< PreviousPhiladelphia and a Patent Medicine EmpireAt the time of Dr. Dyott’s death in 1861, an “intimate with the Doctor for many years” related the story of how his friend had gotten started in the patent medicine business: [Dr. Dyott] made blacking at night, with his own hands [in his basement lodging in Second or Third Street, above Chestnut], and sold it by day in his little shop above, brushing the buyer’s boots to show them how to use it. He soon found sale for all he could make, and wanting suitable bottles to put it in, (for it was liquid,) he walked up to the glass works, then in Kensington, to have them made, and not knowing the distance, or exactly how to get there, he preferred walking to getting a horse, for fear the turnpike toll would take too much of his money; for at that time he supposed it was as expensive to ride near Philadelphia, as it was near London.12 Thomas W. Dyott’s boot blacking was an instant success and the reason he was able to open a patent medicine warehouse just south of Chestnut Street at 57 South Second Street by January 24, 1807. He was listed for the first time in Philadelphia city directories in 1807. The first of many advertisements he was to run in the Philadelphia papers touted his “Patent Water Proof Brunswick Blacking.” From the beginning, Thomas had advertised a variety of patent family medicines for sale. Within a few months, he advertised LondonRye10 | Vol 2 | 2017 | River Chroniclesthat these medicines were prepared from recipes of the late Dr. Robertson, of Edinburgh. By April 1807, the patent medicines had supplanted his ads for boot blacking, and Thomas W. Dyott was spuriously claiming to be the grandson of the aforementioned Dr. Robertson.13Thomas must have realized the potential growth of the drug business and sent for his brother, John Boyd Dyott, to help. John arrived from London on September 16, 1807. The patent medicine business was moved up Second Street, close to Market Street, in June 1808. The brothers did not remain at this location for long. They continued moving northward, up to 116 North Second Street near Race Street. They had a medical dispensary up and running by February 1809. John Dyott began advertising himself as a London dentist, but listed himself in the city directory as a merchant. Thomas, in his full-fledged role as a medical practitioner, assumed the title of “Doctor.” It remained attached to him for the rest of his life.14In later years, looking back at the relationship he had with his brother, John Dyott would say “we lived together several years in London and Philadelphia, preparing and vending (Top) Dr. Dyott’s birthplace, the Parish of Iden, is just north of the town of Rye, East Sussex, England. John Rocque’s 1790 atlas map of England and Wales. Courtesy of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com.(Opposite) Dr. Dyott’s store at Second and Race Streets. David McNeely Stauffer Collection (1095), vol. 29, p. 2322, digital reference number 14008, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. these medicines. I have the duplicates of the original recipes, from the time we first became possessed of them, and a deed of copartnership drawn in his [Thomas’s] own hand writing.” The brothers were soon to part ways. John married and settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where he set up a dental practice, but also sold patent medicines.15Family TiesThomas W. Dyott married 20-year-old Elizabeth Eansworth on Saturday, May 21, 1808, at Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. They were married by the Reverend Joseph Pilmore, an early adherent of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement within the Anglican Church. Elizabeth, like Thomas, was an English immigrant whose family had arrived in Philadelphia in 1801.16The Eansworths were from the southern part of Staffordshire, a center of iron production and hardware manufacture. Elizabeth’s father, Benjamin—in partnership with fellow Briton, Samuel Jolley—established a cutlery and hardware store on Chestnut Street, and soon moved to a prime location on Market Street.17 Benjamin Eansworth died of a fever in March 1809 at the age of 53. Having left no will, his wife, Martha, was appointed to be the administrator of his estate. Benjamin’s half of the hardware business was initially appraised at $12,600, but over the following three years, the value of the partnership was reduced to just over $8,000. Martha received one-third of the estate settlement, the common allowance for a widow. Benjamin’s sole heir, Elizabeth Eansworth Dyott, inherited the remainder. Between June 1810 and April 1812, Elizabeth and Thomas Dyott received a total of $5,254.13, the equivalent of $96,600 in today’s money.18In 1810, Thomas W. Dyott was enumerated as the head of a household living at 116 North Second Street—the corner of Race and Second Streets. He gave his occupation as “Doctor of Physic and Druggist.” His household of seven included his wife, Elizabeth, his mother-in-law, Martha, and his baby girl. A young man and woman are also enumerated. The identity of the remaining inhabitant, a man above 45, is unknown.19Thomas and Elizabeth Dyott had eight children. By 1820, he had a household of sixteen people, four of whom worked with him in the business. Among his neighbors were Daniel Man, later to become one of his main creditors, and Samuel Sneed (also spelled Sneyd), who became the Methodist minister in charge of Dyottville. Dr. Dyott owned a dwelling and a store on Race Street and another store on Second Street. The total valuation for his real-estate holdings was $25,800. Dr. Dyott was known for having one of the most extravagant coaches and equipage in Philadelphia, complete with liveried outriders. His tax records verify the ownership of two carriages and a gig.20 In 1827, Thomas’s brother John died in South Carolina. In his will, John asked his brother to look after his wife, Julia, and son, Charles. Julia arrived with children, Charles and Ann, in July 1827 and they became part of the Thomas W. Dyott household. Julia was put to work in the glass store. The extended Dyott family was enlarged by the addition of brother Michael Boyd Dyott and his family. They arrived in Philadelphia from Liverpool on November 28, 1829. Michael and his wife, Maria, were both 40 years old. Michael had used his birth name while in England. In 1816, Michael Boyd had married Maria Wells in Worcester. They had six children while living in Worcestershire and three survived to immigrate to America. Michael Boyd owned a large farm in Worcestershire and had a business as a victualler in the city of Worcester. In 1826, he went bankrupt and the farm was auctioned off. The offer from America to run his brother’s glass factory must have seemed like an answer to a prayer.21AfterwardDr. Dyott was at the pinnacle of success when he opened the Manual Labor Bank in February 1836. From a twenty-first-century perspective, many of the banking practices of the 1830s seem highly risky. When the Panic of 1837 caused a run on the bank, Dr. Dyott did not believe he would fail; if he could buy some time, he would get through. Even after being convicted of concealing goods and money among his family members, he protested his innocence. The press became more sympathetic to his advanced age and circumstances. Visitors reported he was cheerful in prison because he had no money worries. He was pardoned in May 1841 and promptly arrested and committed to the debtors’ apartment at Moyamensing prison. He remained there for a few weeks, until he was released and discharged from debt under the insolvent laws of Pennsylvania.22In 1860, 84-year-old Dr. Dyott boarded with a widow and her two children. The household was affluent enough to afford two live-in servants. Dr. Dyott claimed to own no real estate, but estimated his personal worth to be $700. He died the following January of “old age.” Dr. Dyott had outlived many of his harshest critics. Even newspapers outside of Philadelphia couldn’t resist the story of a man who had made and lost fortunes. It was noted that having lost everything, he had restarted his pharmacy business with his sons at the same location on the corner of Second and Race Streets. The family became prosperous and Dr. Dyott lived an exemplary life.23 12 | Vol 2 | 2017 | River Chronicles(Top) This crude bottle was recovered in June 2017 from a domestic privy feature within a few blocks of the historic location of Dyott’s drug store and was probably originally purchased there. This rare example represents one of just a handful of similar known variants. Mouth-blown in a two-piece mold, it has a blowpipe pontil scar on its slightly out-of-round base and stands about 4.25 inches high. Photograph by Thomas J. Kutys, 2017.(Right) Cutting and removing a section of the octagonal log exposed the central bore hole. This log may have been used as a drain, carrying water from inland areas to the creek side of the wharf wall. AECOM project photograph, 2012.RECLAIMEDFrom “Cripple” and “Spatterdocks” to Fastland and Factory FloorDouglas Mooney and William BulgerIn 1833, Thomas W. Dyott stated that his factory stood “immediately on the bank of the river, whose margin is braced by well constructed wharves, affording all the cheap facilities of water carriage, for the materials consumed in the factory as well as the glass which it manufactures.” This, however, was not always the case. River Chronicles | Vol 2 | 2017 | 13Beach StreetHewson Calico Works & Dyottville Glass WorksDetail on adjacent pageRichmond StreetSchirra LaneFormer Gunner’s Run/Aramingo CanalApproximate extent of the 18th-century fastland at high tideApproximate shoreline following the construction of Hewson’s circa–1807 wharfShoreline following the construction of Dyott’s circa–1830 wharfSolid Lines: Historically mapped or archaeologically confirmed wharf/shoreline locationsDotted Lines: Approximate wharf/shoreline based on available historical information1870s sand house1830 Dyott wharfCirca-1807 Hewson wharf2012 excavation of Dyottville Glass WorksFormer Gunner’s Run/Aramingo Canal(Aerial Map and Detail) 2015 City of Philadelphia AccuPlus Orthomosaic, City of Philadelphia, Pictometry International Corp, September 25, 2015, http://www.pasda.psu.edu/. Geospatial analysis by Richie Roy.At the start of the eighteenth century, the land that would later become the site of the Dyottville Glass Works lay at the southernmost point in merchant Anthony Palmer’s nearly 600-acre estate, named Hope Farm, and consisted of a low-lying peninsula bracketed by the confluence of the Delaware River and a small tributary stream known as Gunner’s Run. Comprised of wild and unimproved ground outside the limits of Philadelphia, this location was subject to twice-daily tidal inundation, was poorly suited for agricultural purposes, and was dominated by expanses of meadow land and “cripple.”1 Higher elevated ground on the margins of the water’s edge was home to dense patches of ferns and tall grasses, as well as plants like marsh elder, goosefoot, and wild grapes.2 The floodplains adjacent to this site consisted of mud flats that measured up to 100 yards wide at low tide and which supported lush entangled networks of “spatterdocks.”3While Palmer appears to have done little during his tenure to make this location more habitable and inviting, the same was not true of the property’s next owner. In 1729, William Ball purchased Palmer’s estate, renamed it Richmond Hall, and in short order began to put formerly marginal meadowland to more profitable uses. As early as 1740, Ball advertised in local newspapers that he now had available for rent three lots of land, encompassing a total of 13 acres, located at the confluence of the Delaware River and Gunner’s Run. More specifically, he noted that these lots consisted of drained meadow, implying that steps had been recently taken (possibly ditching) to dewater this formerly swampy ground and that the land was now “fit for Buildings.”4 Later accounts suggest that portions of these properties might have been rendered habitable in part through the deposition of fill soils and the creation of raised “made ground.”5 16 | Vol 2 | 2017 | River ChroniclesAs it turns out, Ball’s mid-eighteenth-century efforts to improve this site were just the first of at least three primary undertakings designed to adapt the location for expanded industrial development. Despite his good intentions, Ball’s work here appears not to have attracted significant commercial activity until the years preceding the Revolutionary War. In 1771, Robert Towers and Joseph Leacock purchased land from the Ball estate and constructed one of Pennsylvania’s earliest glass factories, called the Philadelphia Glass Works, on land fronting the Delaware River, just upstream from the mouth of Gunner’s Run.6 Other early tenants of this land appear to have included “Mr. Clark, a dyer from Scotland,” who occupied a lot bordering Gunner’s Run and who constructed a small dyehouse and possibly a simple residence, as well.7 In 1774, John Hewson came to Philadelphia from England and established a calico printing business here, constructing both a home and several printing-related buildings on these lots. The relatively small size of the Ball lots at Gunner’s Run seems to have been a key factor, limiting their industrial utility by imposing restrictions on the nature and scale of commercial expansion at this location. The second significant effort to improve the industrial potential of this site occurred in 1807–1808, when John Hewson paid for the construction of a new timber wharf on the mud flats that bordered the Ball lots. This wharf extended from the glassworks on the Delaware to the Queen’s Road (Richmond Street) bridge over Gunner’s Run, and its construction had the effect of enlarging the suitable fastland within the property some 15–20 feet beyond the high-water mark, helping to prevent its occasional flooding and securing for productive use additional land normally inundated by high tides. Later, in 1811, John Hewson Jr. took over the calico printing business, which included the “dye or copper house” his father built at the edge of Gunner’s Run, on his fastland expansion.8 Archaeological excavations of portions of the Dyottville Glass Works completed in 2012 resulted in the identification and documentation of not only Hewson’s dyehouse foundations, but also of the remnants of the 1808 timber wharf cribbing that lay directly beneath the western stone wall of that building.The last major alteration of this site intended to promote industrial growth occurred after John Hewson Jr. converted the dyehouse into the Kensington Glass Works (1816) and Dr. Thomas W. Dyott purchased the property in November 1830. In the process of creating his Dyottville Glass Works complex, Dyott sought to further enlarge the amount of buildable made ground within the site, and accomplished this with the construction of a second timber wharf in the margins of the Gunner’s Run stream channel. The completion of this wharf allowed Dyott to reclaim approximately 30 feet of the former mud flats along Gunner’s Run.9 Samples of the waste glass and slag used to fill in behind this second wharf were recovered during the excavation of the glassworks in 2012. A segment of the intact wharf Dyott built was exposed and documented within a portion of what is now Dyott Street during the installation of a new sewer conduit in 2014. River Chronicles | Vol 2 | 2017 | 17(Opposite) Excavations under stone and brick foundations at the Dyottville site revealed log wharf structures believed to be associated with efforts to reclaim and stabilize land along the banks of Gunner’s Run. Cut logs were stacked horizontally to form cells that were filled in with material collected from the adjacent mud flats. In the foreground, an octagonal cut log, possibly a repurposed well pump, runs perpendicular to the wharf and through the wharf wall. AECOM project photograph, 2012.(Top) The wharf logs were located under the stone foundations of Hewson’s dyehouse (converted to Kensington Glass Works in 1816), indicating that the wharf predated these structures and was likely part of John Hewson Sr.’s 1807–1808 land-reclamation efforts. The wharf structure extends beyond the glasshouse foundations. AECOM project photograph, 2012. With the progression of improvements to land between Gunner’s Run and the Delaware River in Kensington, the area evolved into a hotbed of early American industry. As early as 1771, the strategic location attracted entrepreneurs in the glass industry who needed waterways to safely transport their fragile wares. A calico and linen printing factory and steel and iron furnaces soon followed. These businesses, as well as the families running them, became intertwined. Due to the frequent changes in land ownership, business partnerships, and different glasshouses having the same name at various points in time, the history of Dyottville Glass Works is anything but crystal clear.The first known glass factory in Kensington was just north of the future site of the Dyottville Glass Works and would eventually be part of the flourishing Dyottville compound. In October 1771, William Ball, the owner of this waterfront property, conveyed a piece of land from his country estate outside of the family for the first time. Robert Towers, a skinner, and Joseph Leacock, a watchmaker, immediately built a glasshouse—the Philadelphia Glass Works—on their approximately 150-x-200-foot parcel.1 This lot is featured on the Sidney 1849 map of Kensington. In January and March 1772, Towers and Leacock advertised for broken flint glass and alkaline salts used in making glass, as well as workmen for the factory.2 Their request for broken glass, called cullet, is not unusual. Specifying flint glass indicates that they were trying to make colorless lead glass tableware in the popular English fashion. It had been six years since Philadelphia’s merchants and tradesmen had subscribed to a non-importation agreement that substantially cut the flow of British goods into Philadelphia, putting glassware in short supply. Experienced workers were hard to find, as the British forbade their emigration and the establishment of glass factories in the colonies. Despite the ready market for glass, Towers and Leacock were not able to make it a profitable business. They sold the glassworks with all the equipment and supplies on hand to looking-glass merchant John Elliott Sr. and his family in November 1772 for £400 (about $29,000 in today’s money).3 Trade disruptions and spiraling commodity prices during the Revolutionary War affected operation of the glassworks. The glasshouse property was put up for sale in April 1777 and the entire stock of glassware sold off the following month. The stock included “a great variety of bottles, jars, case bottles, cut and plain decanters, retorts, cylanders, barrel, globe, and common lamps, plain and silvered globes, etc.”4 18 | Vol 2 | 2017 | River ChroniclesThe Old Glass WorksIngrid A. WuebberDYOTTVILLEBEFORERiver Chronicles | Vol 2 | 2017 | 19The Elliott family sold the glassworks to Scottish merchant Thomas Leiper in 1780. Leiper was Philadelphia’s principal tobacco merchant and the owner of snuff mills on Crum Creek in Chester County (now Delaware County). Investing capital in an American glass factory was advantageous, having been cut off from his Scottish snuff bottle supplier during the Revolutionary War.5 The Philadelphia Glass Works had been advertised as having a 38-x-42-foot brick glasshouse containing an air furnace and annealing oven; a 24-x-12-foot brick throw house (pottery) with a mixing room; a 16-x-24-foot frame store house with a brick end; and a 26-x-27-foot two-story frame dwelling house. Other features of the glasshouse property included a grinding mill, blacksmith’s shop, a water well with a good pump, and a baking oven—all of which was surrounded by a 7-foot-high board fence.6 After operating sporadically under multiple leases and changes in ownership, James Rowland and James Butland became sole proprietors of the glassworks in 1804.7 The American trade embargo put into place in December 1807 kicked off a manufacturing boom in Philadelphia. In August 1808, James Rowland announced that the “Kensington Glass Works” (emphasis added) were “now in compleat order” and would begin operation later in the month. Bottles could be ordered at the glassworks or at his iron store on North Second near Arch Street. James Rowland ran the advertisement twice a week until December 1808. In 1810, wealthy attorney Elisha Gordon became James Rowland’s new business partner. Rowland and Gordon operated a steel furnace on the glasshouse lot.8 Meanwhile, the glass factory may have continued in operation intermittently. In 1812, large lots of seltzer and snuff bottles—along with 3,000 bushels of Virginia coal—were sold off. Selling the fuel for the glass furnace was an indication that operations had halted again. The presence of the glass factory was not mentioned when James Butland sold his share in the property in 1815 or in tax records in 1816 and 1819. James Rowland continued to operate his steel furnace on the former glasshouse lot until his death in 1831. The property was inherited by his sons, Joseph and James Rowland. When Joseph sold his share in the property to his brother, James, only steel furnaces were present on the lot. James Rowland sold the former glasshouse lot to Thomas W. Dyott for $12,100 in 18339. In period documents, this lot is often referred to as “the old glass works” or “Rowland’s.”Dyottville archaeological excavation site and the approximate location of the 1771 Philadelphia Glass Works, known as “the old glass works.” Detail of Map of City of Philadelphia together with all the surrounding districts, J. C. Sidney, 1849. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Frankford.Archaeological excavation site1771 glassworks propertyNext >