William Warner, 200 acres. Thomas Nassitur, 200 acres. At a court of November 12th, 1678. acres. Edmund Draufton, 100 William Orian, 100 acres. Ephraim Herman, 100 acres. At a court of 12th March, 1678-9. John Snowden, 100 acres. Jacobus Fabritius, 300 acres. Jurian Hartsvelder, 100 acres. At a court of 20th March, 1679. Hendricks Jacobs, 100 acres. Peter Nealson, 100 acres. Peter Cock, 200 acres. Thomas William Woodmancy, 100 acres. William Clayton, 200 acres. At a court of 8th June, 1680. William Clarke, 200 acres. Fairman, 200 acres. Neeles Jonassen, 200 acres. Joseph Hardly, 100 acres. Richard Tucker, 100 acres. [The foregoing present about half of the whole list, and are here given as specimens.] The Swedish documents sent by our minister, Mr. Russell, from Stockholm to the Philosophical Society, present two old deeds from Queen Christina, for lands at Chester and Philadelphia, of which I have a copy, to wit: Donation to Captain John Amundson Besh, made by decree of Queen Christina, dated Stockholm, August 20th, 1653,-"that in consideration of the zeal and fidelity of the brave and courageous Captain John A. Besh, and because he has engaged to serve us with equal zeal so long as he shall live, we therefore accord and grant to himself, his wife, and to his heirs, and their heirs, a tract of land in New Sweden extending to Upland Kyll, to keep and possess the same for ever as his inviolable property.' [This tract of land is said to be considered as beginning at, and appertaining to, what is now called Marcus Hook, and extended up to Chester, built upon Upland creek.] At same time and date, a similar grant of the queen, is made to Lieutenant Swen Shute, as follows, to wit: August 20th, 1653: For and in consideration of the good and important services rendered to us, by the brave and courageous Lieutenant Swen Shute, and because he has engaged to serve us faithfully so long as he shall live, we therefore give and grant to himself, his wife, and his heirs, a tract of country in New Sweden, viz.: Mockorhultey-kyll, as far as the river, together with the small island belonging thereto, viz. the island of Karinge, and Kinsessing, comprehending also Passuming, to keep and possess the same for ever, as his inviolable property. [This tract of land is given to the person and name of him who was the proper original owner of the locality called Philadelphia, and covered the ground known by the name of Wiccaco. His name in time came to be called Swan, and afterwards Swanson, i. e., son of Swan.] The earliest dates of these Swedish papers are 1640, and seem to refer to an earlier colonization. The early Dutch and Swedes' papers published in Hazard's Register, from the MS. in the Historical Society, are not interesting to me for extracts. Besides these, were several extracts from the Minutes of Council, extracted by Mr. Sargent. I here add some facts concerning Tinicum, once a place of head quarters to the Swedish authorities, to wit: Tinicum consists of big and little Tinicum islands. The larger is nine miles round, three long, and one and a half wide, and has twentysix houses. It was on this island stood the fortress of New Gottenburg, and near it Printz's hall, (the mansion of Governor Printz,) and sundry houses and grounds of the Swedes. The house occupied by the governor is said by tradition to be the same now standing on the upland. It bears many interior marks of great antiquity, much of it was burnt by fire in 1822. The island now is worth 150 to 200 dol. lars an acre, and the whole island is worth $400,000, but in 1696, it was all sold for £500. It originally contained but five hundred acres, but now, by embanking and reclaiming from the water, it contains twenty-seven hundred acres, and is rendered much more healthy, and free from fevers and ague. The smaller island, "little Tinicum," fronts the other, out in the Delaware, was dry and embanked before the revolution, but in 1777 our people opened the banks to river invasion, to prevent its use by the British against Mud fort, and it still is flooded in high tides. The following few facts concerning the Swedes, the earliest culti vators of our soil, may be worthy of some brief notices, to wit: Penn's letter says the Swedes and Fins came soon after the Dutch; while the latter pursued traffic the others turned to husbandry, settling chiefly about the freshes of the river Delaware. Such as Penn saw them, they were a plain, strong, and industrious people, but had made no great improvements. Their houses were full of fine children. Numbers of Swedes lived about Kensington and on Gunner's creek, before the arrival of Penn. They had grants of land from Alexander Henoyon, the governor of New York, as early as 1664, that is the date of the deed to old Peter Cock for Shackamaxon. On that creek, three-fourths of a mile from its mouth, now so diminished, they once built large sloops, and afterwards a brig at its mouth. The Swedes dwelt in numbers on Tinicum, calling the place New Gottenburg. At their church there, the first corpse ever buried was Catharine, daughter of Andrew Hanson, October 24, 1646. All the Swedes, settled along the Delaware, used to go in their canoes from long distances to the church upon Tinicum island. They did the same in visiting the primitive log church at Wiccaco, almost all their conveyances were preferred by water. There was a store upon Darby to which they always went by water, even when the land route was often nearest. The old Swedish inhabitants were said to be very successful in raising chick turkeys; as soon as hatched they plunged them into cold water, and forced them to swallow a whole pepper corn, they then returned them to the mother, and they became as hardy as a hen's chick. When they found them drooping, their practice was to examine the rump feathers, and such two or three as were found filled with blood were to be drawn, and the chick would revive and thrive. Kalm, the Swedish traveller, who was here among his countrymen in 1748, has left us such notices as follows concerning them, to wit: The ancient Swedes used the sassafras for tea, and for a dye, From the persimon tree they made beer and brandy. They called the mullein plant the Indian tobacco; they tied it round their arms and feet, as a cure when they had the ague. They made their candles generally from the bayberry bushes; the root they used to cure toothache; from the bush they also made an agreeable smelling soap. The magnolia tree they made use of for various medicinal purposes. The houses of the first Swedish settlers were very indifferent; they consisted of but one room; the door was so low as to require you to stoop. Instead of window panes of glass they had little holes, before which a sliding board was put, or, on other occasions they had isinglass; the cracks between logs were filled with clay; the chimneys, in a corner, were generally of gray sandstone, or for want of it, sometimes of mere clay; the ovens were in the same room. They had at first separate stables for the cattle; but after the English came and set the example, they left their cattle to suffer in the open winter air. The Swedes wore vests and breeches of skins; hats were not used, but little caps with flaps before them. They made their own leather and shoes, with soles (like moccasons) of the same materials as the tops. The women, too, wore jackets and petticoats of skins; their beds, excepting the sheets, were of skins of bears, wolves, &c. Hemp they had none, but they used flax for ropes and fishing tackle. This rude state of living was, however, in the country places principally, and before the English came, who, rough as they must have also lived for a time, taught a comparative state of luxury. The Swedes seem, however, to have retained an hereditary attachment to skin garments, for within the memory of the aged Mrs. S. she had seen old Mauntz Stille, down the Passyunk road, in his calfskin vest and jacket, and buckskin breeches. Many Swedes settled along the western side of the Schuylkill. Matthias Holstein, a primitive settler in Upper Merion, took up one thousand acres there. Mauntz Rambo, an aged Swede, alive about sixty years ago, born near the Swedes' ford, was a celebrated hunter in his day; he killed numerous deer in the neighbourhood in his time-once he shot a panther which he found attempting to attack his dog. He remembered many Indians still among them, in his younger days. My friend, Major M. Holstein, fond of his Swedish descent, tells me, that when he went to the Swedes' church, in Merion, as a boy, all the men and women came there on horseback, and all the women wore "safe-guard petticoats," which they took off and hung along the fence. His grandmother, born at Molothan, four miles from Pottsgrove, remembered the Indians once about them, and that she herself, when young, had been carried some distance on a squaw's back. They then did all their travelling by canoes on the Schuylkill. When married, she and her wedding friends came down to the Swede's ford in their canoes. In the same manner they always made their visits to Philadelphia. In 1631, the Swedes built a fort at "Fort point," the present estate of Benjamin Holmes, in Elsinborough. It was fronting upon the Delaware, and not up Salem creek. It was at this place they found the parent stock of the Elsinborough native grape. They built another at Finnsport New Jersey, opposite to Fort Delaware. They also built a fort at Elsinborough, which was afterwards destroyed by the Renappi Indians. The Swedes settled several places on the Morris river, at Buckshutem, Dorchester and Leesburg; at the first place they had a church, but now all have disappeared, so that no Swedish names remain. Their graves, however, are still seen at Leesburg, on the brink of the river. At Salem, one can still see remains of the earliest brick houses; they may be known, by being regularly intermixed with the glazed brick, always one-story high, with high double roofs. They are now generally raised into two-stories, without the glazed brick in the upper stories, and at the gable-ends may be still seen the lines which marked the former double roofs; and now the roofs have a single pitch. In the large grave ground opposite to the Friends' meeting, well filled with graves without any stones, is a very large oak tree of admirable spread and beauty in its wide branches. From being once deemed unhealthy as a residence, it has become, by the regular draining of the meadows, a healthy town, and has much of taste and beauty and neatness in the style of its houses and improvements. Philadelphians should visit it oftener, as the place where the first English emigrants began their first settlement on Delaware. It is entitled to their regard for the sake of its early associations. 22 THE GERMANS. THIS hardy, frugal, and industrious portion of our population in Pennsylvania, so numerous and exclusive in places as to preserve their manners and language unaltered, are so often the subject of remark in the early MSS., which I have seen in the Logan collection, &c., as to deserve a separate notice, to wit: When the Germans first came into the country, save those who were Friends and settled in Germantown in 1682-3, it is manifest there was a fear they would not be acceptable inhabitants, for James Logan, in 1717, remarks, "We have of late great numbers of Palatines poured in upon us, without any recommendation or notice, which gives the country some uneasiness, for foreigners do not so well among us as our own people," the English. In 1719, Jonathan Dickinson remarks, "We are daily expecting ships from London which bring over Palatines, in number about six or seven hundred. We had a parcel who came about five years ago, who purchased land about sixty miles west of Philadelphia, and prove quiet and industrious. Some few came from Ireland lately, and more are expected thence. This is besides our common supply from Wales and England. Our friends do increase mightily, and a great people there is in this wilderness country, which is fast becoming a fruitful field." Kalm, the Swedish traveller, here in 1748, says the Germans all preferred to settle in Pennsylvania, because they had been ill-treated by the authorities in New York, whither they first inclined to settle. Many had gone to that colony about the year 1709, [say 1711,] and made settlements on their own lands, which were invaded under various pretexts. They took great umbrage, and beat some of the persons who were disposed to dispossess them. Some of their leading men were seized by the government. The remainder in disgust left the country, and proceeded to settle in Pennsylvania. After that, even those who arrived at New York would not be persuaded to tarry, but all pushed on to Pennsylvania, where a better protection was granted to their rights and privileges. This mortified the New Yorkers, but they could not remove the first unfavourable impressions. As many as twelve thousand came to Philadelphia in 1749. This emigration from New York to Pennsylvania is further incidentally explained by James Logan, in his MS. letters to the proprietaries. In writing to them in the year 1724, he manifests considerable disquietude at the great numbers coming among them, so numerous that he apprehends the Germans may even feel disposed to usurp the country to themselves. He speaks of the lands to the northward, (meaning Tulpehocken) as overrun by the unruly Germans, the same who, in the year 1711, arrived at New York at |