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Saturday, July 31, 2021

A. O. K. of M. C. - Ancient Order, Knights of the Mystic Chain - Cyclopedia of Fraternities 1907

 



Ancient Order, Knights of the Mystic Chain.


 — This secret organization is conspicuous among the hundred-and-one of the last generation by reason of its not having been started as a mutual insurance society. Its high sounding title becomes simpler when it is realized that this modern brotherhood is founded on traditions and fancies which hedge themselves about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, whence the designation, "Ancient Order." One is compelled to compare it with the Order of Foresters rather than the Odd Fellows, for the basis of the rituals of the first two are found in English romance, and are beautiful, popular, and attractive. Both Odd Fellows and Foresters' societies have similar purposes, and differ from Freemasonry. The point to this lies in the resemblance of the Ancient Order, Knights of the Mystic Chain to the Odd Fellows and Foresters, in the face of the fact that it is the creation of Freemasons, and bears many imprints of the handiwork of the Craft. Not until eighteen years after it was founded did the Sir Knights of the Mystic Chain incorporate an insurance feature like those adopted by so many other secret societies founded in the past thirty years. The Ancient Order, Knights of the Mystic Chain was founded at Reading, Pa., February 2, 1871, by John O. Matthews, locomotive engineer on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and John M. Brown, merchant. John O. Matthews was alive in 1897, blind and helpless, the charge of subordinate Castles of Pennsylvania. John M. Brown died June 10, 1880. Both founders were Free masons, and the emblem of the Order, embodying the All-Seeing Eye over the holy Bible upon an altar, suggests the earlier influences surrounding it, yet at the first initiation ceremony twenty-one Knights of Pythias became Knights of the Mystic Chain.

The purposes of the Order are to relieve brethren in sickness, accident, or distress; mutual assistance in business and to procure employment; to assist and care for widows and orphans of deceased members; to create greater love for country, homes, and fire sides; to teach obedience and fidelity to the laws of the country in which they live, and to bind together the members of the Order in one common brotherhood. Partisanship and sectarianism are excluded. The motto or ensign is "Loyalty, Obedience, and Fidelity;" and the "mark" is a pentagon, bearing on each of its sides an inverted lower half of an isosceles triangle, the whole suggesting one form of a Maltese cross of five arms. This furnishes five distinct fields, in the first of which, white, is an open book; 
in the second, blue, a shield and spear; in the third, red, skull and cross bones; in the fourth, red, crossed swords; in the fifth, black, the All-Seeing Eye; and in the centre, letters, the meaning of which is known only to Mark degree members. On the reverse, in the centre field is an embossed castle, which is the mark of the highest rank. There are slight changes for those lower in rank or degree.

The Order has four branches, all of   subordinate to the Supreme Castle.
They are, first, the civic branch, with the Supreme Castle, Select (State) Castles, and subordinate Castles, which initiate members; second, the military rank, or degree; third, the insurance benefit fund; and, fourth, the degree of Naomi, or Daughters of Ruth. Subordinate Castles send two Past Commanders yearly as representatives to Select Castles. Every Past Commander is a member of a Select Castle, but has no vote on questions of law, unless elected are presentative. Past Commanders of subordinate Castles vote for a Past Select Commander as representative to the Supreme Castle. Each State is allowed one representative to the Supreme Castle for every one thousand members, but no State can  than ten such. The Supreme Castle, of course, is the highest authority in the Order.

Three degrees are conferred in subordinate Castles, which every member must receive in order to participate in the benefit fund: 1. White, or Esquire degree; 2. Blue, or Sir Knight's degree; and 3. Red, or Round Table degree. The fourth degree 
is only for those who wish to connect themselves with the military rank. All past officers of subordinate Castles receive from the Select Castle a Past Commander's or Mark degree, which puts them in possession of the essentials to gain admission to the Select Castle, and after they shall have passed through the chairs makes them members of the State Body. The Supreme Castle confers the Supreme degree, which makes recipients members of the Supreme Castle, but without a vote, unless elected representatives. While there is nothing Masonic in this arrangement, yet Freemasons probably helped to plan it.

In the Esquire degree the candidate is instructed in the fundamental principles of the Order by a reference to the Good Samaritan; in the Sir Knight's degree, in the lesson to be learned from the chivalry of the time of King Arthur, and the importance of exercising love, mercy, friendship, benevolence, and charity toward his fellowmen; while in the third, or Round Table degree, the candidate is impressed with the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death.

On February 2, 1871, Matthews Castle, No. 1, was instituted at Reading, Pa., being named after one of the founders. On July 17th, the same year, the First Select Castle was instituted at Reading, and on September 16, 1871, the Supreme Castle of the Order was instituted at the same city. For a time progress was slow, due in part to the financial depression following the panic of 1873. But ten years later, when the Select Castle of Pennsylvania met for the second time at Reading, there were sixty subordinate Castles reported, with a total (Pennsylvania)
 membership of 2,500. About that time the Order began to gain strength in New Jersey and Delaware, where Select Castles had been established, and by 1890 Select Castles had been placed in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. There are also Subordinate Castles under the supervision of the Supreme Castle in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Michigan, Indiana, and Louisiana. The Order enters its second quarter century with a total membership of about 40,000, of which 15,000 are in Pennsylvania, and about 1,000 in the six States named in which Castles exist by authority of the Supreme Castle, leaving about 24,000 members in the eight States of Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio.

The military rank or degree was introduced by the Supreme Castle in 1880, but at that time had no military head, and was designed merely to attract members. The plan failed, and in 1889 the Supreme Castle 
elected a military head to the rank, with the title of Commander-General. The bodies were no longer called Commanderies, the rank being patterned, as to tactics and, after the United States Army. Arms used are the straight sword for all except mounted officers, who carry military sabers. The Commander-General, who must be a member of the Supreme Castle, is elected for three years by the commissioned officers of the several States. This branch, which is now firmly established, is divided into companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, and divisions. It is "the only military secret organization which uses the United States Army tactics exclusively," and includes five regiments and three battalions, forming one brigade, and seven unattached companies, with a total membership, September, 1896, of 1,680.

The insurance feature was introduced in1889, and is known as the Funeral Benefit Relief Fund. It is controlled by officers and a Board of Directors elected by the Supreme Castle, who report annually to that body. Participants in the benefits of this fund are members of Castles in good standing and health, between eighteen and fifty 
years of age, and women members of the degree of Naomi, between sixteen and fifty years of age. Assessments are twenty cents each, payable monthly. The death benefit is eighty percent, of one assessment, but in no case shall it exceed $250. Of the remainder, 15 per cent, is placed in the general fund and 5 per cent, in the sinking fund to be invested by the Board of Managers. The total membership in this department on December 31, 1896, was 1,278. Weekly sick benefits paid by Castles range from four to ten dollars. At the death of the wife of a member, benefits of from thirty to one hundred dollars are paid; and at the death of a member, benefits of from fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars.

The "lady degree,'' known as degree of Naomi, or Daughters of Ruth, was introduced in 1890. Subordinate bodies are called Assemblies. This degree was for merely under the supervision of the Supreme Castle, but its growth was so rapid it was thought best to allow members to legislate for themselves. Each Assembly now elects a Past Commander, representative to its Grand (State) Assembly, and each Grand Assembly elects two representatives to the Supreme Castle of the Ancient Order, Knights of the Mystic Chain, all of whom must be Past Grand Commanders. They are admitted to meetings of the Supreme Castle only when the latter is working or legislating for the degree of Naomi. This branch is established in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Delaware, and the total membership is 3,500. Weekly benefits average four dollars, and death benefits fifty dollars. All men taking the degree of Naomi must be members of a Castle. There is no known connection between the degree of Naomi, or Daughters of Ruth, attached to the Ancient Order, Knights of the Mystic Chain, and any of several other similarly named secret societies for men and women.


Thursday, July 29, 2021

Running with a lot of loose ends and assumptions. That "Henry Ellis Flower" is the architect "H. E. Flower" ordering a lot of terra cotta from the Burlington Architectural Terra Cotta Company, mentioned in turn of the 20th century industry magazines. That Henry's father Reese W. Flower Jr. is a nephew of the same named Reese Wall Flower, that like the rich and middle class cross referencing relatives across direct blood lines with such titles as Jr and or "II" and "III" like the Coxes or the Astors etc. That Henry's father was one of those nephews who contested the will of unmarried uncle Reese who did not want a $100 bequeath but the farm on which the U. of Penn eventually built an observatory in 1897. That uncle Reese's death in 1875 and the University's building the observatory in 1897 is a lot of time in court contesting etc. That the corner house 3600 Powelton Ave. is in the Flower family from the 1890s onward in social pages until 1936 when James R. Clendenin dies and the contents of the house auctioned off in a downtown auction house of quality goods in 1937. More nephews and nieces to bequest to. But the thought occurred to me along with all the loose ends and assumptions of an obscure short lived Philly architect who died on the cusp of the Influenza Epidemic of August 1918. That in 1913, Clendenin, a successful insurance salesman, buys the house next door as project to keep his "retired" brother in law architect busy with some architectural aspects and a place for relatives, nieces and nephews to stay at on the holidays?

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

When I was a kid, Jersey peaches were the size of baseballs.

 


And picked within hours and sold at roadside stands / truck farms in sight of the orchards along country roads, where we used to car over the Nickel Bridge to around Palmyra NJ late July and August.

And the old original Breyer's plant was gearing up for the seasonal treat of Peach Ice Cream, premium priced at $1,29 a half gallon at the corner store, late 50s and 60s.



Sunday, July 18, 2021

A Correction - Pennsylvania School Journal - April 1931

 



A Correction 

The name of Mary Catherine Snyder of the faculty of the George L. Horn school, Philadelphia, was erroneously listed among the necrology items on page 514 of the March issue of the Journal. Miss Snyder had just retired from service in the Philadelphia schools and has received a splendid tribute from her fellow workers of the faculty of the George L. Horn School. 



Bible Reading and Flag Waving - 86th Annual Report Philadelphia Board of Education - thru Dec 31, 1907

 



Frankford and (Erie) Castor Aves - Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, v. 22, 1907

 









Sunday, July 11, 2021

Competitive Drawings for a Bank Building in West Philadelphia - bank - 40th ? and Haverford St.



Competitive Drawings for a Bank Building in West Philadelphia bank

Cited Architects, Engineers, and Others - Kennedy, Hays & Kelsey (T Square Club - 1898)





Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Joseph Hart - Playmates See Boy Six, 6, Killed on PRR Bridge

Inquirer 20 Feb 1955

A 6-year-old boy, playing with his dog, was killed by a passenger train on the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over Frankford ave., south of Sedgely, yesterday within sight of three horror-stricken playmates, Joseph Hart, of 1929 E. Buckius st., was struck by the Washington bound train as he played with his pet, Snooky, near the west side of the bridge. The dog was along the side when his master was run down. He was taken home by the friends of the dead boy. While three neighborhood playmates watched, Joseph started across the span. He walked near the iron guard rail adjoining the outside track as the dog scampered along at his heels.




STARTS RUNNING BACK 

Patricia Eldrich, 9, of 1900 Buckius st., and her two brothers, Charles. 8, and Frank, 6, told police the boy suddenly turned around and started running back. They watched in horror as the train rounded a curve and bore down on the boy and his dog. The train struck Joseph and hurtled his body a dozen feet to an adjoining track. The train operator, T. H. Van Horn, 60, of Belleville, N. J., told police his view was obscured by buildings as he came around the curve. He said he applied his emergency brakes the moment he saw the child and came to a stop at nearby Frankford Junction. 

HEARING TUESDAY 

Van Horn was allowed to continue his run after about a 15-minute delay when railroad officials assured police he would appear at a hearing Tuesday. Frank Buck, a railroad detective, said the engineer blew the train whistle and put on emergency brakes about five passenger car lengths from the boy, but was unable to stop in time. The train was traveling about 50 miles an hour. Joseph, a first-grade student at St. Joan of Arc School, was the only child of Robert and Helen Hart. The mother is employed as a packer by C. L. Meyers & Co., cotton yarns, 2d and Somerset sts. Detectives said the boy apparently was trapped between the track and the iron rail.


Monday, June 21, 2021

John and Christian Ziegenthaler - 1911 Buckius St. - Florists / Nursery Men - Frankford Schulverein

 

1910 Bromley Map

John Ziegenthaler - Born Germany 1843-1916

Christian Ziegenthaler - Born Germany 1845-1938


Inquirer 10 Nov 1916


The American Florist Company's directory of florists, 1902.




Sunday, June 13, 2021

Max Riebenach Esq., Comptroller of the Pennsylvania Railroad's House - SE 34th St. and Powelton Ave - Scientific American Jan 1891 - Present





A RESIDENCE ON POWELTON AVENUE, PHILADELPHIA.

We present on page 9 plates of a residence, erected for M. Riebenack, Esq., on Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., from plans prepared by Thomas P. Lonsdale, architect, of same city. Dimensions: Front 47 ft., side 73, exclusive of piazza. Height of ceilings: Cellar 8 ft., first story 11 ft., second 10 ft, third 9 ft. The exterior walls are built of Chester county marble, trim med with buff Indiana limestone. The masonry is laid broken range, lock split and cement pointed in joints.

The roof is of Vermont red slate, with copper cornices, gutters, hip and ridge coverings. The reception and drawing rooms are trimmed with mahogany; hall. staircase, dining and breakfast rooms with quartered white oak; and rear hall, pantries and kitchen with ash. Hall and dining room have ceiling beams and paneled wainscoting, the former containing a grand staircase with carved newels, which is lighted by stained glass windows. Vestibule has a tiled floor. Other rooms have hardwood floors. Fire places have tiled hearths, Mexican onyx facings and elegant carved mantels with beveled plate mirrors. Kitchen is wainscoted and fitted up in the best manner with range, sink, dressers, etc. Second floor contains library, three bedrooms, and bathrooms, all trimmed with cherry, mahogany finish. Bathrooms have tiled floors and wainscoting, fixtures of the latest sanitary patterns, without casings, trimmed with nickeled fittings. Third floor trimmed with quartered sycamore, natural color, contains billiard room, servants' bedrooms and bath, with a private staircase to first floor. Cellar, under whole of house, contains laundry, furnace room and all necessary apartments. Cost, $30,000 complete. -

Our engraving was made direct from a photograph of the building taken specially for the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.








Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Rev. Norris M. Jones (N. M. Jones) - 1869



Curious tale of the Rector of St. Bartholomew's P.E.Church at 8th and York Sts., Rev. N. M Jones, sold out from under him at a Sheriff's sale for back taxes, to the RC AD and became the RC St. Edward the Confessor Church. Sold because of a loophole or the P.E. Diocese of Pennsylvania getting rid of a terribly debt ridden parish due to mismanagement of its board of elders? Rev. Norris M. Jones in his last rectorship of the Free Church of St. John's in Kensington, then listed as being on Frankford Road, funeral at the Old St. John's P.E. Church at N. American and Brown Sts. I suspect he is buried under the parking lot behind that old church, now an ethnic church. (clipping The Daily Evening Telegraph 18 June 1869)



Sunday, May 23, 2021

Dracula in the Boys' Bedroom Closet - Harrowgate / Aramingo




Memory is a funny thing. I saw the recent R/E sales photos of the house I grew up in on Jasper Street in Philly and saw the photo of the back bedroom and could remember my earliest memories of sleep. My army cot against the back window and my brother in a wooden framed, decorated, twin bed. The matching twin bed was in the girls' room belonging to my older sister along with a crib for my younger sister. 

Later we inherited a double bed with a decorated wooden headboard, I think from my great aunt, her son recently deceased and a veteran of Guadalcanal. Nothing fancy, factory made, but the mentality then was that beds were something special, worthy of being inherited as furniture as in Shakespeare's second best bed willed to his wife etc. My great aunt no doubt wanted to get rid of unpleasant memories and her son's death in a VA hospital etc.

My brother's twin bed became my younger sister's first real bed. 

The overhead light with its beige pressed glass shade. The hardwood floors, the radiator but I don't remember the exact curtains. The side window above the radiator in the modern R/E photo of the same space. Metal blinds on the windows in memory.

I did look at the closest in that recent photo and I instantly remembered how one night after a trip to the old Ellis Theatre at Bridge and Pratt Sts., I was petrified to open the closet that night for fear that Dracula was hiding in my closet. 

I was five and one half, it was probably summer time and my brother and his friend took myself and older sister on the "El" train to the nearby end of the line to the theatre there. 

Counting on my fingers, my brother was barely ten and he was mature enough and trusted enough to be let to be my guardian on a trip no doubt to see a Disney movie etc. But previews of the next week's coming attraction of (American Title) "Horror of Dracula" sent chills down my young back. .

Horror! White knuckles on the wooden arms of the cast iron seat with 1920s type automobile upholstery. Squirming and wanting the scary stuff off the screen and maybe even holding hands over my eyes here and there. Darkness, teeth, blood, screams...

The IMDB preview of that movie still pretty intense IMO.

Out of the theatre into the twilight, up the El train steps and off on the third stop and home. Now dark as night goes.

As it was, I the younger went to bed first on a schedule. My older brother got to stay up most nights and watch Steve Allen, prior to Jack Paar and then Johnny Carson on a timeline. 

Alone with a possible vampire in my closet and alone in the bedroom. Left the light on. Fell asleep I guess. But I remember that movie promo and that closet to this day. 



 

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Frank P. Lins, Pharmacist. Fifteenth Street and Columbia (Cecil B. Moore) Avenue - Pennsylvania Historical Review: City of Philadelphia 1886

 


Frank P. Lins, Pharmacist. Fifteenth Street and Columbia Avenue—

Among the many pharmacists who have made a decided success in their profession, is Frank P. Lins, Ph. G., whose well kept drug-store is located at the corner of Fifteenth Street and Columbia Avenue. The establishment was opened in 1876 and soon secured a lucrative practice both from physicians and the general public. Mr. Lins is a regular graduate in pharmacy, and has a thorough and intimate knowledge of drugs. their effects upon each other, and the results produced when taken into the system, and is particularly adapted to fill the important position that he now occupies in the community. He carries a large stock of pure, fresh drugs and chemicals and a well-selected assortment of toilet requisites, druggists’ articles and fancy goods. All kinds of imported and highly scented perfumery, hair-tonics, and cosmetics will here be found, and medicated soaps of great efficacy in skin diseases are also largely dealt in. As a compounder of physicians' prescriptions Mr. Lins has but few equals and no superiors. The most scrupulous care and accuracy are observed in putting up even the simplest preparations, and the materials used are invariably of the very best quality. This department has the endorsement of many of Philadelphia's most celebrated medical men and enjoys a very large and ever-increasing patronage. Mr.Lins is a native of Berks County. Pennsylvania, but has resided the greater portion of his active life in Philadelphia, where he is highly respected and esteemed both in medical and social circles.


Alumni Report. Philadelphia College of Pharmacy - 1893

FRANK P. LINS, PH.G., Class 1876, died on Saturday, May 17, 1890, at his late residence, 1716 North Twenty - first street, Philadelphia, Pa., of consumption, aged thirty - seven years. He learned the drug business with John M. Thomas, of Philadelphia. Graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1876. He was in business at the southeast corner of Fifteenth street and Columbia avenue for several years, but about three years ago, owing to declining health, he sold out his business and went to Denver, Col., with the hope that the climate there would restore his shattered health . After remaining there a short time his health improved and he entered into the real estate business and was prosper ng, he was taken with the "grippe” in January, and never recovered from the effects. About the first of April he disposed of his business there and returned to his home to die living only a few weeks. He leaves a widow to mourn his loss. He was a member of Quaker City Lodge, No. 116, A. O. U. W., and Apollo Senate, No. 6, O. of S. His remains were interred at Ivy Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa.


Friday, May 14, 2021

Saint Leo's Church, Tacony, Dedicated - Inquirer 6 Oct 1884




Inquirer 6 October 1884

St. Leo's

Laying of the Corner Stone of a New Roman Catholic Church.

Archbishop Ryan laid the corner stone of St. Leo's Roman Catholic Church, Keystone and Unruh streets, Tacony, yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock in the presence of a crowd of some two thousand people. He was assisted by Revs. Cantwell, Filan, McLaughlin, Shannon, Ward, Wall, Quinn, Traynor, Burns, Brehony, Donovan, Fitzmaurice, McHale, Byrne and Hockspieler. The stone, inscribed with a cross and the date 1884, with a receptacle cut in it for a cedar box containing such articles as are usually preserved as memorials, was laid with the ceremonies appointed by the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, and a procession, composed of the clergy present, a church society and the orphans from St. Vincent's Home, moved around the building, the foundations and walls being solemnly blessed during its progress. 

Rev. Dr. Barry, of the Church of the Visitation, preached the sermon. The church is being built of Stockton brown stone, and will be quite a spacious edifice when completed, having 66 feet front, with a depth of 140. The lot was presented by the Messrs. Disston, and the church is an offshoot from that of Holmesburg, of which Rev. L. Wall is pastor.

During the progress of the services a small platform erected for the masons while at work, and which was crowded with people, fell to the ground. They had been warned not to stand on it as it was not safe. No one was seriously hurt, but two or three ladies, whose names were not ascertained, were slightly injured. Great excitement prevailed for a time.





Sunday, May 9, 2021

Happy Mother's Day Mom - Memories Past 1950s - Harrowgate/Aramingo

 


Happy Mother's Day Mom - memories past late 1950s - - This is a realty picture of the recent sale of the row house I lived in as a young child in Harrowgate/Aramingo. The basement is in process of being finished. In my memory it was a dark place and lit by one or two bare light bulbs. The stairs never did have a railing. The small white door, center to right leads to steps up to alleyway next to kitchen up to garden. The Utility sink used to stand next to Mom's Maytag and its rollers on top washing machine and buckets of soaking in clorox water of natural cloth diapers, no disposables back then. Wash got hung outside on sunny days to dry and in the basement on rainy days. What I see that is most interesting is what I think is the same Gas Heater, bottom right, from sixty odd years ago that replaced the old Coal heater that was a monstrosity. View of Camera from the old coal bin area. Most of Mom's days were spent at least part time in a dark cellar doing wash, ironing, and shoveling coal in winter. Happy Mother's Day to where you now rest Mommy. God Bless.



Air Mail Philly to NYC Late 1950s - Jasper and Pike Sts.

Memory from my brother, late fifties - Jasper and Pike St.-- "Remember sitting on front porch (Summer) at jasper and Dad would point out the mail plane on its way from Philly to Idewild (JFK ). Was about 9 or 10 in the evening." 


Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Sessions Clock Co, Conn., Mid-century modern (1950s) - Yellow Tea Kettle Kitchen Clock - Harrowgate

 


Home kitchen clock in two kitchens of memory in Harrowgate Philly, that never stopped running for over twenty years pictured above.