|
Chapter XVII
The Civil War. | |||
by those who were of sufficient age to recall that period in our history. After the surrender of the Confederate armies the troops were mustered out, and the soldiers of Delaware County returned to their homes to resume the peaceful routine of life. This period had been looked forward to with apprehension, but the result showed one of the most remarkable features of that remarkable period, - the quiet absorption of a great army into the ranks of the people with hardly a ripple in the social realm. List of West Point Graduates. - Since the establishment of West Point the following persons appointed from Delaware County have graduated from that institution:
Francis Lee, Chester, admitted Sept. 2, 1818; graduated second lieutenant, Twentieth Infantry, July 1, 1822.
William H. Price, Chester, admitted July 1, 1830; brevet second lieutenant, First Infantry, July, 1834.
Henry M. Black, graduated 1847; attached to Fourth Infantry, with rank of brevet second lieutenant.
David Porter Heap, Chester, admitted July 1, 1860; first lieutenant, Corps of Engineers, June 13, 1864. Officers of United States Navy. - Delaware County has furnished a number of officers to the United States naval service besides those already mentioned, and the noted Porter family, to whom reference will be made elsewhere. On Oct. 28, 1844, Lieut. Ferdinand Piper, United States navy, a native of Chester, was lost in the bay of Pensacola. He had left the ship "Falmouth" that morning in a cutter, designing to bring supplies to the vessel. When about midway to the landing a sudden flaw of wind struck the boat, and before sail could be shortened she was overturned. All the men were encouraged by the good conduct and presence of mind of Lieut. Piper, and were clinging to the overturned boat, when a heavy sea washed Piper, Professor William S. Fox, and six of the seamen away and they were lost. The schooner "Otter" rescued the survivors that evening. Midshipman James Anderson, son of Dr. Samuel Anderson, a promising officer of the navy, died in 1840 while on a visit to his father, then residing at Rockdale. Lieut. Samuel Edwards, United States Navy, who had charge of the battery which made the first breach in the walls at Vera Cruz in the Mexican war, died March 23, 1861. He was a nephew of Hon. Samuel Edwards, of Chester, and his parents having died while he was a child he was reared by his uncle, who took just pride in the young man's rapid promotion. He died just at the eve of the war of 1861. Edward Fayssoux Leiper, son of John C. Leiper, appointed to the naval school at Annapolis since the war, is the only person from Delaware County who has graduated there since Commander Manley, twenty years ago. He is now in temporary command of the "Arago" on South Atlantic coast survey service.
| |||
|
Chapter XVIII
Crimes and Punishments.
| |||
| We have little or no information as to the criminal code which maintained among the early Swedish and Dutch settlers on the Delaware.1 The fragmentary |
1 The first trial recorded on the Delaware was the following: "In the year 1645, November 25th, between ten and eleven o'clock, one Swen Wass, gunner, set Fort Gottenburg on fire. In a short time all was lamentably burnt down, and not the least thing saved excepting the dairy. The people escaped naked and destitute. The winter immediately set in, bitterly cold; the river and all the creeks froze up, and nobody was able to get near us (because New Gottenburg is surrounded by water).
The sharpness of the winter lasted until the middle of March, so that if some rye and corn had not been unthreshed I, myself, and all the people with me on the island would have starved to death. But God maintained us with small quantities of provisions until the new harvest. By the sad accident the loss of the company, testified by the annexed roll, is four thousand riksdaler. The above-mentioned incendiary, Swen Wass, I have caused to be brought to court, and to be tried and sentenced; so I have sent him home in irons, with the vessel, accompanied by the whole record concerning him, submissively committing and referring the execution of the verdict to the pleasure of Her Royal Majesty and Right Honorable Company." - Report of Governor Printz for 1647, Penna. Magazine of History, vol. vii. p. 273.
Under the Dutch, the first instance of a criminal proceeding occurs in a letter from Alrichs, dated at New Amstel (New Castle), May 14, 1659, to Stuyvesant. He says, "In regard to the four men-servants of Cornelis Herperts de Jager, who established in the county near here a brick-kiln, and employed four persons at it, one of them, Peter - by name, has come from Fort Orange as a brick-maker, and was married to a woman who came from Amsterdam, and with him owed a large sum to the city. He has committed wicked crimes of theft of small cattle, as sheep, also of the city's weapons from the former ensign of the citizens, and has stolen several other things, for which he was publicly flogged and banished this town or place, but allowed to do his work outside in the country to earn his living and get out of his debts. This one has been the leader, and he stirred up the others under this or that pretext. They have together taken away four good muskets and other goods belonging to their master, and thus run away to the Manhatans." Alrichs desires Stuyvesant to arrest and return the men by "the first vessel" to New Amstel (Penna. Archives, local series, vol. vii. p. 561). William Beekman, April 23, 1660, writes to Stuyvesant that at "the last court day" Oele Stills and he had a difficulty in regard to a fine imposed on the Swedish priest. On the 19th of August, 1659, and on the 7th of April, 1660, court was held at Christiana, at which Peter Mayor, who was charged with an assault and battery, did not appear; was fined for his contempt ten guilders (Ib., 635). In 1661 there was a prison at Christiana (Ib., 655). Certain it is that the first record we have of a capital conviction and execution on the Delaware is related in a letter from William Beekman to Stuyvesent, dated Oct. 24, 1662 (Penna. Archives, second series, vol. vii. p. 691). It appears from this and other authorities that Alexander D'Hinojassa (who held that part of the river from New Castle to Cape Henlopen in opposition to the authority of Governor Stuyvesant, claiming that he had been appointed Governor over that territory to look after the company's interest, under the will of Jacob Alrichs) ordered the prisoner to be tried. The circumstances are briefly these: A vessel was wrecked on the coast, and a Turk on her succeeded in gaining the land, where he was taken by the Indians, who sold him to Peter Alricks, a resident of New Castle, who in turn sold him to an English planter in Maryland. The Turk, with several other servants, made his escape to the Delaware, where he was pursued. He was subsequently captured, and while being taken up the river in a boat, at Bombay Hook attempted and succeeded in making his escape. In doing so he wounded two of the men seriously and the third slightly. He was, however, again captured, taken to New Castle, and thrown into prison. D'Hinojassa refused to deliver the man to his English master, who claimed him, but ordered him to be tried before Van Sweeringham, who sat as judge. The Turk was convicted of resisting and wounding his captors, and was sentenced to be hung. On Sunday, Oct. 19, 1662, the man was executed at Lewistown, his head afterwards "cut off and placed on a post or stake in the Horekill" (Penna. Archives, vol. vii. p. 728; Duke | ||