Emil Meyle Estate
- Yen Ho
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Lower Gwynedd is known to bring in wealthy families and businessmen to settle in and even build their huge estates to show off their statuses. One of the occupants that settled in the area was an immigrant who became a successful businessman in Philadelphia who purchased an old farm in Lower Gwynedd.
The Coulston and Kettler Farm
The Coulston family were descended from Whitemarsh Township, PA, and members of this family lived at what's known today as the Erdenheim Farm and Dixon Meadow House.
It was said that William Coulston (1748-1790) owned a home in Gwynedd some time during the 18th century. His children were Charles, William, John, Thomas, Mary, and Sarah.
The property was originally owned by Owen Evans (1664-1723) with 583 acres. The Evans family owned this property for many years until Joshua Richards purchased 67 acres at the eastern side of Plymouth Road in 1747. In 1766, a German named Jacob Ulrich came into possession of the property, and built a house that bear his name in 1768.
In 1775, he sold the property to Nicholas Rile (1744-1825) for $900. He was known to be a "strong adherent" during the American Revolution, and one of his Tory neighbors planned to capture him. Knowing about this, Nicholas ran off eastward with his horse to Bucks County. The home was in possession of the Rile family until it was sold to Conrad Shieve (1820-1894) in 1842.
In 1857, Thomas Coulston purchased the farm, and shared it with his sister Mary and her husband William Kettler. They owned the farm for 40 years.
Emil Meyle
In the 1910s, a German immigrant named Emil Meyle (1870-1917) bought the Coulston property and renovated the place since. The barn is still standing on the property.
He began his career as a watchman at the Harrison, Havemeyer & Co. Sugar Refinery. He then later became a superintendent of piers in Philadelphia. And then in 1895, he founded the Independent Pier Company as "E. Meyle" owning the largest towboat fleets in Philadelphia. It also served stowing, lighterage, stevedoring, and wharfage. In 1909, the company was incorporated as the "Independent Pier Company."
It was based at Pier 34 on the Delaware River while the general offices was located on 303 Chestnut Street across from the Museum of the American Revolution. They shared Pier 34 with the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad Company that used the wharf to load coal onto ships.
Fun Fact # 1: In 1939, the company purchased Socony No. 14 tugboat from the Standard Oil Company of New York, and renamed it Jupiter. The tugboat was used in launching numerous naval vessels during World War II, including the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62).
The Pier 34 Collapse
On the night of May 18, 2000, first responders arrived to the scene of the collapse at Club Heat. The collapse happened at the far section of the club, killing three people and injuring many people. The people killed were celebrating special occasions during that night. The cause of the collapse was the pine poles supporting the structure. The structure itself was a very old structure that wasn't inspected properly.
Today the pier is abandoned, and the remanence from the collapse can still be seen.
Bibliography
Bean, Theodore Weber. History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Volume 2. (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1884): 1158-1159.
"INDEPENDENT PIER COMPANY." Tugboat Information. Accessed April 20, 2025. https://www.tugboatinformation.com/company.cfm?id=266.
Kyriakodis, Harry. "Recollections Of The Pier 34 Disaster." Hidden City Philadelphia. Last modified June 10, 2013. https://hiddencityphila.org/2013/06/recollections-of-the-pier-34-disaster/.
Kyriakodis, Harry. "Why Neafie & Levy Matters." Hidden City Philadelphia. Last modified April 2, 2013. https://hiddencityphila.org/2013/04/why-neafie-levy-matters/#.
"Local History: Historical Facts Collected in Gwynedd Township--The Rile Farm--From the Pen 'E.M.'" Ambler Gazette. August 4, 1898. Page 6. https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Awivp-gazett_89.
Morris, William E, and Smith & Wistar. Map of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: from original surveys. [Philadelphia: Smith & Wistar, 1849] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012590207/.
Mueller, A. H. Atlas of the North Penn Section of Montgomery County, Pa., Plate 29, 1916.
"Obituary: Emil Meyle." Ambler Gazette. January 25, 1917. Page 1. https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Awivp-gazett_8593.
Plaag, Eric. On the Waters of the Wissahickon: A History of Erdenheim Farm. (2015)
Roberts, Ellwood. Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Containing Genealogical Records of Representative Families, Including Many of the Early Settlers and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens, Volume 1. (New York: T. S. Benham, 1904): 74-76.
Scott, J. D. Montgomery County 1877, Gwynedd, North Wales, Ambler, Royer's Ford, Limerick Station, 1877.
"The History of the Preservation of Erdenheim Farm." Whitemarsh Foundation. March 2017. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58137763ff7c50d3facdc16c/t/58fe1ef5e4fcb507313d424e/1493049079066/ErdenheimFarmHistory.3.4.pdf.
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