“This is commonly called the dull season of the year but really, in a walk made along the Delaware front of the city, from the navy yard to the upper part of Kensington, we cannot find the epithet dull at all applicable to the various occupations carried on. At every boat yard, there were several boats being built: every anvil resound-ed to the blow of the smith; every steam engine, whether driving saw mills or machine shops, are puffing away as if in earnest. Drays were busy carrying away the large amount of products, with which our wharves are loaded; and the loud "yo heave ho" of the arriving mariner, spoke of foreign lands. Indeed, it was a scene full of pleasurable emotion to a citizen of Philadelphia-it spoke of better days to come….”
[Trade and Commerce, from the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, Niles' National Register, Vol.66, 1844]