Historic Philadelphia

✧
Rioters and militia battled in the streets of
Moyamensing District near St. Philip Neri
Church at Second and Queen Streets on
July 5, 6, and 7 during the long, hot
summer of 1844.
COURTESY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF
PENNSYLVANIA. COLOR LITHOGRAPH BY J. BAILLIE AND J.
SOWLE AFTER H. BUCHOLTZER [ACCESSION #BB 892 B921).
Governor David Rittenhouse Porter arrived
with several companies of militia, who bedded
down in Girard’s Bank on Third Street, and
patrolled the streets, joined by armed sailors
from the U.S.S. Princeton. Things quieted
down. A grand jury later blamed the
authorities of the city and Kensington District
for lax law enforcement.
Independence Day brought the Native
Americans and their rhetoric back to life. On
Friday evening, July 5, a crowd milled outside
St. Philip Neri Church at Second and Queen
Streets in Moyamensing District, south of the
city. Agitators told the sheriff they saw men
carrying muskets into the church. A search
found weapons inside, and 150 men who had
been training to protect the church after the
May burnings. The crowd dispersed, but
gathered again the next day and became
threatening. City troops went to the scene,
and there was war in the streets of
Moyamensing, with muskets and cannons, for
two days. Reports vary, but there were deaths
and injuries. Militia called in from other
counties patrolled the city for weeks.
On October 23, 1844, the tumultuous year
saw followers of religious leader William
Miller, clad in robes, waiting in a field in
Darby because he prophesied that the world
would end that night. It didn’t.
The legislature, annoyed at having to pay
troops for riot duty in Philadelphia, passed
a law in 1845 requiring the city and most of
the contiguous municipalities to establish
police forces, with the requirement that they
cooperate across boundaries as needed.
The forty-eight fire companies of the city
had problems with their triennial parade in
1848. Many couldn’t carry their usual banners
or decorate their equipment with tinsel and
artificial flowers because it snowed heavily on
March 27. Worse, a band from New York
refused to take part because the Frank
Johnson Band and other African-American
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