Table of Contents
Foreword Brian Rademaekers 9
Acknowledgements 13
1 Kensington in Olden Times
Origins of the Word Shackamaxon 15
Point Pleasant, Terminus of Ancient Native American Transportation Routes 18
Window to the Revolution John Hewson Elizabeth Farmer Robert Morton Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe 20
Captain Peter Browne, Revolutionary War Blacksmith 28
Kensington's Protest of Jay's Treaty, 1795 30
Batchelor's Hall Revisited 32
John Fanning Watson's Description of Kensington 39
2 Industry and Labor
The Johnson Brothers and Frederick Sanno, Early Kensington Steam Engine Builders 43
John Bromley & Sons, Carpet Weavers 47
H.W. Butterworth, Hero Fruit Jar Company and the Founding of the Riverfront Railroad Spur 55
Uriah Smith Stephens and the Founding of the Knights of Labor 63
Frederick W. Fritzsche and the Philadelphia Labor Lyceum 66
The Violent Cramp Shipyard Strike of 1920-1921 68
3 Crime, Politics and Social Disorder
The Great Kensington Bank Robbery of 1871 87
The Brazen Rusk Twins and Their Destiny with Death 91
Fraud and Failure at the Shackamaxon Bank and the Founding of the Ninth National 97
The A.C. Harmer Club, Kensington's Forgotten Political History 99
Kensington's Speakeasy Wars 101
Port Richmond's Bloody William Street 104
4 Medical, Health, Hygiene and Social Work
Cholera Comes to Kensington, 1848-1849 107
The Civil War and the Founding of the Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church 109
The Public Bath Association in Kensington 114
The Kensington Temperance Society 116
Social Work and Recreation in Kensington 118
5 Little-Known Kensington and Fishtown Celebrities
Alexander Adaire, Lumberman, Advocate for Night School for Working Men 121
"The Rose of Tralee" and the Cruice Family of St. Anne's 124
Lieutenant Colonel Peter A. McAloon, St. Anne's Civil War Hero 127
Billy Sharsig, Early Baseball Man of Kensington 130
Eddy Stanky, Professional Baseball Player, "The Brat from Kensington" 132
Joseph T. Verdeur, Cedar Street's Gold Medalist Swimmer 134
Bibliography 137
About the Author 143