Remembering Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Read online

  Published by The History Press

  Charleston, SC 29403

  www.historypress.net

  Copyright © 2010 by Jack Coll

  All rights reserved

  All images are from the author’s collection unless otherwise noted.

  First published 2010

  e-book edition 2011

  ISBN 978.1.61423.247.6

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Coll, Jack.

  Remembering Conshohocken and West Conshohocken / Jack Coll.

  p. cm.

  print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-412-7

  1. Conshohocken (Pa.)--History. 2. West Conshohocken (Pa.)--History. I. Title.

  F159.C66C66 2010

  974.8’12--dc22

  2010025705

  Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  I’d like to dedicate this book to Dave Pasquale, who didn’t know much about Conshohocken and, like me, didn’t do much reading. But Dave was my best friend who passed away, and certainly his community of friends miss him very much.

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction

  PART ONE. FROM INDIANS TO INDUSTRY

  Conshohocken Today

  The Schuylkill River

  The Leni-Lenape Indians

  William Penn and the Trinket Purchase

  Washington Takes the Stage, but Not in Conshohocken

  It All Started with a Canal

  The Birth of Industry in the Village

  It’s About Time to Incorporate

  PART TWO. CONSHOHOCKEN, THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

  Incorporation, It Really Started in Norristown

  Let’s Honor Edward “Ned” Hector

  Early Leaders and Street Names

  Everybody’s Welcome, They Came Looking for America

  The Bridge—Matson’s Ford, That Is

  PART THREE. INDUSTRY

  It All Started with a Shovel Head

  John Elwood Lee, What a Man

  Newton and Hervey, the Walker Brothers

  The Quaker Chemical Story

  Alan C. Hale, Almost a Century

  And There’s More

  PART FOUR. THE UNIFORMS: POLICE, FIREMEN AND MILITARY

  Police

  Washington Fire Company

  New Century, New Fire Company

  Conshohocken Military

  PART FIVE. A LITTLE EDUCATION ON SCHOOLS

  It Started Immediately

  Montgomery County Taps the Best

  Catholics, Conshohocken Was the First

  Say Goodbye to the Public School

  Conshohocken Community College

  PART SIX. SPORTS

  Baseball, the Fact and the Funny

  Football, Tough as Steel

  Basketball, It’s About the Hall of Fame

  And All the Rest

  PART SEVEN. BUSINESS

  It Started Slow

  Fayette Street Was a Boom

  Family Businesses Still Doing Business

  PART EIGHT. A FEW CONSHOHOCKEN GEMS

  Hannibal Hamlin, a Guest of the Woods

  Governor John F. Kennedy Misses Conshohocken

  The First Lady, During and After

  Finally, Conshohocken Gets a Presidential Visit

  The Pines

  Conshohocken’s Only Hospital

  Bishop Matthew Simpson, the President and Conshohocken

  That’s Right, Owner of the Philadelphia Phillies

  Just a Few More Names

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  In order to tell all these stories accurately, I would like to acknowledge the following sources: The History of Montgomery County, by William J. Buck; Historical Society of Montgomery County, which can be contacted at (610) 272-0297 or www.hsmcpa.org; History of Montgomery County, vols. 1 and 2, 1884, by Theodore W. Bean; History of Montgomery County, vol. 1, 1923, by Clifton S. Hunsicker; History of Montgomery County, vols. 1 and 2, 1983, edited by Jean Barth Toll and Michael J. Schwager; Lenni Lenape Historical Society, Allentown, Pennsylvania; Bryon Anderson at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum; Neighborhood Tales, by Samuel Gordon Smyth; Norristown Times Herald; Conshohocken Recorder; the Conshohocken Free Library, 301 Fayette Street, Conshohocken, (610) 825-1656; Lower Merion Historical Society, Gerald A Francis, president; Bob Brodie, Main Street Photo, Dave Wingeron, manager; Walker of Conshohocken, by H. Alan Dunn; History of the Alan Wood Iron and Steel Company, prepared by Frank H. Taylor; J. Ellwood Lee Company, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, 1883–1908, Silver Anniversary; Gene Walsh for his quick and excellent work on the cover photograph.

  A special thanks to all the residents who have contributed to this book in one way or another over the years. A few of the good storytellers I’ve had the pleasure to know over the years include John “Chick” McCarter, Art “Tuti” Andrey, Sam Januzelli, John Durante, Paul “Roger” Touhey, George Snear, Rudy Lincul, Bill Danitz, Dr. Joseph Leary, Vilma Frattone and Gerald McTamney.

  Thanks to my wife, Donna, who proofreads every single thing that I write, and for the support of my loving children, Brian and Jackie.

  Introduction

  The history of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, is made up of more than 160 years of small stories. Sometimes those stories are centered on the Schuylkill River or in one of the long-forgotten mills. These stories come from the living rooms of the immigrants who came to Conshohocken looking for the American dream, and they come from the firemen and other volunteers who protect and serve this great community.

  When you read some of these stories, you’ll wonder why this book wasn’t titled Conshohocken: I Didn’t Know That, because that’s what you’ll be saying time and time again. Remembering Conshohocken and West Conshohocken serves not so much as a recorded history of this borough as it takes the reader back in time, but rather as a reminder of the foundation of this borough: the residents. No matter how far back we go in time, this borough is and always will be about our residents, the changes they made and the contributions we all continue to make.

  Conshohocken celebrates Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day, all with good reason: our involvement in the struggle for freedom goes back to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and all the wars since. Our involvement in sports goes back nearly 125 years; our involvement in firefighting goes back more than 135 years; and our ancestors arrived in Conshohocken more than 175 years ago.

  In 1905, Father Benedict Tomiak of St. Mary’s Church founded the St. Mary’s Orphanage for Polish Boys. The orphanage consisted of about a dozen orphans from the city of Philadelphia. Father Benedict Tomiak purchased the former George Bullock estate in West Conshohocken and opened the St. Mary’s Orphans Asylum for both boys and girls. In 1936, the Sisters of the Holy Nazareth purchased a castle in Ambler once owned by Richard Vanselous Mattison, and St. Mary’s Orphanage moved to Ambler and was later renamed St. Mary’s Villa for Children.

  In 1965, Hollywood visited St. Mary’s Villa in Ambler to use the orphanage as a backdrop for a movie. The movie script was based on the memoir written by Jane Trahey called Mother Superior, the original title for the film, later changed to The Trouble with Angels. The movie sta
rred Rosalind Russell and Hayley Mills. Russell played Mother Superior, while Mills played Mary Clancy, who was sent to an all girls’ Catholic boarding school. To think that it all started in Conshohocken.

  Hey, I didn’t know that. Read on.

  Part One

  From Indians to Industry

  CONSHOHOCKEN TODAY

  Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, is a one-square-mile community located thirteen miles northwest of Philadelphia and five miles east of Valley Forge National Park. It is a thriving community of nine thousand residents, ten churches with thirteen different denominations and a history dating back to William Penn.

  A stroll down Fayette Street, Conshohocken’s main street named after General Lafayette, gives visitors and residents a great sense of history and twenty-first-century progression. The former mansions of John Elwood Lee—currently Conshohocken’s Borough Hall—and the former Jones Estate—currently the Ciavarelli Funeral Home—are to this day simply breathtaking.

  The Great American Pub and Flanigan’s Boathouse restaurants stand out in the business district, along with Light Parker Furniture, Flocco’s Discount Shoes and Reliance Federal Credit Union. Places to eat are plentiful, including Fayette Street Grille, Spampinato’s Restaurant, Ted’s Pizza, Win Wah Inn, Chiangmai and Tony and Joe’s Pizzeria. A few restaurants off the beaten path include Pasta Via Italian restaurant and Stone Rose, located on upper Fayette Street, and Vince Totaro’s Trattoria Restaurant, located on Spring Mill Avenue. The borough also offers many specialty stores and shops, like Conshohocken Italian Bakery, founded in 1973 by Domenico Gambone and Frank Manze.

  Conshohocken is the quintessential all-American, main-street town, with an extraordinary history setting it apart from any other small town in America.

  The borough of Conshohocken seen along the banks of the Schuylkill River, where the Lenape Indians once thrived, before being displaced by the Industrial Revolution. Photo by Brian Coll.

  THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER

  Conshohocken is a town built on a hill overlooking the Schuylkill River, pronounced Sku-kel, or Skoo-kull. The river is approximately 130 miles long and lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The first known name of the river was Ganshohawanee, meaning “rushing and roaring waters,” presumably for the falls at the fault line near what is now the Fairmount Water Works. The name was given by the Delaware Indians, who were thought to be the original settlers of the area along the banks of the river.

  There seems to be somewhat of a dispute as to who named the river the Schuylkill; after all, the Leni-Lenape Indians are considered some of the original inhabitants of the area. The Leni-Lenape migrated to the valley from the Mississippi Valley, taking advantage of the climate, river and rich planting grounds. It was the Indians who named the river the Schuylkill, meaning Hidden River. But a European discoverer named Arendt Corssen was one of the first Westerners to explore the area and sailed right past the mouth of the river. Corssen, who explored for the Dutch East Indies Company, was said to have named the river “Schuyl-Kil” because of the reeds, sedges and high grasses that hid the mouth of the river.

  This photograph of the Spring Mill Ferry and Inn is perhaps the oldest photograph of the Conshohocken area. The ferry was established in the late 1700s, and the inn was owned and operated by Reese Harry from 1804 until his death in 1824. The inn was located on the west side of the Schuylkill in the Spring Mill section of the borough.

  THE LENI-LENAPE INDIANS

  In the early 1500s, a group of Indians calling themselves the Leni-Lenape settled in an unspoiled wilderness in what is known today as northern Delaware, New Jersey, parts of New York and eastern Pennsylvania, including what is Conshohocken.

  The Leni-Lenape Indian tribe settled on Edge Hill (Conshohocken) and called their home Gueno Sheiki-Hacki-Ing or Guneuschigihacking—Guneu meaning “long,” schigi meaning “fine,” hacki meaning “land,” with the locative ing, having the significance “at the long fine land.” The name Leni-Lenape is redundant, as if to say “the common ordinary people.” Lenape by itself is sufficient. The Lenape were composed of three different groups with a couple minor differences.

  This portrait of Tish-Co-Han, an early Lenape chief, was painted by Hesselius, a Swedish artist. Tish-Co-Han means “he who never blackens himself.” In 1737, Tish-Co-Han signed the treaty known as the Walking Purchase. He was considered by members of the William Penn family as an honest, upright Indian. Courtesy of Lower Merion Historical Society.

  The Lenape Indians were family oriented and did not seek hostile confrontations. They would always locate their villages near streams or rivers, where fishing for food and easy transportation made for easier living. The Lenape always fertilized the land with the planting of corn, beans, pumpkins, squash and tobacco. They lived in permanent villages and would only leave in their quest for food, furs and trade. The Indians did not live in teepees but rather in wigwams or longhouses that were much more permanent structures.

  William Penn, who was credited with the planning and development of the city of Philadelphia, developed very good relations with the Lenape Indians. By 1683, after more than 150 years of the Lenape living along the river, Penn signed a treaty that would eventually lead to the demise of the tribe in Pennsylvania. Over the next two centuries, the Lenape Indians were moved to smaller territories, and by the 1860s, most of the Lenape remaining in the eastern United States had been sent to the Oklahoma Territory. Today, what’s left of the Lenape nation lives in several parts of the United States, including Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas.

  WILLIAM PENN AND THE TRINKET PURCHASE

  William Penn, founder of the state of Pennsylvania, was a devout Quaker and very well respected by the Lenape Indians. He gained the trust of the Indians after signing several treaties, including the treaty that secured the village of Conshohocken.

  Penn purchased Conshohocken, or at the time Gueno Sheiki-Hacki-Ing, as part of a much larger land deal with the Indians. In William Penn’s deed of 1683, the lands between the Schuylkill and Chester Rivers, the line of the purchase, commenced “on the West side of Manaiunk [Schuylkill River] called Conshohocken.” (The river is now spelled Manayunk, meaning “where we go to drink.”) The deed was penned by Secane and Icquoquehan. It also stated as part of the agreement that the lands east of the Schuylkill to Pemmapecka Creek run “So Farr as ye hill called Conshockin on the said river Manaiunk.” The deed was signed by Neneshickan, Malebore and Neshanocke.

  A couple of years later, in 1685, Penn again agreed with the Indians for more land “Beginning at the hill called Conshohockin on the River Manaiunck of Skoolkill.” This deed was signed by Shakahoppoh, Secane, Malibor and Tangoras.

  Ownership pertaining to much of the deeded land would later be questioned due to the price Penn paid. Legend has it that Penn traded flashy trinkets for the land. The Indians believed that Penn was merely renting and sharing the land. The Lenape couldn’t understand how any one person could own land. They lived in a world where the air they breathed was free, the wilderness around them, the river, the animals and the land were for everyone to share, not own. All the while, Penn had Indians sign legal deeds to the land, but the Indians never owned the land in the first place and legally were in no position to sell it.

  WASHINGTON TAKES THE STAGE, BUT NOT IN CONSHOHOCKEN

  The American Revolutionary War began as a war between the kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America and concluded as a global war between several European great powers. The war that began in 1775 and was fought in several locations, including the eastern seaboard and northwest territories, came to Conshohocken on December 11, 1777.

  General George Washington and the Continental army successfully held off British attacks in the Battle of Whitemarsh (December 5–8, 1777). On the morning of December 11, Washington’s troops marched through Conshohocken, crossed the river at Matson’s Ford and set up camp in Gulph Mills. General John Sullivan ordered wagons tied together to form a bridg
e at Matson’s Ford so his troops could cross the river. Once on the West Conshohocken side of the river, Sullivan met with resistance from two thousand British troops led by Lord Cornwallis. Sullivan ordered his troops to retreat back across the makeshift bridge, destroying the bridge as they retreated. Sullivan led his troops to Swedesford crossing in Norristown and arrived in Gulph Mills on December 13 in a heavy snowstorm. Six days later, the order was given to march seven miles on West Gulph Road to Valley Forge to meet with Washington and endure one of the coldest winters in history.

  General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was at the center of a skirmish that took place during the Revolutionary War at the foot of the Matson’s Ford Bridge in Conshohocken. On May 20, 1778, Lafayette used the little-known Barren Hill path to escape General William Howe of the British command. Lafayette’s men encountered a fight that turned bloody when eight Americans and four Indian scouts were killed.

  On May 20, 1778, the Revolutionary War once again was a focal point in Conshohocken, where the results were deadly. The skirmish centered on a twenty-year-old general named Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. General Lafayette was General George Washington’s favorite and most loyal foreign officer. The young Frenchman departed from Valley Forge on May 18, 1778, with more than 2,200 Continental soldiers, heading toward Philadelphia. Lafayette’s troops camped at Barren Hill, ten miles outside Valley Forge.

  On May 20, General Lafayette was surprised to learn that his troops were surrounded by five of the most experienced generals, ready to attack. Lafayette met with his men outside St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and decided that two generals, Enoch Poor and James Varnem, would lead the troops down a hidden path and into Conshohocken.