Fifty-five-year-old Jacob Garver died this date, February 17th in 1854 of “Debility” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The death certificate states that he was a “native” of  Lancaster, Pennsylvania. However, the 1850 U.S. Census reports that he was born in Maryland. In addition to Mr. Garver, the family included forty-five-year-old Maria Garver and seventy-year-old Hannah Jones who were both born in Maryland and nine-year-old Anna M. Garver who was born in Philadelphia.

Hannah Jones, who most likely was the mother of Maria Garver, died in April of 1853 and was buried at Lebanon Cemetery. Her death certificate is below. The family lived in a room at #2 Currant Alley for which they paid approximately $3 a month. The 1850 Census reports Mr. Garver’s occupation as a whitewasher for which he may have made $3 a week when he had the work. 

Mr. Garver was employed as a whitewasher or house painter as we know it today. He would have painted fences, stables, house walls, and ceilings. The whitewash/paint that he would have used contained a high content of lead. It was not uncommon for these men and women to suffer brain damage and to experience an early death.

Ninety-six Black families lived in the densely packed Currant Alley. The thoroughfare had a staggering total of three hundred twenty-one Black family members, according to the 1847 Census. The Census also showed that the adults living on Currant Alley were solidly working class, having a wide range of laboring and domestic jobs to which African American men and women were restricted. 

Mr. Garver lived with his family in Currant Alley, now Warnock Street, located between Locust & Spruce Streets and between 10th & 11th Streets. The photo above shows Warnock Street in 1926. Below is a photo of what Warnock Street currently looks like.

Mr. Garver died on a cold day in mid-February and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Several days later, a major snowstorm hit the east coast.

The two-year-old unnamed daughter of Patrick Butler died this date, October 4th, in 1848 of Intestinal Tuberculosis and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The 1847 Philadelphia African American Census reports that the Butler family consisted of two males and three females. There were two children under five years old and three individuals between the ages of 15 and 50 years of age. 

Mr. Butler was employed as a waiter, earning $4 a week, while Ms. Butler worked as a laundress, likely earning between $.50 and $1.50 a week. Her first name is not known to us because it appears the family may have left the city by the time of the 1850 U.S. Census. 

The yellow arrow illustrates the Butler home on Emeline Street. The red pin illustrates the location of Bethel A.M.E. Church at 6th and Lombard Streets.

The Butler family lived at #8 Emeline Street for which they paid approximately $5.75 a month in rent. This amount is very high for one room so it appears they either rented several rooms or the whole house. Emeline Street was located between South and Bainbridge Street and 8th and 9th Streets in the Moyamensing District of the county. 

Emeline Street was a short, narrow thoroughfare that was crowded beyond its limits with African American families. The street was home to forty-six families, totaling one hundred seventy-one men, women and children. The adults were employed in jobs that serviced the well-off white families in the area and at the stores they frequented. Emeline Street was the address of carpenters, coachmen, private waiters, barbers, dressmakers, seamstresses and “Ladies Maids.” Half of the families lived in shelters in the rear of the houses that faced the street. Interestingly, the census taker for the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census commented that the families that did not live in the shanties were “doing well.” He or she had no comment on those in the shacks and the converted animal stables in the backyards.

Emeline Street has an awful place in Philadelphia history. It is stated that there was never a lynching of an African American in Philadelphia. That is because the white mobs would either shoot or beat to death their Black victims. This was the case on October 10, 1871. Musician Isaac Chase, thirty-four, had the gall to try to vote at his polling place when a gang of Irish thugs chased the young man back to his home at 811 Emeline Street. Chase made it inside but his front door was kicked opened. In front of his spouse and children, Samuel was shot in the head and killed. Teacher and civil rights activist O.V. Catto was also murdered later that day near the home of the Butlers.

Present-day photo of Kater Street formerly Emerline Street.

The Butler’s two-year-old daughter died on a “fair” October day where the temperature rose to 66 degrees from a sunrise temperature of 56 degrees. Her parents buried her at Bethel Burying Ground.

Twenty-two-year-old Isabel Le Count* died this date, May 21st, in 1841 of Tuberculosis and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Ms. Le Count worked as a seamstress, was unmarried and without children. She lived in her parents’ home with her brothers.

Young Isabel Le Count was a member of one of the most important Black families in 19th Century Philadelphia African American History. Isabel’s father, Joseph, Sr., came to Philadelphia from Delaware and worked as a laborer. He went on to own a business as a shingle maker and then the proprietor of a lumberyard. Joseph Le Count, Sr. along with his brother James were trustees of Bethel AME Church for many years. They left the AME church in 1850 after having major disagreements with the leading clergy. James was a very successful restaurateur and caterer with his business across the street from the State House, now Independence Hall.

Isabel’s mother, Mary Le Count, in addition to being a homemaker, was known for her professional quiltmaking. Isabel’s Aunt Sarah Beulah Le Count was a prominent Shrouder of the Dead, an early version of a funeral director. Possibly the most renowned member of the Le Count family may have been Isabel’s Aunt Caroline Rebecca Le Count, civil rights activist and educator. Please click on the following link for more information. https://exhibits.library.villanova.edu/institute-colored-youth/graduates/caroline-lecount-bio/

Rodman Street at the turn of the 20th Century.

The city changed the name of Bonsall Street to Rodman Street in 1860. In September of 1860, there were several white men, newspaper reporters, visiting the Black communities in the city. They came upon the section of Rodman Street that contained the Le Count home. 

“We passed with our guide up South Street to Ninth, and thence to Rodman Street. Several fine dwellings, of three and four stories, fronted with white marble, and having doors of carved stone, were exhibited upon those avenues. . . . . It is peopled almost entirely by colored families. We gazed with curiosity at the rows of tall, beautiful houses, and saw, with some interest, the clean pavements and street. In some places, fine ornamental trees stood upon the sidewalks, and to the doorways, the families of colored men were seated.” In their journey, they had not found a section of the city in such a state of “decorum.”*

Ms. Isabel Le Count died on a hot day in May when the thermometer rose to 83 degrees, the highest of the season. She was buried by her family at Bethel Burying Ground.

*After reviewing hundreds of documents and historic newspapers the correct spelling of the family name is “Le Count.” In addition, Isabel’s full first name is Isabella.

**Press, 4 September 1860.

Thirty-four-year-old John Goodin died this date, April 3rd, in 1853 of Debility and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Debility is a symptom, not a cause of death. This condition could follow numerous chronic and acute illnesses. The 1847 African American Census reports Mr. Goodin was employed as a porter, earning a relatively good wage of $6 a week. His unnamed spouse worked as a wash woman. Also living at 320 Cedar Street with the couple was a child and two other unnamed adults. The monthly rent was $7.50. In addition, all four of the adults belonged to a beneficial society.

Mr. Goodin may have been employed at the South Street Distillery two blocks from his home. This business was known for its own brand of Rye Whiskey. The above illustration shows porters hauling material to and from the business.

John Goodin’s death certificate was signed by William and Henry Goodin. It appears that they might have been John’s brothers. According to the 1850 U.S. Census, Henry Goodin was a 32-year-old laborer who was born in Maryland. He was married with three children. His youngest and the only boy was named “John.” Information on Henry Goodin is slim. In the 1852 City Directory, there is someone with that name residing at #20 Middle Alley and occupied as a tailor. 

 By the time of Mr. John Goodin’s death, he lived on St. Mary’s Street near 7^th Street. Known by both races as the “heart of the slums,”  it would have been quite an economic fall for the family. St. Mary’s was a narrow thoroughfare lined with dilapidated hovels that were home to speakeasies,  prostitution, gambling, and rooming houses that were overrun by rats. In addition, St. Mary’s Street was a perennial target of white mob violence, especially in 1840, 1842 and 1849.

Mr. Goodin died on a cool rainy day in early April where the temperature only rose to 48 degrees. Interestingly, a year later, a John Goodin, Sr., age 70, would die of a brain disease. It is unknown if they were related. Both were buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

One-hundred-year-old Rebecca Miller died this date, September 23rd, in 1847 of “old age” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Ms. Miller was a widow who, ten years before her death, at ninety years old reported her occupation as “washwoman,” according to the 1837 Philadelphia African American Census. She also stated she was free born and worshipped at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 6th and Lombard Streets.

 The year Ms. Miller was born, 1747, still saw French and Spanish pirates hunting American and British ships in the Delaware Bay. In addition, white settlers in western Pennsylvania still were trying to move out Native Americans who refused to give up their homes without a fight. Philadelphia was still a town growing into a city.

As a girl, Ms. Miller likely walked past the London Coffee House on the corner of Front and High Streets, where a rickety platform was erected on the sidewalk to display the Black men, women, and children up for sale as slaves. At the same location, she would have witnessed President George Washington signing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 that ordered escaped enslaved Blacks to be dragged back into bondage. 

As a Black woman, she survived the “Huntin’ the Nig” mobs of 1834, 1842 and 1844 and the deadly epidemics of Yellow Fever, Small Pox, Cholera, Typhus, and Tuberculosis that swept through the city in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The purple arrow indicates the location of the Bethel Burying Ground. The red arrow indicates the location of Elliott’s Court (now Kater St.) where Ms. Davis rented a room for $6.25 a month. 

Rebecca Davis was buried on a September day where, at dawn, it was foggy and a cool 52 degrees. The afternoon was clear while reaching a high of 74 degrees.

Out of the surviving records, Ms. Miller is one of eleven individuals interred at Bethel Burying Ground who was one hundred years old or older at the time of their deaths.

The stillborn son of James Phillips died this date, August 2nd, in 1846 and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The name of the mother is unknown to us. There is no mention of James and his family in the 1850 Federal Census within Philadelphia. It was this Census that began recording the names of family members in addition to the male head of the family. 

The 1847 Philadelphia African American Census records the family as having a child under the age of five years. All the members of the family were born in Pennsylvania. The Phillips’ were extremely poor. Mr. Phillips was a day worker picking up laboring jobs, reportedly earning only $2 a week. Ms. Phillips was unemployed.

The 1847 Census reports the family lived in a room the size of a closet (6’x6′) in a tenement on Perry Street for which they paid $.50 a week. The family admitted to owning only $10 in personal property. 

Unlike most of the individuals buried at Bethel Burying Ground, the Phillips family did not reside nearby. The above map illustrates the almost five miles that the family traveled to bury their son. The family lived on Perry Street, now named Palethorp Street.

James Phillips and his family were in a war zone during May of 1844. The so-called “Nativist Riots” saw thousands of Irish Protestants and Catholics take up arms against one another and Perry Street was squarely in the middle of it. Five thousand soldiers were called out to quell the violence that included burning a Catholic church and school to the ground along with numerous homes. Officially, thirteen civilians and two soldiers were killed. Scores, if not hundreds, were injured. Pity the poor African Americans who found themselves facing this ferocious mob. The city did not tally the Black citizens who were killed and injured.

The Phillips’ son was interred at Bethel Burying Ground on a clear warm day that followed a day of showers and fog.

Eighteen-month-old Mary Jane Coursey died this date, June 13th, in 1854 of “Convulsions” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The convulsions were only a symptom of the underlying disease that afflicted the child. Mary Jane could have suffered from a high fever, epilepsy or meningitis that all would have caused convulsions. Likely, the convulsions were from teething considering the child’s age. Nineteenth-century medical reports state that infants were more prone to disease at the time of teething.  Often, teething was reported as a cause of death in infants. Perhaps they became susceptible to infections when lancing was performed. Another explanation of teething as a cause of death is that infants often were weaned at the time of teething; perhaps they then died from drinking contaminated milk, leading to an infection, or from malnutrition if watered-down milk was given.

In 1854, Mary Jane Coursey was one of the 151 children in Philadelphia between 1-2 years old that died from “convulsions.”

Mary E. and John W. Coursey, ages 18 years and 22 years respectively, were the parents of the young child. Mr. Coursey was employed as a waiter and Ms. Coursey worked at home. It appears from the 1850 Federal Census that the deceased child had a twin, John W., Jr. It seems that Ms. Coursey was either pregnant or had just given

birth to another child (Ellen M. ) around the time of Mary Jane’s death. Mr. Coursey was born in Maryland, while all the other family members were born in Pennsylvania, according to the Census.

 The family lived in Middle Alley which had the infamous reputation of having some of the worst housing in the city. The greasy cobblestoned thoroughfare of rickety, vermin-filled, firetrap wooden houses ran from 6th to 7th Streets and between Spruce and Pine Streets. The alley was home to the poor and destitute – Black and white. In June of 1854, a nearby street similar to Middle Alley was reported to be entirely covered in two feet of garbage. (Public Ledger, 20 June 1854)

Little Mary Jane Coursey was buried on a hot humid afternoon on June 14, 1854. At noon, the thermometer stood at 84 degrees with cloudy skies. Within two days, the temperature would rise to the mid-90s.

Seventy-four-year-old Fanny Jackson died this date, May 8th, in 1841 after being crushed under the collapsed north wall of Bethel Church (now Mother Bethel) on May 1st. She was taken to Pennsylvania Hospital but succumbed to her injuries a week later on the 8th and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. According to the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census, Ms. Thomas was a widow, mother, and grandmother. She worked as a laundress and was released from enslavement by manumission.

This is a photo of Mother Bethel church as it stands today. The parking lot was the location of the three small tenement building that was home to several families including the family of Fanny Thomas. The brick wall that faces the parking lot collapsed and fell on the flimsy wood structures killing four and wounded at least six.