Kensington Area of Philadelphia

Peacocks were involved in carpet weaving in Philadelphia for several generations.  This website discusses the development of the industry.

http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/kensington/kensington.html

"Traditionally, Kensington was known as the original hub of working class Philadelphia, with both native and immigrant workers living close to their work sites or working at home. Early nineteenth century industry in the area was diverse; it included glass factories and potteries, wagon and machine works, and a chemical factory. Many of the earlier sites were located in West Kensington (west of Front Street), spreading north from the Spring Garden District and Northern Liberties. However, the textile trades came to dominate Kensington by the mid-nineteenth century. The genesis of the ingrain carpet industry was centered around Oxford and Howard Streets in West Kensington, 1 where some mills still stand. Other early carpet mills in this area are now gone, but they included James Gay's Park Carpet Mill, the Dornan Brothers' Monitor Carpet Mill, William J. Hogg's Oxford Carpet Mill, the Stinson Brothers' Columbia Carpet Mill, and the carpet mills of Horner Brothers, and Ivins, Dietz, and Magee (later of Hardwick and Magee). The earliest carpet factories operated mainly through "outwork" the owners providing yarns to workers who hand loomed the goods in their homes. As these small textile concerns grew, their owners built small factories in East Kensington. 2 Associated textile trades, such as dye works, yarn factories, woolen and worsted mills, 3 cotton mills, and even textile machinery factories were often located in the same building or complex. After the 1860s, Kensington was filled with two story brick rowhouses and steam powered mills. In 1883, Lorin Blodget described the northward expansion of the area as having had rapid and successful development from vacant fields a few years ago, to a densely built up city, all of which is recent, and most of it within ten or twelve years. It is wellbuilt, with broad and well paved streets, the mills being especially well located, and many of those recently erected being fine specimens of architecture 4....

Small firms comprised most of the textile industry in Kensington in the nineteenth century. For example, in 1850, most of the district's 126 textile firms each had only one owner and few employees on site. 6 At the same time, one third of the firms and workers in textiles in Philadelphia were in Kensington. 7 Irish, English, Scotch, and German immigrants, as well as native workers and owners lived in the neighborhood, although not always harmoniously, as the nativist riots of the 1840s indicated. 8 These 4,000 plus workers maintained a tradition of handlooms into the 1880s. Handloom operators were predominately male, with female workers often working in the power mills tending looms as well as performing other service tasks. 9"

Philadelphia Marriage 1940

August 10, 1940

William Peacock, son of William S. and Emily A., 30 years old, of 4725 D. Street

Married

Dorothy A. Vernon, daugher of Ernest J. and Annie E., 27 years old, of 6211 Wayne Ave.

at St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Witness:  E.M. Peacock (Edwin Milton)

Death of Frederick Peacock -1921

Copied from a newspaper clipping

Obituary for Fred Peacock
Yesterday afternoon, four little lads from the Moffet Farm who were fishing discovered the body of a man in the water near one of the boat houses at the foot of Colborne Street (Orillia). They notified the CPR officials who in turn advised Chief Murphy, and they came down and took the drowned man out of the water. There were no marks of violence, and his money and watch were in his pocket, but nothing by which he could be identified. His name was not learned until after tea when Mr. Thomas Jennings of East Street visited the undertaker parlours of D.C. Clarke and found that the drowned man was his neighbour, Fred Peacock who had been missing since the day before.

Peacock, who was about seventy years old, lived with a niece, Mrs. Sax Moore, Regent Street. He had left home the morning before and had not returned, but as this was not unprecedented, it did not cause Mrs. Moore much alarm.

Strangely enough, a little grand nephew, Elwood Moore, was one of the boys who found the body, but as they did not want to see it taken from the water, he did not recognize his uncle. The other three were George Perigot, and Richard and Sam Bond.Peacock was a native of Ireland. He was the last member of the family. He was a widower and had two sons in the United States. He had been living with Mrs. Moore for about two months. Interrment is likely to take place at Falkenburg where the deceased formerly lived. Dr. McLean has not yet decided whether or not it is advisable to hold an inquest.

PEACOCK, Frederick, m, April 13, 1921, 71 years, Ireland, cause - found drowned at Orillia accidental, burial - Falkenburg, laborer, s/o Thomas Peacock of Ireland & blank, infm - Joseph O. Peacock, nephew, Orillia (Simcoe Co) 029897-21

William Peacock, son of Frederick

1920 US Federal Census - Philadelphia-Ward 33

William S. Peacock, 43, father born Canada, conductor-trolley co.
Emily A. Peacock, wife
William Peacock, son, 10
Catherine Peacock, daughter, 7
Edwin Peacock, son, 4 years
Eben Dunn, boarder, 27, widowed, pipefitter, gas co.
Frank L. Dunn, 1 year 4 months

1930 US Federal Census - Philadelphia - Ward 42
April 8, 1930 - Block 1267

William Peacock, 54, value of home-6,000, Owner, Radio in home
age first married 33, father b. Canada, conductor
Emily Peacock, 44
William Peacock, 20, telephone clerk
Edmund Peacock, 14

Thomas Milton Peacock, son of Frederick

1920 US Federal Census, Philadelphia
District 1, 33rd Ward

Thomas Peacock, Head, renting, 48, weaver-carpet mills
(father b. Ireland / mother b. Pennsylvania)
*Emma Peacock, wife, 37, parents born Ireland
Thomas Peacock, son, 5 months
Catherine M. Peacock, mother, 69 years


1930 US Federal Census -Philadelphia
April 21, 1930 33rd Ward, Block 409

Thomas Peacock, 57. b. PA, weaver-upholstry mill
father b. Canada, Mother b. PA, first married-46
*Anna Peacock, 46, wife, first married-25, father b. N. Ireland
Thomas Peacock, 10
Harvey Peacock, 7
Catherine Peacock, 79, b. PA,
parents b. N. Ireland, age first married-22

*the difference in given name of Thomas' wife might
be an enumerator's error

Frederick Peacock, eldest son of Thomas & Sarah

Revised June 29/2013 New Information were Fred's Wife

Thomas Peacock’s eldest son, Fred, does not appear in the 1871 census
in King Township. In the 1870 Census of Pennsylvania, there is an Irish
Fred Peacock born in 1850 and living in Kidder Township, Carbon County,
the coal region of Pennsylvania.  His post office address is Lehigh Tannery.
His occupation is 'cloth weaver' and he appears to be living in a boarding house
with a a George Salsman at the head.  There are 15 men and women beside the
Salsman couple and their 4 children.

In 1880 Census, Frederick Peacock is married to Catherine Milton
with two sons, both born in Pennsylvania. The eldest is eight years old which means
that Fred has been in the US for at least nine years. He is working as
a carpet weaver, a skill which could very well have been learned in
Ulster where there were many opportunities for weavers in the linen
industry.  He probably worked at home.

"The earliest carpet factories operated mainly through "outwork," the owners
providing yarns to workers who hand loomed the goods in their homes.
As these small textile concerns grew, their owners built small factories in
East Kensington."  (See June 2013 post re: 'workshopoftheworld' website.
Catherine Milton's parents were Anthony Milton (1816-1851 b. Ireland) and
Ann (1817-1856 born Ireland).  They appear in the 1850 census in
Luzerne County - Providence Township.  Their eldest child was born in Ireland.
I cannot find the family in the 1860 census (after deaths of parents), but Catherine
is in Philadelphia in 1870  living with an older couple, the Weatheralls and their
children. They are at 21 Haverford Street. 

Catherine had one brother who was killed in the Civil War and three sisters.
The family appears on ancestry.com but without a marriage for Catherine.

1880 USA Census – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Fred Peacock, 30, b. Ireland, Carpet Weaver, parents born in Ireland
Catherine 28, b. Philadelphia, parents born in Ireland
Thomas Milton, 8, b. Philadelphia, at school, father born Ireland, mother Phil.
Willie, 6, b. Philadelphia, at school, father born Ireland, mother Phil.


1890 USA Census – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(not available)

1900 USA Census – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ward 18 - June, 1900
Norris Street / Livingstone East – Enumeration District 363

Catherine Peacock , b. Sept 1850, 49, *widowed (sic), b. PA, parents born Ireland
Thomas Peacock, b. Aug 1872, 27, single, b. PA, father b. Ireland, mother PA, carpet weaver
William Peacock, b. Aug 1875, 24, single, b. PA, father b. Ireland, mother PA, carpet weaver
(months without employment 0)

*Frederick Peacock is not deceased but with Canadian relatives
in Perry Township, Muskoka in 1901.

1910 US Federal Census - Philadelphia

William Peacock, Head, 34, married two years,
conductor –street railway
Emily Peacock, wife, 25
William Peacock, son, 7 months
Thomas Peacock, brother, 37, single
Catherine Peacock, mother, 57, married 37 years