In: Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v.24 (1900).
Life of Peggy Shippen.
This record provides a link to this resource on JSTOR's online repository. The article was serialized over several issues of the magazine. Links are provided for each installment of the entire article.
"The saga begins and ends with two commonplace scenes: a teenaged immigrant alighting a ship in colonial Philadelphia with but two letters of introduction and three guineas to his name, and a gravesite ringed by a half-dozen black-clothed mourners. But during the century and a half that encapsulates these vignettes, a Pennsylvania dynasty rose and fell- and rose and fell again. From Robert Coleman of Castle Finn, Ireland, to Robert Habersham Coleman of Cornwall, Lebanon County, four generations of one family amassed several fortunes, monopolized Pennsylvania's ironmaking industry, created entire self-sufficient communities, befriended statesmen, entertained royalty and lived - and died - in an epic drama that still intrigues and fascinates." [from the text]
Historical papers and addresses / Lebanon County Historical Society ; v. 2, no. 11
Contents
The Pennsylvania-German and his English and Scotch-Irish neighbors / By M.D. Learned -- The educational works of Lebanon County / By H.U. Roop -- Jacob Weidle : a biographical sketch of Hon. Jacob Weidel, Reading, Pa. -- In memoriam-William Coleman Freeman.
This record provides a link to this resource on the publisher's official online repository.
Summary
HISTORIANS HAVE TRAPPED William Henry of Lancaster (1729–86) in the identity of gunsmith. Though meant as a compliment— most accounts portray Henry as the most important gunsmith in the "rifle-making hub of colonial America," Lancaster County— - this confinement is ironic, since Henry escaped this occupation as soon as he was able. The term gunsmith, then as now, could describe men who repaired guns, who produced specialized gun parts (such as barrels or locks), who created an entire gun from scratch (lock, stock, and barrel), or who ran a factory that employed other men. Henry seems not to have engaged in any of these activities after 1760. By the last decade of his life, Henry had achieved a level of financial security (and apparently embodied the virtuous independence thought to derive from it) that led his peers to entrust him with positions of responsibility and that left Henry free to accept them. He served first in local and state governments and was later appointed an administrator and financier for the Continental army and elected twice to the Continental Congress. We have failed to register the shape of his career, the magnitude of his transformation; instead, historians have imagined that during all these varied activities, Henry continued to work as a gunsmith. Indeed, the belief that Henry "was engaged in the manufacture of firearms for over thirty years," that he produced the rifles or muskets carried by soldiers from the French and Indian War through the Revolution, has been central to stories about him. [abstract]
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society ; v. 18, no. 6
Summary
This journal article presents a letter written in German by John Andre to Eberhart Michael in Lancaster, PA. Andre had been a British Revolutionary War prisoner in Lancaster but had already been moved to Carlisle when he wrote the letter.(Andre would later become the British contact for Benedict Arnold in his attempt to betray Washington's army at West Point).
Letters of Rev. Richard Locke and Rev. George Craig : missionaries in Pennsylvania of the "Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts", London, 1747-1752
In: Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v. 30.
Summary
The article focuses on a letter from Edward Shippen lll to his son, Edward Shippen lV (who would later become the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania). The letter contains advice on how to live a good and productive life both in business and family life.
"On April 17, 1865, eighteen year old John Rakestraw left the family farm in Bart Township, Lancaster County, to attend Unionville Academy, a small Quaker boarding school in Chester County. During the time he was away his two older sisters wrote to him regularly. Ten of those letters have survived and they provide a candid and often painfully honest glimpse of life on a Lancaster County farm in the 1860's. Diaries and ledgers kept by John's father, William I. Rakestraw , provide additional insight into that that time and place." [excerpt from the text]
The life of William Henry, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1729-1786, patriot, military officer, inventor of the steamboat ; a contribution to revolutionary history
"John Bartram was born into a Quaker farm family in colonial Pennsylvania. He considered himself a plain farmer, with no formal education beyond the local school. He had a lifelong interest in medicine and medicinal plants, and read widely. His botanical career started with a small area of his farm devoted to growing plants he found interesting; later he made contact with European botanists and gardeners interested in North American plants, and developed his hobby into a thriving business." [Wikipedia]
Summary
In his review of the book, critic R.J. Fergusson says that this biography "does more than portray the lives and works of the eminent father and son; it integrates them with their social and intellectual associates of their time; and it traces the development of the study of botany as a science. The work is scholarly; the literary style is clear and interesting; the volume should please both scientific and popular readers."
