07/08/2019
Exactly one hundred seventy five years ago on the morning of Monday July 8, 1844 Corporal Henry Troutman was pronounced dead. The 26 year old Historic Germantown resident did not die fighting in a war. He was not in some far off land or even distant territory of the United States. He died a dozen miles from his home near present day 2nd and Queen St. in South Philadelphia -- then a separate village named Southwark.
Corporal Troutman was newly married to Elizabeth Miller. The young couple lived in the back room of Elizabeth's parent's home that stood near Armat St. and Germantown Avenue. They were saving up to start a life of their own when the civil unrest in Philadelphia caused the Pennsylvania governor to call up the state militia to maintain order. Local militia units throughout the region were activated. Henry's Germantown Blues went into action that Sunday July 7, 1844.
The riots were the work of the so called "Nativists" mostly second and third generation Americans of largely Anglo Protestant stock. They resented the newly arriving Irish immigrants who had been coming to Philadelphia in greater and greater numbers in the past decade and a half. They hated the Irish who lived in poverty and brought with them their foreign Roman Catholic religion. The Nativists saw the Irish as competition for low paying jobs. Job postings for positions that paid well would say things like “Irish need not apply.” Some would famously post signs in their taverns saying “No dogs or Irish allowed.” The Nativists saw the newly built Catholic churches and Catholic schools as evidence of a Papal invasion of the United States. They feared that the purity of White Anglo Saxon America was threatened by this invasion of Irish Catholic rabble. Already by this point in 1844 two Catholic churches as well as some 30 or so homes in Irish neighborhoods were burnt to the ground by these Nativists mobs. The fire that burnt down St. Augustine Church on 4th Street in Old City was so bright that Germantowners 9 miles away could see the flames and smoke from the top of Nagley’s Hill.
That July night Henry Troutman’s Germantown Blues were called out to stop a third church, St. Philip Neri, in Southwark (modern day Queen Village) from being destroyed.
The Nativists were enraged that the Irish were allowed by the state governor to form their own militia unit to protect themselves and their church. When they heard that the Irish militia unit, the "Hibernian Grays" was stockpiling fi****ms in St. Philip Neri's church, the Nativists demanded that the church surrender its weapons or be destroyed. How could the governor betray American citizens by allowing these foreign Papists to form an army, the Nativists questioned.
The state militias that night -- including the Germantown Blues -- found themselves pitted between armed Irish Catholic “Hibernian Grays” in the church and an angry mob of Nativists filling the streets intent on arson. The Nativists came armed with pistols, clubs, knives and bricks. Some carried torches, ready to toss them at the church.
The general in charge of the state troops ordered that cannons be brought out to keep the Nativists back. The tensions rose only higher with this show of strength. Rocks and bottles were thrown at the church and at the militia. Bricks were tossed at the soldiers. Some militia men broke ranks and ran. Others stood their ground and were forced to fight back their own fellow Philadelphians with the butts of their rifles and their bayonets.
Soon an order was given to fire. A loud volley of musket fire erupted and gun smoke filled the street. The Nativists fell back. But it was not a total retreat.
On the nearby wharf there was a cannon meant to protect the river that the mob commandeered. Filling the cannon with nails, rocks, broken glass and whatever else they could get their hands on, the Nativists brought the cannon to Queen Street and fired the gun directly on the militia.
A shower of debris exploded at the Germantown Blues. Sargent Guyer was killed instantly. Corporal Troutman was badly hit in the hand and in the groin. He laid in the street losing a lot of blood as around him the violence raged. Privates Ent, Ashworth, Osborne and Cox were also wounded in the melee. Captain Maxwell of the Germantown Blues, an artilleryman by training, took charge in the heat of the moment and directed a cannon to fire back at the Nativists. As the Nativists reloaded their cannon the militia fired its cannon at them. Soon Nativists had to run and give up their stolen gun. Skirmishes and random acts of violence seemed to carry on through the night. Running street battles were fought throughout Southwark. But the church was saved. No one watching from the hills of Germantown would see the ghastly sight of another church burning in Philadelphia that night.
Henry Troutman was not gotten to a hospital until sunrise on the morning of July 8th. But it was too late for him. He had lost so much blood that the doctors could do nothing for him. Besides the deaths of Troutman and Guyer, 14 other militia men from various units were wounded. Dozens of civilians were wounded and some were killed in the rioting and in the running street battles that followed. Men were found slumped over door steps or laying in an alley somewhere shot to death. Even women and children were wounded. The news was reported in papers in cities from New York and Boston to Baltimore and Charleston.
Corporal Troutman's body was brought back to Germantown to his shocked and grieving young widow. A funeral was arranged. He was to be buried at the Lower Burial Ground, known today as Hood Cemetery.
The 'Germantown Telegraph' contained the following account of the funerals for the two Germantown Blues:
“Wednesday last was a gloomy day for Germantown. The last sad honors were paid to the remains of John Guyer and Henry G. Troutman, members of the corps of Germantown Blues, murdered by the mob in Philadelphia, on the 7th instant, while in defence of the laws. Mr. Guyer’s funeral took place in the forenoon, and Mr. Troutman’s in the afternoon. Both were attended by the Blues, in mourning, who mustered very strongly, notwithstanding the diminution of their numbers in killed and wounded, and never appeared to better advantage. The number of citizens in attendance was greater than ever recollected on the occasion of a funeral. The remains of Mr. Guyer were interred at the upper Lutheran Church, where the Rev. Mr. Richards made an appropriate address, as did also the Rev. Mr. Helffenstein at the interment of the remains of Mr. Troutman, in the Lower Burying Ground. Platoons were fired by the Blues over the graves of both."
Corporal Troutman left his wife Elizabeth a widow fighting to protect values that we hold dear today -- tolerance for new comers, tolerance for different religions and different ways of life. The Nativists feared the Irish because they were not only going to compete with them for jobs, but more importantly because they were going to change the culture of the United States.
In that sense, they were right. The Irish did change America.
Over a century and a half later this country was changed by the Irish immigrants who came here and fought -- sometimes very literally -- for their freedom and by their children and grandchildren who built lives and families here. Today, generations later 34.5 million Americans claim Irish ancestry second in popularity only to those claiming German ancestry. And the differences between Irish Catholic and Anglo-Protestant Americans which seemed so unbridgeable in the nineteenth century are now nearly unrecognizable today. The Irish who came here changed America for the better. The prejudicial fears of the Nativists never came to fruition.
Meanwhile some of today's "Native Born" Americans have turned their glare on new generations of immigrants to our shores and say many of the same things that were said about the Irish in 1844, including the Nativist rallying cry of "America First!"
In some ways the story never changes. People want to say this time it's different -- these people aren't like the ones who came before, not like our ancestors. But is that so true or is that just what they say every generation?
Those of us whose families have been here for generations like to believe that our ancestors came here the proper way, and assimilated into American culture the way you’re supposed to do. But often if we do the research we find that the stories are more similar to what immigrants experience today than we would like to admit. Irish Catholics were suspect for their religion like Muslim Americans are today. They were hated for taking low paying jobs from native born, much like Latin American, Asian and African immigrants to Philadelphia and the United States are today. And while there was no such thing as legal vs. illegal immigration in 1844, native born Americans sought to limit the access to full citizenship for the Irish in many of the same ways that happen to new comers today.
In fact it would not be too many more decades after the riots before the Irish would find themselves trying to stave off African American advancement after the ending of slavery. Indeed the one thing that never seems to change in this country has been that journey every new group makes from “new comer” to “native” to “Nativist” generation after generation.
But how would our immigrant ancestors in their humble clothes with their meager belongings feel hearing some of us talk of new comers today? How would they feel hearing their great great grandchildren using such dehumanizing terms for people like “illegals” or referring to them as “an infestation?” More likely than not, having made such similar journeys, they would sympathize with the so called “infestation.”
The Irish, like subsequent ethnic groups who followed them (Polish, Italian, Russian, Greek, Eastern European Jews, Hispanics, Japanese, Middle Easterners, newly freed African Americans, Koreans, Indians, etc.) did and do change America -- for the better. New comers are the life blood of American greatness.
America's strength is rooted in our diversity and in our acceptance of others into the American family. Look at our military today. Look at our Olympic teams, our Silicon Valley or our Nobel Prize winners. Look at our abundance of art, music and literature made possible by the rich multi cultural tapestry that is America. Out of many, one. E pluribus unum. Be proud of that America.
Maybe the German American Henry Troutman knew that intrinsically living in the bi-lingual community of Germantown. We should thank the Corporal Troutman's of our past who laid down their lives fighting to make our America possible. And we should never follow the passions of the mob that seek to dehumanize and vilify newcomers.
Story and photo originally published in 2017 by Brendan McTear, great great grandson to Irish Catholic immigrant Thomas McTear and his Irish Protestant immigrant wife Mary Black McTear who he could have never married in the old country. Be sure to "like" follow and "share" The Hood Cemetery page where you can find more stories like this about our 326 year history as well as find out how you can get involved in helping us to preserve our historic gem.
