Marple in the 1850s: Part Four — Business
By Sam Pickard
This is Part Four of an ongoing series on Marple Township in the 1850s.
Part Three focuses on Farming in Marple during the 1850s.
Part Five focuses on Manufacturing in Marple during the 1850s.
In 2022, if a Marple Township resident wants to buy food, medicine, or clothing; needs their car worked on; or wants grab an adult beverage; they have a wide variety of businesses they can patronize. These are located in shopping centers, strip malls, and along roadsides throughout the township. As one might imagine, the situation was quite different in the 1850s. There were only a handful of businesses in the township during that decade, and most were clustered in Marple’s two villages (mentioned in the landscape post). While there were other small businesses (such as Edward Worrall’s blacksmith shop on Old Cedar Grove Road), this post will focus on the businesses in the crossroads villages of Marple Township.
Broomall/Drove Tavern
The first village is what would become known as Broomall when a post office was established there in 1868. In the 1850s it had no official name, and residents and businesses were instead identified by their proximity to one of the first businesses in Marple—the Drove Tavern.
The Drove Tavern had been established in 1800 and was located on the northeastern intersection of Sproul Road and West Chester Pike (now the site of the relocated portion of Sproul Road adjoining Armenian Delight). The Drove Tavern was in fact no longer a tavern during the 1850s, having been granted a liquor license for the last time in 1842. It continued to operate as an inn/hotel, but little is known about its proprietors during the 1850s. The 1850 census indicates that 26-year-old John Howard ran the inn and had likely married 37-year-old Margaretta McAfee, the widow of the previous innkeeper.[1]
By July 1856, George Barr had established himself at the Drove Tavern, which he “nicely fitted up” and “opened [as] an Ice Cream saloon,” though he also operated it as a hotel and restaurant.[2] An 1860 map of the Philadelphia area identifies a J. Lownes as the proprietor of the Drove Tavern, but by April of that year, 30-year-old Mary Flounders was operating the hotel, while her husband George B. Flounders ran a blacksmith shop across the street from Drove Tavern. Next to the blacksmith shop, George’s brother Edward Flounders had opened a wheelwright shop (where he made and repaired wooden wheels and wagons).[3] Each brother reported employed four men in their respective shops on the 1860 census.[4]
Across Sproul Road from the Drove Tavern was the general store operated in 1850 by 29-year-old Henry Haldeman and 20-year-old Samuel H. Jones. Haldeman presumably had taken over operation of the store from his father, Isaac Haldeman, who was then the proprietor of a store in Media.[5] In early 1856, 20-year-old Samuel C. Hale took over the store from Haldeman and Jones.[6] Through newspaper advertisements for his store, Hale has given us a wonderful glimpse into what a country store in the 1850s might be selling. In February 1856, he advertised “Cloths, Cassinetts, Cashmere, Silks, Callico, Cambric, Linen, Muslins d’Lains, Boots, mens and ladys’ Shoes—in short, everything that is usually kept in a well supplied Dry Goods Store,” as well as groceries and “Queens and Earthen Ware,” ceramics.[7] In June 1857 Hale advertised groceries, hardware, queensware, shoes, and seasonal clothing for men, women, and boys “of the latest styles and most fashionable designs.”[8]
If a visitor or resident wanted a stiff drink after shopping and ice cream, they could always head about a third of a mile to the east on West Chester Pike to find the Buck Tavern, which in 1850 was operated by Samuel C. Hale’s father, Samuel Hale (senior). The elder Hale had been the proprietor of the Buck Tavern since 1833, but according to Delaware County historian Henry Graham Ashmead, he was denied liquor license renewal in 1855, 1856, and 1857 for unknown reasons. Hale himself seems to have decided to “retire” in 1855, telling the Delaware County Republican that he “would not longer be answerable for the sins of those who kept low grog shops…”[9] A man named George Ball was granted a liquor license for the Buck Tavern in 1858, but denied in 1859, ending the Buck’s history as a tavern. Samuel Hale Sr.’s son Charles H. Hale applied for a license in 1860, but upon being denied, he instead opened a restaurant in the old tavern.[10]
While it might be expected that the Drove and Buck taverns accommodated cattle drovers, hucksters, farmers going to market or Philadelphia, and other travelers, they may also have catered to tourists looking for a farm to rent or just spend some time in the country. While now a suburb, Marple would have been a country retreat for city-dwellers in the 1850s. While little information is available about the “tourism industry” in the township during this time, farm houses such as one owned by G. Maris were rented “for the Summer season,” and Marple farmer John Taylor allegedly built a two-and-a-half-story mansion on Marple Road “for the accommodation of city boarders.”[11]
Marple P.O.
Marple Township’s other village, the location of the Marple Post Office since 1849, was located on the southern border of the township and was partially in neighboring Springfield Township. Like the future Broomall, it was centered around a tavern and store; in this case the Lamb Tavern and the Curtis store. The Lamb Tavern (which still operates as Anthony’s at the Lamb) is located in Springfield, but is bound on two sides by Marple Township. In the 1850s, the tavern was operated by Forrester Hoopes (1847-1853), George Worrall (1853-1858), Joseph H. Black (1858-1859) and George Worrall again (1859-1863).[12]
Just about 700 feet south of the Lamb Tavern was Ebenezer R. Curtis’ store at the corner of what is now Springfield and Old Sproul roads. As discussed in “Broomall (not Marple): A History of the Township’s Post Offices,” Curtis had become proprietor of the store in about 1831 and was then appointed the first postmaster of the newly-created Marple Post Office in August 1849.[13] Through the 1850s, Curtis and his wife Jane Dunwoody ran the store and post office, often with the assistance of store clerks like 19-year-old George Wetherill or 21-year-old Isaac L. Smith.[14]
Just to the west of the Curtis store, at the intersection of what are now Old Marple and Old Sproul Roads, were a blacksmith shop and a wheelwright shop.[15] The village blacksmith was John S. Moore, a middle-aged master smith whose shop was equipped with two bellows and two anvils, and employed one assistant—16-year-old Frederic Cride in 1850 and 22-year-old Wesley Haws in 1860.[16]
The wheelwright shop across from the blacksmith was run by William Dickenson (who was mentioned in both the posts on the landscape and people of Marple).[17] With a growing family, 33-year-old Dickinson purchased a farm in Marple and closed his wheelwright shop in the mid-1850s, advertising the business for sale in April 1856. The sale advertisement gives some indication of what one could find at a wheelwright shop and what was needed to conduct the business—two new and two used Dearborn wagons, a carriage, plow, ox yokes, several thousand feet of wood plank, 1500 seasoned wheel spokes, 200 seasoned wheel hubs, a grindstone, a “lot of tools, and many other articles not mentioned.”[18]
In addition to agriculture and commerce, industry formed a final notable sector of Marple Township’s economy in the 1850s. Next time, we’ll examine industry and manufacturing in Marple Township during the 1850s.
[1] Henry Graham Ashmead, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 583-584; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township, sheet 204A, lines 6-12.
[2] “Ice Cream,” advertisement, Delaware County American and Media Advertiser (Media, Pennsylvania), 30 July 1856; “Travels,” Delaware County American and Media Advertiser, 22 April 1857.
[3] D. J. Lake and S. N. Beers, Map of the Vicinity of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: John E. Gillette, C. K. Stone, 1860); 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 107, lines 35-40, page 108, lines 1-14; “Business Notices,” Delaware County American (Media, Pennsylvania), 4 April 1860.
[4] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 5, lines 9-11.
[5] Doug Humes, “Moore’s Store,” Marple Friends & Neighbors Magazine, February 2019, https://issuu.com/bestversionmedia6/docs/2988_marple_friends___neighbors_web_dda37af7dcc0fc/s/65269; Haldeman; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., sheet 204A, lines 1-5; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Media Borough, sheet 97A, lines 7-14; “Private Sale,” advertisement, Delaware County American and Media Advertiser, 27 February 1856, 3.
[6] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 109, lines 6-9.
[7] “A Change in Business,” advertisement, Delaware County American and Media Advertiser, 6 February 1856.
[8] “Look to Your Interest,” advertisement, Delaware County American and Media Advertiser, 17 June 1857.
[9] Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 584; “About to Retire From Business,” Delaware County Republican (Chester, Pennsylvania), 18 May 1855.
[10] Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 584; “Business Notices,” Delaware County American, 4 April 1860
[11] “A Farm House To Let,” advertisement, Public Ledger (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 20 June 1855, 4; “Marple Store,” editorial, Delaware County American and Media Advertiser, 17 June 1857.
[12] Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 731.
[13] Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 581.
[14] Sam Pickard, “Broomall (not Marple): A History of the Township’s Post Offices,” Marple History, 2 October 2020, https://marplehistory.com/broomall-not-marple-a-history-of-the-townships-post-offices/; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., sheet 203A, lines 20-23; 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 94, lines 28-34.
[15] Joshua W. Ash, Map of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Robert P. Smith, 1848).
[16] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 241, line 11; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., sheet 203A, lines 24-27; 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 94, lines 25-27.
[17] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 241, line 9; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Springfield Township, sheet 158A, lines 10-14.
[18] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 108, lines 15-24; Doug Humes, “Historic Marple Homes: Dickinson House,” Marple Friends & Neighbors Magazine, June 2019, https://issuu.com/bestversionmedia6/docs/2988_marple_friends___neighbors_web_a76eced24b8a35/s/107663; “Public Sale,” advertisement, Delaware County Republican, 28 March 1856.