The Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania , also known as the State in Schuylkill , was the first angling club in the Thirteen Colonies and remains the oldest verified continuously operating social club in the English-speaking world.
118-595: The club was established in 1732 as the Colony in Schuylkill under a treaty with the chiefs of the Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) Indians. Officers of the club assumed governmental titles: governor, lieutenant governor, three councilors, sheriff, coroner, secretary. Among its 28 founding members were James Logan , Philip Syng , and Joseph Wharton ; the first Governor was Thomas Stretch (born Staffordshire , England , 1695), who held
236-717: A tribal jurisdictional area in Caddo County, Oklahoma , that they share with the Caddo Nation and Wichita and Affiliated Tribes . The Unami and Munsee languages belong to the Eastern Algonquian language group and are largely mutually intelligible . Moravian missionary John Heckewelder wrote that Munsee and Unami "came out of one parent language." Only a few Delaware First Nation elders in Moraviantown, Ontario , fluently speak Munsee. William Penn , who first met
354-561: A ball through the other team's goal posts. Men could not carry and pass the ball, only use their feet, while the women could carry, pass, or kick. If the ball was picked up by a woman, she could not be tackled by the men, although men could attempt to dislodge the ball. Women were free to tackle the men. Another common activity was that of dance, and yet again, gender differences appear: men would dance and leap loudly, often with bear claw accessories, while women, wearing little thimbles or bells, would dance more modestly, stepping "one foot after
472-589: A convention at Independence Hall, which including his formal announcement of the formation of the League to Enforce Peace , which led to the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1945. By the spring of 1729, there were proposals to build a state house in Philadelphia , and 2,000 pounds sterling were committed to the project. A committee including Thomas Lawrence , John Kearsley , and Andrew Hamilton
590-466: A distance, they reminded Dutch settlers of fine European lace. The winter cloaks of the women were striking, fashioned from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys. One of the more common activities of leisure for the Lenni Lenape would be the game of pahsaheman : a football-like hybrid, split on gender lines. Over a hundred players were grouped into gendered teams (male and female) to try getting
708-757: A divided people during the 1770s, including in Killbuck's family. Killbuck resented his grandfather for allowing the Moravians to remain in the Ohio country. The Moravians believed in pacifism, and Killbuck believed that every convert to the Moravians deprived the Lenape of a warrior to stop further white settlement of their land. In the beginning of the American Revolutionary War , Killbuck and many Lenape claimed to be neutral. Other neighboring Indian communities, particularly
826-409: A fire. The separate Castle and Kitchen structures were not harmed. A new State House was built on the site in 1981–82. The Club designated May 1 as the "opening day" of the sporting season and claimed to have received its rights for fishing and fowling on the river directly from Chief Tammany in 1732. There are 13 appointed fishing days in each year, at equal periods between May 1 and October 1, when
944-505: A garrison at Bergen , which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of New Netherland . This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact. New Amsterdam was founded in 1624 by the Dutch in what would later become New York City . Dutch settlers also founded a colony at present-day Lewes, Delaware , on June 3, 1631, and named it Zwaanendael (Swan Valley). The colony had
1062-539: A man's maternal uncle (his mother's brother), and not his father, was usually considered to be his closest male relative, since his uncle belonged to his mother's clan and his father belonged to a different one. The maternal uncle played a more prominent role in the lives of his sister's children than did the father—for example likely being the one responsible for educating a young man in weapons craft, martial arts, hunting, and other life skills. Lenape practiced companion planting , in which women cultivated many varieties of
1180-1008: A memorial at the original clubhouse site on West River Drive (now Martin Luther King Drive) in Fairmount Park . The memorial was of gray stone, inset with a tablet of pink marble bearing the inscription: This is the Original Site of the Colony in Schuylkill Instituted May 1st 1732 After the War of Independence The Name was changed to the State in Schuylkill The Organization is Still in Active Existence After an Unbroken Record of Over Two Hundred and Fifteen Years This Tablet
1298-558: A national holiday for U.S. Independence Day . There are 56 signatures on the Declaration of Independence, including John Hancock who signed first, writing his name in very large letters. The prominence of this signature led to the term "John Hancock" or "Hancock" becoming a colloquial term in the United States for one's signature. The Congress continued to meet there until December 12, 1776, when Congress evacuated Philadelphia. During
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#17328444840081416-534: A new, more elaborate steeple designed by William Strickland , constructed in 1828. The north entrance was also rebuilt during this period. From 1802 to 1827, artist Charles Willson Peale housed his Philadelphia Museum of natural history specimens (including the skeleton of a mastodon ) and portraits of famous Americans, on the second floor of the Old State House and in the Assembly Room. In early 1816,
1534-431: A private viewing was arranged for honored guests of the mourners. The next day, (Sunday, April 23, 1865) lines began forming at 5:00 am. Over 300,000 mourners viewed the body – some waiting 5 hours just to see him. The Lincoln Special left Philadelphia's Kensington Station for New York City the next morning (Monday, April 24, 1865) at 4:00 am. The symbolic use of the hall was illustrated on June 17, 1915, where
1652-410: A short life, as in 1632 a local band of Lenape killed the 32 Dutch settlers after a misunderstanding escalated over Lenape defacement of the insignia of the governing Dutch West India Company . The Lenape's quick adoption of trade goods, and their desire to trap furs to meet high European demand, resulted in over-harvesting the beaver population in the lower Hudson Valley. With the fur sources exhausted,
1770-491: A small "round crest, of about 2 inches in diameter". Deer hair, dyed a deep scarlet, as well as plumes of feathers, were favorite components of headdresses and breast ornaments for males. The Lenape also adorned themselves with various ornaments made of stone, shell, animal teeth, and claws. The women often wore headbands of dyed deer hair or wampum. They painted their skin skirts or decorated them with porcupine quills. These skirts were so elaborately appointed that, when seen from
1888-695: A small, 13-square-mile (34 km ) reserve in Chatham-Kent , Ontario. The Delaware of Six Nations shares the Glebe Farm 40B in Brantford, Ontario , and Six Nations Indian Reserve No. 40 , shared with six Haudenosaunee peoples in Ontario. The Stockbridge-Munsee Community has a 22,139-acre (89.59 km ) Indian reservation in Wisconsin, with 16,255 acres (65.78 km ) held in federal trust. The Delaware Nation has
2006-850: A woman's power in the hierarchical structure. As in the case of the Iroquois and Susquehannocks , the animosity of differences and competitions spanned many generations, and in general tribes with each of the different language groups became traditional enemies in the areas they'd meet. On the other hand, The New American Book of Indians points out that competition, trade, and wary relations were far more common than outright warfare—but both larger societies had traditions of 'proving' (blooding) new (or young) warriors by ' counting coup ' on raids into another tribes territories. The two groups were sometimes bitter enemies since before recorded history, but intermarriage occurred — and both groups have an oral history suggesting they jointly came east together and displaced
2124-844: The Annapolis Convention to discuss adjustments to the Articles of Confederation that would improve commerce. They invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government. After debate, the Congress of the Confederation endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21, 1787. Twelve states, Rhode Island being the exception, accepted this invitation and sent delegates to convene in June 1787 at Independence Hall. The resolution calling
2242-747: The Articles of Confederation were approved in November 1777. The Second Continental Congress again returned to Independence Hall, for its final meetings, from July 2, 1778, to March 1, 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation , the Congress of the Confederation initially met in Independence Hall, from March 1, 1781, to June 21, 1783. However, as a result of the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 , Congress again moved from Philadelphia in June 1783 to Princeton, New Jersey, and eventually to other cities. In September 1786, commissioners from five states met in
2360-900: The British occupation of Philadelphia, the Continental Congress met in Baltimore , Maryland (December 20, 1776 to February 27, 1777). The Congress returned to Philadelphia from March 4, 1777, to September 18, 1777. In September 1777, the British Army again arrived to occupy Philadelphia, once again forcing the Continental Congress to abandon the State House. It then met in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for one day (September 27, 1777) and in York, Pennsylvania, for nine months (September 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778), where
2478-611: The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sold the State House to the City of Philadelphia , with a contract signed by the governor. The deed, however, was not transferred until more than two years later. Philadelphia has owned the State House and its associated buildings and grounds since that time. In 1898, the Mills wings were removed and replaced with replicas of the originals, but the Strickland steeple
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#17328444840082596-543: The Continental Congress in 1775 and unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence the following year, in 1776, met at Independence Hall. On June 21, 1788, it was the site of the Philadelphia Convention , where the U.S. Constitution, the longest-standing written and codified national constitution in the world, was drafted and ratified. In 1915, former-U.S. president William Howard Taft presided over
2714-873: The Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma , the Stockbridge–Munsee Community in Wisconsin , and the Munsee-Delaware Nation , Moravian of the Thames First Nation , and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario . The name Lenni Lenape originates from two autonyms, Lenni , which means "genuine, pure, real, original", and Lenape , meaning "real person" or "original person". Lënu may be translated as "man". Adam DePaul,
2832-618: The Fairmount Dam was constructed in 1822, spoiling the fishing at the Falls, the Castle was moved downriver to Rambo's Rock , opposite Bartram's Garden and below Gray's Ferry . On April 27, 1844, the club was incorporated under the name Schuylkill Fishing Company. When the fish in the Schuylkill were poisoned by sewage, the club was forced to move again. In 1887, the club bought the Clock House, on
2950-457: The First City Troop , which many other members joined. The club also changed its name to the "State in Schuylkill." While Philadelphia was the young nation's new capital, President George Washington , an honorary member, was a frequent visitor to the clubhouse, as on June 14, 1787. On July 21, 1825, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette visited the Castle and was elected a member. When
3068-687: The First Continental Congress ), the site of Benjamin Franklin 's home, the reconstructed Graff House (where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence), City Tavern (center of Revolutionary War activities), restored period residences, and several early banks. The park also holds the Liberty Bell , Franklin's desk, the Syng inkstand , a portrait gallery , gardens, and libraries. A product of extensive documentary research and archaeology by
3186-598: The French and Indian War . The Moravians' insistence on Christian Lenape's abandoning traditional warfare practices alienated mission populations from other Lenape and Native American groups, who revered warriors. The Lenape initially sided with France , since they hoped to prevent further European colonial encroachment in their settlements. Their chiefs Teedyuscung in the east and Tamaqua near present-day Pittsburgh shifted to building alliances with British colonial authorities. Lenape leader Killbuck ( also Bemino) assisted
3304-561: The League to Enforce Peace was formed here with former President William Howard Taft presiding. They proposed an international governing body under which participating nations would commit to "jointly...use...their economic and military forces against any one of their number making war against another" and "to formulate and codify rules of international law". The original steeple was demolished in 1781 due to structural problems. The wings and hyphens were demolished in 1812 and replaced by larger buildings designed by architect Robert Mills and
3422-790: The Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands , who live in the United States and Canada . The Lenape's historical territory includes present-day northeastern Delaware , all of New Jersey , the eastern Pennsylvania regions of the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania , and New York Bay , western Long Island , and the lower Hudson Valley in New York state . Today they are based in Oklahoma , Wisconsin , and Ontario . During
3540-780: The Lower Hudson Valley in New York to the lower Catskills and a sliver of the upper edge of the North Branch Susquehanna River . On the west side, the Lenape lived in several small towns along the rivers and streams that fed the waterways, and likely shared the hunting territory of the Schuylkill River watershed with the rival Iroquoian Susquehannock . Today, the Munsee-Delaware Nation has its own Indian reserve , Munsee-Delaware Nation 1, in southwest Ontario. The Delaware Nation at Moraviantown has
3658-527: The Northeastern Woodlands . Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Lenape roughly encompassed the area around and between the Delaware and lower Hudson rivers, and included the western part of Long Island in present-day New York. Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills" ), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify
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3776-519: The Three Sisters : maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted, fished, and otherwise harvested seafood . In the 17th century, the Lenape practiced slash and burn agriculture. They used fire to manage land. Controlled use of fire extended farmlands' productivity. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape planted their primary crop, maize , in March. Over time,
3894-640: The United States Post Office Department on July 26. The United States Declaration of Independence was approved there on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration was read aloud to the public in the area now known as Independence Square. This document unified the colonies in North America who declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. These historic events are celebrated annually with
4012-857: The Wyandot , the Mingo , the Shawnee , and the Wolf Clan of the Lenape , favored the British. They believed that by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , restricting Anglo-American settlement to east of the Appalachian Mountains, the British would help them preserve a Native American territory . As the Revolutionary War intensified, the Lenape in present-day Ohio were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in
4130-436: The mound builders culture. In addition, both tribes practiced adopting young captives from warfare into their tribes and assimilating them as full tribal members. Iroquoians adopting Lenape (or other peoples) were known to be part of their religious beliefs, the adopted one taking the place in the clan of one killed in warfare. Early European observers may have misinterpreted matrilineal Lenape cultural practices. For example,
4248-429: The "Lincoln Special", left Harrisburg, Pennsylvania , on Saturday, April 22, 1865, at 11:15 am and arrived at Philadelphia at Broad Street Station that afternoon at 4:30 pm. It was carried by hearse past a crowd of 85,000 people and was held in state in the Assembly Room in the east wing of Independence Hall. While there, it was escorted and guarded by a detail of 27 naval and military officers. That evening,
4366-406: The 1850s. The much larger Centennial Bell, created for the United States Centennial Exposition in 1876, hangs in the cupola of the 1828 steeple. The Liberty Bell, with its distinctive crack, was displayed on the ground floor of the hall from the 1850s until 1976, and is now on display across the street in the Liberty Bell Center . From May 10, 1775, to 1783, the Pennsylvania State House served as
4484-433: The British against the French and their Indian allies. In 1761, Killbuck led a British supply train from Fort Pitt to Fort Sandusky . In 1763, Bill Hickman, a Lenape, warned English colonists in the Juniata River region of present-day Pennsylvania of an impending attack. After the end of the French and Indian War, European settlers continued to attack the Lenape, often to such an extent that, as historian Amy Schutt writes,
4602-400: The Castle and Kitchen, to this new site. Inside the State House, portraits of the Governors lined the north wall of the entry hall and part of its south side. There were interesting ones of Governors Thomas Stretch and Samuel Morris , and several of the nineteenth century successors, as well as likenesses in oil of all nine Governors who served between 1896 and 1970. The door onto the porch
4720-432: The Confederation until 1753, shortly before the outbreak of the French and Indian War (a part of the Seven Years' War in Europe). The historical record of the mid-17th century suggests that most Lenape polities each consisted of several hundred people but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars between the Susquehannocks and the Iroquois, both of whom were armed by
4838-435: The Convention specified its purpose as proposing amendments to the Articles, but the Convention decided to propose a rewritten Constitution . The Philadelphia Convention voted to keep deliberations secret, and to keep the Hall's windows shut throughout the hot summer. The result was the drafting of a new fundamental government design. On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was completed, and took effect on March 4, 1789, when
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4956-425: The Delaware River at Eddington near Cornwells Heights, two miles above Andalusia. Over the winter of 1887–1888, the Castle and Kitchen were re-erected on this new site, where the Company remained until 1944. In 1944, the former estate of William B. Chamberlain, Devon House on the Delaware River near Andalusia, Pennsylvania , was conveyed to the State in Schuylkill. The Company moved all of its possessions, including
5074-414: The Delaware Tribe of Indians received grant money to fund The Lenape Talking Dictionary , preserving and digitizing the Southern Unami dialect. At the time of European settlement in North America , a Lenape would have identified primarily with their immediate family and clan, friends, and village unit and, after that, with surrounding and familiar village units followed by more distant neighbors who spoke
5192-415: The Dutch and Swedes, were surprised at the Lenape's skill in fashioning clothing from natural materials. In hot weather men and women wore only loin cloth and skirt respectively, while they used beaver pelts or bear skins to serve as winter mantles. Additionally, both sexes might wear buckskin leggings and moccasins in cold weather. Women would wear their hair long, usually below the hip, while men kept only
5310-411: The Dutch arrival, they began to exchange wampum for beaver furs provided by Iroquoian -speaking Susquehannock and other Minquas. They exchanged these furs for Dutch and, from the late 1630s, also Swedish imports. Relations between some Lenape and Minqua polities briefly turned sour in the late 1620s and early 1630s, but were relatively peaceful most of the time. The early European settlers, especially
5428-563: The Dutch fur traders, while the Lenape were at odds with the Dutch and so lost that particular arms race. In 1648, the Axion band of Lenape were the largest tribe on the Delaware River, with 200 warriors. Epidemics of newly introduced European infectious diseases , such as smallpox , measles, cholera, influenza, and dysentery, reduced the populations of Lenape. They and other Native peoples had no natural immunity . Recurrent violent conflicts with Europeans also devastated Lenape people. In 1682, William Penn and Quaker colonists created
5546-405: The Dutch shifted their operations to present-day upstate New York . The Lenape who produced wampum in the vicinity of Manhattan Island temporarily forestalled the negative effects of the decline in trade. During the resulting Beaver Wars in the first half of the 17th century, European colonists were careful to keep firearms from the coastally located Lenape, while rival Iroquoian peoples in
5664-551: The English colony of Pennsylvania beginning at the lower Delaware River . A peace treaty was negotiated between the newly arriving colonists and Lenape at what is now known as Penn Treaty Park . In the decades immediately following, some 20,000 new colonists arrived in the region, putting pressure on Lenape settlements and hunting grounds. Penn expected his authority and that of the colonial Province of Pennsylvania government to take precedence. William Penn died in 1718. His heirs, John and Thomas Penn, and their agents were ruling
5782-479: The Lenape adapted to European methods of hunting and farming with metal tools. The men limited their agricultural labor to clearing the field and breaking the soil. They primarily hunted and fished during the rest of the year: from September to January and from June to July, they mainly hunted deer, but from the month of January to the spring planting in May, they hunted anything from bears and beavers to raccoons and foxes. Dutch settler David de Vries , who stayed in
5900-399: The Lenape for agricultural products, mainly maize, in exchange for iron tools. The Lenape also arranged contacts between the Minquas or Susquehannocks and the Dutch West India Company and Swedish South Company to promote the fur trade . The Lenape were major producers of labor intensive wampum , or shell beads, which they traditionally used for ritual purposes and as ornaments. After
6018-469: The Lenape historical territory, which spanned what is now eastern Pennsylvania , New Jersey , Lower New York Bay , and eastern Delaware . The tribe's common name Delaware comes from the French language . English colonists named the Delaware River for the first governor of the Province of Virginia , Lord De La Warr . The British colonists began to call the Lenape the Delaware Indians because of where they lived. Swedish colonists also settled in
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#17328444840086136-414: The Lenape in 1682, said the Unami used the following words: "mother" was anna , "brother" was isseemus and "friend" was netap . He instructed his fellow English colonists: "If one asks them for anything they have not, they will answer, mattá ne hattá , which to translate is, 'not I have,' instead of 'I have not'." The Lenape languages were once exclusively spoken languages. In 2002,
6254-401: The Lenape people that lived there. The Lenape had a culture in which the clan and family controlled property. Europeans often tried to contract for land with the tribal chiefs, confusing their culture with that of neighboring tribes such as the Iroquois . As a further complication in communication and understanding, kinship terms commonly used by European settlers had very different meanings to
6372-444: The Lenape: "fathers" did not have the same direct parental control as in Europe, "brothers" could be a symbol of equality but could also be interpreted as one's parallel cousins, "cousins" were interpreted as only cross-cousins, etc. All of these added complexities in kinship terms made agreements with Europeans all the more difficult. The Lenape would petition for grievances on the basis that not all their families had been recognized in
6490-510: The Pennsylvania Assembly had the wooden steeple removed from the main building. The steeple had rotted and weakened to a dangerous extent by 1773, but it was not until 1781 that the Assembly had it removed and had the brick tower covered with a hipped roof. A more elaborate steeple, designed by William Strickland , was added in 1828. The original wings and hyphens (connecting corridors) were demolished and replaced in 1812. In 1898, these were in turn demolished and replaced with reconstructions of
6608-425: The Pennsylvania government that is commonly known as the Walking Purchase". In the end, all Lenape who still lived on the Delaware were driven off the remnants of their homeland under threats of violence. Some Lenape polities eventually retaliated by attacking Pennsylvania settlements. When they resisted European colonial expansion at the height of the French and Indian War , British colonial authorities investigated
6726-518: The Storykeeper of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania , calls the name "an anglicized grammatical error that basically translates as the 'original people people.'" While acknowledging that some Lenape do identify as Lenni Lenape or Delaware, DePaul says "the best word to use when referring to us is simply 'Lenape.'" When first encountered by European settlers, the Lenape were a loose association of closely related peoples who spoke similar languages and shared familial bonds in an area known as Lenapehoking ,
6844-405: The Turtle or Wolf clans. His children would not belong to the Turkey Clan, but to the mother's clan. As such, a person's mother's brothers (the person's matrilineal uncles) played a large role in his or her life as they shared the same clan lineage. Within a marriage itself, men and women had relatively separate and equal rights, each controlling their own property and debts, showing further signs of
6962-421: The area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the Achinigeu-hach (or Ackingsah-sack, the Hackensack River ), in which 100 or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be killed easily. Other methods of hunting included lassoing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting
7080-419: The area of Fort Detroit across the river in present-day Michigan . Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia , where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted by the Founding Fathers of the United States . The structure, which is the centerpiece of Independence National Historical Park ,
7198-403: The area of present-day Washington Valley in Morris County, New Jersey . Led by Reverend John Brainerd, colonists forcefully relocated 200 people to Indian Mills, then known as Brotherton , an industrial town with gristills and sawmills, that was the first Native American reservation in New Jersey . Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation in 1777. In 1758, the Treaty of Easton
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#17328444840087316-465: The area, and Swedish sources called the Lenape the Renappi . The historical Lenape country, Lenapehoking ( Lënapehòkink ), was a large territory that encompassed the Delaware and Lehigh Valley regions of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey from the north bank of the Lehigh River along the west bank of the Delaware River into Delaware and the Delaware Bay . Their lands also extended west from western Long Island and New York Bay , across
7434-436: The area. Beginning in the 18th century, the Moravian Church established missions in Lenape settlements. The Moravians required the Christian converts to share Moravian pacifism and live in a structured and European-style mission village. Moravian pacifism and unwillingness to take loyalty oaths caused conflicts with British colonial authorities, who were seeking aid against the French and their Native American allies in
7552-532: The assassination of Abraham Lincoln 's, Lincoln's body and the disinterred coffin of his son Willie, who had predeceased him in 1862, were taken by train from Washington, D.C. , to Springfield, Illinois , for burial. It would essentially retrace the 1,654-mile (2,662 km) route Lincoln had traveled as president-elect in 1861 with deletion of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and the addition of Chicago . The train left Washington, D.C. for Baltimore at 8:00 am on April 21, 1865. Lincoln's funeral train, known as
7670-421: The back of the U.S. $ 100 bill since 1928, and was depicted on the 1975-76 bicentennial Kennedy half dollar . The Assembly Room is pictured on the reverse of the U.S. two-dollar bill , from the original painting by John Trumbull entitled Declaration of Independence . Independence Hall served as the model for the Pennsylvania Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition , the Pennsylvania Building at
7788-414: The bank of the Schuylkill, where they were greeted “very kindly and welcomed . . . into their Province with a Bowl of fine Lemon Punch big enough to have Swimmed half a dozen of young Geese." The Punch is traditionally made in a large bowl also used as a baptismal font for the citizens' infant sons; “its an ample space . . . . . would indeed admit of total immersion”, as one citizen noted. I doubt that there
7906-431: The brush on fire. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area, and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round. One technique used while fishing was to add ground chestnuts to stream water to make fish dizzy and easier to catch. The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than other, nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples in North America at
8024-419: The building's site; Kearsley sought to have it constructed on High Street, which is present-day Market Street , and Hamilton favored Chestnut Street. Lawrence said nothing on the matter of its location. The disagreements escalated to the point where arbitration was needed. On August 8, 1733, Hamilton brought the matter before the Provincial Assembly . He explained that Kearsley did not approve of his plans for
8142-428: The building. By 1732, Hamilton acquired the deed for Lot no. 2 from surveyor David Powell, who was paid for his work on the lot, but tensions began arising among the committee members. Kearsley and Hamilton disagreed on a number of issues concerning the state house. Kearsley, who designed Christ Church and St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia, had plans for the design, but so did Hamilton. The two men also disagreed on
8260-447: The causes of Lenape resentment. The British asked Sir William Johnson , Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to lead the investigation. Johnson had become wealthy as a trader and acquired thousands of acres of land in the Mohawk River region from the Iroquois Mohawk of New York. In 1757, an organization known as the New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians wrote a constitution to expel native Munsee Lenape from their settlements in
8378-427: The colony, and had abandoned many of William Penn 's practices. In an attempt to raise money, they contemplated ways to sell Lenape land to colonial settlers, which culminated in the Walking Purchase . In the mid-1730s, colonial administrators produced a draft of a land deed dating to the 1680s. William Penn had approached several leaders of Lenape polities in the lower Delaware to discuss land sales further north. Since
8496-653: The combined site of the University of Virginia and Monticello ). Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are now protected in a secure zone with entry at security screening buildings. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks , as part of a national effort to safeguard historical monuments by the United States Department of Homeland Security , pedestrian traffic around Independence Square and part of Independence Mall
8614-400: The company assembles at the castle and a citizen, designated "Caterer," assisted by the apprentices, prepares the golden perch in the ancient pans and old manner. Each club member serves as an apprentice at some time, and must learn to hold three perch in a long-handled frying pan over the blazing wood fire until one side is done to a tum, then, with a quick twist of his wrist, toss the fish up
8732-631: The dead since the wars outnumbered those killed during the war. In April 1763, Teedyuscung was killed during the burning of his home. His son Captain Bull responded by attacking settlers, sponsored by the Susquehanna Company, in the present-day Wyoming Valley region of Pennsylvania.. Many Lenape joined in Pontiac's War and were among the Native Americans who besieged present-day Pittsburgh. During
8850-688: The early 1770s, missionaries, including David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder , arrived in the Ohio Country near the Lenape villages. The Moravian Church sent these men to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity. The missionaries established several missions, including Gnadenhutten , Lichtenau , and Schoenbrunn . The missionaries pressured Indigenous people to abandon their traditional customs , beliefs, and ways of life, and to replace them with European and Christian ways. Many Lenape did adopt Christianity, but others refused to do so. The Lenape became
8968-426: The end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans: The Lenape have a matrilineal clan system and historically were matrilocal . Children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity. The mother's eldest brother was more significant as a mentor to the male children than was their father, who was generally of another clan. Hereditary leadership passed through
9086-501: The era by the National Park Service, includes a musical tall case clock made by Peter Stretch , c. 1740, one of the most prominent clockmakers in early America and father of Thomas Stretch . Two smaller buildings adjoin the wings of Independence Hall: Old City Hall to the east, and Congress Hall to the west. These three buildings are together on a city block known as Independence Square, along with Philosophical Hall ,
9204-434: The events of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, was largely filmed in Independence Hall. Because of its symbolic history, Independence Hall has been used in more recent times as a venue for speeches and protests in support of democratic and civil rights movements. On October 26, 1918, Tomáš Masaryk proclaimed the independence of Czechoslovakia on the steps of Independence Hall. National Freedom Day , which commemorates
9322-532: The federal government, the restoration of Independence Hall and other buildings in the park set standards for other historic preservation and stimulated rejuvenation of old Philadelphia. The site, administered by the National Park Service , is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (joining only three other U.S. man-made monuments still in use, the others being the Statue of Liberty , Pueblo de Taos , and
9440-590: The fence in favor of movable bollards and chains, and also to remove at least some of the temporary barriers to pedestrians and visitors. On July 16, 1987, Congress met at Independence Hall in an unprecedented joint meeting outside of Washington, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Connecticut Compromise that determined the structure of Congress during the Constitutional Convention. The 1989 film A More Perfect Union , which portrays
9558-399: The job. In 1753, Stretch erected a giant clock at the building's west end that resembled a tall clock ( grandfather clock ). The 40-foot-tall (12 m) limestone base was capped with a 14-foot (4.3 m) wooden case surrounding the clock's face, which was carved by cabinetmaker Samuel Harding . The clock was removed about 1830. The clock's dials were mounted at the east and west ends of
9676-445: The land in question did not belong to their polities, the talks did not lead to an agreement. But colonial administrators prepared the draft that resurfaced in the 1730s. The Penns and their supporters presented this draft as a legitimate deed, but Lenape leaders in the lower Delaware refused to accept it. According to historian Steven C. Harper , what followed was a "convoluted sequence of deception, fraud, and extortion orchestrated by
9794-463: The land, the houses, and the families, the clan fathers provided the meat, cleared the fields, built the houses, and protected the clan. Upon reaching adulthood, a Lenape male would marry outside of his clan . The practice effectively prevented inbreeding, even among individuals whose kinship was obscure or unknown. This means that a male from the Turkey Clan was expected to marry a female from either
9912-579: The last decades of the 18th century, European settlers and the effects of the American Revolutionary War displaced most Lenape from their homelands and pushed them north and west. In the 1860s, under the Indian removal policy, the U.S. federal government relocated most Lenape remaining in the Eastern United States to the Indian Territory and surrounding regions. Lenape people currently belong to
10030-467: The main building connected by rods to the clock movement in the middle of the building. A new clock was designed and installed by Isaiah Lukens in 1828. The Lukens clock ran consecutively for eight days, "with four copper dials on each side that measured eight feet in diameter and clockworks that ensured sufficient power to strike the four-thousand pound bell made by John Wilbank." The Lukens clock remained in Independence Hall until 1877. The acquisition of
10148-459: The maternal line, and women elders could remove leaders of whom they disapproved. Agricultural land was managed by women and allotted according to the subsistence needs of their extended families. Newlywed couples would live with the bride's family, where her mother and sisters could also assist her with her growing family. By 1682, when William Penn arrived to his American commonwealth, the Lenape had been so reduced by disease, famine, and war that
10266-733: The new Congress met for the first time in New York's Federal Hall . Article One, Section Eight, of the United States Constitution granted Congress the authority to create a federal district to serve as the national capital. Following the ratification of the Constitution, the Congress, while meeting in New York, passed the Residence Act of 1790, which established the District of Columbia as
10384-539: The new federal capital. However, a representative from Pennsylvania, Robert Morris , did manage to convince Congress to return to Philadelphia while the new permanent capital was being built. As a result, the Residence Act also declared Philadelphia to be the temporary capital for a period of ten years. The Congress moved back into Philadelphia on December 6, 1790, and met at Congress Hall , adjacent to Independence Hall, until moving to Washington, D.C., in 1800. Following
10502-639: The north and west such as the Susquehannocks and Confederation of the Iroquois became comparatively well-armed. They defeated the Lenape, and some scholars believe that the Lenape may have become tributaries to the Susquehannock. After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles". The Iroquois Confederacy added the Lenape to the Covenant Chain in 1676 and the Lenape were tributary to
10620-422: The nuts of Aesculus glabra in the pocket for rheumatism , and an infusion of ground nuts mixed with sweet oil or mutton tallow for earaches. They also grind the nuts and use them to poison fish in streams. They also apply a poultice of pulverized nuts with sweet oil for earache. The first recorded European contact with people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. The explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano
10738-551: The office for 34 years. Other early members included Samuel Howell , Thomas Wharton Jr. , Tench Francis Jr. , William Bradford , Samuel Nicholas , Clement Biddle , William Bingham , Mayor Anthony Morris , Thomas Mifflin , and Samuel Morris , second governor for 46 years. In 1737, membership was limited to twenty-five. After the American Revolution , in 1782, the club changed its name to "State in Schuylkill", but retained its rules and organization. The club claims to be
10856-401: The old chimney, catching them as they fall on the uncooked side. The perch are served to the company assembled about the ancient table, on one of William Penn's platters presented to the club by his son John who was a member while Governor. The club maintained a rather ambiguous claim to state sovereignty throughout its early history. During Prohibition in the United States , it claimed that it
10974-465: The oldest in the world. The Beefsteak Club of London antedates it, but was suspended for a while. In 1747, the members decided to build a clubhouse, dubbed The Castle, at the foot of the Schuylkill River falls near Fairmount , now part of Philadelphia . It used some of the nearby walnut trees for timber. During the American Revolution, Samuel Morris, the club's governor, was the captain of
11092-495: The original clock and bell by the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly is closely related to the acquisition of the Liberty Bell . By mid-1753, the clock had been installed in the State House attic, but it was six years before Thomas Stretch received any pay for it. While the shell of the central portion of the building is original, the side wings, steeple and much of the interior were reconstructed much later. In 1781,
11210-498: The original home of the American Philosophical Society . Since its construction in the mid-20th century, to the north has been Independence Mall, which includes the current home of the Liberty Bell. The lowest chamber of the original wooden steeple was the first home of the Liberty Bell . When that steeple was removed in the 1780s the bell was lowered into the highest chamber of the brick tower, where it remained until
11328-492: The original wings. The building was renovated numerous times in the 19th and 20th century. The current interior is a mid-20th-century reconstruction by the National Park Service with the public rooms restored to their 18th-century appearance. During the summer of 1973, a replica of the Thomas Stretch clock was restored to Independence Hall. The second-floor Governor's Council Chamber, furnished with important examples of
11446-675: The other slightly forwards then backwards, yet so as to advance gradually". A number of linear measures were used. Small units of measure were the distance from the thumb and first finger, and the distance from first finger to pit of elbow. Travel distance was measured in the distance one could comfortably travel from sun-up to sun-down. Lenape herbalists , who have been primarily women, use their extensive knowledge of plant life to help heal their community's ailments, sometimes through ceremony. The Lenape found uses in trees like black walnut which were used to cure ringworm and with persimmons which were used to cure ear problems. The Lenape carry
11564-643: The principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress , a body of representatives from each of the thirteen British North American colonies . On June 14, 1775, delegates of the Continental Congress nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House. The Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General of what would later become
11682-530: The same dialect, and finally, with those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including the Nanticoke people who lived to their south and west in present western Delaware and eastern Maryland . Among many Algonquian peoples along the East Coast , the Lenape were considered the grandfathers from whom other Algonquian -speaking peoples originated. The Lenape had three clans at
11800-428: The state house's location and architecture and argued that the assembly had not agreed to these decisions. Three days later, Hamilton showed his plans for the state house to the assembly, which accepted them. On August 14, the assembly sided with Hamilton, granting him full authority over the project, and the current site on the south side of Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets was chosen as its location. Ground
11918-500: The struggles of African Americans for equality and justice, has been celebrated at Independence Hall since 1942. On Independence Day, July 4, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave an address there. Annual demonstrations organized by the East Coast Homophile Organizations advocating for gay rights were held in front of Independence Hall each July 4 from 1965 to 1969. Independence Hall has been pictured on
12036-412: The sub-clan mothers had reluctantly resolved to consolidate their families into the main clan family. This is why William Penn and all those after him believed that the Lenape clans had always only had three divisions (Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf) when, in fact, they had over thirty on the eve of European contact. Members of each clan were found throughout Lenape territory, and while clan mothers controlled
12154-447: The time, could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, around much of the current New York City area alone, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape in approximately 80 settlement sites. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano , the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor . European settlers and traders from the 17th-century colonies of New Netherland and New Sweden traded with
12272-459: The transaction (not that they wanted to "share" the land). After the Dutch arrival and brief establishment of Fort Nassau (along the bank of the Delaware River in present day Gloucester City, New Jersey ) in the 1620s, the Lenape were successful in restricting Dutch settlement until the 1660s to no further than Pavonia in present-day Jersey City along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established
12390-618: The war. When the war began, Killbuck found the Lenape caught between the British and their Indian allies in the West and the Americans in the East. The Lenape were living in numerous villages around their main village of Coshocton , between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The Americans had Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British, along with Indian allies, controlled
12508-787: Was Placed Here in 1947 During the 1950s, when the Schuylkill Expressway was under construction, the Park Commission moved the monument about 200 yards west of the Girard Avenue Bridge (Martin Luther King Drive near Sweet Briar Drive) between West River Drive and the Expressway, some 125 yards from the actual spot where the Castle had stood. On the frigid winter night of December 21–22, 1980, the State House, its caretaker's wing, and virtually all of its contents were destroyed in
12626-593: Was Punch in it at the time — it was far too precious for such usage, and far too potent. According to legend, on a visit to the Castle George Washington drank so much of the potent Fish House Punch, he subsequently couldn't bring himself to make an entry in his diary for three days. It was said to be Washington's favorite. Lenni-Lenape The Lenape ( English: / l ə ˈ n ɑː p i / , /- p eɪ / , / ˈ l ɛ n ə p i / ; Lenape languages : [lənaːpe] ), also called
12744-555: Was broken for construction soon after. Independence Hall has a red brick facade, designed in Georgian style . It consists of a central building with belltower and steeple, attached to two smaller wings via arcaded hyphens . The highest point to the tip of the steeple spire is 168 feet 7 + 1 ⁄ 4 inches (51.391 m) above the ground. The State House was built between 1732 and 1753, designed by Edmund Woolley and Andrew Hamilton , and built by Woolley. Its construction
12862-460: Was charged with selecting a site for the building's construction, acquiring plans for it, and contracting a company for its construction. Hamilton and his future son-in-law William Allen , who was later chief justice of the Province of Pennsylvania , were named trustees and were authorized to purchase the land for the proposed state house. By October 1730, they had purchased lots on Chestnut Street for
12980-503: Was commissioned by the Pennsylvania colonial legislature which paid for construction as funds were available, so it was finished piecemeal. It was initially inhabited by the colonial government of Pennsylvania as its State House, from 1732 to 1799. In 1752, when Isaac Norris was selecting a man to build the first clock for the State House he chose Thomas Stretch , the son of Peter Stretch his old friend and fellow council member, to do
13098-541: Was designated a World Heritage Site in 1979. The construction of Independence Hall, initially called the Pennsylvania State House , was completed in 1753. It served as the first capitol of both the colonial-era of the Province of Pennsylvania and, following American independence, the nation's first capital and the capital of Pennsylvania . Between 1775 and 1781, the Second Continental Congress , which appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of
13216-604: Was flanked by a piano and by a tall case clock made by Peter Stretch about 1740, father of the Schuylkill Fishing Company's first Governor, Thomas Stretch , which had been donated by Governor William Fisher Lewis. The State in Schuylkill was assigned the place of honor in the Grand Centennial Torchlight Procession held July 3, 1876, celebrating the centennial of the Nation's founding. The company
13334-408: Was greeted by local Lenape who came by canoe, after his ship entered what is now called Lower New York Bay . At the time of sustained European contact in the 17th through the 19th centuries, the Lenape were a powerful Native American nation who inhabited a region on the mid-Atlantic coast spanning the latitudes of southern Massachusetts to the southern extent of Delaware in what anthropologists call
13452-449: Was left in place. In 1948, the building's interior was restored to its original appearance. Independence National Historical Park was established by the 80th U.S. Congress later that year to preserve historical sites associated with the American Revolution . Independence National Historical Park comprises a landscaped area of four city blocks, as well as outlying sites that include Independence Square, Carpenters' Hall (meeting place of
13570-416: Was restricted by temporary bicycle barriers and park rangers. In 2006, the National Park Service proposed installing a seven-foot security fence around Independence Hall and bisecting Independence Square, a plan that met with opposition from Philadelphia city officials, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell , and Senator Arlen Specter . As of January 2007, the National Park Service plan was revised to eliminate
13688-403: Was signed between the Lenape and European colonists. In it, the Lenape were required to move westward out of present-day New York and New Jersey, progressing into Pennsylvania and then to present-day Ohio and beyond. Through the 18th century, many Lenape moved west into the relatively depopulated upper Ohio River basin, but they also sporadically launched violent raids on settlers far outside
13806-469: Was to have served as the personal escort of President Ulysses S. Grant , but since he was unable to attend it escorted the Governor of Pennsylvania and Mayor of Philadelphia throughout the city, passing Independence Hall at midnight amidst the ringing of bells, firing of salutes, and cheers of a large crowd. On October 13, 1947, 225 years after its founding, members of the Schuylkill Fishing Company dedicated
13924-441: Was unaffected, and continued to openly manufacture and drink alcoholic beverages. The club is reputed to have been the origin of Fish House Punch , an alcoholic drink consisting mainly of rum. The first mention of Fish House Punch — though not yet by that name — may be in the notes of William Black, the secretary of an embassy of Virginia Commissioners who visited Philadelphia in 1744. He recounted being met by local poobahs on
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