< PrevioustheGEOMORPHOLOGYof thePEGG’S RUNNORTH SITEElisabeth A. LavignePART IIIThe Original LandscapeThe city of Philadelphia was originally laid out on a high, flat terrace bound to the north by a steep bluff overlooking a low meadow and wetland, through which Pegg’s Run wound its way into the Delaware River. This stream was once called Cohoquinoque Creek, derived from the Lenni-Lenape word cuwequenáku, which means “the grove of long pine trees.”1 The creek was historically named Pegg’s Run after a Quaker brickmaker named Daniel Pegg, who bought 350 acres of land in 1686—encompassing almost all of what is today known as Northern Liberties.2 Based on historic cartographic data, Pegg’s Run was likely a second-order creek fed by springs and small tributaries, winding through a valley at the base of high terraces to the north and south before spilling into the Delaware River. Its previous route is now visible in the meandering path of Willow Street, below which the creek was culverted and buried during the early nineteenth century after complaints about the pollution and filth being spilled into the open running water.3 John Watson’s nineteenth-century account regarding Pegg’s Run4 provides a picture of the topography and environment that is invaluable when trying to grasp the extent of change to the original landforms that has occurred in this part of Philadelphia. Watson described the southern edge of the valley as a high, steep bluff overlooking Pegg’s Run to the north. On the north side of the creek was “an extensive marsh into which the Delaware flowed, and into which, in cases of freshets or floods, boats could be used.”5 The marsh vegetation was apparently abundant when it was not flooded. The northern edge of the creek valley was marked by a “steep but green hill descending into the marsh, at about one hundred and fifty feet in the south rear of Noble street.”6 Watson’s sketch7 indicates that the northern bank was approximately 20 feet higher than the valley bottom near the place where the stream flowed into the Delaware River. Of interest is Watson’s memory of several occasions when floods in the Delaware backed the creek valley up so much that boats rowed from bank to bank between Front and Third Streets.8 Detail of Philadelphia in 1702: The Centennial city, when twenty years old, a lithograph by Smith & Cremens, circa 1875, showing the high banks of Pegg’s Run on the right. Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia on Stone Digital Catalog, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A66181.River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 21By the turn of the nineteenth century, significant anthropogenic (caused or influenced by humans) changes were already being made to the creek’s environment and discharge avenues. Bridges and walkways spanning from bluff to bluff were built. Watson mentions that an earthen embankment was built all along the side of Pegg’s Run.9 Watson also discusses the beginning of the creek valley’s infilling: The filling up was not a short work; it became long a deposit for all the loose rubbish of the city—first, the corporation who filled up the streets, then the occupant or builder of each house would bring a little earth for his yard, and support his enclosure with stakes, etc., until another would build alongside of him; and he would frame rough steps up to his door until successive deposits of earth, as time and means would enable, have enabled them, at last to bring their streets now to a general level.10 Geomorphological SurveyBased on the early cartographic documentation of the Pegg’s Run North Site area, it was apparent that our excavations were likely located on the northern slope above the original creek valley floor. Montressor’s 1777 survey of Philadelphia shows the best topographic information regarding the slope around Pegg’s Run. An additional geomorphological survey was conducted to confirm this. Two augers and a deep trench were excavated in addition to excavation units in order to identify any buried ground surfaces and to form a general understanding of the landscape changes over time.02Feet0 ft bgs – 5 ft bgs –7.7 ft bgs –9.2 ft bgs –11.7 ft bgs –13.5 ft bgs –14 ft bgs –17 ft bgs –1234567812345678Modern Fill19th-Century Fill(silt loam - sandy silt)18th-Century Yard Deposit(sandy silt)Erosional or Flood Deposition(sandy silt)Erosional or Flood Deposition(silty fine-medium sand)Ab Horizon(sandy loam with fragments of wood, a piece of shell, and a brick fragment)Alluvial Sand(silty fine sand and coarse sand)Gravel(Unexcavated)Pegg’s Run SiteRepresentative Sediment Profile bgs=below ground surfaceGraphic by Nina Shinn.22 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesOnce archaeological excavation began, 5 feet of modern fill and debris were removed before encountering nineteenth-century deposits. Below these deposits were two eighteenth-century yard surfaces, both gently sloping to the south. Below the eighteenth-century deposits was a thick packet of what appeared to be water-lain sediment. Fine laminations and a series of fining upwards sequences were visible. Artifacts were recovered in limited amounts within this context. It was not possible to determine whether these sediments were deposited during large flood events like those Watson mentions, in which the whole Pegg’s Run area from bank to bank was tidally flooded, or if these could be a series of colluvial/slope wash deposits coming from higher up the slope. Early historical clearing of the land certainly did cause massive erosional events along waterways. The 1.5- to 2-foot-thick deposit may be evidence of this occurrence.Two augers were excavated at the base of Excavation Units 3 and 4 (see map, page 17). An approximate 1.8 additional feet of silty fine to medium sand was recovered before encountering an Ab horizon (buried ground surface). This fine to medium sand stratum was encountered at the base of several of the units and the archaeologists documented a few artifact fragments. The dark brown sandy loam buried surface was only approximately 0.6 feet thick and contained fragments of wood, a piece of shell, and a brick fragment. Below this layer was approximately 3 feet of gleyed (waterlogged) horizons of silty fine sand and coarse sand before hitting gravels at around 17 feet below the original ground surface. When archaeologists tested the buried Ab horizon, they found it to be devoid of any additional artifacts.After the archaeological excavations were completed, a large exploratory trench was excavated in an attempt to view the deeper stratigraphy. Due to the water table, sediment saturation, and safety issues, the trench did not reach beyond 17 feet and no entry was made into the trench. The deepest Ab horizon was confirmed to be 14 feet below modern ground surface. Based on visual inspection of the trench profile and the deeper depth of the Ab horizon in the southern auger, this surface also sloped down to Pegg’s Run. 05001,0001,500175218022,000FeetDetail of A map of Philadelphia and parts adjacent: with a perspective view of the State-House by Nicholas Scull, George Heap, and L. Hebert, showing the location of the Pegg’s Run North Site, 1752. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, https://www.loc.gov/item/98690000/.Detail of A survey of the city of Philadelphia and its environs shewing the several works constructed by His Majesty’s troops, under the command of Sir William Howe, since their possession of that city 26th. September 1777, comprehending likewise the attacks against Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, and until it’s reduction, 16th November 1777 by Nicole Pierre and John Montrésor, 1777. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, https://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000933/.Detail of To the citizens of Philadelphia, this new plan of the city and its environs is respectfully dedicated by the editor by Charles Varle, 1802. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, https://www.loc.gov/item/2018590113/.1777River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 23ConclusionsThe geomorphological survey was able to identify the earliest buried ground surface that existed during European occupation and most likely during the precontact period at approximately 14 feet below today’s ground surface. The color and texture of this horizon indicated that this area was stable and unsaturated during soil development. An influx of silty fine-coarse sand was deposited over this surface during the historic period, related either to erosional slope wash due to land-clearing activities or due to a series of flood events that could have been exacerbated by a restriction of Pegg’s Run outlet into the Delaware. 050Due to the fact that thick fill episodes were not evident below the eighteenth-century surfaces, the Pegg’s Run North Site is likely positioned towards the top of the northern slopes above Pegg’s Run. Eventually, the original slope—used by sledding boys in the days of Watson’s memory—was fully buried as the creek valley was filled in to reclaim more land for the sprawling city. The area immediately south of the Pegg’s Run North Site was archaeologically tested, but these early ground surfaces were never encountered, likely due to the fact that the original ground surface towards the base of the northern slope extended down beyond the reach of the backhoe and into the valley through which Pegg’s Run once flowed.– 0 ft– 4 ft– 8 ft– 12 ft– 16 ft– 20 ft– 24 ft2311235445Current GradePegg’s Run, now culvertedMarshBuried Surface18th-Century Ground SurfaceGraphic representation of Pegg’s Run Valley and adjacent bluffs showing eighteenth century sloping ground surface; view to the west. Graphic by Nina Shinn.Pegg’s Run ValleyBased on Watson’s Account and Archaeological Survey 24 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesThe archaeological investigation at Pegg’s Run has proven John Watson’s observations on the complexity of the Pegg’s Run stream changes to be quite accurate. Excavation of the north bank of Pegg’s Run has corroborated Watson’s memories in revealing the eighteenth-century sloping landscape, along with artifacts and stone foundations of the time period. Later fill episodes and related artifacts and building foundations that formed the nineteenth- and twentieth-century landscapes were also revealed. The geomorphological trench has uncovered the eighteenth-century elevations and location of the pre-urban stream bank that Watson accurately notes in his sketch. And there is much more to the complex story of Pegg’s Run for later issues of River Chronicles to explore. What did we learn?River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 25BOTTLES TO BANKRUPTCYCLARIDGE & RUDOLPH’S ENIGMATIC EAGLE GLASS WORKSSamuel A. Pickard Thomas J. KutysPhiladelphia apothecaries expanded into the glassmaking business on the shores of the Delaware River only to have the venture end in bankruptcy and litigation. One could be forgiven for thinking the previous sentence refers to the story of the infamous Dr. Thomas W. Dyott, but the case in question occurred over a decade after Dyott’s fall from grace.1 Druggists William R. Claridge and James F. Rudolph purchased the Eagle Glass Works in 1847, but quickly ran into financial issues that would doom the fledgling glass factory. Within two years, they were forced from the industry and both men returned to their drug stores. Until now, little has been written about Eagle. It was “still a mystery glassworks,” according to glass historian Helen McKearin in 1970; little had changed eight years later when she and Kenneth M. Wilson published the encyclopedic American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry.2 Some recent work has even been downright dismissive regarding the attribution of bottles to this glassworks.3 Fortunately for historians and archaeologists, Eagle’s final proprietors left a trail of records that have allowed us for the first time to paint a picture of their lives and business dealings, shedding light on this little-known glassworks and the men behind its final years.William Richard Claridge was born in Philadelphia to English immigrant Philip J. Claridge and his wife, Hannah Santloe, on June 29, 1810.4 Though his father was a grocer-turned-milliner, it seems likely that Claridge was apprenticed to a local druggist or apothecary and entered into business for himself in his early 20s. In early 1833, an advertisement for W. R. Claridge’s Depurating Syrup, featuring a woodcut illustrating the good Samaritan parable, ran in the Pennsylvanian. Multiple testimonials claimed that the syrup could treat everything from pimples to diseased bones to syphilis. Claridge does not appear to have sold the medicine himself initially, as the principal retail agent was Daniel H. George, a druggist at Fourth and Race Streets.5 By May 1834, however, Claridge had established himself in a drugstore at the corner of Queen and Hanover (now Richmond and East Columbia) Streets in Kensington. His business appears to have prospered, and to better serve city clientele, Claridge opened an office at Third and Cherry Streets in Philadelphia in addition to his Kensington store. As well as marketing his cures himself, Claridge authorized a number of other druggists in Philadelphia and the surrounding area to sell his medicines. These druggists included Frederick Klett, a cofounder of the Philadelphia College of Apothecaries who had a store on the northeast corner of Second and Callowhill Streets, and Holmes & Smith in Bridgeton, New Jersey.6 In September 1838, Claridge purchased a 15-acre farm in Deptford Township, New Jersey, from Philadelphia furniture merchant Wallace Lippincott for $600. He subsequently sold the rights to his medicines and business to J. T. Hotchkiss, a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, and moved to the farm with his ailing father, Philip, who died on July 4, 1839. Claridge failed to pay his mortgage debt to Lippincott, and the sheriff seized the farm in July 1841. Bereft of his farm, Claridge returned to Philadelphia and, by 1842, he was back on Queen and Hanover Streets, presumably having purchased the business back from Hotchkiss, who earned his M.D. that year.7 Several months after Philip Claridge’s death, his daughter, Charlotte, married Philadelphia resident James Ferdinand Rudolph in Woodbury, New Jersey. The 22-year-old son of German-born tailor John F. Rudolph, James was also a young druggist, and by 1843, he was operating a store at Tenth and Ogden Streets in the Spring Garden District, north of what were then the city limits. The brothers-in-law sold each other’s medicines (such as Claridge’s Compound Syrup of Buckthorn and Rudolph’s Infant’s Friend), as well as those developed by other local druggists.8 In early 1847, Claridge and Rudolph expanded their business interests beyond preparing and selling medicine. Perhaps motivated by a desire to ensure a cheap supply of bottles for their medicines, they entered into a partnership—Claridge & Rudolph—and purchased the Eagle Glass Works in the Richmond District. The glassworks had been built in the summer of 1845 with a seven-pot furnace on the banks of the Delaware River, at the foot of what is now East York Street, to the north of the I. P. Morris Iron Works. While little is known about its first year and a half of operation, between October 1845 and February 1847, it likely operated as a cooperative venture by five self-proclaimed “practical glass blowers.”9,10 Eagle had been established as a bottle factory, and in October 1845 the then owners boasted in an advertisement that “Our Porter Bottle is equal in strength to the best Bristol Bottle in the market, and a great deal cheaper.” Four months later they advertised blue, brown, and green mineral water bottles in addition to porter and brown stout bottles. After Claridge & Rudolph took over the works their wares listed in an 1849 advertisement included “Druggists’ Vials and Bottles, Ink and Cologne Bottles; Blue, Red and Green Mineral Water Bottles, and Porter Bottles.”11All of the known marked Eagle Glass Works bottles feature a form commonly called the “porter shape,” typically associated with beer bottles in the middle of the nineteenth century, though they easily could have been Photograph of Eagle Glass Works partner James F. Rudolph taken by his wife, photographer Julia Ann Rudolph, circa 1870. Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California. River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 27used for soda and mineral waters, as well.12 That being said, Eagle Glass Works may never have actually produced bottle forms particular to mineral waters, or if they did, such bottles lacked any identifying embossing, thus making them difficult to now associate with the works. Likewise, any “Druggists’ Vials and Bottles, Ink and Cologne Bottles” would not traditionally have been marked by the glass factory, so similar attributions to Eagle would be difficult. Appropriately, all of the known bottles bear the embossing “EAGLE WORKS / PHILADA.” on the lower part of the bottles, and are documented in blue, green, and dark aqua colors.13 No Eagle Glass Works bottles are known in their advertised “Red” color—though if such bottles were made, “Red” likely referred to a reddish-amber or puce shade. Very subtle differences in the known Eagle bottles indicate that at least four individual molds were used to produce their bottles.14Perhaps the most significant Eagle Glass Works–related artifact found to date is a green end-of-day tumbler, blown using an Eagle Glass Works bottle mold. Recovered behind the former 603 Richmond Street property during archaeological excavations along I-95, this extraordinary tumbler’s presence in Fishtown only further validates the existence and bottle production of the Eagle Glass Works, once situated only blocks away. A blower at the Eagle Glass Works made this tumbler and took it home for his personal use or gave it to a relative, friend, or neighbor. In short, this object would not have traveled far from its point of production. The bottles described previously and marked “EAGLE WORKS / PHILADA.” were made at the short-lived Eagle Glass Works in the Richmond District under Claridge & Rudolph’s ownership and/or that of the previous partners. There should be no doubt regarding this.Unfortunately for the partners, they soon ran into financial difficulties. In November 1847, Frederick Klett & Co. sued Claridge & Rudolph over an unpaid debt of $2,500. Though the source of the debt is unknown, it was presumably related to start-up costs for Claridge & Rudolph’s new business venture. The court issued a levy upon the partners’ property in the summer of 1848 for The location of Eagle Glass Works noted on J. C. Sidney’s 1849 Map of the City of Philadelphia in relation to other local glassworks. From the collections of the Historical Society of Frankford.Advertisement for Eagle Glass Works in the 1849 edition of O’Brien’s Philadelphia Wholesale Business Directory and United States, South America, and West India Circular. Note the variety of forms and colors of bottles advertised. Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia.28 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River Chroniclesthe payment of the debt, but before their property could be seized, Claridge and Rudolph entered into an agreement with Klett and his partner, Josiah W. Dallam, which they hoped would be their financial salvation. In exchange for a note promising to pay $1,000 to Klett & Co., one year from September 2, 1848, the latter would stop the proceedings against Claridge & Rudolph and, once given further promissory notes from the partners, would consider their debt satisfied. These further promissory notes, payable two years from September 7, 1848, were for $951.58 and $580.02, from Claridge and Rudolph, respectively. As a guarantee to Klett & Co., Edwin Young endorsed the initial $1,000 note. As the superintendent of the House of Refuge, an institution for homeless or delinquent youth, Young was considered “a good and safe man.”15 The three notes, amounting to $2,531.60, covered the debt and the interest that had accrued on it. Because of their agreement with Klett and Dallam, Claridge and Rudolph supposed that the execution of the judgement against them would be removed and that they would now be able to access the credit they desperately needed to keep their glassworks in business. They were wrong. Klett and Dallam now claimed that the initial $1,000 note was merely a payment to stop their proceedings against Claridge & Rudolph, and they were still owed an additional $1,000. Claridge & Rudolph may have borrowed $600 from Young, but were nonetheless forced to sell off everything at Eagle Glass Works in May 1849—molds, blowpipes, chairs, desks, wagons, and horses—taking a great loss in the process. The partners argued before the Philadelphia County District Court that they had satisfied their half of the agreement with Klett & Co. by presenting the three required notes. The note Young endorsed was not merely to obtain a stay of the proceedings against them, but also counted toward their debt. Young had intended that his endorsement of the note would help end Claridge & Rudolph’s financial difficulties, which would not have been the case if it had merely stayed the proceedings. Despite their argument, the district court ruled against them.16 The case was appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which on February 27, 1851, reversed the lower court’s ruling. Despite Frederick Klett & Co.’s assertion that the agreement contained two independent parts—one stopping the proceedings and another considering the debt satisfied when the promissory notes were given—the court wrote that “it is impossible to regard the transaction in any other light than as a whole.”17 They further specified in their opinion that:We cannot for a moment believe that the note for $1000 was given by the defendants, including Young, who endorsed it, merely, as contended by Klett & Co., for a stay of process, without even specifying any time. Such an interpretation would be enormous.18 The Supreme Court determined that though Claridge & Rudolph had fulfilled their portion of the agreement, Klett & Co. had not held up their end. Klett & Co. would continue in vain to seek legal recourse to their claim and litigation stretched into the second half of the 1850s. Despite Claridge and Rudolph’s legal victory, it had come too late to save their faltering business—Eagle Glass Works was dead.19 The works may have been dismantled within a year of the 1849 sale, as no depiction of the glassworks can be identified in an 1850 view of the Delaware River shoreline that clearly shows the neighboring iron works.20 Archaeological evidence relating to the May 1849 sale of the Eagle Glass Works property has recently surfaced during excavations along I-95. A green Eagle Glass Works bottle with its embossing slugged out not only ties in directly with the legal proceedings between Claridge & Rudolph and Klett & Co., but indicates that someone continued to use Eagle’s old bottle molds following the glass factory’s demise. This bottle’s dimensions are exact in every way to those of known Eagle Glass Works bottles, and the slugged-out areas correspond precisely with the embossing locations on marked examples. The location of the bottle’s recovery—the site of Klett’s store and residence—further validates its Eagle attribution.After the dust settled from their venture into the glass industry, Claridge and Rudolph returned to running their respective drug stores, though both changed their locations in 1849. Claridge moved his residence farther up Queen Street and his store to the southwest corner of Fourth and Brown Streets in Northern Liberties. In about 1852, he brought the business back to Kensington and eventually established himself at the corner of Richmond and Palmer Streets. Claridge instructed young pharmacists and served for three decades as a district physician for the Philadelphia Hospital before dying in March 1893 as an esteemed and respected member of his community.21 James F. Rudolph followed a more adventurous career path than this his brother-in-law. He had moved his business and family to the northwest corner of Ninth and Poplar Streets in May 1849; tragically, his wife, Charlotte, died of consumption the following year. (Ironically, her husband advertised the sale of several alleged cures for consumption, such as Townsend’s Sarsaparilla and Nuttall’s Syriacum.)22 In early 1854, Rudolph left his children in the care of his mother and journeyed west to California, settling in Nevada City. Here, he met and married photographer Julia Ann Swift, establishing a drug store below her photography studio. The couple moved to Sacramento in 1863, where in addition to operating his drug store, Rudolph was employed testing water along the Central Pacific Railroad’s lines. He contracted a severe case of malaria in this latter line of work, and consequently River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 29Next >