Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Ties that Link Immigrant Families: Dietrich Kolbe and Heinrich Justi

            The U.S. has been called a “melting pot” where immigrants from many countries combine to form a common society.  However, migrants aren’t instantly turned into “Americans.”   Even when they aren’t clustered into enclaves of fellow migrants from the same country, they often maintain close linkages with their compatriots.

            Dietrich Kolbe and Henry (Heinrich) D. Justi were masters of their crafts – Kolbe for his design and manufacture of orthopedic devices and fine surgical instruments and Justi for his revolutionary advances in dental appliances.  Both earned a prominent place in the history of their professions.  However, what has not been noted is the close familial relations between these two immigrants.  Both were natives of Marburg, Germany, a university town about 60 miles north of Frankfurt.

            Dietrich Kolbe (1824-1878) arrived in Philadelphia in 1847.  He had spent the previous ten years learning to make medical instruments and orthopedic devices with the finest craftsmen in Europe.  He began at the University of Marburg and then studied in several countries.  He spent the three years before coming to America in Paris.  Kolbe chose Philadelphia because it was the center for medical instruments in America.  After a few years here, he joined with Martin Kuemerle, a syringe maker from Switzerland.  They introduced their business with the publication of one of the first American illustrated catalogues of medical devices: Kuemerle & Kolbé’s Illustrated Catalogue of Surgical and Dental Instruments & Syringes (1855).  The association only last a few years before they returned to their separate areas of expertise.

            Kolbe was probably widowed before he left Europe.  In 1852, his daughter, Marie, arrived from Marburg with her uncle, Louis Kolbe.  She was five years old and was born in France.  In 1850, Kolbe married Hedwig Justi, Henry Justi’s sister, who had only arrived recently.

            Hedwig and Heinrich Justi arrived from Marburg in August, 1850.  Their mother probably joined them much later.  Hedwig was 24 and single.  Heinrich, just 16, was described as a “cuttler.”  Hedwig’s marriage to Dietrich Kolbe may have been prearranged as their son, Louis, was born the next year.   If so, Kolbe probably arranged for their travel.  They travelled from Bremen on the same ship that had carried Kolbe from Le Havre three years earlier.  Henry’s father died when he was quite young so he was apprenticed to a surgical instruments maker at age 13.  He probably started working for Kolbe upon his arrival.  It is in Kolbe’s shop that he might have been introduced to methods for making artificial teeth.  In 1852, Kolbe advertised porcelain teeth made to order and announced he had acquired a machine to make the pins to hold the teeth in place.  Justi apparently operated that machine for him.  Justi also observed the manufacture of the molds for making teeth.  He devised new molds that allowed a colored veneer to cover the Vulcan rubber base.  He presented his method to the Orum and Armstrong Tooth Co. which promptly hired him.  Justi soon became a partner in the firm and bought out his partners in 1864 to form the H. D. Justi Co.

H. D. Justi (1834-1922)

            About 1860, Kolbe moved his growing family to Darby Rd. (Woodland Ave.) near Market St.  A few years later, they moved to a large lot on the east side of N. 32nd St. just below Baring St. (319-323 N. 32nd St.)  At the same time Justi moved to a small adjoining lot at 3106 Baring St.  He started a new family with his marriage to Auguste Schwarzwaler in January, 1862.  Sadly, she died in May, 1863, two weeks after delivering a daughter.  In January, 1865, Henry married Lizzie Kuemerle, the daughter of Kolbe’s former partner.  Mary Kolbe was the maiden of honor and John Kuemerle served as best man.  In the Fall of 1866, Justi purchased the large lot at 3401 Baring St. and the family moved into a grand new home in 1867.

            During the Civil War, Kolbe was a major supplier of high-quality surgical instruments to the Union Army.  However, his specialty was orthopedic instruments and appliances.  His interest in orthotics was fueled by the fact that he suffered from problems with his hip.  Kolbe’s shop was at 32 S. 9th St. across from the University of Pennsylvania.  Cases of club foot and limb deformities were routinely released from the hospital immediately following surgery.  Patients were often sent across the street where Kolbe produced appliances for them.  There was no system of out-patient or continued care.  Kolbe was instrumental in stimulating the organization in 1867 of the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital, one of the first in the country.  For its first three years, the hospital was located in Kolbe’s building above his shop.  In 1870, it was expanded to include a clinic for “nervous diseases.”  In early 1872, the hospital moved to a new building which had space for in-patients.  Kolbe died in 1878, but his work was continued by his sons and his wife.  In fact, his wife, Hedwig [Justi] Kolbe, patented a lighter weight, more flexible artificial leg and foot in 1890.

The Justi Dental Engine, 1891

            Justi’s dental appliance company became nationally prominent.  Before his inventions, porcelain teeth were hand crafted for each patient.  His techniques turned it into a more standardized manufacturing process.  He soon opened a new large manufacturing space and dental supply shop on Arch St.  In 1886, the H. D. Justi company announced that they would be building a new large factory on N. 32nd St. north of Spring Garden.  They continued to develop improvement to artificial teeth but also became major suppliers of almost everything related to dentistry.  After his death in 1822, the H. D. Justi company continued under his son, Henry Martin Justi who lived at 3311 Powelton Ave.  (More on Justi’s initial invention and the later family history is given in my earlier blog, “Occupation: “Manufactures Teeth.”)
N. 32nd and Spring Garden St.
             The kind of personal and business relationships between these arrivals from Marburg are representative of ties that were, and are, common among immigrants from all over the world.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Rev. William Speer: An Early Christian Missionary to the Chinese

    From about 1867 to 1875, Rev. William Speer, D.D., his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children lived at 3409 Hamilton St.  While here, he work for the Presbyterian Church of America as Corresponding Secretary of Education from 1865-1876.  He brought to this work a rich history of working as a missionary first in China then among the Chinese immigrants in California.

     At the time of Speer's birth, his grandfather and namesake was minister of the Presbyterian Church of Greensburg, Pa.  (He was also the uncle of President Buchanan.)  Speer studied medicine for a few years in addition to becoming a Presbyterian minister.  His first wife died in 1847 not long after their marriage (possibly in childbirth).  He left for China in December, 1848.  He spent about four years as a missionary in Canton and became fluent in Cantonese.  In 1852, he married Elizabeth B. Ewing in Allegheny Co., Pa. and they settled in San Francisco  In 1853, he founded a mission that became the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, the oldest Asian-American Christian church in North America.  He visited new Chinese immigrants and Chinese mine workers and set up a dispensary to provide care to the Chinese.  He also was founder and publisher of The Oriental, a Chinese language newspaper.  He was a strong advocate of establishing schools for Chinese immigrant children, however, he supported using these schools to teach Christianity.
    Speer became an early supporter of Chinese immigration and opposed laws for Chinese exclusion.  He offered strong economic arguments in favor of immigration, but his main focus was evangelizing.  He hoped that Chinese who converted to Christianity would return to China and spread the faith.
   While in Philadelphia, Speer published two large volumes.  The first,  The Oldest and Newest Empire: China and the United States (1870), was a massive history of China and its culture.  The second was The Great Revival of 1800 (c1872).  (Both are available for  download from the Haithi Trust.)
      Speer's stay in Powelton overlapped with the that of the Fullerton family who lived a block away at 3307 Hamilton St.  They had been medical missionaries in India during the time Speer was in China.  One can only imagine what experiences they shared with each other about their time as early American missionaries in two great, but very different, cultures..

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Powelton's Army of Servants

           Running a Victorian household was hard work.  Powelton was fortunate to have running water and gas for heating it but without electricity everything required physical labor.  Without vacuum cleaners, floors were swept and washed and carpets were taken outside and beaten.  Windows were often open in the summer which allowed in dust and smoke from the streets.  Until the development of Fels-Naptha about 1893, there was no good laundry soap.  There also were no electric wash machines.  Somebody had to empty chamber pots.

            Almost every middle-class Victorian home in Powelton had at least one servant.  Almost all (97%) were female and most were young and unmarried.  Seventy percent were under age 30 and half were 23 or younger.  In 1880, more than half were Irish, either born in Ireland (42%) or native-born with a parent born in Ireland (12%).  About 17% were non-Irish whites born in Pennsylvania and another 17% were black.     There was a great deal of turnover of servants which led to the well-known “servant problem” that “plagued” most cities.  Evidence from elsewhere suggests that many servants left to work in factories.  Although the conditions in factories were often harsh, factory work involved more regular (though long) hours and may have paid more.  Others left to get married.  For example, Julia Donavan emigrated from Ireland in 1894 at age 16.  She started her life in the U.S. as a servant for a small family in North Philadelphia.  At age 23, she married Timothy Callahan, a contractor born in South Philadelphia.  In 1910, they lived at 3632 Warren St. (just below Lancaster Ave.)  In 1919, they purchase 3619 Powelton Ave. (and the adjoining lot at 3618 Pearl St.) and moved in with their nine children.  Julia still lived there in 1940 with four unmarried daughters and three grandchildren.  The family owned the house until 1951.
Washing cloths was an arduous, messy process. There were no washer women living in Powelton proper, but there were 39 nearby.  Most lived (and worked) just below Lancaster Ave. on the 3600 and 3700 blocks of Warren and Cuthbert St.  (Many of those houses were torn down to build the high school.)  Forty percent were black and 40% were foreign-born.  Most were married to laborers.  For example, the Jackson family lived at 3626 Warren St.  George was a 40 year-old mulatto laborer who had been unemployed for 5 months in the previous year.  His wife, Julia, was a servant for another household.  Their two daughters, Annie and Hester (ages 20 and 19) took in wash.  Hester was married to George Williams, a laborer.  They shared the house with George and Hester Laws and their infant son.  George was a mulatto cart driver who had been unemployed for 3 months and five daughters, and an Irish servant girl.  Hester took in laundry.
            A few of the larger homes had several servants and had a housekeeper to oversee the staff.  Deborah Roberts was the housekeeper for the Scattergood household (3515 Powelton Ave.).  She was born into a good Quaker family in Medford, New Jersey in 1849, the daughter of Samuel H. Roberts, a farmer, and Abigail Haines.  In 1860, their family included four sons, five daughters and an Irish servant girl.  In 1869, Samuel moved his family to Philadelphia where he became sexton of the Arch St. Quaker Meeting House.  Deborah was housekeeper for the Scattergoods for more than 20 years.  She oversaw (at least) two Irish servant girls and a nurse.  She retired in the 1920s and in 1930 (when she was 80) lived with her sister, Margaretta Roberts, as a boarder at 3609 Baring St.
            A few of the wealthiest families in Powelton had a coachman.  They were generally black.  For example, the carriage house (3400 Pearl St.) behind the Burnham’s mansion (34th and Powelton) was the home of the Hollians family.  In 1900, William (age 53) was the Burnham’s coachman and his second wife, Edith (35), and only child, Della (14), worked as servants.  Even with electricity, the Burnhams needed four servant girls in 1920.  Around 1910, William Hollians left to buy his own home and work as a gardener.  The carriage house then became the home of Fred and Anna Richter.  Fred was born in Germany.  Anna was born in Austria; her parents were ethnic Germans born in what became Czechoslovakia.  Fred was the Burnham’s chauffeur.  In 1940, they were still living in the Burnham carriage house, but the main house had become an apartment house.  Fred was a self-employed auto mechanic.  His two daughters, Caroline (21) and Anna May (19), were working as bookkeepers.
            These were a few of the house servants who were listed in the censuses.  They were just a fraction of the army of support personnel needed to keep Powelton running.  Households constantly received deliveries from grocery stores and coal dealers.  There were gardeners, livery drivers and stable hands, messenger boys, street sweepers, lamp lighters, and other miscellaneous support people.  Without electricity, telephones, and automobiles, Powelton’s streets must have been swarming with a constant stream of pedestrians, peddlers, carts, carriages and horse-drawn trolleys.

[Tabulations of the 1880 census based on data from IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota,]

Sunday, March 9, 2014

“The Door of Blessing” – Part 2: The Fate of the Block

The Door of Blessing opened at 3611 Baring St. in May 1916. Its provided women recently released from prison a temporary home, training for a new job and a chance to make a better life. It appears that the neighbors were supportive of the home's goals but there were very concerned about the potential impact on the neighborhood.  A petition begun by Raymond G. Fuller and Miss Mary Klemm had gathered more than 100 names in opposition. A large general meeting held at St. Andrews Church across the street led to an offer to raise funds to purchase 3611 plus additional funds to support the home at a different location. However, Mrs. William C. Bullitt and the other organizers of the home were undeterred.
            In 1930, the census shows the Door of Blessing with seven "inmates" ranging in age from 19 to 62.  They included three black women born in Virginia, an immigrant from Germany and one from Ireland.  The home was run by Gertrude Brown, 65 years old, a single woman born in New York who had run it since at least 1920.  The house was sold in 1937 and became an apartment house.
            Who was behind the petition to block the Door of Blessing and what was the effect of the house on the 3600 block of Baring St.? Miss Mary Klemm was the 50 year-old daughter of Mary Klemm who owned the large stone single at the corner of 37th and Baring.  Mrs. Klemm was the widow of John Klemm, a manufacturer.  In 1918, she sold the large single house at the corner of 37th and Baring to Clare Tetlow.  Tetlow might not have met Mrs. Bullitt’s standard for “decent people,” but she controlled the company founded by her husband, Tetlow Manufacturing, a maker of cosmetics.  In 1936, she sold the house to Dr. Hugh McAdams who lived there until at least the mid-1950s.   The other organizer was John Fuller, the son of Dwight and Sarah Fuller who moved to 208 N. 34th St. about 1887.  Dwight Fuller was a dentist and John followed in his footsteps.  However, he gave up dentistry and became a real estate agent about 1914.  He rented at 3402 Baring.  His brother, Dwight B., took over the family house lived there into the 1940s.
            Next door, 3613 Baring was owned and occupied by Levi and Mary Fouse.  After his death in 1914, Mary sold the house in 1917.  It was bought by Owen McGrath, an Irish immigrant who was a saloon owner and liquor dealer.  He lived there with his wife, seven children and her mother and brother.  In 1931, it was sold at Sheriff sale and became a rental.
            Two houses were already split into apartments by 1900: 3616 Baring and 3624 Baring.  The others were either owner-occupied or were rented to a single family.  In 1913, 3604 became St.Andrew’s manse.  During the 1920s, two houses were split into apartments.  The first to be converted was 3610.  In 1900 it was rented to Dr. Belfry and his wife.  In 1908, the following ad appeared: “Apartments for gentlemen only; homelike, southern exposure; moderate summer rates; porch, ‘phone.’”  However, later that year it was sold to James Boyd, a saloon owner and liquor dealer who lived there with his mother, sister and brother into the 1920s.  However, by 1930, it was split into four apartments for three singles and a newlywed couple.
            The other house that went from owner-occupied to apartments by 1930 is 3620.   Its transition was slightly different.  In 1915 it was owned by Thaddeus Zook, a 77 year-old single lawyer who lived there with his two unmarried sisters.  All three died between 1916 and 1919.  The house was purchased by Frank Houston, a theater manager.  He lived there with his wife and two children and five lodgers.  They sold it within a few years and it was divided into seven apartments.  In 1930, there were 13 people living there.
Another type of transition took place at 3603.  From 1902-1922 it was the home of Ellis Bacon and Helen Comly Bacon and their family (including future city-planner, son Edmund).  Both Ellis and Helen had grown up in Powelton.  When they moved to Delaware County in 1922, an ad for 3603 included the statement “Could be changed to apartments."  In 1923, it was purchased by Robert Davies, a 50 year-old immigrant from England.  He had 8 years of education and was a secretary to a private family.  He lived there with his wife, Florence, and daughter.  After his death, Florence sold the house in 1946.  However, the entire time they lived there, the house was divided into seven apartments.
            These were the only transitions to apartments between 1915 and 1930.  In 1930, half (9) were still owner-occupied and one was rented to a single family.  Four houses were owner-occupied but had apartments and five (28%) were just apartments.  The balance changed during the 1930s when four were split up.  By 1940, 10 were apartments (including 3611); only 6 were owner-occupied.  The figure shows a relatively steady pace of change from virtually all owner-occupied (89%) in 1900 to 30% in 1940.
            During the period 1922-1940 some homes remained quite stable.  3615 Baring is a single home that was purchased by the Atkins family in 1884.  They owned the house until 1911.  In 1914, it was purchased by Anna C.  Robertson a 51-year-old single woman who owned it without a mortgage.  In the censuses of 1920, 1930 and 1940, she is listed as living there alone.  It was sold by her estate in 1943.  3607 Baring also remained quite stable.  It was purchased by John Price in 1903.  He died in 1911 and his wife died in 1922.  The house was then sold to Joseph P.  Garvey, a 41-year-old physician.  He and his wife, Mary, raised their family there.  He was still living there in 1950.  George H.  Hill, a 41-year-old broker, purchased 3601 Baring in 1886.  His son was still living there in 1950, 64 years later.
            There was no flight from the Door of Blessing and no sudden rush to the suburbs.  Only the Bacon family moved out of the city.  Most sales followed the death of an owner, not flight.  New owner-occupiers moved in.  However, there was a steady trend toward apartments probably driven by an aging house stock, the strain of the Depression on ownership and the need for cheap housing

“The Door of Blessing” and a Bit of NIMBY

            It was almost Christmas, 1915 and “[r]esidents in the neighborhood of 36th and Baring streets have risen in protest against the proposed location of a home for fallen women, known as ‘The Door of Blessing,’ in the now vacant property at 3611 Baring St. in the midst of one of the city’s oldest and most distinguished residential sections.”  The protest started with a petition begun by Raymond G. Fuller (3402Baring St.) and Miss Mary Klemm (3619 Baring St.) that included nearly a hundred names.  One argument used by those opposed to placing the home at 3611 was that the deeds required that the neighborhood be free from ‘stores, saloons or any other nuisance.’” (Ev Pub Ledger, Dec. 21, 1915)
            The article noted that “the institution is run and backed by a large committee of society women.”  Mrs. William C. Bullitt, president of the association, was firmly in charge.  Her father-in-law founded the law firm now known as Drinker Biddle & Reath.  Her husband was a member of the firm and had died recently. George Wharton Pepper, the treasurer, had founded the law firm of Pepper Hamilton and later served in the U. S. Senate.
            Mrs. Bullitt explained that “It is ridiculous all this tempest in a teapot about the home.  It will be entirely inoffensive, the girls will not be allowed to be on the porch or in sight and it will be like an ordinary house….  It could not depreciate their properties any more than they are depreciated, for it is a very poor neighborhood.  The Pennsylvania Railroad ruined it years ago with the smoke and all the decent people moved out.  I don’t understand where they see it as a good neighborhood.  They threaten they would sell their properties, but they could not, because they are worth nothing.”
            The article noted that on this block of Baring all but two houses were owner-occupied.   “Mrs. Edward Wilson, who lives at 3609 Baring street… said she did not know whether they would move or not as they had just made extensive repairs and alterations.  Mrs. Harry Palmer, at 3613, the other side of the proposed home, said... ’I have small girls,’ she said, ‘and while the home will undoubtedly be orderly and quiet, it is hardly the situation that I would select in which to raise two children.  We would most probably move in time.’”  The Palmers were renters.

Leaded Window in door of Door of Blessing
             The Door of Blessing opened at 3611 in May, 1916 as a home for women recently released from prison.  Miss A. M. Dupree explained “[a]ny woman who wants to try again is welcome.  Every inmate comes of her own free will….  Our doors are open to women of any creed or faith…  There are so many women who have no place to go but back to the conditions that brought them to the prison.”  The women shared the housework and mending and making carpet rugs.  Each was taught a trade and usually a position was found for her.  The home continued at this location for about 20 years.
            Who were the protestors?  Where they conservative anti-progressives?  Did the block crumble in the next 20 years?  In the blog, I’ll review the evidence.