by Jack Coll
Conshohocken police officers can no longer discharge their guns into the air followed by a command to “HALT.” Officers appointed to the police position in the early years did not receive any police training at all. By today’s standards, potential police officer candidates must complete the ACT 12 Police Training program before being considered for a police position. And one final thing: in the borough’s 140-year police history, nowhere was there mentioned a female police officer. However, several years ago, Conshohocken hired its one and only female police officer, Connie Shaffer, who after working in Conshohocken is currently a police officer in Upper Merion Township. According to Orler, Conshohocken is ready and open to hire any female officer who qualifies for the police position.
Several of today’s (2010) police officers line up in front of Borough Hall for a group photograph, including Conshohocken chief of police Michael Orler, standing in the back row second from left. In 1895, the annual police budget was $2,500; today’s budget is $2.2 million. Conshohocken has twenty full-time officers and several part-time officers. Courtesy of the Conshohocken Police Deparment.
A few of the police officers who have served the borough over the past decade include John Ellam, Tony Santoro, George Metz, John Storti, Matt Messenger, Andrew Carlin, Dave Zinni, James Carbo, Dave Lemon, Mike Kelly, Carmen Gambone, Dave Phillips, Shane Murray, Mike Connor and Jonathan Palmer.
Eugene “Chick” Lucas, Lost in Action
It was a hot summer night in Conshohocken. On the evening of August 13, 1917, it was near closing time for most of the merchants along Fayette Street. Billy McGovern’s cigar store located at 66 Fayette Street had a couple of locals still hanging around outside the store, as did Bob Crawford’s cigar store, located for many years at Second Avenue and Fayette Street. On the corner of Hector and Ash Streets, Campbell’s Furniture still had a potential customer or two milling about the store, and Little’s Opera House was showing one of the many silent movies of the era at the movie house located on the second floor of its building at First Avenue and Fayette Street. The J.L. Oyster House at 48 Fayette Street always had a smell that would draw in hungry residents from the entire lower end of town, but nothing smelled sweeter than the warm aroma of Laise’s Bakery on the corner of Elm and Fayette Streets.
Minutes before 8:30 on that Monday night, gunshots were heard coming from the corner of Elm and Fayette Streets. The sound of the shots pierced the heavy summer air and brought a community to its knees. Minutes later, Conshohocken police officer Eugene “Chick” Lucas staggered out of the Citron Building, turned right and headed up Fayette Street. When he reached Hector Street, several residents standing in front of Hart’s cigar store noticed he was injured and assisted him to Dr. Fordyce’s office located at Hector and Harry Streets. Once inside the office, Lucas collapsed and was declared dead at the doctor’s office from a gunshot wound that ruptured the carotid artery in his neck.
Chick Lucas was a Conshohocken resident who was a former professional boxer, wrestler and race walker and, by all accounts of the day, was a very jovial individual. He was a very successful businessman and ran a paper-hanging and decorating business out of his storefront at 10 East Hector Street.
It was common practice in the early part of the last century to hire athletes or former soldiers to fill the position of police and law enforcement officers, and Chick was a perfect candidate. Conshohocken had four policemen in 1917, and when one of the full-time police officers was unable to work for a period of time, a special officer was hired to fill in. Officer George Ruth was on vacation, and Constable Ruggiero of Conshohocken swore in Lucas to fill in for Ruth.
On Chick’s first day filling in for Ruth, Constable Ruggiero handed him a warrant filed by Madeline Nolen charging her husband, Michael Antolini—alias Black Mike, alias Mike Nolen, alias Mike Ralph, though we’ll call him Black Mike—with desertion and abuse with intent to kill. Chick’s second day on the job, he and Officer Clifford Campbell entered the Citron Building located on the corner of Elm and Fayette Streets, the home of Black Mike, to serve the warrant. The two officers traveled up three flights of blackened stairways to gain entry into Black Mike’s apartment. The chain of events that followed started a twenty-year, headline-grabbing tale that ended on May 13, 1937.
When the officers reached Mike’s apartment, the door was open and Black Mike was eating supper. Chick walked into the room with his club drawn and yelled, “Hands up.” Black Mike responded by grabbing his revolver and fired three shots, one of them striking Chick above the collarbone. The bullet severed the carotid artery, and Chick fell to the floor. His partner, Campbell, also hit the floor to avoid being struck.
Black Mike escaped from the police and went on the run for five years until he was captured on October 30, 1922, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, under the name of Joe Ross. Black Mike continued grabbing the headlines of local newspapers when on December 3, 1925, he and another convict escaped the Norristown prison by climbing over a wall. In April 1937, Black Mike filed a petition from Graterford Prison seeking a pardon while serving a fifteen-to seventeen-year prison term on a plea of guilty to second-degree murder. While waiting for a pardon, Black Mike died in Eastern State Penitentiary on May 13, 1937.
The name of Eugene J. “Chick” Lucas will live on in Conshohocken, Montgomery County and throughout the country. On May 19, 1995, the Montgomery County Police Officers Memorial was dedicated on the lawn of the Montgomery County Courthouse. The Conshohocken Police Department was well represented. In honor of Chick, his name is inscribed on the black granite memorial. Chick’s name can also be found at Judicial Square in Washington, D.C., on the National Police Memorial.
According to current Conshohocken chief of police Mike Orler, a Police Star will be placed in the sidewalk outside of the former Citron Building with Chick’s name inscribed.
WASHINGTON FIRE COMPANY
It All Started in Stemple’s Hall
James Harry’s drugstore was doing a thriving business on Fayette Street, as was James Wrigley, who sold boots and shoes. DeHaven & Brothers, Fulton & Company and Joseph Hampson all had solid businesses on the lower end of the town. Dozens of family-owned businesses were threatened in 1871 when a fire broke out at 72 Fayette Street, a general grocery store owned and operated by Mr. Morris.
It was a happy occasion on July 4, 1953, when this photograph was taken. Just before the annual Fourth of July parade, members of the Washington Fire Company posed for this picture on the old 1929 Metropolitan Pumper Truck. The three firemen are Lou Hale, John Ostapowicz and Warren Rinker sitting on the fender. Standing up on truck, from left: Jesse Stemple Jr., Jesse Stemple III sitting on Ted Lesinski’s lap, Sam Januzelli, Carl Hylinski, Jerry Tancini and Bob Haines.
Ulysses S. Grant was president of the United States and the borough of Conshohocken was in its infancy, having been incorporated just twenty-one years earlier. The newly formed borough had no firefighting equipment, and a plea was sent to Norristown, some four miles from Conshohocken, for fire apparatus and volunteers. Norristown responded, and a message was sent to the Reading Railroad Station that Norris Fire Company was responding with its Pat Lyons Hand Engine. Members of the Norris Fire Company hustled along Ridge Pike pulling and pushing the Pat Lyons on foot. More than fifty volunteers from Norristown took turns running with the fire wagon into Conshohocken and sent a message to the onlookers: Conshohocken needed a fire company. A year later, a fire at the Plymouth Blast Furnace threatened the livelihood of dozens of residents, and the leading members of the town took action.
It was a cold Saturday evening on December 13, 1873, when thirty-eight residents gathered in Stemple’s Hall on Forrest Street, just below Hector, for the purpose of organizing a hose and steam fire engine company. A temporary fire company was authorized, and Jacob M. Ulrick was selected as president of the company. James Colen was vice-president, John S. Moore was secretary and William Heywood was treasurer. A committee was also formed at this meeting to appoint a committee to secure a charte
r and charged each member a one-dollar fee for the purpose of purchasing a fire wagon.
The following week on December 20, 1873, members of this new hose and steam fire engine company selected a name for their company. As was the custom back then, a number of names were dropped into a hat, including Lincoln, Jefferson, Conshohocken, Washington and a few others. While it was not recorded who pulled the name, the slip of paper with “Washington” written on it was drawn, and as of December 20, 1873, a few months before the fire company was chartered, the name of the fire company was the Washington Hose and Steam Fire Engine Company No. 1.
A Little Firehouse History
After using the barn of George Washington Jacoby for a couple of years to store its fire apparatus, the fire company purchased ground to build a two-story firehouse on West Hector Street. A two-story building, twenty-five by fifty feet, would cost $3,202. Members wanted a three-story facility but could not afford the additional $600. The company officials negotiated a low price with a promise to provide labor from its members.
Reuben Stemple was a hotelman and building contractor who landed the masonry and brick work for the erection of the Washington Fire Company’s firehouse. In an effort to keep expenses low, the members of the company, following a hard day’s work at the mills, raced to the firehouse to contribute to the lifting and moving of the cement, bricks, mixing motor and any other labor that was required. None of the firemen was paid, but as luck would have it, Reuben Stemple’s hotel was just around the corner at 46 Fayette Street, and all of the workers often became very thirsty. Stemple would often send for a round of beer from the hotel by ordering the round written on a brick signed by Stemple. The bartender at the hotel would recognize Stemple’s signature, pour a full round of beer for the thirsty workers and stack the bricks behind the bar.
Well, it didn’t take long for the firemen-workmen to figure out a way to help themselves to a free party or two on Stemple. It became a frequent scene in the hotel bar that a rather large contingent of the firemen-workmen would enter the bar and start an argument with the barkeeper. While the barkeep engaged in a verbal tussle with the men, a few of the firemen would slip over and retrieve a few of the bricks with the coveted chalk markings that read “good for a few beers, R.S.” Before long, the workmen had their own stash of bricks that proved as good as any credit card given in a bar today.
For what it’s worth, it was reported that no firemen-workmen ever became intoxicated during the construction of the building.
Having celebrated more than 136 years of service and still growing, the rest, as they say, is Washington Fire Company history.
A Few Fires for the Record
February 3, 1873: “John Wood & Brothers Explosion”
Considered the greatest catastrophe ever suffered by the borough of Conshohocken, a steam boiler exploded at 4:20 p.m. The tank went through the wall and flew across the canal and through the wall of another factory. Hunks of metal and shrapnel penetrated residents’ walls and windows along Elm Street. The death toll would eventually rise to sixteen, with dozens more injured.
August 21, 1875: “Fire Totally Destroys Albion Print Works”
Washington Fire Company chief Frank Beaver nearly lost his life in the burning building caused by an exploding pressure tank.
June 10, 1879: “Fire at S&J Lees Nearly Destroys Entire Plant”
Daniel Foley, a Washington firefighter, was injured when he fell from a ladder while fighting the fire. Foley’s unconscious body was carried back to the hotel he owned along the canal, and a physician determined that no broken bones could be found. Firemen worked for more than six hours to extinguish the blaze.
September 8, 1898: “The Conshohocken Brewery on Fire”
The Conshohocken Brewery, later the Gulph Brewery, was reported on fire by Mrs. B. DeHaven, who lived across the creek from the brewery. The tragedy at this fire was that the main building containing all the beer in storage was destroyed, and if that wasn’t bad enough, all the beer in the process of being completed was also destroyed. On the upside the firemen had never before worked so hard to save a building. It was perhaps this fire that caused the formation of the George Clay Fire Company a year later.
September 10, 1917: “Explosion of Gas Rocks Whole Town”
Conshohocken and surrounding vicinities were rocked on a quiet Sunday morning when a ten-thousand-cubic-foot gas bag filled to capacity at the plant of the Process Oils Company, formerly the Henderson Supplee & Son flour and feed mill located on the berm bank, exploded with terrific force, leveling the building, shattering glass windows in buildings and homes for a distance of more than half a mile and rocking houses off their foundations. Borough officials called it a miracle when the three workers at the plant escaped injury.
June 1, 1920: “Moose Home Badly Damaged by Fire”
The headline for this fire was rather insignificant, as was the fire itself. However, Washington firefighter Miles Stemple was on the third floor of the Moose home, located at First Avenue and Harry Street, when the flooring gave way and Miles fell to the floor below. An injury to his arm was attended to, but Stemple said nothing about his internal injuries that damaged his liver. Miles Stemple, one of the first members of the fire company, died ten months later on August 20, 1921, due to injuries from the fall.
Miles responded to his final fire alarm on March 14, 1921, at the age of seventy-two years old. He is the only Conshohocken fireman to die in the line of duty.
May 22, 1923: “Early Morning Fire Destroys Harry St. School Building”
Mrs. George Westwood of East Third Avenue reported a fire at the Harry Street school that caused more than $60,000 in damage. Schoolchildren were given off until September. Both Conshohocken fire companies fought the overwhelming blaze and called in surrounding fire companies for assistance.
January 18, 1927: “Fire Destroys F.W. Woolworth’s Building”
Firemen battled a blaze at the Woolworth’s building on Fayette Street for more than seven hours and managed to save all adjoining businesses on the block. Residents from four apartments above the Woolworth’s Store had to be rescued and taken out in nightclothes into the blinding snowstorm. Nearly a dozen firemen were injured at the scene, including George Wright of the Spring Mill Fire Company; Walter Pope of the Washington Fire Company; William Dewees, a seventy-year-old Washies firefighter; Edward McGuire of the George Clay Fire Company; and many more.
January 28, 1928: “Washies Assist at Villanova College Fire”
With more than a foot of freshly fallen snow on the ground, the Washington Fire Company rushed to Villanova College to assist twenty-four other fire companies in extinguishing a blaze that threatened to burn the entire campus to the ground. (Keep in mind that Villanova consisted of three buildings in 1928.)
Dozens of firefighters were injured, including Washies assistant chief Johnny Riggs, who fell through a skylight into the burning building. Two other Washies firefighters were among dozens who had their hands frozen to the nozzles of the hoses that they were holding.
December 6, 1929: “McFadden’s Feed Store Burns to the Ground”
George McFadden’s feed store located on Elm Street near Poplar Street burned to the ground. The issue for Conshohocken’s two fire companies was saving the entire row of houses as sparks landed on adjoining buildings throughout the blaze. Vincent Bonkoski, a member of the Conshohocken football team, reported the blaze. Clarence Strychirz, a twenty-one-year-old employee, risked injury when he saved the company truck. Unfortunately, there were no goods left to haul.
October 2, 1936: “Campbell’s Furniture Store Destroyed by Fire”
The worst fire in the business section in the history of the borough totally destroyed the four-story store, dwelling, warehouse and garage of the Campbell Furniture Company at Hector and Ash Streets. The fire damaged more than a dozen buildings and caused about twenty-five families to flee from their homes in a driving rain. Patrolman Kirkpatrick discovered the early morning fire and arou
sed neighbors with revolver shots.
January 31, 1938: “25 Residents Escaped Fire at St. Mary’s Home for Aged”
Twenty-five residents were forced to flee in nightclothes from an early Sunday morning fire at the St. Mary’s Home for the elderly in West Conshohocken. The structure was formerly the home of George Bullock before becoming St. Mary’s Orphanage and, later, St. Mary’s Home for the Aged. Chief Herman Adams of the George Clay Fire Company stated that it was the worst fire in fifteen years and perhaps the worst nonindustrial fire in the borough’s history. Washington Fire Company firefighter Johnny Riggs was overcome with smoke and was later treated.
December 27, 1956: “$400,000 Fire Wrecks Ancient Mill Property”
Four small industries housed in the Jim Hall Mill on River Road in West Conshohocken were gutted by an overnight fire. The explosion of six acetylene and oxygen tanks in two of the industries fed the flames. Companies responding included George Clay Washington Fire Company, Conshohocken Fire Company No. 2, Gladwyn, Bryn Mawr, Swedeland and the second alarmers of Willow Grove.
January 27, 1971: “Explosion on Front Street”
A cracked gas pipe on Front Street in West Conshohocken led to an explosion that shot flames more than one hundred feet into the air. Without a doubt, this was and will be remembered as West Conshohocken’s worst disaster.
The explosion occurred at 9:45 p.m. on January 27, 1971, and when the ambulances finished carrying the bodies to four different hospitals by early the next morning, the worst had happened. Joseph Powers, nineteen, of 521 Ford Street and a George Clay firefighter, was killed; his twin brother, James, was treated for injuries and released. Four other residents of Front Street were also pronounced dead: Calvin Rupp, Michael Pruitt, Michele Pruitt and William Blair. Twelve houses were leveled, and the four hospitals combined reported that sixteen people were admitted, and thirty-five people were treated and later released.