Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/24

 of his grandfather and preaching with eloquence and strength. He sent several contributions of flour and money to the Philadelphia people when the yellow fever devasted the city in 1793, as will be seen in the report of the committee. It is told of him that people came to his funeral from five counties and that he had the largest funeral and the longest will up to that time known in the county. No better evidence could have been given of his consequence. His son, Matthias, my grandfather, born in 1787, spent his days on the Pickering, owning the same mill. He was portly, and, it may, be a little pompous, but he had some reason for demanding in manner that those around him show respect. “Rich, respectable and numerous” was written of the family in his time. In 1826 and 1827 he was a member of assembly. The organization which was effected to bring about the incorporation of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company made him its president, and he was one of the incorporators of that road. He represented Chester County in the Constitutional Convention of 1837 which prepared a constitution for the state. When the Whig party held their county meetings at West Chester, he presided. In his day the traces of the old Dutch life almost entirely disappeared. English alone was spoken in the household and his children knew no other tongue. The German books which had lost their utility were given to a servant. The old German family Bible was banished to the springhouse, and there one of his boys cut from it all its pictures.

I remember once in my childhood spending a Christmas at the house. Memories of the Peltz Nicol still lingered and I hung my stocking beside the stone fireplace, at the end of which stood a long wood box, but what was put into it were ginger cakes and store candy. There was a large kitchen garden in which were grown currants, gooseberries, black currants, asparagus, beets, corn, onions, lettuce and even strawberries, in beds interspersed with bright-colored 18