Patriotic Women Feed Soldiers at Cooper
Shop and Union Saloons,
May 27, 1861
During the Civil War Philadelphia lay in the channel of the great stream of volunteers from New England, New York, New Jersey and part of Pennsylvania, that commenced flowing early in May, 1861. Working in grand harmony the national and more extended organizations for the relief of the soldiers, were houses of refreshment and temporary hospital accommodations[accommodations] furnished by the citizens of Philadelphia.
The soldiers crossing New Jersey, and the Delaware River at Camden, were landed at the foot of Washington Avenue, where, weary and hungry, they often sought in vain for sufficient refreshments in the bakeries and groceries in the neighborhood before entering the cars for Washington or other points of rendezvous.
One morning the wife of a mechanic living near, commiserating[commiserating] the situation of some soldiers who had just arrived, went out with her coffee-pot and a cup, and distributed its contents among them. That generous hint was the germ of a wonderful system of relief for the passing soldiers, which was immediately developed in this patriotic and historic city.
Soon other benevolent women, living in the vicinity of the landing-place of the volunteers, imitated their patriotic sister, and a few of them formed themselves into a committee for the regular distribution of coffee on the arrival of soldiers. Soon the men in the neighborhood interested themselves in procuring other supplies.
The women who formed this original committee were Mrs. William M. Cooper, Mrs. Grace Nickles, Mrs. Sarah Ewing, Mrs. Elizabeth Vansdale, Mrs. Catherine Vansdale, Mrs. Jane Coward, Mrs. Susan Turner, Mrs. Sarah Mellen, Mrs. Catherine Alexander, Mrs. Mary Plant, and Mrs. Captain Watson.
For a few days the refreshments were dispensed under the shade of trees in front of the cooper shop owned by William M. Cooper and Henry W. Pearce, on Otsego Street near Washington Avenue. Then this shop was generously offered for the purpose by the proprietors, and immediately it was equipped with tables and such kitchen arrangements as were necessary to prepare such foods as was supplied by the voluntary contributions raised among the citizens of Philadelphia. The young women, wives and daughters of those resident in the neighborhood waited upon the soldiers.
The first body of troops fed at the saloon was the Eighth New York Regiment, called the German Rifles, under Colonel Blenker. There were 780 men who partook of a coffee breakfast there on the morning of May 27, 1861.
The cooper shop was not spacious enough to accommodate the daily increasing number of soldiers, and another place of refreshment was opened on the corner of Washington Avenue and Swanson Street, in a building formerly used as a boathouse and rigger’s loft. Two Volunteer Refreshment Saloon Committees were formed and known respectively as the “Cooper Shop” and the “Union.”