Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 46

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Publication date: 1972
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 776

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cCOLLEY, TRUSTON POLK, was born near Georgetown, Sussex county, March 9, 1793. His grandfather, Robert Watson McColley, emigrated to this country from Scotland about the year 1730. Truston P. was the son of John McColley who resided on a large planta- tion in Sussex county. His only educational advantages were those of a country school, being one of a family of nine children, and his parents of limited means ; but his great desire for learning, united with good natural endow- ments, enabled him, by reading and study, to | ure. In this record we have summed up the acquire a great amount of useful knowledge.

life of a good man, distinguished for his. great

J. P.M. lolly

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BIOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT.

industry, the genial kindness of his heart and | He then was again a captain on the canal, large benevolence. Of him it may be truly said, "the world was better for his having lived in it." He died March 5, 1874, having attained the advanced age of eighty-one. but the cholera of 1832 interrupted his busi- ness. In 1833 he commenced mining iron ore, in St. George's Hundred, which he pur- chased and sold to parties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1837 he bought the Nore .- Since the above was in type, the following additional facts have been received : Mr. McColley continued in mercantile business till 40 years of age, when he removed to his farm, "Eggleston Hall," near Milford, where he resided till his death. He embraced religion at the first camp meeting ever he'd in Sussex, and soon after was licensed as a local preacher. The extent of his ministerial labors is indicated by the fact that he performed 1600 marriages and preached over 1000 funeral sermons. He was also an earnest supporter of the temperance cause. All over the Peninsula his name is as familiar as a household word. He was a man of fine physique and uniform good health. For a period of fifty years he had not a single death in his family. He was a member of Teir ple Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons and also of the Chapter. He was initiated July 26, 1S15; passed September 13, 1$15, and raised October 25, 1815. He was one of the projectors of the Junction and Breakwater railroad, of which he was president, and one of its best friends in its darkest days. His funeral was attended by people from all parts of the State. He had himself selected the text and hymns for the occasion :- "For David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of God fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers." Brick house property in Blackbird, and 400 acres of land, much of it in timber, and then began the cutting and shipping of wood and vessel timber to New York. In this business, by his energy and good management, he laid the foundation of his fortune. He purchased 700 acres of woodland in Thoroughfare Neck, and 550 at Shadding Point, and in partnership with his brother, John, 1300 acres in Mispillion Neck. From these lands they cut and shipped the timber, and were successful until the gen- eral business disasters of 1858. They continued in this until 1860. Mr. Townsend had, in 1845, purchased with his brother, the Williams es- tate of 400 acres, which they divided, and on which each built a house and resided from that time. Adjoining it he purchased, in 1855, the Davis farm of 230 acres, and, in 1863, a tract of 300 acres near Canterbury, on which his son Samuel now resides. In 1866 he bought 3573 acres near Kingston, Md., which he devoted to peaches and small fruits. He also had large peach orchards on his farms in Delaware, and became, in 1857, the pioneer peach grower of his vicinity, setting out 10,000 trees and the same the next year. From these farms he shipped in 1869, 43,000 baskets, most of them to New York. From the begin- ning of this interest he was one of the most active and public spirited of the Delaware peach growers. Mr. Townsend was an inde- pendent Democrat, always prominent in pub- lic affairs and a member of most of the State Conventions from his early manhood. In 1848 he was a delegate to the National Demo- cratic Convention which met in Baltimore and nominated Gen. Cass, of Michigan, a scandidate for President, also of the National Convention in Baltimore in 1852 when Gen. Pierce was nominated. In 1860 when James A. Bayard and William G. Whitely, left the Charleston Convention, Mr Townsend was one of the delegates, sent to take their places in the con- vention which had adjourned to meet in Balti- more, and was seated after a contest. When the war came on he became one of the promi- nent and uncompromising Union men in the

OWNSEND, HON. SAMUEL, of Townsend, was born in St. George's Hundred, Oct. 31, 1812. His father, Samuel Townsend, a birthright mem- ber of the Society of Friends, was a farmer and coach maker. He married Han- nah, daughter of Richard Humphries, of St. George's hundred, and had ten children, nine of whom grew to maturity. Samuel was their third son and fifth child. Samuel Townsend, Sr., died Feb. 5, 1849, in his 68th year. His wife died May 25, 1829, in her 52d year. His father, John Townsend, was born in Sussex county, and went in early life to Germantown, where he learned the business of coach making. Returning to Delaware, he became the captain of a vessel which he owned himself, sailing from Lis- ton's Landing, near Odessa, and married Sally Liston. She inherited the farm known as Liston's, and afterwards as the old Town- send estate. John Townsend lived to the age of 90. He and his wife died about the same time, and are interred at the Frends' meeting house at Odessa. Samuel Townsend was brought up on the farm, and attended a subscription school until his eleventh year, afterwards a pay school for two winters. These were his only opportunities of educa- tion. At seventeen he left home and found employment on the Union canal, on which, in 1830, he became captain of a boat. The following year his brother John joined him in the purchase of the sloop, Hannah, of 50 tons burthen, which they sailed from Phila- delphia and down the bay, but in December it was run into and cut down by a steamboat. 68

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

State, exerting all his influence to save the Re-' Elizabeth, married John Patterson ; Anna public from disruption. He saw in disunion married Isaac Trimble ; Charity, married only perpetual hostility and ruin for the whole Sampson Babb ; Emmor, the third, married country, but he opposed bringing the color Ann Robinson. Those who died young were : question into politics or giving the colored Grubb and Abigail. Emmor, third, the father of race civil or political rights. He was one of the subject of this sketch, was born in Chester the organizers of "The White Man's Party," in county, Pa., in 1804. He was a manufacturing the State, and kept up his political activity till near the close of his life ; but he would jeweler till 1844, when he studied dentistry, and followed that profession with such success submit to no ring or boss rule ; his rugged, that he became quite distinguished in his day. original, aggressive spirit always asserted itself | and usually prevailed. His death, which oc- curred Dec. 5, 1881, was widely regretted, and it was said of him that human want and suf- fering never appealed to his charity in vain. In 1827, he removed to Wilmington, Del., where he resided several years, after which he became a resident of Philadelphia. In 1839, he returned to Chester county, where he lost most of his property in an ineffectual effort to introduce silk culture. He then returned to 6º EFFERIS, DR. CHARLES R., Den- tist, Wilmington, was born in Chester county, Pa., Nov. 27, 1841, the young- est son of Dr. Emmor and Ann (Rob- inson) Jefferis. The family is descended from Robert Jefferis, an English Friend, who settled in East Bradford township, Chester county, Pa., about 1701, and from whom, it is believed, have sprung all of the name in that : county, with many in other parts of the coun try. He died in 1739. He married, about 1693, Jane, daughter of George and Jane Chandler. Their children were : Patience, married, first, Henry Betterson, afterward, a Mr. Mackey ; Charity, married, first, John Evans, afterwards, John Cope, in 1721, (over three thousand of her descendants have been ascertained); William, married, in 1724, Eliza- beth (Ring) Nield ; James, married Elizabeth (Tull) Carter ; Robert, twice married ; George, married, and died in 1763 ; Jane, married Joseph Skeen ; Anne, married Alexander . Duncan ; Mary, married Joseph Temple ; and Benjamin, Thomas, and John. Anne, the sec- ond wife of Robert Jefferis, survived him. By her he had one child, Richard Jefferis. James, the second son of Robert, had three children : James, Emmor, and Abigail. Emmor married Elizabeth Taylor, in 1757, and had three chil- dren : James, Emmor the second, and Sarah. Of these, Emmor married Charity, daughter of Samuel and Lydia Grubb, and had twelve chil- dren, ten of whom married : Sarah, married John Hickman ; Curtis, married Ann Carey ; Joseph, married Mary Bailey ; Benjamin, mar- ried a Miss Osborne ; Lydia, married George · Worth ; John S., married Sarah Brinton ; Wilmington, where he followed his profession till 1876, when he removed to Fair Hill, Md., where he now resides. His wife died in 1876. Their children were : Dr. Joseph R., a dentist, of Philadelphia, who died, Dec. 10, 1875 ; Dr. William R., a dentist, of Indianapolis, Ind. He died in April, 1861. Anna T., wife of Joseph Alderdice ; Caroline, wife of Dr. Eli T. Starr, of Philadelphia ; Ella, wife of David P. Bush ; Amelia P., married Dr. L. I. Howard ; she died, May 1, 1865 ; J. Eugene, an engineer in the U. S. Revenue Marine service ; Dr. Charles R., and Susan R., wife of William E. Chester, of Kansas, Dr. Jefferis attended the public schools of Wilmington, after which he was a student, for two years, in St. Mary's College, Wilmington. He enjoyed unusual facilities for learning his profession, being brought up, al- most from childhood, in his father's labora- tory. At the age of nineteen he entered his father's office as a student, and passed through a regular course of training and study. He was in partnership with his father from 1860 to 1865, since which time he has practiced by himself, being now on King, between Ninth and Tenth streets. Dr. Jefferis is a gentleman of superior culture and ability, and stands in the first rank, if not at the head of his profes- sion in the State. He makes a specialty of operative dentistry, in which he has acquired a wide reputation, and built up a large and lu- crative practice. He was married, May 3rd, 1865, to Miss Elheurah A., daughter of the late Joseph Richardson, Jr., a well known mo- rocco manufacturer of Wilmington. They have three children : Joseph Richardson, Charles R. Jr., and Lura Jefferis.

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BIOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT.

OBERTS, SAMUEL, Farmer of Black- bird hundred, was born, Jan 2, 1826. His father was James Roberts. He is a brother of Joseph Roberts, in whose sketch will be found a history of the antecedents of this family. Samuel Roberts attended the schools of his neighberhood un- til twelve years of age. He was put to work upon the farm and continued to assist his father until 1839, when he obtained a position as clerk in the store of his cousin, James Rob- erts. After some fifteen months he, by re- quest of his father, returned home, where he remained until twenty-three years of age. In the spring of 1849, he began the pursuit of ag- riculture for himself, upon the farm where he has ever since resided. He has devoted his land, principally, to grain, but has cultivated peaches to some extent, and has been very suc- cessful in his calling. Besides the home farm, he owns an adjoining tract of 160 acres, also a farm of 200 acres, known as "Thomas' Land- ing," which he purchased in 1878 Mr. Rob- erts is a Democrat in politics, and served as a member of the Levy Court of New Castle - county, from 1874 to 1878, with credit to him- self and to his party. He is a useful and influ- ential citizen of his county, and enjoys the es- teem and confidence of his neighbors and friends. He is a Methodist, having joined that denomination in 1859, and is now a trustee and steward of Asbury M. E. church at Smyrna. He was united in marriage, May 16, 1850, to Miss Catharine, daughter of John and Catha- rine (Davis) Wilson, of Sussex county. Three children have been born to them, two of whom, John and James Houston Roberts, are still living.

UCKINGHAM, CAPTAIN DAVID EASTBURN, Soldier and Merchant, of the firm of Buckingham & Company, Wholesale and Retail Grocers and Provision Dealers, Wilmington, was born Feb. 3, 1840, at Pleasant Hill, New Cas- tle Co. His parents, Alban and Mary (East- burn) Buckingham, were members of the So- ciety of Friends. He was reared on the farm, attending school principally in winter, until his fifteenth year, when he was sent to Eton Academy, and enjoyed its advantages during four terms, intending to fit himself for the

medical profession, but engaged in teaching in his twentieth year. Soon after the war broke out, and this event changed all his plans. He became orderly sergeant of a com- pany of home guards, at Mermaid Hill, Mill Creek hundred. He was mainly instrumental in forming company E, of the 4th Delaware Vol- unteers ; was appointed Ist Lieutenant, and entered with his regiment on the peninsular campaign, under McClellan. He was the eld- est of four brothers, all of whom were soldiers in the late war, except the youngest, a mere boy in years. His brother, Richard, was in his company, and was Ist sergeant, and after- wards promoted to lieutenant in the regiment, and all were intense in their loyalty to the old flag. His regiment on the peninsula, was stationed at Gloucester, opposite Yorktown, Va, where he was ill in hospital with malarial fever. He was soon after in the action of Bethesada church, and while engaged in storming the earthworks, was prostrated for a time by the windage of a cannon-shot, but revived sufficiently to enter the work with his company, though afterwards, for several days incapacitated for duty ; but was with his com- mand in crossing the James, and on the 16th and 17th of June, in the terrible struggle in which one-third of the regiment was killed and wound- ed ; among the wounded was his brother, Rich- ard, and he narrowly escaped, a ball having cut through the breast of his coat, near a vital part. At the battle of Weldon railroad and at the burning of the Davis house his gallantry, was conspicuous. In the last so much so as to earn the Brevet of Captain, with honorable mention of services rendered in the campaign before Richmond. At Rowanty river the Fourth Dela- ware was ordered to cross the bridge after sev- eral regiments had been driven back ; his com- pany was in the advance and finding the bridge impassible ordered the men to cross the stream ; the ice broke under his feet and he swam to the rebel side amidst the bullets of the enemy. Here Major Kent was severely wounded. At Hatchers Run he, with some of his men, ad- vanced to the house, where, in that battle, Col. Bailey of the 3rd Delaware was killed, but fell back in time to escape capture. At the action of White Oak Roads he escaped unhurt, but as showing the terrible casualties of battle, he had the night before slept in the twigs having as companions, Capt. E. C. Stotsenburg, Capt.

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

Thomas Challenger, Lt. Alpheus Wilson and | his brother, Sergeant Major Buckingham. At the close of this battle, Wilson was dead. the Sergeant Major wounded and carried to the rear, and the two Captains were prisoners. At midnight, in charge of the pickets, he received orders to withdraw them, and the regiment joined the corps and marched until noon of April Ist, and at 4 P. M. formed in line of bat- tle and attacked the enemy in the battle of the Five Forks. At the "Chimney's" Capt. McClary fell dead near him, being killed in action and the command of the regiment was in his hands. In this action 5000 of the enemy were captured and Lee com- menced his retreat. He was in command of the regiment until April 5, when Major Smith rejoined the regiment. A white flag in their front sent in by the enemy occasions their halt, and he finds sixty-three men and three officers in line for duty. Appomattox followed and the surrender. Captain Buckingham was in every march, and in every battle of this regiment from their leaving Wilmington ; the only officer of whom this can be said. He is in person of medium height, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, and one wonders at the en- durance he manifested. He was mustered out of service on Juue 7, 1865, and began his present business. He is also a partner of his brother, as wheel manufacturers in the city, and in this, as in merchandizing, he is ener- getic, enterprising and successful. He was married Jan. I, 1868, to Miss Sarah L., daugh- ter of Isaac Van Trump. Three children have been born to them, Mignionette O., David E., Jr., and Sadie L. Buckingham.

ARR, MARTIN, M. D., late of Middle- town, was born in Strasburg township, near Lancaster city, Pa., in 1792, son of John and Elizabeth (Brown) Barr. His father, an agriculturist and miller, supplied Washington with flour when en- camped at Valley Forge. He died about 1802, at the age of forty-eight. He had two chil- dren, John and Martin. The great-grand- father of John, also named John Barr, came over with William Penn, of whom he, with Justine Kerr, purchased 30,000 acres of land in Lancaster county, Pa., paying an English shilling an acre, The intermediate ancestors all bore the name of John Barr. The family

dates back, by records in their posession, to the 12th century. They were always Protes- tants and Republicans, and joined the Albi- genses on the rise of that body in the twelfth century, living among the Alps. In 1580 they removed to the district of Languedoc in the south of France, the principal seat of the Al- bigenses church, where they enjoyed religious liberty till the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when they fled to England. There they met Penn and came with him on his return to America. Dr. Barr was educated by Rev. Francis Latta at his academy in Lan- caster county, and at the age of eighteen entered the office of the celebrated Dr. Benj. Rush of Philadelphia, who died soon after. He graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania in 1813, and practiced three years in Philadelphia, after which he removed to Middletown, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1819 he traveled through the South, having had several hemorrhages from the lungs, but was by this means entirely re- stored. He became very large and robust, weighing 200 pounds, and his strength and endurance were very remarkable. He seldom felt fatigue though he often rode from forty to sixty, and sometimes eighty miles a day. Starting at four o'clock in the morning, on a breakfast of warm bread and milk, he would accomplish an immense amount of labor, and his energy never seemed to flag. Possessed of high intellectual endowments, he was a thorough scholar and always continued to study. He had a natural gift in detecting dis- ease and a remarkable skill in treating it and became one of the most distinguished and successful physicians of his day, having an immense practice. In surgery he was especi- ally skillful. During the forty years of his resi- dence in Middletown he collected $160,000, but was unstinted in the use of his means,and kept up a very large family, from ten to twenty- two relations being with them a great deal of the time. In manner Dr. Barr was very modest and unassuming. He was a prominent member of the State Medical Society, and was often urged to accept official position, but felt that he could not and meet the require- ments of his large practice. He was a member of the Presbyterian church, but his wife was an Episcopalian. He married in 1815, Jane, daughter of William Adams of Mount

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Pleasant, near Philadelphia. They had six boys and six girls, of whom three girls and four boys grew to maturity, the others dying in infancy. The eidest, John A. Barr, M. D., graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1837, became distinguished as a practitioner in Delaware City, and died in 1857

· leaving a widow and one daughter. Capt. Joseph M. Barr, born in March, 1822, studied with John M. Clayton, graduated from the Yale Law School in 1848, practiced in New Castle a short time. and visited Cuba. He had previously edited the Delaware State Fournal, and afterwards became editor and proprietor of The Commonwealth in Wilmington, which he continued till the war, when as Captain of Company C, under Col. Lockwood, he joined the Union army. After the three months' ser- vice he re-enlisted as captain of a company in the 4th Delaware, was prostrated with fever in the seven days' fight on the Chickahominy and joined the veteran reserved corps at Chicago. He died in Middletown, July 1, 1876, leaving a widow and one son. He was a member of the Episcopal church. Of Dr. William H. Barr, the third son, a sketch is given. The fourth is Capt. Frank Barr of the steamer Colfax, United States Revenue service, at Wilmington, N. C. The daughters were Mary A., who died about 1839, in her twenty-second year, Eliza- beth also died in early womanhood, and Jane, who married Rev. John Atkinson, of the P. E. Church. She died in 1857. Dr. Martin Barr closed his long and useful life, Sept. 19, 1874, being then in the eighty-first year of his age

ARR, WILLIAM H., M. D., of Middle- town, was born in that place. Dec. 9, 1825, son of Dr. Martin Barr, whose sketch has been given. Tutors were employed in the family, and his brothers were all sent away to college, but his educa- tion, which was fully equal to theirs, he owed chiefly to his father's instructions. He studied medicine two years in his father's office, com. mencing in 1845, after which he took a full course in the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1850, and at once settled in Middletown. His father was still in active practice and the idoi of the community, and as he practiced independently and not with his father, he had a hard struggle to secure a foothold. He took all cases that came

whether they paid him or not, and rode far and near, as he was called, and in time at- tained a large practice. Later he succeeded to that of his father, and also to his reputa- tion and to the affectionate confidence with which he was regarded. He has now an im- mense practice, rides all the time, is very pop- ular and highly respected. His taste is for the practice of medicine in general, but he is thoroughly prepared in all departments, and made it a point, when studying, to fit himself to treat any case that might be presented, that his patients might not be subjected to the expense and inconvenience of leaving home to be under the care of a specialist. This he has been able to accomplish both in surgery and other departments. Dr. Barr is a Republican but takes no active part in politi- cal matters. During the war he was a strong Union man, and did all in his power to assist and maintain the Union cause. He attends the Episcopal church, and has never married.

RAY, IION. GEORGE, A. M., Lawyer and Attorney-General, of Delaware, was born in New Castle, May 4, 1840 ; son of Andrew C. and Elizabeth (Sco- field) Gray. A sketch of his father, a lawyer and prominent citizen of New Castle, has already been given. Mr. Gray was prepared for the junior class in college, by William F. Lane, principal of the academy in his native town, and entered Princeton in 1857, gradu- ating A. B. with the class of 1859. He read law for three years with his father, and Hon. William C. Spruance, and spent a year in the Harvard law school, and after this thorough preparation of four years study, was admitted to the bar in 1863. He at once entered upon the practice of his profession at New Castle, and in the Superior Court and before the Court of Appeals, soon developed those powers which have given him so wide a reputation at the bar. His studious habits, retentive memory and sound judgment on legal questions, to- gether with his high character, and brilliant oratory, have secured for him a commanding influence with the bench and bar, and a popu- larity which reaches far beyond the State. In 1881 he was appointed Attorney-General of Delaware, by Gov. John W. Hall, when he re- moved to Wilmington, where he has since re- sided. His selection for this high position met

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

with general approval from all classes of his | pensation for the labor expended. During fellow-citizens, and he has discharged his of- ficial duties with a zeal and conscientious regard to the public welfare, that has given universal satisfaction. Mr. Gray is allied with the Dem- ocratic party, and a strong advocate of its prin- ciples and methods. He was a delagate to the national convention of his party at St. Louis, in 1876, which nominated Samuel J. Tilden, for the Presidency, and also a delegate to the national convention at Cincinnati, in 1880, and nominated Mr. Bayard, before that body, as a presidential candidate, in a masterly speech. Three years after he graduated he received from Princeton the honorary degree of Master of Arts. He was chairman of the Board of Education in New Castle, and an honorary member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He was married, in 1870, to Miss Harriet, daughter of the late Dr. Charles H. Black, of New Castle, one of the most able and popular men Delaware ever produced. Mrs. Gray died suddenly, May 26, 1880, leav- ing five children : Andrew Caldwell, Annie Black, Emily Scofield, Charles H. Black and George Gray, Jr. Mr. Gray was married Aug. 8, 1882, to Miss Margaret J. Black, a sister of his first wife.

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Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 46

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

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