Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives


Source: 1947 Volume 6 Number 3, Pages 54–63


Philadelphia directories

Phoebe P. Prime

Page 54

Thomas Harper, agent for inland transport of merchandise from Pittsburg and in the winter season for Baltimore, Decatur Street, Philadelphia

Somehow the modern directories do not conjure up a very interesting picture. Fat, cumbersome volumes, available in some business office or library, tell us, when we pounce on them hurriedly, the address of Mr. Jones, or where on earth Mr. Winterbottom now has his establishment. But this is 1947 and times have changed. Suppose we go back to the Year of Our Lord, 1785, when, curiously enough, two city directories were issued, one by Francis White, the other by one Captain McPherson - competition, we see, starting immediately.

They make good reading now, these ancient purveyors of time and space. Rare little volumes, printed on the linen rag paper of the day, and measuring not more than 6 1/2 by 3 3/4 inches. Two hundred and six pages in thickness, informing the public as to the whereabouts of their neighbors, and of their trades and occupations. Coming, as they do, in the post-Revolutionary period, they finish out the eighteenth century for us and locate not only the residences of many of our ancestors, but also the important characters and tradesmen of the day.

Were the citizens of Philadelphia industrious in the last decade of the eighteenth century? Let us glance at the list of contemporary craftsmen. There were artists, portrait and miniature painters, limners, blacksmiths, boxmakers, brassfounders, coppersmiths, stonecutters, and masons, brickmakers, button makers, cabinet makers, cake bakers, pastry cooks, confectioners, carpenters (twelve hundred of them), carvers and gilders, chair makers, comb makers and coach makers, coopers, cutlers, druggists and chemists, engravers, and at least sixty other professions or trades. I have them in my check list, with their addresses and dates, all tucked away for reference.

Page 55

Reading up and down the columns, we discover that widows were listed as such, and that they busied themselves with many and varied occupations. They were midwives, shopkeepers, seamstresses, mantua makers, grocers, booksellers and stationers, tavern keepers, schoolmistresses, washers (many of them), bakers, upholsterers, shoemakers and potters. Polly Hair was a pepperpot maker. Was huckstering an unhealthy occupation for males, or did it provide the widows with an opportunity to circulate among their neighbors? For the final count shows no less than fifty-six of these relicts engaged in that business.

Bathing, as a domestic art, was strictly limited; hence we discover a bath house, a French bathing house, and, on the Delaware, opposite Chestnut Street, a floating bath house.

Looking back into the trades and activities of 1796 one finds many interesting terms, long since gone out of use. For then there were nailors, oysterers, fruiterers, fishmongers, scriveners (many), and paper stainers.

No undertakers were listed in the directory for 1796, so that I cannot be prepared to say who did the actual burying when that inevitable moment arrived, but one or two grave-diggers turn up, and there were several layers-out of the dead. So, between the two, funerals must somehow have been managed.

The midwives are carefully listed in a directory for 1811,together with ninety-six doctors, seventy-two nurses, and ten dentists, some of whom were also bleeders; and there were bleeders with leeches.

Occupations were different in those days. Richard Allen is listed as a master sweep, and one wonders if he encouraged little boys to scramble up and down and in and out of chimneys. One man was a news-hawker; a wheelbarrow man is mentioned, and the auctioneer of the day was a vendue cryer. Ice cream was sold, and mention is made of Hannah Toy as a "Doctress." There were biscuit makers and men midwives, of whom William de Charms was one. The Wigglesworths, John and Samuel, were toy men; John Cope was a heel maker, one woman a turner, one man a worker in wax. One plumber and one letter carrier appear. Barnett Meyer was a doorkeeper of the Mint, and Florey Mitchell (there were several more) was a vendue huckster, while Jacob Mitchell made his living as a Mahogany sawyer. James Montgomery was captain of the Revenue Cutter General Green. John Murdoch was the only perfumer, but there were several nailsmiths who undoubtedly made those nice handwrought nails which we sometimes come across in old furniture.

We are given a hint as to what the ladies wore on their feet, for Gabriel Parris was stuff shoemaker. One Mary Pritchard was a purveyor of mead, while Samuel Scotten is listed as a whalebone cutter. We find but one maker of umbrellas. Was he able to keep everybody dry? Only one dentist is listed for 1796, and there is just a chance that he may have done more harm than good. Charlotte Hero was a pewterer, while one individual made his livelihood by selling buckles. Edward Loder is the only chocolate maker mentioned, while Marot Davenport made spinning wheels as well as chairs. These latter, however, were a form of two-wheeled vehicle.

Page 56

Philadelphia Tin Toy Manufactory

Apropos of chairs, there is a list of Pleasure Carriages (they were taxed, too) which belonged to the inhabitants of Philadelphia and of whatever suburbs there may have been at the time (1796). The records of the Inspectors Office for that year show:

"Chairs, 520; Sulkeys, 33; total, 553 two-wheeled vehicles, 80 light wagons, 137 Coaches, 22 Phaetons, 35 Chariots, and 33 coaches; total, 307 four-wheeled carriages. The number is much increased since the above account was taken."

The entries made by the office of the Clerk of the Mayor's Court would tend to bear out this latter statement for, as of July 22, 1795, there were two hundred twenty-six drays, and four hundred thirty-seven carts employed within the limits of the city, "but it is supposed that there are many more, which have not been entered."

Much interesting information lies before our eyes as we peruse onward. Who, let us ask, was the President in 1811? Should our memory fail, the back or front pages of these little volumes will quickly inform us, and also furnish enlightenment as to the Members of the Board at the Pennsylvania Hospital for 1788.

Page 57

And we will also find out who was the President of the Bank of Pennsylvania. It is all there.

The churches and charitable institutions come in for their share of attention as well, and the lists of their names make fascinating reading material. Many of the streets which were familiar to the residents before and immediately after the turn of the century are no longer of any consequence, or have faded completely from the picture. Where, for instance, are Fourteen Chimneys, Black Horse Alley, Petticoat Alley, Prosperous Alley, Love Lane, White Horse Alley, Little Boy's Court, Elbow Lane, Elbow Alley, and Whalebone Alley (the latter having a nice nautical flavor).

And where now are Bearstickers Court, Bloody Lane, Mud Lane, Ash Alley, Acorn Alley, Apple Tree Alley, Apricot Alley, Blackberry Alley, Raspberry Alley, Peach Alley, Strawberry Alley, Sugar Alley, and Fetter Lane? Most of these little byways ran for only a block or two and have long since vanished. The Directory of 1818 lists and names "fourty-two (sic) streets laid out but not yet opened".

Many an old Philadelphia name appears on these yellowing pages, and others are there which, well known in their time, have died out completely. Reading down column after column one's eye is arrested, and we see, for instance,

"McKean, Thomas, Chief Justice of the State of Pennsylvania, 157 South Third Street; Rittenhouse, David, gentleman, 38 and 42 North Seventh Street; Gerard, Stephen, merchant, 33 North Water Street; Morris, Robert, Esquire, Senator of the United States from Pennsylvania, 227 High Street.

Between Warts, John, sea captain, and Wastlie, John, who was a skin dresser, we find Washington, George, President of the United States, 190 High Street. Bishop White lived at 89 Walnut Street, while Thomas Mifflin, Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, resided at 248 or 250 Market Street (which was the same as High Street). Samuel Meredith was Treasurer of the United States and held forth at 171 Chestnut Street.

It is interesting to pick up my old friends, the well-known silversmiths Christian Wiltberger, who lived at 33 South Second Street, and Joseph Richardson, of 50 South Front. Among the silversmiths are many whose pieces are not known at all.

Charles Willson Peale is listed as "proprietor of the Museum opp. the Library", South Fifth Street, and we must not overlook "Govers, John, Washington's coachman, Sugar Alley #6", nor Tobias Hirte, oil merchant, 118 North Second Street. For Kipling tells us:

"Toby Hirte can't be seen at One Hundred and Eighteen,
North Second Street, no matter when you call;
And I fear you'll search in vain for the wash-house down the lane,
Where Pharaoh played the fiddle at the ball."

Many a mariner and sea captain is there, along with sail makers, caulkers, mast makers, shipwrights, and shallowmen, for this was a busy port, and a number of the pages of the directories are devoted to duties, terms of credit, and restrictions on importations.

Page 58

Coach & Harness Manufactory

Scanning the lists and names of dutiable articles, one gets a very fair idea of what was brought in by vessels sailing up the Delaware, Philadelphia-bound from all the seas and oceans. Less duty was charged on merchandise carried by American ships, an attempt, no doubt, to wean native industry away from the use of foreign bottoms. There is a long and carefully detailed list of duties, from which we must abstract a few items. "Clogs and Goloshes, 15c per pair (duty)." Dolls, dressed and undressed, are mentioned, as are ointments of oils and odors, the latter destined for milady's boudoir.

Madeira wine is assessed at fifty-six cents the gallon; tea is discussed at considerable length, but the one subject which stands out above everything else is that of war goods. Cutlasses, lead musket-ball, gun-powder, anything pertaining to war-time activities is "free till the 22 of May 1795", at which time duties were added.

We also find tables to show the value of various coins in circulation at the time, "as they pass in the respective states of the Union" (with their Sterling and Federal values). English guineas, French guineas, Johannis, French pistoles and crowns, Moidores of Portugal, Spanish pistoles, and pistareens are all listed and their varying values explained, a complicated procedure at best, when one realizes that the different states had no single standard of currency values.

The mention of these coins calls to mind the fact that many of them, very many of them in fact, went into the silversmith's melting pot to be beaten out eventually into hollow ware, spoons salvers, and the like, for bullion, as we know it today, was unobtainable.

Page 59

Several United States gold coins were in circulation in early America, especially the Eagle, half, and quarter Eagle, the latter being valued at two and one-half dollars. The Directory for 1796 tells us that:

"Gold and silver coins of Great Britain, France, and Portugal are allowed to be tendered in all payments, but at the expiration of three years after the coining of gold and silver shall commence at the mint (#27-29 N. 7th), all foreign coin will by law cease from being legal tender, except Spanish milled dollars and parts thereof."

Poking around among some old books, I came upon "The American Repository for 1796". The front cover was missing, and it was such a little bit of a booklet that its diminutive grey pages had held their secrets well. Once opened, however, it was hard to put down, and here are some of the gleanings from its informative contents.

In 1796, Matthew Clarkson was Mayor of Philadelphia, and resided at 199 Mulberry (now Arch Street), Thomas Mifflin (my, what beautiful silver he owned!) was Governor of our Commonwealth, at a salary of two thousand dollars per annum. Anthony Wayne, Major General, and Commander-in Chief, received a monthly stipend of two hundred and one dollars, George Washington, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of all the forces, received twenty five thousand dollars yearly.

Turning the page, one reads that the Naval Force (in 1796) consisted of the following:

"4 frigates of 44 guns each, 2 frigates of 36 guns, 10 Revenue cutters, which were stationed at all the seaports from New Hampshire to Georgia".

Added is a complete listing of the British Navy, corrected to July 1795, the vessels carefully described, with the number of guns mounted on each, and those noted which had been taken from the Americans, French, Spanish and Dutch. Adding up, the total comes to 563. (One begins to wonder what was going on in our shipyards, to build up a Navy for the War of 1812.)

The names of the English vessels are strongly suggestive of romance and adventure, many of them being the forerunners of the modern vessels which would carry on proud old names. Mentioned casually among the "B's" is the Bellerophon, 74 guns, which was to make history in 1815, by taking the recently defeated Napoleon from the coast of France to English waters, there to be transferred to the Northumberland (also listed) for the long last voyage to St. Helena.

Our own Navy, we discover with relief, has expanded by 1811 and Philadelphia County is listed as having built, in that year, some nine hundred ninety-two thousand five hundred dollars worth of shipping. The Navy list now includes eleven frigates, one ship of war (the Wasp), six brigs, two schooners, one hundred seventy gunboats, and four bomb ketches, Unfortunately, of these ships, but two frigates, one corvette, the brigs Hornet. Vixen, and Siren, one schooner, one cutter, and twenty gunboats were in commission.

Page 60

But we are getting ahead of our story, and return to land to find that the American Respository (sic) has much more fascinating information. There were, as an example, three thousand, seven hundred thirty-seven slaves listed as being in Pennsylvania. This is a story in itself.

The book also lists the population of all capitals or chief towns in the then United States-revealing figures indeed! Philadelphia heads the list with fifty thousand, while New York numbers only thirty-two thousand, and so on down, until one arrives at Rawleigh, (sic) North Carolina, where there are only "a few houses".

They may have been short of undertakers, but our early Philadelphians were still subject to the Grim Reaper's ministrations. In 1796 a great many of them perished of yellow fever, for this was one of the terrible fever years. But listed also among the "diseases and casulties" (sic) are the following figures;

"Dry Gripes, 2; Hives, 4; Mortification, 2; Nervous Fever, 8; Decay, 60" ...

and old age claimed two.

We entertained ourselves in two theatres, the Old and the New, and should one have the urge to venture further afield in search of amusement or edification there was, even as now, the possibility of going over to New York. One could take the four o'clock (A.M.) stage, or one of those running at five, six, or eight o'clock. There was also a packet boat which left from the Arch Street wharf, and landed the hardy passenger at Burlington or Bordentown, from which point he took a carriage to South Amboy, and there caught another packet which deposited him directly in New York. This procedure was not accomplished in one day.

Should Lancaster be your destination, or parts less far removed in a westerly direction, you would book passage at John Dunwoody's, beneath the sign of the Spread Eagle, in High Street. The coach left at half after six in the morning, on Tuesdays and Fridays.

We are informed that

"the Delaware is navigable from the sea to the falls of Trenton, about thirty miles above the city; in the time of freshets, near two hundred miles into the state of New York."

And should one stay home, and move abroad in his native town, the Directory for 1796 states that

"the streets in improved parts of the city are paved in the middle with pebblestones, the sidewalks and gutters with brick, and the footways are defended from the approach of carriages by rows of posts, placed without the gutters at a distance of 10 or 12 feet from each other."

We are not sure just when public street-lighting first made its appearance in Philadelphia but, by 1811, the thoroughfares were lighted with oil lamps, of two branches each, which were dispersed at convenient distances in all parts of the town. They were lighted every night, save when the illumination furnished by the moon rendered this unnecessary.

The buildings appointed to public worship in the city and suburbs numbered twenty-eight. (The suburbs, in 1796, consisted of the Northern Liberties, Southwark, and pretty much anything west of 11th Street.)

Page 61

Deo Duce Foruna Comite

Four of these religious buildings were "in the German Language", and there had been erected two buildings by the blacks, one serving the African Protestant Episcopal Church, the other ministering to the spiritual needs of the African Methodist Episcopalians. There were three Roman Catholic churches, one of them serving German communicants.

Skipping at random through the booklet one finds a list of Post Towns in the United States, and discovers that mention is made of the "main road from Wiscasset in the District of Main (sans 'e') to Sunbury, in Georgia". Could this, by any chance, have been the first post road?

We are told that

"the State House of Pennsylvania (now Independence Hall) will perhaps become more interesting in History than any of the celebrated fabrics of Rome!"

There was no Book-of-the-Month Club in 1796 but, had it then existed, it is possible that, among its various selections, the following choice literature would have been included: "Blossoms of Morality", by Mrs. Barbould, at seventy-five cents; "Looking Glass for the Mind", by the same lady; Haney's "Triumphs of Temper", with beautiful engravings, for only one dollar. Perhaps "Royal Captives", a "fragment of secret history", had something of the popularity of "Forever Amber" and it was only eighty cents. "An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World" sold for fifty cents.

Various groups and organizations were going strong in 1796, among them the Humane Society which, having been instituted in 1780, concerned itself with attempts to revivify those apparently dead from drowning, or brought to the same state by overdoses of cold liquids, charcoal fumes, or other noxious vapors.

Page 62

Education is discussed on another page. We read that

"By a late Salutary Measure (the taxation of dogs) learning promises to be more generally diffused, the monies accruing being applied to the laudable purpose of education which offers to the poor, indiscriminately, the advantage of knowledge".

Perhaps this many throw some light on the schoolboy custom of applying tin cans to the tails of dogs, licensed or otherwise...)

The Society of Friends and the Abolition Society were busy that year "ameliorating the situation of the unfortunate Africans". About the year 1770 a school was instituted by private subscription among the Friends, with a view towards the preparation of that degraded race for a better situation in civil life.

"By the will of Anthony Benezet, of benevolent memory, a considerable donation from the Society of Friends in England and some other charitable devices, (there was) provided nearly enough funds for the support of the school, which is kept in Willing's Alley... there is also a school for the blacks which is supported by the Abolition Society in Cherry Street, kept by Helena Morris, a black woman of considerable parts, who had been for several years employed as a teacher of white children in England."

So much for improving the blacks; and now let us see what was being done for the improvement of transportation. We discover that there is

"The Brandywine Canal Navigation Company, instituted on the 10th of April, 1793 (with capital of 1500 shares of two hundred dollars each, payable as the Company may direct) for the purpose of improving the navigation of that creek (by canal and locks)."

One of the road improvement groups was the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Company, which was instituted on the 9th of April, 1792,

"for the purpose of constructing an artificial road between that city and borough... they have made very considerable advancements in their operations."

Already a bridge across the Susquehannah was contemplated, "near Wright's Ferry, the company being formed in 1793."

Those interested in more leisurely pursuits may have been attracted to the Company for promoting the cultivation of vines, founded 1793, which was incorporated in 1802, for the purpose of carrying on the cultivation of the vine plant on a more extensive scale than had hitherto been attempted in the United States.

"The number of shares to the stock is a thousand, at 20 dollars each; and a handsome farm has been purchased for a vineyard at Spring Mill, on the Schuylkill, 13 miles from the city. There are now upwards of 30,000 vine-plants in a vigorous state which require nothing but the necessary funds to secure success."

Philadelphia, by 1811, had made considerable progress, for the directory of that year gives many interesting hints and statistics as to what our citizens were doing with their dollars. Under the heading "Amount per annum of article manufactured within the City of Phila.", the following top a list of eighty-two entries;

"gold, silver and jewelry, $458,300; cabinet-ware $431,075; coachmaking $464,000; saddles $422,160; sugar $530,000 (what sweet tooths we had!) (sic); hats $566,518; boots, shoos and slippers, $810,351. But gin tops them all at a figure of $817,275."

Page 63

I had intended telling you much more about the advertising, which began to appear in the fronts and backs of the Directories from 1818 onwards, and of the attractive and enlightening woodcuts which give us a faithful and interesting picture of the modes and manners of the early nineteenth century. However, as I dug into these fascinating volumes, so many quaint and unusual facts came to light that I found myself floundering deeply among them, emerging to discover that my paper had already been written.

Chestnut Street Boot & Shoe Manufacturer

 
 

Page last updated: 2012-03-30 at 14:24 EST
Copyright © 2006-2012 Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society. All rights reserved.
Permission is given to make copies for personal use only.
All other uses require written permission of the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society.