Notes
Nathan Pegg - The Old High Constable:
Young Pegg fell in with the party and engaged with them as driver and caretaker of the cows and other stock the party were driving with them. This was the Solomon Austin party, consisting of twelve families, which arrived on the Niagara frontier in the month of June, 1793. Young Pegg came to Lynn Valley with the Austins, and subsequently married Elizabeth, fourth daughter of Solomon Austin, and settled near his father-in-law's home, on land drawn by his wife, as the daughter of a U. E. Loyalist. He died in 1850, at about the age of seventy-five, and his wife died in 1854.
John Pegg had four sons--Philip, Nathan, Joseph and James; and four daughters--Joanna, Esther, Mary and Elizabeth. Philip Pegg, eldest son of John, married Rebecca Ann Lemon, and settled finally on the Round Plains. He had one son, Jacob; and two daughters--Mary and Melinda. Subsequently he married Mary Morgan, but there were no children by this second marriage. Nathan Pegg, second son of John, married Julia Ann, daughter of Solomon Austin, son of Solomon, and settled in Simcoe. He was the old high constable and the last male survivor of his generation. He had three sons--Wesley, Austin and Robert; and two daughters--Sarah and Julia
PEGG'S RUN, &C.
No part of Philadelphia has undergone such great and various changes as
the range of commons, water-lots, &c., ranging along the course of this run,
primarily known under the Indian name of Cohoquinoque. A present beholder
of the streets and houses now covering those grounds, and the hidden tunnel
now concealing the former creek, along Willow street, could have no
conception of things as they were, even only forty years ago. The
description is unavoidably complicated.
At the north end of Philadelphia the high table land of the city
terminated in a high precipitous bluff, at about two hundred and fifty feet
north of Callowhill street. This extended from Front street, at Poole's
bridge, up as high as Fifth and Sixth street, bounding the margin of Pegg's
run. On the north side of this whole range of Pegg's run, which rises in
Spring Garden (where was once a spring at its source), there was an
extensive marsh into which the Delaware flowed, and into which, in cases of
freshets or floods, boats could be used for amusement. Beyond the north
side of this marsh, in the writer's time (say till within the last forty
years), from near Front quite up to Second street, was a high open and green
grazing common; it also had a steep but green hill descending into the
marsh, at about one hundred and fifty feet in the south rear of Noble
street. [See a picture of this place on page 280 of my MS. Annals in the
Philadelphia Library.]
On this common there was Joseph Emlen's tanyard, with a spring on the
south rear, and on the east side of it a powder magazine, then converted
into two dwelling houses; these were the only lots occupied. From Second
to Third street, beyond the same north side of the marsh, was a beautiful
green enclosure, with only one large brick house, now standing on the
south-west corner of Noble and Second streets, called Emlen's haunted house,
and then occupied by the Rev. Dr. Pilmore. Not one of the present range of
houses on either side of Second street, from Noble to the Second street
bridge, was standing there till within the last thirty years. Before that
time, a low causeway made the street and joined the two bluffs, and was
universally called "the Hollow". Even the Second street and Third street
stone bridges were made since the writer's time (forty years) and the Second
street one was worked at by the "wheelbarrow men", who were chained felons
from the prisons. The writer, when a boy, remembers two or three occasions
when the floods in the Delaware backed so much water into all this marsh
from Front to Third street, that boats actually rowed from bank to bank,
even on the top of the causeway, several hundred feet in length. In that
time, the descent of the Second street from Callowhill to the bridge, was
nearly as great as at Race and Front street now; and it used to be a great
resort for boys in winter to run down their sleds on the snow; they could
run at least one hundred and fifty feet. In that time, the short street
(Margaretta) south of the bridge did not exist; but the brick house which
forms the south side corner house, was the utmost verge of the ancient
bluff. On the west side of Second street, south of the bridge, were a few
houses and a sheep-skin dresser's yard, which seemed almost covered up (full
the first story) by the subsequent elevation of the street. In raising the
street, and to keep the ground from washing off, the sides of the road were
supported by a great number of cedar trees with all their branches on, laid
down and the earth filled in among them, and water-proof gutter ways of wood
were laid over them, to conduct the street water into the water channels of
the bridge. The wheelbarrow - men, who worked at such public works, were
subjects of great terror, even while chained, to all the boys; and by often
seeing them, there were few boys who had not learned and told their several
histories. Their chief desperado, I remember, was Luke Cale. Five of them,
whom we used thus to know, were all executed on Centre Square (the execution
ground of that day) on one gallows and at the same time, for the murder of a
man who dwelt in the then only house near that square -- (say on the south
side of High street, five or six doors east of the centre street circle, all
of which was then a waste common). From St. John street (now, but not then,
opened) up the whole length of Callowhill street to Fourth street, beyond
which it did not then extend, there were no houses in the rear or any houses
then on the north side of Callowhill street, and of course all was waste
grass commons down to Pegg's run. This high waste ground had some
occasional slopes, which gave occasion to hundreds of boys to "sled down
hill", as it was called, in the intervals of school. (From Third to Sixth
street on the south side of Pegg's run, being very high, furnished all the
gravel used in the city end of the Germantown turnpike.) As the snows
lasted long then, this was a boy-sport of the whole winter. The marsh
ground had much of vegetable production in it, and when not flooded, had
some parts of it green with vegetation; this, therefore, was a great resort
for snipe, kildear, and even plover, and many birds have been shot there.
Doctor Leib was a frequent visitor there for shooting purposes. In other
places, earth had been taken to make an embankment all along the side of
Pegg's run, and this left such ponds of water as made places where catfish,
brought in by the floods, were left, and were often caught by boys. In the
summer the water which rested in places on this marsh, gave life and song to
thousands of clamorous frogs; and in the winter the whole area was a great
ice pond, in which all the skating population of Philadelphia, even
including men, were wont to skate.
This was more particularly the case before the ice in the Delaware closed
for the season, which was usually by New-year's day, and lasted till March.
There were two springs, and perhaps several rills near them, proceeding from
the north bank of this marsh -- one at Emlen's tanyard east of Second
street, and one west of Second street; from these springs went an embankment
on the marsh side parallel with the bank, and inclining east until one
reached Second street, and till the other reached the rear of the house (say
Rogers' glue factory) on Front street; thence they went each at right angles
south until they severally struck into Pegg's run. In these channels the
tides of the Delaware flowed, and especially the lower one near Rogers',
over which was once a little foot bridge to pass on to the marsh in dry
seasons. In process of time, (the time of my day), these embankments got so
wasted away, as to precisely answer the purpose of holding all the water
which high tides could deposit; and so kept it in for shallow ponds, (at the
eastern side of the marsh, chiefly), for the great amusement of the boys.
Now, while I write, all these descriptions are hid forever from our eyes;
the marsh is intersected by streets, and filled up with houses. The filling
up was not a short work; it became long a deposit for all the loose rubbish
of the city -- first, the corporation who filled up the streets, then the
occupant or builder of each house would bring a little earth for his yard,
and support his enclosure with stakes, &c., until another would build
alongside of him; and he would frame rough steps up to his door until
successive deposits of earth, as time and means would enable, have enabled
them, at last, to bring the streets now to a general level.
From Third street to Fourth street, on the north side of Pegg's run, the
land was nearer the level of Pegg's run, and was filled to Noble street with
many tanyards, and one very fine kitchen garden of about one acre of ground.
The tanyard which bounded on the west side of Third street, (as the
Commissioners filled up Third street) rested at least one story below the
common walk; and the house at the south-west corner of Noble street, which
went up steps to the door sill, is now levelled with the street. New Fourth
street, across Pegg's run, was not opened at all until lately, not one of
the houses were built between it and Callowhill street. The causeway at
Second street was something narrower than the present street; and the
footway, which was only on the west side of it, was three feet lower than
the street; (for they were for years casting refuse earth, shoemakers'
leather, and shavings, &c., into it). At the north end, where it joined to
the present pavement way, it was separated by so deep and yawning a ravine,
caused by the rain floods rushing down it into the marsh and pond below,
that it was covered with a wooden bridge. Such are the changes wrought in
this section of the Northern Liberties in from thirty-five to forty years !
The name of Pegg's run was derived from Daniel Pegg, a Friend, who in
1686, acquired the three hundred and fifty acres of Jurian Hartsfelder's
patent of the year 1676. He therefore once possessed nearly all of the
Northern Liberties south of Cohocksinc creek, in their primitive state of
woody waste. He appears to have sold about one hundred and fifty acres of
the northern part to Coates, and to have set upon the improvement of the
rest as a farm -- to have diked in his marsh, so as to form low meadows, and
to have set up a brick-kiln. His mansion, of large dimensions, described to
me as of two stories, with a piazza and double hipped roof, was always
called, in the language of early days, "the big brick house", at "the north
end". It was situate upon Front street, west side, a little below Green
street. Whatever was its appearance, we know it was such that William Penn,
in 1709, proposed to have it rented for his residence, that he might there
be in the quiet country. Back of Pegg's house, from Front to Second street,
and from Green to Coates' street, he had nearly a square of ground enclosed
as a field, by numerous large cherry trees along the fences. This same
space was a fine green meadow when the British possessed Philadelphia, and
they cut down the fine cherry trees for fuel.
When we see the present compactly built state of the Northern Liberties,
so like another city set beside its parent beyond the run, it increases our
wish to learn, if we can, from what prior condition it was formed.
To this end, the will of Daniel Pegg, formed the 9th of January 1732, a
short time before he died, will lead us into some conceptions of things as
they were, to wit :
To his wife Sarah he gave "his northernmost messuage or tenement and the
piece of ground thereunto belonging, bounded on the north by land in the
tenure of William Coates, on the east by the great road leading to
Burlington, [i.e. Front street] southward by a lane dividing that tract from
his other land, and westward by the New York road", [i.e. old Fourth
street]. To his nephew, Daniel Pegg, (son of Nathan), he gave all his
"southernmost messuage or tenement, where he then dwelt, together with the
piece of ground bounded northward by the land aforesaid, eastward by the
Burlington road, southward by the second row of apple trees in his orchard,
carrying the same breadth westward to a fence at the west end of an
adjoining pasture, and westward by the said fence". He further gives his
said nephew "all his ground and marsh between the front of the house and
ground, therein before given him, and the Delaware river, of the same
breadth aforesaid". To his daughter, Sarah Pegg, he gave "the ground
bounded northward by the ground before given to his nephew, Daniel Pegg;
eastward by the Delaware river; southward by a forty foot road, beginning at
ten feet southward of the south fence of his orchard, and to extend the same
breadth westward to the westernmost fence of his pasture, (lying west of his
orchard), and westward by the same fence". [To this daughter Sarah he also
gives "his southernmost pasture adjoining his meadow, with all his adjoining
marsh or meadow and improvements".] To his nephew Elias Pegg, (the second
son of Nathan), he gave "the ground, of fifty feet breadth, bounded
northward by the forty feet road, eastward by Delaware river, southward by
his other ground, and westward by other ground, then or late his, at the
extent of three hundred feet from the west side of Burlington road
aforesaid". He grants similar lots lying along the same to his nephews,
Daniel Coates, and John Coates, (sons of Thomas) "extending in length from
John Rutter's north-west corner on the New York road, to Edmond Wooley's
bars." His small fenced pasture of two and a half acres, lying near the
brick-kilns, he orders to be sold, to pay off his debts, &c.
This farm, at its wildest state, is marked by William Penn's letter of the
year 1700, showing there were then Indians hutted there, he saying he wishes
that "earnest inquiry may be made for the men who fired on the Indians at
Pegg's run, and frightened them", saying, "they must be appeased, or evil
will ensue.
The value of this farm in primitive days is shown in a letter of Jonathon
Dickinson's, of December 1715, saying, "he can buy Daniel Pegg's land
fronting the Delaware, and lying in N. Liberty Corporation, at 50s. per
acre, having thereon a well built brick house, a piece of six to eight acres
of meadow," &c.
In the year 1729 Daniel Pegg advertised his land for sale, and then he
described it thus, viz. "To be sold or let, by Daniel Pegg, at the great
brick house at the north end of Philadelphia, thirty acres of upland, meadow
ground and marsh". The house, about the period of the Revolution, was
called "the Dutch house", both because its form was peculiar, and especially
because it had long been noted as a place for holding Dutch dances, called
"hupsesaw" -- a whirling dance in waltz style.
In 1724 there was erected on his former premises the first powder house
ever erected in Philadelphia; it was at the expense of William Chanceller, a
wealthy sailmaker, who placed it on the northern bank of Pegg's marsh -- say
a little south of present Noble street, and about sixty yards westward of
Front street. It now exists as a dwelling house. Chancellor was privileged
as exclusive keeper, for twenty-one years, at 1s. a keg per month.
As the name of Pegg has thus connected itself with interesting
topographical facts, it may possibly afford further interest to add a few
items of a personal nature, to wit : It appears he must have had at least
two wives before the widow Sarah, mentioned in his will; for I found his
name as married on the 28th of 2d mo., 1686, to Martha Allen, at her father
Samuel Allen's house at Neshamina, in the presence of twenty-two signing
witnesses; and again in 1691 he marries, at Friends' Meeting in
Philadelphia, Barbara Jones. His brief history shows the vicissitudes of
human affairs : Possessed of the fee simple of three hundred and fifty
acres of now invaluable building lots, he left no rich heirs; and the
possessor of three wives or more, he left no male issue to keep up his name,
even in our City Directory ! It appears, by the letter of Secretary Peters,
of 1749, that the heirs of D. Pegg then appeared to make a partition. He
left an only daughter.
WILL OF WILLIAM PEGG (SON OF SAMUEL PEGG AND SUSANNAH BARBER)
WILL
DANIEL PEGG III
Notes
PEGG FAMILY LINKS
