J. Henry Scattergood's Letter Home from War-Torn France, March 1919

       J. Henry Scattergood (1877-1953) grew up in Powelton.  His family moved to 3515 Powelton Ave. in 1880 when he was a few years old and he lived there for more than 40 years.  The Scattergoods were a prominent Quaker family whose members were associated with numerous Quaker causes.   After several years in business, Henry became treasurer of Haverford College in 1916 and treasurer of Bryn Mawr College in 1927.  He also served as U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Herbert Hoover.

J. Henry Scattergood, c1919

       After WWI, he went to France as a member of the Society of Friends’ Committee of the National Red Cross to coordinate food aid.  When Herbert Hoover invited the American Friends Service Committee to take charge of feeding German child, Henry’s brother, Alfred G. Scattergood, became chief of that unit.

        Henry wrote the following letter to his wife on March 14, 1919 at a pivotal moment in European history.  The letter describes the scene immediately around him, the broader situation in France, Germany and Austria, American politics, the hope for a new “league of nations” and his fears for “another struggle of the future“ if the league was not designed with the proper intent.  It is an amazing, insightful document written by one of Powelton’s finest.  It is copied here in full as it was printed in the Evening Public Ledger in April, 1919.

        "I started a letter two days ago from Paris, but was interrupted by interviews, and then suddenly found I had to leave that evening for Neufchateau, in the east of France, to see some United States army officers about materials which we need in the Verdun area. So yesterday was spent on trains and at Neufchateau and today again on trains on my way to Charmont (our new headquarters in the Verdun area). I have an hour before the connecting train leaves for Bar le Duc. Hundreds of ‘Yanks’ are all around us – typical scene. There is a constant string in one door to the canteen and out another, each fellow getting his can full of hot coffee and a sandwich. He pays a trifle if he has the money, otherwise it is given.

        "Besides cold corned beef and hard bread it is all they often get on a journey from one place to another.

        "Last evening at Neufchateau, while I was getting supper at the A. R. C. [American Red Cross] station canteen, I watched a girl I felt sure I knew hand out coffee and sandwiches. She proved to be Ruth Gibbons, of Haverford Meeting, and she had just fed 1700 boys in forty-five minutes – two trainloads. One feels for these fellows, and all of them sick and tired of the army and all anxious to get home and back to their usual work.

        "Many towns like this one, and most of those in northeast France, are full of Americans. This applies to the sectors taken over by the United States from the French. In every little village they are stationed; with too little to do now, and tired of the French and the French of them.

        "Today I have seen Russians, who were prisoners in Germany, brought by the French and Americans to work here for their keep, I suppose. A French soldier told me they are still really the same as prisoners. I can't just place their legal status, but as some one is feeding them they probably are willing to stay rather than go to Russia or Germany with all the uncertainties in those countries.

        "What strange situations the war has made. The individual work habit has been lost by hundreds of thousands of men. They have been fed for so long now in many cases one, two or three years of compulsory service before the war and then four and a half years of war itself – that they have come to depend upon state employment, and have lost the habit of individual work.

        "This is especially true of Germany and Austria. In the former, the present government has had to make a general appeal to the citizens to work, saying that on work depends the whole welfare of the state. Think of what it means to have the work-loving German nation of the past reduced to this. Those unemployed, I understand, are being paid for the moment by the state eight marks a day. They would rather take this and not hunt work than find work and get more.

        "In Austria, reports from Switzerland say, the conditions are even worse, and chaos and the break-up of the state and civilization are threatened. Soldiers form committees and get food themselves because of quasi-governmental powers and don't care if others suffer. It is a case of every one for himself, and a scramble with no real general coherence or state authority.

        "This god that the central empires have worshiped – the state – has crumbled to pieces and they feel lost.

        "The desperate straits of starvation and unemployment and demoralization have, of course, hastened the process of proletariat unrest which breeds Bolshevist philosophy, and those returning from the Berne conference state that the Moderates from Germany, whom they saw there expressed the view that the revolution in Germany and Austria is just beginning, not ending.

        "The Allied powers have been late in realizing the facts to which they have been blind because of feelings arising from the war. England awoke first through its members of the inter-Allied food commission and gave the warning three weeks ago. Its leading member even resigned because of lack of support for his view at the time. Now even the French appear to see the danger of delay. Mr. Lansing, two nights ago in a speech in Paris, repeated the warning of the instant need of feeding Germany, or there would be no Germany to feed.

        "But none of the United States $100,000,000 for the Hoover Food Commission can be used because of restrictions passed by our ‘enlightened’ Congress, prohibiting help being given to the central powers. And yet they wonder at the growth of Bolshevism. But not so with those who see on this side the strain and stress of conditions caused by the war.

        "The more one watches the frenzied struggle with the present problems of national interests, of internal finances and budgets, of demobilization and the re-starting of industry, etc., the more one realizes that the war has made more problems than it settled. I am having an eye to the national budgets now in the making, and I look for interesting realizations to dawn therefrom upon the consciousness of some of the nations that have withstood thus far any new developments in the international and social orders.

        "How lamentable it seems at this juncture for Senator Lodge and others to be ‘throwing monkey wrenches into the gears.’ It is taken in Europe as meaning that America is much divided. But it is encouraging to find that the league-of-nations idea has made such headway in France that Senator Lodge's views are generally given very little space in the French newspapers now, and that enlightened European opinion sees the new opportunity more and more.

        "The great struggle is still ahead, however, to make the league of nations a real league and not merely a camouflage alliance of one group assuming counter-interests against another group. This last conception would, of course, have in it the seeds of another struggle of the future.

        "Yet people ‘taking counsel of their fears,’ both in the United States and in Europe seem prone to seek immediate safety in the latter kind of a league, or rather alliance, and have difficulty in seeing through into a greater conception of trust in the deeper moral forces underlying all humanity in which rests the real security for all."

(Reprinted from the Evening Public Ledger, April 4, 1919.  P. 20)

Maj. Zalmon Ludington and Brigadier Gen. Marshall Independence Ludington

"The body of Major Sealman [sic.] Ludington, who died in Philadelphia at the residence of his son, Marshall J. [sic.] Ludington [3406 Powelton Ave.]. on Sunday, was buried here to-day. Major Ludington was a soldier in the war of 1812 and was president of the Philadelphia Survivor's Association of Veterans of that war, which at its last meeting, three years ago, contained only six members." (Phila. Inquirer, April 25, 1889)

The Zalman family had a long history of serving in the army. Zalmon Ludington was the grandson of Comfort Ludington who was a Captain in the Dutchess Co. Militia during the Revolutionary War. Zalman served as a Private in Col. Churchill’s Regiment of the New York Militia from 1812 to 1815. After the War, he settled in Uniontown, Pa. where he had a shoe and leather business. He was awarded two patents for improvements to machinery for pressing peat into molds and drying it. All four of his sons fought in the Civil War.

Marshall I. Ludington was born in Smithfield, Pa. on Independence Day, 1839. He joined the Army during the Civil War as a Captain and assistant quartermaster of volunteers. He participated in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Battle of the Wilderness. After the war, he joined the Regular Army as an assistant Quartermaster and served in New Mexico, Washington, D.C. and Nebraska.

In 1883, Ludington was appointed Depot Quartermaster in Philadelphia. It was the main depot for the purchase of clothing, tenting, and other equipment for the Army. He and his wife moved to 3406 Powelton Ave. which provided easy travel to his office at 1428 Arch St. He served here for 6 years before being transferred to San Francisco. After several promotions, he became Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the East. President McKinley appointed him Quartermaster General on February 3, 1898, just twelve days before the destruction of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor. Months before his appointment, he is credited with pushing preparations for a possible war and quickly reversing a long period of low funding for the Army during decades of peace. In 1903, Gen. and Mrs. Ludington retired to her childhood hometown, Skaneateles, N.Y.

George B. Evans – A Merchandiser for All Seasons

It seems that every time I start to post what I think will be a nice simple piece, the story suddenly turns into something more interesting and more difficult to summarize.

I had planned a piece about George Evans and Philadelphia summers. For some time I have had a few paragraphs on the Interactive Map about that fact that Evan was one of the largest sellers of refrigerated, cold soda at his drug store (see below). I also discovered that he was the producer of Mum’s deodorant. (Those of you who have read my earliest blogs may remember John Powers and the ads he developed for Mums.) I figured cold soda and deodorant were enough for a July blog. However, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I searched the archives of the Philadelphia Inquirer (available on-line through the Free Library of Philadelphia) and discovered that he deserves a place in the pantheon of Philadelphia merchandizers.

The Soda Fountain at George B. Evans's Store at 1106 Chestnut st. (c1906)

Powelton residents included numerous pharmacists. George B. Evans was not one of them. He sold patent medicines and hired trained pharmacists. He opened his first store at 1104 Chestnut St. about 1884. He later explained that "In 1887 I rented next door. I needed more room, but it then began to seem as though I had acquired too much room. The new store looked bare, so I purchased some pictures and hung them on the walls. They must've been pretty attractive pictures, because customers when they came in to buy drugs insisted on buying them. Well, that gave me the tip. I laid in more pictures and I've been laying them in ever since.” By 1895, his wares included “dainty bits of chinaware, sparkling cut glass, artistic bronzes, beautiful lamps, rich silver, handsome silver-plated ware, [and] clocks of various kinds.…”

In 1890, George married Lucy M. Hickman and they moved to 3621 Powelton Ave. The same year, he opened a second shop at 2330 N. Front St. and in 1893, he opened one at 8th and Arch Streets. By then George and Lucy had moved to 206 N. 34th St. About 1898, they moved across the street to a new house at 223 N. 34th St. that was probably designed and built by the Wilson brothers. Business must have been very good – he owned the house without a mortgage. He soon opened two more stores on Market St. (in 1902) and on Chestnut St. (1903).

In 1898, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about the expansion of Evans’s store at Eighth and Arch:

“Every Philadelphian who is proud of the business growth of the city should visit the newly enlarged drugstore of George B. Evans, at the northeast corner of Eighth and Arch streets…. Philadelphia is to-day possessor of a system of drug stores which for size, completeness and efficiency are not excelled in this country.

“Some fourteen years ago Mr. Evans opened a drug store near Eleventh and Chestnut streets. It's growth was phenomenal, and needs no description. Evans’ soda, Evans’ drugs, and not the least Evans’ prices, have long been household words in this city. [Evans was a leader in discounting the price of patent medicines.] Not satisfied with this success, a few years ago he determined to open a branch store on Eighth Street, and to this end secured a corner store, about forty feet square, one of six others into which the old Heller dry goods establishment was divided. Since then he has gradually enlarged by absorbing the remaining rooms of the building, and has just opened a mammoth drug store which includes the whole six stores mentioned, or the entire ground floor and basement of Heller building….

“The main entrance on Eighth street, which is a model of artistic skill, surrounded on each side with mahogany encased mirrors, sparkling with attractive displays of the world's finest perfumes and toilet waters… gives one the impression of a crystal maze entering into a crystal palace. The soda fountain occupies a prominent position in the centre of the store, and presents a marvelous combination of Mexican onyx, Sienna and Italian marbles, encased with large and handsome mirrors, finished in mahogany…

“[T]he prescription department… occupies a suspended gallery running the entire length of the store. Here were watched the dispensing chemists… mixing various decoctions and potions, making pills, ointments, spreading plasters, etc. Everything presented an appearance of great carefulness, with the system of checking which renders mistakes almost impossible, and nothing but the finest, chemically pure drugs are used in prescription work.

“The system of receiving cash by means of electric cable lines is well-nigh perfect, and the average length of time occupied in making change and returning same to customer is about twenty seconds.

“In addition to the drugs, patent medicines, toilet articles of all descriptions, the finest perfumes from the best manufacturers throughout the world and all accessories of a first-class drug store, there is connected with each of his stores an art department, where may be found choice articles for gifts, including china and bric-a-bracs, leather goods, sterling silver, cut glass, stationery etc. Mr. Evans is now in Europe searching the various commercial centres for choice novelties in the above lines for next fall's trade.”  (Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1898)

Ad for Evans Drug Stores, Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 30, 1893

This article and several similar articles in the Inquirer may have been from press releases written by John O. Powers (who also lived at 206 N. 34th St. at one time). Evans’s stores were also prominently mentioned in numerous ads for such products as hair restorers and medicinal inhalers.  These may also have been arranged by Powers.


Evans was a grand showman. In 1902, he hired Addison Hutton to design alterations to his store at 1012 Market St. In 1910, he opened a newer store at 1221 Market St. that occupied 7,200 square feet. The store was decorated with “replica statuettes and floral garlands with fixtures in mahogany.” The ceiling had four stained-glass skylights and in the evening the store was lighted by 1,000 incandescent lights. In 1906, Evans’ original store on Chestnut St. had a soda fountain that sold an average of 2,000 drinks a day.

It appears that the Evans family was doing quite well. In 1910, the family included their four children, Edith (age 19), George B., Jr. (17), Harold F. (15), and Wayne H. (11), as well as a secretary, a cook, a chambermaid, and a waitress. George had been Vice President of the Union League and Lucy’s name frequently appeared in the social columns. In 1906, they bought a beach front property on Longport where they built a beach house.

In 1916, Edith married John Lawrence Pancoast, an insurance broker. Her engagement was celebrated at a bridge party given by Mrs. Paxon Deeter, a friend of hers from the Philadelphia Fencers’ Club. After their marriage, the Pancoasts moved to Lower Merion. By 1920, they had an infant son, Evans Pancoast, as well as a maid, a cook, a nurse and a waitress.

Ensign George B. Evans, Jr.

Tragedy struck in 1918. When WWI started, George, Jr. joined the Naval Reserves and was transferred to the naval air service. He trained to become a navy airman. In June, 1918, he was killed during a training flight near Miami when his plane fell apart at an altitude of 500 feet. He was 26 and had graduated from the Hill School and Cornell. His mother became heavily involved in the Canteen Committee of the Red Cross and worked to provide hospitality to soldiers coming through Philadelphia.

Harold Evans received training at Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benjamin Harrison. Its not clear whether he saw combat. When he turned 21, the Philadelphia Inquirer published his photo and identified him only as “a well-known business man.”

Five months after his brother’s death, Harold Hickman Evans changed his birthday from June, 1899 to November, 1898. He then enlisted in the Marne Corp on his new 20th birthday. He served as a Gunnery Sergeant during both WWI and WWII.

In the 1920s, George and Lucy Evans left Powelton and moved to Thornbrook Rd. in Lower Merion where they lived in retirement with their secretary, cook, assistant cook and chamber maid.

An Homage to Powelton Gardeners

This is a slightly revised version of a piece I wrote for the Powelton Post a year ago.

     Powelton’s tree-lined streets and its gardens have turned green again.  Fortunately, we have some information about the gardens and the gardeners during the Victorian era.

     The 1880 census shows seven gardeners/florists living in Powelton.  At least three of the larger homes had greenhouses: William Wilson’s house (3501 Powelton), Dr. Edward H. Williams’s (33^rd & Arch), and David Paul’s house (33^rd between Hamilton and Spring Garden).  In 1899, the Colton family added a plant “conservatory” to their house at 3407 Powelton.  We know there were formal gardens behind the Febiger’s (3421 Powelton) and the Scattergood’s (3515Powelton).  Cora Sellers (3301 Baring) had a large garden to the west of their house with a grape arbor that screened the view of the stables.  The Du Pont family (3500 Powelton) also had a grape arbor and fruit trees.  Notably at one time the drive at the Du Pont’s southern entrance circled a mounded planting area that was probably over 6' high and about 20' in diameter that held giant elephant ear plants.

     Alfred Lutz ran a commercial nursery in Powelton for about 45 years beginning about 1875.  He built two large hot houses on the 3100 block of Pearl St. (which no longer exists).  Each was about 70' by 15'.  In 1911, the site had a single 32' by 110' hot house.  In 1887, he won first prize for a window box at the Philadelphia Chrysanthemum Show and recognition for hydrangeas at the Spring Show of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

     The most famous Powelton gardener, was William Dreer (1849-1918).  The Dreer Nurseries were started in 1838 by William’s father, Henry, with a nursery at the Woodlands estate and a seed and florist store on Chestnut St. near Front.  In 1850, Henry moved the nursery to the 3500 block from Wallace to Mt. Vernon St. in Mantua where they remained until his death in 1873.

     The Dreers were “seedsmen.” Henry Dreer had immigrated from Germany and later he sent William to Germany to study the seed business.  When Henry died in 1873, his real estate was worth about $100,000 and his personal property about $25,000.  William then moved the nursery to Riverton, N.J. where it grew to 295 acres, 14 greenhouses, and 250 employees.  He moved to the Aldine Hotel in center city for a few years, then to 3312 Arch St.

Dreer Ad from 1894

     In 1887, William and his new bride, Anna Williams, took ownership of her family home at 101 N. 33^rd St.  Anna was the daughter of Edward Williams, a partner in the Baldwin Locomotive Works.  Williams came to Powelton in the mid-1860s and built the mansion at 101 N. 33^rd St.  Later it had a magnificent “Japanese Room” built by the Wilson Brothers.  The property was quite large and almost certainly included gardens or a greenhouse.

Dreer Ad from 1908

     Henry Dreer was one of the first to introduce color printing to bulb catalogs and seed packets.   The nursery specialized in bedding plants, and those great Victorian favorites: palms, ferns and water lilies.  At the turn of the century, Dreer was recognized as a pioneer in waterlily hybridization. Unfortunately, the nursery was later known as the inadvertent importer of the Japanese beetle.

      Dreer died in 1918 and the nursery closed in 1944.

Something Noticed While Walking the Dog My Architectural Archeologist, Scott Ryder, has discovered signs of past civilization. Actually, remains of a large house that stood at 3500 Powelton before the Courts were built. Having discovered that the Du Pont family once occupied this site, he went about looking for any remaining physical evidence of that time. After passing the site numerous times, he noticed that the granite curbing around the original footprint of the property is quite a bit larger and of a better quality than what we usually see. It extends about three quarters of the 3500 block of Powelton and south down 35th St. to the property line of the Courts Apartments. At that point you can see the original curb cut for the carriage entrance. The drive is shown on the 1872 Hopkins map (at the right). At that time the site was owned by Dr. W. A. Pieper. In 1881, the Du Pont family purchased this lot and the lot to the west and enlarged the house. Our investigations continue.