Life in Mid-Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania

By John T. Humphrey

Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Philadelphia Then Comparatively Small

By contemporary standards Philadelphia was relatively small.  But, by the standards of eighteenth-century ancestors, most of whom left small villages Germany or Great Britain, Philadelphia probably looked huge.  A 1762 map shows the city extended from below South Street to Vine Street in the north and west to about Seventh Street. [17]  Reports dating about 1750 note it took about one day to walk around the town. [18]

Newly arrived German, and Scotch-Irish immigrants probably noticed several things almost immediately.  First, the city had not walls.  Many towns and villages of comparable size in Europe still retained their medieval fortifications.  Second, the streets in Philadelphia were rectilinear, running at ninety-degree angles to one another.  Streets in the Quaker capital did not meander as did many streets in European towns and villages.  Newly arrived immigrants most likely commented that in Philadelphia streets were much wider than in Germany or England.

The third item they might have noticed was the lack of a church steeple with a bell or clock that struck out the time—an observation they would have shared with Gottlieb Mittelberger.  He noted in his journal, “…the town did not have a steeple with a bell or clock, and there is no striking of the hours, which seems very dull to newcomers, especially in the night.” [19]

The Philadelphia of 1760 may not have felt as foreign to Germans arriving in that city as many late-twentieth century historians may think.  Based on the number of recorded baptisms found in eighteenth-century Philadelphia church registers, Germans may have accounted for one-half of the entire population of the city. [20]  Most of those Germans lived in an area of Philadelphia located in the northern end of the city around Arch, Vine, and  Race Streets.  In this section of the city, Germans started a tradition that would continue for generations in this country—even into this century:  They created the first ethnic neighborhood. [21]  In the German section of town, signs were written in German and English, and to the consternation of many English residents, some signs were inscribed solely in German! [22] In this neighborhood Germans built their churches—St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, the First Reformed Church, and later, Zion Lutheran Church—the largest in the colonial city and, later, the Federal Capital.

German settlers, who arrived in Philadelphia, most likely disembarked, and proceeded to the German enclave because here they could make contact with friends and neighbors who came earlier.  Here they could begin the process of getting re-established.  The presence of so many Germans in this area of Philadelphia undoubtedly eased their transition into a foreign culture and a foreign land. 

The sounds immigrants heard would have been interesting as well.  These newcomers would have heard a dialect of English that was very different from English as spoken in the late twentieth-century. Eighteenth-century ancestors would have heard a dialect of English as it was spoken in Great Britain.  They would also have heard dialects of German, and, indeed, language may be provided the new German arrivals with a means of identifying others from their own region of Germany.  An immigrant from the Rhineland Pfalz, for example, may have heard Germans speaking in a local dialect that would have immediately told him these men are from my region of Germany—the “Pfalz.”  That recognition would have provided the immigrant with an opportunity to inquire about other arrivals from his region of Germany or perhaps even from his village—immigrants who may have settled in one of the more distant counties, such as Lancaster, York, Northampton, or Berks.

Most Move to the Countryside

Most immigrants did not remain in Philadelphia for any length of time, as evidenced by settlement patterns in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Those settlers wanted to get out on the land.  Christopher Saur in a letter sent to Germany noted, “Because one may hold as much property as one wishes, also pay for it when one desires, everybody hurries to take up some property.” [23] In the mid-1750s a Moravian minister in Philadelphia noted that members of his congregation spent a good deal of time talking about the price of land and the places where they could buy it.  This put the minister in some distress as he felt they should be more focused on the spiritual realm and less on the material. [24]

The lure of land drew thousands of immigrants to Pennsylvania, both German and English—a fact many twentieth-century family historians do not fully appreciate.  Land played a very important role in the lives of all ancestors.  Our eighteenth-century forebears lived in an agrarian economy in which practically everything came from the soil—food, clothing, and shelter.  It was a simple fact:  People who controlled land controlled their own destiny.  In Germany or England most people were tenant farmers and did not control land. They rented the land and their ability to stay on that land depended on the owner, generally a Lord or someone of minor nobility. If the tenant paid the rent on time and if he caused no problems, the renter remained on the land.  If he followed the dictates of the landlord, he increased his chances of keeping his tenancy.  Following the rules frequently meant attending the church of the local ruler, as opposed to a church dictated by conscience. If the family lost its right to remain on the land, it had to find another way had to be found to provide for the basics of life.

Population growth during the eighteenth century compounded the problem.  As population increased in Germany and Great Britain, the demand on the limited amount of land also increased. Consequently rents escalated. [25] Tenant farmers with limited or no access to land in Europe had two choices—relocate or continue to live at a subsistence level.  Many chose to relocate and some who did came to Pennsylvania. [26]

The price of land and its availability influenced the decision of where to locate in Pennsylvania.  Historians are finding that settlement patterns were also very important. In the case of German immigrants, scholars are discovering immigrants who came from the same home village or region settled together in Pennsylvania.  [27] Obvious benefits were to be gained by living near people who came from the same village or perhaps the same region.  A newcomer could seek help from friends and distant relatives during those early years when life was literally being carved out of the wilderness. [28]

In terms of price, the further one moved from Philadelphia, the cheaper land became.  In 1750 Mittelberger noted, “The price of farms around Philadelphia are quite high.  Even a days journey from Philadelphia prices for uncleared land are high.” [29]  Advertisements in Philadelphia newspapers show that in 1750 the price of a homestead with a house, barn, and cleared field was twice the price of uncultivated land—a fact that forced many Germans to search for unimproved land in the interior of Pennsylvania. [30]

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