Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 50

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Publication date: 1972
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 776

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TOCKTON, MAJOR THOMAS, Gov- ernor of Delaware, was born in New Castle, April 1, 1781. His parents were John and Nancy (Griffith) Stockton. Gen. John Stockton was an officer in the Revolutionary war and served as Lieuten- ant in a Maryland Regiment in the battle of Long Island, the storming of Fort Wash- ington, and other actions of note ; and was a prisoner for a long time in the Old Sugar House, New York. Resigning from the Continental army on the achievement of independence, he removed to Delaware from Cecil county, and afterwards, in the war of 1812, served as a Brigadier General of the State troops. In this year the subject of this notice received a captain's commission in the U. S. army, and while the father served at Elkton against the British troops, the son was in the attack on Fort St. George, under Gen. Scott. Here young Stockton won great distinction for his gallantry, and he with Captain Hyndman per- formed the dangerous feat of removing the fuses by which the retreating enemy sought to blow up the magazines, one of which had already exploded killing several of the re- treating British soldiers. In 1844, he was elected Governor of the State on the Whig ticket, inaugarated, Jan. 21, 1845, and died suddenly in March, 1846, from disease of the heart. He was buried March 6, in Immanuel church, New Castle. A notice, by the public press of that period, in speaking of the death of this eminent patriot and soldier, says : "He has not left behind him on the soil of Dela- ware a nobler model of a man." He was a member of the Masonic Order, and also of the

HARP, JOHN W., M. D., of Camden, was born, April 24, 1817, in Milford hundred, Kent county. His great grand- father came to this country from Eng- land, prior to the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, John Sharp, was a wealthy farmer of Sussex county, He is the third son of Thomas and Sarah (Walls) Sharp, who were born, raised, married and had two sons in Sus- sex county, and then removed to Kent. His father was a farmer of some means, highly re- spected by all who knew him ; a man ofeminent piety, a class leader in the Methodist church for forty years, and a consistent christian. He was born in 1789, and died, 1866, aged seventy- seven years. His mother was a pious woman, kind and affectionate, highly esteemed for her many virtues by all who knew her, and an exemplary member of the Methodist church. She was born in 1791, and died in 1872, aged eighty-one years. Dr. Sharp had two older brothers, William and Jesse J. The former graduated at Yale College in 1847, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Dover. He afterward edited The Delaware State Re- porter, and The Sentinel, in Dover. He was born in 1811, and died in 1876, aged sixty-five years. The latter was a merchant and farmer. He was born in 1814, and died in 1880, aged sixty-six years. He has a younger brother, James, who is a merchant and farmer of con- siderable means, living in Harrington. He also had a brother Thomas, and a sister, Rachel D., the former born in 1822, the latter in 1825 ; both died in infancy. Dr. Sharp worked on his father's farm, and went to school till he was eighteen years old. Having re-

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ceived a first-class English education, he after- | wards taught schools, both public and private, for several years ; devoting his leisure hours to | is a student at the " Wyoming Institute," aged the study of Latin and Greek languages, and | the higher Mathematics. He afterwards went 15 years. Dr. Sharp is an active friend of edu- cation, is now, and has been for the last eight to Wilmington, and entered the "Wilmington years, a member of the School Committee in Classical Institute," a school of a very high his town. He has always been an advocate of public schools for the diffusion of knowledge among the masses of the people. He is not a member of any church, but a firm believer in the doctrines of the Bible, and the truths of Christianity. grade, under the direction of Rev. S. M. Gay- ley, A. M. While here he prosecuted his studies in all the higher English branches, in Latin and Greek languages, and the advanced Mathematics. Having obtained a classical education, he devoted his time to the study of medicine. He studied with Dr. Jump, of ILDERSLEEVE, GEORGE HENRY, Secretary and Superintendent of the Farmers' Fruit Preserving Compa- ny, of Rising Sun, near Dover, was born near Camden, Kent county, Feb. 8, 1844. His father, Benedict Gildersleeve, was a sea captain, and in later life a farmer, in the above locality. He was born in 1816, and died in 1868 He married Mary Jane, daugh- ter of Nehemiah and Unity Draper. She is still living They had two children who grew to maturity : George Henry, and Elma, wife of C. H. Burgess, of Philadelphia. Nehemiah Draper was a farmer near Camden. The pa- rents of Benedict were John and Mary Gilder- sleeve, of an ancient Kent county family, who were among the early settlers. George Henry Gildersleeve received a good common school education, and was brought up on the home- farm till the age of eighteen, when he became a clerk for three years, in the store of William Dyer, of Lebanon. At the end of that time, he bought out his employer, and in partner- ship with Mr. B. L. Wharton, under the firm- Dover, for three years, and then went to Phil- adelphia, and became a private office student of Dr. George B. Wood, Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated in the Medical Department of that institution, in the spring of 1850, in the thirty- third year of his age. He located in Camden, where he now resides, having here had a large and successful practice for thirty-two years. In 1851, he became a member of the Iude- pendent Order Odd Fellows, and has since filled all the chairs of that Order in the Subor- | dinate Lodge. He was elected by the Lodges of the State, a Grand Representative to the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of the United States, which met in Baltimore, and was after- wards elected Grand Master of the State. He is a member of the "Delaware State Medical Society," and was secretary of the society for eleven consecutive years, and was then elected its President. He is now its Treasurer. He was physician to the "Kent county Almshouse" three years, and has been elected several times a delegate to the National Medical Associa- | name of Wharton & Gildersleeve, conducted tion. In 1876, he was chosen a Presidential the store for four years. Mr. Gildersleeve Elector, and was President of the State Elec- then sold out, and took charge of the old toral College. In 1878, he was elected a home farm, for six years. In 1875, he left member of the State Legislature, serving on the following committees, viz : Committee on Federal Relations, on Revised Statutes. on

farming, and from that time has superintended the works of the Farmers' Fruit Preserving Company, at Rising Sun. He is a man of su- Accounts, and on Printing. In 1855, he mar. perior business abilities, and under his excel- ried Miss Mary A. Slaytor, by whom he had lent management, the company has greatly three children, all of whom died in very early prospered. In the Industrial Department, infancy. His wife died in 1859. In 1861, he will be found an account of the business. Mr. married, in Philadelphia, his present wife, Gildersleeve is very intelligent, and highly Miss Mary A., daughter of James Wells, Esq, respected ; a member of the order of Patrons formerly Sheriff of Montgomery county, Pa., of Husbandry, and in politics a Democrat. He by whom he has two children : Raymond | is a member, trustee, and a steward of the M. Wells, is now, 1882, a student and member of | E. church. He was married in Oct. 1866, to

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the Junior Class in Princeton College, aged twenty years. The younger, Byron Gorden,

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Miss Martha Rebecca, daughter of James Raymond, a farmer of that locality, who mar- ried Miss Rebecca Hardcastle, of the family of that name, on the Eastern Shore of Mary- land. Mr. and Mrs. Gildersleeve have had six children, of whom four are living : Mary Re- becca, Lizzie Cummins, Florence Raymond, and George H., Junior.

RADFORD, EDWARD G., JR., son of Hon. Edward G. Bradford, Judge of the U. S. Court for the District of Del- aware, and Mary Alicia Bradford, nee Heyward, was born in the city of Wil- mington, March 12, 1848. His first schooling was received at the Delaware Military Acade- my, of which Col. Theodore Hyatt was prin- cipal. There he remained until the removal of that institution to West Chester, Pa., in the summer of 1862, when he entered the school of T. Clarkson Taylor, in Wilmington, where he remained for about one year. After leaving the latter school, he pursued his studies for several months under the instruction of a private tutor, and then entered, in July, 1864, the freshman class of Yale college, where he was graduated with honors, in 1868. Having already selected the law as his profession, he read under the direction of his father, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1870, since which time he has continued to practice his profes- sion in Wilmington, and is now the senior member of the law firm of Bradford & Van- degrift. In 1880, he was elected on the Re- publican ticket as a representative in the State legislature, receiving the largest vote given for any candidate on the legislative branch of the ticket, in New Castle county. He received the complimentary vote of his party associates in the House for speaker, and served by appointment as chairman of the Committee on Revised Statutes. . His course in the legis- lature was marked by his able and zealous advocacy of reforms in legislation and the conduct of the affairs of the State government, and won him deserved popularity. During this session of the legislature was passed the act relating to pilotage, out of which have sprung the recent controversies between the Pennsylvania and Delaware pilots. Mr. Brad- ford was early employed by the Delaware pi- lots, as one of their counsel, and in Dec., 1881, in the course of his employment made, togeth-

er with Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, a successful argument in the Supreme Court of the U. S. against an application to that court for a writ of prohibition to the U. S. District Court, for the District of Delaware ; to forbid the court from taking further proceedings in a suit insti- tuted by a Delaware pilot for the pilotage fees due under the Delaware law for conduct- ing to the Delaware Breakwater a vessel from a foreign port, and bound there for orders, the purpose of the application being to test in the Supreme Court, in preclusion of a decision in the District Court, the validity of the Dela- ware law. Mr. Bradford ranks high at the bar and is a member of the New Castle coun- ty committee for the examination of students for admission to the bar. His mind is distin- guished by remarkable logical acumen, and he is a clear, forcible, fluent speaker. His char- acter is above reproach. Mr. Bradford was married in Sept., 1872, to Eleuthera Paulina, daughter of the late Alexis I. and Joanna Du- Pont, and has now four children : Eleuthera, Mary, Edward, and Joanna.

DAMS. JOSEPH K., of the firm of Adams & Brother, Wilmington, was born in Philadelphia, Oct. 29, 1839. His parents were John and Eleanor (King) Adams. His father was born in 1800, and was a painter by trade. He died in 1842, leaving his widow without means and a family of seven children to provide for ; the youngest being less than a year old. She, however, succeeded, by her own brave efforts, in bringing them all up well. Mr. Adams had but limited school advantages, being early obliged to assist in the common support. In 1858, he came to Wilmington and entered as clerk in a variety store at Fourth and King. In 1866, he, with his brother, William B. Adams, bought their present site and an account of their business, is given in the Industrial department. Having both been clerks in this store, they had studied the busi- ness thoroughly in all its details, and now, by self-denial, prudence and energy, rapidly built up a flourishing trade. The attention and re- spect of the business men around them and of the people of the city, was attracted and re- tained by their strictly fair-dealing, their en- terprise and commendable habits, and they have been prospered to an unusual degree.

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They are both truly self-made men, and their | charge of a farm in 1857, though continuing standing in the respect and esteem of the best class in the community is unquestioned. Be- sides their fine business place with all its equipments, and excellent and constantly en- larging trade, they own their handsome resi- dence, and are always able and willing, and ready, to meet all their obligations. Mr. Joseph K. Adams has been three times elected to represent the Sixth Ward in the City Council That ward is one of the wealthiest of the city. He was married, July 29th, 1860, to Miss Car- oline Rowbotham. Two children were born to them, one of whom, Harry C. Adams, is still living.

OLK, CYRUS, eldest son of William and Eliza (Tatman) Polk, was born Jan. 3, 1810. He was educated at the best schools in Wilmington and Bur- lington, N. J., and at twenty-two be- came his father's partner in business, in Odessa. After his father retired. about 1840, Mr. Chas. Beaston became his partner in the mercantile and shipping business, till about 1848, when, on account of failing health Mr. Polk retired. He died June 27, 1859. He had accumulated considerable landed and other property, and was a man of great business ability, and moral worth. He married Mary Jane, daughter of Benjamin Flintham of "the Levels." Their son, William, member of the Levy Court of New Castle county, of whom a sketch is here given, is the only surviving child.

OLK, WILLIAM, of Odessa, a large Landholder, and a member of the Levy Court of New Castle, was born Feb. 22, 1836. He was the only son of Cyrus and Mary Jane (Flintham) Polk, of whom an account has been given. He attend- ed the public schools of his neighborhood, un- til his fourteenth year, when he was sent to schools in Connecticut and New York, for the next two years. His father's ill health then compelled his return, and he, from that time, devoted himself to agriculture. In this he started with every advantage already secured by the family enterprise and success, but his energetic nature and decided individuality would not allow him to be satisfied with anything short of a course of his own, and means attained by his owne fforts. He took

to reside in Odessa, and engaged largely in fruit growing. In 1860 he planted 7500 fruit trees, which in time were increased to 35,000 peach trees. In 1865, in partnership with E. A. Hyatt, he engaged in the nursery busi- ness, which he also made a success. Mr. Polk now owns five farms in New Castle coun- ty, and an interest in two others in Maryland, and raises, annually, upon all of them great quantities of wheat and corn. From the time of attaining his majority, he has given much attention to public affairs, and has been very prominent in his neighborhood and county, both as a citizen and as a member of the Dem- ocratic party. In 1873 he was nominated and elected a member of the Levy Court, and was re-elected in 1878. His term of office expires in Feb., 1883. Mr. Polk is a member of the Presbyterian church, in which he has been a trustee for a number of years.

OOPER, HON. ALEXANDER B., of Wilmington, Lawyer, Assistant Attor- ney General, and State Senator elect, was born at Middletown, Nov. 15, 1844; son of Rev. Ignatius T. Cooper, D. D. of Camden. A sketch of his father, and the antecedents of the family have been previously given. Mr. Cooper received his classical edu- cation at Media, Pa., after which he pursued his legal studies under the preceptorship of Hon. Eli Saulsbury till 1866, when he spent one year in the law department of the Univer- versity of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar at the May term of the Superior Court at New Castle, in 1867. For a year he practiced his profession with success in Wilmington, when he removed to New Castle, where he still continues to reside, but since the removal of the county seat to Wilmington and his ap- pointment as assistant Attorney General, he has an office in that city which he attends daily, and where most of his legal business is transacted. Mr. Cooper is devoted to his pro- fession, is a well read lawyer, a strong and forcible speaker, and a man of irreproachable character. He is a man of decided ability, popular and successful, and has built up a large and lucrative practice which extends to all the courts of the state. In politics he is a decided Democrat and an earnest and influen- tial worker for the success of his party, and in

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the campaign of 1882, just closed, he was nomi- | nated as a candidate for the State Senate and elected to a seat in that body for the term of four years. That he will be a faithful and able exponent if the principles of his party, is gen- erally conceded by all who know him.

OLK, CHARLES, elected Governor of Delaware in 1826, was born near Bridge- ville, Nov. 18, 1788, the only surviving child of Charles and Mary (Manlove) Polk. His father, a man of distinction in his day, was elected Judge of the Common Pleas, Oct. 25, 1790, for the county of Sussex. October 1, 1791, he was elected to the con- vention held for the purpose of forming "a Constitution for ye State of Delaware," and was chosen President. During the sitting of the convention he was taken ill, left and did not afterwards serve in its work. He died be- fore his son had attained his eighth year. The name was originally Pollock and the family can be traced through a long line of illustrious persons, back to one Fulbert whose son Petrus succeeded his father and assumed as a surname (which at that time only came to · be used instead of a patronymic) the name of his hereditary lands of Pollock,in Renfrewshire, Scotland. He lived in the reign of Malcolm 4th, and was a man of great eminence in his time and a benefactor of the monastery of Paisley. This donation was confirmed by Jocelyn, Bishop of Glasgow, who died in 1199. Besides his estates in Renfrewshire he held the Barony of Rothes in the county of Aber- deen which he gave to his daughter, Maurich de Pollock, who married Sir Norman Lesley and was the ancestress of the Earls of Rothes. Coming down to a later date, we find on the planting in the north of Ireland by James I, of a large number of Scotch, a branch of this noble family settled in Donegal county not far from Londonderry. Of this offshoot was Robert Pollock who served under Cromwell in the war against Charles I, and belonged to a regiment commanded by Col. Porter, who married Magdalen, daughter of Col. Tasker, a Chancellor of Ireland, whose seat was Broom- field Castle on the river Dale. Col. Porter dying Robert Pollock married his widow. Be- ing earnest Presbyterians they came to this country to escape the persecutions instituted by Charles II; landing in Somerset county,

Md., about 1660. They received a grant of land from Lord Baltimore which is still owned by one of the Polks. A long list of the de- scendants of Robert and Magdalen might be mentioned, many of whom have served their country with distinction in the field and the halls of legislation ; notably among them was Gen. Thomas Polk who took such a promi- nent part in the Mecklenburg Declaration of independence at Charlotte, N. C., May 20, 1775, and was the leading and controlling spirit of that important event, and his son, Col. William Polk, who served, with great distinction during the revolution, and was wounded at the battle of Germantown, and James K. Polk, one of the Presidents of the United States. Ephriam, the third son of Robert and Magdalen, married Miss Williams of Somerset county. When the boundary dispute was settled between Penn and Lord Baltimore, he was thrown on the Delaware side, in Little Creek hundred. He had three children ; Charles, John and Joseph. Charles married Patience Manlove and was the father of Charles, the father of Gov. Polk. By the death of his father the training and edu- dation of the last named devolved upon his mother, a Quakeress, and a woman of high culture and of rare intellectual and moral worth. She instilled into the mind of her son those principles of right and honor which guided him through life and left his name un- touched by a word of reproach. He obtained his early education at the Westtown Boarding School and at fourteen commenced his classical studies at Lewes. Here was formed that strong attachment between himself and John M. Clayton, which lasted through life. For three years from the age of eighteen, he devoted his attention closely to the study of law in which he acquired a knowledge attained by few, but he never engaged in practice, having a strong aversion to its duties. As an orator he pos- sessed the finest qualities. His language flowed as a silver stream, strong, clear and beautiful. Few men ever held their ideas so well elabo- rated and ready for promulgation. Had he yielded to the wishes of his party and accepted the position of United States Senator, there is no doubt he would have achieved a high national reputation. He also declined the position of Chancellor of the State, offered to him by Gov. Hazzard. He was elected to the House of Representatives from Sussex in Octo-

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ber, 1813, and re-elected in 1815 ; also, to the House from Kent in. 1817, to the Levy Court in 1819, to the State Senate in 1824 and | chosen Speaker; Governor in 1826, for the term of three years; to the Convention to alter State Constitution in 1831, and chosen President ; to the State Senate in 1834, chosen Speaker, and by the death of Gov. Bennett, became Governor ; to the State Senate in 1838 and chosen Speaker ; appointed Register of Wills for Kent in 1843 and served four years ; ap- pointed Collector of the Port of Wilmington in 1850 and resigned in 1853. In politics he was a Federalist and afterwards a Whig. He was a man of noble and fine appearance, en- dowed with remarkable strength and activity. He possessed a wonderful memory, a great mind and rare attainmments, to which he added a generous and forgiving nature, too prone to sacrifice his own interests to those of others, never turning away from the tale of sorrow, and the needy never left his door un- aided. He died full of years and honors and faith in the efficacy of the blood of Christ, Oct. 26, 1857.

OPES, JOSEPH S., M. D., of New Orleans, son of Rev. Joseph Copes and Jenny Wilkins White, his wife, was born on his father's farm near Lewes, Dec. 9, 1811. An account of the family will be found in the sketch of his father. Dr. Copes has from his childhood reflected honor on the teachings and example of his parents. While in his teens, becoming convinced of the truth and importance of the then new doc- trine of total abstinence, he summoned and addressed a meeting in Middleford, then his home, and successfully founded the first Rec- abite Society, it is believed, in the State. In March, 1833, he was graduated from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and was distinguished while in college by holding, for two years, the position of assistant to the Professor of Chemistry, which no under-gradu- ate had previously filled ; also, a year before graduating he was honored by the Governor, David Hazzard, with a commission as port physician for quarantine duty in that part of Delaware lying on the waters of the Dela- ware bay. On leaving college he spent a few months in Pittsburg, Pa., in study and prac- tice, after which he traveled extensively

through the west, and finally settled with his brother, Dr. James W. Copes, at Tchula, Holmes county, Miss., at that time one of the most important commercial points in the new purchase from the Choctaws. His skill as a physician and surgeon was soon recognized ; he was remarkably successful in treating the fevers of this new region, and also the fractures and other wounds that the wild life of the time made frequent. This life afforded great free- dom from customary restraints, but Dr. Copes stoutly maintained his early principles of tem- perance and piety, and such was the force of his example, and the influence he exerted, that gradually Sabbath desecration greatly abated ; in time a regular clergyman preached in the town and much other improvement was manifest. At the age of twenty-six he married and began planting. He was one of the founders and main supporters of the first Mississippi State Agricultural Society, and was greatly instrumental, by his pen and otherwise, in developing the resources of his adopted state. In 1839 he removed to Jack- son, the State capital, where he obtained a large practice. He was at this time burdened with the settlement of several estates of which he had been appointed administrator and guardian, but in the faithful discharge of these duties, he evinced the first order of business ability, and all the successions and trusts were satisfactorily adjusted. He also for several months conducted the correspondence of the president's department of the Mississippi Union Bank during the absence of that officer, and so satisfactorily that at the failure of that gigantic but impracticable enterprise, the president, Gov. Runnels,and others interested, engaged to secure to him $12,000 per annum, to assume the headship of their New Orleans Cotton Factorage House, and either to close up, or, if expedient, to continue their exten- sive business. This proposal, however, he declined. While in Jackson he actively aided in establishing Sharon college and in securing for its president one of the teachers of his boyhood, Rev. Dr. Campbell. He was long a director of Oakland college, and probably settled more teachers during his residence in Mississippi than any other man in the State. As Inspector of the State penitentiary he was mainly instrumental in introducing cotton machinery, and was the pioneer in establish-

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Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 2, Part 50

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

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