Remembering Conshohocken and West Conshohocken (5 page)

Opportunities for skilled and unskilled labor continued along the Schuylkill corridor due to all the textile mills in Norristown. Bridgeport offered many opportunities in the carpet and woolen mills, and opportunities abounded in the steel mills of Conshohocken.

Italian immigrants started drifting into Montgomery County about 1850. But it wasn't until the 1880s that a growing population in their own country made it difficult to find work, leading to economic hardships particularly in southern Italy and Sicily. Italians began arriving in Conshohocken about 1900 and took jobs in the nearby quarries, steel mills and on the railroad, and by 1909, they found work on the Pennsylvania Western (P&W) Rail line. Hundreds of Italians were employed for several years while the lines were under construction. Ten years later, in 1919, many Italians found work for Montgomery County building the new concrete Matsonford Bridge. Many of the families gathered from the old country and began opening up businesses in the lower part of town along Maple Street from Elm to Fifth Avenue. That section of Conshohocken—formerly known as “Cork Row” because of the heavy Irish population—became known as “Little Italy.” According to the 1970 census, more than 30 percent of the borough's population at that time was Italian.

Germans had been working the Pennsylvania farms long before 1800, but when the Industrial Revolution swept through Montgomery County from 1870 to 1910, German immigrants from the western part of their country migrated to this country with industrial skills and dreams of purchasing land. Conshohocken became home to many German immigrants who, like other immigrants, found work in the glass factories, steel mills, woolen mills and Lee's Surgical Supply Factory.

The African American population had remained small in Montgomery County. In 1885, of the 97,000 county residents, only 1,763 were African American. While it is believed that Ned Hector was Conshohocken's very first African American resident, thirty-five years after his death in 1870 the borough had 25 African American residents.

By 1881, St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church, located on the corner of East Eighth Avenue and Harry Street, was constructed to accommodate the growing African American population. In the early 1920s, Reverend Marshall Lee began recruiting members of the black community from the South, where Lee's father had been a slave for many years. Lee found jobs for many of the men at the Alan Wood Steel Company, where Lee himself was employed.

Today, Conshohocken's doors remain open. This former steel town was built by immigrants and continues to welcome anyone, from any country, looking for the American dream. As of 2009, the Irish made up 25 percent of Conshohocken's population, followed by the Italians with 20 percent. The Polish and Germans made up 13 percent of the borough's population while African Americans and English made up 8 percent, with more than a dozen other ethnic groups making up the rest of the town's nine thousand residents.

The bridge that spans the Schuylkill River connecting the boroughs of Conshohocken and West Conshohocken goes back before the Revolutionary War, when it was a ford made of large rocks constructed by Peter Matson. In the nearly three hundred years since that ford was built, the two boroughs have shared five different bridges: a covered bridge, the steel bridge that followed, a temporary span, the original concrete arched bridge and, of course, today's modern crossing.

In order to trace the name of the Matsonford Bridge, we go back in history to 1688. Nils (sometimes spelled Neels) Matson and his wife, Margaret, were granted land here. Nils and Margaret had eleven children. Nils's son Peter Matson owned 178 acres along the banks of the Schuylkill River extending from Upper Merion Township into Lower Merion, and he would later purchase additional property. Peter had two sons: Isaac, his eldest son, and Peter Jr. When the elder Peter passed away in December 1778, his son Isaac inherited what was known as the upper plantation, containing 120 acres, formerly owned by Henry Pawling. Peter Jr. inherited the plantation at the ford where his family had lived, containing 178 acres.

Peter Matson Sr. settled along the river in 1741 after securing a deed that described the land as being part of the Manor of Mount Joy and adjoined lands of Thomas Griffith, Thomas and Susan Jones and John Sturgis. Matson built his house on a knoll overlooking the river; the house was demolished in 1920 to make way for the ten-arch concrete bridge.

The iron bridge was the second of five bridges built to connect Conshohocken to West Conshohocken. It replaced the covered bridge, opening in 1872, and served the borough until 1919, when construction on the concrete bridge began. The John Woods Manufacturing Company can be seen on the left of the bridge.

Peter Matson and his family had strong religious ties and were members of the Friends. The Friends of Plymouth Meeting was established in 1686 and would hold joint services and meetings with Gwynedd, Merion and Radnor Friends. Matson's ties to these organizations unquestionably led to his building of a ford so that meetings could be held on both sides of the river. Matson's Ford was located approximately seventy-five to one hundred yards upriver from today's Matsonford Bridge.

Matson's Ford played a key role during the Revolutionary War in 1777 and again in 1778, and not without damages to Matson's possessions. Matson encountered serious damage to his house and farm thanks to artillery action on May 20, 1778. Matson's Ford played a prominent part for General George Washington's troops, led by twenty-two-year-old General Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette's soldiers set up a fortress high on the hills above the river and, with cannons and heavy artillery, kept the British from crossing the river, forcing a retreat. Unfortunately, Matson's house was in the line of fire. Following Matson's death in 1778, his estate was one of the largest claimants for the damages wrought principally by the activity of that May 20, 1778 skirmish.

By the early 1830s, members of the Matson family formed a bridge company originally called the President, Manager and Company of the Schuylkill Bridge of Matson's Ford. The name was later shortened to the Matson's Ford Bridge Company (and later renamed the Matsonford Bridge Company). In 1833, a covered bridge was constructed, crossing the river just yards from the Matsons' house. With the building of this bridge, the original Matson's Ford crossing was abandoned. For many years, the rock crossing was very visible, but today no sign of the crossing can be found.

The original covered bridge spanned only the river from bank to bank. It measured 520 feet long and 25 feet wide. The cost of the first bridge was $13,000. A spring freshet in 1839 wiped out the bridge, but it was quickly rebuilt and opened in October 1840. The swollen Schuylkill River claimed the bridge again on September 2, 1850. The bridge was washed downriver to Philadelphia but remained in fairly good condition and was rebuilt again very quickly. In an effort to increase the revenues of the bridge, railroad tracks were installed on the bridge in 1860. Railroad trains were pulled by mules, helping travelers to move their goods—for a fee, of course.

Once he emerged from the covered bridge on the Conshohocken side of the river, the traveler entered a short covered bridge that crossed the canal. It was in between bridges that he stopped to pay a toll.

According to the original minutes reprinted in the
Conshohocken Recorder
newspaper, a sign was posted at both ends of the bridge announcing the fees for the use of the bridge:

Rate of Tolls Authorized to be taken at the Matsonford Bridge—1838

For Every Score of Sheep ---------------------6cts

For Every Score of Hogs-----------------------10 cts

For Every Score of Cattle----------------------20cts

For Every Horse or Mule-----------------------3cts

For Every Horse and Rider--------------------4cts

For Every Foot Passenger----------------------1ct

For Every Sulkey, Chaise or Gig with One Horse or Two Wheels--------------------6cts

For Every Chariot, Coach, Phaeton or Chaise with Two Horses and Four Wheels--------12 & half cts

For Either of the Aforesaid Carriages with Four Horses-----25cts

For Every Stage Wagon with Two Horses-----------------------12 & half cts

For Every Sleigh for Every Horse Drawing the Same----------6 & a quarter cts

For Every Sled and for Every Horse Drawing Same-----------4 cts

For Every Wagon or Cart per Horse-----------------------------5cts

Two Oxen to be estimated equal to one horse Marble or all other heavy loads

For three tons burden---------------4cts per horse

For four tons burden----------------5cts per horse

For five tons, 8cts, six tons, 9cts, seven tons, 10cts, up to 12 tons for 15cts

No Tolls shall be demanded of any persons, attending Funerals, nor returning from the same. And all persons going to and returning from military parades, going to or returning from church, children going to or returning from school, going to or returning from general elections or walking in military processions
.

The covered bridge fell into disrepair in the late 1860s, and the Matsonford Bridge Company opted for the removal of the covered span and replaced it with a more modern wood and steel, open-air bridge. In 1886, the Matsonford Bridge Company was purchased by Montgomery County, and tolls were abolished.

In early 1916, several trucks had fallen through the wooden planks of the steel bridge. Because of the deteriorating condition of the structure, Montgomery County commissioners assigned four watchmen (costing the county eighty-four dollars per week) to monitor the amount of traffic allowed on the bridge at one time and the weight of the vehicles. Restrictions on the bridge caused many fights with the four guards, one at each end of the bridge for twelve-hour shifts. The speed limit on the bridge was four miles per hour, with tickets handed out, and any truck that looked too heavy was ordered to drive to Norristown to cross the bridge there.

By 1918, plans for a new, more modern concrete bridge were in place, and construction began with the building of the borough's third bridge, a temporary wooden span to be used during the two-plus years of construction of the new bridge. Construction of a temporary bridge made of wood began on November 24, 1919, with workers began driving piles over the canal. The temporary bridge was built some fifty yards upriver from where the concrete structure was to be built.

On December 27, 1919, the first concrete was poured on the West Conshohocken side of the river for a retaining wall. On March 5, 1920, large chunks of ice in the rapidly flowing river washed out the temporary bridge. Two months later, the temporary bridge was in service.

Seeds & Derham Construction was the low bidder for the construction of the bridge, coming in at a total cost of $638,500. The bid also included the removal of ten buildings that would be in the right of way for the new bridge, including the home of Peter Matson located on the West Conshohocken side of the river. Behind the Matson house were two brick homes that were demolished; they had been owned by John Sowers and his brother Monroe. At the corner of Front and Ford Streets was a barbershop owned and operated by Robert Reid. Next to Reid's barbershop was a blacksmith shop, wheelwright buildings and a house, all owned by J. Fred Beaumont. On the Conshohocken side of the river was the old Conshohocken Hotel, once owned and operated by James Wells, whose signature can be found on the Conshohocken incorporation papers. The bridge ticket office once used to collect tolls, the home of the bridge caretaker and one of the first iron mills erected in the borough were also demolished.

When finished, the new bridge spanned the river, canal, three sets of railroad tracks and two roads. The new bridge was twice as wide as the covered bridge, at fifty feet wide (the covered bridge was twenty-five feet wide). When it was built from 1919 to 1921, materials used to create the span included 25,000 cubic yards of concrete, 672 tons of steel, 5,750 square yards of wood block paving, 2,110 square yards of granite, 1,607 square yards of bithulithic, 31,700 barrels of cement, 16,500 tons of sand and 28,700 tons of gravel.

When the bridge opened in 1921, the road surface looked like cobblestone but was actually wooden blocks. The blocks were coated with oil and creosote, and when it rained, the blocks became very slippery like ice and were very dangerous. Within six months, the blocks were removed and a hard surface was installed.

Minnie Harrison, an East Fourth Avenue resident, penned a poem that ran in the
Conshohocken Recorder
in November 1921 pertaining to the opening of the bridge:

Across the Schuylkill's rippling tide

A mighty bridge is flung