Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1854-11-15
Iistnrirul.
EARLY PENNSYLVANIA.
FROM D1xox's LIFE or PENN.

| The material growth of his city occupied on
| ly part of Penn's attention. He took early
| and regular steps for the protection of morals
and the promotion of arts and scholarship.
Before the pines had been cleared from the
printing press. These were not the least mar
| vellous of the novelties introduced into Phila-
! delphia. In other American settlements such
luxuries had slowly followed in the wake of
| great physical prosperity. InDecember, 1858,
Enoch Flower opened his school in a rude hut,
formed of pine and cedar planks, and divided
into two apartments by wooden partition.
The Philadelphia of the present age, educa-
ted in the elaborate courses of Girad's S College,
may smile at the simplicity of Enoch's charg-
es and curriculum, though his ancestors tho't
even such small matters worthy of place in
their minutes of council: 'sTO learn to read,
four shillings quarter: to write, six shilings:
boaring scholor, viz diet, lodging, washing
and schooling, ten pounds the whole year"
Six years afterwards public shool or col
lege was founded, in which the famous George
Keith was the first master. The office ofteach-
er was held in the highest estimation. Hewas
a.
family, and set of school-rooms, over and
above all the profits made by the scholars; in
addition to which he received guarantee that
his total income should never fall below hun
dred and twenty pounds in any year-a very
considerable sum in those days in q society so
small and primitive in its habits. William
Bradford, a native of Leicester, who went out
with Penn in the Heicome, was the first print
er to set up his art in the colony. 1t is wor-
thy of remark that in Massachusetts,, where
learning and the arts have ever been cultiya-
ted with success, no book or paper was printed
until eighteen years after its settlement; in
New York seventy-three years elapsed ere a
press was got to work; in every other colony
founded by England the interval was much
greater: the governors of Virginia and Mary
land set their faces against it in piouS horror.
The first book printed in Philadelphia was an
Almanac for 1857, and must therefore have
been printed in the preceding year. The
schism of George Keith soon found more excl
ting work for Bradford, and from that time
forward there was no rest for the printing-press
in Pennsylvania. Another institution which
he established deserves to be classed with his
intellectual legislation. The post-office had
been at work in England but few years yet
so convinced was Penn Of its utility that he at
once issued his orders to Henry Waldy to run
the post and supply travellers with horses. 1t
is interesting to go back few years and see
how things were managed in the good old
times. From the Falls of Trenton to Phila-
delphia the carriage of a letter was charged
three -pence-to Chester five-pence-to New
castle seven-pence-to Maryland nine-pence !;
from Philadelphia to Chester two-pence-to
Newcastle four-pence-to Maryland six-pence.
| The post travelled once week!
a curious trial which happened few months
after the arrival of the Welcome, served in its
way to show the settlers that new era had
commenced. wretched old woman was
| brought into the court on an accusation of
witchcraft a few days after Enoch Flower had
| opened his school. The poor Sweedes had
| come out to the new world with the supersti-
| tious terrorS Of their northern solitudes fresh
/ in their minds-aud the woman being restless
| and troublesome creature, they took it into
their heads that she must be WITCH 1t is but
fair to these poor Sweedes to say that wiser
|
both then and long afterwards. AT that very
period, Cotton Mather, after cOquetting him.
self with the evil spirit, began to persue witch
| es with the fury of one possessed, in the pol
ished cities of Boston, Salem, and other pla-
| ces in Massachusetts,. Learned Divines both in
America and in England printed their belief In
ssGod, devil-and witcheraft - even the en-
| 1inh icho ri into in,
land the rubbish written by Mather in Ameri-
ca, accompanied by his own confession faith
in the statements put forth. George Fox, as
is we'll known, believed in witches and in his
own power to contend with and overcome
them; and judges of civilized nations sent old
| women to the stake for this offence fifty years
later. No wonder then that few Ignorant
Sweedes, in a land of intellectual darkness,
should have preferred such charge against a
troublesome old woman, whose conduct was to
them equally annoying and unntelligible. 1t
was fortunate for the prisoner that she was not
to be tried for her life at Charlestown or Boston
Penn presided at the trial, and to provide
against any dissatisfaction with the verdict.
the jury was composed partly of English and
partly of Sweedes. The whole case was gone
into; witnesses, sadly ignorant and vindictive
for the most part, were examined and re-ex-
rmined; the governor summed up and the jury
retired to find verdict against the woman o.
being guilty of having the common reputation
of witchcraft, but not guilty in manner ano
form as she stood indicted. Her friends were