COBB'S CREEK DAM-SITE OF GOVERNOR PRINTZ'S SWEDISH WATERMILL, 1643 Near the old Blue Bell Tavern and marking the beginning of the new Cobb's Creek Boulevard, this once beautiful spot at 73rd and Woodland Avenue is

Route 1-Landmarks of the Early Swedes—25.0 m.

gone customs and ye olden days. The datestone, high in the gabled front, came from England in 1762. St. James was the second of the three churches built by the Swedes, the third being the old Swedes' Church at Upper Merion, Christ Church, built in 1763. Until 1840 the records of St. James of Kingsessing were entered upon the registers of the church at Wiccaco. Dr. Nicholas Cullin of "Gloria Dei," the last of the line of Swedish ministers sent out as missionaries by the King of Sweden, even when the colonies had passed under British rule, officiated over all three Swedish Churches until his death in 1831. In 1786 the vestry informed his Majesty of Sweden that, while agreeing to receive the Rev. Mr. Cullin as

their pastor and rector, it reserved the right SWEDISH TYPE OF LOG FARMHOUSE Woodland Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, West Philadelphia.

hereafter of their own appointment of a min

ister, particularly, so this letter said, “as Avenue), the site of Pennsylvania's first

the Swedish language was almost entirely public industry, we stop to observe the dam extinct in Pennsylvania." The broadacross the creek and the holes in the rocky minded answer of the Swedish king is still ledge in front of the dam. These holes are

cherished. St. James was brought into union the last traces of the water-mill put up by with the convention of the Protestant Episthe Swedish Governor Printz in 1643. Long copal Church in 1844. before Philadelphia was founded, Governor As this trip is continued along Woodland Printz in a report to the West India Com- Avenue three other interesting Swedish assopany, February 20, 1647, said of this mill ciations may be noted before reaching the site: “This place I have called Mondal, heart of the city. building there a water-mill, working it the At Fifty-ninth Street and Woodland Avewhole year long to great advantage for the nue (21.2), on the left, still stands (No. 5835 country, particularly as the windmill for- Woodland Avenue) a low two-story whitemerly here before I came would never work washed wooden house, the type of farmand was good for nothing." Thomas Cam- house of an early Swedish settler, described panius Holme, writing in 1702, said: “Kara- by Acrelius, the Swedish annalist. Acrelius king (the Indian name for Cobb's Creek) speaks of "Chinsessing, a place upon the otherwise called the Water Mill Stream, is Schuylkill, where five families of freemen a fine stream, very convenient for water- dwelt together in houses two stories high, mills: the Governor caused one to be erected built of white-nut tree (hickory), which was there. It was a fine mill, which ground both at that time regarded as the best material fine and coarse flour, and was going early for building houses, but in later times was and late; it was the first that was seen in altogether disapproved for such purposes." that country.”

At Fifty-fourth Street (21.7), a short deAt Woodland Avenue and Sixty-ninth tour to the right brings one to John BarStreet (20.2), we meet another landmark of tram's historic home and garden, set up in the early Swedish settlers in Philadelphia,- the wilderness in 1731. Fuller directions and the historic St. James of Kingsessing, built details regarding this early colonial home by the Swedes in 1760. Facing the older are given in Route 5. Here came in 1748 section of the church building is a pic- the distinguished Swedish traveller Peter turesque dismounting step, reminder of by- Kalm, Professor in the University of Aabo,

ST. JAMES CHURCH, KINGSESSING, WEST PHILADELPHIA–THE SECOND SWEDISH CHURCH Founded by Swedes, encouraged by Germans, fostered by the English colonists, and cherished by successive generations of Americans, this church is a

memorial of the days when “foreign missionaries" labored faithfully in the American wilderness.

Route 1— Landmarks of the Early Swedes—25.0 m.

as

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who in his “Travels Into North America" Sweden, Ulrica, sent me a few years ago. has left an invaluable picture of the Phila- Good woman! that she should think in her delphia of this early period, and a particu- palace at Stockholm of poor John Bartram, larly vivid and charming account of Bartram on the banks of the Schuylkill, appeareth to and his garden. "In the morning I went me very strange." And gracefully his viswith the Swedish painter, Mr. Hesselius, to itor replied: "Not in the least, dear Sir; ; the country seat of Mr. Bartram, which is you are the first man whose name about four English miles to the south of botanist hath done honour to America.” It Philadelphia, at some distance from the was the Swedish Linnaeus who called Barhigh road to Maryland, Virginia, and Caro- tram “the greatest of natural botanists in lina. . . . We visited several Swedes, who the world.” were settled here, and were at present in At Thirty-ninth and Woodland Avenue very good circumstances.” A generation later

(23.1), we reach the dormitories of the UniHector St. John Crevecoeur, pioneer poet- versity of Pennsylvania, which owe their naturalist, in his "Letters from an Amer

presence on Woodland Avenue to a distinican Farmer," 1782, gives also a remark- guished descendant of one of the earliest able picture of a visit to John Bartram, Swedish settlers of Philadelphia soil. This whom he quotes at one point as saying: was Dr. Charles J. Stillé, Provost of the "Friend Iwan, as I make no doubt that University (1868-1880), through whose thee understandest the Latin tongue, read vision and efforts the University in 1873 this kind epistle which the good Queen of

was brought from its old location on Ninth Street above Chestnut to its present site in West Philadelphia. In Houston Hall, the students' clubhouse of the University, fronting on Spruce Street, between 34th and 36th Streets, may be seen a striking portrait of Dr. Stillé (1819-1899).

At a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, held April 16, 1877, to receive a portrait of Christina, Queen of the Swedes, the Goths, and the Vends, Provost Stillé modestly said: "It is true that the Swedish colony settled here in 1638 under the Queen Christina was not the one projected on so magnificent a scale by her father, Gustavus Adolphus. The colony remained a dependency of the Swedish crown for only seventeen years; its members were merely a few Swedish peasants, not exceeding even sixty years after its settlement, a thousand in number; it held within its bosom the germ of some of our characteristic American ideas, but it had little to do with their growth.”

It is now possible to assert, however, that the influence of at least one able American of Swedish ancestry has had much to do with

the growth and development of a characterDR. CHARLES J. STILLÉ-UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA istic American idea—a great international Distinguished Provost of the University (1868-80), Dr. Stillé was a descendant of one of the first Swedish settlers.

university.

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THE FOUNDER OF PENNSYLVANIA—"PENN IN ARMOR" Painted in Ireland when Penn was twenty-two, the original portrait hangs in the great hall of the His