Friday Funny: Did the Springsteens Hire a House & Ship Plumber?

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1857 William P. Sweet House & Ship Plumber advertisement, appendix, in Smiths Brooklyn Directory for yr ending May 1 1857, via InternetArchive. (Click to enlarge.)
1857 William P. Sweet House & Ship Plumber advertisement, appendix, in “Smiths Brooklyn Directory for year ending May 1 1857”, via InternetArchive. (Click to enlarge.)

Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

Checking through a run of city directories to confirm where Jefferson Springsteen and his wife Anna Connor Springsteen were living, I didn’t find the family in 1857 in Brooklyn but did find some delightful ads that gave me a chuckle.  Although the Springsteens had moved from Brooklyn, New York to Indianapolis, Indiana about 1853, it is possible that these plumbing companies had been in business when they were still in the city. (I believe they also had relatives still in the city then, but still have a lot more collateral kin research.) In the meantime, I thought I would share these ads as a plumber they may have called- with a young family of seven people in the household and no disposable diapers, they probably needed a plumber at some point!

1857 R. R. Coggin House & Ship Plumber advertisement, page 17, in Smiths Brooklyn Directory for yr ending May 1 1857, via InternetArchive. (Click to enlarge.)
1857 R. R. Coggin House & Ship Plumber advertisement, page 17, in “Smiths Brooklyn Directory for year ending May 1 1857,” via InternetArchive. (Click to enlarge.)

The Springsteens lived only blocks from the East River and the Navy Pier. With shipping being such a huge industry in the port city of New York and environs, it seems logical to find the combination of house and ship plumber. After all, it’s all pipes, right?

R. C. & A. Scrimgeour Plumber advertisement, page 267, in Smiths Brooklyn Directory for yr ending May 1 1857, via InternetArchive.
1857 R. C. & A. Scrimgeour Plumber advertisement, page 267, in “Smiths Brooklyn Directory for year ending May 1 1857,” via InternetArchive. (Click to enlarge.)

Apparently there were some plumbers who only worked on residences and commercial buildings, or maybe it was a given that if  you were a plumber, you didn’t need to be specific as to whether the plumbing was located on land or water. It was just a job.

 

Our ancestors are more than names, dates, and places. Seeing images of the minutiae of their lives helps us to understand them better, and make connections to our lives today.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. See references with images.

 

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