flowed on and witnessed the untiringefforts of small papermakers struggling at their dipping vats,making individual sheets of paper. In the eighteenth century the papermakers became well-to-do at it, but now, alltheir efforts did not avail, some failed, some died, and yetother enthusiasts took over and struggled along for anotherfew years, till the mighty modern progress pushed themaside.

WATERMARK OF NICHOLAS HASSELBACH

Foundonpaper of the Pennsylvania Town and Country-Man's Almanackfor the Year of Our*Lord 1766. By John Tobler, Esq.;

Germantown; Printed and Sold by C. Sower.

Before we relate how finally the Fourdrinier machinecame to these parts, we like to sketch the doings of NicholasHasselbach in the Miquon region on Trout Run, and hissuccessors. Nicholas Hasselbach was a German immigrantwho arrived in Philadelphia in 1749. He soon found employment at the papermill of Peter Kock on the Wissa-hickon, and before long realized the ambition to build hisown papermill. On March 22, 1757, he acquired an unimproved tract of land on Trout Run, adjoining the papermill


property of Jacob Hagey, containing 17% acres, on whichhe erected a stone house and paper mill. To his accomplishment of papermaking he added that of printing, whichhe had learned at the Christopher Saur press in German-town. His ambition was unbounded. Scarcely had helaunched his enterprise on Trout Run, when the Wissa-hickon Mill of Peter Kock came on the market. It was

NICHOLAS HASSELBACH PAPER MILL TRACT (1757-1760)

dear to him, having found his first employment there, whenhe came to this country. It had fallen on evil days afterKock's death and its sale by Sheriff to John Johnson, a sadlerof Germantown. By the end of 1757, Hasselbach bought it,and had now two paper mills to manage. He placed HenryKatz in charge of the one on Trout Run, and finally sold itto him on January 14,1760, for 500 pounds.


The subsequent career of Hasselbach is full of romanceand deserves a separate investigation. Around 1765 hemoved to Baltimore, became its first printer and startedthe first^ paper mill in Maryland. To further his businessinterests he undertook a trip to Europe and was lost at seathe end of 1769 or early in 1770.

When Henry Katz, the papermaker at Trout Run, foundhimself the proud owner of a stone house and paper mill inJanuary, 1760, he received the deed properly drawn onparchment and duly signed by Hasselbach and his wife,Katherine. We can visualize how Henry Katz intently readit word for word, and we may even venture to look overhis shoulder, while he is reading the precious document,and tell you all about it. The document has withstood theravages of time and is right here, the property of the Society. Henry Katz, no doubt, was charmed to see beside thesignature of Nicklas Hasselbach and the mark of his spouse,Katherine, two beautiful seal impressions in red sealingwax, and so were we, when we beheld a picture of an urnfilled with flowers, with a bird standing beside it and asmaller one on the wing in the sky.

This very seal may have given Henry Katz an idea.Being now a full-fledged papermaker with a mill of his own,he had to find a device to be used as a watermark for hisproduct. "An urn with flowers, that's it," he concluded. Ithad to be stylised and simplified and he evolved what thedistinguished papermaking historian, James F. Magee, Jr.,called the most interesting of the Pennsylvania watermarks,a tulip plant in full bloom, growing out of a very ornateurn.

Henry Katz was one of the founders at St. Peter's Lutheran Church at Barren Hill in 1761 and served as an elder.

' Notwithstanding the claim for William Hoffman in 1776 in a recentpublication: The History of the Hoffman Paper Mills in Maryland, byMay A. Seitz, Towson, Maryland, 1946.

286bulletinofhistoricalsocietyofMontgomerycounty

Hisneighborandcompetitor,JacobHagey,»belongedtothesamechurch.Therewasinter-relationthroughmarriagebetweenthefamiliesintheirsandthefollowinggeneration.HenryKatzdiedin1794andhiswidowCatharinesurvivedhimuntiltheyear1817,whenshepassedoninher87thyear.Ason,Henry,alsoapapermaker,inheritedthepaper-millandfollowedhisfather'strade.HeexpandedthebusinessandboughtsomeHageyholdings,whichgavehiman

w

OLDSEALONHASSELBACHDEEDTheDeed,datedJanuary14,1760,conveyedthe

HasselbachpapermilltoHenryKatz.

WATERMARK

OFHENRYKATZ

additional40acresonTroutRunwithdwellinghouseandpapermillunderthesameroofandarightofwaytotheSchuylkillRiver.Afterhisdeath,whichoccurredin1834,hisson,John,andson-in-law,LeonardStreeper,soldin1837this40acreswithpapermillunderthesamerooftoAndrewRitchie.FromhimitpassedtoEdwinR.Copein1856,whointurnsolditandallhisinterestsatTroutRuntoW.C.Hamiltonin1865.


The Katz family had held on to hand-papermaking onTrout Run the longest, from 1760 to 1837. In the last stagesof this period it was dying out and carried on in a desultoryfashion. Some die-hards were struggling on, who could notsee that their honorable trade should be doomed. There

IHI KAT 2WATERMARK OP HENRY KATZ, JR.

The name is on the left half of the sheet and the bird on the right half.Document of 1798: MS. petition of the citizens of Montgomery

County to have the Sedition and Alien Laws rescinded.

was probably no family in the neighborhood in which, atone time or another, some of the older members had notengaged in papermaking.

This gave the cue to Edwin R. Cope, a wide-awake business man of Philadelphia. He saw what was needed torevive papermaking on Trout Run. The waters of the creek,properly dammed, would serve, and there were skilledpapermakers to be had who could easily be trained to makepaper the new way with machines and modern equipment.He went to work prodigiously, spending vast sums in buyingup land and reassembling the former holdings of the Hageyand Katz families. In June, 1856, he began the erectionof the buildings.


The Hon. Horatio Gates Jones, prominent Philadelphialawyer, politician and historian, took notice of the newenterprise and asked Edwin R. Cope for particulars of themill. The answer in Cope's handwriting with the originalenvelope is in our possession and is dated: "Wednesday,June first," which could have been 1859 or 1864. It readsas follows:

"Riverside Paper Mill is located on the Norristown RailRoad at Lafayette station.

"The mill is a substantial stone edifice three stories highand consists of a main building 50 by 80 ft., machine house50 by 100 ft., an engine house 20 by 40 ft., two boiler houses,one 24 by 42 ft., the other 27 by 32 ft.

"The machinery is all of the first class and consists of avertical low pressure engine rating 150 horse power, 3 flueboilers, 4 iron rag engines of the largest class, Fourdrinierpaper machine, rag cutters, dusters, etc., etc.

"Trout Run passes through the property and a largereservoir has been constructed, 2,500 feet from the mill, bydarning the stream. From this reservoir a line of large ironpipe has been laid to the mill and water thus furnished inevery room. Very complete arrangements have been madeat the reservoir to insure at all times a certain and full supplyof pure water, an indispensible article in all properly conducted paper mills.

"About 30 hands are constantly employed and thecapacity of the establishment is about 3,000 pounds of paperper day, requiring in the manufacture about 4,000 poundsof rags, besides chemicals of various kinds.

"The production of the mill is confined exclusively topaper for fine book printing, and it takes rank with the bestof this class produced.

"Paper was first made in the mill on February 22, 1858."Subsequent developments showed that Mr. Cope had

planned extremely well. He engaged Mr. W. G. Hamiltonas manager, another shrewd move. Mr. Hamilton was well


schooled in hand-papermaking, grew up with the introduction of machine-made paper and worked at it in variousmills, finally landing at the famed Glen Mills of James M.Willcox, on Chester Creek, Delaware County, one of the firstmills to introduce a Fourdrinier machine. He remained themanager at Cope's Riverside Mill for six years and finallybought the mill outright on October 1, 1865.

Since that time improvements have been made uponimprovements. The use of rags as raw material was abandoned and the whole installation switched over to themaking of paper from wood pulp, using the soda process.

ProIFatxiai

PRO PATRIA WATERMARK

in the paper delivered to Franklin by Anthony Newhouse, 1747(Courtesy of James F. Magee, Jr.)

The production was tremendously increased and the supplyof pure water became a problem. Trout Run was no longersufficient and the Schuylkill with its progressive contamination became of doubtful value. Something had to be done.

Nearly two miles from the plant is the famous BubblingSprings, one of the largest springs in eastern Pennsylvania.This the firm secured on a ninety-year lease and constructeda water main to carry the water through a twenty-one

290 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

inch pipe to the mill where it supplies 3000 gallons perminute at a temperature of 54 degrees the year round. Atthe same time all obsolete machinery was replaced withnew equipment. Three thousand pounds of paper were produced in a day's time in 1865, when Hamilton took over, andnow, in 1896, the daily output had risen to fifty thousandpounds.

This was fifty years ago and in this span of time morechanges have taken place for improvement and expansionin the plant of W. C. Hamilton & Sons, which only an industrial engineer can explain.

The task of the historian is done, which was to show thatpaper was made on little Trout Run for two hundred years,from 1746 to 1946; and now, as then, the creek flows onand on.

Antique Iron Works and Machines of the

Water Power Age '

By George Wintbrhalter Schultz

George Winterhalter Schultz's paper was issued as a private, limited publication in 1927, and is today a rare item. Its reprint in a revised form in our BULLETIN should appeal to the historian for itsquaint illustrations and the information wrested by a practical, industrious, and clear-thinking iron-man from ruined and abandoned ironworks, which he virtually turned upside down to salvage tons upon tonsof old charcoal iron and turn it to good account.

Mr. Schultz went to his task with the instinct of an explorer andused his salvaging operations like so many textbooks, each adding tohis store of knowledge, until now, at the age of eighty-two, he mastersthe subject of colonial iron-making.

The last dozen years he made about 36 water color drawings, ofcharming directness and utmost fidelity as to technical information, toillustrate a work to be titled "Pictorial Saga of Iron in Colonial Pennsylvania." Step by step it shows how the pioneer iron masters came tothe wilderness, dammed a stream, made wooden waterwheels and machinery, felled trees, made charcoal, mined iron ore, quarried limestone,erected a furnace and forge, built mansion, bam and storehouse, produced cast and wrought iron. The book is now waiting for a publisher.

Mr. Schultz is no stranger to Montgomery County. In the 1890'she had a salvaging establishment in Norristown, and by team, railroadand boat, he gathered the spoils of his operations to bend them intoproductive channels. His shops were on "Washington, below Swede street,in close neighborhood of the old Lucinda Furance, the enterprise ofGeneral William Schall, one of the last, old-style ironmasters. The General had his roots in the eighteenth century, through his father, whomanaged District Forge in Berks county, and he, the son, brought hisskill to Montgomery county, first at Green Lane Forge, and later toNorristown, where he built Lucinda Furnace in 1857. After spectacularsuccess for some years, "modern progress," which favors only large-scale,consolidated enterprises, doomed, like so many, Lucinda Furnace, andit was Mr. G. W. Schultz who finally became the undertaker of itsdestruction.

291


THE PRIMEVAL EPOCH

When the white settlers began arriving on these American shores, the red man had just emerged from a state ofpure savagery and was taking up crude agriculture. The"Stone Age" was developing into the "Bronze Age" and theIndian had occasionally experimented with copper, lead,silver and gold. Chopping off chunks of exposed copperveins in the West, he pounded and shaped the metal to someextent, forming spear heads and ornaments, without refining the raw mineral from impurities, but the legend thatthe aborigine tempered copper into steel-like hardness,alluded to as a lost art, is a-myth.

The Indian was unfamiliar with iron, the most plentifulmetal. This may seem strange but the reason is simplewhen it is understood that the other metals fuse at a much

lower temperature than iron, which requires a heat of 2800degrees to melt it. Gold, silver, copper, lead are oftenfound in Nature in a "free state"; that is, in the form ofnuggets, gravel, or dust—almost pure; whereas iron seldomif ever occurs free from combination with oxygen, sulphur,phosphorus, silica, and other ingredients. Furthermore, ironrequires special treatment to isolate it from these components.

Stone was the universal material employed by the redman, chipped and shaped by hand into hatchets, clubs,pestles, and the flint arrowhead was the prehistoric "projectile" by which he killed game from a distance to securemeat on which his life depended, and to defend himselffrom a human enemy.

THE IRON AGE

Colonists, of course, were long acquainted with iron.At first they depended on the articles they brought withthem, but after a time, as the population increased, thegrowing need of iron for domestic and business use inspiredsome of the settlers to search for deposits of this ore. An

ANTIQUE IRON WORKS AND MACHINE OF WATER POWER AGE 293

urgent incentive to try to make wrought and cast iron in theProvinces was the high cost of transporting the articlesacross the Atlantic and loss of time in the slow sailing shipsthat required two or three months to make the journeyone way.

- MiNiNq jroa' ore

Wrought and cast iron diifer very materially in theircharacteristics. To produce them required the knowledge,skill in the craft, the necessary fuel, the structures and themachines.

FUEL

The first point to be considered about iron making inthose days was the fuel supply. The solution of this was


easy because of the vast forests close to the seaboard. Coaland petroleum were then unknown in the region. Woodburned in its natural state does not furnish sufficient heat

to melt iron ore; therefore the wood had first to be charred—^that is, made into charcoal. This decomposes its fibre andexpels the hydrogen, which gas is a powerful reviver ofmetals and would cause them to absorb impurities. Moreover wood uncharred would bring its content substances,such as hydrogen, potash, turpentine, into contact "vyith themetal. This knowledge therefore was the ground work ofsuperiority of the white man over the ignorant Indian inthe matter of utilizing the red or black earths, rocks andveins of iron oxide.

IRON ORE

There was not much difficulty experienced by the explorers in locating iron ore deposits in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and other States, becausethe mineral often out-cropped on the surface. It was readilyand cheaply mined by open pits, tunnels or shafts.

Figure No. 1 shows a cross section of the various strata,and how the ore was mined by hand labor and raised witha windlass. The foul gas was withdrawn by means of a firethat was sometimes kept in a chimney. This created a draft ofair by means of a ventilating flue from the shaft. The waterwas removed from the bottom by pumps. The ore minedwas anywhere from thirty-five to fifty-five percent metalliciron, as a general occurrence in this region. It was of twokinds, magnetite and hematite.

CHARCOAL

The present day farmer owning land which was formerly the site of an ancient iron works often encounters inplowing, round patches of black soil, which on examinationmay be found to contain wood dust and small pieces of coal.These were the pits or hearths where charcoal was formerlymade.

ANTIQUE IRON WORKS AND MACHINES OF WATER POWER AGE 295

A level place was selected near woodland, the groundhad to be dry and fine, free from stones or gravel, but notloamy or sandy. A circular spot forty to fifty feet in diameterwas prepared and was .called the "hearth."

r'Kk.^' HEARTH

First a layer of earth was banked up, and the first billetsof chopped cord wood were set up on end, supported by themound of dirt, as shown in figure No.' 2. An opening in thecircle was left to admit workmen and their barrows orwagons. In the center, stakes were driven into the groundto form a sort of chimney, and the cut wood was piled vertically until a large mound was erected. The hole was thencovered with damp leaves, to prevent dirt from droppinginto the crevices, and a layer of earth a couple of inchesthick covered the whole pile. The heap was usually twelve

Fj

296 bulletin of historical society op Montgomery county

It burned slowly and drew air from small openings left atthe bottom. (See figure No. 3.)

The fire was carefully watched for six hours by the collier, so that only a little smoke and hot invisible gases escaped. As the fire continued to burn, the heap assumed theform seen in figure No. 4 about the third day, the top settling gradually. The chief object of charring is to conduct airover the wood and not over the hot coal. The fire burnsdownward toward the ground for four days more, makinga full week, when it assumes the appearance of figure No. 5.

The collier raked off the charcoal into small detachedpiles, so that if any rekindled, the whole mass would not beignited. Hot dry charcoal absorbs oxygen so rapidly that itkindles spontaneously. The product was then hauled to astone storehouse adjacent to the furnace or forge, where itwas to be used.

Charcoal raked off.

A pit of the kind described yielded as much as two thousand bushels. One cord gave twenty-five to forty-five bushels, depending on the wood and skill employed. Such anoperation on dry wood yielded:

Yield by Weight Yield by MeasureOak 23% 74%Beech 22% 73%Pine 25% 63%


Good charcoal is perfectly black, glistening, and has aglassy fracture. If dull and velvety, it is either drowned bymoisture or weak. Firm, hard, cold charcoal ignites withdifficulty, but when burning under a blast of air, makes avery hot fire, and that was necessary to melt iron ore andits flux, limestone, silica, etc.

The first smelters, or blast furnaces, used cold-blast airon charcoal and ore. The stone stacks or structures couldnot be much over sixty feet high, otherwise the weight ofthe layers of iron ore and limestone would have crushed the

3LAST TOKtiACB

Fig. 6

intermediate layers of charcoal to powder, and ignition andmelting would have been frustrated.

All these facts had to be learned by the pioneers throughexperience and experiment, as the knack, trade or processwas in its infancy, and known to but very few of the newlyarrived immigrants from old Europe.

298 BULLETIN OP HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY

BLAST FURNACES

Assured of the ore and the fueh the next step was tomake iron continuously and in quantity. A smelter had tobe erected and means provided for creating a blast, of air,hence the word "Blast Furnace."

A site was selected close to stream, woodland and oredeposit. Since the furnace was fed from the top, a stonestructure was built up, usually square, with a circular tapered center hole, about 8 to 10 feet in diameter at its widestpart inside, and lined with fire-brick to resist great heat.The fire-bricks were of certain baked clays.

If built close to a small hill, the ore, charcoal and limestone were delivered by barrows or baskets through a roofed

"Piston Blast machine

OR Blovvjnq tu&s

runway on a level with the top of the furnace, as otherwisean elevator would have to be erected and all materials


hoisted, adding greatly to the building expense and thecost of product.

Since there was no steam engine or other power besideshand labor and the horse, the water of the stream was usedto operate the blast mechanism by water-wheel.

A few of the smaller water-power charcoal furnaceswere supplied with air-blast from large leather-and-woodblacksmith bellows geared to the water wheel by levers.But the most efficient air-blast machine was made of woodencylinders with pistons operating vertically, equipped withleather valves. They were called "Blowing Tubs," and theirconstruction is almost lost in obscurity. Figure No. 7 showsthis machine, said to have been invented about 1550, byHans Lobsinger, at Nuremberg, Germany.

The inventor deserves to have his memory honored andperpetuated, as this device was a vast improvement overthe crude l

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