The one-year-old daughter of John B. Smith died of Catarrh Fever on this date, June 6th, 1848 and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The Smith family lived at the southeast corner of 10th and Christians streets where they ran a used clothing business out of their home. Ms. Smith was a seamstress and another adult in the family also worked in the store according to the 1847 African American Census. They paid $150 a year in rent. Mr. Smith reported his yearly income at $350.00.

This is a current photo of the S.E. corner of 10th and Christian streets in the old Moyamensing neighbor.

 The Smith family lived a half block from Moyamensing Hall (aka Commissioners Hall) in the middle of the 900 block of Christians Street on the south side. It was the city hall for the district and functioned as the local governmental headquarters with Alderman courts, police station, morgue, and jail. It would not have been easy or safe living for the Smiths so near the center of Irish power. In addition, the neighborhood was plagued with political party riots, gang wars and race riots that involved outright acts of savagery against Blacks. The white gangs with the monikers “Killers” and “Stingers” vandalize, raped and killed with impunity. For further information see “Hunting the Nigs” in Philadelphia: the Race Riot of August 1834 by John Runcie. It is available at http://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/23611/23380. Also see the 10/18/1834 edition of the National Gazette and the January 3, 1848 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Moyamensing Hall

Andrew Miller, 41 years old, died this date, May 17th, in 1848 of Typhoid Fever in the hospital ward of the Blockley Almshouse and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. As a person of color, he would have been one of the 13% of the population of the institution. Although Blacks made up only 6-9% of the city’s population. Starting in 1821 the institution established segregation because Blacks were a problem because of their behaviors which were “indolent, improvident, and extremely prolific.” For those reasons the institution’s guardians moved Black men, women and children to “special almshouse wards where their behavior could better be managed.” Mr. Miller succumbed to his illness in this ward. *

The Blockley Almshouse, later known as Philadelphia General Hospital, was a charity hospital and poorhouse established in an area now between 34th Street and University Avenue where Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the VA Hospital currently stand. 

Priscilla Ferguson Clement, Welfare and the Poor in the Nineteenth-Century City: Philadelphia 1800-1854, pp. 87 & 116.

The stillborn male child of Jane Vanorkey was delivered this date, April 16th, in 1848 and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Ms. Vanorkey was a dressmaker with two other young children who attended the Shiloh Baptist Infant School at Clifton and Cedar Streets according to the 1847 African American Census. Simon, her spouse, worked as a bottler in one of the many distilleries and beer breweries in the city and surrounding districts.

 One of the most famous dressmakers/seamstresses in American History is civil rights activist Rosa Parkers.

I have chosen to accept the spelling of the last name as “Corsey” because that is how it is spelled in several city directories.”Coursey” is used in the 1847 African American Census and we see that the hurried physician spelled it “Cansey.” 

 Trim* Corsey lost his 7-month-old son to Pneumonia on this date, April 12th, in 1849 and had the infant buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Mr. Corsey supported his family as a coachman making $15 a month. Ms. Corsey was a washerwoman adding to the family’s income that paid their rent of $56 a year for a room at 15 Watson’s Alley in the Cedar Section of the City. The alley ran south from 104 Locust Street and no longer exists.

In the 1847 African American Census, there were 104 Black Philadelphians who listed their occupation as “coachman.”

*Ancestry.com reports that the name “Trim” is a nickname for someone who is known as “a well-turned out person.” The name was first reportedly used as far back as the 16th century. I have not been able to locate any documents that reveal another first name if there is one. 

Leven Thompson died this date, March 3rd, in 1824 and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. His official cause of death was “Phrenitis” which is translated as “brain fever.” This fever could have been from one of a long list of possible illnesses such as bacterial or viral Meningitis, head trauma, alcoholism or lead poisoning. 

Mr. Thompson died at Pennsylvania Hospital and while he was there he would have received the standard treatment for his illness which was bleeding. This procedure commonly entailed the cutting into the median cubital vein at the elbow. Up to 20 oz. of blood was released at first and from then on more was released at the discretion of the physician who determined the proportionality of  blood taken to the “violence of the symptoms. The main instruments for this technique were called lancets and fleams. For more information on this procedure and its history go to http://www.bcmj.org/premise/history-bloodletting.