Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, Vol. II, Part 80

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa.
Number of Pages: 1500

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JOHN WOOD, late a member of the Har- Jan & Hollingsworth Company, Wilmington, som of Amos and Mary (Slaughter) Wood, was born in Delaware county, Pa., November 29, 1824.

The Wood family were English Friends and were among the early zettler- of Pennsyl- vania.

John Wood received a good common school education, and at sixteen was apprenticed to hi- unele, Edward Hinckson. At the age of twenty he came to Wilmington and worked at his trade in that city and it- vicinity for two or three years. About 1547 he entered the employ of Meses. Harlan & Hollingsworth as a journeyman ship-joiner, and after a time he- came the head of that department. After the death of Mr. Hollingsworth Mr. Wood ob- tained an interest in the company, but contin- ned faithfully at his post at the head of his de- partment until 1876, when he retired. While he was connected with the company, a period of nearly thirty years, he was absent but one week and his faithful and unremitting services were invaluable. In time he was able to pur- chave land in the city on which he built holt-es and his investments were very fortunate, and finally made him independent. His pleasant residence on West street just above Sixth was built in 1961. The Harlan & Hollingsworth Company employ about 1.200 workmen among whom Mr. Wood was very popular. While he never for a moment relaxed the strict rules of the company. he was most kind and considerate toward his men, all of whom regarded him as a friend. Here, where he was so long and thoroughly known. he was warm-

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ly regarded and was everywhere respected. Hle belongs to the order of Odd Fellows.

About 1848, John Wood married Anne E. MeCall. Their only child, James Albert, died at the age of eight years. Mrs. Wood died in October, 1850. In 1853 he was married to Sarah A., daughter of Eli and Elizabeth (Mer- ritt) Smith, of Wilmington. They had two children: I. Harry Layton; II. Annie Eliza- beth. Mr. Wood was a kind husband and fa- ther, a man of intelligence and great moral worth, and his memory is fragrant with many recollections of his kindness and good works. He died November 21, 1879, and is interred in the Wilmington and Brandywine cemetery.

WILLIAM WILSON, youngest child of Edward and Lydia R. (Rothwell) Wilson, of "the Levels," near Middletown, was born at "Homestead Hall," September 17, 1810.

Edward Wilson was an extensive farmer and land orner, and a man of prominence. Hle died about 1820, at the age of fifty-seven. Ilis children were: I. Thomas, died aged twenty; II. Edward, died unmarried, at the age of sixty; III. Mary R., married Richard Lockwood, a merchant of Middletown, first cousin of General Henry Lockwood of the United States Army; IV. Sarah Ann, married to Dr. Stanert, by whom she had three chil- dren, and after his death to George Flintham, by whom she had two children; V. Lydia P., married John Whitby, a grain merchant of Odessa, has one daughter, Frances (Mrs. Co- lumbus Watkins).

William Wilson received a good English education in the district schools and in Middle- town Academy. On attaining his majority he engaged in agriculture. He received a consid- crable landed estate from his father, but the system of farming then in use had worn out the soil and rendered the land of little value. Mr. Wilson, being a man of broad and ad- vanced views, and of unusual business ability, would not follow old methods. He improved the soil, bringing it up to a high state of cul- tivation, and so increased his fortune, that years before his death his land was considered the choicest in Delaware, and just over the line in Maryland. This large estate consisted first of the "Mayfield" farm, the "Middlesex,"

"Homestead Hall," "Heath Mansion," "Brick Store Landing," the "California" farms in Delaware; and the "Barnes" tract, the "Foard" farm, "Painter's Rest" and "Oregon" farms, in Cecil county, Md. He also owned ten dwellings in Warwick a car- riage shop, machine shop, and vacant lots, valued at about $13,000. At the death of Mr. Wilson the "Brick Store" farm descended to his two sons, William N. and John T., through their mother, Rachel ( Naudain) Wilson, this properly having been in possession of her fam- ily since the original patents were given them by William Penn. Mr. Wilson's lands were chiefly devoted to the raising of eer- cals, but when the growing of fruit began to attract the attention of the farmers of the state, he became interested, and had as many as thirty-five thousand peach trees in bearing at one time. Mr. Wilson was an old line Whig, and in early and middle life was very active in party affairs. He was indifferent to office, but was several times prominently men- tioned as a candidate for Governor.

William Wilson was first married to Rachel, daughter of the Rev. Arnold S. Naudain, of whom see sketch. They had three children: I. Lydia R. (Mrs. James P. Rothwell), of New Castle county, died in 1872, had two children, i. died in infancy, ii. Delaware Wilson; Mrs. Rachel Wilson died in August, 1862. In 1863, Mr. Wilson married L. An- nie, daughter of Jacob V. Naudain. They had seven children: I. Rachel R .; II. Mollie L .; III. Edward V .; IV. Annie Jessie; V. Alexis; VI. Howard Groome; VHI. Bayard K. Mr. Wilson died August 21, 1879, greatly re- gretted by the whole community. Hle was a man of upright character, faithful to every trust, and exceedingly kind to the poor and unfortunate.

JOSEPH GRIFFITH, was born in 1793, in Peneader hundred, New Castle county, ou a farm one mile east of Cooch's bridge.

His father, JJames Griffith, was a farmer and of Welsh descent; Mr. Griffith's ancestors, emigrants from Wales, landed at New Cas- the, Del., in 1701. His father, James Griffith, a farmer of New Castle county, married a lady of English lineage. Joseph Griffith grew up in his native county, working on the farm in

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summer and going to school in the winter. At sixteen, he went to Philadelphia and bound himself as an apprentice to learn the house carpentry, and he served faithfully until, at the age of twenty, he was released by the death of his employer. Mr. Griffith, with four or five other young men, chosing a master me- chanie, named Henry Lytle, left the city and traveled through the state looking for work. They finally reached the Cumberland Valley, where they found employment in building large barns. Here, in 1818, he married Agnes Irving, and remained working at his trade un- til 1822, when his father having died, he yielded to the earnest solicitations of his mother, and returned to the home farm in Delaware.

Joseph Griffith had done well at his trade but now found the life of a farmer much bet- ter suited to his tastes. The old farm was al- most of a wilderness of swamp and woods, but he went bravely to work, cutting, clearing and ditching; and having seen in Pennsylvania the benefits of lime and clover, commenced using the~ fertilizers, and soon made the old place to blossom as the rose. The lime wascart- ed from the Nevin quarries, above Newark, and it is believed that this was the first lime ever brought into the neighborhood for this pur- pose. Mr. Griffith was the leading spirit in in- creasing the productiveness of the land, and nothing delighted him more than to be able, as he said, to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before. In 1839 at the death of a half-uncle, he inherited a small amount of money, with which he purchased a farm in Kent county, Md., at the head of Sassafras river. This land originally of good quality, was almost worn out, but there was upon it a bed of green sand marl, and he at once com- menced seeding down, using lime and marl and greatly astonished the old in- habitants by the result. This lime was brought from the banks of the Schuyl- kill, and his vessel load of that fertiliz- er was the first that was ever dischared on Sassafras river, if not on the Eastern Shore, south of Cecil county. To Mr. Griffith is due the credit of giving the first impetus to the improvement of land, which has made Kent county, Md., famous for its agricultural pro- duets. In 1845 he sold the old home farm and moved to Newark, where he resided two years,

when, having purchased the Nathan Watson farm, he removed to it and lived there till his death, August 25, 1879. He was a successful agriculturist, and left a large estate to his chil- dren and grandchildren.

Joseph Griffith was married in 1818, to Agnes Irving. They had seven sons and one daughter, all of whom, with the exception of one son, who was killed at the age of nine years, grew to maturity: I. Caleb, farmer, died in 1865, aged thirty-three years; II. Wm. J., who died about 1872, leaving four children, was a farmer and had been a member of the Maryland legislature; III. David B., mer- chant, died at Easton, Md., in 1871; IV. Eliz- abeth Irving, wife of Wm. K. Lockwood; V. Robert S .; VI. Irving G .; a farmer on Bohe- mia Manor; VII. Joseph T., died in 1866 in his twenty-sixth year. Mr. Griffith wife, who was worthy of his devoted affection, lived with him fifty-four years from the time of their marriage, dying three years prior to his decease. Mr. Griffith was a primitive Baptist, and a member of the Welsh Tract Baptist church. In all his views on any subject he was very decided, and in the early part of his life rather intolerant of those who differed from him, but this characteristic mellowed with age, and in his later days he became very childlike and gentle. No one in his neighborhood was more respected, deferred to and honored, al- though his disposition led him to decline pub- lic office. His life was, in the sight of all, pure, consistent and faithful. To his descendants he left the priceless legacy of a spotless name.

RICHARD LOCKWOOD, deceased, a merchant, of Middletown, Del., son of John and Ann (Kirkly) Lockwood, was born in Kent county, Del., April 14, 1778.

Mr. Lockwood's grandfather, Richard Loek- wood, son of Armwell and Mary Lockwood, was born November 29, 1735. His wife, Mar- garet, was born February 8, 1737, and died July 14, 1814. Their son, John Lockwood, father of Richard Lockwood, was born Octo- ber 15, 1759, and died October 8, 1811. He married, Ann Kirkly, who was born Devem- ber 11, 1766, and died July 30, 1791, when her son Richard was but three years and three months old. On the second day of the same

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month, she lost her youngest son, Samuel. Their children were: I. Letitia, deceased, born January 3, 1785, married Matthias Day; II. William Kirkly, born October 24, 1786, married Miss Hayes, died in January, 1872; III. Richard; IV. Samuel, born October 10, 1789.

Richard Lockwood grew up on his father's farm, receiving only a plain English educa- tion, at that day considered amply sufficient. In 1810, in his twenty-second year, he went to Middletown and engaged as a clerk in the dry goods store of Joseph White, with whom he afterward became partner. During the war of 1812 he enlisted as a private soldier, and was stationed at old Fort Ca-simer, at New Castle, where he became noted as a marksman. . Ile could kill a crow flying overhead with a flint- lock musket, loaded with ball.

Returning to his business, Mr. Lockwood was very successful as amerchant until 1830 when, through the dishonesty of a clerk whom he had taken into partnership, the firm failed, and he lost all his other property except a farm belong- ing to his wife. Redoubling his energy he paid all the indebtedness of the firm and commene- ed anew. Hle was again successful and not only educated his large family of ten children, but at his death left a landed estate of over twelve hundred acres in Maryland and Delaware, besides considerable personal pro- perty. His conduct through life had won the love and respect of the entire community. When not actively engaged in business, Mr. Lockwood loved the retirement of home. He was averse to holding office, but was devoted to the interests of the Whig party, and never voted any other ticket till 1861, when he be- came a Republican. From that time, how- ever, he ceased to take an active part in poli- ties. He was a warm advocate of the society of Free Masons, and joined Union Lodge, No. 5, soon after his arrival in Middletown. Soon after the war of 1812, he passed the chairs. He was a member, and for a long time a vestry- man, of old St. Anne's Protestant Episcopal church, and in its adjoining burial ground his remains now repose.

Richard Lockwood was married, October 28, 1817, to Mary R., daughterof Edward and Lydia R. (Rothwell) Wolson, of the Levels, near Middletown. Their children were: Ly- dia Ann, married Samuel Price, of Maryland;

Edward W .; Mary R., married John M. Nau- dain; Martha E., married Col. Joshua Clay- ton, son of Hon. T. Clayton; William K .; Sarah Francis, married Cyrus Tatman; Leti- tia Louisa, married Professor A. M. Goldsbo- rough, of Philadelphia; John J .; Richard T .; and Margaretta R., married Henry Clayton.

HON. GEORGE GRAY, Wilmington Del., son of Andrew Caldwell and Elizabeth (Scofield) Gray, was born in New Castle, May 4, 1840.

Mr. Gray entered Princeton in 1857 and graduated A. B. with the class of 1859. IIe read law with his father and William C. Spruance, spent a year at the Harvard Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1863, at once entered practice, and soon obtained an enviable position in the profession. In 1881 he wasappointed attorney-generalof Delaware by Governor John W. Hall, and then remoy- ed to Wilmington, where he has since resided. Mr. Gray was early identified with the Dem- ocratie party and has since been prominent in its councils. He was a member of the Na- tional Convention of his party in 1876 and of the Cincinnati Convention of 1880, in which he nominated Mr. Bayard for the Presidency, in a masterly speech. He was elected United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the resignationof Mr. Bayard, and took hisseat on March 4, 1885, and re-elected in 1887 for the full term of six years. His second full term has just expired (March 4, 1899). Dur- in the year 1898, Mr. Gray spent several months in Paris, as a member of the commis- sion tonegotiate the treaty of peace which clos- ed the Spanish-American war. He was the candidate of his party for re-election to the U. S. Senate, but withdrew from the contest, in anticipation of an appointment to a high station by President Me Kinley.

IIon. George Gray was married in 1870 to Harriet, daughter of the late Charles II. Black, M. D., of New Castle Del. Their children are: Andrew Caldwell; Annie Black; Emily Scofield; Charles H. Black; George Gray, Jr. Mrs. Harriet Gray died suddenly, May 26, 1880. On August 8, 1882, Mr. Gray was married to Margaret J. Black, sister of his first wife.

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IION. ANTIIONY HIGGINS, son of the late Anthony M. Higgins, grandson of An- thony, and grandnephew of the distinguished Jesse Higgins, was born in Red Lion hundred, hear St. George's, October 1, 1840. He grad- uated from Yale College in 1861 with the de- gree of A. B., and soon after began his law studies with William C. Spruance at New Cas- tle, attended the Harvard Law School during the year 1862-63, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1864. Mr. Higgins at once opened an office in Wilmington, in conjunction with the late Edward G. Bradford, afterwards United States District Judge. In the same year he was appointed deputy attorney gen- eral of the state under Attorney General Jacob Moore and served two years. A pro- nounced and active Republican, he was made chairman of the state committee in 1868, and in 1869 was appointed by President Grant as United States attorney for the district of Dela- ware, which office he held until June, 1876. Ile was a candidate for Congress in 1884. In 1870 Mr. Higgins dissolved partnership with Mr. Bradford and continued practice alone.

Ile received the votes of the Republican members of the legislature in 1881 for the U. S. Senate; was a Republican candidate for Congress in 1884; and was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican to succeed Eli Sauls- bury, Democrat, and took his seat March 4, 1889. His term of service expired March 4, 1895.

ANTHONY MADISON HIGGINS, of Red Lion hundred, was born November 22, 1809, on the place and near the spot where he died. This place is known as Fairview.

His father, Anthony Higgins, and grand- father, Lawrence Higgins, had cultivated the same farm. For several generations the family has lived in Red Lion hundred, not far from Delaware City. After a preparatory course of instruction, first with Rev. Wilson, of Middletown, then with the late John Bullock, of Wilmington, and subsequently at the New- ark Academy, Anthony M. Higgins entered Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pa., in 1829, and received his diploma from that in- stitution in 1831. As a student and as a mem- ber of the literary society of his choice, he stood in the foremost rank.

In those days railroads did not exist among the mountains of Pennsylvania. Living steeds were the main dependence for transportation of travelers and freight. Romantic interest and peril, in the more sparsely-peopled places, would therefore attend a journey at that time on the routes from Wilmington to Western Pennsylvania. In order to enjoy the scenery and gratify his taste for equestrian exercise, Mr. Higgins after graduating returned home in company with four college mates on horse- baek, each member of the party leaving his companions at the point on the route which was nearest to his own home. This agreeable journey from his Alma Mater wasremembered and mentioned in after-years with genuine pleasure. Mr. Higgins' standing and activi- ties in class and society, while at college, had led his acquaintances to suppose that after gra- duation he would devote himself to the pro- fession of the law, but his rural environments and tastes controlled his choice and decided his career for the farm. Hence college life was to him but a more complete equipment and prep- aration of life as an agriculturist. Settling upon a place situated northwest of the village of St. George's, and almost adjoining his pa- ternal estate, he pursued his chosen vocation for more than thirty years, with signal ability and success.

Mr. Higgins then withdrew from the active labors of the farm, and for twenty years en- joved the life of a retired country gentleman, at his home at Linden Hill. Much of this time he devoted to reading, in which he took great delight. He traversed a wide field of literature with anapparently insatiable desire for knowl- edge. In this domain his acquisitions, on al- most every subject of general interest, were large. On all matters of local domestic inter- est he was an encyclopedia. These two decades of his life were notably happy years, yielding memorable pleasures both to him and his fami- ly and his friends. In these years the personal traits of Mr. Higgins were freely developed and plainly seen. Conspicuousamong them was an unselfish, everself-sacrificing fairness. He seemed to forget himself, in his serupulous care for the interests of others, to an extent which made him appear in a transaction as more care- ful of their welfare than of his own. He was highly favored in his marriage relations. His wife was a woman of rare courage and force

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of character and was a potent factor in the suc- cessful life of her husband. Her death de- prived him of his most efficient coadjutor and left a void that was never filled and a sorrow of no ordinary kind.

Although an unusually capable writer, Mr. Higgins has left comparatively little to indi- cate his skill in this particular. Hle devoted himself so completely to his agricultural in- terests that he had but little time or inclination to put his thoughts upon paper. The mnost that he did as a writer, upon subjects of general interest, was done for the Department of Agriculture at Washington City, for which he prepared, by request, several valuable com- munications on topics relating to the agricul- tural resources and industries of New Castle county. In the last two years of his life he was overshadowed by another deep grief, oc- casioned by the death of his eldest daughter, to whom he was devotedly attached, and who, after the death of her mother, had done what she could to supply her place. After this be- renvement, he abandoned Linden Ilill, and spent his remaining days at the homes of his children.

Mr. Higgins was never content with inferior methods when better ones could be employed. He believed in going forward to the attainment of the best possible results. Hence, it is not surprising that he made the farm which he tilled advance from an inferior condition to the very front rank of handsome and produc- tive rural estates. He was heartily devoted to his calling and labored in it intelligently and assiduously. As an intelligent citizen, he al- ways took a lively interest in the public wel- fare. But he did not abandon his life-work to do so. In politics he was originally a Whig; later in life he was known as a Republican. He was always in earnest, having clear and decid- ed convictions upon all questions which his duty required him to consider. Twice he took upon him the cares and responsibilities of pub- lic official position, once as a trustee of the poor of New Castle county, and once as a mem- ber of the state legislature.

The latter position he held as the choice of the people in the stormy period of 1860, when hisname was placed on the Lincoln-Bell fusion ticket. In the legislature he did much by his consistent, intelligent, conscientious fidelity towards preserving his native state in the posi-

tion which she had been the first to take it relation to the National Constitution. As pub- lic offices were not congenial to his tastes, he served but one term in any official position, and returned willingly to his agricultural pursuits when public duty permitted. Possibly the conspienous candor and unsuspecting truthful- ness of his character may, in part, explain his reluctance to engage in the competitions of political life.

Anthony M. Higgins was married, in 1833, to Sarah Clark, daughter of Pennell Corbit. His wife died February 28, 1871. Five chil- dren survived their father: John C. Higgins, near Delaware City; Hon. Anthony Higgins, of Wilmington; Thomas Higgins, a merchant of New York City; Pennell C. Higgins, a journalist of the same city; and Mary C., wife of Daniel Corbit, of Odessa. His eldest daughter, Martha, died in February, 1886, at Nassau, New Providence, Bahama Islands, where she had been taken by her father for her health.

Mr. Higgins died July 29, 1887, and was buried in St. George's cemetery, near the cen- tre of the inclosure, in the family plot, and in full view of the beautiful home which he had established more than half a century before he died. He was an older in the Presbyterian church, and his obsequies were conducted ac- cording to the ceremonies of that denomina- tion. Mrs. Sarah C. (Corbit) Higgins, was a granddaughter of Governor John Clark, son of Captain William Clark, whose valor was well proved at the head of his command in the Re- volutionary Army. He led into the battle of Monmouth a company of seventy-five men, raised principally between Smyrna and Cant- well's Bridge, forty-five of whom perished on the field. In a hand-to-hand confliet Cap- tain Clark killed with his sword a British offi- cer who had attacked him. The sword with which he had saved his life and vanquished his antagonist was long retained and highly valued among the heirlooms of the family.

Mr. Higgins is remembered as an intelli- gent, energetic farmer; a man of unswerving rectitude and purity; a generous friend, a pa- triotie citizen, an unusually well-informed Christian gentleman, interested in every good work that he could personally aid, and always a warm advocate of every worthy enterprise.

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IION. JOSEPH WILKINS COOCHI was born at Cooch's Bridge, June 23, 1840. His father, Levi G. Cooch, was a member of the Legislature, in 1847 and 1849, being elected on the Whig ticket. He died in 1869, at the age of sixty-six; his widow, Sarah C. (Wil- kins) Cooch, survived him.

William Cooch, the father of Levi G. Cooch, resided at Cooch's Bridge, where he died in 1838, at the age of seventy-six. Dur- ing the Revolutionary war, when sixteen years of age, he ran away from home and went to sea in a privateer. The vessel was captured by an English man-of-war and taken to Eng- Jand. Mr. Cooch escaped to France, and from there was sent home through the aid of Ben- jamin Franklin, then minister at Paris. On reaching Delaware Bay he was again captured but managed to escape from the vessel to the Jersey coast. Ife was once a member of the Legislature.

William Cooch married Margaret Hollings- worth, of Elkton, Md., and had three chil- dren: I. Zebulon II .; II. William; III. Levi G.

Zebulon Cooch, son of William Cooch, was many years a merchant in Baltimore, where he became wealthy, and resided, during the latter years of his life, in Paris. He was killed in that city, in December, 1870, being run over by an omnibus.

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Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, Vol. II, Part 80

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa. Number of Pages: 1500

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa.
Number of Pages: 1500