Historic Philadelphia

of several thousand books which was open to
the community. The high school grades studied
Latin, Greek, higher mathematics, history,
geography, science, composition, literature,
and such practical subjects as bookkeeping.
As a major in the Pennsylvania Militia, Catto
was responding to the governor’s call for troops
to quell the disturbances at the polls by going
home to get his uniform. A man with a bandaged
head and a pistol in his hand suddenly stepped
in front of Catto, mumbled something, and fired.
Philadelphia’s most distinguished black citizen
fell with a bullet in his heart.
The funeral of Octavius V. Catto was held
on the Monday after the election. There were
125 carriages in the procession on North
Broad Street, and thousands of Philadelphians,
black and white, walked solemnly along.
There were police units, military units, state
legislators, all 75 city councilmen, 200
African-American students, the vestry of St.
Thomas Church, and 40 members of the
Pythian Base Ball Club. Leading the funeral
was William S. Stokley, who had been elected
over Fox by ten thousand votes.
Professional, paid firemen went into service
on March 15, 1871, replacing the tradition of
volunteer fire companies that went back to
1736. There were nearly a hundred volunteer
fire companies in Philadelphia, with at least
twenty thousand nominal members. Perhaps
twenty percent of the men were serious about
extinguishing fires. Many others, and some
entire companies, responded to alarms only
when there was the prospect of fighting
another fire company. Quarter Sessions Court
was given control of fire company charters in
1848, and by 1855 had acted against sixty-nine
companies for rioting.
City Council finally voted on December
15, 1870, to create the paid fire department. The
✧
Above: Delegates to the 1872 Republican
Convention entered the Academy of Music
up the steps from Broad Street . (The
building to the left was the Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society.) The public entered on
Locust Street and could watch from the
heights of the balconies. President Ulysses S.
Grant was renominated, largely because his
enemies in the party had broken away to
form the Liberal Republicans, whose
candidate, journalist Horace Greeley, was
also nominated by the Democrats. Grant
swept 29 of the 35 states in November.
COURTESY OF THE ATWATER KENT MUSEUM.
Left: Tradition says that a man named
Mo Sing established a food and clothing
store at Ninth and Race Streets in 1871
and became the first settler of a new
ethnic neighborhood. However the start,
within twenty years the area was known
as Chinatown, containing industrious
Chinese family businesses. Today, its
many restaurants and shops thrive,
surrounded by Center City development.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER IV
79