Remembering Conshohocken and West Conshohocken (10 page)

“Police Nab Six More in Gang Rumble.” A total of sixteen young men had been arrested up to that point for participating in a “Gang Rumble.” Officer George Bland responded to the fight at Elm and Poplar Streets. Bland ordered two youths to pull their car over, and the driver sped off. Officer Bland fired a shot at the fleeing car in the Connaughtown section. Officer Adam Pagliaro helped in the arrest in the Mogeetown section of Plymouth Township.

Michael Orler, the chief of police for the borough of Conshohocken in 2010, stated that in 2010, there are twenty full-time police officers and six police vehicles. The current budget for the year 2010 is $2.2 million, compared to just $2,500 in 1895. And when past headlines were brought to Chief Orler's attention, he stated that no gambling halls have been raided in recent years, nor have the police had to run down any bulls or horses running loose about the borough.

Conshohocken police officers can no longer discharge their guns into the air followed by a command to “HALT.” Officers appointed to the police position in the early years did not receive any police training at all. By today's standards, potential police officer candidates must complete the ACT 12 Police Training program before being considered for a police position. And one final thing: in the borough's 140-year police history, nowhere was there mentioned a female police officer. However, several years ago, Conshohocken hired its one and only female police officer, Connie Shaffer, who after working in Conshohocken is currently a police officer in Upper Merion Township. According to Orler, Conshohocken is ready and open to hire any female officer who qualifies for the police position.

Several of today's (2010) police officers line up in front of Borough Hall for a group photograph, including Conshohocken chief of police Michael Orler, standing in the back row second from left. In 1895, the annual police budget was $2,500; today's budget is $2.2 million. Conshohocken has twenty full-time officers and several part-time officers.
Courtesy of the Conshohocken Police Deparment
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A few of the police officers who have served the borough over the past decade include John Ellam, Tony Santoro, George Metz, John Storti, Matt Messenger, Andrew Carlin, Dave Zinni, James Carbo, Dave Lemon, Mike Kelly, Carmen Gambone, Dave Phillips, Shane Murray, Mike Connor and Jonathan Palmer.

It was a hot summer night in Conshohocken. On the evening of August 13, 1917, it was near closing time for most of the merchants along Fayette Street. Billy McGovern's cigar store located at 66 Fayette Street had a couple of locals still hanging around outside the store, as did Bob Crawford's cigar store, located for many years at Second Avenue and Fayette Street. On the corner of Hector and Ash Streets, Campbell's Furniture still had a potential customer or two milling about the store, and Little's Opera House was showing one of the many silent movies of the era at the movie house located on the second floor of its building at First Avenue and Fayette Street. The J.L. Oyster House at 48 Fayette Street always had a smell that would draw in hungry residents from the entire lower end of town, but nothing smelled sweeter than the warm aroma of Laise's Bakery on the corner of Elm and Fayette Streets.

Minutes before 8:30 on that Monday night, gunshots were heard coming from the corner of Elm and Fayette Streets. The sound of the shots pierced the heavy summer air and brought a community to its knees. Minutes later, Conshohocken police officer Eugene “Chick” Lucas staggered out of the Citron Building, turned right and headed up Fayette Street. When he reached Hector Street, several residents standing in front of Hart's cigar store noticed he was injured and assisted him to Dr. Fordyce's office located at Hector and Harry Streets. Once inside the office, Lucas collapsed and was declared dead at the doctor's office from a gunshot wound that ruptured the carotid artery in his neck.

Chick Lucas was a Conshohocken resident who was a former professional boxer, wrestler and race walker and, by all accounts of the day, was a very jovial individual. He was a very successful businessman and ran a paper-hanging and decorating business out of his storefront at 10 East Hector Street.

It was common practice in the early part of the last century to hire athletes or former soldiers to fill the position of police and law enforcement officers, and Chick was a perfect candidate. Conshohocken had four policemen in 1917, and when one of the full-time police officers was unable to work for a period of time, a special officer was hired to fill in. Officer George Ruth was on vacation, and Constable Ruggiero of Conshohocken swore in Lucas to fill in for Ruth.

On Chick's first day filling in for Ruth, Constable Ruggiero handed him a warrant filed by Madeline Nolen charging her husband, Michael Antolini—alias Black Mike, alias Mike Nolen, alias Mike Ralph, though we'll call him Black Mike—with desertion and abuse with intent to kill. Chick's second day on the job, he and Officer Clifford Campbell entered the Citron Building located on the corner of Elm and Fayette Streets, the home of Black Mike, to serve the warrant. The two officers traveled up three flights of blackened stairways to gain entry into Black Mike's apartment. The chain of events that followed started a twenty-year, headline-grabbing tale that ended on May 13, 1937.

When the officers reached Mike's apartment, the door was open and Black Mike was eating supper. Chick walked into the room with his club drawn and yelled, “Hands up.” Black Mike responded by grabbing his revolver and fired three shots, one of them striking Chick above the collarbone. The bullet severed the carotid artery, and Chick fell to the floor. His partner, Campbell, also hit the floor to avoid being struck.

Black Mike escaped from the police and went on the run for five years until he was captured on October 30, 1922, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, under the name of Joe Ross. Black Mike continued grabbing the headlines of local newspapers when on December 3, 1925, he and another convict escaped the Norristown prison by climbing over a wall. In April 1937, Black Mike filed a petition from Graterford Prison seeking a pardon while serving a fifteen-to seventeen-year prison term on a plea of guilty to second-degree murder. While waiting for a pardon, Black Mike died in Eastern State Penitentiary on May 13, 1937.

The name of Eugene J. “Chick” Lucas will live on in Conshohocken, Montgomery County and throughout the country. On May 19, 1995, the Montgomery County Police Officers Memorial was dedicated on the lawn of the Montgomery County Courthouse. The Conshohocken Police Department was well represented. In honor of Chick, his name is inscribed on the black granite memorial. Chick's name can also be found at Judicial Square in Washington, D.C., on the National Police Memorial.

According to current Conshohocken chief of police Mike Orler, a Police Star will be placed in the sidewalk outside of the former Citron Building with Chick's name inscribed.

James Harry's drugstore was doing a thriving business on Fayette Street, as was James Wrigley, who sold boots and shoes. DeHaven & Brothers, Fulton & Company and Joseph Hampson all had solid businesses on the lower end of the town. Dozens of family-owned businesses were threatened in 1871 when a fire broke out at 72 Fayette Street, a general grocery store owned and operated by Mr. Morris.

It was a happy occasion on July 4, 1953, when this photograph was taken. Just before the annual Fourth of July parade, members of the Washington Fire Company posed for this picture on the old 1929 Metropolitan Pumper Truck. The three firemen are Lou Hale, John Ostapowicz and Warren Rinker sitting on the fender.
Standing up on truck, from left
: Jesse Stemple Jr., Jesse Stemple III sitting on Ted Lesinski's lap, Sam Januzelli, Carl Hylinski, Jerry Tancini and Bob Haines.

Ulysses S. Grant was president of the United States and the borough of Conshohocken was in its infancy, having been incorporated just twenty-one years earlier. The newly formed borough had no firefighting equipment, and a plea was sent to Norristown, some four miles from Conshohocken, for fire apparatus and volunteers. Norristown responded, and a message was sent to the Reading Railroad Station that Norris Fire Company was responding with its Pat Lyons Hand Engine. Members of the Norris Fire Company hustled along Ridge Pike pulling and pushing the Pat Lyons on foot. More than fifty volunteers from Norristown took turns running with the fire wagon into Conshohocken and sent a message to the onlookers: Conshohocken needed a fire company. A year later, a fire at the Plymouth Blast Furnace threatened the livelihood of dozens of residents, and the leading members of the town took action.

It was a cold Saturday evening on December 13, 1873, when thirty-eight residents gathered in Stemple's Hall on Forrest Street, just below Hector, for the purpose of organizing a hose and steam fire engine company. A temporary fire company was authorized, and Jacob M. Ulrick was selected as president of the company. James Colen was vice-president, John S. Moore was secretary and William Heywood was treasurer. A committee was also formed at this meeting to appoint a committee to secure a charter and charged each member a one-dollar fee for the purpose of purchasing a fire wagon.

The following week on December 20, 1873, members of this new hose and steam fire engine company selected a name for their company. As was the custom back then, a number of names were dropped into a hat, including Lincoln, Jefferson, Conshohocken, Washington and a few others. While it was not recorded who pulled the name, the slip of paper with “Washington” written on it was drawn, and as of December 20, 1873, a few months before the fire company was chartered, the name of the fire company was the Washington Hose and Steam Fire Engine Company No. 1.

After using the barn of George Washington Jacoby for a couple of years to store its fire apparatus, the fire company purchased ground to build a two-story firehouse on West Hector Street. A two-story building, twenty-five by fifty feet, would cost $3,202. Members wanted a three-story facility but could not afford the additional $600. The company officials negotiated a low price with a promise to provide labor from its members.

Reuben Stemple was a hotelman and building contractor who landed the masonry and brick work for the erection of the Washington Fire Company's firehouse. In an effort to keep expenses low, the members of the company, following a hard day's work at the mills, raced to the firehouse to contribute to the lifting and moving of the cement, bricks, mixing motor and any other labor that was required. None of the firemen was paid, but as luck would have it, Reuben Stemple's hotel was just around the corner at 46 Fayette Street, and all of the workers often became very thirsty. Stemple would often send for a round of beer from the hotel by ordering the round written on a brick signed by Stemple. The bartender at the hotel would recognize Stemple's signature, pour a full round of beer for the thirsty workers and stack the bricks behind the bar.

Well, it didn't take long for the firemen-workmen to figure out a way to help themselves to a free party or two on Stemple. It became a frequent scene in the hotel bar that a rather large contingent of the firemen-workmen would enter the bar and start an argument with the barkeeper. While the barkeep engaged in a verbal tussle with the men, a few of the firemen would slip over and retrieve a few of the bricks with the coveted chalk markings that read “good for a few beers, R.S.” Before long, the workmen had their own stash of bricks that proved as good as any credit card given in a bar today.

For what it's worth, it was reported that no firemen-workmen ever became intoxicated during the construction of the building.

Having celebrated more than 136 years of service and still growing, the rest, as they say, is Washington Fire Company history.

February 3, 1873: “John Wood & Brothers Explosion”