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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://archive.org/details/cu31924028863540 
 
HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
Harm Jan Huidelcoper 
 
HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 BY 
 
 NINA MOORE TIFFANY 
 
 AND 
 
 FRANCIS TIFFANY 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 prtntet> at t^e Mittt&iJOt Ij^tss 
 
 1904 
 
L. 
 
 6 
 
 / 
 
 
 COFYRICHT 1904 BY E. G. HUIDEKOPER 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The sources of this memoir are mainly family letters 
 and a brief autobiography, supplemented by the files of 
 the " Essayist " and the " Western Messenger." Much, 
 too, has been gleaned from oral tradition concerning a 
 man who is still a vital influence in the community in 
 which he was revered and loved. 
 
 Fortunately, the portrayal of character attempted has 
 been aided by the recollections of Mr. Huidekoper's 
 daughter, Miss Elizabeth G. Huidekoper, who was as- 
 sisted in gathering together the material for the work 
 by her nieces and nephews. 
 
 The chapter upon the Holland Land Company has 
 
 been in great part written by Mr. Francis B. Tiffany, 
 
 who has shared, as well, in the preparation of the book 
 
 as a whole. 
 
 N. M. T. 
 
 F. T. 
 October, 1904. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTBB PAOB 
 
 I. The Hollander 1 
 
 II. In the Pennsylvania Interior 56 
 
 III. The Holland Land Company 95 
 
 IV. Rebecca Colhoon 132 
 
 V. The American 158 
 
 VI. The Unitarian 197 
 
 VII. With the Young Household at Pomona . . . 245 
 
 VIII. Concerning the " Ultra Spirit of the Times " . 278 
 
 IX. Indian Summer 298 
 
 X. The Meadville Theological School. . . . 313 
 
 XI. The Living Memory 327 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. The Holland Land Company 337 
 
 II. Huidekoper Genealogy 361 ' 
 
 INDEX 369 
 
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 pAaE 
 
 Harm Jan Huidekoper Frontispiece 
 
 Map of Holland 4 
 
 Jan Annes Huidekopkk 6 
 
 PlETEK OlDAANS, OlDAENS, OR OdDAAN 8 
 
 Church at Vrie8, in Province of Drenthe, Netherlands, 
 
 containing t0mb8 of w0lther8 family ... 18 
 
 PlETER HtriDEKOPEK 88 
 
 Harm Jan Huidekoper 96 
 
 Rebecca Colhoon Huidekoper 132 
 
 Rebecca Colhoon Huidekoper 138 
 
 Map of Meadvillb, indicating Pomona and Major Alden's 
 House, where Harm Jan Huidekoper and Rebecca Col- 
 hoon WERE married 144 
 
 Harm Jan Huidekoper's Carriage, about 1812. . . 154 
 Guns, Powder Horn, Shot Pouch, Horse Pistols, Saddle 
 
 Bags, Valise 168 
 
 Jan Huidekoper 172 
 
 Medal given to Pieter Huidekoper, Burgomaster of Am- 
 sterdam 174 
 
 Saapke Huidekoper (Harm Jan Huidekoper's half-sister) 176 
 
 Pomona (front view) 246 
 
 Pomona (side view) 250 
 
 First Independent Congregational Church, Meadville, 
 
 Pennsylvania 256 
 
 Harm Jan Huidekoper 278 
 
 Child's Carriage (made for Anna Huidekoper) . . . 300 
 
 Alfred Huidekoper (born March 21, 1810) .... 314 
 
 Edgar Huidekoper (born May 30, 1812) .... 316 
 
 Theological School, Meadville, Pennsylvania . . . 318 
 
 Anna Huidekoper Clarke (born November 5, 1814) . . 320 
 Frederic Huidekoper (born April 7, 1817) . . . .322 
 
 Elizabeth G. Huidekoper (born January 8, 1819) . . 324 
 
HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE HOLLANDER 
 
 The part played by the Dutch in the making of this 
 country has been much dwelt upon of late, and with 
 justice. To trace it along the general lines of the early 
 history of New York and New Jersey, or to pursue the 
 indications of Dutch influence discoverable in the colo- 
 nizers of New England, is to linger, certainly, in agree- 
 able paths of inquiry. But the most active appeal to the 
 imagination lies, after all, in the individual records of the 
 men who, emigrating from the Netherlands to America, 
 left a definite impress upon the region in which their 
 lots were cast. 
 
 A pertinent example of the transplanting from Dutch 
 soil of a man of this stamp is presented in the life of 
 Harm Jan Huidekoper. He stood in western Pennsyl- 
 vania In the last century as an embodiment of the Dutch 
 sturdiness of nature, Dutch uprightness and abihty in 
 financial matters, Dutch cultivation and charm in social 
 intercourse, and, above all, Dutch tenacity in upholding 
 freedom of thought. 
 
 True Hollander ^ he showed himself in his power to 
 hold his own in matters of religious belief, and in this he 
 was but treading in the footsteps of his ancestors ; for 
 
 1 Mr. Huidekoper always spoke of bimself as a Hollander, thoagb he 
 was, strictly speaking, from Drenthe. 
 
2 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 the family name Oldaans is to be found on the roll of the 
 proscribed who were fugitives from the ferocity of Alva ; 
 while the Huidekopers, Protestants also, were among 
 those who stood outside even of the Reformed Church. 
 In Friesland the Huidekopers had pursued their inde- 
 pendent way undisturbed by the conflict waged in the 
 Southern provinces, and had chosen for their wives de- 
 scendants of the refugees who under stress of perse- 
 cution had taken refuge in free Friesland or in Drenthe. 
 
 Friesland had long been a veritable nursery of new 
 sects. Revolt against the Roman Catholic church was 
 earhest successful here, and here flourished after the re- 
 formation Baptists and Anabaptists of all ranks and 
 degrees. Here, too, in Harhngen, the native town of 
 -Harm Jan Huidekoper's father and of his fathers before 
 him, the gentle Menno Simons taught his enhghtened 
 doctrines of peace and the consecrated life. 
 
 Menno was educated as a priest, and served the 
 Homan Catholic Church until one terrible day when his 
 witnessing some of the atrocities committed in its name 
 turned him forever against it. Then he took his stand 
 upon a position resembling that of Conrad Grebel of 
 Zurich, but he infused into Grebel's doctrines such new 
 life that his followers became practically a distinct sect 
 among the Baptists, and were known as Mennonites. 
 The teachings of Menno forbade the bearing of arms or 
 the taking of any oath of office. They denounced the 
 union of church and state. They recommended the con- 
 gregational form of church government, individual study 
 of the Scriptures, and a liberal interpretation of the 
 Bible. Though persecuted both by the Roman Catholics 
 and by the Protestants, the Mennonites grew in numbers, 
 until in 1700 they were estimated at one hundred and 
 
THE HOLLANDER 3 
 
 sixty thousand. Gradually the persecutions ceased, and 
 in the end the Mennonites were granted certain rights 
 by the government. 
 
 Meanwhile their internal discipline became somewhat 
 relaxed, and as their points of difference from others 
 received less emphasis, the membership fell off, until 
 by 1800 their ranks in Holland were reduced to thirty 
 thousand souls.^ 
 
 In HarUngen the Huidekopers^ became disciples of 
 Menno. As such they led quiet retired Uves, cut off 
 from public of&ces and emoluments.^ 
 
 1 As early as 1623 a Mennonite congregation was gathered at German- 
 town, Penn., but most of the Mennonites now scattered through the 
 United States have come to us after a sojourn in Russia, whither in 1783 
 a number of them emigrated. The liberal ideas of the original Dutch 
 Mennonites and their method of investigation visibly influenced Mr. 
 Huidekoper in his search for a consistent form of belief. 
 
 2 " The name Huidekoper bears inherent evidence of antiquity. In 
 early times the chief means of exchange in agricultural Frieslaud were 
 cattle and hides. Lands were bought — as well as measured — with hides. 
 In Holland the name Huidekoper, however spelled, signified a buyer of 
 hides, and the arms borne by the founder of the Huydecooper famdy of 
 Maarseveen show three ox-horns. 
 
 " The earliest mention of the name occurs in the year 1500, when Jan 
 van Wieringen, or Jan of Wieringen, an island of Friesland in the Zuyder 
 Zee near Harlingen, took the name of his grandmother Huydecooper, 
 called himself Jan Huydecooper van Wieringen, and founded the family of 
 Maarseveen Huydecoopers, distinguished in the nobility of Holland. The 
 grandmother Huydecooper was a native of Friesland or its islands, where 
 the American family Huidekoper originated." — Family Manuscript. 
 
 ' " The Huidekopers were of purely Frisian origin. They were settled 
 for at least several generations in and about Harlingen, and spread 
 thence through Friesland and Drenthe and to Amsterdam. Pieter Huide- 
 koper was Burgomaster of Amsterdam from 1842 to 1849, and others of 
 the name have held public office in the town. In a Dutch biographical 
 dictionary they are designated as the Huidekopers of Amsterdam in 
 contradistinction to the Huydecopers of Maarseveen and of Zeist. 
 
 " The Huidekopers of Friesland were mostly, if not all, Mennonites, a 
 sect resembling the Quakers, and as such refused to bear arms or to take 
 oaths, and were therefore debarred from holding public office or bearing 
 
4 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's great grandfather, Anne Jans, 
 lived in Harlingen in the middle of the seventeenth 
 century, — a time when the republic was still young. 
 
 titles. The Maarseveen Huydecopers were of the established church, and 
 thus were open to both. Whether there was ever any connection between 
 the Frisian and the Maarseveen families is quite unknown. It is possible, 
 but unproven, and if it ever existed must have been in very remote times, 
 as the Huydecopers of Maarseveen were settled in South Holland as early 
 as the sixteenth century, and possessed estates there. Of this better known 
 and titled family may be mentioned Johan Huydecoper, who in the six- 
 teenth century was a man of consideration and distinction, with the title 
 of seigneur, and possessed of a large fortune, a member of the Council 
 and Burgomaster of Amsterdam. His son Joan received in 1637 from 
 Queen Christina of Sweden, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, a title of 
 nobility and was, as holder of this title, inscribed in the book of Dutch 
 Nobles. He was an eminent personage, was Burgomaster of Amsterdam 
 and later Ambassador to the Court of Charles II of England. In 1656, 
 when Prince William II attempted to reduce the city of Amsterdam, the 
 Burgomaster Huydecoper put the place in a state of defence, and so great 
 was his influence that the Prince withdrew his army in some confusion 
 and humiliation. An old engraving represents him as receiving the thanks 
 of the Burghers of Amsterdam, who presented him with a jewelled chalice, 
 in token of gratitude. He is represented in the great painting by Govert 
 Flinck, in the museum at Amsterdam, with his company of Arquebusiers 
 celebrating the Peace of Munster. 
 
 " I am not sure whether Balthazar Huydecoper was a son or grandson 
 of Joan. Born in 1695, he died in 1775. He was the author of many 
 poems and literary works. His annotated edition of the chronicle of 
 Melius Stoke, giving the history of the Dutch Count Flavins V and his 
 successors, is highly esteemed. 
 
 " Another Huydecoper I may mention is Theodore Cornelis Renier 
 Huydecoper, a clergyman and preacher, author of many religious treatises. 
 He was especially known for his war against intemperance. His zeal 
 made him many enemies among those addicted to the ' petit verre,' which 
 was often called a ' Huydecoperus.' 
 
 " The name of the Frisian family was in former times sometimes spelled 
 Huydecoper or Huydekoper. One also finds the Maarseveen Huydecopers 
 at times using the i and the k, as may be seen in the index to Von Vondel's 
 poems, where it is written Iluidekoper, while in certain sonnets in the body 
 of the book it is spelled Huydecoper. I have seen both spellings in old 
 engravings, and a book plate of Joan of Maarseveen dated 1661 bears the 
 name spelled Huidekoper." — Manuscript notes. 
 
Longitude 5° 
 
 HOLLAND 
 
 from. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 5 
 
 Little is known of him save that he married Hinke 
 Pieters Dreijn. The son of Anne Jans, seemingly an 
 only son, who was named Jan Annes, or Jan the son of 
 Anne, was a merchant of Harlingen, and a " bontreeder," 
 that is, a manufacturer of " Friesch hont," a material ex- 
 tensively used for women's aprons. It is recorded that 
 the young Jan Annes made a journey unusual for the 
 stay-at-home Frieslander of those days. In the winter 
 months, when ice made solid footing on the Zuyder Zee, 
 he ventured across the frozen waters, with his father or 
 grandfather, from Harlingen to the opposite outlying 
 lands, which are supposed to have formed in ancient 
 times the entrance of the river Vlie. An interesting 
 token of the widespread love of art, and especially of 
 portraiture, among the Netherlanders may be seen in 
 the portrait of Jan Annes at the age of four years, which 
 now hangs in the house of one of Mr. Huidekoper's 
 grandsons.^ 
 
 Jan Annes married in 1725 Fokje Pieters Oldaans,* 
 
 ^ Mr. Arthur Clarke Huidekoper of Meadville. 
 
 ' " Oldaans, Oldaens, or Oudaans — the name is spelled in various 
 ways — comes from oud, old, and aa, waters (old waters), perhaps from 
 the family seat being near the junction of the Rhine and the Vecht. The 
 family was one of some standing in Friesland, and lived chiefly in Har- 
 lingen. There was a tradition that they were of Flemish extraction, and, 
 like the Klaesses, or Claesses, whose descendants also intermarried with 
 the Huidekopers, left Brabant in the sixteenth century for fear of persecu- 
 tion, or at least to enjoy the full freedom of their religion. They were 
 Baptists, and lived only as private citizens. One of them, however, called 
 Pieter Pieters Oldaens, was of another opinion, and held to the Reformed 
 Church principles. This opened to him the way to public office. He lived 
 in the sixteenth century — near the end of it — and was not only Burgo- 
 master of Harlingen, but was one of the nine deputies who, in the time 
 that the diet was not actually sitting, governed the province. His arms 
 may be seen on the front of the immense Athenaeum at Franeker, which 
 building he would seem, conjointly with a certain nobleman, to have re- 
 stored or endowed, or to have superintended the restoration in part. The 
 
6 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 the daughter of another Harlingen merchant, Pieter 
 Jans Oldaans, and removed to Berlikum.* 
 
 In Berhkum, probably, was born to Jan Annas an- 
 other Anne, the father of Harm Jan Huidekoper. Anne 
 Huidekoper married, while yet in Friesland, Hylke 
 Quader. By this first marriage he had two children, 
 Saapke, or Sophia,^ and Jan, the elder brother to whom 
 Harm Jan owed his education, his early ideals, and his 
 excellent start in life. Anne Huidekoper's first wife 
 died January 21, 1773, and on the 5th of April, 1775, 
 he married Gesiena Prederica Wolthers, daughter of 
 Harm Jan Wolthers, schout or baihff of Vries, and 
 Anna Christina Ketel, his wife. 
 
 " The village of Vries," says Mr. Huidekoper's grand- 
 daughter, who visited it in recent years, " is to-day a 
 peaceful, pretty hamlet of hardly more than twenty 
 houses, standing amid luxuriant fields of grain and 
 groves of noble trees. The village green is shaded by a 
 double row of grand old sycamores which must be sev- 
 eral centuries old, and under which many generations 
 of Wolthers may have played. On one side of the green 
 stands the church, a fine old structure, some parts of 
 which date from the twelfth or thirteenth century. The 
 square tower in front is of considerable height, and 
 dominates the country, being seen from a great distance 
 across the level expanse of moor and meadow surround- 
 ing Vries for many miles. The choir of the church is 
 higher than the nave, and apparently of older date. 
 
 Oldaens, like tlie Huidekopers, had a branch that was noble. Their arms 
 were a red cross on a golden ground." — Manuscript notes. 
 
 1 " A large village standing on fertile soil amid fields of wheat and 
 potatoes and beautiful gardens of fine fruit trees, quite flourishing at that 
 time, and distant about two hours' drive from Harlingen." — Ibid. 
 
 ' She afterward married Albert Steenbergen. 
 
JAN ANNES HUIDEKOPER 
 
THE HOLLANDER 7 
 
 Some carved stalls in the choir bear the date of 1650. 
 In the pavement of the choir are the tombs of the Wol- 
 thers family." ' 
 
 I "The Wolthers family, living for several generations in Vries, have been 
 for a much longer period established at Peize, where the name is found 
 as early as, or even before 1500. They were at one time a family of some 
 distinction in the Province of Drenthe, as, of the twenty-one bailiffs who 
 were placed over that number of sub-districts, eighteen were connected in a 
 more or less close degree with it. They had intermarried in several gen- 
 erations with the Ketels (or Keetels as it is often spelled), the Willinges, 
 and with the Ten Borsch or Ten Berges family, and held office and pro- 
 perty in Peize, Eelde, Buune, and Nijeveen. Harm Jan Wolthers was 
 Sohout or Bailiff of Vries, as, I believe, his father was before and his eld- 
 est son Lucar (Lucas ?) was after him. The office of Schulte or Sohout 
 combined the offices and duties of Justice of the Peace with those of 
 sheriff and register and recorder. The office was generally held for 
 life. Parchment deeds in the handwriting and with the seal attached of 
 Harm Jan Wolthers and also of P. Ketel, Schont of Peize and Eelde, are 
 in the possession of Mrs. Cortazzo." 
 
 " The church and churchyard of Vries occupy one side of the village 
 green ; on the other are a few brick cottages and a larger and finer 
 residence in brick with well laid out garden and fine shade-trees, now 
 occupied by the pastor of the church. At the end of the green, near the 
 church and school-house, is the village inn, with its swinging sign and 
 benches and tables under the old sycamore tree. A few rods down the 
 street at the side of the church stands the old Wolthers house, now 
 pointed out as the ' Haunted House,' though for what reason I did not 
 learn, save that the cellars or vaulted basements which appear to be of great 
 antiquity were by village tradition supposed to be haunted. The house 
 stands under magnificent old sycamores, is of brick, with two stories in 
 the middle and wings of one story. It stands back from the street, a brick 
 pavement leading to the front door. A stone near the front door bears the 
 date of 1730, but a part of the house is of a very much older period, and 
 I should judge might date back to 1600. Tiiis part, in which is an im- 
 mense fire-place and chimney, set with pictured tiles, is not now used. 
 Anne Willem Huidekoper speaks of the house as being, even in 1840 or 
 earlier, ' shorn of its former splendor.' It was then, as it is now, occupied 
 by a farmer, who lives in the village and goes out to his meadows beyond 
 the village limits. Possibly one part of the house may have been taken 
 down long ago. Certainly at present it bears no marks of any splendor. 
 The gardens or grounds behind the house are now neglected and unoared 
 for, but would seem at one time to have been extensive and well laid out, 
 as there are traces of alleys of trees and possibly fish-ponds. The garden 
 
8 HARM JAN HUIDEKOjPER 
 
 It was probably in the year 1765 that Anne Huide- 
 koper removed from Berlikum, in Friesland, to the 
 Hoogeveen, in the Province of Drenthe. Thither, after 
 his marriage in 1775, he took his second wife, and there, 
 in a house called Den Klunderenberg and still to be 
 seen on the Schut Canal, their children. Harm Jan, 
 Pieter Ketel, and Henderina Caterina, were born. 
 
 The httle town of Hoogeveen, or the Hoogeveen, as 
 it is more commonly called, which was founded in 1626 
 by Baron van Echten (Seigneur or Lord of Echten and 
 of the Hoogeveen), was situated near an extensive peat- 
 bog of about five thousand hectares, and contained in 
 the latter part of the eighteenth century nine hun- 
 dred houses and forty-five hundred inhabitants. A 
 main canal — the Canal of the Hoogeveen — connected 
 it with Meppel, and lateral canals drained the coun- 
 try and furnished means of communication with other 
 points. 
 
 But a description of Drenthe and of Mr. Huidekoper's 
 boyhood, as well as of the unsettled state of Holland 
 which led to his leaving his old home for America, may 
 be given in his own words, for at the request of his sons 
 and daughters he prepared in 1839 a brief autobiogra- 
 phy, which will run as a connecting thread through this 
 and the ensuing chapters. It begins as follows : — 
 
 slopes to a grove of willows where, I imagined, a little stream might run, 
 but I had not time to verify it. The house now contains, below, two large 
 square rooms, one on either side of the hall, with enormous fire-places and 
 stone caps or canopies coming down over the chimney. At the back of 
 one fire-place is a fine iron plate with a scriptural or other subject in re- 
 lief upon it. Two finely carved presses in solid wood inlaid with brass 
 stood in one room, from one of which I obtained a good carving of a coat 
 of arms. The present owner was not sure whence these presses had come, 
 but thought one had been in the house when his family purchased it." — 
 Manuscript notes. 
 
PIETER OLDAENS 
 
THE HOLLANDER 9 
 
 I was born on the 3rd April, 1776, at Hogeveen, a 
 large village in the district (Landschap) of Drenthe, 
 forming part of what was then denominated the seven 
 United Provinces ; now, the Kingdom of the Nether- 
 lands. Drenthe is a poor, heathy district, bounded on 
 the south by the Province of Over Yssel ; on the north 
 by the Provmce of Gronmgen ; on the west by the Pro- 
 vince of Vriesland orFiiesland, and on the East by Ger- 
 many. It was associated with the seven united provinces, 
 and had a district government of its own, but was not 
 represented in the General Assembly of the States or 
 Provinces. Its share in the general expenses of the Gov- 
 ernment of the Union was assessed at one per cent. 
 
 My Father was Anne Huidekoper, and my Mother 
 Gesiena Frederica Wolters. The former was born in 
 Friesland, of a Frisian family, and removed to Hogeveen 
 after he had attained the meridian of life, but at what 
 precise time I know not. I think it must have been be- 
 tween the years 1765 and 1773. Of my paternal ances- 
 tors I know little or nothing, having never made any 
 particular inquiry about them. From what I recollect 
 hearing from my Father, I infer that they were decent 
 Burghers who lived reputably by the pursuit of some 
 profession or calling. My Grandfather Jan Huidekoper 
 married a Miss Oldaan or Oldaen (I am not certain how 
 the name is spelled). If I mistake not, the coat of arms 
 now used by the Huidekopers was derived from the 
 Oldaan family.^ Your cousin Albert informed me some 
 
 1 " According to your request," Mr. Huidekoper wrote to his son Fred- 
 eric, " I shall seal this letter with the two seals I received from Holland. 
 The one with the sword and the three crossbows is the one used by the 
 Huidekopers. It was originally the seal of the Oldaans, the family name 
 of my paternal grandmother. The colors (according to Anne Wilhem's 
 description) are as follows : The first part of the shield, on which is the 
 sword with the golden hilt, is to be painted blue. The other side is white, 
 the three crossbows with arrows on them retaining their natural colours, 
 the bow steel, the stock of wood, and the spring steel. The crown I sus- 
 pect to be a gratuitous addition of the artist." 
 
10 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 years ago that this coat of arms -was found on one of the 
 escutcheons hung up in one of the churches either in 
 the province of Groningen or East Friesland, and that 
 the family descended from a Jurist who, being a pro- 
 testant, fled in the sixteenth century from Flanders or 
 Brabant to escape the religious persecutions of that day, 
 and established himself in Friesland. My paternal an- 
 cesters, so far as I know, all belonged to the Menonist 
 Society, a sect resembling the Quakers in several 
 respects. 
 
 My Grandfather Jan Huidekoper had, if I recollect 
 right, seven children, namely two Sons Anne (my Father) 
 and Pieter ; and five daughters, one of whom was mar- 
 ried to Albert Scheltinga ; a second married to a Mr. 
 Lamsma; a third married to a Mr. Fontein, and two who 
 lived and died single. 
 
 My Uncle Pieter (who Kved at Harlingen, a seaport 
 in Friesland, and the place of residence of my paternal 
 ancestors) had five children, namely three sons and two 
 daughters. Of the sons, the two eldest named Folkert 
 and Gerlof died unmarried. The third, Jan, now sur- 
 vives, and has a family. One of his daughters is mar- 
 ried to your cousin John, who was formerly here.^ Of 
 the two daughters of Pieter Huidekoper, Anne, the 
 youngest, was married and left a family at her death. I 
 do not recollect the name of her husband. 
 
 My Aunt Scheltinga died without leaving issue. 
 
 My Aunt Lamsma had three children a son and two 
 daughters. The son and one of the daughters were never 
 married. The other daughter was first married to a phy- 
 sician of the name of Meurs, and after his death to a 
 person whose name I do not recollect. I think she had 
 children. 
 
 My Aunt Fontein had at least one son, who was called 
 Peter, and who had a family ; but where they live I 
 know not. The Mr. Fontein which Frederic saw ^ is I 
 
 1 Son of Jan Huidekoper of Amsterdam. 
 ^ His son Frederic visited Holland in 1839. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 11 
 
 suspect of another branch with whom we are more dis- 
 tantly connected. 
 
 The other two sisters of my Father were never mar- 
 ried. Their names were EUzabeth and Hincke. Of what 
 name this last is an abbreviation I do not now recollect. 
 
 My Mother was born at Vries, a small village in 
 Drenthe situated a few miles south of the city of Gro- 
 ningen. She belonged to one of those old decayed fam- 
 ilies, so common in many parts of Europe, who occupy 
 a kind of middle rank between the nobility and the mass 
 of the community, and which in England are designated 
 by the name of Gentry. Of my maternal ancesters I 
 know very little. I might have obtained much informa- 
 tion in regard to them from my Mother who was well 
 informed on this subject, but this was a matter in which 
 I felt little interest, and I left Europe while young. I 
 merely know that the family must have resided long in 
 Drenthe, and have been of some standing, as of the 
 twenty one Bailiffs who were placed over that number 
 of subdistricts in which Drenthe was divided, eighteen 
 were connected in a more or less distant degree with it. 
 
 My Grandfather, Harm Jan Wolters (after whom I 
 was named) was Schout or Bailiff of Vries, as, I believe, 
 his father had been before him and as his eldest son 
 was after him. We have no office in this country pre- 
 cisely analogous to this. It combined the duties origi- 
 nally belonging to the office of Justice of the peace, 
 with those belonging to the Sheriff, the register and the 
 recorder. This office was generally held for life. 
 
 My Grandmother's family name was Ketel. Some of 
 her ancestors had devoted themselves to the military ser- 
 vice of the country, and, if I recollect right, her father 
 had attained the rank of Major General in the Dutch 
 service. When a boy I met among the papers of an old 
 maternal uncle of my Mother's, with some military re- 
 ports or memoranda, made about the beginning of the 
 last century, during the wars then carried on by the 
 dutch against Louis XIV of France. If I had them 
 
12 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 now, their contents might, even at this day, be inter- 
 esting. 
 
 My Grandfather had five children namely two sons 
 and three daughters. Of the sons, the youngest never 
 was married. The eldest married late in life, but had 
 no children, and, at his death, the family name of Wol- 
 ters became extinct, at least so far as I know. Of. the 
 three daughters one died unmarried. A second was 
 married to a Mr. Groenenberg living in Groningen, 
 and had children, but how many I know not. I merely 
 heard that one of her sons went to Surinam and settled 
 there. The third daughter of my Grandfather was my 
 Mother. 
 
 My Father was twice married. By his first wife, 
 whom he married while he yet resided in Friesland, 
 but who died after he had removed to Hogeveen, he 
 had two children, a daughter called Saapke and a son 
 called Jan. In the year 1775 he was married to my 
 Mother, and by her he had three children, myself, who 
 was the oldest, my sister Henderina Catherina, and my 
 brother Pierre Ketel.^ Of these I alone survive. My 
 sister Saapke was married to Albert Steenbergen, a law- 
 yer, afterwards Schout or Bailiff at Hogeveen. She sur- 
 vived her husband for some years, and left at her death 
 two children, a son named Cornelius and a daughter. 
 This daughter, if I recollect right, was married to a 
 Gentleman of the name of Meyer, but died young with- 
 out leaving issue. Cornehus Steenbergen is now living. 
 He has been married to a Miss Prins and has by her 
 three children, a son and two daughters. The son is a 
 cripple. He resides at present at Haerlem in Holland, 
 and is a painter by profession. He is said to possess 
 talents, and an amiable disposition. 
 
 My brother John was twice married — the first time 
 to a Miss Gertrude Stinstra, and the second time to 
 Miss Jacoba de Bie. By his last wife, who survived 
 
 1 Mr. Huidekoper was not always oonsisteat in his spelling of proper 
 
THE HOLLANDER 13 
 
 him, he had no issue ; but by bis first wife, (besides a 
 son named after me who died young) he had six chil- 
 dren all of whom now survive, namely four sons, viz 
 Anne Wilhem, Pieter, Jan and Albert ; and two daugh- 
 ters, viz Annette and Gertrude. Of my Brother's chil- 
 dren, Pieter has married a Miss Van Eeghen (sister of 
 Jan & Pieter Van Eeghen). His wife is dead, but she 
 has left him two daughters. Annette is married to Pie- 
 ter Van Eeghen, by whom she has a family ; and John 
 is married to a daughter of my Cousin Jan Huidekoper 
 of Harlingen in Friesland ; he now lives at Midlum 
 near Harlingen, is a farmer and has a family. 
 
 My sister Henderina Catherina, and my brother Pierre 
 Ketel both died unmarried, the former at Hoogeveen, 
 the latter at MeadviUe. 
 
 As I mentioned before, I was born on the 3rd April 
 1776. At my birth my constitution was so feeble, that 
 but little hope was entertained of my living, and this 
 state of weakness continued during my early years. At 
 one time the family actually supposed me to he dead, and 
 were about laying me out, when symptoms of remain- 
 ing animation were discovered ; and I was three years 
 old before I was able to walk. From that time on how- 
 ever my health began to improve. I was suffered to be 
 much in the open air, and to take as much exercise as I 
 pleased, and this, no doubt, was useful in strengthening 
 me, and in developing my physical powers, and before 
 I had attained my tenth year my health had become 
 quite firm. It is true that I did not then, nor after- 
 wards, possess as great a degree of muscular strength as 
 some others, but in uniform good health, and in the 
 power to endure fatigue or the inclemency of the weather, 
 few excelled me. With the exception of a slight attack 
 of fever which I had when I was about eleven years old, 
 I have no recollection of having been seriously indis- 
 posed until I had a severe attack of dyspepsia in my fif- 
 tieth year ; and since I recovered from that my health, 
 though somewhat less firm, has been good, for one at 
 
14 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 my time of life. From my infancy until I attained the 
 age of about twenty five I was remarkably lean, and my 
 complexion was sallow, so that I was often asked whether 
 I was in bad health. About the latter period I began 
 to increase in flesh, and my colour assumed a more 
 healthy appearance. 
 
 My earlier days were spent Uke those of most chil- 
 dren in a country village, my time being divided between 
 play and going to School, It is among the earliest of 
 my recollections that I went, with the other children of 
 my age, to a Dame school, when from a hornbook, sus- 
 pended by a riband, either from the neck or from a 
 button hole, I was taught my letters. What further 
 progress I made at this school in the black art I do not 
 now remember. 
 
 From the dame school I was in due time removed to 
 the common school of the village. As at that time the 
 improvements, since introduced in the common school 
 system were unknown, this was but a poor concern, at 
 which nothing was pretended to be taught but reading, 
 writing and cyphering. The first of these branches was 
 generally, perhaps necessarily, much neglected, for, 
 where in a large school, every scholar had to read singly 
 to the Master, but a very short space of time could be 
 allotted by him to any one. As to grammars of the dutch 
 language, they were never used. In writing and cypher- 
 ing the instruction was somewhat more thorough, and 
 I imbibed in that school that fondness for arithmetical 
 operations which has adhered to me ever afterwards. 
 
 I have called this school a common school, because 
 it was open to all, and was the only one kept in the Vil- 
 lage. It was not however a free school. Those who 
 went to it had to pay weekly some small matter for 
 tuition, the precise amount of which I do not now recol- 
 lect. I merely know that here it would have appeared 
 to be a mere trifle, within the means of every one, while 
 there it was considered large enough to prevent many 
 children from being sent to school, so that the number 
 
THE HOLLAJSTDER 15 
 
 of scholars, in a village containing about six thousand 
 inhabitants, did not amount to one hundred, perhaps not 
 to seventy five. 
 
 The fact I have just stated is not calculated to make 
 you have very exalted ideas of the intellectual situation 
 of my birthplace at the time of which I am speaking. 
 The fact is, my dear children, that it would be difficult 
 for you, who have been brought up in a community in 
 which a considerable degree of intelligence universally 
 prevails, and where even persons who can neither read 
 nor write become intelligent by their intercourse with 
 others, to form any adequate conception of the degree 
 of intellectual darkness which then rested on my native 
 province, and on some other parts of Europe. A few 
 facts will however enable you to form some idea in re- 
 gard to it. 
 
 In the first place but a small portion of the commu- 
 nity learned to read, and of those who did, very few 
 indeed ever read any other books than the bible and the 
 Metrical collection of the Psalms used in the church. 
 Books there were none except a few belonging to some 
 of the better educated, and to these the Mass of the in- 
 habitants had no access ; and as to Newspapers, these the 
 commonality never saw. At Hoogeveen there were per- 
 haps two or three Newspapers taken a week by clubs, 
 similar to our book clubs here, and, among the members, 
 the papers were passed from hand to hand by rotation. 
 But these papers were totally dissimilar to the news- 
 papers of this country. They contained no essays, dis- 
 sertations or discussions on interesting subjects, but were 
 filled with mere abstracts of foreign or domestic news, 
 given in the most condensed form. A few periodical 
 publications, chiefly poHtical, wer.e taken by the same 
 class in the same manner. It is true that the children 
 of the Gentry received a somewhat better education. 
 These were generally sent from home to some boarding 
 school, or to some country Minister to be qualified for 
 college ; and nest to college to quahfy themselves either 
 
16 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 for the Ministry, the bar or some public office. These, 
 of course, were considerably superior to the mass or the 
 community in intelligence ; but then their numbers were 
 comparatively small, and what was worse, they formed 
 among themselves an exclusive caste, between which 
 and the laboring classes there was no social intercourse, 
 so that the latter had little chance of being improved 
 by the superior information of the former. 
 
 In the second place there was no intercourse between 
 Drenthe and more enlightened parts of the country, so 
 as to have enabled the inhabitants to improve themselves 
 by their intercourse with others. It were only the mem- 
 bers of the more favored class who occasionally visited 
 the distant cities. As to the labouring classes these lit- 
 erally lived and died at home. I suspect that a great 
 majority of them never went a distance of twenty mUes 
 from their place of residence, and the few strangers they 
 came occasionally in contact with, were mostly inhabit- 
 ants of adjoining villages, men as little enlightened as 
 themselves. There was, it is true, one class of the in- 
 habitants of Hoogeveen who strayed somewhat farther 
 from home than their fellow Citizens, namely the Skip- 
 pers engaged in the transportation of turf, and their as- 
 sistants, but even these had not such an intercourse with 
 the world as was calculated to increase their intelligence 
 much, except so far as related to their particular branch 
 of business. In one word, I can compare the intellect- 
 ual situation of Drenthe, and of many other parts of 
 Europe, at that time, to nothing better than to those Ger- 
 man counties of Pennsylvania into which the english 
 language and civilization have not penetrated ; with this 
 difference, that in Europe mankind were divided into 
 exclusive Castes, of which the Gentry Caste had some 
 mental cultivation ; the mechanical caste much less so, 
 and the farming and labouring caste least of all. 
 
 Such was, in an intellectual point of view, the state 
 of society in which I was placed in early life, and my 
 domestic situation was not more favourable to the early 
 
THE HOLLANDER 17 
 
 development of my mental powers. My Father's educa- 
 tion had been very much neglected. His mind had not 
 been improved either by study, by reflection or by his 
 intercourse with the world. He was kind to me, but 
 could not impart to me knowledge which he did not pos- 
 sess himself. My Mother's mind was of a much higher 
 order; and she had made good use of the few means for 
 obtaining knowledge which were accessible to her, but 
 unfortunately these had been very slender. In her time 
 female education was in general much neglected ; and 
 besides this she was born and educated in a small vil- 
 lage, which possessed yet fewer means of instruction 
 than the generahty of larger cities. The extent of her 
 knowledge was therefore very hmited, but the little she 
 did know she knew well, for she had reflected on what 
 she did hear and see, and her reasoning powers were 
 good. To this was united an excellent heart and an ami- 
 able disposition. I was the object of her fondest affec- 
 tion, perhaps because my weakly state of health had 
 caused her so much trouble and anxiety ; and I owe to 
 her a deep debt of gratitude. If she could not do much 
 towards the development of my mental powers, she made 
 more than amends for this deficiency by cultivating in 
 me the affections of the heart, and by inculcating in me 
 the love of virtue. 
 
 I remained in the paternal family until I had attained 
 the age of ten years, and I was then sent to a boarding 
 school at Hasselt in the Province of Overyssel, to pur- 
 sue my studies. In the selection of this school economy, 
 (which my Father's situation rendered necessary) and 
 proximity to my native home, were more consulted than 
 the quality of the school, which, though it had somehow 
 acquired considerable reputation, was really a wretched 
 institution. The principal was a good but uninformed 
 man. The french teacher was ignorant and worthless, 
 and the usher we had for part of the time, was a good 
 natured ilHterate lad. Neither the instruction nor the 
 moral conduct of the scholars was properly attended to, 
 
18 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 and the whole course of instruction was limited to writ- 
 ing, arithmetic and the french language. At this school 
 I remained (with the intermission of nearly a year which 
 I spent at home or in visiting my relations) until I had 
 completed my seventeenth year. At that time my elder 
 Brother John took pity on me, and seeing that I was 
 merely wasting my time at Hasselt, and knowing that 
 my Father's means did not allow him to do any thing 
 more for me, he proposed to send me, at his expense, to 
 complete my education at Crefeld in Germany. To this 
 act of fraternal generosity I have been indebted for 
 much of my success in after life. 
 
 In order properly to appreciate this conduct of my 
 Brother's you must know, my dear children, that we 
 were only half brothers ; that he had been very seldom 
 at home for several years past, and therefore was little 
 acquainted with me ; that a small fortune, which came 
 to him from his Mother, had already been considerably 
 impaired by the wants of my Father ; and that my 
 Brother, at that time, was himself only a clerk in the 
 counting house of the Messrs. Hope, and had Kttle else 
 besides his salary. His conduct to me was a generous 
 and noble one, and I shall feel grateful to him for it so 
 long as I live. 
 
 Before I left Hasselt I was, after the usual course of 
 instruction, admitted as a regular member of the Dutch 
 reformed Church. This was, at that time, the national 
 church in Holland. It was the church to which my 
 Mother belonged, and in which I had been educated, and 
 was the only church which existed in my native province. 
 The course of catechetical instruction, through which I 
 went previous to my admission to church membership, 
 was not much calculated either to increase my know- 
 ledge of the scriptures, or to cultivate in me a religious 
 spirit. It consisted almost exclusively in getting the 
 Heidelberg catechism by heart, and in learning to cite 
 certain texts of scriptures in support of the dogmas it 
 contains. 
 
-sl^- .... 
 
 
 ^■'^%U: -V-^ 
 
THE HOLLANDER 19 
 
 In the early part o£ the summer of 1793 I went to 
 Crefeld, and entered the Institute at that place. This 
 is a name given in Germany to a kind of high school or 
 academy, in which, in addition to all the branches of a 
 thorough common education, the dead and living lan- 
 guages are taught, so as to qualify young men either to 
 enter the university, the counting house or the army, 
 according to their several destinations. The Institute at 
 Crefeld was, at the time I entered it, an excellent one 
 of its kind. Professor Shehl, who was at the head of it, 
 and his four or five assistant professors, were all amiable 
 and well-informed men, who knew how to impart their 
 knowledge to others, and who possessed the far more 
 difficult art of managing boys to an admiration, so that 
 some seventy or eighty young men, of all ages and lan- 
 guages, Germans, Hollanders, Belgians and English, 
 were all kept in the most perfect order simply by the 
 moral influence which these teachers had acquired over 
 us. What contributed probably much to the good order of 
 this school was that we were well, and, I may say, kindly 
 treated. Our lodging was always clean ; our food was 
 good of its kind, well cooked, and always abundant ; 
 and we were always spoken to and treated as young 
 Gentlemen, and rational beings. 
 
 Here I found myself all at once translated, as it were, 
 to an entirely new world. I had hitherto only come in 
 contact with persons who were from half a century to a 
 century behind the age, and I now found myself in the 
 society, and under the care, of Gentlemen who, by their 
 acquirements and their modes of thinking, belonged to 
 the age in which they lived. 
 
 My new situation would have been altogether de- 
 lightful had it not been for a couple of pretty serious 
 drawbacks. The first of these was, that I felt humiliated 
 to see that many of my fellow scholars, younger than 
 myself, knew more than I did; and the second was, 
 that I found myself in an Institute, where all the instruc- 
 tion was given in German, of which language I was en- 
 
20 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 tirely ignorant. I felt however that these were difficulties 
 which could be overcome by dint of labour and appli- 
 cation ; and I set myself resolutely to work to overcome 
 them. Luckily there is so much similarity between the 
 Dutch and German languages (the former being in fact 
 only a different dialect of the latter) that a Hollander can, 
 in a very short time, acquire a sufficient knowledge of the 
 German to understand it, and even to speak it ; and as 
 I heard little else spoken than German, and could avail 
 myself of my knowledge of the french language to ask 
 explanations of any term which I did not comprehend, 
 I was enabled, in a very short time, to pursue my studies 
 with the rest of the scholars. It is true, that in order to 
 do this, I had to resort to some expedients. Thus, when 
 a mathematical lesson was dictated, I took it down in 
 dutch and, if translations had to be made from the 
 french, my versions were in my mother tongue. Soon 
 however I learned to speak the German language, and 
 even to write it in the German character; and by 
 dint of application and perseverance I had the satisfac- 
 tion of finding myself, by the end of the first year, 
 ranked among the first scholars of the Institute. 
 
 This was a happy period of my life, and one to which 
 I have always looked back with pleasure. All my studies 
 (with the exception perhaps of the mathematics for 
 which I had then not much taste) were pleasing to me. 
 For the first time in my life I could have access to a 
 large and well chosen library, containing all the best 
 German and French Authors. I felt my mind gradu- 
 ally expanding, and opening itself to new ideas ; and I 
 enjoyed the friendship and esteem of my teachers and 
 of my fellow scholars. 
 
 In order to enable you to form a more correct idea of 
 my manner of living at Crefeld, I will enter into some de- 
 tails in regard to it. I generally rose about six o'clock in 
 the morning. This, during the winter, was much earlier 
 than most of my fellow students rose, it being in that 
 latitude hardly day before eight o'clock in winter ; but 
 
THE HOLLANDER 21 
 
 by studying in the morning for a couple of hours by 
 candle light, I had the means of preparing myself well 
 for the lessons of the day. About seven o'clock in the 
 summer and eight in the winter, we had morning 
 prayers, and immediately after that breakfast. This was 
 not a social meal as it usually is in this country. Every 
 one received a bowl of coflEee or milk and a small wheaten 
 loaf, and this he went to eat when, where and how he 
 pleased. The regular hours of instruction were in the 
 morning from nine to twelve, and in the afternoon from 
 one or half after one till four or five. Extra studies, 
 such for instance as the study of the English language, 
 were generally pursued at stated hours in the evening ; 
 and the remaining hours of the evening, and the inter- 
 mediate hours of the day, were devoted to preparatory 
 studies, translating, &c. Our dinner hour was about 
 haK past twelve. Our dinner invariably consisted of a 
 good substantial beef soup ; boiled beef, and a variety of 
 vegetables. To this was added half a tumbler of Rhe- 
 nish wine three times a week. This mode of living would 
 appear to be wanting in variety, to persons in this coun- 
 try, where meat is considered as the main dish at din- 
 ner. But, on the continent of Europe, vegetables and 
 not meat, were considered as the essential part of the 
 dinner, and these admitted of so much variety, both as 
 to kind and mode of dressing, that this mode of living 
 never appeared to tire for want of variety. At 5 or 
 6 o'clock in the evening we had again a bowl of coffee 
 or milk and a wheaten loaf similar to what we had at 
 breakfast ; and at half after nine we had supper. This 
 consisted generally of some of the lighter kmds of 
 meat, such as veal, mutton &c. and of different kinds 
 of vegetables, according to the season of the year. After 
 supper came the evening prayer, and immediately after 
 that we all went to bed. 
 
 But all our hours were not devoted to study. Ex- 
 ercise and recreation were also attended to, and en- 
 tered systematically into the plan of our education. 
 
22 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Three afternoons in the week, namely those of Wednes- 
 day, Saturday and Sunday were specially appropriated 
 to exercise. Then, under the superintendence of one of 
 the Professors, who for that week had the inspection, 
 we, in a body, sallied out of town, and made excursions 
 of greater or less extent, according to the season of the 
 year or the length of the days. Sometimes we spent the 
 whole afternoon in walking to visit some wood, ruin or 
 distant village. At other times we visited either some 
 farm or public garden, and partook of some simple re- 
 freshments ; and if during the winter the weather did 
 not admit of our taking our accustomed walks, care was 
 taken to make us dance for half an hour every evening, 
 and in these dances the Professor's wife and children 
 regularly joined. On Sunday evening in winter, we all 
 attended the Sunday concert. At this, besides the pro- 
 fessed musicians, a number of the principal ladies and 
 gentlemen of the place, and among those some of the 
 Professors of the Institute, composed the orchestra, or 
 were the performers ; and here we were sure to meet 
 all the principal inhabitants of the city. 
 
 As I was now about eighteen, and had acquired the 
 confidence of the professors, I was permitted (whenever 
 I chose to do so) to spend the afternoons, set apart for 
 exercise, in visiting my friends in and near town, and 
 of this permission I frequently availed myself. Besides 
 the Kev. Mr. Van der Ploeg, the Mennonist Minister, a 
 countryman of my own, with whom I was very intimate, 
 I had formed a number of other acquaintances, princi- 
 pally among the young ladies, and in the company of 
 the latter I spent many agreeable hours in conversation, 
 Walking, listening to music, or in dancing ; for dancing 
 there was not, as here, an evening's work, but only a 
 short interlude by which the amusements of the after- 
 noon were diversified. 
 
 Before leaving Crefeld it may not be amiss to inquire 
 what influence my residence there had on my moral 
 and religious character. Every week there was a lecture 
 
THE HOLLANDER 23 
 
 delivered to us on moral science. These lectures I lis- 
 tened to with intense interest, and not without profit, 
 so that, if I did not deceive myself, I left the Institute 
 better than when I entered it. In regard to the reli- 
 gious sentiment, my improvements were perhaps of a less 
 decided character. Not that I felt indifferent on the 
 subject of rehgion. I was regular in my attendance at 
 divine service every Sunday Morning. I had entered 
 myself as a member of the German reformed Church, 
 (which is essentially the same as the dutch reformed 
 church) and in that church I communed ; but I gener- 
 ally worshiped with the Mennonist Society, because the 
 services there were in the low dutch language, which 
 at least in the beginning, I could better understand. I 
 also lost some of my Calvinistic notions, and my feel- 
 ings became considerably more liberal ; but I had no 
 very decided opinions as to the doctrines of Christianity 
 and did not appreciate the importance of rehgion as it 
 deserved to be appreciated. 
 
 During the last winter of my stay at Crefeld it was 
 the headquarters of the french army of Sambre et 
 Meuse, then commanded by General Jourdan ; after- 
 wards one of the Mareschals of France. This army, 
 after gaining the hard contested battle of Pleurus, 
 which lasted three days, and a less considerable action 
 on the Rohr (if my memory serves me) forced the Im- 
 perial Army (as the united Austrian and Germanic Army 
 was then called) to take shelter on the right bank of the 
 Rhine. This happened in the fall of the year 1794. I 
 have some reason of remembering the retreat of the 
 Imperialists, as I run some risk of getting into a scrape 
 by it. The students had, on a Saturday afternoon, gone 
 to a farm belonging to the Institute. This farm was 
 situated near an extensive heath, the field of battle 
 where, during the Seven Year war, the French were 
 defeated by the Prussian Army under the hereditary 
 Prince of Brunswick. To that field, still covered with 
 the lines and other works formerly thrown up by the 
 
24 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 French, one of my fellow students and myself went to 
 exercise ourselves in practical Geometry, by measuring, 
 or taking the bearings, of some of these works. While 
 thus engaged, we observed an object at a distance, which 
 attracted our attention, and which we soon made out to 
 be a body of cavalry moving in our direction. Instead 
 of setting out immediately to give notice to our fellow 
 students of the approach of these troops, we with true 
 boyish thoughtlessness, hid ourselves in some bushes 
 growing on the old french lines. Here we remained 
 until the troops had come quite near. We then became 
 sensible of the awkwardness of our situation. To retreat 
 by the heath must have inevitably drawn on us the 
 attention of the troops. We, therefore, leaped into the 
 trench, which fortunately run nearly parallel with the 
 road. Here the old lines hid us from being seen, and 
 by running as fast as we could, we reached the farm in 
 time to enable the students to retire towards town be- 
 fore the arrival of the troops. Had our motions (which 
 certainly were somewhat suspicious) been observed, we 
 might have gotten into difficulty. That same evening 
 I went again with one of the Professors to the farm in 
 order to save the Cattle, Carts &c. Although it was now 
 night, we still met with troops in rapid retreat ; and we 
 then learned that the retreat of this body towards Dus- 
 seldorf had been cut off, and that they were now endeav- 
 ouring to cross the Rhine lower down, towards Wesel, 
 in which they succeeded. 
 
 A few days after this the french army arrived, and 
 was for some time hutted on the old field of battle and 
 the adjoining farms, the headquarters being in the town 
 of Crefeld. The discipline of the army was excellent, 
 and no disorders were committed by the troops, but the 
 country suffered severely by the enormous requisitions 
 that were made to feed and clothe the army, which was 
 really distitute of everything. On this occasion I had 
 an opportunity of seeing several persons whose names 
 belong to the history of that eventful period. Besides 
 
THE HOLLANDER 25 
 
 tke General in Chief Jourdan, there was Kleber, after- 
 wards assassinated in Egypt; Le Fevre, subsequently 
 Mareschal and Duke of Dantsig ; Richepanse, who died 
 Governor of one of the french West indie Islands ; 
 D'Hautpoutt, who was killed in battle in Germany, Genl 
 Championet, and, if I mistake not, Bernardotte, the 
 present King of Sweden, and Hoche, the pacificator of 
 the Vende. Of these two last I have however no dis- 
 tinct recollection. 
 
 I left Crefeld in the beginning of the Summer of 
 1795, and I may as well mention here, that the Institute 
 which was already on the decline when I left it, was not 
 long afterwards entirely broken up. Professor Schehl, 
 who was at the head of it, died in 1794. Shortly after- 
 wards Prof. Lange, one of the principal Instructors, left 
 it. These vacancies were inadequately supphed. Some 
 time afterwards the Widow Schehl married a Gentleman 
 who passed himself as a Swiss, but who was subsequently 
 arrested as a french Emigrant and carried prisoner to 
 Paris. His wife accompanied him, and the School was 
 broken up. 
 
 During my residence at Crefeld, my Brother John 
 had made a voyage to the United States, and had re- 
 turned to Holland.* He sailed for America in 1793 and 
 
 ' In an autobiography written for his children Mr. Huidekoper's son 
 Frederic remarked that Mr. Jan Huidekoper " had in early life paid a 
 short visit to America in a vessel which had sealed orders. The vessel 
 landed in a high northern latitude, and some of the passengers found 
 their way to the northern portion of the United States. Among these 
 was uncle John." 
 
 It was while Mr. Jan Huidekoper was traveling in America that Talley- 
 rand met him. Talleyrand wrote of this meeting in 1794, " I made up my 
 mind to leave Philadelphia, and therefore proposed to M. de Bea,umetz and 
 to a Dutch gentleman by the name of Heydecoper to travel with me. They 
 both accepted, and I must confess that I was pleased with the undertaking 
 from the beginning." (Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand, edited, with 
 a preface and notes, by the Dnc de Broglie, vol. i., p. 176.) Further on 
 in his narrative Talleyrand relates an amusing incident. " Once in the 
 heart of Connecticut ... we stopped at a house where the people con- 
 sented to give us a bed and supper. . . . The meal consisted of smoked 
 
26 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 returned to Europe in the winter of 1794-1795. What 
 was the precise object of his visit to this Country I have 
 never known positively. I have reason to beheve how- 
 ever, that he had been engaged, by the Directors of the 
 Holland Land Company, to be their general agent in 
 this Country in the place of Mr. Casenove, who then 
 held that station, but was about 4;o be recalled ; but that, 
 in consequence of an engagement which he contracted 
 before leaving Europe, and which would oblige him to 
 return to Holland, his trip to America was changed into a 
 mere tour of observation. 
 
 My Brother had long been attached to a Miss Stin- 
 stra, a distant relation of his, and his affection was, I 
 beheve, returned. But she was rich ; My Brother was 
 poor ; — She belonged to the burgher Aristocracy, and 
 he was as yet nothing but a Clerk in a Counting house. 
 These things, which have much more weight in Europe 
 than in this Country, prevented their engagement. The 
 lady was afterwards prevailed on to marry a very wealthy 
 man ; was not happy ; became soon a widow, and en- 
 gaged herself to My Brother shortly before he set out 
 for America. On his return he found her in the last 
 stages of consumption, and arrived but just in time to 
 see her breathe her last. About a year afterwards he 
 married her younger Sister, by whom he had seven Chil- 
 dren, of which six now survive. She died herself some 
 years ago. 
 
 fish, ham, potatoes, strong beer, and brandy. . . . The two young fellows, 
 who were rather elevated, spoke of a journey they were about to under- 
 take ; they were going beaver-hunting for a few weeks. They spoke of 
 their expedition in such glowing terms that . . . M. de Beaumetz, Mr. 
 Heydecoper and myself were dying to join them." M. de Beaumetz, in 
 fact, proposed doing so, and the plan was entered into with alacrity. They 
 went to bed committed to the beaver-hunt. By the next morning, how- 
 ever, their enthusiasm had somewhat cooled. " We began to realize," 
 said Talleyrand, " that spending a couple of months in the woods or 
 marshes was really too much of a good thing, so we endeavored to quash 
 the agreement made the night before. We got free with a few dollars, 
 and resumed our journey." 
 
THE HOLLANDER 27 
 
 On my return to Holland I first visited my Brother 
 John in Amsterdam, who kindly proposed to me the 
 alternative, either to give me a situation as Clerk in 
 the Commercial house he was about establishing, or to 
 furnish me with the means of going to America. I de- 
 termined in favor of the latter. Holland had been con- 
 quered by the french in the previous winter, and was 
 now involved in a war with England, by which her com- 
 merce was in a great measure destroyed. A commercial 
 carreer offered therefore there no very flattering pro- 
 spects to a young man without fortune or connections, 
 who would have to enter into competition for a living 
 with men who possessed both wealth and family influ- 
 ence in a country overstocked with inhabitants. On the 
 other hand, America offered plenty of scope for indi- 
 vidual exertion. Perhaps too that the enthusiastic man- 
 ner in which my Brother spoke of America, and the 
 wish I had in common with most Europeans of becom- 
 ing a country gentleman and landed proprietor, in the 
 European sense of that term, assisted in influencing my 
 decision. It was therefore agi-eed, that I should spend 
 a year with my parents and relations, and that I should 
 sail the following year for America. 
 
 After spending a few days with My Brother in Am- 
 sterdam, I set out to visit my parents at Hogeveen. 
 There I remained till the summer of the following year, 
 spending my time in reading such books as I could ob- 
 tain, in fishing, hunting and in visiting some of my Ma- 
 ternal relations, particularly My Mother's brothers at 
 Vries, and an old uncle who lived at Peise. I felt re- 
 luctant to leave my parents, who were already advanced 
 in life, for I felt that I should see them no more in this 
 world ; but I saw too, that the time was not very 
 distant when they would stand in need of assistance ; 
 and it was only by leaving them that I could hope to 
 acquire the means of supplying their necessities. 
 
 About the latter part of June, or the beginning of 
 July, 1796, I left my paternal home to commence my 
 
28 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 voyage to America. I stopt at Amsterdam, where I 
 spent some weeks with My Brother, who was then mar- 
 ried, and was epgaged in commercial business, in part- 
 nership with a Swiss Gentleman of the name of Tobler. 
 A Mr. Bicker was afterwards admitted as a third part- 
 ner into the Concern, but it proved unprofitable, and 
 after a few years My Brother withdrew from it, and 
 commenced doing an Insurance business by himself, in 
 which he was more successful. I left Amsterdam about 
 the 10th of August in the trekschuit (canal boat) for 
 the Helder, and sailed from thence on the 12th in the 
 Brig Prudence, Capt. Hovey. 
 
 This was a small vessel of one hundred and twenty 
 tons burthen, and altogether a sorry concern. She was 
 old, leaky, a bad sailer, had poor rigging, and sails so 
 old as to stand in constant need of repair. Everything 
 else on board was in perfect keeping with this. The 
 Captain and Mate were a couple of old sailors, who, after 
 sailing many years before the mast, had worked their 
 way up until they had attained their present stations. 
 They were good practical seamen, but very illiterate. 
 The rest of the crew (besides the cook) consisted of five 
 seamen, of which an English sloop of war impressed one 
 the second day after we sailed, thus reducing our crew 
 to the smallest number we could possibly get along with, 
 and rendering it totally inadequate to the management 
 of the vessel in case one of the sailors should become 
 sick, or meet with an accident which should disqualify 
 him from doing duty. Besides this, the Mate, who was 
 already somewhat advanced in years, was of a feeble 
 constitution, and had a serious spell of sickness during 
 the passage. Luckily we had an extra Mate on board, 
 one who had belonged to an other American vessel, but 
 who, having in Holland disagreed with his captain, had 
 left his vessel, and came over as a passenger in ours. 
 This man was a valuable addition to our crew. 
 
 As to the table, our Captain could not be charged 
 with wasting the property of the Owner in sumptuous 
 
THE HOLLANDER 2& 
 
 living. For a few days after leaving port we had fresh 
 mutton, but after that we were entirely confined to the 
 ship's provisions, consisting of very salt and very hard 
 beef ; salt pork, sea biscuit, bad butter, indifferent pa- 
 tatoes and beans. It is true we had a small supply of 
 fowls on board ; but as these were poorly taken care of, 
 and generally killed only after they got sick, to save 
 their lives as our Captain phrased it, they did not mend 
 our fare much. 
 
 You will perhaps ask, howl came to embark on board 
 of such a wretched vessel. This was owing to my Bro- 
 ther's trusting the arrangement for my voyage to a dutch 
 ship broker in whom he placed more confidence than the 
 man deserved. There was at that time, an excellent ves- 
 sel lying in the port at Amsterdam, bound to New York, 
 and which sailed two days before the Prudence. Of 
 that vessel we were kept in utter ignorance, and through 
 that man's instrumentahty My passage was engaged on 
 board of the old Brig. 
 
 We had a passage of sixty three days. During the 
 first three days I was seasick, and for a week more I 
 had no appetite. After that I was perfectly restored ; 
 ate my seabiscuit with as much appetite as any one on 
 board, and never felt myself in the least affected by the 
 hardest weather we had. During the passage I had a 
 good opportunity of exercising myself in learning to 
 speak English. I had studied the English language 
 somewhat while in Germany, and could understand tol- 
 erably well what I read, but I could neither speak it 
 intelligibly, nor could I understand it when it was spoken 
 by others. Gradually however I began to comprehend 
 all that was said, and before we arrived at New York I 
 had learned to express my meaning, if not always cor- 
 rectly, at least intelligibly. 
 
 I arrived at New York on the 14th October, 1796. 
 While ascending the bay, a young man came on board, 
 and informed the Captain that his owner (a Hamburger 
 of the name of Hoffmann) had failed. In consequence 
 
30 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 of this information the brig came to anchor ; and the 
 Captain, the young man who had boarded us and I, went 
 ashore on Long Island, hired a carriage, and went to 
 New York by land. At the house where we hired the 
 carriage, I was very much struck with the appearance of 
 a portion of the furniture. It was precisely such as I 
 had occasionally seen in a few antiquated houses in Hol- 
 land, and nowhere else, and was evidently a relick of a 
 former century, httle in keeping with the appearance of 
 things out of doors, and the dress and manners of the 
 persons whom I saw about. In a few minutes however 
 everything was explained. While the carriage was get- 
 ting ready, dinner was served, and, with it, entered an 
 old gentleman and lady dressed so exactly in the old 
 dutch fashion, that I could not help thinking that I 
 must be in an old dutch family ; and when a moment 
 afterwards I heard the old man ask a blessing in pro- 
 vincial low dutch I could almost have fancied myself 
 back again in my own native province of Drenthe. I 
 found afterwards that, on Long Island, in New York, 
 along the North river, at Albany, Schenectady &c the 
 low dutch was yet in general the common language of 
 most of the old people, and particularly of the Negroes ; 
 though m New York it had begun to be superceded by 
 the English language. 
 
 I thus, at the age of twenty, landed in a foreign 
 country, with the language of which I was little ac- 
 quainted, and which so far as I know, did not contain a 
 single person that I had ever seen ; and here I was to 
 make my own way, with no other assistance than what 
 could be derived from two or three letters of introduc- 
 tion to Countrymen of my own at Oldenbarneveld (now 
 Trenton) and Casenovia ; and a letter of credit for 
 money to supply my present wants. What rendered my 
 situation more difficult was, that I had little or no ac- 
 quaintance with the ways of the world ; had never been 
 acustomed to act for myself ; and that my education 
 had tended more to teach me what others had thought, 
 
THE HOLLANDER 31 
 
 than to think myself. I was therefore very deficient in 
 experience ; in proper reliance on myself, and in the 
 development of my mental powers. Such were some of 
 the disadvantages under which I set out in this country, 
 and, notwithstanding these, a kind Providence has con- 
 stantly so overruled events, that, with the exception of 
 the loss of friends, my life has almost been an uninter- 
 rupted scene of prosperity. 
 
 The City of New York was then very different from 
 what it is now, and did not impress me favourably. 
 Everywhere the good and even handsome buildings, were 
 intermixed with mean, low, ugly buildings, which ap- 
 peared to have been erected in derision of every prin- 
 cipal of architecture and good taste ; and besides my 
 dutch ideas were quite shocked to find the cows and 
 hogs run loose in the streets. 
 
 A letter to his brother in Amsterdam, begun by Mr. 
 Huidekoper while the vessel was becalmed in sight of 
 Long Island and waiting for wind to enable her to com- 
 plete her voyage, speaks farther of the voyage and of the 
 landing. When we remember that in his long life Mr. 
 Huidekoper never again looked upon Nieuwediep and 
 the Helder, never again saw rise upon his sight the dunes 
 which then sank from view, his farewell is all the more 
 significant. Significant is it also that one of the first 
 incidents of his voyage should be the haling from his 
 vessel by a British force of an American boy, to be im- 
 pressed into the British navy. The American grievance 
 which was to culminate in the War of 1812 presented 
 itself to him in a thoroughly concrete form. 
 
 The letter 1 is dated "At Sea, this 14th Oct., 1796," 
 and is as follows : — 
 
 1 This letter, written in French, has been translated by Mr. Huidekoper's 
 granddaughter, Mrs. Emma C. Cortazzo. 
 
32 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 My vbbt dear Bbothbr, — At last, thank God, 
 after sixty-one days I once more see land. Since yester- 
 day we have been in sight of Long Island and since this 
 morning I can hear the waves breaking on the shore. 
 You, who have been at sea, can judge with what impa- 
 tience we are awaiting a cessation of the calm which fell 
 upon us yesterday, and which has prevented our making 
 more than three leagues in the last twenty-four hours. 
 
 You will have learned by the letter which I wrote you 
 from the Helder that we were ready to sail on the 12th 
 of August, but as the wind was contrary on that day, 
 we were unable to leave Nieuwediep until the evening 
 of the 13th, so that we only really set sail on the 14th 
 with a fair wind. 
 
 We descried, on leaving port, an English fleet of 
 eighteen sail, and soon one of their cutters boarded us 
 to see our papers, after which it went in pursuit of 
 another vessel about to enter and which was hugging 
 the shore to avail itself of the protection of the cannon 
 mounted among the Dunes. A little later seasickness 
 overcame me and obliged me to retire to my cabin very 
 early. Before going below my eyes lingered once more 
 on the Dunes which border the shores of my native land. 
 I tried vainly to distinguish those that are near Haar- 
 lem — I knew that you must be there on that day, for 
 it was Sunday. Memory passed in review the happy 
 days I had spent there, and my heart was very full. I 
 felt that I had quitted my own country, and that I was 
 leaving there all I loved most in the world. The sweet 
 hope of soon returning could not soften my regret, for 
 the future seemed dark and uncertain. Sad thoughts 
 filled my mind, and my eyes were wet with tears. 
 
 My indisposition increased, and I have never felt more 
 forcibly the truth of a passage I have somewhere read, 
 that when the body is prostrated, the mind loses its 
 vigour. Do not think, however, that I regretted the de- 
 cision I had made. I had taken it only after mature re- 
 flection, and even in the midst of my regrets at leaving 
 
THE HOLLANDER 33 
 
 my beloved country I felt that the one to which I was 
 going would suit me better. At last sleep laid my sad 
 thoughts to rest, and the next morning we had lost sight 
 of land. 
 
 The 16th we were coasting the shores of England, 
 and all that day I could see its barren and little culti- 
 vated coast, which offered little that was attractive ex- 
 cept the picturesque position of its towns and villages, 
 of which some were close to the shore, while others 
 climbed the hillsides or topped the cliffs dominating the 
 sea. On one side I could see on the far horizon the 
 coast of France near Calais. 
 
 The Channel was alive with English cruisers. We 
 spoke one near Dover and two hours later an officer 
 from a royal man-of-war boarded us, not to see our pa- 
 pers as is usual, but to see if he could not impress some 
 able seaman. In effect, he took our cabin-boy, an Amer- 
 ican, on the frivolous pretext that his certificate of na- 
 tionality had not been renewed or re-examined by an 
 English consul within two years. He told us, as an ex- 
 cuse, that the admiralty had signified to him that they 
 could supply no more sailors, and that consequently he 
 had to take them wherever he could find them. It was 
 the second time that our unlucky cabin-boy had had the 
 honor of serving his Britannic Majesty in a manner so 
 unjust and so contrary to the rights of man — and this 
 is the almost daily fate of many American sailors. 
 
 The wind being favorable, after two days we left the 
 Lizard behind us, which means, as you know, that we 
 bade adieu to the last glimpse of land. 
 
 Some days later we passed during the night an enor- 
 mous fleet composed of probably over one hundred ves- 
 sels. The darkness, which prevented our counting them, 
 also left us in ignorance of their nationality. We could, 
 nevertheless, count more than fifty sail. The weather 
 continued fair and I soon felt quite myself, having dur- 
 ing the whole voyage only five or six attacks of sea- 
 sickness, which left no ill results except an aversion to 
 
34 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 food. In the end my appetite returned and I com- 
 menced to dine below, which I had not done heretofore, 
 having had my meals served me on deck. 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. Hovey for constant attention 
 and care, and I was often puzzled which to admire most 
 — his great kindness of heart or his narrow and super- 
 stitious mind ! To give you a sample of the latter, he 
 believed that to dream of cattle, horses, or of dancing 
 inevitably foretold a storm, and I saw him one day over- 
 come with fear because a cat we had on board was 
 playing ! 
 
 We made but slow progress, although the wind was 
 mostly favorable, not only on account of the frequent 
 calms, which sometimes lasted several days, but because 
 our ship was very foul with barnacles or marine plants. 
 After three weeks the wind became contrary, and soon 
 we met with a furious gale which was succeeded by six 
 or seven others, and the last one continued for thirty- 
 six hours. Finally the wind veered, the weather became 
 fine, but the calms returned — and so it went on during 
 our entire voyage, which caused us much delay. We had 
 two or three terrific gales, but in not one was the wind 
 favourable. However, after we passed the Grand Banks 
 we had better weather, although it was often variable. 
 Pay before yesterday we spoke a vessel whose destina- 
 tion is Khode Island, and which told us that a French 
 fleet of twelve ships of the line and three frigates had 
 passed the Grand Banks, going to take possession of 
 Newfoundland. I cannot vouch for the truth of this 
 neAvs — perhaps I may learn more of it in New York. 
 
 New York, this 19th of October. 
 Here I am at last in this city. I arrived on the I7th 
 after a voyage of sixty-three days ! We had sailed as 
 far up York River as ten miles from the city when a 
 young man came aboard representing Mr. Hoffman, the 
 owner of our vessel. After conversing for a few minutes 
 with our captain, the latter ordered our anchor dropped. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 35 
 
 He informed me that since he had left New York some 
 business complications had arisen which would oblige 
 him to go to New York by carriage, and that the vessel 
 might have to remain where she was' for some days. He 
 invited me to accompany him, which I gladly did. How 
 beautiful Long Island is — especially for a Hollander 
 who has seen only his own country ! Only heavy showers 
 that day kept me from going the whole distance on 
 foot ! I was enchanted with aU I saw. Fruit trees, grain 
 fields, trees and shrubs — everything, almost, was new 
 to me, and I saw here too, that primitive state of nature 
 which we try with little success to imitate in our " Eng- 
 lish gardens " in miniatme. 
 
 I was not equally pleased on entering New York. 
 The pigs and cows running about the streets first dis- 
 gusted me, and the more I saw of the town the more I 
 realized its inferiority to the majority of our Dutch 
 cities, as regards the buildings and the streets. Even 
 the fashionable promenade of the Battery, of which 
 one hears so much, has nothing to boast of except the 
 view over Staten Island and the river. It has not even 
 trees to protect one from the hot sun. What I do ap- 
 preciate is the perfect weather — although the season is 
 well advanced and you in Holland will soon be having 
 snow. 
 
 I was only able to call upon Messrs. Le Roy and Bay- 
 ard yesterday as our vessel, where I had left all my lug- 
 gage, only came into the port yesterday. I was received 
 by Mr. MacEvers in the most friendly manner possible, 
 and I find in him one of the most honest and afEable 
 men I have ever met. 
 
 He begged me to call upon him this morning to set- 
 tle some business matters, after which I am to dine with 
 him at his country house. Mr. Le Roy has promised to 
 introduce me to the family of Mr. Mappa,^ who is still 
 here, and who was seventy-six days in crossing the 
 ocean. They were obHged to pass to the north of Eng- 
 
 1 Adam G. Mappa. 
 
36 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 land, and a gale carried them to sixty-two degrees north 
 latitude. 
 
 Most of the ships arriving here have suffered from 
 the late storms, but there is the greatest difference in 
 the length of their passages, some having come from 
 England at the same time as we, which were but nine- 
 teen or twenty-three days at sea. It is true that a French 
 fleet has seized Newfoundland, and they think that it is 
 the fleet of Richery. I have seen a letter in a New York 
 journal which states that a French frigate and a priva- 
 teer had taken sixty merchantmen coming from Jamaica 
 and had destroyed all but six — of which three arrived 
 in the port whence the letter was written. Perhaps 
 this news is exaggerated, but it seems certain they have 
 taken some vessels, for they have come in to Philadel- 
 phia. 
 
 The 20th October. 
 
 I was yesterday at Mr, Le Roy's. There was a large 
 company, and they spoke much of you. Every one asked 
 for news of you and inquired whether you were not 
 coming again to America. Everybody was most polite 
 to me and I was charmingly entertained. 
 
 I leave to-morrow for Albany with two Enghshmen 
 who are going to Canada. Adieu, my dear Brother, 
 write me often and send your letters to Messrs. Le Roy 
 and Bayard. They have promised to forward mine to 
 you. My compliments to my sister and to Madam Stin- 
 stra.^ 
 
 This letter has the following postscript, written in 
 English : — 
 
 DeabBbotheb, — Messrs. Le Roy, Bayard, & McEvers 
 have furnished me with one hundred dollars. Be pleased 
 to give them credit and charge my account for it. They 
 will give me letters of introduction to some gentlemen 
 in the country, and charge Mr. Boon to furnish me 
 
 ^ His broihei'a mother-in-law. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 37 
 
 with whatever money I shall have occasion for. You 
 may be persuaded that I shall do all that is in my power 
 to enable myself to return you the advances you have 
 made, as soon as possible. Pray be so good by your 
 first as to tell me the amount of those bills you paid 
 for me after I was departed. I have had no time to 
 go to Messrs. Verplanck. Mr. McEvers told me when 
 I asked him after Mr. van Ender, that a gentleman, 
 which he called Mr. Vandeneinden was dead and thought 
 that that would be the gentleman you told me to inquire 
 after. I am in haste. It is already quite dark, and I 
 have not yet finished the duplicate of your letter. Pare- 
 well. 
 
 P. S. I speak already the Enghsh tongue with great 
 facility. 
 
 A letter to his father and mother, written October 
 28,' 1796, completes the account of his arrival in his 
 adopted country. 
 
 Dbakbst Parents [he begins] : — After a very long 
 voyage lasting 63 days I have at last arrived here, and 
 find myself, thank God, in the best of health. The prin- 
 cipal reason why I was desirous of reaching port was the 
 thought that you might become uneasy should no letter 
 reach you before the middle of December. You might 
 not perhaps think of the fact that there is not always a 
 ship here ready to sail for Holland as soon as my letters 
 reach here, and you must therefore not worry at all if 
 in future my letters are a fortnight longer than usual 
 on the way. ... I was never more delighted than at 
 the sight of Long Island, where we landed. Up to that 
 time I had not seen anything that could compare with 
 it. Trees, fruits, and cereals were mostly of varieties 
 with which I was not acquainted. Almost all the in- 
 habitants there speak Dutch, and they fed us well, prin- 
 
 ' This letter and others to his parents were written in Dutch, and have 
 been translated by Mr. Otto Ton Elock. 
 
38 HARM JAN HUIDEKQPER 
 
 cipally on fruits, which, after living so long on stale 
 food, tasted delicious. . . . My letter shows that I am 
 in haste. Give my regards to all my good friends, with- 
 out exception. I embrace Piet and Henderina in my 
 thought. I hope that Piet is already able to do a little 
 carpentering. I wiU write them the first of the month 
 from Oldenbarneveld or Cazenovia, and I hope that they 
 wiU not fail [to write], but will do so as amply as 
 possible. 
 
 A quite definite intention of becoming a farmer had 
 been in Mr. Huidekoper's mind when he left Amsterdam, 
 and his final objective point was Cazenovia, where Henry 
 de Clercq, a young cousin of the Stinstras, had already 
 begun the farmer's Hfe. On his way from New York, 
 he went first to Albany, and thence traveled by stage 
 to old Fort Schuyler. But he had come provided with 
 letters to two other Netherlanders, Gerrit Boon and 
 Adam Gerard Mappa, both of whom were at that time 
 at Oldenbarneveld.^ To Oldenbarneveld accordingly he 
 directed his steps before seeking Mr. de Clercq at Caze- 
 novia. The autobiography goes on to speak of his 
 journey and of the Dutch families at Oldenbarneveld 
 and Kempwyk. 
 
 To be able, however, to appreciate Mr. Huidekoper's 
 surroundings at Oldenbarneveld and to understand his 
 allusions to his friends there, it is necessary for us to 
 make a preliminary detour, and see who were the men 
 who made up this little Dutch circle of which he found 
 himself a member. 
 
 They were mainly fellow countrymen, either banished 
 or self-exiled from the Netherlands, members of the 
 Patriot party who had sought a refuge in America, for 
 
 1 The name Oldenbarneveld was afterward changed to Trenton. It 
 has of late become Barneveld. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 39 
 
 America represented to the Dutch patriots all that they 
 had hoped to see realized in their own land. The Amer- 
 ican Revolution and the long discussion of human rights 
 and liberties that accompanied it encouraged them to 
 make a desperate struggle in Holland for freedom of the 
 press, popular representation, and civil, as opposed to 
 military, authority, while at the same time causing 
 them to act a most friendly part toward the United 
 States. It was through the influence of leading patriots 
 that the Netherlands accorded recognition to Adams, 
 and the first investors in American bonds were men of 
 patriot affiliations. 
 
 By far the most interesting of the group in Olden- 
 barneveld was Francis Adrian van der Kemp.^ Van der 
 Kemp was born at Kampen, in Overyssel, on May 4, 
 1752. An eager student, particularly of philosophy, he 
 entered the ministry in 1775, and in 1776, though not 
 himself a Mennonite, became the pastor of a Mennonite 
 Baptist ^ society in Leyden, " the richest congregation," 
 John Adams called it, " in Europe." ^ 
 
 Mr. van der Kemp's experience in arriving at his con- 
 victions concerning the fundamental truths of religion is 
 strikingly like Mr. Huidekoper's. " I remained in my 
 study," said he, " and continued my inquiries night and 
 day. ... I did not discover, neither searched for, the 
 doctrines of Calvin, Socinius, Arminius, or Menno ; " 
 
 ' For the facts relating to van der Kemp and his friends see Francis 
 Adrian van der Kemp, an Autobiography, edited by Helen Lincklaen 
 Fairehild. 
 
 2 The Mennonites were Baptists. Mr. van der Kemp says in his auto- 
 biography, " A few old members of my congregation shuddered when I 
 told them that my father followed the army and that I served it for five 
 years. Dutch Baptists condemn the use of arms in any case." 
 
 8 Letter to Jefferson, Life and Letters of John Adams, vol. x. p. 224. 
 
40 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 nor did he describe himself as limited by any denomi- 
 national Hnes. Mrs. Fairchild, however, very justly calls 
 him a Unitarian. 
 
 His nearest friends were men who Uke himself were 
 prominent in the Patriot party. It was under their guid- 
 ance, particularly that of Johan Derk van der Capellen, 
 that the states of Overyssel cast their deciding vote 
 against allowing the " Scotch Brigade" of Dutch sol- 
 diers to fight under the English against America. Van 
 der Capellen and John Luzac, both coworkers with van 
 der Kemp, were early investors in American bonds ; 
 and through Capellen's efforts, which were seconded by 
 the people, the Dutch government was led to give recog- 
 nition to Adams as United States envoy and thus to the 
 United States as a nation. 
 
 Van der Kemp not only wrote pamphlets inveighing 
 against the military usurpation of civil authority and 
 urging popular representation and the freedom of the 
 press, but printed similar works by his friends ; even 
 shouldering the responsibility of one of the produc- 
 tions, — which involved him in a troublesome trial in 
 the courts. More than this, on the ground that military 
 oppression by the government necessitated an armed 
 militia, he raised and drilled at Leyden a company of 
 citizen soldiers ; and with other Patriots organized the 
 " Vry corps," or volunteer army, among the people of 
 the different towns. 
 
 When the Patriots were defeated, van der Kemp was 
 thrown into prison. He was released on the payment of 
 a heavy ransom, but only to face banishment. Accom- 
 panied by his wife he then came to America. He lived 
 first upon the shore of the North River, then, finding 
 this beyond his means, removed to " Scriba's Patent " on 
 
THE HOLLANDER 41 
 
 Oneida Lake, where he was very happy in his modest 
 home, Kempwyk, in which Mr. Huidekoper paid him a 
 visit. But Kempwyk was too lonely a place for Mrs. 
 van der Kemp. She pined for the society of her friend 
 Mrs. Mappa, and so finally Kempwyk was abandoned 
 for a small cottage in Oldenharneveld. There Francis 
 Adrian van der Kemp accomplished the monumental 
 task of translating from the Dutch those records of the 
 West India Company which were owned by the State of 
 New York, a work which gave him occupation and finan- 
 cial support during most of his remaining years. A 
 thoroughly cultivated scholar, " the most learned man 
 in America," as De Witt Clinton called him, it was only 
 by the toil of his hands and the most rigid economy, 
 added to his work of translation, that he could keep his 
 gently reared wife in any degree of comfort. Still, with 
 the treasured remnant of his once extensive library he 
 solaced his few leisure hours ; and he always kept up a 
 correspondence, not only with his friends in Holland, 
 but with the first men of his time in this country. His 
 letters to John Adams — intimate letters, speaking of 
 himself, his pursuits, even of his deprivations — are those 
 of a man of wide interests and general cultivation. He 
 also enjoyed the friendship of Jefferson to such an extent 
 as to be one of the very few, perhaps not more than 
 three or four persons, to whom Jefferson confided an 
 autograph copy of his "Syllabus, or Estimate of the 
 Merits of Jesus compared with Others," which was pub- 
 lished in England,^ and the authorship of which was to 
 
 1 In the Monthly Repository of Theological and General Literature, 
 Ixxx. vol. xi, October, 1816, pp. 573-576, published in London. See Auto- 
 biography of Francis Adrian van der Kemp, edited by Helen Lincklaen 
 Fairchild. 
 
42 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 be kept a profound secret. He was warmly esteemed by 
 the university men in Cambridge as well as by the 
 clergy in Boston, and his rare appearance in Massachu- 
 setts was the signal for visits and various attentions 
 from Eliot, Channing, Dr. Freeman, Lowell, Norton, 
 and others. He was still at work on his forty volumes 
 of the records when Harvard conferred on him in 1820 
 the degree of LL. D. 
 
 In both Mappa and van der Kemp, Mr. Huidekoper 
 had before him men of rich experience who led con- 
 tented lives far from the noise of cities, happy in a fru- 
 gal independence, active in intellectual enjoyment. His 
 own ideal of the sort of home he would build was based 
 upon their example ; and in many respects his maturer 
 years retained an impress of the contact with these men 
 of simplicity and strong sincerity. 
 
 Mappa,^ indeed, was rather the soldier than the scholar. 
 A native of Delft, he gained, it is said, while yet a young 
 man, distinction for his courage and enterprise as an 
 officer in the Dutch service ; and when he left the army 
 he entered civic life as a type founder. He married, 
 after a long probation imposed by her parents, Anna 
 Adriana Paspoort, a woman of great beauty of charac- 
 ter, whom Mr. Huidekoper always referred to with affec- 
 tion and reverence. Mappa was ardently a Patriot, and 
 in 1786 had become one of the leaders of that party. 
 He commanded the armed citizens of the " Vry corps " 
 in the province of Holland.^ After the breaking up of 
 the Patriot party Mappa spent two years or more in 
 France, trying to effect some combination of French 
 and Dutch interests that might work to the benefit of 
 
 ' See Autohiography of Francis Adrian van der Kemp. 
 2 Ibid., p. 143. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 43 
 
 his people.' Then, this hope having failed him, in 1789 
 he emigrated with his wife and children to the State of 
 New York. He brought with him to New York his 
 letter foundry, and apparently pursued his business in 
 the city for several years. In 1795, however, he removed 
 to Oldenbarneveld. He was, at the first town meeting 
 held in Oldenbarneveld, elected supervisor, and he held 
 a prominent place in the regard of his fellow townsmen 
 as long as he lived. 
 
 The settlement at Oldenbarneveld had been begun by 
 Gerrit Boon, who came through the forest from Old 
 Fort Schuyler, blazing trees by the way until he reached 
 the site which he decided to take for his village. It 
 was he who gave to his town the name of the Dutch 
 reformer and martyr. Tradition says that Mr. Boon 
 founded great hopes on the profit which he expected to 
 reap from the making of maple sugar, and that in his 
 sanguine plans he proposed to tap the trees all the year 
 round. It would be interesting to know whether the 
 worthy gentlemen of the Holland Land Company, for 
 whom Mr. Boon was acting, hard-headed Dutch capital- 
 ists, but whom Mr. Huidekoper nevertheless speaks of 
 as investing in sugar lands with a philanthropic eye to 
 the reduction of the demand for slave-labor among the 
 cane brakes, also shared Mr. Boon's delusion as to the 
 perpetual flow of the sap. 
 
 One more Netherlander, John Lincklaen,^ should be 
 mentioned here. John Lincklaen was born in Amster- 
 dam December 24, 1768. In June, 1790, he came to 
 America with Gerrit Boon, sent out under the patron- 
 age of the Holland Land Company, with letters to The- 
 
 ' See Autohiography of Francis Adrian van der Kemp, p. 144. 
 
 ^ See Journals of John Lincklaen, edited by Helen Lincklaen Fairohild. 
 
44 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 ophilus Cazenove, in Philadelphia. He made journeys of 
 inspection in the interest of the company, and in 1793 
 was appointed agent of its lands in the neighborhood of 
 Cazenovia. 
 
 The autobiography may now again take up the story ; 
 in it Mr. Huidekoper, beginning with his departure 
 from Albany, continues : — 
 
 I remained in New York four or five days, and then 
 set out for Albany, in a common river sloop, the only 
 mode of conveyance in those days. This was to me a 
 delightful journey. I had never before seen either a 
 rock or a mountain ; and you may judge how I was 
 struck with the rocky scenery along the Hudson river, 
 and with the Highlands. Luckily I had a good oppor- 
 tunity of admiring this scenery at my leisure, for we 
 were four days on our passage, and the weather was fine. 
 When the tide was in our favour, we sailed slowly up 
 the river; when it was unfavourable, we came to anchor, 
 and then I went ashore, and rambled about until it was 
 time to sail again. From Albany I pursued my journey 
 westward to Utica, then called Old Fort Schuyler, by 
 stage. It then took three days to make that distance 
 which is now travelled in six hours. On the last day we 
 broke our axletree in the midst of a wood, and here I 
 had the first opportunity of admiring American inge- 
 nuity. Coming from a country where men are rendered 
 helpless by a rigid adherence to a subdivision of em- 
 ployment, I considered our accident fatal to our further 
 progress, for I thought that to make an axletree a man 
 must be a professional wagon maker ; and I was there- 
 fore not a Httle surprised to see our driver, with no other 
 tools than an ax, and perhaps an auger, construct in a 
 little while an axletree which carried us safely to the end 
 of our journey. A little incident, connected with the 
 foregoing, has frequently made me smile. I will men- 
 tion it here, as it will show you how difficult it is for a 
 
THE HOLLANDER 45 
 
 European, with his head full of European ideas, to judge 
 correctly of matters and things here. To mend our 
 Axletree the driver cut down a young SapUng. This 
 I looked upon as a trespass, rendered somewhat excuse- 
 able' by our condition. But when I saw him unceremoni- 
 ously condemn this sapUng as unfit for his purpose, and 
 proceed to cut down another, I looked upon this act as 
 a wanton waste and disregard of anothers property. 
 
 Fort Schuyler consisted at that time of about two 
 dozen of houses standing on leased ground belonging 
 to the Bleecker family of Albany. The year afterwards 
 Mr. Boon purchased some of the ground on which the 
 City of Utica now stands at ten dollars the Acre. On 
 the day following my arrival at Utica, I went to Olden- 
 barneveld to deliver the letters of introduction which 
 my Brother had given me for Messrs. Boon and Mappa. 
 From them, and from the family of the latter, I met 
 with a very kind reception, and as they were all dutch, 
 living in the dutch manner, and constantly speaking the 
 dutch language, I felt as if I had been carried back 
 again at once to my native country. 
 
 Gerrit Boon, one of the Gentlemen just named, was 
 a Hollander, and was at that time Agent for some dutch 
 Gentlemen (essentially the same with those known to 
 You as the directors of the Holland Land Company) 
 who held about ninety thousand acres of land in that 
 neighborhood. There is an anecdote connected with the 
 origin of this Agency, which is not generally known. 
 Some dutch Gentlemen, misled by the statement of 
 Brissot de Warville and others, into the belief that 
 sugar might be manufactured from the maple in such 
 quantities, and at such prices, as to supercede the West 
 india Sugar, and that thus the slavetrade might be 
 greatly curtailed, resolved to make the experiment. 
 They accordingly purchased about Twenty three thou- 
 sand acres of land, chiefly covered with Sugar Maple, 
 and sent out Mr, Boon, a Sugar refiner by profession, 
 to superintend the Manufacture. It is ahnost needless 
 
46 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER. 
 
 to add that this experiment proved a total failure, and 
 that, after expending some few thousand dollars on it, 
 it was abandoned, and the lands Surveyed into small 
 lots, and offered for sale to settlers. 
 
 Mr. Boon was a Gentleman of great personal activity, 
 and of considerable force of mind, but totally inexperi- 
 enced in the Settlement of Wild lands. Hence, instead 
 of placing his village of Oldenbarneveld, (now Trenton) 
 at the falls of the West Canada Creek, he placed it two 
 Miles farther West, on a small tributary stream, and 
 then endeavored to create there, by dint of expense, a 
 waterpower far inferior to what nature offered him on 
 the Canada Creek. The attempt proved abortive.^ 
 
 I remained about two weeks at Oldenbarneveld, and 
 then set out to go and spend the winter at Casenovia. 
 It was on this trip that I got initiated for the first time 
 into some of the hardships which were then attendant 
 on traveUing in a new Country. My route, until I got 
 to within Nine Miles of Casenovia was along the Main 
 Genessee road, and that road run for 18 or 19 Miles 
 through the Oneida reservation. From the eastern edge 
 of that Reservation to Casenovia was a distance of 30 
 Miles, and this must be made in one day, as there was 
 no tolerable intermediate stopping place. I left the 
 edge of the reservation in Company with four other 
 travellers, at early daybreak. The ground was sHghtly 
 covered with snow, and the roads very deep and muddy. 
 At half after three in the afternoon we reached Cana- 
 
 ' The order of the autobiography has been slightly changed at this 
 point and elsewhere, to suit the exigencies of the narrative. No portions 
 of it have been omitted, however. Its capitalization, punctuation, and 
 spelling are intended to be Mr. Huidekoper's own. In the extracts from 
 his letters capitalization and punctuation have been modernized, but the 
 spelling and the literal transcription, in most instances, have been pre- 
 served. The very few and unimportant departures from this rule are 
 occasioned by the fact that a number of the letters were hasty copies 
 taken off in a letter-book, sometimes by the hand of a clerk; and a num- 
 ber were copies made at a later day, by other persons, whose possible 
 slips it was not desirable to perpetuate. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 47 
 
 serago, an Indian Village distant 18 Miles, and here we 
 got something to eat for our horses. From here I pur- 
 sued my way alone. The sun was setting as I turned 
 o£E from the Genesee road, My horse became uneasy, 
 and had to be led, and thus, some times riding, some- 
 times Walking, I reached Casenovia at Nine o'clock in 
 the evening. At half after Nine I got my breakfast. 
 
 At Casenovia I spent the Winter with Mr. Henry de 
 Clercq, a Young Hollander, a Cousin of my Brother's 
 wife, who had come to the United States with my 
 Brother about three Years before, and who had settled 
 near Casenovia as a farmer. My object in the selection 
 of this residence was to make my self practically ac- 
 quainted with farming, for I too had left Holland with 
 the intention of becoming a farmer in America. I have 
 since often smiled at the erroneous idea, which I, as 
 well as numerous other Europeans, entertained on this 
 subject. In Europe, the man who owns a hundred acres 
 of good land is rich, and can draw from it more than a 
 competency with Httle more labour than that of super- 
 intending the cultivation of it. Now Europeans are apt 
 to connect the same ideas with the possession of land 
 in this Country ; and as they hear that very good land 
 is to be had here at from two to four dollars per acre, 
 they are led to believe that it requires but a few hundred 
 dollars to make a man independent for life. I need not 
 add that when I saw my friend de Clercq's farm covered 
 with stumps, it did not exactly reahze the beau ideal 
 which I had formed to myself of a territorial possession ; 
 and when I learned afterwards that it had taken about 
 $4,000 to make his farm what it was, I became sensible, 
 that I was not rich enough to become a farmer. 
 
 I spent the winter of 1796-7 with Mr. de Clercq. 
 He was then unmarried, and lived in a small log-cabin. 
 His family, consisted of himself, a hired man, a boy and 
 a housekeeper. The latter went frequently on a visit to 
 her parents, and would be absent for a week or two, 
 leaving us to get along as we could ; and I have f re- 
 
48 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 quently laughed at the style in which we kept hatchelor's 
 Hall. 
 
 Mr. Lincklaen, who was Agent for the Holland Land 
 Company, of some lands which they possessed in that 
 quarter, asked me to aid his Clerk until one, whom he 
 expected, should arrive. With him I spent part of the 
 summer of 1797,^ and in the fall of that year I returned 
 to Oldenbarneveld, where I remained until the Month 
 of february, 1802, when I removed to Philadelphia. 
 
 Everything that Mr. Huidekoper saw in these first 
 years made a vivid impression upon his observant mind, 
 from his first rattlesnake, " four feet nine inches long, 
 and as thick as a man's leg," to the maize, which he 
 writes to his parents " is much grown here," and is the 
 same plant which they have seen in the gardens in Hol- 
 land under the name of " Tui-kish wheat." " It grows," 
 he teUs them, " much larger and heavier here. They use 
 it for fodder, for hogs and oxen, and even the people 
 eat it here somewhat, but it seems to me that it is not 
 nearly so nutritious as wheat or rye. This latter is not 
 grown here, and those of the inhabitants who have eaten 
 rye bread in the Eastern states of this republic do not 
 seem to care for it very much, and prefer maize and 
 wheat bread." 
 
 In another letter written to them from Oldenbarne- 
 veld, October 24, 1797, he says : — 
 
 I have passed a portion of the time during the past 
 two months making httle journeys from here with 
 
 1 A letter to his parents, of March 1, 1797, says : " Mr. Lincklaen was 
 married last week, and on that occasion I have made the acquaintance of 
 Mr. van der Kemp. This gentleman was previous to the year '87 pastor 
 in one of the Dutch cities, and left the country after the revolution. He 
 was quite closely connected with the Frisian branch of the family, par- 
 ticularly with Uncle Huidekoper, and you would please him by sending 
 them his compliments when you write to them." 
 
THE HOLLANDER 49 
 
 Messrs. Mappa and van der Kemp. You will have seen 
 from my preceding letter that I intended to leave Caze- 
 novia and to pass the winter here. I arrived here the 
 last of the month of August, and thereupon a few days 
 later went on a trip with Mr. Mappa to the Settlement 
 of Kortenaer, which lies eighteen miles from here, and 
 belongs to the same company which are the owners of 
 this settlement, namely, Messrs. Van Staphorst, Stad- 
 nitzki, Schimmelpenninck, Van Eeghen, etc. This 
 settlement lies on the Black River, which is not naviga- 
 ble, by reason of the terrible faUs and rocks which are 
 in it. We stayed here for some time, as Mr. Mappa 
 had some business at this place, and after seeing every- 
 thing of interest we finally returned. On our journey 
 back we were overtaken by a storm, accompanied by 
 such a heavy rain that we were wet through before we 
 could reach a house. This made riding disagreeable, 
 and all the more, as the road being low and muddy, 
 they had laid out somie sixty causeways in it, of which 
 some are more than a quarter of a mile in length. A 
 causeway is a sort of bridge which is made by laying 
 trees side by side, and you can easily understand that 
 when the rain has made these trees slippery travelling 
 over them is far from agreeable. Some time after that 
 I went with Mr. van der Kemp to his place, known as 
 Kempwyk, which lies on the Oneida Lake. The road 
 there is via Fort Stanwix, now called Rome, a place 
 where four years ago there was only one house, but 
 where there are now several of two stories, and even 
 some of three stories, together with a number of smaller 
 buildings. I saw the canal here, which was dug awhile 
 ago to promote navigation to the West. This was laid 
 out with much skill, and it afforded me much pleasure, 
 as in this country, where everything is in its natural 
 rough condition, there are very few such things to be 
 seen. The Oneida Lake is twenty miles long, and from 
 six to seven miles broad. The land in that neighborhood 
 is not so good as the land here, and further during a 
 
60 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 portion of the year it is unhealthy. The exhalations 
 from the marshes and stagnant water cause a fever 
 among the inhabitants, which I think has a good deal 
 of similarity to the Zealand fever. Theser two reasons, 
 and the bad management of the owners of the lands, 
 are the causes that the settlement there, which is called 
 Rotterdam, does not increase very much. 
 
 About two years after my arrival at Oldenbarneveld 
 [he continues, in the autobiography], Mr. Boon returned 
 to Europe, and was succeeded in the Agency by Col. 
 Mappa. This was a dutch exile, who, in the struggle 
 against the House of Orange in 1786 and 1787, had 
 commanded a body of patriot troops, and who, after the 
 revolution of 1787, had expatriated himself, and had 
 emigrated, first to France, and afterward to the United 
 States. He was a man of a very hospitable benevolent 
 and kind disposition. 
 
 During my residence at Casenovia the dutch Society 
 at Oldenbarneveld had been increased by the removal 
 thither of Mr. afterwards Doctor Van der Kemp and 
 his family ; and was at this time f uU of attraction, par- 
 ticularly to a Young Hollander still partial to the lan- 
 guage and customs of his native Country. Messrs. Boon 
 and Mappa I have already mentioned. Dr. Van der 
 Kemp was, like the latter, a dutch exile. His life was 
 devoted to study, and he was one of the best read Schol- 
 ars which I have ever met with. Mrs. Mappa and Mrs. 
 van der Kemp belonged to the really excellent of this 
 earth. To both I am indebted for a thousand acts of 
 kindness, particularly to the former, who was as a 
 Mother to me during my residence at Oldenbarneveld.^ 
 
 ' " Oldenbarneveld is a very pleasant little place," Mr. Huidekoper 
 wrote (August 9, 1797) to his parents, " and it is much more agreeable 
 for me because there are so many Hollanders there. These are Mr. Boon, 
 manager of the settlement, Messrs. Mappa and van der Kemp, with their 
 families, both of whom fled from Holland because of the revolution of 
 '87, Mr. Zaan, brother-in-law of Mr. Mappa, and Mr. Smits ; — in all, 
 
THE HOLLANDER 51 
 
 For the first two Years I lived in comparative idle- 
 ness. It is true that I made myself occasionally useful 
 in making some excursion for the Agency, or in assist- 
 ing my friends in a store connected with it, but I had 
 no regular employment, and the few feeble efforts I 
 made to get into business, proved abortive, because I 
 relied on others, and had not yet learned to rely on my 
 own exertions. At the end of this time, a Mr. Smits, 
 a dutch Clerk in the employ of Mr. Mappa, determined 
 on returning to Holland. This Clerkship was offered 
 to me and accepted ; and here commenced that con- 
 nection with the Holland Land Company, and with the 
 land business, in which the whole of my subsequent 
 life has been spent. 
 
 The obtaining this Clerkship, to which a salary of 
 $500. a Year, besides board and lodging, was attached, 
 formed an important era in my life. I was now, not 
 only earning my own living, but, with the rigid eco- 
 nomy which I prescribed to myself, I was enabled to lay 
 by the largest part of my salary, to gratify the first 
 wish of my heart, that of being useful to my parents. 
 My Father died before I had the means of giving effect 
 to this wish ; but I had the happiness subsequently to 
 be useful to my Mother and to My unmarried Sister. 
 
 I have always looked back with pleasure to the latter 
 Years of my residence at Oldenbarneveld with pleasure, 
 because that was a happy portion of my life. I had now 
 a competency, and lived without care. My labours were 
 light and of a pleasant kind. My amusements were sim- 
 ple, consisting chiefly in hunting, or fishing for trout ; 
 and I enjoyed the society of excellent worthy friends 
 to whom I was sincerely attached, and by whom I was 
 beloved in return ; so that, when I left Oldenbarneveld, 
 it was like parting again from my family and My 
 home. 
 
 fifteen persona. Furthermore quite a number of the inhabitants speak 
 Dutch, although somewhat like the farmers in Overyssel and Drenthe, 
 and mingled with a few English words." 
 
62 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 His life with the kindly Hollanders of Oldenbarneveld 
 was indeed a very happy one. Mrs. Mappa was one of 
 the warmest friends he ever made, and continued to 
 write to him while she could hold a pen. When age 
 and illness made this impossible, her daughter took 
 up the correspondence, and wrote at intervals for a 
 number of years, never losing her affectionate regard 
 for him.^ 
 
 In the growth of Oldenbarneveld he took great pride, 
 and reported in the winter of 1798 : " This settlement 
 has never been more lively than at present ; every day 
 about twenty sleighs come laden with goods from Fort 
 Schuyler, and they generally go back the same day 
 laden with lime, which is burnt here. In addition, there 
 are about fifteen or sixteen sleds engaged daily in haul- 
 ing stone from a stone quarry which is about a mile from 
 Mr. Boon's. These stones are to be used to build a new 
 corn mill and brewery which Mr. Mappa is to build." 
 
 Meanwhile his letters evinced his intelligent apprecia- 
 tion of Holland's vicissitudes, and an undiminished 
 affection for his family and friends. 
 
 [January 15, 1798.] I have seen from the papers 
 the unfortunate defeat of the Dutch fleet under de 
 Winter. I am sincerely sorry at the loss of so many 
 brave men who were there killed or captured, aU the 
 more that it is so difficult to secure experienced seamen. 
 AU the consolation we can find in the entire affair is 
 that our seamen have borne themselves so bravely, and 
 
 1 When Mr. Huidekoper's son Alfred in later years paid Miss Mappa a 
 visit, her interest in her old acquaintance was as cordial as ever. " I deliv- 
 ered," Alfred Huidekoper said, in writing to his sister, " my father's letter 
 to Miss Mappa, for which I got six kisses and one hundred and twenty (or 
 less) shakings of the hand." She also took delight in showing him the 
 garden where his father had walked, and the trees which he had planted. 
 
THE HOLLANDER 53 
 
 that the EngUsh, although the victors, will long think 
 of de Winter and his men. 
 
 [April 3, 1799.] When you write to me, you cannot 
 go too much into particulars ; those matters which others 
 may regard as mere bagatelles interest me. Give my re- 
 gards to all my acquaintances, and especially to the 
 Carstens, Hiddingh, RavaUet, etc. I embrace you, and 
 my brother and sister. 
 
 [August 13, 1799.] Your position cannot be very plea- 
 sant now that the war is on. It would give me pleasure 
 if you would write me particularly regarding the situa- 
 tion in your district, how the arming of the citizens 
 progresses, who are now their of&cers, who are the mem- 
 bers of the municipal government, and who are now at 
 Assen as members of the Provincial administration. . . . 
 How is brother Piet getting on with his studies ? Who 
 is teaching him now, and what is the plan that you ex- 
 pect to follow with him ? Write me everything, for I 
 am most sincerely interested in aU that regards you and 
 the others of my family, and all my good friends. I have 
 not heard anything as yet from the family in Priesland. 
 Let me know how they are, and if any of them, and 
 who, are in the poHtical government of that former pro- 
 vince. 
 
 [October 16, 1799.] ^ I am sorry to see that the some- 
 what long delay in receiving one of my letters has made 
 sister somewhat anxious. May I ask you, sister dear, not 
 to worry so easily over me. My occupations may some- 
 times prevent me from writing, and what is more, with 
 this war possibly a third of my letters go astray. ... I 
 have seen with pleasure from brother Jan's letter that 
 Pierre intends to go into the army. This is certainly 
 one of the most glorious careers that a man can achieve. 
 I hope that you may find good fortune and enjoyment 
 in it. 
 
 [March 29, 1801.] ^ Your agreeable letter of the 
 
 1 To his brother and sister. 
 
 s To his mother. His father died in 1799. 
 
54 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 1st of September has been duly received by me, and 
 with the greatest joy I learned that you were all well, 
 especially as I had begun to be uneasy, as I had not 
 received any news from you for a year. You will see from 
 this that your letters which were sent in May, 1800, have 
 been lost on the way ; for which I am extremely sorry, 
 as they would have been highly interesting to me, con- 
 taining as they did a number of answers to questions 
 which I had put to you and the others of the family at 
 Hoogeveen. As I have but little time now, I will reply 
 to your letter and that of my dear brother and sister in 
 one. 
 
 I continue to take the same cordial interest in the 
 prosperity of you all, and if I wish to see my own circum- 
 stances a little more easy, it is principally that I would 
 like to give you all convincing proofs of my affection 
 for you, I hope in the meantime that the Posserveld 
 Veen [peatfield], can be sold to advantage, and that 
 this wiU help you for some time. I am sorry, as well 
 as you, that my dear Piet has as yet no prospects of 
 making a living. What has become of the plan to enter 
 the military service ? The bravery of the Dutch troops 
 makes this now a desirable calling. Perhaps Jan can 
 help him in this, in some way or other. I advise him 
 strongly to go in everything to his brother Jan for ad- 
 vice, and to follow it. Should my circumstances change 
 favorably, he can always make claim on my friendship, 
 and if I ever get where I can be of service to him here 
 or in Europe it wiU be my greatest pleasure to help 
 him with every means in my power. His good con- 
 duct gives me the greatest pleasure, and he should be 
 convinced that one can never be unhappy, as long 
 as he can say to himself that he has not deserved nods- 
 fortune. That uncle Ketel does nothing for him, after 
 what he had promised, is exceedingly unfair. I beg 
 my dear Piet, in the meantime, not to become discour- 
 aged, but to use all his efforts, in an honorable manner, 
 to obtain for himself in some way or other an honor- 
 
THE HOLLANDER 5S 
 
 able livelihood. This is certainly preferable to a depen- 
 dence on uncles or aunts. Nothing is above indepen- 
 dence, and no calling is low which is not dishonorable, 
 and through which one can obtain for himself a decent 
 living. 
 
CHAPTEE n 
 
 IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 
 Me. Huidekopbr continues in the autobiography : — 
 
 Mr. Smits, My predecessor at Gldenbarneveld, re- 
 turned to the United States about the Year 1801 to 
 become the bookkeeper of Mr. Busti/ the Agent General 
 of the Holland Land Company. In the beginning of 
 the Year 1802, Mr. Smits died, and Mr. Busti then 
 invited me to become a second time Mr. Smits' succes- 
 sor. As to this situation there was attached a Salary 
 of f 1200 the offer was too advantageous to be refused. 
 I therefore accepted it, and removed to Philadelphia in 
 the beginning of february, 1802. 
 
 Here again I found myself pleasantly situated. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Busti were both of them Worthy, kind, amia- 
 ble and Well informed.^ My fellow Clerk, Mr. Defrance, 
 was a kindhearted obliging Young Frenchman. My 
 labour was easy, seldom occupying more than the fore- 
 noon. My income, which was already ample, was in- 
 creased f 200 a Year, by my being appointed Secretary 
 and Bookkeeper of the Pennsylvania Population Com- 
 pany ; and some time afterwards I received a mark of 
 the Confidence reposed in me by the Holland Land 
 
 ' Paul Busti, a native of Milan, Italy, and his wife, Elizabeth May, born 
 in Holland, daughter of Admiral May of the British navy, came to Phila- 
 delphia in 1794. In 1799 he became the general agent of the Holland 
 Land Company, a position which he held until his death, in 1824. 
 
 ° Mr. Huidekoper found in Mr. Busti a person of extreme exactness in 
 business methods, with whom a young man could not fail to receive the 
 most careful training. He became an inmate of Mr. Busti's home as well 
 as of his ofSce, and made pleasant friends in Philadelphia, as he did 
 wherever he went. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 57 
 
 Company, by being designated as the successor of Mr. 
 Busti in the general Agency. 
 
 My residence in Philadelphia was of service to me, not 
 only in a pecuniary point of view, but also as, by bring- 
 ing me in contact with the world, it served to enlarge 
 my ideas, and to improve my manners, which latter, 
 from my having almost constantly resided in the Coun- 
 try, had never been sufficiently attended to. But though 
 I thus endeavoured to acquire the manners, and to con- 
 form to the customs of the New World into which I had 
 been translated, I always retained my former predilec- 
 tions for the simple pleasures of life, and I was thus 
 preserved from those dissipations which are but too 
 common in large Cities. 
 
 During the first Year of my residence in Philadelphia, 
 an opportunity offered itself of gratifying my love of 
 travelUng, and I embraced it with eagerness. Major 
 Koger Alden, who was at that time the Holland Com- 
 pany's Agent for their lands west of the Allegheny 
 river, was no accomptant himself ; and having an equally 
 incompetent Clerk, his accounts had become confused. 
 It became therefore necessary that either the Major 
 should come to Philadelphia with his books and papers, 
 or that someone should go to Meadville to adjust his 
 accounts. The latter was preferred, and I was desig- 
 nated to perform that task. I accordingly left Phila- 
 delphia on horseback (then the only mode of travelhng 
 in the interior) some time in July, in company with 
 Mr. Jabes Colt, who was at that time the Agent of the 
 Pennsylvania Population Company for their lands in 
 Crawford County. From Philadelphia to Strasburgh, at 
 the eastern foot of the Mountains, the country was, 
 comparatively, tolerably weU settled, but from thence 
 to Greensburgh on the west side of the Mountains all 
 was wilderness, intersperced here and there either with 
 small villages, such as Fannetsburgh, Bedford, Stoys- 
 town, &c., or with solitary stations for the accommodation 
 of travellers. The roads across the Mountains were then 
 
58 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 steep, and, to my unpractised eye, they appeared to be 
 totally impracticable for wheel carriages, having much 
 the appearance of the dry bed of mountain torrents, an 
 aggregate of rubble stones, from which every particle 
 of earth was washed away. Koad wagons, with light 
 loads of Merchandise had however then for some time 
 been in the habit of crossing the Mountains. 
 
 I found Pittsburgh a very inconsiderable town, hav- 
 ing little to recommend it except its scite. It presented 
 however a Spectacle which so far in land was really a 
 novel one. In the Monongahela river I saw two or three 
 square rigged vessels intended for the navigation of 
 the Ocean. Two frenchmen of the name of Terrascon, 
 residing in Philadelphia, had established a shipyard at 
 Pittsburgh. As You may suppose, the scheme did not 
 succeed, and was shortly afterward abandoned. 
 
 From Pittsburgh to Franklin a road had been opened 
 at the expense of the State, along which there were a 
 few scattering settlements. From Franklin to Meadville 
 there was only a horse path, running nearly in the direc- 
 tion of the present Creek road. 
 
 Meadville was in 1802 a small village, containing 25 
 or 30 houses, chiefly log ones; and a population of 
 about 150 inhabitants. The Country around it was 
 chiefly in a State of Nature. 
 
 I remained at Meadville about four Weeks, and then 
 returned to Philadelphia by the way of Buffalo, Albany, 
 and New York, paying a visit to the Falls of Niagara 
 and to my friends at Oldenbarneveld by the way. The 
 Settlements on the Holland Company lands in the Gen- 
 esee Country were then in their infancy. From the 
 Pennsylvania line to Buffalo there were but three smaU 
 cabins, two near Westfield, and one on the Cataraugus 
 Creek, and Buffalo itself contained perhaps a dozen and 
 a half of log cabins. I returned to Philadelphia about 
 the beginning of October, and I felt that for once I had 
 rode enough. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 59 
 
 This journey to Meadville, to attend to the Company's 
 interests there, little as he then anticipated its bearings 
 upon his future, was but a preliminary step toward tak- 
 ing the entire Western Pennsylvania agency upon his 
 shoulders. His travels are described by him at far greater 
 length in a careful memorandum prepared at the time 
 for future reference, a paper full of general interest to 
 the student of our early history, and containing much 
 of Mr. Huidekoper's own point of view as well as his 
 first impressions of the interior. The original was writ- 
 ten in French, which indicated that it was meant, in 
 part, for Mr. Busti's perusal, — Mr. Busti being more 
 familiar with French than with English. It has been 
 translated ^ as follows : — 
 
 On Tuesday the 21st. of July [1802] I started on 
 my journey from Philadelphia to Meadville. 
 
 Although the lack of freedom inseparable from life- 
 in great cities makes my stay therein wearisome to me, 
 yet the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Busti during my five 
 months residence in Philadelphia had so sweetened my 
 life that it was not without regret that 1 left them to 
 undertake a journey which had long tempted me and 
 which, besides satisfying my curiosity, promised, at least 
 for a time, to give me the pleasures of a country Hfe, 
 which during the five previous years I had enjoyed. 
 
 Preparations for leaving delayed my departure from 
 hour to hour, and it was only towards six o'clock in the 
 evening that I was fairly off. The great heat induced 
 me also to choose this late hour for leaving (having only 
 finished my work in the morning), for I would advise 
 no one to travel in the middle of the day at this season, 
 in a climate as hot as that of Pennsylvania unless abso- 
 lutely obliged to do so. 
 
 I only rode eight miles this first day, following the 
 
 1 By Mrs. Cortazzo. 
 
60 HARM JAN HULDEKOPER 
 
 turnpike which leads from PhUadelphia to Lancaster. 
 Although the land along the road I traversed to-day is 
 of indifferent quahty, it is fairly well cultivated except 
 near Philadelphia, where it is left fallow after much 
 use. I am surprised that they do not plant this land 
 with trees, not only because wood gives a good return 
 and increases in value in the neighbourhood of a large 
 city, but because it would give back to the soil much of 
 its productiveness. It is to the enriching of its soil by 
 its forests that America owes much of its fertility, for 
 generally speaking it is not naturally any richer than 
 land in Europe, only newer and less exhausted. 
 
 The 22nd. I started at five A. M., and at eleven reached 
 Downingstown, which is thirty miles from Philadelphia. 
 The heat was intense, and as I feared to exhaust my 
 horse I stopped for some hours until the sun should 
 be less powerful. The land passed seemed to me very 
 indifferent, and here and there I saw fields which had 
 been abandoned. The part still cultivated had been 
 enriched with plaster of Paris, which, though it is not 
 as good as manure, they use here for fertilizing. It 
 differs from manure in that one can fertilize the ground 
 several successive years, and is advantageous because 
 one can raise several crops, especially hay or grass 
 whereby the farmer can feed more cattle and eventually 
 obtain enough manure. Most of the settlers in this part 
 are of German origin, who retain the language and 
 customs of their ancestors. Less enterprising than the 
 New Englanders, they are more frugal, and in spite of 
 the poorness of the soil they seemed to be generally in 
 easy circumstances. 
 
 Downingstown is the only village worthy the name 
 as far as Lancaster. I should have found it dull, in 
 spite of this distinction, if I had not met a man from 
 New England who lives in Genesee and who could give 
 me information about the navigation of the Susque- 
 hanna, having traded by that stream. He said that 
 traffic is carried on by means of boats which are a cross 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 61 
 
 between a boat and a raft, carrying twenty or thirty 
 tons. Last year all merchandise went to Baltimore, 
 where the merchants gave a little extra price, to en- 
 courage trade. This year however the Baltimore mar- 
 ket is lower than Philadelphia, and traders from Genesee 
 unloaded their boats near Lancaster and sent their mer- 
 chandise by land to Philadelphia. In this way they 
 avoided the most dangerous part of the navigation of 
 the Susquehanna. The man who told me this said that 
 last year out of seven rafts which came down the river, 
 three had been wrecked, one entirely lost, and the other 
 two lost part of their cargo. The rates from Genesee to 
 Baltimore are $1.50 per barrel of flour; the rates to 
 Philadelphia would be $2.00 because of the land car- 
 riage. 
 
 At four o'clock I started again, and crossing the 
 Brandywine Creek, famous for the battle which Wash- 
 ington lost in its vicinity, I arrived towards evening 
 forty-eight miles from Philadelphia, very tired on ac- 
 count of the intense heat. The soil becomes better as 
 one nears Lancaster, and is very fertile and well culti- 
 vated in the vicinity of that town, which I reached on 
 the morning of the 23rd. 
 
 The town of Lancaster, which is the seat of the 
 Legislature of Pennsylvania when it is in session, is sit- 
 uated sixty-two or sixty-three miles from Philadelphia, 
 in a valley surrounded on three sides by higher ground 
 than that on which the town stands, which does not add 
 to its beauty, and the streets are ill-paved and very dirty. 
 It owes the imdesirability of its site to one of the Pro- 
 vincial Governors under the British regime, who, own- 
 ing much property in this quarter, laid it out in town 
 lots. The town is of considerable size, and according 
 to one of its citizens, who was my informant, has a pop- 
 ulation of about nine thousand. I cannot answer for 
 the accuracy of this, and am tempted to suspect that, as 
 men often think they add to their own importance by 
 exaggerating the importance of their place of residence. 
 
62 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 the good man had done this. However the size of the 
 place rather astonished me, for I could not see what had 
 attracted so many persons to a spot so utterly lacking 
 in those natural advantages which in this country often 
 cause very rapid growth in towns. From what I could 
 gather, Lancaster has very little trade and the products 
 of the interior only pass through it. The inhabitants 
 are largely German, or descendants of Germans, as one 
 sees at a glance, for the houses are built in the peculiar 
 style common in Germany, half stone or brick, half 
 wood. 
 
 Some business connected with the Holland Land Com- 
 pany detained me in Lancaster the rest of the 23rd and 
 the 24th. I was joined here by Mr. Jabez Colt, one of 
 the directors of the Population Company, who was to 
 make the journey with me, but had been detained in 
 Philadelphia a day or two by business. The 25th we re- 
 newed our journey, and, as a storm had somewhat cooled 
 the air, our day's ride was pleasant, though towards 
 evening the rain began again. I had never seen any 
 country which charmed me more than did Lancaster 
 County. The soil is fertile, and whUe this offers an easy 
 competence to the cultivator it also rejoices the eye of 
 the traveler with the picturesqueness and beauty of its 
 scenery. Every where there is variety and charm, and 
 while the hills are not high or the rivers very large, the 
 views are ever changing and would offer a vast field of 
 interest to a landscape painter. 
 
 Although the roads were good considering the heavy 
 rains we had had for two days, there were no bridges, 
 and we had to ford such streams as we met which were 
 somewhat swollen. After a ride of thirty miles, towards 
 the end of which the land seemed to me less good, we 
 reached Harrisburg, situated on the bank of the Susque- 
 hanna, ten miles from Middletown where we had dined. 
 Middletown and Harrisburg are pretty little towns, of 
 no importance and very little business. They are merely 
 places where the farmers of the country can obtain the 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 63 
 
 necessaries of life, and where reside lawyers and the 
 members of the District Administration. 
 
 The 26th we started early, and crossing the Susque- 
 hanna near Harrisburg we reached Carlisle at ten o'clock 
 A. M. (seventeen miles from Harrisburg), which is a 
 small place. Mr. Colt's business kept us here till the 
 28th, when we left in the morning, and after a tiresome 
 ride of thirty-eight miles came in the evening to Fannets- 
 town. The land along the way was rather poor and so 
 dry that for thirty miles we did not see a stream large 
 enough to water our horses. The inhabitants about here 
 were not Germans, as near Lancaster, but Irish or of 
 Irish descent. There seemed to be less signs of comfort 
 than among the Germans, but I had not time to inquire 
 whether this was due to inferiority of the soil or to their 
 addiction to the use of whiskey ; perhaps both causes 
 conduce to their being less prosperous than their neigh- 
 bors in other counties. 
 
 Before reaching Fannetstown we had to cross two 
 hills called the " Short Hills," but which we found long 
 enough, not because of their height but their steepness 
 and stoniness, which was so great that our poor horses 
 could scarcely scale the ascent, and the descent was so 
 bad that we had to dismount and lead them. The places 
 we passed through during the day were very small. We 
 dined at Shippensburg and from there came to Stras- 
 burg, which is at the foot of the motmtain. 
 
 The 29th we began our day's journey by crossing the 
 third of the Short Hills, which, however, we found easier 
 than the others. The day before the country had com- 
 menced to change its aspect. In place of a well-culti- 
 vated soil, we had since we left Carlisle found a newly 
 cleared district with stumps of trees standing or con- 
 siderable forests. This day we noticed still more of the 
 primitive wilderness. The country was mountainous, 
 and habitations were rare, and the soil sterile. Towards 
 noon we ascended Sideling Hill, a rather high mountain. 
 Just as we reached the summit a storm broke over us 
 
64 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 with a heavy rain. Luckily we found a deserted cabin 
 where we took shelter; but as the storm seemed to 
 centre about the summit with no sign of abatement, we 
 resumed our journey, and arrived without accident early 
 in the evening about six miles short of Bedford, after 
 fording the Juniata, and having ridden thirty-five miles 
 through a country which would have been uninteresting 
 but for the magnificent glimpses of scenery, which, I 
 fear, did not make up to our poor horses, as it did to us, 
 for the fatigue of scrambling up the rocky ascents 
 where stones covered the road and gave a most insecure 
 footing. 
 
 The 30th we forded the Juniata again early in the 
 day, and reached Bedford, a charmingly situated village 
 near the river, surrounded by fairly high mountains. 
 Towards noon we crossed Allegheny Mountain, which 
 was higher than any we had seen before, but more easy 
 of ascent. From its summit we had a truly grand view, 
 which would have been still more impressive had the 
 weather been clear, but since we had left Lancaster we 
 had had but one fine day, and that one we had spent at 
 Carlisle. For the rest of the time we had had alternately 
 a broiling sun or heavy rain. 
 
 Allegheny Mountain has a base of fifteen to seven- 
 teen miles, so that after crossing it we had gone about 
 thirty-five miles when we stopped at Stoystown. The 
 land passed during the last two days had been very arid, 
 but now improved. Towards the top of the mountain 
 and on the west side there were a few settlements. 
 
 The 31st we left Stoystown, and after a fatiguing 
 day we reached Greensburg, thirty-seven miles. Scarcely 
 had we commenced the ascent of Laurel Hill, a moun- 
 tain nearly as high as Allegheny and steeper, when a 
 storm broke over us, and as there was no shelter, as 
 there had been on Sideling Hill, we were soon drenched, 
 and so arrived at Fort Legonier, a place where formerly 
 there had been a fort of that name of which the ruins 
 remained. At present there is but one house. In the 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 65 
 
 afternoon the weather cleared and we crossed Chestnut 
 Ridge, much easier than the other mountains, and with- 
 out accident reached Greensburg. The country improved 
 more and more, and we saw many more habitations that 
 day. What does not please me is the way they clear the 
 ground here, if you call it " clearing " where the greater 
 part of the stumps are left standing. I noticed the 
 natural result of this, for in many places the wind had 
 blown down branches on the growing grain and injured 
 it, and, what was worse, had in places beaten down the 
 crops entirely and ruined them. 
 
 Another thing that astonished me was that in clear- 
 ing their lands the people made no use whatever of the 
 ashes, which they left where the trees were burned ; 
 they could give no better reason for this than that every 
 body did so and nobody cared to make potash. 
 
 All this showed me that the people here are less in- 
 dustrious than they are in New England, for, admitting 
 what they pretend, that they are not rich enough to 
 clear the land thoroughly the first year, it is a bad 
 excuse when it extends to the second and third year. 
 
 Greensburg is a well-built little place, and the neigh- 
 borhood is settled by Germans largely, so that the 
 German language predominates. The 1st of August we 
 left there, and reached Pittsburg after a ride of thirty- 
 two miles. Although the scarcity of water makes set- 
 tlements rare along this route, I have never seen a more 
 beautiful country. Up to this point, the forests had 
 been principally oak, walnut and chestnut of rather 
 medium size, but here they began to be larger, and ap- 
 peared of healthier growth. After this, these trees were 
 mixed with maples, elms and locust. The wild plum 
 was fuU of fruit, and wild grape vines were heavy with 
 grapes. Indeed I have never seen a country more charm- 
 ing and smiling, and if the borders of the Ohio are hke 
 this, one may well call it " La Belle Riviere." 
 
 Pittsburg is situated at the confluence of the Monon- 
 gahela and the Allegheny rivers, two large streams which 
 
66 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPBR 
 
 after their junction become the Ohio. The situation of 
 Pittsburg is charming ; watered on two sides by two 
 navigable rivers and surrounded by beautifully wooded 
 hills. At the junction of the rivers was Fort Duquesne, 
 of which there are some remains. The American fort is 
 only a blockhouse with palisaded magazine. There is no 
 garrison at Pittsburg, only an officer as superintendent 
 of the magazine and arsenal. The town is of considera- 
 ble size and promises to grow much larger when its trade 
 increases and is well established. 
 
 I was astonished to see two vessels being built, the 
 larger of two hundred and sixty tons, the other of one 
 hundred and twenty tons. There was also a brigantine, 
 which I did not see because it was at some distance, but 
 which I was informed was ready to sail as soon as the 
 rains should have raised the Ohio, so that it could go 
 down that river to the Mississippi, for at the season of 
 low water boats cannot descend these streams on account 
 of sand banks and rocks. I saw the captain of the brig- 
 antine, who expected to make the voyage to Europe. 
 This will probably be the first vessel to cross the ocean 
 which has been built two thousand five hundred miles 
 from the sea. 
 
 We stayed two days in Pittsburg to rest our horses 
 and to permit Mr. Colt to attend to some business, and 
 left on the 4th rather late in the morning, as we had 
 only thirty miles to make that day. For much of our 
 joru-ney we had to regulate the length of our day's ride 
 by the taverns where we could lodge. 
 
 Having passed the Allegheny river at Pittsburg we 
 changed the direction of our route. Up to this time we 
 had taken a westerly course ; now we traveled north- 
 ward. The character of the country changed somewhat, 
 and all day was arid and sterile, lacking water entirely 
 except in two places. There was very little wood, which 
 I attributed partly to the poor soil and partly to forest 
 fires, caused formerly perhaps by accident or by the 
 Indians to make hunting easier or to give room for grass 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 67 
 
 for their cattle. These fires not only kill the trees, but 
 injure the soil greatly. The few settlements we saw were 
 all where these fires had not penetrated and where the 
 soil was a little better. The settlers are few in this re- 
 gion, and seem very poor. I have never seen such poor 
 clearings anywhere ; only the small wood had been taken 
 out, while all trees of two feet in diameter remained 
 standing, but were dead, which gave a very melancholy 
 aspect to the country. "We spent the night thirty miles 
 from Pittsburg, and on the 5th continued our journey 
 through a district as sparsely settled and as arid as the 
 day before, except that near Frankhn where the soil 
 seemed better. 
 
 Franklin, thirty-eight miles from our last resting 
 place, is in a pretty situation, being near the point where 
 French Creek joins the Allegheny. Here there is a fort^ 
 or blockhouse (American), built formerly for protection 
 from the Indians, but with the increase of population 
 it has become unnecessary and has now no garrison. 
 Franklin is a small place of no importance. We spent 
 the night there, and next day started for Meadville 
 which is only twenty-six miles distant. As there was no 
 regular road we followed a path or trail, very narrow, 
 but well marked, which led us through a tract so sparsely 
 inhabited that it was noon before we found a place to 
 breakfast. We reached Meadville in the afternoon, hav- 
 ing lost our way at one point, and were glad at last to 
 reach the end, for a time, of our wanderings. 
 
 Meadville is prettily situated on the bank of French 
 Creek, a stream navigable for boats of some size for a 
 good part of the year. The place has little importance, 
 and the houses are almost all of hewn logs and do not 
 present a very attractive appearance. There being no 
 lime in the region, the settlers are obhged to use a sort 
 of clay for their chimneys (rather a dangerous substi- 
 tute), and they cannot either plaster or whitewash the 
 interior of their houses. . . . 
 
 I Fort Franklin. 
 
68 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 The soil, which seems rich and free from wood, is 
 almost uncultivated ; grain is twice as dear as it is else- 
 where six weeks after harvest, and the utmost poverty 
 exists, judging from the ragged appearance of the set- 
 tlers. ... 
 
 On the 31st August, I made an excursion to Oil 
 Creek ^ with Major Alden, about twenty-seven miles 
 from Meadville. There is nothing remarkable in this 
 section except some very good land owned by the Hol- 
 land Land Company. There are few settlers, and the 
 clearings are about as they are near Meadville, of little 
 importance. We returned from this excursion the next 
 day, the first of September, and en route were over- 
 taken by a fearful storm while in the woods. This, 
 with heavy rain, the frightful state of the road, quite 
 impracticable for any vehicle, made our trip exceedingly 
 disagreeable. 
 
 I rested for one day in Meadville, and having finished 
 all my business I started again on my way, after a four 
 weeks stay, on the 3rd of September, directing my steps 
 towards Port Le Bceuf, which is twenty-six miles [north- 
 ward] from Meadville. 
 
 Along part of the way the soil was quite good, and 
 again it was so thin that the roots of the trees were 
 almost on the surface of the ground. Continual mud 
 caused by recent rain made the road almost impassable 
 and dangerous. However, I reached Le Bceuf after a 
 tiresome and lonely ride without accident, but not with- 
 out a wetting, for a storm came up when I was still six 
 miles from my destination. I was fortunate to escape a 
 
 1 The Oil Creek settlement, named from the oily-surfaced stream on 
 which it was situated, consisted then chiefly of a sawmill erected l)y the 
 Holland Land Company in 1798, and two or three families settled on 
 the company's land. Its underground treasures were still unsuspected, 
 although the surface overflow, collected in its crude state from pits along 
 the creek, where it rose plentifully, was used somewhat for illuminating 
 tho mill. The hidden supply remained unappropriated until 1859, when 
 an artesian well produced tremendous excitement by bringing up from 
 the sand rook oil in quantities equaling twenty-five barrels a day. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 69 
 
 worse one, for just after I arrived such a torrent of rain 
 fell that had I been exposed to it I should have been 
 drenched to the skin. 
 
 Le Boeuf [now Waterford] is situated on a little lake 
 [Lake Le Bceuf] communicating with French Creek by 
 a small stream [Le Boeuf Creek] which empties into it 
 and is navigable part of the year. Formerly there was 
 a French fort here, and there is still a blockhouse, but 
 no garrison. 
 
 The 4th I set out again, and after a solitary ride of 
 fifteen miles over a very bad road, where my horse fell 
 once, I reached Greenfield, and was received with great 
 cordiality by Mr. Colt. This Mr. Colt is a brother of 
 my late fellow-traveler, and, hke him, is an agent of the 
 Population Company in Pennsylvania. 
 
 The land along the road to Greenfield was fairly good, 
 though here and there thin, and the clearings along part 
 of the way seemed to me to have been made by New 
 Englanders, being much better than those near Mead- 
 ville. Mr. Colt told me that my supposition was correct 
 and that the settlers about here were in fact from New 
 England. Greenfield has only six or seven houses and 
 is insignificant. I stayed a day with the Colt family, 
 treated with the utmost hospitality, which is natural to 
 his race, and his kindness extended to accompanying 
 me when I left, as far as the border of Pennsylvania, 
 which was eleven miles from his house. I had hoped 
 to find some companion to relieve the loneliness of a 
 road which for one hundred miles is almost a wilder- 
 ness and which was totally unknown to me, but no such 
 good fortune offered, and I pursued my solitary way 
 after quitting Mr. Colt, and soon, as usual, was over- 
 taken by rain, which continued till I was eleven miles 
 beyond the border in the State of New York at a point 
 where there is a portage between Lake Erie and Lake 
 Chautauqua. Here, about two miles from the lake, were 
 three newly built houses, and in one I spent the night. 
 I have never seen better land than that I passed as I 
 
70 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 entered New York State, along the shore of the lake, 
 and saw the next day. 
 
 The 7th I continued my journey to the Catteraugus 
 Creek, a distance of thirty-five miles, without seeing a 
 single house, which was the more disagreeable as it was 
 very wet. I passed the night in a lonely cabin that I 
 found on the bank of the stream, and the 8th I went 
 on, starting early. 
 
 The weather, which was wet in the morning, cleared 
 later, and though the road was very lonely I had a not 
 disagreeable day. Nearly all day my way was along that 
 superb Lake Erie, of which I had had but a glimpse in 
 Pennsylvania, and had not seen again except for a mo- 
 ment near Catteraugus. Having lived for a long time 
 far from any body of water, the sight of the great lake, 
 so picturesque and so clear, gave me a very agreeable 
 sensation, and the more that any anxiety about my route 
 was laid at rest. I had only to follow the shore of the 
 lake. The only trouble I had was that here and there 
 large rocks stretched quite into the lake and the waves 
 breaking upon them so frightened niy horse that he re- 
 fused to go into the water, and I was obliged to make 
 him cHmb up and over the rocks which were rather steep. 
 Little by Httle, however, he became used to the water, and 
 we waded round the points without further trouble. 
 
 I reached New Amsterdam [Buffalo] quite early, after 
 a ride of thirty miles. It is situated at the outlet of Lake 
 Erie, at the point where Buffalo Creek empties into it. 
 New Amsterdam is on a hill, from which one sees the 
 lake, Port Erie and the Canada shore, which indeed had 
 been in sight all day. The village is very small because 
 the Holland Land Company, which owns the lands here, 
 as it does all that I have passed through since I entered 
 the State of New York, has not yet arranged for the 
 sale of lots in the village, which promises to become of 
 some importance and might become more if a sand bar 
 at the mouth of the river did not prevent its being a 
 harbor. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTEKIOR 71 
 
 The 9th I took advantage of my proximity to the 
 cataract of Niagara (only twenty-two miles from New 
 Amsterdam) to visit this marvelous sight. I started 
 early, and following the great river which precipitates 
 itself from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario I crossed it three 
 miles below New Amsterdam, and entered Canada. The 
 bank of the river which I followed is pretty well settled 
 on the Canada side ; the land is good and fertile and 
 fairly well cultivated and the turn of the river offers 
 charming views. After a delightful ride I came, a little 
 before noon, to Fort Chippewa, which is two miles 
 from the falls. This place is beautifully situated and 
 of some size, and has an English garrison. I left my 
 horse here, and went on foot to see the cataract. A 
 mile from Chippewa, the rapids begin, that is the water 
 flows with great rapidity, while the rocks, which are 
 partly concealed beneath, make it boil and foam. From 
 afar one hears the roar of the cataract and sees the 
 cloud of spray which rises from it and disappears in 
 mist. 
 
 At last I found myself opposite the falls, and never 
 have I seen anything so grand and impressive. A river 
 nearly a mile wide is precipitated perpendicularly into a 
 gulf a hundred and fifty feet deep, with a noise like 
 thunder, which raises a cloud of spray almost concealing 
 the cataract. The sun shining fully upon it formed a 
 rainbow that was magnificent. The water f aUing seems 
 entirely spray, and only in one place where it was deeper 
 could one see the pure green color of the water. The 
 falls are divided in two parts by an island almost in the 
 middle of the river, inaccessible to man, which adds 
 much to the scene. The rock or ledge over which the 
 river plunges is almost a straight line for three-quarters 
 of the distance ; then it forms an angle, rather acute, 
 near the Canada side. 
 
 After I had looked long at the cataract from different 
 points and distances above, I climbed down the rocks 
 nearer to the bottom of the river by a path, which, no- 
 
72 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 ■where good, would be impracticable in one place but for 
 a ladder. I reached the bottom safely, and, climbing 
 over the rocks thrown there by the river, I enjoyed an- 
 other view of the most beautiful and imposing spectacle 
 I can possibly imagine. After six hours spent in study- 
 ing this wonderful phenomenon I returned to Chip- 
 pewa, very tired from my arduous climb up and down 
 the rocks, and spent the night nine miles from New Am- 
 sterdam, in Canada. 
 
 The 10th I went back into New York State, and 
 having breakfasted at New Amsterdam I started at last 
 on my homeward way to Philadelphia, but by a differ- 
 ent route from that by which I had come. The country 
 I passed through here seemed fairly good, but had suf- 
 fered considerably from forest fires started probably by 
 the Indians. These fires kill the trees or injure them, 
 and even injure the soil, at least where the leaves have 
 gathered and been burnt. 
 
 Near New Amsterdam I found a large village of 
 Indians, one of the largest in the State, and another 
 large one near Tonawanda River, and a third near Cat- 
 teraugus. The Indians forming these villages count per- 
 haps fourteen or fifteen hundred, and are composed of 
 different tribes generally called the Six Nations, because 
 they come from six different nations, formerly quite 
 numerous, living in different regions, but who now are 
 only the scattered remains of these nations. 
 
 I spent the night twenty-three miles east of New 
 Amsterdam, and the 11th when I had intended starting 
 very early in the morning I found myself attacked with 
 severe pain in my right side and stomach and had to 
 return to my bed. As there was no doctor at hand, 
 and as I was no doctor myself and my host was equally 
 ignorant, there was nothing to do but to lie still and 
 stdler in silence, which I did until noon, when, the pain 
 decreasing, I mounted my horse, and reached Batavia 
 safely in the evening. 
 
 Batavia is the residence of the Holland Land Com- 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 73 
 
 pany's agent for the sale of land in this portion of its 
 vast property. As the village has only been in existence 
 a year it is very small, but as it is well laid out and is 
 on the main road, and as the lands in this district are 
 very good, it may, in time, become important. During 
 the two days that I passed there I received the greatest 
 kindness from Mr. EUicott, the company's agent, and 
 from other gentlemen in his office. Unfortunately I 
 could not fully avail myself of their hospitality, as I still 
 suffered great pain, which increased and diminished from 
 hour to hour. I consulted a physician, but he could not 
 discover the cause of my indisposition. The second day 
 he bled me and administered some medicine, which, while 
 it weakened me, lessened the pain, so that on the 14th, 
 feeling somewhat better, I started on my way, accom- 
 panied by Mr. Ellicott, who continued with me as far 
 as the limit of the company's lands. 
 
 I passed for five miles through a forest, and came 
 suddenly into extensive clearings, newly made, it is true, 
 but much better made than any I had seen in Western 
 Pennsylvania. After this, the land, which had been 
 good for ten or eleven miles, became very arid, and 
 seemed to have suffered from fire. A curious thing seen 
 this day is worth mentioning. This is a pond covering 
 four or five acres, entirely fed by springs of excellent 
 water in sufficient quantity to turn, even in the summer, 
 two mills which are near the outlet. After fording the 
 Genesee River I spent the night at an inn twelve miles 
 beyond it and thirty-seven from Batavia. 
 
 The 15th, I started early and breakfasted at Canan- 
 daigua, a fair sized town, well built and situated on a 
 lake of the same name. Here ends the great Western 
 Turnpike of New York State, or, to be more exact, it is 
 here that it is to end ; for as it was only partly finished, 
 it did not benefit me much, and I found the road from 
 it to Geneva in a horrible condition in many places, 
 though the soil seemed of very good quality. 
 
 Geneva is situated sixteen miles from Canandaigua, 
 
74 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 and though I had only ridden twenty-nine miles that day 
 I was obKged to spend the night there, having lost some 
 time through my horse requiring to be shod, and it 
 would have been too late to reach Cayuga that evening. 
 There was no decent inn between these two places. 
 Geneva has a charming position on Seneca Lake, which 
 is fifteen miles long and two broad. The town is weU 
 built and rather large, thanks to improvements made by 
 Mr. Williamson, formerly agent of an Enghsh company. 
 I lodged at an inn built by this agent on a rather ex- 
 tensive scale, considering the newness of the country 
 and the scarcity of travelers, and it has not been very 
 profitable, 
 
 I left Geneva the 16th, and having crossed the lake 
 on a strong bridge nearly a mile long I breakfasted on 
 the other side, ten miles from Geneva. This bridge 
 is probably the longest in the United States, and bears 
 honorable testimony to the enterprise of the State of 
 New York. The toll is moderate, considering the depre- 
 ciated currency in this part of the world, and yet they 
 say that the owners of the bridge, who are a company, 
 receive good interest on their outlay. The land between 
 Geneva and Cayuga situated on the lake, east of the 
 bridge, is very unimportant. 
 
 I went on that day to Onondaga, forty-seven miles 
 from Geneva and east of Cayuga. I found excellent 
 land, and although it is newly opened up it is already 
 fairly well settled. This land ^ is in Cayuga and Onon- 
 daga Counties and was given by the State of New York 
 to soldiers who took part in the Revolutionary War as 
 recompense for their services as State troops. The soil 
 is good, and the country more varied than in other parts 
 of the Genesee. In the neighborhood of Onondaga are 
 salt works belonging to the State, which supply part of 
 this country. 
 
 The I7th I rode on for nine miles and then made a 
 detour of nine more to see Mr. Lincklaen at Cazenovia. 
 
 1 Part of the " Donation Lands." 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 75 
 
 This village, which has grown considerably, is delight- 
 fully situated on a little lake a mile wide and four miles 
 long. The land about here belongs to the Holland 
 Land Company and is under the direction of Mr. Linck- 
 laen. The soil is mostly of good quality, and the settlers 
 whom Mr. Lincklaen has drawn here have made con- 
 siderable clearings. At Cazenovia I had the pleasure of 
 finding my old friend De Clercq, who, with his family, 
 was very well. 
 
 I spent a day with Mr. Lincklaen, and on the 19th I 
 resumed my journey. Eighteen miles from Mr. Linck- 
 laen's I came to the turnpike, and reached Whitestown 
 in the evening, a beautifvd place on the Mohawk, thirty- 
 two miles from Cazenovia, where I had the pleasure of 
 finding several old acquaintances. The land along the 
 turnpike passed this day is for the most part good and 
 well cultivated except such as stiU belongs to the Oneida 
 Indians. There are very few of these Indians, and they 
 are diminishing rapidly in numbers. This is attributed 
 to the use of liquor, which they obtain from the white 
 people and to which they are terribly addicted. 
 
 The 20th I went from Whitestown to Utica, a flour- 
 ishing village on the Mohawk, six miles from Whites- 
 town, in the midst of a beautiful and fertile country. 
 From there I reached Oldenbarneveld, a little place 
 thirteen miles from Utica, where live the delightful 
 families of the Messrs Mappa and van der Kemp. I 
 cannot describe the joy with which I saw once more the 
 place where I had passed five years and the dear and 
 worthy friends who had made my life there so happy, 
 the happiest days of my life, so true it is that even in a 
 wilderness one's happiness may be found through the 
 kindness of friends. I spent eight delightful days in 
 the dear Mappa family, including an excursion of three 
 days which I made with Mr. Mappa to the little vil- 
 lage of Kortenaer eighteen miles northward from Olden- 
 barneveld. At last on the 28th I was obliged to tear 
 myself away once more from this beloved family, that I 
 
76 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 may well call my own ; and after good byes which cost 
 me intense regret I resumed my journey. I was ac- 
 companied as far as Utica by my young friend van 
 der Kemp,' after which, keeping along the fertile and 
 cultivated bank of the Mohawk, I reached my night's 
 lodging at German-flats, thirty-one miles from Olden- 
 barneveld. 
 
 At Utica commence the two great turnpikes which 
 lead, the one partly finished to Canandaigua, and the 
 other from Utica to Albany, also unfinished. The road 
 served me well wherever it was finished, and I left it at 
 German-flats, where I forded the Mohawk, the bridge 
 being broken. 
 
 The 29th I followed aU day the bank of the Mo- 
 hawk, fording it again at noon five miles below Canajo- 
 harie, a little place to the south of the river. The set- 
 tlers in all this charming bit of country from Utica are 
 largely descendants of German emigrants who here 
 sought a prosperity difficult enough to attain in their 
 native land. To the north of the river I passed another 
 small village called Caughnewaga, and spent the night 
 at Tribeshill, forty-one miles from German-flats, with a 
 Dutch family where I was warmly received and over- 
 whelmed with questions by my hostess when she found 
 I was a Hollander. 
 
 The 30th my road took me along the Mohawk again ; 
 the country mostly settled by Dutch gradually becom- 
 ing worse as I approached Schenectady. This town, 
 twenty-one miles from Tribeshill, is on the south bank 
 of the Mohawk and of some size, but is badly built and 
 has little business. The inhabitants are largely Dutch, 
 and their lack of enterprise gives little promise for the 
 place. I spent the night at Albany, sixteen miles east 
 of Schenectady. This town, which formerly rather re- 
 sembled Schenectady, is now perhaps the best built and 
 busiest city in the interior of the United States. It is, 
 to some extent, the great market for all of the interior of 
 
 1 John J., son of Francis Adrian van der Kemp. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 77 
 
 New York State, and its commerce increases in propor- 
 tion to the growth of the population and the settlement 
 of the state. 
 
 It is a pity that the land in the vicinity of Albany 
 does not correspond to so flourishing- a city. It is almost 
 the poorest land I have seen in America, especially be- 
 tween Schenectady and Albany and for some miles be- 
 yond Albany, east of the North Eiver. I lost one day 
 at Albany looking for a boat going down the Hudson to 
 New York, but could get no place for myself and my 
 horse in the only two boats ready to leave, so on Octo- 
 ber 1st I started once more southward, and having 
 crossed the Hudson I passed through the little village 
 of Kinderhook and stopped for the night at Hudson, a 
 good sized town on the river thirty-four miles from 
 Albany. 
 
 Here I tried again to find a vessel on which I could 
 get passage to New York, but failed in this, and was 
 unsuccessful also the next day and the day after at 
 Ehinebeck, Poughkeepsie and FishkiU, and was obliged 
 to continue my journey on horseback. 
 
 On the 2nd I made thirty-seven miles, and passing 
 through Rhinebeck slept nine miles north of Pough- 
 keepsie. The country after leaving Albany, and I may 
 say all the way to New York, is very much the same ; it 
 would be one of the most beautiful parts of America if 
 the land were more fertile. The country is hilly and 
 well watered, but the soil is sandy and worn out, and 
 the woods, which are already much cut away, are poor, 
 and the trees of small size. The settlers along the river 
 are mostly of Dutch descent and still speak a sort of 
 provincial patois. These settlers, owing to their having 
 neglected their land formerly, are now obliged to enrich 
 it with plaster of Paris, having few cattle to furnish 
 manure. 
 
 The 3rd I breakfasted at Poughkeepsie, a flourish- 
 ing little town with some commerce, and passed the 
 night in the Highlands, thirty-three miles from my last 
 
78 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 night's resting place. I went through Fishkill, another 
 little town, but by no means as large as Poughkeepsie. 
 
 On the 4th I crossed over the Highlands, which I had 
 been told were difficult to ascend, but which I found 
 much easier than the mountains I had crossed in Penn- 
 sylvania. The only peak one is obliged to go over is 
 not high, is easy of ascent and is flat on the summit, 
 and in extent is not more than seven or eight miles. 
 The country beyond the mountain is hilly for some dis- 
 tance, so that my horse had rather a hard day, and we 
 had gone forty-four miles when we arrived at nightfall 
 at Kingsbridge, fourteen miles from New York. This 
 day I went through Peekskill and Tarrytown, two small 
 places of no importance, except that the former has 
 some commerce and several vessels plying on the North 
 River. 
 
 The 5th I reached New York in the morning, that 
 city so flourishing and so admirably situated for exten- 
 sive commerce. The North and East Rivers, forming an 
 island on which the city stands, give easy access to the 
 largest vessels, and presents one of the most beautiful 
 views possible. Having executed hastily a few commis- 
 sions in the city I re-crossed the North River, and going 
 through Newark, a pleasantly situated and fairly large 
 place, I reached Elisabethtown, fifteen miles from New 
 York, where I passed the night. 
 
 This letter well accentuates Meadville's extreme isola- 
 tion. By any route that could be taken the journey 
 thither involved long hard days in the saddle, or even 
 worse jolting over unfinished roads on wheels. And on 
 the arrival of the traveler at his destination the sense 
 of remoteness would continue. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's first view of his future home, as he 
 has testified, was certainly far from prepossessing, and 
 indeed a sharper contrast to the trim villages of Hoi- 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 79 
 
 land, or even to the quiet Dutch orderliness of Olden- 
 barneveld, than was presented by Meadville ia its first 
 fifteen years could not well have been found. At the 
 time of his \isit the town was hardly out of its initial 
 stage of enterprising chaos. Its small log huts, its 
 muddy streets, its floating population of adventurers 
 and boatmen, made it extremely unprepossessing in his 
 eyes, and not until his second coming in 1805 did he 
 realize the possibilities of its future. 
 
 The valley in which it lies is one of alluring beauty. 
 French Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny, flows, a 
 clear and rapid stream, through successive intervales 
 of green and level meadows. From the meadows rise 
 high but softly rounded hills, at that time covered with 
 rich forests through which roamed deer, bear, and 
 many other animals. Such a region of plenty was it, 
 a country so abounding in fish and game, that the In- 
 dians who traversed it year after year kept it as a com- 
 mon hunting ground to which they resorted for pelts 
 and food. Along the vaUey, now on one side of the 
 creek, now on the other, ran their weU-worn trail, lead- 
 ing from the headwaters of the stream down to the 
 Allegheny. At the point where Cussewago Creek joins 
 French Creek once stood one of their villages, while the 
 relics found in the neighborhood indicate that in still 
 earlier times the mound-builders were inhabitants of the 
 hills and plains. 
 
 The French, in planning their chain of forts along 
 the frontier, recognized the importance of this valley, 
 and, approaching it from Lake Erie, built their Fort 
 Le Boeiif near the source of the creek, and Fort Ma- 
 chault just below its mouth. Fortifications were also 
 raised midway, at Cussewago, and could be seen there 
 
80 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 in a ruined condition in the last century. Even now it 
 is possible to trace a portion of the canal which led 
 from the fortifications to the creek. The beautiful prai- 
 ries of the creek bottom won Washington's admiration 
 as he passed through the valley on his memorable mis- 
 sion to Port Duquesne, and he was certainly one of 
 the first to fasten the name of French Creek upon what 
 had first been La Riviere aux Bceufs and then Venango 
 Kiver. 
 
 When in 1788 David, John, and Darius Mead, Cor- 
 nehus van Horn, and several other white men came to 
 the Cussewago meadows, the region was practically de- 
 serted. The forts had surrendered their early names; 
 Machault, or Venango, had become Fort Franklin, and 
 was the nearest place of refuge for the adventurous 
 settlers. 
 
 David Mead built his first hut on the Vallonia or 
 west side of French Creek near the rich bottom-lands, 
 which he straightway began to cultivate. The neigh- 
 boring Indians let him and his friends alone, but in 
 1791 Flying Cloud brought notice of the approach of 
 prowling bands from a distance, and the little settle- 
 ment took flight. The half-dozen or more families col- 
 lected about the sawmill embarked, " mostly on rafts 
 of boards prepared for the purpose," and made their 
 way down French Creek to Fort Franklin, where they 
 received protection. When, still undaunted, some of 
 the men shortly returned to plant their corn in the 
 French Creek meadows, they were beset by Indians, 
 and driven off, and one of them was killed. David Mead's 
 father was killed in the following year, but notwith- 
 standing this, Mead returned to his settlement. On the 
 eastern bank he built a double log cabin and a sawmiU, 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVAmA INTERIOR 81 
 
 the first sawmill west of the Allegheny River, and the 
 projected town was begun. The Indian name, Cus- 
 sewago, was at first retained for the settlement by Mead, 
 but his friends insisted on Meadville, and Meadville it 
 became. A few Indians lingered in the vicinity, but 
 they were entirely friendly. There were Stripe Neck 
 and his family, Hving on the west bank of French Creek, 
 near the present site of the Mercer bridge ; Flying Cloud 
 and Big Sun in their village to the northward, on Lake 
 Erie ; and Cornplanter and his brother Halftown, with 
 their people, on the Allegheny, in what is now the 
 northeast corner of Warren County. All these eventually 
 played their part in standing between the settlers and 
 destruction. 
 
 The harassing of the settlers continued for some time, 
 as the defeats of General Harmer in 1790 and General 
 St. Clair in 1791 emboldened the hostile Indians and 
 kept the frontiersmen in expectant terror. The inter- 
 ference, by this state of warfare, with the occupation of 
 the country, had, as will be seen, a direct bearing on 
 matters in which Mr. Huidekoper was concerned. David 
 Mead affirmed in testimony given in the case of " Rich- 
 ard Smith, an Alien, Lessee of Harm Jan Huidekoper, 
 an Alien, vs. WilHam Stiles," that in the beginning of 
 April, 1792, there was not one person resident in the 
 country north and west of the rivers Ohio and Allegheny 
 and Cussewago Creek except the few families from his 
 mills who were seeking protection at Fort Franklin. In 
 that same spring, however, Mead obtained a little gar- 
 rison of a sergeant, a corporal, and twelve men, hired 
 some friendly Indians, and, returning to Meadville, built 
 a strong stockade around his dwelling-house. His fam- 
 ily then came back from Fort Franklin, and in Novem- 
 
82 HARM JAN HDIDEKOPER 
 
 ber he procured from General Wayne a detachment of 
 a subaltern and thirty men, and, assisted by them, com- 
 pleted the stockade and built a blockhouse,^ which pro- 
 jected over the bank of French Creek in order to pre- 
 vent the enemy concealing themselves or having any 
 shelter under the bank of the creek either above or be- 
 low the fortification. 
 
 During the next few years, from 1792 until the latter 
 part of 1795, no settler with a wife or children attempted 
 to clear ground or to buUd a cabin in the woods. When 
 clearing or planting was to be done outside of the set- 
 tlement, parties were formed for its accompKshment. 
 These parties went well armed and set sentries and pa- 
 trols whose duty it was to watch whUe their comrades 
 worked. At night the whole little community assembled 
 within Mead's house, the blockhouse adjoining, and one 
 or two other houses, finding safety in numbers. Wayne's 
 victories, however, put another face on the Indian 
 troubles, and after the treaties of 1795 the town grew 
 fast. 
 
 It was in that year that Major Alden came to Mead- 
 
 1 " The first bloek-house stood in the north-west angle of a picket fort, 
 on the grounds now occupied (1878) by Jas. E. McFarland. Mead's house 
 was in the middle of the fort. In the north-east corner a cannon, pointing 
 northward, commanded the creek and the Indian trail. The fort faced 
 down what is now Water St., which is the line of the old Indian trail to 
 Franklin. The first block-house had a projecting second story, and it 
 stood so near the creek as to cause fear that it might be undermined. In 
 and near this previous fort fifteen white men, some with families, were 
 collected Aug. 10, 1793, the day when Mr. Dickson was wounded by In- 
 dians. A friendly Indian, named Flying Cloud, who was in the fort, 
 offered his son to carry a message to Fort LeBoeuf. This message was sent 
 Aug. 11, and was followed the next day by the arrival of seven soldiers, 
 all that could be spared from that point. The Indian boy left after sun- 
 rise, and was back before dark." From " Our Fortifications," by F. H., pub- 
 lished in the Evening Republican, and dated Meadville, October 24, 1878. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 83 
 
 ville. He was a Revolutionary soldier whose boast was 
 that he had been " in the first platoon that fired a shot 
 at Lexington, and among the last in the action at York- 
 town." He bought land of David Mead, and was asso- 
 ciated with him in pubHc works. With Mead and Dr. 
 Kennedy he surveyed the land, and laid out the town, 
 enlarging and improving upon the plan originally con- 
 ceived by Mead, by extending the streets and setting 
 aside for common use the public square, a parallelo- 
 gram six hundred feet long and three hundred feet 
 wide, which has always gone by the name of the Dia- 
 mond. Alden had also distinguished himself, two years 
 before Mr. Huidekoper's visit, by fighting a duel on 
 the French Creek meadows.^ When Mr. Huidekoper 
 first saw him, in 1802, he was a prosperous citizen 
 and had a combined gristmUl and sawmill at Saeger- 
 town.^ 
 
 The Meadville streets at that date, Dock, Water, Chest- 
 nut, Centre, and Walnut, were mainly corduroy roads, 
 
 1 " On the day appointed Mr. Foster, accompanied by his second, Dr. 
 Wallace of Erie, rode down the east side of the creek to a cluster of thorn 
 bushes a mile and a half below Meadville ; and Major Alden and Dr. 
 Kennedy, his second, rode down on the opposite side and swam their 
 horses across the stream. The ground was measured off and word given 
 to fire, when Major Alden fell, wounded just below the knee, the bone 
 being broken. He insisted on being propped up for the exchange of 
 another shot. The seconds would not consent, and he was carried back to 
 town in a canoe. He was lame ever after, but he gained the lady in ques- 
 tion." J, C. Hayes, in the Centennial Edition of the Tribune Republican, 
 Meadville, p. 35. 
 
 ^ He " represented the County in the Legislature from 1809 to 1811, 
 was County Treasurer from 1816 to 1819, and Registrar and Recorder 
 from 1821 to February, 1825. . . . After the war of 1812-15 he became 
 financially embarrassed and lost all his property. February, 1825, he was 
 appointed quartermaster at West Point, and removed from Meadville in 
 the same year, dying at the former place between eighty and ninety years 
 of age." History of Crawford County, p. 373. 
 
84 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 by the side of which stood a number of straggling log 
 cabins. In one of these Jenny Finney had held the 
 first school of Meadville. Her mode of obtaining this 
 temple of learning was picturesque. The cabin had been 
 built and occupied by William Gill on land which he 
 was the first to claim, and which he diligently hoed and 
 planted through one long summer. When his corn and 
 potatoes were gathered in he closed the door behind him 
 and returned to Pittsburg to fetch his waiting family. 
 He tarried in Pittsburg too long, the winter passed, 
 and when he appeared in Meadville in the spring, it was 
 to find Jenny Finney in full occupation of his claim, — 
 cabin, land, and all. She stood at the door with a rifle in 
 her hand, and advised him to go his ways, which he 
 prudently did. 
 
 In William GiU's cabin, then, Jenny Finney collected 
 about her the few children of the village and estab- 
 lished herself as mistress of the " taws," for a large 
 part of education then consisted in teaching the chil- 
 dren to pick up this instrument of discipline, when it 
 was thrown at them by the teacher, and to redeUver it 
 to the thrower, to receive such compensation as they 
 deserved in the form of blows. Her spirit and ability 
 made her a worthy wife for David Mead, who married 
 her not long afterward.^ 
 
 Before 1802, Mead himself had removed from his 
 log dwelling, on the bank of the old bed of French 
 Creek, to a new frame house, which he had built at the 
 junction of North Water and Market streets. Another 
 frame house had been built as early as 1795 on the 
 
 1 The daughter of General Mead and his wife, Jenny Finney, after- 
 wards married the son of William Gill, and as her mother's property 
 became hers, it was thus restored to the family of its original owner. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 85 
 
 northeast corner of Water Street and Cherry Alley by 
 William Dick. 
 
 In the upper story of this house of Mr. Dick was 
 held the first court ; and David Mead was one of 
 the associate judges. This was in 1800. Before that 
 Mead had had to hear cases as justice of the peace. 
 One of the first cases to come before him as justice 
 was an action of his own, for debt, brought against 
 Robert Fitz Randolph. At that time no constable had 
 been appointed. Mead, already both judge and plain- 
 tiff, decided that he must be his own constable. He 
 issued a summons, served it on Randolph, sat in judg- 
 ment, rendered a verdict in his own favor, made out an 
 execution, served that, seized one of Randolph's horses, 
 advertised it for sale, put up the horse at auction him- 
 self, bought it himself, paid himself out of the pro- 
 ceeds, and finally handed over to Randolph the money 
 that remained. It may well have seemed to Mr. Huide- 
 koper, after coming face to face with rough and ready 
 methods like these, that his Dutch training had not suf- 
 ficiently prepared him to act upon his own initiative. 
 
 That his opinion of early Meadville, as expressed in 
 his letter, should have been unfavorable is scarcely to 
 be wondered at ; any stranger coming to the town at 
 that period would have been more impressed by the 
 carousing of the river boatmen, lumbering crews, and 
 'longshore men, than by the fact that the townspeople 
 had raised a fund of four thousand dollars for the 
 founding of an academy, and had already organized 
 their First Presbyterian Church. 
 
 For an idler, which Mr. Huidekoper was not, the 
 water edge would have had a fascination all its own. 
 Down through French Creek, besides the rafts of lum- 
 
86 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 ber making their slow way to the great river, thence to 
 descend even as far as to New Orleans, came all the salt 
 consumed in the Ohio Valley. From the salt springs at 
 Onondaga, New York, it was hauled over the snow by 
 oxen in the sledding season to Buffalo, where it was 
 stored to await the spring. When the ice broke up it 
 was taken to Erie in sailing vessels, to be carried over- 
 land again to Waterford, where it was loaded upon 
 keelboats, arks or broadhorns, canoes and bateaux, and 
 dispatched down French Creek, — which was a larger 
 stream then than it is to-day, — past Meadville to 
 Franklin, thence by the Allegheny to Pittsburg,^ and 
 by the Ohio to Cincinnati and Louisville. In the 
 scarcity of ready money, salt was a favorite medium of 
 exchange, — a yoke of oxen could be bought for eight 
 barrels, a negro boy for one hundred barrels,^ — a barrel 
 being worth five dollars at that time. 
 
 Nor did Meadville altogether lack an export. Dr. 
 Kennedy had brought home in his saddle-bags, on his 
 return from some journey, in 1797, a few quarts of 
 wheat, which he divided among his farmer friends, 
 and which produced for them abundant seed. Rye and 
 barley were obtained not long afterward, and grain- 
 fields flourished. But grain was bulky and the means 
 of carrying were few. The crop must be reduced to a 
 portable size ; so David Mead set up a still in addition 
 to his sawmill and gristmill, and changed his grain to 
 
 ' " It required from two to three months to convey it from the place of 
 manufacture to Pittsburgh. . . . The discovery of salt wells on the Kis- 
 kiminitas and Kanawha, about 1813, cheapened the price of the article 
 at Pittsburgh, so that Salina could not compete, and the trade by way of 
 Erie steadily diminished until it ceased altogether in 1819." History of 
 Crawford County, p. 265. 
 
 ^ Our County and Its People, by Samuel Bates, p. 264. 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 87 
 
 whiskey. The farmers roundabout followed his exam- 
 ple, using the old-time copper boiler and worm-still, an 
 inexpensive apparatus within every one's reach, and the 
 problem was solved. Bushels of rye were thus changed 
 into a currency that in small space contained a com- 
 paratively enormous purchasing power.^ 
 
 Such was the community which Mr. Huidekoper 
 found in western Pennsylvania in 1802. He had then 
 no thought of returning to it, but before two years 
 were gone circumstances impelled him to turn again to 
 the westward. Of this the autobiography now speaks, 
 as well as of the arrival from Holland of Pieter Huide- 
 koper. Pieter's coming, indeed, was one of the fac- 
 tors which induced his brother to accept the agency 
 at Meadville. Large and strong, of fine physical build, 
 Pieter was, notwithstanding, iU-fitted by nature or by 
 education for a city career. Handsome, impetuous, 
 warm-hearted, hot-tempered, he would evidently do 
 better in the country than in a town. His strength 
 was truly remarkable. He could take a barrel of flour 
 in his hands, and with absolute ease run upstaii's with 
 it. He could subdue the fiercest buUdog or mastiff in 
 
 ' " For domestic use it [wliiskey] cost three shillings per quart, while 
 a, gill cost four cents. Tobacco was sold by the yard at four cents per 
 yard; common sugar at 33 cents and loaf at 60 cents per pound. Home- 
 spun linen could be purchased at 60 cents per yard, while the belle 
 aspiring to the extravagance of a calico could gratify her ambition at 
 83 cents per yard, with the addition of a cotton handkerchief at from 70 
 cents to $1.00 according to color and design. Shoes and boots brought 
 from $1.00 to $3.00 per pair, but moccasins were in common use with 
 both white men and Indians at 3 shillings and ninepence, though from 
 ninepence to two shillings higher when ornamented with the colored 
 quills of the porcupine. ... In an inventory made in 1797, three kegs 
 of Seneca oil (petroleum) are appraised at 50 cents each. This is doubt- 
 less one of the oldest quotations of the market price of this material." 
 History of Crawford County, p. 255. 
 
88 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 full attack, for he would simply seize the animal by the 
 throat and choke it until it became powerless. Added 
 to his muscular prowess, he had an uncommonly win- 
 ning address, and an affectionate nature which en- 
 deared him to his friends, but his sensitive disposition 
 required infinite patience and forbearance even from 
 the most considerate of brothers. Neither brother recog- 
 nized the other when they met, so much had they both 
 changed since their parting in Drenthe;^ but Harm 
 Jan immediately made himself responsible for Pieter's 
 future, and in forming his plans weighed Pieter's ad- 
 vantage as if it had been his own. 
 
 In the summer of 1804 [says the autobiography,^ re- 
 suming the narrative] Major Alden sent in his resig- 
 nation as Agent. Mr. Busti being at a loss who to 
 appoint as his successor, I applied for that Agency, and 
 obtained it, with the addition of a Superintending Agency 
 of the Company's lands in the 5th and 6th districts 
 East of the Allegheny river, which had been placed 
 under the immediate Agency of William P. Brady and 
 Eobert Beatty. Most of my friends in Philadelphia 
 thought that I did wrong in exchanging My comfortable 
 situation in Philadelphia for the hardships and priva- 
 tions then inseparably connected with a residence in this 
 
 1 Of Pieter's coming Mr. Huidekoper wrote to his brother in a, letter 
 of July 31, 1805 : " You were surprised that Pieter and I did not recog- 
 nize each other when we met, but that was because we had uot seen each 
 other for such a long time and because we were both still young when I 
 left Holland. I am not sure that you yourself, if I appeared suddenly at 
 Boonwyk, would recognize me. But however my face may have altered 
 my heart has remained the same toward you." 
 
 ° The following passage occurs between the part of the autobiography 
 contained in the second chapter, and that which is here given : " In 
 June 1804 I purchased from the Holland Land Company about Twenty- 
 two thousand Acres of land north of Toby's Creek. This was the first of 
 my land speculations, and it proved, in the issue, a profitable one." 
 
PIETER HUIDBKOPER 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 89 
 
 Country. I however had maturely considered this mat- 
 ter, and I thought then, and have thought ever after- 
 wards, that I acted wisely in taking the step I took. My 
 principal reasons for exchanging My situation in the 
 city for one in the country were two. My Brother 
 Pieter had in the Spring of 1804 arrived from Holland, 
 and in the Country I could more easily provide for him ; 
 and besides I felt anxious to be settled in life, and have 
 a home of my own, and this I considered as more easily 
 attainable in the Country than in the City. To this was 
 added my predilection for a country life. 
 
 I left Philadelphia for the West in the Month of Sep- 
 tember 1804; remained some time at Greensburgh,^ 
 from whence I made an excursion to the Company's 
 lands on the Mahoning, in Company with some Swiss 
 Settlers ; and after some further detention at Greens- 
 burgh, by an indisposition of my Brother's, I arrived at 
 MeadviUe towards the latter part of November ; and on 
 the 1st of January 1805 I entered on the duties of my 
 Agency. 
 
 Meadville had rapidly improved during the two years 
 which had elapsed since Mr. Huidekoper's first visit. 
 The number and character of the inhabitants had 
 advanced ; and new houses gave the town a thriving 
 aspect. Moreover, the MeadviUe Academy, under the 
 charge of the Rev. Joseph Stockton of the Presbyterian 
 
 1 Greensburgh was the headquarters of Messrs. Beatty and Brady. 
 Mr. Huidekoper wrote on September 22 to Mr. Busti : " If you ever visit 
 this part of the country I advise you not to do it iu the stage, for the 
 roads are so bad, and the jolting of the carriage is so unbearable that we 
 fairly wore out each a pair of boots in walking over the rocks and moun- 
 tains on foot." 
 
 The applications for lands about Greensburgh were going on at a pro- 
 digious rate. He said that they far surpassed his expectations, though 
 these had been sanguine. Mr. Beatty told him that sometimes as many 
 as thirty persons were with him in the woods at once, hunting for 
 land. 
 
90 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Church, was about to open, and manufacturing in a 
 small way had begun. A combined court house and jail 
 had been put up on the west side o£ the Diamond. This 
 buUding was of hewn timber, and had its yard inclosed 
 by a stockade fence of pointed logs. A double stair- 
 way led up on the outside of the jail to the second 
 story, which was the court-room, and served, besides, 
 on Sundays, as a place of worship for the community in 
 general, as the different churches had not yet their 
 separate homes. In 1805, too, the Erie and Waterford 
 turnpike project was being pushed vigorously. The 
 road was to pass through Meadville, and aU the leading 
 citizens, including General Mead, Colonel Hackney, 
 Major Alden, Dr. Kennedy, and Jabez Colt were in- 
 terested. 
 
 More than all, the newspaper had arrived. It was a 
 four-page sheet, by name " The Crawford Messenger," 
 and was edited by Thomas Atkinson and W. Brendel. 
 The paper on which it was printed had to be brought 
 on horseback from the mills near Pittsburg, over more 
 than a hundred miles of rough forest roads. The press 
 had been procured at second hand. It was, in fact, the 
 same press that had printed the Continental money 
 issued by Congress during its sessions at Lancaster and 
 York, when the British were in Philadelphia. When 
 the items of news reached Meadville, they were usually 
 fourteen days old if they came from Lancaster or Phila- 
 delphia, eighteen, twenty-one, and twenty-two days old 
 when they were from New York, Washington, or Boston, 
 while if from London they came in from sixty to 
 seventy-six days, and from Paris in from seventy-one 
 to eighty-five. 
 
 In the first number of the " Messenger," issued Janu- 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 91 
 
 ary 2, 1805, an editorial address to the public says : 
 " Among the various amusements for which the present 
 age is distinguished that of a newspaper conducted with 
 diligence, attention and probity, is not the least deserv- 
 ing the public patronage. ... It introduces the Reader 
 into the theatre of the world and shows him the great 
 actors on the stage of Time." And indeed the " Mes- 
 senger" could make good its words. In the issues of 
 January 16 and January 25, 1805, the Reader saw 
 the curtain rise upon one scene of a most thrilHng drama, 
 when his eye fell upon the heading : " News from Paris 
 dated 28th Vendemiaire," or read, " Copy of the note 
 delivered by the French Minister of the foreign depart- 
 ment to the imperial Russian Charge d'affaires, dated 
 Paris, 26th Flore'al, year XIII, or the 16 May, 1804." 
 This last was followed by the " note " in question, at 
 the end of which was appended " C. M. Talleyrand." 
 And two years later, more than a column of the little 
 sheet was fairly vibrating with the rallying cry " Sol- 
 diers ! " every paragraph beginning with the ringing 
 invocation, and one continuing, " The Russians boast of 
 coming to us. We will march to meet them and thus 
 spare them half the road. They shall again find Aus- 
 terHtz in the heart of Prussia." This was signed " Na- 
 poleon." 
 
 Or, was the Reader a certain young Hollander, the 
 following portion of a letter from a merchant in Amster- 
 dam to his correspondent in New York, dated March 
 4, 1808, might interest him : " It seems to be the de- 
 termination of Bonaparte that all the world shall be at 
 war. . . . An embargo took place here on the 25th of 
 January, for what purpose is at present unknown. The 
 American consul has petitioned for one of the ships to 
 
92 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 depart for the United States with all the unfortunate 
 American seamen. This request has been granted, and 
 it is by that conveyance I now address you." That bit 
 of news had been nearly six weeks in reaching New 
 York, and was two months more in finding its way to 
 Meadville. In their wholesome isolation, patrons of the 
 " Crawford Messenger," we may be certain, were secure 
 from the intrusion of revolting horrors like those served 
 up at breakfast time in our great dailies at the present 
 day. 
 
 " The ' Messenger ' in its political character will be 
 purely Kepublican," the address in the first number goes 
 on to state, " yet in the admission of essays it will be 
 strictly impartial. . . . Truth can only be advanced by 
 discussion," — a proposition which Mr. Huidekoper 
 maintained in practice through many a long controversy 
 in its columns at a later day. The semi-Kterary charac- 
 ter of the paper, too, was emphasized from the first by 
 a page devoted to such contributions or clippings as 
 " To the Ivy " by Mrs. Hemans, and " The Eed-nosed 
 Lieutenant " from the London " Literary Gazette." 
 Piquancy is added to the literary page by the notice 
 that " Clean Linen and Cotton Kags will be received in 
 payment for this paper," and by the announcement, 
 among the advertisements, that Dick and Company, in 
 exchange for " Real Tartan Bombazet and Circassian 
 Plaids, Canton Crapes, Levantine Sarcenet Silks and 
 other goods," vsdU accept " Blacksalts, Flax-seed, Tim- 
 othy Seed, Oats, Beeswax, Butter, Linen Rags, Deer- 
 skins, Deerhorns, TaUow, Lard, White Beans, etc.," — 
 a Hst which brings vividly before us the farmer's wagons 
 transporting these commodities from the surrounding 
 country, and the Indian hunters bartering, not perhaps 
 
IN THE PENNSYLVANIA INTERIOR 93 
 
 at Dick's for Canton Crapes or Sarcenet silks, but at 
 Kerr's or Cullum's for lead shot and James River to- 
 bacco. Suggestive also are the alluring offers of Quills, 
 Ink-powder, Wafers, Thiunb and Knob Latches, Snuffers, 
 Candle-wicks, Bed Screws, Opodeldoc, Asaf oetida, Venice 
 Turpentine, or " Misses Prunella Slippers and Men's 
 Sealskin Pumps." 
 
 The of&ce of the " Messenger " was also a book de- 
 partment, where might be obtained the " New England 
 Primer," not like some late fragmentary reprints, issued 
 for the scorn and laughter of infancy, but the genuine, 
 original, awe-inspiring, reverence-breeding volume, pored 
 over, dog-eared, devoured by wistful men and half- 
 grown boys, groping for education in the firelight of 
 the hearth, between chores and bedtime. From the 
 moral tales of the primer a lad could step, still with the 
 assistance of the "Messenger's" bookshelves, to Watts's 
 Hymns, Burns's Poems, Whitefield's Sermons, and finally 
 out into the " Gentleman's Miscellany," all these being 
 advertised in the paper itself. 
 
 On January 16, 1805, appeared in the " Messenger " 
 the announcement : " Take Notice. The subscriber hav- 
 ing been duly appointed by the Holland Land Company 
 Agent for their lands west of the Allegheny River, hereby 
 gives notice to the public that he has opened his office 
 at Meadville. Those who are indebted to said company 
 are requested to make payment, and those whose book 
 accounts remain still unsettled are earnestly desired to 
 come forward and settle the same, as the subscriber 
 would be sorry to see himself obliged to institute suits 
 in order to obtain a settlement of the book accounts, 
 which is indispensable. H. J. Huidekoper." 
 
 In addition to this, the issue of March 20, 1805, con- 
 
94 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 tained a notice of the opinion of the court in the case 
 of "The Lessee of Harm Jan Huidekoper vs. James 
 Douglass," ^ which leads us back to Mr. Huidekoper and 
 to a consideration of the nature and difficulties of the 
 Holland Land Company. 
 
 1 Huidekoper vs. Douglass, 3 Cranch Rep. 1. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 
 
 The Holland Land Company was one of the many 
 great companies formed in the latter part of the eigh- 
 teenth century for the purpose of dealing in western 
 lands. It was not a corporation, but an association of 
 Dutch capitalists, who purchased lands and conducted 
 their operations in the names of certain of the associ- 
 ates acting as trustees. It had as a basis for its opera- 
 tions a capital of four million three hundred and ninety- 
 two thousand dollars,^ and for more than forty years 
 played an important part in the settlement and develop- 
 ment of western New York and northwestern Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 The story of how these Amsterdam bankers and mer- 
 chants came to invest large sums of money in the 
 purchase of lands roamed over by red men, and on their 
 western borders abandoned, at the time of the purchase, 
 to the horrors of the Indian war, takes us back to the 
 days of the Revolution. 
 
 Mr. Busti, general agent of the Company, already 
 mentioned in Mr. Huidekoper's letters and autobio- 
 graphy, says : " At an early stage of the American re- 
 volution, when the struggle for liberty and independence 
 was yet doubtful, the Dutch merchants, who afterwards 
 
 1 Memorial of Paul Busti to. the Legislature of the State of New York, 
 March 1, 1820. See Journals of John Lincklaen, edited by Helen Linck- 
 laen Fairohild, Appendix C. 
 
96 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 formed the Holland Land Company, warmly espousing 
 the cause of this infant republic, came forward, at every 
 hazard, to furnish her with supplies, in order to reHeve 
 the wants of her armies. The meritorious exertions of 
 these individuals cannot be forgotten by the surviving 
 patriots of the revolution, nor will the faithful records 
 of history cease to attest them to posterity. The gov- 
 ernment of the United States, in the enjoyment of the 
 blessings of peace and independence, being soon happily 
 enabled by a wise and regular system of finance to 
 satisfy the demand of their pubHc creditors, the capital 
 of part of the debt thus contracted with the merchants 
 of Holland was thrown into their hands at a moment when 
 the convulsions and revolutions of Europe threatened to 
 subvert the whole fabric of civil society. Under these 
 circumstances, they determined to reinvest these funds 
 in American lands, and during the course of the years 
 1792 and 1793 the uncultivated wilds of the Genesee 
 thus passed into the hands of the individuals who com- 
 posed the Holland Land Company, and who, for the 
 purchase and improvement of this property, formed an 
 association." ^ 
 
 It is to be regretted that the records of the general 
 agency of the Company have long since been removed 
 from Philadelphia to Amsterdam, where they are inac- 
 cessible.^ The details of the story, therefore, are not 
 known, but in outline it seems to be as follows : ^ — 
 
 ' Memorial of Paul Busti to the Legislature of the State of New York. 
 
 " " In 1855, after the death of Mr. J. J. Van der Kemp, Mr. Van der 
 Kemp's daughter gave to the care of Mr. van Hall, to be taken back to 
 Holland, twelve green wooden chests of the Company's papers. These are 
 probably still in the possession of Mr. Pieter van Eegheu in Amsterdam." 
 Family letters. 
 
 ' See Pioneer History of the Holland Land Purchase of Western New 
 
Harm Jan Huidekoper 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 97 
 
 When in the winter of 1782-83 John Adams obtained 
 a loan for the United States from the Dutch, his nego- 
 tiations were carried on through the three great banking 
 firms of Wilhem and Jan WUlink, Nicholas and Jacob 
 van Staphorst, and de la Lande and Pynje.^ At that 
 time and up to 1784 Robert Morris was superintendent 
 of finance, and in the course of his official duties he 
 corresponded with the Dutch bankers. In 1791 Morris 
 purchased a tract of some 3,800,000 acres of wild land 
 in western New York, embracing substantially all the 
 land in that State west of the Genesee River, and being 
 engaged in so extensive a speculation it was but natural 
 that he should think of his former correspondents, the 
 WUlinks and the van Staphorsts, and of the funds soon 
 to be paid over to them and to those whom they had re- 
 presented in making the Dutch loan. Perhaps he already 
 contemplated selling to them when he bought. What 
 steps he took to bring his lands to their notice is matter 
 of conjecture, but a pamphlet entitled " Reflections 
 offertes aux Capitalistes de I'Europe, sur les Benefices 
 immenses, que presente 1' achat de terres incultes, situees 
 dans les Btats-Unis de L' Amerique," ^ issued at Amster- 
 dam in 1792, was doubtless one of the means employed. 
 In the preface to the " Reflections " the author states 
 
 York, by O. Turner, Buffalo, 1849 ; History of the Pioneer Settlement of 
 Phelps and Oorman Purchase, etc., by O. Turner, Rocbester, 1851; Life 
 and Works of John Adajns,hj Chsi,rles Francis Adams; The Financier and 
 the Finances of the American Revolution, by William Graham Sumner, New- 
 York, 1892; Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. vii. p. 535; 
 The Holland Land Company, by Alfred Huidekoper, Appendix, p. 350. 
 
 ' Life and Works of John Adams, vol. i. p. 351. De la Lande and Fynje 
 do not seem to bave become interested in the Holland Land Company, 
 At least their names do not appear among the associates. 
 
 ^ The pamphlet is anonymous, but is attributed to Van Pradelles. It 
 is to be found in the Boston Public Library. 
 
98 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 that his only reason for writing the little work is to in- 
 form the public, and principally the Holland merchants, 
 that the purchase of uncultivated lands in America, by 
 reason of the extreme rapidity with which they increase 
 in value, promises greater and more certain advantages 
 than those which their thorough business knowledge has 
 already procured for them in the bonds of the country. 
 It " skillfully and convincingly leads up to the Genesee 
 country, and leaves the reader with the firm conviction 
 that the Genesee country is by far the most attractive 
 field for speculation in land." ^ 
 
 In the same year was issued at Amsterdam by Pieter 
 Stadnitzki an announcement,^ or prospectus, stating 
 that, together with some friends of his, he had com- 
 menced the purchase of lands in America, and ofPering 
 to all who might desire an opportunity to become share- 
 holders in the enterprise. He did not name his asso- 
 ciates or describe the lands, but from the fact that he 
 was a director of the Holland Land Company^ it is 
 evident that this announcement was issued on behalf of 
 that company. 
 
 The announcement begins with the statement that it 
 is well known that great profits were made by the Hol- 
 landers through speculation in American bonds. " As 
 I," says Stadnitzki, " in opening the way for the profits 
 of the Hollanders in the American bonds, have not met 
 
 ' TJie Holland Land Company (manuscript), a paper read by George 
 E. Dawson, before the Chicago Literary Club, January 16, 1899. 
 
 " Voorafgaand Bericht, wegens eene negotiatie, op landen in America (Pre- 
 liminary announcement regarding a transaction of land in America), 
 Pieter Stadnitzki, Amsterdam, 1792. A copy of this pamphlet is in the 
 Library of Congress. The translation has been made by Mr. Otto von 
 Klock. 
 
 ^ Journals of John Lincklaen, p. 14. Stadnitzfci's name appeared among 
 the grantees of the Pennsylvania lands purchased for the Company. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 99 
 
 with ingratitude, I have the courage to do the same in 
 another branch, before increasing years have put an end 
 to my energy and powers. What I mean is, that in this 
 same country another operation can be carried out, which 
 in even greater probability offers even far greater pro- 
 fits. ... In order to take every precaution, and not to 
 expose the interests of the shareholders to injury by 
 death or any other unforeseen occurrence, I have re- 
 quested some acquaintances of mine, who are acquainted 
 with American affairs, and people well known on the 
 Beurs, together with a lawyer who is quite well known 
 to the business world (the latter on account of the sales 
 contracts and titles), to act as co-directors, with my firm 
 as managing directors, to direct this affair, giving them 
 a detailed description of my property. After receiving 
 the complete approbation, we have commenced the pur- 
 chase of such land as we thought offered the most 
 profit." ' 
 
 1 Stadnitzki refers to the recent extensive land speculations in America, 
 saying that many have purchased more than they could handle, and have 
 therefore sent their agents to Europe in order to sell. By the reports of 
 these agents and of some of the purchasers in England and France, he 
 was induced, he says, to investigate. " I, with some of my friends (to 
 whose knowledge, advice, and assistance I owe a great deal of my deter- 
 mination to embark on the first mentioned undertaking in the bonds), 
 made the resolution to send people there, having the necessary knowledge, 
 of whose good faith we were assured, and who were physically fitted to 
 travel through a land where the laid-out roads are few, and to live there 
 through the severest frost and deepest snow for months at a time." As 
 to the probable profits of the undertaking, he says that if they can sell in 
 the beginning at a profit of 25 per cent, they must be satisfied. " As far 
 as I can judge, the last remaining lots of the land . . . can be sold in 10 
 or 20 years for as many guilders as they now cost stuivers, and I really 
 believe that in making this statement I am rather too modest than too 
 bold." In this connection the following passage from Paul Busti's Memo- 
 rial to the New York Legislature, in 1820, is of interest : — 
 
 " The whole net receipts of the Holland Laud Company, arising from 
 
100 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Whether or not the lands referred to in Stadnitzki's 
 announcement were Morris's lands, the fact is estab- 
 lished that Morris succeeded in making large sales to the 
 Holland Land Company. On December 24, 1792, Rob- 
 ert Morris and Mary, his wife, conveyed to Herman Le 
 Roy and John Lincklaen, as trustees for Wilhem Wil- 
 link, Nicholas van Staphorst, Pieter van Eeghen, Hen- 
 drick VoUenhoven, and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, 
 1,500,000 acres of the Genesee lands in New York, and 
 between that date and the following July conveyed 
 enough more to bring the number to what was estimated 
 to be 3,300,000 acres.^ The title was taken in the names 
 of Le Roy and Lincklaen because at that time the laws 
 of New York did not permit aliens to hold land ; but, 
 an alien act having in the mean time been passed, the 
 land was afterwards conveyed to the real parties in in- 
 terest, or to their representatives in Holland. 
 
 In addition to the lands purchased from Morris, which 
 embraced what is now included in the counties of Chau- 
 tauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie, and Niagara, and parts of 
 Allegheny, Wyoming, Genesee, and Orleans, and for 
 which a local agency and land office was estabUshed at 
 Batavia, the Holland Land Company purchased some 
 120,000 acres in the central part of New York in the 
 
 their lands in the State of New York, after paying expenses, do not ex- 
 ceed seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars, affording, daring the 
 twenty-six years in which their capital has been thus employed, an aver- 
 age interest of less than one per centum per annum." 
 
 1 There were three conveyances, in two of which Gerrit Boon was joined 
 with Le Roy and Lincklaen. There was also a fourth conveyance of 300,- 
 000 acres, which finally became vested in Wilhem Willink, Jr., and Jan 
 Willink, Jr. See Turner's History of Holland Land Purchase, Appendix. 
 Mr. Dawson says that the Holland Company paid " In round numbers 
 $1,100,000. At least this is the aggregate of the pounds and florins stated 
 as consideration in the respective deeds." 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 101 
 
 neighborhood of Oldenbarneveld.^ The local agency for 
 the smaller tract was at Cazenovia. 
 
 A history of the operations of the HoUand Land Com- 
 pany in New York would be aside from the purpose-; 
 enough on that subject has now been said to show the 
 magnitude of the Company's interests in that state, and 
 to furnish a proper background for Mr. Huidekoper's 
 connection with the Company during his years in Caze- 
 novia and Oldenbarneveld, before his undertaking the 
 agency at MeadviUe. 
 
 The interest of the Holland Land Company in lands 
 in Pennsylvania would seem to have followed naturally 
 from the possession of the neighboring tract of country 
 in the adjoining State. On August 21, 1793, Herman 
 Le Roy and William Bayard, both of the city of New 
 York, as agents of Wilhem Wilhnk, Nicholas van Stap- 
 horst, Pieter Stadnitzki, Christian van Eeghen, Hen- 
 drick VoUenhoven, and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, 
 of the city of Amsterdam, who in turn represented the 
 Holland Land Company, entered into a contract with 
 James Wilson of Philadelphia, one of the judges of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, for the purchase 
 of 499,660 acres of land situate on French Creek be- 
 tween French Creek and the River Allegheny in the 
 State of Pennsylvania. This land was to consist of 
 1162 tracts of 430 acres each, for which warrants had 
 been or were to be taken out at the Land Office, and 
 Judge Wilson undertook to cause surveys to be made 
 and patents to be issued to the Dutch purchasers.^ 
 
 By the year 1800 surveys had been made and patents 
 had been issued to Willink and his associates for most 
 
 * Journals of John Lincklaen, pp. 14, 111. 
 
 * The Holland Land Company, by Alfred Huidekoper, Appendix, p. 361. 
 
102 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 of the 1162 tracts. Almost from the first, however, 
 grave questions as to the Company's title presented them- 
 selves. These questions grew out of the provision of an 
 act of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, passed April 
 3, 1 1792, under which the warrants were issued and 
 which imposed important conditions as prerequisite to 
 the Vesting of title to the lands. 
 
 By this act the State offered all the land lying north 
 of the Ohio River and west o£ the Allegheny River and 
 Conewango Creek, with certain exceptions, to persons 
 who should cultivate, improve, and settle upon the same, 
 or cause the same to be cultivated, improved, and set- 
 tled, for the price of seven pounds ten shillings for every 
 one hundred acres, with an allowance of six per cent for 
 roads. The act provided for two modes of acquiruig 
 title. One was the purchase of a warrant at the Land 
 Office for a tract of land not to exceed four hundred 
 facres, to be surveyed, payment of the purchase money 
 into the State Treasury to be followed by actual settle- 
 ment and improvement. The other mode was by actual 
 settlement and improvement, in the first instance, pay- 
 ment to be made at a later time after performance of the 
 conditions imposed. Under both modes a survey was 
 required to be made by the deputy surveyor of the dis- 
 trict. A large number of warrants were taken out on 
 behalf of the Holland Land Company, as well as by other 
 capitalists. Surveys on these warrants were made, gener- 
 ally in 1794 and 1795, and as a consequence they would 
 have given undoubted titles but for the terms of the 
 ninth section of the act. This section provided that no 
 warrant or survey should vest title unless the grantee had 
 prior to the date of the warrant made, or should within 
 two years of the date of the same make, an actual set- 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 103 
 
 tlement thereon, by clearing, fencing, and cultivating at 
 least two acres for every one hundred acres in the sur- 
 vey, erecting a messuage, and residing or causing a 
 family to reside thereon for five years. The section iw- 
 ther provided that in default of such actual settlement 
 and residence, it should be lawful for the Commonwealth 
 to issue new warrants to other actual settlers. This sec- 
 tion concluded with an obscurely worded proviso which 
 was variously interpreted by lawyers, courts, and people, 
 and which became the source of litigation, involving not 
 only the lands claimed by the Holland Land Company, 
 but a large part of all the lands to which the act ap- 
 plied. The language of the proviso was as foUows : 
 " Provided always, nevertheless, that if any such actual 
 settler, or any grantee, in any such original or succeed- 
 ing warrant, shall, by force of arms of the enemies of 
 the United States, be prevented from making such ac- 
 tual settlement, or be driven therefrom, and shall per- 
 sist in his endeavors to make such actual settlement as 
 aforesaid, then, in either case, he and his heirs shall be 
 entitled to have and to hold the said lands, in the same 
 manner as if the actual settlement had been made and 
 continued." 
 
 As has been seen in a previous chapter, the lands 
 along French Creek and elsewhere in the neighborhood 
 of what is at present Crawford County were in 1792 
 and 1793 subject to rumors of danger and attack from 
 the Indians. Indeed, the defeat of St. Clair had occurred 
 only five months before the date of the act, and a state 
 of war continued until after General Anthony Wayne's 
 successful campaign ended in a treaty of peace, which 
 was not ratified by the United States Senate until De- 
 cember 22, 1795. During the state of war it was im- 
 
104 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 possible for the Holland Land Company or the other 
 warrant-holders to comply with the condition of making 
 f settlement upon their lands. Under these circumstances 
 h. number of " intruders," as they came to be called, as 
 soon as the danger from Indians had ceased, seized upon 
 the Company's lands and refused to recognize its rights. 
 The ratification of the treaty, says Chief Justice Agnew, 
 in his history of the settlement of land titles of this 
 region,^ " became the first signal of safety for entry 
 and settlement on these lands. Only a few adventurous 
 spirits had gone on before, chiefly in the vicinity of the 
 forts. The spring of 1796 became, therefore, the period 
 when the largest wave of settlement rose, and the set- 
 tlers [intruders] took possession." The intruders con- 
 tended that the owners of warrants, by reason of failure 
 to make actual settlement, had forfeited their titles, and 
 that their lands were open to settlement. Where lawyers 
 disagreed, it was not to be expected that eager pioneers 
 should hold back, and the inflowing tide overwhehned 
 the whole country, the newcomers sitting down upon 
 the lands which they selected without respect to the sur- 
 veys made on the warrants. 
 
 In some instances the intruders were honest in their 
 behef that the lands were open to them ; in more they 
 were the dupes of men who had an interest in placing 
 them upon the disputed lands ; in many cases they were 
 adventurers who were quite willing to pick up a few 
 acres lawfully or unlawfully, it mattered not. Once on 
 the land all kinds made common cause against the capi- 
 talists. Their resistance was at its height in 1802. " At 
 
 ' A History of the Region of Pennsylvania North of the Ohio and West of 
 the Allegheny River, etc., by Hon. Daniel Agnew, Philadelphia, 1887, 
 p. 122. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 105 
 
 that period," wrote Mr. Huidekoper to Mr. Busti (Jan- 
 uary 1, 1805), " the intruders were a regular combina- 
 tion to oppose the warranties [warrantees]. They had 
 their stated town meetings to consult about their af- 
 fairs, and these again chose deputies who attended their 
 general county or district meetings, where the plans of 
 oppositions were organized, assessments made, counsel 
 appointed, and every step taken that would insure suc- 
 cess to their lawless plans." Just a Httle before the time 
 of Mr. Huidekoper's arrival in Meadville a plot had been 
 formed to shoot Judge Addison, a state judge, blow up 
 the prothonotary's office and the several land offices of 
 Meadville and Erie, destroy the county records, and drive 
 off or kill the agents. Fortunately one of the conspir- 
 ators came to his senses in time to withdraw from the 
 plot, and also to persuade his fellow plotters to give up 
 their design. This was perhaps one of the last desperate 
 efforts at combination on the part of the intruders, for 
 Mr. Huidekoper wrote of them in December, 1804 : 
 " They no more meet to consult about their mutual in- 
 terests ; they no more make contributions to support the 
 common cause ; every one now stands single against the 
 Company, and all are sensible that a suit in the Federal 
 Court draws certain ruin after it." 
 
 Three views as to the rights of the respective claim- 
 ants were held by different persons. The intruders con- 
 tended that the warrant-holders had forfeited their rights 
 and that the warrants were " dead." This extreme view 
 never found judicial support. The warrant-holders, on 
 the other hand, contended " that the condition of settle- 
 ment, being subsequent, was absolutely gone by the pre- 
 vention of the enemies of the United States (the Indians), 
 and by their [the warrant-holders'] persistence to settle 
 
106 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 within the two years." ^ This view, as will be seen, was 
 sustained by Chief Justice Marshall in the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. An intermediate view, however, 
 was held by the legal profession in the western part of 
 the State, and their view prevailed in the state courts. 
 This intermediate view was " that neither the warrants 
 were void, nor the condition of settlement gone ; but 
 that the latter was only suspended until the prevention 
 ceased, which ended with the ratification of the treaty 
 of peace on the 22d December, 1795 ; and then, resuming 
 its force, the warrantees had two years, viz., until the 
 22d December, 1797, to perform the condition by mak- 
 ing the required settlement, etc." ^ 
 
 Down to about the year 1800 the officers of the Land 
 Office and the Board of Property held that the con- 
 dition of settlement was extinguished by the prevention 
 caused by the Indian war, and a persistence to make 
 settlement during the two years from the date of the 
 warrants. As there was evidence that the Holland Com- 
 pany had persisted in its endeavors to make actual settle- 
 ment, the Board of Property issued to the Company 876 
 patents, or " prevention patents," as such patents came 
 to be called. A change of administration, however, 
 occurred in 1799, when Thomas McKean succeeded 
 Thomas Mifflin as governor, and under the new admin- 
 istration the Board of Property adopted the intermediate 
 view of the effect of the saving proviso, and held that 
 the Indian war merely suspended the condition requiring 
 settlement. In consequence of this change of front, the 
 secretary of the Land Office refused to issue further 
 prevention patents to the Holland Company.^ 
 
 1 Agnew, History of the Region, etc., p. 123. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 123, 124. 
 » Ibid. pp. 126, 127. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 107 
 
 The earnestness of the efforts of the Holland Land 
 Company to occupy, improve, and settle the lands in 
 performance of the onerous conditions resting upon 
 their title appears from the following summary : ^ As 
 soon after the dates of the warrants as deputy sur- 
 veyors could be prevailed upon to attempt to execute 
 the surveys, in the years 1794 and 1795, a general 
 agent was appointed to superintend the business of the 
 Company, a large store was built at Cussewago, or 
 Meadville, and more than $5000 was disbursed. In 
 1796 companies of settlers were invited and engaged ; 
 ample supplies of provisions, implements, utensUs, etc., 
 were sent into the country; the expense of transport- 
 ing families was hberally advanced ; a bounty of one 
 hundred acres was given for improving and settHng 
 each tract; and a further sum of $22,000 was dis- 
 bursed. In 1797 about |60,000 more was expended 
 in promoting the same objects, including payments on 
 contracts for settlement, and quieting adverse claims. 
 In 1798 mills were erected, roads were opened, and 
 other exertions were made at an expense of not less 
 than $30,000. In 1799 $40,000 and upwards was ex- 
 pended in further improvements and settlements, in 
 salaries and wages of agents and workmen, in opening 
 and repairing roads, and in patenting eight hundred 
 and seventy-six tracts. In 1800 the operations and ad- 
 vances were at least equal to those of any preceding 
 year. In short, at the close of 1800 the Company had 
 expended nearly $400,000. 
 
 In the litigation which ensued upon the refusal to 
 issue prevention patents the Holland Company took 
 the initiative. Its first step was to institute proceed- 
 
 ' Commonwealth v. Tench Coxe, 4 Dallas Eep. 170. 
 
108 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 ings by mandamus in the Supreme Court of the Com- 
 monwealth against the secretary of the Land 0£B.ce, to 
 compel him to issue the prevention patents for which 
 the Company had applied.^ This case furnishes a full 
 history of the controversy between the warrantees and 
 the settlers. The court adopted, although not unani- 
 mously/ the intermediate view, holding that every war- 
 rant-holder must cause a settlement to be made within 
 two years from the date of his warrant, to be followed 
 by a residence for five years, on pain of forfeiture ; but 
 that if he should be interrupted or obstructed by ex- 
 ternal force in so doing within the Hmited periods, and 
 should afterwards persevere in his efforts within a rea- 
 sonable time after the removal of such force until these 
 objects should be accomplished, no advantage of him 
 should be taken for want of a successive continuation 
 of his settlement. 
 
 This decision, however, was only the beginning of 
 the controversy. The Assembly now intervened, and on 
 April 2, 1802, passed an act to raise what was known 
 as the " Feigned Issue," to try the question in dispute. 
 By this act the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was 
 required to meet and devise a form of action for try- 
 ing the question whether or not the warrants were void 
 against the Commonwealth by reason of non-settlement ; 
 and whether grants of the Land Office were good, if 
 founded upon " prevention certificates " given by jus- 
 tices of the peace, without other evidence of the nature 
 
 ' Commonwealth v. Tench Coxe, supra. 
 
 ^ Chief Justice Shippen sustained the contention of the warrantees, 
 holding tliat if they had been prevented from complying with the terms 
 of the law by the actual force of the enemy, as they had justly paid for 
 the land, they were entitled to their patents. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 109 
 
 and circumstances being given. ^ The questions of law 
 and fact were to be decided by the judges and a jury, 
 and it was made competent for the jury, under direction 
 of the court, to decide upon the law and the facts, and, 
 if they thought proper, to brmg in a general verdict. 
 The case^ was made up and was heard ex parte, the 
 Holland Land Company, although notified, declining 
 to appear, being unwiUing, in view of the adverse posi- 
 tion already taken by the Supreme Court of the state 
 in the mandamus case, as well as of the bias against 
 them to be expected from the jury, to submit to the 
 jurisdiction.^ Chief Justice Shippen, who had given 
 the dissenting opinion in the mandamus case, did not 
 attend, probably thinking it useless to do so, and the 
 decision of the court, delivered by Judge Yeates, who 
 had delivered the opinion of the court in the man- 
 damus case, followed in the line of his former opinion. 
 The result of the trial of the " Feigned Issue " was a 
 general verdict by the jury for the plaintiff, and judg- 
 ment was rendered in favor of the Attorney-General 
 and against the grantees. 
 
 ■ In 1797 the Board of Property had prepared a form of certificate 
 to be signed by the deputy surveyor, district judge, or two justices of 
 the peace residing in the vicinity of the land, as a means of proving 
 prevention from making settlement upon application for a patent. This 
 form had been approved by the attorney-general, and upon such cer- 
 tificate prevention patents were issued up to the change in the Board of 
 Property. 
 
 ^ Attorney-General v. The Grantees under the Act of April, 1792, 4 Dal- 
 las Eep. 237. 
 
 ^ The reasons for not embracing this opportunity to discuss the subject 
 were diplomatically stated by the counsel of the Holland Company in a 
 letter addressed to the judges of the Supreme Court. They were in brief 
 that they considered that the abstract questions proposed for decision 
 would leave untouched and undecided the great and essential part of the 
 controversy. The letter was signed by J. Ingersoll, W. Lewis, and A. J. 
 Dallas. 
 
110 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 It was fortunate for the Holland Land Company that 
 by reason of foreign citizenship they were able in con- 
 troversies with citizens of Pennsylvania to resort to the 
 Federal Court.^ An action in ejectment was accordingly 
 brought in the Circuit Court of the United States, enti- 
 tled Huidekoper's Lessee v. Douglass/ the plaintiff 
 claiming under Mr. Huidekoper, who made title under 
 the trustees of the Company, to whom a patent had been 
 issued under a warrant and survey, and the defendant 
 claiming as an actual settler. In order to test the mat- 
 ter fully, the questions, upon which the opinions of the 
 judges were opposed, were submitted by the Circuit 
 Court to the Supreme Court of the United States, and 
 in this higher court the contention of the Holland Com- 
 pany was completely sustained.^ The opinion, which 
 was delivered by Chief Justice Marshall, held that a 
 warrantee who by force of arms was prevented from 
 settling and improving for two years from the date of 
 his warrant, but who during that time persisted in his 
 endeavors to do so, was excused from making settlement 
 and that the warrant vested title in fee simple. In ac- 
 cordance with this authoritative construction of the law, 
 the case was afterwards tried in the lower court, and a 
 verdict was rendered in favor of the plaintiff. 
 
 ' A law empowering aliens to purchase and hold land within the Com- 
 monwealth was in force at the time of the Company's purchase in 1793. 
 Appendix, p. 364. 
 
 While Huidekoper's Lessee v. Douglass, in which E. Tilghman was of 
 counsel, was still pending, Mr. Huidekoper wrote to Mr. Busti (February 
 2, 1805) : " Every day I feel more the necessity of being a citizen of the 
 United States in order to be authorized to join with some honest men 
 here in opposition to this system of plunder. Pray consult Tilghman, 
 whether there is any objection to me being naturalized on account of the 
 suits that are depending." 
 
 2 4 Dallas Rep. 392. ^ 3 Cranch Rep. 1. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 111 
 
 In the course of his opinion Marshall used the fol- 
 lowing language, which gave peculiar satisfaction to 
 Mr. Huidekoper, who, in writing to Mr. Busti, called it 
 " a pretty severe rub," which " would make our repre- 
 sentatives blush, if they were made of blushing mate- 
 rials." " The State," said the chief justice, " is in the 
 situation of a person who holds forth to the world the 
 conditions on which he is willing to sell his property. 
 If he should couch his propositions in such ambiguous 
 terms that they might be understood differently, in con- 
 sequence of which sales were to be made, and the pur- 
 chase money paid, he would come with an ill grace into 
 court, to insist on a latent and obscure meaning, which 
 should give him back his property, and permit him to 
 retain the purchase money. All those principles of 
 equity, and of fair dealing, which constitute the basis 
 of judicial proceedings, require that courts should lean 
 against such a construction." 
 
 The Holland Land Company seems to have relied 
 firmly and successfully on the decision in its favor in 
 the United States Supreme Court.^ " Some of the con- 
 temporaneous judges," says Mr. Alfred Huidekoper,'^ 
 " and later ones chafed at the thought that a decision 
 of the national court should dominate over that of a 
 state court in the construing of a provincial law. But, 
 as one of the state judges naively said, what could the 
 state courts do when, if they put a man into possession 
 one day, the national courts should turn him out the 
 next ? " Mr. Huidekoper, in the autobiography, says of 
 Marshall's decision, " It gradually restored peace to the 
 country, and by a couple of years of exertion, those intru- 
 sions, so formidable when I entered on the agency, were 
 reduced to a few scattering, isolated cases." 
 
 1 Appendix, p. 363. ' Appendix, p. 361. 
 
112 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 How strong were the equities of the Company, rest- 
 ing upon its exertions and expenditures, has already 
 been shown. Judge Yeates, in the mandamus case, in 
 which he ruled against the Company, characterized what 
 they had done as " honorable to themselves, and useful 
 to the community," and was forced to admit that " on 
 the head of merit, in the Holland Land Company's 
 sparing no expense to procure settlements, I believe 
 there are few dissenting voices beyond the mountains ; 
 and one would be induced to conclude that a variety of 
 united, equitable circumstances would not fail to pro- 
 duce a proper degree of influence on the public will of 
 the community." That such considerations should have 
 appealed with overwhelming force to a man of Mr. 
 Huidekoper's high sense of justice, even had the inter- 
 est of his principals not been involved, was inevitable, 
 and there was perhaps another consideration which 
 affected him even more. He deeply felt that the mem- 
 bers of the Holland Company, who had come to the aid 
 of the country in the darkest hour of its struggle for 
 independence, and who were now endeavoring to save 
 from practical confiscation the very moneys which had 
 perhaps assured the existence of the repubhc, had moral 
 rights which ought to outweigh every other considera- 
 tion, and that the honor of the nation was at stake. 
 
 A few extracts from letters written by him during 
 this time of uncertainty will show the intensity of his 
 feehng and give a nearer view of his difficulties. In a 
 communication sent by him to Mr. Busti on the day of 
 assuming his new duties he wrote : — 
 
 [January 1, 1805.] At the period on which I enter 
 on the functions of the agency entrusted by you to my 
 care it may not be improper to present to you a sketch 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 113 
 
 of the situation of the different settlements which com- 
 pose my administration. ... 
 
 General remarks. The West Allegheny country, with 
 a soil which in point of quahty is inferior [to] no body 
 of land of the same dimension in the state, offers a 
 picture of wretchedness which I have never seen equalled 
 in America. The manner in which it was settled drew 
 first to these parts the outcast of the older settlements, 
 and the disputes that have since existed have deterred 
 the more decent and wealthy farmers from emigrating 
 to this country. In the general uncertainty of the title, 
 the right of possession was looked upon as being the 
 only important point to be attended to ; and as there 
 existed great doubt as to the final issue of the contest, 
 everyone seemed determined to have as Httle at stake as 
 possible. The improvements were nearly entirely neg- 
 lected, as you may see by Mr. Alden's report of 1802, 
 and a general want of industry took possession of the 
 inhabitants, who have been punished by the never fail- 
 ing companions of indolence, vice and poverty. What 
 little is raised by the farmers on their badly cultivated 
 fields is barely sufficient to keep them from starving, 
 and to complete their ruin, their litigious disposition 
 embroils them in innumerable lawsuits, the consequences 
 of which are always fatal to both parties. 
 
 Nothing is as yet exported from this quarter, and every- 
 thing which is imported comes to a very high price by 
 the transportation, and these are the reasons of that 
 total want of cash which I have mentioned, and which 
 is so great that I travelled seventy miles along the most 
 public road in this country without finding anybody that 
 could change me a five dollar bill. This also accounts 
 for the enormous prices which we have to pay here for 
 every thing, — of which you will be able to judge when 
 I tell you that my boarding comes here to nearly the same 
 that I paid in Philadelphia and that horse-keeping is 
 about $3.00 a week for every horse. For everything 
 else we pay in proportion. . . . 
 
114 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 I feel for the interest of the proprietors, and the 
 picture I have drawn is not very engaging. It is only 
 since I have become a little more acquainted with the 
 true situation of the affairs here that I feel the full ex- 
 tent of the difficulties which I shall have to encounter ; 
 they are such as have caused me many a disagreeable 
 thought already, and if the lawsuit should not terminate 
 in our favor I shall have a far more arduous task than 
 I ever had any idea of. I am not, however, disheartened, 
 and shall do everything in my power to give to the 
 business here a happier turn, sure that if I should not 
 succeed both you and the proprietors are too just to re- 
 quire from me a success which it was not in my power 
 to insure. 
 
 A little before this, he had written to Mr. Busti : — 
 
 [November 19, 1804.] Maslin, who happened to be 
 here, told me that the case of Douglass was one of the 
 strongest against the Company, as there has been no 
 settlement on our part. I can assure you that I shall 
 not feel easy tiU I know the result and that I cannot 
 help feeling some fear from the known sentiments of 
 Judge Washington.^ 
 
 [December 11, 1804.] I shall call this evening on 
 Judge Mead to get the names of the patentees and the 
 dates of the patents, copies of which I suppose may be 
 of great use in the trial of February next. If I am not 
 mistaken, these patents, issued before the cessation of 
 the prevention, will bring the judges in a dilemma in 
 case they should wish to coincide in the opinion of 
 Washington, for in that case they would either have 
 to decide that it was incumbent on a warrantee to be 
 better acquainted with the laws of his country than 
 
 ' In the Circuit Court the case came hefore Washington, J., of the 
 Supreme Court, and Peters, District Judge. In another case the former 
 had delivered a charge coinciding with the construction adopted by the 
 state court, from which the latter had dissented. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 115 
 
 the constituted authorities (a doctrine which I suppose 
 Federal judges will not allow), or they must decide 
 that the state has a right to take advantage of its own 
 wrong. 
 
 [December 5, 1804.] I am glad to see that you are 
 permitted to send a counsellor to plead the Company's 
 cause at the bar of the Supreme Court, for from your 
 first letter I was led to believe that only a statement of 
 the case would be drawn up and submitted to the judges. 
 The equity of the Company's claim and the inequity of 
 our persecutors' will then be submitted to the court, 
 and tho' I believe it is a mere court of justice, without 
 equity powers, yet the judges are men, and as such the 
 hardship of our case cannot but make a favorable im- 
 pression in the Company's favor.^ 
 
 The glimpse of Douglass, in the following letter to 
 Mr. Busti, almost suggests the old-time outlaw of ballad 
 and romance, for its mixture of audacity with stubborn 
 defiance. 
 
 [February 12, 1805.] Douglass called on me to in- 
 form me that he was going to jail, being sent there by 
 the intruder who sold him the tract on which his family 
 lives ; he offered to sell me his claim to the land in dis- 
 pute, and on my refusal to the purchase asked me to 
 loan him f 100 for which he offered modestly to secure 
 me by a mortgage on the land in dispute between us. 
 This wretch seemed perfectly insensible to his own sit- 
 uation and that of his family ; tho' within a few hours 
 of being shut up in jail, and his family in the utmost 
 misery, he was quite cheerful and communicative ; he 
 informed me with seeming pride that more than one half 
 of all trouble which the Company has experienced was 
 owing to him, that he had sacrificed his whole fortune 
 
 1 The questions were argued in the Supreme Court by E. Tilghmau, 
 Ingersoll, Lewis and Dallas, for the plaintiff, and by M'Kean, Attorney 
 General of Pennsylvania, and W. Tilghman, for the defendant. 
 
116 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 in the cause of opposition, and had never received more 
 than $7.50 for all his trouble and for travelling of 3000 
 miles at different times, he bearing his own expenses. 
 He told me further, and this was more interesting, that 
 now everyone had abandoned him, that such a spirit of 
 egotism prevailed that no actual settler would give two- 
 pence to save his companion in opposition, and that the 
 Fosters had sold them to the Company. AH the chiefs 
 of the intruders are at war with one another, and all 
 will be involved in one common ruin if the court doth 
 not immediately take all the lands from the Company. 
 Since two years a number of the intruders have gone 
 down the river to Louisiana, the great Botany Bay of 
 America, and as soon as the river opens it is expected 
 that a number more will skip off for that land of 
 promise. On the other hand several settlers have in- 
 formed me that they expect in the spring some of their 
 friends will come up and purchase. This will brighten 
 our prospects, and if the Supreme Court of the U. S. 
 should decide in our favor, then I am confident that our 
 exertions will succeed, and that in a short time every 
 shadow of opposition will be done away. God give I 
 may live to see that day. 
 
 To J. J. Van der Kemp he wrote (March 13, 1805) : 
 " You flatter me with a favorable decision in the Federal 
 Court. . . . When I read over the Law [of] 1792, I 
 do not see how a decision can go against us. I have 
 other reasons from which I may forebode happy news 
 by next mail, and yet notwithstanding all this I am very 
 uneasy . . . and I willingly would purchase to-day at the 
 expense of some hundred dollars the certainty that the 
 Company has at length finally triumphed. . . . To see 
 my expectations all blasted now that I have the prospect 
 of getting everything on a good footing here would be 
 more than I could bear." 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 117 
 
 Another fertile source of controversy with which he 
 had to contend was the rapacity of the taxing officers, 
 and the tendency of the assessors to place an undue bur- 
 den upon non-residents. As early as December 18, 1804, 
 he had written : " The system of taxation is on a wretched 
 footing in this state, and the commissioners are a kind 
 of bird of prey that devour a great part of the money. 
 They are allowed a certain sum for every day they spend 
 in arranging the fiscal concerns of the country, and one 
 of this honest brotherhood in Westmoreland actually 
 delivered an account of 385 days labor done by him 
 as commissioner in one year. I shall try to get perfectly 
 acquainted with the system of taxation, as I am fully 
 sensible of the utility which will result to myself and 
 the Company from a knowledge of this subject." 
 
 His confidence, however, in his power to deal with 
 the situation even at its worst, was not impaired. On 
 March 13, 1805, he wrote to Mr. Busti : — 
 
 Whatever may be the decision [of the United States 
 Supreme Court] I hope that you will not find yourself 
 obliged to follow strictly your orders from Holland in 
 abandoning the whole of the West Allegheny lands. A 
 part and even a great part will be lost if the decision 
 of Judge Washington be confirmed, but still there will 
 be enough that will be worth saving, and that can be 
 secured without drawing any money from you, and all 
 this would be lost, as well as [a] great part of the out- 
 standing debts, if the whole was abandoned. . . . 
 
 I sincerely regret that the Dutch Proprietors are so 
 much discouraged and that they set no value on their 
 property in Pennsylvania ; I acknowledge that the specu- 
 lation was a bad one, but now that it is made I do not 
 see that the whole is lost. Lincklaen's and Mappa's set- 
 tlements were long unproductive, and swallowed up im- 
 
118 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 mense sums ; after eight or ten years they have begun 
 to give a dividend, and tho' it is highly doubtful whether 
 they will ever repay the money vested m them, yet a 
 great deal will come back. The East Allegheny lands 
 [have] but just begun to settle and cannot be made pro- 
 ductive in one year ; the prosperity of the W. A. [West 
 Allegheny] has been impeded by the dispute, but if that 
 should be done away by a lucky decision,. then I am in 
 hopes that the proprietors will soon reap some income 
 from their dear bought property, especially from that 
 part which is under my direction. I consider that the 
 worst is over now and that a little patience and persever- 
 ance are only necessary in order to see things assume a 
 better aspect. 
 
 In an earlier letter (February 26, 1805), he had writ- 
 ten quite as emphatically : " Pray dissuade our Dutch 
 friends from all ideas of abandoning the West Alle- 
 gheny lands totally whatever may be the result of the 
 trial. I shall take care that they have no further dis- 
 bursements on this account and that as much as possible 
 be saved to them. To abandon would not free them from 
 the obligations incurred, but would make them lose all 
 the benefits that might be reaped. If the lawsuits be 
 completely gained, I will engage to bring everything in 
 order in 18 months or two years ; if the suits are com- 
 pletely lost, I shall still have something worth saving." 
 
 Tlie winning of the test case called forth, in the fol- 
 lowing letter to Mr. Busti, a strong expression of relief. 
 Mr. Huidekoper was not a man lightly to " thank hea- 
 ven " or, as in a former letter, in expressing his confi- 
 dence of the result, to exclaim, " God give I may live to 
 see that day." 
 
 . [March 20, 1805.] At length, thank heaven, my fears 
 have been disappointed, and we have gained our cause, 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 119 
 
 and have gained it in such a manner as promises to put 
 a speedy end to all litigation in this part of the country. 
 The decision doth honor to the judges, and shows that 
 they dare be independent even in this time of persecu- 
 tion. The remark of the judges, that it would ill become 
 an individual to act in the manner our Legislature tries 
 to do, is a pretty severe rub, and would make our repre- 
 sentatives blush, if they were made of blushing materials. 
 It is such a short time since the news reached this place 
 that I cannot state with precision what impression it 
 has made in general ; in this place and the neighborhood 
 the joy has been pretty universal, and those of our ene- 
 mies which have come under my observation appear 
 completely chop-fallen. I shall try to improve the mo- 
 ment and remove if possible all contention. I take every 
 opportunity to circulate my wish to prevent the intruders 
 being ruined by lawsuits, and I declare myself always 
 willing to settle in an amicable manner with everybody, 
 as well those that have been ejected as those that have 
 not ; the former must come in, however, within ten days, 
 for when once the trials have begun it would be impru- 
 dent to meddle with them here. . . . 
 
 Till now I have not given a single acre of gratuity, 
 and I hope you wiU not charge me to give any in future. 
 Giving land has two bad consequences ; it retards the 
 sales or lowers the prices, and it brings or keeps a set 
 of lazy vagrants in the country, whom it is absolutely 
 necessary to get rid of as soon as possible. I sell on 
 reasonable terms, that is, from $2 to f 3} per acre. 
 The purchase money is subject to interest from the day 
 of sale, and the payments must be made in six or eight 
 annual instalments, the first of which usually commences 
 one year after the sale. . . . 
 
 The late decision will contribute considerably to the 
 population of Canada or Louisiana; the night after the 
 decision arrived. Dr. Kennedy's canoe was stolen and 
 went down the river. Yesterday another attempt was 
 made to take another canoe belonging to this town. . . . 
 
120 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Mr. Douglass sent for me to the gaol, and to my sorrow 
 I found him the same determined unrelenting rascal that 
 he has always been. The miseries of his family seem lost 
 upon him, and he threatens to give us further trouble 
 the moment he gets out of prison. I intended this morn- 
 ing to intercede for him, and devise means to save some 
 of the expenses which remain to be made before we get 
 possession, but I see nothing will do but to leave him to 
 all the rigors of the law. 
 
 After the termination of the Douglass case Mr. Busti 
 continued to urge, uneasily, the granting of special 
 terms to the intruders. That this course would only 
 prolong the struggle and produce bad feelings through- 
 out the settlements Mr. Huidekoper plainly foresaw. 
 His sole chance for securing a speedy pacification of 
 the contending parties lay in dealing equally with all 
 and in impressing upon them the fact that the law would 
 be enforced. This reply to Mr. Busti's suggestions 
 illustrates the point. 
 
 [March 26, 1805.] One part of your advice I will re- 
 ligiously follow, and have already followed it. I consider 
 the intruders perfectly with indifEerence and treat them 
 [like] any other strangers that applied to me for the 
 purchase of land. I do not in the least take it in con- 
 sideration what improvements they have made, but sell 
 them the land as if it was in the state of nature ; but, 
 my dear sir, forgive me if I postpone selling them land 
 at the original price of $1.50 per acre till you have 
 reconsidered the matter. If I should offer lan^s in this 
 neighborhood at that price to intruders, from that mo- 
 ment the sales to other persons would cease, or I would 
 have to sell all the lands at the same price. If I should 
 refuse this in one single instance, I should give general 
 dissatisfaction. The settlers under the Company, what- 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 121 
 
 ever might have been their former roguish intentions, 
 can hardly bear now that I treat the intruder as if no- 
 thing had happened, and I am pretty certain that if being 
 an intruder could give them a claim towards getting 
 lands cheap, they would all turn landthieves to a man 
 before the end of the year ... I am informed that on 
 the morrow there wiU be a meeting in this town of the 
 ejected intruders, and probably others will also come in. 
 If they should be peaceably incHned, you may depend 
 upon it that I shall not be backward in granting rea- 
 sonable terras, but I cannot deny that the turning out 
 of possession of the ejected persons will have more 
 effect than a decision of which they hear by the papers, 
 but the consequences of which they do not see. Those, 
 therefore, who do not submit within the course of this 
 week I would, if it meets with your approbation, leave 
 to be dealt with according to law, not for the sake of 
 gratifying a wish to be revenged, but because I think 
 it good policy to show the intruders by experience that 
 the contest is over, and that any further opposition 
 must draw certain ruin to those that still persevere in 
 their opposition, while such as submit are placed on the 
 same footing with the settlers. 
 
 With Mr. Busti, on the one hand, urging him to oflPer 
 gratuities of large tracts to induce settlers to buy, or 
 advising him to make concessions, and with many " in- 
 truders," on the other hand, coming to him with ofEers 
 of compromise, he was obliged to stand firm in his 
 position, and to use his own discretion to the full 
 extent, refusing to give away the Company's acres 
 until the question could be settled, and declining to 
 treat with the intruders until assured of the justice of 
 their claims. It was his conservative policy to delay 
 until the Company's rights should have received a final 
 interpretation. "There are numerous suits in the court," 
 
122 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 lie wrote/ " between settlers and intruders or between 
 intruders and intruders/' and " wlien tliey [the intrud- 
 ers] are on the point of being ejected by a better title 
 they call upon me to make a compromise . . . which 
 would oblige the Company to institute a lawsuit against 
 the other intruders and to be answerable to the one who 
 compromised for the consequences." Mr. Busti also 
 wished him to assist settlers in their suits against in- 
 truders, but Mr. Huidekoper replied that while he might 
 find that desirable in a few eases, it was a dangerous 
 precedent and would lead to more trouble. " The 
 patience of an agent here," he confessed, " must be 
 greater than the patience of Job ever was." 
 
 His evident ability, a growing reputation for justice, 
 and a disposition to extend freely to those who had 
 earned it the assistance to be obtained under the gen- 
 erous rules of the Company, all combined to give him 
 an authoritative position in the community and so to 
 hasten the subsidence of disorder. To these sources of 
 power must he added his persuasive and engaging per- 
 sonality and, as the following letter to Mr. Busti bears 
 witness, his practice of attending to matters himself. 
 
 [June 7, 1805.] It is . . . with pleasure that I can 
 inform you that the intruders are nearly all disheart- 
 ened. In the second district all is nearly in order ; of 
 all the ejected intruders there but three or four remain 
 obstinate at present, and [I] hope that the ejectments 
 prepared for these will bring them to their senses. The 
 remainder are all afraid and disclaim all idea of con- 
 tending with the Company or holding in opposition ; 
 they will either purchase or leave the land . . . Since 
 I began this letter I have heard from Reese's district 
 and from the quarter adjoining New Connecticut. In 
 
 1 February 2, 1805. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 123 
 
 these some symptoms appear of au approaching insur- 
 rection. The intruders have made combinations to de- 
 fend their property by force of arhas against all legal 
 process and in some parts have voted funds for the pur- 
 chase of powder and balls. I expect all those associa- 
 tions and plans will dwindle to nothing, but whatever 
 may happen these combinations are favorable to us. If 
 they prove abortive they will only serve to render them 
 suspected to government ; if they break out in open 
 rebellion we will have the forces of the United States 
 to support us and these will soon send all these vaga- 
 bonds to Louisiana. If it should come to an insurrec- 
 tion, we have people sufficient here to maintain order 
 and good government in these parts so that you have 
 nothing to fear for the Holland Land Company's pos- 
 sessions. ... I shall, however, take such steps as will 
 secure the Holland Land Company's property from be- 
 coming the scenes of such riots and confusion. ... I 
 shall . . . immediately set out for districts 6 and 7, 
 and have very little doubt but that by my personal 
 attendance in that quarter I will be able to disconcert 
 all the schemes of association which the nest of in- 
 truders fixed in these districts may make. I find 
 that to subdue them nothing is more efficacious than 
 the personal superintendence of the proprietor or his 
 agent. 
 
 By August 13, 1806, he could report to Mr. Busti : 
 " As to intruders that is over, on the Holland Com- 
 pany's lands. . . . Those amongst them that had any 
 industry have chiefly agreed to purchase. Of the rest, 
 a part have been so good as to leave the country, and 
 a few more will run away this fall or next spring as 
 soon as the water rises." 
 
 To his brother he wrote on July 23, 1806 : — 
 
 There was not so much daring in our sustaining that if 
 the warrantees were prevented from settling during two 
 
124 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 years after the date of the warrant, they were excused 
 forever after, as there appears to you. Your judgment 
 in this case is probably founded on the ideas which 
 you have of the laws of your country, wbere less preci- 
 sion in the wording is used and much is left to the con- 
 struction. Here it is the contrary. The positive law 
 governs here, and the power of construction is very 
 limited, so that a judge cannot declare a law to contain 
 a provision which the letter of the law doth not fully 
 express, even if it was certain that the law had been 
 enacted for the express purpose. ... It is in vain to 
 regret the past, but I often wish that with the same 
 chance Mr. C[azenove] had, I had to make the selection 
 over again, and I am persuaded I could re-locate the 
 warrants so as to raise the lands to three times the value 
 of which they are now. The business of my agency is 
 assuming a more orderly appearance every day, and 
 of course my troubles decrease. I am happy to hear 
 that my administration gives satisfaction to the proprie- 
 tors. 
 
 With Mr. Huidekoper's recollections of his agency 
 as he recorded them in the autobiography, we may con- 
 clude the story of this stormy period. 
 
 As so large a portion of my life has been spent in 
 connection with the lands which the Company held in 
 this quarter, it may be well to say a few words in regard 
 to them, and to their situation at the time they came 
 under my care. 
 
 These lands consisted originally of about 500,000 
 acres. The Company purchased them from Judge Wil- 
 son for about $200,000 and, by the end of 1804 about 
 $200,000 more had been spent on them for various pur- 
 poses. The law under which these lands were taken up 
 required, that the Warrantee should make, within two 
 Years, a Settlement improvement and residence on each 
 tract of 400 acres, unless prevented by the enemies of the 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 125 
 
 United States. As the Indian War continued till 1795, 
 the Warrantees contended that they were thus prevented, 
 and that this excused them from making the required 
 residence and improvement. Still the Company made 
 strenuous efforts, by giving gratuities in land, and by 
 making advances to settlers, to cause their lands to be 
 settled. These efforts met with but a very partial suc- 
 cess. To the di£&culties naturally connected with the 
 settlement of lands, situated at a great distance from the 
 districts from which the Settlers must be drawn, and of 
 very difficult access, was added, that disputes arose as 
 to the title. The same law under which these lands 
 were held, authorized actual Settlers to go on any of 
 the unappropriated lands, to reside on and improve them, 
 and to complete their title, at a subsequent period, by 
 paying the purchase-money to the State. Under this 
 clause of the law, sundry speculators, such as Messrs, 
 Watts, Scott, Miles, the M'Nairs, and others, who had 
 no money to obtain lands by paying for warrants, en- 
 deavored to appropriate to themselves large bodies of 
 land, by means of surveys made on Sham Settlements 
 and improvements. As most of the good lands had been 
 appropriated by the warrant holders, these speculators, 
 in order to enlarge the field of their operations, seized 
 on those lands, under pretext that the right of warrant- 
 holders had become forfeited for want of the requisite 
 settlements ; and, in order to strengthen themselves, 
 they induced other persons to take possession of those 
 lands in opposition to the Warrant title. As such a doc- 
 trine was well calculated to become popular, the country 
 was soon covered with Squatters ; many of those who 
 held contracts under the Companies, began to hold in 
 opposition to them, and others sat quiet determined to 
 await the issue of the contest, while another portion of 
 them remained faithful to their engagements. 
 
 Major Alden, who was the Company's Agent for 
 these lands, was a very inefficient man, altogether un- 
 equal to the difficulties of his station ; while Mr. Alex- 
 
126 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 ander McDowell, who, under him, had the charge of the 
 lands in the 7th and part of the 6th Districts, neglected 
 his Agency. It is true that in 1797 the Company, act- 
 ing under the influence of a Man supposed to be their 
 friend, but really connected with the Speculators, pur- 
 chased their peace from Messrs. Watts, Scott and Miles, 
 and converted them into nominal Agents, at a sacrifice 
 of about thirty thousand dollars, but this did but little 
 towards allaying the existing excitement. The political 
 demagogues of the day encouraged the Squatters in 
 their opposition and enlisted the legislature in their 
 favour, so that, when I came to the Agency, the Com- 
 pany were contending for the possession of their dear- 
 bought property. For the rest, with the exception of 
 some portion of the second district, every part of the 
 Agency was involved in uncertainty and confusion ; and 
 the receipts to be derived from the sales and from the 
 outstanding debts, were inadequate to defray the current 
 expenses of the Agency. 
 
 In the Spring of 1805 the cause of Huidetoper v. 
 Douglass was tried in the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, and decision had in favour of the Warrantees. 
 That decision, by which the title of the Warrantees was 
 declared to be complete, gradually restored peace to 
 this country; and by a couple of Years of exertions, 
 those Intrusions, so extensive and formidable when I 
 entered on the Agency, were reduced to a few scatter- 
 ing, isolated cases. The angry feelings however which 
 the contest had engendered, survived long after the 
 contest itself had ceased ; and the injurious efEects aris- 
 ing from a disputed title, were felt for many Years after- 
 wards. In all the troubles of those early days however, 
 I never met with any personal violence ; though such 
 was frequently threatened. I have however reason to 
 think that in a journey which I took in 1805 through 
 the 7th district, I was once in imminent danger, though 
 unconscious of it at the time. It was twenty years after- 
 wards that I was one day fired at and my horse wounded. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 127 
 
 This was on the Stateroad between the two Broken- 
 straw Creeks.-'^ „ . . 
 
 In the fall of 1809 I was called to Philadelphia to 
 assist at the sale of the Holland Company concern 
 under my care to Messrs. Griffith and Wallace. This 
 sale was concluded on the 1st february 1810, and I 
 was appointed the joint agent of the Vendors and the 
 Vendees. I did then consider, and have ever since 
 considered, that contract as a very injudicious one on 
 the part of the Company, and believe it to have been 
 the offspring of a moment of despondency and of mis- 
 taken views. To me personally however the change 
 was advantageous. It is true that my fixed salary was 
 reduced from $2,400 to $1,000 a year, but the rate 
 of my Commissions on sales and collections was in- 
 creased so as more than to compensate for this deduc- 
 tion. 
 
 Messrs. Grriffith and Wallace had in the Year 1811 
 purchased from some dutch Gentlemen One thousand 
 shares in the Pennsylvania Population Company.^ That 
 Company was dissolved in 1812, and in 1813 Messrs. 
 Griffith and Wallace put under my care that portion of 
 those lands situated in the Counties of Erie and Craw- 
 ford which fell to them. 
 
 In the year 1812 Messrs. Griffith and Wallace em- 
 ployed a man of the name of William S. Hart to 
 effect sales at a distance. It was through his Agency 
 
 ^ What is omitted here may be found in chapter iv., pages 147, 153, 
 and in chapter ix., page 301. 
 
 '^ The Pennsylvania Population Company was organized at about the 
 time the members of the Holland Land Company made their con- 
 tract with Judge Wilson, and took out warrants for land under the 
 Act of 1792. Among the original subscribers, one of whom was Aaron 
 Burr, were some of the associates in the Holland Land Company, namely, 
 P. Stadnitski, P. and C. van Eeghen, J. Tinoate, H. VoUenhoven, 
 F. Cazenove, and N. van Staphorst. Others of the subscribers were 
 R. Morris, J. Wilson, J. Nicholson and G. Mead. (Matters pertaining to 
 the History of the Pennsylvania Population Company, furnished to the 
 Literary Union Club by Alfred Huidekoper, 1876.) 
 
128 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 that a considerable quantity of our good land here was 
 exchanged for very indifferent farms in Berkshire, 
 Massachusetts, which latter, being imprudently kept 
 too long on hand, were ultimately sold at a very heavy 
 loss. Wishing to accelerate the sales, and finding that 
 Mr. Hart effected Httle, Messrs. Grif&th and Wallace 
 associated with him Augustus Sacket, a man without 
 principles, morals or talents, but who had been highly 
 recommended to them by those who did not know him. 
 By the contract made with these men, they were en- 
 trusted with the sale of the Holland Company lands. 
 Sacket was to reside at Meadville and Hart to operate 
 at a distance. Of the proceeds of the sales made by 
 them, Messrs. Griffith and Wallace were to receive in 
 the first instance, $1.25 per acre, and the residue, after 
 deducting some contingencies, was to be divided in 
 equal portions between the parties. To me was in- 
 trusted the collection of the money, and the making of 
 the Conveyances. This contract proved in the sequel 
 the source of much trouble and vexation. 
 
 Sacket arrived here in 1813, and began by writing 
 circulars to all the postmasters in New York and the 
 New England States constituting them Agents under 
 him for the sale of the lands, with the promise of a 
 heavy commission. For the first Year matters went on 
 pretty smoothly. Sacket confined himself chiefly to 
 retail operations, and I was uninformed of the misre- 
 presentations he made use of to attract purchasers. But 
 in the Year 1814 things began to assume another 
 aspect. Mr. Sacket was now surrounded by a set of 
 reckless specvdators, equally destitute of principles and 
 of means. To these men he sold large bodies of land, 
 at reduced prices, giving them a separate contract for 
 each tract or part of a tract, with a clause, that in case 
 of a resale by the speculator the sub-purchaser under 
 him should be substituted in his place. In some of 
 these sales I have reason to believe that Mr. Sacket 
 was secretly interested with the speculators. Some of 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 129 
 
 these sales exceeded one hundred thousand dollars in 
 amount ; and in one case |67,000 worth of land was 
 sold to a man not worth a dollar, and who had never 
 seen a foot of the land for which he contracted. The 
 object of Mr. Sacket in making large sales to men with 
 whom he was himself in partnership, was plain. By 
 his contract of Agency he was to be entitled to only 
 one fourth of the profits arising from the sales, and by 
 his connexion with the speculators, he secured the one 
 half. And these large purchases were without any risk 
 to the Speculators, as, what could not be resold at an 
 advanced price, might, at any time, be assigned to 
 some nominal sub-purchaser. Mr. Sachet's object in 
 selling large bodies of the more unsaleable lands to 
 men notoriously not worth a dollar, is less obvious. 
 Perhaps he wished to have it in his power to show 
 that there was a large amount of money due to him for 
 his share in these pretended Sales ; and intended then, 
 to sell out to some one at a distance, his supposed in- 
 terest in those sales, as his partner Mr. Hart afterwards 
 did, who sold to Messrs. Peck and Shattuck two third 
 parts of his eventual profits to be derived from the 
 agency, for 1 15,000. In order to supply the speculators 
 he was interested with with Money, Mr. Sacket stipu- 
 lated to make to them an allowance of two dollars per 
 hundred acres, nominally to pay for making surveys ; 
 and I was actually applied to to make this advance. As 
 I was found to be intractable on this point and was 
 likely to be in the way of some ulterior operations, and, 
 among these, of some secret arrangements between Mr. 
 Miles and Mr. Sacket, it was determined to get me re- 
 moved from the Agency. In order to effect this it was 
 deemed necessary to enlist the co-operation of some of 
 the Gentlemen in town. To procure this it was repre- 
 sented to them that it was my interference with Mr. 
 Sachet's operations which prevented the Country from 
 being filled, at once, with settlers, and that, as to any 
 lands they themselves might have for sale, Mr. Sacket, 
 
130 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 if left to act, could easily sell these for them at any 
 price they might set on them. With some this bait 
 took, and, during a temporary absence from home, a 
 secret meeting was held ; and certain statements made 
 there by one of the Speculators, were signed by the 
 parties present at the meeting, and transmitted to 
 Messrs. Griffith and Wallace. 
 
 In the mean time I was, as far as possible, kept in 
 ignorance of what was going on, and even of the 
 contracts made, especially as to their details. I merely 
 knew from the excitement got up, that there were some 
 machinations and intrigues going on around me which 
 were intended to affect me, but of which, for the 
 time, I could not fathom the object ; I felt myselE 
 surrounded by difficulties with which I could not grap- 
 ple, because I could not see them, and during the 
 summer and fall of 1814: 1 felt myself really made un- 
 happy by the situation in which I found myself placed. 
 Gradually, however, light began to dawn on the mys- 
 tery by which I was surrounded, and I began to per- 
 ceive both its source and its object. In the Spring of 
 1815 Mr. Sacket, in direct violation of his contract, 
 went to Utica to sell lands for sundry persons in this 
 neighborhood. His conduct there was of such a swin- 
 dling nature, and so outrageous, as to open the eyes of 
 the public here, at once, as to the real character of the 
 man, and even to bring his sanity in question. In the 
 Summer of 1815 the contract between Messrs. Griffith 
 and Wallace and Messrs. Sacket and Hart was cancelled. 
 I experienced however for a long while afterwards some 
 of the troubles to which it gave rise, and many of the 
 evils that grew out of it.^ . . . 
 
 The late war which broke out in 1812, by turning 
 the attention of the public towards the lake Country, 
 served to bring this section of Pennsylvania into notice ; 
 and from that time onward the settlement and improve- 
 ment of it has been going on with increasing rapidity, 
 
 ' The paragraph omitted here is to be found iu chapter iv., page 152. 
 
THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 131 
 
 until the country has become "what You now see. If 
 Messrs. Griffith and Wallace could have retained their 
 interest in it, it would now have made their families in- 
 dependent. But unfortunately for them, both of them 
 were embarrassed before they purchased from the Com- 
 pany. In 1816 Judge Griffith found himself compelled 
 to sell out his interests in this quarter to the Messrs. 
 Wurts. He died some Years afterwards at Washington, 
 where he held the office of Clerk of the United States 
 Court. 
 
 The Messrs. Wurts made in 1818 partition with Mr. 
 Wallace. Previous to this partition, I agreed with them, 
 in consideration of certain obligations to be assigned 
 to me, to assume the lien of about $56,000, which the 
 dutch Gentlemen had on the lands derived from the 
 Pennsylva. Populn Comp. for a balance due on purchase 
 money. On this partition Mr. Wallace assumed to pay 
 the purchase money due to the Holland land Company. 
 The Messrs. Wurts, being embarrassed, assigned to sun- 
 dry of their creditors, the obligations which, on this 
 partition, fell to their share. Out of these assignments 
 sprung the Agency for Messrs. Day and Meredith and 
 other smaller agencies which have been under my care. 
 
 Mr. Wallace becoming more and more involved, after 
 assigning, from time to time, to certain of his creditors, 
 such portions of the population Company concern as 
 yet remained to him, was obhged, in 1829, to make a 
 general assignment. He died suddenly in January 1837. 
 In the preceding Year I had purchased from the Hol- 
 land land Company the remainder of their concern under 
 my care for $178,400.i 
 
 1 The lands were estimated at 58,300 acres. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 REBECCA COLHOON 
 
 I WILL now [wrote the elder brother in Holland to 
 Mr. Huidekoper some time in the winter of 1805-6] 
 reply to . . . [your letter] of the 20th, ... the reading 
 of which has made me laugh for joy. Your career, dear 
 friend, has been for many years one of the things which 
 mo'st interested me. With much sympathy I watched 
 you make the desired progress and now reach a certain 
 degree of success, and even before receiving your let- 
 ter it was my desire to see you become entirely an 
 American, and this you will become by taking one of 
 their daughters to wife, — but although I am a strong 
 advocate of such ties, and consider it one of the most 
 important reasons for our existence, I do not beHeve 
 that this state should be entered into merely as a mat- 
 ter of principle, but as it were more or less from com- 
 pulsion, that is, when one has lost his heart completely, 
 and does not wish to have it back except accompanied 
 by the object which has stolen it. I saw thus with 
 pleasure the consequence of your trip to Pittsburg, 
 and sincerely hope that the uncertainty in which you 
 were as to the feelings of the object of your affections 
 has changed into an agreeable certainty, and that the 
 receipt of this may find you, if not at the attainment, 
 at least near to the culmination of your hopes. But 
 you are mistaken if you think that a description of her 
 person would not be interesting ; the contrary is true, 
 we should be very much interested, and as long as you 
 withhold it from us I shall have to form one in my 
 imagination, taking as my pattern one of the many 
 which I have seen in America, namely a woman (con- 
 
Rebecca Colhoon Huidekoper 
 
EKBECCA COLHOON 133 
 
 trary to those which by reason of their coarseness, fat- 
 ness, voice and manners, we call here "mantraps " ) with 
 a graceful and rather tall figure and further gifted with 
 that pretty talkativeness in which no woman in the 
 world surpasses the " fair Columbian." Now, dear friend 
 Harm Jan, I hope that I shall not have to wait long 
 for further news from you, but that you will send me 
 before long favorable tidings regarding the state of 
 your affections ; further I sincerely hope that you may 
 never know what it is to be disappointed in such a 
 matter. 
 
 The especial fair Columbian referred to in this letter 
 was Rebecca Colhoon, of Carhsle, Pennsylvania. Her 
 grandfather, John Colhoon, was a Scotchman, or of 
 Scotch-Irish descent, who removed from his home in 
 Ireland ^ and settled with his wife, Rebecca, in Middle- 
 ton Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The 
 name in Scotland is Colquhoun, pronounced Co'hoon, a 
 pronunciation adhered to by the Pennsylvania family, 
 who, however, adopted the shorter spelling. Andrew 
 Colhoon, the son of John, was born before his father 
 removed to America. He married Esther McDowell, and 
 made his home in Carlisle, where he carried on a large 
 building, carpentering and cabinet-making business, and 
 accumulated a moderate fortune. Fair and tall, with a 
 commanding figure and frank, cordial manner, he was 
 an open-hearted generous host, and entertained his 
 friends hospitably in the stone house in which his 
 daughters passed their younger years. With the depre- 
 ciation of the Continental currency his fortune vanished, 
 and he himself, in the latter part of his life, became 
 utterly disheartened. He died May 8, 1794, leaving 
 
 ' Pomona Hall, by Alfred Huidekoper, p. 9. 
 
134 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 his widow, Esther McDowell, alone to care for Rebecca 
 and her three sisters.^ Esther McDowell stands in the 
 family traditions as having married Andrew Colhoon in 
 comphance with the wishes of her parents, while always 
 cherishing the memory and the ring of a soldier lover. 
 " Contented but not happy," is the description given of 
 her, yet she had ever since the wedding day, in 1777, 
 been an attentive, excellent wife. She survived her hus- 
 band but a little over a year.^ 
 
 Her sister Lydia had married Mr. James Bryson, of 
 Pittsburg, and her brother, John,^ was a physician in 
 the same city, so that her girls, when thus left orphans, 
 did not lack protectors. On the other hand the Col- 
 hoons had relatives in Carlisle, one of whom, Robert 
 Miller, undertook the care of the small remnant of An- 
 drew Colhoon's estate. The four girls, therefore, were 
 well looked after. Sarah and Rebecca struggled for a 
 time to keep the little family together ; but the task was 
 too great, and by the advice of Mr. Miller, who offered 
 the two older girls a home, the younger ones were sent 
 to Pittsburg. In making this journey they traveled in 
 the charge of some friendly people who were moving 
 westward with all their household goods, in one of 
 the old-fashioned Pennsylvania or "Conestoga " wagons. 
 This immense structure held the entire family, with 
 their furniture, clothing, household utensils and all, 
 
 ' Six of their ten children died in infancy. The estate of Andre-w Col- 
 hoon, inherited jointly by the three surviying daughters to whom in 1802 
 Robert Miller rendei-ed account, amounted to somewhat more than $1600. 
 He continued, at their request, to hold and invest the money for them, 
 forwarding to them from time to time, such sums as they required. 
 
 * See Pomona Hall, pp. 9-11. 
 
 ' He served as a surgeon all through the Revolution, and in later yeara 
 kept open house in his home on the Monongahela. 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 135 
 
 sheltering them with its white projecting top from the 
 sun and letting down canvas sides at the appearance of 
 rain. When they arrived in Pittsburg the Brysons re- 
 ceived Lydia, the McDowells, EHzabeth. In the course 
 of a few years Sarah died. Elizabeth eventually mar- 
 ried Mr. Hazlett, of Pittsburg, and Rebecca, capable and 
 self-sacrificing, undertook, as Mr. Huidekoper has said, 
 the care of her and her household. 
 
 It was while Rebecca Colhoon was in Pittsburg, prob- 
 ably with her sister, that Mr. Huidekoper first saw her. 
 That he was not the only one to feel her distinctive 
 charm, her cousin, Miss Wilson, rallying her on her 
 conquests in the winter of 1804-5, implied when she 
 wrote to her from Baltimore : * "I have heard tales of 
 you though none to your disadvantage, unless the tale 
 of your having two or three candidates for the Honor 
 of your fair Hand is a tale to your disadvantage, if it 
 is, I have not found out where the injury lies, unless it 
 is in making you too hard to please. I have purchased 
 you a Bonnet, I know you will think it a very dear one, 
 when you see the Bill, I wish I was as sure of its pleas- 
 ing as I am of its costing too much ; but you may be 
 assured that I could not get one for less, I could have 
 got a gayer Bonnet than the one I send you, but it 
 would have cost at least six doUars more, which price I 
 thought you would not Hke to give. I wish you had 
 come to Baltimore in the Fall as you talked of doing, 
 
 — I am continually thinking of you and the pleasure of 
 our youthful days in CarHsle. If I ever have it in my 
 power I am resolved to go to Pittsburgh, so pray do get 
 married and have a corner at your own fireside for me 
 
 — and if I can I will have one at my fireside in B. for 
 
 1 December 24, 1804. 
 
136 HARM JAN HDIDEKOPER 
 
 you when you are kind enough to think us worth a visit. 
 I ought to have written me, for I would have you ride 
 three Hundred miles to see myself alone. — I must bid 
 you good [night] and God bless you. Sterne says that is 
 equal to a kiss ; but Mary Wolstoncraft says she would 
 rather have the kiss into the bargain. So would I from 
 you to-night." 
 
 On July 23, 1806, Mr. Huidekoper wrote to his bro- 
 ther : ^ — 
 
 You want that I should give you a description of 
 Miss Colhoon, the young lady who has captivated my 
 affections, and you shall have it tho' I undertake the 
 task with reluctance, not that I can have any objec- 
 tion to ib, but I have found out that I have no talent 
 whatsoever of drawing the portrait of any person, 
 even if I should see him every hour of the day, and if 
 I speak of Miss C.'s moral qualities I am afraid you 
 will consider them rather as effusions of an enthusiastic 
 admirer than as the real character of that interesting 
 
 girl- 
 To begin with her person. Miss C. is about twenty- 
 three years of age, of a middling stature and slender, 
 but well formed. Her hair falls in natural ringlets on 
 her face and neck and is of a chestnut colour. Her eyes 
 are gray and express all that soft languor of a blonde. 
 Her face on which the bewitching smile of good nature 
 continually plays is regularly made, and tho' I have 
 seen some that appeared handsomer to me, yet I never 
 met with one that was so perfectly amiable.^ But what 
 principally fixed my affections were not so much the 
 charms of her person (lovely as she is) as the qual- 
 ities of her mind and heart. To an understanding cul- 
 tivated with care. Miss C. unites that sweet affability 
 of manners which makes our intercourse with her so 
 
 ^ This was but little more than a month before bis marriage. 
 ' Mr. Huidekoper sometimes used the word amiable for lovable. 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 137 
 
 engaging. In her are associated the lively sensibility 
 which flows from a heart naturally good, with that 
 happy equanimity of temper which is perhaps the first 
 requisite to insure felicity in the connubial state. Edu- 
 cated with care by a mother who tho' long dead is still 
 venerated and regretted by her and by an aunt who has 
 very generously supphed that loss, Miss C. has from her 
 earliest infancy acquired habits of industry and since 
 some years she superintends the family of a younger, 
 but married sister, who judges herself less qualified to 
 that task. In one word Miss C. is universally esteemed 
 and beloved and I never have found but one other 
 woman who had not a single enemy, that is Mrs. 
 Mappa. 
 
 Such is the sister-in-law I had destined for you, or at 
 least such she appears to me. If you have received a 
 hasty letter which I wrote to you from Philadelphia,^ 
 you will have seen that your wishes for my happiness 
 have not been accomplished, and that it has hitherto 
 been my lot to experience the most cruel disappoint- 
 ment. Miss C. has treated me with a frankness which 
 has served only to increase my esteem, and my regret at 
 the moment that I am losing her, perhaps forever. She 
 assures me that her affections are not engaged and that 
 I possess her esteem, and she offers me her friendship, 
 but this is the utmost progress I have been able to make, 
 and I do not find myself nearer to the accomplishment 
 of my wishes than I was six months ago. Still I find it 
 impossible to detach my heart from that incomparable 
 girl, and at this moment I love her more than ever. 
 With some difficulty I have obtained a continuation of 
 our correspondence and tho' her letters are on indiffer- 
 ent subjects, yet they are kind and friendly and as long 
 as this indulgence lasts, I shall not be without some 
 hope. That correspondence is now the last tie that links 
 her to me, and I can assure you that I should look upon 
 
 1 Mr. Huidekoper made a visit to Philadelphia in March, 1806, and on 
 his way saw Miss Colhoon again. 
 
138 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 the day on which that was broke off as one of the most 
 unfortunate of my life. . . . 
 
 To this his brother returned reply (the date is uncer- 
 tain) ; — 
 
 As I am following your letter from subject to subject, 
 I make the same abrupt jump as you, namely from po- 
 litical matters to the portrait of Miss C. Truly, my friend, 
 it is charming, and one must certainly be smitten to be 
 able to sketch it in such a lifelike way. She is just such 
 a one as I had wished for you, and with such qualities 
 as appear to be associated in her you could not fail to 
 be hapjjy. But I cannot refrain from shaking my head 
 at the manner of her refusal; I confess that I do not 
 understand it. Sincere, and to declare that her heart is 
 free ; sincere, and to say that friendship and respect were 
 given to you, and sincerely to mean that she does not 
 wish to marry, — I tell you sincerely that I do not under- 
 stand it at all. Were we not so far away from each other, 
 I should come to investigate the matter in person, but 
 not being able to do this, I must remain in uncertainty 
 until you advise me of the final result of the affair, be 
 it favorable or otherwise. Should unfortunately the lat- 
 ter be the case, I shall console myself with the thought 
 that in your case the cause has not been lack of means 
 of existence, — that family on her side has not been an 
 obstacle, — but that free choice has caused the non-ful- 
 filment of your wishes. I have been told that affection 
 cannot endure if it does not come from both parties and 
 further I must remind you of the rule that there is no 
 affection which does not contribute to happiness, as long 
 as it is kept within bounds ; should Miss C. remain of 
 the same peculiar humor, awaken your pride and selfish- 
 ness a little, and let them help you break your chains, 
 the further wearing of which would bring neither honor 
 nor pleasure. From what you tell me, however, I do not 
 wish to consider that the affair is hopeless ; on the con- 
 
REBECCA COLHOON HUIDEKOPER 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 139 
 
 trary, I am anxious to receive your further advices, as I 
 flatter myself that they will inform me of something 
 agreeable in regard to this matter. 
 
 In spite of all discouragements Mr. Huidekoper evi- 
 dently had some faith in his ultimate success, for he had 
 proceeded early in 1806 to buy land for a homestead,' and 
 in his letters to his brother had referred hopefully to the 
 provision made for a family by the subsequent buUding 
 of a house very different from the log cabin in which 
 he at first Uved.^ 
 
 To these references his brother made answer in the 
 letter first quoted (1805-6). " So you are going to 
 build for yourself a nice house, and in the American 
 style, as there is to be a gallery along the front, so that 
 it wiU be much like that of young Mr. Morris at Canan- 
 daigua, and that building pleased me very much, as 
 being only one room deep it afforded a double view. 
 This cage will be too pretty to be occupied by you alone, 
 and by all means you should endeavor to get a ' hoentje ' 
 [hen chicken] for it, if it cannot be a ' Col'lioen,' let it be 
 a ' kerhoen' [woodhen] or a bird of some other name; the 
 name must be Hollandized any way, or else changed 
 into * Mrs. Cooper,' — as during my stay in America 
 the first syllable of our family name would not pass cur- 
 rent. This house makes your new purchase a rather 
 expensive piece of ground ; $4,000.00 is fl. 10,000, and 
 Boomrijk on which a very fair house stands, and which 
 is 25 acres in size, has only cost us fl. 21,000.00, but 
 
 ^ " The Cottage Farm," as his first piece of land was called before he 
 purchased it, became the nucleus for the large estate which, from its 
 orchards and gardens, he named Pomona. 
 
 ^ This log house, now covered with clapboards, is still standing on Wal- 
 nut Street, a little west of Market. 
 
140 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 the first laying out has perhaps cost four times as much. 
 But we have heavy burdens to bear which are perhaps 
 not known in your parts." 
 
 The letters that passed between Mr. Huidekoper and 
 Rebecca Colhoon were not many, nor do they teU the 
 circumstances of their first meeting. *' Chance intro- 
 duced me into your presence," he said, in one of them, 
 " and that moment decided my fate." For a long time 
 his fate threatened to be merely that of a friend privi- 
 leged to enter into a rather one-sided correspondence. 
 His communications were but charily responded to, and 
 when his pen ran away with him into forbidden subjects 
 he received no answers at all. " I have nobody here," 
 he wrote from Meadville in November, 1805, " who like 
 you possesses the art of reconciling me to myself." And 
 to that letter came no reply. Notwithstanding this, he 
 never learned to write with less ardor, and as the corre- 
 spondence progressed, a more confident tone crept into 
 it. " With pleasure I see that you have passed the moun- 
 tains without even being threatened with danger," said 
 the letter of December 10, 1805, referring to a journey 
 on her part to Baltimore, where her uncle Robert Miller 
 was at that time, and where she spent the winter of 
 1805-6, " and that your travelling company has been 
 agreeable. No wonder your young gallants, as you call 
 them, were ever attentive ; they were old enough to ap- 
 preciate the happiness of being for five days constantly 
 in your company. I have envied them their good for- 
 tune from my heart, and wished myself a thousand times 
 in their place, though had I been bound to the Prince- 
 ton College, I very much doubt whether I should have 
 arrived there at all, or if I had, my studies would cer- 
 tainly not have profited much thereafter. I am not sur- 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 141 
 
 prised that the theatre at Baltimore doth not answer 
 your expectations. I have heard the house spoken of as 
 being far inferior to that of Philadelphia, and the actors 
 I had seen, they being the same that perform in the last 
 mentioned city. To me their gestures and looks always 
 appeared as distant from the true expression of the pas- 
 sions they intended to represent as their grimaces are 
 different from the manners of a well-bred man of the 
 world. They seem in general much more to burlesk real 
 life than to represent it, and in my opinion they succeed 
 only well in those pieces which are merely calculated to 
 make the audience laugh." 
 
 "I am not astonished," says a January letter, "that 
 you were highly delighted with the music and the so- 
 lemnity wliich accompany the Roman Catholic worship 
 especially at Christmas. . . . There is something so 
 grand, so solemn and so attracting in the pomp and 
 music which accompany divine service in the Catholic 
 churches, that I have often been heretic enough to 
 wish that something similar had been instituted in our 
 Protestant places of worship. In Meadville, at least, 
 such an addition would be truly valuable, as it would 
 assist our minister in fixing the attention of his hearers, 
 a thing in which I am afraid he is not always success- 
 ful. . . . 
 
 "Your friend Mrs. Alden enjoys good health ; she de- 
 lights in speaking of you, and looks forward with plea- 
 sure to the visit which you have promised Major Alden 
 to make next summer to this place. I hope most sin- 
 cerely that nothing will hinder you from keeping your 
 word, for should something intervene to prevent you 
 from coming, I know somebody who will feel the disap- 
 pointment more sensibly than Mrs. Alden." 
 
142 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 On February 13, 1806, he records as noteworthy, the 
 advent of a young woman in the society of MeadviUe. 
 " Since about a week the monotony of our manner of 
 living here has been somewhat enlivened by the arrival 
 of your acquaintance, Miss Ellicott, who is to spend a 
 few weeks in this place with her sister. Nothing shews 
 stronger how necessary the society of your sex is to the 
 happiness of ours than the universal gaiety which the 
 arrival of a single lady has diffused amongst such a col- 
 lection of old batchelors as chance has assembled here. 
 Miss Ellicott is an old acquaintance of mine, whom I have 
 seen again with pleasure, the more, perhaps, as she often 
 speaks of you and always in the most flattering manner." 
 
 On Miss Colhoon's return to Pittsburg he wrote 
 [July 1, 1806] : 
 
 You tell me that your cousin Wilson upbraids you for 
 leaving her, and ask my advice, whether you had not 
 better return to Baltimore. Ah ! my best Friend, how 
 I should dread that journey, if I coiild suppose but for 
 a moment that you had the least idea of it. Luckily 
 I do not fear that such is your intention at present, 
 and what you add, that you are quite contented at 
 Pittsburg, tranquilises me entirely on this head. . . . 
 There is but one journey which I should see you make 
 with pleasure. You have long promised Mrs. Alden a 
 visit, and she is quite anxious to see you. If you could 
 be prevailed on to visit MeadviUe, opportunities will 
 probably not be wanting, as I suppose that some of 
 your friends will occasionally visit Pittsburg from here 
 during this summer and the ensuing fall. . . . 
 
 Pray tell me how the Miss Simpsons, Miss Lane, and 
 especially your sisters do. I have spent so many agree- 
 able hours in their company, and some of them are so 
 dear to you, that I cannot help feeling much interested 
 in their welfare. Miss Anne's profile, which I had so 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 143 
 
 much trouble in getting, has got so horribly blackened 
 in the general wreck of Colt's trunk that I can make 
 no use of it. Another profile, which is of much more 
 value to me, has luckily escaped unhurt. This is for me 
 alone. It is the secret, the interesting object of my con- 
 templations in my lonely evenings. 
 
 [July 20, 1806.] Mrs. Shreiock, to whom I paid a 
 visit this morning, informed me that had it not been for 
 the accidental absence of your sister, you would have 
 accompanied Mrs. S. to this place. Heavens, what sen- 
 sations did that intelligence awaken in me ! Had Mrs. 
 S. observed me at that moment she might have easily 
 read in my face the mingled emotions that agitated my 
 soul. I felt pleased, inexpressibly pleased, at the idea 
 that you intend visiting Mrs. Alden this summer. Your 
 presence, my best friend, has become necessary to my 
 existence, and the prospect of enjoying it, even for a 
 short time, gives me the most heartfelt satisfaction. But 
 if this consideration gave me pleasure, it only served to 
 brighten the sting of disappointment in having been 
 robbed by an accident of the supreme felicity of seeing 
 you. I might willingly quarrel with Doctor Kennedy 
 for not determining at once to stay a day at Pittsburg, 
 by which he would have given you an opportunity of 
 informing your sister of your intention. But for his 
 fickleness I should have seen my dearest wishes grati- 
 fied, and I had now been happy in your company. 
 
 Mrs. Alden, however, has reenlivened ray hope. She 
 tells me that she expects you in two or three weeks, 
 when Mr. Magaw, the brother-in-law to Mrs. Shreiock, 
 will come up, who is to accompany also a sister of Mrs. 
 Baldwin's to this place. I shall now look with impa- 
 tience for his arrival, and Oh ! Becky, may I beg of 
 you, do not disappoint the expectations of all your 
 friends here, for all are anxious to see you. Since Mrs. 
 Shreiock's arrival, you are much the subject of conver- 
 sation amongst your female friends, and they all speak 
 
144 HARM JAN HUIDEKQPER 
 
 of you as if the same sentiment that warms my bosom 
 animated them. Tell me, my incomparable friend, what 
 is that secret irresistible charm which thus attaches to 
 you every person who has the happiness of approaching 
 you ? Ah Becky, why cannot I too be amiable ! 
 
 This was the last of his letters to Miss Colhoon. 
 Three days later he wrote to his brother : " I am now 
 busy clearing the remainder of the land and in erect- 
 ing a barn and dwelling house for my use. The clear- 
 ing and the barn will soon be finished, but the house 
 I think will not be completed before some time next 
 spring. I have also begun planting an orchard, and 
 shall this fall try to plant some more fruit trees and 
 to bring the whole in some degree of order. As soon 
 as it has taken something of a regular appearance, I 
 shall transmit to you a plan of it in order that you 
 may get a better idea of the whole." 
 
 And when, in August, the promised visit to Mrs. 
 Alden was made, there stood the home on its way to- 
 ward completion, some of the fields cleared and culti- 
 vated, the apple trees of the farm in full bearing. 
 
 With practical good sense, Rebecca Colhoon, when 
 she gave her long-withheld consent, relinquished the 
 idea of a return to Pittsburg, and on the first day of 
 September, 1806, she was married to Mr. Huidekoper 
 at Mrs. Alden's house. Pomona was occupied by them 
 in the following spring, and then began that long con- 
 tinued tranquil happiness which essentially character- 
 izes Mr. Huidekoper's life. 
 
 Upon hearing of the event Miss Wilson wrote to her 
 cousin : " It was my intention to answer the last let- 
 ter that Miss Colhoon wrote me before that she had 
 changed her name : but Mr. Huidekoper's impatience 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 145 
 
 to get into chains put it out of my power, for which, 
 give my love to him and tell him that I shall be his 
 debtor and friend as long as he is your kind and affec- 
 tionate husband which I hope will be as long as I live. 
 But pray do let me know how it happened that you 
 were married at Meadville. I want to know all the par- 
 ticulars of your wedding, and also whether you have 
 forgot the promise that you made me make before you 
 left Baltimore. If what you then appeared to dread 
 should ever happen (which God forbid) I am willing to 
 undertake the charge." 
 
 The letters announcing to Mr. Huidekoper's mother, 
 in Holland, the news of the marriage drew from her 
 an affectionate response. Her husband, Anne Huide- 
 koper, had died in 1799, and she had then left the 
 house in which they had lived together, and, after dis- 
 posing of a large portion of her household goods, had 
 removed to a smaller home, near the church, in Hooge- 
 veen. There she passed the remainder of her years, 
 relieved from aU pecuniary care by the yearly remit- 
 tances sent to her by her son in America, and thankful 
 to outlive her invalid daughter, who required incessant 
 nursing and care. Her letter to Harm Jan, Pieter, and 
 the new daughter ran : — 
 
 [Hoogeveen, April 20, 1807.] 
 
 * Beloved Soi^^s akd Daughter : Your agreeable let- 
 ters of November reached us on the 27th of March, and 
 we saw with pleasure that you were all well, and also, my 
 dear Harm Jan, that you had succeeded in your intention 
 of entering into the married state, and I congratulate 
 you sincerely, and hope that the Supreme Omnipotence 
 and ruler of aU our destinies may permit you to live long 
 
 1 Translated from the Dutch by Mr. Otto Vou Klock. 
 
146 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 in happiness and prosperity in the enjoyment of Heaven's 
 greatest blessings ; that He may bestow on you all those 
 gifts which may work to your greatest happiness both 
 in time and eternity is my most earnest wish. 
 
 I am surprised that you did not hint at this in your 
 letter in August, you have wished to surprise us ; but 
 our friends from the far country who have been here 
 with us in August have told us that they had heard that 
 you were working in that direction, and the building of 
 your house confirmed it in my mind. I have nothing to 
 say against it ; it is most natural that he who has been 
 roving around for some twenty years should at last desire 
 to set up an independent establishment ; but it weakens 
 my hope of seeing you here once more, to which we all 
 looked forward more or less. Had I the promise that 
 should the Lord prolong our lives I might once more 
 embrace all my dear ones, it would render my life much 
 happier. I can see that you are now extremely occupied ; 
 you do not even tell us particularly whether your wife 
 is of a Dutch or an American family, whether she is 
 from the city or a native of your part of the country, 
 whether she has any parents or relatives, and how 
 old she is. I hope that at a future time you will in- 
 form us. 
 
 And you, dear Piet, I congratulate you on your new 
 sister and hope that you may enjoy all the happiness 
 which may be asked in a well arranged household. . . . 
 
 We are sending this on your birthday, H. Jan, and 
 are going to celebrate it by baking a birthday cake ; 
 this we have also done for Piet. Do you often think 
 of us? 
 
 By the time this letter reached them they were prob- 
 ably living in their newly furnished house. 
 
 But it is time to inquire what the autobiography 
 says of this period. Of the narrative just related Mr. 
 Huidekoper gives, in the months immediately following 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 147 
 
 his wife's death ia 1839, a formal and brief version. 
 At that particular time he could not without too much 
 pain indulge even his children with more details. 
 
 Having now concluded to make Meadville my perma- 
 nent place of residence, I purchased, in the early part 
 of 1805, the spot of ground on which I now reside, and 
 contracted for the building of the house in which the 
 family now hve. When I purchased this property, no 
 part of it was cleared and enclosed except the fields 
 South of the house. The rest of it was all in a State 
 of nature, except that all the handsome forest trees par- 
 ticularly on what forms now the Yard, had been cut 
 down and carried off for building or firewood. The 
 Shade trees in the Yard and the fruit trees in the or- 
 chards are, with some few exceptions, all of my planting. 
 Having thus made provision for a house of my own, my 
 next care was to look round for a partner to share it 
 with me. On the 1st September 1806 I was married to 
 Your excellent Mother, who, for upwards of thirty-three 
 Years was the faithful and affectionate partner of my 
 Hfe. 
 
 Pomona fronted upon the old Indian trail, by that 
 time transformed to Water Street, which bordered the 
 meadows of French Creek. This was in the Hue of the 
 main thoroughfare between Erie and Pittsburg, along 
 which the mail carrier clattered or splashed once a week, 
 bearing at first his whole burden in his pockets, after- 
 wards requiring saddle-bags or a pouch strapped behind, 
 still later an extra horse for the increased pack, and finally 
 a horse and wagon. The first stage arrived in Meadville 
 on the 7th of November, 1820. Across the road and 
 beyond the meadows was the one effective route of trans- 
 portation, the creek, on which the busy housekeeper, if 
 she could pause long enough to look from her window. 
 
148 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 could see the boats, laden with supplies from the out- 
 side world, passing up stream from Franklin and Pitts- 
 burg, and down from Waterford and Erie. 
 
 The house itself ' was a building seventy-six feet long, 
 with a central portion and two wings, the latter stand- 
 ing somewhat back from the front line. Across the front 
 door a square porch, with a seat on the right and on the 
 left, led into the middle hall. The parlor, on the north, 
 and the dining-room, on the south, opened out of this 
 hall ; they were rooms ten feet high, and were flanked 
 in the wings by the office and the kitchen. Above, in 
 the second story, were two large bedrooms and one small 
 one. Over these an unplastered attic contained a sleep- 
 ing-room for the " hired girls." 
 
 A semicircular driveway, bordered by locust-trees, 
 gave access to the house, and a stately row of Lom- 
 bardy poplars drew with an air of foreign precision the 
 line between the lawn and the street. So much for the 
 exterior of the home in which the young wife entered 
 upon her duties. Those duties, — it were well to take a 
 long breath before trying to enumerate the half of 
 them. 
 
 Hers was from the outset a complex household. 
 Besides Mr. Huidekoper and herself, there was Pieter, 
 who was always welcomed and considered an integral 
 part of the family. There was the clerk, after Pieter 
 had ceased to act as his brother's assistant, who slept in 
 the office, but ate with the rest. There were the hired 
 man, who must have a bunk somewhere, and the maid- 
 servants occupying the attic, and the extra helpers who 
 expected to share the kitchen meals, while the dining- 
 
 1 For most of the description which follows see Pomona Hall, by Alfred 
 Huidekoper, and also Manuscript Autobiography of Frederic Huidekoper, 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 149 
 
 room must always have space at its generous board for 
 the chance guest. This was only the beginning. When 
 the house was filled not only with its own little chil- 
 dren, but with Mrs. Hazlett's family, as well as Lydia 
 Colhoon and her young companions, responsibilities 
 multiplied. 
 
 Consider merely the task of procuring and preparing 
 the food for all these, when the grocer, the butcher, 
 and the baker were scarcely relied on at all for daily 
 demands. A large supply of provisions must be kept 
 on hand and unceasingly replenished. The summer 
 fruit must be preserved and set away in great crocks 
 for winter use, the autumn apples must be pared and 
 strung for drying, while the winter vegetables must be 
 stowed away in the " cave." This cave was an immense 
 storehouse hollowed out in the earth and " waUed up 
 some three feet high at the sides and some eight or ten 
 at the gable ends. Heavy split timbers resting on the 
 walls met at the ridge-pole, and these being covered 
 with earth and turfed over made the structure frost- 
 proof." ^ It was capable of holding several hundred 
 bushels of potatoes, as well as a quantity of turnips, 
 beets, carrots, pumpkins, etc. When it overflowed, as 
 it frequently did, smaller basins of deposit were dug ; 
 and these were filled with fresh straw, and their con- 
 tents covered with from twelve to fifteen inches of 
 earth. 
 
 Absorbing days were those devoted to the meat sup- 
 ply, when a deer, a hog, or a steer was to be cut up, 
 and certain parts set aside for immediate consumption, 
 while hams and shoulders were carried to the smoke- 
 house to be cured and kept for future use. The great 
 
 » Manasoript Autobiography of Frederic Huidekoper. 
 
150 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 kettles of the household then were in requisition for 
 trying out suet and lard. Hung on the crane, — the 
 copper kettle for boUing water held twelve gallons and 
 called for the strength of two persons when it had to 
 be lifted upon its hook, — these immense vessels were 
 swung into the huge fireplace and tended until the pro- 
 cess of separating the fat from the cracklings was com- 
 plete. Then the suet or beef tallow could be made into 
 candles dipped or moulded, while the lard was saved for 
 cooking or for use in the lamps. A little patty-pan, 
 filled with lard, and with a bit of twisted paper for a 
 wick, generally lighted in the evening the passage 
 between the kitchen and the dining-room. 
 
 The fire in the fireplace had of course to be kept 
 over night. Each morning, when the coals were uncov- 
 ered the hired men would bring in the back-log, four 
 feet long, and settle it in its bed. It was expected to 
 last all day. The men would also pile on sufficient 
 other wood to start the day's work well, and would 
 supply the wood-box with its usual two heaping wheel- 
 barrow loads of round sticks ; after which the fire- 
 place was left to the girls. On baking day the brick 
 oven, four feet deep and thirty inches wide, demanded 
 an especial kind of fuel. The best hickory, split to 
 the width of a man's thumb, made the hottest bed of 
 coals. When the bread was ready, out came the coals, 
 and in went the loaves, thrust into place with the help 
 of a long-handled wooden shovel.^ 
 
 When her sisters, Elizabeth Hazlett and Lydia Col- 
 hoon, came to live with her, they undertook the care of 
 the garden. This was reached by a path from the rear 
 of the house and entered through a gate which now 
 
 1 Manuscript Autobiography of Frederic Huidekoper. 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 151 
 
 opens upon Pomona Street. It consisted of about an 
 acre of ground, bordered by currant and gooseberry 
 busbes, and checkered into squares for the experiments 
 Mr. Huidekoper loved to make in horticulture, for his 
 table vegetables, for the old-time herbs, mint, thyme, 
 horehound, catnip, camomile, sage, and for the flo^wers. 
 In the long beds flanking the central walk, succeeding 
 springs brought out the hyacinths, tulips, and lilacs ; 
 peonies, roses, and snowballs followed; and the mid- 
 summer blossoms, lilies, sweet-williams, the scarlet lych- 
 nis, and the orange asclepias, kept the procession going ; ^ 
 while Johnny-jump-ups raised their bright faces to the 
 sky through all but the very coldest months of the year. 
 
 The overseeing of barn, stables, and poultry-yard was 
 more in the province of the master of the house, but in 
 Mr. Huidekoper's frequent absences some of the respon- 
 sibility for the proper management of these also fell 
 upon his wife. The stable of five stalls, the nursery for 
 young calves, the sheepfolds for one or two hundred 
 sheep,^ the hen-house containing as many fowls, the 
 dovecote, the cow-house, furnished, after the Dutch 
 fashion, with a trench at the rear of the cattle, like that 
 in our model cow-barns to-day,^ all presented claims for 
 attention. 
 
 Sometimes, though rarely, Mrs. Huidekoper was the 
 one to leave home. During a visit paid by her to Pitts- 
 burg in the spring of 1808 her husband wrote to her : — 
 
 " MeadviUe, May 24, 1808. 
 
 ..." My heart and my thoughts are full of you, but 
 
 I have little time for writing at this moment ; I have 
 
 ^ See Pomona Hall. 
 
 ^ Mr. Huidekoper imported a number of merino sheep. 
 
 ' See Pomona Hall. 
 
152 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 spent the whole day till evening in settling the taxes 
 with our commissioners, and now, by candle-light, I am 
 preparing the papers for Beatty's and Brady's settle- 
 ments. To-morrow evening Lefevre and myself set out 
 to see those two agents. We will have Mr. Marlin's 
 company as far as Franklin. I would willingly escape 
 and follow him to Pittsburg, but that at present is not 
 in my power. At all events, I am glad we are going to 
 leave this place, for home is so different from what it 
 was when you were here that it has fairly become irk- 
 some to me. We shall be absent about 8 or 10 days 
 after which we begin our western tour from which I 
 mean not to return until I have been at Pittsburg to 
 bring you home." 
 
 Notwithstanding all the demands upon her strength, 
 time, and patience, Rebecca Colhoon still preserved her 
 own serenity, and diffused about her that sense of well- 
 being, quiet, and comfort that only efficient rule can 
 produce. " No one seeing her quietly plying her knit- 
 ting needles in the social circle after tea, would have 
 supposed her," says her son, " the moving power, like 
 the unseen mainspring of a watch, that kept so much 
 machinery in action under orderly adjustment." 
 
 Children came early and in abundance to Pomona. 
 In the summer of 1807 a daughter was born, whose rare 
 promise, and engaging qualities made themselves felt 
 even in the short year of her infant life. 
 
 Says Mr. Huidekoper in the autobiography : — 
 
 From the summer of 1806 to the fall of 1809 1 lived 
 quietly at home, and I should have been the happiest of 
 the happy, had it not been for one afflictive dispensa- 
 tion of Providence. In August 1807 Your Mother had 
 presented me with a daughter. It was one of the finest 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 153 
 
 and sweetest children I have ever seen. My soul doated 
 on her. It pleased Heaven to take her away when she 
 was nearly a Year old. You, My Children, who know 
 how fond I have always been of Children, can form 
 some faint idea of what I felt on that occasion. Even 
 now, after a lapse of more than thirty two Years it gives 
 me pain to think of that loss. May God Almighty, My 
 dear Children, preserve You ever from similar bereave- 
 ments. 
 
 In a letter to his brother [July 27, 1810] Mr. Huide- 
 koper wrote of the second child : — 
 
 My little Frederic tho' of a delicate make grows very 
 well and is a charming prattling boy. The W in his 
 name that you enquire about stands for Wolthers, he 
 having at my Rebecca's request been called for my 
 mother. You will see that his name at all events is long 
 enough, but as mothers have so much the hardest time 
 with children, I think they may at least be indulged in 
 their innocent fancies about a name. On the 21st of 
 March last my Rebecca has made me a present of an- 
 other fine boy whom we have called Alfred. He is a fine 
 healthy child and grows like cabbage. You see from 
 this, my dear brother, that my family affairs in this re- 
 spect go on as prosperously as I could wish, and that if 
 my Rebecca and I live and continue to be blessed with 
 health we have the prospect of being soon surrounded 
 by a numerous progeny of children. I can assure you 
 I am glad of it. Children have always been my deUght, 
 and we live in a country in which there is elbow-room 
 for several succeeding generations yet. 
 
 For eight years Frederic was a constant source of joy ; 
 then, as Mr. Huidekoper records in the autobiography, 
 he died. 
 
 In the Year 1816, I met with an afflictive loss, in 
 the death of my eldest son, Frederic Wolthers. The 
 
154 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 day before his death, I had set out for PhHadelphia, 
 leaving him, as I thought, very slightly indisposed. He 
 died in consequence of the rupture of an abscess in his 
 lungs ; and an express brought me the tidings of his death 
 at Mercer, where I had been detained a day by the 
 rain ; so that I had the melancholy satisfaction of being 
 present at his funeral. My Frederic was a fine intelli- 
 gent child. In idea I had connected him with all my 
 future plans of life. Long and deeply did I mourn his 
 loss ; but yet I did not feel on this occasion that sick- 
 ening and heartrending sensation which I had experi- 
 enced on the death of my first Anna. 
 
 Another son, Edgar, as well as the second Anna, had 
 come before the death of Frederic Wolthers, so that the 
 nursery was never again emptied save by the happy 
 maturing of its occupants, and all these, as well as the 
 son Frederic born in 1817, and the youngest daughter, 
 Elizabeth, grew up in the homestead, united in their 
 devotion to their parents and their loyalty to each other, 
 forming, with their many and varied interests, and the 
 friends that gathered about them, a vigorous, interest- 
 ing world of their own. All that they desired or could 
 need was by their father's provident watchfulness brought 
 to their door.^ And the same " faculty " which Rebecca 
 Colhoon exercised in the management of her servants 
 stood her in good stead when several babies were to be 
 cared for at once. Did one need fresh air while the 
 next slept, the saddle-horse or the carriage would be 
 ordered, and round and round on the drive-way the 
 
 1 To Ills brother he wrote, July 27, 1810 : " The expense of maintain- 
 ing a family living in the way I do will average about $1400 or $1600 a 
 year. It is true my family in general is numerous, and I am perhaps sub- 
 ject to some expense on account of my being an agent that could be 
 otherwise avoided, but it would be imprudent to calculate the family 
 expenses independent of my agency less than $1200 or $1400 annually." 
 
1 Ir 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 155 
 
 mother and child would ride or drive, remaining near 
 at hand for the expected summons to the second claim- 
 ant. Often the state of the roads alone would limit 
 exercise to home bounds, and they were wide enough 
 to answer every purpose. The boys in winter coasted 
 down the snow-covered roof of the cave; in summer 
 roamed their own woods and fields, played hide and 
 seek among the cocks of hay, and rode homeward on 
 top of the loads with the haymakers. 
 
 During some of the earlier years, before the advent 
 of the tutors, their education was begun at one or an- 
 other of the village schools. At the school of a Mr. 
 Douglas, on Arch Street, the taws were still in use when 
 the little Frederic was sent there to begin his education. 
 His experience was limited to one week with that 
 master. 
 
 A gentler instructor was Mr. Lef&ngwell, advanced 
 in years, and leaving in the boy's mind the grateful and 
 no doubt astonishing remembrance of great kindness 
 and condescension, for it was recorded many years after- 
 ward that on one occasion when the soot in the stove- 
 pipe took fire, and the child was terrified, Mr. Leffing- 
 well himself undertook to quiet him, and talked to him 
 soothingly until the disturbance was over. This school 
 was near the southeast corner of Water and Walnut 
 streets, not too far for walking in ordinary weather, 
 but far enough to make the timely help of two of the 
 men on horseback very welcome when deep mud made 
 the way well-nigh impassable, or if the two children, 
 Frederic and Anna, as on one day of fear, had been 
 watching the thunder-heads gather and close threaten- 
 ingly over their homeward path. The brother and sister 
 also went, afterwards, and for a longer period, to the 
 
156 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 school taught by Miss Benedict, where " spelling down " 
 in rival rows, was the grand achievement. Here the lit- 
 tle ones sat on their hard benches, from nine o'clock 
 until twelve, and again from one until five, every day 
 of the hot inland summer, every day of the cold damp 
 winter, save only through Christmas week, their sole 
 vacation of the long year.^ A welcome diversion was 
 that made by Miss Benedict's father, who would come 
 riding up to the open door at noon, in apple time, with 
 a full bag of fruit from his farm, and empty it upon 
 the schoolroom floor to see the youngsters scramble for 
 it. Most of the events, however, were of a punitive 
 character, better adapted to the enlivening of reminis- 
 cence than for cheering the depressed spirits of those 
 who shared in them. For instance, to stand a child on 
 the stove and then proceed in a leisurely manner to 
 light the fire was a method once resorted to in that 
 schoolroom. For older boys there was the academy, a 
 one-story brick building containing two rooms, in which 
 Latin and Greek, and the common English branches 
 were taught. 
 
 Year by year Rebecca Colhoon's quietly busy days 
 sped on. In each of these days the occupations were 
 manifold. Her part it was to rise by candlelight, — 
 the candles were of home manufacture, costing much 
 labor from first to last, — to set all the household ma- 
 chinery in motion ; to cut out and stitch, albeit with 
 assistance, the " red flannel for Frederic's suit " or the 
 dresses for the little Anna, to nurse the frequently 
 recurring sore throats, and to support the little patients 
 through the regular course of treatment invariably pre- 
 scribed by the doctor, — first an emetic, then such 
 
 1 Manuscript Autobiography of Frederic Huidekoper. 
 
REBECCA COLHOON 157 
 
 drugs as rhubarb, calomel, and gamboge, and, finally, 
 if fever set in, application of leeches or the lancet. How 
 thankful she must have been when she discovered that 
 keeping their feet dry in calfskin boots would lessen 
 the number of colds, and how keen was the disappoint- 
 ment when, on trying on her first pair of rubber shoes, 
 — the first pair, indeed, ever brought to Meadville, — 
 she found that they had been moulded on a perfectly 
 flat board, and could not be worn at all. 
 
 No one could so sympathetically listen to the gi-iev- 
 ances of Pieter or to the petitions of the children as 
 this ever present, ever self-forgetting mistress of the 
 house ; no one else could so effectually smooth the way 
 for a happy solution of difficulties. It was a Hfe which 
 brought its own rewards, and not least among them 
 was the affectionate reverence which came to her, not 
 only from her own home, but from many outside her 
 walls, to whom her thoughtful kindhness went out in 
 good offices without number. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE AMERICAN 
 
 By the time that Mr. Huidekoper had taken upon him- 
 self the western agency and the responsibiUties of a 
 householder, his brother's wish had been fulfilled, — the 
 Hollander in him had practically been superseded by 
 the American. He threw himself heartily into the work 
 of opening the country, and even had visions of a 
 model settlement, founded by himself and named for 
 Mr. Busti, one that by its superior situation — it was 
 to be at the forking of the Baldeagle Road, in tract 
 number ninety of the East Allegheny lands — should 
 outrival Franklin as a county town. 
 
 Franklin, he said, although both he and Mr. Busti 
 had at first thought of it as a possible place for his 
 home, was too far away from the lands under his care, 
 and also too inaccessible. " There is not a wasfon road 
 that goes through it or can go through it," he declared, 
 " on account of the terrible hills." Meadville itself was 
 rather distant, and the East Allegheny district attracted 
 him more. Although the region was " a perfect wilder- 
 ness, without any inhabitants," he did not object to 
 that. "A couple of years," he assured his brother,^ 
 "will bring inhabitants enough to that quarter, and 
 to indemnify me for a few hardships and privations I 
 shall have the pleasure to witness all the progress of 
 a new colony, and will not have to contend with the 
 1 Letter of December 14, 1804. 
 
THE AMERICAN 159 
 
 plans made by others. . . . You are able to judge 
 how much more pleasing those occupations are than 
 the dull, sedentary life I led in the city, and I should 
 have wished nothing more than ... to be assisted 
 by you." " This new town," he wrote to Mr. Busti, 
 " I intended, under your approbation, to make my 
 place of residence, as soon as the business in the first 
 and second districts here shall be brought in order." 
 But Mr. Busti seems to have thrown cold water on the 
 scheme, for Mr. Huidekoper's next words to him on the 
 subject, partly whimsical, partly regretful, are, " I had 
 not in the least set my heart upon the new purchase 
 I offered to make ; ... it never interested me half so 
 much as the buQding of my new city, to which, how- 
 ever, you refuse to lend your name, although Bustia 
 or Bustida would be a much better name than those of 
 one half the new towns." ^ 
 
 His desire to erect his own little Utopia, or Bustida, 
 never having been realized, he identified himself com- 
 pletely with the interests of Meadville, and ever had 
 the welfare of the place at heart. 
 
 As to his own path toward prosperity, though its 
 course was upward, it was not free from thorns. He oc- 
 casionally came to times of financial stringency, when 
 there was an absolute dearth of ready money with which 
 to meet the obligations of the Company or the expenses 
 of his own household. One of these times was in 1806, 
 when he hailed with thankfulness the advent of " a 
 couple of wealthy farmers " who had purchased land 
 from some of the Company's settlers, thereby enabUng 
 them to pay some of their dues. He wrote to Mr. 
 Busti : 2 — 
 
 1 Letter of April 10, 1805. « Letter of August 28, 1806. 
 
160 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 I have by their means got a hundred dollars cash, of 
 which I stood in the utmost need. I cannot describe 
 to you the anxiety and vexation which my pecuniary 
 arrangements have given me since some weeks. In 
 referring to my last report you will find that I re- 
 mained about |448 in debt to Mr. Marlin and the Su- 
 pervisors of Warren County. Besides this I had to pro- 
 vide for the payment of the taxes for Venango Comity 
 for the year 1805 amounting to about $130 and for the 
 taxes for 1806 east and west of the river. The settlers 
 also called daily for the repayment of their taxes which 
 since six or eight years they had paid on the Company's 
 share of the land. Add to this the advances necessary 
 for the surveyors and the disbursements which I have 
 to make in completing my house, office and barn, and 
 you will not be astonished if I sometimes was discour- 
 aged with the difficulty of meeting all those demands, 
 and of keeping up that reputation for punctuaHty in 
 money matters which the Company has always enjoyed, 
 and which it is of so much consequence to preserve. 
 This must be my apology if instead of remitting I have 
 lately been obliged to draw on you for $625. When it 
 will be in my power to refund that money I cannot tell, 
 and I will no more depend on illusory promises the 
 falacity [fallaciousness] of which I experience every 
 day. As for collecting the debts due by suits, this will 
 answer in some particular instances . . . but generally 
 such methods would be imavaihng, because at present 
 there is no money in the country, and I can nearly trace 
 every cent I receive to its having been lately brought 
 from the old settlements in the lower part of the State. 
 
 To these vexations another was added at this same 
 period by a slanderous attack made upon him with, he 
 said, " all the malice of a demon " in the Meadville 
 newspaper by one who hoped to curry pohtical favor by 
 this action. A less self-controlled man than Mr. Huide- 
 
THE AMERICAN 161 
 
 koper might have been tempted to resort to physical 
 force for redress, but he quietly and wisely trusted to 
 time. " I know," he wrote to Mr. Busti, in this letter of 
 August 28, " it is customary enough to appeal to a pair 
 of pistols in such cases, but I am no duelist, and tho' 
 like others I might pluck up courage enough to face a 
 pistol, yet I am not willing to embitter the remainder of 
 my life by the recollection of having murdered a fellow 
 man." The libelous attack was renewed at intervals 
 through the remainder of the summer, but, as Mr. 
 Huidekoper reported in October, only caused its perpe- 
 trator to be " shunned by the decent part of the commu- 
 nity " without injuring the assailed person in the estima- 
 tion of any one. Mr. Huidekoper had, in fact, estabHshed 
 a reputation that could not be placed in jeopardy. 
 
 It was a beneficent oversight that he exercised m be- 
 half of the pioneer settlers who procured their forest 
 land of him with barely enough cash in hand to make 
 the preliminary payment, and who struggled on from 
 year to year, paying installment after installment until 
 the whole sum was made up and the cleared and culti- 
 vated farms were their own. He kept his purchasers 
 individually in mind ; their habits of industry or of shift- 
 lessness were known to him ; the exact amount of im- 
 provement or of neglect evidenced by the state of their 
 clearings stood on record in his books ; and many were 
 the instances in which his considerateness came to the 
 assistance of the hard-beset tillers of the soil, or in which 
 his ingenuity devised for them ways and means of les- 
 sening their indebtedness and of keeping their land. 
 
 He would not spare a dishonest or lazy man ; such an 
 one he held to a strict account ; but those who deserved 
 his assistance always received it. For example, a hard- 
 
162 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 working settler, Daniel Kane, who had bought fifty 
 acres of land in Hayfield township, promising to pay for 
 it at the rate of three dollars an acre, found the years 
 going by without bringing him sufficient prosperity to 
 get together the expected installments of the one hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars due to the Company. He had re- 
 ceived the usual notices from time to time, but had been, 
 unable to respond to them in any way. Finally a very 
 positive letter came, saying that his contract would have 
 to be foreclosed and his farm sold if he could not do 
 something about that debt, since so much time had now 
 elapsed that his further occupancy would endanger the 
 Company's rights. Quite disheartened and in great per- 
 plexity, Kane consulted Mr. Huidekoper, taking with 
 him John McMillen to speak for him and vouch for his 
 sfood intentions. 
 
 McMillen set the case before Mr. Huidekoper. Here 
 was Kane, honest and industrious, who had made his 
 clearing, built himself a log house and a log stable, car- 
 ried his bushel of corn to mill on his back to be ground 
 into meal for his household, had raised a family of chil- 
 dren, and was the owner of some steers and other cattle, 
 besides a drove of hogs rooting for themselves in the 
 woods. But he had not any money, or any cattle or steers 
 or grain that could very well be spared from the work 
 of the farm or from the sustenance of his family. What 
 could he do ? Mr. Huidekoper proposed a solution. " If 
 you, McMillen," he said, " know Kane to be the hon- 
 est and industrious man you have represented him to be, 
 and can help him to raise fifty dollars, one hundred shall 
 be placed to his credit on the books." McMillen pulled 
 out his pocket-book. It held but ten dollars. He would 
 lend that, he said ; then he took Kane by the arm and 
 
THE AMERICAN 163 
 
 they went out upon the street to see what could be done. 
 They apphed to Mr. Shryock. Yes, Mr. Shryock could 
 lend them forty dollars on a note. Kane's steers could 
 be held as security without depriving him of the use of 
 them. They might be left with him to finish the year's 
 work, and then sold to make the payment, for by that 
 time his second yoke of steers would be two years old 
 and ready for use. That scheme would answer. So back 
 to Mr. Huidekoper McMillen and Kane went with the 
 fifty dollars, and the hundred placed to his credit showed 
 that his farm was saved. 
 
 In another instance a man who was trying to acquire 
 some of the Company's land by adverse possession was 
 sharply taken to task by Mr. Huidekoper and forced to 
 make regular payments. This man afterwards told Mr. 
 Huidekoper that having to meet his obligations had re- 
 stored his self-respect, and he expressed the greatest 
 gratitude for having been made an honest citizen. 
 
 By means like these the country became populated 
 with an excellent class of inhabitants. One of the early 
 buyers was Frederick Stein, a German, who had only 
 determination to start upon. With this commodity he 
 first of all procured a wife. On their marriage morning 
 they had just fifty cents between them. As that be- 
 longed to her, she gave it to the parson who married 
 them, and then together they proceeded to choose a 
 farm. Twenty-four acres of the beautiful fertile rolling 
 land near Meadville were sold to them without the usual 
 requirement of a cash deposit, and they set to work to 
 clear and plant it. At the end of the first year Stein 
 appeared at Mr. Huidekoper's office with three dollars 
 and seventy-five cents, the sum total saved out of their 
 hard earnings. Mr. Huidekoper took the three dollars 
 
164 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 and seventy-five cents, credited Stein with his payment, 
 and gave him a receipt. That scrap of paper is a pre- 
 cious heirloom in the family. It reposes in the old Dutch 
 clock where Stein always kept it, and is taken out at times 
 with pride to be shown to the interested stranger ; for 
 Stein prospered, and left to his widow a goodly heritage. 
 She, when age came upon her, summoned her children 
 from the farms round about, farms received from their 
 father, and they all came, and gathered near her in the 
 old homestead. There she stood with a table in front 
 of her, on which were piles of certificates of deposit, 
 representing the savings laid by by her husband and 
 herself during all the years that had succeeded that 
 scanty first, when three dollars and seventy-five cents 
 looked so large. By noon she had given them all away. 
 For herself she had reserved four thousand dollars and 
 a residence with one of her flock. Then began conten- 
 tion among the recipients. Two brothers having more 
 land than a third, they evened that off between them. 
 It was suggested that another needed a new barn and a 
 pair of horses — that was attended to ; and so it went 
 on, in the greatest harmony and good-will. Their com- 
 bined possessions mounted upwards beyond forty thou- 
 sand dollars, a good return for the stock in trade with 
 which their father began. 
 
 The yearly payments which the farmers made in liqui- 
 dation of their debts to the Company were sometimes 
 handed over in cash, when cash was to be had, but of- 
 tener they were obliged to bring to Pomona their cattle, 
 poultry, or produce, of which due account was taken. 
 
 Under Mr. Huidekoper's management a yearly drive 
 over the mountains of all the livestock brought to him 
 by the farmers was instituted. He planned it and saw 
 
THE AMERICAN 165 
 
 that it was executed, occasionally at first even accompa- 
 nying the drovers himself ; for it was no light matter 
 to arrange an itinerary over the mountains for the dif- 
 ferent droves, whether of steers, hogs, or turkeys, which 
 must arrive unimpaired at the end of their journey of 
 four hundred miles. 
 
 Before the setting out of a drove of cattle came the 
 branding ; this accomphshed, off they went on their 
 long tramp. Sometimes as many as three hundred cat- 
 tle would fall to the share of a single veteran drover, 
 with a due quota of assistants, both men and dogs. Up 
 hill and down their track ran, but it is said that this 
 variety was better for them, as their muscles found re- 
 lief in the alternation and could endure an uneven route 
 better than a monotonously level one. The first few 
 miles were the worst for the men and dogs, for while 
 the cows and steers were still upon familiar ground, 
 they would make bold dashes for liberty. Once away 
 from their own haunts, however, they became timid and 
 docile, — were road-broken, as the phrase was, — and 
 would jog on quietly at command. Often the cattle 
 must simply be kept ahve by foraging for themselves 
 upon the wayside trees and herbs. That was when they 
 were among the mountains or in the soHtary wilderness. 
 When partially settled regions were reached, the help 
 of the country people could be resorted to, for, word 
 having been sent in advance, at certain farms along 
 the route good pasturage would be reserved. In large 
 fenced-in fields of growing grass, the tired beasts could 
 be corralled and allowed to feed and rest ; while the 
 men found entertainment under the farmer's roof, 
 either of house or barn. A charge of two, three, or 
 four cents a head for the cattle was the common rate 
 
166 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 at these stopping-places. It enabled the farmer to turn 
 his grass into money without the labor of mowing or 
 pitching. For twelve and a half cents a meal, moreover, 
 so great was the purchasing power of the scarce cur- 
 rency of that day, the drovers could consume unlimited 
 quantities of tea and coffee, bread and butter, or pork 
 and potatoes, — and in some cases partridges and chicken 
 pie. 
 
 At one time when Colonel Blossom, Mr. Huideko- 
 per's clerk, was superintending one of these drives, 
 they came to the farm of a thrifty German, where they 
 remained from Saturday night until Monday morning. 
 This German belonged to that class of southeastern 
 Pennsylvania settlers who had emigrated from the Pa- 
 latinate during the French and German wars. Like the 
 rest of his class, he was an excellent husbandman, but 
 despised learning, holding indeed that education led to 
 idleness. When the time of reckoning came he found 
 himself totally unable, as were also his three grown sons, 
 to calculate the amount which he should be paid for 
 keeping two hundred head of cattle, at two or three 
 cents a head, and several men, at twenty-five cents each, 
 for that length of time. He actually had to send to the 
 school, a mile away, — and the Germans had mightily 
 resisted the coming among them of the common schools, 
 — to fetch back his little daughter, that she might help 
 him to cast up this complicated account.* 
 
 Were the drove made up of sheep, the farmers' chil- 
 dren frequently became the possessors of weakling lambs 
 or exhausted mothers, who were in danger of falling 
 out of the ranks through fatigue, and little hangers-on 
 would often follow the drove for miles, in the hope of 
 
 1 Manuscript Autobiography of Frederic Huidekoper. 
 
THE AMERICAN 167 
 
 obtaining one of these laggards. As for the turkeys, as 
 many as fifteen hundred of these would sometimes be 
 collected for a single drive. They needed great care 
 and patience ; during the first days they always grew 
 very foot-sore, and must proceed by short and easy 
 stages until their delicate birds' feet had been hardened 
 by use. Moreover, shortly before Sunset, no matter 
 where they might then be, the whole flock would de- 
 terminedly begin to roost. It was a problem so to time 
 the day's journey as to avoid being caught, for instance, 
 in a hackmatack swamp when roosting-time came, for 
 neither persuasion nor force could keep the feathered 
 travelers on the road when instinct bade them perch 
 upon the nearest tree. 
 
 Even to this day there still survive a few now very 
 old men ready to tell the story of the especial tribula- 
 tions incident to the role of being guide, philosopher, 
 and friend to each of these separate classes of animals. 
 Totally distinct vices seem to have inhered in each 
 clan, but it is when narrating their experiences with 
 hogs that these old-time drovers wax most eloquent. 
 Nine hundred hogs meant to them nine hundred diabol- 
 ical perversities of brute will, each on its own divergent 
 hoggish hook, for the hog follows no leader, acknow- 
 ledges no sway of a consensus of opinion among his 
 kind, and is distinguished on such personally conducted 
 parties chiefly by continuous outbreaks of the most origi- 
 nal sin. Nevertheless, after due tribulation all these 
 droves were somehow convoyed to their destination, 
 and the money for them was in part paid over to the 
 Holland Land Company's office in Philadelphia, in part 
 returned safely to the little Western community where 
 Mr. Huidekoper's business transactions furnished the 
 
168 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 inhabitants with a large proportion of their available 
 cash supply. 
 
 A careful courtesy marked Mr. Huidekoper's deal- 
 ings with people. One who as a young man received 
 an ineifaceable impression of this still relates the inci- 
 dent : " When I first went into business, in making out 
 my monthly bills I had one against Mr. H. J. Huide- 
 koper. I went with him to his office and presented it to 
 him. He looked at it, and promptly paid me. I natu- 
 rally said, 'I am much obliged, sir.' He immediately 
 replied, ' It is not for you to thank me, but for me to 
 thank you, for the reason that you have been to the 
 expense of having a book-keeper, making out your 
 account, and bringing it down here and receipting it.' 
 That was my first experience in business." 
 
 As settlements increased, the business of collecting 
 required visits to be made, at least quarterly, to the 
 counties of Erie, Warren, and Venango, usually at the 
 time when the court was in session. On court days 
 the farmers flocked to the county-seat, the taverns were 
 full, politics and local interests gathered disputants about 
 the great hickory log fire in the evenings, and as most 
 of the men had brought to town all the cash they could 
 command, collection was comparatively easy. Mr. Huide- 
 koper, when he could not find his debtor in the town, 
 must hunt him up at his home, and he had his regular 
 rounds. These journeys had to be made on horseback, 
 with papers and clothing carried in a leather pouch or 
 in saddle-bags, over roads obstructed by floods and 
 broken bridges, and in winter through drifted snow 
 which hid the roots and mud-holes.* At such times the 
 
 ^ On August 1, 1811, he wrote to Mr. Busti : " Your . . . lands east of 
 the Allegheny come in some places down to the river. Along the river 
 
e 
 
 ■< 
 
 Q 
 
 O 
 W 
 
 o 
 o 
 
THE AMERICAN 169 
 
 qualities of Fox/ his favorite horse, proved invalua- 
 ble. Fox always set out on these expeditions with wild 
 curvetings and prancings, which after a mile or two 
 changed to a swift, sure-footed gait. Through twelve 
 years or more he bore his master with the same exuber- 
 ant spirit over the hilly, stony roads, and he was once 
 the sharer in an adventure which might have had fatal 
 consequences. While passing one day in the year 1823 
 through a lonely stretch of forest, Mr. Huidekoper was 
 startled by a shot which came from a thicket near by. 
 Fox instantly broke into a mad run, and Mr. Huide- 
 koper aiscovered that while he himseK was unwounded, 
 his horse had received a ball in his side. As soon as 
 Fox could be quieted and turned, Mr. Huidekoper rode 
 back along the path to the place where the shot had 
 been heard, but saw nothing of any enemy. He dis- 
 mounted, coolly picked up his hat, which had fallen off 
 when the horse swerved under him, and then, remount- 
 ing, rode away. Fox was left at a farmer's to recover 
 from his injury, but he continued to carry the ball in 
 his side as long as he lived. 
 
 The incidents of these expeditions, however, were 
 usually of a less serious nature. At Sugar Grove, for 
 instance, a man entered the room where Mr. Huideko- 
 
 there is a uarrow strip of land from 20 to 30 perches wide. . . . Would 
 you be induced to sell me this strip, and if so what would be your price? 
 I will tell you my reasons for wishing to purchase it. A man has made a 
 squatting settlement on it ; this man neglects keeping ferry-boats, per- 
 haps because there is not travelling enough to pay the expense. Now it 
 would be of some consequence to you and of much consequence to me, 
 that there should be a ferry kept there, for I have sometimes to cross 
 the river without well knowing how to get over. I wish, therefore, to get 
 this strip of land so as to make it a condition with the person living on it 
 that he shall keep a ferry, so that my settlers and myself can get across 
 the river." 
 1 See Pomona Hall. 
 
170 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 per was, and after staring a moment at him asked, " Are 
 you Mr. Huidekoper ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," Mr. Huidekoper replied. " What is your 
 business with me ? " 
 
 " Nothing, sir," the inquirer promptly responded. 
 " When George Washington was in this country every- 
 body came to look at him ; I wanted to look at you, 
 sir. Good-day, sir." And he left as abruptly as he 
 had come. 
 
 Until 1819 Mr. Huidekoper's office was in the north 
 wing of his house. In that year a separate office build- 
 ing was erected, of brick. Here Mr. Huidekoprf' was to 
 be found daily at his accounts or letters, the more im- 
 portant of which he copied with his own hand into the 
 large letter-books which contained the bulk of his busi- 
 ness correspondence. On the shelves were the books 
 containing his accounts as agent for the Holland Land 
 Company, for Griffith and Wallace, for J. B. Wallace, 
 for Day and Meredith, for Bakewell and Page, for Busti 
 and Vanderkemp, for Maurice and William Wurts, for 
 the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, for John 
 and Samuel Moss, and for others. 
 
 His system and order pervaded everything, from the 
 daily ledgers to the great land book into which the in- 
 dividual accounts of the farmers were transferred, — a 
 huge volume two feet wide and six inches thick, which 
 preserves to this day its record of the results of their 
 toil. So accustomed did the country people become to 
 the sight of Mr. Huidekoper's head at the vrindow near 
 which his desk was placed, that when it was there no 
 longer they saw a fancied semblance of it in the slightly 
 rippled glass, and insisted that he had left the imprint 
 of his face upon the pane. 
 
THE AMERICAN 171 
 
 In the account with his brother Jan more than mere 
 florins or dollars has been set to the elder brother's 
 credit in the entry : " For the advances generously made 
 by him to me, when I had nothing, to finish my educa- 
 tion, to remove to America, and while there, — amount- 
 ing, as per his letter of 25 June, 1805, Florins 2855.11, 
 $1130.22." 
 
 Jan Huidekoper, foreseeing the lack of communica- 
 tion with commercial centres, had at an early day asked 
 rather dubiously how the people of that part of the 
 country could dispose of their produce. Mr. Huidekoper 
 acknowledged the handicap, but answered hopefully ^ 
 that Meadville's distance from the coast would in itself 
 prohibit imports and compel home exchange. Some stric- 
 tures which were passed by his brother concerning the 
 government of Pennsylvania he perfectly agreed with. 
 Too much, he said, was sacrificed to political equality, 
 and the constitution of Pennsylvania had "a direct 
 tendency to introduce a government of demagogues." 
 " Luckily," his optimism then interposed, coming to the 
 rescue, " we form a part of a large confederacy in which 
 there are a number of better constituted states, and the 
 general government has the power to set us right again 
 if we should go too far astray." His " most lively pre- 
 dilection " for this country did not prevent him from 
 criticising its conduct of international affairs. 
 
 I do not admire as much as you do the attitude which 
 our rulers have assumed with respect to the belligerent 
 powers [he said^], and I fear that private predilection for 
 France and animosity against England have had too much 
 influence in the measures that have been adopted. At 
 the opening of the late Congress the President informed 
 
 1 Letter of July 23, 1806. ^ Ibid. 
 
172 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 that body that all the negotiations for the adjustment 
 of our differences with Spain had failed, that the troops 
 of that nation had violated the ancient territory of the 
 United States, and that such aggressions had been com- 
 mitted as could only be repelled by force. He also com- 
 plained of the acts of violence committed by the English, 
 but with these the effects of negotiation had not been 
 tried. In a subsequent secret message it appears that the 
 President informed Congress that the cause of failure of 
 our negotiations with Spain was that France would not 
 suffer that nation to terminate the mutual dispute by an 
 amicable arrangement ; and France wanted money, and 
 that with money everything might be adjusted. Under 
 these circumstances our legislators have passed laws 
 granting two milhons of dollars for extra expenses and 
 have prohibited the importation of certain articles which 
 we draw from England. This, I think, is not fear ; I 
 formerly hated the English on account of their over- 
 bearing conduct and the universal dominion which they 
 wished to exercise over the whole world, and I still de- 
 precate their excesses and am far from wishing that my 
 country should tamely submit to be insulted, but at the 
 same time I cannot help admiring that proud inflexible 
 spirit with which the English contend for their independ- 
 ence, and I am induced to think that if partiality in a 
 neutral be pardonable it must be when that partiality is 
 exercised in favor of a people contending for existence. 
 
 Then he added, in a truly patriotic spirit : " But while 
 I blame the steps taken by our rulers, I feel grateful to 
 Heaven that I live under a government where I can take 
 such a liberty without incurring any risk, where the laws 
 protect me, and where I cannot be called upon to give 
 an account of my opinions." A thorough appreciation 
 of his new surroundings breathes through this letter, 
 and was enhanced by the thought of his brother's situa- 
 tion in Holland. 
 
JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
THE AMERICAN 173 
 
 The fate of your country is now decided [he mourn- 
 fully said to Jan Huidekoper]. You have long ceased to 
 exist as an independent nation, and you will do well to 
 bring up your children as citizens of the world. They 
 may feel a fond partiality for their native land, but a 
 country I fear they will never find there. Here the case 
 is different. When I read the fate of Holland, of Swit- 
 zerland, and of other European states, I feel proud that 
 I still have a country independent from all foreign 
 powers, and which on account of its situation can brave 
 the most powerful whenever it sees fit to call forth the 
 energy of the nation. I believe that men take a more 
 lively interest in their country in proportion as they are 
 more scantily scattered over its surface. Every man be- 
 comes then a more considerable portion in the whole 
 district which he inhabits, his influence becomes greater, 
 and this increases his interest. 
 
 Both brothers, in their letters, dwelt upon the pos- 
 sibihty of being united again in America. Especially 
 when the domination of Napoleon made life in Hol- 
 land almost unendurable did Jan Huidekoper look to- 
 ward his transatlantic possessions as a probable refuge. 
 " I rejoice with you," he said, in a letter of 1806, 
 " that your parts are far distant from our scenes of 
 disorder. . . . What is to happen to this little country 
 is a riddle to the majority of its inhabitants. The high 
 powers in this country are very busy, and affairs of the 
 highest importance appear to be under consideration, 
 but they remain hidden behind a veil of mystery." 
 
 In the dark times of 1811 he wrote (September 29) : 
 
 An important reason does not permit me to speak 
 of public affairs ; in this country they have taken a 
 course which you fortunate people can form no con- 
 ception of, and God alone knows what the end will be. 
 We are all going through this storm under reefed sail, 
 
174 HARM JAN HDIDEKOPER 
 
 but all people are not equally distant from the shoals, 
 and the best possible seamanship cannot prevent some 
 from running aground. With the aid of God, I hope 
 to be able to keep in the open sea, until favorable or 
 otherwise circumstances may enable me to steer for 
 my destination, the furthering of the interests of my 
 children, which, as it appears to me, require a change 
 of location. 
 
 To your friendly wish that you might see me and 
 mine there with you in your place [said he, in a letter 
 of July 12, 1812], I can only say that I desire nothing 
 more than to see it some time fulfilled ; but as long as 
 my mother-in-law lives it can scarcely be fulfilled. In 
 any case, I have resolved to send my eldest sons over. 
 The first, namely Anne Willem, is a student, and Pieter 
 is learning shipbuilding at the state wharf, and both 
 have made more than ordinary progress in mathematics. 
 But what may much surprise you is that I am able to 
 write you that I am married again ; my mother-in-law 
 was too old for the cares of the large household, and 
 we need a good housekeeper, and, thank God, I have 
 been very fortunate. My wife is of a very capable 
 family, has a most excellent disposition, and is gen- 
 erally respected and admired. This occurrence will not, 
 however, prevent my visiting your country, which, how- 
 ever, under the present circumstances would be difficult 
 to accomplish. You know that a cow is not permitted 
 to leave the stall or pasture of her master — she is his 
 property — and just so are we the property of the gov- 
 ernment ; our daughters must stay to produce children 
 in due time, our sons must serve in the army ; the 
 military class is very numerous ; add to this the tre- 
 mendous number of custom house employes, the em- 
 ployes in the Droits Reunis, the tobacco regie, the 
 police, and further mob of officials, all of whom must 
 be fed by the industry and labor of the independent 
 citizens, so that these have also their work, they are 
 
MEDAL GIVEN TO PIETER HUIDEKOPER, BURGOMASTER OP AMSTERDAM 
 
THE AMEKICAN 175 
 
 from that point of view also useful, and cannot be dis- 
 pensed with. How extremely happy it makes me when 
 I think that I advised you to go to America ; how 
 pleasant is your situation compared with that which 
 has overtaken so many thousand quiet and peaceful citi- 
 zens in this and other countries! It looks very dark, 
 the future is portentous of great occurrences, but the 
 course of affairs is very difficult to guess. 
 
 With the removal of the Napoleonic power the cau- 
 tion of all the preceding letters is thrown to the winds. 
 
 Thank God [so Jan Huidekoper breaks out^ in the 
 relief of this reaction], that I can again write you as my 
 heart dictates to my pen, and still more that the land of 
 our birth is finally released from a yoke which dishon- 
 ored humanity, and of which one can form no conception 
 unless he has himself had the misfortune to suffer under 
 it. If I were to undertake to go into particulars regard- 
 ing that horrible collection of laws and institutions ; if 
 I were to describe to you the immoral goal of a French 
 government, I should have to give far more time to 
 it than the present opportunity allows me. Under it a 
 man ceases to be a man — an individual is to the gov- 
 ernment like a leaf or twig to the gardener with his 
 knife pruning a tree, and who takes off branches as he 
 may think best. It was entirely aware that it existed 
 only to the injury of society ; it knew therefore that 
 society was its enemy, it took therefore all the pre- 
 cautions which one must take against that which has 
 an interest in doing us an injury. All employes of the 
 government must therefore inevitably look on the in- 
 dividuals of society as enemies, — the more they were 
 hated by these the more they won the confidence of 
 the respective ministries under which they stood, while 
 they were certain to lose their positions as soon as they 
 were found to be in favor with the community. 
 
 1 Letter of February 1, 1814. 
 
176 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 The interruption of correspondence resulting from the 
 unsettled state of Holland from 1812 to 1814 had caused 
 a long interval of silence to fall between the brothers. 
 It was broken by the letter last quoted, which contained, 
 also, the intelligence of their mother's death. 
 
 I have to teU you that after quite a long illness our 
 dear mother has passed away ; this last occurred on the 
 24:th of May last year. She has for several years been 
 able to live a life free from much care, and has been 
 happy in that respect ; this must naturally mitigate 
 your grief to some extent, as also the consideration that 
 her years were many, and that by reason of defective 
 health she could enjoy but few pleasures in this life. 
 Our cousin Cornelis Steenbergen has been named by her 
 as executor, and according to the last advices received 
 from my sister in this matter there will remain a couple 
 of thousand guldens, which I will have sent here in order 
 to credit your account ; in the mean time I await your 
 instructions regarding the same. 
 
 Money invested by the Amsterdam brother in land in 
 this country, and increased and reinvested by Mr. Huide- 
 koper, had yielded a very satisfactory return. Almost 
 every letter from Holland expressed appreciation of the 
 care given by the younger brother to the afEairs of the 
 elder, and in 1817 the plan of sending to America the 
 third son of Jan Huidekoper was broached. " Among 
 all the many favors for which I am under obligation to 
 you," said the father, in a letter of that year (February 
 21, 1817), " I must reckon also your willingness to 
 receive my son and to point out to him the way to 
 establish himself in your country. His name is Jan, and 
 he seems already to think well of this emigration. He 
 is studying French and English, and receives also les- 
 sons in mathematics. That you do not expect to make 
 
SAAPKE HOTDEKOPER 
 
THE AMERICAN 177 
 
 a farmer of him is quite in accordance with my view ; 
 on the contrary I hope that he will be fitted for a higher 
 station, and I have a particularly favorable view of his 
 probable success if he may have the good fortune to 
 work for a time in your office, in order that he may thus 
 fit himself for the business of land speculation, which will 
 certainly continue to be capable of extension, contrary 
 to the general run of business, in which here and every- 
 where else there is too much competition, and which has 
 thereby become extremely risky." 
 
 Jan, or John, did eventually come over, and spent 
 four years under his uncle's care, but gladly returned 
 to his native country when his brother Albert arrived, in 
 1826. Albert was for several years in the land office; 
 then he, too, went back to Holland.^ Two of Mr. Huide- 
 koper's sons afterward visited their relatives in Holland, 
 Frederic in 1839, Alfred in 1851. The latter's descrip- 
 tion of his cousins' home, with its " ponds filled with 
 white lilies and golden fish, green level lawns, long 
 avenues through beechen groves, trimmed into perfect 
 Gothic archways, and winding walks fringed and skirted 
 with trees and shrubs," was most enthusiastic. " No- 
 thing," he testified, also, " can be more charming than 
 the sweet manner of the HoUandaises in their families." 
 
 After the establishment of the kingdom of the Neth- 
 erlands Jan Huidekoper became one of the privy coun- 
 cilors of the king. Through every change of scene or 
 fortune the correspondence begun almost in boyhood 
 continued with all its old warmth until his death, in 1835, 
 
 * " Uncle John . . . wished all his children to come here and settle. 
 . . . Another son, Pieter, told his father that he would adopt any industry 
 desired by him, but that his home must be in Holland. There was another 
 son, Anne Willem, who became judge of the city court in Amsterdam 
 while I was there." — Manuscript Autobiography of Frederic Huidekoper. 
 
178 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's daughter wrote then (April 17, 1835) 
 o£ the blow which had fallen upon her father in parting 
 from the one who was truly to him, as he was usually 
 addressed in the letters, "Best friend and brother." 
 " We had a letter from Albert in which he mentioned 
 that his father died on the 29th of January of apoplexy. 
 . . . Forty years of separation had not estranged the 
 brothers in their affection, and my father feels his loss 
 deeply." ^ 
 
 To resume the narrative of the earlier time, — when 
 the War of 1812 was declared, Mr. Huidekoper felt with 
 almost equal strength the provocation given by Eng- 
 land and our own total lack of preparation for a con- 
 flict of arms. " Every injury and insult was offered us 
 which a haughty, overbearing nation could offer to a 
 weak and enduring one," was his comment in after 
 years in a letter upon the war written to James Freeman 
 Clarke. " England knew our national imbecility, and pre- 
 suming on that knowledge thought she could play the 
 bully with impunity." Madison and his cabinet, he said, 
 knew the difficulties of the situation and wished to avoid 
 war. " They made no preparation for a coming contest, 
 
 ' " I have received a long and very interesting letter from my nephew 
 Peter Huidekoper," says a letter from Mr. Huidekoper (October 23, 1848) 
 to Mrs. Clarke, " in answer to one I had written to him, urging him and 
 the rest of the family to withdraw themselves from the revolutionary 
 scenes of Europe, and to emigrate to this country. He gives me his reasons 
 for not adopting this course, and these are such as do honor to his head 
 and heart. He is strongly attached to the land of his birth, and is be- 
 sides sensible, that it would seriously injure the condition of the laboring 
 classes if the men of capital and enterprise should withdraw. My nephew 
 is Maire of Amsterdam, that is chief magistrate of the city. He tells me 
 that notwithstanding considerable public improvements which have been 
 made, the public burthens have been diminished. The letter evinces a 
 mind strongly imbued with religious principles and devotion to the welfare 
 of his fellow men." 
 
THE AMERICAN 179 
 
 either by an augmentation of the army or navy, or by 
 a repair of our forts, or by fiUing our arsenals." It had 
 seemed to Mr. Huidekoper a time for firmness of poHcy 
 and a threatening attitude on the part of Congress rather 
 than for rushing to arms. K Madison, he maintained, 
 had recommended to Congress immediate preparation 
 for war, and had delayed the declaration until such 
 preparation should be made, then war might have been 
 avoided entirely. England, in his opinion, " did not wish 
 to go to war ; she only presumed on our forbearance. 
 The moment she found we were in earnest she repealed 
 her Orders in Council, one of the most objectionable of 
 her aggressions." ^ 
 
 At the beginning of the war, Meadville, as a point 
 near the endangered Lake territory, and also on the In- 
 dian frontier, was thoroughly aroused. Like Pittsburg, 
 it Avas a place of rendezvous for recruits from the coun- 
 ties west of the Alleghanies ; and when the invasion 
 of Canada was projected, a brigade, composed partly of 
 drafted men, but mainly of volunteer companies, under 
 Tunnehill, whom they elected general, assembled at 
 Meadville in an encampment on Samuel Lord's farm, 
 and waited there, expecting to be called on to reinforce 
 General Smyth. On April 6, 1846, Mr, Huidekoper 
 wrote to James Freeman Clarke : — 
 
 I have seldom seen a finer collection of men, but 
 they were rendered totally useless for want of proper 
 officers. The troops elected here their own superior 
 officers. The colonels, with one exception, were totally 
 inefficient, and the general, though, I believe, physically 
 brave, was morally a coward, and dared not either to 
 introduce proper discipline, or to enforce the few orders 
 
 ' Letter to James Freeman Clarke, April 6, 1846. 
 
180 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 he issued. Hence that which might have been a fine, 
 useful body of troops was nothing but an armed mob. 
 They remained lying here in camp for a couple of 
 months, doing nothing. They were then marched to 
 Buffalo, where they were left in the same state of inac- 
 tion, until sickness broke out among them, when some 
 deserted, and the rest were dismissed, without any of 
 them having seen an enemy. Smyth had abundant 
 means of invading Canada (the object for which he 
 was at BufEalo), but I believe he was deficient in per- 
 sonal courage. He was a mere braggadocio. He kept 
 constantly proclaiming that he would cross the Niagara 
 river forthwith. Two or more times the troops for 
 the invasion were actually embarked, but were counter- 
 manded after remaining some hours in the boats. Once 
 he appeared to have brought his courage to the right 
 pitch. The troops were embarked in the evening. A 
 party of sailors were sent over to storm the English 
 battery. This was gallantly accomplished, though with 
 some loss. Instead of crossing immediately, Smyth re- 
 mained on the American side till morning. . . . This 
 gave the English time to receive reinforcements from 
 below. The few men who had crossed were overpowered, 
 and Smyth disembarked his troops. He was one of Uncle 
 Sam's hard bargains. . . . 
 
 To the gross error of not securing a naval superiority 
 was added the neglect of putting our military posts in 
 a proper state of defense and of furnishing them with 
 ample supplies. I was told that the works of all these 
 posts were in a state of dilapidation, and that even the 
 gun-carriages at Detroit were unfit for service, and 
 had to be repaired, or replaced by new ones, before 
 the guns could be used. On this point, the papers of 
 General HuU will probably give you more correct in- 
 formation. 
 
 But a far more guilty piece of negligence was the 
 omission to give the commanders of the different posts 
 timely notice of the intended declaration of war. Instead 
 
THE AMERICAN 181 
 
 of getting the information of the declaration of war 
 from their own government, they learned it through the 
 enemy ; and the consequence was that Michilimackinac 
 was surprised before it was known that there was war ; 
 that a part of the baggage of Hull's army was captured ; 
 and that the garrison at Chicago, which ought either 
 to have been adequately strengthened or withdrawn in 
 time, was massacred by the Indians immediately on leav- 
 ing the fort to fall back on Detroit, as they had been 
 directed to do. The loss of Mackinaw and Chicago 
 removed every check on the incursion of the western 
 Indians, and their operations soon rendered the com- 
 munication between Detroit and the settled portions of 
 Ohio impracticable, and thus the fate of that post, 
 and of HuU's army, became unavoidable. The latter 
 defeated the Indians at Maguaga ; they might perhaps 
 have beaten the English under General Brock, but this 
 could only postpone their fate, not avert it. Cut off 
 from all intercourse with those points from which their 
 supplies were derived, they must either starve or sur- 
 render, there was no third alternative. 
 
 The impracticabihty of General Harrison's penetrat- 
 ing beyond the Maumee, and the enormous expense 
 incurred in supplying his army there, that he might 
 cover that section of country against the enemies, at 
 length convinced the Government of the absolute ne- 
 cessity of obtaining the mastery of Lake Erie ; and in 
 the spring of 1813 the construction of a fleet was com- 
 menced at the port of Erie. This fleet was to consist of 
 two brigs, carrying twenty guns each, three gun-boats, 
 and an advice-boat. No previous preparation had been 
 made for the building and equipment of this fleet. On 
 the 1st of April, 1813, nearly all the timber used for 
 the construction of this fleet was still standing in the 
 forest. This, however, was on the spot, but all the other 
 material for this fleet, such as cordage, blocks, anchors, 
 guns, ammunition, &c., had to be brought from a dis- 
 tance, most of it from Philadelphia. To form some idea 
 
182 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 of the trouble and expense attending the transportation 
 of this material, you must recollect that at the time the 
 turnpike from Philadelphia westward extended only to 
 Harrisburg ; that from thence to Pittsburg, a distance 
 of 200 miles, the road, particularly in the mountains, 
 was very rough ; and that from Pittsburg to Erie, a 
 distance of about 130 miles, the roads being common 
 country roads, were very soon so cut up by the heavy 
 hauHng on them as to become nearly impassable. To 
 give some idea of the expense of transportation I would 
 observe, that previous to the war of 1812, and after the 
 close of it in 1815, the expense of transportation from 
 Philadelphia to Meadville might be computed at 12|c. 
 per pound. If we now add to this the 37 miles increased 
 distance from Meadville to Erie, and make due allow- 
 ance for the increased expense during a state of war, 
 and take also into consideration that in the hauling 
 for the public there were no return freights, I think 
 we shall not be far wrong in estimating the expense of 
 transportation from Philadelphia to Erie at about 20c. 
 per pound. 
 
 Perry, when he came in the spring of 1813 to Lake 
 Erie, and was confronted with the necessity of building 
 the fleet he was sent to command, won Mr. Huideko- 
 per's unqualified admiration. To' his son Frederic he 
 said in a letter of April 2, 1835 : — 
 
 I have known Capt. Perry well. I have day after day 
 lodged with him in the same house, and gone with him 
 on board the vessels he was fitting out. I was on board 
 of these vessels again a few days after the action. I was 
 intimate with all the officers who were in that action, 
 and I lodged with Capt. Elliott in the same house re- 
 peatedly for perhaps a week at a time, so that my infor- 
 mation was acquired from the best sources. 
 
 Capt. Perry, at the time I knew him on Lake Erie, 
 was a man of about twenty-eight years of age, frank, 
 
THE AMERICAN 183 
 
 friendly, and even courteous in his manners, with no- 
 thing rough or austere about him, and, above all, he 
 was a modest man. He kept strict discipline, and some- 
 times the youngsters who served under him complained 
 that he kept them too tight, but they all, to a man, idol- 
 ised him, and among these he had not an enemy. The 
 public never knew the worth of that man. They have 
 known him only as the victor of the English fleet on 
 Lake Erie, and yet this was by far his smallest merit. 
 Hundreds might have fought that battle as well as he 
 did, and at all events hundreds did share with him in 
 the honors of that victory. But to appreciate his char- 
 acter, a person must have seen him, as I did, fitting out 
 a fleet of six new vessels of war, between the months of 
 April and September, at some hundreds of miles from 
 the seacoast, and in a district where, except the green 
 timber growing in the woods, not one single article ne- 
 cessary for the equipment of a vessel could be obtained 
 that was not subject to a land transportation of some 
 120 to 400 miles through roads nearly impassable. I 
 have seen him, when neglected and almost abandoned 
 hy his country, with less than a hundred sailors under 
 his command, and half of these on the sick list, toiling 
 to fit out his fleet, working from morning till evening, 
 and having not men enough to row at night a single 
 guard boat, while the enemy were cruising off the har- 
 bour, and might have sent any night their boats and 
 burned the American fleet. I have seen him, with his 
 reputation as an officer thus liable to be blasted forever 
 at any moment, without the power of averting it, and 
 without any one to sympathise with him, persevere un- 
 shrinkingly in his task, and evincing a courage far 
 greater than what was required to fight the battle of 
 the 10th September. 
 
 When he assumed command. Perry consulted Gen- 
 eral Mead as to the defense of the shore, and a force of 
 one thousand was called together at Erie. Here their 
 
184 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 time was occupied in patrolling the water-edge, with the 
 variation, in July, when the enemy's vessels appeared, 
 of marching ostentatiously hither and thither to give 
 the impression that a large army was assembled to repel 
 attack. At this time Perry urged Mead to raise more 
 militia, and Mead issued a call that brought to Erie hun- 
 dreds of patriotic citizens, young and old. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper was not one of the mihtia, and never 
 enlisted, but he did write to Colonel Mappa for a gun 
 and for a book on military tactics, neither of which he 
 obtained. He was frequently, as he has said, at Erie in 
 the summer of 1813, for a week at a time, which busi- 
 ness alone could hardly have required. It may well have 
 been that without actually joining the ranks he held 
 himself in readiness to fight if the need should come for 
 every available man to bear arms.* That he did in some 
 way " ofPer his services " is traditional in the family. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's sending to Oldenbarneveld to try 
 to procure a gun was perhaps explained by the condi- 
 tion in which the guns sent to Meadville were discovered 
 to be. In the letter, previously quoted, to James Free- 
 man Clarke, he said : — 
 
 On the breaking out of the war, it became necessary 
 to furnish arms to the militia of this section of Pennsyl- 
 vania. The Governor accordingly sent us a number of 
 boxes filled with muskets and their usual accompani- 
 ments from the State Arsenal. I was present at the un- 
 packing of these guns, and never, I beheve, in modern 
 
 1 Such a need was anticipated by the "exempts," or men of advancing 
 years, of Oldenbarneveld, and the company of the Silver Greys of Tren- 
 ton was formed. Mappa was made its captain and drilled the company 
 rigidly, — " pnt them through the manual," as he wrote Mr. Huidekoper, 
 "marched and wheeled with the boys — left — right," and tired him- 
 self " Bnely " (Letter of A. G. Mappa to H. J. H., November 12, 1812,) 
 
THE AMERICAN 185 
 
 days, has such a collection been seen. In some, the 
 touch-hole was so covered by the lock as to have no 
 communication with the pan. In others, the touch-hole 
 was half an inch above the pan when shut, and some 
 had no touch-hole at all. Many of the barrels were splin- 
 tered, or had other internal defects. In one word, the 
 whole were useless until armorers were set at work 
 on them, when a portion of them were rendered fit for 
 service. 
 
 Sometimes [he said*], when the different detachments 
 of troops arrived at Erie, they had no ammunition, and 
 on one occasion there were no flints, An aide-de-camp 
 of the Major-General was sent off on horseback to Har- 
 risburg to communicate this want to the Governor. The 
 Governor went round among the stores in the town, 
 and purchased what flints were to be had, putting them 
 in his pocket as he purchased them. The aide-de-camp 
 brought them in his saddle-bags to Erie. A supply 
 might in the same manner have been obtained nearer 
 home in one third of the time and at half the expense. 
 . . . To form some idea of Perry's situation you must 
 know that, up to the end of August, he had under him 
 but a single commissioned officer (the present Capt. 
 Turner), then a young man without experience, and who 
 had but recently been commissioned. The rest of Perry's 
 officers were young midshipmen. Just previous to the 
 action, Capt. Elliott (then a master-commandant) joined 
 the fleet, and this made three commissioned officers to a 
 fleet of six vessels of war. 
 
 In point of men, Capt. Perry's means were still more 
 deficient. The marines for the fleet, furnished by the 
 Government from the depot at Washington, consisted 
 of a Capt. or Lieutenant (Brooks, killed in the action), 
 and of a sergeant, a drummer, and a fifer. Two or three 
 men were recruited on the route to Erie, and the rest of 
 the marines had to be recruited at Erie. As to sailors, 
 
 1 In the same letter. 
 
186 HARM JAN HDIDEKOPER 
 
 Perry's means were also greatly deficient. By one of 
 those arrangements so common during the war in ques- 
 tion, the expediency o£ which it is difficult to reconcile 
 with common sense, Perry was put under the orders of 
 Chauncey, the commander of the naval force on Lake 
 Ontario, and all the supplies of men, intended for Lake 
 Erie, wherever enlisted, were in the first instance sent 
 to Sackett's Harbour. The consequences were such as 
 might have been expected. So long as men could be 
 used on Lake Ontario, to fill up the crews of the vessels 
 there to their full complement, none were sent to Perry, 
 and when any were sent, they were the refuse of the 
 drafts. Captain Elliott stated subsequently, in my pre- 
 sence, that, serving at that time on Lake Ontario, he had 
 himself had the picking of the men to be sent to Lake 
 Erie, and that none were sent but the worst ; and that 
 if he could then have foreseen that he himself should 
 be sent to Lake Erie, his selections would have been 
 very difEerent. Perry, in a letter to the Secretary of the 
 Navy, expressed some surprise that so large a portion of 
 the prime New England sailors, enlisted in the cities, 
 should be turned into negroes and mulattoes before they 
 reached him ; but acknowledged himself grateful for 
 getting even such. And well he might be so, consider- 
 ing how alarmingly deficient he was in men. After the 
 six vessels, built at Erie, were all launched, and while he 
 was fitting them out, he had but about a hundred men, 
 of which, from sundry causes, a large number were on 
 the sick list. As all fit for duty had to work hard the 
 whole day in fitting out the fleet, there were no spare 
 men to row even a single guard boat, to give notice of 
 any night attack which might be made on the fleet. An 
 English fleet of five vessels of war was at that time 
 cruising o£E the harbor, in full view. That fleet might, 
 at any time, have sent its boats, during a dark night, 
 and the destruction of the whole American fleet was 
 almost inevitable, for Perry's force was totally inade- 
 quate to its defense, and the regiment of Midland Penn- 
 
THE AMERICAN 187 
 
 sylvania Militia, stationed at Erie expressly for the de- 
 fense of the fleet, refused to keep guard at night on 
 board. " I told the hoys to go, Captain," said the worth- 
 less colonel of this regiment, in excusing himself for 
 not sending a guard on board, " I told the boys to go, 
 but the boys won't go." . . . 
 
 Under these trying circumstances Perry constantly 
 bore up with a constancy and fortitude which excited 
 my admiration more than did his subsequent victory. 
 I never knew his fortitude to forsake him except once, 
 and then his despondency was only momentary. He 
 had been promised that, by a certain day, Chauncey 
 would be at the head of Lake Ontario, and land there 
 the men necessary to man Perry's fleet. Perry had sent 
 an officer to receive this detachment, and to conduct it 
 to Erie. He was elated with the prospect of having his 
 wants at length suppUed ; and it was when his officer 
 returned, and reported that Chauncey had been at the 
 head of the Lake at the appointed time, had received his 
 letter, and had sailed again down Lake Ontario without 
 landing a man, or sending any answer, that Perry's for- 
 titude for a moment appeared to give way, and that he 
 complained bitterly to me of the state of abandonment 
 in which his country left him. 
 
 When, ultimately, the vessels were ready to sail, 
 Perry called on the militia for volunteers, to serve on 
 board, whde the vessels were getting over the bar at 
 the mouth of the harbor, it being expected that he 
 would be attacked during the slow process of getting 
 the vessels over. After the vessels had been got over, 
 he again called for volunteers to make a short cruise 
 with him to Long Point and the lower part of the Lake, 
 in quest of the enemy. How many volunteers he ob- 
 tained I do not now recollect, but among them was a 
 rifle company, consisting of 72 men from this neighbor- 
 hood. It was while Perry was absent on this cruise, 
 that Elliott arrived at Erie with a reinforcement of 100 
 seamen. Thus reinforced, Perry sailed up the lake to 
 
188 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Sandusky Bay. Here he got an additional supply of 
 about 60 sailors, from some of the regular regiments 
 in Harrison's army, and a considerable number of vol- 
 unteers to serve as marines. Notwithstanding all these 
 reinforcements, Perry had on the day of the action, on 
 his own vessel, a crew of only 120 men, of whom about 
 20 were on the sick Hst. 
 
 Of the dispute between Perry and Elliott Mr. Huide- 
 koper thus expressed his opinion.* 
 
 I think I can point out to you the cause of that quar- 
 rel. Com. Chauncey commanded on Lake Ontario, and 
 Lake Erie, on which we had not a single vessel of war, 
 was included in his command. In 1812 he sent Elliott to 
 Buffalo with some sailors. On the very day the sailors 
 arrived, the two vessels, the Detroit and Caledonia, came 
 down the lake from Detroit and anchored under Fort 
 Erie. That same niffht these vessels were boarded and car- 
 ried by surprise after a slight resistance. The Caledonia 
 was run in safety in the Niagara River behind an island. 
 The Detroit ran on a rock at the head of the island and 
 was lost. The Caledonia was afterwards transformed into 
 a vessel of war, and was in the action of the 10th of Sep- 
 tember, under the command of my friend Capt. Turner, 
 whom you saw at Newport. After this dash Capt. Elliott 
 considered himself entitled to the command of the fleet to 
 be built on Lake Erie. Government thought differently 
 and gave that command to Capt. Perry, and here, if I mis- 
 take not, we must look for the true cause of the quarrel 
 between these two officers. Elliott served on Lake On- 
 tario till the fleet on Lake Erie was completed. He was 
 then sent to Lake Erie, and was second in command, 
 having the Niagara, a twenty gun brig exactly of the 
 same size with Perry's vessel the Lawrence. On the day of 
 the action the Lawrence was the leading vessel, next the 
 Niagara, and then the gunboats, each in their order. In 
 
 ' Letter to Frederic Huidekoper, April 2, 1835. 
 
THE AMERICAN 189 
 
 approaching the British line at an angle of perhaps 45°, 
 ... it is evident that the leading vessel must be more 
 exposed than the rest, and this particularly so as the wind 
 was very light, and the vessels moved slowly. Elliott kept 
 back, and this drew the fire of the whole British fleet 
 on the Lawrence, which in consequence was soon dread- 
 fully cut up, and became a complete wreck. There has 
 been much disputing and some duelling to settle how 
 near the Niagara was to the Lawrence. A fact will settle 
 this better and prove that she kept at a safe distance. 
 When Perry left the Lawrence to go on the Niagara, 
 the former vessel had upwards of one hundred killed 
 and wounded, the latter when Perry got on board . . . 
 had either no wounded, or only two, for on this subject 
 there was a difference of opinion. As to the expres- 
 sions attributed to Perry on getting on board of the 
 Niagara, they rest on Capt. Elliott's assertion, and were 
 not believed at the time. Perry sent Elliott away osten- 
 sibly to bring up the gunboats, then dashed with the 
 Niagara into the midst of the enemy's line, was nobly 
 seconded by Turner, &c., in their gunboats, and the 
 whole English fleet was compelled to strike. 
 
 You will perhaps ask, what was the cause of Capt. 
 EUiott's keeping back ? It was generally supposed that 
 it was not from cowardice, but from jealousy. Elliott 
 was next in command. If Perry fell and his vessel was 
 disabled, it would not be without causing some damage 
 to the Enghsh fleet. Elliott would then become the 
 commander of the fleet, and with his own vessel and the 
 gunboats perfectly uninjured, he might retrieve the day, 
 and acquire all the glory. After the action. Perry, in his 
 report to the Secretary of the Navy, spoke respectfully 
 of ElHott. The latter, however, applied to have the ex- 
 pressions relating to him rendered somewhat stronger. 
 This was disliked by Capt. Perry, and this was the be- 
 ginning of the quarrel between them. EUiott caused a 
 statement of the action to be made by one or two per- 
 sons which was contradicted by the officers of the Law- 
 
190 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 rence and of the gunboats, and afterward, by one of the 
 persons who made it. Capt. Elliott at the time I am speak- 
 ing of was a great bragger and disagreeable in his con- 
 versation, especially as it related to the action on Lake 
 Erie, of which he spoke as of a squabble between some 
 drunken sailors. He was then and is now disliked by 
 the officers who served under him.^ 
 
 Of Hull Mr. Huidekoper said, in a letter (Feb. 19, 
 1844) to Mrs. Clarke : " Gen. Hull was made the scape- 
 goat to bear the sins of the administration and to hide 
 the guilty improvidence and blunders of the men in 
 power from the knowledge of the people." 
 
 The war of 1812 did much toward turning attention 
 in the direction of the lake country of New York and 
 western Pennsylvania, and when the fighting was over 
 emigration set in with renewed activity. Land sales in- 
 creased, and improvements of all kinds advanced rapidly. 
 The Beaver and Erie Canal, with its French Creek feeder, 
 was an enterprise in which Mr. Huidekoper felt a keen 
 interest. He had appreciated the gain to the county of 
 the building of the turnpikes, and had welcomed in 1820 
 the arrival over the BeUefonte and Erie route of the first 
 
 ' Apropos of Elliott's courage, a letter from Anna Huidekoper to her 
 brother Frederic contains the following anecdote : " George Hurst told 
 me that he made one cruise with Elliott and would acquit him of the 
 charge of cowardice. He had seen him display a good deal of courage in 
 the prospect of a hazardous engagement, indeed one that tilust huve proved 
 fatal to them. It was in passing a blockade at the mouth of the La Plata. 
 Elliott wished to go up the river, but was refused perraission to pass, as it 
 was contrary to the rules of war to permit any vessel to break a blockade. 
 The Rio Janeiro captain had 15 minutes to think of it ; 13 had elapsed 
 and the deck of our vessel was cleared for action. Determined to die in 
 the attempt, Elliott was all ready, when the Rio Janeiran wished them 'a 
 pleasant voyage to Buenos Ayres.' However, he seemed to have a great 
 dislike to Elliott personally, and so 1 have heard has every officer in the 
 navy. They would rather be sent to the North Pole without Elliott than 
 to the Mediterranean with him." 
 
THE AMEEICAN 191 
 
 stage that reached Meadville.* The canal, however, ap- 
 pealed to him especially ; indeed, its value as establish- 
 ing communication with the Great Lakes and the rivers 
 before the days of railroads could hardly be overesti- 
 mated. Canal construction was active in the early part 
 of the century, and in 1826 a society called The Aux- 
 iliary Internal Improvement Society of Crawford County 
 was organized to " encourage and assist in the building of 
 roads and canals." Mr. Huidekoper was on its executive 
 committee. The committee was instrumental in ensuring 
 the construction of an extension of the Pennsylvania 
 Canal from Pittsburg to Lake Erie. It was this exten- 
 sion which was known as the Beaver and Erie Canal. 
 
 The Beaver and Erie Canal, crossing Crawford County 
 from north to south, encountered a ridge which would 
 have made the supplying of water difficult had it not 
 been that on the ridge was Conneaut Lake, from which, 
 by means of a feeder canal, a flow could be obtained. 
 The feeder tapped French Creek at Bemus' Mills, car- 
 ried the water down beside the creek through Meadville, 
 crossed the creek in a stone aqueduct near the mouth 
 of Conneaut Outlet,^ followed Conneaut Outlet to Con- 
 
 ' History of Crawford County, p. 271. 
 
 " Mr. Huidekoper, iu endeavoring to obtain for the canal the most de- 
 sirable route, wrote, among other letters, a communication to the Board of 
 Canal Commissioners of the State of Pennsylvania in which he says, in 
 speaking of the feeder (the date is omitted from the copy or draft of his 
 letter) : " At the moment when you are about to decide on the routes by 
 which the internal improvements are to be made through this section of 
 Pennsylvania, we hope that you will not deem us intrusive if we take the 
 liberty of addressing you on a subject which must have so powerful and 
 lasting an influence on the prosperity of the country we inhabit. ... It 
 is known at least to some of the members of your Board that from an 
 early date a party has existed here whose constant efforts have been to 
 control the location of the canal independent of and in direct opposition 
 to the opinions expressed by the engineers both of this State and of the 
 United States. It was through the efforts and misrepresentations of this 
 
192 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 neaut Lake, where it emptied its French Creek supply, 
 and then, with a new supply from the lake, which acted 
 as a reservoir, ran on until it united with the main canal 
 near the boundary line between Sadsbury and Summit 
 townships. 
 
 Much ceremony and great rejoicing accompanied the 
 breaking of ground at Meadville for the feeder, on the 
 27th of August, 1827. Two years later, on the com- 
 pletion of the first letting of the feeder, another cele- 
 bration was held. It was for this celebration that the 
 William Lehman was built, a canal boat which recalled 
 Perry's methods in that it was launched two days after 
 the timber used in its construction had been cut from 
 the forest. 
 
 In time, of course, the railroad brought the prosperity 
 of the canal to an end, but throughout Mr. Huidekoper's 
 life the water-way was the main route for emigrants, 
 coal, iron, and all merchandise, and amply fulfilled the 
 expectations of its promoters. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's faith in the profitableness of judi- 
 cious investment in land was very great. He had as 
 early as 1804 purchased from the Holland Land Com- 
 pany 21,827 acres of unimproved wilderness. In 1823 
 he bought of Busti and Vanderkemp 2938 acres, and 
 in 1836 he obtained, as his autobiography has said, all 
 the remaining possessions of the Holland Land Com- 
 pany in Pennsylvania, — about 58,300 acres more. The 
 
 party that the feeder was located, at its upper end, on the east instead 
 of on the west side of French Creek, an error which will cost the State 
 probably fifty thousand dollars, or more, on account of the aqueduct em- 
 bankment, damages for going through private property, etc., which this 
 location draws after it, and all this without any . . . advantage to the 
 public." The letter, which need not be quoted further, goes on to speak 
 at length of the merits and demerits of the possible routes, and recom- 
 mends the one ultimately followed. 
 
THE AMERICAN 193 
 
 obligation incurred by the last purchase, although it did 
 not at any time weigh upon him with pressing anxiety, 
 gave him a large financial burden to carry, and it was 
 with immense relief that in 1840 he made his final pay- 
 ment and could consider that account successfully closed. 
 
 It is seldom that a man devoting his life mainly to 
 the pursuit of business has taken the time to express his 
 opinion of his occupation. Mr. Huidekoper, drawn out 
 by a tirade against accumulated wealth issued in one of 
 the publications of the day, wrote an article entitled, 
 " The Right and Duty of Accxmiulation," ^ which con- 
 tains his view on the amassing of capital. 
 
 Accumulation, he says in this article, is not the pro- 
 vision for physical wants alone, but rather for the moral 
 and intellectual needs of man. He continues : — 
 
 The tendency of a business life to develop the in- 
 tellectual and moral powers must be obvious on a mo- 
 ment's consideration. That such a life is replete with 
 moral danger and temptation is admitted, but it is 
 precisely this which constitutes it a school of moral dis- 
 cipline. . . . That . . . labor when accompanied with 
 frugality and prudence, has a tendency to produce an 
 excess of earnings ... is assumed. ... It has some- 
 times been contended, that though it may be lawful to 
 earn such surplus property, . . . it is our duty to dis- 
 pose of it to others as fast as it accumulates. But the 
 doing so would be destructive of industry, and would 
 deprive business of much of its intellectual and moral in- 
 fluence. Under the present wise arrangement of things 
 the increased knowledge of business is accompanied by 
 an increase of capital calculated to give activity and a 
 further extension to these new-born powers. But if a man 
 possesses no capital ... a business life, instead of being 
 a scene of constant progression, will soon become to him 
 
 ' Published in the Western Messenger, August, 1840, vol. viii. 
 
194 HAKM JAN HDIDEKOPER 
 
 an irksome, unmeaning task of mere mechanical drudg- 
 ery, possessing no intellectual nor moral interest. . . . 
 If it be unlawful to accumulate, then there is an end of 
 all international intercourse ... all our manufacturing 
 and commercial establishments . . . must be destroyed; 
 . . . there is an end to our public improvements . . . 
 there is an end to all our colleges, hospitals, and other 
 benevolent institutions, for all were originally founded 
 and endowed, or are now supported by the fruits of 
 accumulation. . . . 
 
 This argument might be extended much farther, but 
 enough, I presume, has already been said to show that 
 the whole of our present social system rests on the 
 principle of accumulation, and that the destruction of 
 that principle would inevitably resolve society again 
 into a state of barbarism. 
 
 His final conclusion, given, however, not at the end 
 of the essay, but in the middle, is as follows : " I deem 
 the . . . accumulation of property to be . . . in per- 
 fect accordance with our Christian duty. It is true, 
 that the possession of wealth imposes on us new obliga- 
 tions and new responsibUities. Wealth, like knowledge, 
 is power, — power to do good and to be useful. Both 
 come to us from God. To Him we are accountable for 
 the use we make of them." 
 
 Again we turn to the autobiography, which next 
 goes on to speak of the development of the country. 
 
 Although this section of Pennsylvania has not pro- 
 gressed in improvements with the same rapidity that 
 some other portion [s] of the United States have done; 
 yet when I look back on what it was when I first knew 
 it, and consider what it is now, the alteration is truly 
 surprising. When I arrived at Meadville, the country 
 was very thinly settled. Industry was at a low ebb. 
 The few roads which had been opened were impractica- 
 
THE AMEEICAN 195 
 
 ble for wheelcarriages. On the farms, the sled was used 
 even in summer, for the purpose of hauling ; and the 
 settlers, when they visited the village, were most of 
 them clothed in blanket coats, and nearly all of them 
 carried always with them those common appendages of 
 the frontier ; the rifle, the powderhorn, the shotpouch 
 and the huntingknife. Now we live in the midst of a 
 comparatively dense population, and a civihzed society ; 
 and it is but seldom that we meet with any of the relics 
 of those former days. 
 
 But it is not the physical aspect of the country and 
 of the inhabitants alone which has been improved. A 
 very marked alteration for the better has taken place 
 in the moral condition of the latter. When I arrived 
 here and for years afterwards there was not a single 
 church, or house of worship of any kind, in any of the 
 four North West counties, and I beheve there was none 
 west of the Allegheny river. Now there is hardly a 
 hamlet so small that has not at least one house of wor- 
 ship. The Rev. Mr. Stockton, a Minister of the Pres- 
 byterian denomination, was then settled at Mead villa, on 
 a parochial income which probably did not amount to 
 $150 a Year. So far as I recollect, he was the only 
 Stated Minister in these four Counties. The Methodists 
 held occasionally a camp meeting, but beyond these 
 the community possessed no opportunities for social 
 Worship and religious improvement. Now there are 
 numerous Ministers of the Gospel of different denom- 
 inations, settled all over this Country. Then the Com- 
 mon schools were almost exclusively confined to the 
 county towns, and even then they were generally of 
 the poorest kind. Now there are several Schools in 
 every township. Finally intemperance and dissipation 
 were then the common besetting sin of the Commu- 
 nity. Instances of them are yet but too often met 
 with ; but they are now only the besetting sins of in- 
 dividuals. 
 
 As to myself, the greatest portion of my Ufe has 
 
196 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 been spent In the West, and I have been happy amidst 
 its simple pleasures. Most of the information I possess 
 has been acquired at Meadville, by reading and reflec- 
 tion; and I have become thoroughly convinced, that 
 by far the most valuable part of a man's education is 
 that which he gives to himself. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE UNITARIAN 
 
 " What is Unitarianism ? — Nobody knows but Huide- 
 koper, and he won't tell." This question and answer 
 passed into a current saying in the days when Uni- 
 tarianism first appeared^ a new and perturbing element, 
 in the religious world of America; and its irresistible 
 aptness causes it to be repeated even now. The half 
 humorous, half baffled sense of hopelessness expressed 
 in the reply can be seen in the face of any one to whom 
 a conscientious Unitarian tries to explain briefly his 
 point of view. It is comforting to be reminded that 
 Mr. Huidekoper, who had written so much and so 
 earnestly upon Unitarianism as to be looked upon as 
 an authority on the subject, met with the common dif- 
 ficulty in endeavoring to give a succinct verbal account 
 of his faith. The general appUcability of the words has 
 carried them far and wide. In the distant middle West 
 the mention of Mr. Huidekoper' s name brings the say- 
 ing to the lip, and when at a recent Unitarian con- 
 vention at Chicago the query and response were quoted 
 by one of the speakers they were greeted with instant 
 appreciation and applause. For Unitarianism, owning 
 no single founder, vouched for by no synod and with- 
 out authoritative sanction, has always covered so large, 
 vague, and shifting an area of liberal thought as to 
 defy limitation or definition. In this country it came 
 in the main as a natural sequence of independence. 
 
198 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 The leaven of independence, brought over by Brad- 
 ford and Winthrop, had been at •work ever since the 
 days of the Pilgrims, dividing congregations, causing 
 schisms and isolating a church here and a church there, 
 each church or each portion of a church standing upon 
 its right of self-government and holding to its indi- 
 vidual faith. Different names, in different instances, 
 were applied by the orthodox to the innovators, — 
 names which implied ostracism, and which the offend- 
 ing members themselves rarely accepted. The titles 
 Antinomian, Arian, Arminian, or Socinian, thrown scorn- 
 fully at them, would not adhere. Among themselves. 
 Congregational or Independent Congregational usu- 
 ally sufficed, if they had come out, as many of them 
 had, from the Congregational churches of New Eng- 
 land. Numerous instances there were, indeed, like that 
 of the First Church of Plymouth, where the liberals, 
 outnumbering the conservatives, retained the church 
 name with the building and government, while the 
 creed and its supporters were the seceding party. 
 
 The difficulty of applying to the various Hberal con- 
 gregations any name descriptive of them all was in- 
 creased by the fact that some societies had rebelled 
 against one doctrine, some against another. Jonathan 
 Mayhew, pastor of the "West Church in Boston, was 
 probably the first in New England to attack openly and 
 specially the doctrine of the Trinity. But individualism 
 was so much the order of the day among Congregation- 
 alists that Mayhew's heterodoxy made little noise in the 
 world in comparison with that which would have been 
 awakened by a change of belief in the leader of a Pres- 
 byterian or of an Episcopalian congregation. Ministers 
 in these denominations could not deviate from the beaten 
 
THE UNITARIAN 199 
 
 path without bringing down on their heads the censure 
 of the whole body to which they belonged. Did one of 
 these societies repudiate any part of its creed, then its 
 ancient privileges, its association, even its accustomed 
 name must be forfeited. And since in England the new 
 movement was most active among Presbyterians, and 
 generally took the form of discarding Trinitarian doc- 
 trines, the contradistinguishing name of Unitarian first 
 became general there. Some of the English congrega- 
 tions, indeed, offshoots from the Presbyterian church, 
 were as loth to accept the name as were the Congrega- 
 tionalists of this country, but there was no refusing it, 
 and in the end it was fastened upon them. 
 
 It was only natural, then, that James Freeman, reader 
 at King's Chapel in Boston, on discovering in 1785 that 
 he and his people had together ceased to be Trinitari- 
 ans, should look to the other side of the Atlantic for a 
 definition of his position, and should, upon expulsion 
 from the Episcopal denomination, adopt the English 
 name and establish his society in the eyes of the world 
 as the first avowedly Unitarian church in America. The 
 stir created by James Freeman's change of behef, and 
 also by his expulsion, gave the term Unitarian immedi- 
 ate significance, and with the great mass of churchmen 
 it was synonymous with " heretic " and " infidel." 
 
 The term was out of favor among the Hberals them- 
 selves, and was hesitatingly used even by the most rad- 
 ical among them. Although Priestley, driven from Eng- 
 land, established in 1795 and 1796 two liberal churches 
 in Pennsylvania, both of which were Unitarian in affin- 
 ity, his Philadelphia church did not formally take on 
 the name Unitarian until 1819, and did so then against 
 the protest of the Boston men; who dreaded the attach- 
 
200 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 ing of that stigma to a society so nearly akin to their 
 own. In that same year, however, the Baltimore church 
 accepted the name, and Channing's Baltimore sermon, 
 preached in the church at the installation of Jared 
 Sparks, did much toward gathering the scattered forces 
 under the despised designation, which Channing too 
 had regarded with prejudice at an earUer time. 
 
 The movement now was to come nearer home, — 
 nearer, that is, to Mr. Huidekoper. A church, plainly 
 calling itself Unitarian, was organized in Pittsburg by 
 the Rev. John Campbell, and in 1823 Mr. Huidekoper's 
 old friend. Miss Mappa, wrote to him from Oldenbarne- 
 veld, " We have a Unitarian church in this village, com- 
 prising between sixty and seventy members." 
 
 But what is Unitarianism ? Mr. Huidekoper, as we 
 loiow, despite the legend, spent much of his life in the 
 endeavor to tell what he conceived it to be. It is his in- 
 dividual view of it with which we are here concerned ; 
 and it behooves us to remember meanwhile that he was 
 only one Unitarian, and that the true answer to the 
 question, What is Unitarianism ? must be that not only 
 no one knows except a Unitarian, but also that no Uni- 
 tarian can speak for any of the rest. For individualism 
 is still a distinguishing characteristic, and the difficulty 
 of " telling " remains. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's position was carefully taken, and 
 well outUned. As he has said, he had been duly trained 
 while a youth in the Calvinistic creed of the Baptists ; 
 had been brought up on the Heidelberg Catechism ; 
 and, following in his mother's footsteps, had joined the 
 established church of Holland, that Dutch Reformed 
 Church which had won pre-eminence over the Anabap- 
 tists, Mennonites, and other sects at an earlier day. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 201 
 
 While belonging to this body, however, he knew 
 something of the freer methods and broader outlook of 
 his father's people, having attended Mennonite services 
 during the years spent at Crefeld. His catholicity of 
 mind enabled him to join, at Oldenbarneveld, in the 
 services of a union church, wherein persons of widely 
 differing opinions met on common ground, and prepared 
 him to work harmoniously with the Presbyterians of 
 Meadville, who, in their pioneer days, seem to have been 
 not unlike the church-goers of Oldenbarneveld in their 
 hospitality. He was a generous contributor to the Pres- 
 byterian church, a constant attendant at its services, and 
 subscribed substantially to the fund for erecting the 
 meeting-house, a building which by written agreement 
 was to be open for use to other sects when not required 
 by the regular congregation. As an acknowledgment 
 of his subscription, twenty pews stood in his name. His 
 wife was a Presbyterian, which made it aU the easier 
 for him to worship in that church ; and his own large- 
 hearted tolerance enabled him to draw religious suste- 
 nance from almost any source. But there came a time 
 when he was confronted by the needs of his children, 
 and when his nursery philosophers and his growing 
 boys demanded of him a positiveness of statement which 
 he was unable to give. The Heidelberg Catechism would 
 not help him now. The nature of the Trinity, the doc- 
 trines of original sin and infant damnation, the concep- 
 tion of hell, — it was impossible for him to unfold these 
 to his children. It is probable that he had long ceased 
 to feel any interest in them himself. 
 
 At this juncture he heard a sermon preached by the 
 Rev. John Campbell at the dedication of the new Uni- 
 tarian church building in Pittsburg, This society had 
 
202 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 weathered three years of contumely and abuse, and 
 now, aided by Benjamin Bakewell, who was at the head 
 of the flint-glass industry in Pittsburg and a friend of 
 Mr. Huidekoper, had reached a fairly flourishing con- 
 dition. Mr. Bakewell, in fact, was one of those stanch 
 Unitarian laymen of whom, from Thomas Firman in 
 England down to Mr. Huidekoper himself, there have 
 been so many striking examples. 
 
 Mr. Campbell's sermon, and perhaps Mr. Bakewell's 
 friendship, gave impetus and direction to the quest upon 
 which Mr. Huidekoper had set forth, — the quest for 
 doctrinal truth, or, as he would quickly have limited the 
 statement, for truth as it was taught in the Bible. 
 
 The Bible he searched through and through. Not 
 content with reading and re-reading, he copied passage 
 after passage and wrote upon the various texts volumi- 
 nous comments, until after prodigious labor he arrived 
 at the conclusion toward which the Unitarians had 
 struggled, with a standpoint quite his own, but holding 
 with the new constituency certain ideas common to 
 most of its members : the oneness of God, the special 
 mission of Jesus, the possible preservation of every soul. 
 
 To possess a good thing was, with him, to share it. 
 From Philadelphia and Boston he obtained Unitarian 
 publications, sermons, tracts, letters, which he sowed 
 broadcast among his acquaintances in the West. In the 
 Meadville newspaper, in conversation, in social life, he 
 was eager to seize every opportunity for impressing upon 
 those who opened the subject the faith that was in him. 
 This, it is true, he seldom thrust forward except in re- 
 sponse to assertions or inquiries, but questioners found 
 him ready with his replies. 
 
 Letter-perfect as to Bible text, as well as assured in 
 
THE UNITARIAN 203 
 
 the stronghold of the faith which he had with infinite 
 toil gathered from his studies, he was a formidable an- 
 tagonist.^ 
 
 " Is it true, Mr. Huidekoper," said to him one day a 
 business acquaintance, " that you are a Unitarian? " 
 
 "Yes, sir," answered Mr. Huidekoper. 
 
 "But how can you be one ? Does not Christ himself 
 say, ' All power is given to me in heaven and on earth ' ? 
 Do you not believe that ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, I beheve it, but do you believe it ? " 
 
 " Certainly I do." 
 
 " What, do you beheve that all power was given to 
 him ? — that all the power he possessed was derived 
 power ? " 
 
 " Ah," replied the man, " I never looked at it in that 
 way." 
 
 A kindly Trinitarian, elder in a Presbyterian church, 
 rode five mdes one day for the purpose of arguing with 
 Mr. Huidekoper, to his enlightenment. One doctrine 
 after another the good man expounded, while Mr. 
 Huidekoper listened courteously. When the Elder had 
 finished, his host took up the discourse, and point by 
 point maintained that these ideas were obtained, not 
 from the Bible, but from the elder's catechism. He put 
 a Bible into the elder's hand, and requested him to 
 find passages in it that would support those views. The 
 elder turned the pages somewhat helplessly, and then 
 said he could look them up better in his own Bible, at 
 home. " Do so," said Mr. Huidekoper, " and if you will 
 bring the proofs here and show them to me, I will give 
 you another farm to add to the one you have." 
 
 ' It was his custom, when considering a question, to read the whole 
 New Testament through, with reference to (hat particular question. 
 
204 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEE, 
 
 The good elder never returned.^ 
 
 " Mr. Huidekoper," a rash assailant once challenged 
 him in the presence of a company assembled for social 
 pleasure, " if you would only read the first chapter of 
 Hebrews, you could not be a Unitarian." 
 
 " Very well, madam," replied Mr. Huidekoper, no- 
 thing daunted by the time or place, " I will read it with 
 pleasure, and read it aloud too, if you wish." 
 
 She brought him a Bible, and pointed out a few texts. 
 
 " Excuse me," he said, " we will read the whole chap- 
 ter." 
 
 So he began, and read to the end, stopping by the 
 way to emphasize and expound passages such as those 
 in which Jesus is spoken of as " appointed," as " made 
 better than the angels," as " anointed above his fel- 
 lows" giving all who were present an impromptu lesson 
 in the behef so rudely attacked.^ 
 
 Eager as he was to lead his young people into his newly 
 found light, his forbearance was great. There was no 
 iconoclasm in the quiet influence he brought to bear upon 
 those who, like his wife's niece, had grown up within the 
 Presbyterian church. " You know that in my religious 
 instructions to you and my other children," he wrote in 
 1825 to Margaret Hazlett at a time when she was visit- 
 ing orthodox friends in Pittsburg, " I have very seldom 
 touched on these topics [religious dogmas] . When your 
 understanding shall be more matured, I hope you will 
 inquire for yourself and then embrace those opinions 
 which appear to you as the most rational and most in 
 conformity with the Scriptures." He had no desire to 
 
 1 See Pomona Hall, by Alfred Huidekoper (privately printed). 
 ^ James Freeman Clarke, in the Obituary of Mr. Huidekoper, printed 
 in pamphlet form. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 205 
 
 pull down another faith to make room for his own, yet one 
 charge he gave to the young girl with almost passion- 
 ate earnestness. " Never, oh, never, my dear Margaret, 
 associate with that Being the ideas of wrath, vengeance, 
 or vindictive punishment. Never degrade His goodness 
 by believing that He was not willing to forgive us un- 
 less another innocent Being suffered in our stead and 
 place." 
 
 And he was far from wishing to leave his children with- 
 out rehgious instruction. Single-handed, for he was at 
 first, so far as he knew, the only Unitarian in the town, 
 he set about organizing a Unitarian church in Meadville, 
 and with this plan he united another, that of having his 
 children taught by a Unitarian. Mr. BakeweU had writ- 
 ten him in 1823 : " I suggested to Mr. Campbell [who 
 had received a letter from Mr. William Ware, asking 
 what prospect there would be for a Unitarian minister 
 in western Pennsylvania] that perhaps a clever young 
 man who would undertake the education of a select num- 
 ber of boys and conduct the worship on the Sabbath 
 might possibly meet with encouragement in Meadville. 
 What do you think of it ? "^ And in 1825, acting either 
 upon Mr. Bakewell's suggestion or on his own inspira- 
 tion, Mr. Huidekoper sent to the east for John Mudge 
 Merrick^ to undertake the double task. Although yet 
 but a student, not having completed his course at Bow- 
 
 1 The Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) of Meadville, Pa., 
 by Earle Morse Wilbur, p. 8. The Rev. Mr. "Wilbur has given in this work 
 an interesting history of the church from its inception. 
 
 ^ John Mudge Merrick " was tutor in Mr. Huidekoper's family from 
 October, 1825, to October, 1827. ... He afterwards held pastorates at 
 Hard wick, Sandwich, and "Walpole, Mass., — at the latter place for nearly 
 thirty years. . . . He died at Charleston, N. H., where he was minister, 
 March 20, 1871, at the age of nearly sixty-seven years." — Ibid., pp. 9-H. 
 
206 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 doin, Mr. Merrick preached acceptably in Meadville for 
 two years. He was succeeded in the pastorate in Decem- 
 ber, 1828, by Washington Gilbert,^ a devoted and efficient 
 worker, under whose guidance the church was formally 
 organized, and adopted a constitution. The first article 
 of this constitution, which was entitled " Fundamental 
 Principles," thus set forth the conditions or require- 
 ments of membership : " Every one who beHeves iu the 
 existence of one God, and in the divine mission of 
 Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Son of God, is 
 admissible as a member of this church ; and no other 
 profession of faith than that contained in this simple 
 creed shall at any time be imposed as a condition of 
 church membership. Every person possesses the inahen- 
 able right of judging for himself in matters of religion, 
 and no one has the right to call another to account for 
 any religious opinions which he may hold." 
 
 Mr. Gilbert's successor was Ephraim Peabody.^ At 
 the time of Mr. Peabody's coming, Unitarianism in the 
 little town had already received a new impetus through 
 the mterest of Miss Margaret Shippen, who had listened 
 to the Rev. Wilham Henry Furness in Philadelphia, and 
 whose enthusiasm finally helped to win over from the 
 Episcopal fold her brother, Judge Henry Shippen, and 
 his family; cultivated, charming people. Arthur CuUum 
 
 1 Mr. Gilbert arrived in December, 1828. " He left Meadville in April, 
 
 1830. ... He held pastorates at Harvard, West Newton, and Lincoln, 
 Mass., and died at West Newton January 6, 1879, aged seventy-eight 
 years." — Ibid., pp. 17-19. 
 
 2 Mr. Peabody came to Meadville in May, 1830. "He left in July, 
 
 1831, to become minister of the church at Cincinnati. ... He went later 
 to the church at New Bedford, Mass., and became at length the distin- 
 gmshed minister of King's Chapel in Boston, where he died, November 28, 
 1856, at the early age of forty-nine, universally loved and mourned." — 
 Ibid., p. 25. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 207 
 
 with his wife and six children were before long added 
 to the Unitarian flock, as well as William P. Shattuck 
 and others, and all these formed the nucleus of a circle 
 that became very dear to Mr. Huidekoper, as well as 
 warm supporters of the Unitarian undertakings insti- 
 tuted by him. 
 
 Once a fortnight the little following gathered in the 
 Presbyterian church, or in the old log court-house, or 
 in the new one, to hear the tutor-minister preach, and 
 to sing, without the aid of an organ or any other instru- 
 ment, the few Unitarian hymns at their command. Their 
 music was supplemented by weekly practice on Sunday 
 evenings at Pomona, where all assembled again for a 
 simple service of song. 
 
 This close intercourse of a few united persons, isolated 
 by their convictions and their single-hearted devotion to 
 a common cause, placed the Meadville church among 
 congregations of the type of the early Christians ; it was 
 a church essentially fervent and sincere, and acquired by 
 its concentration an influence which is truly surprising 
 when considered in connection with its size. 
 
 Some letters written by Mr. Peabody to his mother 
 and sister show the enthusiasm with which he entered 
 upon his work. 
 
 Steam Boat Alleghany, Lake Erie, June 2, 1830. 
 We have just got out upon the lake — and the same 
 waters are rolling and roaring in my ears that echoed 
 to the thunders of Perry. I am writing in a cabin that 
 is almost dark. We have been detained in BufEalo half 
 a day by a strong head wind. The lake is rolling now 
 like the Atlantic. ... I have had for the most part a 
 very pleasant journey. Rather tough riding over the 
 Green Mountains, though. Started from Brattleboro at 
 2 o'clock A. M. Wretchedly cold. Rode on and on and 
 
208 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEB, 
 
 on up mountain and down mountain. At length, three 
 miles this side of Bennington, at a corner, we broke from 
 the woods, and looked down from the tops of the moun- 
 tains into the most glorious prospect I ever beheld. The 
 vast valley with Bennington in its centre and walled in 
 by south sloping mountains lay beneath Uke a picture. 
 The sides of the hiUs covered with farms and trees and 
 beautifully laid out. . . . 
 
 Meadville, June 4. Arrived here at last, on Thurs- 
 day evening. . . . Mr. Huidekoper went around with 
 me yesterday to call on some of the people. They ap- 
 peared quite intelligent and hospitable. Seven or eight 
 Unitarian families or parts of families. Strange to say 
 Unitarianism here seems to be more popular with the 
 ladies than with the men. I preach to-morrow. The 
 family here are very pleasant, and Mr. Huidekoper one 
 of the most intelligent men I have ever met with. 
 
 July 2. I have got fully and fairly settled down — my 
 scholars are around me now. They are very bright and 
 very forward. One of them ^ has been above half way 
 through Legendre's Geometry and a considerable dis- 
 tance in Chemistry since I came here. And they are 
 not only forward but very amiable. I could not have 
 found better scholars in every respect for one's comfort 
 had I searched the country through. The family too is 
 in all respects a pleasant one and through them I have 
 admission into the best society, of course, in the town. 
 Mr. Huidekoper is not only a man of business but a 
 man of a highly cultivated mind. He has of late years 
 made theology a study. He is a Unitarian Christian 
 in understanding and in feeling. He has quite a theo- 
 logical library. . . . The people here are quite hospitable. 
 I have about thirty-five to hear me, regularly, some 
 scattering. We have a small Sunday School. There are 
 a considerable number of men who are more Unitarians 
 than anything else, but they do not come to our meet- 
 ing. Unitarianism here is deadly to one's political influ- 
 
 1 Anna Huidekoper. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 209 
 
 ence. . . . No Unitarian can be in this country and not 
 be in earnest in his employment when he looks about him 
 and sees the minds and hearts of a whole land crushed 
 down under the blind, brutalizing, palsying doctrines of 
 Calvin. I think I never saw the worth of Unitarianism 
 so much as since I left home. It is the faith I believe to 
 make one truly religious. When I look around me and 
 see so many wandering on in such total darkness I must 
 confess I feel an inclination to preach rather more vio- 
 lently against those doctrines than good sense warrants. 
 
 In the " total darkness " of which Mr. Peabody com- 
 plained, the opposing forces of conservative and liberal 
 had already occasionally struck fire. The first of several 
 long controversies had appeared in the public press.^ 
 
 Until the year before Mr. Merrick's coming Mr. 
 Huidekoper had pursued his way unmolested. Although 
 he had freely discussed his views, and had furnished 
 Unitarian literature to inquirers, Mr. Van Liew, the 
 Presbyterian minister, had respected his liberty of ac- 
 tion, and had treated him with perfect tolerance. Van 
 Liew's pastorate, however, came to an end in 1824, and 
 for the succeeding two years the Rev. Timothy Alden,^ 
 
 ^ Mr. Huidekoper was always a believer in the efficacy of public dis- 
 cussion. Some years later (December 19, 1839) he wrote to James Free- 
 man Clarke: "I think our friends at Cincinnati ought to consider that 
 correct ideas on the great leading doctrines of religion are very useful 
 auxiliaries towards the formation of Christian character; and that such 
 ideas can only be disseminated in a community where the opposite errors 
 prevail by controverting the prevailing opinions." 
 
 ^ Rev. Timothy Alden came from New York to Mcadville in 1815. 
 He was not only first president of Allegheny College, but also its founder. 
 Through his personal efforts, mainly, the money and books requisite for 
 the opening of the college were procured, and among the first to come 
 forward with donations were the Unitarians of the East. The first name 
 on his paper is that of John Adams, ex-president of the United States, 
 ■who subscribed $20 in books. Then follow the solid men of Boston, sixty- 
 six in number: "the Frothinghams, the Channings, the Davises, the Lor- 
 ings, the Lowells, the Ticknors, the Greenleafs, the Parkmans, and the 
 
210 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 the first president of Allegheny College, frequently sup- 
 plied the pulpit. Mr. Alden, and Mr. Bushnell * after 
 him, considered it their duty to warn people, not only 
 against the new doctrines, but against those who held 
 them. 
 
 "President Alden had for four or five Sabbaths," 
 says Mr. Peabody in a letter of July 2, 1825, " levelled 
 the most violent abuse against Unitarians. Mr. H. being 
 almost the only Unitarian, then began to grow tired of 
 it. So he published an article in the newspaper calling 
 on him to leave off abuse and come to proof. The next 
 Sunday the Prest. came out with the proofs of the Uni- 
 tarian errors — among other passages quoted John 1:5, 
 7 — told his hearers that it had been doubted but as- 
 sured them it was perfectly genuine, it being found in 
 many ancient MSS. Mr. H. thought this was quite too 
 much, and came out again with a full account of the 
 text, and stated very explicitly that either Mr. Alden's 
 scholarship or honesty was in great jeopardy. The 
 Prest. never answered it, and from that time forth 
 never said a word, good or bad, about Unitarians." 
 
 The attacks from the pulpit made by Mr. Alden, how- 
 ever, were as nothing compared to the measures taken 
 against the Unitarians during Mr. BushneU's first zeal- 
 ous years. It was at his instigation, apparently, that 
 the Erie Presbytery declared that all persons worshiping 
 with Unitarians or Universalists should be considered 
 liable to be expelled from communion with their own 
 church. Mr. Huidekoper, again appearing in the " Craw- 
 
 Thayers." (History of Crawford County, p. 413.) Mr. Huidekoper gave 
 $300. Mr. Alden's subsequeDt treatment of Unitarians, therefore, was 
 mi the more surprising. 
 1 Mr. Bushnell was minister of the Presbyterian church. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 211 
 
 ford Messenger," administered to Mr. Bushnell a sharp 
 rebuke for this stirring up of strife. Newspapers in those 
 times were not what they are to-day. There were no 
 telegraph lines then to keep the whole globe in electric 
 touch and to flood every morning's issue with the latest 
 news from Berlin, Tokyo, or Timbuctoo. The chief peril 
 was lest the press should be drearily dull. So everything 
 promising to stir the surface of the stagnant water was 
 hailed as a veritable godsend. Mr. Huidekoper's answer 
 to Mr. Bushnell, therefore, printed in the "Crawford 
 Messenger " of November 2, 1826, found eager readers. 
 Having begun by contrasting the unitedness of the 
 Meadville community with the intolerance of the Puri- 
 tans, Mr. Huidekoper continued as follows : — 
 
 Happily for us, we had brought with us to the wilder- 
 ness a more liberal spirit. Under its guidance all contrib- 
 uted to the support of one common pastor, and as the sect 
 of the Presbyterians happened to be the most numerous 
 here, it was from that church that these pastors were 
 generally taken. In the same spirit of brotherly love and 
 harmony, men of all sects united in erecting a house con- 
 secrated to the worship of the Deity, under the express 
 stipulation, that it should at all times hereafter remain 
 open for the worship of all. In this manner, for up- 
 wards of twenty years, public worship has been sup- 
 ported by our common efforts, and to those who do not 
 belong to the Presbyterian church belongs the praise 
 that they have always contributed liberally to the main- 
 tenance of an establishment which was not their own. 
 Such, sir, was our situation when your arrival among 
 us introduced a new era. From the moment of your ad- 
 vent to the ministry of this place your every effort has 
 been to divide and sever, and to introduce into this 
 community that spirit of intolerant bigotry which has 
 destroyed the peace of society in so many other places. 
 
212 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 . . . You have gone farther. In your frantic zeal you 
 have dared to prescribe bounds to the mercies of the 
 Almighty, and to limit his salvation to the narrow cir- 
 cle of your orthodoxy, . . . You appear to have had 
 some misgivings as to your ultimate success in . . . 
 subjugating us; hence you have taken the precaution 
 to call in the Presbytery to your aid ; and at your in- 
 stance that body has issued a mandate, that whoever 
 shall hereafter attend the worship of the Unitarians 
 or of the Universalists, or whoever shall suffer their 
 children to attend such worship, shall be excommuni- 
 cated. . . . Without stopping to show how this decree 
 would operate on the different members of our commu- 
 nity at large, [I] shall merely limit my remarks to its 
 operation on my own family. I am a Unitarian. My 
 wife and her sister have been for upwards of sixteen 
 years members of the Presbyterian church. Now this 
 mandate enjoins on them under pain of excommunica- 
 tion, to abstain in future from worshipping with me, 
 and not only that, but they must also prevent my chil- 
 dren from worshipping with their father. In other 
 words you bid them chuse, either to sacrifice their con- 
 nexion with your church, or the domestic peace and 
 harmony of my family. Thank Grod, they had no diffi- 
 culty in determining what choice they would make. . . . 
 I do not call on you to alter a single one of your re- 
 ligious opinions. With these I have nothing to do. . . . 
 All I ask is that you grant to others that right of pri- 
 vate judgment which you claim for yourself. . . . You 
 are very young yet. . . . Learn to imitate the example 
 set you by a Stockton, a Van Liew, or your colleague, 
 the Rev. Mr. Smith, all of whom have, in the ministry 
 of this place, rendered themselves the objects of univer- 
 sal reverence and good will. . , . 
 
 (Signed) A Friend to Religious Libekty. 
 
 For a year after Mr. Merrick's departure there were 
 no Unitarian services to arouse Mr. Bushnell further. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 213 
 
 But -when in 1828 Washington Gilbert took up the 
 work, the opposition was renewed with still greater 
 energy. The refusal of the church for Unitarian ser- 
 vices became a frequent thing. Sometimes the Unitari- 
 ans could carry their point and meet there, sometimes 
 they could not. The story is stiU told of a Thanks- 
 giving day when they were refused permission to hold 
 in the church the evening service for which they had 
 planned. When the hour arrived the church stood 
 locked and dark. An unlocked window, however, was 
 discovered, through which one of the young men chmbed. 
 Once in, he hunted up the candles, put them in their 
 candlesticks, which were set in their customary places 
 upon the broad railings of the pews, hghted the build- 
 ing, and opened the door ; the rest of the Unitarians 
 then entered decorously enough, and the Thanksgiving 
 service was triumphantly held. At another time the 
 sexton, anticipating a similar proceeding, hid the candles 
 in the foot-stoves. 
 
 This state of warfare could not be indefinitely con- 
 tinued ; so Mr. Huidekoper closed his twenty pews, as 
 a practical protest, and withdrew from the contest, con- 
 tenting himself for some years with the Court House as 
 the place of assembly for the Unitarians. 
 
 However, the community was in no danger of being 
 allowed to remain in ignorance of the Unitarian move- 
 ment. The controversies were not at an end. In the 
 year 1830 the churches of western Pennsylvania were 
 greatly stirred over the circulation of a petition to the 
 United States government for the abolition of the laws 
 permitting the free transmission of the mails on Sun- 
 day, or, as it was called, the Sabbath. The laws regard- 
 ing private business and travel were still maintained in 
 
214 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 extreme rigor ; but the exigencies of the public in the 
 transmission of the mails were held to be paramount 
 over every biblical or sectarian consideration. This ac- 
 tion on the part of the government inevitably aroused 
 vehement opposition. 
 
 Two champions now stepped forward to fight this 
 battle in the columns of the " Crawford Messenger," 
 — a contributor signing himself " Petitioner " and Mr. 
 Huidekoper. Fitter — certainly doughtier — champions 
 could hardly have been found. Each was honest to the 
 backbone, — the one the incarnation of Presbyterianism 
 and the Westminster Catechism, the other equally the 
 incarnation of the sturdy Dutch Van Tromp, fighter for 
 the liberty of the seas in thought and creed. Each, 
 moreover, carried his broom lashed to the masthead, in 
 symbol of his resolve to sweep the Channel clear of aU 
 rival ships. All the more because they were constitu- 
 tionally and by education incapable of understanding 
 one another, were they the better fitted to exemphfy 
 the irreconcilable antagonism of their positions. Cer- 
 tainly neither left any readers of the " Crawford Mes- 
 senger " in the least doubt where he personally stood. 
 
 As a literal believer in the plenary inspiration of the 
 Bible, " Petitioner " vehemently appealed to Congress 
 to avert the wrath of Heaven by immediately abolishing 
 the laws permitting the transmitting of the mails on the 
 Sabbath. " We well remember," he declared, " the case 
 of a nation, — a nation which felt the avenging hand 
 of God for disobedience to his laws, — a nation sold 
 into bondage for seventy years that the land might 
 enjoy its Sabbaths. We consider these mail laws a pal- 
 pable breach of the divine laws." So intense were the 
 writer's convictions in the matter as to lead him to 
 
THE UNITARIAN 215 
 
 declare that it might be necessary to resort to physical 
 force and civil war to attain the object of the petitioner's 
 prayer. 
 
 Against this argument Mr. Hnidekoper, over the sig- 
 nature of " Oberlin," took positive stand that it was an 
 attempt to interpose the authority of law to settle a con- 
 troversy between Jews, Sabbatarians, and Christians; 
 to determine what part of the time had been set aside 
 by the Almighty for religious exercises ; to make a 
 legislative decision of a rehgious controversy, and to 
 restrict the rights of conscience. He urged the delivery 
 of the mails on Sunday on the ground that it was im- 
 possible that a repubhc such as ours should be perma- 
 nent and happy without the prevalence of unrestricted 
 free communication. " What is meant," he asked, " by 
 asserting that the Christian religion is a part of the law 
 of the land ? Does the term Christian religion mean 
 that all the dogmas of all the sects are a part of the 
 common law of the land? Then every one who does 
 not accept the dogmas is committing a breach of the 
 common law of the land." 
 
 To this " Petitioner " replies categorically : " I have 
 asserted that the present postoffice arrangements violate 
 the Divine law, the dictum of the Divine Being, which 
 is received as the Divine law. Thus in Exodus xx. 8, 
 I read : ' Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 
 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work ; but 
 the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; 
 in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 
 thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, 
 nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.' 
 This is plain and positive." " Petitioner " further takes 
 the ground that every moral precept, that is, every pre- 
 
216 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 cept wMch is general in its application to man in a na- 
 tion, class and time, is as obligatory when found in the 
 Old Testament as in the New. The Fourth Command- 
 ment, he insists, is practical and moral and not ceremo- 
 nial. " It was spoken by the Almighty in a voice of 
 thunder ; was inscribed in stone by the finger of God, 
 and engraved in the midst of nine other precepts con- 
 fessedly moral, none of which conflict with any of the 
 other laws confessedly judicial or ceremonial." 
 
 This controversy was for nearly a year kept up in 
 long newspaper articles. From the outset it was clear 
 that neither disputant could ever convince the other. 
 They argued from totally contradictory premises : " Peti- 
 tioner " from the literally taken " Thus saith the Lord " 
 of the Bible ; Mr. Huidekoper mainly from reason, his- 
 tory, the practical demands of the day, the newer ra- 
 tional criticism of the Sacred Books. " This is no such 
 conception of the Christian religion," he urges, "as 
 was held by Washington and Franklin and the great 
 fathers of the RepubHc. It belongs rather to that strange 
 religion of the Puritans, who laid down as a practical 
 principle that their reUgion was part of the law of the 
 land ; and with what result ? They hung, they burned 
 those who professed sufficient independence of mind to 
 refuse assent to the dogmas of their gloomy creeds. 
 Such has been and always will be the result of adopt- 
 ing as a practical principle the dogma that any partic- 
 ular religion forms part of the law of the land." 
 
 Throughout the whole controversy, " Petitioner," a 
 man of intense convictions and a vigorous writer, stood 
 resolutely by his guns, and made them reverberate with 
 all the thunders of Mt. Sinai. No one could read him 
 without thorough-going respect for the type of indom- 
 
THE UNITARIAN 217 
 
 itable Cromwellian he represented. Jehovah himself had 
 settled this whole question of the national iniquity of 
 the Sunday mail laws, and nothing but vengeance and 
 wrath could be looked for at His hands if they were 
 now abrogated. God's verdict had been indelibly re- 
 corded three thousand years ago on adamantine tablets 
 of stone. This transporting the mails on Sunday was 
 therefore a defiant breach of the everlasting moral law, 
 a law without variableness or shadow of turning, the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 
 
 To Mr. Huidekoper, on the other hand, such rea- 
 soning as this was at once unwarranted and fraught 
 with perilous results. The Mosaic legislation had sim- 
 ply nothing to do with American legislation. 
 
 As the controversy went on and grew in heat, Mr. 
 Huidekoper gave free vent to his abhorrence of the 
 domination of the country by the clergy through their 
 claim of supernatural authority. "A few years ago," 
 he declares, ^' at the ordination of a young man to the 
 ministry in a neighboring village, the clergyman asked 
 the congregation to promise, with uplifted hands and 
 all the outward solemnity of an oath, that they would 
 henceforth receive as the word of God, and believe as 
 such, whatever their pastor should tell them from the 
 pulpit. Here we have a tyranny which, if it has ever 
 been equalled, I doubt has never been surpassed, by 
 any edict of the Papal See in the darkest ages of 
 Christendom. Beyond this mental servility cannot go." 
 
 Almost at the same time with the controversy over 
 the Sunday mails, another about the revival meetings 
 of the period was begun in the " Crawford Messenger." 
 Mr. Huidekoper had seen enough of the hysterical 
 demonstrations induced by professional revivalists to 
 
218 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 feel very strongly their danger to excitable tempera- 
 ments. His favorite neice, Margaret Hazdett, for ex- 
 ample, had been paying a visit in a household where 
 extreme devotion to a series of meetings had quite 
 feken possession of the hostess, who knew no modera- 
 tion in her feverish attendance. 
 
 An article originally printed in a Baltimore paper, 
 and entitled " Religious Dissipation," attracted Mr. 
 Huidekoper's attention as something Kkely to direct 
 people's thoughts to the subject, and, in the interests 
 of common sense, he sent the clipping to the " Messen- 
 ger." It reflected severely on a class of people whom 
 it pictured as never easy unless attending some re- 
 ligious gathering, hearing some exhortation or prayer, 
 Hstening to the recital of experiences and in turn re- 
 citing their own, never in fact at rest unless enticed 
 away from the claims of their real duties to the fruit- 
 less performance of imaginary ones. Its appearance in 
 the " Messenger's " columns was the signal for a spir- 
 ited attack on him, as he was mistakenly supposed to 
 be its author. To this attack Mr. Huidekoper was not 
 slow to respond. " Presbyterian " this time was the 
 name under which his antagonist wrote, and the dis- 
 cussion, on " Presbyterian's" part at least, waxed warm. 
 Mr. Huidekoper held that of a certain kind of reli- 
 gious excitement it was quite possible to have far too 
 much. ReUgion ought to be an abiding principle, keep- 
 ing itself aUve in the breast through its own inward 
 vitahty. Once lodged in the heart, it ought to prove 
 itself motive and cheer in the daily round of common 
 duty, idealizing it and giving it life. Man was endowed 
 with a widely varied nature. He should cultivate his 
 faculties all around; he should be a reader and a 
 
THE UNITARIAN 219 
 
 thinker ; he should feel keenly interested in civic 
 affairs ; he should promote intellectual, refining, and 
 charming social life and diversions in the community ; 
 he should develop resources within himself which 
 would save him from the restlessness and shallowness 
 of perpetually running after outside excitement. 
 
 To Mr. Huidekoper's opponent, on the other hand, 
 this was a lost world. Those that were saved from it 
 were saved as by fire. By his fallen nature ever tend- 
 ing to destruction, man needed every external help to 
 keep him mindful of eternal things. 
 
 Here was the age-old fight which has been waged 
 between the champions of this world and of the world 
 to come, between the claims of the now and of the 
 hereafter, between any possible kingdom of God on 
 earth and the far-away kingdom in the heavens. Each 
 party in it is almost invariably plunged by tempera- 
 ment into extremes of this-worldliness or other-worldli- 
 ness. 
 
 The interest of such controversies of the past lies 
 mainly in the historical Ught they cast on the state of 
 mind prevailing at the time of their occurrence. Mr. 
 Huidekoper's ideas were really more revolutionary than 
 he himseK recognized. He stood on the threshold of 
 the new age of science, of free investigation and free 
 criticism ; in his own part of the country a pioneer in 
 the advocacy of principles which have since profoundly 
 modified the creeds and practice of all denominations 
 of Protestants. 
 
 A comparatively peaceful period was that covered by 
 Mr. Peabody's sojourn in Meadville. He was in every 
 way congenial to the people he was with, and gave 
 himself unsparingly to the community, organizing and 
 
220 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPEE 
 
 carrying on services in the outskirts of the town, — 
 open-air services in the maple grove in summer, indoor 
 services ia vdnter, — and even taking part in matters 
 quite aside from his prescribed duties. 
 
 "I have to -work hard — very hard," he -wrote in 
 August, 1830, "but I Hke labor, i. e., if it is not 
 before breakfast nor after dinner. I have got to be 
 quite an expert rider on horseback, and expect to 
 become much more so. I enjoy myself finely. Take a 
 long walk after breakfast — hear lessons and study and 
 read tiU twelve — then walk, eat dinner — hear lessons 
 in the afternoon — at five, walk again — come to sup- 
 per, talk awhile — take another walk and perhaps make 
 one or two calls. Come back and drink some cold 
 colfee which is regularly set by for me — go to my 
 room and write sermons. About three quarters of 
 my walks are to and fro on the piazza, when Mr. 
 Huidekoper and myself discuss Unitarianism. The 
 rest, up river and down river, up street and down street. 
 A tailor, one of my parishioners, made me a coat and 
 pantaloons at the beginning of summer. The other day, 
 when I went to pay my bill, he refused to take any- 
 thing. This he does likewise, he said, to all ministers who 
 do not receive regular salaries, e. g., the Methodists." 
 
 In addition to all his other undertakings Mr. Peabody 
 established at Meadville a periodical, the " Unitarian 
 Essayist," which gave Mr. Huidekoper keen satisfaction 
 and enabled him to send to hundreds of people the re- 
 sults of his theological studies. It was " very small and 
 cheap," Mr. Peabody confessed, and was to be written 
 mainly by Mr. Huidekoper and himself, but it would 
 form, when all the numbers in prospect were issued, "a 
 sort of treatise on Unitarianism." 
 
THE UNITARIAN 221 
 
 "It is thought that circumstances require such a 
 publication," runs Mr. Peahody's prospectus, issued 
 January 1, 1831. " The religious opinions which we en- 
 tertain, we esteem of priceless worth. . . . These opin- 
 ions we hear perpetually misrepresented. . . . Men are 
 warned against our places of worship and our books; 
 our arguments are carefully evaded. . . . Under such 
 circumstances we cannot remain silent. . . . The work 
 proposed . . . will be published in monthly numbers 
 of twelve duodecimo pages each. The subscription price, 
 seventy-five cents a year, to be paid on the delivery of 
 the second number." 
 
 Even as he thus set afloat the slender venture, its 
 editor knew that he could not long guide its course. 
 At midsummer he left Meadville for Cincinnati, to the 
 great regret of his Meadville friends. The " Essayist " 
 then continued in the hands of Mr. Huidekoper alone. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's letters to Mr. Peabody are full of 
 the success of the paper, and of active interest in mat- 
 ters pertaining to the church, as well as of a warm per- 
 sonal regard. " Oh, my dear friend," he says in one of 
 them, " if I only had you for my coadjutor I should 
 have some hope of seeing our society increasing rap- 
 idly." It was, meanwhile, steadily growing and the 
 " Essayist " was accomplishing its work. 
 
 On September 8, 1831, he wrote : ^ — 
 
 I lately met with something which was of an encour- 
 aging nature. While at Warren a Mr. Smith, a lawyer, 
 formerly from Philadelphia, now from Ohio, was at Mrs. 
 Shippen's and, hearing her express some heterodox opin- 
 ions respecting original sin, he undertook to convert 
 her. After an argument of some hours she asked him 
 
 1 H. J. H. to E. Peabody. 
 
222 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 to read the July and August numbers of the " Essay- 
 ist." He did so, and found them convincing. She next 
 asked him to read the previous numbers, on the Divine 
 Unity. He read these the same evening, became a sub- 
 scriber to the "Essayist," and left here the next day 
 almost if not quite a Unitarian. 
 
 Our friend Mrs. Shippen comes on charmingly. Mr. 
 James ^ called on her to know why she absented herself 
 from his communion, and she has told him the cause 
 candidly. He is now preaching a series of sermons for her 
 special benefit. . . . Two weeks ago he pronounced 
 the Unitarians accursed. If he should continue in his 
 present strain I have some hopes that he will drive even 
 Mrs. Hazlett back to our church. 
 
 I am much pleased with Mr. Nichols,^ who is a worthy 
 young man of good talents. ... It was a disadvan- 
 tage to Mr. N. to come after you. You were deservedly 
 such a general favorite with all of us, that your succes- 
 sor could hardly expect to please in the beginning. The 
 audiences at church have been of late very respect- 
 able. . . . 
 
 I forgot to mention that when Mr. James called on 
 Mrs. Shippen he recommended to her to read Wilber- 
 force's work. This led her to ask me for some books. 
 I gave her Yates' " Vindication," Sparks' Letters, Co- 
 gan's Letter to Wilberforce, Worcester on the Atone- 
 ment, and the "Essayist." I understand that she de- 
 clares the latter perfectly convincing, and of Worcester's 
 book she says that it is delightful. I am also told that 
 the Presbyterians and Methodists have quarreled since 
 you left here about the doctrine of election, and that 
 the latter carry the last " Essayist " about in decisive 
 proof that they are right. 
 
 ' Rector of the Episcopal church at Meadville. 
 George Nichols, a graduate of Harvard, arrived fresh from the 
 Divinity School in July, 1831. He left Meadville in July, 1832, and 
 afterward became literary critic for the University Press at Cambridge, 
 Mass., where he died July 6, 1882, aged seventy-three years. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 223 
 
 Mr. James, it may be added, did not cease his efforts 
 until the whole Shippen family were well preached out 
 of his church. 
 
 On May 4, 1832, Mr. Huidekoper wrote to Mr. Pea- 
 body : — 
 
 You will learn with pleasure, that Judge Shippen has 
 in a measure dissolved his connection with the Episco- 
 pal Church, and now on the Sunday stays at home and 
 reads for himself and Mrs. Shippen sermons of . . . 
 Channing, Buckminster, etc. The manner in which this 
 was brought about was merely this. The Judge was 
 always only half orthodox, and his lady's withdrawing 
 from the Church had its efBect. Next came Mr. James' 
 rather too great interference with the Judge's children. 
 What, however, brought the matter to a crisis was, that 
 the Judge having observed to Mr. J. that it would be 
 better to use the gospels more and the epistles less, Mr. 
 J. undertook to convince him that our Savior did not 
 come to make a revelation, but to be the subject of a 
 revelation, and advanced what in my letter to Mr. J. 
 are called the new doctrines. Mr. James also preached 
 on this subject, and lent the Judge the book of Dr. 
 Whately from which he had taken these sentiments. 
 The Judge was frightened at the length to which all 
 this led, and took to his Bible to examine for himself, 
 and you know what that leads to. Mr. James called on 
 the Judge to inquire why he staid away. The Judge told 
 him that he was examining for himself and had become 
 convinced that Christ came to make a revelation, not 
 to be the subject of one, declined Mr. J.'s offer to speak 
 to the Bishop, and read him a lecture on intolerance. The 
 Judge's children, too, begin to feel uneasy under their 
 connection with the Church. The boys say plainly that 
 they are Unitarians, and Miss Frances says that she does 
 not know how to get along any more at the Sunday 
 School, as she has ceased to believe in the catechism. 
 
224 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Mr. James was predestined to cripple his own cause. 
 His next service to the Unitarians was to try to close a 
 school which Miss Jerusha Dewey, sister of the Rev. 
 OrvHle Dewey, had opened in Meadville. Naturally 
 enough, she had also joined the Unitarian church, and 
 her doing this was the signal for Mr. James to advance 
 against her with all the indiscretion of which he proved 
 himself master. A letter from Edgar Huidekoper to 
 Mr. Peabody tells the tale as follows : — 
 
 Perhaps you have heard that a Miss Dewey had 
 opened a select school here. The Rev. Mr. James took 
 offense at that because she was a Unitarian, and went 
 to all the parents who sent with whom he thought he 
 could have any influence and endeavoured to induce 
 them to withdraw their children from Miss Dewey's 
 school — among others to a widow lady who lives in 
 town and whose daughter my father with her mother's 
 permission had placed at school at my father's ex- 
 pense. On hearing this my father wrote a note to Mr. 
 James to know whether it was so or not. Mr. James, 
 instead of answering " yes " or " no," sends back an 
 answer of five long closely written pages, — stating that 
 he had done so, and would do every thing in his power 
 to break up Miss Dewey's school, and threatening Miss 
 D. with his vengeance unless she relinquishes her school. 
 He has got another lady under his direct patronage to 
 teach an -opposition school. If I had time to copy the 
 whole I would send you a copy, but you must be con- 
 tent with extracts. He says : — 
 
 "I hold that Unitarian opinions are not only dan- 
 gerous when openly avowed and taught, but that they 
 necessarily so affect the principles, conduct, and con- 
 versation of those who entertain them as to be danger- 
 ous to all who come closely and frequently in contact 
 with the operations of a mind under their influence, or 
 with habits they have produced. It is not enough that 
 
THE UNITARIAN 225 
 
 an evil be avoided, but also such constant and intimate 
 intercourse with those who are suffering from it as will 
 probably communicate it. ... I wish and I pray for 
 peace, but you are taking almost every method of pro- 
 voking contention. Did you expect that we would suf- 
 fer you to get up a school without opposition ? For my 
 own part I have studiously withheld from much, in order 
 to preserve at least a courtesy with you. . . . But Sir, 
 your attempts for the spread of your opinions are going 
 too far. . . . She [Miss D.] has permitted herself to 
 be put forward in a prominent station where if there 
 be hostilities, she must suffer from them. But I trust 
 that controversy and bitterness may be averted — that 
 she will reHnquish a school which if it is continued, 
 must produce discord." 
 
 This letter, which is filled up all in the same manner, 
 was sent round to some of the good Episcopalians to 
 read. Messrs. the Episcopalians and Presbyterians are 
 now going hand in hand. Messrs. James and Bushnell, 
 D and R , are talking of editing a paper. 
 
 As Mr. Huidekoper was very busy and disinclined to 
 spend his time in replying to Mr. James, he at first tried 
 the expedient of sending Mr. James's letter to Bishop 
 Onderdonck, "asking his protection for a deserving 
 young lady, thus unworthily persecuted by one of his 
 ministers." The bishop, however, having returned a 
 suave answer merely deprecating a dispute in which, he 
 intimated, there was evidently heat on both sides, Mr. 
 Huidekoper came out in the " Essayist " with this scath- 
 insf rebuke to Mr. James. 
 
 " Your attempt to deprive Miss — — of her school was 
 an unmanly act. . . . The day has been, and that not 
 long since, when I could have proudly asserted that there 
 was no man in our community who could be guilty of 
 such an act. That day has passed by, . . . the spirit of 
 
226 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 fanaticism has visited our once peaceful village. . . . 
 
 ]y[igs was among us a stranger. . . . She had come 
 
 among us to render her talents useful to herself and to 
 society, in the only way which, from her previous edu- 
 cation and the delicate state of her health, was open to 
 her, the instruction of young females. . . . You your- 
 self admit that ... she did not make use of her inter- 
 course with her pupils to instil into their minds her own 
 peculiar religious opinions. . . . And yet, Sir, you . . . 
 became her persecutor. . . . For shame, Sir, is this a 
 conduct becoming a man, a gentleman, a minister of 
 the gospel? And you want us to embrace your sys- 
 tem ? No, Sir . . . we cannot embrace a system, the 
 fruits of which are so unchristian." 
 
 Nor does the opportunity to defend the Unitarian 
 views pass unimproved. Mr. Huidekoper goes on to ask 
 if those ideas can in themselves be considered dangerous 
 to a commimity. Or, he says, and he knows that his 
 words win wholesomely startle some of the " Essayist's " 
 three hundred and forty subscribers, look at the char- 
 acters of some eminent Unitarian men, and judge i£ they 
 have been hurtful. *' The first to whom I shall refer 
 are the patriarchs and other pious men of whom we 
 read in the Old Testament. These men were Unitari- 
 ans. Their minds were deeply imbued with the belief 
 in the simple unity of God. Therefore, according to 
 the principles laid down by you, all communication 
 with them ought to have been avoided by their fellow 
 citizens. ... In coming down to modern times I shall 
 confine myself to Unitarians of England and of our 
 own country . . . and even of these I shall bring for- 
 ward only a very few. Sir Isaac Newton, Locke, and 
 Milton were Unitarians. . . . Lardner was a Unita- 
 
THE UNITARIAN 227 
 
 rian. . . . Cappe, Lindsey, Buckminster, Thacher, and 
 Abbott were Unitarians. . . . And yet these are the 
 men with whom you would interdict all intercourse, 
 and whom you undertake to consign to everlasting 
 perdition. Rash, intolerant man. . . . Moderate that 
 unbounded proselyting zeal by which you are now 
 incited. Dismiss the opinion so dishonorable to God, 
 and which hes at the root of all your intolerance, that 
 the salvation of man depends on his beheving certain 
 disputed dogmas. Cease to persecute. Learn to become 
 charitable, and let the future strife between us be, who 
 shall show himself the most zealous in the cause of 
 Christianity by best practising its precepts." ^ 
 
 The " Essayist," although it printed this letter, was 
 devoted mainly to the discussion of points of doctrine, 
 
 1 " I have taken the liberty," he wrote to his daughter Anna, March 
 10, 1832, then visiting friends in Pliiladelphia, " to examine both the 
 gentleman's conduct and the position he takes in the last number of 
 the Essayist, of which I send you a copy. I need not tell you that the 
 respect for the opinion of the amiable family in which you reside re- 
 quires that you should not lay the Essayist on your table where it would 
 be open to the inspection of any one; but if you should be questioned as 
 to the contents of this or any other number, you may then give them 
 without hesitation, as that Essay corrects misrepresentations that may be 
 made as to their contents." In another letter written at about the same 
 time, March 23, 1832, he says: "Although Mr. James and his man Mr. 
 
 D _— combined with Mr. R and all the other Presbyterian leaders 
 
 to break up Miss Dewey's school, they did not succeed. She had about 
 20 scholars the second quarter, and will have, I believe, as many the 
 third. Mr. James' speculation No. 1 in schoolmistresses was not fortu- 
 nate. He represented Miss as a ' none such,' sent expressly by 
 
 Providence at that particular juncture to save the children from danger. 
 Unfortunately for him, the lady proved a terrible vixen, possessing a 
 temper so ungovernable as to cause her sanity to be seriously questioned. 
 After being a severe plague to Messrs. James & Co. and a perfect tor- 
 ment to the poor children, the connection was dissolved before the end 
 of the quarter, Mr. James undertaking to manage the school himself 
 until he can procure schoolmistress No. 2, who is expected shortly from 
 Chautauqua County, New York." 
 
228 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 and was in truth practically an exponent of Mr. Huide- 
 koper's views. Mr. Huidekoper tried to draw upon out- 
 side sources for contributions, but the fact remains that 
 all of the first twelve numbers and six of the essays 
 of the second twelve were written by him, and as they 
 stand in the two volumes of the " Essayist," each vol- 
 ume consisting of about one hundred and seventy pages, 
 they present a careful setting forth of the doctrines of 
 the unity of God, of the nature of sin, of the power of 
 Jesus to assist us against sin, and of the future life, as 
 Mr. Huidekoper found these doctrines expounded in the 
 Bible. Beyond the Bible, in doctrinal matters, he did 
 not wish to go. In his short message " To the Public," 
 which closes the career of the "Essayist," he says, — 
 " In his [the editor's, that is, Mr. Huidekoper's] re- 
 searches, truth, — truth as it is found in the teachings 
 of Jesus, has been his only object. . . . He is attached 
 to Unitarianism because he believes it to be the doc- 
 trine of the sacred Scriptures, and the foundation of aU 
 true religion." 
 
 His essays, consistently with this belief, are from first 
 to last earnest appeals to biblical authority, which nat- 
 urally yielded to him abundant confirmation of his own 
 instinctive and rational predilections. Nine chapters on 
 the Unity of God open his missionary labors, for such 
 they were indeed, and the sum and substance of the 
 nine he lays down in these introductory paragraphs : — 
 
 " The opinions held by Unitarians with respect to the 
 Deity are very simple. They believe in One God, a Being 
 perfect, undivided uncompounded Unity, One Eternal 
 Divine Mind. They do not believe our Lord Jesus Christ 
 to be the self-existent omnipotent Jehovah, but his Mes- 
 senger. . . . Although they believe him to be highly 
 
THE UNITARIAN 229 
 
 exalted above all other created Existences . . . yet they 
 believe also that he has nothing but what he received 
 from his Heavenly Father, and that with respect to God 
 he is a subordinate, dependent Being. . . . 
 
 " Concerning the Holy Spirit, Unitarians believe that 
 it is not a Person distinct from the Father, but his spirit, 
 his power and energy, and that in most places in the 
 New Testament where we meet with this word we must 
 understand by it those miraculous powers which were 
 imparted to Christ without measure and to his disciples 
 and the early Christians in lesser degrees." 
 
 Arguments, Scripture texts, refutation of Trinitarian 
 doctrines, reassertion of the Unitarian view make up 
 the carefully constructed pages which follow. In read- 
 ing them no one can escape the feeUng that the Unita- 
 rianism of seventy years ago is almost the Orthodoxy of 
 to-day. 
 
 Quite of a piece with his articles on the Unity of God 
 is the essay on the Unitarianism of the first three cen- 
 turies.* In this he argues that the Apostles, their early 
 converts to Christianity, and the fathers of the church 
 all believed that Jesus was a being perfectly distinct 
 from and subordinate to the Deity, and that Unitarian- 
 ism, or the belief in the simple unity of God, was the 
 uniform belief of the primitive church. 
 
 In the first century, he says, we meet with no other 
 creed than the simple one contained in the Scriptures, 
 namely, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah or Christ 
 of God. From the beginning of the second century to 
 the year 325, the creed generally known as the Apos- 
 tles' Creed was the rule of faith in the church. When 
 in the writings of the third century, we meet with the 
 1 Essayist, vol. il. p. 149. 
 
230 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 term Trinity, we must not give to it the meaning which 
 it now has. The Trinity of that age was composed of 
 the Supreme God and of two other beings, perfectly 
 distinct from and subordinate to him, called the Son 
 and the Holy Spirit, who acted as ministers of the Su- 
 preme God. And even this approach to belief in a 
 Trinity, a behef which may be traced to the influence 
 on the simpler tenets of Christianity by the philosophy 
 of the later Platonists, was resented by the mass of the 
 early Christians. " To prove this," he continues, " and 
 to show the aversion which the multitude had to even 
 this qualified species of Trinity, we shall cite a passage 
 from TertuUian. . . . He says, ' The simple, the igno- 
 rant, and unlearned, who are always the greater body of 
 the Christians, . . . not understanding that the unity 
 of God is to be maintained but with the ^Economy,* 
 dread this Economy ; imagining that this number and 
 disposition of a trinity is a division of the unity. They 
 therefore will have it that we are worshippers of two, or 
 even three Gods, but that they are the worshippers of 
 one God only. We, they say, hold the Monarchy.^ Even 
 the Latins have learned to bawl out for the Monarchy, 
 and the Greeks themselves wiU not understand the 
 ^Economy ' ! " 
 
 A suggestion which Mr. Huidekoper throws out con- 
 cerning the rapidity of the spread of Christianity in the 
 first three centuries and the comparatively slow increase 
 of it in modern times pursues the same subject. In " A 
 Fact and an Inference," published in the " Western 
 
 1 This term was used at that time to express the agency of the Son, or 
 of the Son and tho Holy Spirit, in the administration of the Universe. — 
 H. J. H.'s note. 
 
 ^ By this term the ancients expressed the undivided supremacy of the 
 Father.— H. J. H.'s note. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 231 
 
 Messenger," ^ he holds the introduction o£ the doctrine of 
 the Trinity responsible for the retarded progress of the 
 Christian faith. So long as the simpler Arian form was 
 taught, missionaries met with quick response, while the 
 missionaries of the present day too often labor in vain. 
 The behef in the Divine Unity, he urges, " lies at the 
 foundation of aU true religion," and is " congenial to 
 the human heart and understanding," He even goes so 
 far as to surmise that the persistent distinctness of the 
 Jews as a people may be due to this feature of their 
 religion. He can discover, he says, no other cause for 
 this persistence than their belief in the Divine Unity. 
 " It is the power of this faith which has hitherto pre- 
 served them, and served to them as a bond of union in 
 their dispersion among the nations." 
 
 It is difficult for any of us to realize now that the 
 questions of original sin and election were serious issues 
 in a community, social issues as well as religious issues ; 
 and that those denying their vahdity were abused, vili- 
 fied, and ostracized. But as a matter of fact Unitarians 
 had to submit to the most uncharitable criticism while 
 waiting for time and their good works to vindicate their 
 right to exist side by side with the Orthodox brethren. 
 
 The two chapters on Original Sin^ which follow the 
 series on the Unity of God lead to the summary : " We 
 have thus endeavored to show that the doctrine of ori- 
 ginal sin is not taught in the Scriptures : that it is con- 
 trary to reason and experience ; and that its influence 
 is decidedly unfriendly to the cause of piety, of virtue 
 and of brotherly love ; and now we would ask the reader 
 seriously to consider whether the Unitarian is to be cut 
 off from Christian fellowship for rejecting this dogma." 
 
 1 Vol. v. p. 7. " ^ Essayist, vol. i. pp. 98 and 108. 
 
232 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 It was painful to him even to consider this question 
 of original sin ; and the doctrine of election, which was 
 the subject of the next essay/ was equally antipathetic. 
 " We shall endeavor to suppress the feelings of unmiti- 
 gated horror which this dogma is calculated to excite," 
 he wrote, " that we may examine it with that calmness 
 which the search after truth demands ; and our first 
 inquiry here will be: . . . What do the scriptures of 
 Almighty God teach us on this subject ? " Of course 
 he finds that they do not teach that doctrine at all. 
 
 It is the same with the doctrines treated of in the 
 essay on the " Particular Redemption, Effectual Calling, 
 and Final Perseverance of the Saints." ^ 
 
 " The Unitarian," says this essay, " believes that God 
 is the common father of all. That it is not His will that 
 any should perish, but that all should come to Him and 
 be saved. He believes that all are called to happiness, 
 and that it is in the power of every one to become happy 
 by trusting in God, and by following the precepts which 
 our blessed Saviour has given to us, and the example 
 which He has set us. He believes that, according to 
 the injunction of the apostle Paul, every one must work 
 out his own salvation ; and he knows that God never 
 requires of any one beyond what he is able to perform. 
 He does not believe that conversion from sin to holiness 
 is an instantaneous change, worked by almighty power 
 in man, and under which he is passive, but on the con- 
 trary, that though the resolution to return to God and 
 to become good may be taken in a moment, yet that the 
 work of conversion itself is one requiring much time and 
 labour. . . . He must wean himself from the sins which 
 have acquired dominion over him ; he must eradicate 
 1 Essayist, vol. i. p. 122. 2 Essayist, vol. i. p. 134. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 233 
 
 the evil propensities which self-indulgence has created 
 within him; he must purify his heart, as the source 
 whence all his actions spring, from every guilty and 
 unhallowed desire, and he must do all this with an 
 humble reHance on the divine assistance and blessing. 
 And when, at length, ... he has obtained the mastery 
 over himself, . . . still his warfare is not finished. He 
 is still sensible that without continued watchfulness he 
 may yet return to his former habits, and be lost ; and 
 that to be safe, he must persevere unto the end." 
 
 His next two articles deal with the Atonement.^ The 
 Scriptures indicate, he points out, that the word atone- 
 ment is used in the New Testament for reconciliation 
 and in the Old Testament in the old Jewish sense of a 
 ceremonial for purification, not as satisfaction or pay- 
 ment to avert the consequences of sin. He adds : " We 
 would state that the original Greek word, here^ trans- 
 lated atonement, has been elsewhere constantly rendered 
 reconciliation. This, too, in the days of King James, 
 was the true import of the word atonement, it being 
 originally derived from the two words at and one : to 
 be at one signifying to be at peace, or, to be reconciled. 
 Thus we read in Shakespeare's Coriolanus, — 
 
 He and Aufidius can no more atone 
 Than violenteat contrariety. 
 
 And elsewhere in the same author we have, — 
 
 He seeks to make atonement 
 
 Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers." 
 
 After an interesting argument, to strengthen which 
 he cites many texts, he says in review, " We observed 
 that the terms satisfaction, substitution, vicarious suf- 
 
 1 Essayist, vol. i. pp. 146, 169. ^ Romans v. 11. 
 
234 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 fering, imputed guilt, imputed righteousness, and other 
 phrases commonly used ... to express the high orthodox 
 doctrine of atonement, are not found in the Scriptures ; 
 and we endeavored to shew that the term atonement as 
 used in the New Testament means simply reconciliation ; 
 and that the atonement mentioned in the Old Testament 
 was a rite of ceremonial purification, not a satisfaction 
 made to Divine Justice for moral wrong. If we have 
 succeeded in proving this, ... it follows that the pop- 
 ular doctrine of atonement is not the doctrine of the 
 Scriptures." 
 
 He then continues : — 
 
 But, it may be asked, if this doctrine is not revealed 
 in the scriptures, how does it happen that it is received 
 by so large a portion of the Christian church, and that 
 those who believe in it think that they find it so clearly 
 taught there ? Now the reason for this appears to us to 
 be sufficiently obvious. From the dark ages there have 
 been handed down to us a number of dogmas, the off- 
 spring of the systems of heathen philosophy of those 
 days. These have been adopted by most of the Chris- 
 tian churches, and after being in various ways combined 
 with the simple truths of Christianity have been formed 
 into regular systems of theology. It is these systems 
 which constitute the chief contents of our modern creeds 
 and catechisms and confessions of faith. Although the 
 scriptures are not favorable to these dogmas, thus 
 adopted into Christianity, as not one of them is expli- 
 citly taught in the word of God, yet it is supposed, that 
 we find passages there, which give support to some 
 of the features belonging to them ; and besides, in the 
 creeds and confessions of faith, scriptural terms are fre- 
 quently made use of in connexion with these dogmas. 
 That these scripture terms, however, when found there, 
 have a meaning totally different from that which they 
 
THE UNITARIAN 235 
 
 have in the sacred pages, will be plainly apparent to 
 every one on the slightest investigation. . . . 
 
 But the opinion which has most generally prevailed 
 among Unitarians is : That the death of Christ is in- 
 strumental in our salvation only in presenting us with 
 motives to forsake sin, and to become virtuous and holy ; 
 and that the only way in which it saves us, is by mak- 
 ing us good. . . . That death set the seal to his mis- 
 sion, and established his reHgion in the world. By that 
 religion we are surrounded with motives to goodness, 
 and its precepts are emphatically what a truly great man 
 of the present age has called them : the guide to hap- 
 piness and peace.' . . . Christ is the messenger of the 
 divine mercy, and the medium of the divine communi- 
 cation to mankind. . . . 
 
 We have thus endeavored ... to investigate this in- 
 teresting subject, and our examinations have presented 
 us with two schemes totally dissimilar in their natures. 
 The one represents Christ, the second person in the 
 Trinity, as making by his sufferings and death, satis- 
 faction to the ofFended justice of the Father, the first 
 person in the Trinity, for the sins of mankind. In this 
 scheme the person who makes the atonement, the victim 
 by which that atonement is made, and the God to whom 
 the atonement is made, are all one and the same Being. 
 What a wonderful confusion of ideas this presents to 
 us ! The other scheme represents Christ as the Mes- 
 senger of God, suffering and dying to establish that re- 
 ligion by means of which man was to be re-called to the 
 path of vii-tue, which leads to happiness and to God. 
 Which of the two schemes is most in unison with the 
 plain teachings of scripture, and with the essential at- 
 tributes of the Deity, every reader must decide for 
 himself. 
 
 Upon the subject of eternal punishment Mr. Huide- 
 koper writes appealingly in the essay entitled " On Ter- 
 1 The Bralimin, Rammohnn Roy. — H. J. H.'s note. 
 
236 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 ror as a Principle of Moral Action :" * "As you value 
 the lasting welfare of your offspring, oh ! do keep their 
 minds uncontaminated by those degrading ideas of the 
 supreme Being which they would inevitably imbibe from 
 the popular catechisms of the day. Teach them to know 
 God as the best of Beings, the kindest of Benefactors, 
 a Father who supplies all their wants." . . . 
 
 This essay, however, is chiefly directed toward the 
 evils of terrorism as used in revivals. Our modern ter- 
 rorists, he declares, set out with the full determination 
 to produce an excitement. This kind of preaching is 
 pleasing to the multitude, and draws crowded audiences. 
 The love of excitement seems to be natural to man, and 
 the multitude will always flock in the greatest num- 
 bers wherever the threatenings against them are most 
 violent. "Do not let it be said that people do not love 
 to be disagreeably affected. We have only to go to the 
 scene of a pubHc execution to convince ourselves that 
 the multitude, rather than miss being excited, will seek 
 any spectacle, no matter how horrible it may be." This 
 kind of preaching "enables the minister to operate 
 powerfully on the community, and to produce a marked 
 effect . . . Genuine Christianity" he concludes, "does 
 not stand in need of such expedients." 
 
 The supernatural powers ascribed to Jesus presented 
 to Mr. Huidekoper no difficulty. A thorough consis- 
 tency ran through his interpretation of the mysteries of 
 the universe, so far as he attempted to explain those 
 mysteries at all. In the operation in nature of what 
 others have learned to call law, he refused to recognize 
 anything different from the direct action of the will of 
 ^ Essayist, vol. ii. p, 61. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 237 
 
 God, sustaining, continuing, directing, developing inert 
 matter in accordance with purposes consciously his own. 
 In his essay on Miracles, printed in the " Western Mes- 
 senger," ^ he asks : — 
 
 What are we to understand by the laws of nature? 
 According to the prevailing popular opinion, certain 
 energies, powers, or tendencies, were, at the creation, in- 
 fused into, or connected with our globe and all that is 
 upon it, by means of which everything is now either up- 
 held and preserved, or is constantly renewed and repro- 
 duced, so as to secure a permanent existence to this 
 world and all that belongs to it. These conservative 
 powers are denominated the laws of nature. . . . But if 
 the present order of things can maintain itself, even for a 
 moment, hy its own power, it may thus have maintained 
 itself during the time that is past, and may continue so 
 to maintain itself forever. To a system which thus ren- 
 ders the world independent of its Maker and its God my 
 mind cannot give its assent. Reason, nature, and reve- 
 lation all unite in teaching that God alone is self-exist- 
 ent and that everything else is dependent. • . . Every 
 organic atom, however combined, must at all times be 
 the special object of God's care. 
 
 Matter is essentially inert, and has of itself no active 
 properties or powers. The occult powers which we call 
 the laws of nature, are not inherent in matter. They 
 are merely the varied operations of the Deity, by which 
 the universe is supported and by which every thing is 
 upheld or renewed. If these views of the universal de- 
 pendence of everything on God be correct, it follows 
 that the birth of every insect, animal, or man, is now as 
 much a direct act of creation as it was at the first ; and 
 that the sprouting of a blade of grass, of a leaf, or of 
 the humblest plant, is as much the effect of the direct 
 action of the Deity, is as miraculous as was the raising 
 
 1 Vol. V. p. 290. 
 
238 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 of Lazarus from the dead. All the difference I can per- 
 ceive between them is, that the one is an exertion of 
 divine power, frequently repeated, and intended to an- 
 swer a common purpose, while the other is an exertion 
 of divine power, very rare in its recurrence, and in- 
 tended to answer a special purpose. 
 
 It is, however, in the essays on " Man and his Des- 
 tiny " printed in the " Essayist " ^ and in those on ** Fu- 
 ture Retribution " published in the " Western Messen- 
 ger," ^ that Mr. Huidekoper takes an individual stand, 
 and gives expression to ideas peculiar to himself, and, 
 as he says at the outset, not particularly belonging to 
 Unitarians as a body.^ These ideas, he tells us, he has 
 arrived at after a careful investigation, but he asks no 
 one to accept them unless he finds them in accordance 
 ■with reason and with the Scriptures. 
 
 Man, he asserts, in the "Essayist,"* is placed on 
 earth to enjoy life and be happy. This world is not a 
 vale of tears, nor is human life merely a probationary 
 scene ; even if existence were limited to the earthly 
 years, man would have great cause for gratitude to God. 
 God has been bountiful; he has given not only the 
 physical basis for happiness, he has given the soul. 
 What the soul is, we cannot know; the Bible does not 
 tell us, and we have no means of forming a definite 
 conception of a substance not material. Most persons 
 consider the soul imperishable, — but if God has called 
 it into existence, it must follow that that existence was 
 
 » Vol. ii. pp. 97, 113. 2 Vol. vi. pp. 203, 217, 301. 
 
 » Mr. Huidekoper's articles "On Future Retribution" in the Western 
 Messenger were answered by T. M. in the same periodical, vol. vii. pp. 
 241, 333, as well as by Christopher P. Craneh, vol. vii. p. 187, who en- 
 titles his reply, " A Word on the Doctrine of Annihilation." 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 98. 
 
THE UNITARIAN 239 
 
 dependent on God's will, and that the soul has not in 
 itseK the quality of imperishabiUty. He believed that 
 the soul would live while it found happiness in this uni- 
 verse, which God has so fashioned that happiness and 
 goodness are interdependent ; should a time come when 
 the desire for a life in accord with the moral trend of 
 the universe was not strong enough to make the soul 
 seek the only happiness possible to it, then extinction 
 must follow. Meanwhile life is undeniably a blessing, 
 every one has reason to be thankful for its benefits, nor 
 will any one be dismissed from existence who can con- 
 tinue to use the means of happiness provided for him.* 
 
 " I do not like," he said in the " Messenger," " to 
 enter into disquisitions of what God can or cannot do. 
 Such matters are too high for beings so limited as we 
 are. But it appears to me to follow from the very lim- 
 ited ideas which we have of God, that inherent immor- 
 tality, like omnipresence and omniscience, belongs to 
 his incoinmunicahle attributes." 
 
 The doctrine of immediate salvation, held by those 
 whom he called " Ultra-Universalists," seemed to him 
 to be " incompatible with the idea of a righteous retri- 
 bution." He says, moreover : — 
 
 The doctrine of the ultimate restoration of all man- 
 kind is one which recommends itself to our better feel- 
 ings, and all must wish it to be true. But I am afraid we 
 
 1 His conviction regarding the fnture life, or this life, indeed, is further 
 emphasized in the short paper on " Being and Immortality " in the West- 
 ern Messenger (vol. iii. p. 526) ; " It follows . . . that in every creature 
 — in the highest seraph as in the worm of the dust — in the human soul 
 as in the human body — there must be a constant tendency to return to 
 that state of non-existence from which they were called into being, and 
 that were the supporting power of God only intermitted for one moment 
 they would cease to be." 
 
240 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 have no sufficient evidence on which to found it. . . . 
 The doctrine is nowhere expressly stated in the Scrip- 
 tures. It is avowedly one of inferences. . . . The uni- 
 versal restoration of mankind is also inferred from the 
 progressive powers of man. . . . But I doubt whether 
 we can logically infer from the general existence of these 
 capacities, that they must necessarily, in every instance, 
 receive all the development of which they are susceptible. 
 It appears to me that such an influence is not in accord- 
 ance with what we see of the Divine agency in other 
 matters. 
 
 Thus, for instance, if in our Western woods, a few 
 trees are felled, hundreds of young trees immediately 
 spring up to replace them. Now in this case, every one 
 of these young trees possesses the capacity of becoming a 
 large full-grown tree ; and yet it is evidently not God's 
 intention that it should become so. The very proximity 
 to each other in which they are placed at first, renders 
 this impossible. Most of these young trees must perish 
 early, and yet their existence is not useless. It tends to 
 give to the trees that survive, an upward tendency, and 
 a degree of development, which they could not other- 
 wise have attained to. We see thus, that it is not a prin- 
 ciple of the Divine government, that, in every case, every 
 power and capacity should receive the highest possible 
 degree of development of which it is capable. 
 
 The only retribution taught by the Scriptures, he 
 maintained, was the possibility of extinction; and in 
 support of this he emphasized the fact that the Greek 
 word Hades, the grave, and the Hebrew Gehenna, place 
 of destruction, translated by the English word hell, 
 should not be understood as meaning a place where Hfe 
 is continued in pain, but one involving the cessation of 
 life, Gehenna being derived from Ghe-Hinnom, a bury- 
 ing ground in a valley near Jerusalem, where also the 
 
THE UNITARIAN 241 
 
 refuse of the city was thrown to be destroyed by decay 
 and fire. Hence, in the hyperboHc language of the East, 
 '' there the wonn died not, nor was- the fire ever quenched, 
 but the process of destruction was constantly going on 
 till all was consumed. . . . Gehenna was the emblem, 
 not of suffering, but of destruction." 
 
 The idea of torture after death, he goes on to say, 
 still in the " Messenger," already famiUar in the myth- 
 ical fires of Tartarus, became transferred to the biblical 
 term hell-fire, and " thus the doctrine of penal suffering 
 after death was introduced into Christianity." But de- 
 struction, not torture, the second death, not an eternity 
 of agony, are set forth in the Bible. We read, he says, 
 of being destroyed in hell, but never of the sufferings 
 or torments of hell. 
 
 Then, if we again take up the " Essayist " : " The 
 Apostle says that the wages of sin is death. Here it is 
 obvious that by the word death, the Apostle cannot 
 mean that separation of the soul and body which com- 
 monly goes by this name. That death is common to us 
 all ; to the virtuous as well as to the vicious ; to the 
 infant that never knew sin, and to the hoary headed 
 transgressor who has grown gray in iniquity. By the 
 term death he must mean that destruction of being 
 which awaits the wicked at the end of their course." 
 
 The idea of the extinction of the wicked as a sub- 
 stitute for eternal punishment was a natural outcome of 
 Mr. Huidekoper's tenderness of heart, which could not 
 contemplate calmly the idea of eternal suffering for any 
 soul. No one can deny that extinction might make a 
 good preaching doctrine for Unitarians, well calculated 
 to bring the sinner to repentance, and furnishing the 
 Unitarian pastor with a much needed means of reclaim- 
 
242 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 ing the backslider. Indeed, in a letter to James Free- 
 man Clarke (April 17, 1838), Mr. Huidekoper made a 
 suggestion to this effect : — 
 
 You say . . . that we want above everything a system 
 of practical theology ; and you complain of the desul- 
 tory mode of preaching which we so often meet with, 
 and wish for something more definite. In all this I fully 
 coincide with you. In reading the life of the late Dr. 
 Parker, I was struck with the remark, that whatever 
 might be the subject of his discourses, he always 
 brought in the doctrine of repentance or reformation. 
 This was the great central doctrine or point to which 
 all his preaching tended. He thus gave unity of design 
 to aU his labours, and the state of his church showed 
 how eminently successful these labours had been. But 
 even this alone appears to me to be not enough, unless 
 you can also lay before your audience, at the same 
 time, a sufficient motive, why they should repent or be 
 converted ; and, if I mistake not, it is here that the 
 deficiency of our system, as commonly held, is to be 
 looked for. The orthodox threaten the sinner with an 
 eternity of torments in hell, unless he does repent, and 
 you acknowledge the efficacy of this mode of preach- 
 ing. But you cannot adopt it, because you do not 
 believe that our Heavenly Father would continue man 
 in being for the mere purpose of tormenting him ; and 
 yet you have no substitute for it which is equally effi- 
 cacious. If you tell the sinner that sin and misery are 
 unalterably connected, he does not believe you. He 
 feels that the enjoyments of sense give him pleasurable 
 sensations, and on that account he gives himseK up 
 to them. If you speak to him of the pleasures of Virtue 
 and of the joys of Heaven, he can neither appreciate 
 the one nor the other. His moral sentiment is not suf- 
 ficiently developed to appreciate moral enjoyments. If 
 you speak to him of the goodness and love of God, 
 these he can to a certain extent appreciate, but then 
 
THE UNITARIAN 243 
 
 his belief in them produces an effect directly the reverse 
 of what you had intended. He beheves that his Soul is 
 immortal and that he is to live forever. He believes 
 also that God is good and loves him, and, combining 
 these two beliefs, he lives on carelessly, trusting that 
 eventually all will be well. 
 
 Such are some of the difficulties under which the Min- 
 istry labours, for want of being able to present to the 
 mind of the Sinner motives sufficiently powerful to 
 induce him to reform. If I am not mistaken, much 
 of this want of effectiveness in our system has its ori- 
 gin in the generally received opinion with respect to 
 the immortality of the Soul. Once lay down as an 
 axiom, that the soul of man possesses an essential in- 
 herent immortality, and that aU mankind are to live 
 forever, and this axiom will lead us either to the belief 
 in eternal punishment, or to a Universalism more or 
 less modified. But if (as I believe reason and revela- 
 tion unite in teaching) you convince the sinner that 
 God alone is immortal : — that whatever is created, 
 whether it be Spirit or matter, has a constant and 
 inherent tendency to destruction, and is only kept in 
 existence by the supporting power of God constantly 
 exercised, you will make him feel his dependence on 
 God ; and if you convince him further, that eternal 
 life, instead of being an inherent quality, is the gift of 
 God, promised to be given to those (and to those only) 
 who by a continuance in well doing will qualify them- 
 selves for its enjoyment, you then, at once, obtain a 
 powerful hold on the Sinner, by appealing to the 
 strongest natural propensity implanted in him by his 
 Maker, namely, the love of hfe. I have dwelt thus 
 long on this subject because I deem it an important 
 one. I was led to this train of thinking by the con- 
 tents of your letter, and I send you a couple of num- 
 bers of the " Essayist," in which you wiU find my views 
 somewhat more developed. 
 
244 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Most touchingly characteristic of the outgoing, 
 warmly beneficent nature of the writer, and of his ha- 
 bitual practice, is the paragraph which brings his confi- 
 dences — for the sentences in the essay " On Man and 
 his Destiny " are pervaded by a personal tone that makes 
 them Uke private utterances for the understanding ear 
 alone — to a close. " Should any one ask us concerning 
 the joys of Heaven," he concludes, " we will tell him 
 how he may, even here below, have a faint foretaste of 
 them. Let him, when no eye but that of God sees him, 
 go to the abode of the unfortunate. Let him reUeve 
 their wants, console them under their afflictions, and 
 speak peace to their wounded spirits. And then, when 
 their hearts open again to happiness, . . . then let him, 
 for a moment, cast a glance at his own heart. That 
 which he then feels, that is moral felicity, — that is 
 Heaven." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 
 
 The new intellectual life brought to the Pennsylvania 
 interior by Mr. Huidekoper himseK: and by the minis- 
 ters and tutors, fresh from their Eastern colleges, whom 
 he drew thither, did much toward making Meadville a 
 centre of culture. Nor were the experiences of entering 
 into frontier hfe, and of sharing the spiritual impetus 
 which was felt by every one who came in contact with 
 Mr. Huidekoper, lost upon these young men who threw 
 themselves into the interests of the responsive commu- 
 nity, and of the energetic household at Pomona. The 
 journey alone, with its passage of the mountains, its 
 day after day of pushing forward through the unbroken 
 forest, its mornings and evenings of ineffable beauty, 
 was an appeal to the perception of the poet, to the imagi- 
 nation of the mystic. Each newcomer gathered to him- 
 self a part of the novel elements which formed Mr. 
 Huidekoper's environment, and carried back to his ma- 
 turer work the fruits of his sojourn in the West.* 
 
 ' Ephraim Peabody's Phi Beta Kappa poem, New England Emigration 
 Westward, delivered in 1835, pictures the Western world from which he 
 then had come, and, stiU more, that which Mr. Huidekoper had found 
 upon his first entrance into western Pennsylvania. The poem was printed 
 in the first volume of the Western Messenger, and contains these lines : — 
 
 Dawn on the mountains ! Gloriously the mom 
 Purples along the east. The stars are shorn 
 And struggle forward with thin rays and white, 
 
246 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 They were a notable band, these instructors and min- 
 isters who taught in the schookoom ia the north wing 
 of Pomona Hall, or preached to the Unitarians of the 
 town. John Mudge Merrick, Andrew Preston Peabody, 
 Washington Gilbert, Ephraim Peabody, George Nichols, 
 Alanson Brigham, and John Sullivan Dwight were the 
 tutors. Add to these William Henry Channing, John 
 Quinby Day, Henry Emmons, James Freeman Clarke, 
 Elihu Goodwin Holland, and Eufus Phineas Stebbins, 
 all of whom filled the pulpit for a longer or shorter 
 period during Mr. Huidekoper's lifetime, and the list 
 becomes representative of the active Unitarian thinkers 
 and workers of that day. 
 
 When Mr. Merrick, the first of the tutors, arrived, 
 Frederic, the youngest son, was not quite eight years 
 old ; Anna was about eleven, Edgar less than fourteen, 
 Alfred between fifteen and sixteen ; while Elizabeth 
 was a child of six.^ 
 
 Then fade and vanish in the advancing light. 
 
 O'er the far foreat-line the herald beams 
 
 Of momiDg: upward blaze in rushing streams. 
 
 And the imperial sun, as he ascends. 
 
 His sceptred rays extends 
 
 To the far summits that to heaven aspire, 
 
 And at the touch they glow with heaven's own fire. 
 
 And these lines on the emigrant tide from the east: — 
 
 But then, like waves across a dyke's sharp edge, 
 They broke above the Alleghany's ridge. 
 And every pass that seams their lengthening crest 
 Poured its vast surge of life into the West. 
 
 ' To meet the demands of the growing household, the capacitj of the 
 house had been enlarged by a brick addition, buUt in 1819. This addition 
 was put up in the rear of the main building and was connected with it by 
 a wide, cool passage, which in summer could be used as a dining-room. 
 The addition itself contained kitchen and wash-house, and a store-room, 
 and chambers above for the servants. Moreover an ofQce building of two 
 rooms, also built in 1819, thirty feet north of the house, made it possible 
 to devote the north wing to school purposes. 
 
o > 
 
 O o 
 
 cu 
 
 •m 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 247 
 
 J-ne different impressions made upon Frederic by 
 these men of strong individuality — and it was for him, 
 chiefly, that the list grew to be such a long one — 
 stand recorded in a fragmentary "Autobiography," writ- 
 ten for his children in the leisure of his later life. Of 
 Mr. Merrick and Mr. Gilbert his recollections are not 
 particularly distinct. Of Andrew Preston Peabody, 
 however, they are quite clear. The famiUar figure is 
 all the more endeared to our memory by the comment, 
 "A. P. Peabody was so peculiar, and in some respects 
 so awkward, that no one could well help recollecting 
 his movements, if not his instructions." Frederic adds, 
 " He was, moreover, a copious reader, and, at the age 
 of seventeen, at which age he was our teacher, had read 
 more than most persons at twice that age." 
 
 With Ephraim Peabody came a strong reinforcement 
 of young and devoted energy and enthusiasm. Frederic, 
 then at boyhood's most impressionable age, responded 
 to it quickly, and kept the remembrance of it through 
 all his years. " His personal influence over me," he 
 says, " was, because of his beautiful character, more 
 than that of any other among them. I can remember, 
 moreover, with pleasure, when I gave him a copy of my 
 ' Underworld Mission,' his gentle request, ' Frederic, 
 won't you write your name in it ? ' " 
 
 To Alfred and Edgar, also, Mr. Peabody was a com- 
 panion and friend. They had already begun to share 
 their father's increasing labors, which were eventually 
 to rest upon their shoulders, but business cares and 
 hours did not press heavily in that happy valley. The 
 young men were the life of a gay circle into which 
 Anna Huidekoper and Margaret Hazlett, charming 
 and attractive young girls, were stepping, and which 
 
248 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 included the young people of the Shippen and CuUum 
 families and others less connected with our narrative. 
 Mr. Peabody's adaptability made him equally desired 
 and beloved of old and young, and while he could 
 spend hours walking up and down the Pomona piazza, 
 " talking Unitarianism with Mr. Huidekoper," he was 
 no less a congenial companion to Elizabeth, in her 
 teens. 
 
 Take them all together, — the quiet, efficient, ten- 
 derly loved mother, the father retaining the best of the 
 old world culture quickened by the activity of the new, 
 the ever helpful aunts, the group of young people sur- 
 rounding these strong central figures, ardent, joyous 
 spirits alive to the finest influences of the hour, touched 
 by the first far-thrown rays of nineteenth century ideal- 
 ism, but not made too transparent by them, devoted to 
 their elders and to their church, ready in good works, 
 generous in friendships, fond of nature, appreciative of 
 books, — they made up a household to be one of which 
 was indeed a liberal education. 
 
 Nor were they ever at a loss for entertainment at 
 Pomona. First and foremost among the recreations of 
 the masculine portion of the household was the autumn 
 shooting. Mr. Huidekoper loved to range the fields 
 with dog and gun, and his sons had learned from him 
 to be good marksmen. Mr. Peabody was speedily in- 
 troduced to the sport, and his enjoyment of the shoot- 
 ing is fairly contagious. The spirit of a September 
 morning, when the Huidekopers gave themselves up to 
 roaming through woods and meadows of the old Indian 
 hunting grounds, could not be better imparted than by 
 this passage taken from one of his letters : 
 
 [September 27, 1830.] " I have fine health. I take 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 249 
 
 more exercise than ever I did before in my life, — five 
 times as much. I go a shooting almost every day and 
 carry a gun round mile after mile. I am getting to be 
 so expert a shot that I begin to grow sick of shooting 
 at any thing except it be on the wing. Let me see — 
 how many kinds of birds have I shot flying ? of hawks, 
 crows, pigeons, quails, woodcock. Woodcock shooting 
 is capital; they are hardly ever shot except on the wing, 
 and it is hard shooting them. I bagged two yesterday. 
 We have good dogs, pointers or setters, and good 
 guns. We sally out into the cornfields — Hie away 
 Basto — hie away Cora — Carlo — hie away — hie away. 
 Hist — Cora is setting. Draw up slow — gun cocked 
 — finger on the trigger. All ready ? Move on — 
 slowly. Up jumps the woodcock — away he whirs swift 
 as lightning. Crack go the guns — hurra — I brought 
 him. Hie away Cora — Carlo — find him — here he is. 
 Good fellow Cora — good fellow Carlo — you set finely. 
 Good fellows — hie away again. Oh, 't is magnifi- 
 cent." 
 
 In still earlier times turkeys had abounded. One im- 
 mense wild gobbler was domesticated at Pomona and 
 lorded it over the poultry yard untU he wandered from 
 its safe precincts, and was shot in the woods. The cry 
 of the turkeys and the drumming of the pheasants en- 
 livened the forest, while pigeons in autumn and spring 
 darkened the air with their flight. 
 
 Larger game than turkeys, pigeons, quail, and wood- 
 cock was often to be seen. September was apt to bring 
 out the few bears in the vicinity. Occasionally the ap- 
 pearance of one in the neighborhood of the town would 
 be reported, and then " every man and boy who could 
 raise a gun set out to chastise him," and the hunt would 
 
250 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 be carried on perhaps all day. " On horseback and on 
 foot, with dogs and without them, all started in pur- 
 suit; " thus Anna Huidekoper described for Frederic a 
 particular hunt which took place in 1834. " The poor 
 animal," she continued, " who no doubt had never been 
 bedevilled with such a rumpus at his heels before, not 
 knowing what to make of it, got up into a tree in one 
 of Van Horn's fields to make observations and recon- 
 noiter the opposite forces ; " and of course that was the 
 end of the " invader of the peaceful soil and unresisting 
 cornfields." ^ 
 
 Even fifty-nine years afterwards the memories of Po- 
 mona had not lost their fragrance for the sender of that 
 letter. On April 28, 1889, she wrote to her sister: 
 " Those lovely autumn days when father would come 
 to the door of our schoolroom and say, ' Oh, come, 
 dears ! shut up your books ; this is too pleasant a day 
 to be spent indoors — let us go off nutting ! ' We would 
 have a 12 o'clock dinner, and the whole family would 
 go off — some in the big carriage, others on horseback, 
 two perhaps in the chaise (gig we called it), and we 
 would ramble about all the afternoon, gathering hazel- 
 nuts, eating peaches at Mrs. Elson's, the gentlemen of 
 the party perhaps using their guns. A breath of those 
 autumn woods often comes to me even now." 
 
 The young people, fond of both walking and riding, 
 had places of resort in all the country round. An espe- 
 cial favorite was " the Rocks." Here were journeys' 
 endings and basket picnickings in abundance, before the 
 
 1 As for the squirrels, gray, black, and red, they became at intervals a 
 veritable pest in the farmer's woods, necessitating a concerted onslaught. 
 This was made an occasion of festivity with a barbecue at the end, in 
 which the whole village joined. 
 
25 .S 
 O > 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 251 
 
 vandal days when the glen was invaded by the stone- 
 cutters. 
 
 In winter sleighing parties were popular. Pomona 
 would be the rendezvous for a half dozen or more 
 sleighs with their eager horses^ jingling bells, fur robes, 
 and loads of rosy-cheeked girls and boys. At the other 
 end of the route, perhaps at some country inn, a dance 
 would be improvised, and after that was over the party 
 would sing its way homeward over the moonlit roads. 
 " We had a delightful party at Gonneaut Lake last 
 Tuesday afternoon," Anna wrote to Frederic in February, 
 1835. " Went out after dinner, took tea and returned 
 by moonHght. Between Miss Wallace and Lieutenant 
 Hurst we had some delightful music in our sleigh in 
 returning, among other pieces ' The Phantom Ship ' — 
 have you heard it ? " 
 
 Indoor gatherings also were frequent and informal. 
 Either at Pomona or at some other hospitable house the 
 young folks would assemble for singing, dancing, and 
 games ; or, if the occasion were one of Miss Shippen's 
 " soirees " or if the company contained a goodly sprin- 
 kling of the serious-minded, for conversation. " Miss 
 Wallace gave a young party last Tuesday evening," 
 said Anna again,^ " at which Cousin M. and myself re- 
 presented Pomona Hall : quite a new thing for that ven- 
 erable mansion, whose delegation generally consists of 
 some eight or ten. We spent a delightful evening, but 
 we missed our absent friends much. Mr. Enter was 
 there in tolerable spirits, discussing as usual every author 
 and every production which has ever been read or heard 
 of, not even excepting ' my favorite Goethe ' and the 
 ' Sorrows of Werther.' He talked a good deal about 
 
 1 Letter of August 31, 1834. 
 
252 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 you and also about his ' good friend Mr. Dwight ' for 
 whose intellectual conversation I suppose he often 
 wishes. Mr. Boyer says he ' likes my brother Frederic, 
 he is so full of youth: " Another of Anna's letters 
 (March 4, 1835) says : " We had a httle tea-party on 
 Monday evening at Mrs, Shippen's at which we per- 
 formed various feats, such as setthng amicably the dis- 
 pute between France and the United States, or rather, 
 between France and General Jackson ; and Professor 
 Ruter annihilated the Isthmus of Darien by a process 
 which (Alfred observed) would only require three thou- 
 sand years to be effectual." 
 
 From visits to Pittsburg or to Philadelphia the girls 
 always came back with satisfaction to Pomona Hall. 
 " Pray don't tell Mr. Norton any tough stories about 
 our not very celebrated Httle counties out West here, or 
 he may doubt when you talk about our darhng little 
 MeadvUle, which you know needs no embellishing to 
 make it a little paradise," Anna cautioned her brother. 
 
 But the greatest happiness of young and old came 
 from the sympathetic relations maintained in the large 
 and composite family. Always watchful to provide 
 abundant variety for his children, and sharing many of 
 their sports, Mr. Huidekoper also knew how to make 
 for them even out of his business engagements a hoh- 
 day. His companionship alone could lend interest to a 
 journey, and while his sons, Alfred and Edgar, were 
 usually the ones to travel with him, his wife or his 
 daughters or Margaret Hazlett often shared the change 
 of air and scene. " We spent about a week endeavoring 
 to obtain our semi-annual harvest," Alfred wrote,^ " but 
 the crop was rather a slim one. We had, however, some 
 
 1 To his brother Frederic, January 14, 1835. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 253 
 
 delightful sleighing, the snow being about a foot deep 
 and the weather beautifully clear, although the nights 
 were extremely cold, the thermometer sometimes stand- 
 ing 17° below zero. The forest scenery for several 
 mornings was incomparably fine, the trees feathered 
 with light frost-work, and in some places festooned with 
 grape-vines covered with snow. The ringing echoes of 
 the bells among the hUls, the morning sun breaking 
 forth ia all its brightness upon this fairy world, and the 
 wildness of the scenery (for we frequently went from five 
 to six miles without [passing] any settlement) altogether 
 made some of our morning drives quite poetical." 
 And again, on March 27, 1835, to his sister Anna : 
 
 Our journey was commenced, as your ladyship knows, 
 to-day at twelve o'clock M,, my father and myself 
 being the sole occupants of the stage, and our Jehu and 
 another fellow passenger being jointly possessed of the 
 driver's box. Our roads were rather soft, being some- 
 what like the western territory, not yet settled. Our 
 driver decidedly a clever fellow, who whistled, chir- 
 ruped, and shouted at his nags, by all which devices 
 and expedients he succeeded in chasing, to use his own 
 professional technology, his horses along at the rate of 
 some three miles per hour. 
 
 The first eighteen miles my father and self got over 
 by discussing matters and things connected with roads, 
 canals, railroads, hotels, etc., and in making and un- 
 making future arrangements, a kind of appendix to our 
 employment at home for the last three or four weeks. 
 By the time we had got through this, our fellow pas- 
 senger, whose democracy could not keep him warm, va- 
 cated the driver's seat, and got into the coach, when my 
 father commenced making his acquaintance as follows : 
 " I see the pigeons are beginning to come, sir." An- 
 swer : *' Yes sir, I see several." Qu". " Where do you 
 
254 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 reside, sir? " Ans. "Nowhere, sir, I am just going to 
 Jefferson County, Missouri, there 's a great chance for 
 speculation there now, sir. It is a small place and has 
 just been made the seat of government." Qu°. " Did 
 you come from New York ? " Ans. " No sir, from Har- 
 risburg — I've been spending a week making sugar 
 near Mr. Cooler — perhaps you know him ; his wife is 
 heir to the Holland Land Company." After some ques- 
 tions, Mr. Cooler was transposed from Cooler, Keeler, 
 Culler, Koehler, into Mr. F. W. Koehler ; but as to his 
 wife being heir to the Holland Land Company, I would 
 like to see the family record for that. 
 
 When in 1831 Mr. Ephraim Peabody left Pomona, 
 George Nichols came to take his place. 
 
 " The most laboriously faithful in preparing me for 
 college," Frederic wrote, " was George Nichols, after- 
 wards librarian at Harvard ; no one could be more 
 assiduous in his efforts." The same uncompromising 
 faithfulness applied to Elizabeth's lessons resulted in a 
 curriculum which would appall the modern thirteen- 
 year-old child. Elizabeth accepted her " Dictionary " 
 and other studies without a complaint, but the bare 
 enumeration of them in a letter written by her to Mr. 
 Peabody after his final departure from Meadville, when 
 Mr. Nichols had entered upon the charge of the school- 
 room, is eloquent. She begins [October 9, 1831], " My 
 dear Friend : Thy kind letter I received some weeks 
 since. I should like very much to see Cincinnati and 
 all those places which you mentioned, but if Edgar 
 goes, I shall hear so much about it that I will be con- 
 tented without seeing it for a great many years, if ever. 
 Basto the reverend and Ponto the jumper are very 
 well ; Ponto has never been down here since you went 
 away. Diep the fat was given away. Cora the meek and 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 255 
 
 Carlo the magnificent have entirely recovered from the 
 distemper ; we thought that neither of them would re- 
 cover. Puss feels much offended that when inquiring 
 for your old acquaintances here you should not care 
 whether he were yet alive or no. Carlo would be very 
 glad to get you back again, so that he would get per- 
 mission to lie before the fire, especially if he brought a 
 shingle to make it burn. I study grammar and parsing 
 from nine until eleven, and from eleven till twelve Dic- 
 tionary, in the morning ; in the afternoon I study Dic- 
 tionary from two till one quarter before three, then 
 recite aU my lessons, then write an hour and study 
 grammar from that till five for one week : the next 
 week I study the Bible, beginning at the book of Gen- 
 esis, in place of Walker's dictionary. We write compo- 
 sitions on Saturday morning. . . . P. S. My father has 
 gone to Erie to meet Count Maximilian de Seon, whose 
 fame has doubtless reached you long ere this : notice has 
 been taken of his wealth in every paper in the Union, 
 and many surmises as to where he wiU estabhsh him- 
 self." 
 
 As Mr. Nichols had been ordained, the church could 
 now have the rites of baptism and communion admin- 
 istered. At the communion service in his time, a glass 
 loving-cup made and presented to the church by Ben- 
 jamin Bakewell was passed from one member to another 
 as the communicants sat about the lawyers' table within 
 the bar at the Court House.' It was in his time, too, 
 that Miss Margaret Shippen gathered the children of 
 the little congregation together, and, assisted by mem- 
 bers of the Huidekoper, CuUum, and Shippen families, 
 
 ' E. M. Wilbur in the Historical Sketch of the Independent Congrega- 
 tional ( Unitarian') Church of Meadoille, Pa., p. 26. 
 
256 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 began the Sunday-school work which afterward grew 
 to such large proportions. 
 
 In connection with the Rev. Alanson Brigham, an- 
 other ordained minister, who taught in the school and 
 preached in the Court House for a year after Mr. 
 Nichols' departure, came a close acquaintance of the 
 young household with death. Mr. Brigham was about 
 to enter upon his second year when an attack of typhoid 
 fever seized him at Pomona. This was on his return to 
 Meadville, after his summer's vacation at the East. In 
 taking this journey ^ he had traveled by stage and 
 steamboat via Boston, Providence, New York, Albany, 
 and BufEalo. From Buffalo he went by steamboat to 
 Erie, or rather to " the peninsula," where he was landed 
 at night, and in which malarial place he had to wait 
 several hours for a conveyance, stage or wagon, to 
 carry him to Meadville. " This caused an illness," 
 says Frederic Huidekoper, "issuing in the typhoid 
 fever of which he died." Frederic bore a part in the 
 labor of nursing, and contracted the fever, which 
 made him an invalid for several months. " I surmise," 
 continues he, in his dictated reminiscences, " that this 
 fever caused in my case short-sightedness, and it may 
 also have occasioned a gradual contraction of sight, 
 which has ended in blindness." 
 
 Blindness was far in the future at that time. One 
 meeting Frederic then was struck by a certain boyish 
 radiance which made him to his friends the very 
 
 1 Another route was by way of the mountains, which at that time could 
 be crossed between Huntingdon and Johnstown by a cable railway, con- 
 sisting of tracks laid on inclined planes, five on one side of the mountain, 
 five on the other, each plane being about three-quarters of a mile long, 
 and supplied with a cable twice the length of the plane, so that it took up 
 on one side two cars, while letting down two on the other. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 257 
 
 embodiment of youth. His enthusiasms, however, were 
 all for study and books. While deeply appreciative of 
 Mr. Nichols, and probably of Mr. Brigham, he could 
 only look with wonder and some distaste upon the 
 special talents and idiosyncrasies of his next tutor, Mr. 
 Dwight. "John S. Dwight [was] a person of gentle 
 disposition, but of much less aptitude for teaching. 
 He had an admiration for Shakespeare and a strong 
 desire for playing upon the piano, being very fond of 
 music, afterwards devoting much time to composition, 
 especially of church music." 
 
 It was largely Mr. Dwight, however, and William 
 Henry Channing, who brought to Pomona a light sug- 
 gestion of the dawning spirit of the New England 
 renaissance, the awakening to joy in Ufe, to relish for 
 the beautiful in literature and art, and to the desire to 
 experiment in new modes of living, to create fresh 
 ideals, and to build religion and society anew ; the 
 spirit which, in its loftier flight, was called at first in 
 derision "transcendentalism." But all this was merely in 
 embryo when John Sullivan Dwight and William Henry 
 Channing walked the Meadville woods and drew inspi- 
 ration from its gracious hillsides. Mr. Dwight's "ad- 
 miration for Shakespeare " is further illustrated by 
 another reminiscence. " While he [Mr. Dwight] was 
 with us William H. Channing filled for some months 
 our pulpit, and on one occasion they two, with my 
 brother Edgar and myself, visited your grandfather's 
 vacant field on the top of the hill on the opposite side 
 of the creek. There we seated ourselves on stumps and 
 read for the benefit of our lungs. A congregation of 
 cows collected, and your uncle Edgar with Mr. Chan- 
 ning took two umbrellas and ran towards them, opening 
 
258 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 and shutting the umbrellas. The cows took down the 
 hillside in a fright, and the readers returned to their 
 positions. Within ten minutes the herd of fifteen or 
 twenty animals returned. This time they came cau- 
 tiously, each cow protruding its head warily through 
 the bushes. The whole side of the field presented a 
 row of cows listening to Shakespeare." 
 
 Mr. Dwight, while he was in Meadville, was the life 
 of the Lyceum, that New England institution now a 
 landmark of the past, but which flourished for a time in 
 the little Pennsylvania town. After his departure, Anna 
 testifies, the Lyceum languished; there were melan- 
 choly nights when long prosing made the young folks 
 stir uneasily on the benches, and laughable nights when 
 garrulous dullness concerned itself with impossible sup- 
 positions. Now and again it would revive. " We had a 
 pretty good lecture from Father," records his daughter 
 Anna, in January, 1835, " on the advantages of intel- 
 lectual cultivation, and afterwards a debate on the ques- 
 tion ' Is animal instinct in any manner to be compared 
 
 with human reason ? ' Mr. . . . contended that 
 
 even the Indian had nothing to guide him but instinct, 
 that he never exercised the faculty of reason, indeed, 
 did not possess it. ... I think I will send him some of 
 Cooper's novels to read. It may give him an exagger- 
 ated, but at any rate a nobler, idea of his red breth- 
 
 ren." 
 
 The arrival of guests from the larger world beyond 
 the mountains was always hailed with joy in the hospit- 
 able mansion ; and when one day a stranger from over 
 the sea came all unexpected to Pomona, it was an event 
 which filled a large space in two of Anna's letters to 
 her brother. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 269 
 
 [November 4, 1834.] What a long, long time since 
 I wrote last to you, but I think you will not refuse me 
 absolution, when I say how we have been employed for 
 the last week. Last Wednesday morning immediately 
 after breakfast two ladies called and handed their cards 
 and a letter ; I asked them to walk in, and on glancing 
 at their cards found that our guests were Miss Marti- 
 neau and a young lady who is travelling with her. We 
 welcomed Miss M. as you may suppose, with great joy, 
 and they have been with us ever since, until yesterday 
 afternoon, when they left for Pittsburgh. Oh, what 
 rare enjoyment we had those five days ! Miss M. is most 
 dehghtful in conversation, and we walked, rode and 
 talked (or rather Ustened) all day long. Miss M. is a 
 great pedestrian and has tired me out completely. To 
 be sure, that does not require much exertion. She has 
 left us quite melancholy and desolate, and so I have 
 betaken myself to sewing as the only preventive to a 
 severe fit of the blues. Poiu* of a family is really too 
 quiet for me, and four such silent ones too. Alfred got 
 home on Saturday night, and yesterday morning he left 
 again with Father, Ma, and Edgar for Erie, from which 
 they will return on Friday. They gave me a polite in- 
 vitation to join their party, but I would rather be ex- 
 cused a visit to Erie at this season of the year. Wonder 
 whether their lake is so often apostrophised since lawyer 
 Albert left ? I feel no temptation to brave its Novem- 
 ber winds just now, and at any rate would rather have 
 spent yesterday morning with Miss Martineau than 
 staging it between this and Waterford. 
 
 [December 14, 1834.] As to Mrs. FoUen's request 
 that I would tell her all about Miss Martineau, you may 
 tell her that I know nothing ; if a personal description 
 be wished, I don't know that she could have a better 
 impression than that conveyed by her portrait in her 
 " Devotional Exercises ; " 't is rather flattered, to be sure, 
 but still it is very like Miss M. She talks a good deal 
 and rather fast, but that we thought quite an advantage 
 
260 HARM JAN HUIDEKO'PER 
 
 to MS who saw so little of her, as it enabled her to crowd 
 a great deal that was interesting in a very limited space 
 of time. Her manners are very friendly, and she made 
 us all feel perfectly at ease in her company from the 
 first moment. She seemed to have formed none of those 
 prejudices against our institutions, our customs and 
 manners which we find so universally among English 
 travellers, and even those trifling little adventures which 
 she met with in stage or inn which would have annoyed 
 any one else and would probably have been complained 
 of as impertinent curiosity or disrespect or too much 
 famiHarity, Miss M. thought were " very amusing," 
 " very original," or " it showed a spirit of independ- 
 ence " in our common people. She is admirably calcu- 
 lated to travel to advantage, for she will see everything 
 that is to be seen and hear everything that is to be 
 heard, and I don't think her manners wiU offend even 
 the most jealous American. If you want to know what 
 were her precise religious views you must ask pa or Mr. 
 Day, for I believe they discussed them at length. If 
 her politics as respects our government, you must wait 
 till she has been some time in Washington. Miss Jeffery 
 told me that she would write from the seat of govern- 
 ment to let us know what opinions Miss M. had formed 
 there, for when here she had not yet composed her 
 political creed, though I rather think there was a lean- 
 ing to Jacksonism. At least she generally defended 
 the few principles which the Jackson men profess. Miss 
 Jeffery is very lively and intelligent and an agreeable 
 companion for Miss M. I believe I mentioned before 
 that she wrote me from Pittsburgh, where they made a 
 transitory visit, and since which I have heard nothing 
 of them save through the newspapers, which announce 
 frequently the arrival of " the justly celebrated Miss 
 
 Martineau " in this or that place. 1 can't waste any 
 
 more paper on Miss M., but, I pray you, don't think I 
 have written this for Mrs. FoUen ; you may tell her one 
 or two remarks, but I beg you won't read it to her, 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 261 
 
 for I feel quite unequal to the task of describing the 
 authoress. 
 
 Miss Martineau, for her part, has given in her " Au- 
 tobiography " a brief account of her visit. She speaks 
 of her arrival in Meadville, October 29, 1834, of her 
 " hearty reception by the Huidekopers, father and fine, 
 handsome son and daughters," of the pretty situation of 
 the house, with " woody hills opposite," of the " good 
 tea " offered her, and of the fire in her " comfortable 
 room." On the next day there was " glorious weather," 
 much talk, and a number of callers until noon, when with 
 Mr. Huidekoper, Mr. Wallace, and Anna she went for 
 "a fine rapid walk over opposite hill" and through 
 woods where she saw two black squirrels. The " sweet, 
 rich fields stretching under shelter of woods " down to 
 the creek appealed to her, as did the " sweet drive after 
 dinner " on the third day, through a " rich valley and 
 the softest woods when the red evening sun shone out." 
 On this drive she saw a " good house building for a 
 farmer who lost his by fire last winter," and learned 
 that " the neighbors were bearing the loss among 
 them," so that he was " better off for a house than be- 
 fore." 
 
 The letters to Frederic were written after his entrance 
 in the Sophomore class at Harvard, in 1834. Mr. Dwight 
 and Mr. Channing as well as Mr. Huidekoper accom- 
 panied him to Cambridge to establish him in his new 
 quarters there, and after that time the schoolroom at 
 Pomona knew the tutors no more. 
 
 Another young, active, vigorous personality, however, 
 was soon to come into close relationship with Mr. Huide- 
 koper. This was no other than James Freeman Clarke. 
 Mr. Clarke, without his friend W. H. Channing's ten- 
 
262 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 dency to push to extremes, was distinctly a sharer in 
 ■what Dr. Edward Everett Hale has called ^ the " enthu- 
 siastic expectation " of the time. A grandson of James 
 Freeman, and newly entered upon the ministry, he could 
 look back upon the rapid development of Unitarianism 
 in the near past, and draw from it hopeful anticipation 
 of a wider outlook for the days to come. To obtain a 
 broader horizon he had left Massachusetts, and was 
 amassing for himself in Louisville, Kentucky, a store of 
 Western experiences. Like Ephraim Peabody, he had 
 felt the poetry of the mountain journey; with Mr. 
 Huidekoper he knew human nature in the rough as he 
 saw it on coach-top or in cabin, and had learned to win 
 a kindly response from the " quarrelsome hard drink- 
 ers " or from the " border ruf&an, bristling with bowie 
 knives." 
 
 With both Mr. Huidekoper and Mr. Peabody he had 
 an interest in common in the " Western Messenger," 
 edited at first by Mr. Peabody and printed in Cincin- 
 nati, but soon transferred, editorship and all, to Mr. 
 Clarke at Louisville. To Mr. Huidekoper the " Messen- 
 ger " stood as the natural successor of the " Essayist." 
 Indeed, as early as December, 1831, when he thought 
 himself unable from press of affairs to continue the 
 " Essayist," he wrote to Mr. Peabody urging him to go 
 on with it. 
 
 [December 17, 1831.] The December number of the 
 " Essayist " has just been issued, and here I am afraid 
 I shall reluctantly be compelled to close this publication. 
 There are several reasons which could make me wish 
 that it should be continued. It is the only publication 
 
 ' Autobiography, Diary, and Correspondence of James Freeman Clarke, 
 edited by Edwaxd Everett Hale. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 263 
 
 of the kind in this section of country, and the only chan- 
 nel through which we can have access to the commu- 
 nity at large. It was read, and the subscription list is 
 more than equal to all the expenses. Besides, this place 
 is about to become the seat of the Methodist College, 
 and a publication of this kind might make many a last- 
 ing impression. But I am unable to carry on the work 
 alone, and I have been totally disappointed in receiving 
 assistance from any quarter. . . . Pray if I give it up, 
 can you find leisure to undertake the editorship of this 
 periodical, and can you get assistance from Mr. Flint or 
 any one near you in carrying it on ? Pray write to me 
 as early as convenient, in answer, for I do not exactly 
 know how to decide in this matter. 
 
 As Mr. Peabody could not then take up the work, 
 Mr. Huidekoper continued the "Essayist" for a year 
 longer, and then appealed again to Mr. Peabody to es- 
 tablish another Western magazine. 
 
 [October, 1832.] ... On the subject of the "Es- 
 sayist " my determination remains fixed to discontinue 
 it with the close of the year. This is not a matter of 
 choice but of necessity. The current business of my 
 office has more than doubled, perhaps tripled, since you 
 left here, and this leaves me no leisure to superintend 
 the edition of a periodical. As I deem it essentially 
 necessary to the spread of liberal Christianity that a 
 Unitarian periodical should be published in the West, 
 and as I know of no place more suitable than Cincin- 
 nati, I wish you would undertake to find some one who 
 would act as editor. ... It would require one person 
 to devote his time exclusively to the editorial depart- 
 ment, and I doubt whether the income could be ren- 
 dered equal to the expenditure. ... As to the size of 
 the work, that I must leave entirely to you and your 
 coadjutors. . . . As to the name of this new luminary, 
 that I leave entirely to you. Though a successor to the 
 
264 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 " Essayist," yet with the alteration of its form and ar- 
 rangement, the name had probably better be changed. 
 I am perfectly willing to contribute from time to time 
 articles for your periodical whenever my leisure will 
 admit of it, and Mr. Brigham has promised also his 
 assistance. 
 
 It was only six months after the first appearance of 
 the "Messenger," in June, 1835, that Mr. Peabody gave 
 the editorship over into Mr. Clarke's hands, and this 
 brought Mr. Huidekoper and Mr. Clarke into frequent 
 communication. The "Messenger" had a wider aim 
 than the " Essayist " ever aspired to. Its literary tone 
 was marked. In its first volume Mr. Clarke introduced 
 to the western world translations from Goethe and 
 Schiller and fragments of the German theology. More- 
 over, he had in Louisville come upon John Keats's 
 brother George, with whom he studied Carlyle, and by 
 whose courtesy he was enabled to publish in the " Mes- 
 senger " portions of a journal kept by John Keats dur- 
 ing a pedestrian tour through a part of England and 
 Scotland in the year 1818, and sent to a third brother, 
 Thomas, in letters. The passages given include those 
 on Wmdermere Lake and Mountains, and on Icolmkill, 
 Stafford, and Fingal's Cave. 
 
 It is also to be noted that Emerson's " Each and AH," 
 his " Humble-bee," " To the Rhodora," and " Good-bye, 
 Proud World," 1 were all first given to the public through 
 
 ur "f^^-l-V, Proad World," the title of which was later changed to 
 Ixood-bye, probably owes its present existence to Mr. Clarke. He 
 found a manuscript copy of it among some papers given him by Margaret 
 iuller,-a stray waif, included by mistake, -and wrote to Emerson 
 tor permission to print it. Emerson replied, "You are quite welcome 
 to the hues ' To the Rhodora ;' ... of the other verses I send you a cor- 
 rected copy, but I wonder so much at your wishing to print them that 
 1 thmk you must read them once again with your critical spectacles 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 265 
 
 the " Messenger." Mr. Clarke published them in 1838, 
 saying, " The same antique charm, the same grace and 
 sweetness, which distinguish the prose writings of our 
 author, will be found in his verse. These are almost 
 the first poetical specimens of his writings which have 
 appeared in print." 
 
 Early in the winter of 1835-36 Mrs. Huidekoper and 
 her son Edgar, both of whom were much in need of a 
 warmer climate to restore impaired health, and Anna, 
 who accompanied them, journeyed southward to Mobile 
 and New Orleans. Mr. Clarke, who had planned a visit 
 to Mobile in the Unitarian interest, joined them there, 
 and the acquaintance, formed under auspicious circum- 
 stances, progressed rapidly. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper' s letters to the absent ones are filled 
 with the tenderest solicitude and affection. *' My dear, 
 dear wanderers," he often addressed them, and "My 
 dear loves," and he noted eagerly each symptom of im- 
 provement as the months of separation wore on. Let- 
 ters were slow and uncertain, — nine days in getting 
 to Louisville under ordinary circumstances, and two of 
 them, through some delay, taking three weeks in the 
 transit ; while from New Orleans the normal time was 
 twenty-two days. 
 
 To Edgar, who, although only twenty-three years 
 old, was already his right-hand man in aU his practical 
 affairs, he wrote constantly of the matters connected 
 with his business, and the letters reveal the utmost con- 
 fidence in his son's financial sagacity. The home chron- 
 icle also was carefully kept for the travelers. 
 
 before they go further. They were written sixteen years ago, when I 
 kept school in Boston and lived in a comer of Koxbury called Canter- 
 bury." Autobiography, Diary, and Correspondence of James Freeman 
 Clarice, edited by Edward Everett Hale, p. 126. 
 
266 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 [December 12, 1835.] My new clerk ^ has not yet 
 arrived, — neither is there any further account of him. 
 If he should not come, it is no great matter, as with Al- 
 fred's assistance I can very well get on, Lizzy assisting 
 me occasionally with the calculations, and Frederic in 
 copying. I never felt the value of my Lizzy as much as 
 I do at this moment. Mrs. Hazlett and Margaret are 
 as kind as it is possible to be ; but Lizzy excels them 
 both. It appears to be her constant study to anticipate 
 every want and every wish of mine, so that you may 
 be assured I am well taken care of. To-day she and 
 Malvina are busy making some of their poor scholars 
 comfortable. 
 
 [January 5, 1836.] On Sunday last I received also 
 a letter from our friend E. Peabody. He tells me that 
 he does not think the state of his health requires that 
 he should go South, and hence he declines the offer I 
 had made him to place funds at his disposal for his 
 journey. His letter is a very friendly and very feehng 
 one. 
 
 [January 31, 1836.] I wish you had our carriage 
 and horses to ride out on the beautiful shell roads Anna 
 speaks of. As it is you must hire a carriage and ride 
 when you feel an inclination for it. Do not, my dear 
 wife and children, let mistaken ideas of economy pre- 
 vent you from it. Only take care of your health, and 
 think not of the expense. I can very well afford it, as 
 my income exceeded my expenses last year by about 
 nine thousand dollars. 
 
 [February 9, 1836.] I got all my accounts (with the 
 exception of Albert's) made out and sent off before I set 
 out for Erie. I was at Erie till Saturday, and shall have 
 to rettirn there next week to finish the settlement of my 
 tax accounts. It was a very busy week, of which Edgar 
 can judge when I tell him that, besides the $2000 which 
 I loaned Kellogg in November last to be repaid in Feb- 
 ruary, I received upwards of |5000. I have now (that 
 1 Mr. Michael H. Bagley. He afterward married Margaret Hazlett. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 267 
 
 is, when Fred reaches Pittsburg) $5000 in bank there ; 
 f 2500 in Buffalo, as much more in the Erie Bank, and 
 between $1500 and |2000 at home. If Edgar finds a 
 good speculation in sugar or anything else, I can furnish 
 the funds. 
 
 I was in hopes that Mr. Clarke would have remained 
 at Mobile during the whole winter, and I feel very sorry 
 that you are going to lose him so soon. I sincerely re- 
 joice at his success, and hope a suitable pastor will 
 shortly be procured for the infant congregation. This 
 strengthens me in the opinion which I have long held 
 and have often expressed ; namely that the readiest way 
 to propagate our faith is, to send suitable missionaries 
 to the larger cities to gather congregations and organize 
 them. 
 
 [February 10, 1836.] I left my letter yesterday un- 
 finished so as to have an opportunity of giving you the 
 news which the mail of this morning might bring. I 
 received a letter from Mr. Wallace, now at Harrisburg, 
 in which he says that there is no doubt but that the 
 Bank and Canal bill will pass. Other letters received by 
 other persons speak with equal confidence. This is glo- 
 rious news. Another piece of news I heard this morn- 
 ing is not quite so pleasing. You know, I presume, 
 that the H. L. Co. sold all their lands in New York to 
 Le Roy and others. The new owners proved much more 
 strict than the so much complained of foreigners. A 
 convention of the settlers m Chautauqua County was 
 called, and a deputation sent to Mr. D. E. Evans at 
 Batavia, who told the ambassadors that he had nothing 
 to do with the matter. I believe the new proprietors 
 were also waited on, but without effect. On Saturday 
 last a mob of about 700, it is said, attacked the Com- 
 pany's office at Mayville ; broke open the vault ; car- 
 ried off all the papers and burned them. Peacock had 
 hid himself, and thus escaped the personal violence 
 which was intended for hun. What the result will be 
 time must show. 
 
268 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEE 
 
 The travelers returned in mid-May, Edgar benefited 
 by his southern winter, but Mrs. Huidekoper, through 
 taking cold on the homeward journey, having lost all 
 that she had gained. They found the members of the 
 Unitarian congregation, and of course the young people 
 at Pomona, deeply interested in church affairs. 
 
 The Rev. John Quinby Day ^ had, in October, 1834, 
 come to fill the pulpit left vacant by Mr. Brigham's 
 death, and since that event temporarily occupied for 
 three months by the Rev. Amos Dean Wheeler,^ and 
 then from May to August or September by the Rev. 
 William Henry Channing. Mr. Day was formally called 
 by the congregation after a three months' trial, and re- 
 mained the minister untU September, 1837. 
 
 From the very first days of its existence the Mead- 
 ville society had wished to build a church of its own. 
 The project had been agitated from time to time, and 
 now, in 1835, Miss Margaret Shippen, with Mr. Huide- 
 koper, had given the land, a piece of ground which had 
 originally been part of the David Mead estate ; the 
 plans were drawn by Lieutenant George W. CuUum, 
 U. S. A., afterwards the constructing engineer of Fort 
 Sumter, the contract was undertaken by a Meadville 
 builder, and just one year from the time when the land 
 was conveyed to the trustees the finished edifice was 
 ready for dedication. 
 
 1 John Quinby Day "resigned September 1, 1837, and went away bear- 
 ing with him the good-will of the parish. He sought no other charge, but 
 became a teacher at Medford, Mass., and eventually an editor at Port- 
 land, Maine, where he died, March 5, 1884, aged seventy-four years." 
 The Independent Congregational {Unitarian) Church of Meadville, p. 36. 
 
 ^ " Amos Dean Wheeler, formerly of Salem, Mass., was . . . an inde- 
 fatigable worker, of large natural endowments and fine scholarship. His 
 subsequent ministry was spent in Maine, where he died, at Topsham, 
 June 30, 1876, aged seventy-two." Ibid., p. 29, 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 269 
 
 Letters from Anna written before she ■went to Mobile 
 give a pleasant glimpse of the interest of the young 
 people : — 
 
 [February 5, 1835.] We have been very busy lately 
 building churches ; but whenever we get a design, we 
 so improve and alter and ornament that it rapidly be- 
 comes an elegant edifice which we have not the means 
 of building. The wish is to erect a commodious edifice 
 which shall unite elegance with simplicity and yet not 
 be expensive. Can you solve the problem ? Father has 
 taken a great fancy to the church at Harrisburg, but 
 the rest of us object to the upper part of the front and 
 yet we don't see how the upper part can be altered while 
 the lower part remains the same ; do you know who 
 dedicated it ? or any one who has seen it and could say 
 what impression it made on him ? Mr. Day thinks we 
 could have a miniature copy of Mr. Farley's in Provi- 
 dence ; the design is from the temple of Theseus with 
 columns in front; you remember we have a fine en- 
 graving of that temple in the " Voyage d'Anacharsis." 
 Pa intends bearing the entire expense, and as his family 
 expenditures can't fall far short of his income I suppose 
 he wiU not be able to appropriate a great deal. Do you 
 know of any better models in New England ? Miseri- 
 cordia, why ain't we rich ? Edgar is to have the trouble 
 of overseeing. 
 
 [September 10, 1835.] Our church has been com- 
 menced. Some of us in walking past the ground a few 
 evenings since stopped and laid the corner stone, though 
 I dare say it was refixed the next day by the mason. I 
 am all anxiety to know who will feel sufficiently inter- 
 ested to come out to the West and dedicate it. We are 
 looking forward to the visits of Unitarian clergymen 
 (whoever they may be) with the greatest pleasure.' 
 
 James Thurston, Henry Coleman, and Ephraim Pea- 
 body were the ones who finally accepted the invi- 
 
270 HARM JAN HDIDEKOPER 
 
 tations, and the ceremony took place on August 20, 
 
 1836.1 
 
 The acquaintance with Mr. Clarke resulted in his 
 marriage, in 1839, to Anna Huidekoper. Mr. Huide- 
 koper's relations with his prospective son-in-law were 
 already of the happiest kind, and further intimacy but 
 increased their cordiality. 
 
 On December 17, 1838, he wrote : — 
 
 I sit down this time, not to send you an essay for the 
 " Messenger," but to write you a letter on business. I 
 had given certain matters in charge to my daughter 
 Ann, and as I find she has but half executed them, I 
 must even myself supply her deficiencies. 
 
 It is the wish of my daughter, and I understand it is 
 your wish also, that you should go to housekeeping im- 
 mediately after your marriage. In this, my wishes coin- 
 cide with yours, for then I shall have a house to go to, 
 when I visit you, which I propose doing if my life and 
 health are spared. But in carrying these wishes into 
 
 ^ " I have just returned from Meadville, where I went for the purpose 
 of being present at the dedication of the new Unitarian church which our 
 friends there have just completed. Kev. Mr. Coleman preached the ser- 
 mon, and an admirable one it was, and listened to with the greatest at- 
 tention by a crowded audience. The pastor, Mr. Day, made the conse- 
 crating prayer, and the other services were distributed between our friend 
 Mr. Thurston, and myself. The church, which is of brick with a Doric 
 front, and built on an admirably chosen spot, is one of the most beautiful 
 in its architecture of any west of the Allegheny mountains that I have 
 seen. The expense of erecting it has fallen on a small number of individ- 
 uals, but with willing hearts and generous hands it was built as easily and 
 noiselessly as any church that I ever knew anything of. And what is more, 
 before the day of dedication, it was completed and paid for — finished 
 even to the railing that encloses it, and the organ in the gallery. ... I 
 look on this society, though not large in number, yet from the character 
 of those who compose it as one of the strongest societies which receive 
 our opinions in the west." Extract from a letter from Ephraim Peabody 
 to the editor of the Western Messenger (J. F. Clarke), Western Messen- 
 ger, vol. ii. p. 207. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 271 
 
 effect, you must not be involved in any difficulties. I 
 understand you are not wealthy. I mention this simply 
 as an apology for my interference in your domestic ar- 
 rangements, for I hope you do me the justice to believe 
 that the want of wealth does not render you less accep- 
 table to me. All I wish for in my son-in-law is personal 
 worth, and an amiable disposition. These I believe you 
 possess in a high degree. As to the rest, that I can 
 supply myself. 
 
 It is my intention to furnish the house for you, or 
 rather to place the necessary funds at Ann's disposal to 
 furnish it herself. If in making your domestic arrange- 
 ments it becomes necessary that you should make some 
 purchases previous to the wedding, I will cheerfully 
 place the necessary sum to defray them at your disposal. 
 As your domestic arrangements will necessarily be af- 
 fected by your probable income, I will inform you what 
 it is my intention to do in this respect. My daughter 
 says it is her wish to live comfortably, but plainly ; and 
 it is my wish that you should live free from pecuniary 
 care, with an income not only sufficient for your own 
 wants, but with something to spare for the wants of 
 others. It is therefore my intention to add annually the 
 sum of one thousand dollars to your income. Whether 
 that addition will be sufficient I cannot tell, as I am 
 unacquainted with the expense of living in your city. 
 If it is not, the sum may be increased without incon- 
 venience to me. 
 
 I enter into all these details, so that knowing what 
 your annual income will be, in the beginning, you may 
 regulate your domestic arrangements in accordance 
 with it. 
 
 A month before the wedding, in July, 1839, Mr. 
 Huidekoper with his daughter Anna visited Boston, 
 where they were warmly welcomed. " You cannot form 
 to yourself an idea of the kind attentions we meet with," 
 
272 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 wrote Mr. Huidekoper. " We owe a large portion of 
 these calls to Anna's secret having been divulged before 
 our arrival. Mr. Clarke has a large circle of relatives 
 and friends here, and these are all striving who shall 
 have her or show her most attention." ^ Andrew P. 
 Peabody and Mr. Merrick came to see them, and Anna 
 went to Newton to spend a Sunday with Mr. Clarke's 
 sister, " a very amiable girl and much respected here." 
 They dined at Mr. Norton's and paid a visit to Mr. 
 Cushing's extensive gardens, where the flowers, pine- 
 apples, and figs delighted Mr. Huidekoper's horticul- 
 turist's eye. 
 
 In August the household and a few guests gathered 
 at Pomona and witnessed the marriage ; two or three 
 weeks later Mr. and Mrs. Clarke left Meadville for Ken- 
 tucky. Prom that time onward the new household pos- 
 sessed for the father a scarcely secondary interest. Every 
 trial or success that came to Mr. Clarke, and many of 
 the philanthropic schemes that he formed, found Mr. 
 Huidekoper ready with sympathy and support. 
 
 [September 24, 1839.] This morning, my dear Anna, 
 we received your letter of the 18th, and though as a 
 general thing we have limited the number of letters to 
 be sent to you to one a week (a pretty decent allowance 
 most people would think this to be), yet as you are so 
 good and faithful a correspondent yourself, the rule is 
 not to be so strictly construed but that the day of writ- 
 ing may reasonably be anticipated, as I do at this time. 
 
 But before I enter on other matters, I want to make 
 a couple of remarks with respect to your letters. In the 
 first place, I would recommend to you to procure larger 
 sized paper to write on, such for instance as I use for 
 this letter. I know that foolscap is not exactly the polite 
 > Letter of July 3, 1839, written to bis wife. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLP AT POMONA 273 
 
 thing in writing to strangers ; but when you write home 
 it win give you more room to tell us what you have to 
 say. In the second place, I do not wish that Mr. Clarke 
 should pay the postage on your or his letters. They are 
 amply worth the postage to us. As to our paying the 
 postage of the letters we send from here, that is alto- 
 gether another matter. You know that it is our stand- 
 ing rule to do so, in writing to one of the absent 
 members of the family. . . . 
 
 That there are disagreeable duties connected with Mr. 
 Clarke's school agency, I doubt not. Such belong to 
 every station in life, and it is frequently a trying task to 
 be faithful to them. I was glad to learn that you were 
 to accompany Mr. C. in a visit to the poor schoolmas- 
 ter's family, and also that you had taken a class in the 
 Sunday-school. We are never more happy than when 
 employed in works of usefulness or benevolence ; and 
 as you have no domestic occupations, you stand in need 
 of something of the kind you mention in order to spend 
 your time pleasantly. . . . 
 
 . . . Tell Mr. Clarke that I have prepared an article 
 for the " Messenger," which I should have been glad to 
 show him before it went to the press. It is headed " On 
 Sin," and is a leaf from an unwritten book, which I had 
 once projected, but which is likely to remain unwritten. 
 I suspect that, like my article on future retribution, it 
 will appear to some not altogether orthodox. 
 
 Has Mr. Clarke got Mr. Norton's late address ? The 
 author sent me a copy of it, which I have read with 
 much interest. I like Mr. Norton's writings, not only 
 because, in the main, they agree with my mode of think- 
 ing, but on account of their perfect lucidness. I dislike 
 to have to guess at a writer's meaning. I once under- 
 took to read DeWette's " Theodore," but gave it up in 
 despair. I hope Mr. Clarke was more successful, as he 
 undertook to translate the work. The main error of Mr. 
 Norton in his late address appears to me to be, that, 
 thinking clearly, and reasoning very logically himself, 
 
274 HARM JAN HXJTDEKOPER 
 
 he does not make sufficient allowance for others. I 
 think a man may be a very sincere and very good be- 
 liever, although the ground on which his faith rests 
 would not satisfy a severer logician. 
 
 [November 21, 1839.] ^ I address this letter to you 
 (not to you and your husband jointly, as I have fre- 
 quently done of late) because I want to tell you how 
 much I am pleased with him, and how happy I am in 
 the choice you have made. You easily guess that I refer 
 to his conduct towards the poor widow. That was noble 
 — God bless him ! — I feel proud of such a son. I need 
 not remind you that I am rich, and that you, my dear 
 Anna, are one of my assistants in the large stewardship 
 which God has intrusted to me. 
 
 [November 28, 1839.] When I wrote you last week 
 about the arrangement which has made the fortunate 
 
 Mrs. C an inmate of your domicile I merely looked 
 
 at the moral beauty of it. I have since reflected that it 
 may put Mr. Clarke to serious inconvenience to be de- 
 prived of his study. If this be the case, then I must ask 
 you, my good children, to associate me with you in this 
 good work, and that you on my account rent from Mrs. 
 H. another room for your protegee. I would not on any 
 account deprive the latter of the consolation which your 
 arrangement has afforded her in her misfortunes, nor 
 her unhappy son of the good influences under which 
 he has been thus brought. 
 
 [December 19, 1839.] This moment I received 
 yours of the Mth inst., and in return I send you above 
 a check on the Bank of Pittsburg for three himdred 
 dollars. ... I thank you for associating me, at least 
 in this indirect manner, in your schemes of active bene- 
 volence. From what Anna tells me I am led to hope 
 
 that your exertions in favor of Mrs. H will prove 
 
 successful, and become permanently useful to her and 
 her family. 
 
 1 To Anna Huidekoper Clarke. 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 275 
 
 When this last case of charity proved to be undeserv- 
 ing, he cheerfully wrote that his daughter and Mr. 
 Clarke must not let that annoy or discourage them, and 
 adds : " You regret this money because it might have 
 been made useful elsewhere. If you want money for 
 such a purpose, I have some which is at your service." ' 
 
 [December 5, 1839.] I am really sorry to hear that 
 the stopping of the cotton factories at Lowell has caused 
 a temporary embarrassment to Mr. Clarke's family. He 
 must not, however, on this account, retain his school 
 superintendence, if he finds it too laborious. I can with- 
 out any inconvenience make to you and him any neces- 
 sary advances. Pray let him write to me candidly on 
 this subject. Heaven has blessed me too much that I 
 should suffer my children to experience pecuniary em- 
 barrassment. . . . 
 
 You tell me that the ladies in Louisville complain that 
 Mrs. C[larkej is not sufficiently sociable, and you pro- 
 mise to endeavor to do better. I think, if you do, you 
 will find that society will interest you more, the more 
 you come in contact with it. There is much more good- 
 ness in the world than we are aware of. For the rest I 
 can sympathize with you. It is hard, when we feel so 
 happy and contented at home, to go out and visit those 
 with whom we perhaps have not a single idea in com- 
 mon. Pray, my dear Ann, let me beg of you, as you 
 value your husband's happiness and your own, not to 
 commit the much more serious fault of taking up the 
 idea that you do not make a good wife, because you 
 are rather too domestic. Wait till you see a cloud on 
 your husband's brow before you begin to torment youi^ 
 self with self accusations. 
 
 [December 26, 1839.] I am sorry to hear that al- 
 though you do not keep house [you seem] to have be- 
 come, to a certain extent, practically acquainted with 
 
 1 Letter of February 21, 1840. 
 
276 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 the inconveniences of slavery. The slave has not the in- 
 ducements to be industrious that the freeman has. If 
 he is industrious and saving, it adds nothing to his 
 wealth, and very Httle to his comfort. Is it then sur- 
 prising that he is lazy and wasteful ? I have never be- 
 come acquainted with the operations of slavery, from 
 personal observation, except from what I witnessed in 
 the State of New York some forty years ago. There 
 slavery was (what the Southerners prate of, but what it 
 is not with them) a kind of patriarchal institution. The 
 slave was a member of the family. He lived with them ; 
 and the master and his sons were his fellow laborers. 
 It was generally an intelligent old negro who managed 
 the farm. By this arrangement the slave was raised in 
 the scale of civilization and morality, but the civihzation 
 of the whole family was on a very low scale. . . . 
 
 The depression of business which you experience in 
 Louisville is common to all our commercial cities, though 
 some from peculiar circumstances may feel the pressure 
 more than others do. It is the natural result of over- 
 trading, and that, in its turn, is the result of our aban- 
 donment of the protective system, alias tariff system ; 
 and of the vicious system of banking which Jacksonism 
 has substituted for the correct one we had ten years 
 ago. That all this must work much commercial distress, 
 and cause the ruin of many in trade, is natural and un- 
 avoidable. But I would not consider this as a legitimate 
 objection to engaging in commercial business. The mer- 
 chant, who, in this country, will devote a lifetime to the 
 acquisition of a fortune, and who will in the meantime 
 live frugally, will almost always succeed. The man who 
 wants to make a rapid fortune in a few years and who in 
 the meantime lives as if that fortune were already made 
 will almost always finish by becoming insolvent. If I do 
 not sympathize with your lady in her objection to com- 
 mercial business, neither do I agree with your husband 
 in his prejudice against a professional life. It may not 
 be, generally speaking, the road to wealth, but it is cer- 
 
WITH THE YOUNG HOUSEHOLD AT POMONA 277 
 
 tainly the means of being useful. I think even your 
 husband will allow that his life is more useful to his 
 fellow men than if it were spent in raising corn or 
 potatoes. 
 
 One other quotation from a letter to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Clarke, although of much later date, may be given 
 here : — 
 
 [December 21, 1849.] We all smiled at the appre- 
 hension expressed by Anna, on the occasion of a couple 
 of small drafts sent to you, that the love of money might 
 injure you or yours. I participate so httle in that fear, 
 that I shall enclose another draft for $90, if I receive it 
 in time. I suspect that there exists an erroneous opinion 
 on this subject. The misery of which Anna speaks wUl, 
 if traced to its source, be found to arise not from the 
 love of acquisition, but from habits of vicious, or at 
 least of improvident indulgence. Look at the public de- 
 faulters and fraudulent bankrupts, and I think that most 
 of them will be found to have been persons of expensive 
 habits, Uving beyond their means. Wealth is power, and 
 so is knowledge. Both are powers to do good and to be 
 useful, and both may be perverted, and used for un- 
 worthy purposes. And yet we do not warn men against 
 the acquisition of knowledge. Neither have 1 ever par- 
 ticipated iu the apprehension of injuring my children 
 by accumulating wealth for them, and they have honor- 
 ably justified the confidence I had in them, in making 
 a noble use of their means. 
 
CHAPTER Vm 
 
 CONCERNING THE "ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES" 
 
 The quarter of a century or more which followed the 
 rise of what has been called " Channing Unitarianism " 
 witnessed certain startling departures from Channing's 
 conservative position. They were the years when Par- 
 ker's genius wrought its volcanic changes in the reli- 
 gious life of Boston ; when Emerson's withdrawal from 
 active ministry and his affirmation of the supreme value 
 of " the inward life " threw men at the mercy of their 
 own consciences. Moreover, since the agitation of the 
 time was social as well as religious, new theories, native 
 or imported, concerning the relations of capital and 
 labor, of master and man, of man and woman, new 
 solutions of the problems of daily living, everywhere 
 pushed into view. Transcendentalism, Perfectionism, a 
 modified Fourierism, Non-resistance, Total Abstinence, 
 Woman's Rights, these were a few of the links in the 
 " perfect chain of reforms . . . emerging from the sur- 
 rounding darkness " which Emerson saw, and which 
 Mr. Huidekoper also looked upon, albeit with a some- 
 what doubting eye. It is scarcely surprising that he 
 should have written in comment,^ " The present is truly 
 a revolutionary age. Men everywhere have lost that 
 bHnd veneration for the systems, the opinions, and the 
 institutions of former times which once existed, and 
 
 ' " Review of Brownson on the Laboring Classes," Western Messenger, 
 vol. Tiii. p. 316. 
 
Harm Jan Huidekoper 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 279 
 
 begin boldly to examine into their truth, or their adap- 
 tation to the present situation of society." 
 
 It was not that the significance o£ this agitation was 
 lost upon Mr. Huidekoper. He was himself a part of it, 
 in so far as freedom of thought and hopefulness for the 
 future went, but his natural poise of mind never allowed 
 him to lean unduly forward. His balanced conservatism 
 led him to depend on proven practice rather than on un- 
 tried methods and ideas ; indeed, his point of vantage, 
 somewhat aloof as it was, did often enable him to dis- 
 cern where the advancing body made safe progress, and 
 where its extreme wing pushed out to unstable ground. 
 
 " There is something very seductive in the spirit of 
 Ultraism," he acknowledged, as early as 1841, " which 
 has become so prevalent in New England. It is respect- 
 able too, on account of the source from which it springs ; 
 but," he goes on to say, " this does not prevent its be- 
 ing injurious. The estabUshed customs of society are 
 generally the result of experience, and not lightly to be 
 departed from. I do not find that the really great and 
 good men of former days ever fell into this spirit of 
 petty innovation." And again: "I fully agree with 
 Father Taylor, that there is but one Boston in the world. 
 Nowhere is the human mind in such a state of fermen- 
 tation as it is in Massachusetts, and nowhere do its in- 
 quiries run on matters of deeper moment. From such a 
 state of things we may promise ourselves much good for 
 the future ; but, as a necessary consequence, it must for 
 the present be accompanied by much of fanaticism and 
 of folly, for the development of the rational and of the 
 moral powers do not always keep pace with each other 
 in the same individual." ' 
 
 1 Letter to Mr. Clarke, December 26, 1842. 
 
280 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Irrational in the extreme were to him many of the 
 utterances of the idealists. He was not in the least within 
 the charmed circle that listened to Emerson, — he could 
 not even read Emerson. Nor would he have been found 
 among the participators in Margaret Fuller's '' conver- 
 sations." Some of these afterward distinguished people 
 
 he would have ranked with " good Miss ," the most 
 
 ardent of them aU, of whom he said, " I suspect she be- 
 longs to a class which Rousseau characterizes as sage 
 par le cceur and folle par la tete." ^ Others, like Bron- 
 son Alcott and Orestes A. Brownson, would have fallen 
 under a heavier judgment. Of Alcott, indeed, he had 
 absolutely no comprehension, and he gave him no 
 quarter. 
 
 [March 10, 1843.] "I cannot plead guilty to my 
 Anna's charge, that I am too hard on Messrs. Alcott, 
 Lane & Co. I beg her to recollect that I do not judge 
 them to be worthy of the lunatic asylum or house of 
 correction for any opinions which they hold for them- 
 selves ; but because they teach doctrines which when 
 carried out must lead to theft and robbery. If by their 
 doctrines they induce the young and inexperienced to 
 steal, it will be no mitigation to the evil done to society 
 that Messrs. Alcott & Co. were simple, well-meaning 
 men." 
 
 His attitude toward all the theorists was that of the 
 practical conservative ; their speech was foreign to him, 
 their ideas mere confusion. " I am a good deal of a 
 UtiKtarian," he declared, "and judge of men accord- 
 ing to their usefulness, and when I compare the course 
 of a William Ehot, a Father Taylor, or a Waterston 
 with that of an Emerson, a Ripley, a Theodore Parker, 
 
 I Letter to Mrs. Clarke, January 1, 1844. 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 281 
 
 a Brownson, and others of that stamp, I feel how valu- 
 able common sense and a well-regulated mind are." ^ 
 
 The tone of the " Western Messenger " at one time 
 caused him some disquiet. It was, under W. H. Chan- 
 ning's sanction, giving generous space to a considera- 
 tion of certain ideas which Mr. Huidekoper looked upon 
 as equally opposed to common sense and safety. His 
 friendship for Mr. Channing was warm and sincere. 
 Deeply he appreciated his rare nature and exceptional 
 gifts. All the more because of his personal interest in 
 him did he chafe at what he called Channing's " consti- 
 tutional tendency toward the vague and the mystic." ^ 
 It must be borne in mind, moreover, that the comments 
 which are repeated here as throwing light upon Mr. 
 Huidekoper' s views were made by him, not in any pub- 
 lic way, but only in the correspondence with his son 
 and daughter, who were, both of them, Mr. Channing's 
 faithful friends, and would in no wise misunderstand 
 the strictures. '' I mentioned to you in my former," he 
 wrote to Frederic (January 7, 1841), " that there is just 
 now an extraordinary state of mental fermentation in 
 New England. I regret to see by the ' Messenger ' that 
 our friend W. H. Channing appears to have caught some 
 of the ultra spirit of the times. Not only that he praises 
 Brownson, but in his last number he has given us the 
 principles of the Non-resistance Society, under the title 
 of ' Great Principles for Consideration.' Now these prin- 
 ciples, by preaching an equal distribution of property 
 and denying the right to imprison any one, are destruc- 
 tive of our present social order." 
 
 Mr. Channing's praise of Brownson,^ supplemented 
 
 1 Letter to Mrs. Clarke, February 24, 1843. = Ibid., August 18, 1841. 
 8 Mr. Lindsay Swift, in his Brook Farm, pp. 241-251, felicitously de- 
 
282 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 by Brownson's articles in the " Quarterly Review," 
 spurred Mr. Huidekoper on to publish in the " Messen- 
 ger " two papers entitled " Brownson on the Laboring 
 Classes." 
 
 "Mr. B.'s avowed object," he says, in the first of 
 these,' " is the destruction of the whole present social 
 and religious organization of society ; and the proposed 
 means to effect this are, physical force, — a war of those 
 who have nothing, against those who have something. 
 Let it not be imagined that this plan is rendered harm- 
 less by its very extravagance. It is not addressed to the 
 intelhgent part of society, but to the passions and pre- 
 judices of that portion of the community whose intel- 
 lectual powers have been less developed, and which is 
 therefore more liable to be misled. Those who have 
 studied the history of the French Revolution, with the 
 attention which it so richly deserves, must have observed 
 that all the excesses in that great drama were committed 
 by bodies of misguided men, apparently not formidable 
 by their numbers, but rendered truly so by the energy 
 of excited passions. If a Marat, of not half Mr. B.'s 
 talents or popular eloquence, could, by a pretended zeal 
 for the interests of the lower classes, and by appeals to 
 
 scribes Brownson's course through Presbyterianism, Universalism, and 
 Unitarianism to the Roman Catholic Church, and says (p. 244), " In 1840 
 Brownson awoke and found himself conspicuous, if not famous. Allied 
 for several reasons with the Democratic Party, he wrote in that year an 
 essay on the laboring classes, in which he suggested the impairment, by 
 political methods, of corporations and of the credit system. The Whigs, 
 displaying an unexpected energy, printed his paper as a campaign docu- 
 ment. The publication of this essay may have acted as a boomerang on 
 his party, but it did Orestes Brownson a deal of good. It refreshed him 
 as the deliverance from the Everlasting Nay refreshed Teufelsdrockh, 
 and marked, as he says, ' the crisis in my mental disease.' " 
 1 Western Messenger, vol. viii. pp. 316-330. 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 283 
 
 their prejudices and passions, acquire such a dreadful 
 ascendancy over them, who will deny that Mr. B. may, 
 by the same means, acquire a similar influence over the 
 same order of society? " * 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper's reply ^ to the: second article by 
 Brownson concludes: "My motive in thus reviewmg 
 these articles has been to prevent the laboring classes 
 from being misled by them. I would save them from 
 the misfortune of learning to look upon their employ- 
 ers, upon religion, and upon its ministers, as their nat- 
 ural enemies ; I would save them from the misery of a 
 discontented spirit ; I would save them from the delusion 
 of looking to social reform for the amehoration of their 
 condition, instead of relying on the resources within 
 themselves, — industry, economy, sobriety and prudence ; 
 and I would save society from having formed within its 
 bosom associations of discontented, reckless men, who, 
 under the influence of designing demagogues, might 
 become dangerous to its peace." 
 
 William Henry Channing, it must be confessed, had 
 at this time swung far beyond Mr. Huidekoper's ken 
 in speculative thought and acknowledgment of strange 
 gods. His eloquence called out high commendation. 
 
 I have always [wrote his critic, January 22, 1844] 
 taken a sincere interest in him, and I have regretted 
 
 1 " The history of the French Revolution is not studied in this coun- 
 try as much as it deserves to be. It is replete with valuable instruction. 
 If, instead of bewildering ourselves with idle speculations, bottomed on 
 imaginary first principles, we would learn to study politics in the great 
 drama of life, we should arrive at much safer and more satisfactory re- 
 sults, and be plagued with fewer wild and dangerous theories. This would 
 also assist us to distinguish the real patriot from the mere demagogue 
 and pretended friend of the people." [Mr. Huidekoper's foot-note.] 
 
 2 Western Messenger, vol. viii. pp. 43a-449. 
 
284 IIAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 that his course for some years was not such as was cal- 
 culated to render him in the highest degree useful. All 
 appear to concur that, as a public speaker, our friend is 
 wonderfully impressive. Here, then, is his forte. Why 
 not stick to the pulpit and let the press alone ? Or, if 
 he must write, why not print his own writings, and not 
 make himself the vehicle for circulating the crude ex- 
 travagancies of others ? Remember me kindly to him 
 when you see him. 
 
 In 1844 Mr. Channing was connected with a peri- 
 odical called "The Present," and of this Mr. Huide- 
 koper wrote to Mrs. Clarke [January 1, 1844] : — 
 
 I can understand plain Enghsh tolerably well, but 
 much of what appears in " The Present" is written in 
 Irving's unknown tongues, and those I do not under- 
 stand. . . . How Channing could consent to insert such 
 a piece of Fanny Wrightism ^ as the article on Woman 
 in his last number, I cannot conceive. I was glad to see 
 that Greeley took him to task for it. 
 
 And again : ^ — 
 
 I received the January number of " The Present," 
 and am as little pleased with it as Anna appears to 
 be. Not that I have read it. But I have looked into 
 it, and satisfied myself as to its contents. Feeling 
 in full charity with my friend W. H. C. when the pre- 
 
 1 " Fanny Wrightism " seems to have been a favorite charge brought 
 against reformers or innovators. Thus Garrison was, by the Rev. Mr. 
 Dicky, "accused ... of Fanny Wrightism, — of advocating the equal 
 division of property, the prostration of all law, the abrogation of mar- 
 riage." ( Wiliiam Lloyd Garrison, the Story of his Life, told by his Children, 
 vol. ii. p. 249.) Frances Wright was " born in Scotland, September 6, 
 1795, died (Mme. Darusmont) in Cincinnati, December 14, 1852. Her 
 attempted community in Shelby Co., Tennessee, in 1825, was a notable 
 early anti-slavery enterprise. She was ... a socialistic co-worker with 
 Robert Owen, and a co-editor with Robert Dale Owen of the New York 
 Free Inquirer." (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 142.) 
 
 2 Letter of January 29, 1844. 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TBIES 283 
 
 sent number arrived, I undertook to read the leading 
 article on Thanksgiving and New Year wishes ; but I 
 found that it would not do. After wading through the 
 introductory part, which is neither prose nor poetry, I 
 got to the causes we have for being thankful (beginning 
 near the bottom of page 219), and with the first of these 
 I gave out, finding it hopeless to make out a rational 
 meaning from such a rhapsody. He begins by stating 
 that we owe thanks first for our existence, and this is 
 about the only rational sentence I find in the whole sec- 
 tion. With Walker and Johnson, I had considered the 
 words existence and being as convertible terms. W. H. 
 C. tells us they are opposite. He next tells us that the 
 Infinite One, and the temporal finite, marry, are coun- 
 terparts, and that smacks something of Pantheism. We 
 are next told that this universe is only the substantial 
 world of God's ideas, and this brings us back to Pla- 
 tonism, according to which there exists in the Divine 
 mind a pattern in conformity to which everything was 
 created. Mr. C. continues : From this awful reality ^o 
 we come, &c. — Now from his having first stated non- 
 existence or nothing to be an unmeaning term, I can 
 give no other meaning to this sentence than that C, 
 with some Eastern philosophers, believes in the pre- 
 existence of the Soul. We have next something about 
 the self-imposed necessity of the Deity, and some ex- 
 pressions from which we might infer the creation to be 
 eternal, and that it results not from a voluntary, but 
 from a necessary act of the Creator. But I feel that it 
 would be unsafe, and perhaps unfair, to carry out what 
 our friend says to its legitimate results. And now, is it 
 not a pity that so worthy a man should waste his life in 
 this useless manner ? Contrast his writings with those of 
 his uncle/ the Wares, Greenwood, the Peabodys and 
 others, and there is not one who expresses himself as 
 our friend. If it were not for what you write to me re- 
 specting him I should sometimes doubt his sanity, as I 
 
 1 The well-known Dr. William Ellery Channing. 
 
286 HAKM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 do the sanity of Emerson. In " Bancroft's Hist. U. S.," 
 pages 144 & 145, you will find something which has a 
 strong bearing on the socialism mania of the day. 
 
 The close of Mr. Channing's brief editorship elicited 
 the comment : — 
 
 [AprU 15, 1844.] "I am glad to hear that W. H. 
 Channing is about relinquishing his connection with 
 ' The Present.' The moment he does I purpose doing 
 so too, by discontinuing my subscription. I feel as if I 
 were not doing right by contributing towards the vaga- 
 ries of Alcott and Haywood among the community. As 
 to Channing's contributions, in regard to them I felt not 
 the same scruples, not only because they were better in 
 themselves, but also because they were very little intel- 
 ligible." 
 
 If Mr, Channing was not " intelligible " to his old 
 friend, the transcendentalists in general were still less 
 so. Mr. Huidekoper's great respect for some of their 
 number, as well as the impossibility of discovering just 
 what transcendentalism was, tempered sensibly his utter- 
 ances concerning them. Yet he was not a little bewil- 
 dered by the hospitable if transient entertainment given 
 by Mr. Clarke and his friends to " the theoretical 
 vagaries " and " novelties," ^ with which the times were 
 rife. We find him turning with a sense of relief from 
 his contemplation of the scene in the East to his son 
 Frederic, who remained absolutely undazzled by any of 
 the iridescent refractions of the day. In the letter to 
 Frederic, of January 7, 1841, he says ; — 
 
 In regard to transcendentalism, I find we think pretty 
 much alike. The fact is that I have never been able to 
 ascertain with precision what meaning is to be attached 
 
 1 Dr. Hale's word. 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 287 
 
 to it. J. F. Clarke (who is classed with the transcen- 
 dentalists) defines it as the belief that all our ideas are 
 not (as Mr. Locke held) derived through the senses, but 
 that some ideas are independent of them. I believe it 
 is a return to the system of innate ideas. Among the 
 ideas thus supposed to be innate is the idea of God and 
 of religion. Clarke holds that though those ideas are 
 innate, yet that it requires extraneous teaching, such as 
 revelation, religion, instruction, &c., to develop them. 
 This reduces these ideas to a mere capability of receiving 
 religious instruction. Others carry the system much far- 
 ther, and give to these ideas a power and development 
 which renders revelation superfluous. It is this that has 
 alarmed Mr. Norton and others. I can, however, per- 
 ceive no necessary connection between transcendentalism 
 and pantheism ; and the question whether Spinoza was 
 an atheist or a pantheist appears to me to be a mere 
 historical question of very little interest to us at this 
 time. 
 
 As a member of " Hedge's Club," ^ as an investigator 
 of contemporary German literature, as an inquirer into 
 all the schemes for a new social order which teemed in 
 the inventive Yankee brain, James Freeman Clarke was 
 in thorough accord with the circle represented by the 
 " Dial." His pulpit was open to Parker, his assent to 
 Emerson. He was, as Mr. Huidekoper has intimated, as 
 much as any one a transcendentalist. Yet although he 
 thus sat high above the salt at New England's feast of 
 reason, his strong head was proof against an undue flow 
 of soul. His people, the independent congregation which 
 he had gathered about him through sheer force of lead- 
 ership, idolized him ; and Mr. Huidekoper watched the 
 building up of the Boston society, the Church of the 
 Disciples, with great satisfaction. He wrote to his 
 1 Brooh Farm, by Lindsay Swift, page 8. 
 
288 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 daughter (August 18, 1841) : " As I take a father's in- 
 terest in all that concerns James, I am happy to learn 
 that his efforts to build up a new society continue to 
 meet with success. I hope this will continue to be the 
 case until his society shall be permanently established, 
 for I am not one of those who, with Miss Peabody and 
 others, believe that mankind can as yet do without an 
 outward and visible church. Of all the theoretical vaga- 
 ries of the day, this appears to me to be one of the most 
 extravagant. Suppose Miss P. and a few other good in- 
 tellectual people can do vdthout the aid of pubhc wor- 
 ship, it does not follow that the rest of the community 
 can. You and Alfred can read without spectacles, but 
 even Miss P. would admit it to be bad reasoning, if I on 
 that account insisted that she must dispense with the 
 use of glasses. I have seen the experiment of doing 
 without pubHc worship tried ; and I wish that those who 
 recommend it for general adoption should first go to 
 one of our new southwestern settlements^ to see how it 
 works." 
 
 Brook Farm he treated with gentle irony. In this 
 same letter he remarks : " I am glad to learn that Wm. 
 [H.] Channing has not entered that hospital of invalids 
 yclept the Community (Brook Farm), and I hope he 
 never will. ... I pity my friend Dwight from the bot- 
 tom of my heart. What will he do at the Community ? 
 He has no physical strength to live by bodily labors ; 
 and besides he will find little of poetry in practical agri- 
 cultural operations." And in another letter (September 
 16, 1841) : "Miss Peabody's description of the Com- 
 munity interested me less than would at the end of the 
 year the page of Mr. Ripley's ledger in which the ac- 
 counts of the experiments in socialism are kept. If 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 289 
 
 James learns what is the result of this experiment, I 
 shall be glad if you will teU me." 
 
 James Freeman Clarke's society gathered to itself 
 goodly numbers and prospered smoothly until 1845, 
 when the commotion raised by Theodore Parker's het- 
 erodoxy was at its height. At the very' time when 
 the outcry against Parker was the loudest, Mr. Clarke 
 exchanged with him. " Black Sunday " the day of ex- 
 change was set down in his diary. It was January 26, 
 — and black indeed it looked to a large part of his con- 
 gregation, fifteen of whom withdrew and formed a new 
 church of their own, and the Boston Unitarians in gen- 
 eral resented Mr. Clarke's liberality. Mr. Huidekoper, 
 indeed, was troubled by it. He had been reconciled, he 
 said, to the distance that separated him from his daugh- 
 ter, because he had seen the wonderful success of Mr. 
 Clarke's work, and realized the good he was doing. 
 " James had collected perhaps the best society existing 
 in Boston, at least such the late Henry Ware pronounced 
 it to be. Into that society James had infused a high 
 devotional spirit, and, in return for the good he had 
 done them, he possessed the esteem and afEection of 
 his society to a perhaps unprecedented degree." His 
 own sacrifice and Mr. Clarke's endeavors seemed to him 
 about to come to naught. " And now to see that har- 
 mony disturbed and aU James's mighty influence for 
 good jeopardized is really painful to me. That James 
 in all this matter has acted from principle I feel per- 
 fectly convinced of, but this does not essentially affect 
 the result. What that result will be I cannot foresee. 
 Should it be a dissolution of the connection between 
 James and his society (an event which I pray God in 
 his mercy to avert), I then ask that James do not form 
 
290 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 any permanent engagement until you can hear from me. 
 I hope and trust, however, that this storm will subside."^ 
 
 With regard to Theodore Parker his position was 
 clear. The term Christian he could not apply to Parker. 
 
 To the Clarkes he wrote again (February 14, 1845) : 
 
 " When Mr. Parker declares himself to be a Chris- 
 tian, does he use this word according to its common ac- 
 ceptation, or has he attached to it a new and altogether 
 arbitrary meaning ? I think that he has done the latter, 
 and that therefore he does not fall within the rule as 
 laid down. That, in common cases, we have no right to 
 inquire whether, when a man declares himself to be a 
 Christian, he attaches to that term precisely the same 
 ideas as we do, I freely admit. But Mr. P. has taken 
 his case out of the common rule ; and besides, there is 
 a fundamental doctrine laid down in the gospels, con- 
 cerning which all who bear the name of Christians are 
 agreed, namely : that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ ; 
 and it is the belief in this fundamental article of faith 
 which has, from the beginning, been considered as ne- 
 cessary to constitute a man a Christian. Now Mr. P. has 
 published sundry books in which he has given an ex- 
 position of his opinions, and, if the extracts from these 
 books which I have seen are to be depended on, he has 
 there declared that he does not beheve in Jesus of Naz- 
 areth as the Christ, the authorized messenger of God ; 
 but that he considers him as a common man, liable 
 like other men to be mistaken ; and that he gives the 
 name of Christianity to a system which, according to 
 Mr. P., was long anterior to Christ, and so entirely in- 
 dependent of him that it would have existed just as 
 
 1 Letter of February 12, 1846. 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OP THE TIMES 291 
 
 well if Christ had never been born. Now, this appears 
 to me to be simple Deism." 
 
 Deism, Pantheism, — what pitfalls the words repre- 
 sented ! And Mr. Huidekoper in turn had been sus- 
 pected of falling into the snare. " I was almost amused 
 by finding myself classed among the Pantheists in an 
 article which appeared recently in the ' Christian Re- 
 gister ' over the signature of S. F., and that because I 
 believe in the all-pervading agency of God. Mr. S. F. 
 appears to me to be neither a very profound thinker nor 
 a very good reasoner, and as this attacks my favourite 
 article of faith, I should feel tempted to review S. F.'s 
 article if I lived at Boston and not 700 miles ofE. Mr. 
 S. F.'s assertions, that the Pantheism which deifies all 
 that exists is equally injurious with that which reduces 
 God to a mere power inherent in nature appears to me 
 to be an extravagancy ; and his subsequent assertion, 
 that the belief in the constant all pervading operations 
 of God involves a denial of the existence of nature or 
 the creation, I know to be unfounded, for I firmly be- 
 lieve in this all pervading Providence, and I also firmly 
 believe in my own existence, and in the existence of 
 things around me. I suspect some men bewilder them- 
 selves with their metaphysics, and then write on sub- 
 jects which they have not sufficiently considered in their 
 several bearings." ^ 
 
 It was give and take on every side, and the scent of 
 the fray was dear to the nostril even when its invitation 
 was but the breath of the east wind suggesting Anni- 
 versary Week. "I hope to be at Boston during the 
 week of the meetings, and I shall then have an oppor- 
 1 Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, December 13, 1844. 
 
292 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 tunity of hearing all about the various projects now in 
 agitation for curing all the moral and social evils of the 
 community. Perhaps I may then also be able to find out 
 how it happens that all these new lights, whether anti- 
 slavery men, non-resistants, or socialists, appear to bear 
 so much lU will towards the clergy. With them the 
 clergy appear to be the scape-goats on whom the sins of 
 the whole community are to be loaded." ^ 
 
 The terrible pressure of the anti-slavery cause, the 
 immediateness of its appeal, was fast lifting it to a 
 rank above all other reforms in the controversial arena. 
 It was the major conflict which bore onward for a sea- 
 son, under Garrison's strong leadership, various weaker 
 struggles, all to be submerged, later, in the on-rush of 
 actual war. It was in 1844 that Garrison's " No Union 
 with Slave-holders " became the burning topic for dis- 
 cussion. The New England Anti-slavery Convention 
 held its meetings that year in the Marlboro Chapel in 
 Boston, and, on the 28th of May, adopted by a vote 
 of two hundred and fifty against twenty-four resolu- 
 tions embodying the disunion doctrine. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper had never come under Garrison's in- 
 fluence. While uncompromisingly an anti-slavery man, 
 he could not stand even by the side of James Free- 
 man Clarke as an abolitionist. He fully believed, at 
 this time, at least, that mild methods and the natural 
 progress of events would bring about the desired 
 change. 
 
 [December 21, 1846.] " If Mr. Vaughn undertakes 
 to publish an anti-slavery paper in Kentucky, I hope he 
 will be more moderate and prudent than C. M. Clay. I 
 do not believe that it is best to make people angry in 
 
 1 Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, April 22, 1844. 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 293 
 
 order to convince them, or to win them over to cm- 
 opinions. It appears to me that the anti-slaverj appeals 
 are not judiciously addressed to the proper motives. If, 
 instead of presenting slave-holding as sinful, it was re- 
 presented as injurious in a pecuniary and social view, 
 both to the slaveholder and the community, the repre- 
 sentations would produce more effect. It is a difficult 
 matter to persuade a slaveholder who treats his slaves 
 kindly that he is committing a sin by keeping slaves, 
 especially when the laws of his state do not permit him 
 to manumit them, and when his only way to get rid of 
 his connection with slavery is to transfer his slaves to 
 another master who perhaps might treat them less 
 kindly. But it appears to me more easy to convince 
 such an one that it is more advantageous to use free 
 than slave labor." ^ 
 
 Here was in action the same dislike of "abstrac- 
 tions " to which he has already confessed. The aboli- 
 tionists, with their insistence upon abstract principles, 
 left him unmoved. He looked in imagination upon the 
 practical application of these principles to the case in 
 hand, to the Ufe of the South, to the relations between 
 South and North, and foresaw disaster. All his old- 
 world dread of revolution and violence, aU his experi- 
 ence of men and their suffering, rose in protest against 
 the splendid recklessness of driving the ploughshare of 
 abstract right straight through the homes of half a 
 nation. He would proceed by law and in order. 
 
 In a letter of September 27, 1847, he advanced to 
 the support of Dr. Gannett and others, whose conser- 
 vatism was drawing upon them the reproaches of the 
 " Christian World : " — 
 
 1 Letter to Mr. and Mrs. James Freeman Clarke. 
 
294 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPBB 
 
 On the day I left Philadelphia I met with a very in- 
 teresting man from the eastern shore of Maryland, who, 
 on his part, appeared pleased with me. From his garb, 
 and other indicia, I took him to be a clergyman. He 
 was a slaveholder by birth ; had occasionally purchased 
 a slave to prevent families from being separated, was a 
 declared anti-slavery man, and had shown his sincerity 
 by manvmiitting one of his female slaves, who had found 
 a prospect of establishing herself in New York. He ex- 
 pressed his willingness to manumit every slave he had 
 the moment it could be done to their good, but declared 
 that in the present state of things such manumission 
 would be injurious to them, as it would withdraw them 
 from a situation where both their physical and moral 
 well being were duly cared for, to consign them to the 
 condition of free blacks in a slave State, which he re- 
 presented as one of extreme degradation both in a moral 
 and physical point of view. For the rest, he much ap- 
 proved of a plan of gradual and prospective emancipa- 
 tion such as had formerly been adopted in New York, 
 New Jersey, &c., and expressed a hope that, as slave- 
 holding was found to be a ruinous concern, some means 
 would soon be adopted to free Maryland from this curse. 
 He, however, expressed the universal Southern senti- 
 ment, that the violence of the Northern abolitionists has 
 retarded emancipation. 
 
 That the free blacks should be in a state of greater 
 degradation than the slaves, may appear strange at first 
 view, and yet, on second consideration, it is not strange 
 that men without the means of instruction, and for 
 whom no one cares, should be more degraded than 
 others who, even in an unfavourable situation, are under 
 better influences. On this subject a couple of facts have 
 come to my knowledge which appear to me to have a 
 strong bearing on it. In 1834 I visited the state prison 
 at Charleston [Charlestown?]. At that time the colored 
 prisoners bore to the white the proportion of one to six, 
 while in the census of 1830 the relative proportion of 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 295 
 
 the coloured population was to the whites as one to 
 eighty-six. According to this ratio of an equal number 
 of whites and blacks there would be fourteen of the lat- 
 ter in the State prison to one of the former. On my late 
 passage through Auburn, I found the ratio between the 
 black and white prisoners nearly the same as at Charles- 
 ton [Charlestown ?] in 1834. Surely this indicates a 
 moral condition of the colored population which de- 
 serves to be considered in anti-slavery movements ; and 
 shows also the extent to which our pseudo reformers are 
 carried by their abstractions, when Mr. Greeley and his 
 coadjutors strove hard to extend the elective franchises 
 to this class of men. 
 
 While on the subject of aboUtion, I would beg of 
 James, as soon as he becomes the editor of the " Chris- 
 tian World," to put at once a stop to the attacks which 
 of late have been made in that paper on Messrs. Dewey, 
 Gannett & Parkman, whose only crime appears to be 
 that they doubt the expediency of the course pursued 
 by Messrs. Garrison, Douglas, May, Jr., and others. If 
 our Christian hberty is to be limited to the right of 
 thinking and acting as prescribed by these reformers, it 
 is merely a kind of democratic right of going in the 
 political traces quietly and without kicking. I think the 
 most strenuous conservatives allow a rather greater share 
 of individual liberty of opinion. 
 
 Still, it is evident that as the situation became graver 
 he drew to a more advanced position. " Yesterday was 
 the day for the great Van Buren convention at Buffalo, 
 and I am with some interest awaiting to learn the re- 
 sult. That men should place at the head of the Liberty 
 party a man whose subserviency to the South during the 
 whole of his administration has been notorious, and who 
 was a party to that infamous conspiracy to kidnap the 
 Amisted negroes and send them back to Cuba, shows 
 how easily men suffer themselves to be gulled. I hope, 
 
296 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 however, that this new party will do good. It will as- 
 sist in saving us from Cass, and an extension of slavery. 
 I should not be surprised if the admission of Texas 
 should, in the hands of Providence, become a means of 
 abolishing slavery." ' 
 
 Many a discussion did he have with James Freeman 
 Clarke on the subject of obeying the Fugitive Slave 
 Law. He could not for some time after it was passed 
 accept the idea that it could be his duty to become a 
 law-breaker. Yet one or two incidents show that his 
 attitude was to be accounted for, in part at least, by 
 the fact that he had never come in actual contact with 
 slavery ; and that he could not for a moment maintain 
 that attitude when faced by a direct appeal to his sym- 
 pathy. One day, his granddaughter says, Mr. Huide- 
 koper and Mr. Clarke, while out driving together upon 
 one of the country roads, were deep in one of these very 
 discussions, and Mr. Huidekoper was strenuously hold- 
 ing to the position that it was dangerous to teach that 
 the law ought to be disobeyed. At that instant, at a 
 turn in the road, they suddenly met a party of fugitives, 
 just escaped from the South and hurrying on their way 
 to Canada. Mr. Huidekoper stopped his horse and ques- 
 tioned them ; and when he drove on all the money that 
 he had had in his pockets had somehow found its way 
 to theirs.^ 
 
 His grandson, General H. S. Huidekoper, who fought 
 in the war for the Union, and lost his right arm for 
 the cause at Gettysburg, distinctly remembers a day 
 shortly after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, 
 when, walking on the street with his grandfather, they 
 
 * Letter to Mr. and Mrs. James Freeman Clarke, August 10, 1848. 
 ' See, also, Anti-Slavery Days, by James Freeman Clarke. 
 
CONCERNING THE ULTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES 297 
 
 met a party of terrified negroes moving further north- 
 ward. A deep impression was made on the boy when he 
 saw his grandfather encouraging with liberal purse the 
 poor creatures that were making a second escape, this 
 time from the Northern states to Canada. "His big 
 heart," says General Huidekoper, " beat quickly at the 
 wrong, and my little heart, as he gave me half dollars to 
 hand to some other members of the fugitive party, drew 
 in abolitionism which culminated in the sixties and had 
 much to do with my interest in the war of the Rebel- 
 lion." Tradition has it, also, that Mr. Huidekoper was 
 in the habit of furnishing money to Mr. Randolph, 
 whose home was a regular station on the underground 
 railroad, and that many a runaway — for Mead ville was 
 on the direct route to BufBalo and thence to Canada — 
 was helped to freedom by his generous hand. His great 
 tenderness of heart could not let it be otherwise. His 
 granddaughter affirms that he " never was able to read 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin, because the pain and cruelty de- 
 scribed in it distressed him. He read the beginning, but 
 when he came to the separation threatened between Tom 
 and his wife and children, he quietly laid down the book 
 and did not ever take it up again." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 INDIAN SUMMER 
 
 As time went on, and the circle widened to include new 
 members brought into it by marriage, while new inter- 
 ests opened for all, one shadow fell upon Pomona and 
 upon those who had shared its brighter days. Mrs. 
 Huidekoper, who with the advance of age had grad- 
 ually succumbed to a gentle invaHdism, quietly loosened 
 her hold upon the world and slipped away. 
 
 She died on the 22d of October, 1839. On the 26th 
 Mr. Huidekoper wrote to his daughter : — 
 
 It has never happened before, my dear Anna, that I 
 felt any reluctance to taking up my pen to write to you. 
 It is the case now, my dear daughter, because I feel 
 that what I shall say will reopen a wound which is still 
 fresh and bleeding. But why should we not talk of her 
 who at this moment is almost the exclusive subject of 
 our thoughts? Why should we not pour out our hearts 
 to each other, and mingle our tears for a loss which to 
 both of us is irreparable ? 
 
 In a few hurried lines I informed Mr. Clarke of the 
 death of your mother, and devolved on him the task of 
 communicating this afflictive news to you, and of sup- 
 porting you under it. Alfred has since written to you, 
 and has communicated the details of the closing scene 
 of your mother's life. There is only one point on which 
 he has not been sufficiently clear. He has merely 
 painted Lizzy as a ministering angel ; I must paint her 
 to you in higher colors. Never, until the late trying 
 scene revealed her to me in her true character, had I 
 
INDIAN SUMMER 299 
 
 known my daughter. I had only known her as a 
 kind, good, affectionate daughter ; as the ever cheer- 
 ful, the ever happy Lizzy. But never had I known 
 her as the firm, strong woman, possessing a power of 
 self-control which I have never seen equalled. But I 
 must enter into details to do her justice. Lizzy had by 
 her watching m the earlier parts of your mother's ill- 
 ness, and perhaps still more by her mental agitation, 
 become ill herself. . . . She, however, refused to retire 
 to another room, but occupied a bed at the foot of her 
 mother's. From that she rose every time that her mo- 
 ther moved to attend to that mother's wants; and 
 when that mother's illness increased, the mental energy 
 of your sister entirely overcame her bodily indisposition. 
 With a slight exception she spent the last forty-eight 
 hours at the dying bed of her mother, ministering 
 to her wants with a daughter's care and a woman's 
 tenderness. A hundred times during those dreadfid 
 hours I have seen my Lizzy's frame convulsed by her 
 feelings, but never did even the slightest tremor in her 
 voice betray to the ear what was passing within. Her 
 voice retained its usual calm, kind intonations to the 
 last, and it was only when all was over that she gave 
 free vent to her feehngs. No, I repeat it, Ann, never 
 have I witnessed such heroic self-control. 
 
 We have all of us now returned to our usual avoca- 
 tions and we strive to be calm and resigned. , . . 
 
 As to me, my love, I am particularly the object of 
 the tenderest attentions from all who surround me, and 
 all appear to strive to comfort me in my affliction.' 
 
 ' The passage in his son's letter referred to by Mr. Huidekoper was 
 the following: " We read messengers were sent to comfort our divine Mas- 
 ter in the last dark hour of his trial, and so, too, when the Angel of Death 
 came for our beloved mother, he found a seraph in our little sister Lizzie 
 at her side, ministering to her wants day and night without intermission. 
 She sat upon the bed anticipating every wish and soothing every pain, 
 speaking with her in tones of such subdued, yet touching affection that it 
 almost broke my heart to think that those who loved each other so much 
 should be separated so soon." 
 
300 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 To Frederic Mr. Huidekoper wrote (October 24, 
 1839) : " Happily, my dear son, we are not as those 
 who mourn without a hope. We know that there is a 
 Father who watches ever over us, and that in his hand 
 we are safe ; that death is not the extinction ; that to 
 the Christian it is a mere incident in his state of be- 
 ing, which translates him to another apartment of his 
 Father's dwelling, and that we cannot go where we 
 shall cease to be the objects of his care and his love." 
 
 A potent consolation existed in the grandchildren 
 now beginning to claim his affection and divert his 
 thoughts. 
 
 More than a year before Mrs. Huidekoper's death her 
 son Edgar had married Frances Shippen, the daughter 
 of Judge Henry Shippen, Mr. Huidekoper's old-time 
 friend, and had brought her home to Pomona. There 
 for nearly thirteen years she gave Mr. Huidekoper a 
 daughter's devotion, filling the place once more with the 
 sunshine of childhood, as her nimierous little ones took 
 their places around their grandfather's knee, and post- 
 poning again and again, at his urgent plea, the establish- 
 ment of her own separate household. For to him her 
 children were like his very own. Henry, born in time to 
 delight his grandmother with three months of baby- 
 hood, the second grandchild she had held in her arms, 
 — Rebecca, Alfred's daughter, being the first, — Fred- 
 eric, Herman, Edgar, Gertrude, all these entered upon 
 life in the old home, and played about its spacious 
 grounds, where their father had played before them. 
 
 In the sad months that followed his great loss Mr. 
 Huidekoper found solace in his visits to Alfred's fam- 
 ily, where the four-year old Rebecca awaited him, and 
 in the presence of the little grandson under his own 
 
si 
 
 
INDIAN SUMMER 301 
 
 roof. He was ever in the habit of rising early, and 
 oftenest spent the hours before breakfast in writing, or 
 in the study of the Bible. His children and his older 
 grandchildren retained a vivid picture of hun as they so 
 frequently saw him, in later years, sitting beside the 
 open fire in the south room, with the Bible on a little 
 stand beside him and the cat upon his knee. On sum- 
 mer mornings, when open windows were more in order, 
 some pieces of bread would be laid providently beside 
 the book, and the reason for this would be made plain 
 by a gentle tapping of small hoofs along the piazza, and 
 the thrusting in at the window of the delicate noses and 
 brown ears of two small deer, usually too shy to ap- 
 proach the house after the day's bustle had begun, but 
 confident of kindness during its quiet prelude, when 
 they were sure of finding their trusted friend in soH- 
 tude. A baby in the house, however, was his best re- 
 source, and in this lonely winter, little Henry, " source 
 of great comfort " and " paying his grandpa for being 
 fond of him by being fond of his grandpa in return," 
 used to be brought to the silent sleeping-room to be 
 happily entertained until the summons for breakfast 
 interrupted the visit. " In the evening again," wrote 
 Mr. Huidekoper, " I sit with him, and divide my time 
 between him and the Httle memoir of my fife that I am 
 writing for you aU." 
 
 " To You, My Children," he said, when referring to 
 his wife in the memoir, or autobiography, "who have 
 grown up under her truly Maternal care, and who now, 
 with me, mourn for her loss, it would be useless to ex- 
 patiate on her virtues and her worth. It was chiefly to 
 her that we are indebted for that quiet spirit of order 
 which has ever pervaded our home." 
 
302 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Edgar's children were not the only ones who first 
 drew breath beneath the sheltering eaves o£ Pomona 
 Hall. The eldest and youngest of Mrs. Clarke's four 
 also were born in Meadville. It was on the fifteenth of 
 October, 1840, while Mr. Clarke was in Massachusetts, 
 and his wife was at Pomona, that Herman was born. 
 This little Herman, in his short Hfe, filled an especial 
 niche in Margaret Fuller's heart.^ He was a child of 
 uncommon beauty and promise and was very dear to his 
 grandfather. On September 3, 1841, Mr. Huidekoper 
 wrote to his daughter, then with Mr. Clarke in Boston : 
 " I am delighted with what you tell me of Herman's 
 health, and sweet temper and progress. I wish I had 
 him with me, so that his voice might be added to those 
 of Hen and Fred to enliven OTir quiet home. Give him 
 a thousand kisses for me, and tell him that he morning 
 and evening shares with his parents in my prayers. For 
 the rest, my love, do not be in a hurry to see him creep, 
 walk, talk, etc., and feel no pain nor disappointment if 
 you meet with other children who are more forward at 
 his age than he is. In some individuals the physical 
 and mental powers develop much more slowly than in 
 others, and often the former make the brightest men. 
 My Rambo apples are none the worse for not ripening 
 as early as my August apples." 
 
 Herman did not survive his eighth year. On Febru- 
 ary 22, 1849, his grandfather wrote : " My dear chil- 
 dren : Last evening I received your letters of the 15th. 
 I cannot tell you how sensible I am to your kind at- 
 tempts to soothe my feelings under the affictive dispen- 
 
 > "Three of Margaret Fuller's passionate loves had been for children: 
 the young Waldo Emerson, Fickie Greeley, and Herman Clarke," says Mr. 
 Lindsay Swift in his Brook Farm (p. 216). 
 
INDIAN SUMMER 303 
 
 sation which has befallen us. I was totally unprepared 
 for this event, and for the moment it has overcome me. 
 That my dear Herman should be called off before I was, 
 myself, had never entered my mind. I ought to have 
 recollected that he was liable to be taken away in early 
 life, for I had myself lost my two eldest children, the one 
 in tender infancy, and the other at about Herman's age, 
 but I hoped that my children would have been spared 
 from ever experiencing the anguish which a parent 
 feels when his fond anticipations for the future are 
 thus unexpectedly blasted. But this is the dispensation 
 of a good and wise Father who does everything for the 
 best. ... Oh ! if we could only fully reaUze that no- 
 thing happens to us by chance, but that all that befalls 
 us is ordered by a wise and benevolent Almighty Father, 
 what a different aspect everything would assume ! " 
 
 To produce and preserve in those around him the 
 tranquil, trustful spirit with which he believed life should 
 be met, was his constant endeavor, and nothing de- 
 Hghted him more than to minister to the happiness of 
 little children. " The pleasantest part of my childhood 
 was spent in Meadville," writes one who testifies to this, 
 " and we were indebted to dear Mr. Huidekoper more 
 than to any one else for the many happy hours and days 
 we enjoyed." 
 
 Pomona, always a favorite play-ground for the chil- 
 dren of the family, was once a year thrown open to a 
 large throng of girls and boys who came to celebrate 
 the Fourth of July on Mr. Huidekoper's lawn. They 
 were the members of the difFerent Unitarian Sunday- 
 schools established in Meadville and the neighborhood, 
 and numbered in all more than two hundred pupils. 
 Mr. Huidekoper was very earnest in his desire to spread 
 
304 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEB 
 
 the new gospel as far as his efforts or the efforts of a 
 Meadville minister could carry it ; and he found Mr. 
 Emmons/ who in 1837 succeeded Mr. Day as pastor of 
 the Meadville church, particularly successful in organiz- 
 ing and carrying on church services and Sunday-schools 
 in the outlying districts. In Vernon township, on the 
 Mercer Pike, was in 1842 a school of seventy or eighty 
 members ; three miles out on the State Road was one 
 of fifty; five miles further in the same direction, an- 
 other of fifty more. Every Fourth of July for many 
 years all these young people came in from the surround- 
 ing country to join the Meadville Sunday-school in a 
 frolic under the elms and maples at Pomona. 
 
 These gatherings had their origin in the fact that in 
 1841, when most of the churches in the town formed 
 together their plans for the entertainment of the Sun- 
 day-school children, the Unitarian school received no in- 
 vitation to be present. To make amends to them, as Mr. 
 Huidekoper expressed it, a " little fete " was arranged 
 for them at his house. This was enjoyed so much that 
 it was repeated and came to be looked forward to from 
 year to year. The children, brought from the country 
 by the wagon load or hastening from nearer homes, 
 would meet at the Diamond, where they would form a 
 procession headed by some child carrying the banner, 
 
 — a square of white satin embroidered with an appro- 
 priate motto in bright colors by the ladies of Pomona, 
 
 — and thence, singing their Unitarian hymns, would 
 march through the streets to Mr. Huidekoper's house, 
 
 ' After leaving Meadville Mr. Emmons went to Vernon, N. Y., where 
 he preached for about twelve years. Loss of voice compelled him to 
 abandon the pulpit. He died at Short Off, N. C, November 19, 1899, 
 aged ninety-one years. The Ind^endent Congregational (^Unitarian) 
 Church of Meadville, Pa., p. 42. 
 
INDIAN SUMMER 305 
 
 ^here with outstretched hand and beaming smile their 
 host was standing to welcome them. The greetings 
 over, they would disperse to the swings, the games, the 
 grace-hoops, and other amusements provided for them.^ 
 In the middle of the lawn a table, arched over with 
 fresh leafy branches, — " a lowery " they called it, — 
 gave promise of a feast; and by noon' the good things 
 were brought out from the hospitable kitchen and set 
 before the hungry little folks. Nor was this hospitality 
 limited to the Unitarians. In 1843 Mr. Huidekoper 
 wrote that with the forty or fifty young people not in 
 the schools but considering themselves in some measure 
 connected with the church, and also " a number who 
 joined in the yard, an aggregate of between three hun- 
 dred and fifty and four hundred turned out to play. 
 Add to these," he continued, " most of the members of 
 our church and a. considerable concourse of town and 
 country spectators, and you may form some slight idea 
 of the Hvely scene." There is no hint of anything like 
 our later Chinese fashion of making the day hideous, 
 although on one occasion a paper balloon was sent up 
 amidst great enthusiasm. Yet no one can doubt that 
 the cup of joy for every child brimmed full. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Clarke, recovering from the effects of 
 typhoid fever, gave up for a time his Boston preaching 
 and came to Meadville, partly for rest, partly to fill the 
 pulpit, then temporarily vacant. The school-room be- 
 came his study. There he wrote and read, and prepared 
 
 1 Among other treasures which added to the attractions of Pomona was 
 a three-seated covered wagon which Mr. Huidekoper had had made for 
 his daughter Anna, and which the grandchildren had all played with. It 
 still exists, an enrapturing sight. Six small people could ride, and four 
 small people could pull, to say nothing of those who might elect to push 
 behind or serve as outriders, and it was a favorite plaything with all. 
 
306 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 the sermons for the Meadville congregation, to whom 
 he preached, barring an absence of short duration, from 
 September, 1851, until October, 1852, and again for 
 several months in 1853, after his return from Europe. 
 Meanwhile his three children,^ the youngest of whom 
 was born at Pomona, filled the gap caused by the re- 
 moval of Edgar Huidekoper's family to their new home 
 on the hill.^ Of this removal Mr. Huidekoper speaks in 
 a letter of January 7, 1850. " On Thursday last Edgar 
 and family removed to their new home. The frequent 
 delays and postponements showed that they left the 
 paternal home with reluctance. All were deeply moved 
 at leaving, though none more so than little Hermie. 
 When he got to his new home he observed to his mother 
 that it was very hard to leave Grandpa ; and when I went 
 the next day to dine at Edgar's Herman had to leave 
 the room overcome by his feelings. . . . Edgar's new 
 home is perhaps the most convenient of any I have seen 
 in the West, and the situation is really beautiful, hav- 
 ing a view of the French Creek valley and the surround- 
 ing scenery. All the inmates are pleased with it, but my 
 little darling Eddie has met with a cause of vexation he 
 had not bargained for. He is so much of a mother's 
 boy that he wants always to sit next to her at table. 
 Now in the domestic arrangements a fixed place at table 
 has been assigned to him, and as his mother at dinner 
 takes the head of the table, and at breakfast and tea the 
 side, she does not constantly sit next to him, to his great 
 regret." 
 
 1 Lilian Freeman, Eliot, and Cora Huidekoper Clarke. 
 
 ^ After the removal of Edgar Huidekoper and his family to their new 
 home on Chestnut Street, Mr. Huidekoper one day remarked that he was 
 going to his home on the hill, and from that time Edgar's place went by 
 the name of Hill Home. 
 
INDIAN SUMMER 307 
 
 This tender sympathy with the joys and griefs of 
 childhood is the dominant note in whatever he says of 
 his grandchildren. One of them, who remembers well 
 his great afFection for them all, writes : — 
 
 My sister was born in his house, and I have heard my 
 mother say that she did not think he ever omitted go- 
 ing to the nursery before breakfast, and saying, in his 
 graceful, courtly way, as an old-fashioned noble might 
 address a lady, " And how has Grandpa's darling passed 
 the night ? " I recall sitting beside him in church, and 
 how he would put the hymn-book in my hands when the 
 hymn was given out, because he knew nearly every hymn 
 in the book by heart, and did not need to look at it. 
 At an earlier period, before my mother's marriage, my 
 grandfather, my uncle Edgar, my mother, and the clerk 
 spent nearly all their time for six weeks each winter in 
 making up the accounts of the Holland Company. My 
 mother said that when she and her father were adding 
 up the same column of figures, to see if the result corre- 
 sponded, sometimes they would come to a different con- 
 clusion ; then he always said, " Dear, I must have made 
 a mistake." He never spoke as if she had made one. 
 He never punished, and practically never blamed his 
 children. My mother said that the nearest he came to 
 this, that she could remember, was that when she and 
 her sister were sometimes a little late in coming down to 
 breakfast (though their late hours would be early to us) 
 he would come a little way up the stairs and call "Anne ! 
 Elise I Darlings ! Do you know how late it is ? " One 
 of the pleasantest pictures I retain of him, is that of his 
 sitting at the head of the table, just about to ask a bless- 
 ing. The youngest child, my sister, sat beside him in a 
 high chair ; and when ready to begin, he would turn 
 toward her, with such a beammg smile, and say, " Now, 
 fold your little hands." Then would follow a very few 
 words, which made us feel such a sense of real, near pre- 
 sence of God, and which were such an expression of love 
 
308 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 and gratitude, that the memory is a thing to cherish. I 
 remember that the blessing contained usually the peti- 
 tion that we might be conscious of the privilege of be- 
 ing the children of God, ending with the words : " thy 
 children, whom thou hast placed here to be educated for 
 eternity." 
 
 In 1852, my mother and father went abroad for the 
 winter, leaving their three children at Meadville. I did 
 not then know that my mother's state of health gave 
 cause for serious apprehension on her account. She was, 
 however, entirely restored by a sojourn of nine months 
 abroad, and came back in the early summer almost per- 
 fectly well. My grandfather went to meet the travelers 
 at Erie, and took me with him. When the carriage 
 stopped, he hastened down the steps of the hotel, and 
 gathering my mother close he held her to his heart, and, 
 looking up to heaven, the words, " My God, I thank 
 thee ! " broke from him. The intensity of love for the 
 daughter that he had feared never again to hold in his 
 arms and the overwhelming gratitude to God, expressed 
 in those few words, broken with emotion, made a very 
 deep impression on me, child as I then was. I have 
 never forgotten it, nor the effect it had on me at the 
 time. It was one of the things that showed that he lived 
 in constant communion with God ; and now and then, 
 in moments of sorrow or joy, the feeling would break 
 forth, unconsciously, being too strong to repress. But 
 at all times there was a sort of light on his face, coming 
 from the communion with the unseen presence that was 
 so real to him. 
 
 The " light on his face " corresponded to the joyous- 
 ness of his spirit. In the autobiography he testified : — 
 
 Few persons have enjoyed life more than I have done. 
 Much of my happiness is no doubt to be attributed to 
 the direction which my principal studies have taken for 
 a number of Years past. I have already stated, that, 
 though religion was never a matter of indifference to 
 
INDIAN SUMMER 309 
 
 me, yet that I had not formed distinct opinions as to 
 many of its dogmas : I continued in this situation for a 
 number of years. When however I had become a father 
 and saw the time approaching when I should have to 
 give reHgious instruction to my Children, I felt it to be 
 my duty to give this subject a thorough examination. 
 I accordingly commenced studying the scriptures as be- 
 ing the only safe rule of the Christian's faith, and the 
 result was, that I soon acquired clear and definite views 
 as to all the leading doctrines of the Christian religion. 
 But the good I derived from these studies has not been 
 confined to giving me clear ideas as to the Christian 
 doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly 
 increasing interest in religion itself, not as a mere the- 
 ory, but as a practical rule of life. The firm conviction, 
 that there is a God whose power upholds us, and whose 
 Paternal Providence constantly guides us, and directs 
 every event that befalls us, has become to me a source 
 of confidence and trust at all times, and of consolation 
 in the hour of trouble. For several years past I have 
 been in the daily habit of reading some portion of the 
 Scriptures, particularly of the New Testament. I would 
 recommend the same practice to You, My Children, for 
 I have ever found it a source of new light and of in- 
 centive to goodness. 
 
 I have now reached the evening of life, and when I 
 look back on the past I feel that I cannot be sufficiently 
 grateful to God for the manner in which he has con- 
 stantly ordered my lot and blessed me. It is true, by 
 the recent death of your Dear Mother, one of the chief 
 sources of my earthly happiness has been taken away, 
 but, according to the common course of nature, our 
 separation cannot be long ; and in the meantime, how 
 many blessings have I not left me, — m Your affec- 
 tion ; — in the kindness of my numerous friends ; — m 
 the affectionate caresses of my Grandchildren, and the 
 means of occasional usefullness which are afforded me, 
 — to cheer the evening of my days? 
 
310 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Such, My dear Children, are the simple incidents of 
 my life. To You alone they can have any interest, and 
 to You this relation of them is dedicated by 
 
 Your affection [ate] Father.^ 
 
 In writing to his children as the successive birthdays 
 came round he could review his life with the same 
 serenity of mind. 
 
 [AprH 3, 1842.] My dear Children. . . . To-day I 
 am sixty-six years old, an age which considerably ex- 
 ceeds the average age to which mankind attains ; and 
 one which there was no reason to anticipate from my 
 sickly infancy and feeble frame. When I take a view of 
 my past Ufe, I cannot help feeling how much cause of 
 gratitude I have to the Great Disposer of all things, for 
 the manner in which He has guided me, and ordered 
 my lot. Born almost dying, He has strengthened my 
 frame, and caused me to enjoy almost uninterrupted 
 good health. Born in a district which, comparatively 
 speaking, was at the time of my birth involved in the 
 darkness of the Middle Ages, He has led me to where 
 my intellectual, moral, and religious powers could 
 receive their due development. Born in poverty. He 
 has blest me with wealth beyond my most sanguine 
 hopes. Cast upon a distant shore a solitary stranger, 
 He has given me friends and family, and a home 5 and 
 now, in the evening of life, I am blest with good, kind 
 children ; with fine, promising grandchildren ; with a 
 good share of health and with a heart as young as ever 
 to enjoy God's bounties. Surely no one ever had greater 
 cause for gratitude than I have. Life to me has always 
 been, and still is, so much of a blessing that there is 
 danger that I may cling too fondly to it. May yours, 
 my dearest, be equally so to you. 
 
 [April 4, 1846.] Yesterday was my birthday. As 
 usual, that portion of the family who reside here, old 
 ' Dated Meadville, February 28, 1840. 
 
INDIAN SUMMER 311 
 
 and young, spent the day with me, and as the weather 
 was clear and warm, so that the Httle ones could be 
 out of doors, we had all of us a happy day of it. In 
 the evening an additional number of my friends called, 
 so that we had quite a sociable reunion. ... In this 
 retrospection of the past the rapid flight of time is not 
 the only thing which attracts my attention. In it the 
 goodness of God is still more conspicuous. If ever 
 there was anyone who had reason to be grateful to God 
 for the way in which his life has been ordered, I am 
 that one. God has, as it were, led me by the hand 
 through life, step by step, by paths which I had not 
 devised, and could not have foreseen, and now in the 
 evening of life, I can perceive much of the wisdom and 
 goodness of God's Providence. It is true, like others, I 
 have met with many troubles and disappointments, and 
 with some of those losses which make the heart bleed. 
 The benevolent purposes of the latter we cannot always 
 see now, but shall know hereafter ; and as to the for- 
 mer, I have not met with any disappointments and 
 troubles more than were necessary for the development 
 of my powers, and the discipline of life. On the whole 
 my life has been a very happy one. With my favorite 
 Jotham Anderson, I can truly say that there has not 
 been an hour of life on which the sun of God's good- 
 ness has not shone. 
 
 [April 3, 1849.] What deep, what varied emotions 
 this day calls forth. The first is that of gratitude to the 
 Being who, when I was not, called me into existence, 
 and placed me on this splendid theatre of His power 
 and love. . . . Here am I now, entering on my seventy- 
 fourth year, still enjoying good health of body and 
 mind, and still, notwithstanding those who have been 
 called away, surrounded by a numerous and affec- 
 tionate posterity. But gratitude is not the only emo- 
 tion this day calls forth. Its rapid returns make me 
 realize in some measure the velocity with which this 
 life passes away. When I look back it appears to me 
 
312 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 but a little while since I landed, a young man of twenty, 
 on these shores, and yet more than half a century has 
 since passed by, and here I have arrived already at an 
 advanced old age, and the time of my departure, I trust 
 the time of my translation, cannot, in the common course 
 of nature, be very far off. This, however much I enjoy 
 and value the present life, casts no shadow of gloom 
 over the enjoyment of the present. I fondly trust that 
 the same paternal care which has watched over me here 
 will again watch over me in another state of being, and 
 under that care I cannot but be safe. Besides, I am not 
 going to a land of strangers. There are my sainted 
 Rebecca, my two dear departed children, our darling 
 Herman, and a multitude of those who were dear to me 
 here, and to those I hope to be reunited. For the rest, 
 I am much of Mr. Bellows' opinion that the change, on 
 passing from this Hfe to the next, will be much less 
 than is generally supposed. If men did not essentially 
 enter on another life the same as they leave this, if 
 the change were to be as radical as the popular belief 
 makes it, it would amount almost to a loss of identity. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL 
 
 As a culmination of his desire to spread the liberal 
 faith throughout his beloved Western country, Mr. 
 Huidekoper, in the last ten years of his life, saw rise 
 under his fostering care a school for the training of 
 ministers for that work. And not for general reasons 
 alone was he interested in the school ; it was especially 
 dear to him because created and brought to the point of 
 success mainly by the indefatigable labors of his son. 
 
 Frederic Huidekoper, as has been seen, entered Har- 
 vard College in 1834, in the Sophomore class. His de- 
 parture from Pomona was scarcely more momentous for 
 him than for his father, whose earnest charge to him 
 on settling him in Cambridge was, " Much of your hap- 
 piness and much of mine, too, will now depend on the 
 use you shall make of the opportunities offered you." 
 
 There was little need for parental exhortation. Fred- 
 eric was naturally a student, and also made friends read- 
 ily in the coUegiate circle. At Mr. Norton's house and 
 with Dr. and Mrs. FoUen he was a welcome guest ; he 
 lived for some time in Mr. Nichols' household, and con- 
 tinued in Cambridge very much the same mode of liv- 
 ing he had had at home. 
 
 He had scarcely begun his second year at college 
 when his eyes became so seriously affected that he was 
 obliged to give up study and return to Meadville. There 
 he remained for the four succeeding years, working on 
 
314 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 the farm and studying ten minutes daily. After those 
 four years he spent two years in Europe, going first of 
 all to Holland, where he made the acquaintance of his 
 father's people. 
 
 Already his tastes were indicating his fitness for a 
 minister's career. His father recognized this with the 
 deepest pleasure, and confided to Mrs. Clarke : " There 
 are some parts of his letters which have affected me 
 much. When, at the age of twenty, I find him co- 
 operating with his good old Quaker, in measures for the 
 introduction of Sunday-schools and the ministry-at-large 
 into Holland, I feel that I have cause for gratitude to 
 God who gave me such a son." ^ 
 
 To a noticeable degree Mr. Huidekoper had the hap- 
 piness of seeing in his children the fulfillment of some 
 of his strongest desires. His own characteristics, in fact, 
 were in them developed and given full operation. His 
 sound judgment and ability in financial matters, his de- 
 votion to the reUgious life, his fondness for reading and 
 study, his warm benevolence, his public spirit, all were 
 represented in the five sons and daughters, some more 
 prominently in one, some in another. 
 
 Frederic, hesitating as to how to shape his future, 
 asked his father — and the question was significant of 
 his appreciation of what that father's life had been — 
 whether a man could accomplish more toward diffusing 
 religion through the community as a layman or as a 
 clergyman. Mr. Huidekoper replied, as might have been 
 expected, that as an abstract problem he could scarcely 
 give the question a satisfactory solution ; but that he 
 was glad that his son put usefulness first in considering 
 his life's work, since that was life's legitimate object, 
 
 1 Letter of November 2, 1839. 
 
Alfred Huidekoper 
 
THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL 315 
 
 and that a distinct profession or calling usually enabled 
 a young man to be more useful than the general dispo- 
 sition to be " philanthropist-at-large." It was always 
 good, he said, to have a distinct object in view. " I do 
 not coincide," . . . he continued, " in the opinion that 
 the clerical office has lost any of its former usefulness. 
 The nature of that usefidness may have altered some- 
 what by reason of the clergymen now occupying a less 
 isolated station in society than formerly ; but the amount 
 of that usefulness I beHeve rather to have increased than 
 diminished. . . . 
 
 " Leaving the selection of a profession entirely to 
 yourself, I fully approve of your plan of going on with 
 your theological studies. . . . You would have either for 
 the parochial ministry or for the ministry at large, some 
 advantages which are not common. Most of the min- 
 isters are poor. You, however, if no misfortune befall 
 me, will ultimately have an income of*|5000 or $6000 
 a year, and that will enable you to enlarge very consid- 
 erably the circle of your usefulness." ^ 
 
 On his return from Europe Frederic entered the Har- 
 vard Divinity School.^ While he was still at Cambridge, 
 his father gave him this pertinent advice (January 10, 
 1843) : " Talk to your audience, not at them. No ab- 
 stractions, no dissertations, no claptrap, or artful ar- 
 rangements to produce effect ; and above all, no preach- 
 ino- of yourself instead of the gospel. Be always true, 
 be natural. So far as possible, forget yourself. Pene- 
 trate yourself deeply with the importance of what you 
 
 1 Letter of November 11, 1840. 
 
 2 The state of his eyes forbade his studying the Hebrew required for 
 the regular course, and he therefore after the first year was obliged to 
 continue as a special student. 
 
316 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPEK 
 
 have to say, and then address your hearers under a feel- 
 ing of that importance, and depend upon it you will be 
 Hstened to. I feel convinced that much of the present 
 inefBciency of preaching is owing to its being too arti- 
 ficial. ... Be simple in your prayers, and confine your- 
 self to such subjects as your hearers feel a sufficient 
 interest in to join heartily with you in asking for. . . . 
 Let us pray, not merely say prayers." 
 
 Having finished his theological studies, the young 
 minister returned home. James Freeman Clarke was 
 temporarily filling the Meadville pulpit, for Mr. Em- 
 mons had resigned, and no one else had yet been found 
 to take his place. The presence of Mr. Clarke and liis 
 consenting to preach the ordination sermon made the 
 time an auspicious one for Frederic's ordination. The 
 Reverend G. W. Hosmer was asked to come to Mead- 
 viUe to make the ordination charge, and on the 12th of 
 October, 1843, Mr. Huidekoper witnessed, in the church 
 built up by his efforts, his son's induction into the Uni- 
 tarian ministry. 
 
 Frederic Huidekoper had intended to serve as minis- 
 ter-at-large for the several congregations in the neigh- 
 borhood, but another field of work opened before him. 
 The plan for organizing a Western theological school 
 had long been a favorite one with the Unitarians who 
 were carrying on their unequal struggle far from the 
 base of supplies. They felt the need of a centre of in- 
 fluence for themselves and for the rapidly increasing 
 population. Mr. Huidekoper had more than once been 
 hopeful that the scheme was about to be carried out. 
 
 It had at one time seemed probable that such a school 
 would be begun at Buffalo, under Mr. Hosmer's direc- 
 tion. At another time there was a plan for starting one 
 
Edgar Huidekoper 
 
THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL 317 
 
 at Cincianati or Louisville. Later, the Rev. William G. 
 Eliot tried to organize one at St. Louis. All these pro- 
 jects had come to naught, but the need existed still, and 
 once more the subject was brought forward. Indeed, 
 the favorable opportunity had plainly arrived. It pre- 
 sented itself on the one hand, in Frederic, a young and 
 deeply earnest man, well equipped, his life consecrated 
 to religious service, and one, moreover, who was lifted 
 above worldly considerations by abundant means be- 
 stowed upon him by his father. On the other hand, 
 there was Mr. Huidekoper, a man able to give and pro- 
 cure moral support as well as financial aid for the en- 
 terprise. MeadviUe, which Mr. Huidekoper had made 
 an important outpost of Unitarianism, would furnish a 
 sympathetic environment, and a beautiful one. All these 
 circumstances combined to make the building up of a 
 school possible at last. 
 
 Mr. Hosmer urged Frederic to attempt it, and at once 
 found him a willing listener. The Rev. Elihu Goodwin 
 Holland ^ was about to become pastor of the MeadviUe 
 church. He too, when he came, entered heartily into 
 the scheme and contemplated assisting in the instruc- 
 tion. Mr. Holland was a member of the Christian de- 
 nomination, and predicted that young men of that sect 
 would welcome a Western theological school, as it was 
 difficult for them to obtain any adequate preparation for 
 the ministry. As the Universalists were in like case, it 
 was determined that the MeadviUe school should not 
 stand for Unitarianism alone, but should be open to 
 students of any persuasion.^ A working plan was drawn 
 
 1 Mr. Holland afterward preached in Christian churches in different 
 parts of the country, and lectured both here and abroad. He died, De- 
 cember 13, 1878, at Canandaigna, N. Y., aged sixty-one years. 
 
 2 " Mr. Holland's stay with ns and Frederic's intercourse with the 
 
318 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 up by Frederic Huidekoper and sent to Mr. Hosmer for 
 his approval. 
 
 According to this plan the former was to assume the 
 chief burden of the work, as well as the responsibility, 
 and Mr. Holland was to aid him as assistant professor. 
 Mr. Hosmer's part was to be that of lecturer on pastoral 
 care, and while delivering his course he was to exchange 
 pulpits with the Meadville minister for the requisite 
 number of weeks, that he might the more conveniently 
 be upon the scene of his labors. All three men were to 
 give their time and efforts gratuitously. To all this Mr. 
 Hosmer gave his sanction, and though it was never 
 precisely in that form carried out, it served as a foun- 
 dation to work upon. Mr. Hosmer gave the project 
 its first public mention in an article published in the 
 " Monthly Miscellany " for December, 1843. Mr. Hol- 
 land secured a number of applications for admission, and 
 Mr. Huidekoper, seeing the matter in actual progress, 
 offered his son five hundred dollars for books or any 
 other necessary expenditure. He next wrote to friends 
 at New York, Philadelphia, and throughout the West, 
 asking further contributions, and received encourag- 
 ing responses. From these small beginnings the school 
 grew. 
 
 The labor of preparing for the opening, of answering 
 applications, and of attending to all the details of the un- 
 dertaking fell mainly upon Frederic Huidekoper's shoul- 
 ders, and it soon became evident that the aid which Mr. 
 Holland felt that he could give to the school aside from 
 
 Christian ministers will tend to draw closer the connection between us and 
 that important and widely difiused sect, and I rejoice at it because I be- 
 lieve that a closer intimacy and connection between the Unitarian and 
 Christian denominations would be promotive of both religion and truth." 
 Letter from Mr, Huidekoper to Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, April 15, 1844. 
 
THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL 319 
 
 his duties as minister — or, in fact, any unpaid aid that 
 they could get — would be insufficient. Besides, the 
 length of Mr. Holland's stay was uncertain. In view of 
 all this Mr. Huidekoper set about finding another co- 
 adjutor for his son. 
 
 On February 2, 1844, he wrote to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Clarke : — 
 
 I must frankly confess to you that I am afraid Fred 
 is involving himself in labors which wUl exceed his 
 powers, or those of any one man. Within the last 
 •week, letters have been received of several persons (2 
 of them already in the ministry) who purpose attend- 
 ing the proposed school. Seven have already declared 
 their intention to enter, and others are spoken of. 
 I should not be surprised if there were a dozen or 
 more at the opening of the school. Now these will be, 
 not college graduates with minds already disciplined, 
 but entirely raw recruits, many of them, I am afraid, 
 greatly deficient even in a decent knowledge of the 
 English language. Now to impart to such men a de- 
 cent degree of theological knowledge and to discipHne 
 their minds so as to make useful ministers of the gos- 
 pel of them is, I apprehend, too great a task for one 
 man. I vrish James to consider whether he cannot de- 
 vise a plan to procure for F. an adjunct to divide with 
 him the labors of the school. If one could be found to 
 explain to the students the Old Testament and to in- 
 struct them in the art of composition, F. might get 
 along with the rest. The main difiiculty is whence to 
 obtain the funds for this professorate ; can James de- 
 vise a plan for this ? F. is willing to work without pecu- 
 niary remuneration, but it cannot be expected that his 
 colleague shall do so too. I am afraid that this pro- 
 jected Theological School wdl in a great measure with- 
 draw Fred from the pulpit, a thing I should sincerely 
 regret ; not only because he has need of practice to im- 
 
320 HAKM JAJST HUIDEKOPER 
 
 prove himself as a preacher, but also on my own ac- 
 count, and because I like to listen to him Not but that 
 he is as yet deficient in the modulation of his voice, and 
 in method of arrangement, but there is a deep devo- 
 tional feehng pervading all his exercises, which renders 
 them generally acceptable. 
 
 A letter to Frederic, which, although of a later date, 
 — June 24, 1845, — may be quoted here, is but another 
 proof of the father's affectionate vigilance. 
 
 I fully coincide with you in regard to the views you 
 express as to the best mode of carrying on your school, 
 and the |200 which you ask me to contribute I will 
 give cheerfully, for my confidence in the usefulness of 
 your school and in its success is increasing. 
 
 But, my dear Frederic, while I thus cheerfully con- 
 tribute to render your efforts available, allow me to warn 
 you against a danger to which I think you are exposed, 
 and which, if not counteracted, may tend to diminish 
 your future usefulness. I refer to the danger of be- 
 coming a man of only one all-absorbing idea. That you 
 should devote yourself to your profession, and that this 
 should be with you the main object, is right, but then 
 you must not carry this to extremes. I have observed 
 that in company your school was the main subject of 
 your thought and conversation, and that even at table 
 you are often so absorbed in thought as to become for- 
 getful of the customary courtesies of society. Your let- 
 ters to me bear also witness that you suffer yourself to 
 be absorbed by one favorite subject. I know hy experi- 
 ence how pleasant it is, when we have a favorite subject, 
 to give ourselves entirely up to it ; but I know too that 
 this exclusiveness is wholesome neither for the body or 
 the mind. Pray learn to control your thoughts, and to 
 devote them entirely to the subject in hand. Let your 
 school be the main object of your thought at proper 
 times and seasons, but at others learn to dismiss it 
 
Anna HuideTcoper Clarl-L 
 
THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL 321 
 
 entirely from your mind, and, when in company, give 
 yourself up to the little courtesies and amenities of so- 
 ciety, with as much attention as if you were a man of 
 the world. 
 
 The power or habit of concentrating our thoughts 
 entirely on one subject at a time, and of thus passing 
 from one subject to another, is an invaluable one. It 
 was this which enabled the Pensionary John DeWitte 
 to become the greatest stateman of Europe, and, I be- 
 lieve, all eminent men have possessed it in a consider- 
 able degree. That this power cannot be acquired, and 
 rendered habitual, without much labor and attention I 
 admit ; but then nothing worth having is acquired with- 
 out labor, and you have the necessary resolution and 
 perseverance to improve yourself. 
 
 As a useful auxiliary in this scheme of improvement, 
 I would advise you to get a wife. This will give the ne- 
 cessary distraction to your thoughts. If you devote the 
 half of your time during the vacation to the hunting up 
 of a good wife, it will be better spent than if you devote 
 the whole of it to thinking about your school, books, 
 students, etc. You are now of a proper age to get mar- 
 ried. At home you cannot find a wife to suit you, and 
 hence you will have to look for one here,^ and, as you 
 can only be absent from your school during the vaca- 
 tion, you will have to avail yourself of that time to look 
 
 for one. is, I understand, engaged. She 
 
 would have made an excellent wife. So, I think, will 
 Miss do. I have seldom seen a more ami- 
 able girl. She is now at Bangor, but is expected home 
 towards the latter part of July. However, even at Ban- 
 gor she is easily accessible, and is well worth a visit 
 there. On this subject you must, however, consult your 
 own inclinations.^ 
 
 1 This letter was written while Mr. Huidekoper was in Boston ; Fred- 
 eric Huidekoper was for the time in New York. 
 
 ' His wish to see Frederic married was gratified in 1853, and Pomona 
 became the home of the new daughter-in-law, as it had been of his son 
 
322 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 During his visit to Boston in May, 1844, Mr. Hui- 
 dekoper consulted with the officers of the American 
 Unitarian Association, and received from them the as- 
 surance that the Association would give five hundred 
 dollars yearly for five years provided the right man could 
 be found for the presidency of the Theological School. 
 In the Kev. Rufus Phineas Stebbins ^ of Leominster, 
 Massachusetts, all the requirements were met, not only 
 for the presidency, but for the Meadville pastorate. The 
 executive board of the American Unitarian Association 
 therefore wrote, offering him a salary should he accept 
 the position of president of the school, and the Mead- 
 ville church at once gave him a call. 
 
 Mr. Huidekoper had, meanwhile, purchased and re- 
 fitted a building for the school, a small brick church, 
 which had belonged to one of the Presbyterian socie- 
 ties. As this building, the first " Divinity Hall," situ- 
 ated on Centre Street, was not ready when the time came 
 for opening the school, the first meetings were held in 
 the basement of Alfred Huidekoper' s house, and it was 
 there that on the first of October, 1844, the Meadville 
 Theological School made its entrance upon the Western 
 world. Mr. Stebbins was its president, and Frederic 
 Huidekoper, besides his work as professor, continued 
 his indefatigable exertions in many directions in its be- 
 half. The first year's faculty consisted of these two with 
 Mr. Hosmer, who lectured upon pastoral care. Edgar 
 Huidekoper, from the first, had charge of the account 
 
 Edgar's wife. Frederic Huidekoper married, November 10, 1853, Har- 
 riet Nancy Thorp, 
 
 ' Dr. Stebbins's career is well known. He remained president of tbe 
 school until June, 1856. He died at Cambridge, Mass., August 13, 1885, 
 aged seventy-five years. 
 
Frederic Huidekoper 
 
THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL 323 
 
 books, and, after the incorporation of the school in 
 1847, was formally elected its treasurer.^ 
 
 The contributions -which had been promised were, be- 
 sides Mr. Huidekoper's gift and the five hundred a year 
 for Mr. Stebbins from the American Unitarian Associa- 
 tion, one hundred doUars and forty-two volumes from 
 the Society for Promoting Theological Education, two 
 hundred dollars given by some unknown person through 
 Dr. Bellows of New York, two hundred dollars from 
 Mr. Farley's society in Brooklyn, sixty-five dollars from 
 Mr. Hosmer's society, fifty dollars from Miss Margaret 
 Shippen, and five dollars from Mrs. ChamberHn of New- 
 burg ; with additional donations of books from fifteen 
 different persons in Boston, Cambridge, and New York. 
 The total value of its property was estimated in 1844 at 
 $1540.53. The school to-day has a commanding situ- 
 ation at the head of Chestnut Street, on land given 
 by Frederic Huidekoper, with a commodious Divinity 
 Hall, a beautiful Hbrary building, Huidekoper Hall,^ 
 filled with well-chosen books, and a gymnasium-refec- 
 tory building. Its faculty numbers six members, and 
 its property is estimated at more than $690,000. 
 
 At the celebration in 1894 of the semi-centennial 
 anniversary of the founding of the school, those who 
 looked back in review could count two hundred and 
 twenty-five Meadville-trained ministers living, almost 
 all of whom were still in actual service. 
 
 Through all these fifty years the devotion of Mr. 
 
 1 Arthur Cullom was elected treasurer at the first meeting of the trus- 
 tees under the charter, held May 18, 1847. He declined to serve, and 
 Edgar Huidekoper was elected July 1, 1847. Edgar Huidekoper resigned 
 June 27, 1861. 
 
 2 The gift of Miss E. G. Huidekoper, two of her brothers, and her 
 
 nephew. 
 
324 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Huidekoper's children and grandchildren has been a 
 distinguishing feature of its history. Frederic Huide- 
 koper gave to it thirty years of his life. Alfred Huide- 
 koper, its earUest secretary, was one of its trustees from 
 the beginning until his death in 1892 ; he was indeed 
 for many years the president of the Board of Trustees, 
 while his son,^ and that son's son,^ are on the board at 
 the present day. 
 
 EHzabeth G. Huidekoper — it has been said that she 
 should be called the mother of the Theological School 
 — has opened her home to its students and has shared 
 with the school a generous portion of her worldly goods. 
 She has been, since her brother Alfred's death, presi- 
 dent of the Board of Trustees. 
 
 Edgar Huidekoper's services as treasurer ante-date 
 the incorporation ; his son Edgar, one of the trustees, 
 has been treasurer since 1879, and two other sons ^ and 
 a daughter* are also on the board of trustees now. 
 The work and character of Edgar Huidekoper, the first 
 treasurer, received only a just tribute from the Rev. 
 Rush Rhees Shippen, when he said, on the occasion of 
 the fiftieth anniversary : " Throughout the first fifteen 
 [seventeen] years the funds and financial affairs of the 
 school were managed by Edgar Huidekoper, Senior, as 
 treasurer; and no educational or philanthropic institu- 
 tion of America has had better handling. ... Of rare 
 business ability, the very soul of integrity and honor, of 
 exquisite refinement, with sensibilities delicate as those 
 of a woman, generous in heart and hand, with a most 
 
 1 Arthur Clarke Huidekoper. 
 
 ^ Albert Reynolds Huidekoper. 
 
 ' Henry Shippen Huidekoper and Frederic Welters Huidekoper. 
 
 * Elizabeth Huidekoper Kidder. 
 
Elizabeth G. Huidelcoper 
 
THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL 326 
 
 hospitable courtesy and chivalric gallantry, he had withal 
 a gift of fastidious criticism, that made us youngsters 
 rather afraid of him, and put us at our distance, so that 
 to-day we can but regret that he should have left the 
 world without knowing half how highly we honored 
 and tenderly regarded him. We think of him with lofty 
 admiration and enduring gratitude." 
 
 The Meadville Theological School has always shown 
 a spirit of wide tolerance and liberaHty. It has had 
 among its students men from many reUgious denomina- 
 tions ; of the four hundred and ninety-four students 
 admitted to the forty-eight classes reported upon at the 
 fiftieth anniversary, ninety-five were from the Chris- 
 tians, twenty-two from the UniversaHsts, about fifty 
 from the (so-called) Evangelical churches, and the resi- 
 due from the Unitarian ranks.^ Moreover, the Mead- 
 ville School, far in advance of the times, long ago ^ 
 threw its doors open to women. Ten women graduates 
 of those forty-eight classes received diplomas from the 
 school, and although a small proportion of them went 
 into active ministry, it is safe to say that the training 
 was by no means lost upon those who made use of it 
 mainly as ministers' wives.^ 
 
 " Mr. Huidekoper," * said Mr. Hale, during the anni- 
 versary exercises, " and those that worked with him, 
 builded better than they knew. ... Mr. Huidekoper 
 had an idea that he should here give the young men 
 from these States a training enabling them to go into 
 Western parishes. But he builded a great deal better 
 
 » See Proceedings at the Celebration of the Semi-Centennial of the Mead- 
 ville Theological School, page 9. 
 2 In 1868. 
 
 ' Six of the ten married members of the school. 
 * He referred here to Professor Huidekoper. 
 
326 HAKM JAN HUIDEKQPER 
 
 than he knew. Meadville has distributed her treasures 
 with great impartiality. . . . There has been no dis- 
 tinction between the East and the West in the distribu- 
 tion of your gifts. ... I think that the blessing and 
 the benefit which the Meadville Theological School has 
 brought into the Unitarian cause came by bringing to 
 it all sorts and conditions of men whom it has trained 
 to use their mother tongue with perfect precision, but 
 out of whom it has never drained the elements of 
 American life. I think that gift is one that cannot be 
 overestimated." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE LIVING MEMORY 
 
 Mb. Huidekoper's letters, to the last, preserved their 
 tone of vigor and enjoyment. In the autumn of 1848 
 he assured Mrs. Clarke that the greater steadiness of 
 his handwriting was probably due to his having been 
 out shooting the day before ; and that a -walk through 
 the fields of two or three hours fatigued him less than 
 it had done two years earlier. In May, 1850, he re- 
 ported, "As Edgar has moved to his own place, and 
 as . . . my factotum has left me, ... I have had to 
 superintend the making of my garden, and to attend 
 to other out-door matters. I generally rise between half 
 after four and five o'clock, and am on my feet most of 
 the day, so that I am quite ready to go to bed when 
 evening comes." 
 
 Four years after that, — and they were still fruitful, 
 profitable years, — the end approached. What seemed 
 at first but a light cold suddenly developed fatal symp- 
 toms. His son Frederic — at work one evening in a 
 room adjoining his father's, preparing, indeed, for pub- 
 lication his first book^ — was summoned by his father's 
 knock on the wall, and went at once to Iiis bedside. 
 " He supposed himself," wrote the son, " slightly un- 
 well, but in a few hours he had passed away." ^ 
 
 1 The title of the book, The Belief of the First Three Centuries Concerning 
 Christ's Mission to the Underworld, recalls Mr. Huidekoper's early essays. 
 ^ Manuscript Autobiography of Frederic Huidekoper. 
 
328 HAEM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 That was on the 22d of May, 1854, little more than 
 a month after his seventy-eighth birthday. Kobust, ac- 
 tive, cheerful, he had to the last diffused happiness and 
 brightness wherever he might be. His going was quite 
 as he would have wished it, and for the great change 
 he was entirely ready. 
 
 To our imperfect vision death often closes this world's 
 record of an individual life with a final, almost an ob- 
 literating hand. Mr. Huidekoper's life had the quahty 
 of earthly continuance, in that the works he had begun 
 went on and did not die, and the vital memory of him 
 lingered with a singular persistence. Unitarianism ac- 
 knowledges its debt to him, the church and the school 
 which he helped to found carry forward his fame, while 
 general education, civOization, and religion, in the region 
 in which he made his home, are distinctly the better for 
 his exertions. 
 
 More interesting still is it to see how he quickened 
 the effectiveness of those around him. His was a per- 
 sonality not easily forgotten. The very warmth of his 
 temperament lent an impetus to his contact with others 
 which did not cease to act after he had gone on his way. 
 As an instance of this the following story is related : 
 While traveling once in western New York he happened 
 to stop over night in a small town where the best ac- 
 commodation was a rather wretched tavern. The inn- 
 keeper and his wife, inferior people, depended for help 
 mainly upon a young girl, their bond-servant, of whom 
 they made a veritable drudge. Mr. Huidekoper's ob- 
 servant eye soon noted their ill-treatment of her, and at 
 the same time marked the faithfulness and skill with 
 which she accomplished her tasks. On leaving he said 
 a few words to her, appreciative of her difficulties and 
 
THE LIVING MEMORY 329 
 
 of the way in which she met them, and, besides giving 
 her a little money, told her that he would hke to leave 
 with her something which she could keep as a reminder 
 of his visit. When he searched his saddle-bags for a 
 keepsake, he could find nothing to offer her except a 
 book of State statistics. However, he gave her that and 
 departed. That dry volume she treasured ; it stood to 
 her for the encouragement and sympathy that had 
 fallen like manna out of Heaven upon her starving soul. 
 What slight suggestion she may have drawn from its 
 tabulated records of population, pauperism, and crime, or 
 how much of her inspiration came from the kindness 
 shown her, it is impossible to say ; but certain it is that 
 in after life, when she had become one of New York's 
 well-known philanthropists, she looked back upon her 
 encounter with the friendly stranger as the turning point 
 from which she had steadily moved onward in her suc- 
 cessful career. 
 
 A little word from him carried weight. He seldom 
 met any one, man, woman, or child, without instinctively 
 or unconsciously saying or doing something that left a 
 direct influence behind it. One day, in passing a group 
 of children, he stopped among them and, laying his hand 
 on the head of one of the little girls, said, " You don't 
 know me, do you?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, I do," she answered, '' you are the man who 
 builds churches and schools." 
 
 " I can tell you," he responded, " something better to 
 build than schools or churches, a great deal better, and 
 you can all do it ; that is, character." And he then and 
 there gave his attentive sidewalk audience a little ser- 
 mon on character-building, which, as the narrator of the 
 incident says, they simply "could not help remembering." 
 
330 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 Another story told of him has its humorous side. 
 An excellent divine, but one much given to the enjoy- 
 ments of the fleshpots, frequently visited Pomona, and 
 as frequently complained of dire physical ills which to 
 a spectator were plainly the result of an entirely undis- 
 criminating indulgence in the good things provided 
 there and elsewhere. With friendly unobtrusiveness his 
 host one day recommended to his perusal a book which 
 he lent him, — a little manual of healthful Hving and 
 right thinking which chanced to lie near at hand. On 
 the occasion of the next visit the guest, a transformed 
 man, naively remarked that he had never before im- 
 agined that Christianity had anything to do with one's 
 digestion. 
 
 The whole country-side about Meadville preserves its 
 legends of Harm Jan Huidekoper, and the towns in 
 the neighborhood have their anecdotes to teU. In the 
 " Venango Spectator " a traveler who once met him on 
 a stage journey has given the following account of their 
 brief acquaintance : — 
 
 At Meadville I stopped at a brick tavern, kept by 
 John E. Smith. It was crowded with persons from 
 eastern and southern counties who had come to attend 
 the public sales of unseated lands that then sold for 
 only four or five dollars an acre. ... I got into the 
 stage next morning for Erie, pretty weU stiffened up 
 with my walk. The weather had become very cold in 
 the night, — almost zero, — and with no overcoat I no 
 doubt looked poor indeed. The passengers chatted to- 
 gether, but none noticed me. After going some miles 
 I somehow got a word in about Philadelphia, and in a 
 little time a very kindly-looking old gentleman asked 
 me if I was acquainted there. " Yes, sir," I replied, '' I 
 was born there." " Do you know Mr, Vanderkemp ? " 
 
THE LIVING MEMORY 331 
 
 he asked. "John J. Vanderkemp ? " said I. "The 
 same," said he. " No, sir," I repHed, " but my father 
 knows him; they are both Germans, and are acquainted." 
 Lookmg at my blue tight-bodied coat, with gilt buttons 
 — then in fashion — buttoned up to the chin to keep 
 out the cold, and no overcoat on, he said : " Now, young 
 man, what are you doing out in this country ? " I ex- 
 plained my mishaps, how I had left my horse and over- 
 coat in Franklin, and had to walk to Meadville, which 
 accounted for my stiffness, and told him that when we 
 reached Erie I would buy an extra overcoat. I wanted 
 the passengers to see that I was not what they sus- 
 pected, a fraud. In a short time we stopped to change 
 horses. We all got out of the stage and went to the 
 bar-room to warm. A large trunk was hustled out of 
 the boot of the stage, and brought into the entry. My 
 new acquaintance opened it ; took from it an elegant 
 blue cloth cloak that he quietly unfolded behind me, 
 and placing it on my shoulders and arranging it about 
 me, said in a sweet voice never to be forgotten, " My 
 lieber friend,^ you must wear this." With my heart 
 ready to break I stammered out as best I could, " And 
 to whom am I indebted for this great attention and 
 kindness ? " He smdingly said, " When next you see 
 my friend Vanderkemp in Philadelphia, say that his old 
 friend Huidekoper, of Meadville, sends his best respects 
 to him." By Mr. Huidekoper's advice I stopped at the 
 Eagle Hotel in Erie, where he introduced me to his two 
 sons, and by his particular request I wore his cloak back 
 to Franklin, and returned it by the stage-driver. 
 
 We have seen how Mr. Huidekoper assisted Mr. and 
 Mrs. Clarke in aiding the needy as far afield as Louis- 
 ville. His relations with men in Philadelphia, Boston, 
 and New York connected him with the large cities, and 
 wherever he formed connections his helping hand was 
 
 1 Probably " Mein lieber Freund." 
 
332 HABM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 felt. Here and there in his correspondence are preserved 
 letters begging as a favor that this or that friend will 
 draw on him in a present emergency, or instructing his 
 representatives to place a certain sum to the credit of 
 one or another person. He settled, for example, on the 
 widow of one of his old friends, an annuity of seven 
 hundred doUars a year. So numerous were those who 
 had permission to use his name in providing themselves 
 that " Charge it to Huidekoper " became a current say- 
 ing as widely known as " Nobody knows but Huide- 
 koper, and he won't teU." " Charge it to Huidekoper" 
 is said to have been quoted even down in Virginia. A 
 trivial echo it might sound to the uninitiated, but not 
 to those to whom its full significance is known. For his 
 contemporaries drew on him largely for more than this 
 world's goods, and of his abundance he freely gave. 
 
 It was, in truth, himself even more than his deeds 
 that be left impressed upon the minds and hearts of 
 his friends and upon the community in which he moved. 
 Just as the people from the farms, glancing half ex- 
 pectantly at his window, continued to see the familiar 
 face in the rippled pane, so even the stranger in Mead- 
 ville to-day gathers a feehng of Mr. Huidekoper's pre- 
 sence in the place. It is not only that the townspeople 
 still point out landmarks which call to mind his public 
 spirit and benevolence,^ nor that Huidekoper Park, a 
 charming bit of woods set apart by his heirs for the 
 playground of the children of the town, recalls his name, 
 
 1 One such landmark is a block of houses erected by him, to be rented 
 at an almost nominal price to women in straitened circumstances. Each 
 house was divided into four apartments, and each apartment had four 
 rooms. The apartments were let to widows with dependent families, or to 
 other women who were in need. The block is still standing on Water 
 Street, between Poplar and Pine streets. 
 
THE LIVING MEMOHY 333 
 
 nor yet that the good works of his descendants, their 
 interest in the Theological School, the Public Library, 
 the hospitals, keep his memory green. More than all 
 these, to an imagination prepossessed by the thought 
 of him, do the very streets suggest him. They were the 
 scene of his daily walk, when the children would come 
 running and dancing from their gateways to catch the 
 sunshine of his greeting ; or the young g^rl upon the 
 house-steps would pause, broom in hand, to hear his 
 genial comment on her industry, and its result in the 
 roses in her cheeks. The knots gossiping on the street 
 corners might again be awaiting his old-time admoni- 
 tion, " Well, don't say anything more about it, because 
 you know, even if it 's true, what 's only an elephant 
 down here in the Marketplace would be a dinosaur by 
 the time it reached the Diamond." 
 
 If we must take leave of him let it be in his own 
 home. Says a letter which recalls the hospitahty of Po- 
 mona as seen through the vista of over fifty years : — 
 
 It was in the autumn of 1852, that after graduating 
 at the Cambridge Divinity School, I made a journey from 
 Baltimore to Meadville to attend the commencement ex- 
 ercises at the Theological School in the latter place. At 
 that far-back date the journey was not so trifling an 
 affair as it is to-day. While I could avail myself of the 
 railroad as far as Pittsburg, it was necessary for the 
 rest of the way to betake myself to the canal-boat, — 
 really, I found, to any one disposed to linger out his 
 blessings at the rate of two or three miles an hour, ab- 
 solutely the most delightful way of travel the round 
 world ever offered. The two days' trip was a succession 
 of beautiful pictures. 
 
 Arriving at Meadville near sunset of the second day 
 I found the hospitality of the village fully taxed by the 
 large number of visitors from the surrounding country, 
 
334 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER 
 
 as well as of friends from the east. Passing over any 
 mention of the graduating exercises of the occasion, let 
 me go on at once to describe the scene presented dur- 
 ing the entire afternoon by the social gathering at the 
 house of Mr. Huidekoper. 
 
 The Pomona Hall of that date was a long, low struc- 
 ture of wood, painted white and with a broad roofed 
 piazza running across the front, the whole beautifully 
 set in an ample domain of grass-land shaded by noble 
 oaks. It presented the image of domestic comfort, peace 
 and plenty. The afternoon was one of radiant early 
 autumn beauty, and as I entered the grounds and passed 
 through groups of happy people to the wide piazza on 
 which the genial host was saluting his arriving guests, 
 the heart-cheering word " Welcome " was everywhere 
 proclaimed by fuU bursts of sunshine and fuU bursts of 
 cordial human love. Now, in those early days of youth, 
 I chanced to be an enthusiastic worshipper of personal 
 beauty whether in man or woman ; and Mr. Huidekoper 
 forthwith struck me as being, without exception, the 
 most ideally beautiful old man my eyes had ever lighted 
 on. His hair was snowy white, his figure elastically 
 graceful as a willow wand, and such a pair of cerulean 
 blue eyes I never saw in any human head. After fifty 
 years I can still see them as distinctly as though it were 
 but yesterday that I beheld them. They seemed made 
 of the very substance of the blue sky itself, but lighted 
 up with the charm of a long and richly freighted human 
 experience. 
 
 At a glance it was clear that Mr. Huidekoper had the 
 qualities of the perfect host. All kinds of people were 
 gathered together to celebrate the occasion. There were 
 the delegates from different parts of the country, famil- 
 iar with the part he had played in organizing the forces 
 of education and religion in this then remote region. 
 There were the ardent converts to whom this Unitarian 
 oasis offered the living springs for which so long they 
 had panted in a dry and thirsty land ; there were the 
 
THE LIVING MEMOEY 336 
 
 shy, silent adherents of the new faith, drawn in from 
 their outlying farms by this festival, as by the more 
 tumultuous merry-makings of the Fourths of July. 
 Cultivated or uncouth, city-bred or rustic, whatever the 
 exterior might be, it was the personality beneath that 
 the sympathetic host at once got into touch with, and 
 which his tactful graciousness called forth and set at 
 ease. When, later in the day, I found an opportunity 
 to talk more intimately with him, all that I had heard 
 was more than confirmed by closer knowledge. Here, 
 indeed, was the simple, kindly Hollander, the success- 
 ful American pioneer, the indomitable subduer of the 
 wilderness, the eager enUghtener and student of ad- 
 vancing biblical criticism, the practical Christian with 
 a trace yet lingering in him of the old controversial 
 fire, and yet, above and beyond all else, the promoter of 
 good works, the lover of his kind." 
 
 In the chapel of the Meadville Theological School 
 hangs a memorial tablet. It is inscribed to Harm Jan 
 Huidekoper, and reads: "A token of the gratitude of 
 the Alumni of this School. ' The Righteous shall be 
 held in Everlasting Remembrance.' " 
 
APPENDIX 
 I 
 
 HOLLAND LAND COMPANY i 
 
 Who were the individual members composing the association 
 known as the Holland Land Company, is not shown, so far as 
 I am aware, by any record of its business transactions. Long 
 and unpronounceable as some of the names were to an Amer- 
 ican tongue, the association, both for brevity and convenience, 
 conducted its operation by chosen members acting as trustees, 
 who received conveyances to themselves for the lands pur- 
 chased from the Commonwealth and subsequently gave titles 
 in the same way through their local agents to parties who be- 
 came sub-purchasers under them. 
 
 In " Annals of the "West," published in 1856 by Jas. K. 
 Albaeh, page 726, it is stated that "the Holland Land Com- 
 pany consisted of WUhem WiUink and eleven associates, cap- 
 italists of Holland who had lent a large sum of money to the 
 United States during the Revolution." On being repaid they 
 preferred to keep their money invested in the United States ; 
 this led to the purchase of about nine hundred thousand acres 
 of land in Pennsylvania, and some three or four times that 
 amount in the State of New York.^ 
 
 With regard to Pennsylvania it is stated in " Annals of the 
 West," before quoted, that in the course of their operations 
 " they paid the purchase money for 1162 warrants, and sur- 
 veyed 1048 more tracts for location." 
 
 1 A paper (manuscript) written by Alfred Huidekoper in 1876, on file 
 with the Crawford County Historical Society. 
 
 2 Turner, in his history of the Holland purchase (in State of New York), 
 page 427, says the eleven original proprietors constituting the Holland 
 Land Company were merchants in the city of Amsterdam (then in the 
 Kepublic of Batavia). 
 
338 APPENDIX 
 
 The contract for the purchase of the above eleven hundred 
 and sixty-two warrants is in the hands of the writer of the 
 present monograph. It is dated the 21st day of August, A. D. 
 1793, and made between the Hon. James Wilson of Philadel- 
 phia, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, of the first part, and Herman Leroy and William 
 Bayard, both of the city of New York, merchants (agents of 
 Wilhein Willink, Nicholas van Staphorst, Pieter Stadnitski, 
 Christian van Eeghen, Hendrick Vollenhoven, and Eutger 
 Jan Schimmelpenninck, of the city of Amsterdam, Gentle- 
 men), of the second part. We get here the names of those 
 who either constituted or represented the Association known 
 as the HoUand Land Company, at the beginning of its land 
 transactions in Pennsylvania.^ 
 
 The contract (to state its contents briefly) was for the 
 sale and purchase of 499,660 acres of land situate on French 
 Creek and between French Creek and the Kiver Allegheny in 
 the State of Pennsylvania. This land, it was stipulated, should 
 consist partly of nine hundred and twelve tracts of four hun- 
 dred and thirty acres each, with allowance for roads and high- 
 ways, which Mr. John Adlum, by a contract dated the 26th 
 day of April, a. d. 1793, had engaged to secure to the said 
 Judge Wilson; and the residue, two hundred and fifty tracts, 
 were to be taken from lands entered for Judge Wilson by Mr. 
 James Chapman, convenient to the first named lands in point 
 of location, and with the right of the Holland Company, if not 
 content, to substitute other lands to its liking situate east of 
 French Creek. 
 
 1 The names of P. Stadnitski, Christian van Eeghen, Hen[d]rick Vol- 
 lenhoven, and Nicholas van Staphorst, members of the Holland Land 
 Company, are also on the list of members of the Pennsylvania Population 
 Company, as are also the names of Mr. T. Cazenove, J. Vollenhoven, and 
 Pieter van Eeghen. The latter was made trustee of the Holland Land 
 Company title on 24 September, 1824, and on 25 September, 1826, recon- 
 veyed the title to Wilhem Willink, Hendrick Vollenhoven, Eutger Jan 
 Sohimmelpenninek, Wilhem Willink, Junr., Walrave van Heukelom, Jan 
 van Eeghen and Gerrit Schimmelpenninck, as shown on page 340. 
 
APPENDIX 339 
 
 The price to be paid for the land (499,660 acres) was to be 
 three s hillin gs fourpence per acre, the six per cent, of allowance 
 for roads not to be included in the estimate ; and the money 
 to be paid as fast as required ; with a provision in the con- 
 tract that out of the money advanced, he should hold four 
 thousand and sixty-seven pounds for fees and expenses of 
 surveying; three thousand eight hundred and ninety-two 
 pounds fourteen shillings for fees of patenting the tracts ; two 
 thousand six hundred and fourteen pounds ten shillings to 
 pay to the Receiver of the Land Office General for thirty 
 acres of excess or overplus land in each warrant ; and nine 
 hundred and seventy-eight poimds for interest on the pur- 
 chase money to the State since the day of appUcation. 
 
 Judge Wilson, on his part, seems to have turned over to the 
 Holland Land Company temporarily, as security for the faith- 
 ful performance of his covenants, a lot of three hundred and 
 three warrants held by hun, taken in the names of Herman 
 Leroy and Jan Lincklaen ; subject to being returned on stip- 
 ulated conditions being complied with, and covenanting on 
 his part that he would get and deliver to the Company a re- 
 ceipt from the land office for the payment of the purchase 
 money for the 499,660 acres of land stated in the contract ; 
 that he would have the lands run off, and cause the surveys to 
 be returned, and patents to be duly issued and delivered to 
 the Company for the same. 
 
 In accordance with this agreement surveys were made, and 
 patents for the most of the tracts were made prior to the year 
 1800 to all the trustees before named representing the Hol- 
 land Company ; and subsequently for some tracts in the name 
 of Wiihem WUlink, Hendrick VoUenhoven, and Rutger Jan 
 Schimmelpenninck, who had survived Nicholas van Staphorst, 
 Christian van Eeghen, and Pieter Stadnitski. 
 
 The patents conveyed the title of the Commonwealth to the 
 land to the grantees subject to the usual reservation of one 
 fifth of all the gold and silver ore that might be discovered 
 thereon deliverable at the pit's mouth. 
 
340 APPENDIX 
 
 In consequence of the death of three of the trustees, above 
 indicated, an act of Assembly was passed on the 31st day of 
 March, 1823, authorizing Wilhem Willink, Hendrick Vol- 
 lenhoven, and Eutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, the surviving 
 parties, and the survivor of them to grant and convey all the 
 lands, and all the interest and titles attaching to said lands 
 in this Commonwealth, to any person or persons whatsoever, 
 though such person or persons should be aliens, either abso- 
 lutely or in trust, upon such terms and conditions as to them 
 or the survivor of them may seem fit ; and authorizing such 
 grantee or grantees, though aliens, to hold and convey such 
 lands within the State upon the terms and conditions of the 
 grant made to them. 
 
 In conformity with this act of Assembly, which was probably 
 passed to provide for this individual case, on the 24th day of 
 September, 1824, Wilhem Willink, Hendrick Vollenhoven, 
 and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck made a conveyance of all 
 their lands and interests growing out of the same, situate in the 
 State of Pennsylvania and north and west of the rivers Ohio 
 and Allegheny and Conewango Creek, to Pieter van Eeghen, 
 of the city of Amsterdam, in the kingdom of the Nether- 
 lands, in trust that he should inmiediately reconvey^ the same 
 to the said Wilhem Willink, Hendrick VoUenhoven, and 
 Eutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, together with Walrave van 
 Henkelom, Jan van Eeghen, Wilhem Willink, Junior, and 
 Gerrit Schimmelpenninck (Eutger Jan's son), and on the 
 25th day of September, A. D. 1824, Pieter van Eeghen made 
 a reconveyance of the lands and interest deeded to him in 
 trust as aforesaid, to the above-named seven parties, who held 
 the title and represented the HoUand Land Company in Penn- 
 sylvania until the 23d day of December, 1839, when aU that 
 remained of the concern iu Erie, Crawford, Warren, and 
 Venango counties was conveyed to H. J. Huidekoper, who 
 had made a contract for the purchase of the same on the 31st 
 day of December, A. d. 1836, at the price of $178,400, — 
 the contract embracing some small interests acquired by the 
 
APPENDIX 341 
 
 Company in the course of its dealings in Otsego and Che- 
 nango counties in the State of New York and in Berkshire 
 County in the State of Massachusetts. 
 
 Having shown in a brief way the chain of title of the Com- 
 pany to its lands in northwestern Pennsylvania, from its in- 
 ception from the Commonwealth dowh to its final vendee, I 
 go back to notice the legislation which gave it encouragement 
 to buy, and to the conditions of settlement attached to the 
 sale to it of the lands in question, which latter, owing to sub- 
 sequent events, led to a protracted controversy between the 
 Commonwealth and the Company, and between the latter and 
 intruders on its lands, in which conflict the result was finally 
 favorable to the Company. 
 
 An act of Assembly passed the 11th day of February, 
 A. D. 1789, recited " That whereas the empowering of aliens 
 to purchase and hold lands, tenements, and hereditaments, 
 within this Commonwealth would have a tendency to pro- 
 mote the public benefit, not only by inducing large sums of 
 money Into this state, but also by inducing such aliens as 
 may have acquired property, to foUow their interest, and be- 
 come useful citizens : Be it therefore enacted that, until the 
 first day of January A. D. 1792, it shaU and may be lawful 
 for every foreigner or foreigners, alien or aliens, not being the 
 subject or subjects of some sovereign state or power, which 
 is, or shall be at the time of such purchase at war with the 
 United States of America, to purchase lands, tenements, and 
 hereditaments within this Commonwealth and to have and to 
 hold the same to them, their heirs, and assigns, for ever, as 
 fully, to all intents and purposes, as any natural bom subject 
 or subjects may or can do." 
 
 The foregoing act having expired on the 1st of January, 
 A. D. 1792, was by an act of the 8th of March, A. D. 1792, 
 extended for three years after the latter date and to the end 
 of the session of the Assembly next ensuing. 
 
 This extension includes and more than covers the date of 
 the Company's purchase through Judge Wilson. 
 
342 APPENDIX 
 
 The act of Assembly of the 3d of April, 1792, in sub- 
 jection to which the Holland Company purchase was made, 
 after reciting in its preamble that the most valuable lands 
 within the purchase made from the Indians in the year 1768 
 had already been taken up, and that settlers were discouraged 
 from purchasing the remaining inferior lands at the then 
 established prices, proceeds to fix the price of land east of the 
 Allegheny River included in the purchase of 1768 referred 
 to at five pounds for every hundred acres thereof, and for 
 land included in said purchase lying north and west of the 
 Rivers Ohio and Allegheny and Conewango Creek, to per- 
 sons who win cultivate, or cause the same to be cultivated, 
 improved, and settled, at the price of seven pounds ten shil- 
 lings for every hundred acres thereof, with an allowance of 
 six per cent, for roads and highways. 
 
 In regard to these latter lands the act of Assembly con- 
 tained the following important proviso, viz : " That no war- 
 rant or survey to be issued or made in pursuance of this act 
 for lands lying north and west of the Rivers Ohio and Alle- 
 gheny and Conewango Creek shall vest any title in or to the 
 lands therein mentioned, unless the grantee has prior to the 
 date of said warrant, made, or caused to be made, or shall 
 within two years next after the date of the same, make or 
 cause to be made, an actual settlement thereon, by clearing, 
 fencing and cultivating at least two acres for every hundred 
 acres contained in one survey, erecting thereon a messuage 
 for the habitation of man, and residing or causing a family to 
 reside thereon for the space of five years next following his 
 first settling of the same, if he or she shall so long live ; and 
 in default of such actual settlement and residence, it shall be 
 lawful to and for this Commonwealth to issue new warrants 
 to other actual settlers for the said lands or any part thereof 
 reciting the original warrants and that actual settlements and 
 residence have not been made in pursuance thereof, and so as 
 often as defaults shall be made for the time and in the man- 
 ner aforesaid, which new grants shall be under and subject to 
 
APPENDIX 343 
 
 all and every the regulations contained in this act. Provided 
 always, nevertheless, that if any such actual settler or any 
 grantee in any such original or succeeding warrant, shall by 
 force of arms of enemies of the United States, be prevented 
 from making such actual settlement, or be driven therefrom, 
 and shall persist in his endeavor to make such actual settle- 
 ment as aforesaid, then, in either case, he and his heirs shaU 
 be entitled, to have, and to hold the said lands, in the same 
 manner as if the actual settlement had been made and con- 
 tinued." 
 
 In pursuance of the contract hereinbefore referred to, the 
 Hon. James Wilson for Messrs. Leroy and Bayard on behalf 
 of Wilhem WiUink and others heretofore named, paid to the 
 land office of the State on the 21st day of August, A. D. 1793, 
 the sum of thirty-four thousand eight hundred and sixty 
 pounds, specie, being the purchase money for 464,800 acres 
 of land situate on the north and west side of the Rivers Ohio 
 and Allegheny and Conewango Creek, in (then) Allegheny 
 County, granted to them by 1162 warrants of 400 acres each, 
 as is shown by the original receipt given therefor now in my 
 possession. 
 
 When it is recollected that in 1792 Crawford County was 
 wholly abandoned for a time on account of Indian invasions, 
 and that in the summer of 1793 another general stampede 
 took place on notice being given by a friendly Indian chief 
 of impending danger, it will readily be seen that the taking 
 out by the Holland Land Company of 1162 warrants, each 
 one representing a tract of land to be settled upon within two 
 years, was an enterprise involving a great deal of labor and 
 risk. Indian forages attended with destruction of life were 
 rife as late as the year 1795, when finally the treaty of Gen- 
 eral Wayne, made on the 3d of August of that year, and 
 ratified on the 2 2d of December following, removed one of 
 the impediments to western emigration. 
 
 Grave questions soon presented themselves as to the condi- 
 tion of the Company's title in view of settlements interrupted 
 
344 APPENDIX 
 
 or omitted in consequence of the Indian hostilities, and as to 
 what, if any, further efforts the Company was obliged to make 
 in that direction under the excusing provisions of the law. 
 
 On the 16th of December, 1797, the Board of Property 
 drew up a formula for the obtaining patents where the settle- 
 ment had been complied with, and also, under the advice of 
 Mr. Jared Ingersoll, the Attorney-General, a form to be used 
 for obtaining the Commonwealth title where the circum- 
 stances, adverted to in the law, made the omission of settle- 
 ment and residence justifiable. 
 
 The patents issued to the Holland Land Company prior to 
 1800 were of the latter class, the instrument setting forth 
 the exculpatory hostilities ; and to distinguish them from the 
 other kind of patents, they were designated as " prevention 
 patents." 
 
 A new Board of Property in the year 1800 having refused 
 to grant patents under the precedent established by the former 
 Board, on the 2d of April, 1802, the Legislature passed an 
 act to settle the controversies arising from contending claims 
 to lands north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers 
 and Conewango Creek, and the judges of the Supreme Court 
 were ordered to devise an issue for trying sundry legal ques- 
 tions set forth in the act. 
 
 The judges devised a feigned issue as required in the form 
 of a proceeding by the Attorney-General vs. the Grantees 
 under the act of April, 1792, and, after public notice to all 
 interested, that if they would appear they might be heard, 
 Justices Yeates, Smith, and Brackenridge assembled at Sim- 
 bury on the 25th of November, 1802, and impanelling a 
 jury proceeded to try the points of law submitted to them by 
 the Legislature. 
 
 Messrs. J. Ingersoll, W. Lewis, and A. J. Dallas, counsel 
 for the Holland Land Company (notified of the proceedings), 
 in a courteous note declined to take any part in the trial or 
 pleadings, because they considered the abstract questions pro- 
 posed for decision by the Legislature would leave untouched 
 
APPENDIX 345 
 
 and undecided the great essential part of the controversy. See 
 4 Dallas's Uep. 237. 
 
 At the September term of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- 
 vania in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Tench Coxe (see 
 4 Dallas Pa. Rep. 170), the HoUand Land Company had 
 entered a rule directed to the secretary of the Land Office, 
 to show cause why a mandamus should not be issued to him 
 by the court compelling him to prepare and deliver patents 
 to the Company for the lands for which warrants were held 
 by it under the act of 3d of April, 1792. 
 
 In support of its application for the mandamus the Com- 
 pany showed what it considered strong legal and equitable 
 grounds why it should be granted. The main object of the 
 sale to it, the replenishing of the State treasury, had been 
 accomplished by the Company paying into it a sum of over 
 two hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars. It was not 
 until a year or two after the taking out of the warrants, 
 say the years 1794 and 1795, that deputy surveyors could 
 be prevailed upon to risk the making of the necessary sur- 
 veys to locate the warrants. In 1795 a general agent had 
 been appointed to superintend its affairs, and a large store 
 was built at MeadviUe and a sum exceeding $5,000 was dis- 
 bursed. 
 
 In 1796 companies of settlers were invited, encouraged, 
 and engaged; ample supplies of provisions, implements, and 
 utensils were sent into the country ; the expense of trans- 
 porting families was liberally advanced ; a bounty of one hun- 
 dred acres was given for improving and setthng each tract, 
 and a further sum of $22,000 was actually disbursed. In the 
 year 1797 a sum of about $40,000 was further expended in 
 promoting the same objects, including payments on contracts 
 for settlement and quieting adverse claims. 
 
 In 1798 mills were erected, roads were opened, and other 
 exertions made at a charge of not less than $30,000. In the 
 year 1799 the sum of $40,000 and upwards was expended in 
 improvements and settlements, in the salaries of its agents 
 
346 APPENDIX 
 
 and workmen in opening and repairing roads, and in patent- 
 ing 876 tracts of land ; and allowing that by the close of the 
 year 1800 about $400,000 would have been expended in aU 
 in the enterprise undertaken by it. The Company claimed the 
 Indian hostilities existing until the year 1796 met the case 
 provided for in the act of 1792, that should excuse the war- 
 rantees from the prescribed conditions of settlement and im- 
 provement ; notwithstanding which an active and substantial 
 effort in that direction had been made by it. 
 
 The case was elaborately and ably argued by the attorneys 
 on both sides. Chief Justice Shippen was of the opinion that 
 the state of hostility and danger shown to have existed after 
 the taking out of the warrants was a sufficient legal excuse 
 for non-performance of settlement and improvements, on a 
 reasonable and fair interpretation of the law under which the 
 grant was made, and that the Company was entitled, on the 
 showing it had made, to its patents. 
 
 Justices Yeates and Smith, holding that the hostilities 
 shown only deferred, but did not excuse, a subsequent per- 
 formance of the conditions, and non-concurring with the Chief 
 Justice (they being a majority on the bench), the rule for a 
 writ of mandamus was dismissed. 
 
 We reach next in the progress of events the case of Huide- 
 koper's Lessee vs. Douglass, tried at the April term of the 
 United States Circuit Court of Pennsylvania in 1805 before 
 Marshall, Chief Justice, Washington, Associate Judge of the 
 Supreme Court, and Peters, District Judge. In many quar- 
 ters great interest was felt in the result of this trial. Many 
 cases of ejectment were pending, which would probably be 
 governed by the ruling of the Court in its construction of the 
 law of 1792. Judges Washington and Peters had disagreed 
 in a case before them, that they might have the benefit of a 
 decision of the Supreme Court to guide them at the final 
 ruling of the same. 
 
 A comprehensive statement of what were supposed to be 
 the true points in controversy was carefully drawn up, and 
 
APPENDIX 347 
 
 argued by E. Tilglman, Ingersoll, Lewis, and Dallas for the 
 plaintiff, and by McKean (Attorney-General of Pennsylvania) 
 and W. Tilghman for the defendant. (See 4 Dallas Pa. Rep. 
 392.) 
 
 Chief Justice Marshall, who delivered the opinion of the 
 Court, subjected the law of 1792 to that searching analysis 
 characteristic of his mind. He showed that the inconsistency 
 of the law came from the Legislature having used common 
 terms to two classes of subjects, to which subjects common 
 terms could not be applied grammatically, and without creat- 
 ing confusion as to the intent of the law. Getting at the sense 
 of the law by applying to each subject that which would ra- 
 tionally belong to it, he made one part of it apply to a settler 
 who had gone onto land, and made his settlement a stepping 
 stone towards getting a warrant for the tract, and other ex- 
 pressions in the law apply to those who, having paid the pur- 
 chase money, and taken out warrants, were required to make 
 a settlement afterwards unless excused by circumstances ex- 
 pressed in the law. 
 
 The exculpatoiy section of the law was as follows : " Pro- 
 vided always, nevertheless, that if any such actual settler or 
 any grantee, in any such original or succeeding warrant, shall, 
 by force of arms of the eneirdes of the United States, be pre- 
 vented from making such actual settlement, or bfe driven there- 
 from, and shall persist in his endeavors to make such actual 
 settlement as aforesaid, then, in either case, he and his heirs 
 shall be entitled to have and to hold the said lands, in the 
 same manner as if the actual settlement had been made and 
 continued." This latter clause the Chief Justice showed would 
 have no significance whatever, if, as the Commonwealth's at- 
 torneys claimed, the warrantees were bound to persist in en- 
 deavors whUe foreign hostilities existed, and when they ceased 
 were then bound to make the settlement originally required 
 
 of them. 
 
 Under this ruling the case was submitted to a jury and a 
 verdict rendered for the plaintiff. 
 
348 APPENDIX 
 
 The decision was accepted by a portion of the State judges 
 from conformity with personal opinions, and from conviction 
 of its propriety ; and submitted to with good grace by others 
 because it was provided in the United States Constitution that 
 the national courts should have jurisdiction in controversies 
 between a State and the subjects of foreign powers. Yet some 
 of the contemporaneous judges, and later ones, chafed at the 
 thought that a decision of the national court should dominate 
 over that of a State court in the construing of a provincial 
 law. But as one of the State judges naively said, what could 
 the State courts do when, if they put a man into possession 
 one day, the national courts cotdd turn him out the next ? 
 
 To an unprejudiced mind the case under consideration 
 would seem to be an eminently fit one to be determined by 
 the federal court. 
 
 In 1793, when the Company made its purchase, a State, 
 like an individual, was subject to court jurisdiction, but at the 
 close of the year, by an amendment to the national constitu- 
 tion, it was enacted that the judicial power of the United 
 States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or 
 equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United 
 States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects 
 of any foreign state. Here, then, was a change in the extent 
 of legal redress allowed to one of the parties. A State stands 
 on its dignity ; nothing less than another State can compel it 
 to submit to the arbitrament of law. But a State that stands 
 on its dignity should always exhibit the highest principles of 
 honfl* when dealing with a weaker party. That it may not 
 thus govern itself, is suggested by the clause in the national 
 constitution which, among other restrictions, prohibits a State 
 from passing any law impairing the obligation of contracts, 
 and its capability of doing wrong is more plainly shown in the 
 blot that now rests upon the State of Minnesota, which it is 
 to be hoped the sober second thought of its citizens will soon 
 remove. 
 
 If a State might not violate a contract by legislation, it 
 
APPENDIX 349 
 
 would not be proper for it to do it by action. The relation of 
 the State and the HoUand Company was that of vendor and 
 vendee. The State had declared at what price and on what 
 conditions it would sell its West Allegheny lands. The Com- 
 pany purchased a large number of warrants, paid the price 
 into the State treasury, and accepted the conditions. The State 
 had specified upon the happening of what adverse circum- 
 stances the fiill performance of the conditions would not be 
 demanded. The Company showed a vigorous, faithful effort 
 at performance, and the actual happening of the adverse cir- 
 cumstances which it claimed should exempt it from further 
 effort. Some of the best lawyers and judges in the State 
 thought the view of matters taken by the Company was the 
 correct one. Other judges very honestly thought that the re- 
 quirement of settlement was only postponed and not released 
 by intervening hostilities ; while a third class on the bench 
 talked flippantly of confiscation and reclaiming the lands by 
 the State ; this latter doctrine was a popular one with the un- 
 scrupulous elements in society. The State had replenished its 
 treasury once by a sale of these lands ; if it seize and resell 
 them and fill its treasury again, aU the inhabitants from the 
 farm to the forum would in one sense be benefited by it. 
 Contention was growing every day more violent between par- 
 ties settling under the Company and parties settHng adversely. 
 Members of Assembly got their bias from their surroundings, 
 and it is possible that even judges might not be free from 
 similar influences. What, then, could have been fairer than 
 for the State to have turned the whole question over t6" the 
 federal judiciary, composed of men of eminent legal ability 
 and free from any suspicions of partiality ? 
 
 The Commonwealth hesitated and temporized ; on the 
 20th of March, 1811, an act was passed relative to compro- 
 mises between intruders and the warrant-holders validating 
 the same, and declaring that if the improvement and residence 
 had been made and kept up as required by the act of 1792, 
 though after the limit of time specified in the law, the same 
 
360 APPENDIX 
 
 would be accepted by the Commonwealth and make perfect 
 the title to the land so settled on. The act provided for 
 seryice of any civil process on the agent or attorney in fact 
 of the HoUand Land Company, the Pennsylvania Population 
 Company, and the North American Land Company or other 
 warrant-holders ; and also declared that if a warrantee on or 
 before the first day of June, 1813, should give a deed for 150 
 acres of land to any settler who might have entered and made 
 the improvement and kept up the residence required by the 
 act of 1792, then the Commonwealth would cease to have any 
 further claim to said tract. The time was extended in 1817 
 and again in 1818, extended to April, 1819. 
 
 As early as May, 1800, in the case of Morris Lessee vs. 
 Neighman (4 Dallas Rep. 209), it had been decided by 
 Judges Yeates and Smith that a warrantee did not forfeit 
 his rights by not making a settlement within two years from 
 the date of his warrant, and if he did, the Commonwealth 
 alone could take advantage of it by issuing new warrants in 
 a form prescribed by law. This decision was to some extent 
 protective to all the land companies, many of the intruders 
 on their lands wishing to self-appropriate their surveys and 
 settlements for a time abandoned without the trouble or ex- 
 pense of a vacating warrant. 
 
 The Holland Company seems to have relied firmly on the 
 decision in its favor by the United States Court. It claimed 
 to have complied with its covenants so far as it could under 
 the circumstances ; and that it was legally released from obli- 
 gation to do anything farther to perfect its title by the hap- 
 pening of hostilities as specified in the Act of Assembly. If 
 it was right and had performed Its contract, the Common- 
 wealth could not make legally any new requirements by ex 
 post facto legislation. For the Company to make concessions 
 was to acknowledge itself in default, to weaken its title, and 
 to involve itself in a great readily foreseen amount of trouble 
 and expense. 
 
 Some of the occupiers of its lands had gone on them inde- 
 
APPENDIX 351 
 
 pcndently and were designated in rustic dialect as " squat- 
 ters." Others had gone on under agreement with the Company 
 to make the required settlement, for which, in addition to the 
 help given them, they were to receive one hundred acres of 
 the land gratuitously, with the privilege of purchasing more 
 at $1.50 per acre. Some of the latter were true to their con- 
 tracts, while a portion repudiated their agreements and set 
 up personal claims to the entire tract in opposition to the 
 warrantee. 
 
 The Company kept its faith with those who were honest, 
 compromised with those who proved to be reasonable in their 
 demands, and contested titles in court with those who were 
 disposed to fight and controvert things to the bitter end. 
 
 Such conflicting views and actions of men who were neigh- 
 bors produced an unpleasant state of society. 
 
 The State courts, with a little natural bias to the weaker side, 
 held the scales of justice with a pretty even hand, ruhng each 
 case as it presented its exceptional facts to the application of 
 general principles. No law ever enacted in Pennsylvania led to 
 so much litigation, or called for such elaborate consideration on 
 the part of the bench and bar, as the one in question, and any 
 one curious to see what different constructions can be put on 
 the same words by able logicians and jurists can find out by 
 reading through the reports of decisions of cases arising under 
 the Act of 1792. 
 
 In the course of time, the confusion and clash of power that 
 would arise from conflicting interpretation of State laws by 
 the national and State courts induced the judges of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States to adopt, as a rule for its future 
 action, that in construing a State law, it would follow the con- 
 struction given to it (if any) by the highest judicial tribunal 
 of the State itself. This did not necessarily imply that the 
 U. S. Supreme Court would recede from any decision it had 
 already made, but simply that it would in the future foUow 
 where the highest court of a State had preceded it in giving 
 construction to a State enactment. 
 
362 APPENDIX 
 
 This new attitude with regard to State court decisions, and 
 the diversity of views held by the judges then on the bench, 
 revived the flagging hopes of a set of men, who might perhaps 
 not unjustly be characterized as land pirates, urged on by 
 some lawyers by no means destitute of ability, who were to 
 make a combined attack on the warrant-holders, and get com- 
 pensation for so doing by a division of the spoils. This enter- 
 prise, which had nearly matured and about which vague hints 
 had been thrown out, was nipped in the bud by the act of 
 April 3, 1833, which dispensed with the settlement and im- 
 provement required by the act of 1792, and authorized patents 
 to be issued wherever lands had been surveyed and paid for, 
 with a proviso that neither the law nor the patents issued 
 under it should have any effect on suits pending or titles rest- 
 ing on settlements made under the original act. 
 
 I recall no case after this of conflict of the Company title 
 with that of a party claiming under a vacating warrant, except 
 the suit of Sweeny et al. vs. Sheffield, tried in 1845, reported 
 in 1 Barr's Rep. 463, in the trial of which I took part. The 
 warrant title was sustained by showing a settlement of sufficient 
 length to comply with the law before the vacating warrant was 
 taken out, and the prior settlement was held to inure for the 
 benefit of the warrant-holder, although the evidence which 
 should show a relation between the warrant and the settlement 
 from lapse of time had been lost. 
 
 I now turn away from the history of this long controversy, 
 having aimed to state it with all the brevity compatible with 
 a comprehension of it, and shall refer as concisely as I can to 
 a few of the largest derivative titles from the Holland Com- 
 pany, leaving the smaller ramifications to be pointed out in a 
 supplement to this history, which, if able to accomplish it, I 
 may add for the benefit of lawyers or those who have occasion 
 to trace the chain of title from the Holland Company down to 
 the proprietors of the land at the present time. 
 
 I confine myself in writing to the four counties of Erie, 
 Crawford, Warren, and Venango. And, as some of the same 
 
APPENDIX 353 
 
 Dutch capitalists were interested in the Pennsylvania Popula- 
 tion Company as well as in the HoUand Land Company, I 
 shall place on file with the Crawford County Historical Society 
 an abstract of the former company, to show when it was dis- 
 solved and its affairs were wound up. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Population Company lands, so far as I 
 shall refer to them, were situate in Erie and Crawford coun- 
 ties. They are easily recognized by the numbers of the tracts. 
 South of the triangle in Erie County, the population numbers 
 run from 391 to 621, and in Crawford County from 632 to 
 843, while the Holland Company numbers in Erie County (in 
 District No. 1) run from No. 1 to 169, and in Crawford County 
 from No. 1 to 236 (being District No. 2). 
 
 In the year 1810 Judge William Griffith of New Jersey 
 and John B. Wallace, Esq., of Philadelphia made a contract 
 with the Holland Company to purchase its entire body of 
 lands west of the Allegheny Eiver for the sum of 1180,000, 
 the title to remain in the Company until paid for, and the 
 parties to have a common agent to attend to sales. The fol- 
 lowing year (1811) Messrs. Griffith and Wallace made a con- 
 tract to buy out the interest of the Dutch gentlemen interested 
 in the Population Company for $60,000. The title to an un- 
 divided moiety of this purchase was vested in William Grif- 
 fith, in trust for the use and benefit of Mr. Wallace. 
 
 In 1816 Mr. Griffith sold out his entire interest in the con- 
 cern to Maurice Wurts of New Jersey and William Wurts of 
 Philadelphia, and in the year 1818 Mr. Wallace and the 
 Messrs. Wurts made partition of the lands and contracts, and 
 arrangement was made with the Holland Company by which 
 the Messrs. Wurts got deeds and held title to their lands in 
 severalty. The Messrs. Wurts paid off some creditors in lahds, 
 and in this way a large block was transferred to John Day of 
 New York and William Meredith of Philadelphia, in trust for 
 some parties in England. It is through this channel that we 
 find the name of Messrs. Day and Meredith and Messrs. Price 
 and Ferguson on our record. 
 
354 APPENDIX 
 
 Mr. Wallace retained his interest for some years, when, 
 finding himself unable to discharge the purchase money re- 
 maining due, the lands lapsed and fell back to the Company, 
 which still held the legal title to them in its hands. 
 
 About the year 1821 Mr. Wallace, having some other in- 
 terests in Crawford County, moved out with his family from 
 Philadelphia and resided for some fourteen years (1835) in 
 Meadville. While here he was elected to the Legislature, and 
 was very influential in getting laws passed and appropriations 
 made for the making of the canal through the western part of 
 the coimty, a measure which was then considered a cardinal 
 point in its future prosperity. 
 
 LAND OFFICES 
 
 The Holland Company kept the office of its general agency 
 at Philadelphia. Of .its first general agent, Mr. Theophilus 
 Cazenove, who acted for It from its organization until his re- 
 turn to Europe in a. d. 1799, very little is known. He was 
 succeeded by Mr. Paul Busti, a native of Milan in Italy, who 
 made a very satisfactory agent for a quarter of a century, 
 down to the time of his death, on the 23d of July, 1824. Both 
 of these gentlemen have been complimented by having towns 
 named after them in New York. 
 
 The father of the writer of these notes was bookkeeper in 
 Mr. Bustl's office, and an inmate of his family for several 
 years before coming to Meadville, and often expressed his ap- 
 preciation of the hospitality there received, Mr. Busti had no 
 children, and was succeeded by John Jacob Vanderkemp, 
 Esq., who was a native of Leyden in the kingdom of the 
 Netherlands, and who was at that time bookkeeper in his 
 office. Mr. Vanderkemp retained the situation until the affairs 
 of the Company were finally wound up. To this general office 
 financial reports were made annually from local offices at Buf- 
 falo and Batavia in New York, and Meadville, Pennsylvania, 
 with such practical suggestions as experience might dictate. 
 In this section residents at different points, such as Linesville 
 
APPENDIX 355 
 
 in Crawford County, Pleasantvllle in Venango County, Co- 
 lumbus and Sugargrove in Warren Coimty, and Union Mills 
 in Erie County, were employed to show lands to emigrants, 
 receiving a commission therefor whenever a sale was effected. 
 
 Soon after the war of 1812, a Mr. Augustus Socket was 
 employed by Messrs. Griffith and Wallace to stimulate emi- 
 gration from the East, and he effected some exchanges of 
 Western lands for lands in Berkshire, Mass., and in Con- 
 necticut, an operation which proved in the end more trouble- 
 some than profitable. He also induced some Eastern men to 
 purchase a quantity of land on credit, with a view of reselling 
 it. It was in this way that in 1817 Captain Gad Peck settled 
 at CenterviUe, and Jared Shattuck, Esq., at Meadville, a long 
 list of lands taxed to them jointly being found on reference to 
 the county treasurer's books at that time. Though they suc- 
 ceeded in making many sales, the enterprise on the whole was 
 not successful, and a portion of the lands thus contracted for 
 reverted to the Company. 
 
 The agents of the Company at MeadviUe were Samuel B. 
 Foster and Alexander W. Foster, jointly, for the years 1796, 
 1797, 1798, and part of 1799 ; Major Eoger Alden for the 
 years 1799 to 1804, and H. J. Huidekoper from the first of 
 January, 1805, to the closing up of the Company's concerns by 
 the sale in 1836. 
 
 It is difficult to realize now, amid general wealth and de- 
 velopment, the poverty of the rural districts in the first quar- 
 ter of this century. Many persons are still living who can 
 recoUect when a large portion of the people of MeadviUe used 
 a decoction of roasted rye as a substitute for coffee on their 
 tables. From 1820 to 1834 the wages of a hired man were 
 about nine dollars a month. In 1831 oak wood could be 
 bought for sixty-two and one-half cents a cord, and hickory 
 wood for eighty-seven and one-half cents, delivered. The facili- 
 ties for transportation were very limited, and in 1824 whiskey, 
 the most convenient commodity for exporting, was only worth 
 twenty-five cents a gallon. Exchange was not to be had at 
 
356 APPENDIX 
 
 home, and bank bills in circulation showed various grades of 
 depreciation. 
 
 With regard to assessment of taxes, the experience of the 
 Holland Company was one common to all such organizations. 
 To place the burthens of society on one's immediate neighbors 
 is not a gracious thing for an assessor to do. To put them 
 on a non-resident land-owner would draw out little protest 
 from any quarter save from the subject of the imposition. It 
 was a possible thing at times to find upon the duplicate of the 
 collector a farm with a good improvement upon it, estimated 
 at no higher value than a tract of untouched woodland by its 
 side. The large taxpayer found some offset to this in what 
 may be called financiering. Money was scarce, and a large 
 part of the common currency consisted in orders of the Com- 
 missioners on the county treasurer. These the merchants 
 took at a discount, and were glad to realize for them in cash 
 what they had allowed for them in goods. So they sold them 
 to those who could use them at face value in the payment of 
 taxes. 
 
 In "Western Annals," page 725, several companies, includ- 
 ing the one I am writing about, are described as being organ- 
 ized to speculate in lands in western Pennsylvania. That 
 word " speculate " has a good and a had signification. All 
 hope of a future reward for present action is in some sense 
 speculative. The merchant speculates in a good sense when he 
 hopes to make a living profit by purchasing goods to be re- 
 tailed over his counter. The operator in Wall Street who ex- 
 cites and depresses stocks alternately, to prey on the misfor- 
 tunes of others, is speculative in a had sense. I have never 
 found anytliing in the management of those who composed 
 the Holland Land Company which would induce me to char- 
 acterize them as speculators in an opprohrious sense. 
 
 We have seen that in the first stages of its existence it ad- 
 vanced large sums for traveling expenses and for provisions 
 and agricidtural implements for the accommodation of pur- 
 chasers, and that it gave a gratuity of one hundred acres of 
 
APPENDIX 367 
 
 land to whoever would make a legal settlement on one of its 
 tracts. 
 
 Though it dropped the gratuity after 1805, its contracts 
 always required a house to be built within a twelvemonth and 
 eight or ten acres of land to be cleared within two years from 
 date, which requirements helped in the development of the 
 country. 
 
 It gave long credit, generally eight years, for the payment 
 of the purchase money, and where an honest effort to pay was 
 indicated, this time was often doubled and sometimes trebled 
 by indulgence. Allien money was scarce it facilitated pay- 
 ment by taking cattle which had to be driven over the moun- 
 tains to Philadelphia to find a market. It bought its lands at 
 rates open to all and sold at local prevailing prices. It never 
 withheld any land from market to enhance the value of the 
 residue, with some few exceptional cases based on the quality 
 of the land. 
 
 The applicant was free to select on the hiU or in the valley, 
 to take farm land or timber land at his option. When the 
 vast prairie lands of the West were thrown upon the market 
 by the government at almost nominal prices, a reduction was 
 made in prices by the Company, and a substantial discount 
 allowed for cash in hand. Under this system the western part 
 of Erie County settled up very rapidly with an enterprising 
 people of higher ambition than those who led the van in fron- 
 tier life, and this section of country secured a fair share of 
 westward-bound emigrants. 
 
 In this accelerated improvement of the country the local 
 agent found his reward for a long period of anxiety and care. 
 The affairs of the Company required visits to be made at least 
 quarterly to the counties of Erie, Warren, and Venango, gen- 
 erally on the weeks when court would be in session. They in- 
 volved going often at the most inclement season of the year, 
 and for many years this had to be done on horseback, papers 
 and clothing having to be carried in saddle-bags, then so com- 
 monly in use. The journey was attended, especially through 
 
358 APPENDIX 
 
 the wilderness to Warren, with dangers from vindictiveness 
 created by the litigation of titles I have referred to, and from 
 broken bridges, floods, and, in winter, snowdrifts hiding a 
 road full of roots, and mud holes of which it is difficult to give 
 an adequate description. The whole situation required nerve, 
 great powers of endurance, a subjection of self to a strong 
 sense of duty, and further, in business transactions a well- 
 balanced judgment to regulate sympathies in one direction, 
 with proper regard to proprietary interests in another. 
 
 This exciting, chaotic, perilous phase of life found its oppo- 
 site in the systematic order of the land office, where a neatly 
 kept journal and ledger recorded the transactions of the year, 
 the latter balanced to a cent and the annual results reported 
 to the general office in Philadelphia. 
 
 From the ledger each individual account was posted into a 
 land book, the most ponderous book probably ever in the 
 county, being two feet wide and six inches thick. Every page 
 had a printed caption for the name of the settler, the number 
 of the tract, and the district where located ; it had also eighteen 
 columns of vertical rulings, with printed headings to show the 
 page of original entry in the journal, the date of sale, date of 
 payment, acres given as a gratuity, acres sold to be paid for, 
 acres to be cleared, time allowed for clearing, price per acre, 
 amount of purchase money, rate of interest, terms of pay- 
 ment, amount received on principal, amount on interest, 
 amount remaining due on principal, also on interest, quantity 
 of land still unsold in tract, and a column for miscellaneous re- 
 marks. This omnium-gatherum book represented the ne plus 
 ultra of itemized accounts. 
 
 But it is nearly half a century since the Holland Land 
 Company wound up its affairs in this region, and I close my 
 narrative with some comments by Mr. O. Turner, the historian 
 of the Holland purchase in the State of New York, on its 
 aims and management, with whose statements I entirely con- 
 cur from long personal familiarity with the subject — con- 
 densing the quotations I give. Mr. Turner remarks (page 
 
APPENDIX 359 
 
 426) of all that (business) men leave behind them, there is 
 nothing that affords better tests of their characters and mo- 
 tives than their private correspondence. It is here that in all 
 the familiarity and confidence of private friendship a neces- 
 sary mutual reliance is indulged in. Men are prone to throw 
 off all disguise and disclose the real motives by which they 
 are governed. Few opportunities could be as ample for ap- 
 plying this test as those the author has enjoyed connected 
 with the entire agencies of the Holland Company, having had 
 free access to the great mass of correspondence between its 
 general and local agents. And from such evidence he is pre- 
 pared to say few enterprises have ever been conducted on 
 more honorable principles than was that which embraced the 
 purchase, sale, and settlement of the HoUand purchase. In 
 aR the instructions of the general to the local agents, the in- 
 terest of the settlers, the prosperity of the country, were made 
 secondary in but a slight degree to their securing to their 
 principals a fair and reasonable return for their investments. 
 " In the entire history of settlement and improvement in our 
 widely extended country, large tracts of the wilderness have 
 nowhere fallen into the hands of individuals — become sub- 
 ject to private or associate cupidity — where that aggregate re- 
 sult has been more favorable, or advantageous to the settlers." 
 
 To which I may add, in conclusion, the history of the Com- 
 pany is but a repetition, perhaps, of a conmion experience in 
 life. It was encouraged at first to purchase a wilderness and 
 put its money into the State treasury. This was an acceptable 
 thing to do. When it sought reimbursement out of the pro- 
 perty so acquired, it incurred both professional and popular op- 
 position, as large associations are apt to do. Keeping the even 
 tenor of its way, with fairness of purpose and integrity of 
 action, it can safely intrust its record to the hands of the 
 historian. 
 
 The original lands purchased from the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania by the HoUand Land Company are entered in its books 
 as " Lands of the First Purchase." Those acquired from the 
 
360 APPENDIX 
 
 Pennsylvania Population Company are entered as " Lands of 
 the Second Purchase." 
 
 DISTRICTS 
 
 These were designated by the names of the deputy survey- 
 ors who made respectively the surveys in them, and also by 
 numbers. 
 
 District No. 1, called " Kees' District," was whoUy in Erie 
 County, Pa. 
 HoUand Land Company, Nos. 1 to 159. 
 Population Company, Nos. 391 to 621. 
 District No. 2, called " Power's District," wholly in Crawford 
 County. 
 Holland Land Company, Nos. 1 to 236. 
 Pennsylvania Population Company, Nos. 632 to 843. 
 District No. 3, called " Stokely's District," was eighteen tracts 
 in Venango County, sold to Benjamin B. Cooper of New 
 Jersey. 
 District No. 5, east of the Allegheny Kiver, called from sur- 
 veyor, "Wm. P. Brady's District." Of this 174,000 
 acres sold about 1813 to the Lancaster Land Company. 
 District No. 6, called "Nicholson's District," was part in Erie 
 
 County, chiefly in Warren County, Pa. 
 District No. 7, called " McDowell's District," partly in Craw- 
 ford, Warren, and Venango counties. 
 
 N. B. — The numbers of the Holland and Population com- 
 panies must not be confounded with those of Donation dis- 
 tricts in some of the counties. 
 
GENEALOGY OF HARM JAN HUH 
 
 Harm Jan Huiclekoper. 
 Born Hoogeveeii, 
 
 Drenthe, Holland, 
 
 April 3, 1776. 
 Died Meadvllle, Pa., 
 
 May 22, 1854. 
 
 Anne Jans Huidekoper. 
 Born Harlin^^en, 
 
 Frie.sland, 17."(). 
 Died II o o g" e V e e n , 
 
 Drenthe, 1791.1. 
 
 ilarried Vries, April 
 
 5, 1775. 
 
 Jan Annes Huidekoper. 
 
 Born Harlingen, 
 Friesland, 1681 or 
 l(j!)8. 
 
 Died Berlikura, Fries- 
 land, 17411. 
 
 Married Harlingen, 
 March .3, 1725. 
 
 Fokje Pieters Oldaans. 
 (Oldaens or Oudaan. ) 
 Born 
 Died 1770. 
 
 Harm Jan Wolthers. 
 ychnlter of Vrie.s, 
 March 21, 1722, to 
 177.5. 
 
 MarriedAprill3,1738. 
 
 Married MeadTille 
 Pa., Sept. 1, 1806. 
 
 Gesiena Frederiea Wol- ' 
 
 thers. 
 Born Vries, Drenthe, 
 
 Jan. 23, 1741. 
 Died Hoogeveen, May 1^ Anna Christina Ketel. 
 
 24, 1813. 
 
 Anne -Jans Huidekoper. 
 of Harlingen, Frifs- 
 land. 
 
 . Hiuke Pieters Dreijr. 
 
 Pieter Jans Oldaais 
 
 (OldaensorOudaii 
 
 Born HarHngtu, 
 
 Friesland, l(iG7. 
 Married Nov. 25, 19i. 
 Rykj e Jacobs Tjessem 
 
 Lambert AVolther.?, 
 .Schulter of Vrie^. 
 March 3, IfiOl, to 
 March 21, 1722. 
 Bom 1G(18. 
 Died Vries, Drenibe, 
 May .31, 1735 or IS, 
 68 years old. 
 Johanna Aleida. 
 Bom 1(;73. 
 Died Sept. 13, 17:'J, 
 Major General Pieter 
 Ketel. 
 
 Rebecca Colhoon. 
 
 Born Carlisle, Pa., 
 
 Oct. 15, 177fl. 
 Died Meadville, Pa., 
 
 Oct. 22, 1839. 
 
 Andrew Colhoon. 
 
 Died Carlisle, 
 
 May 8, 1794. 
 
 Pa., 
 
 Married Carlisle, Pa.. 
 Feb. 12, 1777. 
 
 Esther McDowell. 
 Born 17.52. ^ 
 Died Carlisle, 
 June 12, 1795. 
 
 Pa., 
 
 John Colhoon. 
 
 Died Middletown, 
 Cumberland Co., 
 Pa., Sept., 1757. 
 
 Rebecca 
 
 Andrew McDowell. 
 Born Ireland. 
 Died Cumberland Co., 
 Pa., 1778. 
 
 . Sarah Shanklin. 
 
 of- Port Lewis, De- 
 laware. 
 Died 1788. 
 
IDEKOPER AND REBECCA COLHOON 
 
 )er, ' 
 
 Jail Huidekoper, 
 
 ies- 1 
 
 
 n. ' 
 
 Pietei- Dreiiri. 
 
 ns. 
 an.i 
 f 11, 
 
 Jan Oldaaiis. (Oldaens 
 or Oudaan.) 
 Born lii:;(i. 
 
 i'.lT. 
 ma. 
 
 es, 
 
 Jacobus Tjessema. 
 
 Born Jan. !l, Ki.;!!. 
 
 Died Kul. 
 
 Married Dec. l."i, llifi,"). 
 Elizabeth Paulus Bo- 
 gaard. 
 
 Born Dec. 1."), 1i;:K. 
 
 Died Feb. 3, lllil'.'. 
 
 the, 
 730, 
 
 
 4. 
 eter 
 
 
 Johannes Tjesseraa. I Tjease Tjessema. { ^Born 1530. 
 
 Born 1.591. ' ^^0™ l'^''"- 
 
 Died lii:'.(l. 
 
 Paulus Bo^aard. 
 
II 
 
 HUIDEKOPEE» 
 
 HARM JAN HUIDEKOPER, founder of tte Huidekoper famUy 
 in America, eldest son of Anne Huidekoper and Gesiena Fred- 
 erica Wolthers, his second wife. 
 Born at Hoogeveen, Province of Drenthe, Holland, April 3, 
 1776 ; sailed from the Helder, Holland, in the Brig Pru- 
 dence, Aug. 12, 1796 ; arrived at New York, Oct. 14, 1796. 
 Married, Meadville, Pennsylvania, Sept. 1, 1806, Rehecca, Colhoon, 
 second daughter of Andrew Colhoon and Esther McDowell, 
 his virife; (born, Carlisle,Pa.,Oct. 15,1779; died, at "Pomona," 
 MeadvUle, Pa., Oct. 22, 1839). 
 Died at " Pomona," Meadville, Pa., May 22, 1854. 
 Issue : 
 
 Anna Appolina, 
 
 b. " Pomona," Meadville, Pa., Aug. 14, 1807 ; d. " Po- 
 mona," MeadviUe, Pa., July 30, 1808. 
 Fbedebic Woltheks, 
 
 b. "Pomona," Meadville, Pa., Oct. 2, 1808; d. "Po- 
 mona," Meadville, Pa., Sept. 12, 1816. 
 Alfred, 1810-1892. (Vide infra, p. 2) 
 
 Edgar, 1812-1862. (Vide infra, p. 4) 
 
 Anna, 1814-1897. (Vide infra, p. 7) 
 
 Frederic, 1817-1892, (Vide infra, p. 8) 
 
 Elizabeth Gertrude, 
 
 b. " Pomona," Meadville, Pa., Jan. 8, 1819. 
 
 1 Compiled by 
 Frederic Woltebs Huidekopeb and 
 Frederic Louis Hoidekopeb. 
 
362 APPENDIX 
 
 ALFEED, second son of Harm Jan Huidekoper and Rebecca 
 Colhoon, his wife ; b. " Pomona," Meadville, Pa., March 21, 
 1810 ; m. Meadville, Dec. 4, 1834, Catherine, third daughter 
 of Arthur Cullum and Harriet Sturges, his wife (b. Meadville, 
 Pa., Sept. 17, 1812 ; d. MeadvUle, April 22, 1888) ; d. Mead- 
 ville, Jan. 13, 1892. 
 Issue : 
 
 Rebecca Colhoon, 
 
 b. Meadville, Pa., Oct. 2, 1835 ; m. Meadville, Pa., Aug. 
 22, 1859, George Bond, eldest son of George William 
 Bond and Sophia Augusta May, his wife (b. Boston, 
 Mass., Aug. 12, 1834) ; d. Jamaica Plain (Boston), 
 Mass., Dec. 23, 1880. 
 Issue (surname Bond) : 
 Alfred Huidekoper, 
 
 b. Roxbury (Boston), Mass., July 8, 1860 ; m. New 
 York, Jan. 25, 1896, Louise van Beuren, second 
 daughter of John William Davis and Mary Louise 
 van Beuren, his wife (b. New York, Feb. 15, 
 1865). 
 Issue (surname Bond) : 
 Mary Louise, 
 b. Morristovm, N. J., Aug. 26, 1897. 
 George Gorham, 
 
 b. Jamaica Plain (Boston), Mass., Aug. 1, 1862 ; d. 
 New York, Dee. 11, 1887. 
 Rose May Cracroft, 
 
 b. Jamaica Plain (Boston), Mass., May 8, 1868 ; m. 
 Roxbury, Mass., April 3, 1893, William Jones 
 Somaine, only son of Samuel Brower Romaine and 
 Clara Robins Jones, his wife (b. New York, Feb. 
 15, 1865). 
 Issue (surname Eomaine) : 
 Lawrence Bond, 
 
 b. Morristown, N. J., Oct. 13, 1900. 
 Mabel Huidekoper, 
 
 b. Germantown (Phila.), Pa., Jan. 4, 1875; m. 
 Morristown, N. J., June 7, 1900, Charles Noyes 
 
APPENDIX 363 
 
 Loveland, second son of George loveland and 
 Julia Lord Noyes, his wife (b. Wilkesbarre, Pa., 
 Nov. 26, 1872). 
 Issue (sarname Loveland) : 
 Rose Cracroft, 
 
 b. WUkesbarre, Pa., July 28, 1903. 
 Emma Cullxjm, 
 
 b. Meadville, Pa., Jan. 31, 1842 ; m. Meadville, Pa., 
 Sept. 17, 1866, Oreste Antonio Nicolo CoHattzo. 
 Issue (surname Cobtazzo) : 
 
 Katerina Frederica Alexandra Renee, 
 b. Paris, France, May 1, 1868. 
 Abthuk Claeke, 
 
 b. Meadville, Pa., June 15, 1845 ; m. Meadville, Pa., 
 Sept. 21, 1869, Frances Louise, eldest daughter of 
 William Reynolds and Julia Eliza Thorp, his wife (b. 
 MeadvUle, Pa., Nov. 2, 1846). 
 Issue : 
 Albert Ebtnolds, 
 
 b. MeadviUe, Pa., Jan. 18, 1871. 
 Eable Colhoon, 
 
 b. Meadville, Pa., Jan. 31, 1872. 
 Edith Ellicott, 
 
 b. MeadviUe, Pa., April 28, 1880; d. Meadville, 
 Pa., Feb. 20, 1887. 
 Annette van Eeghen, 
 
 b. MeadviUe, Pa., July 3, 1852; d. Meadville, Pa., July 
 16, 1886. 
 
364 APPENDIX 
 
 EDGAR, third son of Harm Jan Huidekoper and Rebecca Colhoon, 
 his wife, b. " Pomona," Meadville, Pa., May 30, 1812 ; m. 
 Meadville, Pa., June 28, 1838, Frances, eldest daughter of 
 Judge Henry Shippen and Elizabeth Wallis Evans, his wife (b. 
 Lancaster, Pa., March 23, 1818 ; d. " Hill Home," Meadville, 
 Pa., May 29, 1897); d. "Hill Home," MeadviUe, Pa., Sept. 
 9, 1862. 
 Issue : 
 
 Henb¥ Shippen, 
 
 b. "Pomona," Meadville, Pa., July 17, 1839; m. Ger- 
 mantown (Phila.), Pa., Oct. 26, 1864, Emma Gertrude, 
 eldest daughter of Thomas Wallis Evans and Annie De 
 Costa Yard, his wife (b. Germantown, Pa., Sept. 18, 
 1840). 
 Issue : 
 Gbktkudb, 
 
 b. Germantown (Phlla.), Pa., Oct. 12, 1865 ; m. 
 Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 1890, Edmund Mun- 
 roe-Smith, second son of Horatio Southgate Smith 
 and Susan Dwight Munroe, his wife (b. Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., Dec. 8, 1854). 
 Issue (surname Muneob-Smith) : 
 Gertrude, 
 b. Easthampton, Long Island, N. Y., Jane 6, 
 1891. 
 Thomas Wallis, 
 
 b. Germantown (Phila.), Pa., Feb. 2, 1870. 
 
 FkeBBEIC WoiiTBBS, 
 
 b. " Pomona," MeadviUe, Pa., Sept. 12, 1840 ; m. Mead- 
 vUle, Pa., Jan. 22, 1867, Anna Virginia, only daughter 
 of Fitz-James Christie and Elizabeth Anna Johns, his 
 wife (b. Erie, Pa., Dec. 23, 1843). 
 Issue : 
 Gbacie, 
 
 b. New York, July 5, 1872; d. New York, July 6, 1872. 
 Febdbkio Louis, 
 
 b. MeadviUe, Pa., March 8, 1874, 
 Reginald Shippen, 
 
 b. Meadville, Pa., May 24, 1876. 
 
APPENDIX 365 
 
 HEBMAiT John, 
 
 b. "Pomona," MeadviUe, Pa., Nov. 28, 1843; d. St. 
 Paul, Minnesota, Oct. 21, 1868. 
 Edgae, 
 
 b. « Pomona," MeadviUe, Pa., March 10, 1845. 
 Gebtkude, 
 
 b. "Pomona," MeadviUe, Pa., Aug. 2, 1846; m. Paris, 
 France, Aug. 17, 1870, Frank Wells, second son of 
 Charles Bartlett WeUs and Maria Louisa Binney, his 
 wife (b. Boston, Mass., Oct. 11, 1842). 
 Issue (surname Wells) : 
 Oeorge Doane, 
 
 b. Cleveland, Ohio, June 27, 1872. 
 Edgar Hxiidekoper, 
 
 b. Cleveland, Ohio, June 27, 1875. 
 Elizabeth Huidekoper, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., June 4, 1878. 
 Robert, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., Nov. 30, 1880 ; d. Longwood 
 (Boston), Mass., March 2, 1883. 
 Elizabeth, 
 
 b. "HiU Home," MeadviUe, Pa., July 17, 1851; m. 
 « Hill Home," MeadvUle, Pa., June 21, 1883, Henry 
 Purkitt Kidder, son of Thomas Kidder and Clarissa 
 Purkitt, his wife (b. Boston, Mass., Jan. 18, 1823 ; d. 
 New York, Jan. 28, 1886). 
 Efsh Rhees Shippen, 
 
 b. " HiU Home," MeadviUe, Pa., May 3, 1854 ; m. Media 
 (Delaware Co.), Pa., March 15, 1877, Anne Preston, 
 eldest daughter of Joseph Roberts Morris and ArabeUa 
 Ashmead Darlington, his wife (b. Media, Pa., May 18, 
 1855) ; d. Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 17, 1901. 
 Frank Colhoon, 
 
 b. " HiU Home," MeadviUe, Pa., Aug. 22, 1857 ; m. Wor- 
 cester, Mass., June 13, 1882, Caroline Cutler, eldest 
 daughter of Calvin Foster and Anna Louisa Gage, bis 
 wife (b. Gorham, Maine, Sept. 1, 1859) ; d. Providence, 
 R. I., July 26, 1890. 
 
366 APPENDIX 
 
 Issue : 
 Herman John, 
 
 b. Paris, France, July 20, 1883: d> Boston, Mass., 
 March 15, 1893. 
 Rosalind, 
 
 b. Worcester, Mass., May 29, 1885. 
 Peescott Foster, 
 
 b. New York, Jan. 31, 1887. 
 
APPENDIX 367 
 
 ANNA, second daughter of Harm Jan Huidekoper and Rebecca 
 Colhoon, his wife, b. " Pomona," MeadviUe, Pa., Nov. 5, 
 1814; m. "Pomona," Meadville, Pa., Aug. 15, 1839, Rev. 
 James Freeman Clarke, second son of Samuel Clarke and 
 Rebecca Parker Hull, his wife (b. Hanover, N. H., April 4, 
 1810 ; d. Jamaica Plain (Boston), Mass., June 8, 1888) ; d. 
 Jamaica Plain (Boston), Mass., April 2, 1897. 
 Issue (surname Clabkb) ; 
 Herman Muidehoper, 
 
 b. Meadville, Pa., Oct. 15, 1840 ; d. Boston, Mass., Feb. 
 15, 1849. 
 Lilian Freeman, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., June 4, 1842. 
 Eliot Channing, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., May 6, 1845 ; m. Boston, Mass., April 
 4, 1878, Alice de Vermandois, daughter of William 
 Sohier and Susan Cabot Lowell, his wife (b. Boston, 
 Mass., March 17, 1850 ; d. Boston, Mass., Nov. 16, 
 1901). 
 Issue (surname Clarke) : 
 Susan Lowell, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., Feb. 14, 1879. 
 James Freeman, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., March 1, 1881 ; d. Boston, Mass., 
 March 18, 1884. 
 Anna Huidekoper, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., July 7, 1883. 
 Flisabeth Lowell, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., May 3, 1887. 
 James Freeman, 
 
 b. Boston, Mass., May 14, 1889. 
 Cora Huidekoper, 
 
 b. Meadville, Pa., Feb. 9, 1851. 
 
368 APPENDIX 
 
 FEEDERIC, fourth son of Harm Jan Huidekoper and Rebecca 
 Colhoon, his wife, b. " Pomona," Meadville, Pa., April 7, 
 1817 ; m. New York, Nov. 10, 1853, Harriet Nancy, fifth 
 daughter of Henry Sturges Thorp and Julia Ann Parker, his 
 wife (b. New York, Sept. 13, 1830) ; d. "Pomona," Meadville, 
 Pa., May 16, 1892. 
 Issue : 
 Louisa, 
 
 b. "Pomona," Meadville, Pa., Aug. 30, 1855; m. "Po- 
 mona," Meadville, Pa., May 6, 1880, Winthrop Eoyt 
 Perry, third son of Oliver Henry Perry and Harriet 
 Hoyt, his wife (b. Southport, Conn., Sept. 20, 1854). 
 Ellen Elizabeth, 
 
 b. "Pomona," MeadviUe, Pa., Nov. 14, 1856; d. "Po- 
 mona," Meadville, Pa., July 30, 1861. 
 Anna Julia, 
 
 b. "Pomona," MeadviUe, Pa., July 30, 1858; d. "Po- 
 mona," Meadville, Pa., Sept. 4, 1893. 
 William Fbbdbbic, 
 
 b. " Pomona," Meadville, Pa., Aug. 27, 1862 ; d. " Po- 
 mona," Meadville, Pa., Aug, 17, 1883. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Note : H. J. H. stands for Harm Jan Huidekoper. 
 
 Accumulation op Wealth, arti- 
 cle by H. J. H. on, 193, 194; 277, 
 
 Adams, John, 39, 41; negotiates 
 Dutch loan, 97, 
 
 Addison, Judge, plot to murder, 
 105, 
 
 Agnew, Daniel, Chief Justice of 
 Penn., his " History," etc., 
 quoted, 104, 105, 106. 
 
 Albany, Dutch the common lan- 
 guage of, amon^ old people and 
 negroes, 30; visited by H. J. H., 
 44; in 1802, the best built and 
 busiest city in the interior of the 
 U. S., 76; land in neighborhood 
 of, very poor, 77. 
 
 Alcott, Bronson, H. J. H.'s esti- 
 mate of, 280. 
 
 Alden, Major Roger, agent of Hol- 
 land Land Co. at Meadville, 57; 
 first came to Meadville in 1795, 
 82; associated with David Mead 
 in public worlvs, 83 ; his duel, 83, 
 83 n; resigns his agency, 88, 90; 
 comments on, 125. 
 
 Alden, Rev. Timothy, President of 
 Allegheny College, 209 n; sup- 
 plies Presbyterian pulpit at 
 Meadville, 210; attacks Unita- 
 rian doctrines and Unitarians, 
 210; answered by H. J. H., 210. 
 
 Alien act, 100. 
 
 Aliens could not hold land in N. Y. 
 at time of Holland Land Co.'s 
 first purchases, 100. 
 
 Allegheny College (Meadville), 
 founded by Rev. Timothy Alden 
 in 1815, 209 n; subscribers to, 
 included many Unitarians, 209 n. 
 
 Allegheny Mountain, 64. 
 
 Allegheny River, 65, 66. 
 
 Amsterdam, embargo at, 91. 
 
 Anti-slavery, 292; New England 
 Convention, 292. 
 
 Atkinson, Thomas, editor of " Craw- 
 ford Messenger," 90. 
 
 Atonement, the, H. J. H.'s essays 
 
 on, 233. 
 AUwney-Oeneral v. Grantees under 
 
 Act of 179S, decision of, 109. 
 Auxiliary Internal Improvement 
 
 Society of Crawford Co., 191. 
 
 Bagley, E. H., clerk to H. J. H., 266. 
 
 Bakewell, Benjamin, a stanch Uni- 
 tarian, 202, 205. 
 
 Barneveld. See Oldeiibarneveld. 
 
 Batavia, N. Y., 72, 73; agency of 
 Holland Land Co. at, 73. 
 
 Bayard, William, 35, 36; agent of 
 purchasers of lands in Penn., 
 101. 
 
 Bears in vicinity of Meadville, 
 249. 
 
 Beatty, Robert, agent of Holland 
 Land Co., 88, 89 n. 
 
 Beaver and Erie Canal, 190, 191. 
 
 Bedford, Penn., 64. 
 
 " Being and Immortality," H. J. 
 H.'s essay on, 239 n. 
 
 Bemus's Mills, 191. 
 
 Benedict, Miss, 156. 
 
 Berlikum, village of, 6, 6 n. 
 
 Bemadotte, Marshal, King of Swe- 
 den, 25. 
 
 Bible, the, truth as taught in, the 
 object of H. J. H.'s quest, 202; 
 his diligent study of, 202; H. J. 
 H.'s reliance on, in doctrinal mat- 
 ters, 228. 
 
 Big Sun, friendly Indian, 81. 
 
 Blossom, Colonel, clerk to H. J. H., 
 166. 
 
 Bonaparte. See Napoleon. 
 
 " Bontreeder," Jan Annes Huide- 
 koper a, 5. 
 
 Books, scarcity of in United Pro- 
 vinces in H. J. H.'s boyhood, 15. 
 
 Boon, Gerrit, 36, 38; founder of 
 Oldenbameveld, 43; his views 
 on maple sugar, 43, 45; acting 
 for Holland Land Co., 43, 45; 
 
372 
 
 INDEX 
 
 H. J. H.'s estimate of, 46; returns 
 to Europe, 50; 100 n. 
 
 Brady, William P., agent of Hol- 
 land Land Co., 88, 89 a. 
 
 Brandywine Creek, 61. 
 
 Brendel, W., editor of "Crawford 
 Messenger," 90. 
 
 Brigham, Rev. Alanson, tutor and 
 minister at Meadville, 246; his 
 illness and death, 256. 
 
 Brook Farm, H. J. H. on, 288. 
 
 " Brook Farm," by Lindsay Swift, 
 quoted, 281 n, 287 n, 302 n. 
 
 Brownson, Orestes A., H. J. H. not 
 in accord with, 280 ; his articles 
 in the "Quarterly Review" an- 
 swered by H. J. H. in the " West- 
 ern Messenger," 282, 283. 
 
 Brysou, Lydia (Colhoon), sister of 
 Mrs. Huldekoper, 134; in H. J. 
 H.'s family at Pomona, 149, 150. 
 
 Buffalo, in 1802, contained a dozen 
 and a half log cabins, 58, 59 ; site 
 of, owned by Holland Land Co., 
 70; its promise of future impor- 
 tance, 70, 80. 
 
 Bushnell, Rev. Mr., Presbyterian 
 minister at Meadville, 210; his 
 attack upon Unitarians and Uni- 
 versalists, 210. 
 
 Buati, Elizabeth (May), wife of 
 Paul Busti, 56, 56 n, 59. 
 
 Busti, Paul, general agent of Hol- 
 land Land Co. until 1835, 56, 
 56 n; succeeded by H. J. H., 57; 
 his kindness to H. J. H., 59, 88, 
 89 n; his memorial to the N. Y. 
 Legislature, quoted, 95, 96, 99 n ; 
 advises granting special terms to 
 intruders, 120. 
 
 Campbell, Rev. John, organizes 
 
 Unitarian church in Pittsburg, 
 
 200; effect of sermon preached 
 
 by, upon H. J. H., 202. 
 Canada, projected invasion of, 179, 
 
 ISO. 
 Canandaigua, end of the Great 
 
 Western Turnpike of N. Y., 73. 
 Canaserago, Indian village of, 46. 
 CapeDen, J. D. van der, 40. 
 Carlisle, Penn., 63. 
 Cattaraugus Creek, 70. 
 "Causeways" (corduroy bridges), 
 
 described, 49. 
 Cazenove, Theophilus, general agent 
 
 of Holland Land Co., 26, 44. 
 
 Cazenovia, 30, 38, 44; in 1802, 75, 
 101. 
 
 Channing, William Ellery, sermon 
 in Baltimore at installation of 
 Jared Sparks, 200; 278, 285. 
 
 Channing, William Henry, 246; his 
 influence at Pomona, 257, 261, 
 268; and the "Western Messen- 
 ger," 281 ; eloquence of, 283, 284; 
 and "The Present," 284; H. J. 
 H.'s criticism of, 284-286. 
 
 Chauncey, Commodore, 186, 187, 
 188. 
 
 Chippewa, Fort, 71. 
 
 "Christian World," the, 293, 295. 
 
 Clarke, Herman, 302, 306; death of, 
 302. 
 
 Clarke, James Freeman, 178, 246; 
 a sharer in the " enthusiastic 
 expectation of the time," 262; in- 
 terested in " Western Messenger," 
 262; succeeds to editorship of 
 W. M., 262, 264; literary tone of 
 W. M. due to, 264; meets Mrs. 
 H., Anna, and Edgar on their 
 southern trip, 265, 267; marries 
 Anna Huidekoper, 270-272; 
 classed with transcendentalists, 
 287; idolized by his parishioners 
 of the Church of the Disciples in 
 Boston, 287; exchanges pulpits 
 with Parker ("Black Sunday"), 
 289 ; secession of parishioners of, 
 289; at Meadville (1850-53), 305, 
 306, 316; preaches ordination 
 sermon of Frederic Huidekoper, 
 316. 
 
 " Clarke, James Freeman, Autobio- 
 graphy, Diary, and Correspond- 
 ence of," edited by E. E. Hale, 
 cited, 262; quoted, 264 n. 
 
 Clarke, Mrs. James Freeman, set- 
 tled in Louisville, 272; letters of 
 H. J. H. to, concerning her philan- 
 thropic work, etc., 272-277. See 
 also Huidekoper, Anna. 
 
 Clay, Cassius M., 292, 
 
 Clercq, Henry de, 38; visited by 
 H. J. H. at Cazenovia, 47; extract 
 from "Autobiography" concern- 
 ing, 47, 75. 
 
 Coleman, Rev. Henry, at dedication 
 of Unitarian church at Meadville, 
 269, 270 n. 
 
 Colhoon, Andrew, father of Mrs. H., 
 133; his marriage, 133; and 
 death, 133; children of. 134 n. 
 
INDEX 
 
 373 
 
 Colhoon, Esther (McDowell), mo- 
 ther of Mrs. H., 133, 134. 
 
 Colhoon, John, ancestor of Mrs. H., 
 133. 
 
 Colhoon, Dr. John, brother of Mrs. 
 H., 134. 
 
 Colhoon, Lydia. See Bryson, Lydia 
 (Colhoon). 
 
 Colhoon, Rebecca. See Huidekoper, 
 Rebecca (Colhoon). 
 
 Colhoon, Sarah, sister of Mrs. H., 
 134; her death, 135. 
 
 Colt, Jabez, 57, 62, 69, 90. 
 
 Commonwealth v. Coxe, mandamus 
 to compel issue of patents to Hol- 
 land Land Co., 107, 108; opinion 
 of Yeates, J. in, 112. 
 
 Conneaut Lake, 191. 
 
 Conneaut Outlet, 191. 
 
 Corduroy bridges. See Causeways. 
 
 Corduroy roads, first streets in 
 Meadville were, 83. 
 
 Complanter, friendly Indian, 81. 
 
 Cottage Farm, nucleus of Pomona, 
 purchased by H. J. H., 139. 
 
 Coxe, Tench, Secretary of Land 
 Office of Perm., defendant in 
 suit to compel issue of patents, 
 108. 
 
 "Crawford Messenger," first news- 
 paper at Meadville, 90 ; first 
 number of, 90, 91 ; age of news 
 pubHshed in, 90, 91; politics of, 
 92; advertisements in, and other 
 contents, 92, 93; its office also a 
 book-shop, 93; H. J. H.'s adver- 
 tisement of agency in, 93 ; medium 
 of H. J. H.'s replies to attacks of 
 Messrs. Alden and BushneU, 210, 
 211; discussion in, concerning 
 transmission of mails on Sun- 
 day, 214-216; and concerning 
 revivals, 217-219. 
 
 Crefeld, Institute at, attended by 
 H. J. H., in 1793, 19; general con- 
 ditions and instruction at, 19; 
 details of life at, 20-22; breaking 
 up of, 25. 
 
 CuUum, Arthur, convert to Unita- 
 rianism, 206. 
 
 CuUum, Lieut. Geo. W., draws 
 plans for Unitarian church at 
 Meadville, 268. 
 
 Cultivation, state of, of land m 
 Peimsylvania and New York, 60- 
 78, passim. 
 
 Cussewago. See Meadville. 
 
 Dame School, H. J. H. attends, 14. 
 
 Day, Rev. John Quinby, 246, 268, 
 268 n. 
 
 Death,"thewagesof sin, "H.J. H.'s 
 interpretation of the phrase, 241 . 
 
 Def ranee, Mr., 56. 
 
 Dewey, Miss Jerusha, opens select 
 school at MeadvUle, 224; perse- 
 cuted by Rev. Mr. James, 224; 
 defended by H. J. H., 225, 226. 
 
 Dick, William, builds first frame 
 house in Meadville, 84, 85; first 
 court held in his house (1800), 85. 
 
 Divinity Hall, 322. 
 
 " Donation lands," 74. 
 
 Douglas, Mr., school-teacher at 
 Meadville, 155. 
 
 Douglass, defendant in Huidekoper' s 
 Lessee v. Douglass, 115, 116. 
 
 Downingston, Penn., 60. 
 
 Dreijn, Hinke Pieters. See Huide- 
 koper, Hinke Pieters. 
 
 Drenthe, province of, 9; intellec- 
 tual darkness of, 15; little inter- 
 course between, and more enlight- 
 ened regions, 16; intellectual sit- 
 uation of, compared with that of 
 German counties of Pennsylvania 
 in 1840, 16. 
 
 Duquesne Fort, remains of, 66. 
 
 Dutch language, similar to German, 
 20; Mennonite services at Crefeld 
 conducted in, 23; the common 
 language of most old people, and 
 of negroes, on Long Island, at 
 Albany, etc. (1796), 30. 
 
 Dwight, John S,, 246; Frederic H.'s 
 recollections of, 257; his influ- 
 ence at Pomona, 257; " the life of 
 the Lyceum," 258, 261 ; at Brook 
 Farm, 288. 
 
 Echten, Baron von, founder and 
 Lord of the Hoogeveen, 8. 
 
 Education, lack of among the 
 masses in the United Provinces, 
 in latter years of eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 15. 
 
 Eeghen, Annette van (Huidekoper), 
 niece of H. J. H., 13. 
 
 Eeghen, Christian van, interested 
 in purchase of lands in Penn., 
 101. 
 
 Eeghen, Miss van, wife of Pieter 
 Huidekoper, H.J. H.'s nephew, 13. 
 
 Eeghen, Pieter van, marries An- 
 nette Huidekoper, niece of H. J. 
 
374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 H., 13; interested in purchase of 
 Morris lands in N. Y., 100. 
 
 Election, doctrine of, H. J. H.'s es- 
 say on, 232. 
 
 Eliot, WiUiam Greenleaf, 280, 317. 
 
 Ellicott, Miss, visit of, to Meadville, 
 142. 
 
 Ellicott, Mr., agent of Holland 
 Land Co. at Batavia, 73. 
 
 Elliott, Captain (War of 1812), 185, 
 186; and Perry, dispute between, 
 188-190; anecdote of, 190 n. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, certain 
 poems of, first published in 
 "Western Messenger," 264; his 
 "Good-bye, Proud World," 264n; 
 his withdrawal from the minis- 
 try, 276; H. J. H. not in full sym- 
 pathy with, 280 ; sanity of, 
 doubted by H. J. H., 286; letter 
 of, quoted, 264 n. 
 
 Emmons, Rev. Mr., Unitarian min- 
 ister at Meadville, 304, 304 n. 
 
 Erie, Lake, 70, 181, 183; battle of, 
 188, 189. 
 
 Erie and Waterford Turnpike, 90. 
 
 "Essayist." See " Unitarian Essay- 
 ist. 
 
 Eternal Punishment, discussed by 
 H. J. H., 235, 236. 
 
 Extinction of the wicked, 241. 
 
 "Fair Columbian," the, 133. 
 
 Fairchild, Helen Lincklaen, editor 
 of F. A. van der Kemp's " Auto- 
 biography," 39 n, 40; and of 
 "Journals of John Lincklaen," 
 43 n. 
 
 Fannetstown, Penn., 63. 
 
 "Fanny Wrightism," 284, 284 n. 
 
 "Feigned Issue," raised by Penn. 
 Act of 1802, 108; trial of, 109. 
 
 Finney, Jenny, first school-teacher 
 of Meadville. See Mead, Jenny 
 (Finney). 
 
 Fires, forest, effect of, 66, 67, 72. 
 
 Fishkill, N. Y., 78. 
 
 Flying Cloud, friendly Indian, 80, 
 81, 82 n. 
 
 Forest fires, effect of, 66, 67, 72. 
 
 Forests, in Penn., 63, 65. 
 
 "Fox," H. J. H.'s favorite horse, 
 169; wounded, 169. 
 
 Franklin, Penn., 67, 158. 
 
 Frankhn, Fort (formerly Fort 
 Machault), 79, 80, 81. 
 
 Freeman, James, expelled from 
 
 Episcopal denomination, adopts 
 name of Unitarian and establishes 
 first Unitarian church in Amer- 
 ica, 199. 
 
 French Creek, 67, 79; named by 
 Washington, 80; cargoes of lum- 
 ber and salt on, 86; representa- 
 tives of Holland Land Co. acquire 
 large tract of land on, 101. 
 
 " Friesch Bont," 5. 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law, H. J. H.'s view 
 of, 296. 
 
 Fuller, Margaret, 280, 302, 302 n. 
 
 Fumess, Rev. William Henry, 206. 
 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 292, 295. 
 
 "Garrison, William Lloyd, The 
 Story of his Life," quoted, 284 n. 
 
 Genesee River, 73. 
 
 Geneva, N. Y., 73, 74. 
 
 German-flats, N. Y., 76. 
 
 Germans, large numbers of at Lan- 
 caster, 62; at Pittsburg, 66; 
 about Utica, 76. 
 
 Gilbert, Washington, Unitarian 
 minister at MeadviUe, 206, 206 n, 
 246. 
 
 Gill, William, early settler of Mead- 
 ville, deprived of his claim by 
 Jenny Fmney, 84. 
 
 Grain, first cultivation of, at Mead- 
 ville, 86. 
 
 Greenfield, Penn., 69. 
 
 Greensburg, Penn., 65; agency of 
 Holland Land Co, at, 89; rapid 
 sale of lands at, 89. 
 
 Griffith, Judge, compelled to sell 
 his interest in French Creek lands, 
 131; clerk of U. S. Supreme 
 Court, 131. 
 
 Griffith and Wallace, purchasers of 
 French Creek lands for Holland 
 Land Co., 127; employ H. J. H., 
 127; affairs of, mismanaged by 
 W. S. Hart, 128; contract of , with 
 Hart and Sacket, 128; financial 
 embarrassment of, 131. 
 
 Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, 262; 
 
 on the Meadville Theological 
 
 School, 325. 
 Halftown, friendly Indian, 81, 
 Harrisburg, Penn.,, a "pretty little 
 
 town of no importance and very 
 
 little business *' (1802), 62. 
 Harrison, Gen. William Henry, 181. 
 Hart, William S., employed by 
 
INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 Griffith and Wallace, 127; mis- 
 management of, 128; associated 
 with Sacket in contract with G 
 & W., 128; sells share of his 
 profits to Peck and Shattuck, 
 129; contract of, with G. & W., 
 cancelled, 130. 
 
 Hasselt, Overyssel, boarding-school 
 at, attended by H. J. H,, 17, 18. 
 
 Hazlett, Ehzabeth (Colhoon), sister 
 of Mrs. H., 135; in H. J. H.'s fam- 
 ily at Pomona, 149, 150. 
 
 Hazlett, Margaret, niece of Mrs. 
 H., 204, 247; effect of revivals 
 upon, 218. 
 
 Heaven, defined by H. J. H., 244. 
 
 " Hedge's Club," 287. 
 
 Highlands of the Hudson, 77, 78. 
 
 " Flill Home," 306 n. 
 
 Hoche, General, 25. 
 
 Holland, condition of, in 1806, 173, 
 174; end of Napoleonic domina- 
 tion in, 175. 
 
 Holland, EUhu Goodwin, 246, 317- 
 319, 317 n. 
 
 Holland Land Co., history of, 95- 
 131; an unincorporated associa- 
 tion of Dutch capitalists, 95; its 
 capital, 95; its founders warm 
 supporters of the American Re- 
 volution, 95, 96; its records in- 
 accessible, 96; Stadnitzki's pro- 
 spectus, 98; large purchases of 
 Morris's lands, 100; additional 
 purchases in Central N. Y., 100; 
 purchase of lands on French 
 Creek, 101, 124; questions as to 
 title, 102; provisions of the Act 
 of 1792, 102, 124; war with In- 
 dians prevents the company 
 from complying with conditions, 
 103, 104, 125; lands seized by 
 "intruders," 104, 125; three 
 views concerning rights of, and of 
 " intruders," 105, 106; " preven- 
 tion patents" issued to, under 
 Gov. Mifflin, 106; withheld under 
 Gov. McKean, 106; efforts of, to 
 perform conditions of Act of 1792, 
 107, 112, 125; institutes litiga- 
 tion to compel issue of warrants, 
 108; case of Commonwealth v. 
 Coxe, 108; declines to appear in 
 Att'y-Gen. v. Grantees, 109, 109 n; 
 institutes process in U. S. Circuit 
 Court (Huidekoper's Lessee v. 
 Douglass), 110; its contention 
 
 by 
 
 Court, 110; H. J. H.'s connection 
 with, as told in his autobiography, 
 124-131; its affairs at Meadville 
 involved in confusion when H. J. 
 H. took over agency, 126;disposes 
 of French Creek lands to Griffith 
 and Wallace, 127; Alfred Huide- 
 koper's account of, 337-360 (Ap- 
 pendix); mentioned, 26, 43, 44, 
 45, 49, 56, 57, 58, 62, 70, 72, 73, 
 75, 88, 88 n, 89, 131,267. 
 
 Hoogeveen, the, birthplace of H. J. 
 H., founded in 1626, 8. 
 
 Horn, Cornelius van, 80. 
 
 Hosmer, Rev. G. W., 316, 317, 318. 
 
 Hovey, Captain, of the " Prudence," 
 28, 34. 
 
 Hudson River, beauty of, 44; banks 
 of, 77; settlers on, 77, 78. 
 
 Huidekoper, the name, antiquity 
 of, 3n; its meaning, 3 n; earliest 
 mention of, 3 n. 
 
 Huidekoper family, of Frisian ori- 
 gin, 3 n; settled in and about 
 Harlingen, 3 n; spread to Drenthe 
 and Amsterdam, 3 n; belonged 
 to the Mennonite sect, 3, 3 n, 10; 
 coat of arms of, derived from 
 that of the Oldaans family, 9. 
 
 Huidekoper, Albert, nephew of H. 
 J. H., 13; comes to U. S., 177. 
 
 Huidekoper, Albert Reynolds, 324. 
 
 Huidekoper, Alfred, son of H. J. H., 
 153; visits Holland, 177; his de- 
 scription of his relatives' home 
 there, 177; letters of, quoted, 52, 
 252, 253, 299 n; his account of 
 the Holland Land Co., 337-360 
 (Appendix). 
 
 Huidekoper, Anna, daughter of H. 
 J. H., 154; proficiency of, in her 
 studies, 208; southern trip of, 
 265; marries J. F. Clarke, 270- 
 272; letters of, quoted, 250, 251, 
 252, 258, 259, 260. See also 
 Clarke, Mrs. James Freeman. 
 
 Huidekoper, Anne, father of H. J. 
 H. , 6, 9 ; marries Hylke Quader, 6 ; 
 marries Gesiena F. Wolthers, 6; 
 his removal to the Hoogeveen, 8, 
 9; his children by his first mar- 
 riage, 12; by his second marriage, 
 12; his education much neglect- 
 ed, 17; his death (1799), 53 n. 
 
 Huidekoper, Anne Jans, great- 
 grandfather of H. J. H., 4, 5. 
 
376 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Huidekoper, Anne Wilhem, nephew 
 of H. J. H., 13, 174; quoted, 7 n, 
 9n. 
 
 Huidekoper, Annette. See Eeghen, 
 Annette van. 
 
 Huidekoper, Arthur Clarke, 324. 
 
 Huidekoper, Edgar, son of H. J. H., 
 154; southern trip of, 265; his 
 father's right-hand man in af- 
 fairs, 265; marries Frances Ship- 
 pen, 300; leaves Pomona with 
 his family for " Hill Home," 306; 
 treasurer of Meadville Theological 
 School, 323, 323 n, 324; letter of, 
 quoted, 224. 
 
 Huidekoper, Mrs, Edgar (Frances 
 Shippen), 300. 
 
 Huidekoper, Edgar Jr., son of Ed- 
 gar H., 324. 
 
 Huidekoper, Elizabeth G., daughter 
 ofH. J. H., 154,246; her schooling 
 under Mr. Nichols, 254 ; her help- 
 fulness to her father, 266; " a 
 ministering angel," 298; mother 
 of the Meadville Theological 
 School, 324; letter of, quoted, 
 254, 255. 
 
 Huidekoper, Fokje Pieters (Old- 
 aans), grandmother of H. J. H., 
 5, 9. 
 
 Huidekoper, Frederic, son of H. J. 
 H., visits Holland, 177, 177 n, 246; 
 his autobiography (MS.), 247; 
 his recollections of A. P. Pea- 
 body, 247; of E. Peabody, 247; 
 helps to nurse Rev. Mr. Brigham, 
 256; his personality, 256, 257; 
 enters sophomore at Harvard, 
 261, 313; his steadfastness, 286; 
 his life at Cambridge, 313; re- 
 turns to Meadville because of 
 trouble with eyes, 313; in Eu- 
 rope, 314; his choice of a pro- 
 fession, 314, 315; at Harvard 
 Divinity School, 315; ordained at 
 Meadville, 316; organizes Mead- 
 ville Theological School, 316 ff; 
 E. E. Hale's testimony concern- 
 ing, 325. 
 
 Huidekoper, Mrs. Frederic (Harriet 
 N. Thorp), 321 n. 
 
 Huidekoper, Frederic Wolthers, son 
 of H. J., death of, in childhood, 
 153; his schooling, 155, 156. 
 Huidekoper, Frederic Wolters, son 
 
 of Edgar H., 324, 
 Huidekoper, Gertrude (Stinstra), 
 
 first wife of Jan Huidekoper, 12, 
 13. 
 
 Huidekoper, Gesiena Frederica 
 (Wolthers), second wife of Anne, 
 and mother of H. J. H. , 6, 1 1 ; her 
 mind of a high order, but uncul- 
 tivated, 17; her affection for H. 
 J.H.,17; death of, 176; letter of, 
 quoted, 145. 
 
 HtriDBKOPER, Hahm Jan, birth of 
 (April 3, 1776), 9; his own ac- 
 count of his family, 9-13; consti- 
 tution of, very feeble in child- 
 hood, 13; thought, at one time, 
 to be dead, 13; health, after 
 tenth year, uniformly good, 13; 
 early schooling at " dame school" 
 and village school, 14; early ac- 
 quired inclination for mathe- 
 matics, 14; state of society in 
 respect to education in his boy- 
 hood, 15, 16; sent to boarding- 
 school at Hasselt, Overyssel, aged 
 ten, 17; sent to Institute of Cre- 
 feld by stepbrother, 18, 19; igno- 
 rance of German, a drawback 
 soon overcome, 19, 20; details of 
 hfe at Crefcld, 20-22; narrowly 
 escapes encounter with Imperial- 
 ist troops in retreat after Fleurus, 
 24; leaves Crefeld (1795), 25; 
 plans to go to America, 27; visits 
 parents (1795-96), 27; sails from 
 the Helder on brig Prudence 
 (Aug., 1796), 28; tedious voy- 
 age, 28, 29; improves his know- 
 ledge of English during voyage, 
 29; arrival at New York, 29; 
 alone in a strange land, 30; dis- 
 advantages of his situation, 30; 
 impressions of New York, 31; 
 welcomed by Messrs. Le Roy, 
 Bayard, and McEvers, 35, 36; his 
 purpose to become a farmer, 38; 
 influence of Mappa and van der 
 Kemp, 42 ; travels from New 
 York to Albany, 44; impressions 
 of the Hudson, 44; from Albany 
 to Fort Schuyler by stage, 44, 45; 
 Fort Schuyler to Oldenbarneveld, 
 45; his estimate of Gerrit Boon, 
 46; difficult journey from Olden- 
 barneveld to Cazenovia, 46, 47; 
 breakfast at 9.30 p. m., 47; spends 
 winter (1796-97) with H. de 
 Clercq at Cazenovia, 47; clerk to 
 John Lincklaen, 48; in Olden- 
 
INDEX 
 
 377 
 
 barneveld 1797 to 1802, 48; suc- 
 ceeds Smits as clerk to A. G. 
 Mappa (Holland Land Co.), 51; 
 desires to assist his parents, 51; 
 sojourn of, at Oldenbameveld 
 pleasant in retrospect, 51; his 
 pride in growth of the settlement, 
 52; continued interest in vicissi- 
 tudes of Holland, 52, 53; suc- 
 ceeds Smits as book-keeper for 
 P. Busti, and removes to Phila. 
 (1802), 56; secretary and book- 
 keeper of Penn. Population Co., 
 66; succeeds P. Busti as general 
 agent of H. L. Co., 57; manifold 
 benefits of residence in Phila., 57; 
 journey to Meadville on horse- 
 back, 67, 59-78; impressions of 
 Pittsburg and of Meadville, 58; 
 joined by his brother Pieter at 
 Meadville, 87, 88 n.; purchases 
 20,000 acres of H. L. Co. land, 
 88 n.; succeeds Major Alden as 
 agent at Meadville, 88; becomes 
 superintending agent of other 
 lands east of the All^heny, 88; 
 reasons for leaving Phila., 89; ar- 
 rives at Meadville (Nov., 1805), 
 89 ; advertises agency in " Craw- 
 ford Messenger," 93; his views 
 concerning "intruders," 105; his 
 wish to be naturalized, 110; on 
 opinion of Marshall, C. J. in Hui- 
 dekoper's Lessee v. Douglass, 111; 
 his strong feeling in favor of H. 
 L. Co., 112, 114, 116; describes 
 interview with Douglass, 115; sat- 
 isfaction of, with decision of Su- 
 preme Court, 118, 119; dealings 
 of, with "intruders," after the 
 decision, 120-124; acquires po- 
 sition of authority in the com- 
 munity, 122; confusion of af- 
 fairs at Meadville at inception of 
 agency of, 126; assists at sale of 
 French Creek lands to Griffith 
 and Wallace, 127; agent of ven- 
 dors and vendees, 127; enters 
 employ of G. and W., 127; reduced 
 salary, but increased commis- 
 sions, 127; takes on agency for 
 lands purchased by Penn, Pop. 
 Co., 127; intrigues of Sacket and 
 others to secure his removal, 129, 
 130; acquires additional agencies 
 after assignments of Wallace and 
 the Wurts, 131; first meets Re- 
 
 becca Colhoon, 135; his descrip- 
 tion of her, in letter to Jan H., 
 136, 137; his disappointment at 
 her coolness, 137; buys land for 
 a homestead, 139; difficulties of 
 his courtship, 140; clearing land 
 and building, 144; marriage to 
 R. C. (Sept., 1806), 144, 147; 
 household of, at Pomona, 148, 
 149; death of infant daughter 
 (Aniia) and of son (Frederic 
 Wolthers), 152, 153; expense of 
 maintaining family, 154 n.; vi- 
 sions of a model settlement, 168; 
 uncertainty as to its location, 
 158; identifies himself with in- 
 terests of Meadville, 159; occa- 
 sional lack of funds, 158, 159; 
 slanderous attack upon, in 
 "Crawford Messenger," 159, 160; 
 yearly drive of livestock insti- 
 tuted by, 164; transactions of, 
 furnished people of Meadville 
 district with most of their cash, 
 167; his collecting trips, 168, 169; 
 shot at by unknown assailant, 
 169; an object of curiosity, 170; 
 his multifarious accounts, 170; 
 criticises government of Penn., 
 171; and of U. S. (1806), 171, 
 172; views of, concerning War of 
 1812, 178, 179-190; interest of, 
 in Beaver and Erie Canal, 190; 
 letter of, to Board of Canal 
 Comm'rs, 191 n ; his invest- 
 ments in land, 192; makes final 
 payment for them (1840), 193; 
 his Right and Duty of Accu- 
 mulation, quoted, 193, 194; in- 
 fluence of, upon j^oung men en- 
 tering upon frontier life, 245; in 
 the hunting field, 248; lecture by 
 on the advantages of intellectual 
 cultivation, 258; Miss Martineau's 
 visit to, at Pomona, 259-261; 
 gives land for Unitarian church 
 at Meadville, 268; satisfaction 
 of, with Anna's marriage, 271 ; 
 visits Boston with Anna, 271; 
 entertained there, 272; sympa- 
 thy of, with J. F. Clarke's phi- 
 lanthropic schemes, 272, 274; 
 an uncompromising anti-slavery 
 man, but not a radical abolition- 
 ist, 292; views of, on slavery, 
 293 ff; gradual advance in position 
 of, concerning slavery, 295; and 
 
378 
 
 INDEX 
 
 the Fugitive Slave Law, 296; as- 
 sists fugitive slaves, 296, 297; 
 death of Mrs. H., 298-300; finds 
 solace in his grandchildren, 300; 
 entertains Sunday-schools at Po- 
 mona on July 4, 304; advice of, 
 to son Frederic as to choice of 
 profession, 314, 315; share of, in 
 establisliing Meadville Theologi- 
 cal School, 319-322; last years 
 and death of, 327. 
 
 Religious : early religious train- 
 ing of, 18, 200; joins Dutch Re- 
 formed Church at Hesselt, 18; in- 
 fluence of course at Crefeld on his 
 moral and religious character, 
 22, 23; becomes more liberal in 
 his sentiments, 23; and Unita- 
 rianism, current saying concern- 
 ing, 197; his catholicity of mind, 
 201; a generous contributor to 
 Presbyterian church at Mead- 
 ville, though not a member, 201 ; 
 religious opinions of, not fixed 
 until growth of his children de- 
 manded definite action, 201; ef- 
 fect upon, of Campbell's sermon, 
 202; his diligent study of the 
 Bible, 202, 203 n; his gradual 
 adoption of Unitarian tenets, 
 202; his zealous efforts to spread 
 the faith, 202, 203, 204; forbear- 
 ance of, in his proselytisra, 204; 
 sets about organizing Unitarian 
 society in MeadviUe, single- 
 handed, 205; Rev. E. Peabody's 
 estimate of, 208; his belief in 
 efficacy of public discussion, 
 209 n; subscribes to Allegheny 
 College, 210 n. ; answers attacli 
 of Messrs. Alden and Bushnell on 
 Unitarians, 210, 211; article in 
 "Crawford Messenger," quoted, 
 211, 212; closes his twenty pews 
 in Presbyterian church, 213; 
 newspaper controversy with " Pe- 
 titioner ' concerning transmis- 
 sion of mails on Sunday, 214—217; 
 and with "Presbyterian" con- 
 cerning revivals, 217-219; reli- 
 gious ideas of, more revolutionary 
 than he realized, 219 ; associated 
 with Rev. E. Peabody in conduct 
 of ''Unitarian Essayist," 220; sole 
 editor of " Essayist," 221 ; rebukes 
 Rev. Mr. James in "Essayist," 
 225, 226; contributions of , to " Es- 
 
 sayist," quoted, 228-238; essays 
 of , on " Man and his Destiny ' ' and 
 "Future Retribution" express 
 his individual ideas, 238-241 ; on 
 " extinction" of the wicked, 241- 
 243; his definition of Heaven, 
 244; discontinues publication of 
 "Essayist," 263; induces Rev. 
 E. Peabody to start "Western 
 Messenger," 263; intimate rela- 
 tions with J. F. Clarke due to 
 connection with " Messenger," 
 264; views of, concerning social 
 and religious "reforms," 278, 
 279; not in full sympathy with 
 Emerson, 280; still less with Al- 
 cott and Brownson, 280; papers 
 of, on Brownson, in "Western 
 Messenger," 282, 283; his criti- 
 cism of W. H. Channing, 284, 
 285; views of, concerning tran- 
 scendentalism, 286, 287; on 
 Brook Farm, 288; on the dissen- 
 sions in J. F. Clarke's society, 
 289; classed among Pantheists, 
 291; on Pantheism, 291. 
 
 Personal characteristics : al- 
 ways spoke of himself as a Hol- 
 lander, 1 n; a true Hollander in 
 many respects, 1; his observant 
 mind, 48; his rigid economy, 61; 
 his warm affection for his kindred 
 and friends in Holland, 53-55; his 
 practice of attending personally 
 to all business, 122; the Hollander 
 superseded by the American, 158; 
 his beneficent oversight of the 
 pioneers who bought land of him, 
 161; cases of Daniel Kane and 
 Frederick Stein, 162, 163 ; his 
 courtesy, 168; his system and 
 order in business, 170; his sym- 
 pathy with childhood's joys and 
 griefs, 307; his intense affection 
 for his children and grandchil- 
 dren, 307, 308; the " light on his 
 face ' ' corresponded to the j oy ous- 
 ness of his spirit, 308; anecdotes 
 of, 328 ff; his benevolence, 332; 
 " charge it to Huidekoper," 332; 
 in his home, 333-335. 
 
 Autobiography, quoted, 9-31, 
 44-48, 50-51, 56-58, 88-89, 111, 
 124^131, 147, 152, 153, 194-196, 
 308-310. 
 
 Letters, quoted, 32-37, 37, 48- 
 50, 50 n, 52, 53, 54, 59-78, 88 n. 
 
INDEX 
 
 379 
 
 89 n, 105, m, 112-124, 136-138, 
 140-144, 151, 153, 154 n, 158, 
 160, 161, 168 n, 171, 173, 178 
 179, 182, 184, 185, 188, 190, 191 n, 
 209 n, 220,221, 223, 227 n, 242 
 262, 263, 265, 266, 267, 270, 271 ' 
 272, 274, 275, 277, 279, 280, 28l! 
 283, 284, 286, 288, 289, 290, 291, 
 292, 294, 295, 298, 300, 301, 302, 
 305, 306, 310-312, 314, 315, 319, 
 320, 327. 
 
 Huidekoper, Henderina Caterina, 
 sister of H. J. H., 8; her death, 13. 
 
 Huidekoper, Gen. Henry S., son of 
 Edgar H., 296, 297; H. J. H.'s de- 
 light in him as a child, 301; trus- 
 tee of Meadville Theological 
 School, 324. 
 
 Huidekoper, Hinke Pieters. great- 
 grandmother of H. J. H., 5. 
 
 Huidekoper, Hylke, first wife of 
 Anne H., 6. 
 
 Huidekoper, Jacoba (de Bie), sec- 
 ond wife of Jan H., 12. 
 
 Huidekoper, Jan (John), step-bro- 
 ther of H. J. H., 6; twice married, 
 12; his children, 12, 13, 26; sends 
 H. J. H. to Cref eld to complete his 
 education, 18; noble generosity 
 of his conduct, 18; voyage of, to 
 the U. S., 25, 25 n, 26; his meet- 
 ing with Talleyrand there, 25 n; 
 his marriage to Miss Stinstra, 26; 
 furnishes H. J. H. with means to 
 go to America, 27; engaged in 
 mercantile business in Amster- 
 dam, 28; and in insurance, 28; 
 entry concerning, in H. J. H.'s 
 accounts, 171; second marriage 
 of, 174; his investments in land 
 in U. S., 176; privy councilor to 
 King of the Netherlands, 177; cor- 
 respondence of, with H. J. H., 
 continues till his death, 177; his 
 death, (1835) 178; letters of, 
 quoted, 132, 138, 139, 173, 174, 
 175. 
 
 Huidekoper, Jan (2), son of Jan and 
 nephew of H. J. H., 13; marries 
 daughter of Jan Huidekoper of 
 Harlingen, 13; visits U. S., 177. 
 
 Huidekoper, Jan Annes, grand- 
 father of H. J. H., 5; his portrait, 
 5; his marriage, 5, 9; moves from 
 Harlingen to Berlikum, 6. 
 
 Huidekoper, Pieter, uncle of H. J. 
 H., 10; his children, 10. 
 
 Huidekoper, Pieter, nephew of H. J. 
 H., 13; marries Miss van Eeghen, 
 13, 174, 178 n. ' 
 
 Huidekoper, Pieter Ketel, younger 
 brother of H. J. H., 8; intends to 
 enter the army, 53, 54; comes to 
 America, 87, 89; his character, 
 87,88; hisgreatstrength, 87, 88; 
 death of, at Meadville, 13. 
 
 Huidekoper, Rebecca (Colhoon), 
 ancestry of, 133; her first meet- 
 ing with H. J. H., in Pittsburg, 
 135; his description of her person 
 and character, 136, 137; her 
 coolness to him, 137; their mar- 
 riage (Sept., 1806), 144; her 
 housekeepmg, 149, 150; her mani- 
 fold occupations, 156, 157; south- 
 em trip of , 265 ; ill health of, 268; 
 her death (Oct., 1839), 298. 
 
 Huidekoper, Saapke (Sophia), step- 
 sister of H.J. H. (See Steenbergen, 
 Saapke. 
 
 Huidekoper Hall, 323. 
 
 Huidekoper Park, 332. 
 
 Huidekoper's Lessee v. Douglass, 94, 
 110, 126; opinion of Marshall, C. 
 J. in, 110, counsel engaged in, 
 115 n; 11. J. H.'s satisfaction 
 with result of, 118; effect of de- 
 cision of, in restoring peace, 126. 
 
 Hull, General Isaac, 181, 190. 
 
 Huydecooper. iSee Huidekoper. 
 
 Huydecopers of Maarseveen, 4 n. 
 
 Imperialists, incident of retreat of, 
 after Fleurus (1794), 23, 24. 
 
 Impressment of an American from 
 the " Prudence," 31, 33. 
 
 IndependentCongregational Church 
 (Unitarian) of Meadville, organ- 
 ized, 206; constitution of, 206; 
 first places of worship of, 207; 
 characteristics and influence of, 
 207; opposition to and persecu- 
 tion of, in pastorate of Mr. Gil- 
 bert, 213; services of, held in 
 Court House, 213; ministers of, 
 246 ff ; church edifice completed, 
 268; and dedicated (Aug. 1836), 
 269; Frederic Huidekoper or- 
 dained in, 316. 
 
 " IndependentCongregational (Uni- 
 tarian) Church of Meadville, Pa., 
 The," by E. M. Wilbur, cited, 
 205 n, 206 n, 255 n, 268 n, 304 n. 
 
 Indian war, its effect upon title to 
 
380 
 
 INDEX 
 
 lands granted to Holland Land 
 Co., 103, 105, 106. 
 
 Indians, in the Meadville country, 
 79; attack settlement of the 
 Meads, 80; friendly, 81; settlers 
 harassed by, 81, 82; trouble 
 with, arrested by Wayne, 82, 
 103; in the War of 1812, 181. 
 
 "Institutes," in Germany, charac- 
 teristics of, 19. 
 
 Intellectual darkness of parts of 
 Europe in latter years of eigh- 
 teenth century, causes of, 15; con- 
 ditions somewhat better among 
 the gentry than among the 
 masses, 15, 16. 
 
 "Intruders," seize Holland Land 
 Co.'s lands on French Creek, 104; 
 different classes of, make com- 
 mon cause against the company, 
 104; conspire to destroy records 
 and expel or murder agents of 
 company, 105; cease to act in 
 concert, 105; their contention, 
 105; Busti advises granting spe- 
 cial terms to, 120; H. J. H.'s 
 treatment of, 120-123, 125. 
 
 Irish, near Harrisburg, Penn., less 
 thrifty than Germans, 63. 
 
 James, Rev. Mr., Episcopal clergy- 
 man at Meadville, attempts to 
 arrest Mrs. Shippen's conversion 
 to Unitarianism, 222, 223; and 
 Judge Shippen, 223; cripples his 
 own cause, 224. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 41 ; his conduct 
 of foreign affairs criticized by H. 
 J. H., 171, 172. 
 
 Jeffrey, Miss, visits Pomona with 
 Miss Martineau, 260. 
 
 Jesus, believed by Unitarians to be 
 the Messenger of Jehovah, 228; 
 supernatural powers ascribed to, 
 H. J. H.'s views concerning, 236, 
 237. 
 
 Jourdan, Marshal, commanding 
 army of Sambre et Meuse, 23. 
 
 Juniata River, 64. 
 
 Kane, Daniel, of Hayfield, generous 
 
 treatment of, by H. J. H., 162. 
 Keats, John, Journal of, extracts 
 
 from, published in "Western 
 
 Messenger," 264. 
 Kemp, Francis Adrian van dcr, 39- 
 
 42; born at Kampen (Overyssel), 
 
 in 1752, 39; not a Mennonite, but 
 pastor of a Meimonite Baptist 
 society in Leyden, 39; Ms reli- 
 gious experiences, 39, 40; caUed 
 a Unitarian, 40; prominent in 
 Dutch patriot party, 40; raises 
 and drills militia in opposition to 
 government, 40; imprisoned, 40; 
 released and banished, 40; comes 
 to America, 40; settlesat "Kemp- 
 wyk," in "Scriba's Patent," and 
 finally at Oldenbarneveld, 41; 
 translates records of West India 
 Company, 41; called by De Witt 
 Chnton "the most learned man 
 in America," 41; his correspond- 
 ents, 41 ; letters to John Adams, 
 41 ; friendship with Jefferson, 41 ; 
 receives degree of LL. D. from 
 Harvard (1820), 42, 49; H. J. H.'s 
 estimate of, 50; "Autobiogra- 
 phy" of, quoted, 39 n. 
 
 Kemp, Mrs. Francis A. van der, 40, 
 41; one of the "really excellent 
 of this earth," 50. 
 
 Kemp, John J. van der, son of Fran- 
 cis Adrian, 76. 
 
 Kempwyk, home of F. A. van der 
 Kemp, 41, 49. 
 
 Keimedy, Dr., with David Mead 
 and Major Alden surveys Mead- 
 ville, 83 ; brings the first wheat to 
 the town, 86; mentioned, 90, 119. 
 
 Ketel, Anna Christina. See Wol- 
 thers, Anna Christina. 
 
 Kidder, Elizabeth Huidekoper, 324. 
 
 King's Chapel, first avowedly Uni- 
 tarian church in America, 199. 
 
 Kleber, General, 25. 
 
 Klunderenberg, Den, 8. 
 
 Koehler, F. W., 254; wife of, "heir 
 to Holland Co.," 254. 
 
 Kortenaer, village of, 49, 75. 
 
 Laboring classes in Drenthe, condi- 
 tion of, in H. J. H.'s boyhood, 16. 
 
 Lancaster, Penn., description of, in 
 1802, 61; inhabitants largely 
 Germans, 62. 
 
 Lancaster County, Penn., beauty 
 and fertility of, 62. 
 
 Land Office of Penn., under Gov. 
 MifHin, ruling of, concerning title 
 to lands of Holland Land Co. , 106. 
 
 Le Boeuf, Fort. Sec Waterford. 
 
 Lefevre, Marshal, Duke of Dantzig, 
 25. 
 
INDEX 
 
 381 
 
 Leffingwell, Mr. , teacher of Frederic 
 Woithers and Anna Huidekoper, 
 155. 
 
 Le Roy, Herman, 35; trustee for 
 purchasers of Morris lands in 
 N. Y., 100; agent of purchasers 
 of land in Penn., 101. 
 
 Lieu, Mr. van, Presbyterian minis- 
 tor at Meadville, relations of, with 
 H. J. H., 209. 
 
 Lincklaen, John, comes to America 
 with Gerrit Boon (1790), 43; 
 agent of Holland Land Co., 44; 
 visited by H. J. H., 48, 75; trustee 
 for purchasers of Morris lands in 
 N. Y., 100. 
 
 Livestock, yearly drive of, insti- 
 tuted by H. J. H., 164-167. 
 
 Long Island, Dutch the common 
 language among old people and 
 negroes (1796), 30; first impres- 
 sions of, 34, 37. 
 
 Luzac, John, 40. 
 
 Lyceum, the, at Meadville, 258. 
 
 Machault, Fort. See Franklin, Fort. 
 
 Madison, James, and the War of 
 1812, 179. 
 
 Mails, transmission of, on Sunday, 
 opposed by petition, 213; discus- 
 sion of, by "Oberlin" (H. J. H.) 
 and " Petitioner," 214-216. 
 
 "Man and his Destiny," H. J. H.'s 
 essay on, 238, 241. 
 
 Maple Sugar, anecdote of Gerrit 
 Boon and, 45. 
 
 Mappa, Adam G., 35, 38, 42, 43; 
 rather soldier than scholar, 42; 
 marriage to Anna A. Paspoort, 
 42; a leader of the patriots, and 
 commander of the "Vry corps," 
 42 ; comes to America (1 789) , 43 ; 
 settles at Oldenbameveld (1795), 
 43, 49; succeeds Boon as agent 
 of Holland Land Co., 50; in the 
 War of 1812, 184 n; mentioned, 
 49, 75. 
 
 Mappa, Anna Adrian (Paspoort), 
 wife of Adam G., 41; a woman 
 of great beauty of character, 42 ; 
 H. J. H.'s regard for, 50; a lifelong 
 correspondent of H. J. H., 52. 
 
 Mappa, Miss, daughter of Adam G., 
 succeeds her mother as corre- 
 spondent of H. J. H., 52; visited 
 by Alfred Huidekoper, 52 n; let- 
 ter of, quoted, 200. 
 
 Marshall, John, Chief Justice of 
 U. S. Supreme Court, delivers 
 opinion in Huidekoper' s Lessee v. 
 Douglass, 110; his opinion quot- 
 ed, 111. 
 Martineau, Harriet, visit of, to 
 MeadviUe, 259 ff; Anna Huide- 
 koper's impressions of, 259, 260; 
 her religious and political opin- 
 ions, 260; "Autobiography of, 
 quoted, 261. 
 Mayhew, Jonathan, first to attack 
 openly the doctrine of the Trin- 
 ity, 198. 
 McDowell, Alex., deputy agent im- 
 der Major Alden, his neglect of 
 duty, 126. 
 McDowell, Esther. See Colhoon, 
 
 Esther (McDowell). 
 McEvers, Mr., 35, 36, 37. 
 McKean, Thomas, succeeds Mifflin 
 
 as governor of Penn., 106. 
 McMillen, John, 162. 
 Mead, Darius, 80. 
 
 Mead, David, one of the first white 
 settlers at Cussewago, now Mead- 
 ville, 80; driven away by In- 
 dians, but returns, 80, 81 ; builds 
 stockade and blockhouse, 81, 82, 
 82 n; builds the second frame 
 house in town, 84; marries Jenny 
 Finney, 84; justice of the peace, 
 85; judge, plaintiff, and con- 
 stable in his own suit for debt, 
 85; sets up a whiskey stiU, 86, 
 90; in the War of 1812, 183, 184. 
 Mead, Jenny (Finney), first school 
 teacher ("mistress of the taws") 
 at Meadville, 84; squats on 
 claim of William Gill, 84; mar- 
 ries David Mead, 84; her daugh- 
 ter afterward marries Gill's son, 
 84 n. 
 Mead, John, 80. 
 
 Meadville (formerly Cussewago) , 
 first visit of H. J. H. to, 57, 58; in 
 1802, a small village, mostly of 
 log houses, 58, 67, 68; apparent 
 poverty of people of, 68; ex- 
 treme isolation of, in 1802, 78; 
 description of, at that time, 79; 
 beautiful situation of, 79; settle- 
 ment of David Mead at, 80, 81 ; 
 garrison at, 81 ; rapid growth of, 
 after 1795, 82; surveyed and laid 
 out, 83; its streets mainly cordu- 
 roy roads, 83; river traffic of, in 
 
382 
 
 INDEX 
 
 1802, 85, 86; cultivation of grain 
 introduced, 86; whiskey stills 
 set up by Mead and others, 86, 
 87; change in, between H. J. H.'s 
 first and second visits, 89; first 
 manufacturing at, 90; combined 
 court house and jail at, used also 
 as place of worship, 90; "Craw- 
 ford Messenger," first newspaper 
 at, 90; rapid settlement and im- 
 provement of region, after the 
 War of 1812, 130, 131; first stage 
 arrives in, 147; in the War of 1812, 
 179; breaking ground for feeder 
 of Beaver and iSrie Canal at, 192 ; 
 efforts of H. J. H. to organize 
 Unitarian church at, 205; Inde- 
 pendent Congregational Church 
 (Unitarian) of, organized, 206 ; 
 becomes centre of culture in Penn- 
 sylvania interior, 245; Unitarian 
 church edifice at, completed, 268; 
 and dedicated, 270 n; a station on 
 the " underground railroad," 297. 
 
 Meadville Academy, 89, 156. 
 
 Meadville Theological School, the, 
 313-326; organized by Frederic 
 Huidekoper, 316 ff; R. P. Steb- 
 bins, first president of, 322; first 
 meetings of, 322; faculty of, 322; 
 contributions to, 323; present 
 status of, 323; semi-centennial 
 of, 323; its debt to the Huide- 
 koper family, 324; its tolerance 
 and liberality, 325; some statistics 
 of, 325; thrown open to women, 
 325; E. E. Hale on, 325. 
 
 Menno Simons, founder of the Men- 
 nonite sect, 2; his teachings, 2. 
 
 Mennonites, growth of the sect, de- 
 spite persecution, 2; relaxation 
 of discipline and its result, 3; 
 congregation at Germantown, 
 Penn., 3 n; in the United States, 
 3 n; congregation at Crefeld, 22, 
 23; were Baptists, 39 n. 
 
 Merrick, John Mudge, tutor to H. 
 J. H.'s children, 205, 205 n; 
 preaches at Meadville two years, 
 206, 246, 272. 
 
 Messenger. See " Crawford Messen- 
 ger," and " Western Messenger." 
 
 Middletown, Penn., 62. 
 
 Mifflin, Thomas, Governor of Penn., 
 106. 
 
 MiUer, Robert, 134, 134 n. 
 
 Miracles, H. J. H.'s essay on, 237. 
 
 Mohawk River, 76. 
 
 Monongahela River, 65, 66. 
 
 Morris, Robert, Sup't of Finance, 
 buys 3,800,000 acres of wild land 
 in Western N. Y., 97; makes 
 large sales to trustees for Holland 
 Land Co., 100; location of his 
 lands, 100. 
 
 Mound-builders, relics of, near 
 Meadville, 79. 
 
 Napoleon, manifesto of, published 
 in the " Crawford Messenger," 91 ; 
 his embargo at Amsterdam, 91; 
 his domination of Holland, 173. 
 
 New Amsterdam. See Buffalo. 
 
 Newark, 78. 
 
 "News," as published by "Craw- 
 ford Messenger," 90. 
 
 Newspapers, character of, in North- 
 em Europe, in latter years of 
 eighteenth century, 15; first, 
 published in MeadviUe, 90; in 
 U. S. in 1825, 211. 
 
 New York, in 1796, 31, 35; in 1802, 
 78. 
 
 Niagara Falls, visited bv H. J. H., 
 58, 71. 
 
 Nichols, Rev. George, Unitarian 
 minister at Meadville, 222, 222 n, 
 246, 255; tutor to H. J. H.'s chil- 
 dren, 254; Frederic H.'s recollec- 
 tions of, 254. 
 
 Non-residents, assessors in Penn. 
 discriminate against, 117. 
 
 Norton, Prof. Andrews, 272, 273. 
 
 " Oberlin," nom de guerre of H. J. H. 
 in newspaper controversy, 215. 
 
 Obituary of H. J. H. by J. F. 
 Clarke, quoted, 204. 
 
 Oil Creek, land of Holland Land 
 Co. at, 68; its underground trea- 
 sures unsuspected in 1802, 68 n. 
 
 Oldaans, the name, found on the roll 
 of the fugitives from the persecu- 
 tion of Alva, 2; origin of, 5 n. 
 
 Oldaans family, seal of, 9 n. 
 
 Oldaans, Fokje Pieters. See Huide- 
 koper, Fokje Pieters. 
 
 Oldaans, Pieter Jans, 6. 
 
 Oldaans, Pieter Pieters, 5 n. 
 
 Oldaens. See Oldaans. 
 
 Oldenbarneveld (later Trenton, now 
 Bameveld), 30, 38; members of 
 the " Patriot" party, exiled at, 
 38-43; named for the great 
 
INDEX 
 
 383 
 
 Dutch reformer, by Gerrit Boon, 
 43; visited by H. J. H., 45; un- 
 wisely located by Boon, 46; letter 
 of H. J. H. concerning, quoted, 
 60 n; visit of H. J. H. to (1802), 
 75; Unitarian church at, 200. 
 
 Onderdonk, Bishop, 225. 
 
 Oneida Lake, 49, 50. 
 
 Onondaga, 74; salt works at, 74, 86. 
 
 Original Sin, H. J. H.'s essays on, 
 231. 
 
 "Our Fortifications," by F. H., 
 quoted, 82 n. 
 
 Pantheists, H. J. H., classed among, 
 
 291. 
 Parker, Theodore, 278, 280, 289; H. 
 
 J. H.'s criticism of, 290. 
 Patriot party of the Netherlands, 
 
 members of, in exile at Olden- 
 
 barneveld, 38-43; first investors 
 
 in United States bonds affiliated 
 
 with, 39. 
 Peabody, Andrew Preston, tutor 
 
 at Meadyille, 246; Frederic H.'s 
 
 recollections of, 247; mentioned, 
 
 272. 
 Peabody, Miss Elizabeth, 288. 
 Peabody, Rev. Ephraim, Unitarian 
 
 minister at Meadville, 206, 206 n; 
 
 his sojourn in Meadville a com- 
 
 Earatively peaceful time, 219; 
 is manifold labors, 220; founds 
 the "Unitarian Essayist," 220; 
 leaves Meadville for Cincinnati, 
 221; his Phi Beta Kappa poem 
 (1835), 245 n; Frederic H.'s recol- 
 lections of, 247; his influence over 
 Frederic and his brothers and 
 sisters, 247, 248; as a sportsman, 
 248, 249 ; editor of " Western Mes- 
 senger," 262, 264; succeeded in 
 editorship by J. F. Clarke, 264, 
 266; at dedication of Unitarian 
 church at Meadville, 270 n ; letters 
 of, quoted, 207, 208, 210, 220, 
 270 n. 
 
 PeekskiU, 78. 
 
 Pennsylvania, criticism of the gov- 
 ernment of, 171; constitution of, 
 has " a direct tendency to intro- 
 duce a government of dema- 
 gogues," 171. 
 
 Pennsylvania General Assembly, 
 Act of April 3, 1792, 102; Act of 
 April 2, 1802 ("Feigned Issue"), 
 provisions of, 108, 109, 124, 125. 
 
 Pennsylvania Population Co., 56, 
 57, 127; members of, 127 n. 
 
 Perry, Commodore, H. J. H.'s admi- 
 ration for, 182, 183 ; his part in the 
 War of 1812, 183, 185-187; and 
 EUiott, dispute between, 188- 
 190. 
 
 " Petitioner," discussion between 
 H. J. H. and, concerning trans- 
 mission of mails on Sunday, 214— 
 216. 
 
 Philadelphia, H. J. H.'s residence at, 
 56-58. 
 
 Pittsburg, in 1802, 58, 65, 66; lovely 
 situation of, 66; shipbuilding at, 
 66; Unitarian church organized 
 in, 200. 
 
 Plaster of Paris used for fertifizer, 
 60, 77. 
 
 Ploeg, Rev. Mr. Van der, Mennonite 
 minister at Crefeld, 22. 
 
 " Pomona," H. J. H.'s estate at 
 Meadville, beginning of, 139; lo- 
 cation of, 147; description of 
 house and grounds, 148; house- 
 keeping at, 149, 150; garden of, 
 150, 151; rehearsals of church 
 music at, 207 ; schoolroom at, 246; 
 house enlarged, 246 n; H. J. H.'s 
 household at, 248; recreation at, 
 248 ff; Miss Martineau's visit to, 
 259-261 ; grandchildren bom at, 
 300, 302; always a favorite play- 
 ground, 303; Fourth of July at, 
 303, 304; in 1852, 334. 
 
 "Pomona HaU," by Alfred Huide- 
 koper, cited, 133, 134, 151, 203, 
 204. 
 
 Poughkeepsie, 77. 
 
 " Presbyterian," controversy be- 
 tween H. J. H. and, concerning 
 revivals, 217-219. 
 
 Presbyterian church at Meadville, 
 85. 
 
 " Present, The," 284. 
 
 Press, on which " Crawford Messen- 
 ger" was printed, the same used 
 to print continental money, 90. 
 
 "Prevention patents" for land, is- 
 sued to Holland Land Co., 106. 
 
 Priestley, Joseph, establishes Uni- 
 tarian churches in Penn., 199. 
 
 Property, Board of, of Penn., under 
 Gov. Mifflin, ruling of, concerning 
 title to lands of Holland Land Co., 
 106, 109 n; under Gov. McKean, 
 ruling of, concerning same, 106. 
 
384 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Prudence, Brig, in which H. J. H. 
 made his voyage to America, 28, 
 29. 
 
 Quader, Hylke. See Huidekoper, 
 Hylke. 
 
 Recreations at Pomona, 248 ff. 
 
 "Reflections offertes aux Capital- 
 istes de 1' Europe," etc. (pam- 
 phlet), quoted, 97,98. 
 
 Retribution, future, H. J. H.'a 
 essay on, 238; answered by "T. 
 M.," and by C. P. Cranch, 238 n. 
 
 Revivals, newspaper controversy 
 concerning, 218, 219; H. J. H.'s 
 condemnation of, 236. 
 
 " Right and Duty of Accumulation, 
 The," article by H. J; H. in "West- 
 ern Messenger," quoted, 193, 194. 
 
 Ripley, George, 280, 288. 
 
 Rivifere aux Boeufs, La. See French 
 Creek. 
 
 Roads, character of, in the interior 
 of New York, 46, 47; and of 
 Pennsylvania, 57, 58, 60-78, 
 passim. 
 
 Rome, N. Y. See Fort Stanwix. 
 
 Rotterdam, N. Y., 50. 
 
 Sacket, Augustus, associated with 
 W. S. Hart in contract with Grif- 
 fith and Wallace, character of, 
 128; victimized by, or in collu- 
 sion with speculators, 128-130; 
 tries to effect H. J. H.'s removal 
 from agency, 130; violates his 
 contract with G. and W., 130; 
 which is cancelled, 130. 
 
 Salt, a favorite medium of exchange, 
 86. 
 
 Salt sjjrings at Onondaga, 74, 86. 
 
 Salvation, immediate, H. J. H.'s 
 views concerning, 239. 
 
 Sambre et Meuse, Army of, head- 
 quarters of, at Crefeld, 23, 24; ex- 
 cellent discipline of, 42. 
 
 Schehl, Professor, at head of Insti- 
 tute at Crefeld, 19; his death, ef- 
 fect of, 25. 
 
 Schenectady, 76. 
 
 Schimmelpenninck, Rutger J., in- 
 terested in purchase of Morris 
 lands in N. Y., 100; and of land 
 in Penn., 101. 
 
 School, village, at Hoogeveen, at- 
 tended by H. J. H., 14; not free. 
 
 although open to all, 14; number 
 of scholars comparatively small, 
 because of fee, 15. 
 
 Schout, or Schulte (bailiff), office 
 and duties of, 7 n, 11. 
 
 Schuyler, Fort (Utica), 44, 45, 76. 
 
 " Scriba's Patent," 40. 
 
 Sects, various, use court-room for 
 services at MeadviUe, 90. 
 
 Seneca Lake, 74. 
 
 Settlement of lands on French 
 Creek, under Penn. Act of 1792, 
 102 ff, 125. 
 
 Shattuck, William P., convert to 
 Unitarianism, 207. 
 
 Shipbuilding at Pittsburg in 1802, 
 66. 
 
 Shippen, Chief Justice of Penn., 
 dissenting opinion of, in Com. v. 
 Coxe, 108 n; did not sit in Atty.- 
 Gen. V. Grantees, 109. 
 
 Shippen, Judge Henry, convert to 
 Unitarianism, 206; his religious 
 discussions with Rev. Mr. James, 
 223. 
 
 Shippen, Mrs., wife of Judge Henry 
 Shippen, converts Mr. Smith to 
 Unitarianism, 222 ; Rev. Mr. 
 James and, 222, 223. 
 
 Shippen, Frances. See Huidekoper, 
 Mrs. Edgar. 
 
 Shippen, Margaret, and Unitarian- 
 ism in MeadviUe, 206; her "soi- 
 rees," 251; her Sunday-school 
 work, 256; gives land for Unita- 
 rian church at MeadviUe, 268. 
 
 Shippen, Rev. Rush R., quoted, 324. 
 
 Simons, Menno. See Meimo Simons. 
 
 " Skippers," engaged in transporta- 
 tion of turf, 16. 
 
 Slavery, H. J. H. on, 293 ff. 
 
 Sleighing parties at Pomona, 251. 
 
 Smits, Mr., clerk to A. G. Mappa, 
 50 n; returns to HoUand and is 
 succeeded by H. J. H., 51 ; returns 
 to U. S. (1801), 56; death of 
 (1802), 56. 
 
 Smyth, General, 179; H. J. H.'s 
 estimate of, 180. 
 
 Social life at Crefeld, 22. 
 
 Soil, quality and state of cultiva- 
 tion of, in the interior of Pennsyl- 
 vania and New York, 60-78, 
 passim. 
 
 Sparks, Jared, instaUation of, in 
 Baltimore, 200. 
 
 Speculators, in league with Sacket 
 
INDEX 
 
 385 
 
 in sale of lands, 128-130. See 
 also "Intruders." 
 
 Stadnitzki, Pieter, director of Hol- 
 land Land Co., his prospectus, 
 quoted, 98, 99, 99 n; interested 
 in purchase of lands in Perm. , 101 . 
 
 Stanwix, Fort (now Rome), 49, 
 
 Staphorst, Nicholas van, interested 
 in purchase of Morris lands in N. 
 Y.,100; and of lands in Penn., 101. 
 
 Staphorst, Nicholas and Jacob van, 
 bankers of Amsterdam, inter- 
 ested in Dutch loan to U. S., 97. 
 
 Stebbins, Rufus P., 246, 322 n ; 
 President of Meadville Theologi- 
 cal School, 322. 
 
 Steenbergen, Albert, marries 
 Saapke Huidekoper, 6 n, 12. 
 
 Steenbergen, Cornelius, nephew of 
 H. J. H., 12. 
 
 Steenbergen, Saapke (Huidekoper), 
 step-sister of H. J. H., 6, 12; her 
 marriage, 6 n, 12; her children, 12. 
 
 Sunday-schools, in Meadville dis- 
 trict, 304; Sunday-school chil- 
 dren at Pomona, on July 4, 304. 
 
 Susquehanna River, navigation of 
 in 1802, 60. 
 
 Stein, Frederick, 163. 
 
 Stein, Mrs. Frederick, 164. 
 
 Stinstra, Gertrude. See Huidekoper, 
 Gertrude. 
 
 Stinstra, Miss, elder sister of Mrs. 
 Jan Huidekoper, 26; early at- 
 tachment between her and J. H., 
 26; her marriage, widowhood, 
 and death, 26. 
 
 Stockton, Rev. Joseph, principal of 
 Meadville Academy, 89; minis- 
 ter of the First Presbyterian 
 Church at Meadville, 89, 195. 
 
 Stoystown, Penn., 64. 
 
 Stripe Neck, friendly Indian, 81. 
 
 Talleyrand, Prince de, his meeting 
 with Jan Huidekoper in the U. S., 
 25 n; Memoirs of, quoted, 25 n. 
 
 Tarrytown, 78. 
 
 Taxation, system of, in Penn., 117. 
 
 Taylor, " Father," 279. 
 
 " Terror as a Principle of Moral Ac- 
 tion," H. J. H.'s essay on, 236. 
 
 Thorp, Harriet Nancy. See Huide- 
 koper, Mrs. Frederic. 
 
 Thurston, Rev. James, at dedica- 
 tion of Unitarian church at Mead- 
 ville, 269, 270 n. 
 
 Tilghman, E., of counsel in Huide- 
 koper' s Lessee v. Douglass, 110 n. 
 
 Title to lands on French Creek pur- 
 chased for Holland Land Co., 
 questions concerning, 102. 
 
 Transcendentalism, 257, 278; un- 
 intelligible to H. J. H., 286. 
 
 Transportation, difficulty and ex- 
 pense of, in the interior, in 1812- 
 1815, 182. 
 
 Traveling, difficulties of, 45-47, 57, 
 58. 
 
 Trenton. See Oldenbameveld. 
 
 Tribeshill, N. Y., 76. 
 
 Tunnehill, General (War of 1812), 
 179. 
 
 "Ultraism," in New England, 279. 
 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin, 297. 
 
 " Underground railroad," 297. 
 
 Unitarian, name first came into 
 general use in England, 199; first 
 adopted in this country by James 
 Freeman, 199 ; synonymous then 
 with heretic and infidel, 199; name 
 accepted at Baltimore, 200; belief, 
 summarized by H. J. H., 232. 
 
 Unitarian church, first, in America, 
 established at King's Chapel, by 
 James Freeman, 199; in Pennsyl- 
 vania, 199; at I5altimore, 200; at 
 Pittsburg, 200; at Oldenbame- 
 veld, 200; at Meadville, 206. 
 See also Independent Congre- 
 gational Church at Meadville. 
 
 "Unitarian Essayist," established 
 by Ephraim Peabody, 220; writ- 
 ten mainly by E. P. and H. J. H., 
 220; prospectus of, 221; con- 
 ducted by H. J. H. alone after P.'s 
 departure, 221; effects Mrs. Ship- 
 pen's conversion to Unitarian- 
 ism, 222; H. J. H.'s essays on re- 
 ligious subjects in, 228-239, 241 ; 
 last numbers of, 262, 263. 
 
 Unitarianism, current saying con- 
 cerning' at its first appearance, 
 197; difficulty of definmg it with 
 precision, 197; in U. S. came as 
 a natural sequence of independ- 
 ence, 197; fostered by Channing's 
 Baltimore sermon, 200; individ- 
 ualism a distinguishing charac- 
 teristic of, 200 ; in Meadville, 
 205, 206; more popular with the 
 ladies than with the men, 208; 
 "deadly to political influence," 
 
386 
 
 INDEX 
 
 208; denounced by Rev. Mr. 
 James, 224; defended by H. J. H. 
 in "Essayist," 226; fully expound- 
 ed by H. J. H. in " Essayist," 228- 
 238; reason for H. J. H.'s attach- 
 ment to, 228; of the first three 
 centuries, H. J. H.'s essay on, 
 229. 
 
 Unity of God, 228, 229. 
 
 Universalists, attacked by Rev. 
 Mr. BuslmeU, 210; Ultra, 239. 
 
 Utica. See Fort Schuyler. 
 
 Venango River. See French Creek. 
 " Venango Spectator," quoted, 330. 
 Vollenhoven, Hendrick, interested 
 
 in purchase of Morris lands in N. 
 
 Y., 100; and of lands in Penn., 
 
 101. 
 Vries, village of, described, 6; its 
 
 ancient church, 6, 7 n. 
 
 Wallace, Mr., makes partition of 
 French Creek lands with Messrs. 
 Wurts, 131 ; compelled to assign, 
 131. 
 
 War of 1812, turns public attention 
 toward the lake country, 130, 190; 
 brings MeadviUe section into 
 notice, 130; H. J. H.'s views con- 
 cerning, 178, 179-190. 
 
 Warrant-holders, 104, 105; their 
 contention concerning right to 
 lands on French Creek, 105, 125; 
 contention of, sustained by U. S. 
 Supreme Court, 110, 126. 
 
 Warrants for land under Penn. Act 
 of 1792, 102 S, 108. 
 
 WarviUe, Brissot de, 45. 
 
 Washington, Bushrod, Justice of 
 Supreme Court of U. S., 114, 
 114 n. 
 
 Waterf ord (formerly Fort Le Bceuf ) , 
 68, 69, 79, 85. 
 
 Wayne, General Anthony, sends 
 troops to relief of Meadville, 82; 
 his victories arrest trouble with 
 Indians, 82, 103. 
 
 Wealth, accumulation of. See Accu- 
 mulation of Wealth. 
 
 " Western Messenger," H. J. H.'s dis- 
 cussion of religious matters in, 
 238, 239-241, 239 n; first printed 
 in Cincinnati and edited by E. 
 Peabody, 262 ; transferred to 
 Louisville and edited by J. F. 
 Clarke, 262; successor of the 
 
 "Essayist," for H. J. H.'s pur- 
 poses, 262; literary tone of, under 
 J. F. C.'s editorship, 264; extracts 
 from Keats's Journal, and certain 
 of Emerson's poems, published 
 in, 264; W. H. Channing in, 281; 
 H. J. H.'s papers on Brownson 
 in, 282, 283. 
 
 Wheeler, Rev. Amos Dean, 268, 
 268 n. 
 
 Whiskey, made at Meadville by 
 David Mead and others, 86, 87, 
 87 n; medium of exchange, 87. 
 
 Whitestown, N. Y., 75. 
 
 Wieringen, Jan van, founder of the 
 Maarseveen Huydecopers, 3 n. 
 
 WiUiam Lehman, the, canal boat 
 192. 
 
 Willink, Wilhem, interested in pur- 
 chase of Morris lands in N. Y., 
 100, 100 n. 
 
 Willink, Wilhem and Jan, bankers 
 of Amsterdam, interested in 
 Dutch loan to U. S., 97. 
 
 Wilson, James, justice of the Su- 
 preme Court of the U. S., grantor 
 to representatives of Holland 
 Land Co., 101. 
 
 Wilson, Miss, letters of to Mrs. Hui- 
 dekoper, quoted, 135, 144. 
 
 Wolthcrs family, particulars con- 
 cerning, 7 n. 
 
 Wolthers house, in Vries, 7 n. 
 
 Wolthers, Anna Christina (Ketel), 
 maternal grandmother of H. J. 
 H., 6; her family, 11. 
 
 Wolthers, Gesiena Frederica. See 
 Huidekoper, Gesiena Frederica. 
 
 Wolthers, Harm Jan, maternal 
 grandfatherof H. J. H., 6; Schout 
 (bailiif) of Vries, 6, 7 n, 11; his 
 children, 12. 
 
 Wright, Frances (Madame Darus- 
 mont), 284 n. 
 
 Wurts, Messrs., grantees of Judge 
 Griffith of French Creek lands, 
 make partition with Wallace, 
 131; compelled to assign to 
 creditors, 131. 
 
 Yeates, Judge, delivers opinion in 
 Com. V. Coxe, and in Att y-Gen. v. 
 Grantees, 109; his opinion in 
 former case, quoted, 112. 
 
 Zaan, Mr., brother-in-law of Mr. 
 Mappa, at Oldenbarneveld, 50. 
 
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