The Robert and Anna Miller Biddle House A history of 309 Bank Avenue, Riverton, New Jersey Prepared by Roger T. Prichard for the Historical Society of Riverton, rev. November 29, 2018

The ten founders of Riverton commissioned architect Samuel Sloan to create villas for them on the riverbank of the new town. Philadelphian Robert Biddle was the first owner of the villa which became 309 Bank Avenue, part of the original Lippincott farm. All ten were built during the spring and summer of 1851. Robert Biddle continued to live there during the warm months until about 1896 when he appears to have moved there year-round. He died there in 1902 at the age of 88. He far outlived all of 309 Bank Avenue, July 17, 2018 the rest of the founders. photo by Roger Prichard Development On February 8, 1851, Daniel Leeds Miller, Jr. purchased about 120 acres of farmland from Joseph and Beulah Lippincott for $20,000. On today’s street plan this parcel would be bounded by the riverbank, the railroad, Howard Street and Church Lane. Miller was acting on behalf of a group of ten investors, including himself.

Their intentions for the new town of Riverton were described in the Public Ledger of April 9, 1851. It named many but not all of the ten founders. Robert Biddle was not mentioned but his brother William was, along with an Edward C. Biddle. There was an Edward Canby Biddle who was a first cousin of the brothers Robert and William, so it is possible that he was an early partner in the creation of Riverton but Robert replaced him shortly thereafter. A subsequent Public Ledger article at the end of the summer on September 4, 1851 reports all ten “beautiful villas erected, the most of which are already occupied by their owners.” This presumably includes Robert Biddle’s home. The Founders largely based the development of Riverton on handshakes and trust. The villas were all constructed on land that was still in the name of Daniel Leeds Miller, Jr. In the case of 309 Bank, Miller did not execute a formal deed transferring the lot to Robert Biddle until early the next year, on January 26, 1852.

The house first appears on two editions of the first map, Plan of the New Town of Riverton (undated, but probably published that same year, in mid-to-late 1851). An early original of the

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map is in the collection of the Porch Club of Riverton while the Historical Society has a scanned copy of a slightly later version and an identical print is in the possession of Ken and Mary Louise Smith of 503 Bank. Both versions of this map show Robert Biddle’s name next to the vignette of his house and they both list him as one of the ten investors. There is no mention of Edward C. Biddle.

The Three Sisters

The founding of Riverton was very much a family affair. This house is the middle structure of a trio of nearly-identical “Three Sisters” villas, so-called because the three spouses of the named male Founders were sisters. Left to right, William D. Parrish (at modern number 311) was married to Elizabeth Wright Miller (1817-1891), Robert Biddle to Anna Miller (1822-1891), and William Canby Biddle (at modern number 307, demolished in the 1980s) was married to Rachel Miller (1818-1892). All three sisters died within 18 months of each Detail from “Plan for the New Town of Riverton”, ca. other. 1851, scan in HSR collection

Complicating the Riverton family tree, two of these sisters (Anna and Rachel) married two brothers (Robert and William Biddle). Further, the sisters were also siblings of Founder Daniel Leeds Miller, Jr., who was the named purchaser of the two farms which would form the core of Riverton in 1851. Another brother, Charles P. Miller, also had one of the original homes in Riverton which he purchased from Founder Chalkley Gillingham. It stands today, numbered 100 Main Street, and was shown with his name on the second map ca. 1851 “A New Plan of Riverton” mentioned above. He was not shown as an investor in the town, however. Yet another brother, William Henry Miller, seems to have had no direct involvement in Riverton but in 1896 his son Charles Cooper Miller built the handsome Colonial Revival house at 101 Lippincott Avenue.

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Robert Biddle (1814-1902) and Anna Miller Biddle (1823-1891) Born to an old Quaker family in Philadelphia on August 10, 1814, Robert Biddle was of the 6th generation of the family founded in America by immigrants William Biddle and Sarah Kempe, who immigrated in 1681.

He was the son of Clement Cornell Biddle, a Philadelphia sugar refiner, and Mary Canby Biddle.

Anna Miller was also raised a Quaker, born on August 2, 1822 to Daniel Leeds Miller, Sr. (1788-1866) and Hannah Nicholson (1790-1863). Both of her parents were born in the area of Salem, New Jersey and had moved to Philadelphia. Her father was a financier and was the principal founder and long-time president of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Robert Biddle, photo by F. Gutekunst, 1893 or later Collection of Michael Kearney

Robert and Anna married in Philadelphia in a Quaker ceremony on December 1, 1842 at the home of her parents.

Children Robert and Anna had six children, five of whom grew to adulthood. The Riverton theme of complex families continued. Just like Robert and his brother married two sisters, two of Robert and Anna’s sons also married sisters. Charles Miller Biddle (1844-

1922) married Hannah McIlvain (1848-1905); Henry Anna Miller Biddle, photo by F. Gutekunst Canby Biddle (1845-1886) married Anna Mary Image from LongLostRelativesPhotos.com. McIlvaine (1850-1926).

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Probably during the Summer of 1896, Robert Biddle sits in the back of 309 Bank Avenue, surrounded by (counter-clockwise from upper left) son Charles Miller Biddle, Charles’ wife Hannah McIlvaine Biddle, Charles’ and Hannah’s daughter

Anna Mary Biddle Atlee (holding daughter Clara Anna), and Anna Mary’s husband Joshua Woolston Atlee. Image from LongLostRelativesPhotos.com.

Charles Miller Biddle succeeded his father in the Biddle Hardware business (see below) and in 1878 purchased the nearly-new mansion at 207 Bank, arguably still Riverton’s most distinctive home.

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By the time Charles Miller Biddle and his wife Hannah had purchased their grand mansion at Bank and Lippincott, his brother Henry Canby Biddle had already purchased a handsome house on the opposite end of the same block of Bank Avenue, number 201, on the upriver corner of Bank and Thomas. He did not have the opportunity to enjoy it for many seasons because he died there of typhoid fever at the age of 40 in 1886. Gopsill’s Philadelphia Directory listed him as having been a cloth merchant. In a further peculiarity, two of Robert and Anna’s daughters married the same man. Daughter Elizabeth Parrish Biddle (1853-1879) married tobacco industrialist John Coffin Whitney Frishmuth (1844-1921), a man 10 years her senior, when she was 21. She tragically died just four years later, right before Christmas of 1879, leaving Frishmuth with three-year-old twin girls. The Census taken six months later on June 8, 1880 shows the newly-widowed J. C. W. Frishmuth and their little daughters have moved in with his in-laws Robert and Anna Biddle at their town home at 1604 Arch Street, Philadelphia. As they would normally have been living in Riverton during the summer, they may have remained in the city that year to keep life simple so soon after Elizabeth’s death. At this time Robert and Anna’s two remaining unmarried daughters Hannah and Martha were also residing at 1604 Arch. Their presence, along with five live-in servants, undoubtedly made it easier to care for J. C. W.’s young daughters. The family became even closer when in January of 1882 J. C. W. married older sister Hannah Miller Biddle (1850-1935). Two years later, in 1884, according to Lloyd E. Griscom’s Tales of Three Towns, J. C. W. and Hannah purchased the old Thomas farmhouse in Riverton, located on the upriver corner of Linden and Bank Avenues and went on to use it as a summer home for decades. This put the summer homes of the three Biddle siblings Charles, Henry and Hannah within a two block stretch of Bank Avenue.

Finally, the youngest child of Robert and Anna Biddle was Martha Canby Biddle (1854-1916). She seems to have led a quiet life, never marrying, and she lived at home her entire life. According to various mentions in society columns of newspapers, she often traveled with her parents, visiting Italy, Germany, England, and Niagara Falls. After the death of her mother in 1892, Martha kept house for her father. The 1900 Census shows them in this house in Riverton, with three servants. After the death of her father in 1902, the 1905 New Jersey State Census shows her living alone in this house with a single servant, a “waiter” named John Sample. She died on April 15, 1916, according to an obituary in the New Jersey Mirror of April 19, 1916.

Residence and faith Robert and Anna appear to have kept their home in the city as their principal residence after the founding of Riverton. Gopsill’s Directory lists Robert’s home as 1604 Arch Street for decades, but most Census records (collected in the summer) show the family living in Riverton.

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The various Census reports typically show their children living at home until marriage. Servants are also listed:

The Census of June 29, 1860 shows four servant women living at 309 Bank Avenue: Hannah Leonard, age 21, a cook from Wales Catherine McSwain, age 25, a domestic from Ireland

Anna Wright, age 34, a domestic from Ireland Mary Leatherman, age 55, a seamstress from The last listing in Gopsill’s Directory of Philadelphia showing Robert Biddle living at his long-time address of 1604 Arch Street was 1894. Starting in 1895 it lists a business address of 504 Commerce (Biddle Hardware) but indicates home was in Riverton. This suggests that he likely moved away from Arch Street during 1894. That area was rapidly growing more commercial, with the expansion of nearby Broad Street Station in 1892-1893. The 1900 Census still shows Robert and daughter Martha living in Riverton, presumably year- round.

Detail of the Three Sisters houses (309 in center) from Riverton, NJ – 1890, birds eye view lithograph by Rivertonian Otto Koehler. The house shows as three stories plus attic, as it appears today. It is not known when the third story had been added (or if the 1851 image showing only two stories was incorrect).

Robert and Anna seem to have remained within the Society of Friends for their entire lives, though their children converted to other faiths, most becoming Episcopalian. Robert’s time with

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their Meeting was apparently not all smooth: The Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy lists him as being “disowned” for “disunity” by the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting on June 28, 1838. When he died, however, he was buried at Westfield Friends, indicating that any “disunity” issues from 60 years earlier must have been forgiven.

Business interests

In 1837 Robert and his brother William Canby Biddle founded the R. and W. C. Biddle Hardware Company at 131 Market Street, Philadelphia. An article in the December, 1913 issue of Hardware Dealer’s Magazine details its founding and how the business prospered, overcoming a catastrophic fire in 1866. Robert’s son Charles Miller Biddle took over the business in 1873 and expanded and merged it throughout his life. It was ultimately known as Supplee-Biddle Hardware Company.

Ad in Philadelphia and its Manufactures, 1867

Logo from envelope ca. 1860s found on eBay.com

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Robert Biddle also owned and subdivided a considerable amount of real estate within Riverton. The 1877 map Hopkins Atlas of Philadelphia and Environs shows him holding most of the strip of land along the downriver side of Main Street, from the railroad into Cinnaminson.

Abolition Though not as visible as some of the other Riverton Founders, Robert Biddle was active in several anti-slavery organizations.

According to the Fourth Annual Report of the American Anti- Slavery Society, New York, 1837, Robert Biddle was a delegate from the Philadelphia County society to their Annual Meeting held at the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, May 9,

1837. Advertisement in Riverton Journal, He was a friend and associate of Lucretia Coffin Mott and was July 15, 1882 mentioned in her letters of 1841, per Selected Letters of Lucretia Coffin Mott, Beverly Wilson Palmer, Ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2002)

The night of May 17, 1838 an angry pro-slavery mob burned the abolitionists’ brand new meetinghouse Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia on North 6th Street below Race Street. The mob then roamed the city to attack supporters of abolition and destroy other institutions which served the African-American population. Robert Biddle was present at Lucretia Mott’s home at 9th and Race Street and recounted the night in a letter many years later: I was interested in Joseph Fussell’s account of anti-slavery incidents, sixty years ago, but his account of the experience of our dear friend Lucretia Mott the night Pennsylvania Hall was burned is not quite correct, and I thought I could give an accurate one, as I was present.

After the burning of the Hall, the mob rushed up Race street, and if Joseph Fussell had been at James Mott’s house, when the furious, yelling mob paused at Race and 9th, he would not have thought it a place of safety.

Our dear Lucretia was as cool and calm as I ever saw her, going around the house, and gathering little keep-sakes which she did not wish destroyed. Some one suggested that the front shutters should be closed. She said, “No, raise the blinds, turn on the gas; we want no darkness here.” The reason the Motts’ house was not burned was, when the mob paused at 9th and Race streets, some one yelled out, “Burn the n----- shelter on 13th street!” and they rushed up Race street and set fire to that.

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Robert Biddle Philadelphia, Tenth month 17 [1898]

Letter printed in the Friends’ Intelligencer, October 22, 1898

Mob burning Pennsylvania Hall May 17, 1838, engr. by John Sartain, coll. of Bryn Mawr College

When public transportation began in 1858 with the introduction of horsecars on the streets of Philadelphia, the drivers prohibited African-Americans from riding. A committee drew up a petition to demand that the cars be integrated. Robert Biddle was one of the many signers. (Petition for the Colored People of Philadelphia to Ride in the Cars, June 10, 1862, Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

Support for education An article in the July 14, 1956 issue of Friends Journal entitled “The Biddles of Swarthmore College” details the important roles which several of the Biddle family took in the founding and expansion of the college. Robert served as Treasurer of the college for 26 years, from 1875 until immediately before his death.

Later years After seeing that the management of Biddle Hardware was in the capable hands of his son Charles Miller Biddle in 1873, Robert was free to pursue a variety of interests, including being the Treasurer of Swarthmore College, as mentioned above. A sense of Robert and Anna’s later lives is given in Henry D. Biddle’s A Sketch of Owen Biddle, etc. pub. 1891, 2nd edition 1926 (entry by Anne Biddle Stirling): Robert Biddle enjoyed an active old age in the midst of a joyous circole of devoted children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, honored by all who knew him for his untarnished uprightness.

…

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An outstanding trait was his extreme regularity of habit. … For many years he sat at the head of the Fourth-day Meetings, held at Fifteenth and Race streets, Philadelphia, Hundreds of school children who attended that meeting have wondered how that motionless figure, with cane between his knees, could possibly judge the hour so accurately, never dreaming that a tiny watch was implanted in the head of that cane!

… In search of health for his wife, Robert Biddle travelled widely and long. Months ran into years while they leisurely covered Europe, Algiers, Egypt, Palestine, California and Florida, the latter becoming a winter habit. Anna Miller Biddle died of heart failure August 12, 1891 and was buried at Westfield Friends. Robert Biddle outlived all the others and surrounded by his descendants made Riverton his home until he died in 1902. Robert Biddle died in Riverton December 3, 1902 at age 88. He had outlived his wife, all of his brothers and sisters, three of his six children and all of his partners in the founding of Riverton. He is buried at Westfield Friends. His daughter Martha continued to live in the house until her death April 15, 1916. She was 61 years old. This ended a 65 year run of the same family of Biddles living in the house.

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Robert Biddle (seated, wearing black suit, center left) in rear of 309 Bank Avenue, Riverton, mid-1890s. Directly behind him are granddaughter Anna Mary Biddle Atlee (1869-1926) and her husband Joshua Woolston Atlee (1867-1930). Most of the rest are likely Frishmuth descendants. If so, the man with moustache at right rear may be John Coffin Whitney Frishmuth (1844-1921) next to his second wife Hannah Miller Biddle (1850-1935). Collection of Michael Kearney.

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Oliver Gaston Willits (1892-1971) and Margaret Fitler Willits (1896- 1968) After the death of Martha Canby Biddle in 1916 her estate was administered by her uncles Charles Miller Biddle and John C. W. Frishmuth. They didn’t let 309 Bank Avenue stand empty but rented it out until her estate could be settled. Its first tenants were Oliver and Margaret Fitler Willits. Margaret was no stranger to the riverbank, having spent summers as a girl just down the block at her family’s home on the corner of Main Street. Oliver Willits is best known today for his later rise to become the Chairman of the Board of the Campbell Soup Company, where he had spent his entire career after college.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in downtown Philadelphia, Oliver was the son of Rear Admiral George Sydney Willits, Jr., known as the “Father of Navy Football” for his role in introducing the sport to Annapolis, according to an article in the Harrisburg Telegraph of November 27, 1937. Willits was also a distant cousin of earlier Riverton resident The Rev. Alphonso Albert Willits (the first owner of 306 Main Street, a renowned speaker known as “The Apostle of Sunshine”).

Oliver Willits graduated from Penn State and immediately went to work for Campbell’s, according to his obituary in the

May 27, 1971 Philadelphia Daily News. Oliver Gaston Willits

1924 Passport Photo

Margaret Fitler was born in Riverton September 1, 1896, the daughter of Edwin Henry Fitler, Jr. and Nannie Heiskell Myers. Her grandfather, Edwin Henry Fitler, Sr., was a popular mayor of Philadelphia, serving from 1887 to 1891 and founder of a successful cordage factory in Bridesburg which the family operated for several generations. Margaret’s parents were Riverton summer residents. In 1882 they purchased and then remodeled the former Riverton home of Founder Rodman Wharton at 407 Bank Avenue for use as their summer residence, while maintaining their city home at Margaret Fitler Willits 1530 Walnut Street. 1924 Passport Photo Margaret was the youngest child in the household by far, born in that house when her mother was 39. She lost both parents when she was small: her father died at age 47 when Margaret was 4 years old and then her

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mother died at age 49 when she was 9. Her oldest brother Nathan Myers Fitler, then 27, acted as her guardian until her marriage.

She was a debutante in 1914, given a prominent photo in the October 25, 1914 society page of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Margaret and Oliver’s wedding plans were announced just a few months later and they were married April 8, 1915 at Christ Church, Riverton. The occasion produced another photo and lavish article in the Philadelphia Public Ledger printed that date.

According to the article, and the 1915 New Jersey Census, the couple immediately rented 207 Lippincott Avenue. Mentions in the Riverton New Era around this time showed Oliver as a director of the Riverton- based Cinnaminson National Bank and mentioned that Margaret was treasurer of the Visiting Nurse Committee. By the 1920 US Census, they were renting 309 Bank Avenue.

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Moving back to the same bit of riverbank where she had spent the summers of her early childhood must have been particularly satisfying to Margaret. It is easy to imagine that those few summers spent at 407 Bank had been idyllic. In the 1920 Census, their household is shown as:  Oliver Willitts [sic], 27, superintendent of an experimental farm

 Margaret Willitts [sic], 24, his wife  Lillian McCurdy, 75, servant from Ireland  Mary Carr, 28, servant from Ireland

 Elizabeth Mundy, 41, servant from Ireland Once the Martha Biddle estate was settled, Willits purchased the property from the executors on February 11, 1921, but he and his wife did not live in the home for long.

Margaret’s former guardian and oldest brother N. Myers Fitler and his wife moved out to the Philadelphia Main Line, giving Margaret and Oliver the opportunity to move into their home at 109 Bank where Margaret had lived until her marriage. Margaret and Oliver stayed in that house until the late 1930s, when they, too, moved to the Main Line. According to his obituary, Oliver became a director of Campbell Soup in 1948, then Chairman in 1956. Immediately before his retirement he helped the old- line food company determine their response when up- and-coming pop artist Andy Warhol used their iconic soup can images in a dramatic new way. They decided that the publicity benefits outweighed any threat to their trademark and when Oliver retired, the Board presented him with an original Andy Warhol Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans soup can painting commissioned for the purpose. [detail],1962, MOMA

George Irving Merrill (1875-1972) and Edna Burd Merrill (1875-1964) The Willits sold 309 Bank to George and Edna Merrill on June 21, 1922. George had been born in Portland, Maine and grew up in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Batchelor of Laws degree in 1897. George and Edna Lenore Burd were married about 1903, possibly in Chihuahua, Mexico. They had four children.

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He practiced law in Philadelphia for decades, specializing in probate and corporation business law. Although described as of “independent” politics, he was a member of the Union League.

Also interested in powerboat yachting, he was a member of the Philadelphia, Island Heights, and Seaside Park yacht clubs. He was Commodore at Seaside Heights in 1916 and 1917, when his boat Vision was the champion of Barnegat Bay.

While it is not evident that George was involved with the Riverton Yacht Club, he does have another yachting connection with the town. His brother Edward K. Merrill (1882-1946) moved to Riverton at about the same time as George did, buying the house at 301 Main Street. Edward was a very active member at RYC and served as its commodore. He was International Comet Class champion in 1938. Just as important to Riverton lore, Edward and his son Owen (“Jim”) designed and built the first of a new kind of lightweight sailboat, called the Duster Class. Dusters went on to become very popular in Riverton and around the East Coast. The 1926 Burlington County Directory shows George living at 309 Bank, although Edna is not mentioned. The 1930 Census does not have any entry for 309 Bank and the Merrills do not appear to be recorded in any other location so they may have still lived there. Unusually, the next year the Merrills decided to sell the property at auction. The Louis Traiman Auction Company placed a large ad in the October 5, 1931 Courier-Post, for an auction to take place on October 15th. The ad indicates that there was no minimum or reserve for the auction, a practice typically used when owners are in distress but there is no other indication that anything was amiss with the Merrills’ finances. The copy of the ad describes it as “a delightful, detached riverfront residence”, so it is likely that it had not yet been divided into apartments. It also includes the phrase “ideal for a residence, apartment house or club house.” The auction apparently took place, because the next deed was executed two months later.

In the 1940 Census George Irving Merrill and his wife Edna are listed as living in Bay Head, New Jersey. John P. Herr and Margaret C. Herr On December 15, 1931, the Merrills sold 309 Bank Avenue to John and Margaret Herr. This is likely the same John P. Herr who was listed in the 1917 Boyd’s Business Directory of Philadelphia as being a CPA in Philadelphia and already residing in Riverton at that time (address not given). There is no mention of him in the 1926 Riverton (Burlington County) Directory. The US Census for 1940 indicates that he and his family lived in Yeadon, Delaware County, PA in that year and also in 1935. All of this suggests that the property was purchased as an investment, not as their residence. There does not appear to be an entry for 309 Bank on the 1940 Census for Riverton (as there was also none for 1930). Was it empty or did the Census enumerator miss the residents? There is no way to tell.

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Olivia Alexine Solomon Wickes (1875-1954) and her son Lewin W. Wickes, Jr. (1917-1995) On July 12, 1943 the Merrills sold 309 Bank to Olivia Alexine Solomon Wickes (name order varies), widow of Maryland Circuit Court Judge Lewin W. Wickes. Alexine Wickes’ and her family had widespread and peculiar connections with historical events, some direct, some oblique, and some totally coincidental. These included the earliest settlers of the mid-Chesapeake Bay region, the Chesapeake oyster industry, hotels in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, spying during the Civil War, segregation conflicts in the Deep South, yacht racing champions, an ax murder, and spying for the Russians during the Cold War.

Alexine was born in Calvert Country, Maryland, probably on Solomon’s Island, which her grandfather Isaac had purchased and renamed for himself when he established a large oyster canning operation there in the late 1860’s. Grandfather Isaac was an energetic self- promoter but suffered reversals in his canning business and later invested in and ran hotels in Philadelphia and Atlantic City. In failing health,

Another profit center after shucking the oysters. Ad in The he sold his hotel in Atlantic City, the San State Gazette and Merchant and Farmers Directory, 1871 Marcos, in 1893 and bought a gentleman’s farm north of New Castle, Delaware, in the region where he was born and grew up. He soon died there, in 1895, but his flair for the dramatic had one more act. His will was sensationally contested and several detailed newspaper articles resulted. The Wilmington Evening Journal of September 20, 1985 contains considerable biographical information about his colorful career, plus the remarkable mention (30 years after the Civil War) that his late wife, born Sarah Stewart Chandler, had been “an earnest Southern sympathizer and frequently penetrated the Union lines, carrying both news and succor to the Confederate forces. Her exploits in behalf of the lost cause are yet fresh in the minds of those who participated in or watched the current of events attending the struggle of the sixties.” Alexine’s father, Charles Stewart Solomon, likely made the connection with Riverton. Charles was the “son” in “Isaac Solomon & Son” in the advertisement above. While living on Solomon’s Island he met and married Eloise Somervell. Her ancestors in the 17th Century had settled that area, which would become Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties.

Charles moved his family to Riverton, probably in the 1890s. As of the US Census in June of 1900 they were renting 422 Lippincott Avenue. Alexine was 24 and still living at home.

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That September Alexine married attorney Lewin W. Wickes at Christ Church, Riverton and moved to his home town of Chestertown, Maryland. He was the latest of many generations of Wickes, who were early settlers of the Eastern Neck area of the Chester River, beginning in the mid-1600s. Alexine’s father, Charles Stewart Solomon, died a year later at age 54.

Two years after that, on November 26, 1903, her sister Grace married a young attorney from Selma, Alabama, at an “intimate” ceremony in Alexine and Lewin’s Chestertown home. A distinguished guest, according to the Baltimore Sun of November 29, 1903, was the groom’s senior law partner Edmund W. Pettus, the United States Senator from Alabama. During the Civil War, Pettus had served as Brigadier General in the Confederate army and later as the Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. Pettus was still revered decades after his death when a bridge over the Alabama River Judge Lewin W. was named in his honor, a bridge which Wickes, Jr. from obit in would become famous in 1965. On “Bloody Baltimore Sun, April 9, Sunday”, March 7, 1965, armed police 1933 violently attacked 400 unarmed Civil Rights demonstrators as they attempted to cross the E. W. Pettus Bridge. [Details from the at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-edmund- pettus-180954501/?no-ist ] Alexine lived most of the rest of her life in Chestertown, but maintained a family connection to Riverton, as her brother

U. S. Senator Edmund W. Somervell Solomon continued to live here. In a challenge to Pettus, Image from Wikipedia. genealogists, her brother changed his name shortly before his marriage in 1905. He combined his father’s first and middle names with his mother’s maiden name. Thus, Somervell Solomon became Charles Stewart Somervell. No reason seems apparent, although it was not uncommon in this era of heavy Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe for names to be changed to avoid being treated with prejudice. (It is not clear if the Solomons had, in fact, been Jewish in the past. Ancestry.com shows no religious affiliations several generations back; Somervell Solomon a/k/a Charles Stewart Somervell’s father was listed as a communicant in the church records of Christ Episcopal Church, Riverton, at his death in 1901.) This brother, Charles Stewart Somervell, himself took on a connection to the riverbank in Riverton when in 1905 he married Bertha Woolman, then living in the house at the foot of Fulton Street which had originally belonged to Riverton founder Daniel Leeds Miller, Jr. After the family moved that house back from the Riverbank to become 201 Fulton Street around 1912, Charles and Bertha lived there into the 1920s. Charles was active in the Riverton Yacht Club, and was the Secretary in 1900 (under his given name).

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Alexine’s nephew, Charles and Bertha’s son Philip A. Somervell, went on to become an accomplished sailor, becoming National and International Comet Champion multiple times in the 1940s. As a grown man, Philip also lived on the riverbank, at 601Bank Avenue (foot of Howard). Alexine’s husband Lewin W. Wickes served as a Maryland circuit judge for years before his death in 1933. After her husband’s death, Alexine continued to live in Chestertown most of the time, actively managing several apartments in the building in which she lived. Her quiet life was disrupted two years after her husband’s death on the morning of September 27, 1935. An upstairs tenant, the wife of a local college chemistry professor, knocked on Alexine’s door and asked that the sheriff be called because she had just murdered her mother-in-law with an ax. Lurid, detailed accounts appeared in the newspapers, including that of the trial in the Wilmington News Journal of April 25, 1936.

Just the next year, although Alexine could not have realized it at the time, an event at these same apartments took place but did not surface until a dozen years later, when it played a small role in a sensational national trial. In the summers of 1936 and 1937, Alger Hiss, a State Department employee, rented one of Alexine’s apartments for the summer. His presence there was used to rebut testimony about his whereabouts as a part of his unsuccessful defense in his 1949 trial on charges of lying to Congress about being a Communist. An article in the December 17, 1949 Baltimore Sun details the testimony of a Chestertown bank official that Hiss and his wife occupied the apartment owned by Mrs. Lewin W. Wickes. Alexine herself evidently did not testify. Her connection with Riverton continued. In the late 1930s, at least one newspaper item indicates that their son, Lewin, Jr., was living on Main Street in Riverton (address unknown) and that she spent considerable time visiting him, including the entire winter of 1938-1939. Returning to the subject of 309 Bank Avenue, which she purchased in 1943, it isn’t possible to tell if Alexine lived in the house. Since it is known that she did have experience owning and managing an apartment building in Chestertown, managing 309 Bank as a rental would be well within reason. Her son had moved to Center City Philadelphia prior to her purchase of 309 Bank, so, other than her nephew Philip Somervell, she did not seem to have any other connection with Riverton and there is no obvious reason why she would have purchased it. She only owned 309 Bank in her own name, though, for five years before selling it to her son Lewin, Jr. and his wife Jean (nee Barba) on May 20, 1948. Lewin, Jr.’s marriage was not a successful one. He and Jean divorced shortly thereafter. According to a later deed, recorded in deed book 1563 page 560, their divorce was finalized December 28, 1949. They both may have lived in the house, but Jean definitely lived there after the divorce. Ancestry.com has a personnel employment record card for Jean showing she worked at the Lehigh Navigation Coal Company during 1952 and 1953, listing this as her home address.

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Curiously, their joint ownership of 309 Bank went on for years despite the divorce, unchanged until the first wife, Jean B. Wickes, conveyed her interest to her ex-husband and his second wife (confusingly named Jeanne G. Wickes) on June 25, 1955, recorded in deed book 1238 page 462. It is not clear when she moved out, or if Lewin, Jr. and his second wife ever occupied the house, although they continued to own it until 1964. Mid- to Late 20th Century There do not appear to be any records which indicate when 309 Bank began to be divided into multiple apartments, but mid-20th Century seems likely. The next owners after the Wickes were:

 May 1, 1964 Michael S. Cucugliello and Sandra L. Cucugliello  June 9, 1966 Dorothy M. Burke  July 12, 1967 Edward F. Brill and Vivian G. Brill

 June 1, 1979 Thomas Dolecky Thomas Dolecky owned 309 Bank for more than 30 years. Over time, the condition of this and two other riverbank properties became of concern to residents. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer for July 19, 2001, a crowd of 50 residents attended the Borough Council meeting in the tiny Borough Hall, voicing their unhappiness with the conditions of this and Dolecky’s other houses. According to the Inquirer, some residents carried picket signs, including one which read “Say ‘No’ to slumlords.” Dolecky lost 309 Bank in foreclosure, with a Sheriff’s Sale taking place on April 23, 2012. By this time it had been subdivided further and had seven apartment units, more than had been permitted according to governmental records. Michael C. Kearney purchased 309 Bank in the proceedings conducted by Burlington County Sheriff Jean E. Stanfield, in a deed dated April 23, 2012. He performed extensive interior and exterior renovations to bring the building up to code.

Sources

Other than deeds, all sources may be found in the public family tree on Ancestry.com named “Early Families of Riverton, NJ”. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/108021762/family?cfpid=320070645371 Deeds to the property are as follows, in the Deed Books of the Clerk of Burlington County.  1851-02-08 Deed Book C5 page 404 Joseph Lippincott and Wife to Daniel L. Miller, Jr.

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 1852-01-26 Deed Book G5 page 148 Daniel L. Miller, Jr. and wife to Robert Biddle  1921-02-11 Deed Book 583 page 79 Charles M. Biddle and John C.W. Frishmuth, executors to Oliver G. Willits  1922-06-21 Deed Book 600 page 216 Oliver G. Willits et ux to George Irving Merrill  1931-12-15 Deed Book 787 page 255 George Irving Merrill and Edna Burd hw to John P. Herr and Margaret C. hw  1943-07-12 Deed Book 951 page 415 John P. Herr and Margaret C. hw to Alexine S. Wickes, Widow

 1948-05-20 Deed Book 1048 page 208 Alexine S. Wickes, widow of Chestertown MD to Lewin W. Wickes, Jr. and Jean B. Wickes hw  1964-05-01 Deed Book 1563 page 560 Lewin W. Wickes, Jr. and Jeanne G. Wickes hw to Michael S. Cucugliello and Sandra L. Cucugliello hw  1966-06-09 Deed Book 1617 page 357 Michael S. Cucugliello and Sandra L. Cucugliello hw to Dorothy M. Burke

 1967-07-12 Deed Book 1645 page 1058 Dorothy M. Burke to Edward F. Brill and Vivian G. Brill hw  1973-02-21 Deed Book 1834 page 18 William R. Amme to Vivian G. Amme hw quitclaim

 1979-06-01 Deed Book 2219 page 262 Vivian G. Amme to Thomas Dolecky  1981-05-07 Deed Book 2476 page 342 Thomas Dolecky to Thomas Dolecky and Mary Ann Shea

 1985-06-11 Deed Book 3188 page 186 Thomas Dolecky and Mary Ann Shea to Thomas Dolecky  2012-04-23 Deed Book OR13023 page 1215 Jean E. Stanfield, Sheriff to Michael C. Kearney

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