5 April 2007 The Rest is History
One local story that always interested me was the story that the notorious Jack “Legs” Diamond, the New York gangster, grew up in Kensington. This story had always circulated, but I never did find anyone that knew much more then “yea, he was from this neighborhood, my uncle told me so….”
The birth of Legs Diamond is rather a mystery. What most people who take an interest in criminal history say on the matter is that he was born in Philadelphia in or about the year 1897. Some say his real name was Jack Moran, others say it was John T. Nolan. Both groups are sure he was born in Philadelphia and got involved in organized crime in New York after serving time in jail as a deserter during World War One. In New York he made his name in the underworld by working with people like Arnold Rothstein and against people like Dutch Schultz, the predecessors to the Mafia.
Since the neighborhood story was that Legs Diamond came from my immediate area (St. Anne’s Parish), I thought to see if I could find evidence to prove it. I did this by conducting fairly thorough searches of the 1900 and 1910 Censuses for Philadelphia as a whole and in particular the 31st Ward.
There was no John/Jack Moran, nor John/Jack or John T. Nolan, which would have fit the birth year for Legs Diamond even factoring in a plus or minus of a couple of years. However, I did find that there was a John Diamond who lived in the neighborhood and had a pretty close match with Legs Diamond date of birth. As well, I found this John Diamond had the middle initial of “T,” the same as the alias used by Legs Diamond (John T. Nolan) when he once went to Europe but was refused entry. I also found he had a younger brother Edward, which is a known fact for Legs Diamond.
In the 1900 Census, the household of John Diamond, Jr.(b. January 1871) shows him to have been married for four years to Sarah (b. Feb1873). The couple had one child, John T. Diamond, born about July 1898. The family lived at 2336 Albert Street, at about Memphis Street, near to St. Anne’s School.
The child named John is probably Jack “Legs” Diamond. His mother Sarah Hart was the daughter of Irish immigrants. John and his father were both listed as born in Pennsylvania. The elder John Diamond was working as a glass packer.
Also listed in the house was John Diamond’s brother Thomas and sister Annie. His brother was a machinist; his sister worked in a hosiery mill. The last person in the house is John’s sister-in-law, Margaret C. Hart, which is how we find that this probable Legs Diamond’s mother’s name might be Sarah Hart.
At this point the name and age are good matches, particularly when there was no Moran or Nolan that matched. I next took a look at the 1910 Census.
In the 1910 Census further evidence was found that would seem to indicate that this John T. Diamond might just be the right fellow. In the boarding house of Mary E. Sturn is found the family of John J. Diamond, Jr. (Legs’ supposed father). Mrs. Sturn’s boarding house was located at 2157 E. York Street, just west of Frankford Avenue. Mrs. Sturn is the divorced daughter of Irish immigrants and besides her two teenage sons, she boards the Diamond family and two other men who work in the nearby textile mills.
In 1910 the Diamond family now consists of only the father John J. Diamond, his son John Jr., and another son, Edward. Edward is listed as born about 1902. The father is listed as a widow. This 1910 Census finding is very interesting as it shows John, Jr., having a younger brother Edward, which is a known fact for Legs Diamond. Edward Diamond left Philadelphia with Legs Diamond and both of them pursued a life of crime in the Big Apple.
The information found in the 1900 and 1910 Censuses are the same Diamond family and it would appear to show evidence that might be a very good starting point to make a case for Legs Diamond coming from Kensington. This sort of preliminary evidence would generally be followed up with searches for birth and death records, as well as other supporting evidence. It is said that Legs Diamond was a Catholic, so perhaps he was baptized at St. Anne’s?
The only real problem with this sort of project is do we really need/want to prove that another famous criminal came from our neighborhood? Perhaps a reader might be able to shed further light on this topic?
12 April 2007 The Rest is History
For the past twenty years I have been connected to the rare book trade. From my history background in college to working on my own as a historical and genealogical researcher, as well as still having my foot in the rare book business as a cataloger of books and manuscripts, has all led me to have a real affinity towards books and the book world.
In my college days the Internet was not what it is today and I spent numerous hours at the library researching and writing out, in long hand, my history papers. As a history major most every class required rather lengthy research papers and most of my professors still accepted papers written out in long hand.
Recently, I was thinking of those old college days of researching while playing around with a website called Google Book Search (www.google.com, click on “more” then click on “books” from the drop down menu). If you’re not familiar with it, it’s the beginning of a digitalized library of the world’s collective knowledge. Google, a billion dollar Internet search engine company, has partnered with a number of the world’s leading university and public libraries in an effort to scan and digitalize their copyright free collections so that the contents of their libraries will be keyword searchable from the comfort of your home.
The idea and scope of the project is mind-boggling. There are already a number of online digital libraries, but Google Book Search will eclipse them all. Google has contracts with Harvard and Stanford Universities, the famed New York Public Library, and the universities of California, Michigan, and Texas. England’s Oxford University, as well as others, has signed on to the project. At Oxford alone, Google is scanning 10,000 volumes per week. With the project having been going on for several years, it is said that Google has already scanned over a million books with plans at having 15 million scanned by perhaps the year 2015.
Not only is Google scanning out of print books, but giants in the publishing world have signed on to put their new in print titles on line as well. Google has contracts with the university presses of Cambridge, Oxford, Chicago, and Princeton, as well as trade publishers such as Houghton Mifflin, McGraw-Hill, and others. These in print books will not be “full view” books as the copyright free books will be, only snippets will be shown, but you’ll still be able to see enough to see if the book is of interest, where you can find the book, and if desired, there is a “buy it now” button where you can click and buy it from a retailer.
Of course no column of mine would be complete if it didn’t eventually turn to Kensington history and my search of Google Book Search generated for me about 650 hits when I used the keywords “Kensington” & “Philadelphia” in the “full view” section and 1620 in the “all books” section.
When I searched Google Book Search for “John Hewson,” the Kensington Revolutionary War hero buried at Palmer Cemetery, I found a collection of his letters that were published in a book called The Papers of Captain Rufus Lincoln, of Wareham, Mass.
I have been researching and writing on John Hewson for over ten years, but these letters of his were new to me. The letters (seven in all) are fantastic. Captain Rufus Lincoln and John Hewson, both fighting for the Americans, met each other in prison after they had both been captured during the Revolutionary War. After years of separation, they were reconnected when the Massachusetts born Lincoln’s daughter moved to Philadelphia and her landlord happened to be the sister-in-law of John Hewson. After casual conversation they realized that her father was the fellow that John Hewson had talked about as befriending during their captivity.
Besides valuable genealogical information on Hewson’s family that was found in one letter, another letter contained a detailed description of Hewson’s escape from captivity from Flatlands, NY, where had been taken and held by the British. Capt. Lincoln declined to attempt the escape, but Hewson and some others did. Hewson barely survived the escape, almost drowning in the process.
In all the material that I read over the years on John Hewson, I never heard of Capt. Lincoln and would have never thought to search this source out. Google Book Search found this source in about 15 seconds. Not only that, there were another 161 hits for “John Hewson” which helped clue me in to some other unknown areas of his biography.
With the world’s knowledge at your fingertips, one can only imagine what it will be like to conduct research in the near future.
19 April 2007 The Rest is History
On March 8th, 1810, Philadelphia’s Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser reported on a tremendous storm that blew through Philadelphia, uprooting the Treaty Elm:
“During the tremendous gale of Monday night last, the Great Elm Tree at Kensington, under which, it is said, William Penn, the Founder of Pennsylvania, ratified his first treaty with the Aborigines, was torn up by the roots. This celebrated tree, having stood the blast of more than a century since that memorable event, is at length prostrated to the dust! It had long been used as a land-mark, and handsomely terminated a north-east view of the city and liberties on the Delaware.” (Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, March 8, 1810.)
This same news story ran in New York’s Columbian on March 10th, and Salem, Massachusetts’ Salem-Gazette on March 16th. A variant of the story ran in New York’s Evening Post. The Evening Post’s story was repeated in the New York Spectator on March 10th, as well as the Boston’s Boston Mirror on the 17th of March. Another Boston paper, the Boston Gazette reported the story on March 19th. After being repeated in the Boston and New York newspapers during the first two weeks after the storm, the story spread across the country as the whole nation took interest.
From the time the Treaty Tree blew down in the first week of March and into the month of April, the story would run in newspapers from as far south as Georgia to as far north as Maine, including every state in between. The whole country would appear to have read that the Treaty Tree was no more.
No one ever thought to create a memorial for William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon. Before the lost of the Treaty Elm there wasn’t a need for a memorial as the tree itself was the memorial. However, now with the famed Elm Tree uprooted and relic hunters cutting pieces off to carry away in remembrance, the honored spot of Penn’s Treaty was in danger of disappearing forever as the area surrounding the Treaty Tree was changing.
The riverfront of Kensington was booming and land was in demand. A story reported in Philadelphia’s Aurora and Franklin Gazette on April 12th, 1825 gives an idea of the activity:
“The District of Kensington at present exhibits a scene of animation in business seldom before witnessed. The hum of industry along its wharves and the building materials scattered profusely over all its streets, betoken a state of prosperous increase in wealth. Nearly 4,000 tons of shipping are on the stocks and it is intended shortly to commence two more large vessels. The street near the site of the “Treaty Tree” is to be straightened and an old building to be removed. The whole district is appearance and wealth is advancing rapidly.”
The Treaty Tree was no longer and the spot where it once stood was becoming crowded with industry. The “old building” mentioned “to be removed” was the historic Thomas Fairman’s Mansion, the place where William Penn stayed upon his arrival to his new colony. The mansion house also acted in part as the starting place for a number of the officers of Penn’s colony who came over prior to Penn’s arrival. They stayed with Fairman while getting oriented to the new land. The mansion was later purchased and owned by Anthony Palmer, the founder of Kensington, who founded his town of Kensington on the 191 ½ acres that went with the mansion house
The mansion house and the immediate surrounding property, including the Treaty Elm, was purchased by Matthew Vandusen (1759-1812) in 1795 and he and his descendants lived there for 30 years before it was torn down to make way for “progress.” After the removal of the mansion house, several smaller homes were built on the property and members of the Vandusen family continued to live on the property.
It would appear that when the Treaty Tree fell in March of 1810 that the tree was uprooted and while it drew a crowd in the ensuing days after, the tree was not immediately removed. It is reported that the original Penn Treaty tree on the Vandusen estate at Kensington became so valuable and so highly prized by relic hunters that the family found it necessary to have a guard placed about the premises to prevent its destruction. It was finally decided to pull the rest of the old tree down, and the trunk and branches were made into chairs, frames, ornamental boxes, canes, as well as many other articles and objects.
26 April 2007 The Rest is History
Over the weekend I took my kids to Penn Treaty Park. It was a great day and the weather was good. We made our way to the park and walked around some. It was a bit depressing and we didn’t stay long, leaving for another park.
In one corner sat a group of beer drinkers. While harmless, still an infraction against the rules of the park, and even though they weren’t trashing the place, you can’t pick and choose which law it is okay to break.
We walked pass the drinkers and came upon the barbecuers, a great idea, but the ground around them was trashed from their activities. I didn’t stay long enough to see if they cleaned up after themselves.
Further down by the river, yet another group, this one four teenagers, busy tagging what is left of the fishing pier. An older fellow was with them. I told the kids they were destroying the place and they looked at me as if I was an annoyance. The old man, perhaps the grandfather of the kids was happily watching them graffiti and I suppose if grandpop doesn’t mind, there wasn’t much I could do to drive sense into the kids. However, I did hear the man tell them “people are coming,” so I suppose that was some sort of parenting attempt.
It was appalling that these groups were trashing the park, but what could I do? I was with my kids and didn’t want a confrontation. Should I call 911, or is there a special number to call? Then it occurred to me, if only we had another Henry Merritt patrolling the park.
In 1893, when the Park first opened, Mr. Henry Conan Merritt (1844-1917) was its first park superintendent. He lived at 441 Allen Street. He was the son of Thomas and Sarah Merritt, who had a flock of five children with Henry being in the middle. His father was a wharf builder and Henry followed his father into that line of work. Once the Park opened and with Henry getting up in years, he probably would have welcomed a less strenuous occupation. It is said that with “only a nightstick, he single-handedly patrolled the park and kept the peace.”
When the City of Philadelphia decided to expand Delaware Avenue, they bought up the properties on Merritt’s block of Allen Street, except for his family’s house. The family did however lose a small piece of the property to Delaware Avenue.
Merritt died at his Allen Street home on February 8, 1917. His obituary listed a number of Masonic groups, which he was a member. He was buried at North Cedar Hills.
During the reign of Henry C. Merritt, many enjoyed the park. Free band concerts were held at the Park. Some old time Fishtowners remember having concerts in the park back in the early 1950’s. Organizations like the 18th Ward Republican Club, the Palmer Social Club, and the Bramble Club, provided free ice cream to the children.
One interesting event that took place during Merritt’s reign as Penn Treaty Park Superintendent was in about the year 1910 the Federal Government appropriated $250,000 to build a new Immigration Station in Philadelphia to replace the “ramshackle building” that was “overcrowded and insanitary.” The Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor selected a site opposite Penn Treaty Park where an old shipyard had been but was now in ruin (This was the Reaney Neafie & Co., later Neafie & Levy shipyard, the place were PECO would later open their plant in 1920).
The residents of the area complained that an immigration station would be a blight to that historic park. Shipping men pointed out the value the station would have to the port of Philadelphia and several “public spirited citizens” argued that the park would be a symbol of patriotism to the arriving immigrants who would soon become citizens.
While the factions were contending, Philadelphia’s Mayor Reyburn declared that he would not grant a permit to the government to build the station. “We don’t want it anyhow” he said, “An immigration station is an annoyance.” And the mayor refused to help find a better site in an acceptable location and the project was built on the Jersey side of the river.
History repeats itself and today the neighborhood faces yet another attempt to build an undesirable place near the sacred shrine of Penn Treaty Park. If only we had men of the substance of Mayor Reyborn and Henry C. Merritt, the park would remain the sacred place that it is, and the Casino and lawbreakers would be run out of town.
3 Mary 2007 The Rest is History
There is a small school of modern historians, people who seem to be bent on destroying any tradition that predates them, who will argue that Penn’s Treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon did not take place because there is no written evidence of the event. Over three hundred years of tradition and two full investigative committees on the subject doesn’t seem to faze them, nor does the fact that a “Treaty of Amity and Friendship” need not be written down.
Some say if the Treaty took place, it would have taken place at Upland (Chester, PA), the first capitol of the colony, but most historians of the 18th and 19th Century who write on the topic think Penn would never have a “Treaty of Amity” at a fortified place like Upland, which doesn’t leave many other places in the Delaware Valley suitable at that time. Even though Upland was the original capitol of Penn’s Colony, it is said that Penn’s character would not have allowed him to treat with the Native Americans in that manner, to negotiate a treaty in a military setting, which Upland would have been.
Shackamaxon on the other hand was an already known place where the Native American chiefs of different tribes would meet for their own Councils. It was also the place where Thomas Fairman, Penn’s deputy surveyor, had built his home and entertained and put up the early arrivals of Penn’s officers and Council, people like William Markham (Deputy Governor), William Hague (Land Commissioner), Thomas Holme (Surveyor-General), and William Penn himself. Shackamaxon (Kensington) was an early working headquarters of sorts for Penn’s colony.
A long tradition, as evidenced by Judge Richard Peters (1744-1828) and David Conyngham’s testimonies given to Roberts Vaux in 1825, shows Shackamaxon to be the place of the treaty, as throughout their youths they remember bathing on the shores of the sandy beach near the famous Elm Tree. Their youths would have been in the 1750’s and it was a known fact in their youths that the Treaty Elm at Shackamaxon was the place of Penn’s Treaty with the Indians and no one doubted it at that time. As well, Voltaire’s famous quote on Penn’s Treaty, a “Treaty never written, never broken” would have been published in his Dictionnaire philosophique in 1764. All of these events coming before Benjamin West ever painted his famous painting of the Treaty.
By looking at the background of Richard Peters, to see if he indeed might have been a person one could believe, or to have been a person who would have been in a position to know something of the subject of the Treaty Tree, we find that he was a long time judge for the United States District Court of Pennsylvania and a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782-83. He was also the nephew of the Rev. Richard Peters (1704-1776), the rector of Christ Church, in Philadelphia. Judge’s Peter’s time of bathing at the Treaty Elm would have been only 65 years or so after Penn’s Treaty took place.
Benjamin Lay, the Quaker abolitionist who was born in 1681, pointed to the Treaty Tree and told Judge Peters and Conyngham that this was the place where Penn made his Treaty with the Indians. Presumably the aged Lay, who had settled in the Philadelphia area about 1732, when he was already in his 50’s, would have talked with and known some of the folks who were alive at the time of the Treaty. In any event, as early as the 1730’s, the Treaty Tree would appear to have been talked about as being the Treaty place.
The general acceptance of the Treaty Tree being the site of William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians is again shown in history by the actions that were taken by the British General Simcoe. While quartering his men in the Kensington area (Oct 1777 - Feb 1778) during the British occupation of Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, Simcoe posted a sentinel at the Treaty Tree to keep it from being chopped down for firewood during that cold and difficult winter.
The living testimonies of Judge Peters, his friend Conyngham, their conversations with the aged Benjamin Lay, as well as the number of historians who recounted Penn’s Treaty, and West’s memorial painting, all point to the Treaty having indeed taken place at Shackamaxon. As well the beliefs, customs, and traditions of the local population of 18th and 19th Century Kensington, of those who lived near the Treaty Tree, cannot be discounted. All of this evidence led the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s committee that was investigating William Penn’s Treaty, to conclude that the treaty took place and that it took place at Shackamaxon.
10 May 2007 The Rest is History
In an earlier column I wrote about the West Street Burial Grounds, the cemetery that use to sit on the south side of Berks Street, between Belgrade and Gaul, now blocks of housing. This week I’ll take a look at the Hanover Street Burial Grounds, which was located where Hetzell’s Playground is today, bordered by Hanover Street (today’s Columbia Avenue), Thompson and Earl Streets. The cemetery was actually three cemeteries in one; Kensington Methodist Episcopal, Union Harmony Burial Company, and Union Wesleyan Church.
Kensington Methodist Episcopal ground was purchased in 1805 by Methodist Episcopal of Philadelphia and transferred to Kensington M.E. Church in 1809. The Board of Health Registers has records of their burials as early as the years 1838-1858, but undoubtedly there were earlier ones.
The Union Harmony Burying Company ground was purchased in 1828 with Union Wesleyan Church Burial Company having the southern moiety of the lot they purchased and it was incorporated in 1831. The Philadelphia Board of Health Registers has the Harmony Burial Company listed as burying as early as 1828-1831.
The cemetery first appears on maps as early as 1849 on J. C. Sidney’s Map of the City of Philadelphia.
When Hanover Street Burial Ground closed in about 1922-1923, the remains of Kensington Methodist Episcopal are said to have been removed to Forest Hills Cemetery (Delaware County, PA). The Remains of Union Harmony Burying Ground and Union Wesleyan Church Burial Company were removed to section #30 of Fernwood Cemetery, (Montgomery County, PA). Barker in his book cited above, also states that there were some remains removed to Graceland Cemetery, Yeadon, PA, and that the then Secretary of the Board of Yeadon, Mrs. L.W. Elliot had the records. Also, it has been reported that there were some bodies removed to North Cedar Hill Cemetery, in Philadelphia. There are also some remains found from time to time when Hetzell’s Playground gets renovated, most recently just a year or so ago.
George R. Barker, who did research on this cemetery back in the 1940’s, talked with a local contractor back then, George Vaughn, of east Montgomery Street, who told him that some tombstones from Hanover Street Burial Ground were used in constructing some of the homes on Susquehanna Avenue, presumably as foundation stones, so perhaps if you live on Susquehanna you might want to check your basement for signs of this story being true.
Hanover has also been called “Helverson’s Grounds” and “Helverson’s Burying Ground,” for a fellow by the name of Nicholas Helverson (ca.1789- d. bef. 1860). Helverson was listed as a “furnishing undertaker & coffin maker” at the S.E. corner of Coates (Fairmount) and St. John’s (American) Streets, down in the Northern Liberties area. He was also listed as being the superintendent of several burying grounds elsewhere in the city, as is evidenced by the “Helverson’s Grounds” on Frankford Road (Avenue) as early as 1855, which would be a part of Shissler, or Newt’s Playground today. Philadelphia’s Board of Health Registers of 1845-1846, reports a “Helverson’s Ground,” as well the 2nd Universalist Church’s register mentions “funerals & other grounds” in an 1855 internment at “Helverson’s Ground on Frankford Road.”
In some Fishtown & Kensington obituaries, you’ll see mention of someone being placed in the Hanover Vault, which was a holding place for the deceased. Simply because someone was placed in the Vault, does not necessarily mean that the person was buried at the cemetery. It could be they were placed there during the winter months since they lived locally, then buried elsewhere when the ground was soft enough to dig and bury, or something to that effect.
If you visit my website (www.kennethwmilano.com) there are several photographs and a map of the cemetery (click on the Encyclopaedia Kensingtoniana link then click on the Church and Cemetery link). The photographs show the cemetery and the vault, as well there is a nice photograph that shows a row of old wooden ramshackle homes that lined the west side of Thompson Street between Columbia (Hanover) and Earl Street. These homes were only about half the width of a normal house and look like wooden father, son, holy ghost houses. I am guessing, without doing the research that these homes were built to subsidize the cemetery, perhaps rental units. They were torn down in 1923 after the cemetery was removed and the whole area was replaced by Hetzell’s Playground, which still exists at this site today.
Hetzell’s playground was named for Isaac D. Hetzell, a local contractor who lived at 322 Richmond Street. Hetzell followed his father Andrew into the bricklaying and paving business (A. Hetzell & Co.), eventually becoming a substantial contractor and parlayed his money and influence into a councilman seat in city government, where he served for a number of years.
17 May 2007 The Rest is History
William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians dates back to 1682, but it took the City of Philadelphia 211 years to finally get around to buying the Treaty Grounds and setting it aside as a memorial park, which it is today. However, while the city government sat idly, there had always been a long line of citizens that have come forward to make sure the place of Penn’s Treaty was kept in our historic memory. From what seemed like immediately after the Treaty Elm was blown down in that fateful storm of 1810, efforts were begun to create a memorial.
To Roberts Vaux (1786-1836) do we owe the honors of being the first in a long line of Philadelphia's citizens who came forward after the Treaty Tree was lost and began the dialogue which would eventually lead to erecting a memorial to honor Penn's Treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon.
Roberts Vaux was a birth right Quaker from a prominent family who was sympathetic to the Indians' cause during a time of “difficult resettlement” for those people. His background of Quakerism and interest in the survival of the American Indians was the most likely reason that led him to his interest in William Penn's Treaty with the Indians. Vaux was very much an activist, being a vocal abolitionist, as well as taking a great interest in the penal reforms going on in his day, particularly at the then recently built Eastern State Penitentiary. Vaux was also instrumental in helping to establish the then emerging Public School System of Philadelphia.
John Fanning Watson (1779-1860), an antiquarian and historian, well known in Philadelphia in his age for his collection of historical artifacts and manuscripts, as well as his vast knowledge of Philadelphia's history, which became the basis for his most famous work on the history of Philadelphia (Watson’s Annals), was also an early pioneer for the recognition of Penn’s Treaty. Watson and Vaux were on the same committee of History, Moral Science, and Literature at the American Philosophical Society and in “an attempt to capitalize on the enormous enthusiasm” at that time for the General Marquis de Lafayette's memorable visit to Philadelphia in 1824, Vaux and Watson organized the Society for the Commemoration of the Landing of William Penn, better known today as the Penn Society.
Lafayette's well-received visit to Philadelphia harkened the minds of the populous back to the days almost fifty years previous to the historical times of the American Revolution when Lafayette helped Washington to defeat the British and win independence for America. Twenty-two of the original members of Vaux and Watson's Penn Society were also subscribers to a portrait that was done of Lafayette. This combination of the renewed historical interest that was generated by Lafayette's visit to Philadelphia was an instrumental moment in the waking of the "proper" Philadelphians' minds to the historic city’s past and with the forming of the Penn Society, the memory of Penn’s Treaty was also saved.
Membership to the Penn Society was open to "any person of good moral character" who was approved by their board. Early members and founders of the Penn Society, people like Roberts Vaux, John F. Watson, Peter S. du Ponceau, J. Francis Fisher, J. Parker Norris, as well as others, could be considered the "founding body" of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a organization that was likewise formed at this time.
The purpose of the Penn Society was “to portray the character, and perpetuate just and grateful recollections of the services of the illustrious lawgiver (William Penn) and his companions.” The Penn Society hoped that this “could be carried into effect, by the annual delivery of discourses - by preserving representations of scenes of great interest; and also by constructing monuments at various points, distinguished by events that shed luster over our early annals.”
One of the objects of the Penn Society was to use the membership dues to erect monuments to the "fame and memory of their great founder." Roberts Vaux in a paper titled A Memoir on the Locality of the Great Treaty Between William Penn and the Indian Natives, in 1682 and read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on September 19th, 1825, called on the Historical Society to have “measures be put in train for erecting a plain and substantial Obelisk of Granite, near where the tree formerly stood at Kensington, with appropriate inscriptions."
It was Vaux’s call to action that prompted the erection of the memorial obelisk that still stands today at Penn Treaty Park and reminds us of the historic event that took place on the banks of the Delaware River, the famed Treaty of Amity & Friendship, one of the most honored and humane events in the annals of American history.
24 May 2007 The Rest is History
Oliver Evans, the famed inventor of the first steam propelled carriage in the world, experimented with his invention right here in Philadelphia. However, Evans failed to get his steam carriage into use. After he died in 1819, another attempt was made to power carriages by steam and this steam-powered carriage was built locally in Kensington.
John Watson tells us in his Annals of Philadelphia (1879), that a steam-carriage, built by Nicholas and James Johnson in Kensington, was run upon the streets of Kensington in 1827-28. This experiment was quite early, as Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb, considered to be the first American built steam locomotive to be operated on a common-carrier railroad was built only a couple of years later in 1830.
In a work by Joseph Harrison titled, The Locomotive Engine, and Philadelphia’s Share in its Early Improvements (1872), we find that the Johnson brothers had a small engineering firm on Penn Street, in the old District of Kensington, just above the Cohocksink Creek, the southern border of Kensington.
An eyewitness to the Johnsons’ experiment saw it under construction and when it made several trial runs through the streets of Kensington. The eyewitness described it as being a “crudely constructed machine.” It had “but a single cylinder, set horizontally, with connecting-rod attachments to a single crank at the middle of the driving axle. Its’ two driving wheels were made of wood, the same as an ordinary road wagon, and were of large diameter, certainly not less than eight feet. It had two smaller wheels in front, arranged in the usual manner of an ordinary road wagon for guiding the movement of the machine. It had an upright boiler hung on behind, shaped like a huge bottle, the smoke-pipe coming out through the center at top, formed the neck of the bottle.”
Its initial trial runs were rather comical and were made on the unpaved roads in the immediate area of the Johnsons’ shop on Penn Street. The machine showed an evident “lack of boiler as well as cylinder power,” however it did “run continuously for some time and surmount considerable elevations in the roads.” The safety value was held down by a weight and lever, and it was said to be “somewhat amusing to see the puff, puff, puff, of the safety valve as the machine jolted over the rough street.”
The engine was sometimes unmanageable in its steering and on what became its final trial run while it was crossing the High Bridge (which lay over the Cohocksink Creek) and turning onto Brown Street, the driver was unable to turn quick enough and it jumped the curb smashing into the awning posts and window of a house at the southwest corner of Brown and Oak Streets. Oak Street later became Beach Street; the High Bridge was an extension of Oak (Beach) Street that went over the Cohocksink Creek then became Beach Street in Kensington. The Johnsons’ shop was just north of the High Bridge, on Penn Street, which is the small sliver of street fronting the new high-rise towers on the river.
Information on who the Johnson brothers were remains a mystery. The 1820 Census shows us they were in Kensington by at least that year. Nicholas Johnson’s household was made up him, his wife, a daughter, and one other female, possibly a servant or sibling. James Johnson’s household had him, his wife, and one other male, again perhaps a servant, boarder, or even an employee, or sibling. Both households were listed as having one person in manufacturing, so it would appear that the brothers were in business by 1820. In 1820 they enumerated along the waterfront in lower Kensington, presumably the Penn Street shop.
Nicholas and James Johnson were still in Kensington in 1830, as witnessed by the Census of that year. By 1830 both men’s families had grown to about a half a dozen or so kids each. While Nicholas Johnson doesn’t show up in the 1840 Census for Kensington, there is a James Johnson as late as 1850 in the general riverfront area, listed as a manufacturer. Further research would have to be conducted to see what became of these Johnson brothers and if they are the Nicholas and James Johnson who are recorded as having immigrated to Philadelphia in 1809. If the 1850 Census record for the Kensington James Johnson who was a manufacturer is correct, the brothers may have been from Ireland.
After the steam carriage struck the house on Brown & Oak Streets, the Johnsons’ engine was not seen on the streets of Kensington again, nor is it known what became of the machine and its makers.
31 May 2007 The Rest is History
John Harrison (1773-1833), considered by many to be America’s first industrial chemist, was a resident of Kensington. Material on the years of his life while he lived in Kensington is hard to come by, however this is a scarce genealogy of Harrison’s family titled, Annals of the Ancestry of Charles Custis Harrison and Ellen Waln Harrison, compiled by their daughter-in-law Mary Harrison.
His heritage comes down from "Thomas Harrison, of Stoneraise, and Castle Sowerby, Cumberland County, England,” who was born about 1640. Stoneraise is a parish about 10 miles or so from Carlisle. Thomas Harrison was a follower of George Fox, a member of the Religious Society of Friends. This Thomas had a son Thomas, who also had a son Thomas, and he fifth son of this Thomas, born August 29, 1741, and also named Thomas, is the one from whom Kensington’s John Harrison was descended. This Thomas Harrison applied to the Carlisle Monthly Meeting for a certificate of removal, and in the minutes entered at the Monthly Meeting at Carlisle for the “20th of 5th Mo. 1763,” there was a certificate issued and given at the meeting on behalf of Thomas Harrison. This certificate was directed to the Society of Friends in Philadelphia, the place where Thomas Harrison immigrated.
Thomas Harrison, then only 22, came to America shortly after and was introduced to the Society of Friends in Philadelphia. Soon after he married a young woman who in “later years was to become one of the most celebrated Quaker preachers of her day.” The records of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting show that "on Sixth Mo. 21, 1764, Thomas Harrison of Philadelphia, son of Thomas, deceased, of Thurston Field, Cumberland County, Great Britain, was married at the Philadelphia Meeting to Sarah Richards, daughter of Rowland Richards, deceased, of Chester County."
Besides the family being known for the famous preacher, Sara Richards, Thomas Harrison himself was known as an advocate of the abolition of slavery. His sixth son with Sarah Richards was John Harrison, the fellow reported to be America’s first industrial chemist.
John Harrison was born in Philadelphia on December 17th, 1773. He is said to have been apprenticed at an early age to the chemist, Townsend Speakman. Later Harrison studied for two years in Europe and for a time studied under the famous Joseph Priestley, Unitarian minister, scientist, and discoverer of oxygen. John Harrison himself became a noted manufacturing chemist and is stated to be the first to produce Sulfuric Acid in America, which led to him being called America’s first industrial chemist. Sulfuric Acid, or what use to be called “oil of vitriol,” is a strong mineral acid and has many applications, including many chemical reactions and production processes. It is the most widely used chemical. Today its uses include fertilizer manufacturing, ore processing, chemical synthesis, wastewater processing and oil refining.
Harrison married Lydia Leib, daughter of John George Leib and his wife Dorothy. The Liebs were well known in Philadelphia, being political active in the government of the city and county. John & Lydia Harrison’s son, George Lieb Harrison, born October 28, 1811, would later take over his father's chemical business. George Lieb Harrison later was invited to become a member of the firm of Powers and Weightman, which then became Powers, Weightman and Harrison, a well-known chemical establishment.
Besides his successful chemical business, John Harrison was captain of the Sixth Company in the Third Battalion of Philadelphia Militia. He also belonged to the "Fish House," being elected a member of that “celebrated Schuylkill Fishing Company of the State in Schuylkill" in 1796. Harrison also took an active interest in the Franklin Institute, being a member of the first Board of Managers.
Harrison lived for many years at Priestley Lodge, named to honor his old friend and former teacher. Priestly Lodge was located on a small estate in Kensington, on the west side of Frankford Road, above Palmer, or where the old Kensington Depot was located, or more recently the big empty lot near Septa’s Berks Street EL Stop. There is a painting by the watercolorist William Kennedy, of this mansion house done when the house was still standing. It shows the mansion sitting off and away from the “road to Frankford.” One of Harrison’s “lead chambers” where he made his chemicals, was suppose to have been on his property in Kensington, an earlier one was down in the Northern Liberties area.
Harrison died in 1833. The John Harrison Laboratory of Chemistry of the University of Pennsylvania was erected as a Memorial to him by his grandsons, Charles Custis Harrison, Alfred Craven Harrison and William Welsh Harrison. There is a life size sculpture of Harrison at the University.
7 June 2007 The Rest is History
When Edwin Henry Fitler (1825-1896) was laid to rest at Laurel Hill Cemetery, the honorary pallbearers were made up of the governor of Pennsylvania, the mayor of Philadelphia, an ex-mayor of Philadelphia, the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and some of the leading businessmen of Philadelphia. Mourners were plentiful and had the names of Elkins, Widener, Biddle, and Singerly, names famous in Philadelphia’s history. Who was Edwin H. Fitler? And why was this Kensingtonian so respected?
You may have heard of Center City’s neighborhood of Fitler Square, but do you know the man it is named after? Edwin H. Fitler was the son of a leather merchant who lived at 2nd & Otter (Wildey) Streets, in the old District of Kensington. In 1846, after studying law briefly, Fitler entered the cordage factory of George J. Weaver, at Germantown Avenue and 10th Street. In two years time he became so knowledgeable that he was invited into the business as a full partner, the firm changing its name to George J. Weaver & Co. An 1857 advertisement had this to say about Fitler’s establishment:
Messrs. Weaver, Fitler & Co. are proprietors of the Fairhill Steam Cordage Works, manufacturing every style of Manilla, Tarred and Italian Ropes, Tow Lines for canal boats, all the various styles of Carpet and seine Twine, &c. This is the largest manufacturing establishment in this business in Philadelphia. They do an exclusive wholesale business, and merchants throughout the country can find no better establishment to order and make purchases from than Weaver, Fitler & Co.,…[They] Have constantly on hand, a full assortment of Ropes, &c; Anchors and Chains of Of all Sizes; American, Italian and Russian Hemp Ropes of any size or description Made to order on short notice
In 1859, Fitler bought out Weaver and changed the company’s name to Edwin H. Fitler & Co. Eventually Fitler’s two sons (Edwin & William) would enter the business. The offices of the company were located downtown on Water Street, on the Delaware River waterfront, near their wharf. About 1880 the old works at 10th & Germantown was seen as inadequate and a new works was built in Bridesburg.
Fitler eventually moved to the 1600 block of Walnut Street, only a short walk from the Manufacturer’s Club, where he became active and served for a time as the Vice President. He was also elected the president of the American Cordage Manufactuers’ Association. During the Civil War Fitler organized and equipped a company of men from his cordage works, as well he was an early member of the Union League and a one time president of that organization. He served in many other capacities on various philanthropic institutions’ boards.
In 1876 Fitler was a Republican Presidential Elector for Pennsylvania. His abilities in business and finance were so great that he was sought out as the Republican choice to be mayor of Philadelphia in 1887 and he won by 30,000 votes. As the first mayor under the new City-Charter, Fitler’s duties were immense. “The whole city administration needed to be organized, competent heads of departments appointed, and methods of action devised for which there was no precedent in the history of the city. He fulfilled these duties to the general satisfaction of the public and left a thoroughly organized system of municipal government to his successors.” He was so well respected that his name was presented at Chicago by Philadelphia delegates as their choice for President of the United States. While not seeking the office, he did nevertheless appreciate the honor by the mere mention of his name in that capacity.
While Fitler moved up and out of Kensington, he never forgot where he came from. He was active as an officer and as a benefactor to the Kensington Soup Society. During the rise of Fitler’s ropewalk career, he also took in another Kensingtonian to help run the business. Conrad F. Clothier (1829-1886), associated with the First Presbyterian Church of Kensington, a church where he is honored with one of the stain glass windows dedicated to him, became the bookkeeper for Fitler’s company. When Edwin H. Fitler bought out his partner George J. Weaver and took over the company, he invited Clothier to become a partner in the new firm that was created. The year before joining the Weaver & Fitler firm, Clothier married in 1854, Mary Victoria Byerly, a member of a well-known local Kensington shipbuilding family who was also related to the famed shipbuilder William Cramp.
Edwin H. Fitler died on May 31st, 1896 and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery. He was a local Kensington boy who became one of Philadelphia’s richest citizens, its mayor, and its choice for President of the United States.
14 June 2007 The Rest is History
Earlier in the year, a fellow named John Connors contacted me and asked if I wanted to help him in the creation of a Penn Treaty Museum. I had to scratch my head for a moment trying to figure out how I was going to pull that one off? However, his idea was not a bricks and mortar museum, but a virtual museum, a website where you could read about the famous treaty that William Penn made with the Native Americans right here in Kensington (Fishtown), where we today have Penn Treaty Park.
John’s idea for the website was not just a history of Penn’s Treaty, but also one that would have a museum gallery of images of the artwork and ephemera that has been created over the years on or about the Treaty and the Park. Over the years Connors began to collect items associated with Penn Treaty Park’s history. A print here, a postcard there, and eventually he has come to own quite a nice little collection of the Park’s history. In particular he has collected a number of 19th and 20th Century images of Penn’s Treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon, produced by various artists both American and European, who were mimicking and copying Benjamin West’s famous painting of the same name.
Connors wanted to do something with his collection and his idea of the website was a way not only to show the public his collection, but to help educate folks on what he sees as one of America’s most preeminent events, a peace treaty made between Europeans and the Native Americans, the offering of the hand of friendship, without a sword being held in the other hand.
I never recalled meeting Connors and while he’s not a native Fishtowner, I’m sure he was long ago adopted by the neighborhood. He use to live for a number of years down on Allen Street, just south of Columbia Avenue, within eye sight of the park and a rock throw from the Treaty Monument. When John lived here he became very involved in Penn Treaty Park and participated in the old Fishtown Civic Association and their efforts in restoring and expanding the park back in the 1980’s.While he now lives outside the city, he always remained fascinated by Penn’s Treaty and still spends his time coming back to Fishtown to help clean and promote the park.
When Connors was a young man back in the 1970’s and new in the neighborhood, he came under the tutelage of a couple of old-timers involved in the park upkeep and restoration, Mr. Henry C. Kriese (1910-1990) and Dr. Etta May Pettyjohn (1909-2005). Kriese and Pettyjohn were true champions of the park. Kriese was called “Mr. Kensington” for his activities associated in the betterment of the community through the old Kensington Community Council. A real gentleman, Kriese could always be found wearing his trademark suit at community meetings, public meetings, or other neighborhood events. Pettyjohn, the daughter of a Fishtown tugboat captain from Thompson Street, was a remarkable neighborhood woman who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where she took her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees. She eventually became the principal of Kensington High School (1956-1971) and is remembered and honored by many old-time Fishtowners and Kensingtonians.
Connors was enamored by Kriese and Pettyjohn. They were people from another generation. Dr. Pettyjohn in particular became Connors mentor in all things Penn Treaty. Back in June of 1970, Pettyjohn gave a talk calling for a museum that would be dedicated to Penn’s Treaty. She even went so far as to outline just how this museum might look and be laid out. Thinking back on his conversations with Pettyjohn, Connors became “haunted” to use his words about “Penn’s Treaty.” The history of the event, the images of the event, remained deep in his psyche, so much so that he was driven to try and create Pettyjohn’s dream of a Penn’s Treaty Museum.
To celebrate the launching of his website, Connors, in conjunction with the Friends of Penn Treaty Park and the celebration of the 325th Anniversary of Penn’s Treaty with the Indians, is having an exhibit this weekend of his Penn Treaty Collection at the home he still owns at 315 E. Allen Street (just south of Columbia) on Friday, June 15th (4-8 P.M.), Saturday, June 16th (11 A.M. - 5 P.M.) and Sunday, June 17th (1 P.M. - 5 P.M.). The official launching of the Penn Treaty Museum website will take place at this exhibition. You can reach the Penn Treaty Museum website at www.penntreatymuseum.org. All Hail John Connors! He is another in the historical lineage of Penn Treaty Park benefactors.
21 June 2007 The Rest is History
Recently I got a package in the mail from a guy who use to live in the neighborhood. The package contained two books, The Content of Their Character, a nonfiction work, and Flatiron, billed as a work of fiction. If you grew up in Saint Anne’s Parish, or ever hung at Cione Playground, you’ll recognize Flatiron as growing up in the neighborhood in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
The writer of the books is Gerard “Gerry” Shields who grew up on Cumberland Street between Memphis and Cedar Streets, went to St. Anne’s, graduated from Northeast Catholic in 1979 and then went on to Penn State where he took a degree in Journalism in 1983. Since graduating from college Gerry has been a newspaper reporter covering for the most part city, state, and federal government for a number of newspapers.
Like most young reporters he started out small in Allentown, PA, working for the Morning Call. He later moved on to Orlando, FL, working for The Orland Sentinel then had a stop in New Jersey working for the Gloucester County Times. He eventually wound up in Baltimore, MD, where he covered city government for the Baltimore Sun. Since 2003 he has been working for the Baton Rouge Advocate covering Louisiana issues in Washington, D.C.
Shields’ work for the Baltimore Sun, covering the 1999 mayoral campaign for that city, was the topic of his first book, The Content of Their Character, published by Hilliard & Harris in 2004. The title is taken from Martin Luther King’s famous I had a Dream speech. Similar to Philadelphia, Baltimore politics makes for interesting stories. Seventeen Democrats filed to run for mayor, six had arrest records, one was thrown into jail for a burglary charge, another arrested on a theft charge, and yet another had two gun violations, drug charges and a drunken driving conviction. For once Philadelphia politicians looked attractive.
In the end a Celtic music playing Irish-Catholic, Martin O’Malley, won the election. The election was unique as it was the first time in 28 years that there was no incumbent and Baltimore voters reached across racial lines to vote for an Irish-Catholic running against three very qualified African-American candidates in a city where African-Americans make up 65% of the population. O’Malley wound up serving as mayor from 1999 to 2007, before being elected the governor of Maryland this past January.
The other book in the package was Flatiron, a recent work published by Hilliard & Harris in 2006. It’s a book based on growing up in Saint Anne’s Parish. While Shields calls the neighborhood Flatiron, I have only ever knew Flatiron as being the intersection at Gaul & Firth Streets, where the big old iron I-beams still sit, but hey, it’s a work of fiction.
While the book includes the usual disclaimer, “Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental,” locals will recognize the places and characters in the book. For example Sesky Square is Cione Playground, St. Stephen’s is Saint Anne’s, East Catholic High School is really Northeast Catholic. Even some of the characters hanging on the street corners or in the local bars are recognizable, if you grew up in St. Anne’s, particularly the area nearer to the church.
As I was reading Flatiron I had to smile. In the chapter titled, “The Playground,” Shields talks about the roller hockey league that was formed at Cione and which I remember participating as a youth, in fact the first year of the league I was the number one draft pick, it’s the only sport I could ever play. There is also a chapter on “The Corner,” about life hanging out on street corners, a tradition as old as the neighborhood itself and a custom that I put much time and effort into as a teenager and young adult. If you never participated in this exercise, you just won’t understand.
While the book’s subtitle is “A Collection of Stories,” the series of vignettes has a central character in Ernie McNamara, a local soccer player, who Shields uses to develop his scenarios of neighborhood life and residents around. The entire book seems like a fairly accurate picture of life in the area and I think we can thank Gerry for giving us a book on the neighborhood, warts and all. I’m already picturing the making of a Hollywood movie and who might play Ernie McNamara and will Ernie join the ranks of Rocky Balboa as a local Kensington icon.
Gerry Shields’ books can be ordered online from Amazon.com, or found on the shelves of any of the local bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble, or Borders Books.
28 June 2007 The Rest is History
It might be difficult to picture, but the area where the Waterfront Square towers have now rising at Popular Street and the Delaware River was once known as Point Pleasant. The peninsula like piece of land laying between the old Cohocksink Creek (Canal Street) and the Delaware River was at one time a resort of sorts, surrounded on three sides by water, one side a creek, the other a bay, and the third the river. The area had an inn, a tavern, and opportunities for sport shooting nearby.
John Watson tells us in his Annals of Philadelphia (1830) that the Delaware River formerly made a great inroad upon the land at the mouth of the Cohocksink Creek (about Popular Street and the Delaware River) “making there a large and shallow bay, extending from Point Pleasant down to Warder’s long wharf, near Green Street,” and that back in the 1790’s the water use to come up daily to the houses at Front and Coates (Fairmount) Streets. All the area of the bay (then without the present streets east of Front Street) was “an immense plane of spatterdocks, a common North American water lily, which filled the bay from the end of Warder’s wharf at Green Street and on a line with Point Pleasant.
Watson also mentions that, “The lower end of Coates’ Street was then lower than now; and in freshets the river laid across Front Street. All the ten or twelve houses north of Coates’ Street, on the east side, were built on made ground, and their little yards were supported with wharf logs, and bush willows as trees. [At] the then mouth of [the] Cohocksink was a wooden drawbridge, then the only communication to Kensington, which crossed at Leib’s house opposite to Poplar Lane; from thence a raised causeway ran across to Point Pleasant. The stone bridge north of it [at Front Street] leading to Kensington was not then in existence. On the outside of this causeway the river covered, and spatterdocks grew, and on the inside there was a great extent of marshy ground alternately wet and dry, with the ebbing and flowing of the tide; the creek was embanked on the east side. The marsh was probably two hundred feet wide where the causeway at the stone bridge now runs….The marsh grounds of Cohocksink used to afford good shooting for woodcock and snipe, &c….”
One of the earliest advertisements for Point Pleasant is by William Masters, on the 1st of August, 1765, when he states that at the last day of that month, he will be selling a large three story brick house on Germantown Road, at the upper end of Second street and if a person was interested, he could contact Masters at his distillery at “Point Pleasant, near Kensington.” Masters was a fairly large landowner in the area and his lands stretched north and west to Girard Avenue and beyond.
Another business advertisement for Point Pleasant is on May 24th, 1770, when an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette is printed for Elizabeth Phillips cured sturgeon. She was advertised as being next to William Master’s distillery and would appear to be one of the earliest mentions of a woman fishmonger in the area, an area that would later be called Fishtown. Phillips was again advertising her kegs of cured sturgeon done in the “Baltick manner,” in the Pennsylvania Gazette on the 30th of April, 1772. There was also in 1771, an advertisement for “an assortment of ironmongery and sundry other articles,” at the house of Thomas Savadge, at Point-Pleasant, in the Northern Liberties of the City of Philadelphia, near Kensington.
By 1820 a fire company was founded at Point Pleasant, called appropriately enough the “Point Pleasant Fire Company.” It was founded in July of 1820 and was located on the Delaware River at the mouth of the Cohocksink Creek, at Point Pleasant, Kensington.
The area of Point Pleasant use to be elevated somewhat and during the American Revolution, the British put an artillery unit there and it became known as Artillery Hill, as it helped the British to defend Philadelphia from the Americans who might try coming down the Delaware River from the north. The Brits also damned the Cohocksink Creek, flooding the marshes even more, which also helped their defenses on the northern end of the city. After the war and as the area went under some development, Artillery Hill was leveled, the dirt used to fill in the marshes and the spatterdock filled bay.
With all of the development going on in this area of Kensington today, it looks it will soon again be a resort of sorts, and who says history doesn’t repeat itself?