| West Chester History from
1865 to 1918
by Jim Jones |
Industrialization
Given the region's suitability for agriculture, once the railroads provided reliable transportation to Philadelphia, the earliest West Chester industry relied on links to local farmers. Three firms typify that: 1) Hoopes Brothers & Thomas, which produced and sold nursery plants on a large scale; 2) Hoopes Brothers & Darlington Wheel Works, which supplied wheels for, among other things, farmers' wagons; and 3) the Sharpless Separator Company, which produced dairy equipment.
1) Hoopes Brothers & Thomas: Although it used little machinery and produced no smoke, HB&T was an integrated firm that produced and marketed goods all over the world. Nurseries "industrialized" by organizing the production of seedlings and the distribution of mature plants. In the 1840s, local farmers began to experiment with selling fruit trees and vegetable seed, including John Rutter, Paschall Morris, George Achelis, and Joseph Kift. Kift, an Englishman, was the first to promote the sale of flowers for funeral arrangements, and he established an international reputation by developing the "Bermuda Lily."
HB&T was founded by two brothers, Josiah and Abner Hoopes, fifth-generation Quakers whose ancestors came to Pennsylvania with William Penn. Their father made his fortune selling lumber to Philadelphia builders before the Civil War, and in October 1853, Josiah started a nursery on his father's farm using plants imported from England. Soon, he began selling sell fruit trees and hired his younger brother Abner to operate a market stall in the Borough in 1857. Their business grew and in 1865, the brothers purchased of forty-four acres next to the railroad northeast of town. In 1866, they took on an accountant, George B. Thomas, as their partner, and by 1870 they employed about one hundred people. Growth continued, and by 1881, they farmed about 300 acres and had more than a half acre in greenhouses. By 1898, they had six hundred acres and were the largest producers of peach trees in the United States. By 1913, the company cultivated nearly 1,000 acres and had their main business office in Philadelphia.
Part of their success came from the use of "modern" business practices like color advertising in both English and Spanish, displays at public expositions, and the use of technology like railroads and telephones. or example, they devised a way to distribute small plants in the mail using damp moss wrapped in paper to keep the roots moist. Eventually, they shipped plants all over the United States, to Mexico and Canada, and to Europe, Australia and the "West Indian Islands." They even filled an order for Grover Cleveland's White House in 1886.
2) Hoopes Brothers & Darlington Wheel Works: Two other Hoopes Brothers (distant cousins to the first pair) founded a different kind of business in 1867. During the war, they experimented with producing wagon wheel spokes made from local hickory for wheel makers in New England. William and Thomas Hoopes installed a small steam engine on their father's farm to rough-finish the spokes and save money on shipping. After the war, they bought a building on Market Street just east of the railroad tracks (where Rubenstein's is presently located) and converted it into a factory for the manufacture of wheel spokes. To finance the move, they invited their cousin Stephen Darlington to join them in 1868, and by 1869, they began to manufacture complete wagon wheels, as well as other wooden objects like hatchet handles. The business thrived and by 1872, they employed nearly a hundred men in a new, enlarged building. During the rest of the century, they acquired a total of two and a half blocks along the railroad for manufacturing, wood drying and storage, and employed as many as two hundred people. By 1907 it was the third largest wheel manufacturer in the world and the largest east of the Alleghenies.
They used the railroad extensively. They imported lumber from Maryland, Virginia, Mississippi and Florida, and shipped their products by rail as far as the Pacific coast. They also shipped them to Philadelphia where ships took them to Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and Australia. For example, they exhibited wheels at the 1873 Vienna Exposition, and helped France and Germany rebuilt their armies after the Franco-Prussian War.
They were quick to introduce new technology at their factory like forced air ventilation, a fire suppression system, telephones, fireproof slate roofs, larger steam engines to power equipment, and so on. They adopted their product line to satisfy changing tastes, adding light carriage wheels in 1869, special order heavy hauling wheels that weighed 125 pounds each, carriage wheels for rubber tires in 1893, wooden bicycle wheels in 1894, and wooden automobile wheels automobiles in 1909.
Although not as big as HB&T and Sharples Separator Works, the wheel works was a major employer in West Chester. When times were good, they provided employees with Christmas dinners and organized a company baseball team. They also provided an early form of health insurance (the "Mutual Beneficial Association") and experimented with new forms of labor management such as using a time clock to measure hours. Their business was sensitive to the agricultural economy, however, so when economic depressions hit in 1873 and 1893, they laid off large numbers of employees.
The company directors became conspicuously civic-minded in 1888. In response to complaints, the company paid to install curbs in front of its property along Market Street, about the same time that founder Thomas Hoopes became the first president of the newly-created Board of Trade. Other company directors served on the Board, and Thomas Hoopes also became the president of the board of the National Bank of Chester County in 1889.
3) Sharpless Separator Company: Dr. Carl Gustaf Patrik De Laval of Sweden invented the centrifugal cream separator in 1877. It used a rapidly spinning bowl to extract cream from milk, and because the milk could be introduced continuously into the bowl, it was a great improvement over waiting for it to rise in pans. Coupled with transportation improvements like early morning "milk trains" that led to markets in cities like Philadelphia, local dairy output increased dramatically in the last quarter of the 19th century. Hand- cranked cream separators enabled individual farmers to process milk and ship only the cream, increasing their profits.
Philip M. Sharples, a West Chester machinist, acquired a franchise to sell the De Laval cream separators in the United States in 1883. He began manufacturing them in his shop at Walnut and Chestnut Streets (222 N. Walnut Street, which still exists). It was an immediate success, although he had to win a patent infringement lawsuit brought by De Laval, and by 1888 he employed 35 men and had branches in Elgin, Illinois and San Francisco. That year, he bought property along the railroad east of Franklin Street and the following year, he laid the foundation for the factory that became known as the Sharples Separator Works.
Sharples eventually employed six hundred workers in a factory that covered more than five acres and manufactured as many as 3,700 cream separators per year. By 1906, the company had customers in Europe, Argentina, Australia, and Japan, and had opened a second factory near Hamburg, Germany. Sharples also created a second firm to manufacture milking equipment, invested in a stone quarry near Phoenixville, and financed skyscrapers in Chicago and West Chester.
Like West Chester's other factory owners, Sharples introduced innovations like automatic fire alarms, electric lighting, color print advertising, a steam whistle that could be heard all over the Borough, and a pair of "graphophones" that recorded office dictation on paraffin cylinders. By 1900, the Sharples Separator Works was the premier industrial operation in the Borough -- a "high-tech" company that combined foundries, machine shops, and metal fabrication with engineering and speculative investment. By the time World War I began, Sharples had built West Chester's tallest building (the Farmers & Mechanics Building at Market and High Streets), founded his own bank (the Farmers & Mechanics Bank), and built himself a baronial mansion called "Greystone Hall" on a 1000-acre estate located northeast of town.
4) Other Developments: A number of other business formed or moved to West Chester prior to the end of World War I. They included Schramm Incorporated, manufacturer of small engines and air compressors; the Denney Tag Company (paper tags and labels); numerous coal and lumber yards; Uriah Painter's ice business; the Edison Electric Illuminating Company; and other companies devoted to selling or creating the houses and products demanded by a growing population served by railroads. For instance, as part of its expansion, the Wheel Works purchased power lathes manufactured by the West Chester firm of Evans, Griffiths & Thomas in 1872. In 1881, they purchased two more lathes, this time from Philip M. Sharples, who had not yet founded his separator company. In 1884, when Sharples needed new lathes, instead of building them himself, he ordered five from a company in Massachusetts.
The business community began to get organized with the founding of the Board of Trade in 1888. Other sectors followed suit. For instance, the borough's doctors supported the formation of a Board of Health in 1885 and a hospital in 1893. The Borough's banking community also expanded as the First National Bank opened in 1863 to challenge the Bank of Chester County (opened in 1814), followed by the Bank of the Brandywine in 1871, Dime Savings Bank in 1892, the Farmers National Bank about 1896, the Chester County Trust Company in 1900, and the Farmers & Mechanics Trust Company in 1907.
Find additional
context and/or detail
about the history of industry in West Chester.
Immigration
During the 19th century, West Chester's population grew from
374 to 9,524 people. The newcomers were mostly from Ireland,
England, Germany and Italy, but most did not come directly to
West Chester, at least not before the Civil War when most
immigrants came from rural areas in Europe. Instead, they found
work on Chester County farms, and it was their offspring who
moved into the Borough. After the Civil War, they were joined by
immigrants from Europe's industrial areas who arrived in waves
that followed the depressions of 1873, 1883 and 1893.
One effect was to alter West Chester's religion community.
Although the region was settled by Quakers, they were never a
majority in West Chester, according to federal census figures.
Instead, they constituted nearly one third of the Borough's
population in 1820, but were only one-tenth in 1870 and one-
twelfth in 1890.
The biggest gains took place among Catholics. Although there
were Catholics present in West Chester from an early date -- St.
Agnes parish was founded in 1793, before the Borough -- their
numbers increased as first Irish and then Italian immigrants came
to this country in large numbers. Irish immigration was fairly
steady throughout the 19th century, but it received a boost in
the late 1840s from the "Potato Famine." The Civil War put
everything on hold, but the Irish resumed their emigration to the
US after the war. From the Civil War to after World War I, they
provided the leaders for the Borough's Catholic community.
Immigrants from Italy began to arrive in the 1890s. At
first, all were men who worked as skilled craftsmen on railroad
and housing construction. Many found employment with two of West
Chester contractors -- Patrick Corcoran and the Farrell brothers,
Timothy and Michael -- and settled in houses along W. Chestnut
Street and on other streets in the "West End" where the Irish
lived a generation or two earlier. By the end of World War I,
they organized themselves into fraternal organizations like the
Sons of Italy, and St. Agnes parish served over 90 Italian
families.
Other immigrant groups are recognizable in West Chester
history. Jewish immigrants started to arrive from eastern Europe
and Russia in significant numbers in the 1890s and founded small
businesses -- clothing stores, junk hauling and other small
retail businesses. They settled in the area of E. Market and S.
Walnut and S. Matlack Streets, and held religious services in
private homes until 1915 when they converted a house at the
corner of Darlington and Chestnut Streets into a synagogue.
There were also roughly six Chinese families who operated
laundries, and a number of Greek families operated restaurants
and candy stores.
Population growth stimulated housing construction that
extended the town's urban center. New housing construction
paused during the Civil War and again in the late 1880s, but it
reached a crescendo in the 1890s. The most impressive growth
occurred in the southeast part of town below Union Street,
between High Street and the railroad tracks.
Riggtown
This is an example of a neighborhood that came into existence
at the end of the 19th century. It was built in the floodplain
of the Goose Creek, a slow-moving creek on the east side of the
Borough which became heavily polluted by the 1880s. One person
described it as "one of the filthiest streams that flow near West
Chester. Nearly all the sewage of the town flows into it, and,
besides, a number of water closets sit over it." In addition,
the Borough's second railroad ran along side of it, dropping
cinders, oil and other waste as they passed. By the time
developers set their sights on this land, most of the more-
desirable areas were already taken.
C. Cadwallader Sellers, a local investor, made the first
attempt to subdivide the land along Goose Creek in 1871. Most of
the people who purchased parcels left them as is, but John Doran,
John Carey, and John Caldwell built homes along what became the
300-block of E. Nields Street. John Doran was a Borough street
cleaner who purchased a lot next to the railroad tracks in 1872,
and raised four children there with his wife. His son opened a
concrete block manufacturing plant on opposite side of Nields
Street in 1923, at the current site of the West Chester Area Day
Care.
John Carey was a railroad worker who lived at 210 Linden
Street. In November 1871 he bought land on the south side of
Nields Street and gave it to two of his sons in 1887. They built
attached houses at 500-502 E. Nields Street, while a third
brother moved into a new house at 541 S. Matlack Street in 1894.
John Caldwell bought the entire block between Franklin, Nields,
Adams and Howe Streets in November 1871. He built a brick and
frame house at the corner of Nields and Adams Street prior to
1883, and lived there until he died in 1894. Mifflin Rigg bought
his estate and demolished Caldwell's house, then built twenty-one
houses on the property. Although he never lived there, his
daughter did, and he kept several of them as rental properties
until the end of World War I. The neighbors and newspaper
started to call the area "Riggtown" and the name stuck.
Rigg was not the only one to build in the Southeast. Others
included the Muzante brothers, peanut merchants from Genoa, who
invested their profits in new home construction in 1891. They
built the houses on Nields Street between Walnut and Matlack that
became known as "Peanut Row." About the same time, Patrick
Barry, the owner of a hauling business, built houses along
Franklin Street between Lacey and Nields Street. Nathan and
Frieda Braunstein from Philadelphia bought what was left on the
south side of Nields Street in 1891, and allowed their son to
four houses there in 1894.
Developers like the Muzantes, Barry, Braunstein and Rigg
followed the same formula to build their houses. Arranged in
rows or twos, they were built of brick on a stone foundation with
a full basement, six rooms, and an outhouse. The Muzantes
estimated the cost of their houses at $1,500 each, and rented
them for $2.50 per week which was the equivalent of $130 per
year, a 6% return on their investment. That was affordable for
the working class individuals and families who swelled the
Borough's population at the end of the 19th century. The demand
was so great that houses were frequently rented as soon as they
were completed, and as late as 1907, real estate investors like
Plummer Jefferis still thought there was a demand for more low
cost housing.
Read more about the history of Riggtown.
Military Organizations
After the Civil War, the Borough's traditional disapproval of
military matters began to fade. Civil War veterans celebrated
their service and moved into positions of influence in Borough
government, at the newspaper, and in business. When the editors
of the Daily Local News published a souvenir book in honor of
West Chester's first hundred years, they opened the section
called "Military Record" with the words:
The same book claimed that during the Civil War, West Chester
"furnished an enormous number of men, considering the size of the
town." "Enormous" may be an exaggeration, since Douglas Harper
calculated that about one-fifth of the Borough's able-bodied
white male population signed up, but it represented a distinct
break with West Chester's pacifist traditions. The Civil War
also firmed up the precedent, set during the War of 1812, of
maintaining military units composed of West Chester men in
readiness should the country call.
The country called three times between the Civil War and
World War I -- twice to suppress strikes and once for fight the
Spaniards. A West Chester company joined troops from
Philadelphia during the Great Railway Strike of 1877, which
ultimately spread to ten states. When the Pittsburgh militia
sided with the strikers, the governor called for troops from
Philadelphia. The troops fired into a crowd and killed more than
20 civilians including women and at least three children. The
crowd cornered them in a roundhouse and destroyed more than $4
million worth of equipment while the troops watched helplessly.
The 1899 Centennial Souvenir reported none of that, although it
did mention a second unit, the "Delancy Guards, colored" under
the command of Captain Levi Hood, was sent to Malvern to patrol
the train station. A third unit went to the Pennsylvania coal
country to guard against a miners' strike that never came.
West Chester soldiers were also called up in 1892 during the
Homestead steel strike near Pittsburgh, but they did not get into
action. The last call came during the Spanish American War, and
when West Chester's national guard company (Company I of the 6th
Infantry) left town, Captain S. M. Paxson formed a second company
"in order that the neighborhood might have protection while the
gallant young men, many of whom he had trained, were out of
town."
By the end of the century, support for military veterans was
strong, and in 1915, West Chester's national guard unit spent
$8,000 to buy a site on N. High Street on which to build an
armory. Military organizations remained highly visible by
parading through the town on major holidays. By the end of World
War I, the list of "patriotic organizations" in the Borough
included the Sons of Veterans (and their Ladies' Auxiliary,
vomposed of white veterans of the Civil War), Sons of Union
Veterans (colored Civil War veterans), United Spanish War
Veterans, and American Legion Post No 134 (also with a Ladies'
Auxiliary).
The State Normal School
The West Chester State Normal School was founded in 1871. In
1913, the state took it over but kept the name until 1926, when
it was changed to West Chester State Teachers College. The word
"Teachers" was dropped in 1960, and the name changed for the last
time to West Chester University in 1983.
The "normal school" idea was derived from French institutions
known as écoles normales which specialized in
preparing teachers. West Chester's first "normal school" was an
entirely private operation founded by Dr. Franklin Taylor, Dr.
Elwood Harvey, and Professor Fordyce A. Allen. In 1857, the
state legislature passed a "Normal School Act" which divided the
state into twelve districts for the purpose of organizing normal
schools, and placed Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks
counties into the "First District." The Act offered no financial
support, however, just the promise to grant teaching certificates
to graduates of a normal school, if it was certified by the
state. To be certified, a normal school needed a minimum of ten
acres of ground, at least 300 students, a hall large enough to
accommodate 1,000 people, at least six professors (plus
additional tutors and assistants), and a "model school" that
could accommodate 100 students where student teachers could
practice what they learned.
The Civil War prevented more normal schools from forming
and probably contributed to the demise of the school founded by
Taylor, Harvey and Allen. A few years elapsed until March 1869
when a committee of prominent West Chester residents organized a
company to seek state certification for a new normal school in
West Chester. The committee recruited 74 investors to buy just
over $52,000 worth of stock, obtained $15,000 from the state and
a loan for $20,000, and raised almost $29,000 by selling the
property of the West Chester Academy and the Chester County
Cabinet of Sciences (which also donated its library and
collection of natural history specimens).
With a budget of roughly $106,000, the committee bought ten
acres (at $1,000 per acre) on a small hill south of town and paid
local contractors Yarnall & Cooper about $80,000 to construct a
building that became the nucleus for "Old Main Hall." J. S.
Futhey described it as "a massive structure, constructed of the
beautiful serpentine stone so abundant in this region." It was
designed by architect Addison Hutton, who also designed the
serpentine mansions known as the "Four Sisters" on W. Virginia
Ave in the north end of the Borough.
The school opened on September 25, 1871 with 156 students,
but there were money problems all year thanks to the need to
finish the building. The first principal quit at the end of the
term and ten of eleven teachers left with him. The second
principal lasted less than a year, so in March 1873, the trustees
hired George L. Maris, the Superintendent of Public Schools in
Chester County and a graduate of the West Chester Academy.
Maris stayed for eight years and put the school on a sound
financial footing. During his first full year, he hired George
Philips to teach mathematics, and Philips succeeded him in 1881
as principal. Philips remained until 1920 and still holds the
record as the longest serving principal. During his tenure, many
new buildings were built and enrollment increased to one thousand
students.
The Trolley Line
Electric "street railways" became popular in the late
nineteenth century as a cheap alternative to railroads. This did
not occur easily, however, because railroad companies had grown
to enormous size through consolidation and their wielded plenty
of influence in the state legislature where charters were
granted. In August 1890, a group of local business owners began
to sell stock for a company which they said would enable West
Chester to expand by providing "accessibility to the heart of the
city." Their company became the West Chester Street Railway
after a battle against legislators allied with the Pennsylvania
Railroad resulted in a charter that allowed it to lay tracks from
the center of West Chester to the Brandywine Creek at Lenape.
The street car line did not compete directly with the
railroad lines between West Chester and Philadelphia, but even
before the first rail was laid, the Wilmington & Northern
Railroad gained control of the company. That line ran along the
Brandywine Creek through Lenape, and the streetcar line enabled
it to siphon of traffic from West Chester headed towards
Baltimore, Washington and points further south. The Pennsylvania
Railroad continued to exercise a monopoly on traffic to the east,
north and west.
Streetcar service began on November 10, 1891. The company
operated two lines that crossed at High and Market Streets. One
ran along High Street from the State Normal School (now the West
Chester University) to Quaker Hill, and the other along Market
Street from the train station to New Street where it turned south
towards Lenape. To increase ridership, the WSCR opened an
amusement park at Lenape in 1892 that still exists today. In
1902, it extended its Market Street tracks to Wayne Street,
then turned north and west all of the way to Downingtown. That
enabled the street car to take away much of the railroad's
west-bound passenger business. In 1904, the company extended the
track from Lenape all of the way to the north side of Kennett
Square.
In the meantime, a second streetcar company, the
Philadelphia, Castle Rock and West Chester Railway Company, built
a trolley line from Philadelphia that began service on January 2,
1899. It also opened an amusement park at Castle Rock (between
Crum and Ridley Creeks, west of Newtown Square) to attract
passengers. The second line provided direct competition to the
Pennsylvania Railroad, which fought back in several ways. To
prevent people from riding the cheaper trolley to Philadelphia
and sending their luggage by train, the Pennsylvania Railroad
raised its rates for small parcel shipments. The railroad also
adjusted its schedule and improved service to stave off
competition from the streetcar lines, but the passage of the
"Trolley Freight Bill" by the Pennsylvania legislature allowed
streetcars to carry light freight like coal, lumber and consumer
goods for the first time. Consumers benefitted,
but the railroads lost more business.
The First Automobiles
The worst threat to the railroads came from another new
invention of the late 19th century, the automobile. In 1898,
Burton D. Murdaugh built the first automobile in Chester County,
and in 1900, the first automobile reached West Chester when
Joseph Sager brought a "Locomobile" from New York City (although
one source says D. M. Sharpless was the first automobile owner in
West Chester). LAter that same year, Harvey Hillegass set his
garage on fire when he tried to start his steam-powered car. Max
Meyer and Stephen C. Black started building steam-power cars,
while Hilborn Cope bought a car that as powered by a wind-up
spring.
The number of Boough automobile registrations rose from seven
in 1903 to eleven in 1904 and twenty-one in 1905, but progress
was evident in other ways too. In 1902, four West Chester car
owners covered the ninety miles to Atlantic City in seven hours.
In 1905, Max Meyer received the Borough's first permit ever
issued for an underground fuel tank, and installed two in front
of his store on W. Market Street. By 1906, the road from West
Chester to Philadelphia was paved, and wealthy citizens like C.
P. Martindale had begun to build "automobile houses" to shelter
their new steeds. By 1910, there were already four automobile
dealers in the Borough.
At first, there were no businesses dedicated to serving
automobiles like there are today. Instead, hardware stores sold
fuel in small metal cans, and local machinists like Charles Lucas
advertised "If it is a machine, we can fix it ... Stationary and
gasoline engines installed and repaired ... Automobile repairing.
Supplies." The introduction of the Ford "Model T" in 1908 made
automobiles a mass-market product, and once World War I ended,
towns like West Chester began to grapple with parking, gas
stations and all of the other infrastructure required by
automobiles. Those topics will be covered during the next class.
Exercise: Examine the following population statistics
and draw conclusions about the growth of West Chester during the
19th century. What forces do you think explain this pattern of
growth?
Population in the 19th century
West Chester and Chester County Compared
| Year | Chester County Population | West Chester Population | West Chester change | Percentage Borough/County |
| 1800 | 32,093 | 374 | n/a | 1.17 |
| 1810 | 39,596 | 471 | 97 | 1.19 |
| 1820 | 44,451 | 553 | 82 | 1.24 |
| 1830 | 50,910 | 1,244 | 691 | 2.44 |
| 1840 | 57,515 | 2,152 | 908 | 3.74 |
| 1850 | 66,438 | 3,172 | 1,020 | 4.77 |
| 1860 | 74,578 | 4,757 | 1,575 | 6.37 |
| 1870 | 77,802 | 5,630 | 873 | 7.23 |
| 1880 | 83,475 | 7,046 | 1,446 | 8.44 |
| 1890 | 89,377 | 8,028 | 982 | 8.98 |
| 1900 | 95,695 | 9,524 | 1,496 | 9.95 |
| Copyright 2007 by Jim Jones |