Bethel Burying Ground Project

Frances Wilson delivered a stillborn male child on August 29th in 1845. The child subsequently was buried at Bethel Burying Ground (BBG). Tragically, Ms. Wilson delivered a stillborn female child on July 14, 1843, who also was buried at BBG and, on New Year’s Eve in 1848, she lost a three-day-old son who was interred at BBG as well. All the babies would have been buried in the same grave.

In 1845, Frances was twenty years old and married to Albert Wilson, age unknown. They had three children, Iram (5), Albert (3), and George (1). In 1847, Frances would give birth to another son, Charles, according to the 1850 Federal Census. 

Albert Wilson was employed as a coachman, according to a city directory. It is unknown if he was a public driver, similar to a taxi cab driver of today, or if he worked for a single family. Mr. Wilson disappears from public records in 1849. His spouse, Frances, is listed as the head of the family in the 1850 Federal Census. There is no death certificate for Mr. Wilson in the existing records. He may be buried with his children at Bethel Burying Ground. There is, however, an item in a local paper in 1847 that suggests that Mr. Wilson lost his coachman job and was looking for a career that offered more opportunities. The address and age in the advertisement match Mr. Wilson’s.

SITUATION WANTED

A SITUATION, by a young man of color, 25 years of age, in a Gentlemen’s office, as waiter, or tender, or about a store. He writes a fair hand, as is willing to make himself useful. The best city recommendation given for character and capacity. Apply No. 14 Buckley Street. (“Public Ledger,” 19 Oct 1847)

It appears that the Wilson’s owned their home at 14 Buckley Street. It was sold in 1855. I was unable to find any additional records on the family. The Wilsons buried their stillborn son on a clear day in August that only reached a high of 68 degrees.

Fifty-year-old Moses Blake died this date, August 24th, in 1848 of “Fever” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Mr. Blake, along with his unnamed spouse, was born enslaved. One had their freedom purchased for $25 and the other was manumitted by his or her enslaver, Richard Baker of Maryland. The 1847 African American Census also reports that the Blakes had three children between the ages of five and fifteen. They attended church services regularly and belonged to at least one beneficial society. 

The Blake family lived on Bedford Street, a narrow block long thoroughfare that was where many white Philadelphians believed the devil lived. White and Black men and women were seen “unhesitatingly” mixing and even were rumored to be legally married to each other. Blacks saw Bedford Street as a slum where corpses laid unburied for days, waiting to be picked up and dropped off at the city’s Potter’s Field. Consequently, the neighborhood was a target for church missions, schools, and soup kitchens, not only because of the local desperately poor but also for the presence of gambling dens, houses of prostitution and speakeasies. Violence and disease were constant visitors.

No one chose to live on Bedford Street but that was all they could afford and was likely close to Mr. Blake’s workplace. The 10’x10′ room the Blake family resided in cost them $2.50 a month. Mr. Blake worked as a laborer and Ms. Blake was occupied as a laundress/day worker. Two of the children attended the Bedford Street Mission School.

Bedford Street, now Kater Street, was home to sixty-three African American families according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census.

Ms. Blake and her children buried their spouse and father on a clear day in August with the temperature rising to only seventy-eight degrees.

Forty-nine-year-old Sarah Darrah died this date, August 23rd, in 1850 of Apoplexy (stroke) and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. She lived with an older woman who was crippled from strokes and relied on Ms. Darrah as a caregiver, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. Ms. Darrah was born in Delaware and earned a living as a laundress in 1847 and a “whitewasher” or house painter at the time of her death in 1850. She had lived in Philadelphia for approximately thirty years.

Ms. Darrah was a widow. Census records identify her deceased spouse as Tilghman Darrah who worked as a porter. The 1840 Federal Census reports that they had a daughter who was between 5-10 years of age. There are no city death records available for either individual. One or both may have been buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Ms. Darrah lived in a single small room at 70 Union Street, now Delancy Street, with her roommate for which they paid $1.25 a month. The physically disabled woman, for whom Ms. Darrah was caring, was receiving public aid that included some firewood in the winter and a small amount of groceries, according to the 1847 census. 

Ms. Darrah was a long time member of Bethel AME Church and belonged to a beneficial society that may have paid her burial expenses.  She was interred on a clear August day where the temperature reached a high of seventy-eight degrees by 3 p.m.

Ten-month-old Deanna Smith died this date, August 13th, in 1836 of Cholera Infantum and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. She was a victim of a bacterial disease that, although its symptoms mirrored adult Asiatic Cholera, was of an entirely different etiology. 

1833

Little Deanna would have come down with a fever closely followed by vomiting, constant diarrhea, eventual convulsions, severe dehydration, rapid emaciation and finally death from one to four days after the initial onset. Physicians would have little to offer their patients. Not all babies that came down with the disease died from it. However, given how young this child was, it was inevitable. Today, a simple course of antibiotics and Pedialyte would be all that is needed to restore the infant to health.

The identification of the child’s family is problematical. The slim evidence available points to George Smith being Deanna Smith’s father. The 1837 Philadelphia African American Census did not record the mother’s name. He worked as a laborer while his spouse was employed as a day worker. There appears to have been at least one other child in the family in addition to Deanna. The severity of the family’s poverty was evident in the census report that states they only had $10 in personal property. They lived in one room on the 700 block of Shippen Street, now Bainbridge Street. For this, they paid $3.16 a month in rent. 

In July of 1835, the Smiths would have been in the path of a marauding white mob numbering over a thousand. They attacked Black men, women, and children as they sacked and burned homes and churches only a couple blocks from the Smith’s home. There was a group of 50-60 African Americans who were armed and who attacked the mob guerilla style throughout the days and nights, as the police looked on and did nothing to protect Black citizens. 

Deanna’s mother may have been one of the many Black women who struggled to gather up their children and escape the mob. Some hid in pitch black cellars, while others left the city taking the ferry to Camden, New Jersey. 

The Smith family buried their daughter on a relatively cool day in August where the temperature reached only 73 degrees by 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

Deanna was one of 212 children in Philadelphia that died of Cholera Infantum in 1836.

The twenty-two-month-old son of Elias and Marsha Collins died August 10th in 1848 of Tabes Mesenteria and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The infant’s name was not recorded. The cause of death was a disease of children which was caused by drinking milk from cows infected with a certain form of bacteria. The disease painfully destroys the lining of the stomach and results in rapid weight loss and death. With pasteurization, it is no longer a major problem. 

The unnamed toddler was the only child of Elias (36 years) and Marsha (22 years) Collins, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. The couple had a 50-year-old woman, Caster Dumfries, residing with them. All were born in Virginia, according to the 1850 Federal Census. Ms. Dunfries may have been Ms. Collins’ mother.

Elias Collins was employed as a laborer and Marsha Collins as a laundress. The three adults and the baby lived in an 11’x11′ room on White’s Court for which they paid $1.67 a month.

The above photo is how White’s Court (renamed Addison) looks like currently. On this narrow alley, near 10th and Lombard Streets, the Collins’ were one of 25 families totaling 92 residents. They labored at jobs such as shoemaker, tailor, dressmaker, laundress, and waiter. Around the corner was the Shiloh Baptist Infant School that provided daycare for the families. It is likely that Baby Collins was enrolled there before his death.

In Philadelphia, the Collins’ son was one of forty-six children who died of Tabes Mesenteria in 1848, according to official Board of Health records.

Sixty-year-old Diana Crosby died this date, August 7, in 1849 of “Debility”* and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Alternative spellings of her names have included “Dianah” and “Crosbey.” She lived alone at 100 Gaskill Street in a 12’x12′ room for which she paid $1.75 a month, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. Ms. Crosby received public aid in the form of firewood for her stove.

Ms. Crosby was born enslaved to parents that, most likely, were kidnapped from West Africa. They would have been placed on a slave ship headed to the Caribbean, where they would be forced to labor in the sugar cane fields before they were shipped to ports in the United States.

Diana Crosby’s parents first had to survive the murderous Middle Passage before arriving in the Caribbean.

Although Ms. Crosby’s death certificate states that she was a native Philadelphian, there is other evidence to place that statement in doubt. In 1836, she told a census taker for the 1837 Philadelphia African American Census that she was born in Maryland, not Pennsylvania. In the 1847 Census, she reported that her freedom was purchased, although she could not remember the price.

Ms. Crosby was a widow (1836) and was self-employed as a “whitewasher” or house painter, according to the 1837 Census. There were eighty African Americans reported as whitewashers. Most of them were men, but there also were a good many women employed in the trade.

A PHILADELPHIA WHITEWASHER

Ms. Crosby worshipped at Bethel A.M.E. and, as of 1836, she belonged to three beneficial societies that, undoubtedly, eventually assisted with her burial costs.

Gaskill Street was only an eight foot wide narrow cartway that often was clogged with garbage and ashes from stoves and fireplaces. Heavy rains and overflowing cesspools would flood the basements which would then filter down to the water level and contaminate the drinking water at the local hand pump, causing illness and often death. Ms. Crosby’s address would have been located on Gaskill between 4th and 5th Streets and Lombard and South Streets. The name of the street is now “Naudain.”

The red arrow indicates the approximate location of Ms. Crosby’s home.

The night before Ms. Crosby died, the city was hit by a “tremendous storm” with thunder that “seemed to shake every building.” However, the next day dawned with the temperature at a pleasant 72 degrees, reaching only 74 degrees at noon with a slight northerly breeze.

• The term “Debility” usually meant dramatic weight loss from cancer or some other illness.