And now, in memory of the Tree which has been the cause of the present chapter, we here add a poetic effusion, as well to glorify the Tree, as to perpetuate the poetic talent of a valued and deceased citizen-namely, Judge Peters-to wit:

PENN'S TREATY-ELM.

BY JUDGE PETERS.

Let each take a relic from that hallowed tree,

Which, like Penn, whom it shaded, immortal should be.
As the pride of our forests, let Elms be renown'd,
For the justly priz'd virtues with which they abound.

CHORUS.

All hail to thee, highly favoured tree,
Adorning our land, the home of the free!

Most worthy was he

Who first honour'd thee,

And thou, like him, immortal shalt be.

Whilst the natives our forests in freedom shall roam,
Thy remembrance they'll cherish, thro' ages to come.
Tho' sorrows their bosoms should oft overwhelm,
With delight they'll reflect on good nas's Elm.

All hail, &c.

For that Patron of Justice and Peace there display'd,
His most welcome good tidings, beneath its fair shade,
And furnish'd examples to all future times,

That Justice and Peace may inhabit all climes.

All hail, &c.

When Daphne, 'tis fabled, eluded Apollo,
And he found it in vain her footsteps to follow;
He fix'd the coy nymph-to avenge a love quarrel-
In th' evergreen form of the bright shining Laurel.
All hail, &c.

But her chaplets bedeck the grim warrior's helm,
Who'd more worthily shine in the shade of the Elm;
And there cause all wars and their horrors to cease,
And, like Penn, spread the blessings of safety and peace.
All hail, &c.

Of Avon the Bard and his Mulberry tree,
In song have long lived with the votaries of glee.
His fame of his tree has prolong'd the renown;
Our tree, with Penn's fame, will to ages go down.
All hail, &c.

Let the Bard be encircled with laurels e'er green,
As the chief in the choir whereof Fancy's the Queen
VOL. I.-T.
13

Yet truth and just laws all fictions c'erwhelm ;

And these Penn secur'd in the shade of the Elm.
All hail, &c.

Let our Poets still sigh for Bay wreaths, without scars,
And the Laurel hide wounds of the champions in wars:
But the branch of the Olive its office should cease,
And the branches of Elm be the emblems of Peace.
All hail, &c.

The Olive abounds where stern despots bear rule,
And their slaves pluck its products in Poverty's school;
But the Elm delights most in the mountains and dells,
Where Man is ne'er shackled, and Liberty dwells.

All hail, &c.

Tho' time has devoted our tree to decay,

The sage lessons it witness'd survive to our day.

May our trustworthy statesmen, when call'd to the helm,
Ne'er forget the wise Treaty held under our Elm,

All hail, &c.

THE SWEDES' CHURCH,

AND

HOUSE OF SVEN SENER.

"The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep!"

THE Swedes of the hamlet at Wiccaco, at the present Swedes' Church in Southwark, having been the primitive occupants, near the present site of Philadelphia, (before the location of our city was de termined,) will make it interesting to glean such facts as we can concerning that place and people. There they once saw the region of our present city scenes

"One still

And solemn desert in primeval garb!"

Mr. Kalm, the Swedish traveller, when here in 1748, saw Nils Gustafson, an old Swede, then 91 years of age, who told him he well remembered to have seen a great forest on the spot where Philadelphia now stands; that he himself had brought a great deal of timber to Philadelphia at the time it was built. Mr. Kalm also met with an old Indian, who had often killed stags on the spot where Philadelphia now stands !

It appears from manuscripts and records that the southern part of our city, including present Swedes' Church, Navy Yard, &c., was

originally possessed by the Swedish family of Sven, the chief of which was Sven Schute,-a title equivalent to the Commandant; in which capacity he once held Nieu Amstel under charge from Risingh. As the Schute of Korsholm fort, standing in the domain of Passaiung, he probably had its site some where in the sub-district of Wiccaco, an Indian name, traditionally said to imply pleasant place-a name highly indicative of what Swedes' Church place originally was. We take for granted that the village and church would, as a matter of course, get as near the block-house fort as circumstances would admit.

The lands of the Sven family we however know from actual title, which I have seen to this effect, to wit: "I, Francis Lovelace, Esq., one of the gentlemen of his Majesty's Honourable Privy Council, and Governor General under his Royal Highness, James, Duke of York and Albany, to all to whom these presents may come, &c. Whereas, there was a Patent or Ground brief granted by the Dutch Governor at Delaware to Swen Gonderson, Swen Swenson,† Oele Swenson, and Andrew Swenson, for a certain piece of ground lying up above in the river, beginning at Moyamensing kill, and so stretching upwards in breadth 400 rods, [about 1 mile wide] and in length into the woods 600 rods, [nearly 2 miles] in all about 800 acres, dated 5th of May, 1664, KNOW YE, &c., that I have ratified the same, they paying an annual quit rent of eight bushels of winter wheat to his Majesty." This pateat was found recorded at Upland, the 31st of August, 1741.

The Moyamensing kill above mentioned was probably the same creek now called Hay creek, above Gloucester Point, and the 600 rods, or 2 miles of length, probably extended along the river.

We know that Penn deemed their lines so far within the bounds of his plan of Philadelphia and Southwark, that he actually extinguished their title by giving them lands on the Schuylkill, above Lemon hill, &c.

The Rev'd. Dr. Collin has ascertained from the Swedish MS. records in his possession, that the first Swedes' Church at Wiccaco was built on the present site in 1677, five years before Penn's colony It was of logs, and had loop-holes in lieu of window lights, which might serve for fire-arms in case of need. The congregation also was accustomed to bring fire-arms with them to prevent surprise, but ostensibly to use for any wild game which might present in their way in coming from various places.

In 1700, the present brick church was erected, and it was then deemed a great edifice, and so generally spoken of; for certainly nothing was then equal to it, as a public building, in the city. An elderly gentleman informs me that he had cause to know that the

So old Mr. Marsh told me he had heard from the oldest settlers there.

+ This Swen Swenson appears to have been in the first jury named at Chester, called by Governor Markham.

Swedes' Church was built mostly by subscription. Some paid in money and some in work and materials-the then parson carried the hod himself. The bell is said to have some silver in it, and to give

a disagreeable sound.

The same gentleman informed me that he had seen a view of the first church engraved on a curiously shaped silver box, which had come from an old Swede. It had become at last a lip-salve box.

The parsonage house, now standing, was built in 1737. The former parsonage house was in the Neck. There were originally 27 acres of land attached to the Wiccaco Church. These facts were told me by Dr. Collin. At my request he made several extracts from the Swedish Church-books to illustrate those early times; which he has since bestowed to the historical department of the Philosophical Society.

The original log-house of the sons of Sven was standing till the time the British occupied Philadelphia; when it was taken down and converted into fuel. It stood on a knoll or hill on the N. W. corner of Swanson Street and Beck's Alley. Professor Kalm visited it in 1748 as a curiosity, and his description of it then is striking, to wit: "The wretched old wooden building, (on a hill a little north of the Swedes' Church) belonging to one of the sons of Sven, (Sven's Sæner) is still preserved as a memorial of the once poor state of that place. Its antiquity gives it a kind of superiority over all the other buildings in the town, although in itself it is the worst of all. But with these advantages it is ready to fall down, and in a few years to come it will be as difficult to find the place where it stood as it was unlikely, when built, that it should in a short time become the place of one of the greatest towns in America. Such as it was, it showed how they dwelt, when stags, elk, deer and beavers ranged in broad day-light in the future streets and public places of Philadelphia. In that house was heard the sound of the spinning wheel before the city was ever thought of!" He describes the site as having on the river side, in front of it, a great number of very large sized water-beech or buttonwood trees; one of them, as a solitary way-mark to the spot, is still remaining there. He mentions also some great ones as standing on the river shore by the Swedes' Church-the whole then a rural scene.

It was deemed so attractive, as a "pleasant place." that Thomas Penn when in Philadelphia made it his favourite ramble; so much 80, that Secretary Peters, in writing to him in 1743, thus complains of its changes-saying, "Southwark is getting greatly disfigured by erecting irregular and mean houses; thereby so marring its beauty that, when he shall return, he will lose his usual pretty walk to Wiccaco."

I ascertained the following facts concerning "the old Swedes'

*I could tell an amusing tale to prove how difficult I found it was to meet with those ho remembered it as "the Swedes' house."

house," as they called the log-house of the sons of Sven. Its exact location was where the blacksmith's shop now stands, about 30 feet north of Beck's Alley, and fronting upon Swanson Street. It had a large garden and various fruit trees behind it. The little hill on which it stood has been cut down as much as five or six feet, to make the lot conform to the present street. It descended to Paul

Beck, Esqr., through the Parhams, an English family.

The wife of the late Rev. Dr. Rogers remembered going to school in the Sven House with her sister. They described it to me, as well as a Mrs. Stewart also, as having been one and a half story high, with a piazza all around it, having four rooms on a floor, and a very large fire-place with seats in each jamb. Beck's Alley and the "improvements" there had much spoiled the former beauty of the scene along that alley. There had been near there an inlet of water from the Delaware, in which boats could float, especially at high tides. There were many very high trees, a ship yard, and much green grass all about the place. Now not a vestige of the former scene

remains.

Although my informants had often heard it called "the Swedes' house" in their youth, they never understood the cause of the distinction until I explained it.

The Sven family, although once sole lords of the southern domain, have now dwindled away, and I know of no male member of that name, or rather of their anglified name of Swanson. The name was successively altered. At the earliest time it was occasionally written Suan, which sometimes gave occasion to the sound of Swan, and in their patent,confirmed by Governor Lovelace, they are named Swen. By Professor Kalm, himself a Swede, and most competent to give the true name, they are called Sven's-Sæner, i. e., sons of Sven. Hence in time they were called sons of Suan or Swan, and afterwards, for euphony sake, Swanson.

I found in the burial place of the Swedes' church a solitary memorial; such as the tablet and the chisel have preserved in these rude lines, to wit:

"In memory of Peter Swanson,
who died December 18, 1737,
aged 61 years.

Reader, stop and self behold!
Thou'rt made of ye same mould,
And shortly must dissolved be:
Make sure of blest Eternity!"

In the same ground is the inscription of Swan Johnson, who died in 1733, aged 48 years, who probably derived his baptismal name from the Sven race.

The extinction of these names of the primitive lords of the soil, reminds one of the equally lost names of the primitive lords at the other end of the city, to wit: the Hartsfelders and Peggs-all sunk in the abyss of time! "By whom begotten or by whom forgot," equally is all their lot!