Three Centuries in the Delaware Valley

Without any other ideas lately for blog topics, I decided to return to the dangerous Philadelphia blacksmith shop of John Ascough (see Dangerous Work). Dangerous, that was, to his employees.

In the early morning of Monday, August 27, 1849, two of Ascough's apprentices came to the shop on Front Street in the Northern Liberties to start fires in the forges. One, 17 year-old Alexander McConnell, was the "eldest son of an Irish widow lady, living at Germantown." The other, much younger Jonathan Phillips, reportedly "came from the country and had not been living long in town." Reports vary on who had been with the shop longer. Some accounts say McConnell was the new guy, scheduled to be formally apprenticed that week. But other stories claimed McConnell had been with Ascough several weeks and the Phillips boy was the new apprentice. Either way, the two did not get along.

The trouble began with what seemed harmless jabbing while the two boys washed up before breakfast at the shop. They fought over a towel until the argument became heated. Phillips backed up about 12 feet, grabbed a pair of heavy iron blacksmith's tongs, and threw them at McConnell. The tongs hit McConnell's head so hard they "entered the back of the cranium and stuck fast." McConnell was unconscious on the floor, where he was given first aid before he was rushed to the Pennsylvania Hospital (with the tongs still sticking out the back of his head). Doctors at the hospital removed the tongs, but said he had "a horrid compound fracture of the skull with compression of the brain." Reportedly, his brains were "oozing" out the two holes in his skull made by the two "nippers" of the tongs. There was no hope.

Meanwhile, back at Ascough's blacksmith shop, Jonathan Phillips ran away immediately after McConnell fell. John Ascough joined the Northern Liberties police in an unsuccessful attempt to chase Phillips down. It was not until the next day (Tuesday) that Officer Albright found Phillips in Southwark, arrested him, and brought him to the Northern Liberties Mayor's Office. There, Mayor John F. Belsterling committed the boy to the Northern Liberties lockup and a hearing before Alderman George Erety where he was charged with "a murderous assault on the person of Alexander McConnell." Since McConnell still lingered at the hospital they sent Phillips back to lockup to wait for further developments.

John Ascough went to visit Phillips at the jail and told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the boy was "suffering the most poignant remorse, expressing the deepest regret for the act." Phillips reportedly could not sleep or rest and "declared himself continually haunted by the sight of his victim, with the tongs sticking in his bleeding and gaping wound." On Wednesday morning the Baltimore Sun reported McConnell was still alive in the hospital, but "his final recovery is a matter of doubt." Alexander died the next day, Thursday, August 30th, 1849.

By Friday the 31st there had been testimony before a jury in the case. There it was established that Alexander McConnell was "a very good natured, well-behaved and inoffensive boy," while Phillips was the opposite, "a rather bad youth, disposed to master it over McConnell." The jury heard that on the previous Saturday (Aug 25, 1849) Phillips "was heard to threaten to put a pair of tongs into the head of McConnell" and that is what happened less than 48 hours later. The verdict: "That said Alexander McConnell came to his death by a blow willfully inflicted with a pair of blacksmith's tongs, in the hands of Jonathan Phillips, on Monday morning, August 27, 1849."

Phillips remained in the Northern Liberties jail for more than a month, until finally "committed" by Mayor Belsterling on Thursday, October 4th. From there the boy was sent along with a batch of other prisoners all charged with "trivial offenses" to the court in Philadelphia. But upon arrival there Phillips was "discharged from custody" by mistake. He then disappeared into the city.

It was over a year later, on Thursday November 7, 1850, when Jonathan Phillips was again arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. When his name was called in the courtroom the clerk recognized him as the missing murder suspect. The next Tuesday, November 12th, 1850, Jonathan Phillips was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Alexander McConnell. About a week later he was sentenced to two years in prison. He was then described as "a fair-haired lad, but 12 years of age."