Walking city streets with an eye open for interesting sights often pays off in interesting photos and bits of history that might otherwise pass unnoticed. In this case, even the photo did not reveal the story until I began looking for biographical tidbits to go with the image of this street fountain on South Ninth Street in Philadelphia.
With a watering trough for horses on one side, no used as a planter, and a fountain for people on the other, my first guess was to link it with the humane movements of the late 19th century that formed the ASPCA and advocated public troughs for working animals. And there’s no clue on-site to tell you anything more: Even the inscription points that way: “A Merciful Man is Merciful to his Beast.”
But the only piece of biography I found, a Washington Post obituary from October 4, 1908, told a very different story. After a headline that focueses on his being the grandson of the inspiration for a now-obscure poem, we find what kind of a merciful man Edward Wetherill was: “One of the Most-Prominent Quaker Abolitionists.”
Later, Gumbo regular Jonathan L found a more complete biography citation which bears out the extent of Wetherill’s work and connections.
Of course, the remaining mystery is why, when the Philadelphia Fountain Society commissioned and built a memorial fountain for Wetherill they failed to say the most important things about him!
