Evening Star Newspaper, January 11, 1931, Page 79

city, soon appeared at the station house nearly frantic, and was at once admitted to the room where his dead child was lying, when he gave vent to his grief in the most touching cries and lamentations. “Widmayer was a German and lived on the Seventh Street road, beyond the boundary. He had had a stall in the market for several years past and was generally esteemed an excellent citizen. The unfortunate man leaves a wife and six or seven children to mourn his loss. “DURING the day nine policemen—six from Lieut. Eckloff’s precinct and three from Lieut. Kelly’'s—had been detailed to keep men out of the ruins, and they said they repeatedly drove them out and warned them of danger. An officer states that a few seconds before the wall fell he had driven young Bates and sev- eral other boys engaged in rat hunting out of the ruinz, and when the crash came did not surpcse any one had been injured. “Mr. Plcwman, the gentleman under wh=s superintendence the work was being done, but who was absent at the time of the accident, states that he and his bosses had appealed to men and boys time and ag2in to keep out of the market. but many of them would insist on disregarding all warnings—the former being anxious to secure their fixtures and the latter to catch the rats as they emerged from the ruins. The coroner has been notified and will hold an inquest on the bodies this afternoon. “>?. S—Just before going to press, it was rumorad that Mr. Widmayer's son was with him at the time of the accident and was covered with the debris, and the workmen are remov- ing it to see if ruch is the case.” “Tater—Th= dealers are allowed to remove their stalls and fixtures, and some are taking their tliThgs away. “A committee of dealers were in conference with Mr. Riddle today, but what action they propose taking has not yet transpired. It is stated by some that they intend to ask for an injunction to stop the erection of the build- ings on Corcoran Square.” Well, to modernize an old saying: They be- gan to lock the garage after the automobile was gone; and, incidentally, impaneled the usual coronér’s jury, which in this instance was composed of residents of North Washington, and included the following, several of whom were dealers in the market: A E. L. Keese, John Kessler, J. T. Stanley, A. H. Young, Julius Eisenbeiss, C. P. Behrens, W. H. Hoover, Horatio Moran, C. J. King, Edio Glant, George Lantier and Willlam Wolf. ;s It did not take the conclusion as to who sudden taking away of soon brought in a verdict setting forth:" “That the said Jobn Widmayer and Millard Bat:s came to their death of 1 and 2 o'clock on the tember, 1872, in the y of Washington and county aforesaid, by reason of wounds received by the falling walls of the Northern Liberty Market;. the said Widmayer while removing his property fro it and the said Millard Bates at the same time, while hunting rats; and they further find that the Board of Public Works, by neglecting to give notice of the removal of said market, merit the censure of this jury.” ONE of the victims of this unfortunate acci- dent, John Widmayer, seems to have been a man highly regarded in the community, for we find this reference to him in The Star of Beptember 6: “Funerals of the Victims of the Northern Market Accident—Last evening the Washington Schuetzen adopted resolutions of respect to the memory of John Widmayer, who was killed at the Northern Market on Wednesday.,. The funeral took place this afternon from his late residence, opposite the park, and was attended by numerous friends and members of the Schuetzen and of Oriental Lodge, No. 19, 1. O. O. P.; National Lodge, No. 12, P. A. A. M., and the German Lutheran Evangelical Association.” In the same issue was the announcement of the funeral of the boy, Millard Bates, which ‘e funeral of the youth, Millard Bates, son of J. H. Bates, killed by the same accident, took place from his father’s residence, No. 1543 Co- lumbia street, this afternoon.” The writer has known of the Widmayer fam- fly for quite a number of years, but kind of lost track of some of them until he started to write this story, when he met the three sur- viving children of John Widmayer at the home of the latter's daughter, Miss Mary Widmayer. It was a delightful 15 minutes spent with these good people, during which reminiscences of the Scheutzen Park were discussed and some of the old German families referred to. According to Miss Widmayer, her father, John Widmayer, when he met his death, had six children: William, Rosa, Katie, John, Mary and Charies. Of these, Willlam (de- ceased) married Minnie Scherger, Rosa (de- ceased) married Henry Batz, Katie married John Spangler, John (deceased) married Mary Hickey, Miss Mary Widmayer, and Charles who married Elizabeth Berens. Their father, John Widmayer, married Rosa Gunser, and through these children and their marriages his name will be remembered and passed on to genera- tions to come, though he sleeps the sleep of the blessed in Prospect Hill Cemetery. the accident, written no doubt before it occurred, the fol- lowing interesting account was found: “Demolition of the Northern Market. “The new temporary market to be com- pleted as soon as possible. “The Board of Public Works received infor- two since which led them to THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY 11, 1931, — e prismvie e s e e R S O G ST Gen. Henderson, commandant of the U. S. Marine Corps, urging the rioters not 2o fire. d the board, being apprised of this intention, termined on a coup d'etat, and yesterday order, signed by the vice president of the sent to di Mr. Thomas M. Plowman, and superintendent of the new buildings on Corcoran Square, directing to “remove all buildings and sheds be- was t “MR. PLOWMAN at once employed labor- ers, directing them to report on the square west of the market at 6 o'clock pm. yesterday. Maj. Richards, having been in- formed of this action, telegraphed to the sev- eral stations, ordering the reserves at each to report to Lieut. Eckloff of the Sixth precinct, for duty at the market, at the same time to protect thé property to be removed and pre- vent any breach of the peace. At & pm. John Widmayer, who was killed during the removal of the Northern Liberty Market September 4, 1872. . nearly 200 laborers were on hand and a force of over 50 police officers. Mr. Plowman placed the laborers under the charge of Mr, John Collins, who instructed the men what they were to do, and in a short time all were at work, while the officers were stationed about the market to prevent petty thieving and stop stalls which they refused to remove, saying that they might as well sue for a whoie loaf, and that they intended to make the board pay for any damage or loss. The orders were to store the private property on the square west of the market, which was done. The work of razing this old land-mark naturally attracted a large crowd to the scene of operations, but - good order was observed. Most of the dealers were on the ground when the operations commenced, and some country people had positions with their truck wagons for morning’s market. About 11 o'clock p.m. roof was removed, and the roll having called the men were sent home, the being left in charge of the property. “This morning the laborers resumed work at daylight, tearing down the sheds. The luml was piled in the square west. The dealers, the majority of them, this morning near the site of the market as - FE LT A% ¥ ' of them claiming that had they received a few hours notice they would have removed and taken their chances at a stand in the new sheds; but as it is they will neither take stands in the sheds nor remove their goods, but will sue the board for damages. “Mr. Plowman this morning submitted the following report to Mr. Shepherd, vice president of the Board of Public Works: ‘Having, agree- able to the above orders from the vice president of the Board of Public Works, removed the Northern Liberty Market House, I am_ pushing to completion as rapidly as possible the market sheds on Corcoran Square, where I will have removed, without to the parties, their benches and other fixtures, and I will be per- sonally present to locate them in their new stands from and after this date with as little delay and inconvenience to themselves and the public as possible. “THOMAS PLOWMAN, “Architect in Charge.” Irmmwuxmouw-lhlncwnhn the location of the block once known as Corcoran Square, he would probably be unable to give you a correct answer. But to charge this up against his intelligence would surely not be right, for, after all, so far as the writer knows, this was not an official name at all, being probably merely so called because at one time it belonged to some one named Corcoran— and naturally a good guess would be the illus- trious W. W, Corcoran, who was a large holder of property in thé District of Columbia. This square was also public property, and during the Civil. Wa¥, so we are informed, was used for Government barracks. The old Cen- tral High School and other buildings now occupy this block. But here the market people were soon in- stalled and were prosperously engaged and ad- justing themselves to their new quarters. - At least that is the conclusion one would draw from the following write-up in The Star of September 5, 1872. 3 “The Northern Market.—The excitement oc- casioned by the demolition of the Northern Market is fast dying ou®, and today parties who have been doing business there are not near so loud -in their denunciations of the Board of Public Works, The workmen are still among the debris, and the walls will” be level with the surrounding pavements by sundown. The work on the temporary sheds on Corcoran Square (Seventh street between O and P streets) is being pushed to completicn rapidly, and Mr. Plowman, assisted by Mr. Perkins, expects to have the stands ready for occupancy tomorrow morning, when the first sales will take piace. “Sidney McFarland, the clerk of the North- ern Market, is on the ground at Corcoran Square today with his office furniture, assigning stands to those who held stalls in the old build- ing, and 25 or 30 stands were taken, some of them by dealers who asserted yesterday that they would not go near the new sheds. Very few of the butchers have thus far made selec- tions of stalls in the new sheds.” AllD-n.lnonSep&emherlThestuuyl: “The New 'Northern Market.—Corcoran square occupied by the dealers. “Last night the felt roofs of the sheds erected iIn Corcoran Square as a temporary market were completed, and also two wide plank walks to the O strest pavement. Mr. G. W. Goodall introduced gas, and by 8 o'clock all the burners were lighted and the carpenters were able to resume work. The sheds this morning were ready for business, and nearly all the stands in the building which were ready were taken up at once by dealers. The huck- sters generally occupied both sides of the pave- ment on O street betwen Sixth and Seventh, while some stands were erected in other places. Inside the sheds the first three rows are as- signed to the sale of butter and eggs and cakes and candies. Among the dealers in place on the butter benches today were Oyster, jr.; Driley, = Schilegel, Fearson, Eicher, Keller, Caldwell. The bread, cake and candy men in place were Seitz, Voneiff, Schneider, Kaiser and Varlander. In this part of the market the rival tin merchants, Herzog and Rasher, are located, but a considérable distance now inter- venes between their stands, and consequently there will be less jarring betwees them in future. The butchers’ stands came next, occu- pying four or five rows, and among those who took possession today were Hunt, Hoffman, Elliott, W. H. Hoover, Glick, Grouse. Bottomly, - oSy and “Ebert. FATEGRS i 9 v have- their butter stands. The atiendance of purchasers, considering the short notice givem, was quite large, and the dealers generally cone gratulated themselves that their receipts were nearly, if not quite, up o their Priday's ree ceipts, and the prospects are that they will do better at the new place. Rents about the market have risen considerably during the past week.” 'HE Northern Liberties section was not ale ways as quiet and peaceful as it is today, for back in 1857 one of the biggest riots this city has known occurred in -the immediate vicinity of the market, where the polling place was located for the election of certain city offi- cers. All parties seemed to be pitted against the American party, commonly known as the Know Nothing party, from the secrecy usually maintained by its members.” William B. Magruder, who served the city as mayor during the years 1856 and 1857, had only been elected the year before, over the Know Nothing candidate, Silas B. Hill, by a scant margin of 13 votes out of a total of 5,841 cast, and naturally the losing party was willing to go the limit tq carry the election which took place on June 1, 1857. For this purpose they brought over from Baltimore, ace cording to Mr. Topham, “a gang of 14 election strikers, or ‘Plug Uglies’ from a club of tha$ name, who came over from Baltimore on the morning of June 1, gathering in their train many of the disorderly elements in this city, and proceeded to the polling place at the Northern Liberty Market, on the south side of Mount Vernon Square between Seventh and away. The police were defied and helpless. Mayor Magruder appealed to President Buch- anan for troops. His request was referred to the Secretary of the Navy, who promptly ordered out 110 Marines from the Navy Yard, under Maj. Tyler and Capt. Maddox, who marched to the polling place, where they found a party of the disorderly element awaiting them with a six-pound brass cannon, brought by the rioters from the old Anacostia Engine House, and placed under the Northern Liberty Market shed at the corner of Seventh and K streets. “Mayor Magruder addressed the crowd, which by this time numbered about 1,500 persons, and demanded that the polls be opened. His de- mand being refused, the order was given the Marines to fire. A section of the Marines then advanced under Maj. Tyler and took possession of the brass cannon. The mob, retiring, stones and fired pistols at the Marines, one of whom was wounded. “The Marines were then ordered to fire, the result that six persons were twenty-one wounded, among whom tices Goddard and Dunn, Officers Birkhead and Gus F. Klopfer, Chief of Police Capt. Baggott, Ward Commissioner R. B. Owens, Col. ‘Williams of - the Land Office, George Hyatt. The Marines are near the center of the picture, in hollow square inclosing the swivel, and in the act of firing from ° dgf . F Hitt i EE%:z Edmsf immense execution to the trees. Probably on this occas! was beneficent, otherwise hundreds circles in Washington would have Bumlsmhhuhomhmmm of the riot itself, which says: ““The polls in Washington were opened at the different precincts on Monday, June 1. Every- thing proceeded quietly until between 9 and 10 5 HE 4t attack was made upon an innocent, unoffending naturalized citizen, who was standing in the ranks of the voters, and an effort was made to drive him and other naturalized citizens from the ground. * * * Representations have ing been made to the mayor of the utter ime ability of the police and magistracy to keep the polls open at the first precinct of the fourth ward to all classes of voters, he deemed #% proper to apply to the President of the United States for an adequate force for that pur- pose. L Marines were ordered out, on the authenticated statement of the mayor and & number of citizens that the police force was insufficient to protect the citizens of Wash= ington in the exercise of their suffrages. The two companies out numbemdm.uum and men. The battalion was under of Capt. Tyler and Lieut. Henderson, adjutan®, The first company was commanded by Maj, Zeilin, the second by Capt. Maddox and Lieut. Turner. The Marines formed in line asod marched toward the City Hall, the crowd rioters hooting and ‘yelling, threatening 's W I (4 ROWS A AMYLES da70Y Ll 14 cisiiasw ¥ el Dum st joaas OIL AaQ T wl of abyi .