The Robert Biddle and Anna Miller Biddle House Development
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The Robert Biddle 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 Philadelphia 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 Page 1 of 21 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. Page 2 of 21 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). Page 3 of 21 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. Page 4 of 21 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.