David Jenkins, 39, Obit - 1752 Frankford Ave - Born in Wales - Inquirer 18 Aug 1875 - Y Cumry yn America., Tachwedd 1875

Y Cumry yn America., Tachwedd 1875

JENKINS-- Awst 15, 1875, yn Philadelphia, Mr. David Jenkins, yn 39 mlwydd oed, (o'd firm David Jenkins & Co., roll turners.) Yr oedd yn y gelfyddyd uchod yn feistr ar y gynulleidfa. Ganwyd ef ya Dowlais, D.C.; daeth ef yn nghyd a'l anwyl wraig oddiyno i Philadelphia yn 1862. 

Nai ydoedd i Mr. Richard Jenkins, Dover, N.J. Yr oedd wedi bod yn afiach er ys tro, ond y ddau fis diweddaf cyfyngwyd ef i'w wely. Bu ya ddiwyd yn ci ddydd a'i dymor gyda'i alwedigaeth, yn ddyn sobr, yn gyfaill caredig, yn Grisrion dirodres, tawel ei ymarweddiad, addfyn ei ysbryd : yn briod hawddgir, yn ffyddion gyda moddion gras ac ordinhardau yr efengyl, yn hhddysg mcwn ccrrddoriacth.Trefnodd ei dy cyn myned i'r orphwysfa. Ymgasglodd cynulleidfa olaf i'w weddillion, a roddwyd yn Palmer Street Vault. Gweinyddwyd ar yr achlysur gan y Parch. Wm.T. Eva, gweinidog yr Eglwys Bresbyteraidd y perthynai iddi. Yr Arglwydd fydd yn nodded i'w briod galaryus, a'i anwyl fam, yn nghyd a'r teulu, yw dywuniad ei hen gyfaill, David Jones. 

Google Translate:

The Cumry in America., November 1875

JENKINS-- August 15, 1875, in Philadelphia, Mr. David Jenkins, aged 39, (from David Jenkins & Co., roll turners.) He was in the above art master of the audience. He was born in Dowlais, D.C .; in 1862 he came with his wife to Philadelphia.

It was not for Mr. Richard Jenkins, Dover, N.J. He had been unhealthy for a time, but the last two months he was confined to his bed. He was diligent in his day and his season with his vocation, a sober man, a kind friend, a mournful, quiet gentleman of his demeanor; education in the world.

He arranged his house before going to his rest. A final congregation gathered in his remains, which were given in Palmer Street Vault. The Revd was administered on the occasion. Wm.T. Eva, minister of the Presbyterian Church, belonged to her. The Lord will protect his wife galaryus, and his mother, together with the family, is the testament of his old friend, David Jones.

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John Pogey O'Brien, Circus Pioneer, Not So Destitute At The End?

John "Pogey" O'Brien, a pioneer in the art and culture of travelling Circus in America has a cliche like legacy as seen through the eyes of others. 

The big circus guy in his day was Adam Forepaugh, whose biography states that he assumed a partnership with John O'Brien, O'Brien owning him like $9k for horseflesh which was Forepaugh's original business after learning to be a butcher in his youth among other things. 

The partnership between O'Brien and Forepaugh would seem to me for their original two year relationship to be a learning curve as they both figured out the in, outs, profits and losses of running a travelling animal show as entertainment through rural America. 

The other character of the big three in travelling animal and exotic human entertainment was P.T. Barnum. 

In the end Barnum, being New York based, for most of the publicity and his name lives on to represent early circus and animal, athletic and freak exhibition to the hinterlands of early America.

These early circuses were more like a confederation of entertainers, acrobats, animals trainers, freak presenters and pick pockets, three card monty scammers and ticket sellers, scalping prices and short changing the rural rubes from town to town. 

Reading a few biographies and autobiographies, one hears of the circus organizers or owners like O'Brien, Forepaugh and Barnum getting a cut of all the con money made on the circus grounds for profit and or operating expenses. In many ways the circus was a travelling cash cow to a lot of hangers on, "carnies", run aways, outcasts, gypsies etc. 

That in a way when the Circus Owner could buy off the local sheriff to look the other ways to consumer complaints about scammers and cons, the owners "fixed a town" for those, the devils that you know, pick pockets, the three card montys, and snake oil salesmen within the confines of the temporary circus community and family of that travelling season. 

Having your own policing the circus grounds to keep a lid on the cons and not wise up the rubes too much was much better than having the local police parading through the grounds, ruining business and arresting regulars on the team so to speak. 

In later years as John O'Brien's health declined from asthma, his annual circus got smaller and smaller and no doubt the con part of the profits were more noticeable. Thus when he died, he had not run a circus for a few years and many in their biographies reinforced the idea of O'Brien being a gyp artist. 

Cannot find an obit in the local papers for O'Brien. Can you? I believe he no doubt owed a lot of people a lot money when he died. I somehow doubt a con artist is really totally poor when they die all the time. Lots of places to hide assets with relatives. 

O'Brien at one time owned the Seven Stars Hotel in Frankford. I see in the eighties it is owned and or managed by Oliver Campbell and his wife Ellen (nee O'Brien). That I would guess from Ellen's obit by her age that she may have been "Pogie's" sister and Oliver his brother in law. 

Inquirer 2 Nov 1922

His wife's home at I believe 1642 Harrison St. in Frankford must have been a modest row house. His wife lived until 1911. No local obits on her either. Only one small piece in Variety.

Variety - 16 Sept 1911

That O'Brien was extinct in the circus business by the time of his death in 1889. That the bigger players Forepaugh in 1890 and Barnum's demise in 1891 brought an end to an early era of Circus.

NY Spirit of the Times 28 Feb 1885

That Forepaugh and Barnum eventually being absorbed into the new modernly managed Circus of Ringling Brothers became the modern idea of circus entertainment with a minimum of con in the organization.

That I have to believe that O'Brien's tombstone in Cedar Hill Cemetery does not speak of a man who died destitute unless all the old circus people who wintered in Frankford and no doubt retired there as well passed the hat at the Seven Stars for a gravestone as monument to both the man and his pioneer industry. 

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Colonel Thomas J Powers 1845-1900 – Civil War Veteran - Prominent Republican 25th Ward Philadelphia – Pennsylvania State Bank Commissioner

New York Times 31 August 1900

Inquirer 31 August 1900

Inquirer 31 August 1900

Inquirer 27 May 1900 (Untouched Photo)

Inquirer 31 August 1900

2842 Frankford Ave
Present - Google Maps

Inquirer 2 Sept 1900

Inquirer 9 Sept 1900

1900 - Look Alike School with Powers School Below

Inquirer - Thanksgiving Day - 29 November 1900

Colonel Thomas J Powers (former) School - Present
Frankford Ave and E Somerset St. - Google Maps

Inquirer 30 Nov 1900

(Some dissent in the ranks above why the old Sherman School did not  become the new Sherman School being named instead for Thomas J Powers)

Inquirer 11 Aug 1901

Inquirer 31 May 1902

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Patrick McShea (McShay) - 1841-1900 - Sargeant Major 28th Pennsylvania 147th Pennsylvania Volunteers - Obit Info Etc.

Civil War Records - National Archive - Record Name Spelling as both McShea and McShay

Find a Grave

Phila.Inquirer 24 May 1895 (Reprint of : Inquirer 24 May 1864)

http://standardspeaker.com/news/antietam-the-story-of-patrick-mcshea-1.1374118

However, in May 1863, Lt. James Silliman recommended that Pvt. McShea receive a Medal of Honor for "gallant and meritorious conduct at the battles of Antietam and Chancellorsville  where he displayed his usual courage" (letter in the Pennsylvania Historical Society).

For reasons unknown, McShea never actually received a medal, but he fought in all the battles with the 28th and rose to the rank of sergeant. After their three years expired, most re-enlisted.

When Gen. William T. Sherman was told to end the war and march to the sea, the 28th continued its commitment.

Just before Christmas 1864 and just before the sea, McShea was captured and marched to a stockade prison. In Treatment of Prisoners of War by the Rebel Authorities, Library of Congress, House Report No. 45, Sgt. McShea related his experience among 7,000 prisoners:

"I had no shelter for seven days. Then they let us build (a) shelter of pine tree tops covered with dirt. The prisoners burrowed caves in the ground, and we lived in them like rabbits. They gave us neither blanket nor clothing.

"Our food in the prison pen was one pint of unbolted corn meal a day, no meat ... and two tablespoons full of Carolina stock peas about three times a week. We cooked the meal and beans in half a canteen, over a fire…. We broke the canteen so as to make a kind of cup of it.

"I was there about 11 weeks ... I do not think I could have lived one week longer. ... My parents did not know me when I got home, I was so thin."

After the war, McShea returned to Kelayres as a coal laborer, married, and started a family.

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One bit of family oral history has the Christmas treat of a dog’s head being boiled in the Prisoner’s ration of corn meal. The Confederate captors, short of rations themselves, obviously shared dog with corn meal amongst themselves that Southern Christmas of 1864.

The offer of an appointment to a state job by Governor Geary was I think refused in that I believe that although Patrick could sign his name, he may not have been greatly literate.  On many post-civil war documents and applying for a Veteran’s Disability Pension based on his ill health after and initially caused by his being a POW shows my great grandmother, his wife, signing her witnessed by others “X” signature.

As to the medal of honor thing  there was an under level of contempt in stories told about the family Civil War Hero regarding the mostly Protestant officers and their various prejudices toward Irish (Immigrant) Catholics which seemed to have been one obstacle, one of many at many levels, regarding the medal of honor recommendation. 

And as noted on some civil war documents, Sgt. McShea was busted to Pvt. on one or two occasions because of fist fights etc. 

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Obit - Thomas J Powers - 31 August 1900

Obit - NYT 31 August 1900

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