Allen B. Bard

On December 24, 1863, Allen B. Bard was born to Samuel Horning Bard and Mary Andora Dettra of Upper Providence, Montgomery, Pennsylvania. Allen spent all of his life in Upper Providence, raising a family there and working with steel and iron at the Phoenix Iron Company across the river in Phoenixville. Allen was married to Eleanora Kratz and had four children: Samuel Leroy (1889-1932), Raymond Kratz (1893-1973), Allen Clifford (1898-1966), and Ida R. (1901-1934; married Floyd E. Freece). Allen's life began during the Civil War and ended during the Great Depression. Thus, his life encompassed the rise of heavy American industry, the Progressive Era of union activity and industrial regulation, and the severe economic conditions of the 1930s. Allen was the first of the Bard family to abandon an agrarian life in favor of nearby industrial opportunities.

Allen was the oldest of six children born to his parents, Samuel and Mary. The others were Sarah E. (1866-), Elmer S. (1866-), Mary J. (1868-1955), and Abraham (1877-1954). As the eldest son, 16 year-old Allen was compelled into a family leadership role when his mother Mary passed away in September 1879. His youngest sibling, Abraham, was only 2 years old at the time. Samuel's family lived outside of the village of Mont Clare in Upper Providence Township. Samuel's father, Elisha Bard, owned a farm of about forty acres on the northwest side of what is now the Phoenixville-Collegeville Road (Route 29), just north of its intersection with MacDade Road. In 1880, soon after Mary's death, Samuel and his children appeared as near neighbors of his father in the federal census. Samuel's listed occupation in the census was "hauling hay to Philadelphia." Perhaps due to scarcity of land in Upper Providence and Montgomery County in general (a condition that for many decades had been motivating many of the county's sons and daughters to move westward to places like Berks County), Samuel never found a socio-economic condition comparable to his independent, landowning father Elisha. He inherited at least some of his father's land upon Elisha's death in December 1880. But by the 1900 federal census, Samuel described himself as a day laborer; it is unlikely that he owned any real estate upon his death in 1903.

Allen married Eleanora Kratz on 24 September 1887 at the Germantown Ministry Church of the Brethren (colloquially known as the Green Tree Church) in Oaks. The Bard family was associated with this church from its inception in the 1830s--Allen's grandfather Elisha was an early parishioner. Green Tree was founded as a Brethren in Christ church. The Brethren in Christ denomination traces its origins to the influences of the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s and to the German Pietist movement. True to the Awakening, they believe in "a personal, heart-felt conversion experience." The Pietistic influence is evident in their belief, like the Quakers, in the value of a simple, frugal lifestyle. The Brethren in Christ are also classed within the wider and larger Anabaptist movement; they bear a strong relationship with other well-known groups like the Mennonites and Amish. It must not have been a substantial religious or cultural adjustment for Eleanora upon marrying Allen--her Kratz family had identified as Mennonite for many generations. While Allen was born into the Green Tree church, was married there, and is now buried in the cemetery there, I have not yet found evidence of his membership or attendance there on a regular basis, nor have I yet found any other evidence of his faith.

The young family lived for a time in Yerkes, a small village south of Collegeville along Perkiomen Creek. But by 1910, Allen, Eleanora, and their three sons lived on Jacob Street in Mont Clare. Allen purchased the Jacob Street house, which is adjacent to the Schuylkill River Canal, sometime between 1900 and 1910. He remained there until his death in 1937.

Phoenix Iron & Steel Company, Phoenixville, Penn. (From: Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area)

Allen's decision to work at the Phoenix Iron Company across the Schuylkill River in Phoenixville was probably based on a conclusion that agriculture was no longer an option for him. He was certainly working there by 1900, though he probably began his employment well before that date. Allen endured more than three decades of strenuous work at the company's foundry, which was less than a mile's walk from his Mont Clare house. The difficult and dangerous work environments of turn-of-the-century Pennsylvania steel mills are now legendary.

Much of Allen's working life came upon the heels of Frederick Taylor's revolutionary changes in the scientific management of steel workers. Taylor began his famous reorganization of work at nearby Bethlehem (Penn.) Steel in 1898. Taylor carefully observed and recorded production data on a steel worker he called Schmidt, determining in a methodical, scientific manner how the man's steel output could be maximized by management. Taylor's recommendations began a new era in steel management; this was an era in which managers focused primarily on maximizing steel production and profits at the expense of the physical welfare and health of steel workers. Immigration from eastern and southern Europe to Pennsylvania spiked upward in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, creating a seemingly inexhaustible source of inexpensive labor. If a steel worker was injured or died due to unsafe, but production-maximizing, conditions, then the worker could be easily replaced.

From The Times (Philadelphia, Penn), 28 June 1901,
page 1; accessed in Newspapers.com.

Working conditions at the Phoenix Iron Company, as with most metal plants of the time, were dangerous and involved back-breaking work day in and day out. But despite the new scientific management, Allen also worked at a time when conditions were undoubtedly improving as a result of union demands and government regulation. Conditions in 1930 must have been quite different from those in 1900. A newspaper search for "Phoenix Iron accidents" from 1900 to 1920 turns up a number of stories of workers being burned to death by molten metal and dying in various ways from crane accidents. However, I have found no reason to believe that conditions at the Phoenix Iron Company were any better or worse than those in other Pennsylvania metal mills of the time.

True to their Brethren in Christ principles of frugality and a simple lifestyle, Allen and Eleanora must have been competent managers of their personal finances. Despite an unfortunate tendency of the Phoenix Iron Company to lower wages in the 1890s and 1900s, Allen bought his Jacob Street house before 1910 and had paid the mortgage in full by 1930. He accomplished the purchase despite a 10% cut in his wages in 1909.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 March 1909, page 3;
accessed in Newspapers.com.

Allen and Eleanora spent the last two decades of their lives surrounded by family. Their daughter Ida's family lived with them for nearly twenty years at their Jacob Street house; they included Ida and her husband Floyd Freece, and children Raymond, Charles, Kathryn, and Eleanor. Sadly, Floyd died in 1930, then Ida also passed in 1934. That left Allen and Eleanora with four grandchildren in their home. Two grandparents, three teenagers, and a six-year-old must have produced some interesting stories! Unfortunately, Allen developed stomach cancer and passed away on June 27, 1937, at the age of 73. Eleanora was left to care for the family; her capable grandchildren, 17 year-old Raymond and 16 year-old Charles, must have been both comforters and financial stabilizers.

There is much to admire in Allen's life. He worked faithfully in a difficult job for several decades, suffered cuts in his wages, yet managed to consistently provide for his family's needs at a time when many men cracked physically and/or mentally under the weight of a heavy industrial workload.

There is still much research still to be done and many questions that need answering about Allen's life. Searching through Green Tree church membership rolls might indicate more about his faith. Montgomery County's Recorder of Deeds office have records of both Allen's and Samuel's property transactions. It may even be possible to find either Allen's house or the location of the house if it no longer stands. Discovering more about Samuel's inheritance of his father Elisha's land and the subsequent fate of the land would help in better understanding Allen's child- and young adulthood. Further research into the history of Mont Clare and Phoenixville would enable us to see more of the world through Allen's eyes.

Allen B. Bard was my 2nd great grandfather. If you are interesting in seeing a family tree that includes all the people mentioned in this article, please let me know. I'd be happy to share it with you! Just email me at aarongnoll at gmail.com.