2 April 2009 The Rest is History
I have come across a lot of odd stories over the years, but the story of the Rusk twins is one of the strangest. It concerns twin brothers, William and Jacob Rusk, neighborhood toughs who grew up at 140 W. Girard Avenue. The Rusk twins were born January 13th, 1857 and on December 27th, 1882 they committed suicide together.
William and Jacob Rusk were the sons of Peter Rusk, a shoemaker, who lived at the140 W. Girard Avenue address since at least 1840. Peter Rusk and his wife Hanna were the parents of at least ten children born between the years 1838 and 1866.
There were only a handful of families with the surname Rusk listed in Philadelphia between 1820 and 1860. All of these families lived in the vicinity of Girard Avenue, either slightly north or south on the cross streets between Front and 3rd Streets. In all likelihood they were all related, as the name was an unusual one. These families would all appear to be German, as they were in a German neighborhood and working trades typical of Germans in those days (cobblers, butchers, tanners), as well some were listed as Germans.
The twins father died in the spring of 1877 at the age of seventy-two. It was soon after their father’s death that the boys’ criminal troubles began. The twins were twenty-years old when their father died. Like many twins there was a very close attachment to each other. They were rarely seen apart and dressed the same. They both worked occasionally as shoemakers, the same occupation as their father. The only difference in them was one had a slightly darker mustache then the other. On one occasion, when they were apart, Jacob became engaged in a fight on Front Street. William, who was several blocks away at the time, said to a friend that he felt something had happened to his brother and went in search of him where he found him badly beaten.
The twins’ corner were they would hang with their friends was Leopard Street and Girard Avenue, which was just down the street from their home. When the twins came of age they joined several clubs, both Democratic organizations. This was a time when Republicans ruled Philadelphia. One club that they joined was the Howard Club, the other was reported to be the White Pawn Association, which from newspaper accounts appears to have been more of a gang.
On February 15th, 1879, the Rusk twins and their associates were attending an event at the American Mechanics Hall at 3rd & George Streets. A brawl broke out between a drunken Jacob Rusk and some other men. William and John Rusk (another brother) went to Jacob’s aide. When the fight was broken up, William pulled a knife on a police officer that was trying to arrest him. William lunged at the officer, the officer dodged the knife but Rusk accidentally stabbed and killed one of his friends, David McCool. William was arrested and tried for murder, as the Commonwealth felt since William tried to slay the officer the murderous intent was present. However on his deathbed McCool stated he knew it was an accident. After a trial, William was cleared of the charges and released.
In June of 1882, patrolman Joseph Jarvis tried to arrest one of the White Pawn members. The Rusk twins came to the aide of the fellow Pawn. When the officer went for his gun, they hit the officer over the head with a “heavy instrument” knocking him to the ground. They took his revolver and mace and then proceeded to stomp the officer severely while he was down on the ground. Officer Jarvis was never able to pin the attack on the Rusks but kept to himself the memory of this incident.
Officer Jarvis was new on beat in the Leopard & Girard area. He had started the new beat at about the end of 1881. Jarvis, an English immigrant, took his job seriously and tried to clear the local corners of the thugs that hung out on them. He gained the wrath of the White Pawns for these actions. Previously, in January of 1882, after only a month or so in the neighborhood, Jarvis was stabbed by John Hughes, one of the White Pawns, for no apparent reason, except for the fact that the officer was doing his job. This period in history was also a time when Republicans ruled and controlled the patronage jobs, so it may have been simply Republicans and Democrats brawling in the streets.
Next week we will take a look at the tragic ending of William and Jacob Rusk.
9 April 2009 The Rest is History
The tragic end for William and Jacob Rusk, the twin brothers that I wrote about in last week’s column, came to a close on Christmas evening in the year 1882.
The twins were hanging on their gang’s corner at Leopard & Girard with some of their friends. Officer James Stirk asked the men to move on (the Rusk twins were now 25 years old). Most of the boys started to leave, but the Rusk brothers became insolent and refused. The officer attempted to arrest William, but Jacob came to his aide. A fight ensued, when another officer, Joseph Jarvis, the one who had had previous troubles with the White Pawns (the twins’ gang) saw the commotion and joined the fray. During the fight Officer Jarvis was stabbed and fell “with a groan.” The Rusks and their friends ran off with Officer Stinks firing two shots at them from his revolver with no success.
Profusely bleeding, Officer Jarvis insisted on being taken to his father’s home at 1227 Cadwalader Street, as his wife was ill in bed at his own home at 1217 Cadwalader.
The newspapers started to report that Officer Jarvis would probably not recover from the two stab wounds he suffered in his stomach. A police bulletin that was put out on the twins stated they were both dressed nearly alike, in dark overcoats, dark pants, and black stiff crowned derby hats.
After the stabbing and assuming the police officer was going to die, the Rusk twins escaped to Trenton, NJ, where their brother John Rusk’s in-laws lived. Thinking that the officer was going to die and the twins thought that their past crimes when added to this new one would surely place themselves in a death sentence situation.
Having already pledged in their youths that they came into the world together and they would go out together, the twins decided to kill themselves. With the police closing in on them at Trenton, the Rusks hatched their suicide plan. They would tie themselves together and jump into the nearby Water Power canal.
Telling their brother’s sister-in-law the plan and where she could expect to find their bodies, the boys left the home. The woman tried to talk them out of it, but with no success. The brothers left the home, went to the canal, took off their hats and jackets, tied themselves together and proceeded to jump into the canal and drown.
It didn’t take long for the police to find out what happened, they talked to the Rusks’ relative and she told them what the twins had done. The canal was searched and the bodies were found shortly after. The bodies were shipped back to Philadelphia, but not until several thousand curiosity seekers viewed the bodies at Trenton’s morgue.
The Rusk family tried to place the twins at Palmer Cemetery’s receiving vault but the trustees of burial ground refused citing that “the will of the founder of the place forbids the reception of the remains of person dying by their own hand.” Eventually the boys were buried at the old Hanover Street Cemetery, now Hetzell’s Playground, but not before fully six thousand people viewed their bodies at their home. It was stated it was the largest funeral ever in the neighborhood.
The day they were laid out fell on a holiday and many people were off work and came to the funeral out of curiosity. As well the boys’ family was long known in the community and their amount of friends and associates were very high. All of the membership of the White Pawn Association and the Howard Club were present and acted as pallbearers and security. Throngs of people followed the boys to their burial at Columbia Avenue and Thompson Street.
In an odd twist to the story, Officer Jarvis survived his knife wounds, thus the twins killed themselves for naught.
Updates: Two weeks back I wrote on Frances Marie Burke, a 1940 Miss America from Kensington. I had asked for further clarification on that matter since I was unsure where she lived. I have received word from three different people claiming she lived in St. Anne’s Parish. Two folks stated she lived on Huntingdon Street between Memphis and Tulip and a third person stated she lived on Tulip, one house north of Huntingdon, next to the old drugstore at the northwest corner.
This Saturday, April 11th at 2 PM, at the Fishtown Library, I will give a talk and conduct a book signing for my recent books (History of Penn Treaty Park and History of the Kensington Soup Society). The library is on Montgomery Avenue, west of Girard (across from the Fishtown Recreation Center).
16 April 2009 The Rest is History
John Fanning Watson (1779-1860) was an antiquarian and historian, well known in Philadelphia during his lifetime for his collection of historical artifacts and manuscripts. Watson’s magnus opus was his “Annals of Philadelphia,” which was first published in 1830 and was later expanded to three volumes.
Because of Watson’s age (Watson recalls seeing President George Washington when he lived in Philadelphia), his history of Philadelphia is often times looked at as a primary source when investigating local history. Watson’s memory was keen and he kept numerous notes on all things historical about Philadelphia. His notebooks, located at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, recount his travels though Kensington in the early 19th Century.
The opening pages of his journals tell of his crossing the bridge over the old Cohocksink Creek and seeing the vast development then underway at what would today be the slot parlor site. At that time the site was only recently being developed as the Masters Estate began to be broken up and lots sold. Watson writes:
"I rode up Beach St from the bridge at Brown St. Is filled up greatly - on the east side of Beach St, on the line of houses, was once a line of wharf logs - I remembered when a boy along the causeway was [a] full 6 feet lower than now (it had then no name of a street) and there at a little N[orth] of Poplar Lane (as it now traverses it and into the river) lay a curious old boat structure like a present coal ark, which an old crippled sailor made his house and a store for selling cakes & triffles - We called it Noah's ark & from its apparent blackness & antiquity, the boys universally believed it had been a relique of the Flood. I see now, that the houses built at the Northern end of the causeway 10 years ago & then on Piles, now have to be raised again 3 feet."
Watson continues: "I rode along the Front St in Kensington. Is much improving & is leveling & raising, I could not but think it was a picture of ancient [Philadelphia]. They who will see Kensington 15 years hence, will have no idea of the gullies, now filled up, which I remember especially the Quagmire when Capt. Murrells troops met their disaster in attacking Jays Effigy. The high bank too at the old Redoubt, like ye old city, a take of fancy & comparison might be made of this analogy."
Watson also mentions in his notebooks seeing Mr. Hopkins who lived in Fairman’s Mansion, a home once occupied by Kensington’s founder Anthony Palmer which sat opposite the Treaty Tree (Beach Street, just north of Columbia Avenue): "Saw old Mr. Hopkins aged 92 who lived many years at Palmer's house at the big Elm tree. It was about 45 years ago he went to live there. He says he always heard Penn held his treaty there and never doubted it. The tree continued growing after he lived there because he [had] hook in it to which he hitched his horse [and it] got over grew [a] full 3 inches in it."
This little piece, from Watson’s published history of Philadelphia is especially interesting: “Wilcox Phillips, who kept the inn for many years at the east end of the long stone bridge leading to the Kensington market place (who would now be about a hundred years of age) told an aged friend of mine that his grandfather, who lived on or about that spot, used to tell him that a pirate had actually wintered his vessel in the Cohocksinck creek, a little above that bridge.”
Watson also tells us that “In 1739, Mrs. Mary Smith and her horse were both drowned "near the long bridge in the Northern Liberties. Twas supposed it occurred by her horse attempting to drink at that place where the water is very deep. At the same causeway was quicksand, in which a horse and chair and man all sank!”
What will future readers of Fishtown’s history think when they read about the development taking place now, exactly one hundred years after Watson witnessed the first wave of waterfront development in Fishtown.
Note: For those readers that showed up at the Fishtown Library for the history talk this past Saturday, my apologies for the event not taking place. I was notified only 30 minutes before the talk that the library “might” be closed. I checked and sure enough the library was closed. As of the writing of this column I have not received an explanation or apology from the library for them scheduling an event on a day that they were closed.
23 April 2009 The Rest is History
When the Lord made shad
The Devil was mad
For it seemed such a feast of delight
So to poison the scheme
He jumped in the stream
And stuck in the bones out of spite.
- An old fisherman's poem
This Saturday, April 25th has Fishtown hosting its very first Shad Festival at Penn Treaty Park. The festival is put on by the Fishtown Area Business Association (FABA) and offers people not only the opportunity to learn a little about Fishtown’s shad fishing history but also to take in some music, food and crafts by local musicians, restaurants, and artists.
Much of what is known about Fishtown’s fishermen was researched and brought to light by Rich Remer, one of the founders (along with Torben Jenk and myself) of the Kensington History Project, a local group that researches, lectures, and publishes on the history of Kensington and Fishtown. Remer has done a tremendous amount of research on the Shad fishing of the early fishing families of Fishtown (try saying that ten times real fast).
According to Remer, shad was once the second most popular fish in the United States after cod and there was a time when the Delaware River was teeming with shad. The "Kensington shadders" as Remer calls them, were a tight knit group, often intermarrying and living in the same general neighborhood, that being the original section of Kensington that became Fishtown and had as its borders the old creek called Gunner's Run (Aramingo Avenue & Dyott Street) on the north, the Delaware River on the east, Palmer Street on the south, and roughly Moyer Street on the west. This small section of Kensington (after all it was all Kensington before it was Fishtown) became known as Fishtown because many of the Delaware River's fishermen lived here, married here, and died here.
Remer's research has found that over the course of the 19th century, the fishermen families of Fishtown had "gradually bought or leased the shore fisheries of the lower Delaware River estuary and by mid-century they controlled the catch. The neighborhood was called Fishtown because these families controlled the fishing; it was "the" home for fishermen, not just for Kensington, or Philadelphia, but the whole of the Delaware Valley.
The surnames of these early fisherman stand out as beacons of the history of the community: Baker, Bakeoven, Bennett, Collar, Cramp, Faunce, Gosser, Pote, Rice, Shibe, Tees, and Tuttle. Of these families, the main fishing families were the Bennetts, Cramps, Faunces, Gossers, and Rices. However, many of these families served or founded local social institutions and churches, as well as played major roles in the development of Kensington's Fishtown section. Even Benjamin Shibe, the owner of the old Philadelphia Athletics baseball team hailed from a Fishtown fishing family, as well as the great shipbuilding family of William Cramp. If you stroll through Palmer Cemetery (Memphis & Palmer Streets), you will see many of these early fishermen buried on the hill along the Memphis Street side.
The foot of Susquehanna Avenue had been the main dock for the fishermen and it was here where you had a "veritable fish market with numerous skiffs and catboats" and it would not be uncommon to see women with baskets of fish on their heads. "Purchasers would come to the wharf and make their purchases, the "catties" and eels being skinned in their presence thus guaranteeing fresh fish." However, much of the selling of the fish was handled in town, at the fish market on Dock Street.
Over time, the combined pressures of "over fishing, pollution, and environmental degradation" brought the shad fisheries to an end. Fishtown's fishermen were left to find work elsewhere. A number of them had funneled their monies into local real estate; others went into that other popular neighborhood business of shipbuilding. Today, after "peaking in the early 1900's," Remer says that the Delaware River shad fishery has now dwindled to "one operating commercial establishment, the Lewis Fishery of Lamberton, New Jersey, and Fishtown's glorious shad seasons are forever gone."
The Fishtown Shad Festival is this Saturday, April 25th at Penn Treaty Park. The event kicks off at 11 AM and runs until 5 PM. The live music will be by The Lara and Joe Show, Gildon Works, Iron, and Hoots and Hellmouth, and will start at 12 PM. Food and arts & crafts vendors will be open all day. There will also be two historic trolley tours of the neighborhood by yours truly. I will also be selling and signing books at our cultural heritage booth, where our committee has created a 16 foot long historic exhibition panel highlighting the neighborhood’s history in text and images, as well as a timeline for Fishtown’s shad fishing history.
30 April 2009 The Rest is History
During the Kensington History Project’s (Torben Jenk, Rich Remer, Ken Milano) recent investigation into the history of the Point Pleasant area of Kensington (the Delaware River waterfront, south of Shackamaxon Street to Poplar Street), much information was revealed about Paine Newman, a colonial blacksmith whose brick smith shop was located on the river side of Delaware Avenue, 110 feet south of Shackamaxon Street.
On August 23rd, 1774, Paine Newman married Mary Coats, the daughter of a well-known Northern Liberties family. Fairmount Avenue was once known as Coats Street. Several months after Newman’s marriage, Batchelor’s Hall burnt down on April 4th, 1775. A Pennsylvania Mercury newspaper article stated “all the wooden part of it” was “consumed.” Batchelor’s Hall was a learned society of sorts, founded by contemporaries and friends of Benjamin Franklin sometime around 1726. The relationship of Newman to Batchelor’s Hall is that Reading Howell’s survey of 1804 shows “Newman’s Brick Smith Shop” located on the grounds of Batchelor’s Hall.
Tax lists and Provincial Council minutes show that during the Revolutionary War years Paine Newman lived in Kensington’s Point Pleasant area. In the “Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania,” dated September 28th, 1776, the minutes show that Paine Newman was paid six pounds, eight shillings, and six pence, for six anchors delivered to Capt. Hazlewood. This shows him working at this time as a blacksmith, or shipsmith. On April 9th, 1777, Paine Newman, with a Capt. Miller and Jehu Eyre, were partners in a schooner Dolphin. Jehu Eyre and his brother-in-law Peter Browne, both of Kensington, built the schooner at Kensington. Various tax lists from 1779 to 1782 (Proprietary, Supply, and State Tax lists) all place Paine Newman as being located in the “Northern Liberties East Part” which was the designation for not only the Northern Liberties neighborhood of today, but also for all of Kensington, including Point Pleasant. The 1780 tax list in particular shows Newman’s occupation was listed as a “smith.” He was listed in tax lists amongst the Coats and Browne families, interlocked families known to be located near the Cohocksink Creek and Point Pleasant.
In 1783, Newman, with many others of Philadelphia and the Northern Liberties, was one of the signers of the Philadelphia Address to Congress. On this list he is sandwiched between George Lieb and Henry Brusstar (Brewster) then followed by William Masters, all from the Point Pleasant area. Henry Brusstar was the mastmaker whose wharf was at today’s Shackamaxon Street. Lieb lived right at the bridge that went over the old Cohocksink Creek (Canal Street). Master’s place was at Point Pleasant.
In October of 1787, the Independent Gazetteer (October 3rd & 20th) ran an advert stating Paine Newman filed for bankruptcy. The Pennsylvania Mercury newspaper, dated November 16th, 1787, shows Paine Newman’s “Brick Smith’s Shop” for sale. It states the lot and ground was:
“…situate, lying, and being in the township of the Northern Liberties and county of Philadelphia, containing in Front on Hall-Street 40 feet, and in length or depth 372 feet and a half to the river Delaware; bounded on the east by the river Delaware, on the west by land of Solomon Lyon, and on the north by ground of John Dickinson, Esq., and on the south by ground belonging to the heirs of William Allen, Esq., deceased; taken in execution as the property of Paine Newman, and to be sold by Joseph Cowperthwait, Sheriff. Philadelphia, Nov. 8, 1787.”
This same “Brick Smith Shop” is shown on Reading Howell’s survey of the “Bachelor’s Hall Grounds” prepared in September of 1804. Reading Howell (1743-1827) was a preeminent surveyor of Pennsylvania in his day, having been the Pennsylvania state surveyor as well as the surveyor for the City of Philadelphia.
There was no other “Brick Smith Shop” on the Bachelor’s Hall Ground at this time in history (1775 –1804). Reading Howell’s 1804 survey clearly shows only one blacksmith on the Batchelor’s Hall Grounds, that being Paine Newman and his “brick smith shop.” Research of the property deeds of all the lots laid out from the Batchelor’s Hall Grounds at the time in question also shows this to be true.
What this means is that when the historian John Fanning Watson states that a brick smith shop was built upon the old foundation of Batchelor’s Hall, he could only be speaking of Paine Newman. The Kensington History Project’s research has clearly shown that Newman’s brick smith shop was the smith shop built on foundation of Batchelor’s Hall.
Note: I will be selling and signing copies of my three books at Third Federal Bank, located on the corner of York & Memphis Streets, this Friday, May 1st, from 3:30 PM to closing.
7 May 2009 The Rest is History
Many long time Fishtowners know of the old A.C. Harmer Club, the club that was once located at 1130 Shackamaxon Street, just east of Girard Avenue. The club originated during the presidential campaign of James A. Garfield in 1880 and took its name from a prominent Republican congressman, Alfred C. Harmer, one of the leaders of the then dominant Republican Party that ruled over Philadelphia during its greatest years (c1865-1950).
Alfred Crout Harmer was born on August 8th, 1825, in Germantown and died March 6th, 1900, at Philadelphia. He went into the wholesale business before the age of twenty and in a few years established himself at the head of a large shoe-manufacturing company.
Harmer first served in public office at the young age of 21, when he was elected as a director of the public schools in Germantown. A few years later he was elected a member of the Common Councils for the 22nd Ward and served from 1856 to 1860.
In 1860, as a candidate of the People’s Party (successor to the old Whig Party), he was elected Recorder of Deeds for the city of Philadelphia. In the summer of 1870, he received the nomination of the Republican Party for Congress for the Fifth Pennsylvania District, and was elected a member of the Forty-third Congress taking his seat in March of 1871. In all he was elected to congress fourteen times and served twenty-seven years.
Harmer was a staunch supporter of veterans of the Civil War and their families. He was a man who worked in the backgrounds, in committee work, rather then give elaborate speeches on the floor of the House. Some of the committees that he served on were: Naval Affairs, District of Columbia, Foreign Affairs, Coinage, Weights, and Measures; Pacific Railroads; Indian Affairs, and the Committee on the Library. When Harmer died, he was the “Father of the House,” the senior member of Congress.
The A. C. Harmer Club’s name had its origins in John Virdin, who helped to organize the club and was a one time president. Virdin had always been active in Republican politics in the 18th Ward, where he was born. Both his parents died before he was 11 years old and he was compelled to make his own way. For four years after their death he worked on a farm in New Jersey, attending school in the winter. He returned to Philadelphia and obtained employment at Cramp’s Shipyard. When he was 21 he met Harmer, the Congressman from his district. The Congressman obtained a position for young Virdin at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a sparmaker. Years later when Virdin helped to organize the Republican Club in the 18th Ward he named the Harmer Club in gratitude to the man who obtained him his first Government position
The A.C. Harmer Club was originally located at 308 E. Girard Avenue and it was there in August of that year, that a massive rally in support of Garfield for President was held. In November of 1889, the club moved to the 1130 Shackamaxon Street location.
In 1900, the club renovated its Shackamaxon Street building, which included the erection of a two-story addition to the front building that measured 24 x 44.5 feet. The first floor was to be used for gymnasium purposes, and the second floor for a meeting room. The club also had new plumbing installed, new papering, painting and furniture. In 1903, the club had plans and specifications prepared by Architect Joseph M. Huston, for a new hall addition to be built in the rear of the clubhouse. The drawings showed a two-story Pompeian brick and stone trimmed building, 40.3 x 126.7 feet. Cloak and recreation rooms were to be fitted up on the first floor, and an auditorium, with a stage and dressing rooms, was to be contained on the second floor.
Besides their involvement in politics, the club sponsored local baseball teams and vaudeville entertainment acts for the benefit of the residents of Kensington. Large crowds were attracted to these events. The club also hosted the Elks in 1907 where 2500 guests feasted on 200 pounds of “succulent turtle.”
As the original generation of the founders of the club died off and as Republicans lost power in Philadelphia, the club slowly faded away. Today 1130 Shackamaxon Street is an empty lot; it’s history unknown to the passersby.
Note: On Wednesday, May 6th, at 6 PM, I will give a talk on the history of Penn Treaty Park at Old Brick Church (Richmond & Marlborough). The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (GSP) is sponsoring this event and light refreshments will be served after the talk. Come out and support this event and show GSP that we support our local history.
14 May 2009 The Rest is History
At present, America is concerned with the spread of Swine Flu. Due to the possible dangers of such a disease, many are remembering the 1918 flu pandemic, known as the Spanish Flu, which caused over 50 million worldwide to die. Locally, one hundred and sixty years ago, Kensington prepared itself of a cholera outbreak, or as it is sometimes known, Asiatic Cholera.
In its most severe forms, cholera is one of the most rapidly fatal illnesses known, and a healthy person's blood pressue may drop to abnormal levels within an hour of the onset of symptoms. Infected persons could die within three hours if medical treatment is not provided. Most commonly, the disease progresses from the first signs of diarrhea to shock in 4 to 12 hours, with possible death following in 18 hours to several days, unless treatment is provided.
As word of the possible spread of Cholera to Philadelphia came, the city government began plans to help prevent a violent outbreak. The Philadelphia. Board of Health created a Sanitary Committee that was responsible for issuing reports on the disease. In a report prepared by the Sanitary Committee and published on October 10th, 1849, the disease appeared on emigrant ships out of Havre, in November of 1847. By January it was confirmed in the U.S. at Staten Island, New York & New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Sanitary Committee also took measures to rid the city and county of possible nuisances where the bacteria could be harbored. The sanitary measures adopted by the Board of Health prior to, and during the prevalence of the epidemic in Philadelphia, in the summer of 1849, were numerous. The report also sheds light onto just what the physical landscape of Kensington and its adjacent districts looked like.
Preparation was taken in advance of the pestilence appearance and nuisances began to be removed. Between October 1848 to October 1849, officials removed 676 nuisances from Kensington (& Fishtown) alone. These nuisances included: 257 Privies cleaned, 10 Houses closed, 33 Houses cleaned, 61 Yards cleaned, 76 Cellars cleaned, 46 Privies purified, 60 Ponds filled or drained, 80 Hog pens removed, 5 Stables cleaned, 11 Filthy lots cleaned, 2 Filthy Alleys cleaned, 5 Manure heaps removed, 19 Streets and gutters ordered cleaned, 11 Slaughter houses cleaned.
In comparison, the total nuisances for the Northern Liberties and Moyamensing were almost equal to Kensington, with 681 and 691 respectively. Spring Garden had the most nuisances removed of any district outside the city proper with 1455. The city proper, the most populated area, had the most with 2621.
Along with removing the nuisances that might harbor the disease, District Committees of the Board of Health were established. For the Northeast District of Kensington, Northern Liberties, and Richmond, the Chairman was Jeremiah E. Eldridge, of Germantown Road, above Fifth Street. Other committee members were Oliver Evans, William Street, between Point-no-Point (Richmond) Road and Delaware, Charles Delany, No. 43 Queen (Richmond) Street, Kensington, and William Goodwin, No. 305 North Second Street.
There were also druggists whose stores were selected as dispensaries during the prevalence of the Cholera. For Richmond the druggist was C. S. Peale, at William and Richmond Streets. Kensington had several: George C. Bower, Third and Germantown Road; T. W. Vaughan, Queen (Richmond) and Hanover (Columbia) Streets; R. Etris, Frankford Road, opposite Commissioners’ Hall (at Master St.); and E. Morris, on Germantown Road, Cohocksink. The District of Northern Liberties’ druggists were John Horn, corner 3rd & Brown; Benjamen H. Sleeper, 5th opposite George St.; S.P. Shoemaker, 2nd above Noble St. and George Snowden, corner 4th & Noble St.
A temporary Cholera Hospital was also established for the Eastern & Western parts of Kensington. The hospital opened on 14th of July 1849. Mortality rates for Kensington Hospital were 1 to 3:40, for Northern Liberties 1 to 2:13, and for Richmond 1 to 4.
By May of 1849, Cholera of 2 people was detected on a canal boat at Richmond, the first cases in Philadelphia. Kensington, with a population of 47, 697 in 1849, had 218 cases of Cholera, with 54 deaths. Richmond with a small population of 5529, only had 39 cases, with 13 deaths. The Northern Liberties with a population of 49,321, had 147 cases with 38 deaths. In all, the city and county of Philadelphia had a population of 350,000 and had 1418 cases of Cholera, with a resulting 386 deaths.
In Richmond the chief cause of the diseases was because of its locality along the river front, its want of proper drainage and sewerage, and also to the character, habits, and occupation of a large portion of its population, viz: canal and river boatmen, coal-heavers and laborers. In Kensington, the chief cause was in the unpaved ungraded and undrained condition of many of its streets.
Note: I am scheduled to have a booth at the Trenton Avenue Art Festival where I will be selling and signing my books. The fair is this Saturday, May 16th, from 11 AM to 5 PM, along Trenton Avenue, south of Dauphin Street.
21 May 2009 The Rest is History
This past Saturday I set up my history booth at the Trenton Avenue Art Festival and like last year, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with many of my column’s readers. This year I met a fellow named John Dicuzio, who informed me that St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children was founded right here in Fishtown (Kensington). This was news to me, so I researched John’s tip and indeed he is correct.
William Henry Bennett was born in Philadelphia on September 17, 1843, the son of Edward Alexander Bennett and Judith Burton Mustin. Growing up in Germantown, he attended private schools before going to Brown University for two years. He came back to Philadelphia and entered the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania where he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1869.
In 1870, Bennett entered an 18-month internship at Episcopal Hospital, at Front Street & Lehigh Avenue. After leaving Episcopal to work for Dr. Parrish’s Sanitarium, near Media, Pennsylvania, Dr. Bennett re-established his relationship with Episcopal when he became a visiting physician for them in 1877.
In 1874, Bennett is said to have “started upon the most important work of his life, namely, his connection with the Children’s Seashore House at Atlantic City.” The work that Dr. Bennett did with children at Atlantic City confirmed his beliefs that helping the children of the working classes would be his life’s calling. Bennett had a forty-five year history with Seashore House, from his initial involvement in 1874 until his death in 1919.
In 1875, a year after starting with Seashore House, Dr. Bennett opened St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. The first hospital was in a small rented room on East Dauphin Street. He knew the neighborhood well having served his18-month internship at the nearby Episcopal Hospital.
Bennett conceived the idea of St. Christopher’s and collected the first $500.00 in funds so that the dispensary could be opened. His reputation drew patients to the new facility and made it a success. He became the physician-in-charge for the new children’s hospital, a position he held until 1892, when he became chairman of the executive committee, and, finally president of the board from 1910 until his death in 1919.
The hospital was incorporated on November 9th, 1875. It was supported by voluntary contributions. The hospital’s mission was the treatment of the sick and injured children of the poor, without regard to creed, color, or nationality. There were 2,800 children seen during the first year of operations on East Dauphin Street.
The original St. Christopher’s Hospital was located at 533 East Dauphin Street, just east of Frankford Avenue. There were address systems changes in the late 19th Century and the 500 block of East Dauphin Street appears to be today’s 2100 block.
The Dauphin Street address for St. Christopher’s remained in effect until January 8th, 1877, when the “hospital proper” moved to a 7-room facility at 132 Diamond Street, opposite Norris Square. A little two-story cottage served as the hospital on Diamond Street and a dispensary was kept open on Dauphin Street for a short while. The new Diamond Street location later attracted another famous institution in the 1880s, Dr. Howard Attwood Kelly’s Kensington Hospital for Women, a facility that I wrote about in a previous column (August 3rd, 2006).
St. Christopher’s eventually moved from Diamond Street to Lawrence & Huntingdon Streets in 1883, where they built a small hospital 90 feet square. There were several expansions in the 1880s and 1890s. By the end of the 19th Century the hospital was seeing close to 25,000 patients per year. In the late 20th Century, the hospital moved to its current location at Front Street & Erie Avenue.
By establishing St. Christopher’s, Dr. Bennett thought that it would now be possible not only to serve the children of Kensington’s manufacturing district, but also to maintain the medical staff of Seashore House in Atlantic City year round, since at that time Seashore House’s staff would be routinely let go at the end of the summer season. Many of the children served at Seashore House were children from the inner city and from St. Christopher’s, who were sent to the seashore to recuperate from various illnesses.
Dr. Bennett died on May 14th, 1919, at the house for children that he was so closely associated with. He died “amidst the little ones he loved and had served so faithfully and so long.” While Bennett practiced medicine his whole life, his legacy to the medical world will be his work with Seashore House and his founding of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, one of America’s finest children’s hospitals.
28 May 2009 The Rest is History
I previously researched biographies for a talk I gave on what I called the stain glass honorees of First Presbyterian Church of Kensington. The talk was on the families honored by the church with stain glass windows. The church (on Girard just north of Columbia) was designed by well-known Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan. Its main steeple is long gone, lost to a hurricane, and replaced with the now familiar light green dome.
One of the stain glasses honorees was Conrad F. Clothier. I have yet to find any relationship to the more famous department store Clothier family, of Strawbridge & Clothier fame.
By the 1840's, there were at least five distinct Clothier households in a small area that surrounded First Presbyterian Church of Kensington. The Clothier family that Conrad F. Clothier is related to, appears to be the one that first appears in the city directory of 1835-36, when one William Clothier, a grocer at the corner of Bedford (Wildey) & Marlborough, first appeared. William Clothier became a member of First Presbyterian Church of Kensington in 1825.
Shortly before joining First Presbyterian, William's future wife, Catherine Wilen joined the church with a number of her siblings. Catherine was the daughter of Conrad Wilen and Mary Margaret Yoter. Conrad received his middle name Fries from his mother's side of the family, as her sister Maria Wilen, married Conrad Fries, who had immigrated to Philadelphia from Holland. These families, the Fries and Wilens, were also intermarried with the Overington family of the Frankford section of Philadelphia who were fairly prominent in 19th Century Philadelphia. The Fries and Wilens were also married into the Tees family, who were likely related to the Tees shipbuilding family of Kensington, who were also members of First Presbyterian Church of Kensington.
William Clothier married Catherine Wilen at First Presbyterian in 1828. It didn't take long for the Clothiers to have a son. Conrad F. Clothier, the subject of our study was baptized at the church on Christmas Day of 1829. He had been born on November 3, 1829.
Conrad is next found in the historical records when he was admitted to Central High School in 1843. He had previously attended the Master Street School. At that time, the Master Street School had the highest average of any school in Philadelphia County for Grammar, including the City of Philadelphia, and was tied for 2nd with Arithmetic.
Conrad’s father seems to have elevated himself from his occupation of grocer, to cordwainer, then finally to Deputy Sheriff. William died in 1861. During his lifetime he was active in First Presbyterian’s building committee for the construction of the present church.
It was quite a distinction when someone graduated from Central High School in the 19th Century. A high school degree from Central was the equivalent of a college degree. With his education, young Conrad entered into the white-collar profession of bookkeeping for the firm of Weaver, Fitler & Company. By 1857, Conrad was listed as a bookkeeper for the company at their 19 N. Water Street office.
Weaver, Fitler & Company was one of the largest rope manufacturers and chandelling firms in the country. The large ropewalk of the company was located near 10th Street & Germantown Avenue. One of the founders of this firm was Kensington native, Edwin H. Fitler (2nd & George Streets), who eventually became mayor of Philadelphia (a previous column on Fitler was published on June 7th, 2007).
Previous to joining Fitler’s firm, Conrad married Mary Victoria Byerly, at First Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Byerly was a member of the Kensington shipbuilding family of the same name, who through various other marriages were related to other stain glass honorees, particularly the Cramp shipbuilding family.
Conrad continued to live in Fishtown until about 1870, when he became a full partner in Fitler’s ropewalks. With a partnership in the company, Conrad also acquired a new address when he moved to 844 N. Broad Street. This area was a newly emerging neighborhood of wealthy Philadelphia industrialists, a number of which were ex-Kensingtonians. He lived at this Broad street home until he died in 1886.
During his lifetime, Conrad was very active in the affairs of First Presbyterian Church. He was a member of the Choral Society of the church along with other stain glass honorees, John Clouds and William Seddinger. The three of them were known to have an "intense interest" in music. The choral society was more then just vocals; it also had three violins, with Clothier as the lead. There were also three bass violins, cornet, flute and other wind instruments. It is said that there were many Saturday nights when the old galleries of the church were filled with people from all over the city.
4 June 2009 The Rest is History
Today, Kensington’s Episcopal Hospital is owned by Temple University Health System, just one of a string of hospitals they own. At one time in its history, Episcopal was considered one of the more important hospitals in America. Today it’s a fragment of its glory days.
The hospital had been organized by Episcopalian Bishop Alonzo Potter, who with a number of old Philadelphia families, saw a need for a new hospital in the emerging northern manufacturing districts of Frankford, Kensington, and Port Richmond. The hospital’s original name was The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.
The charter for incorporation of the hospital was granted in 1851. Besides providing medical, surgical, and nursing care to the poor at the hospital’s facilities or the patients’ homes, the mission of the hospital was also to “train and instruct suitable persons in the duties of nursing and attending the sick.” This would all be done under the instructions and guidance of the religious principles of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Twenty-four of the original subscribers to the church’s founding acted as managers until the first Board of Managers could be elected in 1852. Subscribers had been asked to donate at least $50.00 each and the Board was able to raise $50,000 to start a foundation for the hospital.
A large bequest came in 1852 in the form of an entire square block of real estate. The daughters of John Lemay, Esq., donated the roughly six-acre lot (and mansion house) where the hospital currently sits, between “B” & Front Streets, Lehigh Avenue & Huntingdon Street. While it was not intended, the old Lemay Mansion that sat on the property was used as the original hospital. The mansion house had been the home of John Lemay and acted as a summer resort for his children once they inherited it.
The Lemay Mansion was immediately put into proper order and the hospital opened on December 11th, 1852. There were 11 patients received during the first month of operation. It was a small start for a great hospital’s beginning.
From a report published in 1854, covering the first full year of the hospital’s operations, it is seen that in 1853 there was treated 180 patients, 78 of whom were surgical and 102 were medical cases. The average number of “in-house” patients was about 19. At this point in history this area of Kensington where the hospital was located was still suburban, the mansion house hospital sitting on a full square block of greenery, ideal for convalescing.
When the 3rd Annual Report for the hospital was issued in 1855, it was already felt by the Managers that there was a great necessity to erect a new hospital. For the year 1854 there were 289 “in-house” patients seen, over 100 more then the previous year. There were also almost 1,000 “out-door” patients that were attended to by the physicians. The old Lemay Mansion house was simply too small to accommodate these growing numbers and some patients were turned away.
Many of the “in-house” patients that were being seen at this time were poor Irish immigrants (169 of 289 in-house patients) who could not afford to pay for medical treatment. The patients were also heavily Protestant rather then Catholic (225 of 289). The Catholics at this time were presumably going to St. Mary’s Hospital (Frankford & Palmer) for their medical needs, which was closer to their main community (St. Michael’s parish centered at 2nd & Jefferson Streets).
The 4th Annual Report of the hospital issued in 1856 shows that there were 313 “in-house” patients a slight increase from the previous year. There would have been many more but patients were still being turned away due to the lack of availability of beds. Again there were calls made by the Board for the building of a new facility. A building committee was formed and monies began to be collected for a new building.
In 1857, when the 5th Annual Report was issued, the report mentions that the start of the building of the new hospital had still not yet taken place due to an insufficient amount of monies to justify its building. It would not be until Thursday, May 24th, 1860, that the laying of the cornerstone of the hospital was finally conducted. The proceedings of that event were written up and published and include engravings of what the new hospital would look like, as well the floor plans for the main floor of the hospital.
Next week we will take a look at architect Samuel Sloan’s proposed hospital plans and how the hospital was hurried into service to accommodate soldiers bloodied during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War.
11 June 2009 The Rest is History
As we saw last week, Episcopal Hospital had its founding in 1851, using as its first facility the old mansion house of the John LeMay estate. After quickly outgrowing the place the hospital’s Board of Directors began to raise funds to erect a new structure. By 1859, the hospital raised enough money to build a new building.
The Board of Directors created a Building Committee made of up nine members. This committee met for four successive evenings in late 1859 and reviewed several plans of the new hospital. In the end they selected Samuel Sloan (1815-1884) as their architect. Sloan was a leading architect and writer of architecture books in his day. One of his specialties was churches and institutional buildings. On May 24th, 1860, the laying of the cornerstone took place.
Sloan’s plans called for a Norman style building to be constructed on the western half of the property. It was to be modeled after the Parisian Hopital Lariboisiere, a celebrated European hospital. The style was to be “modified to suit the purpose and character of the edifice,” leaving out the “heaviness characteristic of the early stages” of the Norman style.
The original plan called for five parallel pavilions, but only three would be constructed at this time. The entire width of the facility would be 256 feet with an equal depth of size.
The first floor plans called for a central building where there would be a large multistoried chapel, with chambers for the chaplain and an officers dinning room. There would also be an apothecary, library, parlor and steward’s room. Coming off of the center building there was to be covered corridors leading to two patients’ wings that would each house 30 beds, nurses’ room, scullery, dinning room, and library. Around the sides of the building were verandas where patients could convalesce.
Each wing would be three stories in height, with similar accommodations on each floor. There were also extra rooms in the basement for special cases. In total there would be about 200 beds.
For now the old LeMay Mansion would stay in place, acting as the hospital while the new buildings was constructed. The mansion house was situated half way between Huntingdon Street and Lehigh Avenue, in the line of “A” Street (then called Filmore) if “A” street continued through the property. A pond, oval shaped and 100 foot in diameter on the long end, sat at the northeast corner of the property, near today’s “B’ Street and Lehigh Avenue. The rest of the grounds were their natural green. There were also several framed stable buildings and a boiler building that sat in the corner of the lot at Front and Huntingdon Streets.
By 1861 the foundation outlining the buildings were laid. The basement of the Western Wing was finished and all the joists for the principal floors were in place. The brickwork on the corridors and first floor of the central nave were finished to the height of the joists. The chapel was nearly constructed to the roof. The Eastern Wing was likewise coming along, but not as advanced as the Western Wing. It was estimated that by the summer of 1862 the Western Wing would be ready for occupancy and that the chapel would be finished before that time.
With the outbreak of the American Civil War, the hospital’s Western Wing was hurried into service. The government took over the completed portions of the new hospital. The old LeMay Mansion was forced to stay open to care for civilian patients.
In July of 1862 the hospital started to receive its first casualties of the war. Of the first 47 soldiers received in July, all but one came on a stretcher. These soldiers were dangerously wounded near Richmond, VA, were captured, their wounds dressed but once, their meals had consisted of only flour and water.
Other trains began to arrive with wounded and dying soldiers. In August of 1862, the hospital received 213 soldiers, 22 of whom died. In all, from July to December, the hospital treated 531 soldiers, many coming direct from the front lines of the Peninsula Campaign, still muddied and bloodied by battle when they arrived.
Of these 531 soldiers 33 died, 12 deserted, and 136 returned to battle. There were 103 soldiers whose cases were so bad they were mustered out of service. Of the 33 dead, 7 died from chronic diarrhea, 6 from Typhoid Fever, 6 from gunshot wounds, and 4 from explosions, where amputation of limbs failed to save them.
So began the first year of the new Episcopal Hospital.
Note: I will be at St. Anne’s Street Carnival, Tucker Street, between Cedar & Memphis, Jun 11th to June 12th (6 PM to 10 PM) and will be selling and signing my local history books.
18 June 2009 The Rest is History
Kensington can claim Billy Sharsig (1855-1902) as one of its own as it was here that Sharsig lived when he first became involved in professional baseball. Sharsig was a co-owner, general manager, and on field manager of the old American Association’s Philadelphia Athletics.
The American Association was a professional baseball league that lasted for a decade (1882-1891). During its ten-years of existence, it challenged the dominance of the National League. There was even an early version of the World Series that was dominated by the Nationals. The league was weakened when several of its teams left to join the National League (today’s Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and St. Louis teams). There was also the challenge of the Player’s League, known as the “Brotherhood” the first baseball player’s union.
Formed in 1890, the Player’s League only lasted one season, but that was enough of a drain on talent and ticket revenue that the American Association folded. In 1890 the Athletics were forced to sell or release a number of their players, replacing them with “pick-up” players. They lost the last 21 games of their season and were suspended by the American Association, replaced by another Philadelphia team (Quakers) who had played in the Player’s League. Sharsig was picked as the manager of the new Athletics. After 1891, the American Association folded altogether and Sharsig went on to manager the Indianapolis team in the Western League in 1892 and in 1894 as well as several Pennsylvania teams in the late 1890s.
Back in 1880, Billy Sharsig helped to organize (with Horace Phillips) the American Association’s Philadelphia Athletics. The Athletics played their first season at the Oakdale Grounds, at 12th & Huntingdon Streets, just west of the old Kensington District border. For the rest of their existence they played at the Jefferson Grounds, at 26th & Jefferson Streets.
Horace Phillips withdrew early to organize the Philadelphia League Alliance Club, so Sharsig, with Lew Simmons and Charley Mason (whom he previously knew) attended the meeting at Pittsburgh the year the American Association was formed. It was said by contemporary newspaper accounts that Sharsig played a major role in forming the American Association. While Horace Phillips gets the credit for inspiring the idea to organize a baseball club in Philadelphia, it was Sharsig who was able to get the financing to make it happen
From the beginnings of the American Association, Sharsig became a prominent figure in baseball. Sharsig, Simmons, and Mason became wealthy from baseball, clearing between $200,00 and $300,000 in just three years. It was said in 1884 that it was the greatest financial success ever scored in baseball.
William A. Sharsig was born about the year 1855, the son of William and Amelia Sharsig, Prussian immigrants. His father was a prosperous dyer and had ideas of putting his son in some productive business, but the young Sharsig became enthusiastic over baseball instead.
In 1860 the family was living in South Philadelphia’s 4th Ward, presumably not too long after arriving in America. By 1870, Sharsig’s family had moved to Camden, New Jersey’s North Ward. Around 1876, the Sharsig’s family moved to Kensington, to 1718 Cadwalader Street, in the heart of Kensington’s textile district where both father and son worked as dyers. It was at this time that Billy Sharsig became involved in professional baseball. While Sharsig’s father remained on Cadwalader Street, young William became a baseball manager and moved closer to his work (the playing grounds), first to 2031 N 9th Street in 1883 and later to N. 23rd Street. Sharsig’s father moved to 5th & Lehigh and by 1891 was dead. Sharsig himself later moved to his Franklin Street home in the 1890s.
Before managing a pro team, Sharsig first managed well-known local clubs from Kensington, including the J. D. Shibe Club. As co-owner of American Association’s Athletics, Sharsig managed his team on several occasions; 1886, and from 1888 to 1891. He finished his career with 238 wins and 216 losses for a .524 winning percentage. He won his league’s pennant in 1883.
When today’s American League was founded in 1901, Philadelphia’s entry in the new league was a resurrection of the old Philadelphia Athletics. Fishtown’s Benjamin F. Shibe and the legendary Connie Mack, selected Billy Sharsig to look after the finances of the their club.
Sharsig’s new position as business manager of the Philadelphia Athletics would not last that long as he died from stomach cancer at his home at 3044 Franklin Street, on February 1st, 1902. He was only 47 years old and had devoted most of his life to baseball. He was buried on February 5th at Mount Vernon Cemetery, in Philadelphia. His funeral was attended by many of the highest baseball figures of that era.
25 June 2009 The Rest is History
My appearance on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer last week spurred several emails, one of which recounted the biography of Henry S. Grove. A descendant of Grove sent the email and here is his story.
Henry S. Grove was the son of Conrad S. Grove and Clara Styer. He was born on September 4th, 1848, at Philadelphia. His father started out in business in 1790 and came to control linseed oil mills on the Perkiomen and Cobb Creeks. Besides these mills he was engaged in the East India trade.
The family lived on the 500 block of North 4th street, near Spring Garden. Henry spent his youth here with his parents, before moving to a large home at 17th & Spring Garden after he married. Grove married Helen Peterson and had at least two sons, Henry S. Grove, II and Walter Howard Grove.
After Henry finished his studies at age seventeen, he started in business with his father. When he turned twenty-one, his father accepted him into the business as a partner. When Grove’s father died, he became sole owner. He remained in business working his way up to become one of the great American men of industry, honored with the title, “Captain of Industry.”
Once taking over his father’s linseed oil business, Henry saw that western interests were able to divert business from his mill, as they were closer to the flax raisers in the west. Henry set about organizing linseed oil concerns and created the Linseed Oil Trust, the second “Trust” to be formed in America. He was elected the president of the corporation.
His next adventure was his connection with the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, where he became their president as well. Eventually this company sold out to Colorado Fuel Company and Grove returned to Philadelphia where he became involved with the Washington Mills, of Gloucester, New Jersey. Here he helped to restore the mills’ business and helped in accomplishing the building of a new cotton yarn mill (Argo Mills) on the property. The company was incorporated and he became its president.
In 1903, the crowning act of his career took place when he took over as the president of William Cramp and Sons Ship and Engine Company, the Kensington based shipbuilder. When Grove took the helm at Cramps he was saddled with enormous debt and the confidence of investors was largely lost. The debt was upwards of $4.5 million dollars and Cramps prestige had sunk.
A syndicate of “public-spirited financiers” of Philadelphia and New York did not want to see Cramps Shipyard go under. They raised the monies to pay off the debt and invited Grove to be on the Board of Directors. He was later made a member of the Executive Committee, then Chairman of the Committee, and then President.
When Grove became president, Edwin Cramp was his vice-president and Charles H. Cramp, had to resign the presidency to make room for Grove. However, Charles H. Cramp remained as chairman of the board. The two Cramps (Edwin and Charles) were the sons of William Cramp, the founder of the company, but needed to step back from the presidency when outside help was needed to save the company. Cramps Shipyard would no longer be run as a family business, the corporation had fully taken over.
Within ten years as president and against great odds, Grove was able to place Cramps back in a strong position. Not only were Philadelphians relieved, but also the nation as a whole took notice as Cramps produced upwards to one half of America’s navy at that time. By 1915, the company under Grove’s leadership was restored to its former glory.
Grove rehabilitated Cramps by modernizing the shipyard and making it more efficient. He developed a profitable line of hydraulic engine building, which just about created a new industry at Cramps. The Kensington Shipyard and Brass Foundry (part of the Cramps Shipyard) were developed. In 1910, he purchased the Federal Steel Company, a casting plant in Chester, Pennsylvania. The plant had a monthly capacity of seven hundred and fifty tons of steel castings.
Soon Cramp’s shipyard was working at full capacity and its financial situation was improved. Investors were confident again and saw returns on their investments. Grove also took to the seas himself, visiting Turkey, Russia, and Great Britain, to secure foreign contracts for ships. The United States however still remained Cramps biggest customer.
After World War One, U.S. Navy contracts began to dry up, particularly when America signed naval disarmament treaties with European countries. This spelt the end for Cramps Shipyard and they closed in 1927 ending over two centuries of shipbuilding on the Fishtown (Kensington) waterfront.