Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 34

Author:
Publication date: 1972
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 776

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

ries. The family residence was rebuilt in 1861, and again in 1878. Mr. Rust has long ranked among the first agriculturists in that part of the state. In 1869, being urged by the fruit- growers of his section to take charge of their fruit in New York, he became a fruit commis- sion merchant in that city each year during the season; a business which he still continues with success. He was brought up an old line Whig, and voted that ticket till 1854. when he joined the Democratic party. He had for many years been active in public matters, and in 1878 was elected to the State Senate for four years. In 1881 he was elected Presi- dent of the Senate. He is a man of fine ap- pearance, tall and large, and filled the position with honor and ability, having proved fully equal to its requirements as an impartial and popular presiding officer. He was married, Oct. 26, 1840, to Ann Eliza, daughter of Charles J. and Jane Palmer, of Long Island. Mrs. Palmer married, after the death of her husband, Judge William B. Cooper, afterwards governor of Delaware. She died in Novem- ber, 1862. Mr. and Mrs. Rust have had three sons ; Charles Palmer, who married Sallie, daughter of William Ross, of Sussex county ; Luther David, a young man of lovely charac- ter and great promise, who died Aug. 21, 1866, in his twenty-third year, and William Cooper Rust, a farmer near Bridgeville, who married, first, Elvira, daughter of Captain Z. Z. Fountain, of Seaford, and in 1875, after her death, Gertrude, daughter of Catherine and Nathaniel Jacobs, of Sussex.

extensive purchaser and shipper of grain, lumber, staves, coal, lime, fertilizers and pro- duce generally, which he shipped in his own vessels to the principal northern ports. Odessa was for many years a leading grain port for a large section of Delaware and Maryland, and Mr. Watkins was one of the most extensive grain dealers of the town. He owned several vessels which were kept constantly employed. In 1878 he built the "Clio," a passenger and freight Ericsson steamer, of 117 tons burden, which plies between Odessa and Philadelphia, and has proved a great advantage to the busi- ness interests of the place. Since 1876 he has been a director of the Odessa National Bank. He is a leading business man of the town, and a man of unquestioned integrity. In politics he is a Democrat. Though not a member he is an attendant and supporter of the Presby- terian church, of which he is a trustee. He was married, May 29, 1855, to Miss Frances B., daughter of John Whitby, a leading merchant . of Odessa, and has four children, Lydia Peter- son, now the wife of Richard J. Foard, a grain dealer at Chestertown, Md., Frank Blackiston, Columbus Watkins, Junior, and John Whitby Watkins.

USSELL, REV. ANDREW KERR formerly Pastor of the Presbyterian Churches at the Head of Christiana and at White Clay Creek, was born in 1780. His father, Andrew Russell, came to New Castle from Ireland before the year 1768, and in 1769 removed to Warrior's Run, North- umberland County, Pa., where he bought and cleared land and made improvements. About 1772 he revisited Newark and married Isabella, daughter of Andrew Kerr. After returning to his farm, the Revolutionary war broke out, and about 1777 he, with his family and neigh- bors, were all driven off by the Indians, first to

ATKINS, COLUMBUS, Merchant of Odessa, was born near Middletown, Sept. 17, 1829. A sketch of his father, Gassaway Watkins, has been given He received a good English educa- tion in the best schools of his neighborhood, and his mother, a lady of superior culture and Fort Augusta, near Sunbury, then to Chester character, herself advanced him to the higher Co', until peace was made in 1783. He found, on his return, all his buildings burned. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church there branches. In April, 1846, he entered, as clerk, the store of Polk & Beaston, in' Odessa, re- maining until his majority, when he went into from its organization until his death, in March, partnership with Mr. Beaston. This continued 1810. Andrew K. was his fourth son, born pleasantly and successfully till 1865, when Mr. during the exile from home. He was prepared Watkins purchased the interest of his partner, for college at a classical academy, kept by his and has since continued the business in his pastor, Mr. Bryson, and, after teaching awhile, own name. In addition to the usual business of entered Dickinson College, from which he a country store, he has from the first been an graduated in October, 1806, obtaining the first

BIOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT.

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honor and delivering the valedictory. He winning in manner. She survived her husband , pursued his theological studies at Washington, many years, and died, Dec. 25, 1874, in her Pa., and taught in the college in that place, in seventy-seventh year. Three of her children which he was soon made professor of lan- survive, and are now living in Newark : Arthur guages. April 19, 1810, he was licensed to and William, both unmarried, and Louisa, widow preach by the Presbytery of Ohio, and March of the Rev. Dr. Hugh Hamill, now residing in the old mansion, recently enlarged and adorned. The vigorous health of Mr. Russell began to fail under his long continued and ar- duous services ; he became an invalid in 1837, and Feb 6, 1839, passed to his reward, and was laid to rest in the old church-yard at the Head of the Christiana. 10, 1811, the two congregations of the Head of Christiana and White Clay Creek made out a call for his services, promising a salary of $550, which he accepted. He was received as a licentiate by the Presbytery of New Castle, September 24, 1811, and was ordained and installed April 8, 1812. Also, he was chosen, October 11, 1811, rector of Newark Academy. All these three-fold duties he ANNON, HENRY PURVIS, A. M., Merchant of Bridgeville, was born in that town, Feb. 27, 1847. His parents were Governor William and Margaret A., (Laws) Cannon. He rceived the best advantages which the schools of his native town offorded, and was there prepared for col- lege, with the exception of three months study in Carlisle, Pa. Entering Dickinson College in 1866, he graduated A. B. in 1870, and in 1873 received the honorary degree of Master of Arts. He returned to Bridgeville on leaving college and in 1874 went into part- nership with his brother Philip L. under the firm name of H. P. and P. L. Cannon. Besides their agricultural and fruit interests, which were very large, they bought and sold wood, lumber, railroad ties and piling. In the au- tumn of 1875 they opened a store in which they keep a general stock of merchandize, dry goods, groceries, boots, shoes, etc. To this must be added their extensive operations in real estate, generally retaining and improving the lands before selling again. No other firm in that locality compares with them in the amount and variety of business transacted. The brothers own, individually and in part- nership, about 2,000 acres of land, a large pro- portion of it highly improved, and the balance of it covered with timber. Mr. Cannon is one of the leading members of the M. E. Church, with which he united in 1863, and has for ten years been a class leader and trustee. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. He is a Republican, and has been on some of the county committees, and a dele- gate to party conventions of county and State, but is not active in politics. He was married, January 4, 1872, to Miss Annie Dale, discharged for many years with wonderful efficiency and success. The membership of the two churches under his care had nearly quad- rupled at the time of his death. His preaching was earnest and eloquent and greatly admired, and he excelled in pastoral work and in gain- ing the affections of his people. Tall and erect and finely proportioned, he was unusually at- tractive in person, while his genial disposition, his polished and instructive conversation, his christian courtesy, and liberal hospitality, made his home a favorite resort and the centre of an intelligent and refined circle. He was a man of strong convictions, with courage to ex- press and maintain them, and both as a pastor and a teacher, exercised great influence. \His school was well patronized and sent forth hun- dreds of pupils, many of whom became distin- guished in civil, commercial and professional life. He resigned the care of the Academy, May 8, 1834. In addition to all these labors. he performed, towards the latter part of his life, a very prominent part in laying the foun- dation of what is now the First Presbyterian Church, of Newark ; commencing to preach on Sabbath evenings in the Academy, and some- times in his own house ; and in 1835 a small and plain meeting-house was erected, towards which he contributed largely of his own means. ! Mr. Russell was first married, in 1813, to Miss Catherine, daughter of Col. William Whitely, of Caroline county, Md. She died the follow- ing year at the age of twenty. His second wife, to whom he was united in 1815, was Ann, daughter of Arthur and Mary (McBeth) Whitely, both of Dorchester county, Md. This lady was greatly esteemed and beloved by the community. She was lovely in person, and

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daughter of W. W. Dale, M. D., of Carlisle, Pa., and has two children-Sallie Dale and Harry Laws Cannon.

EAD, GEORGE, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, for the advantages of an education in his youth, Delaware, was born in Cecil county, attended a school in the village one winter with Md. Sept. 18, 1733. His father, John ' his elder children, and there learned to read, Read, was the son of a wealthy citizen of Dublin, and having emigrated to America, settled in Cecil county, where he became a respectable planter. Soon after the birth of | his eldest son, George, he removed to the Province of Delaware, and established himself on the head-waters of the Christiana river. After a thorough classical education, George Read read law in the office of the eminent John Moland, of Philadelphia, and was admit- ted to the bar in 1753. At that time under the colonial law the eldest son was entitled to a double portion of his father's estate, but the first act of Mr. Read, after his admission to the bar, was to relinquish by deed, all claim on his father's estate, assigning as a reason that he had received his full share in the ex- penses incurred in his education. By his stu- dious habits, high character and good judg- ment, he soon took rank in his profession, and, in 1763, succeeded John Ross as Attorney General under the crown for the three lower counties. That year he was married to Ger- trude, daughter of Rev. George Ross. In 1765 he was elected to the General Assembly of Delaware, which position he held for the suc- ceeding twelve years. His distinguished ser- vices in the cause of American Independence, as a member of Congress, and afterwards in behalf of the union of the states, is a part of the history of the State and of the country, and will be found in the historical portion of this work. At the close of the war, Dec. 1782, he was appointed by Congress one of the Judges of the Court of Appeals in Admiralty cases. In 1787 he was a member of the Con- vention that framed the Constitution of the United States, and immediately after its adop- tion was elected U. S. Senator. In 1793 he resigned, to accept the position of Chief Jus- tice of the Superior Court of Delaware, which he held till the autumn of 1798, when his long life of public usefulness was terminated by a short illness. His name will be revered by many generations.

ANNON, RICHARD WHITE, Mer- chant, of Bridgeville. was born in that town, Nov. 2, 1841. His father, Josiah Cannon, some years before, when en- gaged in farming, not having received

write and cipher, and afterwards became the leading merchant of the place. He died when his son Richard W. was only two years old. The latter received a good English education in the schools of Bridgeville, and for a few months in 1860 attended Taylor's Academy in Wilmington. From 1858 to 1864, he was a clerk in the store of his brother William, after- ward Governor Cannon. In November, 1864, having borrowed $1000, he started a store of his own, and was succeeding finely, when in only two months everything he had was de- stroyed by fire, and there was but a small in- surance. Without yielding to a moment's discouragement he proceeded to Philadelphia, told the merchant the circumstances, paid up his bills, and purchased a new stock on credit. Ina week he was doing business again as prosperously as before. In June, 1865, he took into partnership, Mr. E. W. Layton, the firm bearing the name of Cannon & Layton, and continuing prosperously, till March, 1870,when Mr. Cannon sold out his interest. He then opened a drug and hardware store, becoming the pioneer druggist of the town, and was the first to keep a general and full assortment of hardware in Bridgeville. He has been well rewarded in a good trade and a prosperous ca- reer, but in November, 1872, had the misfor- tune to again lose about two-thirds of his stock by fire. This time he received about $2000 insurance. He has since added books and stationery to his stock. Mr. Cannon is highly popular and is one of the first and most useful citizens of the place. In 1871, he had the bill drawn and succeeded in securing its passage through the Legislature, incorporat- ing the town, and was its first treasurer. This office he has held three terms of one year each. He was one of the originators and was largely influential in making successful the Bridgeville Cemetery Co., which was organized in January, 1875, and incorporated in 1878. He has been its only treasurer and superintendent, and it has been a financial success. He was also one

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of the originators of the Bridgeville Library ' from the management of the Transcript, in Association, and is chairman of the Book November, 1877. Under the firm name of Committee. He was brought up a Democrat, and was friendly to Douglas in 1860, but on the breaking out of the war he took decided grounds for the Union, and has since acted with the Republican party. He was made a member of the Union Lodge of Free and Ac- cepted Masons, in 1867, and has filled the chair of Senior Warden of Hiram Lodge, Sea- S. M. Reynolds & Company, they carried on a prosperous business, and in November, 1878, purchased the stock and business of Thomas O. Culbreth, of Dover, of which Mr. Edward Reynolds took charge, under the title of E. Reynolds & Co., and removed to that town, Mr. S. M. Reynolds continuing the care of the Middletown store. The business of the firm ford, with which he is now connected. He united, in 1876, with the M. E. Church, of which he is a trustee, and has just resigned the office of superintendent of the Sunday school, which he held, with great acceptance, for three years. Since 1878 he has been vice-president of the Sussex County Bible society. He was married January 19, 1862, to Miss Annie M., daughter of Asa Dawson, formerly of Fred- erica, now of Bridgeville. They have four chil- dren-Charles Walton, Bessie B., Estella Daw- son and Richard Oliver Cannon. in both towns is in a flourishing condition, the enterprise, ability and popularity of both brothers insuring their continued success. Mr. Reynolds is a member of the Democratic party but has never been active in political affairs. He has been a member of the Presby- terian church since the spring of 1868. He was for three years a trustee of the Forest Presbyterian church, in which, in the spring of 1878, he was ordained an elder. He was mar- ried, June 1, 1871, to Miss Mary Jemima, daugh- ter of Dr. James and Elizabeth (Blackiston) Naudain, of Middletown. They have had three children, two of whom survive, Edith Mary and Anna Louisa Reynolds.

EYNOLDS, EDWARD, Merchant of Dover, was born on his father's farm, near Newark, Aug. 10, 1840. His pa- rents were John A. and Mary G. (Moore) Reynolds. He attended the public schools of his vicinity till the age of eleven, when he spent four years in the Newark Acad- emy. He then entered the Delaware college graduating in 1859, and received the degree of A. M. from the same institution in 1872. After leaving college he taught for two years in Delaware, and in the Plainfield academy, near Carlisle, Pa. He then spent a year in travel- ling in the northwestern states, Canada and Europe, and also visited the West Indies. In 1864, he became a partner with his father and brother in the general mercantile business, in Middletown, the firm assuming the name of John A. Reynolds & Sons. Mr. John A. Rey- nolds retired in 1868, and in January, 1872, Mr. Edward Reynolds also retired, leaving the business in the hands of Mr. S. M. Reynolds. In July of that year. he purchased the Mid- dletown Transcript, of which he assumed the duties of editor, and made it one of the best weekly journals of the Peninsula, proving an able and successful journalist. He was, how- ever, induced to join his brother again in mer- cantile business in Middletown, and retired

IDGELY, DR. CHAS.GREENBERRY, born near Salem, N. J., January 26, 1738, was the eldest son of Nicholas Ridgely and Mary, his third wife, daughter of Judge Hugh Middleton, of that place, and widow of Captain Benjamin Vining. They were then residing on an estate belonging to Mrs. Ridgely, but in a year or two returned to the vicinity of Dover, bringing with them also the son and daughter of Mrs. Ridgely by her first marriage. Being in affluent circumstances, no pains or expense was spared in providing these children with the best instructors of the day. Charles G. Ridgely completed his liter- ary course in the Academy of Philadelphia, which had been recently fonnded under the auspices of Dr. Franklin, and in 1755 was con- stituted a college, In 1754 he entered upon the study of medicine in that city. All his studies were pursued with the diligence and ardor that characterized his nature. In 1758 he commenced the practice of his profession in Dover, where he resided the remainder of his life, and where he enjoyed the highest medical reputation, and in important cases was con- sulted throughout this and the neighboring

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states. He married, June 11, 1761, Mary, ! daughter of Mary and Abraham Wynkoop, of Sussex, a lady of great loveliness of person and character. She died November 23, 1772, aged only twenty-seven years, leaving several sons. June 2, 1774, Dr. Ridgely married Ann, in her maternal line, a lineal descendant of the daughter of William and Williamina Moore, of Mocre Hall, Chester County, Pa. Her father was a man of standing and influence and noted in the history of that state. She was a lady of superior mind and attainments and most agreeable, charming manners. She survived her husband many years and brought up her children with most judicious care and tenderness. Dr. Ridgely was eminently amiable and exemplary in all the relations of domestic life, and his intercourse with his professional brethren was marked with the most delicate honor and magnanimity. Perhaps no other physician in Delaware ever trained so large a number of respectable medical practitioners. Such was his learning, talents and popularity, that he was constantly called upon to fill some important office, and as a judge, legislator, or in literature, he was scarcely less distinguished than in his profession. He was elected a mem- ber of the Legislature in 1765, and continued to be annually re-elected with very few inter- vals till the close of his life. Several years before the Revolution he was the presiding judge in Kent County in the Court of Com- mon Pleas and in the Court of Quarter Sessions, which two Courts were then held by the same judge. He was a member of the convention which formed the Constitution of Delaware in 1776, and when the new government was set in operation he was again called to the bench. The most perfect candor and honesty marked all his proceedings, and the innate politeness and benevolence of his character were always conspicuous. A rigid economist of time, he made himself familiar with every department of literature, both ancient and modern, and in his profession continued earnestly to read and study up to the time of his last sickness. He was a firm believer in revelation and was much attached to the Episcopal Church, of which he was a member. He died November 25, 1785, in the forty-eighth year of his age, having filled up at his premature removal a measure of usefulness and excellence attained by few in the longest life.

@IDGELY, NICHOLAS, a distinguished lawyer, and late Chancellor of Delaware, was the eldest son of Dr. Charles G. and Mary Ridgely. He was born at Dover, September 30, 1762. His mother was,

Dyer family, famous in New England for their religious zeal and misfortunes. He had the advantage of a highly liberal and classical education, which he most diligently improved. Close application and great industry were the habits of his life. His legal studies he com- pleted under Robert Goldsborough, of Cam- bridge, Md., and early assumed a high stand- ing in the profession. After realizing all that he could have anticipated as a private lawyer, he was, in 1791, appointed Attorney-General of the State, and filled that office with great honor for ten years. He was, also, elected a delegate to the Convention which framed the Constitution of 1792. Though perhaps the youngest man in that body, he was among its most efficient members. Elected in 1792, under the new Constitution, a Representative to the General Assembly of the State, his legal talents and superior intellect were mainly relied upon to perfect the system of Delaware laws in accordance with the genius of the new gov- ernment. Most of the laws passed during the session of 1793 were framed and drawn by Mr. Ridgely, and were generally adopted without amendment. He was afterward, re- peatedly, a member of the Legislature. In 1801 he was appointed Chancellor of the State to succeed Hon. William Killen, who had re- signed. At that time the Chancellor was also sole Judge of the Orphans' Court. The im- mense power thus placed in his hands, Mr. Ridgely always exercised for the ends of jus- tice, and for the protection of the innocent and oppressed. He always pursued without fear, favor or affection, that line of conduct which the law and equity of the case pointed out, and however others might differ from him in opinion, no one ever doubted the honesty of his intentions. The rules of court, forms of practice, and general principles adopted by Mr. Ridgely, still continue in use. He possessed a most remarkable countenance, a penetrating eye, and his voice was strong and clear. His language and his conduct was at all times becoming to the dignity of his high station. Stern towards the wrong doers, he was kind to

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the repentant, and ever ready to assist the an invalid, the care of two farms devolved on needy. He was an active member of the P. E. him at an early age. In 1856 his father died, Church for many years, and a consistent Chris- and the home farm fell to his share, encum- tian. He married May 20, 1806, Mary Burton, bered with the widow's dower. It consisted who survived him many years. They had no of 260 acres, to which he has added 70 acres, children. He died suddenly of an affection of and also owns another tract of 103 acres. He the heart, April 1, 1830, and was followed to was a pioneer fruit-grower of his locality, and the grave by the largest concourse ever known now has 3,400 peach trees, besides apples, to attend on such an occasion in the county of pears and small fruits, all of which have been Kent.

profitable. The rest of his lands are devoted to grain and sugar cane. He also manufac- ARRINGTON, CAPT. WILLIAM tures sorghum in considerable quantites. In TORBERT, Farmer, was born in the early life Capt. Warrington was a Whig. and house where he now resides, in Indian since 1860, has been an earnest Republican. River hundred, May 20. 1828. His In Oct., 1862, he raised and commanded Com- father, James Reed Warrington,owned pany C, Sixth Delaware Regiment, during its five large farms, all of which he cultivated term of service. In Aug., 1864, he raised and himself, and a few slaves, which he treated commanded Company A, Ninth Delaware well. He was a prominent Whig, and bore an Volunteers, expecting and desiring to go to honorable part in the war of 1812; his widow the front, but was a second time sent to guard receiving a bounty of 160 acres of land. He prisoners at Fort Delaware. He was a popu- died, March 22, 1846, in his 66th year. He mar- lar officer and good disciplinarian. He is pub- ried Mary, daughter of James Smith. Four of lic spirited, has often been a delegate to party his seven children survived him-Benjamin conventions, and several times nominated for and James Derrickson, farmers ; Sophia Smith, office, but his party was in the minority. He widow of Thomas Hinds, of Maryland ; and joined the M. E. Church in 1847, and was Captain William T. Warrington. The father many years Circuit steward, chairman of the of James T. was Joseph Warrington, a promi- board of trustees, Sabbath school superin- nent farmer, who died about 1829, aged 73 tendent and a licensed exhorter. He is a years. His first wife was Mary, daughter of leading and respected citizen of that part of James Reed, who was a son of John Reed, a the State. He married, March 16, 1846, Rhoda native of Scotland. They were intelligent, Ann, daughter of James and Ellen Martin. educated men and Presbyterians, as many of Eight of their ten children are living : James their descendants still are. Joseph Warring- Edward, a farmer of Cool Spring ; William ton was the father of twenty children, seven' Alford, merchant at Rodney ; John Shep- by his first wife, of whom James Reed was the herd, a blacksmith; Ella, George Benjamin, eldest, and by his second wife, Ann Jefferson, Frederick Thaddeus, Clement Frame and he had thirteen, of whom ten grew to maturity. Horace Andrew Warrington.

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Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 34

Author: Publication date: 1972 Publisher: Number of Pages: 776

Author:
Publication date: 1972
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 776