The Butter and Egg Man

Arthur H. Bonsor

“My best memory is candling the eggs.  Uncle Charles would take me to the back room and he showed me how to hold the egg up to a bright light in this darkened room.  We would look at the shadow inside the egg to find spots, dark rings, or other abnormalities that would indicate a bad egg.  I would spend my afternoon peering at each egg, throwing the bad ones into a box and watch them explode and placing the good ones carefully into the big egg crate for the customers.”  Uncle Art told me this story last time I visited him in 2012 at the age of 87.  He reminisced about visiting his Grandfather’s business in the Reading Terminal Market as a young boy of 7 in the year 1932.  Granddad, as Art called him, was Arthur H. Bonsor and he was known as the “butter and egg man” of Philadelphia.  

Arthur H Bonsor was born on Nov 22, 1866 in Philadelphia to his parents Joseph and Emma fresh from England.  He was the firstborn son and had an older sister Emma.  His father had a produce shop on Water St. and son Arthur often helped out on Saturdays.  In 1886, when Arthur was 20 years old and still in school, he accompanied his father to collect a debt from a colleague, Mr. Isaac Esbin, at the Farmers and Butchers’ Market situated at 12^th & Market St., Philadelphia.  Mr. Esbin was a fine man, but was having a bit of financial trouble.  His stalls in the market were closed, but he was there.  Joseph and Mr. Esbin had a chat about the $40 debt and concluded their business.  Joseph turned to his son, Arthur and said, “Boy, do you want it?” referring to the two stalls Mr. Esbin owned in the Farmers Market and was using to pay his debt.  Arthur was dumfounded for the moment, but managed to say yes.  The three of them went upstairs to the superintendent’s office and signed over two market stalls to Arthur.  That was the start of his business in 1886.

Road Sign

Everyone called it his “butter and egg” business and it went from a fledgling two stall one man operation to a thriving successful enterprise.  He sold fresh butter, eggs, cream, cottage cheese, Fancy Jersey Poultry among other things.  He would contract with local farmers to purchase their goods and move it into his market.  He would then sell it retail out of his stalls.  He developed advertising in all the local newspapers and magazines.  He also had a series of road signs.

In 1890 The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company consolidated its four Philadelphia terminals to build one large terminal in downtown Philadelphia and purchased the 1100 block of the Market St.  By 1892 the Reading Terminal Market opened for business and merchants at the Butchers and Farmers’ Market such as Arthur Bonsors’ moved into the new Reading Terminal Market.  This new facility allowed him to expand by adding more stalls.  The Reading Terminal Market advertised itself as the “Source of Main Food Supply of Philadelphia and Adjacent Territory” with 250 specialized dealers and 100 farmers occupying the stalls.  The state-of-the-art refrigerated storage area in the basement opened for use in July 1893, which helped the merchants store fresh food and keep it longer.  Arthur’s stalls were piled high with tubs of butter and cottage cheese.  Large chickens, turkeys and ducks hung by their feet on the back wall with hanging scales wedged in every so often.  His employees all wore white smocks with bow ties along with caps on their heads.  Ten men attend the counter cleaning, slicing, wrapping and waiting on customers.  The large signs around the stall advertised the business as “Arthur H. Bonsor”.

Sometime during the early years his brother Herbert Bonsor joined the company, because the business name appears as A H Bonsor & Bro, Inc. in legal papers, advertising and many signs.  The city directory lists Arthur as the President and Treasurer, and Herbert Bonsor as Secretary while Francis Chapman is the Vice President.  Arthur took part in many organizations to further his business and often made sales calls to promote sales.

The first decades of the 1900’s boomed in the Terminal Market, and Arthur, with the popularity of the internal combustion engine, soon had trucks on the road delivering to all the top hotels, restaurants and homes in the tri-state area.  The Pennsylvania Highway Department lists Motor Vehicle licenses in Jan 1, 1917 issued for the Arthur H Bonsor & Bro at Reading Terminal.  He continually added stalls when he could, considering the market was at capacity.  By 1926 he had 28 stalls and he said he could have used more.  Times were good and he was a very successful business man. 

                The Great Depression of the 1930s brought hardship to the Market overall.  New competition from the introduction of supermarkets also hurt the Market business.  One of these new establishments opened across the street, directly competing with the Reading Market.  Ten of the market’s 64 merchants had been there since its founding in 1892, including Arthur Bonsor & Bro, Inc.  The last straw for Arthur in this declining economy was the increasing pressure from the AFL and CIO to join their respective labor unions.  He wanted his own employees to load and drive his delivery trucks and felt these unions were taking over his business.  In 1939 Arthur decided to give up his business.  At that time his daughters were in no position to run the business and his grandchildren were either too young or in the military service, so he sold the business and retired.    In a letter he wrote when he was 60 years old he summarized his career, “(business) it has been very pleasant and I always made money – but now I would like to quit and do the things that I have always craved – travel more and not have the care of things any more – or at least to take up some other kinds of (not of work) but to do things different.”

Postcard of Arthur H Bonsor & Bro. Stalls

                Granddad Bonsor lived out the rest of his life doing just as he wanted. He traveled, and enjoyed his grandchildren next to the ocean at 101 Harvard Ave, Ventnor, NJ.  He died there in 1944.

The Reading Terminal Market declined over the years and finally the railroad company filed for bankruptcy in 1971.  By the 1980’s people and business started revitalizing the market and currently it serves as a popular source for culinary treats and unique merchandise.  Philadelphia lists it as a tourist destination and it remains busy seven days a week.  Cousin Geoffrey stopped by there recently and found the original stalls Granddad Bonsor inhabited for all those years.  Today they house a Soul Food Café!

Pennsylvania Railroad and William Barton Johnson

PA RR Pay Car  WB on left, Dallas on right.

Our grandfather, William B Johnson, worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad all his life.   He was born in Port Norris, New Jersey in 1888 and lived with his family there until they moved to Camden in about 1896. He continued to live with his family until he was married.  At 20 years old in 1908, he was a clerk at the Pennsylvania Railroad and by 22 was an assistant paymaster.  He had only 3 years of high school and no college at all.  These pictures were taken approximately 1912 in Altoona, PA.  They show him in his paymaster rail car with his colleague “Dallas”.  Notice the sign above the teller cage “Count your money before you leave”.  This rail car traveled a circuit periodically to pay the railroad employees in the field.  In 1917, according to his World War I Registration Draft Card, he was paymaster of all classes of employees, for the Pennsylvania RR, under the direction of the Treasury Dept. at Broad St. Station in Philadelphia.  He paid about 13,000 Railroad employees semimonthly.

WB, as he was called, continued working for the railroad according to the census and city directories, through the years.  In 1920 he was 32 years old and was now a paymaster and still single.  He married Ethel R Bonsor and lived in an apartment at 417 Stonehurst at 69^th & Market, Philadelphia with Ethel and their newborn baby, Margaret.  By 1923 WB was 35 and the family moved to 1137 Langham Ave, Camden, a twin house.  During the next 10 years 4 more children were born. The family lived on Langham Ave. until Arthur H Bonsor, Ethel’s father, purchased 520 Prescott Rd. in Lower Merion, Montgomery County, PA for his daughter.  In 1940 when WB was 52, the whole family moved to Prescott Rd.  WB continued as Paymaster for the railroad.  In 1941 Ethel and WB divorced and he moved to Merion Gardens Apartments at City Line & Wynnwood Rd.  

WB Johnson climbed the ladder at the Pennsylvania Railroad until he attained the position of Chief Paymaster at the end of his career.  He retired about 1951 when he was 62.  I think he retired early because of his profound hearing loss.  He worked about 42 years for the railroad.  He died in 1953 at 65 years old after a long illness.

I know my father utilized his train pass given to him by his father.  Apparently all family members of of Pennsylvania Railroad employees were entitled to get a pass to ride the rails anywhere.  My father took a rail trip across country in the early 1950’s using his pass.  I must dig out his pictures and share them. The railroads are close to my heart since my husband has been working for the Union Pacific for almost 28 years now.

There is more to learn about this man and I plan to share other information later on.  Please send me any information you may have on our grandfather; my father never spoke of him so I know very little about him personally.  Please feel free to send comments, corrections, or questions about any of the current blogs or ideas for future ones.  Thank you again for reading this.

Pay Car with WB on left, Dallas on right

A Walk in Camden

When I visited Philadelphia in the summer of 2012, I persuaded my cousin Suzy to take a walking tour to search out locations our ancestors had lived and worked in downtown Camden.  Maybe not the best idea, as you know, Camden is not the safest place in the world.  After seeing tennis shoes hanging off the electric wires (a sign for drug dealing?), being glared at by men on a porch, and finally stopped by a police officer who told us this was not a good street to be on, we finally reached the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and decided to go inside for a little respite.  The large stone building at 642 Market Street was just blocks from Arthur and Margaret Bonsor’s home at 706 Market.  We walked in and felt the cool air and the quiet of the church, a nice change from the busy street outside.  After our eyes adjusted to the dim lights, we walked around looking at the beautiful stained glass windows.  They were large, about 8’ tall set into both side walls of the church.  As I gazed at one, I noticed at the bottom of each window names were formed with pieces of the stained glass.  These names must have been the parishioners that donated that particular window.  I looked at each one as I walked down the aisle and there it was, “Arthur H and Margaret Bonsor” in large stained glass lettering inserted into a beautiful window.  

The scene was the ”Wedding at Cana”, where Jesus conducted his first miracle. In the biblical account, Jesus and his mother, Mary, are invited to a wedding, and when the wine runs out, Jesus performs a miracle by turning water into wine.  Suzy rushed over and we both stared in wonder, that was our Great-Grandparents names, they donated this window.  I did some research on the church of the Immaculate Conception and found it was built in 1864 after Irish immigration accelerated and the current church building became too small. This church was built of stone and measured 60 by 165 feet.  It was finally finished in 1888 when the tower and spire were completed.  The interior was extensively renovated in 1890 when the marble alters were added.  Arthur and Margaret must have donated the window at this time, just as they were married. Perhaps Arthur gave Margaret the “Wedding at Cana” window as a wedding present.  This was the church the Bonsor Family attended during the time they lived in Camden.   Arthur wrote in a letter that he became a Catholic to marry the love of his life, Margaret since she was a devout woman. He seemed to take his religion seriously and participated in this parish, even giving a window. Their two children Ethel and Alice and other members of their family must have been baptized, and received the other sacraments within these walls.  I will continue to research to find out more family history.  It was wonderful to find this family treasure in the midst of Camden.