Part 3

To name all our worthy plants were a hopeless task, and one which I shall not attempt. Our efforts shall be rather to trace the thread of development, and by examples of past and present conspicuous plants to illustrate its growth. To do this properly we should go back to the settlement of the town itself, know the causes which gave it birth, understand the character of its founders and their pursuits--its growth material and intellectual, before we may be able to meet its merits with an equal appreciation.

Alway while walking along our Main street I am reminded of the popular, well-known thoroughfare of Oxford, England, which it strangely suggests, and I sometimes wonder if it was not this ancient street, and not the central highway of Philadelphia, which to our own principal thoroughfare 150 years ago gave us High street, a name by which it was long known. Be this as it may, our Main street in a very striking way resembles its more widely known namesake abroad, a highway Hawthorne described as “the noblest street in England,” and to which “Wordsworth devoted a sonnet to the stream-like windings of that glorious street.”

As I follow our “avenues” pleasing course, I am further reminded of old Edinburgh’s hallowed hill, and as I picture its steep ascent, its numerous historic buildings, its atmosphere of antiquity, I see Sir Walter Scott from his carriage strenuously discoursing upon its wealth of interests to the delight of his guests and his own apparent satisfaction, for to him Edinburgh was home, and to so entertain his friends was “very heaven,” and as I look into the future, I see our own “cannongate” of not one whit less historic value, by one as illustrious, made as widely, and as permanently known.

In olden time it was the custom to approach Germantown only by the “Great Road,” for indeed for a period there was no other way. The original survey map of Germantown, dated October 24, 1683, now in the possession of Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, is void of side roads or lanes, but this defect immediately after the settlement was remedied, maps following showing lanes to mills, and later maps showing other roads connecting Germantown with important near-by pikes east and west. After Rittenhouse Mill road, and Roberts’ Mill road, one of the most important of later roads was Bensell’s or School House lane connecting our Main street with Ridge road, a favorite route with travelers when the quagmires and quicksands of “3-Mile Run” proved troublesome.

In a letter dated March 7, 1684, which Francis Daniel Pastorius wrote his parents, he gave them this information: “As relating to our newly laid out town Germanopolis or Germantown, it is situated on a deep and very fertile soil, and is blessed with an abundance of fine springs and fountains of fresh water. The main street is 60 feet wide, and the cross streets 40 feet in width. Each family has a plot of ground for yard and garden 3 acres in size. The air is pure and serene, the summer is longer and warmer than it is in Germany, and we are cultivating many kinds of fruits and vegetables, and our labor meets with rich reward.”

The ground of which Pastorius wrote was not the immigrants’ first choice, but after a difference with William Penn was selected on account of its elevation, and also because it was open ground with only here and there groups of trees. After the survey lines were established farms and gardens, and of course, houses, were located on each side of the main road, the farm boundaries extending in parallel lines from the “great road” east to Bristol township line, now Stenton avenue, and west to the Roxborough line, now Wissahickon avenue. In other respects these lines, however, were never strictly drawn, and places on York road to the east, and Roxborough on the west, were nearly always referred to as “Germantown.”

The Main street farm lots began a few feet north of “Lower Burying Ground,” now Hood’s Cemetery, and were plotted northward in divisions of “half lots” of 115½ feet front each, or “whole lots” of 231 feet front each, to a point adjoining “Upper” or “Concord Burying Ground,” located a few feet north of Kyser’s, now Washington lane. The original settlers of “42 persons in 12 families” were located upon this road, for so it had been planned. In “a further account of the Province of Pennsylvania,” published in 1685, wrote Penn:

“We do settle in the way of townships or villages, each of which contains 5000 acres in square, and at least 10 families; many that had right to more land were at first covetous to have their whole quantity without regard to this way of settlement, tho’ by such wilderness vacancies they had ruined the country and then our interest of course. I had in my view society, assistance, busy commerce, instruction of youth, government of people, manners, conveniency of religious assembling, encouragement of mechanics, distinct and beaten roads, and it has answered in all those respects, I think, to the universal content.”

Our first settlers were not tillers of the soil. Pastorius records they were “mostly linen weavers, unaccustomed to husbandry,” but “yeomen” closely followed, and soon

“The meads’ environed with the silver streames”

were planted, and by a gracious providence stimulated to transmit to us the increase. William Penn quoting Robert Turner, wrote--“the manufacturers of linnen by the Germans goes on finely, and they make fine linnen. Samuel Carpenter, having been lately there, declares they had gathered one crop of flax, and had sowed for the second and saw it come up well.”

This Samuel Carpenter was a busy resident of Philadelphia, and the holder of 500 acres of ground in the vicinity of present Branchtown.

Very early in the growth of the new colony the importance of Germantown was recognized, and although its founders were disappointed, desiring ground upon a “navigable stream,” they made the best of what they considered a poor bargain, and losing no time, they, under the direction of Pastorius, gave life and vigor to the new “town,” planted, and eight years after the settlement, Oldmixon stated, “the whole street about one mile in length was lined with blooming peach trees.” Soon the hastily constructed log cabins gave way to substantial buildings of stone, and much of the stone, I doubt not, came from the quarry of Godfried Lehman, located at what is now Main and Price streets, where the old round-house once stood. Those who remember the Heivert Papen or Jansen house, built in 1698, and which about 25 years ago was removed from the northwest corner of Main and Johnson streets, may picture the houses “built of stone which is mixed with glimmer,” observed by Peter Kalm in his visit here in 1748.

About this time the character of Germantown began to change, although this change did not become pronounced until 50 years later. An influx of settlers of means and the improved conditions of the natives created new desires, houses became larger and more elaborate, “plantations” or “estates” began to take the place of farms, trade stimulated by wealth became of more importance, and the commingling of commerce and culture gave to Germantown an atmosphere not enjoyed by those who planted the settlement.

With the advent and accumulation of gain came those luxuries which only wealth and culture are able to accommodate, and the severe simplicity of those who for conscience sake, left the Fatherland to aid in the “holy experiment” and found a commonwealth, slowly gave way to an expanding era of change.

There were writers of this period who give us other impressions. One of the most unsympathetic of these was Silas Deane, who in 1775 wrote:

“Germantown consists of one street built mostly of rough stone, two miles nearly in length, and the houses resemble the appearance of the inhabitants, rough children of nature, and German nature too.” This writer doubtless was an ancestral connection of Lewis Carroll, who, in “Hunting of the Snark,” wrote,

“The crew was Dutch, and behaved as such.”

But though rather uncomplimentary, Deane’s account is extremely interesting, and as Townsend Ward reports him, is as follows:

“The greatest improvement on nature is that on their groves, owing by no means to luxury, but to penury and want. The growth is red oak (quercus rubra), interspersed with black walnut (juglans nigra), etc. The poor are allowed to cut up the brush and trim the lower limbs; this leaves the groves in the most beautiful order you can imagine. All is clean on the ground; removing every shrub and bush, leaves the wind full play to sweep the floor, and the soil, by no means luxuriant, shooting up the trees rather sparingly, so much grass starts as to give a pale green carpet; while the trees are trimmed up ten to fifteen feet on their trunks, and give the eye a prospect far into the grove, and the footman or horseman free access.”

As we may readily imagine, the original Germantown settlers were a busy people, so with the exception of Pastorius, Godfried Lehman, and a few others, we have little from them, and for our information we are obliged to depend upon visiting travelers. Ten years before the time of Deane’s report Major Robert Rogers wrote thus of Philadelphia:

“In short, scarce anything can afford a more beautiful landscape than this city and adjacent country, which for some miles may be compared to a well regulated, flourishing garden, being improved, as I have been informed, to as great advantage as almost any lands in Europe.”

In 1799 Duke de la Rochefoucault described Germantown as “a long village near 2½ miles in extent. The houses to the number of about 300 are all built on the side of the highway, and are erected pretty close to each other.”

Of the planting of the people he wrote:

“They raise a good deal of wheat, and still more Indian corn, but very little rye or oats.”

Rev. John C. Ogden, who visited here in the same year, describes the village in much the same way, and noted, “the road is muddy and dusty when rains or droughts prevail. The houses in Germantown are very universally shaded with weeping willows, the Lombardy poplar, and other ornamental trees. The gardens are under excellent cultivation, with valuable fields in their rear.”

Several visitors of importance we shall pass, for the purpose is merely to expose the line of continuity to enable us to form a better idea of the floral life of old Germantown, and with a recollection of Edward H. Bonsall, who, as Rev. S. F. Hotchkin reports, lived here from 1819 to 1835, we will turn aside into another path. Evidently the last-named was a poor observer, for he said, “in a circle of six miles with Chew’s house as a centre outside of Main street, there would not have been found 5 houses superior to an ordinary farm house,” a statement so absurd as to require no consideration.

This brings us to days which Robert Thomas and Joseph Murter, venerable residents living with us, remember, and we shall now endeavor to follow the development of our many fine estates enriched by mansions, gardens, rare shrubs and notable trees, and with these note as much as we possess or remember of data and lore as may give promise of interest.