I always learn something new about Riverton every time I speak to Carl McDermott. An expatriate of Cinnaminson Street, Riverton’s own Irish Row (Mar. 2010 GN ), Carl celebrated in October his 90th birthday at Riverton Country Club with 123 friends and relatives.
He and his wife Doris now live in Palmyra, and from time to time he leaves a comment on something that he finds here. On the post about the construction of Riverton’s War Memorial he pointed out that he had installed the electric for its illumination. Shortly afterwards he provided me with photos of himself and his two brothers, now passed, for display in our Veterans Photo Album. It was Carl who gave me the idea to interview his friend Franny Cole on the subject of Cole Dairy ( Feb. 2011 GN )which once operated at Fifth and Main Streets.
On a recent day the topic of our conversation was the pictures of the J.T. Evans Coal & Lumber Building from Joseph F. Yearly’s photo album that he was looking at on this website. He invited me to see a couple of photos and an old Riverton telephone book in which he thought I would be interested. Would I?
The photos are apparently of a funeral for a political or military figure which took place in Palmyra, date unknown. Writing on the back of one (not Carl’s) indicates that Palmyra mayor George W. Wimer is walking beside the band wearing a bow-tie and hat, and that the location is Broad and Garfield Streets.
Ray Fichter, the last man in the band on the right, married Marg McDermott, which is the reason that someone gave the photo to Carl. As with other artifacts of uncertain provenance which have appeared here, we could use a little help from our readers on this one.
A George N. Wimer served as Palmyra’s mayor 1928-1931, so the “W” must be an error. Inspecting more closely, I discovered a J.T. Evans delivery truck which I have also posted with the other Evans images sent in by Mary Flanagan.
Once I confessed to my friend Harlan, a fellow postcard collector, of losing myself in these old scenes. He said that he was finally glad to know that he wasn’t the only one.
I post these two high-resolution scans made from the original 8x10s so that any others with such an inclination may do so. If you have an observation to share, please leave a comment. Kindly contact us if you have anything that you wish to give to our archives or loan for documenting and scanning.
I’ll save the scans of the Riverton-Palmyra phone book, c.1928-1929, for a future post and there are also more photos from the Joseph F. Yearly photo album in store. Be sure to come back again. – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor
Rev.11/17 My friend Will Valentino of the Palmyra Historical and Cultural Society writes: “I wish I had some info on the funeral. William Morgan died in 1929 and it was a pretty big deal. He was considered the emblematic Father of Palmyra at that time and Wimer was at the funeral .” You can read his award-winning local history column, “Back in Time” now published in the monthly community newspaper, The Positive Press. – JMc
