In the Introduction, the editors state that little had been written or studied on the subject previous to the conference and publication of this book and that is certainly true if you ever try to find out anything specific about, say, German immigrants in Philadelphia, or the early Swedes.
My interest was ignited by my having attended Gloria Dei, Old Swedes Church, as a child. My mother taught Sunday school there and her mother was a lifelong attender. I found this in a quick search just now:
"A visible reminder of the colony’s original influence and lasting impact is the Gloria Dei Church, or Old Swedes’ Church, in South Philadelphia. Constructed during the last years of the seventeenth century, its religious services continued more than three hundred years later."
An essay by Mark L. Thompson
Recently, I had posted about STONE HOUSE LANE a forgotten village of farms and canals hewn from the swamps below my old neighborhood in South Philadelphia. I had lived on Warnock Street, below Johnson and a few blocks west of 10th Street. I wrote about the hucksters who came up from what we called "The Neck" with horse drawn wagons of produce for sale. Poking around on the internet had provided many unsubstantiated theories about the origins of the people in ''The Neck" including that they were originally Hessians left behind after the Revolution. They drained the swamps into canals and small farms and raised pigs, chickens, goats, and dairy cows there until they were driven off by eminent domain for the airport and other industrial usage.
My new book also discusses how there has been so little study or publication about the lives of the ordinary working class people of Philadelphia. My mother and father were both born and raised in Philadelphia. My father came from German immigrants and research on them described them as brewers, seamstresses, tailors, watchmakers, and bakers. My father worked in construction after the second World War. He was an Ironworker.
My mother's people were Irish and her grandfather had a stable and hostelry on the waterfront and delivered goods from the ships to the markets. Her mother was Episcopalian and attended Gloria Dei on the riverfront, which was then a small remnant of the early Swedish community. I was aware from early childhood of the extreme age of the church and its uniqueness to the history of the city.
Hopefully as I delve into this treasure of a book, I will find bits to share with you on my blog. Meantime, I wanted to let you know this book exists!
Happy Trails,
Jo Ann
Though I have been a happy New Jersey resident most of my adult life, I think we all carry the roots of the city of our birth with us!
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