HANS & REBECCA IN COOPER’S FERRY
Spring 1727. Hans had made arrangements for one year’s passage back and forth between Cooper’s Ferry, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for only fifty pieces of silver. It had been almost 50 years since William Penn crossed the Delaware River to the Front Street overlook. By 1927, Cooper’s ferries shuttled people back and forth between shorelines every ½ hour since 1688. Word had just reached the colonies that King George II had been made King of England. He speaks a little more English than his father did but stays in his beloved Hanover Province in Germany.
East of 5th street on Erie just a couple of blocks from the Benjamin Cooper house, Hans and Rebecca found a appropriate, ample home for sale and settled in with four servants and a “companion”. The two-story house had quarters out back for servants, but Matoaka was given a bedroom upstairs close to Rebecca’s. The original 1681 Dublin families of Thomas Sharpe, Mark Newby, William Bates, Thomas Thackara, and George Goldsmith were scattered along lands between Newton Creek and Cooper’s Creek, the start of Camden County. Rebecca liked the country, away from the stench of Philadelphia and the crowded streets with the poor and hungry on all but a few streets. Many of the early settlers were Quakers of the Newton Colony, members of the Society of Friends. These people were drawn by the Concessions and Agreements, a document written in 1677, that promised land that had religious freedom, equitable taxation, and representative government.
Seabreeze loved the new house, previously owned by the Stokes, one of the original settlers. She and Matoaka had the whole house to decorate so wall papering was the first item of business and they spent weeks deciding which paper in which room. Men were brought in to do the papering but the two of them were there to make sure it was done to the highest standards of perfection. Hans spent most of his time these days at work. The rock business was a seasonal one since most of the new construction went on in spring and fall. The summer was so hot and humid that construction ground to a halt under the noon day sun. Hans had inherited the business from his father but wasn’t interested until he got older and wanted to settle down with a family. When he was younger he had an allowance from his father that allowed him to chase women and seek adventure wherever he found it.
Because he had worked at many different jobs as a young man, he knew a man was judged by what he does not what he thinks or knows or even is capable of doing. So, when it came time to grow up and decide, rather than striking out on his own and doing something different for a living, he came running home to take over the family business, because that business was the easiest way to wealth. And, as everybody knows, wealth is the one and only measure of a man, no matter what people say to you about “there’s more to life than money.” That dribble is almost always talked about by people that do not have money and will never have money. With few exceptions and few is the operative word, here, if you have heard of someone, male or female, in history it is almost certain they had money or power, usually both. This well known fact had not escaped Hans’ notice and when alone he would admit to himself that he was like most other rich men’s sons, a little too spoiled, lazy, stupid to put a fortune together. He could hold his own in a parlor setting, but mostly from being in them all his life.
Rebecca had married Hans for love and position having come from the seaport towns of the East coast. She had worked hard to study and read as many of the classics as possible to acquaint herself with all of the human experience. Hans was tall, good-looking, and that fact that his family were at the top of the social ladder in Philadelphia didn’t hurt any. She, however, would not have married just for money. If she was honest with herself she’d admit she wouldn’t have married just for love either. He saw her as more than a beautiful woman, she was also smart, well read, and fine addition to a family that would have been very picky about his choice of a bride. And blend in she did, from the first day his sisters and mother accepted her, for one thing she was careful when she disagreed and never just threw it out there. The men in the Burer family like most men in a family are quick to accept a beautiful woman, and if she goes out of her way at all to acknowledge them she can build support for later times if things get strained at all.
The house was huge, and Seabreeze made sure there was a room for Bill upon his return, and an extra room for Bear should he decide to stay awhile, after they get back. She figured they would have become friends with that much time together. Bill had always made friends with men easily with that manner of his of accepting everyone for who they are. And of course there’s a big outbuilding where Klondike will be housed. The ceiling is 8’ and there are beds 2’ off the ground for him to sleep on. The water bowl is bigger than the pitchers and bowls in the rooms because he has a mouth that is 8” wide and opens 2’ at full yawn. She had grown up with Klondike and thought of him as the family dog, not the kind that lies around and gets fat, more the kind that has to be given considerable respect and petted only when he wants to be. She even had the maintenance man pipe a duct out to the out building designated for Klondike. She missed Bill and would be glad when she gets her daughter and father back in a couple of years or so. She wished she had had a second daughter or son to keep her busy and if she had anticipated a “understood” European education she would have pushed Hans for another child years ago.
Seabreeze went out to the Mohawk village of the bear clan to ask for some artifacts to have in the room so Bear would feel more at home. She came back with several scalps, a hatchet, a couple of blankets (without the small pox virus) and 3 deer skin britches with matching moccasins. She was quite proud of her trappings for his room although the scalps were still a little gamey. Bill’s room was harder. She found an old sextant in town in a shop in the old part of town. Then there were the paintings of sail ships in full sail on rough water that were so much part of Bill’s life in his younger years. She spent all one weekend looking in old shops for just the right pieces and since Bill had been all over the world, almost anything exotic from far away would be eligible for the room. Brass elephants from India, carved ivory from China, a fertility doll from the Ivory Coast, necklaces from the South Sea Islands made out of sea shells, a curved dagger from Persia, and an old whale oil lamp from London that had silver inlaid designs around the bottom.
The grounds were extensive and required laborers year around to keep them up properly. The court yard was 200’ by 300’ feet and had rose bushes on the inside arrayed by color with darker colors on the outside ending with white ones in the center. The beds were concentric circles with the innermost circle raised 3’ off the ground. The net effect was that of a hundred foot diameter rose with dark outside and pure white inner petals, with the bushes so close together there was no way to differentiate. Two foot wide gravel walkways separated the rest of the formal gardens. Each bed was raised and had about 10-30 square feet of one type of flower with dozens of species inside. Surrounding the formal gardens were six foot high stone walls made from the field stones found throughout the 320 acre property. Close to the house on the south side was a large vegetable garden with almost every kind of produce that would grow in the region. Behind it was a large barn with horse stables. Rebecca loved her horses and even though she was just now learning to ride, she fell in love with a couple of the mares right away. The riding trails went along the outside of the property and had places that would allow jumping, but they could be easily circumvented if jumping wasn’t in the plans. Behind the horse stables was a corral and behind that pastures for the horses. On the north side of the property were crops, that were rotated so as not to deplete the soil. This new thinking was in the experimental stage at this point.
In all, thirty-three people were needed to keep up the grounds and another 10 to maintain the house, counting Matoaka. Hans was a stickler for cleanliness, so the house people were kept as busy if not busier than the grounds people. Much of Rebecca’s time was spent with Matoaka and one day Rebecca asked her why her features were so middle eastern. They were good friends by now and she thought that it wouldn’t be offended if she asked.
TO BE CONTINUED