Wild Buck Fleming

In the 1920’s my paternal grandfather, John Wisloski (later Americanized to Weleski) was a boxer known as “Wild Buck Fleming”. 

Born and raised in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, he was the third and youngest son of Lukas and Eva Wisloski. 

As a boxer he was very popular in the working-class neighborhoods of Manayunk, and Roxborough. He had the ability of drawing massive, passionate crowds of neighborhood supporters. The crowds nicknamed him “Wild” because of his high intensity, aggressive and crowd pleasing fighting style. He fought with heart, passion and forward pressure as oppose to strict defensive moves. While researching my grandfather’s history, I came across this exact quote, “he was an absolute warrior and a genuine local legend during the peak of the Golden Age of Philadelphia boxing”.

In 1926, he fought a highly feared middleweight contender from Conshohocken named Francis “Bunny” Blake. The match took place on a very hot and humid evening in July at the Rudolph’s Open Air Ring in Manayunk that was located along the Schuylkill  River. Rudolph’s ring was a boxing venue situated by the old railroad tracks used by Pencoyd Iron Works and next to the stone pillars of the Manayunk Bridge. It sat in front of a group of row houses built by Rudolph for his paper mill (Ashland) employees. The crowd favored “Fleming” and “Fleming” came out fighting in his usual wild aggressive nature. “Bunny” made several sharp defensive movements and in the fifth round threw a hard punch that cut a deep bloody gash above “Fleming”’s eye. But despite the deep gash that covered his face and the blood in his eyes, “Fleming” never gave up and continued to fight. 

Other places he fought at were the Olympia Athletic Club at Broad and Bainbridge against Johnny Dundee, but it was at the Auditorium Athletic Association venue in North Philadelphia that gave him the reputation of being an aggressive, relentless, crowd pleaser. 

I never knew him because he died four years before my birth of a cerebral hemorrhage. He is interred at Laurel Hill (East) cemetery in the East Falls section of Philadelphia.

Virtual Cemetery

​​I have online virtual cemeteries for several cemeteries but worked on uploading all the Voigts and Ritters interred at Bethany German Lutheran, Laurel Hill East, Laurel Hill West, Westminster, Mount Vernon, Mount Peace and Leverington cemeteries. Many were reinterred from dysfunctional cemeteries such as Glenwood located at 27th and Ridge, Odd Fellows at 24th and Diamond, American Mechanics at 22nd and Diamond and the German Lutheran cemetery that once was located at 31st and Lehigh Ave. 

After all these years of researching, I still cannot wrap my head around the fact these cemeteries were closed, and bodies moved as a result of “eminent domain” so housing projects could be built in its place. First, city politicians and urban planners banned new burials stating the cemeteries were overcrowded, then the cemeteries fell into ruin from lack of funds. Secondly, those same politicians and planners condemned the cemeteries because they viewed these cemeteries as undeveloped land and it was cheaper than tearing down neighborhoods or spending large amounts of money for commercial property. 

Mass exhumation began. Bodies were dug up. Few notices were placed in the newspapers to alert descendants of the plan to unearth their ancestors. Families who discovered the city’s plan went to court with deeds in hand stating they owned the land where their relatives were buried, but were told by the courts that “the deeds” only gave rights to burial in that space and not ownership. The courts determined it was more important to provide housing, highways and parking lots for the living than preserving the cemeteries of the dead. Families demanded that the city pay to have their loved ones reinterred at the cemeteries of their chosen. The city agreed so some families had them reinterred. Because there were few notices in the newspapers and most families were left unaware, the courts allowed the mass exhumation of bodies and had them reinterred in mass graves. Since they thought it was “too expensive” to move tombstones, the city sold them to contractors who threw them in the Delaware to act as a foundation for the Betsy Ross Bridge.

On a more personal note, I remember my Uncle Gene telling me how the caskets were piled up on each other. He said, some of the caskets were old and deteriorated to the point where you could see the decomposed bodies. He was horrified that the contractors in charge of exhuming the graves were careless and displayed a lack of dignity for the deceased. 

In 2013 as  modern day contractors were working on a playground built over the once burial ground of Odd Fellows, they encountered 28 caskets of remains that were never exhumed and reinterred prompting the creation of new laws that made the courts stop new developments and appoint state archaeologists to properly document, exhume and reinter at the city’s expense that which should have occurred in years past.

Sometimes I feel like a detective doing genealogy work. Creating the virtual cemeteries then adding in the ancestor’s information had given me the opportunity to review dozens and dozens of death certificates and burial records to confirm where they were buried and of course following the paper trail if the ancestor’s remains were moved from the original place of burial to their present place of burial. Though the Ritter line had their share of early deaths, the Voigts had an overwhelming number of early deaths especially children under the age of 10 years old. The records clearly display the dangers of childhood at a time when vaccinations and antibiotics were yet to be discovered. Whereas several women in the Ritter line lost their lives to “Childbed Fever”, the Voigt line lost children to diphtheria, Typhus, spinal meningitis, scarlet fever, pneumonia, and asthma.

Guten Morgen, Montag!

​I have looked at so many records written in German, Latin and Polish that I feel like my eyes are crossed. I have new information and a few stories to tell but I have to get all the facts straight in my head in order to relay the information. I was able to go back another generation on the Wisloski line and the information is fascinating—well at least to me. After all these years I have gotten pretty good at reading German and Latin documents. I still have some words interpreted for me but all in all I am good at reading. Just do not ask me to speak it!

Things have been busy around here with Aubree back in school. Early mornings, school drop offs, pickups, homework on top of weekend riding keeps everyone in this house moving. We also have a yard project going on so contractors have been here for a week and we expect to have them working for the next couple of weeks. Concrete foundation, pavers, fencing, retaining wall along with cameras with video surveillance installed. 

My grandson Nikolas has been working on the wrought iron fence on the front porch. He is stripping and repainting it. Since he does wrought iron and welding for a living, I hired him instead of hiring someone else. Because the masonry contractors started the backyard and we needed the porch to store a few things, the porch project is in a holding pattern. 

I have to say I really have some wonderful grandsons. They have grown up into amazing men and I am so proud of them. I love spending time with them. They can make me laugh. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face. 

Family Genealogy Update

Genealogy work takes many forms, and lately, I have focused on honoring my ancestors by managing 105 (and counting) of their memorials and building 43 (and counting) virtual cemeteries. Though this project is tedious and time-consuming, it is the best way to ensure their digital records accurately match my genealogical research. However, this project has also exposed a dark chapter in our family history. I discovered that numerous Mervine ancestors were disinterred and relocated decades after their original burials. When Philadelphia cemeteries like Odd Fellows, American Mechanics, and St. George M.E. Church were dissolved in the late 1940s and 1950s, families were supposedly notified. Yet, the sheer number of Mervine relatives who were separated and buried in mass graves makes me doubt that city officials did their due diligence. Instead of receiving proper reburials, many were split up, while their headstones were used as infrastructure fill in the Delaware River to build bridges. Uncovering this history only makes me more determined. I will continue searching for our displaced ancestors to ensure they are properly remembered and memorialized.

Mom and Dad and Brother

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Mother of Sons

The years slip by so quickly. One moment you have three little boys clinging to your skirts and the next moment they are adults. Meanwhile, you are left wondering where all the time went. ​

Leverington Cemetery

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St. John the Baptist Cemetery

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Memories

The first picture is my mom and my oldest granddaughter Ava. We were down the shore. ​The second picture is Ava and I celebrating her 4th birthday.