Part 6 (1/2)
[50] Josiah White, early interested in mechanics, purchased an estate on the Schuylkill, five miles above Philadelphia, constructed a dam across the river, and erected there a wirePhiladelphia ater by otiations the city purchased the plant, belonging to White and Gillingham, his partner, and constructed the Fairether with Erskine Hazard, then directed his activities to the Lehigh coal fields, and becaation Company White resided at Mauch Chunk from 1818 to 1831, and then e of seventy His name is inseparably connected with the canal systeh and Carbon_ (Philadelphia, 1884), p 670--ED
[51] Lehighton--a corruption of the Delaware, Lechauwekink, ”where there are forks”--is a post borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Lehigh, twenty-five miles above Allentown It was laid out in 1794 on the lands of Jacob Weiss and William Henry, and the population in 1900 is reported as 4,269--ED
[52] Loskiel, in his history of the Indian Missions (pp 415 and 416), gives the following account of this affair ”On the 24th of November, 1755, the house of the Indian Missionaries in Gnadenhutten, on the Mahony, was attacked in the evening by hostile Indians, and burnt
Eleven persons perished: _viz_, nine in the flames, one of the brethren was shot, and another cruelly butchered, and then scalped
Three brethren, and one sister (the wife of one of theht; the wo roof One of those who escaped, the Missionary Senseone out of the back door to see what s, and who of course was not able to return to those whom he had left in the house, had the affliction to see his wife perish in the flames”--MAXIMILIAN
_Comment by Ed_ Gnadenhutten was a mission established (1746) by the Moravians for their converts ae of Martin Mack
[53] Weissport is today a village of more than six hundred inhabitants, four miles southeast of Mauch Chunk It was laid out by Colonel Jacob Weiss and his brother Francis--ED
[54] Allentown, the seat of Lehigh County, sixteen miles southwest of Easton, was laid out (1752) by William Allen, chief justice of Pennsylvania In 1811 it was incorporated with the borough of Northampton, but in 1838 reverted to its old name Allentown is today one of the chief seats of furniture- in the United States, and second only to Paterson in production of American silk Its population in 1900 was 35,416--ED
CHAPTER VI
JOURNEY FROM BETHLEHEM TO PITTSBURG, OVER THE ALLEGHANYS, FROM SEPTEMBER 17TH TO OCTOBER 7TH
Allentown--Reading--Lebanon--Harrisburg--Mexico--Mifflin Town--Valley of the Juniata--Huntington--Alexandria--Yellow Springs--The Suhanys--Laurel Hills--Conoh Valley--Blairsville--New Alexandria on the Loyalhanna--Pittsburg--Situation of the Town--Economy, Mr Rapp's Settlement on the Ohio--Remarkable natural productions of that river
Violent thunder-stor the night before I left Bethlehee fro Mr Bodmer remained behind for some days, on account of the injury done to his hand At day-break we reached Allentohere we changed both carriage and horses, and passed the Cedar Creek, which was ed the temperature of the air All this country was covered with plantations of maize, clover, and buckwheat, and detached far us, with the corn The ears of the maize were partly cut off, and the stalks tied up in bundles The maize becomes ripe here in October We halted very often at the post-houses, where the horses are alatered As soon as the stage arrives, the large leather bag containing the letters is thron, and the correspondence for places further on the road is put in We were here on a calcareous soil, and hbourhood Flocks of birds, of many kinds, appeared ready to depart; _Papilio plexippus_ flew about the hedges The _Datura_, with purple blossoms, and the _Phytolacea_, with ripe black berries, dark red sterow on the road-side, and about the houses[55] The leaves of the su 55] changed to a beautiful red colour The fallow fields were entirely covered with the yellow blossoolden rod, or St John's wort, and beautiful asters, mostly with small white or purple flowers The farm-houses in this part of the country are ree, and have, in the lower part, the stables, with eight or twelve doors and s, and over this is the barn, properly so called At the end of the building there is a passage where the wagons stand under cover; the s, doors and roof are frequently painted of a reddish brown colour: cattle of all kinds surround these farenerally marked with small round black spots, and sometimes, but more rarely, they are reddish brown We saw so which is lans alba_), which, next to the white oak, and the black walnut tree, furnishes the best tieneral this country resembles Germany: it is diversified and pleasant; wooded ereen ood order, occur as in our country; but large, new habitations, built in rather a different style, the zigzag fences, and the ive, on the whole, another character to the scenery
In Maxatawny townshi+p we addressed the inhabitants in the Gere, who answered us at once in the sa After passing Sackohteenvery great, the dust was extre, for the thunder-storm, which had passed over Bethlehem, had not extended to this part of the country The cattle sought protection against the sun, in the shade of single trees, or in the orchards Large stacks of corn, six, eight, or ten together, stood in rows by the fences On the right hand ran the Oli Mountains, beautiful verdant wooded eh Mountains About noon we had travelled the thirty-six ed to stop one day, because the stage had already left
Reading is a very pretty town on the Schuylkill, with 6,000 or 7,000 inhabitants; it has seven churches, and a new one was just then building There are about 400 negroes and people of colour Some of the streets were not paved in the middle, but have on the sides a paveers, planted with acacias, planes, poplars, and other trees All these towns are rapidly increasing The cholera had already carried off many persons here, but the inhabitants would not confess this We saw a funeral procession returning home, in which there were several woe fashi+onable hats fluttered in the wind, and gave this caravan of Ahbourhood, and the apples are good, but not the pluon-loads of the, around which the people crowded to buy, while the children stole thereat difficulty that we got places in the stage, the travellers being very numerous After we had passed Kakusa Creek, we came to Wo, where we stopped to dine, and then proceeded over Dolpahaga Creek, to Lebanon County, which is in a tract diversified with eminences and wooded mountains On this road we several tioes fro, is very nearly completed, and is said to have cost 18,000,000 of dollars After we had passed the River Swatara, which runs into the Susquehannah, we continued our journey in a dark but fine evening; the crickets and grasshoppers chirped all around; but their note is by no th we perceived a nu, the capital of Pennsylvania, the end of our journey to-day
Harrisburg is a small toith only 5,000 inhabitants, situated between the Susquehannah and the Union Canal It has broad streets crossing each other at right angles; but s are of wood, for which they are noever, gradually substituting better ones of brick Rows of trees are planted in front of the houses The inn at which we put up was in a square, which they were just covering with broken stones Here, too, is thesupported by pillars, in which the productions of the country are exposed for sale, as in , being the capital of the state, is the residence of the Governor The state-house is built on a gentle es is a very considerable building, with a colonnade and a cupola supported by pillars Another interesting point of the town is the view of the Susquehannah, which is very broad here, and fore, covered at top, and enclosed at the sides, is built over each ares is about 600 paces in length In the first there are twenty-three glass s, and it has two pillars on shore, and five in the river There are colossal bridges of this kind in the United States; and there is one further down the Susquehannah, which is one and a quarter th, and has fifty-two pillars The view froe up the river is peculiarly beautiful Verdant wooded islands adorn its surface, which is broad, but it was at this tiroes and people of colour Germans are met with everywhere, and ere told that an able Gereed us to stop here three days, and it was not till the 21st of Septe, that we could leave the town to continue our journey during the night
We passed the Susquehannah, and the Juniata, which cohany Mountains, and flows into it On the 22nd, at day-break, ere at the little village of Mexico
Mexico is in Mifflin County, forty e of Mifflin Town, the capital of the county, where they were just building a nen-hall The Union Canal, which connects Philadelphia and Balti 57] same direction as the river Juniata, near which it often runs at a greater elevation, and sometimes is even carried over it
The river is here about as broad as the Lehigh, but was at this time very shallow Beyond Mifflin Town it receives the Los Creek Frorow very high and vigorous, as well on the mountain, which is rather dry, as by the water-side; vines as thick as a man's arm twine round the trunks, and frequently rise to the very sureat abundance, and the e
The picturesque forest is interhted and withered The valley now becah precipice, covered with bolders, frag trunks, and the finest trees of the country, for a real wilderness A very narrow part of the valley, where atered our horses at an insulated house, bears the na Narrows; and the steep woodedMountain; it is said to be the haunt of bears and stags The cattle belonging to the log-houses were grazing arew more open, and at a wider spot, near the road, which descended towards the defile of Jaroup of lofty and slender robinias, on which a flock of ta These birds resemble in colour the wild ones which are coo into the forests, where they breed, and co Kishi+kokinas Creek, we reached, at a broad part of the valley, the village of Louis Town, in which there are so and harrowing their fields; and I may here observe, that, in all Pennsylvania, they never employ oxen in these operations, but horses only, of which they have great nuh is rather different from that of Germany
Beyond Louis To a number of horseht in a trap, then let loose at a certain spot, and hunted with land In a district diversified with forests and cultivated fields, we careeably situated in a valley The forests began to assuwood (_Cornus Florida_), and the sumach, were partly red; the walnut trees, and the hickory, yellohich gave great variety to the landscape Near so s of extraordinary size The surrounding mountains were covered with forests, into which we penetrated to ascend the first ridge of the Western Alleghanys The road, which is, for the most part, in bad condition, rose obliquely on the side of a rude picturesque precipice Except a pheasant, which flew past us,but few living objects Advancing into the valley we again came to the Juniata, over which the canal is here carried by an aqueduct, supported by four pillars In this part of the river there are several dah, near Bethlehem, with this difference that here they are triple For this purpose, rows [pg 58] of stones, piled one upon another, are laid across the river, forles, where a basket is placed, in which the fish are collected
At a place where three valleys don,[56] ninety ood inn, on an eminence above the banks of the Juniata
Froh rude tracts and forests, past Alexandria, and at hest points of this ridge, called the summit, between 2,400 and 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, in the vicinity of Blair's Gap This wild nitude, ht was clear and cool; towards s arose from the deep valleys, which at daybreak covered the pine forest through which we descended We passed the Cono, on an open spot in the forest We stopped here at a s co, the capital of Ca of wooden buildings, for not much more than one broad, unpaved street, but has a town-house and a pretty large church The inhabitants, about 300 or 400 in nulish, Irish, and so country is very ame, as indeed the many skins of lynxes, racoons, ainst the houses, prove; bears, stags, and wolves, are said not to be uncommon, as lofty and dark forests surround the toithin a couple of hundred paces Ebensburg derives soons, drawn by two, four, or six strong horses, that pass through it on the high road to Pittsburg