Name/Title
The WissahickonEntry/Object ID
2013.34.3.18Description
The Edwin C. Jellett Series of Scrapbooks, Volume 3 -The Wissahickon
Page 18 contains a letter from A.R. Murphy to Thomas H. Shoemaker 1889. A typed label at the bottom of the scrapbook page reads: A. R. Murphy to Thomas H. Shoemaker 1889. Ammidown Mill, James Lord, John Markle, Rittenhouse grist mill, Monastery."
(This constitutes a rendering of the transcription made by John McArthur Harris, Jr., March 18, 1983)
Germantown, January 17, '89
Esteemed Friend:
Chas Ammidwon is dead. Wm. Umsted thinks the mill is still running at Passaic under the name of E. H. Ammidown and Co. Forty-five years ago, or about that time, Markle, who had run the mill, which was then quite a small oblong building in which cotton or cotton fabrics were made, gave it up to James Lord who very much enlarged the building. During the war quantities of Army blankets were woven as well as blankets of finer grades. Among my early recollections in going through the mills was the wonderful result of bringing out such fine blankets from such dirty looking wool in the picker room and, to a child, it was marvelous for the men who used the teasels to give such a finish to rough-looking goods.
John Markle might be able to give thee interesting information about the mill before my recollections or what I have gotten from Wm. Umsted, he talks as though he remembered back fourty-five years. J. Markle lives west of Roxborough village, on Roxborough Avenue, above Kitchen's Lane. N. Rittenhouse lives on Ridge Avenue above Jefferson Street.
It may be interesting to thee to hear from them about the two other mills, the old Rittenhouse Grist Mill, which stood this side of the Red Bridge, when it was red, and Greenwood's Mill below Rittenhouse Street.
I think thy collection will scarcely be complete without a picture of the old Monastery. The enclosed is the upper part of a calendar gotten out by the Germantown Fire Insurance Company in 1884. If of no use to thee please throw it in thy waster bazket.
One of other of the Roxborough men ought to be able to give information about the old school house.
If thee finds reliable facts about the old Monastery I shoulsd be glad to know more than hearsay about it. Near it there was an old mill which made cloth during the war.
If at any time I can help thee in any way it would give me great pleasure.
I should think thee would gain much from Horatio Gates Jones who lived somewhere near Kidd.
Very truly, excuse haste
(s.) A. R. Murphy
Note: in margin near the letterhead, is written: "N. Rittenhouse's house is not yellow, but pebbledashed."Collection
GHS Scrapbook Collection
