Bethel Burying Ground Project

The above death certificate states – This is to certify that I was called to see Elizabeth Brooks whom I found to be afflicted with Cholera morbus & Liver disease in a very advanced state. She was cured of the Cholera morbus but discontinued taking medicine for the Liver disease and as I am informed by her mother has departed this Life on Monday Augt. 20th 1849. G.A. Snyder M.D.

The person that signed Ms. Brooks’ death certificate was Dr. George A. Snyder, an herb doctor or botanic physician. He was treating Ms. Brooks for Cholera and the resultant liver damage. It was not unusual for the African American community to utilize the service of a “root doctor.” The 1847 Philadelphia African American Census lists ten Black men and women as herb doctors. What is uncommon about Dr. Snyder was that he was a white man. 

According to historian Natalie Lewis, herb doctors also were called conjurers, root doctors, and healers. Black Philadelphia herb doctors owed their origins and knowledge to their African heritage. Again from Ms. Lewis, “Africans, when taken from their homeland some 400 years ago, brought with them more than their words. They also brought their experience working with herbs, and they transmitted their botanical knowledge to their children.” *

Sadly, there is no census or city directory information on Ms. Brooks. The red arrow on the map above shows the location of Dr. Snyder’s home and office.  It is safe to assume that Ms. Brooks, and possibly her mother, lived nearby. Dr. Snyder lived on Powell Street which crossed from 5th to 6th Streets before the area became Independence Square. There was a sizable number of Black families residing in the alleys and courts in the area around the State House, now known as Independence Hall (see the red pin on the map). There were numerous hotels, restaurants, and taverns in the area where Blacks worked as waiters and domestics. Could Ms. Brooks and her mother have worked in these professions?

California House Riot of August 1849.

What we do know about Ms. Brooks is that, while she laid on her death bed in the stifling heat of August, the streets of Philadelphia were full of vicious white mobs murdering Black men and women and burning their homes, businesses, and churches. The Klu Klux Klan-like gangs raged for several days and nights unchecked by the police who instead arrested Black men for defending themselves.

Ms. Brooks died on an August day on which the skies were clear and the temperature reached 82° by late afternoon. Her mother buried her at Bethel Burying Ground. Please say her name – Elizabeth Brooks.

*Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, eds., p. 422.  

Forty-six-year-old Sarah Howard died this date, August 15th, in 1851 of heart disease and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. A year before her death, the 1850 U.S. Census captured the family’s information. Ms. Howard was married to George Howard, a fifty-six-year-old porter who was born in Maryland. She was not employed outside the home. They had three children: John (14 y/o), Thomas (8 y/o) and Mary T. (6 y/o). All were born in Pennsylvania. Also living with the family was sixty-year-old Hester Hammer and nine-year-old Elizabeth Purver. Both females were born in Pennsylvania as was Sarah Howard.

According to the 1849 Philadelphia City Directory, the Howard family lived across Queen Street from the Bethel Burying Ground (red pin above). The following year, they were living on Morris Street (eventually Montcalm Street). It was located between Christian Street and Fitzwater Street and between 9th and 10th Street. See black arrow above. On Morris Street, the Howards would have paid $3 – $5 a month in rent. That would have been equivalent to a week’s pay for Mr. Howard. 

Morris Street was a small neighborhood of Black artisans. The 1847 Census shows a remarkable number of Black dressmakers, seamstresses, tailors, confectionery bakers, Mantua makers*, and Drapers **.

Ms. Sarah Howard died on a warm day in August 1851 when the temperature at dawn was 65° and rose to 84° by 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Her family eventually buried her at Bethel Burying Ground.

*Mantua: a fashionable woman’s loose gown.

**Draper: a retailer or wholesaler of cloth for clothing.

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The stillborn daughter of Julia Pearce was delivered this date, July 18th, in 1849 and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. 

Dr. Thomas T. Smiley had his medical office on the northwest corner of 10th and Lombard Streets. Nearby lived a family of three generations of Black women. This family included Julia Pearce, 65 years old, her daughter, Hannah Pearce, thirty-two-years-old and Julia Pearce, the daughter of Hannah was seventeen-years-old. Young Julia lost her daughter in stillbirth with Dr. Smiley signing the death certificate. (See above)*

Sadly, the next day Dr. Smiley would sign the death certificate of the matriarch of the family who would pass away from Typhoid Fever.

Dr. Smiley was not done yet with the Pearce family. Tragically, two days later on the 21st, he would sign the death certificate of seventeen-year-old Julia Pearce who would die from Cholera. She was one of 148 Philadelphians to succumb to a vicious Cholera epidemic that week. 

Both women would be buried with the new stillborn baby at Bethel Burying Ground. (See below)

The 1847 Philadelphia African American Census shows a “Julie Ann Pierce” as the head of a family of three females residing on Lombard Street. This would have been the eldest of the three women. Her occupation was reported as “nurse.” One other woman was reported as being “at service” working as a live-in domestic. Only two of the women were born in Pennsylvania. 

The red pin represents the approximate location of the Pearce family home. The black arrow illustrates the location of Bethel A.M.E. Church where the women attended services.

The three women lived in one room at 363 Lombard Street in the 900 block of Lombard. Their rent for this tenement space was $2.25 a month, according to the 1847 Census. This amount would have been close to two weeks’ earnings for one of the working women. 

Three Women on Lombard Street, circa 1900-1905. Temple University’s Urban Archives.

The stillborn baby and the two adult women died between July 18th and the 21st in 1849 and were buried at Bethel Burying Ground. A heatwave had just broken and the days were clear and moderate with temperatures ranging from morning lows in the low 70s to highs in the low 80s in the afternoon.

The survivor of that tragic week for the Pearce family was Harriet Pearce. She buried her mother, daughter and granddaughter all within several days. According to her death certificate, Ms. Pearce lived until she was fifty-four years old working as a housekeeper. Still living on Lombard Street, she died of an “abdominal abscess” (ulcer?) in August 1869 and was buried at Lebanon Cemetery. 

*The ages of the Pearce women were gathered from the death certificates and the 1850 U.S. Census which recorded Harriet Pearson’s age.