Did you know . . .
Odd
bits of information
The
Philadelphia Soft Pretzel
- The origins of the Philadelphia soft pretzel
can be traced back to a strong Germanic
influence during the early history of
Pennsylvania. The average person eats 1.5-2 lbs
of hard pretzels a year, but in Philadelphia,
the inhabitants eat near 12 times that
amount in soft pretzels.
www.bg-map.com/foods.html
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St. John Neumann, born March 28, 1811 in
Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. |
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1836
- John Nepomucene Neumann
(1811-60) arrived in the United
States in 1836 from his native
Bohemia to work as a priest in the
country's German-speaking Roman
Catholic communities. He founded the
first American diocesan school
system, and in 1852 became Bishop of
Philadelphia. In 1977 he was
canonized as a saint by Pope Paul
VI.
St.
Peter’s Catholic Church, Shrine of Saint
John Neumann, located at 5th
& Girard Avenues in the Fishtown Section
of Philadelphia. I was baptized in the
church, while my great grandfather,
Peter Nischbach, walked to the church
everyday to attend Mass, recited in
German. In addition to his native
German and Bohemian language, Bishop
Neumann, learned Italian, Spanish,
Greek, Latin, English and French. Later
he learned Gaelic in order to hear
confession of Irish American immigrants.
In humility, he reached out to the many
immigrants in Philadelphia.
www.redemptorists.net/pathway/shrines.html/
www.stjohnneumann.org/life.html
www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html |
Philadelphia Breweries . . . a
mainstay in early Philadelphia.
As a child, I
often had opportunity to ride or walk by the
Schmidt’s Brewery. It was a large, looming
building. My parents, grandparents, and just
about everyone I knew drank Schmidt’s beer. www.workshopoftheworld.com/northern_liberties/schmidt.html
As some
of these German brewers became successful, they
needed room to expand. It soon became
advantageous for them to build new breweries
near these vaults, and the result was a brewery
building boom the likes of which the city, or
the world for that matter, had never seen. To
see this full article by Richard Wagner, Brewery
Historian, go to:
http://pabreweryhistorians.tripod.com/grandaddy.htm
Philadelphia, Workshop of the World . .
. My grandfather was a sheet
metal worker at a metal foundry in 1930.
While looking over the census for that
year, one can see that his
German-Hungarian neighbors were engaged
in a variety of occupations, from baker
to moulder in an iron factory. A few
years later, my grandmother later worked
at the Lerner Blouse Company. My mother,
when not coloring studio photos for her
uncle, Peter Stahl, owner of Stahl
Photography Studio at 2nd &
Girard Avenues, was employed by the Apex
Hosiery Mill.
To see a list
of many the manufacturing facilities by
neighborhood, please go to following site: www.workshopoftheworld.com/overview/overview.html
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