Category: history

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Frankford Civil War Monument is 150 Years Old on July 4th

The Frankford Civil War Monument, officially the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, was dedicated on July 4, 1867 and will be 150 years old this year.  It commemorates those from the 23rd ward in Philadelphia who died in the war.  Frankford was the major population center of the 23rd ward and it residents played a significant part.

If you are looking for a non commercial way to spend some time, go up to Cedar Hill Cemetery and have a look.  Use the Cheltenham Avenue entrance and follow the roadway down toward Bridge Street.

 

Parts of it are now illegible due to weathering but read the report below, from the Philadelphia Ledger dated August of 1871, to see what it was all about.  It gives the complete list of the names on the monument.  You may find someone you know.

South Face

This column, erected by the joint contributions of Company D First California regiment, 71st Pennsylvania Volunteers and the citizens of the 23rd ward, to commemorate the services of the heroic dead who fought to crush treason and rebellion and gave their lives that their country might live. Dedicated July 4th, 1867.

“For there fell down many slain, because this war was of God.”  1st Chronicles, 5, 22.

121st Pennsylvania volunteers

Sergeant Charles F. Newman, hospital

Privates

William H. Wright, hospital

Daniel Miller, Gettysburg

William Spear, Gettysburg

Robert Ray, Gettysburg

R.H. Copeland, Gettysburg

John Thelle (Thiele), Gettysburg

Thomas Stone, Andersonville 1

Peter McAnally, Andersonville

James Hilton, Andersonville

John Taylor, Andersonville

James Peirce, Andersonville

Albert Clymer, Hospital

Dennis Hayes, Hospital

James W. A. Bishop, Fredericksburg

Edward Morin, Fredericksburg

Robert Kay, Fredericksburg

John Thorn, Fredericksburg

James Burk, Fredericksburg

James Bolton, Richmond

John Gilberson, Belle Plain

Thomas Kirkwood, Belle Plain

Alfred Wondorly, Belle Plain

Thomas Roan, Salisbury

Charles H. Cooper, Salisbury

Thomas Stott, Salisbury

Alfred Whitehead, Salisbury

James  McDowell, Frankford

Michael Schuster, Frankford

Joseph Johnson, Hospital

John W. Lees, Petersburg

Robert Lindsey, Petersburg

John Susby, Washington

Abner B. Miller, Philadelphia

William Allen, Belle Isle

Engagements

Hyattstown, Maryland

Antietam, Maryland

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Bristoe Station, Virginia

Bethesda Church, Virginia

Cold Harbor, Virginia

South Side Railroad, Virginia

Five Forks, Virginia

East Face

“But with us was the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” 2nd Chronicles 32, 8.

114th Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers

Sergeant David E. Edgar, Chancellorsville

Privates

James K.P. Ryan, Chancellorsville

Charles Mahan, Chancellorsville

Vanliere Bond, Chancellorsville

Joshua L. Wood, Gettysburg

John Galloway, Gettysburg

George Vanhart, Fredericksburg

David Hutchinson, Fredericksburg

Nathan Kelsey, Fredericksburg

Samuel Rodgers, Fredericksburg

Edward Simmons

160 Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers

William Martin, Spotsylvania

David Allen, Andersonville

George Barber, Savage Station

William Blackburn, Savage station

William McMullen, Hospital

George Rice, Petersburg

Louis Lester, Petersburg

A. Dungan, Hospital

Bendingo Howarth, Hospital

T. Donlon, Weehawken

John Johnson, Weehawken

James Ferry, Weehawken

John Hart, Harriet Lane (ship),

Frederick Putt, Fort Fisher

26th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers

Lt. D. Potts, 2nd Bull Run

Corporals

William Fairhurst, Chancellorsville

William M. Gordon, Gettysburg

Privates

William Reynolds, Andersonville

Michael Moras, Andersonville

95th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers

James Crocket, Gaines’ Hill

Samuel Deardon, Spottsylvania

William Castor, Spottsylvania

James Reese, Spottsylvania

John Reed, Cedar Creek

Wilbur R. Walton, Sail Creek

Theodore Crocker, Cold Harbor

List of Engagements

71st Pennsylvania Volunteers

Baltimore Riot, Maryland

Falls Church, Virginia

Balls Bluff, Virginia

Fair Oaks, Virginia

Peach Orchard, Virginia

Savage Station, Virginia

Malvern Hill, Virginia

Chantilly, Virginia

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Antietam, Virginia

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Mine Run, Virginia

Morton’s Run, Virginia

Wilderness, Virginia

P. O. Run, Virginia

North Face

In honor of our

Fallen Heroes.

Died for their Country.

California Regiment, 71st Pennsylvania Volunteers Company D

Colonel E. D. Baker, Bold Bluff

Captain Jacob T. Smallwood, Fort Fisher

Lieutenant Joseph Williams, Ball’s Bluff

Lieutenant B. Frank Hibbs, Spotsylvania

Lieutenant William Wilson, Antietam

Sergeant John Tease, Po River

Corporal Sewall Randall, Ball’s Bluff

Corporal Elijah Hunt, Harpers Ferry

Corporal Lewis Evans, Frankford

Privates

John Stott, Ball’s Bluff

John Castor, Balls Bluff

Robert Smith, Ball’s Bluff

David Chipman, Ball’s Bluff

William Wilkinson, Fair Oaks

Richard Hartley, Fair Oaks

John Williams, Fair Oaks

Thomas Pilling, Antietam

Wallace Shaw, Wilderness

Rudolph Price, Wilderness

Robert Lesher, Gettysburg

William Brown, Gettysburg

George Gregson, Frankford

Barney Williams, Andersonville

John Gibson, Frankford

William Batt, Richmond

Joseph Batt, Harpers Ferry

George Lever, Newport News

Anthony McArlain, Newport News

Richard Standing, Newport News

Adam Hefer, Newport News

Charles Layton, Newport News

Henry Castor, Newport News

John Fulton, Newport News

Thomas Parker, Newport News

Nicholas Carty, Newport News

James S. Hurling, Newport News

West Face

I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them; Val has subdued under me those that moves up against me. Psalms 17, 87, 39.

28th regiment Pennsylvania volunteers

Privates

Charles Wonderly, Antietam

Ruport Carney, Dallas, Georgia

William Baxendine,, Hospital

James Armstead, Hospital

Albert Smith, Hospital

Isaac Hilt, Hospital

James Butcher, Gettysburg

James Donley, Philadelphia

Lieutenant George Bragg, 8th Pennsylvania cavalry

Sergeant H. Vandergrift, 3rd New Jersey

Corporal Lewis Hong, 3rd New Jersey

Privates

John W Somers, First New Jersey

William E. Hope, 112th Pennsylvania Volunteers

George Baxendine, 73rd Pennsylvania Volunteers

William H. Wordell, 15th Illinois

William Carnell, 20th Pennsylvania Volunteers

James Elliott, 6th Pennsylvania Volunteers

James Shaw, 5th New York

J. A. Duncan, 73rd Pennsylvania Volunteers

List of engagements 71st Pennsylvania volunteers

Siege of Yorktown Virginia,

Siege of Richmond Virginia, 1862

White Oak swamp, Virginia

Chancellorsville, Robertson’s Tavern

Spottsylvania

Siege of Richmond, 1865.

 

Thanks to Bob and Kate D’Imperio for this invaluable image.

 

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Wes and Irene Harvey

In April of 1963, the U.S.S. Thresher, a nuclear submarine, was conducting sea trials about 200 miles East of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.   It went silent on April 10th and, after an extensive search, was discovered at the bottom of the sea in 8,400 feet of water.  An inquiry concluded that the probable cause was a failure of a weld in the salt water piping system, causing the Thresher to implode in one or more of her compartments. 96 enlisted men, 17 civilian technicians and 16 officers, including Commander Wes Harvey, were lost.

John Wesley Harvey was born in the Bronx, New York on September 24, 1927.  His parents, Manning and Anna, had lived in Frankford prior to that time and they returned sometime  before 1930.  The family, including older brother Manning Jr., first settled into a house in Oxford Circle but soon were living on the 1300 block of Fillmore Street in Frankford.

Wes Harvey played for the United State Naval Academy

Wes attended Henry Edmunds Elementary School, Woodrow Wilson Junior High School and Frankford High School and was an honor student throughout.  During his high school years, he was a member of the student board, Victory Corps and he also served as advertising manager of the school newspaper.  Wes also participated in sports and was a member of the varsity football and baseball teams.  Upon graduating high school, he was awarded the Board of Education Scholarship, with full tuition, to the University of Pennsylvania.  He also received the Ellis A. Gimble Citizenship Award and was selected to the “One Hundred Club of Philadelphia” whose members are picked by the school principals and coaches from students having the highest combined standing in scholarship and athletics.

Irene Nagorski grew up in Bridesburg on Edgemont Street and attended Frankford High School where she met the handsome Wes and they became sweethearts.  She went on the graduate from the Frankford Hospital School of Nursing.

Wes” was enrolled in the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at Penn from February 1945 until September 1946, when he won a long-desired appointment to the Naval Academy.  While at Penn, Wes maintained honor grades and played varsity football on the same team with Chuck Bednarik.  He said later that they both wanted to play Center but Bednarik beat him out for the position and he moved to Guard.  During that time he was
President of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

His naval career began at the Naval Academy in September 1946, when he was sworn in as a midshipman, class of 1950. During his Academy years, he continued to excel in academics, in addition to starring in athletics and participating in a full schedule of extracurricular activities.

Graduated and commissioned an Ensign in June 1950, he married his high school sweetheart, Irene, and together they became a military family and went on to have two sons, Bruce and John Jr. The family followed along with Wes as he moved from one assignment to the next.  Irene learned the ways of being a Navy wife.

Wes received his orders to report to his first ship, the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Coral Sea (CVA 43), as assistant navigator.  He volunteered for submarines and was selected for training and graduated from submariner school in July 1951, standing 3rd in a class of 77.

His next assignment was aboard the submarine U.S.S. Sea Robin where he was designated qualified in submarines and selected for advanced training in nuclear propulsion. He received this training at the Westinghouse’s Bettis Laboratory in Pittsburgh and Idaho Falls, Idaho.

In July of 1955, he reported to the U.S.S. Nautilus and remained with that command until August 1958.

During that time, he participated in two Arctic cruises, the second of which was climaxed by the first submerged transit of the north polar region and earned the crew a Presidential Unit Citation. After more than a year as first engineer of a new prototype reactor in Windsor, Connecticut, he commissioned the nuclear-powered submarine U.S.S. Tullibee as engineering officer. In May 1961, he was selected as executive officer of the submarine, Sea Dragon, based at Pearl Harbor. In Sea Dragon, he participated in the historic rendezvous with Submarine Skate at the North Pole in 1962. In January of 1963 Wes was appointed commander of the  USS Thresher following three months of duty at the Naval Reactors Branch of the Bureau of Ships.

 

Wes Harvey as a Lieutenant aboard the USS Nautilus in 1958

The tragedy devastated the families of all those lost on the Thresher.  Irene Harvey never remarried but continued to raise her sons and work as a nurse.  She lived in Connecticut, until she passed away in February of 2014.

 

Irene Harvey

Irene was a devoted Navy wife and Mother. As a nurse and Navy widow, “Irene touched many lives. She believed that the meaning of life is not to be found in mere survival. Instead, life’s purpose is to be found somewhere in the process of caring, sharing, and loving.”

She also left behind a last request: to be buried at sea alongside her husband.  In a solemn Navy tradition, USS Annapolis, over the site of the remains of the Thresher, fulfilled Irene’s wish.

May they both rest in peace.

 

For more information about Wes Harvey follow this link and this link.

More information about Irene Harvey at this link.

Research assistance by Dawn Hodson-Ritzler

 

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St. Mary’s Malankara Orthodox Church

The congregation of St. Mary’s Malankara Orthodox Church at Orthodox and Penn Streets has held their last service in Frankford.  They have relocated the church farther up in the Northeast to better serve their members.  We wish them well.

The building was originally St. Luke’s Reformed Episcopal Church which was designed by architect Frank Rushmore Watson.  It has been purchased by Frankford Friends School for use as an almost full-size gym as well as to provide enhanced music and theater spaces.

This is a win for the Frankford community. Frankford Friends will care for it well and continue to stabilize that area of Frankford.

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Hub Arcade Comes Down After 90 Years

Demolition began this week on 4743 Griscom Street which was the Griscom Street entrance of the Hub Arcade.

We haven’t heard that name often since it became a vacant eyesore but it was a big deal back in 1928 when it opened.  It housed a collection of shops almost like an enclosed mall that would come along in the 1960s.  In the 1930s, radio station WFKD broadcast children’s programming on Sundays from the Arcade.  It was still active right through the 1950s.

Now how do we keep the drug users and bums out of the vacant lot that will be left behind.

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Roland Williams Coming to the Historical Society of Frankford

It was a busy season so far at the Historical Society of Frankford so far this year.  In addition to the regular monthly programs, several special events were held and the second annual flea market fund raiser was a big success in May.  Below is a video clip of the event.  Thanks to Chuck and Jerry, Spectral Evidence, for the music.

 

 

Coming up at the meeting on June 13th, Roland Williams, who was featured in the Jason Sherman documentary “The Kings Highway” will be speaking on the Lenape on the Pennypack.  Meeting starts at 6:30 PM this month for the social hour.