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Verree Mills were built on what today would be the west side of
Verree Road between Susquehanna and Bloomfield Roads. The estate was
owned by the Verree family during the 18th and 19th centuries. The
Verree family is of French descent, the original name being Verrier.
The grist mill of Verree Mills was located on the north side of
the Pennypack Creek near to the south wall of the Verree House. This
grist mill replaced Gwin’s Mill, the second oldest mill in
Pennsylvania. The oldest mill was Swedish Governor Printz’s Mill
built on Cobbs Creek in Southwest Philadelphia in 1645. Welsh
settlers, who settled North Wales, used to bring their grain to Gwin
and Verree Mills to be ground into flour. They brought it by way of
the path that became “Welsh Road.” Gwin’s Mill then fell into
disrepair before the site was bought by Robert Verree, who then
rebuilt the mill. In 1814, a bridge over the Pennypack Creek at Verree
Road connected the grist mill on one side of the creek to the tool
factory on the other side.
When the British occupied Philadelphia in 1777, they sent out
foraging troops which raided and destroyed the Verree grist mill. The
British forces were led by Major Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers. They
passed over Welsh Road on their way to the Crooked Billet which is now
Hatboro. The Rangers met and defeated the Pennsylvania militia under
General John Lacey. The British were interested in Verree mill because
the mill had been supplying flour to Continental soldiers at Valley
Forge. Ironically, Lacey was actually engaged in preventing supplies
from reaching the British who were then in Philadelphia.
John Paul Verree was born in 1816. He inherited the entire mill
complex from his father, James Verree, son of Robert Verree. John Paul
Verree also inherited the Verree House, which was the center of the
farming land and mills. Houses were built to provide shelter for
workers. The Klein House, next to the Verree House, is a surviving
example of workers homes. The owner of the building constructed a
“spring” house 20 feet below ground to provide a means of
refrigeration.
Early in his life, John Paul Verree entered business as a
manufacturer of iron and steel. He was successful in his career and
for years was the senior partner in the firm of John P. Verree &
Co., and of the firm of Verree & Mitchell (iron and steel). In
politics, Verree was a Whig, but he later became active in the new
Republican Party. For six years he was a member of Select Council, and
for four years he was president of the Council. From 1858 to 1862
Mr.Verree was a U.S. Congressman. He was a friend of Abraham Lincoln,
and was quite active in the abolitionist movement. In 1873, Verree was
appointed by the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania as a member
of the Commission to supervise the vote on the new Constitution. In
1880, Verree resigned from all of his work and spent the rest of his
life at the Verree House.
Ye
Olde Pennepack Church
By the edge of Pennypack Park, on Krewstown Road,
stands the oldest existing Baptist church in the state of
Pennsylvania. Three hundred years ago, the small Baptist congregation
held services in the homes of congregants. These first members were
European immigrants from Wales, England, and Ireland. They sought the
freedom to practice their Baptist faith in the New World. The
congregation’s earliest meetings were solemn and quiet. As the
population expanded, new members were baptized and gladly welcomed
into the congregation. The growing number of worshipers, however, made
it increasingly difficult to continue holding services in the small
homes of the congregants.
It was decided that a separate church was needed and so the
Pennepack Church was created in 1707. The first pastor was a man named
Elias Keech. The church lacked an indoor baptistery, so a cold, hard
rock in the frigid Pennypack Creek had to suffice. Often times those
gathered for a baptism in the winter would have to break the ice of
the stream first before beginning a service. The natural baptistery
became known as “Baptismal Rock.”
Pennepack Church was not actually the earliest Baptist church
to be founded in Pennsylvania. Another church had been started by
Reverend Thomas Dungan at Cold Springs in 1864, four years before the
birth of the Pennepack Church. This church, however, is no longer in
existence, thus Pennepack Church has taken on the role as “mother”
to all the Baptist churches in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and
New Jersey.
The escalating population of Pennypack forced the 25 square
foot church to expand its walls in 1774, and then again in 1805,
adding another story. The final result was a two-story stone edifice
that can be seen today, though the landscape around the building has
changed drastically. Once surrounded by meadows filled with deer, the
church now lies between several housing developments and busy city
streets.
A small Pennepack Church congregation of 85 people remains in
existence today; however, the original church building has not been
used to hold regular services since 1886. The Church is open for
special events, and on every first Sunday in June for Pennypack Day.
Pennypack Day celebrates the history and beauty of the park and brings
old and new friends and congregants to the church for morning and
afternoon services. The exterior of the building has recently been
repainted, and the rotted joints have been changed, but the church
maintains a weather-beaten appearance. The actual structure remains in
strong condition.
Another interesting aspect of the church is its architectural
design. The low height of the pulpit and the doorways provide evidence
that people were shorter hundreds of years ago. Its plain and simple
design demonstrates the lack of funding and the desire of the
congregation to avoid the ornateness of other Philadelphia churches.
The inside of the church is much larger than one would expect from
looking at it from the outside. The lower level of the church is made
up of family pews. These were used by the wealthier members of the
congregation. Other members would worship from the second level of the
church.
Octagonal
Schoolhouse
Although only a small community, Fox Chase was
progressive enough to build its own schoolhouse in 1805, long before
public schools became mandatory. The school was located on the east
side of Jeanes Street just north of Rhawn Street. The building had a
distinctive octagonal shape, so it became known as the “Octagonal
School.” It became the center for community civic activities, for
services by Presbyterians and Episcopalians, for revival meetings, for
town meetings and for entertainment until 1888, when it was torn down.
The
Knowlton House
The Knowlton House was built in 1881 and is located on
the corner of Verree Road and Rhawn Street. Mr. William Rhawn, the
original owner, was the president of the National Bank of the Republic
in Philadelphia, and the American Banker’s Association. The house
was named after John Knowles who was the great grandfather of Mrs.
Rhawn, the original owner. The house stands surrounded by 12 acres of
lawn and trees.
The architect’s name was Frank Furness. He was one of the
most prominent architects of American buildings in the 19th century.
The Knowlton House is con- structed and designed in Frank Furness’s
personal style. The vestibule and hall are finished in oak with mosaic
floors and stained glass windows. All of the other woodwork in the
house is of white pine with a shellac finish. The wide hall displays a
grandfather clock more than 250 years old. The house is carpeted with
oriental carpet, and was decorated with glazed brick and brick tile.
The
Ury House
The Ury House was once a great edifice surrounded by
trees. It stood upon gently rolling land in the vicinity of Pine Road.
It was always referred to as one of the famous colonial mansions of
Philadelphia. During its existence, the house sheltered many famous
visitors within its walls.
This ancient house was constructed by Swedish settlers who
sailed up the Delaware River around 1645. Arrival at the Fox Chase
area was said to be an accident, because the settlers were sailing
during the evening and mistook the inlet for their intended landing at
Christiana, Delaware. Upon arriving, they constructed a block- house
of massive stone as protection from the Lenni-Lenape Indians.
Although, the Swedes quite frequently maintained friendly relations
with the Indians. The block- house became the heart, and foundation of
the Ury house. The fort was used as the keystone of their colony.
Settlers in surrounding cabins came to the fort to use the cellar
forge to weld their farm tools, mold their lead bullets, and shoe
their horses. It also provided a refuge from hostile Indians, or
interloping Dutchmen from the Hudson Valley.
English colonists later took over the settlement and
blockhouse. It was then named “Urie” House after the country home
of the Scottish Quaker, Barclay, who was writer and author of “The
Apology.” In 1728, the Taylors, who were the new owners, added a
second portion to the house. Miers Fisher, the next owner, was a
lawyer during revolutionary days. He went on to make subsequent
additions after 1795. He built parlors on the west side of the house
and put the bedrooms above them. Miers Fisher added an elaborate row
of sham windows west of what is now the entrance hall. He and his
spouse were known to entertain lavishly in the old house which was by
then extensively refurbished.
Among the guests entertained by Miers Fisher and his wife were
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Thomas Jefferson
was another guest of the young couple. Miers Fisher also befriended
James Audubon, who began his famous paintings of birds in the
Pennypack Valley. Fisher planted a pecan tree given to him by Thomas
Jefferson on the lawn. The tree lasted until 1928, when it was blown
down in a winter storm. A famous “six-square” garden featuring
boxwoods was planted to the southeast of the house.
A Mr. Miller purchased Ury House in 1800, Captain James West
become the owner in 1808, and Dr. Thompson Holmes purchased the house
in 1835.
In 1842, the Ury House was purchased by Stephen Rowan Crawford.
He and his wife made further changes and additions to the mansions.
However, prior to the Civil War, Crawford found himself in financial
difficulties and feared that he would lose his home. His wife, Jane,
contributed by heading a money raising project, which was one of the
few things acceptable for lady of that day to do. She opened a
boarding school in 1860. It became a popular educational facility for
young boys from all parts of Europe, Cuba, and South America. Jane
Crawford remained the head of this large and prosperous school for the
entire twenty-one years of its existence. When she retired in 1881 the
school moved to Bustleton becoming St. Luke’s Academy and eventually
to Wayne becoming Valley Forge Military Academy.
Following Mrs. Crawford’s death, Ury house was inherited by
her son, Joseph U. Crawford, who had served as an official of the
Pennsylvania Railroad. He also was one of the pioneers to build
railroads in Japan. Joseph lived in the mansion with his four sisters
and four brothers.
Before the Civil War, a tunnel linked the Ury House to the
Pennypack Creek. The tunnel facilitated the escape of slaves fleeing
by way of the Underground Railroad. This tunnel has since collapsed.
Even though visitors brought life to the Ury House, the sixty
acre estate was becoming too difficult for the Crawfords to maintain.
The expense for heating the large drafty house was held to a minimum,
but was still very costly.
In 1945, the Crawfords decided to sell the house. Real estate
promoters and developers wanted to buy the property. However, Miss
Jean Crawford, eldest sister of Joseph, said, “We prefer to sell to
one who knows how to live in this house, graciously, as it should be
lived in.”
The Medical Mission Sisters purchased the property from the
Crawfords in that same year. This marked the end of an era for the Ury
House which had been occupied for one hundred and four years by the
Crawford family.
The sisters developed the Ury House into what
became a training school for nuns serving as medical missionaries all
over the world. It remained actively used for approximately a quarter
of a century. However the house and grounds became a chore to
maintain, and the sisters found it necessary to sell off the southern
forty acres of the estate facing Verree Road. On that property four
hundred twin homes were constructed by a developer.
As the years progressed, the old mansion needed constant
plumbing and house- hold repairs. Upkeep proved too troublesome for
the Medical Mission Sisters. In 1970, the remaining 24.8 acres of the
Ury estate were vacated and put up for sale. Despite efforts to
protect this historical mansion, it became the target of vandalism
while awaiting its new fate. Finally, the mansion was torn down in
1973 in favor of another new housing development, the Montclair rental
community.
Interviews...
The interviews were done by Mrs. Joan Arno’s Advanced
Placement American History Class at George Washington High School.
Interview
with the Medical Mission Sisters about the Ury House
by
Jennifer Fallen and Laurie Schall
Sister Jane Burns is a Medical Mission Sister who was
originally from New York City. She was a novice in the late 1940s.
Sister remembers that the land around the Ury House at 8400 Pine Road
was still a farm The sisters picked corn and strawberries. They had
pigs and chickens and lived in what is today called a “sustainable
living” style - 120 acres of it! Sister Jane always enjoyed walks in
the beautiful Lorimer and Pennypack Parks, as well as occasional
visits to Butler’s Farm (now Fox Chase Farm).
Sister Jean Lorenz, as a young Medical Mission Sister, lived in
the Ury House from 1956 to 1967. She has worked primarily in Africa
with the mentally ill. Sister Mary Conahan lived in the Ury House as a
novice. She has worked mainly in the United States and in India as an
administrator. They remember that in 1946, many young women were
interested in entering religious communities. The Medical Mission
Sisters headquarters was not large enough to house all of these young
women, so the Ury House was purchased.
The Ury House was approached through a wonderful winding road.
As one approached the house, on the right were enormous tulip trees
and on the left was a great field. Ury House itself needed a lot of
painting and scrubbing. It had not been inhabited for a long time, but
the sisters were happy to work hard to restore the house.
The house was made up of different sections. The middle section
was the original Swedish blockhouse. It had fireplaces that went up
three stories. During the early history of the Ury House the cooking
was done in the basement in a fireplace. The old iron hobs were still
there when the Sisters acquired Ury House. Hobs were metal rods which
held kettles over the fire.
In another section of the house were gracious bay windows made
up of little diamond shaped panes of glass. The sisters recalled
finding the initials “H. C.” on one of the panes of glass. They
were told those were the initials of Henry Clay, the Great Peace
Maker, made by him with his diamond ring.
In the same section of the house there were beautiful parquet
floors and a colonial fireplace. It was here, the sisters were told,
that George Washington had been served, and the maid who waited on him
was so nervous that she put salt in the sugar bowl.
The other section of the house had more of the diamond shaped
windows. The sisters used this as their chapel. Down below was the
basement which the sisters used as their dining room. Previously it
was a station of the Underground Railroad, where slaves hid after
escaping up the Pennypack Creek The sisters spent a great deal of time
looking for a tunnel. They eventually found a little doorway, but
could not explore the area behind it because it was unsafe.
The sisters sold the property in 1973 and the Ury House was
razed. Interview with
Robert W. Tuckey
Robert W. Tuckey was born in England where his father, Sidney
Tuckey and his mother’s father, Robert Nichols, were farmers.
However, he has lived most of his life in Bustleton.
Mr. Tuckey attended Bustleton Elementary School, Frankford High
School and the Evening School of the University of Pennsylvania. He
worked with Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company for 47 years. Now
retired, Mr. Tuckey remembers living on Verree Road when it was all
farms. His family home was built by his father There was an acre of
ground around it. He and his father grew vegetables and flowers. They
were members of the Trevose Horticultural Society and the Burholme
Horticultural Society. The family sold gladiolas and chrysanthemums
from their house. If no one were home, people could help themselves to
the flowers and leave the money. They never lost any money. Mr. Tuckey
even carried flowers to work in West Philadelphia.
Interview
with Maude Argo Manogue Farran
edited
by Jeffrey Savett
Editor’s Note: Maude Farran was a long time resident of Fox
Chase. She co- founded the Verreeville Historical Society and
delivered a talk on growing up in Fox Chase to the Society three days
before her death of cancer on December 8, 1992. The following is a
summary of the account of Maude Farran’s memories of Fox Chase.
I am Maude Argo Manogue Farran. I was born 1915, in a little
village west of Fox Chase (also a village). My parents were John Brown
West Manogue, and Carolina Bessie Forbes. I attended Rockledge School
from first grade through high school. Fox Chase was so named because
they had fox chases, or fox hunts and illegal cock fights.
I was named Maude Argo for Maude Argo, wife of the minister of
the Memorial Church of the Holy Nativity, Reverend Fordgee Hubband
Argo. The church at Jarrett Avenue, and Huntingdon Pike in Rockledge
was built with money obtained from the Ryerss family.
Early
Memories:
My father was the boy reader and superintendent of the Sunday
School of the Holy Nativity Church. I sang my first solo there at age
12 and later became a Sunday School teacher.
There was always a parade on Memorial Day and Fourth of July,
going through Fox Chase and Rockledge. There was a large American flag
carried by eight girls from Fox Chase School one year and the
following year by girls from Rockledge School. When the authorities
forgot who carried the flag the year before, there was a great
argument.
My father was the Grand Marshall of the parade. He would go to
the police stable to get a horse that could prance to music. I was
always busy the night before, polishing boots and making rosettes for
the horses’ heads. After the parade the children would go to the
Shriner Club at Huntingdon Pike and Church Road for ice cream.
I married William Benner Farran and we lived at 8217 Jeanes
Street for 38 years. A lamp lighter would bring his little ladder and
light the gas jets each night. Police on foot would use the call box
on the telephone pole to make reports.
J. W. Dean, the undertaker, had a horse drawn vehicle to take
mourners to the Lawnview Cemetery in Rockledge. The carriage later
became a school vehicle. When the horses had a hard time pulling up
the hill on Pine Road they went via Rockledge on Shady Lane and around
onto Pine Road again.
Nelson Herst was a philatelist. President Franldin Rooselvelt
visited Nelson and checked stamps with him. Nelson and Sam Herst owned
the mansion at Bustleton and Oxford Avenue. They had the only
electrical business in Fox Chase. They were known for their beautiful
prize dahlias. Their father used to dress as Santa Claus and go out in
a horse drawn sleigh with sleigh bells ringing to give gifts to the
children. Nelson told me that his mother’s hat was in a certain
closet. It was made for the first Easter parade in Atlantic City.
After he died, I took the hat and gave it to the Ryers Museum.
The
Jeanes Family:
The Jeanes family was against the railroad going through their
property and when they heard it was going to happen they left the
dinner table in the middle of a meal, and departed the residence. We,
as children, used to go and peep in the windows and see the cobwebs on
the food. Anna Jeanes donated the original building for use as a
hospital. It is still part of Jeanes Hospital today. People of that
day thought it was only for cancer patients. Jeanes is a general
hospital, but the Fox Chase Cancer Center is next door.
The
Vansant Farm:
The site of the Huntingdon Valley Shopping Center was once the
Vans ant farm, owned by Dr. Joseph and Malisa Vansant. My brother,
Harry learned to be a veterinarian there.
I was a friend of the Vansants’ daughter, Doris. We rode
horseback before going to high school on the bridle path behind the
Lafayette house. I sang at Doris’s wedding in the garden, with her
aunt pumping an old pump organ. Later Doris and her husband came to
the meadow on horseback, and Doris threw her bouquet for the visitors
to catch. They went on a canoe trip for a honeymoon. The Vansants’
old homestead is today the Valley Inn on Huntingdon Pike.
As you see we live on very interesting ground. I loved
reminiscing over old days and sharing them with you.
Interview
with Chester Alburger
By
Missy Korsin, Jeffery Savett, Libby Paskin and Jordan Nicgorski
When Chester Alburger was young, his family owned a large farm
in the area, and today Alburger Avenue is named after them. What was
farm land along Alburger Avenue is now mostly built up into
substantial single homes with large yards.
Chester Alburger noted that, “For my part in the history of
Verreeville, I had the farm with my family - my mother and father and
sister and brother, who were older than me. Our farm was on Red Lion
Road, west of Verree and of course that was all dirt at that time. It
consisted of 120 acres. Most of the land was in Montgomery County, and
it was private property, but the house and buildings were in
Philadelphia County. The spring house was set some distance down in
Montgomery County.
“To go to school in Bustleton, at the old Bustleton School,
was between 4 and 5 miles away. There weren’t any school buses, and
no one could take you back and forth to school every day so we walked
to Huntingdon Valley School, which is now Lower Moreland School. It
was a good two mile walk.
“High school then was only three years. I was getting older,
and I was needed on the farm. We were very busy. We raised a lot of
potatoes, hay, grain, and that sort of thing. With school starting in
September, I usually had to miss 4 to 5 weeks every year, and I had to
do the best I could. I caught up pretty good, and I graduated with my
class.
“Up and down Verree it was all dirt roads. In the winter time
it was almost impossible to go up and down, but you had to get used to
it. Eventually, I got a bike and I remember going down to the
Pennypack Creek.
The Second World War began in 1939. “The Government took over
all the land from Red Lion Road to Pine Road, all the way back to
Tomlinson and out as far as Bustleton and Verree.” The Government
put up a building to produce airplanes for the war. Ford Motor company
operated it. The government just took over the farm and they offered
you a certain amount of money and gave you 30 days, which wasn’t
much time, to move out. If you didn’t like the price, you could
contest it in court, but you couldn’t do much in the courts against
the government, especially during the war, so we had to give up the
farm.
“Eventually, of course, I had to find another place to live.
I lived down in the Mayfair section which wasn’t built up too much,
mostly private homes. I worked in Standard Pressed Steel Company over
in Jenkintown and I would go back and forth every day. So, I stayed
there until it was time to retire. I was about 63 years old when the
company moved, and I had to either move up there or retire. I was
close to retirement age, and I just decided to retire.”
“It is remarkable, once a person has lived here for so many
years, to see how it is all built up. Sometimes I wonder whether they
can’t do anything more. It seems if there is an open plot of land,
they have some business or a mall to put in there.”
Interview
with Elizabeth (Elsie) Gardner
By
Margaret Drubetsky and Nippa Shah
Born in Germany in 1902, Elsie came to America when she was
three. Her family came by boat because there were no airplanes at that
time. Elsie could read, write, and speak German. She had a teacher at
her church who held classes on Saturday morning and she would teach
any of eight languages you might want to learn.
When she was eight, her family returned to Germany for a visit.
Elsie remembers that she and her brother were playing in a courtyard.
One of the German children thought they could not speak German and
said, “listen to those pig-dumb Americans” in German. Elsie and
her brother proceeded to “beat them up.” She notes, “they never
called us that again.”
As Elsie’s family prepared for their return voyage to America
they heard that the Titanic had just sunk. Their boat was to take the
same route as the Titanic. Some people would not get on the boat
because they were afraid. Elsie’s family went on board anyway, her
mother thought that whatever was going to happen would happen.
Fortunately, they arrived home safely.
During World War I, the United States was at war with Germany.
Elsie’s father had only his first set of U.S. citizenship papers and
two papers were necessary in order to be a citizen. Because he was
still a German citizen, the family had to register with the police
station and notify them if they moved. They also had to go to the
station to get permission to do anything special.
Elsie Gardner and her husband, George, worked for the Railway
Express. They moved to Krewstown Road in 1935 and Elsie quit work. The
road was dirt all the way to Verree Road and the region was all farm
land. They purchased a house and seven acres of ground in what was
Philadelphia County, but was not yet a part of the City of
Philadelphia. The nearest family was a block away. The house was two
stories with no heat or water, so the Gardners had to put in central
heat and running water.
George Gardner had been born a farmer. When he wasn’t working
for the railway, he gardened. They had rows and rows of fruit and
vegetables. After she finished her morning chores, Elsie would go into
the fields and spend the day hoeing the weeds. In late summer, she
would can the produce and entertain at dinner with freshly picked
fruits and vegetables. Neighbors would be invited to take as much from
the garden and fruit trees as they wanted. A creek ran through the
land and there was a barn in which the Gardners’ son, George, Jr.,
would play with his friends.
Elsie did not drive. When she went shopping she would go by
public transporta- tion. Then she would phone her husband and ask him
to pick her up from the grocery store on his way home from work
Sometimes he would forget and go straight home. He would have to turn
around and go back to the store. Elsie would ask the store clerks to
keep the frozen products in the freezer until he came. Then she would
take her time fixing dinner because she was annoyed.
The Gardners were happy on the farm. They were not affected by
the Great Depression because Mr. Gardner had a job. Nor were they
seriously affected by World War II. The area around Krewstown Road
began to develop in the 1960s when the area was incorporated into the
city. Besides her trip to Germany, Elsie has done little traveling
outside of Philadelphia. She is happy to consider this city her home.
Interview
with William Hansell
By
Jennifer Chernoff and Suzanne Gllckstein
Bill Hansell’s father was born in Wales. His father, a
carriage and wagon builder, came to Philadelphia and settled in West
Philadelphia with Bill and his seven brothers. He remembers that,
“West Philadelphia was called Hestonville then. One of our residents
here [at the Lafayette House] was a principal at the Heston School,
where I went. I went until eighth grade, then I worked.”
“I worked in a drug store since I was a kid, right after the
First World War, delivering prescriptions for the epidemic. They
closed the door and did nothing but ffll the prescriptions, it was so
bad there.” The influenza epidemic of 1918 was called the Spanish
Flu from its alleged origin. The influenza was particularly
devastating to seemingly healthy people between the ages of twenty and
forty. It caused 20 million deaths world wide, easily making it the
equal to the Black Death of the Middle Ages. Bill delivered orders for
the drug store and received tips of a nickel or dime, which was a lot
of money at the time. He stayed at the pharmacy until he was
seventeen.
In the 1920s, Bill Hansell played banjo in the Hegerman String
Band. It was the only club to win first prize three consecutive years
in a row.
Married in 1929, at the start of the Depresson, Bill Hansell
and his wife had a daughter in 1932. In 1945, his daughter was striken
with polio, at the height of the polio epidemic. She is now 60 and
lives at the Inglis House.
Bill Hansell built a home for his daughter in 1948 on the 900
block of Arnold Street which is next to Strahle Street. It was all
“wilderness” when he moved to Fox Chase from West Philadelphia.
The Medical Mission Sisters farmed the land below his home. There was
a little farm on the other side of Verree Road and a barn on top of
the hill at what is now Tustin Street. The barn also belonged to the
Medical Mission Sisters, it was the home of their shepherd. Kids were
fooling around there and set the barn on fire, it was never rebuilt.
Bill remembers that overall the crime rate was very low.
Bill wanted to be a doctor at a time when doctors still made
house calls. Although, he never became a doctor, Mr. Hansell always
found work in a medical related field. Even today, at the age of 87,
he is a volunteer at a local hospital. He prides himself on his active
life and his family’s longevity. His father and brothers lived well
into their nineties.
Interview
with Frank Neumann
By
Jefferey Savett
Mr. Neumann moved here in 1923, when he was seven years old.
Upon arriving, his father opened a general store which sold everything
from motor oil to blackjacks. His father’s store was the only one in
the area to have a telephone. They used these phones to get the local
news from the police station.
A part of Mr. Neumann’s past which still influences his life
today was the Depression. “When the Depression came about, people
lost their houses because they couldn’t pay the bills for the newly
installed streets. I was, at the time, at the Wharton Evening School
for Accounting but left in 1937 to take over the family general store.
“While going to evening school, I went to work for Philco in
1935 and made $12.00 a week. We were given a dollar for taking
inventory all day Sunday. I worked my way up to $17.00 a week in 1937
but then I quit.” His boss would wear spats on his shoes in the
summer. If the boss didn’t like you he sent you to “Siberia”,
which was an isolated area of the factory between buildings.” Philco
used to make the radios for Ford’s cars. In addition, they sold self
powered radios with windmills on them for use in Argentina. Ford Motor
Company later bought out Philco.
Frank Neumann then took over his father’s grocery store and
added a meat market to it. His store in Rockledge had the first deli
and meat box with electric refrigeration. His store was also the first
to have frozen food in Rockledge. “I remember, that my father
assembled our first car out of two 1920 model T cars that didn’t
work. During the depression we sold butter for l9ce a pound, and steak
was 33~z a pound. My father carried many families, who were out of
work, ‘on the book’ [on credit]”
Frank married Therese Kearney in 1940. They were blessed with
three sons, William, Frank and Joseph. With the entrance of the United
States into World War II, Frank was inducted into the navy in 1943. He
closed the store and left behind his wife and first child. He served
on the USS Quincy and saw action in the northern and southern
invasions of France. The ship then saw action in the Pacific Theater
at Okinawa and in the assault on the Japanese mainland.
The Quincy was honored to carry President Roosevelt to the
Yalta Conference. Ramps and elevators were installed for the
president’s wheelchair. The ship left New York harbor in secrecy,
but the enemy knew anyway. Submarines were kept at bay by air cover.
Among the many dignitaries to visit Roosevelt on the Quincy were
Roosevelt’s daughter, Anna, Winston Churchill and his daughter,
Sarah, King Farouk of Egypt, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and the king
of Saudi Arabia. The ship was the first U.S. warship to go through the
Suez Canal since 1927, and then within three weeks, go through the
Panama Canal to the Pacific.
Frank Neumann returned home, in 1946, to open a more modern
market. He was a charter member and commander of Rockledge Veterans of
Foreign Wars, Post 6001. Frank is also an official birdbander. He
conducted live wild bird programs in the Pennypack area from 1962
to1977. He has published a Pictorial History of Fox Chase for the
benefit of the Ryerss Museum. Interview
with Henrietta Yolk
By
Evonne Srnitt, Suzanne crumbock, and Margaret Drubetsky
Growing up during the Depression, Henrietta remembers attending
Kensington High School, which was a girl’s school at the time. She
and neighbors enjoyed going to Northeast High School for Boys to see
their spring review. It was a big event and important entertainment
for the working class people of the area.
Kensington High School was well run by the principal, Beulah
Fenemore. She was not quite five feet tall, but she ruled with an iron
hand. Ms Fenemore wore pince- nez eyeglasses and “when she was on
stage you kept quiet because she wouldn’t stand for any foolishness
at all.”
Henrietta Volk has fond memories of the beautiful Kensington
high School balcony around the first floor area and the marble entry
with marble stairs. The girls had to wear “awful” black bloomers,
white blouses and black sneakers for gym. Henrietta claims she was
usually the last one to sit down on the floor, her shoelaces untied.
She would be tying the laces as the teacher was calling role.
If students had to travel a distance to school, they could buy
transportation tokens. Two tokens cost fifteen cents. Parents would
give a student a dollar at the beginning of the week to cover expenses
including the cost of tokens. If there were several children in school
at the same time, the parents might not be able to afford even that.
On Friday night, anybody who was “anybody” walked on Front
Street to meet friends. There were several nice movie houses. One
theater, the Palm, even had vaudeville. The vaudeville theater cost
twenty-five cents for a regular seat. At ten cents, the peanut gallery
was the cheapest seat in the house. One would enter the gallery by a
set of back wooden stairs and sit right under the movie projector.
Patrons could see a movie along with the vaudeville performance. One
of the first movies Henrietta saw was the 1921 film, The Sheik,
featuring matinee idol, Rudolf Valentino.
“We didn’t know any differently, we enjoyed everything.
Every place we went to was within walking distance - ice cream
parlors, and all kinds of little individually owned stores, like shoe
stores and dry goods stores, drug stores... There were no chains,
there was always a chicken store somewhere around. But there was one
drug store, it was on the corner, it had windows on the two street
fronts, and one time I remember going to Front Street on a Friday
night, and at the side window, I think it was Dr. Scholl’s was
trying to drum up business for their corn [removers] and this
beautiful woman was sitting all alone on a chair in this big window
with all the [advertized] goods shown, and displaying the most
perfectly formed feet, corn-free - there was not one corn or callous
on her foot, and every Friday night I stood and I looked at her feet,
and then I would move on.”
The Depression was every bit as bad as people say it was. “My
father was out of work, he had a trade, he couldn’t find a job, it
was terrible... He worked as a committee- man in the neighborhood, and
would be lucky enough to get a fruit basket every now and then, and we
were darn glad to have it. I worked at Snellenbergs’ for such a
little pay, because there was nothing, nothing - you couldn’t get
anything. The mills were closing.. .they called the women who worked
in the mills, ‘mill-dollies’...”
“Franldin Roosevelt put all the young fellows to work
digging.. .doing everything possible to get those boys work, and were
glad to get it. There were trainload after trainload of hobos in
boxcars. They had nowhere to live, nowhere to work, always getting
arrested.... They were real live people that had to leave their
families and try to make it on their own in some form or another.”
After she graduated from Kensington High School, Henrietta Volk
worked at Snellenbergs’ department store at Eleventh and Market
Streets. Around noon time, she would take a trolley and the elevated
train to the store. The people at Snellenbergs’ worked along with
the schools to help needy children. Children who needed a little money
would help with the stock or wrap packages. Henrietta worked from 12
o’clock noon until the store closed, which might be nine at night.
All of this was for one dollar a day during the week and two dollars
on Saturday. If the store were open at night, employees were given
supper. At first it was free, then the employees were given fifty
cents for dinner.
Her social life centered on the Presbyterian Church, “We
would go on hikes in the Wissahickon. . .the church would give a
picnic at Woodside Park.... They had picnic grounds, they had all
kinds of amusements, and my favorite one was ‘Chase the Duck.’ You
would sit there, and it was like a large barge or rowboat, you sat
there, and it was dark.. .it ran on tape, of course. And you would go
around, and they had nice music and I loved that ride. But they had
scary rides also. The church provided free tickets for all the rides,
they would serve milk and ice cream... And of course, there were
baseball games and so on, but that no longer exists.” Beautiful
homes and the Playhouse in the Park now occupy that site.
In 1937, Henrietta married an electrical engineer from Penn
State. He went to the University of Pennsylvania to study piano in
1931 because he could not get a job. Eventually, he found a job with
American District Telegraph where he serviced equipment in department
stores until he could get into an engineering department. During World
War II, he was instrumental in the San Francisco Bay Submarine Net.
In 1957, Henrietta Volk and her husband moved to Fox Chase. The
house the Volks lived in was “countrified” with a barn in the back
yard. It was ironic that the house had been used by people from
Kensington as a summer home. Henrietta was amazed that the side
streets did not have sewers. The city kept promising to put in sewers.
After a few years, the women got up in arms and marched on city hall
for sewers. They finally banded together and formed the Sewer Club.
They fought and got sewers. The women continued to meet after that
because they had become such good friends.
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