Category: Blog

Soon after the publicity post for Ned Gilmore’s March talk on local fossils went up in February, it drew more interest, likes, and shares than usual. A quick round of emails between board members came to a consensus.

We’re gonna need a bigger room.

Our usual meeting place in the back room of Riverton Free Library only holds less than 40 people, so we scrambled to come up with another venue.

Where can we go that can handle more people, hook us up with the necessary tech, and is free?

Heather filled out a form to request permission to use Riverton Public School, and Susan checked with school staff to ensure that chairs, some tables, and a projector with a laptop on a cart would be ready for the evening presentation.

The decision to move the presentation proved correct when 59 people showed up to attend Ned’s authoritative and detailed lecture.

Ned’s experience as a local resident, collector, and Collection Manager for Vertebrate Paleontology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University highly qualifies him to speak on how, where, and by whom fossils have been found in our state since the 1800s.

Former teacher Susan Dechnik recalled taking her 3rd-grade classes to the Academy to hear Ned. In 2015, Ned met Bill and Nancy Hall, Jeannie Francis, Linda McCormick, and me at the Academy to hear author Ken Frank’s lecture on Japanese beetles.

While there, Ned directed us to the museum’s massive collection of the insect scourge that has infested crops here and across the US since it arrived in Dreer’s Nursery in Riverton.

Now presenting an academic lecture in his old alma mater (RPS Class of 1974), Ned introduced his talk by displaying a photo of his first-grade class with teacher Mrs. Doris Harker.

Ned explained how New Jersey’s unique geology has determined where fossils of dinosaurs, giant white sharks, and mastodons have been found.

Ned illustrated his talk with slides depicting museum specimens of various eras found in New Jersey from the Academy of Natural Sciences…

…and supported it with dozens of actual fossils from the author’s collection.

At the end, Ned fielded some questions pitched by the appreciative audience that included a few enthusiastic school-age children, a demographic seldom drawn to our events. Seeing a graduate of their school may well have kids dreaming of a career in science.

Was it Ned’s reputation as an expert paleontologist, the public’s thirst to attend an event after a covid induced dearth of activity, or the ability of social media to boost events the reason for our swelled ranks that night?

A bit of all three, possibly. Whatever the case, we’ll take the win.

-JMc, photos by Susan Dechnik and JMc

 

 

My challenge to readers on March 2 to compose a quatrain poem about a scene of their youth in Riverton was met brilliantly by Tom Parry. He wrote four, and together they depict a vivid scene from “back in the day.” -JMc, Ed.

On the corner of Main Street and Broad,
Stood Cottington’s General store,
Was I in 6th grade or 7th,
Those details don’t come to the fore.

I went in with a friend, Mackie,
To buy a pack of cigs,
Came out with a pack of L&M,
Man, we thought we were the bigs.

 

 

 

 

 

The folks, they both smoked Winston,
Didn’t give it much of a thought,
But with their friends over one night,
I found out that I’d been caught.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom rarely lost her cool,
No yelling, no stomping the floor,
Just picked up my pack of L&M,
And said, ” Care of I have one of yours?”

Yesterday

In 1974 Therese Spackman Barclay Willits wrote the following poem to her lifelong friend Marjorie Marcy Crowell on the occasion of her 80th Birthday. A copy of it was placed in the Riverton Library, where your writer found it about 20 years ago, and would like to share it with the Gaslight News Readers.

Marjorie Marcy Crowell, daughter of Dr. Alexander and Mrs. Marcy, was born in 1894 at the home of her parents at 406 Main St. and lived there all of her life. She died in 1979. Therese Spackman Barclay Willits was born in the home of her grandfather, Joseph Campbell, on Main St. because the new home of her parents at 205 Lippincott Avenue was not quite finished in December 1889. She lived there after her first marriage, moved to the Philadelphia suburbs for a time after her second, and then came back to Riverton. She was past her 100th birthday when she died. BBH April 2001

Dear Marge, though it’s not customary
I crave of you a present,
A piece of time, I hope may be
For both of us most pleasant.

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll both stretch out upon the deck
Down at the Jersey shore,
And cast our memories back upon
The Riverton of yore.

When all the streets were dusty roads
Wet by a watering cart,
And little friendly stores there were,
And no big shopping mart.

There were no buses then or cars,
But ten steam trains a day,
And later on a trolley car,
A slower cheaper way.

The doctors drove in buggies,
The country round about,
Delivering babies in their homes
And treating croup to gout.

The iceman brought great blocks of ice,
Nice Harvey, big and black…
He wore a great thick rubber pad
On one side of his back.

If a thieving girl climbed the wagon step
He’d grin and never scold her
But mark, and cut, and weigh a chunk
And toss it to his shoulder!

 

 

 

 

Mr. Tippenhouer, the butcher
And the grocer Mr. Frank,
Came weekly to take orders
For all we ate and drank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any forgotten item
Had to remain unknown–
We couldn’t call about it,
for no one had a phone.

Mrs. Smith sold “notions”
And penny candy too-
We’d ponder there, before the case
To chose, as children do.

There were no movies or TV
But lectures, plays and dances
Held within the Lyceum’s doors
Remember learning lancers?

In a little house on Main street
Lived “Uncle George Senatt.”
He loved all kids, and for us
There was welcome on the mat.

He fed us all on peanuts,
And like to see us come.
His little house was later
The Riverton Library’s home.

The Library in those days
Was in the Parish House
And in it we were quiet
As any small church mouse.

 

 

 

 

 

In the reading room a rubber plant
Hid a chair in a little nook,
and that is where I’d make for
With a Henty or Alcott book!

 

 

 

 

 

The Pansy Club, Mrs. Marcy’s scheme
To make us keen and wise–
“Read one half hour every day
And you will get a prize!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to school to Mrs. Sharp-
You were the “little one”
And there the jon was out of doors
Which we considered fun!

We went to Lothrop’s studio
To have our pictures taken–
It seemed like nearly every year
If I am not mistaken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drugstore, you remember,
Run by Mr. Copperthwaite.
It had delicious sodas,
And if you had a date

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who only had one nickel
It mattered not, because
He’d hand one foaming soda out
with two diverging straws!

 

 

 

 

 

Dreer’s Nursey had a fine display
Of flowers, vines and trees;
We always took our company
To “Oh” and “Ah” at these!

 

 

 

 

 

The lily ponds were fabulous,
Some plants had pads so large
A small child could stand upon one
You ever try it, Marge?

 

 

 

 

 

We played down at the river
Where the “John A” and the “Annie L”
Traveling up to Trenton
Made rollies that were swell

 

 

 

 

 

 

We powdered stones on the river wall
“For medicine” says you-
For me a muddy sort of paint
Or like attractive brew.

 

 

 

 

 

We watched the 5 o’clock boats
On summer afternoons,
And Sonny Wright dived off the deck!
Sometimes a band played tunes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Columbia, a big boat
Stopped at the wharf for freight.
And for commuting men folk
The “Sight Bell” rang at eight.

 

 

 

 

 

At shad run, in the spring time
We’d watch the floated net
Be windlassed in the upon the shore
And pretty soon we’d get

 

 

 

 

 

A great big squirming glistening shad
Can there be better show?
The price was just a quarter- –
Think what that would be now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We learned to swim at Frishmuth’s Wharf
And dive from off the float.
We thought we had it made when we
Could reach their anchored boat.

 

 

 

 

 

We ate our sandwich lunches
In a leaky old boat.
It kept one of us bailing
For her to stay afloat.

 

 

 

 

 

When older, we paddled to Taylor’s
For beach fires on the sand
And floated back in the moonlight
And wished we need never land!

 

 

 

 

 

There were catboat races on weekends-
Good sailors not a few!
And many a wistful wharf-rat
In hopes of a chance to crew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We sailed to Burlington Island
And lay becalmed all night,
While we were singing and laughing
Our families fought off fright.

 

 

 

 

 

We followed the winding Pompeston
from marshland back to the wood
Where we had hilarious picnics
(where my sons later played Robin Hood!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A place we called “1000 Islands”
Was covered with flowers in spring-
We crossed a tree bridge to reach it,
A daring and dangerous thing!

 

 

 

 

 

Back then there were tall groves of chestnut
Before the chestnut blight,
We went every fall to despoil them–
Those nuts were a beautiful sight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We flung sticks high to dislodge them
From their prickly velvet lined burrs-
And they pattered like rain in their falling
Through thickets of redolent firs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I remember in election years,
After stormy political sessions,
The men came swarming down the street
In noisy light processions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With shouts and banners
Drum and fife,
And great flares lighting
The autumn night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The diamond of our famous nine
Was up “above the tracks”,
Also the livery stable
Where one could hire hacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then in nineteen hundred
An era new was off,
The Country Club was started
And all the rage was golf!

 

 

 

 

 

Oh later we played hockey
that brought you to fame
I played it, too, more feebly
But loved it just the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In winter there was “hitching”
Can skiing be more fun?
Your sled would need a lengthy rope
If steering well were done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From any sleigh or wagon–
“Bell and Frank’s” was the best
One hitch out, another back–
The round trip gave it zest.

 

 

 

 

 

We knew the sound of sleigh bells
Upon the frosty air–
The river froze and ice boats
And skaters darted there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parades would walk across then
Clear to the Pennsy shore
But modern navigation
Permits that never more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

July the 4th, red letter day–
Our patriotic town
Had speeches, races and parade
The like was never found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The great parade marched down the street
From old Joe Roberts’ store,
With beating drums and blaring brass
Down to the river’s shore.

 

 

 

 

 

The band was smartly costumed
With epaulets on shoulders,
Traditionally the march they played
Was “Onward Christian Soldiers”.

 

 

 

 

 

The judges judged the costumes
And decorated floats,
The breeze blew all the children’s flags
And gaily bannered boats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The speeches that were heard that day
Were fiery and ornate,
We swelled with pride to hear them–
Far cry from Watergate!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And all the day’s activities
Were on the river bank.
And families came to picnic,
And napped and ate and drank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They watched the races, tub to yacht
And also the canoe
In which participating were
Sometimes me and you.

 

 

 

 

 

Until at dusk the fireworks!!
And again the band would play.
And then the final “set piece”
Would end the glorious day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Sunday School on Sunday
Till baths on Saturday night
Dawns then rose clear and rosy
And sunsets clouds were bright.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, Marge, come talk about it,
There may be more to say!
I really do expect you,
So set the time, come May!

 

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That is a “Then & Now” view of the monolithic commercial building that suffered heavy damage from a fire in May 2022.

The Williams-Wright Building has dominated the Broad and Main intersection for a century.

 

Here’s another…

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I briefly mentioned the Williams-Wright Bldg. in a recent post entitled “1923,” and return here to add some details to the history of that building that has seen so many businesses come and go.

The building was erected in 1923, but planning started in 1922. A New Era clipping reports that work started, and L.F. Lowden won the construction contract.

Well over a year away from completion, tenants were already lined up, including Riverton-Palmyra Water Co., a Knight & Company novelty print shop, an American Store, and Woolston’s auto dealership.

Except for one building that variously served as a grocery or candy and cigar store, that corner of Main and Broad Streets had remained undeveloped for more than the prior 15 years. That store, known as Adolph’s Cigar and Tobacco Shop in 1900 and later, Theobald Schneider’s, was razed to make way for the construction of the Williams Wright building.

News articles in May, June, and July 1922 associate Charles A. Wright and E.L. Williams with the property at Broad and Main, which is at odds with…

…the information in two entries of Riverton’s 1999 Historic District Application that, taken together, imply that the Williams referred to is Edward H. Williams, a baseball payer and holder of various local government positions.

While plenty of supporting references show that an Edward Williams of Riverton was indeed a baseball player, local government official, and even an amateur thespian, it appears to be a different Williams – Edward R. Williams, not Edward H.

The Williams involved with the William-Wright Building is more likely the brother of Edward R. Williams, E.L.Williams, AKA Earl L. Williams.

E.L. Williams served as president of Cinnaminson Bank and treasurer for Riverton Country Club. As their building was nearing completion, he and Charles A. Wright served as officers of the Riverton-Palmyra Water Company at the same time. Williams was a charter member of the Riverton Improvement Association, an organization conceived with the aim of improving Riverton’s streets.

Williams’ position as a banker put him in a position to influence the growth of businesses for many years, including his selection later as treasurer for  Evans Coal and Lumber in 1938.

Williams joined with Wright to become an early supporter of establishing a ferry service.

Williams and Wright, each stalwart Republicans, had also served as directors of the Cinnaminson Bank at the same time for several years, so they had extensive business experience with each other.

Charles A. Wright moved from Philadelphia to Riverton at 305 Bank Avenue in 1887.

He established the Standard Index Card Co. at 701-707 Arch St. in Philadelphia and served as its president.

Wright served as a director of the Tacony-Palmyra Ferry Co., masterminded the building of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, and was on the original Cinnaminson Bank board of directors. He was an early supporter of the Riverton-Palmyra Water Co. and later served as its president, in addition to being active in many other civic and social capacities.

In 1942, in his 82nd year, he had 23 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Two years later, an automobile struck and killed him on his way to work.

Each gentleman was a pioneering mover and shaker of Riverton development.

One might assume that Riverton was ongoing a lot of building activity then because builder Louis F. Lowden was working on five residences at about the same time.

Back then, folks kept up on the progress of projects, politics, the comings and goings of neighbors, sales deals, and local affairs by reading weekly hometown newspapers.

For the kids in the audience, newspapers were printed publications usually issued daily, weekly, or at other regular times that provided news, views, features, and other information of public interest, often carrying advertising.

Kind of like the Facebook and Twitter of today, but no thousand-dollar device or batteries were required. This link will open a PDF file for the March 1924 issues of The New Era newspaper. It’s searchable (CNTRL+f), but the character recognition is not great.

Moving the Williams-Wright story along, The American Store, a grocery chain, was the first to enjoy the new digs in February 1923.

The store is visible in the background of the 1944 PHS photo shown earlier.

We hear complaints today about the high cost of eggs. According to dollartimes.com, those 45¢/dz eggs would be $7.72 today! The actual US City average cost per dozen for large Grade A eggs for Feb. 2023 (latest available data) is $4.21.

The next month, Theodoro’s Shoe Repair set up shop in the new building. Lawrence and Blanche Keating’s Drugstore opened its doors on the corner in May.

Perhaps no other business in the Williams Wright building has evoked such a flood of nostalgia from our senior generation than this long-gone gathering place.

Keating’s Drug Store carried “…a full line of patent medicines, gifts, stationery, toilet articles, candies, tobacco, greeting cards, ice cream, etc.” Keating’s Drug Store may have continued operation through the mid-1950s.

In July 1923, Riverton-Palmyra Water Company moved from across the street at 522 Main to a second-floor office in the Williams-Wright Building. Pretty shrewd business move, considering that Williams and Wright were officers in the company at the time, along with two other Wright relatives, Robert Knight and Walter Wright. The water company moved its office to Palmyra in 1929.

Clinton B. Woolston’s Star auto dealership came on board in January 1924. The accommodation provided for a 1369 sq. ft. showroom, 1040  sq. ft. workshop, and a 3190 sq. ft. car storage room.

The Woolstons were old hands at sales of vehicles, starting with his father, Charles T. Woolston. He made and sold carriages in Riverton on 7th St. near Main and later transitioned to selling automobiles in about 1905, just in time to shrewdly usher in the Dawn of the Motor Age.

In 1915, Clinton, Charles’ son, having spent ten years learning from his father, started out on his own in the industry at Front and Penn. Outgrowing that, he moved to Broad and Lippincott briefly and then to the new Williams Wright Building.

As indicated by Woolston’s late 1932 ads in newspapers, Clinton Woolston supplemented his sales of Plymouth, DeSoto, and Hupmobile autos by adding a line of refrigerators and radios; he added washing machines three years later.

Can you believe that in 1937, Riverton had three automobile dealerships and a service station within its borders?

Woolston pivoted in 1938 and built an Esso service station on the site of the old Roberts Building at the point of Main and Howard.

Carvel Sparks, another car sales dealer, occupied the space in the Williams Wright Building left vacated by Woolston from about 1944 to 1958.

 

 

We covered many more details about his auto dealership in 2020 during the COVID lockdown. See more about Carvel Sparks here. He and his wife were very much an active part of the community from c1940-1960.

Over the years, other businesses have resided in the Williams Wright Building.

The Main Street side currently houses the law office of  Thomas H. Ehrhardt at 527 Main,  and The Nellie Bly Old Tyme Ice Cream Parlour at 529 Main. Ownership of Nellie Bly’s has changed hands since its opening in 2005.

Other establishments have come and gone… Lamon Associates Realtor, Loretta Turner Dance Studio (at least 1980-1983), and Yoga Tree have each previously occupied the corner location (531 Main). Also disappeared are Once Upon A Canvas, and Noreen Turner Photography on the Broad Street side, and on the Main Street side, Thomas H. Ehrhardt Law Offices, American Furniture (c1971-1974), and Salon Premier.

The May 2022 fire displaced numerous families from the upstairs apartments (#525-531), shuttered Revive Cafe and Bella Buds & Co. Floral Design Studio, and caused Nellie Bly’s to only sell pre-packaged pints for a time near the gazebo on Main Street. Dynasty Exteriors at 527 Main Street remains in business. Building repairs are underway, but it could be several more months.

Building owner, Joe Ranier, tells us, “Construction is coming along (although a little slow). We are currently reframing the entire 2nd floor. The roof is done, and we should be installing a new cornice soon. With any luck, the building should be back in service before the end of this year.

Did we miss any? What Williams Wright business do you remember? Send a comment and a photo if you can. -JMc

ADDED 3/18/2023: We did mistakenly omit a storefront from the current list. Dynasty Exteriors at 527 Main Street specializes in doors, siding, windows, and roofing.

ADDED: We mistakenly included Thomas H. Ehrhardt Law Offices at 527 Main, but the office had moved across the street to 524 Main in 2019. Thank you to Margaret Augustyn O’Donnell for pointing out that Loretta Turner Dance Studio was on the corner.

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The Sharon Shoppe operated under two other aliases and other owners before these c1970 photos, including The Sharon Shop and Sharon Sweet Shop.

Recently, Shirley Kolarovik Donato shared some vintage photos of the very much-missed Sharon Shoppe that her parents owned in the 1970s.

So is this Riverton history?

Of course!

The images related to Riverton’s history don’t have to be a century old to be of interest. The good ol’ days of one generation are almost unrelatable ancient history to another. If an antique is something that is at least 100 years old, then maybe these 50-year-old photos can be considered vintage.

From my recollection, on any given school day, the squirming backsides of a capacity crowd of children would be occupying those stools and tables at lunchtime.

Adults usually headed to a no-kids zone in the back room where an always ebullient Hannah patiently jotted down orders and served everyone. If I concentrate, I think I can hear Miss Jacobsen and Mrs. Kloos talking in the back room. Mabel’s usual was a grilled cheese sandwich made with a single piece of cheese and Boost.

The building occupied by the Sharon Shoppe previously housed a dry goods store called Mrs. Alfred Smith’s Store from about 1905-1946.

A March 1946 news item mentioned that Mr. Hamelman would open a hardware and paint store on the premises.

And so he did, as evidenced by this optimistic April 25, 1946 opening announcement ad. A glowing May 2 ad followed the next week and bragged of “gratifying results.”

Local papers do not hint at what became of the new hardware store, but just three months later, in August 1946, The Sharon Sweet Shop opened under the ownership of Charlotte Riddle.

Two months later, without explanation, the name Harry E. Riddle replaced the proprietor’s name, and ads ran almost every week for a few years.

I could go for that BLT and a cup of coffee about now.

The New Era announced in 1949 that ownership changed to Bus and Carl McAllister, a pair of Riverton brothers and PHS grads who became active in the business affairs of Palmyra and Riverton for many years.

The record does not show much for the years leading up to ownership by the Kolaroviks (we have precious few local newspapers from the 1950s-1960s).

Considering that this January 1967 help-wanted ad now calls the luncheonette The Sharon Shoppe instead of the former Sharon Sweet Shop, is that a hint that maybe they started earlier than 1970?

What do you recall of the Sharon Shoppe (or Sharon Shop or Sharon Sweet Shop)?

Gotta ask… The pages of out-of-print hometown newspapers and even the throw-away free advertisement circulars such as The Little Paper and The Positive Press serve as primary source material for the person researching local history. Please contact us if you have old photos, postcards, ephemera, advertising collectibles, and such that you can donate, or let us scan them. -JMc, Ed.

PS: Thank you to Bill Moore for brokering this deal to get Shirley to locate and send in these photos of the family business.

May 17, 2023: This just in from Shirley Kolarovik Donato…

I found some more old photos of the Sharon Shop from 1969 with the former plate glass windows and the Breyers Ice Cream sign. They are probably from before my family purchased it.

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Eighteen years ago, our mailing list included over 150 member households plus another 27 historical societies, institutions, and libraries to which we mailed complimentary copies.

Fewer than 90 households currently support the efforts of the Historical Society of Riverton with their membership, and that diminishing support has necessitated some changes.

We went paperless over two years ago because the time and expense involved in printing, stamping and stuffing envelopes, and mailing newsletters became burdensome and expensive.

One advantage: The current online format issues are not limited to four pages in length as the print versions were.

The online format offers the ability to include bold print links that direct to additional supporting content.

Most images enlarge with a double tap on your phone or double-click with your mouse on a computer. Try it⇒

When printed, the current issue takes up 15 pages, a length that is not practical to print and mail. The savings effected with the online format allow us to direct our limited resources to create an awareness of our heritage, programs, and our preservation efforts.

Nonetheless, we hope that you continue to find articles that inform with the same enthusiasm found in that first issue published 194 issues and 48+ years ago.

Yikes! Just dawned on me that a third of those happened since 2007, when I became editor. (I guess that counts as a humble brag.)

Here are instructions for how to print anything from the website.

Open the page you want. Right-mouse click to open the drop-down menu and choose print.

-JMc, Ed.

Please express your concerns below in the comments or go to the Contact and Membership tab.

 

I unashamedly stole this idea from the original TV program “Things That Aren’t There Anymore,” produced in 1993 by Philadelphia PBS station WHYY channel 12. As Bill Campbell stated in the introduction, “All of these places, and many more, defined the pleasures of life in the Delaware Valley… and they are all things that aren’t there anymore.”

While the WHYY program looked at Horn & Hardarts, Willow Grove Amusement Park, grand movie theaters, and the bygone Market Street department stores, we have our own version of Things That Aren’t There Anymore, or TTATA, that are no less significant or memorable to the scores of present and former residents who experienced them firsthand.

A generation born in the late 1800s must have been amazed by the progress seen in Riverton through the 20th century. In 1974, Therese Spackman Barclay Willits wrote a poem to her lifelong friend Marjorie Marcy Crowell on the occasion of her 80th birthday. The nostalgia she must have felt in composing a poem about “The Riverton of yore” is unmistakable.

That nostalgic tug is no less strong in the minds of Rivertonians alive today.

The difficulty in illustrating some of them is the lack of photos and written information. I have had some luck in the past with soliciting things from our readership.

Having heard stories of the Nelly Bly express train that once barreled through town at 60mph on the rails now traveled by the NJ Transit’s light rail line, I asked in a May 2009 newsletter for some help. Any image of the Nellie Bly train remained elusive until Pam and Don Deitz found a negative depicting the locomotive that Pam’s father, Benjamin Percival, had taken c1939. Find more about that discovery here.

Another hard-to-find photo for a fondly remembered business surfaced in 2016 when Jill and Hank Croft let us scan several photos of Klipple’s Fine Pastries.

Bob Foster’s 2018 Facebook post served as icing on the cake when it showed a color photo of Klipple’s that elicited a flood of nostalgic memories.

The landmarks and businesses mentioned in Therese Spackman Barclay Willits’ “Rhyme of Old Riverton,” such as Dreer’s Nursery, the Lyceum, and the steamer Columbia, are those of an earlier generation. Today, a newer generation reminisces about the things that they experienced back in their day.

So I’ll ask the Universe again and try to crowdsource information and photos of three businesses in particular that readers continue to bring up in their comments – the Sharon Sweet Shop, The Victorian Thymes, and Mary Lou’s.

I am convinced that some of the best examples of Riverton’s history lay tucked away in attics, junk drawers, garages, and basements forgotten in old family albums and shoeboxes of Kodachrome slides.

What scenes of your youth might motivate some lines in a ballad like the ones Therese Spackman Barclay Willits composed for her dear friend?

Let’s collaborate. In a poem with the rhyme scheme abcb, the second line rhymes with the fourth line, but the first and third lines don’t rhyme with each other. One stanza – four lines – you can do that! Send yours in a comment below, in a Facebook comment, or in an email. I’ll stitch them together. -JMc

ADDED 3/21/2023: My challenge to readers to compose a quatrain poem about a scene of their youth in Riverton was met brilliantly by Tom Parry. He wrote four, and together they depict a vivid scene from “back in the day.”

On the corner of Main Street and Broad,
Stood Cottington’s General store,
Was I in 6th grade or 7th,
Those details don’t come to the fore.

I went in with a friend, Mackie,
To buy a pack of cigs,
Came out with a pack of L&M,
Man, we thought we were the bigs.

 

 

 

 

 

The folks, they both smoked Winston,
Didn’t give it much of a thought,
But with their friends over one night,
I found out that I’d been caught.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom rarely lost her cool,
No yelling, no stomping the floor,
Just picked up my pack of L&M,
And said, ” Care of I have one of yours?”

Sometimes, when researching Riverton’s history, we encounter a dark chapter.

The troubling part of the story below is not about the now illegal live-bird shooting competitions once held by Riverton Gun Club. It is rather about the tragic outcomes for two participating sharpshooters and the racist viewpoints of another.

Here is how another regular foray down the research rabbit hole led to some unsettling findings.

While working on the recent article about the acclaimed or infamous, depending on your viewpoint, Riverton Gun Club, I found a news clipping with a date that was a good deal after a 1906 court case that outlawed live bird shooting caused the club to disband in 1907 and sent it to Borough Historian, Roger Prichard with a question.

Rog – Have you come across accounts of shooting competitions at the Yacht Club? They are billed as Riverton Gun Club contests, but the original one was disbanded in 1906/1907. Might be something to write about. -John

Roger’s reply sent me off on another tangent to search for more evidence of Riverton Gun Club 2.0. His detailed reply follows below.

John – Yes, this was the reason they moved the clubhouse back from the river (from the outer island to the middle island) in the Fall of 1920, so the shooting from the clubhouse would be more challenging. You’re right, I’m sure, that there was no formal connection with the old gun club except that the members were from some of the same families.

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The targets for these shoots were not live pigeons, as the Riverton Gun Club killed by the hundreds, but clay targets launched mechanically from the pier over the river.

This 1906 news snippet is the first clue that enthusiasm for target shooting remained after the demise of the Riverton Gun Club.

By 1908, news reports told of the exploits of a group using the name Riverton Gun Club holding trap shooting matches. One contest was away in Haddonfield, but the report for the other against a Philadelphia team did not explain where the match took place in Riverton.

Another competition against a Merchantville club in March 1909 also occurred at an unknown location in Riverton. Names on the scoresheets included Fitler, Biddle, Thomas, and Stewart, also family names from the original club.

David H. Wright, who abhorred live bird shoots and fought for laws to stop them, had already bought the 23-acre gun club grounds and handsome clubhouse for $6,000 in May 1907, so it is unlikely that any gunning took place on his property.

By November 1911, Wright placed ads asking to sell the gun club grounds for $20,000.

The Riverton Gun Club, North Cramer Hill Gun Club, and the West Collingswood Gun Club allied to form the West Jersey Trap Shooting League in August 1913. They held the first league shoot in Riverton on October 18, but where is unclear.

Interestingly, the publicity for the next month’s contest in Camden reminded readers that the West Jersey Trap Shooting League had united three sporting clubs, but for the first time, it listed the Riverton contingent as Riverton Yacht Club, not Riverton Gun Club.

In January 1914, the newspaper returned to referencing the Riverton Gun Club as it explained that the West Jersey Trap Shooting League planned three shoots, one in January at Riverton, one in February at Camden, and another in March at West Collingswood.

The Riverton Gun Club roster for a November 1914 match included Biddle, Mills, Purnell, Keating, Vaughn, Seckel, Reed, Frishmuth, Kimbel, Hendrickson, Chambers, Jones, Thomason, Alexander, and Hill.

And in April 1915, we’re back to calling the shooters The Riverton Yacht Club. The smaller roster includes Vaughn, Evans, Keating, Allen, Stackhouse, Mills, Reese, Frishmuth, Reinhard, Chambers, Toner, and Hills.

The December 1915 reporting inexplicably returns to naming the marksmen of the Riverton Yacht Club. Some Riverton players continued, new ones joined, and others returned after an absence, but it is the same core group of men.

In practical terms, the two club names had become synonymous.

Accounts of trapshooting competitions involving the Riverton Yacht Club, the Riverton Gun Club, or simply just Riverton persisted for several years.

Starting with accounts from February 7, 1919, we no longer see any mention of the West Jersey Trap Shooting League. And except for the April 22, 1921 Palmyra/Riverton shoot, the remaining publicity from Jan 1919-May 6, 1921 appears only to list Riverton sportsmen.

Several reports make it clear that the events took place on the pier or wharf of Riverton Yacht Club.

If only we had a photo of one of those contests!

The confusion over the locations of some of the trapshooting matches remains. The matches appear to have died out less than a year after all the fuss to move the clubhouse back on the pier.

Regular readers of this column may recognize the name F. S. Groves because of our unsuccessful efforts these past months to save the Groves Mansion from demolition.

Names, such as Frishmuth, Biddle, and Fitler, have often been central to other Riverton historical sagas.

Having more familiarity with those names than I do, Roger shared some sad information about two of these players and a disturbing story about another.

That clip (referring to the March 7, 1919 New Era clipping that set us off) also has names with a ton of awful connections.

“Dr. Mills” was the Charles Street Mills who lived in the Furness house at 106 Lippincott for decades and was the chairman or something of the Palmyra chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Nancy Hall said her father detested him. She said he had a sign on his desk that read “Great Doctor. Helluva man.”

Dr. Mills’ involvement in Klan activities came to light in 1926-1927 during an internal dispute over the mismanagement of funds within the organization.

Lest you think that the Klan was not a thing here…

Despite having great wealth and status, these two tragic figures took their own lives.

Frederick Stanley Groves Jr., the son of Frederick S. Groves Sr., grew up in the Groves Mansion and, around this time, built himself and his wife (the daughter of Arthur Dorrance) the phenomenal house and grounds where the Cinnaminson High School is now.

Terrible that it mentions his “new $500 trap gun” since he later shot himself to death (1931). He was a big game hunter.

Even worse was “Biddle” Frishmuth (I’m sure Robert Biddle Frishmuth 1889-1923). He was also a suicide, just 4 years later (than the March 7, 1919 article at the beginning)

The clipping I found… said – incredibly considering your New Era clipping – that “The shotgun that Mr. Frishmuth used to end his life was the “pet gun” with which he had won many trophies at trapshooting.” 

R

It’s not all good news at rivertonhistory.com. -JMc

 

Historical Society of Riverton
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January 30, 2023

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