The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-04-28
A Glimpse of Old Philadelphia.

/ There was very little stir Of any sort
/ in the village. We find a curious ac-
count Of it written by one Gabriel
Z Thomas soon after his landing. There
were thirty carts IN 1.-THE only vehi-
cles excepting Penn's calash Laboring
men were paid three times as much as
nay two shilIings for a pair of boots.
Women's wages he writes down as
"most exorbitant-irom 95 to e10 per
annum." They had the game in their
own handA. as "a wench. if not paid
enough. will take land and turn farmer
There are no beggar- nor Olde msydes,
neither Lawyers nor Doctors, with Ii
cense to- kill and make mischief"
Gabriel and his fellows were wont TO
assemble at the Blue Anchor Tavern to
gossip; and the news, brought once in
six months, had a favor of mystery and
dramatic horror lacking to the telegrams
in the daily paper of country town
nowadays The village lay on the edge
of an impregnahle wilderness stretching
to the Pacific Ocean; on the othe- side
was the river, an open highway to the
sea. where Kidd and other pirates ragged
to and fro-a highway so open that sew
eraI of their ships. bearing the black
flag, were used to winter as near the
town as Cohocksink Creek. the pirates
themselves, having their allies in the
town. and in bat scant disguise, fire.
quenting undisturbed the lower class of
houses, and storing away their plnnder
ID certain dens along the river. Chief
among these was the famous Teach. or
Drummond, known as Black heard.
Kidd, it was said, had intervals of hn
manity: Black beard had none. He was.
however, an educated man, gay and
reckless in his ferocity. Old portraits
represent him with three brace of pis-
tols thrown over his shoulders, and the
black name of beard tied up with scar
let ribbons. He played the role of gen.
tleman on the Carolina coast successful
ly for a while, married into a good fam
ily, and left his fair wife presently with
the information that she was one of four
teen! Tradition gives as the first known
ancestors of one or two of the proudest
of Virginian and CaroIinian families
members of Black boards gang. a visit
from the bold buccaneer, cutlass, red
ribbons, and all, sent a quake of terror
through the town of Philadelphia on
many a winters day; and there was pub
lie rejoicing when news came that his
ship of forty guns, the Queen Anne's Re
Uenge, had been captured by Maynard Of
Virginia, the pirates head cut off and
carried home in triumph as a grim fig
ure-head on the conquering vessel. The
skull was made into a punch-bowl,
bound with silver, and used for years in
the Raleigh Tavern, at Williamsburg.
Virginia
At long intervals came to the settle
ment men of means, cadets of respecta-
BILE families driven by persecution from
England, or emigrants from the Barba-
does, bringing their slaves and house
hold goods with them. OF these were
Nicholas VAIN, Samuel Carpenter. Rob
Gabriel writes home with delight oi
their "hig housen and orchards" The
Quakers were good providers" then as
now The bins and pantries of their
plain houses were filled with substantial
fare, not forgetting wine from the Pro-
prietor's vineyards. When James Lo-
uel Carpenter, or any of the three or
four village magnates, bade the Others
to supper, there was much setting forth
of fine napery, and glittering pewter
plates emblazoned with the family arms
and heaped with "vension and smoakt
hams" with liquor Of all kinds to wash
it down. People of the baser sort gath
cred in the Blue Anchor or Penny Pot
house, and talked of the arrival OF
Jonathan Dickinson and his comrades,
who had been wrecked on the savage
Florida coast, and wandered for a year
among the cannibals The story went
that the lives of the party bad been
spared for the sake Of Dickinson baby
and we may be sure the child-a laugh
ing, ruddy boy of 'twO-was closely
watched when his black nurse carried
him abroad. Or they tried to spell out
the Almynack just printed by William
Brad ford, wherein the date of Noah's
food was given as "3979 years before ye
Almynack, and ye rule of We Lord
Penn as years before ye Almynack. "
This was the FIRST practice of ye Mys
terry of Printing" in the province, and
Penn commanded Bradford peremptori-
ly to let it be the last, "as a danger to
the printer and TO the country"