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According to Images of America: Frankford, five days after the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the start of the Revolutionary War, a rider stopped at the Jolly Post to exchange his tired horse. He described the battles to many of the residents of Frankford during his stop.
Frankford has numerous Revolutionary War connections. Betsy Ross’s lineage is traced to Frankford, and she frequented the area to visit family there. Oswald Eve had a contract with the Continental Congress to supply gunpowder. The powder mills, however, were subsequently confiscated when Eve was found guilty of treason for trading with the British.
Frankford was the scene of a heroic story as well.
Lydia Darrah (sometimes spelled Darrach or Darragh) lived with her husband and children in Philadelphia, while the British controlled the city. British Gen. William Howe’s adjutant-general arranged for a private meeting to be held in the Darrah house, instructing Lydia to make sure everyone went to bed early.
She sent her family to bed and tiptoed back to listen in on what the British troops were planning — a surprise attack on Washington’s army.
Lydia went to her bed and pretended to be asleep, ultimately preparing to quickly slip out at dawn for a flour mill along the Frankford Creek, and a Continental Army headquarters at the Rising Sun Tavern, where she spread news of the British plans for attack.
After the attempted ambush was thwarted, the adjutant-general questioned Lydia about who may have overheard the British conference.
"I know you were asleep," he told her, "for I knocked on your door at least three times before you answered me . . . . When we arrived near their encampment we found all their cannon in position . . . we marched back like a parcel of fools."
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In the years after the American Revolution, Frankford blossomed to become a center of industry for Philadelphia.
Samuel Martin opened a textile mill in 1809, followed by Isaac English and his pottery works in 1816. John Briggs started a business as a wheelwright and eventually joined with Harvey Quicksall to manufacture umbrella frames.
"Viewed by themselves, the changes in Frankford were unremarkable: history is, after all, about change," notes the book Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth. "But seen in the context of similar changes across the state, the growth in Frankford . . . signaled an important transition in Pennsylvania’s economic, demographic and social landscape."
The book later notes that a Baptist church and an African Methodist Episcopal church suggested the presence of "non-elite white workers" and an organized African-American community. The establishment of a Catholic church followed the entry of Irish workers into Frankford’s mills and other industries.
On April, 11, 1831, a local lamplighter borrowed $375 from the first building-and-loan association in the country, located in Frankford — the Oxford Provident Building Association. Comly Rich’s house, at 4276 Orchard St., touted as the first mortgaged home in America, still stands today.
One of the most important industries in Frankford was its arsenal.
It was established in 1816, when President James Madison purchased more than 20 acres along the Frankford Creek. Additional acres were purchased by presidents Martin Van Buren and Zachary Taylor.
The original uses of the facility included "storage, a depot for the repair of artillery, cavalry and infantry equipment, repair and cleaning of small arms and harnesses, the manufacture of percussion powder and musket balls, and the proving and inspecting of gunpowder," according to A History of Frankford.
Industry brought with it workers, an influx that more than quadrupled Frankford’s population, from 1,233 people in 1810 to 5,346 in 1850.
Thomas Creighton’s recollections of Frankford during the Civil War are recounted in A History of Frankford.
My grandmother, who was quite an elderly woman, lived with my father and always showed the keenest interest in soldiers. At one time the vacant lot, extending from Franklin Street to Penn Street, and from Foulkrod Street to Harrison Street, was occupied by a large body of troops. There the old lady would go (after visiting Richard Thorn’s bakery) with a great basket of cakes, and I had the privilege of carrying it. These were distributed to the soldiers as we walked though the line of tents. I can see them yet, mostly young men, running from all quarters and crying, "Grandmother, give me a cake!"
Another recorded memory details the 1,200-strong Third New Jersey Regiment of Cavalry as the soldiers passed through Frankford.
Towards noon a detachment of cavalry appeared over the [hill] above Harrison Street . . . fine-looking young men, all mounted on good horses. They all wore long capes with a hood thrown back over the shoulders; the hood was lined with bright yellow, and the regiment had the nickname "Butterflies" because of the lining. The regiment encamped for the night at Harrowgate.
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After the Civil War, the arsenal became an even more prominent focal point of life in Frankford. As the book Philadelphia: A 300-Year History notes, ". . .Munitions manufacture at the Frankford Arsenal employed enough workers to extend Frankford and Bridesburg until the open country between them and the city was blotted out."
The burgeoning population needed mass transportation, and in 1893 trolley cars were introduced in Frankford. Ten years later, a car barn was built at Bridge Street and Frankford Avenue, a precursor to the modern-day terminal at Bridge and Pratt streets.
The Frankford branch of the Reading Railroad opened on July 2, 1894 with much fanfare. It not only brought transportation but better communication as well. The telegraph office stayed open all night, a departure from the previous schedule of shutting down all telegraphic communications at 8 p.m.
Construction of the Frankford Elevated line started in 1915. Original estimates projected its completion in three years, at a cost of $6 million. It actually took six years and $14 million, ending at Bridge Street instead of Rhawn Street as originally planned.
The line finally opened in November 1922, eventually taking away much of the railroad’s patronage. In fact, the railroad took such a financial hit that the Frankford station was closed on June 30, 1928.
Around that time, community football teams started to sprout around the country. The Frankford Yellow Jackets grew into a professional organization and, in 1924, joined the National Football League.
The team won the NFL championship in 1926 and played through 1931. The Yellow Jackets eventually folded, burdened by the financial woes of the Depression and the destruction of their home stadium at Frankford and Devereaux avenues.
In 1933, Bert Bell bought the franchise rights of the team, which rose once more — as the Philadelphia Eagles.
The noted Frankford historian Howard Lee Barnes addressed those days of the country's economic collapse in A History of Frankford:
The Depression did not touch everyone; many people were not hampered by it and worked right through the troubled times. Many of our Frankford families lost their homes because of unemployment. Banks closed. The textile workers suffered, because their mills were the first to close. It was not until the 1930s that we were out of the Depression, when we began to supply war goods to our allies.
During the war, Frankford was a booming industrial center. The Frankford Arsenal, according to Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth, "poured forth streams of small-arms ammunition and trained workers to go into new munitions plants."
It set the stage for a strong post-World War II era in Frankford. ••
Reporter Diane Villano can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dvillano@phillynews.com