by Jack Coll
May 10, 2005: “First Baptist Church Destroyed by Fire”
A fire at the First Baptist Church turned into a multi-alarm blaze when seven fire companies responded as the flames shot high into the air on a bright, sunny spring day in May 2005. Sparks from a contractor’s torch accidentally started the blaze that eventually leveled the church. With the community’s help, Reverend Brad Lacey reported that the church was being rebuilt as of 2010, with the outside completed and the interior expected to be completed in the near future.
August 13, 2008: “Fire of the Millennium”
It was the fire that no firefighter wanted to fight. On Wednesday, August 13, 2008, a fire later ruled accidental broke out at the construction site of the Millennium Stables. The fire quickly spread to two occupied buildings in the Riverwalk at the Millennium complex, forcing more than 300 firefighters to work through the night to bring the fire under control more than seven hours after it started. The fire affected 375 residents in 150 units; 1 firefighter was treated for injuries.
NEW CENTURY, NEW FIRE COMPANY
Early in the Century
By 1900, the town’s population had swelled due to more mills operating within the borough. The new population forced residents to build family dwellings up the hill and on the side avenues. Conshohocken’s population swelled so fast that by 1908, many of the immigrants were sleeping in tents throughout the borough on vacant lots. Town council considered building tent cities until the construction of new homes could catch up to the population. One Conshohocken Recorder headline declared, “The Town Has Run Out of Houses.”
A series of fires in the upper end of town brought a group of citizens together to discuss a second fire company for Conshohocken. The Washington Fire Company, when formed in 1873, built its firehouse in what was the center of town at that time. However, as time passed, the town expanded, forcing the Washington Fire Company to do the impossible. The early fire water wagons were all hand pulled and pushed. The weight of the wagon when filled with water made it nearly impossible to respond to a fire call up the steep grade of Fayette Street if it had rained or snowed. Keep in mind that Fayette Street was a dirt road back then, and rain made the street inches deep with mud for several days until the dirt would dry out. And we all know that when it snowed, of course there were no snowplows, making any trip up the hill impossible for the firemen.
When the Conshohocken Fire Company No. 2 was formed, it operated out of a garage at Toner’s Hotel, located at Seventh Avenue and Maple Street. By early 1904, it had moved to the east side of town and responded to fire calls from a garage at Ninth Avenue and Harry Street. Three members of the No. 2 Company show off their horse-drawn water carriage.
In the fall of 1902, sixteen interested citizens gathered in the cigar store of Irving Nuss, located on West Sixth Avenue. The group of men determined that the borough residents needed a second fire company to work with the Washington Fire Company in an effort to keep the borough residents safe. Company meetings were later moved to Toner’s Hotel, located at Seventh Avenue and Maple Streets. The men acquired a small hand-drawn hose carriage and operated from Toner’s Hotel. In January 1903, the group filed for a charter, and on April 27, 1903, the State of Pennsylvania granted the charter. From that day on, the company was recognized as Conshohocken Fire Company No. 2.
A Little Bit of Growth
Within a year, the company had moved to a garage on the corner of Ninth Avenue and Harry Street and, by 1906, had rebuilt the garage and replaced the small wagon with a chemical wagon. Conshohocken Fire Company No. 2 was known as the quiet fire company around town for more than a century. The Washington Fire Company always seemed to grab the headlines for fighting fires, marching in parades or just throwing one or more of its famous block parties. But in 1907, Company No. 2 became number one in grabbing headlines, hosting a parade and throwing a major block party.
In the fall of 1907, the No. 2 Fire Company’s new chemical engine arrived in Conshohocken at a cost of $2,700. No. 2 Fire Company decided to show the rest of the county how to celebrate with a “housing” party. Invitations were sent out to every fire company in eastern Pennsylvania. Charles Parker was chairman of the event, with help from Harvey Shaw, Hugh Blair, Harry Logan, Louis O’Brien and Edward Grimshaw, just to name a few.
Officials mounted on horses led the parade, followed by members of town council and many county officials. The Washington Fire Company led the parade with apparatus drawn by ten horses. Eighty members of the company marched, and they were hosted by the Allentown thirty-five-piece band. Other bands included Philadelphia Drum Corps, Independent Drum Corps, East Greenville Band, Spring City Band, Columbia Drum Corps, Merion Square Band and Spring Mill Band. Dozens of fire companies and more than one thousand firemen attended. Included was J. Elwood Lee Company’s Auto Truck, decorated and filled with children.
Talk about a parade route where every house and building was decorated! The parade formed at East and West Sixth Avenue and moved on to Fayette Street, Fayette to Eleventh Avenue, counter marched to Hector Street, to Oak, to Elm, to Fayette, to Hector, to Poplar, to Elm, to Cherry, to Hector, to Jones, to Spring Mill Avenue, to Fourth Avenue, to Harry Street, to Sixth Avenue, to Maple, to Seventh, to Hallowell, to Eighth, to Harry, to Ninth Avenue, to Fayette and finally to the firehouse.
The Human Fire Company of Norristown was given the honor of housing the new apparatus. Parties were thrown at both the Washington Fire Company (you knew there was a party in it for Washies somewhere) and No. 2 Fire Company before, during and after the parade, and No. 2 hosted a major banquet in the evening hours in honor of the event.
Conshohocken Fire Company No. 2 never stopped growing, as it continued to purchase top-of-the-line equipment. It didn’t hurt that in the early years, fire company officials worked with E.J. Wendell, and Charles Young, co-founders of the Hale Fire Pump Company. No. 2 has a long history with Hale Products.
In 1943, the No. 2 purchased the Uptown Social Club building, a one-story building adjoining the firehouse at Ninth Avenue and Harry Street. This allowed company officials to expand the firehouse. In 1947, the company purchased the property of John Hamilton at 819 Fayette Street for the purpose of erecting a handsome new firehouse with the main entrance on Fayette Street.
But It’s All About Today
For reasons unknown, the fire company never built its headquarters at 819 Fayette Street, but more than fifty-five years later, the company again purchased a Fayette Street property. In 2003, ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held for the new firehouse. In 2010, Conshohocken Fire Company No. 2 set a new standard in firefighting when the membership elected Jackie Pierce as the first female president of a fire company in the borough. Pierce had been an active firefighter in the company for many years before being elevated to president.
Future firemen and firewomen take a break at the Conshohocken Fire Company No. 2 in 1999. Today, a few of these youngsters are firemen at No. 2. Seated, from left: Brandon Mungon, Amy Costello, Rachel Hoagan, Danny Costello, Nicki Hogan, Matthew Costello, Elizabeth Costello and Mark Costello.
CONSHOHOCKEN MILITARY
It Was a Civil War
When John Brown raided Harpers Ferry in 1859, history states that he set in motion events that led directly to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. While the war might have begun in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, the widespread effects of the war reached clear across the country, into Conshohocken and beyond.
Men from the Conshohocken community and surrounding areas joined the war effort and served in the Pennsylvania Eighty-eighth Division, Company C, out of the Spring Mill section of Conshohocken. Before the war ended in 1865, a total of 200,000 Americans were killed in action and a total of more than 600,000 Americans lay dead from war-related wounds and disease.
Dr. David Richardson Beaver served Conshohocken as the town physician for fifty-nine years before passing away in 1923. Dr. Beaver served as an assistant surgeon in the Civil War from April 13, 1864, until June 11, 1864
, in the Pennsylvania volunteers and also as a first assistant surgeon of the 191st Regiment. Beaver served with Grant’s army until the capture of Lee, after which he was ordered to Harrisburg and mustered out of service in July 1865. Dr. Beaver served in the Battles of the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Bethesda Church, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Peebles Farm, Weldon Railroad and Petersburg.
In 1870, Dr. Beaver came to Conshohocken as an assistant to Dr. John K. Read and purchased a house at 405 Fayette Street, where he lived until his death. He later set up his office next door at 401 Fayette Street, currently the site of the 401 Diner. His daughter Margaret and son-in-law Stuart Maloney later moved into his house and lived there until the late 1940s.
Ebenezer Lancaster was a Conshohocken native and a member of Company E of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. He enlisted on August 22, 1862, and died in Nashville, Tennessee, a year later. John Pugh was a lifelong resident of the borough who served several years during the war. Pugh later became the president of Conshohocken’s First National Bank and owner of the S&J Pugh Feed Business once located at the foot of the Matsonford Bridge.
Thomas H. Ramsey lived most of his life in the Spring Mill section of Conshohocken, and when the Civil War broke out, Ramsey answered President Lincoln’s first call for volunteers. He enlisted in the 138th Regiment Pennsylvania and served through the entire war. He was in the campaign in the Wilderness and was wounded at Chancellorsville. He was also in numerous battles and marched with Sherman to the sea.
John Baker posted a brilliant war record. He was captured at the Battle of Chancellorsville and returned to Conshohocken, taking part in the hotel business for many years following the war. Jonathan Rogers and William McFeeters, both members of the 88th Pennsylvania Volunteers and lifelong residents of the borough, played a part in Conshohocken’s effort in the war. John J. Murphy was a member of Company G, 114th Regiment, and served three full years, fighting in the Battles of Fredericksburg, Chambersburg and Gettysburg. James Palmer, George W. Keys, George Pitman, John Bemesderfer, Robert Herron, Nathan Jones and Jonathan Rogers were a few of the dozens of Conshohocken residents who lived and worked in the borough before, during or after the Civil War. Three Conshohocken volunteers were killed in action, fifteen were wounded and two were taken prisoners of war and released.
World War I: They Were Proud, but Not So Few
The borough of Conshohocken holds a very unique designation that no other community in America can claim title to. During World War I, the borough of Conshohocken sent more men and women off to serve in the United States military than any other community in America per capita. Robert Bell, Louis Bickings, Harry Dembowski, Daniel Donovan, Francis DeMario, Harry Wertz, John Wood, Samuel Gordon Smyth, Frank Hitner, George Hastings, James Koch and George Rodenbaugh were among the hundreds of Conshohocken residents who went off to war between 1916 and 1918.
Shortly after the signing of the Armistice at Complegne, France, that brought a close to World War I on November 11, 1918, the United States Congress recognized Conshohocken’s efforts during the war. A merchant marine ship was named the Conshohocken in honor of the town’s war service. The SS Conshohocken was launched on January 31, 1920, from the Sun Ship Yard and was christened by Mrs. Geoffrey Creyke, wife of the assistant to the vice-president of the Emergency Fleet Corporation.
The SS Conshohocken was an eleven-thousand-ton cargo carrier and was the last of the series of ships built under the supervision of the Emergency Fleet Corporation and the twenty-third ship to be launched at the yards of the Sunbuilding Company in Chester, Pennsylvania.
World War II: They Were Something Special
January 21, 1941, was a mild, sunny day as eighty-eight members of Battery C lined up outside their headquarters located at 918 Maple Street. The soldiers marched up Ninth Avenue to Fayette Street, and a parade led by Betty Colburn, a drum majorette, and the Conshohocken High School Band marched down Fayette Street toward the train station, with a crowd of thousands of residents and schoolchildren cheering them on.
Conshohocken’s Battery C mustered into the Pennsylvania National Guard on October 28, 1940, more than a year before the United States became involved in World War II. Battery C of the 1st Howitzer Battalion of the 166th Artillery left the Conshohocken train station for Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and didn’t return for five years.
The men spent two years in Mississippi and then went to Camp Blanding in Florida and later to Fort Gordon and finally to Fort Dix in New Jersey. Once the men of Battery C left the States, they headed to North Africa, crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and then engaged in some of the worst fighting of the war. Battery C moved on to southern France, arriving on D-Day, August 15, 1944. The men later went on to Germany and Austria before the war finally ended.
A few of the eighty-eight-member Battery C of Conshohocken pose for a group photograph at their headquarters, once located at 918 Maple Street, before marching off to war on January 21, 1941. Battery C mustered into the Pennsylvania National Guard on October 28, 1940. Battery C of the 1st Howitzer Battalion of the 166th Artillery left the Conshohocken train station for Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in 1941 and didn’t return for five years.
Perhaps one of the highlights for the men of Battery C was their part in taking out the Bridge on the Rhine. Battery C was part of the 938th Field Artillery’s C Battery and Company A of the 630th Tank Destroyers. After more than six hours of heavy fire, the bridge went down. The west span had been blown from its main support and was a twisted heap of steel littering the river below.
By July 1945, after fifty-six months, the final members of Battery C returned home; 12 members of the unit lost their lives during combat in Europe. It was reported in 1945 that 1 out of every 7 residents in the borough was serving in the armed forces. Conshohocken had more than 1,600 residents serving in 1944, including more than two dozen females. West Conshohocken reported that 1 in every 6 residents was serving in the war effort. In all, 32 Conshohocken residents lost their lives during World War II, and West Conshohocken sacrificed 10 residents.
In 2002, a few Conshohocken veterans from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1072 honored Conshohocken fallen heroes on Pearl Harbor Day at the borough’s monument. Standing, from left: Joe Thomas, Gerald Mc Tamney, Joe Graham and Joe Horn.
The Conshohocken boroughs were well represented in all wars, including the Korean War, Vietnam and every war since. Our young soldiers fight and sacrifice with the same pride as our neighbors and relatives have since the Civil War.
Conshohocken’s highest-ranking military official is General Anthony C. Zinni, a four-star retired general of the United States Marine Corps. Zinni grew up in the Connaughtown section of Conshohocken, is a Villanova University graduate and joined the Marine Corps in 1961. General Zinni’s military service took him to over seventy countries before he retired in 2000.
Part Five
A Little Education on Schools
IT STARTED IMMEDIATELY
When Conshohocken was incorporated, one of the first concerns of the borough’s new government was education. Less than two months after incorporation, on July 8, 1850, a school board was organized and consisted of the following members: John Wood, president; Benjamin Harry, treasurer; David L. Wood, secretary; and Frederick Naile, James Swenk and Hugh McCallum, board members.
A little red house built in the early 1830s located on West Elm Street next to the Presbyterian church was in use as a township schoolhouse. Once the borough incorporated, taking half the land from Plymouth Township and the other half from Whitemarsh Township, the schoolhouse formerly located in Plymouth Township was now within the boundaries of Conshohocken.
The school board quickly made it a borough school, where twenty-five pupils enrolled with one teacher. Mr. Karr served as the school principal. The student population quickly outgrew the little red schoolhouse, and the school board moved the student body to the old Temperance Hall, later the site of Harrold’s Hotel, also located on West Elm Street. Mr.
Boggs was principal in the Temperance Hall School.
A year later, the school board purchased land on Forrest Street below Hector Street and built a schoolhouse. This building later was purchased by Davey Stemple and became known as Stemple’s Hall, where the Washington Fire Company was later organized. While at the school on Forrest Street, Mr. Schuick served as principal.
The 1969 class photograph of third-grade students from Hervey S. Walker Elementary School included front row, left to right: Nicholas Malantonio, Steven Bolger, Thomas Kennedy and Dennis Kelly. Second row, left to right: Marcia Intrieri, John Boccella, Joanne Suchecki, Michael Markoski and Chris Ingram. Third row, left to right: Donna Donovan, Pattie House, Frances Balkiewicz, Debbie Banks and Bridget Piatelli. Back row, left to right: Dorothy Murray, Debbie White, Darryl Lee, Matthew Wertz, Julie Ball, Michael Orler, Daniel Yucalevich, Susan Lontkowski, Renee Dean and Mary Wambold.
Within five years, the school board had used three different locations for the school building, and once again the schoolhouse became too small to accommodate the growing number of students. In 1855, the school board purchased another lot of ground from Theodore Trewendt for $900 to build a more suitable schoolhouse. The property was located high on a hill overlooking the turnpike (now the 100 block of Fayette Street), backing up to Forrest Street. On a resolution passed by the school board on July 24, 1855, a contract in the amount of $3,100 was awarded to the Hinds and Famous Construction Company to build a schoolhouse. The building was two stories high and contained four classrooms. It was built and ready for classes in November 1855.