For the final post of the decade we’re stepping back 130 years to check out the coroner’s year-end report for 1889. Coroner Neven C. Gamble and the Deputy Coroner was George T. Barnhill released their report explaining that their office handled about 145 cases, the various causes, and the names of the victims.
This does not mean only 145 people died in New Castle County that year. It means they were called upon to determine the cause of death and if criminal circumstances or negligence played a role in the deaths of 145 people. To do so they formed a jury that looked at the facts related to the death and assigned an official cause and determined if was the result of criminal or negligent actions. Of those 145 deaths, 68 were considered violent deaths with the greatest number of people, 30 in all, met their fate from railroad accidents.
Railroad switching yards were dangerous places and Wilmington’s West Yard was the largest and busiest in Delaware. These switching yards were not fenced off, locals would often cut through when walking, kids would go to watch trains, and people would board freight trains to travel. Additionally, people used the tracks as walking paths and being on the right of way was not considered trespassing.
The stories of the dead are often horrific and newspapers of the day went into very graphic detail, providing a glimpse of both the danger and the vastly different way the departed were handled at the time. A sample of their stories include the following.
Ernst Gabriel, age 15, was on his way to work at Edge Moor on January 10, 1889. He was hit by a train at Landlith when he ran across the tracks attempting to catch the workmen’s train and was hit by a passing freight train. The coroner’s jury censured the railroad and engineer because they felt the freight train was running too fast. No charges were made but the censure open the path for civil action against the railroad be Gabriel’s family.
Charles E. Spencer, 30-years old, were working as the conductor of a northbound freight train at New Castle on February 1 when he fell under the wheels and was cut in half. His remains were carefully gathered up and conveyed to Wilmington by train and then transferred to his home at 707 Spruce Street. At his memorial service a railroad friend recalled Spencer once commented about the dangers of railroading, “I want a through ticket when I go, and I think I have one.” Spencer left behind a wife and child.
Roger Bayne, track worker was found dead at West Yard on March 9. He was apparently struck by a train but no train crew never noticed striking anyone. Bayne lived at 1111 Chestnut Street and his body was brought to his house.
Michael Madden, age 25, was killed at West Yard on March 12 as he attempted to hop onboard a moving freight, slipped, fell under the wheels, and was run over by 30 cars.
Two men were struck and killed by a train at West Yard while walking the tracks on September 30. One had papers in his pocket identifying him as Patrick Ryan and the second man was unidentified. Both though to be in their forties and recent immigrants from Ireland. Many people stopped by the morgue to have a look, but neither body was ever claimed.
In that era, so many people were killed on the railroad that the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad had both a hospital and morgue at its station in Wilmington. If you read the article you will also notice that amongst the 145 deaths investigated in New Castle County, there were 4 people killed by gunshot wounds, 2 stabbed, 13 drowned, 5 suicides, and 12 other types of accidents.
Anyone working for the railroad had to have known more than one coworker who was killed and could very well have picked up the remains and transported them to the station onboard the train. The notion of delivering a person's remains to their late home is just not anything that has happened in many decades. The situation at the house on Charles E. Spencer must have been beyond anything imaginable when his remains were returned to his late residence at 707 Spruce Street.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Friday, December 27, 2019
The Christmas Blizzard of 1909
Evening Journal 12-28-1909 |
On Christmas Day in 1909 the snow started falling in Wilmington.
The snow kept falling for two days straight and Wilmington, the surrounding
areas, and much of the east coast were hit with one of the worst blizzards on
record. Over 20 inches of snow fell and many high drifts wreaked havoc
throughout the region. The main issue in snowstorms, back then as well as
today, is primarily transportation. In 1909 travel through snow was a lot
different than today.
Today we count on DelDOT’s massive plows, some weighing as
much as 70,000 lbs., to clear our roads in short order. Then many people fire
up snow blowers and then set out in
Evening Journal 12-28-1909 |
Everyone who lived through the Blizzard of 1909 has passed
on, there are no films, and few photos, so what we have left are the colorful
newspaper accounts. The piece is an attempt to highlight some of the
interesting accounts.
Evening Journal 12-27-1909 |
Trolley cars were stranded all over, people made the best of
it, and often strangers stepped in to help stranded folks with food and lodging.
One People’s Railway car was stranded near Rockford Park with 6 men and 6 women
on board. The men dug a path to a nearby house where the women spent the night.
The men returned to the trolley car where the spent the night smoking cigars, singing, and telling yarns. The next day the Bancroft and Sons Company sent a team of eight
sturdy horses pulling a plow to clear the way to rescue the stranded
passengers.
Evening Journal 12-30-1909 |
A group of three hundred young people were roller skating at
the Country Roller Rink at Brandywine Springs when the trolley line became
impassable. They spent the night at the rink and about seventy went to the
nearby German Kitchen restaurant where they were fed by proprietors Mr. &
Mrs. L. C. Martin. A group tried to walk home but only made it as far as
Greenbank where they were forced to take shelter overnight in the New Castle
County Workhouse. Another trolley was heading from New Castle to Delaware City
and became stranded and the whereabout of the trolley car and safety of the
crew and passengers was unknown for several days.
The powerful locomotives of the Pennsylvania Railroad were
no match for the drifting snow.
Morning News 12-27-1909 |
Over on the B&O Railroad a passenger train became stuck
in a massive snow drift near Stanton holding its passengers captive for twelve
hours while another train became stranded at Silverside. The Reading Railroad did
not escape without calamity, two locomotives derailed in the vicinity of New
Bridge causing much excitement in the area around Rising Sun and Henry Clay Village.
Evening Journal 12-28-1909 |
The trolley companies were paralyzed and rounded up a thousand
men to dig out. These men were offered cash to labor with shovels to clear the colossal
amount of snow. Many showed up with burlap sacks tied to their feet as
protection from the cold. The Wilmington Police Department offered a deal to
the local drunks locked up in the city jail, freedom in exchange for helping to
dig out the snow-bound city.
The Wilmington Police Department had to disconnect its
Morning News 12-27-1909 |
By December 30, 1909 Delaware was mostly dug out. The
trolley lines within the city were operating but the lines to Newport and Holly
Oak were still blocked and trolley car were reported as being stuck somewhere
out on those lines. All of the railroad lines were reported
Morning News 12-29-199 |
Another 87 years would pass until the next time Wilmington saw
more than 20 inches of snow when the Blizzard of 1996 delivered nearly 2 feet
of snow. There have been a few storms since then that have dumped more than 20
inches of snow, including Snowmageddon in 2010, but in no time in history has
Wilmington dealt with so much snow using almost exclusively manpower.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Electrical Connections -- Garrett, Miller, & Company -- 1889-1997
The story starts with a December 24, 1915 ad for toy
electric trains in the Evening Journal.
The toy trains, probably some of the first sold in Wilmington, were being offered for sale by
Garrett, Miller, & Company. If you’ve lived in Wilmington long enough you
know that name. The way research works is often one little bit of information
sparks interest in something else which is the case with Garrett, Miller, &
Company, a company certainly worth writing about.
Garrett, Miller, & Company dates back to February 14, 1889,
when George W. Stone and J.R. Hudson incorporated the Stone and Hudson Supply
and Machinery Company. This company was located at Water Street in Wilmington
and its primary business was plumbing and ship chandlery. Two year later it was
reorganized as Delaware Electric & Supply Company and moved to 211 Shipley
Street where it operated for many years.
On February 26, 1895, Wilmington native Frank S. Garrett and
his friend Henry K. Miller left positions with the William Sellers Company of Philadelphia
and purchased the electrical department of Delaware Electric & Supply to
form their own company. This company went on to be one that Wilmingtonians came
to know and trust for a century-- Garrett, Miller, & Company.
Garrett was the grandson of Thomas Garrett, Underground Railroad
conductor and friend of Harriet Tubman. The two of them led hundreds of slaves
to freedom and Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park in Wilmington honors the pair.
Delaware Electric & Supply continued on Shipley street
and Garrett, Miller, & Company set up shop at 4th and Orange Streets.
It’s important to note that these were the early days of electricity and the
future held many electrical devices not yet invented. Initially the firm sold
electrical supplies for construction but soon ventured into other electrical
devices.
From the Evening Journal February 16, 1916 |
In 1916 they were
offering upright vacuum cleaners and lamps. in the 1920s they jumped into selling the cutting-edge
technology of AM radio. They were selling the Atwater Kent brand which was
manufactured in what was reported to be the world’s largest radio factory in
Philadelphia. Today the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent carries
that name.
By the 1920s they were selling a wide array of electrical items including added smaller items such as toasters, curling irons, and heating pads along with the larger appliances including the White Lily brand washing machines and Frigidaire
brand refrigerators in the 1920s as well. In 1925 their ads boasted, "Now only $190 now only for the unit that makes your ice box a Frigidaire." In the 1930s the firm picked up the
Philco brand of radios and soon became a regional distributor.
Electricity had brought a technological revolution and
Garrett, Miller, & Company was riding high. Through the years they became Wilmington
premier appliance retailer. Henry K. Miller died in 1925 at age 64 and the
business continued with Garrett in charge until his retirement in 1948. Donald
K. Farquhar became vice president and general manager and eventually purchased
the company. Garrett died in 1950 at age 81.
In the 1960s the company moved to Germay Drive and continued
to dominate the appliance market in Wilmington. By the 1990s the landscape for
retail appliance sales had changed and Garrett Miller struggled on until 1997
when the company closed its doors forever. Farquhar remained active with the
company until it closed.
The Delaware Electric & Supply Company remained on Shipley
Street and in 1930 changed its name to Desco Corporation. With the electrical
business sold, their focus was selling industrial piping and fittings. The
company left Wilmington in the 1960s and moved to Basin Road and became McArdle-Decso
Corporation. They were eventually taken over by Deacon Industrial Supply and the
Basin Road facility was closed.
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