R. C. Titlow, Cabinetmaker and Undertaker

Small chair made by RC Titlow

Earlier this year, we received a call from a woman with a chair she thought we might like for our collection. It turns out that this chair had a label on the bottom showing that it was made in Norristown, Pennsylvania, AND it had the name of the craftsman, R. C. Titlow!

 

Label from underside of chair seat “R. C. Titlow Cabinet Maker and Undertaker Main St. Norristown, Pa”

I did some digging and came up with some more information.

 

Reuben C. Titlow announced the opening of his business in Norristown with a notice in The Norristown Register and Montgomery Democrat on May 22, 1844.  Here’s what it said:

 

“Reuben C. Titlo Respectfully informs the public that he has commenced the cabinet making business in the shop lately occupied by Jerome Walnut, in the lower end of the Borough of Norristown, where he will be happy to wait on all those who desire furniture. The newly married are especially invited to call.  His furniture is made of good materials and durable.  He endeavors to gain credit by the manufacture of good furniture and therefore does not slight his work; his desire is to furnish people with furniture in the future, and not get a job once, and by slighting it, never receive their patronage again.  His work is not made by apprentices.

Old furniture repaired in a superior manner, at short notice.

By strict attention to business, prompt execution of orders, and moderate prices, he hopes to receive a liberal share of public patronage.

He would also beg leave to inform the public that he carries on the coffin making business, and can wait on all those who may desire his services. Having a hearse, he will attend on funerals in the country.

Reuben C. Titlo.”

 

A few years later in 1847, he moved his store and advertised in The Norristown Times Herald and Free Press.  Below you can read the ad:

 

Advertisement from the Norristown Herald and Free Press

 

It seems that the apprentice he advertised for was found in David Y. Mowday. According to Bean’s History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Mowday learned cabinet-making and undertaking from Titlow, for whom he was an apprentice and later a journeyman.  Mowday was very successful and his business lasted well after his death.  Undertaking became the main focus and Mowday Funeral Home continued well into the 20^th century.

D.Y. Mowday from Bean’s History of Montgomery County

 

Aside from information about Reuben Titlow’s business, I also found information about his life. The newspaper announced his marriage to Sarah B. Levering of Barren Hill on the 21^st of November, 1844, by the Reverend Frederick R. Anspach.  He died February 12, 1858, at the age of 41.  The inventory of his estate lists quite a bit of furniture, including bureaus, chairs, and bedsteads.  There were also 16 coffins.  His wife survived him, and in the 1860 Norristown Business Directory she is listed as a widow with “Cabinet ware rooms North Side Egypt (now Main) Street above Green, house same address.”  An interesting fact is that David Y. Mowday began his business the same year Titlow died, in 1858.

 

Although I could find no images of him, you can visit Reuben C. Titlow’s grave in Historic Montgomery Cemetery! He’s buried in Lot Q-33/34 with a Masonic symbol on his headstone.  Check our website to find out more about Historic Montgomery Cemetery.

Charles Heber Clark

Though the name is virtually unknown today, Charles Heber Clark, who sometimes wrote under the name “Max Adeler,” was a best-selling author of humorous stories

In 1856 or 1857 (according to his son, Frederick L. Clark), teenager Charles H. Clark moved from Maryland to Philadelphia to begin his working life.  He began as a reporter for several Philadelphia newspapers, eventually becoming an editor and even owning his own paper, the Textile Record.  His career was briefly interrupted by two years in military service during the Civil War.  After the war he gained fame with the publication of his first book.

Out of the Hurley-Burley, or, Life in an Odd Corner was published in 1874 under the name “Max Adeler.”  It’s a collection of humorous stories about life in New Castle, Delaware, in the middle of the nineteenth century. It features hundreds of illustrations, including many by A. B. Frost, developer of the comic strip.  The book was very popular in the US and in Britain, selling over one million copies.

A few years after the publication of Out of the Hurley-Burley, Clark moved to Conshohocken with his young family.  In his final volume of short stories, By the Bend in the River (1915), Clark described Conshohocken as “Where the quiet river bends to the eastward, and below, where it turns sharply toward the south through the cleft in the long-hill range.”

The Historical Society of Montgomery County has four of Clark’s books.  One of them, The Fortunate Island and Other Stories (1882), contains the story of a professor and his daughter shipwrecked on a magical island stuck in the Middle Ages.  This story led to rivalry with fellow humorist Mark Twain. Clark accused Twain of plagiarizing parts of “The Fortunate Island” in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Clark, however, did not want to be known as only a humorist.  He was a serious man and he wanted to be taken seriously.  Later in life he wrote several novels, including The Quakeress (1905), which takes place in Conshohocken (referred to as “Connock” in the book).  He was also president of the J. Ellwood Lee Company, a manufacturer of surgical instruments that was founded by a former student from Clark’s Bible class.

The novels were not as successful as his humorous stories, and eventually Clark reconciled himself with his reputation.  He died in 1915 and is buried in Montgomery Cemetery. 

Source: Clark, Frederick L., “Charles Heber Clark.”  Bulletin of the Historical Society of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, v. III, no. 4, Norristown, PA: April, 1943

Coming in the next quarterly newsletter…

Of the five Civil War generals buried in Montgomery Cemetery, Matthew Robert McClennan is perhaps the least known.  Born in 1834, McClennan worked as a printer before the war, opening his own shop on Main St. in Norristown.

The advertisement shown here is from a local newspaper called The National Defender dated August 15, 1871.  The Historical Society of Montgomery County is the only repository holding a near complete run of this paper which was publishing in Norristown from 1856 until about 1900.

The paper also ran an obituary for McClennan upon his death in June 1872.  The men who served under him in the 138^th Regiment, erected a monument to his memory in Montgomery Cemetery.

You can read more about McClennan’s life and military career in Ed Ziegler’s article in this winter’s newsletter.