Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-11-16
SWIFT g. CALDWELL
Employees Of the late
ANDREW EPPELSHEIMER.


ANDREW EPPELSHEIMER.
1t came home to us, glimpsing the sign
in passing, that to our certain knowledge
Mr.. Eppelsheimer had been late" for at
least thirty years. We felt that mono
of the stores present neighbors had ever
dealt with him and that few, If any, had
knowledge of him at all. 1t sounded like
hero worship-that loyalty of his one
time employes--and so 1t proved to be.
WHEN we approached the present head
and sole member of the firm for the
story of Mr.. Eppesheimer we did 1t in
too brusque and cold a way. THE mem
ory of Andrew Eppelsheimer," said Mr..
Edward r. Swift, "is too sacred to me to
discuss with you over the telephone. Come
and sit by my desk and ] will tell you
the story" SO we did and he did.
The smell of floor mating always
takes US by the nose and leads us
through the "arches of the years" to the
parlor, or best room, of our grcat-aunt,
It was chamber full of wax fruit, Rog
ers groups, walnut furniture covered with
linen slips and gloom stabbed here and
there by daylight filtering through the
cracks of black bowed shutters. The
place never changed as long as we knew
It.
This grocery store. when we entered II,
was like that, yet different. It's mod.
ern, up.to.date establishment; yet it has
about it a faint old.timy aroma, reminis-
cent of Andrew Eppelsheimer. And An.
drew Eppelsheimer has been late" even
longer than we supposed.
ANDREW EPPELSHEIMER has been
but memory for fifty years: memory
kept alive by the sign on the grocery
window and a tall marble column I'm
Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Fifty years ago." said Mr.. Swift. my
dear old employer was known among
grocers as the merchant prince of up.
town. He was the youngest of the eight
children of Eppesheimer, the sugar lie.
finer. He and his brother John were
the first to erect building In this block
on Spring Garden street; that was at the
northeast corner, at Eleventh. After
ward he built his store at the northwest
l.
went to him. James Caldwell. his nephew,
and 1 were his clerks and Joe Dugan
drove the wagon.
There surely never was handsomer
man than Andrew Eppelsheimer. He was
tall and strong and of ruddy complexion,
and he wore a noble beard, every hair in
It's place. He was the merchant prince
of uptown. as ! said before, and cannot
say too often; and Spring Garden street
was the promenade In those days. Joseph
Thornley's dry goods store, at the cor.
ner of Eighth street, was the biggest UP.
town. The market houses in the center
of the street were famous for good things,
and over one stall near Franklin street
was the name Peter A. B. Widener. Fur
ther to the north of us what is now
Columbia avenue was open fields, but the
Spring Garden district was q center of
fashion.
my dear old employer was a power
there for twenty-five or thirty years, and
when he died Swift. Caldwell G. Dugan,
employees of the late Andrew Eppel-
sheimer,' proudly launched out into bust.
ness for themselves. But Dugan has
gone and so has Caldwell, and I call my.
self the last of the line of Eppelsheimer.
the Oldest, or surely the second Oldest,
retail grocery house in the city"
AS we said before, there is a tall
| marble column in Laurel Hill Cemetery
erected to the memory of Andrew Eppel-
| sheimer, but his name upon the sign Of
bis uorshinful emploves shines In lattar.
| Of gold. -..
IT'S comforting to know that there's
at least one Wise Guy in this old town;
and If you don't believe 1t, Just take up
the Bell Telephone Directory and look
| among the Wises.