1. A Glance At Early Stack Families in Philadelphia Part I

2. Welcome to the City of Brotherly- Love?
In 1844, Philadelphia, “The City of Brotherly Love,” was not very brotherly. And there wasn’t much love. The welcome mat was not exactly waiting for the Irish Catholics when they immigrated. The number of immigrants from Ireland increased dramatically between the 1840s Prior to this anti-Irish sentiment had begun to mushroom.

3. The Irish Disease - a little background
In 1832, a cholera epidemic took more than 1,000 souls. Bishop Kenrick had won praise for his benevolent efforts in helping its victims, regardless of religious background. This pandemic struck world wide, yet the blame was placed upon the immigrants, the Irish in particular. A large number of Irish laborers had recently arrived to work on construction of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, in the western suburb, an area now called The Main Line. In 2009, a mass grave with the remains of 57 Irish railroad workers, victims of cholera, was discovered in this opulent suburb, now known as Duffy’s Cut. At the same time, city’s Irish enclave was noticeably beginning to grow.
In 1837, typhus struck, which was widely called the “Irish Disease.”
Anti-Catholic and Anti-Irish Cartoons were the social media of the day.

4. Anti-Irish Cartoons

5. The Native Americans No! Not those Native Americans….
The nativist movement arose in Philadelphia during the 1840s as Protestant residents reacted violently to the city’s rapidly increasing Catholic immigrant population.
In July 1844, the Church of St. Philip Neri called upon the state militia to protect the church against the violence from the Natives marching on Independence Day. Deadly rioting ensued for 3 days. This was the Parish of several Stack families.

6. St. Philip Neri Parish of Thomas and Ellen Stack

7. What I sought an answer to:
Were Stacks living in the area of the Riots in 1844? The neighborhood is the neighborhood they lived in and the Parish where guns and artillery were being stock piled, was their parish.
If not at that time, what about after the War? Things soured further for the Irish returning from the war, as the threat from the Nativists was always that they being laborers, would lose their jobs to the newly freed African Americans, who would work for a lesser amount. Whether the threats were true or not, didn’t matter. The streets were not paved with gold, they became further blood stained.

8. Research
First I needed to tie together as many records as possible and establish who if any of any of the Stacks were living in that area in the 1840s. This was not as easy as I thought it would be.
The conditions they endured when they arrived, often had them moving around, living with each other, in an alley flat. My great grandfather Thomas and his brother John always lived next to each other, the exception being when the Civil War began.
The census was not a good tool to calculate the number of Stacks that were arriving and living in Philadelphia. I turned to the yearly city directors and there I got a better picture of how they arrived. It was a challenge at times because of the naming pattern
I next turned to the yearly City Directory, which was more helpful.

9. Assessing Stack Households in Philadelphia
Disclaimer: My method was to first go through each census report from to 1910.
No entries found for the surname Stack from These surveys are somewhat haphazardly as with any undertaking, such as this, mistakes and omissions are bound to be made as they were done door to door. While the numbers seem to fluctuate a little bit, there are deaths that are occurring and these are only the male households. Until 1861, they only counted the male head of the household. Once the Civil War began, women became head of the household and were counted.
As I went through the early city directories, I tried to tie each person with other available records to establish sibling/cousin relationships. It is also interesting to note that until about 1875 all lived within the Third Ward near each other.

10. A Work in Progress
What I found is that there is no official record to date that any of the Stack family were here during 1844, although some stated on the Census reports they arrived in 1843.
The Parish has been looking into their private records, the most recent stated that they did find record of Stacks being parishioners in the 1840s.
I have been going through Newspapers and I’ve found much information, the names of the dead and wounded. More Irish died than “Native” one reason being they did not seek medical care. I have not come across any Stacks amongst these articles.

11. An example of the Yearly City Directory
An example of the Yearly City Directory. It’s worth noting that these early Stack emigrants lived close to each other, within walking distance for several years.

12. Approximate Stack Families in Philadelphia 1847 - 1867

13. The following slides pertain to our family – Thomas and Ellen O’Connor Stack

14. *Maggie

15. E. Teresa Stack, 1876- 9 Years Old

16. Thomas Stack’s Grave New Cathedral Cemetery, Philadelphia

17. A Naturalization Document Of John Stack.