David Rittenhouse Mystery

Featured from The Papermaker, the Newsletter of Historic RittenhouseTown
Volume 17, Number 1

Although David Rittenhouse was born in the village later named after his illustrious family, his father Matthias & Elizabeth departed from the community a few years after his birth in 1732 for Norriton in present-day Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. From various biographies and other accounts, it is known that David later frequently traveled between the countryside and later his home in Philadelphia City, but our organization has never discovered any firm evidence that he ever revisited his relatives in RittenhouseTown. It is logical to assume he would have traveled to this site because of the family ties and the convenience of the site to the main roadway, the Germantown Road, connecting the countryside with the city. One tantalizing piece of evidence that David was near the Family Homestead for business reasons was discovered by J. M. Duffin, the organization's corporate secretary and a noted archivist at the University of Pennsylvania. From the 5 November 1776 minutes of the State of Pennsylvania's Council of Safety during the American Revolution:

Mr. Wharton, Mr. Biddle, Mr. Rittenhouse & Colonel Humpton, the Committee appointed to view the Country and fix upon a Spott for a Magazine for Military Stores. Report: That they have viewed the Ground along the Wissahickon Road for 12 miles, and are of the opinion that the Heights on the north side of the Wissahickon Creek, afford a very convenient Situation for Stores, and is capable of being defended to great advantage, and the back Country affords a fine retreat if necessary. The Hill on the Wissahickon Road just above Vanderin's Mill, is very proper to erect a fortification upon, as it may be made almost inaccessible, and must command the Country.

The area was a good choice for military fortifications and storage, however, it was not the Americans who listened to their own advice. For those of you who have read the recently published RittenhouseTown: A Journal of History there is a detailed article about the Revolutionary War fighting in this same area during the 4 October 1777 Battle of Germantown. However, it was the German troops, known collectively as Hessians, who occupied this strategic ground and constructed fortifications which eventually blocked several thousand attacking American militia troops under General James Armstrong. This area would again be considered for defensive purposes some eighty-six years later when General Robert E. Lee was heading into Pennsylvania with his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. With one of the prizes the strategic and industrial city of Philadelphia, fortifications were again placed in this and other nearby areas by Federal troops to prevent Lee and his soldiers from crossing the Schuylkill River. Fortunately for Philadelphia, there was a battle at the small town of Gettysburg which changed Lee's plans for bringing the Civil War farther into the north.

As for David Rittenhouse, we do know he was in the area for this mission, we know he visited his friends like Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Mifflin at his home near the Falls of the Schuylkill in the present day Philadelphia neighborhood of East Falls which is just south of RittenhouseTown. On April 17, 1790, one of the greatest men to have ever lived in America, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, died around 8 PM. Word was quickly brought out to the Governor's Home from the city proper by messenger where the leading political and scientific men were attending a party. David's attendance a this party so near to his birthplace was witnessed by such leaders as Thomas McKean, the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court; Thomas Willing, president of the Bank of North America; Henry Hill, a private gentleman of rank; and the Reverend Doctor William Smith, provost of the College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania). As a sudden strong thunder storm hit the area everyone felt the heavens were announcing this passing of this great man and paying tribute to the new nation he had worked so hard to form. Provost Smith took a pen in hand, and composed a few emotional lines to demonstrate this sad fact has now transformed one individual in the room, David Rittenhouse:

...Seek, seek no more to shake our souls with dread,
What busy mortal told you -- Franklin's Dead?
What, though he yields to Jove's imperious Nodd?
With Rittenhouse he left his magic rod!

Four days later David participated in the funeral cortège through the city where everyone knew Franklin. Among muffled bells and military fired minute salutes, the funeral pall was born by Governor Mifflin, Chief Justice McKean, Bank of North American President Thomas Willing, Philadelphia Mayor Samuel Powell, William Bingham, a prominent citizen and vice president of Franklin's Society for Political Enquaries; and now the new president of the American Philosophical Society, first founded and administered by Franklin, America's greatest living scientist David Rittenhouse along with 20,000 people or half the population of Philadelphia.

So we know David is recorded and witnessed as to being near RittenhouseTown on many occasions, but we need that document which specially states he was at the site itself. If you have such a primary reference source in your possession, we would really appreciate a copy of it. Or better still, think about donating this document to the site's museum collection so you can officially bring David back to his birthplace.

The Papermaker is the quarterly newsletter of Historic RittenhouseTown and is sent to all members.