Proceedings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 107

JANUARY MEETING OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

A special meeting of the Society was held on Friday evening, Jan. 10, 1879, the President (Mr. Wallace) in the chair.

Mr. Horatio Gates Jones, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, introduced the Hon. Henry M. Hoyt, Governor-elect of Pennsylvania, who was received by the President, to whose remarks he replied as follows:—

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN.-I owe you my sincere thanks for this opportunity to visit your Hall, and for the kindness and cordiality with which my presence here to-night has been greeted. In a general way I have been aware of the work you have been doing and propose to do, in order fittingly and gratefully to preserve the records and actions of those who founded the Province and organized the Republic, and who have conducted the affairs of so great and so free a Commonwealth. With much reluctance, I must confess that I had inadequately conceived the full scope of your purpose and work. I appreciate well the care, scholarship, and conscience involved in your scheme. A loving and patriotic regard for the memory of those who have done so much for us could alone hold you up to the continuous and thorough labors you have for half a century been bestowing upon the precious records you possess. It should be a source of pride and glory to the membership here that it has grown out of the private and cheerful contributions of time and money by yourselves.

Judging from my own immature knowledge of your plans, I do not err when I say you have conducted your business too modestly, and that you have a right to call your fellow citizens of the whole State to a more gener ous co-operation. I cheerfully pledge what of personal or official influence I may have to further your designs, in any way you may suggest.

There are scattered through all the counties of our State gentlemen of leisure and culture, who are interesting themselves in the collection and preservation of the local records, letters, manuscripts, etc., which constitute the basis of accurate history. The Centennial Exhibition here, and the recently celebrated Centennials at Valley Forge and Wyoming have been rich in developing enthusiasm in this direction. We are reminded of the virtues practised by those who have gone before us. Speaking personally, and out of local experience, I may say, as I had occasion to remark to our Valley Forge friends some days since, that in the wonderful material interests organized in the Wyoming Valley, the tremendous energies we handled, mostly expended in money making and in seeking prosperity, we had about forgotten that we had any ancestry to whom we owed anything-forgotten that there had been any past-and, I am sorry to say, acted as though there was no hereafter. The present price of coal stocks has reminded us of the latter, and has taken much of the former out of us.

By tradition I fear my people in Northeastern Pennsylvania are regarded by most of you here as "intruders"-so the statutes of the State used to call the Connecticut settlers in "the seventeen townships." A record in your vaults shown me to-night calls our Yankee friend, John Franklin, "the chief of the banditti." Well, that is long agone. While the Connecticut settler was assailed in turn by the Pennamite, the Indian, and the Tory, the equity of his title as the settler and improver of the wilderness was finally recognized, and we owe it to the wisdom and the justice of

108 Proceedings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Quaker and Pennamite lawyers of Philadelphia that statutes were framed which meted fair play out to them.

But I am violating the law of the evening, that there is to be no speechmaking. I am grateful for this occasion, and again thank you for your consideration of me.

The regular order of proceedings was then resumed. William H. Ruddiman, Esquire, read a sketch written by Mr. Charles Riché Hildeburn of the Reverend Thomas Coombe, D. D., an assistant minister of Christ Church and St. Peter's, Philadelphia, from November 30, 1772, to July 7, 1778.

The Hon. Peter McCall read three graphic and interesting letters from Dr. Benjamin Rush to Elias Boudinot, dated respectively Philadelphia, September 25, 1793, October 2, 1793, and October 28, 1793, describing the yellow fever then prevailing in that city.

At the request of the President, the Secretary read an interesting letter from the Reverend Benjamin Dorr, D.D., late Rector of Christ Church, dated April 13, 1860, giving an account of the distinguished persons who were pew holders of that Church, and who were interred in the burial ground connected with it.

The President read three entertaining letters, one of them from Lewis Morris, dated 3d Fourth month (June), 1681, and the others from DeputyGovernor Markham, dated 7 December, 1681, giving glowing, and, to us, amusing descriptions of the country, climate, and inhabitants of Pennsylvania at that period. These were printed in London in 1682 in a pamphlet, entitled "Plantation Work, the Work of this Generation."

The Hon. Wayne MacVeagh then in a few remarks expressed the gratification felt by the members of the Society in having the Governor-elect to visit the Hall, and nominated him for membership in the Society. The nomination was seconded by Horatio N. Burroughs, Esquire. By unanimous consent the rules were suspended, and the Governor-elect, General Henry M. Hoyt, was unanimously elected a member of the Society by a vivá voce vote. The meeting thereupon adjourned.

A stated meeting of the Society held at the Hall on the evening of Jan. 13, 1879, the President in the chair.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read, and, on motion, approved. The President introduced Professor Oswald Seidensticker, who read an interesting memoir of Israel Daniel Rupp, deceased, the author of various county histories of Pennsylvania.

Samuel W. Pennypacker read a letter from Dr. Benjamin Rush to James Searle, January 21, 1778, in relation to Burgoyne's surrender.

The Secretary read an interesting letter from the Reverend C. P. Wing, of Carlisle, giving a sketch of the life of Mrs. John Hays, well known in connection with the history of the battle of Monmouth, as "Moll Pitcher." The death of the Hon. Morton McMichael was announced to the Society by the President with some suitable remarks.

On motion, the meeting adjourned.