Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 35

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Publication date: 1972
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 776

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The father of Joseph Warrington was Joseph, Sr., a merchant and farmer, who came from ALDEMAN, JOHN MARTIN, Pro- prietor of the Steam Saw Mill, at Fel- ton, was the third son of John H. and Magdalen (Hecker) Waldeman, of Wirtenberg, Germany, in which place he was born, Oct. 18, 1830. He attended the excellent schools of his native city till he was Virginia when a young man, and at one time was quite wealthy, his lands extending five miles north and south and three miles east and west. The farm on which the subject of this sketch resides, was a part of the original es- tate. He lost much of his property by secu- rity debts, and had 100 head of cattle drowned fourteen, and acquired a good education. He by a storm on the beach. He was liberal and then assisted his father in his linen factory and popular, and died in 1785, at about sixty and on the farm. In April, 1849, he came to years of age, leaving five children. Capt. W. New York, and from thence to Delaware. The T. Warrington had but nine months' schooling first year he spent with a farmer, his main ob- and is a self-taught and self-made man. His ject being to acquire facility in the language, brothers having left home and his father being ; and then went into the sawing business, run-

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

ning a mill in Leipsic, for about eight years. tration of George Truitt, and in 1811, was ap- He next had charge of a mill at Toughkenna- pointed by Joseph Hazlett, to the office of mon, Chester county, Pa., for the eight years Attorney General. In 1814 he was elected following, when, in 1870, he returned to Dela- Representative from Delaware in the Congress ware, and run the Pennypacker mill, in Felton, of the United States. During this term the, which was burned in 1871, and he purchased bill changing the mode of compensation of the property. The following year he erected members of Congress was passed. For this bill Mr. Clayton voted. The measure was so odious to the people, that not even his popu- his large and fine mill, which soon became so well-known to all dealers in ship timber and building frames, and an account of which will larity could enable him to stem the tide be found in the Industrial department. In politics, Mr. Waldeman is a Democrat. He has, several times, served faithfully the com- munity in which he lives as Town Commis- sioner and School Commissioner. He joined the Odd Fellows in 1852, and has taken all the degrees. In 1874 he joined the Knights of Pythias, has occupied all the chairs in that order, and is a member of the Grand Lodge. Since 1874 he has been an active member of of the M. E. church, and is superintendent of the Sunday school. He is one of the most en- terprising and highly respected citizens of Felton. He was married at Leipsic, May 14, 1854, to Miss Susan, daughter of William Par- vis, of Kent county. They have five children : William P. and George W., who assist in the management of the business ; Lydia B., Flor- ence and Marianna. of opposition, and at the next election he was defeated. The confidence of his con- stituents was not long withheld and upon the resignation of Cæsar A. Rodney, as Senator of the United States, in consequence of his ap- pointment as Minister to Buenos Ayres, Mr. Clayton was chosen to fill the vacancy, and January 15, 1824, took his seat in the Senate, which he continued to occupy during the resi- due of the Eighteenth and the whole of the Nineteenth Congress. In 1828, after the ex- piration of his Senatorial term, the Judiciary of the State was reorganized, when he was appointed by Charles Polk to be Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and upon the ordainment of the amended constitution, which, so far as it related to the judiciary, went into operation on the third Tuesday of January, 1832, and by which the Supreme Court and Court of Common Pleas were abol- LAYTON, HON, THOMAS, son of Dr. Joshua Clayton, a surgeon in the Con- tinental army, afterwards Governor of Delaware, was born in July, 1777, at Massey's Cross Roads, Md., whither his mother had been removed to avoid the excitement attending the march of the British army across the State of Delaware. He de- scended from Joshua Clayton, who, with his brother Powell, emigrated from Lincolnshire, and came to this country with William Penn. He received a classical education at the Academy in Newark, then celebrated for the thoroughness of its instruction. At the age of nineteen he was placed, as a student of law, in the office of Nicholas Ridgely, and at the end of three years was admitted to the bar at Dover. Though the legal profession at that time was remarkably strong, his attainments commanded the respect of his brethren and the confidence of the people. He soon obtained an extensive and lucrative practice. In 1808 he was Secretary of State under the adminis- ished, he was made Chief Justice of the State. This office he held until Jan. 16, 1837, when he was chosen Senator to fill the vacancy occa- sioned by the resignation of John M. Clayton, and on the 19th of the same month entered the Senate, and at the Session of the General Assembly in 18, 1, was again elected Senator for the Constitutional term, beginning March 4, 1842. Upon the expiration of this term Mr. Clayton retired from the conduct of pub- lic affairs and from the practice of his profes- sion. The residue of his life was spent in domestic privacy at his home in New Castle, whither he had removed in 1833 and where he died suddenly on the 21st of August, 1854. His remains lie in the grounds of the Presbyterian Church, at Dover, where the foundation of his greatness was laid, and in the soil of the county which he loved so well. A career so remarkable could have been sus- tained only by the possession of ability of the highest order. Eminent in every position in which he was placed, his enduring fame rests

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chiefly upon his administration of judicial func- tions. However distinguished the advocate may be, his reputation is ephemeral. It lives only in the remembrance of the generation of which he was a part. Had not Mansfield sat upon the bench, the name of Murray would have passed into obscurity, and thus transitory had been the memory of Thomas Clayton, but for the imperishable monument which he has reared by his judicial decisions. To show the estimation in which he was held by his con- temporaries, it may be instructive to refer to the message of Charles Polk to the General Assembly, at its session of 1830. By the Constitution of 1792 it was provided that the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas should not be fewer than three nor more than four, one of whom should be Chief Justice, and that there should be a judge `residing in each county. Shortly after the commencement of the term of Governor Polk, a vacancy occurred by the death of Judge Way, which he determined not to fill, as James Booth, then Chief Justice, resided in New Castle Co., which answered the require- ment as to residence and satisfied the con- stitutional number. In 1828, Judge Booth died, and the duty of appointing his successor devolved upon the executive. It is manifest that if the new appointment had been made from that county the necessity for a fourth Judge would have been avoided and the expense of his salary saved to the State Notwithstanding this consideration the Gov- ernor deemed it due to the proper administra- tion of justice, that the place should be filled from Kent county in the person of Thomas Clayton. This act gave rise to great public clamor and Mr. Polk thought proper to com municate to the Legislature the reasons for his conduct. From that message a brief ex- tract will suffice, and when it is recollected that Samuel M. Harrington was then Secretary of State, the value of the estimate of professional ability will sufficiently appear. "Ever since the adoption of our Constitution, the Chief Justice of each of our Courts of Common Law has been chosen from the county of New Castle ; yet, although on reviewing that fact, I determined that the Constitution should be my guide and that I would accordingly con- sider no district of the State to be exclusively entitled to that office, I, at the same time determined that no mere local considera-

tion should influence me in making such a choice as in my best judgment would most redound to the welfare and true inter- ests of the people. I selected the present Chief Justice of the Common Pleas solely with a view to his learning, talents, integrity and superior capacity for the station. * * * * In justice to this Court I will now mention the fact that since its new organization, not a single case has occurred of exception to its decisions, nor has one writ of error been taken out to re- verse any of its judgments." Surely this is high praise,but it is amply vindicated by history, for whoever will examine the report of his deci- sions in the first two volumes of Harrington, he will find that during his exercise of judicial powers, there were but seven writs of error sued out, in six cases whereof the judgment of the Court below was unanimously affirmed, and in the seventh, being the case of Banner vs. Gregg, where the fact of reversal is merely stated, it seems probable, from the original papers, that it occurred because of a defect in the verdict, whereby the judgment was not authorized ; an error which should have re- ceived the attention of the counsel, rather than of the Court. Thus profoundly versed in the principles of law, his marvellous perception intuitively discovered the point upon which the case turned, and with legal precision he delivered his judgment. By the time the argu- ment had closed he was ready to announce his opinion. and when he was through there was generally an end to the cause. He did not argue, but simply adjudicated, and his de- cisions are models of judicial brevity and per- spicuity. At his hands justice was dispensed without denial or delay. There was rarely any holding up of cases for advisement, nor did it require a treatise to embody his views. He uttered no obiter dicta to mislead the bar or to trouble the bench. His words were few but weighty, and they came not as the scattering of small shot, but with the directness and force of a cannon ball. He ranks pre-eminent among the able jurists who have occupied his seat, and such is the deference paid to his learning that, while infallibility cannot be averred even of the deliberate judgment of a Court of last resort, there are few lawyers in Delaware who do not feel their cause to be practically gained when they find it supported by a nisi prius decision of Thomas Clayton.

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ONES, BENJAMIN BURTON, Mills- boro, was born at Burtonsville, one mile distant from his present residence, Nov. 17, 1828, the only child of Zacha - riah Jones, a shoemaker by trade, who was born in Dagsboro hundred, about 1797. He married Sallie Hopkins, about 1826. She died in 1831. On returning from her burial, her little son was taken to the home of his father's uncle. Philip Wingate, and never went again to his own home. When he was six years of age, his father went West and was never heard of again. The father of Zachariah was Isaac Jones, a farmer of Dagsboro hun- dred, who married Luranie, daughter of John and Annie (Burton) Wingate. Isaac Jones was very tall and handsome. He died about 1805, and his wife, in 1831. They had but two children : Zachariah and Burton Jones. The last named, a farmer in Sussex county, mar- ried Levina Prettyman, and had fourteen chil- dren. The father of Isaac was Zachariah Jones, who came to America from Scotland, about the middle of the last century, and set- tled in Dagsboro, where he purchased land and commenced farming. He had one son, Isaac, and two daughters ; Hannah, who be- came the wife of Robertson Mears, and Leah, who married Philip West. Benjamin B. Jones attended the common schools only in the win- ter season. In his thirteenth year he went to sea for about six months, after which he bound himself out as a carpenter's apprentice, and had the privilege of attending school one month in each winter. On coming of age, he married and settled in Millsboro, where he followed his trade, successfully, for twelve years. In 1863 he rented the Millsboro Mills, consisting of a flour mill, saw mill and a card- ing machine, all run by water, and capable of a large business. Here he has enjoyed unin- terrupted success to the present time. In 1864 he purchased the Doe Bridge Mill, and in 1872, the Millsboro Mills. In 1868, also, he built a

Republicans, maintained with all his power, the Federal Government. Since that time he has taken much interest in public affairs. He was nominated for the Levy Court, in 1870, for the Legislature, in 1872, and for the office of Sheriff, in 1876, but each time his party was in the minority. He joined the Odd Fellows in 1855. He married, Dec. 20, 1849, Miss Emily Cranfield, of Millsboro, and has had eight children, five of whom are living : Sarah Elizabeth, wife of David Steel ; Mary Ellen ; Jacob, who is in business with his father ; Emma P., wife of Frank Donavan ; and Frank Jones. His second child, Samuel Jones, died of lockjaw, Feb. 21, 1878, at the age of twenty- seven.

LAYTON, HENRY, Farmer, and President of the Citizens' National Bank of Middletown, was born in St. George's hundred, Jan. 3, 1839, being the second son of Colonel Joshua Clay- ton, and grandson of Chief Justice Thomas Clayton. He grew up on the home farm, and attended the schools of the neighborhood till 1854, when he was sent for two years to the New Jersey Conference Seminary at Penning- ton. Returning home at the age of eighteen, he engaged in farming on his own account, tak- ing charge of "The Choptank on the Hill," the farm once owned by his grandfather, and for many years the home of Col. Joshua Clayton. In 1860 he removed to his farm, "Woodside," two miles west of Mount Pleasant, on which he erected the large and handsome residence which he has since occupied. In 1868 he pur- chased "Congress Hall," three miles west of Mount Pleasant. For ten years,from 1865,he was extensively and profitably engaged in peach- culture, having at one time 19,000 trees in bearing, and in 1875, shipped, for himself and others, 346 car-loads of peaches to the cities west of Philadelphia, as far as Illinois. He was the largest shipper of that year, and paid the planing mill, which has been profitable. He railroad over $42,000 for freight. From that owns, besides, several lots about the town. He | time the peach crop began to fail and he turned his attention to stock-raising and the cultivation of grain, in which he is now exten- sively engaged. He was made a director, in 1869, of the Citizens' National bank of Mid- dletown, of which, in 1875, he was elected

has won success by his own unaided efforts, and against more obstacles than most men meet with in life. He is well informed and ranks among the leading men of the county. Mr. Jones was brought up in sympathy with the Democratic party, but when the war broke president, and has held the position continu- out, he "could not secede," and joining the i ously to the present time, proving an able and

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judicious manager of its affairs. Mr. Clayton | has succeeded well in life, still it has always been a matter of great regret with him that he did not, when younger, enter the medical profession, for which he has a decided taste and an undoubted talent. He is a member of the Democratic party, but is not a politician ; is a Mason, and a member of Union Lodge, No. 5. He is steward of the Bethel M. E. Church at Pivot Bridge, having united with that denomination in 1874, and is President of the Bethel Cemetery, which is one of the finest in that part of the State. He was married, Nov. 23, 1860, to Miss Maggie Rebecca. daughter of Richard Lockwood, a prominent merchant of Middletown, and has two chil- cren, Richard Thomas and Henry Clayton, Jr.

sician by Governor Saulsbury, which position he still holds. He is a member of the State Medical Society and of the State Board of Health. He became a Mason in 1862, and has filled the offices of Junior Warden and Secre- tary of Jefferson Lodge, No. 15. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Lewes, in which he has also held office. He was united in marriage, November 1, 1860, to Miss Eugenia C., daughter of Colonel William D. Waples, of Sussex county. They have but one child ; William D. W. Hall, now (1882) in his seventeenth year.

ALL, DR. JOSEPH, of Lewes, was born about 1750, and was the elder brother of Colonel David Hall of Revo- lutionary fame, and in whose sketch a full account of the family and ancestry is given. His brother occupied the same office with Dr Joseph Hall. The latter was one of the originators of the State Medical Society of Delaware, in 1787, and one of the officers of the Court in Lewes, between the years 1790 and 1796. He was a man greatly respected, and his death, in 1796, was a serious loss to the community. He first married Ann, daugh- ter of Parker Robinson by whom he had one daughter, Lydia, who died at the age of twenty. His second wife was Elizabetn, daughter of Major Henry Fisher, of Sussex county, a pilot on Delaware Bay. The site of the Beacon Light on Cape Henlopen was fixed by Major Fisher. His father, Dr. Henry Fisher, came to this country from Ireland, but soon after returned. About the year of the settle- ment of the first English Colony he came again to Delaware, and remained. For a long time, it is said, he was the only physician on the peninsula. By his second wife Dr. Joseph Hall had only one son who grew to maturity; Dr. Henry Fisher Hall, who married Hester Rodney.

ALL, DR. DAVID, son of Dr Henry Fisher and Hester (Rodney) Hall, was born in Lewes, April 24, 1831. His father was seven years in the United States' service, which he entered as medical officer under Colonel Samuel B. Davis, on the western frontier, where Chicago now stands. He died, November 1, 1865, being then in his seventy-sixth year. Mrs. Hall was the daughter of Caleb and Elizabeth (West) Rodney : Caleb was the son of Wm., who was the cousin of Caesar Rodney of Revolutionary fame. She was a lady of superior character and abilities, a member of the Presbyterian church, and through her instrumentality the first Sabbath School was established in Lewes. She died in 1873, in her seventy-seventh year They had seven children : Margaret married Capt. John P. Marshall of Lewes ; Joseph, a planter in Mississippi; Dr. David ; Eliza, wife of E. K. Richardson of Lewes; Mary D .; Re- becca B., and Rev. Henry R. Hall. Dr. David Hall received his primary education in Lewes, and i: 1848 was sent to a private school in Germantown, where he remained two years. His medical studies he pursued with his father in Lewes, and with Dr. William Darrah, in MITHERS, NATHANIEL, was the son of Nathaniel and Esther (Beau- champ) Smithers, and was born in Kent county, in June, 1787. He mar- ried first, Susan Fisher, daughter of Dr. Elijah Barratt, of Camden ; and secondly, Rachel E., daughter of Dr. James L. Clayton, of New Castle county. In Dec 1810, he was Philadelphia. He attended, also, during the summers of 1851 and 1852, the lectures and experiments of Dr. Brown Sequard, graduating from University of Pennsylvania in 1852. The following winter he attended a course of lect- ures at the same institution, after which he settled in the practice of his profession in his native town. Dr. Hall was appointed Port Phy- i appointed by Gov. Truitt, Prothonotary of the

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Court of Common Pleas of Kent county, and | one of the most successful agriculturists of at the same time received a commission as Clerk of the Peace. On the expiration of the term he was recommissioned by Gov. Rodney and was continued in the office by successive appointments until 1824. He also received from Gov. Rodney, in 1816, the commission of Register in Chancery for Kent county. In 1828, he removed to his farm in Cecil county Md., which he soon afterwards sold, the better to provide for the education of his children. Having accomplished this purpose he retired from active business and spent the remainder of his life in Wilmington, where he died in 1857. He is buried at Bethel in Cecil county. He left two children ; Nathaniel B. Smithers, lawyer of Dover, and Dr. Edward F. Smithers, of Vienna, Dorchester county, Md.

that section of the State, and at one time owned over 21,000 acres of land, 2,400 acres of which he has given to his ten children. Of all this he is especially proud as the result of his own unaided efforts. He has been four times commissioned Colonel, first by Gov. Hazlet, second by Gov. Thomas Stockton, third by Gov. William Temple, and lastly when war was threatened with England, on the oc- casion of the dispute concerning the boundary of Oregon. Colonel Clayton was married in 1833 to Miss Lydia, daughter of Richard Clay - ton, the lady being his first cousin They had three children ; Thomas, Henry and Richard. His wife died in January, 1849, and on the 22d of February, 1850, he married Miss Martha E., daughter of Richard Lockwood, a well-known merchant of Middletown By this marriage he had eight children, seven of whom are liv- ing ; Adelaide Young, McComb, Mary W., Joshua, Elizabeth, Eugene and Frances.

LAYTON, COLONEL JOSHUA, Re- tired Farmer, Middletown, was born at Dover, August 2, 1802. His father was Hon. Thomas Clayton, United States Senator and Chief Justice of Delaware. HAKESPEARE, JAMES HAMAN, Attorney-at-Law, Phildelphia, was born at Iron Hill, near Newark, Nov. 30, 1850, the third son of William M. and Catherine (Haman) Shakespeare. He attended the best schools of Dover, to which place his parents removed in 1854. In 186; he entered the Freshman class of Dickinson Col- lege, at Carlisle, Pa., and after the usual four years' course. graduated A. B., with the class of 1869. Returning to his home in Dover, he was actively engaged with his father in the lumber business till the fall of 1871, when he removed to Philadelphia, and became a law student with James H. Heverin as his precep- tor. He was admitted to the bar in 1874, and at once began an active practice, which has continued steadily to increase. Mr. Shake- speare has proved himself a lawyer of marked ability ; his attainments and natural endow- ments are both of a high order ; he is an ef- fective pleader, and a gentleman of fine ap- pearance and address. For a time he took an active interest in public affairs, and in 1872, was a prominent speaker in the campaign, advocat- ing the election of Hon. Charles R. Buckalew, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania. But the increasing demands of of his profession, to which he is devoted, have Colonel Clayton was three years at the cele brated classical school of Rev. Francis Hind- man at Newark. In 1818 he entered Princeton College, where, after remaining two and a half years, his health became so seriously impaired by severe study that he was obliged to discon- tinue his collegiate course. In 1821 he com- menced the study of law in the office of his father. The following year he spent in the office of Judge Alexander L. Hayes, a distinguished judge in Reading, Pa. In 1823 he accompanied to his destination, the Hon. Caesar A. Rodney, United States Minister to the Argentine Republic, going with him in the capacity of Secretary. They went on the old frigate, Congress, by the way of Spain, the coast of Africa, Rio Janiero to Buenos Ayres. Mr. Rodney's health failing in three months after their arrival, Mr. Clayton was sent home with dispatches to the government. He was admitted to the bar in Dover in 1825, and practiced his profession there till 1830, when he removed to Bohemia Manor, and settled on the estate known as "Choptank on the Hill." In commencing operations on this place he contracted a debt of $300, which his skill in farming, and remarkable success, soon enabled him to liquidate. For nearly fifty years Colonel Clayton has been | now quite withdrawn him from politics. Heis in

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Joshua Clayton of the,

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the full tide of success, being regarded as one | Miss Elizabeth A. Douglass, a lady of English of the most promising young members of the birth. Their children are Edmund, Audrey G. and Martha H. Shortlidge. Philadelphia bar, and enjoys.a large and lu- crative practice, almost entirely confined to the civil courts. He was married in Philadel- phia, December 14, 1881, to Miss Anna, daugh- ter of James L. and Priscilla (Stytes) Heverin, of Dover.

HORTLIDGE, EVAN G., M. D., Phy- sician and Surgeon of Wilmington, was born, Feb. 26, 1844, in Chester, Pa., son of George Shortlidge, Esq., of that place. He graduated from the Fort Edward Institute on the Hudson, and taught till 1862, when he entered the medical depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania. The following year, leaving his studies, he enlisted in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and served throughout the severe south-west cam- paign, which ended with the battle of Nash- ville. In the fall of 1865 he was mustered out of service with his regiment, and at once re- sumed his studies in the University, from which he graduated M. D. in the class of 1868. After one year of service in the Blockley hos- pital he was appointed one of the Friends commissioners under the government to in- struct and attempt to civilize the Indian tribes of the west. For over a year he faithfully and laboriously performed the duties of this mis- sion in northern Nebraska, and returning east settled in Wilmington, where he has since re- sided and has built up a large practice. It is necessarily a general one, but he has special skill and reputation in surgery. Dr. Short- lidge is a member of the Medical Society of Delaware, and is greatly esteemed in the pro- fession. He has been for several years the Physician to the New Castle county Alms- house, and since 1874, physician to the City Hospital ; also for several years a member of the city Board of Health. He has always taken a deep interest in public, and especially in educational, affairs, and was from 1874 to 1877 president of the city Board of Education. In 1874 he contributed an article on the diagno- sis and treatment of rheumatism which was widely published and attracted much atten- tion He is a man of culture and high charac- ter, and both as a citizen and professionally is deservedly popular. In politics he is an ear- nest Republican. He was married in 1875 to

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Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 35

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

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