We walk the historic streets of Frankford everyday and most of us give little thought to what has gone before. I have been fortunate over the last few years to talk to people in Frankford who know far more than I about our history. So we are offering this space to let our local historians tell us the story from time to time.
Our first offering in this series is from Joe Menkevich and it follows below. It contains an interesting description of Frankford about the period of the early 19th century (correct me if I am wrong Joe). You can also read an illustrated pdf version here. In the future, these posts will be linked all together under the History Corner in the Quick Links section above.
CALICO PRINT WORKS AT COMLYVILLE. 2
IN the November Number of the Lady’s Book, we furnished a Lithographic view of Comlyville, near Frankford, with a brief description of the works, and scenery in that neighbourhood. In the sketch prefixed is presented a view of a part of these works taken from a different point, intended to exhibit the Calico Manufactory in bolder relief than it was shown in the former picture.
The situation of these works combines advantages which are rarely found to belong to manufacturing establishments. They are at a convenient distance from the city, being in the vicinity of Frankford, a pleasant and flourishing village. The scenery immediately adjoining is picturesque and beautiful, presenting an agreeable variety of hill and dale, forming a striking and interesting prospect. The Frankford creek flows through the settlement, and is crossed by a covered bridge from which the accompanying view is taken.
Beside the Print Works exhibited in this view there are several factories, in the village, one, particularly, belonging to Mr. J. Steel, which employs one hundred and fifty hands; with two hundred and sixty-four power looms, in weaving bed-ticking, cords, &c. being the most extensive in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. There are likewise a number of mills, driven by water, for sawing mahogany, grinding logwood, expressing oil, &c. In addition to the larger buildings there are about thirty neat stone and wood tenements for the accommodation of the workmen and their families. The neighbourhood is remarkably healthy. 3
Notes:
- http://books.google.com/books?id=7tQRAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA337&dq=%22Comlyville%22&hl=en&ei=2jQjTNShA8KB8ga42LmrBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAg
- Godey, Louis Antoine, and Sarah Josepha Buell Hale. January1831. Godey’s magazine. New York [etc.]: The Godey company [etc.] this article is also available at Accessible Archives
- My experience with Google Books it that their scanned books are difficult to cite as Google will not guarantee their accuracy. See incident:
Re: [#465893271] other
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 3:30 PM
“Thank you for contacting Google Books support. I understand you received an incorrect volume from Abebooks after searching for it in our program. I also understand that you weren’t able to locate a certain legal brief based a book citation in Google Books.
Joseph, I apologize for any trouble you experienced in these instances. I’ve forwarded your observations to our product team as feedback, so that we may improve our program.
One matter I’d like to point out, though, is that for listings such as these, we automatically acquire identifying information from third-party metadata sources. As such, we don’t have control over the nature of this material. I apologize that I am not able to provide you with more helpful information about the legal brief in which you are interested.
That said, we do greatly appreciate your feedback and hope you will continue to let us know how we can improve Google Books.”
This Presentation © Joseph J. Menkevich
