Historic Shrines of America Part 15

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. PETER'S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA _Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 153]

x.x.xIII

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA

WHOSE BUILDING IS PRACTICALLY UNCHANGED AFTER MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS

There were but fifteen thousand people in Philadelphia when, on March 19, 1753, the suggestion was made to the vestry of Christ Church that a new church or Chapel of Ease of Christ Church be built for the accommodation of the people in the southern part of the city. Thomas and Richard Penn gave a site for the building of the new church, and on September 21, 1758, the corner stone was laid. In 1761 the church was opened, though it was not completed until March, 1763. To the new organization was given the name St. Peter's, and it was ordered by the vestry of Christ Church, "that the said church ... in every respect whatever shall be upon an equal footing with Christ Church, and be under the same government with it."

At the same time, in view of the gift of the site, it was ordered that "the first and best pew in the said Church shall be set apart forever for the accommodation of the Honorable Proprietary's family."

When the building was completed the building committee reported that the cost was 4,765, 19 s. 6 d. Added to this report were statements that sound quite modern. "The sudden rise in the prices of materials and labor," and "the inability of some subscribers to meet their engagements," had added to the burdens of the committee.

From the beginning prayers were read in the church for the king and all the royal family, but on July 4, 1776, the vestry ordered that patriotic prayers be subst.i.tuted. While the British were in Philadelphia the prayers for the king were renewed by order of Dr.

d.u.c.h.e, rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's. The official history of St. Peter's refers to Dr. d.u.c.h.e, who ordered this, in the following sentences:

"From an advocate of the Colonies, he became an advocate of the King, and on the Sunday following the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, he restored the prayers for the King to the Liturgy. This compromise with conditions availed him nothing, and he was arrested for serving as chaplain to Congress after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The influence of his loyalist friends secured his speedy release.... Not long afterward he went to England, where he remained practically an exile for twelve years, returning to Philadelphia several years before his death, when, it is said, no truer American could have been found in the City. He ... was buried in St. Peter's Churchyard."

During the occupation of the church by British troops in 1777 the pews were burned for fuel, but the building was never closed for lack of fuel or for any other reason, until the late winter of 1917-18, when coal could not be secured.

The wooden fence that surrounded the property originally was burned by the British for fuel, and the brick wall that is now in place was built in 1784.

Washington frequently occupied a pew in St. Peter's, and many other men who were prominent in the early history of the country worshipped here. The building is practically as it was when they lived. "It is the same church to which the colonists in their knee-breeches and rich coats came to attend the first service in 1761," a member of the vestry said in 1891. "The pulpit, reading desk, and chancel rails were built in 1764, and the present organ loft was put up over the chancel in 1789. In all other respects the plain, austere interior of this old church ... remains unchanged, the only relic in Pennsylvania, and one of the very few in the country at large, of the church in colonial days. Bishop De Lancey, in his centennial sermon, preached September 4, 1861, said: 'We enter by the same doors--we tread the same aisles--we kneel where they knelt--we sit where they sat; the voice of prayer, instruction, and praise ascends from the same desk from which it reached their ears, in the privacy and seclusion of the same high, strait unostentatious pews.'"

In the crowded churchyard are the graves of many colonial worthies as well as many leaders in the early history of America. Stephen Decatur is buried here, and Charles Wilson Peale, who painted a famous portrait of Washington.

The _Pennsylvania Evening Post_ of January 18, 1777, told of the burial of one of the patriots whose bodies were laid here:

"Yesterday the remains of Captain William Shippen, who was killed at Princeton the third instant, gloriously fighting for the liberty of his country, were interred in St. Peter's Churchyard. His funeral was attended by the Council of Safety, the members of a.s.sembly, officers of the army, a troop of Virginia light horse, and a great number of inhabitants. This brave and unfortunate man was in his twenty-seventh year, and has left a widow and three children to lament the death of an affectionate husband and a tender parent, his servants a kind master, and his neighbors a sincere and obliging friend."

Captain Shippen, before joining Washington's army, was captain of the privateer _Hanc.o.c.k_, which, between July 1 and November 1, 1776, sent to American ports ten prizes captured at sea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLIVEDEN, PHILADELPHIA _Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 156]

x.x.xIV

CLIVEDEN, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA

ON THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN

In the days before the Revolution there were many residents of Philadelphia who had, in addition to a sumptuous town house, a country house, to which they could resort in the summer or at other times when they wished relief from the cares of daily life. Germantown, the straggling village five miles from the town of William Penn, was one of the popular places for such establishments.

Samuel Chew's town house was at Front and Dock streets when he built Cliveden at Germantown in 1761. At that time he was Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, though in 1774 he became Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Both in Philadelphia and in Germantown he maintained the hospitable traditions he had learned at Maidstone, near Annapolis, where he was born, in 1722, of a family whose first American ancestor, John Chew, came to Virginia a century earlier.

During the days of the Continental Congress Judge Chew seemed to sympathize with the colonists in their protests against the aggression of Great Britain, but when independence was proposed, he let it be known that he was unwilling to act with the patriots. Accordingly he was arrested by order of Congress, together with John Penn, and when he refused to sign a parole, he was banished from the State.

During his absence the battle of Germantown was fought. On October 3, 1777, the British forces were disposed on nearly all sides of the Chew mansion. Washington planned to attack these scattered forces by four columns, which were to advance from as many directions. General Wayne's column successfully opened the attack at daybreak October 4, driving before him the enemy encountered at Mount Airy. Colonel Musgrave checked the retreat of the soldiers at Cliveden. With six companies he took possession of the mansion, prepared to defend themselves behind hastily barricaded doors and windows. Wayne and the leaders who were with him pushed on past the house, continuing the pursuit of that portion of the enemy which had continued its retreat; he did not know that he was leaving an enemy in his rear. When Washington came to Cliveden, he was surprised by the fire of the entrenched enemy. After a hasty conference with others, it was decided not to pa.s.s on, leaving a fortress behind. Cannon were planted so as to command the door, but they were fired without much effect.

The next attempt was made by a young Frenchman who asked others to carry hay from the barn and set fire to the front door. Thinking they were doing as he asked, he forced open a window and climbed on the sill. From this position he was driven back, and he found that he had not been supported by those on whom he had counted.

In the meantime the artillery fire continued, but with little effect.

General Wilkinson, who was present, afterward wrote:

"The doors and shutters of the lower windows of the mansion were shut and fastened, the fire of the enemy being delivered from the iron gratings of the cellars and the windows above, and it was closely beset on all sides with small-arms and artillery, as is manifest from the multiplicity of traces still visible from musket-ball and grape-shot on the interior walls and ceilings which appear to have entered through the doors and windows in every direction; marks of cannon-ball are also visible, in several places on the exterior of the wall and through the roof, though one ball only appears to have penetrated below the roof, and that by a window in the pa.s.sage of the second story. The artillery seem to have made no impression on the walls of the house, a few slight indentures only being observable, except from one stroke in the rear, which started the wall."

In a few minutes Washington, realizing that precious time was being lost in the attack on the thick walls of the house, ordered a regiment to remain behind to watch Cliveden, while his main force hastened on.

It has been claimed that this brief delay was responsible for the defeat at Germantown. Wilkinson, on the contrary, insists that this delay saved Washington's army from annihilation, since he would otherwise have hurried on in the thick fog until he was in contact with the main body of the British army. The result, he thinks, would have been a far greater disaster than actually overtook the American arms that day.

The damage done to the house was so great that five carpenters were busy for months making repairs. Evidently Judge Chew was not satisfied with the result, for in 1779 he sold Cliveden for $9,000, only to buy it back again in 1787 for $25,000.

The property descended to Benjamin Chew, Jr., on the death of his father. During his occupancy of Cliveden, Lafayette was a guest there in 1825.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THIRD (OLD PINE STREET) PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA _Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 159]

x.x.xV

OLD PINE STREET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA

WHOSE PASTOR INSPIRED JOHN ADAMS TO PLEAD FOR INDEPENDENCE

There were four thousand, seven hundred and seventy-four houses in Philadelphia in 1767 when the Pine Street Presbyterian Church, the third church of this denomination in the city, was built. The subscription paper, still in existence, shows that 1,078 "in money or otherwise" was subscribed for the purpose. The sum needed to complete the building was raised by a lottery, which yielded 2,500. In the proceeds of the lottery the Market Street Church and the Second Church shared, 1,035 going to the Pine Street building.

The original building was of but one story, with gable ends. When alterations were made in 1837 the top of the church was raised bodily, while a larger roof was built over the old roof. The visitor who climbs to the loft is able to see the old walls and windows. The floor was raised one step above the street level, and was paved with brick.

Rev. George Duffield, D.D., who was pastor from 1772 to 1790, was a prominent figure during the Revolution. He was chaplain of the Continental Congress and of the Pennsylvania militia during the period of the war, and he delivered fiery messages that stirred patriots to action. John Adams, who was a member of the church, called him a man of genius and eloquence. On May 17, 1776, after listening to a sermon in which Dr. Duffield likened the conduct of George III to the Americans to that of Pharaoh to the Israelites, and concluded that G.o.d intended the liberation of the Americans, as He had intended that of the Israelites, he wrote to his wife:

"Is it not a saying of Moses, Who am I that I should go in and out before this great people? When I consider the great events which are pa.s.sed, and those greater which are rapidly advancing, and that I may have been instrumental in touching some springs, and turning some small wheels, which have had and will have such effects, I feel an awe upon my mind, which is not easily described. Great Britain has at last driven America to the last step, complete separation from her; a total, absolute independence...."

Headley, in "Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution," says:

"The patriots of the first Congress flocked to his church, and John Adams and his compeers were often his hearers.... In a discourse delivered before several companies of the Pennsylvania militia and members of Congress, four months before the Declaration of Independence, he took bold and decided ground in favor of that step, and pleaded his cause with sublime eloquence, which afterwards made him so obnoxious to the British that they placed a reward of fifty pounds for his capture."

Later on in the same sermon he prophesied:

"Whilst sun and moon endure, America shall remain a city of refuge for the whole earth, until she herself shall play the tyrant, forget her destiny, disgrace her freedom, and provoke her G.o.d."

As chaplain of the Pennsylvania militia, Dr. Duffield was frequently in camp, where "his visits were always welcome, for the soldiers loved the eloquent, earnest, fearless patriot."

Headley gives this incident of the courageous chaplain's work:

"When the enemy occupied Staten Island, and the American forces were across the river on the Jersey sh.o.r.e, he repaired to camp to spend the Sabbath. a.s.sembling a portion of the troops in an orchard, he climbed into the forks of a tree and commenced religious exercises. He gave out a hymn.... The British on the island heard the sound of the singing, and immediately directed some cannon to play on the orchard, from whence it proceeded. Soon the heavy shot came crashing through the branches, and went singing overhead, arresting for a moment the voices that were lifted in worship. Mr.

Duffield ... proposed that they should adjourn behind an adjacent hillock. They did so, and continued their worship, while the iron storm hurled harmlessly overhead."

In spite of his almost constant service in the field, Dr. Duffield was in Philadelphia among his people every little while. The church records show that he baptized children every month during the Revolution, except for the period of the British occupation of Philadelphia, when the church was occupied as a hospital, and more than one hundred Hessian soldiers were buried in the churchyard.