USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 49
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
Major Richard Howell, Revolutionary soldier Clair at Ticonderoga, served in two campaigns and statesman, was born in Delaware in 1754. under Gates and in all the campaigns of General Wayne, narrowly escaping at the Paoli massacre. He served in the War of 1812 under General- Brown and Wilkinson, at the age of seventy-six years. He died February 5, 1820. He was a lawyer by profession and connuanded a company of grenadiers prior to the war for in- dependence. In 1775 he was appointed captain of the Second New Jersey regiment. Ile dis- tinguished himself at Quebec, was promoted to major in 1776 and continued in command of his regiment until 1779. In September, 1782, Major Howell was appointed judge advocate of the Ameriean army, but declined to accept. He was clerk of the Supreme Court from 1778 to 1792 and Governor from 1794 to 101 He died at Trenton, April 28, 1802.
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Rev. David Jones, a Baptist elergyman and celebrated as a Revolutionary patriot, was born in White Clay Creek, New Castle County, May 12, 1736. His ancestors settled at the - Welsh Traet " early in the seventeenth century. Rev. Mr. Jones was for many years pastor of the Upper Freehold Church in New Jersey, which he aban- doned temporarily in 1772-73 to go on a gospel mission among the Shawnee and Delaware Indians. His patriotism made him so much an object of hatred to the Tories, that. believing his life to be endangered, he settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1775 and had charge of the Great Valley Baptist Church. He was chaplain of a Pennsylvania regiment under St.
Col. Allen MeLane, the distinguished Revolu- tionary officer and state-man, became a citizen of Kent County in 1774 He was born in Phila- delphia August 8, 1746. In 1775 he enlisted as lieutenant in Casar Rodney's Delaware regi- ment. In 1776 he joined the army of General Washington, distinguished himself at the battle of Long Island and was also at White Plains and Trenton. At Princeton his gallantry won him the appointment of captain and he received his commission from Washington in 1777. He commanded the outposts of Philadelphia, and in July, 1779, was made a major in Lee's Legion, taking a prominent part in the battles of Paulus Hook and Stony Point and the siege of Yorktown. As a civilian he was a member and Speaker of the Delaware Legislature, for six years a privy councilor, for many years judge of the Court of Common Pleas ; marshal of the Delaware District from 1790 to 1798 and collector of the port of Wilmington from 1808 until his death, which oceurred May 22. 1829. Cel. MeLane was the father of Louis MeLane, the statesman, and grandfather of Robert M. Me Lane, late Governor of Maryland, and now (1887) United States minister to France.
As a soldier Col. Mebane was famous for his daring and intrepidity, and conducted his opera- tions with a dash similar to that of the celebrated Light Horse Harry Lee, with whom he was frequently associated. He sent his spies into the British lines at Philadelphia disguised as farmers, and at times provisioned the enemy at market rates with " beef," which was nothing more nor less than the carcasses of British cavalry horses killed by the bullets of Continental soldiers. Colonel MeLane's feats of daring were numerous. On one occasion he fell into an ambuscade near Philadelphia, accompanied by only four troopers, his company being far in the rear. One of his attendants saw the enemy and crying out, " Cap- tain, the British !" fled with his companions. Me- Lane saw the enemy drawn upon both sides of the road and a file of them fired on him. He, however, dashed away, followed by a shower of bullets, and ran into a larger body of British. Turning abruptly away from them, he pursued his flight followed by a dozen troopers. Of these he dis- taneed all but twee one of whom he shot and the other he engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict. during which he received a severe sabre-wound in the band. Finally he sueereded in killing this antagonist also, and then took refuge in a mill- pond, where he remained naked until the cold
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DELAWARE DURING THE REVOLUTION.
water stopped the flow of blood from his wound. Another time, being surprised by a dozen troopers, he charged through them and escaped.
Hon. Louis MeLane, son of Colonel Allen Me- Lane, and celebrated for his public services, was born in Smyrna, May 2, 1786. In 1798 he en- tered the navy as midshipman, and cruised for a year under Commodore Decatur, in the frigate " Philadelphia." He studied law with Hon James A. Bayard, and was admitted to the bar in 1807. In 1817 he was a member of Congress from Dela- ware, and remained in that office until 1827. During this period, in opposition to his constitu- ency, but on conscientious grounds, he voted against permitting slavery in Missouri. From 1827 to 1829 he was United States Senator, and minister to England from 1829 to 1831. In the latter year, on his return, he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury until 1833, when he was appointed Secretary of State, and retired from political life the following year. Mr. MeLane was president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company from 1837 to 1847, and in 1845 was en- trusted by President Polk with the mission to England during the Oregon negotiations. He was a delegate to the Reform Convention at Annapo- lis in the winter of 1850-51. In 1812 Mr. Me- Lane married the daughter of Robert Milligan. He died in Baltimore, October 7, 1857.
Robert Milligan MeLane, son of Hon. Louis MeLane, was born in Delaware, June 23, 1815; graduated from West Point in 1837, and served in Florida as second lieutenant First Artillery; in 1841 went to Europe to examine the dyke and drainage system of Holland; in 1843 located in Baltimore in the practice of law; elected to the Maryland Gen- eral Assembly in 1845; to Congress 1847-58 ; min- ister to China in 1853; minister to Mexico in 1859 ; State Senator from Baltimore City in 1878; re- turned to Congress in 1879 and in 1881 : Governor of Maryland in 1883, and appointed minister to France by President Cleveland during his term.
Colonel John Haslet was Irish by birth, but for several years preceding the war lived at Dover. He had been educated for the Presbyterian min- istry, and preached frequently after coming to America, but subsequently abandoned the pulpit and became a practitioner of medicine. He was a large, athletic and handsome man, and in courage and impulse a typical Irishman. From the earli- est days of the American contliet he was a stalwart Whig, and Cazar Rodney early fa-tened upon him as n fit man for military command. Rodney wrote him daily from the Continental Congress in the early summer of 1776, inciting him to the work of raising troops. When the Declaration of Inde- pendence was adopted Rodney despatched a mounted messenger, Ensign Wilson, on the night of July 4th, to carry the news to Hlaslet. He
found Haslet at Dover, extremely busy enlisting men. " I congratulate you, sir," wrote Haslet in reply, " on the important day which restores to every American his birthright, -a day which every freeman will record with gratitude, and the millions of posterity read with rapture. A fine turtle feast at Dover announced and antici- pated the declaration of Congress." After the death of Haslet, at Princeton, his body was de- po-ited in the burial-ground of the First Presby- terian Church in Philadelphia. In 1783 the Dela- ware Legislature caused a marble slab to be placed over his grave, and on February 22. 1841, they
HON. LOUIS MeLANE.
appointed a committee to superintend the removal of the corpse to a vault to be built in the Pre-by- terian Church at Dover, and authorized them to have a suitable monument, with appropriate inserip- tions and devices, placed over his final resting-place.
On July 1, 1841, his remains were disinterred and conveyed to Dover, escorted by the military of the city of Philadelphia; and on July 3d, after impres- sive religious services and an eloquent address from the Hon. John M. Clayton, they were deposited in the vault prepared for them. The slab placed over his grave in Philadelphia, in 1873, is pre- served, by having been made one of the sides of this tomb, and bears this inscription :
" In memory of Jony HASLET, E-quite, Colonel of the Delaware Regiment, who fell gloriousiy at the battle of Princeton, in the cause of American In lependence, January 3, 1777. The General Assembly of the State of Delaware, remembering Ilis virtues ar a man, His merits as a citizen, and His servicing as A soldier, Have caused this monumental stoffe, in testimony of their respect, To be placedam his gitve, MDECLXAXILL.'
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
The other inseription on the monument is:
" Erected by the State of Delaware, as a tribute of respect, to the niemury of Colonel Jous HIASLET, whose remains, according to a prodution of Legislature, passed February 22. 1 +1, were removed from their resting-piace, in the grave yard of the First Presbyterian Church, in the city of Phnt.vlelphia, and here re-interred on Saturday, July 34, 1>41."
Colonel Haslet left a son and two daughters. The son, Joseph Haslet, was twice, in isli and 1823, elected Governor of this State, - an honor Delaware never conferred upon any other citizen.
One of his daughters, Jemima, married Dr. George Monro, who was a skillful and learned physician, resident in Wilmington from 1797 until his death, in 1820. Of Dr. Monro's children, the only survivor was Mrs. Mary A Boyd, of Wilming- ton. The other daughter of Colonel Haslet mar- ried Major Patten, but died childless.
Major Robert Kirkwood, a gallant Revolu- tionary officer, was born near Newark. After being educated at the Newark Academy he engaged in farming, but abandoned that occupation to enter the army. He enlisted as lieutenant in Huslet's regiment in January, 1776, and partiei- pated in the victories of Trenton and Princeton, as well as the disaster at Long Island. He was promoted to a captainey and was engaged in all the important battles during the three succeeding campaigns. In 1780 his regiment went South with General Gates, and suffered severely at Camden. The survivors under Kirkwood and Jacquet were attached to Lee's Legion as light infantry, and at Cowpens, Guilford, Eutaw and other engagements Major Kirkwood distinguished him- self. At the close of the war he was brevetted major and soon settled in Ohio, opposite Wheel- ing. He was killed at the battle of Miami, November 4, 1791.
Captain Caleb Bennett, Governor of Delaware from 1832 to 1836, and the last surviving officer of the Delaware Line, was born in Chester Major Lewis Bush was the son of David Bush, a prominent citizen of Wilmington in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Lewis had just prepared himself tor the legal profession when the Revolutionary War began. He entered the col- onial army, in which he became a major, and fell at the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777. County, Pa., near the State line, November 11, 1758, and died at his residence on Market Street, next door south of the Lohr Building, May 9, 1836, at the age of seventy-eight years, atter a lingering illness. Hle removed with his parents to Wil- mington in 1761. In 1775, when but seventeen, his patriotic father placed him in the ranks as a soldier to fight for the cause of American independence. In the following year, with the Delaware regiment, he joined Washington's army at New York. He was promoted to the position Colonel David Hall, commander of the famous Delaware Line in the Continental army, was born January 4, 1752, at Leves. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in New Castle County, August 18, 1773. While practicing his profession of sergeant in 1776 and ensign in 1777, and with his company formed part of the detachment under General Sullivan in the attack on Staten Island. On September 11th of the same year he partiei- pated in the battle of Brandywine, and on the the Revolutionary .War broke out and Colonel
4th of October following in the battle of German- town, where the Delaware regiment lost in killed and wounded seven out of thirteen officers, and about one-third of the private>. Captain Holland, in command of the company, was killed and Ensign Bennett was wounded. In 1778 he joined General Washington at Valley Forge and after- wards was present at the battle of Monmouth. In 1780 he was promoted lieutenant, and his company, as part of the detachment under Baron De Kalb, was ordered to South Carolina, and on the 16th of August fought at the memorable battle of Camden. De Kalb being mortally wounded, he dietated before his death a letter expressive of the gallantry of the Delaware regiment, which in this engagement lost nine officers out of nine companies. Lieutenant Bennett was then sent to Delaware to raise recruits, and in 1781, with one hundred and twenty men he joined the French troops at Annapolis and proceeded to the siege of Yorktown. In this last crowning success of the American army Lieutenant Bennett bore a conspicuous part and commanded the left battery of the American force on the day that Lord Cornwallis surrendered.
He was present at the evacuation of Charles- ton, South Carolina, and remained in active service until the army was disbanded in 1883. Ile was then twenty-five years of age, eight of which were spent in the service of his country, and he en- dured the severest hardships; he was thrice wounded. When war was deelared in 1812 he was appointed a major and had command of the forces at New Castle, remaining until the treaty of peace was signed. He was appointed treasurer of New Castle County and served until 1832, when he was nominated for Governor of the State and triumphantly elected November 13th of the same year, and died in office. Captain Bennett wore a queue until the time of his death. Late in life he drew a pension of three hundred and twenty dollars a year.
John Bush, brother of Major Lewis Bush, was a volunteer in the colonial army . at the age of twenty years, and served through the Revolu- tionary War with the rank of captain.
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DELAWARE DURING THE REVOLUTION.
Hall enlisted immediately as a private. Subse- the inhabitants could make but feeble resistance. quently he recruited a company, of which he was elected captain. This company was attached to Colonel Haslet's command and gained consider- able distinction at White Plains and Long Island. He subsequently recruited the celebrated Dela- ware Line regiment, and, April 5, 1777. was made its colonel. They participated at Brandy- wine, Germantown and Monmouth, were with Washington at Valley Forge and during the remainder of the war fought in the important battles, doing distinguished service in various lines of duty and earned a reputation second to no other troops in the Continental army. Colonel Hall was wounded at the battle of Brandywine. At the close of the war he resumed the practice of law in his native town and was elected Gov- ernor of the State, continuing in office nntil 1805. He was also an associate justice. His wife was Catherine Tingley, of New York. Colonel Hall died at Lewes, September 18, 1817. His son, Joseph Hall, was admitted to the bar October 10, 1809, but died soon after in early manhood.
Joseph Shalleross, who was a leading member of the Friends, was a true patriot and Washington knew it. Just before the battle of Brandywine the general sent a woman to Shalleross with a letter quilted in her petticoat. An answer was returned in the same way to Washington, giving him an account of the position of some squads of the British and of the fleet on the Delaware.
Captain James Montgomery, of Wilmington, commanded a small armed vessel in the Continental service He was a Scotchman by birth. One day, while sitting at breakfast in the sign of the "Ship," southeast corner Third and Market Streets, news was brought to him that several store-ships of the enemy were coming up the Delaware. Rising from the table, with an air of confidence, he said, "Now is my harvest-time " Quickly manning his vessel, she started for the mouth of the Chris- tiana and down the Delaware as fast as her sails would bear her. Before sunset she turned up the creek amidst the shouts of the patriots who gath- ered along the banks. Three valuable prizes, the cargoes of three British vessels, were captured and brought into port. The gallant captain was hailed as a vietor and carried through the streets in tri- umph on a large chair, supported by eight men. In the mean time a few daring patriots boarded and captured another store-ship of the enemy on the Delaware, near the mouth of the Christiana. She was on her way to Philadelphia.
Captain Joseph Stidham resided in a beautiful home, which he called White Hall near the Brandywine. He commanded a company of mi- litia during the war. When the men-of-war " Roe- buck " and " Liverpool," with their tenders, sailed up Delaware Bay, and bombarded Wilmington,
As it was known to the commander of the " Roe- buek " that a small body of soldiers was in the town, on its way to join Washington, a company of Hessians were sent ashore in boats to attack and disperse the party. The men, who were few in number, could make no stand against the Hessians, backed by the cannon of the men of-war. They were hidden hastily by their friends. One of them, who was Captain Joseph Stidham, after discharg- ing his rifle in the face of the approaching line of soldiers, fled for his life, and took refuge in the house of his cousin, Jonas Stidham, on the ont- skirts of the village. The gunners on the ' Roe- buck " saw him enter it, and they turned their fire upon the house. The Hessians attacked it furiously. "The balls rained down upon the roof." The mercenaries broke down the doors and windows, and rushed into the house searching for the Yankee captain. It was a large, rambling building, with many closets and lean tos. But Stidham took refuge in none of these. Passing through the house, he reached the barn-vard, and crept into the hollow trunk of an oak-tree, in which he had often played hide-and-seek when a boy. It was so long since he was hid in it, that the moss and lichen hung over the opening. The Hessians searched for him in vain. Two of them, it is said sat down upon the log while he was in it. They returned to the ship at nightfall, and he escaped to join Washington.
The adventures of Captain Kean, of the Delaware Line, and Captain Hugh Montgomery, of the Vol - unteer service, about the same time, were just as thrilling, and yet more amusing. The former was suffering with ague, and the latter was with him, in a house at the corner of Second and French Streets later owned by Mr. Keisler. When the Brit- ish entered Wilmington on the morning after the battle of Brandywine, they heard of their where- abouts, entered the house and searched it from cellar to garret, but failed to find the " - rebels," as they called them. The patriot officers were concealed in the chimney on the attie, and thus eluded discovery.
" It's too hot here," said Captain Montgomery to his companion ; "we may be discovered yet by tho-e red-coats."
" But how shall we escape?" inquired Captain Kean, shivering both with fear and aque.
" Let us call John Stapler, a Quaker, next-door, and consult with him," said the former.
Stapler eame, dressed Captain Montgomery in the plain black shit then worn by a minister among the Friends, and placed his own best gar- ments, including a low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, on Captain Kean. He borrowed a large vest of John Benson, a neighbor, for him, and placed a pillow under it, to intitate corpulency.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
In the afternoon both officers walked down He commanded the sloop-of-war " Patapsco," street in their Quaker suits, when one of the sol- diers asked Captain Kean how long he had been dropsical. They returned to the house, and later in the afternoon walked to the Brandywine, where the pillow was dropped, and they quickly made their way for the marshes along the Delaware, entered a small boat and began to row ter the Jersey shore. They had gone but a short distance, when they found that the boat leaked. Captain Kean bailed the water out with his hat while his companion pulled the oars with great vigor. One of the enemy's vessels bore in sight, and several shots were fired, but the two officers arrived on the Jer- sey shore in safety. Captain Kean died of yellow fever in 1802, when it raged in Wilmington. Cap- tain Montgomery commanded the brig . Naney," mentioned in this chapter.
On the southeast corner of Market and Second Streets, Wilmington, stood the residence of Thomas Wallace, a block-maker, who was a man of means and a patriot. Heexchanged all his coins for Conti- nental money, which would not pass when the British held the eity, and he was compelled to ask assist- ance of Mr. Shalleross, his neighbor One day a British soldier asked his wife to bake some bread for him, which she did, when the soldier gave her flour in pay for her work. She did the same re- peatedly, but always told the English that her prayers were for the patriot cause. Her daughter married Captain Thomas Baker, of Boston. He left Wilmington in the brig " Welcome," in 1815. for St. Thomas, West Indies, and was never heard of afterwards. It was thought the vessel was wrecked. His widow died in Elkton, Maryland, in 1852.
Sally Erwin, of Wilmington, married Israel Israel, who entered the service of his country during the war. The British knew it, and sent a squad of men to his home, on the shore of the Delaware, to capture his cattle, but the brave Sally, like Barbara Frietchie on a future occasion, dared the red coats to shoot them or her, as she defiantly drove her live stock into a stable, where they remained.
Captain Henry Geddes, one of the conspicuous soldiers of the Revolution from Wilmington, was born in Dublin, Ireland, June 13, 1749, and edu- cated at Trinity College, in that city. At the age of nineteen he entered the British navy as midship- man, and continued in that service several years. In 1775 he came to America, landing at Wilming- ton. At the outbreak of the Revolution he en- tered the American army as quartermaster of Colonel Duff"'s Delaware regiment, and was with that command during 1776-77. In December, 1777, he returned from the army and took charge of a merchant vessel at Baltimore. Soon after this he became a captain in the United States navy.
and with it wondered important service to the country. He passed through many perilous ad- venteres. In 1778 his vesel was upset. He and twelve others caraned in a small boat. For seven- teen days they were without provisions or water, except twenty pounds of damaged flour and a dog. Five of their neu ber perished trom hunger and thirst, when a briz, bound for Alexandria, Vir- ginia, came to the rescue of the others. In 1790 his vesel was again wrecked. At the close of the Revolution hs returned to the merchant service. In 1810. when in command of a vessel bound for Dublin. he was driven by a violent storm into the Irish Channel and wrecked near White Haven, but he and his crew were saved. After the close of the second war with Great Britain he made two extensive voyages, and in 1816 was appointed in- spector of revenue for the district of Delaware, which office he held to the time of his death, De- cember 1, 1833, at the age of eighty-four years. In 1776 he married Miss M. Latimer, of Wil- mington, with whom he enjoyed fifty-seven years of wedded life. She was a noble and worthy women. She survived her husband to the age of eighty five years. The remains of both lie near the centre of the Presbyterian Church-yard, on the west side of Market Street. Their home in Wilmington was on the east side of Market Street, a few doors below Second.
On the south side of the Christiana, where it forms a point, is a tract of land for a century or more known as Long Hook farm. It was the patrimonial estate of Major Peter Jaquett, who served with distinction as an officer in the First Delaware Regiment during the Revolution. His remains were borne to his grave by sixty young men, who thus wished to do honor to his memory. His greni-grandfather was a French Protestant, who was vice-director at New Amstel, in 1658. Major Jaquett was one of the first converts of this region to Methodism during the visit here of George Whitefield. His house was known far and near, and was visited by many persons who shared his hospitality. Washington, Lafayette and Bishop White were among his guests. He was one of the ideal patriots of the great struggle for indepen- dence, and he never wearied relating the stories of that eventful period, describing many thrilling scenes in which he was a participant. He was a great favorite of children, and loved to relate to them the stories of the past. By his house on the north side of the Causeway were tall sycamore trees, lofty poplars and beautiful evergreens. The birds of spring-time early visited him, built their nests in the shady places around his mansion, tuned their voices with sweet melody to entertain the old veteran and his guests, and remained until late in the fall. A beautiful ivy vine covered one
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