Kutztown University - Keystonia Yearbook (Kutztown, PA)

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WILLIAM PENN, the great founder of Pennsylvania, the three-hundredth anniversary of whose birth we celebrated in 1944, was one of the great practical visinoaries among the leaders of the New World. His dreams and how they became realities makes an inspiring story to remember as we be- come teachers in our beloved state. At eighteen William Penn was expelled from Oxford because he v as toe religious. His action then, in a large part, set the course of his life. There might never have keen a Pennsylvania had Penn been another kind of man. He could have been a seventeenth-century courtier for he had his education at Oxford, a stay at the French court and a year at Lincoln's Inn. Follow- ing this ritual, peculiar to that of an admiral's sen, he might have lived a life of ease and luxury, were it not for the fact that Penn came under the influence of a new rel.gious doc- trine circulating England at that time. It v as at Oxford that Penn heard Thomas Loe preach the doctrine of Quakerism, which taught that life in this world should be apart from this world, that there should be temper- ance in all things, and that daily conduct should conform to a set of stated ideals. Immedi- ately upon hearing this message, Penn become a convert. His father bitterly opposed him, doing everything within his power to bring Penn around to his way of thinking, and it was not until his dying day that Admiral Penn finally endorsed the course of his son's faith. Penn began to preach the doctrines of Quakerism in England, which resulted in his imprison- ment several times, for it v as opposed to many tenets of the Church of England. So general was the interest in the new faith, however, that there was finally issued a declaration of in- dulgence for dissenters and Penn's life became easier.

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PENN'S PROMISE—OUR PRIDE

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In 1675, Penn's thoughts were first seriously turned to America. Edward Byllinge, a Quaker merchant from London, had become the owner of a piece of land, now New Jersey, which he later sold to Wili am Penn. Penn wrote to Richard Hartsborne, a settler whom he appointed his agent, We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men and Chris- tians, that they may not be brought in bondage by their own consent; for we put the power in the people. Thus was stated Penn's idea for a new province here in America. It was in 1680 that Penn made application to Charles II for a grant of land in America. He was given this grant of land and the king named it Pennsylvania. Thus our state began. Penn was a dreamer and with land to form a colony in the new world, new ideals and new visions were essential. Coming from tyrannical Europe his greatest dream was freedom— freedom to v orship God as the individual saw fit, freedom to form a democratic form of government, freedom to choose one's occupation, freedom from racial prejudice and free- dom to speak one's thoughts. But dreaming was not enough for this man of deeds for he wanted to share the fulfillment of them with others. It was now partially within his power to realize these dreams with the people who were to colonize the new land. Let us see how Penn's promises have been carried out, how these dreams have become realities for Pennsyl- vanians and have come to permeate the American way of life. In a very few years, the people of other countries began to take advantage of Penn's prom- ise of religious freedom. Mittelberger, writing in 1754 named fifteen different sects then in Pennsylvania whose presence was due to the breadth and liberality of the English Penn. There were fifteen then; to attempt to number them now would bring countless more to light. Of course. Penn's faith, Quakerism, was one of the foremost religions in early Pennsylvania. The early colony was composed almost entirely of Quakers, and today we still find them prominent in the Philadelphia section. The Quakers held sway over the colony until the Revo- lution and their main settlements at that time were in Montgomery, Chester, Delaware and Bucks counties.