TOWNSHIP LINE, GERMANTOWN RITTENHOUSE-CARE-PRATT-MASON-LOWBERWELSH-SMITH

PRING BANK is situated on the west side of Wissahickon Avenue near where Westview Street joins it from the east. Wissahickon Avenue is the old Township Line Road which divided Germantown from Roxborough Township and now separates the twenty-second and twenty-first wards of Philadelphia.

It is not known just when the house was built but on February 12, 1736, Matthias Jacobs and his wife Barbara conveyed the sixty acres with the buildings and improvements to William Rittenhousen of Roxborough Township, the grandson of William Rittenhousen, who was born in 1664 in the principality of Broich on the Ruhr. His ancestors had long been makers of paper at Arnheim, and when taking the oath of citizenship in Amsterdam he was described as a papermaker from Muhlheim. He emigrated to New York with his three children, but finding no printer there to use the product of his industry, came to Germantown in 1688, and in 1690 built the first papermill in America on a little stream called the Monoshone Creek, and later Paper Mill Run, which flowed into the Wissahickon. The mill was washed away by a flood several times but was always rebuilt, and the original house of the family still stands on the Lincoln Drive where Rittenhouse Street comes down from

Germantown. He was the founder of the family here and his great-grandson, David Rittenhouse, was the famous astronomer, philosopher, and statesman, who was president of the Philosophical Society, treasurer of the State, director of the mint, and died in 1796. William Rittenhouse was the first Mennonite preacher in Germantown, being chosen October 8, 1702.

The Spring Bank property is not far from the papermill and no doubt the Rittenhouse family owned all of the intervening land.

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William died on February 18, 1708, and the papermaking was carried on by his son Claus," who died in 1734 and left the mill to his son William, the purchaser of Spring Bank, and who is described in the deed as paper maker." He had three sons, Jacob, Martin, and Nicholas. Jacob had the mill during the Revolution and was one of the minute-men to go out with the Roxborough troops. Nicholas Rittenhouse was a miller and probably operated the mill on the opposite side of the Wissahickon Creek, the foundations of which are still standing. At the death of his father, William, he took the place by conveyance from Nicholas in the partition of the estate, and in 1795 sold it to Peter Care, an eminent miller and flour merchant of the city, who sold it, in 1803, to Henry Pratt, his son-in-law.

Henry Pratt was the son of Matthew Pratt, a famous limner of 1758, whose father learned to be a goldsmith from Philip Syng.

They lived in Water Street, Philadelphia, and Henry was thrice married, his last wife being Susanna Care, daughter of Peter and Anna Barbara Care. In 1796

Henry Pratt bought the residence of Isaac Wharton at 112 North Front Street between the houses of Abraham Kintzing, his partner, and Henry Drinker. Thereupon the Cares moved to the Water Street house.

When Henry Pratt parted with the Spring Bank property in 1816, it passed through the hands of Joseph Huckel, dentist, Jonathan and George Thomas, merchants, and William Overington, farmer, until it came, in 1825, to Samuel Mason, the steward of the Pennsylvania Hospital, described in the deeds as "Gentleman."

Samuel Mason was an Irish Friend who was one of the founders and first trustees of the Germantown Friends' Meeting on School House Lane, in which the Rittenhouses and Livezeys were also prominent.

During his care of this Meeting there arose a matter of discipline which was long before the Meeting for settlement. It so preyed upon the mind of one concerned Friend, Priscilla Deaves, that she became unbalanced and took every occasion to preach from the text, “The Innocent Suffer, while the Guilty go Free." Having been admonished in vain, it was decided to adopt summary measures, and when she next arose two stalwart elders stepped to her side and raising her upon their shoulders bore her down the aisle toward the door. Whereupon she exclaimed: "I am more honoured than our Saviour, He was carried on the back of one ass, while I am borne on the backs of two."

Samuel Mason established a sanatorium at Spring Bank, and lived there until 1838, when it was sold to George Wilson, "marble mason " and farmer, from whom Doctor Edward Lowber bought it in 1840.

Doctor Lowber married Elizabeth Twells, and their daughter, Mary, became the second wife of John Welsh, son of John and Jemima Maris Welsh. Doctor Lowber bequeathed the estate to his son, William T. Lowber, and his grandchildren Welsh. From these John Welsh purchased the place in 1870. Mr. Welsh had first married Rebecca Bass Miller and Spring Bank is now owned by a daughter of this marriage who is Mrs. J. Somers Smith.

John Welsh was an eminent and successful merchant of great executive ability. He began his long public service as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Sanatory Fair in 1864 and nine years later was chosen president of the Board of Finance of the Centennial Exhibition. His successful administration of this trust is well known, and in 1877 the citizens of Philadelphia presented him with a fund of $50,000 which he donated to the University of Pennsylvania to endow the "John Welsh Centennial Professorship of History and English Literature." It was largely through his efforts that the University buildings in West Philadelphia were erected and paid for.

President Grant offered him the positon of Secretary of the Treasury but he declined, only to be appointed by President Hayes Minister to Great Britain, where his distinguished service made him highly popular at the English Court. He received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and from Washington and Lee University as well as other honours from various European sovereigns. He occupied many positions of trust in the philanthropic, financial, and business organisations of Philadelphia and died at the advanced age of

eighty-one. He was very fond of Spring Bank and gave considerable of his land to Fairmount Park, including "Molly Rinker's Rock" where he erected a heroic statue of William Penn, called "Toleration," which overlooks the valley of the Wissahickon. Back of the house is a walk leading to the brink of the hill where are two trees and a seat joined to them where he loved to sit and survey the view so much like Berkshire in old England with its forests and cleared fields. Perhaps there is no place so near the city which preserves the wild conditions of the past so well as this one. Here the raccoons still steal the corn and foxes scamper across the lawns. All the old features of early days are evident the smoke house, the spring house, and the fish pond at the base of the little hill upon which the house stands. It was in such ponds as this that the early settlers preserved the fish, which they had caught, until a suitable time for eating. The stone plastered house has been added to many times and is on several levels. The big fireplace and the crane are still to be seen and while the architecture is not pretentious it is most quaint and interesting.