USA > Delaware > Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 1 > Part 46
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firm name of Draper and Hazzard. In | 1819, and in 1820 accompanied his father to 1843 retiring from this business he was, in November, appointed Magistrate and Notary Public by Governor Cooper. In 1851 Mr. Hazzard was elected, from Sussex Co., as State Senator on the American ticket, serving for four years. From the year 1851 until 1861 he was engaged in the manufacture of Quer- citron Bark at Milford Delaware. In 1864 he returned to Milton and engaged in farming.
Mr. Hazzard was appointed magistrate by Governor Saulsbury in 1870 and was reappoin- ted to the office which he now holds, in 1877, by Governor Cochran. He has been a promi- nent member of the M. E. church since 1º45. During the early part of his life, Mr. Hazzard was a Whig. and voted with that party. until its demise. After that event he acted with the American party, and during the late war was a pronounced friend to the Union cause. Mr. Hazzard was married in 1833, to Miss Sarah Sipple, daughter of Walker Sipple, Esq., of Mil- ford, Del. Five children have been born to them, of whom four survive : Rachel. wife of Geo. W. P. Coates, of Baltimore, Md .; William, who was Commissary Sergeant of Company F, First Delaware Cavalry, and who died in 1868; Captain David Hazzard, formerly of the 11th U. S Infantry; Alice, wife of I. M. Hafleigh of Philadelphia, and Gertrude, a younger daughter, residing with her parents. He has been one of the most useful and influential citizens of Sussex county for many years, and while quiet and retiring, has been none the less an earnest worker for the best and highest interests of the community in which he re- sides.
ILSON, THOMASBELLERBY, M. D., a distinguished scientist, and patron and founder of scientific institutions in Philadelphia, was born in that city, January 17, 1807. His parents, Edward and Elizabeth (Bellerby) Wilson, were both na- tives of England, but came to this country prior to the year 1800, and were married in 1802. Being people of means and culture the education of their son received the careful con- sideration and attention to which his uncom- mon abilities-evident even in childhood- were entitled. He attended a Friends' school in his native city, during the years 1818 and
England, where he was placed in a school in Darlington, Durham county. He returned to America in the spring of 1822, and did not again enter school, but impelled by his strong desire to engage in practical scientific pursuits, became an apprentice in the study and practice of pharmacy, in the establishment of the late Mr. Frederick Brown, on Chestnut street, and improved to the utmost, the opportunities afforded him. After six years spent in the pharmacy he decided to give up its peculiar duties and to devote himself to a wider range of study and research. In the autumn of 1828 he set out with two or three young friends on an excursion for geological in- vestigation, through the coal regions of Pennsylvania, all traveling on horseback. Returning, he entered, the same autumn, the University of Pennsylvania, as a medical student, and was fortunate in securing the very eminent Dr. Physic as his private preceptor. He graduated in the spring of 1830, and again crossing the Atlantic, arrived in Paris ten days before the revolution in July of that year. There he listened to the lectures of Cuvier and other professors, who gave the University of Paris its celebrity ; and besides his medical studies, paid much attention to Botany, Zoology and Geology. The following summer, in com- pany with a young friend and fellow-student, he made a tour on foot, traveling extensively through France and Switzerland. They went with their knapsacks on their backs and their geological hammers in their hands. He also visited England and Ireland, attending a course of medical lectures in Dublin. After an ab- sence of two years, he returned to his native city. Except as a matter of benevolence he paid no attention to the practice of medicine, but the Asiatic Cholera reaching our shores soon after his arrival home, and having studied thoroughly and practically its mode of treat- ment while in Europe, he gave all that sum- mer, gratuitously, to a hospital for the poor. His excessive labors impaired his health and he visited Berks county, Pennsylvania, and New Castle county, Delaware. He sought his rest and recreation only, in a change of employment. He was most busy all the hours of daylight, in botanical and ornithological pursuits, collecting, pressing and drying plants, and arranging them systematically in
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his herbarium ; and with his gun securing | house or a suite of rooms in Philadelphia, where birds, of which he made laborious anatomical preparations, forming a collection of specimens for his own private study, but, which after- ward aided to enrich the Musuem of the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia. In that city he spent the winter of 1832-3, but in the Spring removed to New London town- ship, Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he resided with his brother Rathmell eight years. He here purchased a farm which he ever after- ward continued to hold, and was busily em- ployed as a naturalist in the study of objects around his home, or in frequent tours to distant parts of the republic, and to the neighboring British Provinces. He had purchased, before leaving Europe, a choice medical library, and an excellent set of surgical instruments ; but now resolving to be entirely devoted to science, he gave the former to the Medical Society, and the latter to Wills Hospital, in Philadelphia. Dr. Wilson, on his long walks, along the brooks and through the fields, groves and woods, with his botany-box on his back, his entomological net in his hands, and his hat covered all around with beetles, butterflies and other insects which he had pinned thereon, became a familiar sight to the people of the vicinity. This was the beginning of that large Entomological col- lection of more than twenty thousand speci- mens which he afterwards presented to the Entomological Society of Philadelphia. Still Geology was his favorite study, and in these walks received a large share of attention. He often made excursions of several days, some- times extended to weeks and even to months. When these journeys were long he went on horseback, taking with him only a small valise. He made three more visits to Europe ; one in the spring of 1842, in company with his brother Charles, traveling through England, France, Switzerland and Italy, and returning to America only a short time before the death of his father, in December, 1843. Again, in 1844, he went to England accompanied by his brother William. His last voyage across the Atlantic was in 1851. Previous to these three voyages, in the spring of 1841, he removed, with his brother Rathmell, from New London, Pennsylvania, to the vicinity of Newark, Dela- ware, and this was his home the remainder of his life. But he at all times kept either a
he spent a few days every week. The principal institutions established by Dr. Wil- son were the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Entomological Society of Philadel- phia. The former of these, founded in 1812, by a few men of very moderate means, owes its building, its scientific library and magnificent collection of objects of Natural History chiefly to two individuals, William Maclure and Dr. Thomas B. Wilson. Mr. Maclure gave to the Library of the Academy 5,232 volumes ; Dr. Wilson more than 12,000, and his brother, Edward Wilson gave 3,662. Mr. Maclure gave $25,000 toward the building of the Academy, and Dr. Wilson probably more. Also his brother, W. S. Wilson, contributed liberally. But the Museum of the Academy is mainly the donation of Dr. Wilson, assisted consider- ably by his brother, Edward Wilson. The collection of birds presented by him numbered 26,000, besides 2,000 unmounted skins, while that previourly owned by the Academy com- prised only about 3.000 specimens. It is now one of the most complete Ornithological Museums extant, and is in fact one of the four great collections of birds in the world. The entire amount which Dr. Wilson from time to time donated to the Academy of Natural Sciences. in the form of books, specimens and money, has been computed by those who know best, to be about $200,000. To all these must be added his entire time and energies during his whole life. To fully describe his gifts would require a large volume. The department most enriched by him next to Ornithology is that of Geology, consisting of rare, beautiful and costly minerals, and the fossil remains of plants and animals. Upon the formation of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, he entered at once with all the devotion of his nature into its labors, and con- tributed most liberally towards all its objects. He lived to see there, also, another rich col- lection of his own making. The number of in- sects there preserved at the time of his death was 50,000. The amount of his donations to this Society as far as can be ascertained was about $26,000. The religious beliefs of Dr. Wilson were mainly those of the Society of Friends of which his father was a member, yet he was one of the chief subscribers in the erection of an Episco- pal church at Newark. He was a man of
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great kindness, benevolence, gentleness and much in advance of the date of its erection. modesty. He never married. He enjoyed It stands on elevated ground in a most pictur- good health, and was capable of a large amount, esque location, surrounded by a grove of of intellectual labor. Always industrious dur- maple, locust, Norway-pine and other choice ing the day, it was his habit to sit up till one trees. During the revolution a sentinel or two o'clock in the morning actively engaged stationed in the balcony was shot by a British in study. His final illness was very brief. rifleman. It was headquarters at that time He was confined to his room but four days, 'for the patriots of that part of the state, and and his beautiful life closed on Wednesday, in its spacious apartments the first sessions of March 15, 1865. His remains were conveyed ; the Legislature were held after Delaware to the city residence of his brother, Rathmell became a state. Mr. John Cloke also pur- Wilson, Esq., in Philadelphia, where his funeral Was attended the following Saturday. Besides his relatives, the chief mourners were the scientific gentlemen of that city. His last resting place is the cemetery at South Laurel Hill. chased the old Cook farm, adjoining Belmont Hall, from Dr Robert Cook, his mother's brother. On this farm her father, John Cook, a prominent and highly respected citizen and farmer, spent his life. Mrs. Elizabeth (Cook) Cloke died in 1847, being then past eighty years of age. Mr. John Cloke married, May 5, 1841, Miss Sarah Louisa Piper, by whom he had two children. The eldest, Carrie Eliza- beth, married, in 1862, Mr. J. Howard Peter- son, a merchant of Philadelphia, who died in 1875. The younger daughter Emily, F., mar- ried Dr. Charles Mahon of Bridgeton, New Jersey. She died in April, 1877. Mr. John Cloke died at a good old age in July, 1866, and his eldest child is now the owner and occupant of Belmont Hall.
LOKE, JOHN, late of Belmont Hall, near Smyrna, was the eldest son of Ebenezer Cloke, an English gentleman who came to this country some years before the revolutionary war and settled in the Delaware Colony. He warmly espoused the cause of American independence, and with others fitted out a privateer, which he commanded, and being taken prisoner by the enemy, died of ship fever in one of the English prison ships in the port of New York. He had married in this country, Elizabeth Cook, daughter of John Cook, whose wife was a rela- tive of Governor Thomas Collins, and left two children, John and Ebenezer Cloke. The youngest son, born during the revolution, he never saw. Elizabeth Cook was also a sister of the wife of Governor John Clark. When a young lady she used to ride over on horse back from the old Cook farm to Belmont Hall to assist Governor Collin's daughters to mould bullets for the soldiers of the revolution. In
1821, her son, John Cloke, the subject of this sketch, purchased Belmont Hall from Dr. William Collins, a descendant of Governor Collins, who erected it in 1773. It is still (1882) in an excellent state of preservation and is now the residence and property of Mrs. J. H. Peterson, the eldest and only sur- viving child of Mr. John Cloke. An engraving of this old historic structure will be found in the historical part of this volume. It is of brick and was built in the most substantial ' manner, its architecture evidencing taste ;
AYTON, ELBERT WILSON, Mer- chant of Bridgeville, Sussex county, was born in that town, December 31, 1835. His parents were Mitchell and Harriet A. (Wilson) Layton. His father, who was a builder by occupation, died April I, 1839, at the age of fifty, and his mother, April I, 1878, at the age of seventy-three. His grandfather, Purnell Layton, was the owner of large tracts of land within half a mile of Bridgeville, and was one of the first settlers of that locality, to which he removed from Virginia, it is supposed, soon after the Revo- lutionary war. The Indians were still numer- ous in the vicinity when he came. He died about 1840, at the age of eighty-five. Mr. Elbert W. Layton received a good English education in the schools of his native place. He spent four years of his youth with his uncle, Burton Layton, who resided on the old homestead. There he worked on the farm and attended school in the town. In 1856 he became a clerk in Bridgeville. He rose rap-
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idly in business, and was for a number of years chief clerk and book-keeper for Mr. James Prettyman. In 1864 he became a clerk in the store of Governor William Cannon ; Governor Cannon died in March, 1865, and in May of the same year, Mr. Layton entered into part- nership with Mr. Richard W. Cannon in the general merchandising business, which they conducted very successfully for five years. In 1870, Mr. Layton bought out his partner, and took his brother, Mitchell Layton, into part- nership, the firm assuming the name of " Lay- ton & Brother," and entered at once upon an uninterrupted course of prosperity. The brothers Layton have probably the largest stock of dry goods in Bridgeville, and are doing a most flourishing business. They also deal largely in ready made clothing, furniture, general merchandise, and in grain and cross- ties. With characteristic forethought and good judgment they have invested considera- bly in real estate, and own together over three hundred acres of land. Mr. Elbert Layton owns beside, thirty-six acres at the railroad depot, covered with peach trees, blackberries and raspberries, which are very profitable. He also owns a good dwelling house on this property, and five dwelling houses and lots in Bridgeville, besides the store and several buildings on that lot. For the last eight years he has been a director in the First National Bank of Seaford. He is a man of weight and influence, and highly regarded wherever known. He joined the M. E. Church, in February, 1870. He was married, December 10, 1867, to Miss Mary E., daughter of John Richards, a prominent citizen and large landholder near Bridgeville. Two children were born to them; Philip Richards and Robert Reese Layton. Mr. Layton had the misfortune to lose his wife, May 8, 1873. She was a lady of lovely char- acter, superior abilities and education, and a conscientious member of the same church with her husband. Mr. Layton was married a second time, December 26, 1880, to Mrs. Lillie P. Heydrick, widow of Captain Charles Heydrick, and daughter of the late Governor William Cannon.
ATTON, HON. JOHN was a Delegate to the Continental Congress in 1785 and 1786, and a Representative in Congress from Delaware, from 1793 to 1794.
ICHARDS, CHARLES HENRY, M. D., was born at Georgetown, Novem- ber 22, 1827, His father, John Richards, was for a generation or more interested in the tanning business of that town, in con- nection with Judge Peter Robinson and his brother Thomas, having learned the business under Mr. James Clayton, of Dagsborough, at the boyhood home of Hon. John M. Clayton. The mother of Dr. Richards, Martha (Ham- mond) Richards, was brought up in Milford, in the family of her uncle, Lowder Layton, father of Judge C. L. Layton. The father of Mr. John Richards also bore the name of John Richards. He resided near Berlin, Worcester county, Maryland. The family was of English origin and one of the first to settle on the eastern shore of Mary- land. Dr. Richards received his early scholas- tic training at the Georgetown Academy, and at the age of twenty-one, having completed the academic course, entered as a medical student, the office of Dr. Wm. M. L. Rickards, then of Lewes, and the following year ma- triculated at the University of Pennsylvania. While there, he was at the same time, the private pupil of Drs. Neill and Reese ; both well known and prominent in Philadelphia. Graduating with the class of 1851, he returned to his native town and entered at once on the practice of his profession which he has contin- ued to the present time. This practice became very large, and as his popularity increased he was often called upon to serve the community in other capacities. He has been for twenty years county physician at the Alms House and Insane Asylum, and has repeatedly represented the county in the State Medical Society, of which he was elected president in 1868. He . has also represented the state in the Ameri- can Medical Association, in which he has for years held appointment on the Necrological committee. In 1861, he was appointed by Governor Burton, Prothonotary of the Superior Court, but his professional engagements and partiality for private life have since effectually precluded his acceptance of further political preferment. In 1878 he declined the nomina- tion-itself equal to an election-as State Senator, conferred by the Democratic party, in which he acted as chairman of the State Central Committee. He was one of the Com-
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missioners appointed by the Legislature to [ the state. Eleven thousand baskets of the represent the state in the Centennial Exhibi- tion, to which he made a special contribution in an exhibit of native woods He was many years a director of the Farmers Bank of Dela- ware, and was for fifteen years Treasurer of the Sussex county Bible Society ; is also a life member of the American Bible Society. Dr. Richards succeeded his father in the manu- facture of leather ; and inheriting the old homestead, it, in 1878, gave place to his present commodious and elegant residence. He is the possessor of large tracts of farming and timber land, comprising in all, an area of about 1200 acres. Several of his farms furnish a great variety of large and small fruits, and one is devoted to raising stock. He has fre- quently contributed papers of political and scientific interest to the public journals, and has published others in pamphlet form. He was married, in 1875, to Elizabeth, daughter of James Anderson, who for half a century served the Farmers' Bank in the capacity of Cashier and President. Dr. Richards joined, in early manhood, the order of Odd Fellows, and later became a member of the Masonic fraternity. He has been through life an active member of the M. E. Church.
PPLETON, JOHN MARTIN, farmer near Odessa, was born on the John Atlen farm near the above place, March 3, 1835. A sketch of his father, John Appleton, has been given. He attended the best schools of Odessa till the age of eighteen, when he was sent to the New Jersey Confer- ence Academy at Pennington, then under the Presidency of the celebrated Rev. J. Townley Crane, D. D. At this excellent school he spent two years and acquired a good English and business education, and returning to Dela- ware in 1835, commenced life as a farmer. He settled on what has been known for a century as Hangman's farm, two miles south of Odessa, and so called from the circumstance that soon after the revolutionary war the then owner committed suicide by hanging. It is a fine farm of good land, under excellent culti- vation. Mr. Appleton had at one time two thousand peach trees in bearing, and his apple orchard is probably the largest in that part of
latter fruit were sent to market in 1879. A considerable part of the farin is devoted to grain and grass. The family were Whigs and he grew up in that faith. For generations they were opposed to slavery and their creed was essentially that of the Republican party of to-day, and in whom ranks at the time of its organization they at once took their place. Of course, therefore, Mr. Appleton was a strong Union man during the war. He en- listed in the "Home Guard" in place of his father, and spent a few months at fort Dela- ware. Devoted to his agricultural interests his tastes have always inclined him to avoid anything like official position. He has always been a faithful attendant on religious services, and his house might be called the ministers home, but he made no public profession till 1876, when he united with the M. E. Church at Odessa. Mr. Appleton and Mary, daughter of Alexander and Mary (Wright) Vail,of Mid- dletown, were united in marriage, December 29, 1875 ; Bishop Levi Scott performing the ceremoney. They have but one child, Mary Appleton.
OTHWELL, MAJOR WILLIAM, far- mer of the "Levels," near Middletown was born on the old homestead, June 8, 1783. His father, William Rothwell, was the son of Thomas Rothwell, whose fa- ther, Thomas Rothwell, the first, came with his wife Alice from England, and settled near St. Georges, New Castle county, early in the eighteenth century. He afterwards purchased several thousand acres of land, comprising nearly the whole of what is now known as the "Levels." He was very wealthy and univer- sally respected. He died in 1752 and was carried to his grave by his four sons, Thomas, Jared, Henry and John, as he had desired in his will. His wife died in 1742. They had eleven children ; Thomas, the eldest, born No- vember 15, 1706, married Lydia Peterson, and had ten children, William being their fifth child and second son. He was born in 1747 and lived and died on his farm on "The Levels." He died in May, 1791, aged forty-four years. His wife, Ann Moody, was born November 22, 1752. Their children, were eiglit in number, of
Joshua BJenimore
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whom Major William Rothwell was the third | years, his death, July 20, 1855, was felt to be son and fifth child. His natural endowments a great loss. His widow is still living in Mid- dletown. were superior and he supplemented a good common school education by a wide course of reading, and became one of the best informed as he was one of the most intelligent men of the community. He was a major in the State militia, and was very prominent and popular. He spent his life on the farms which he owned on the " Levels," and over the line in Maryland; in all about ten in number and containing about two thousand acres. He
kept them all under good cultivation, devot- ing them mainly to grain, and to sheep rais- ing, and was very successful. He was a strong friend of Hon. John M. Clayton, and an ardent supporter of the principles of the Whig party,
but would never accept official position. He attended the Presbyterian church, to which he contributed, and was for many years a trustee, · and was, also, one of the building committee at the time of the erection of the "Forest church " in Middletown. He was married Sep- tember 25, 1816, at the age of thirty-three years, to Ann K. Emory, by whom he had six children : Gideon Emory, who is a farmer near Smyrna Landing, married Catherine Collins, and had nine children; Ann Elizabeth, wife
of David J. Murphy, farmer near Newark ; Mary, who married James B. Crawford, farmer near Clayton, had four children and died in 1855, and William, who went to California in 1849, and died soon after. Mrs. Ann K. Rothwell died in February, 1826, and was buried on her father's farm on Thoroughfare Neck. On the 29th of November, 1827, Major Rothwell married Lydia Rebecca, daughter of Jesse Pryce, a neighboring farmer. She was a niece of Rev. William Pryce, many years rector of Old Swedes' Church in Wilmington. Of the twelve children of the last marriage, eight grew to maturity ; Robert Richard Rey- nolds, of Wilmington ; John Moody, of whom see sketch ; James Pryce of St. Georges ; Martha Christiana, widow of William Rey- nolds of Wilmington ; Thomas Highland, far- mer on "The Levels," married Irene Beaston; Winfield Washington ; Lydia Frances, wife of George Derrickson, living on Bohemia Manor, and William Reynolds Rothwell. Major Rothwell was a man of sterling character, widely influential and greatly respected. Al- though he had reached the age of seventy-two
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