The stillborn son of Sarah and Abraham Field* was delivered this date, April 11th, in 1842 and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Ms. Field took in wash and ironing, while Mr. Field earned a relatively good take-home pay of $8 a week as a waiter. They lived on Christian Street between 8th and 9th Street in the Moyamensing District of the county. They paid a hefty $6.60 a month for rent, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. Both attended church services and belonged to a beneficial society.
Above is a circa 1920 photo of the same Christian Street block where Mr. Field lived and had his small grocery store in 1865. By the time of the photograph, the neighborhood was mostly Italian immigrants.
Abraham Field died at the age of fifty on May 9th in 1869 and was buried at Lebanon Cemetery. His obituary below is from the Christian Recorder, May 22, 1869. Mr. Field was active in local civil rights efforts and was a steward and Sunday School teacher at Bethel A.M.E. Church. Later in life, he opened a small grocery store.
“This inestimable brother breathed his last at the sunset of Sunday, May 9th. Born in Delaware nearly half a century ago, and early losing his parents, he made his way to Philadelphia. When quite a young man, he joined the A.M.E. Church, and for thirty years he maintained a character that the best of us might envy. As a man of thought he stood head and shoulders above the majority of his generation. He was one of those rare men who used the ears and eyes, and mind (but seldom his tongue) that God gave him. From our hearts we say peace to his ashes.”
Two years later in August of 1844, the Field family would lose a one-year-old daughter to Cholera. She was buried with her brother at Bethel Burying Ground.
*The family’s last name has also appeared spelled “Fields.”
Bethel Burying Ground Project 