USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume III > Part 6
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Preston Lea, under the tutelage of his father, who for almost
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SKETCHES OF DELAWARE GOVERNORS.
forty years operated the large mills on the north side of the Brandywine, became thoroughly familiar with the milling industry, and prior to his father's death, in 1864, the firm of William Lea & Sons was formed, composed of William Lea, the father, and his two sons, Preston and Henry. The father died in 1876, but the firm name continued until 1882, when the William Lea & Sons Company was incorporated and suc- ceeded to the business. Of this company Preston Lea was the president and the directing power for twenty years. Under his guidance the business was conspicuously successful.
On the death of Victor DuPont, in 1888, Preston Lea was elected President of the Union National Bank, which honored position he still occupies. He had served as a director in the institution since the death of his father, in 1876. On the organization of the Equitable Guarantee and Trust Company, in 1889, Mr. Lea became a director, and two years later was elected president, serving until 1902. For several years he was the active director in the Wilmington City Railway Com- pany. He has also been a director for many years in the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company.
The Leas were originally members of the Society of Friends, and Preston Lea was trained in the anti-slavery school and naturally became a Republican on the nomination of Lincoln in 1861. He never took an active interest in politics, but in the fall of 1904, when the Republican party was casting about to find a candidate for Governor who could unite the support of both factions of the party, Preston Lea, because of high standing in business and financial circles, was agreed upon, and his triumphant election followed. In his administration of State affairs he has shown the same wise conservatism that has ever marked his successful business career, and even those who are not in full sympathy with all of his policies will accord to him an earnest desire to further the welfare of the State and safeguard her interests.
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'SKETCHES OF DELAWARE GOVERNORS.
Presidents of Delaware under the Constitution of 1776.
John McKinly
from February 21, 1777
to September 12, 1777
Thomas Mckean, acting
September 12, 1777
October 20, 1777
George Read, acting
October 20, 1777
March
20,1778
Caesar Rodney
March 20, 1778
November 13, 1781
John Dickinson
November 13, 1781
November 4, 1782
John Cook, acting
November 4, 1782
February 8,1783
Nicholas Van Dyke
February 8, 1783
October
27,1786
Thomas Collins
October
27,1786
March
29, 1789
Jehu Davis, acting
March
29, 1789
May
30,1789
Joshua Clayton
May
30, 1789
January
13, 1793
Governors under the Constitution of 1792.
Joshua Clayton
from January,
1793
to January,
1796
Gunning Bedford
Jannary,
1796
September 28, 1797
Daniel Rogers, acting
September 28, 1797
January,
1799
Richard Bassett
January,
1799
March,
1801
James Sykes, acting
March,
1801
January,
1802
David Hall
January,
1802
January,
1805
Nathaniel Mitchell
January,
1805
January,
1808
George Truitt
January,
1808
January,
1811
Joseph Haslet
January,
1811
January,
1814
Daniel Rodney
January,
1814
January,
1817
John Clark
January,
1817
January,
1820
Jacob Stout, acting
January,
1820
January,
1821
John Collins
January,
1821
April,
1822
Caleb Rodney, acting
April
1822
January,
1823
Joseph Haslet
January,
1823
June 20,
1823
Charles Thomas, acting
June 20,
1823
January,
1824
Samuel Paynter
January,
1824
January,
1827
Charles Polk
January,
1827
January,
1830
David Hazzard
January,
1830
January,
1833
Governors under the Constitution of 1832.
Caleb P. Bennett
from January,
1833
to April 9,
1836
Charles Polk, acting
April 9,
1836
January,
1837
Cornelius P. Comegys
January,
1837
January,
1841
V William B. Cooper
January.
1841
January,
1845
Thomas Stockton
January,
1845
March 2,
1846
Joseph Maull, acting
March 2.
18 16
May 1,
1846
William Temple, acting
May 1,
1846
January,
1847
William Tharp
January,
1847
January,
1851
William H. Ross
January,
1851
January,
1855
Peter F. Causey
January,
1855
January,
1859
William Burton
January,
1859
January,
1863
William Cannon
January,
1863
March 1,
1865
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SKETCHES OF DELAWARE GOVERNORS.
Gove Saulsbury, acting
March 1,
1865
January,
1867
Gove Saulsbury
January,
1867
January,
1871
James Ponder
January,
1871
January,
1875
John P. Cochran
January,
1875
January,
1879
John W. Hall
January,
1879
January,
1883
Charles C. Stockley
January,
1883
January,
1887
Benjamin T. Biggs
January,
1887
January,
1891
Robert J. Reynolds
January,
1891
January,
1895
Joshua H. Marvel
January,
1895
April 8,
1895
William T. Watson, acting
April 8,
1895
January,
1897
Ebe W. Tunnell
January,
1897
January,
1901
Governors under the Constitution of 1897.
John Hunn
January,
1901
January,
1905
Preston Lea
January,
1905-
0
John Reag
OF MARTIAN
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INFLUENTIAL DELAWARE FAMILIES.
THE READ FAMILY.
The first ancestor of the Read family in this country was Colonel John Read, a wealthy and public-spirited Southern planter, who was born in Dublin, of English parentage in the last year of the reign of James the Second, 1688. His mother was the scion of an old Oxfordshire house, and his father, an English gentleman of large fortune, then residing in Dublin. The history of Col. John Read is rather a romantic one. He fell in love at an early age in the old country with his cousin, a beautiful and accomplished English girl, who died suddenly before their engagement ended in marriage. This shock so overcame him that he determined in spite of the earnest oppo- sition of his parents to seek relief in entire change.
Crossing the ocean he settled in Maryland, where he pur- chased lands in several counties, to which he added others in Delaware. He was interested in various enterprises, and was instrumental in founding Charlestown, at the headwaters of the Chesapeake bay, twelve years after Baltimore was founded. After a long period of single life his early sorrow was consoled by his marriage with Mary Howell, a charming and accom- plished young Welsh lady. Sprung from the Howells of Caerleon, County of Monmouth, her immediate ancestors were seated in the neighborhood of Caerphilly Glamoranshire, Wales, where she was born in 1711, and from whence at a tender age she removed with her parents to Delaware, where her father was a large planter, and a prominent man among the early Welsh settlers. Three distinguished sons of Col. John Read were Hon. George Read, Colonel James Read and Commodore Thomas Read.
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INFLUENTIAL DELAWARE FAMILIES.
GEORGE READ.
George Read, son of Colonel John Read, was born Septem- ber 17, 1733, on one of the family estates in Cecil County, Maryland. After receiving a classical education he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar at the age of nineteen in the city of Philadelphia. In 1754 he removed to New Castle, Delaware, in which province the family had important landed interests. Mr. Read figured in the Assembly of the State for twelve years, was Vice-President of the State, and at one time her acting chief magistrate. It was he who penned the memorable address from Delaware to the King, which so im- pressed George III that he read it over twice.
Having been appointed Attorney-General under the Crown, at the early age of twenty-nine, Mr. Read felt it to be his duty to warn the British government of the danger of attempting to tax the Colonies without giving them direct representation in Parliament, and gave utterance eleven years before the Declaration of Independence was declared, to the remarkable prophecy that a continuance in this mistaken policy would certainly lead to independence, and eventually, to the Colonies surpassing England in her staple manufactures. Finding no manifestation of change in the position of the Crown toward the Colonies, he resigned the Attorney-Generalship, and ac- cepted a seat in the first Congress which met in Philadelphia in 1774. He signed the Declaration of Independence when he found there was no hope for reconciliation and thereafter became the originator and ardent supporter of many measures in behalf of the national cause.
He was a member of the convention of 1776 which framed the first Constitution of the State and also was a compiler of the laws in 1782. In 1786 he was a delegate to the Conven- tion which met in Annapolis, Maryland, and he took an active part therein. Was also a member in 1787 of the Convention in Philadelphia which framed the Constitution of the United States. In that august body, Mr. Read was also a prominent figure, especially in his able advocacy of the rights of the
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RESIDENCE OF GEORGE READ, JR. New Castle, A. D. 1802.
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smaller States tora proper representation in the Senate. Im- mediately after the adoption of the Constitution which Dela- ware largely by his influence was the first to ratify, he was elected to the Senate of the United States. At the expiration of his term, he was re-elected. He resigned in 1793, and ac- cepted the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Dela- ware, which he filled until his death. George Read, com- manded public confidence not only from his profound legal knowledge, sound judgment and impartial decisions, but from his strict integrity and estimable private character. In 1775 Mr. Read, married Gertrude, daughter of the Rev. George Ross, a clergyman who had long been the rector of the Episco- pal Church in New Castle. His death occurred on the twenty- first of September, 1798, and his remains were interred in the quiet churchyard of Immanuel Episcopal Church, New Castle, where seven generations of the Read family repose.
COLONEL JAMES READ.
Colonel James Read, one of the fathers of the American Navy, was a son of Colonel John Read and a brother of George Read, the signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States. He was born at the family seat, New Castle County, Delaware, in 1743. His distinguished services at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown led to his promotion from first lieutenant to colonel. He was ap- pointed by Congress, November 4th, 1778, one of the three Commissioners of the Navy for the Middle States, and on January 11th, 1781, Congress invested him with sole power to conduct the Navy Board. He married, July 9th, 1770, Susanna Conly, of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and left one son, James Read. Colonel James Read died at Philadelphia, December 31st, 1822, in his eightieth year.
COMMODORE THOMAS READ.
Commodore Thomas Read was the son of Colonel John
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INFLUENTIAL DELAWARE FAMILIES.
Read, and was born in New Castle, Delaware, in 1740. Com- modore Read was the first naval officer who attained the rank of commodore in command of an American fleet. He was a brave soldier and a most daring navigator and discoverer. On the 7th of June, 1776, he was appointed to the highest grade in the Continental Navy, and was assigned to one of the four largest ships, the thirty-two gun frigate "George Washington," then being built on the Delaware. It was he who gave valuable assistance in the celebrated crossing of the Delaware by Washington's army, and at the battle of Trenton commanded a battery composed of guns taken from his own frigate, which raked the stone bridge across the Assanpink. For this important service he received the thanks of all the general officers. Commodore Read in 1787 made a voyage to the Chinese sea. : On June 7th of that year he sailed from the Delaware and arrived at Canton the following 22d of December, having navigated on a track as yet untraveled by any other ship. He also discovered two islands, one of which be named Morris, in honor of his friend Robert Morris, and the other Alliance island. These islands form a portion of the now celebrated Caroline islands. The courage, integrity and benevolence of this eminent man will make his name ever revered and beloved. He died October 26, 1788, in the forty- ninth year of his age. Commodore Read left no descendants.
HON. JOHN MEREDITH READ, LL.D.
Hon. John Meredith Read, LL.D., a great jurist and a wise statesman, was a son of the Hon. John Read, of Pennsylvania, and a grandson of the Hon. George Read, of Delaware. He was born in Philadelphia, July 21st, 1797. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania at the age of fifteen, in 1812, was admitted to the Bar in 1818, elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1822 and again in 1823. He afterwards be- came City Solicitor and member of the Select Council, and drew up the first clear exposition of the finances of Philadel- phia. He was appointed United States District Attorney of
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COMEICDORE THOMAS BAND 1740-1758
THE FIRST TO ATTAIN THE RANK OF COMMODORE IN COMMAND OF AN AMERICAN FLEET.
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INFLUENTIAL DELAWARE FAMILIES.
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1837, and held that office eight years. He was elected in 1858 Judge of the Supreme Court, and afterwards became Chief Justice. He was a man of marked individuality, and was constantly engaged in originating useful measures for the welfare of the general and State governments. His amendments formed an essential part of the Constitutions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and his ideas were formulated in many of the statutes of the United States. Chief Justice Read died at Philadelphia, November 29, 1874, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
GENERAL JOHN MEREDITH READ, JR.
General John Meredith Read, Jr., son of Chief Justice John Meredith Read, of Pennsylvania, and great-grandson of the Hon. George Read, of Delaware, the signer of the Declaration, was born in Philadelphia, February 21st, 1837. He received his preparatory education at a military school, and graduated from Brown University as Master of Arts in 1859. After completing a legal course at the Albany Law School with the degree of LL.B., he studied civil and international law in Europe, was admitted to the Bar in Philadelphia, and subse- quently removed to Albany, New York. At the age of twenty he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Governor of Rhode Island with the rank of colonel.
He took a prominent part in the presidential campaign of 1856, and in 1860 organized the "Wide Awake" movement in New York, which carried the State in favor of Abraham Lin- coln for the presidency. He received the appointment of brigadier-general at the age of twenty-three. In 1868 he took a leading part in the election of General Grant to the presi- dency, who appointed him Consul General of the United States for France and Algeria, to reside at Paris, a newly- created post, which he was called upon to organize in all its various details. General Read likewise acted as Consul Gen- eral of Germany during the Franco-German War, and for nearly two years directed all the consular affairs of that empire
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INFLUENTIAL DELAWARE FAMILIES.
in France, including the protection of German subjects and interests during the first and second sieges of Paris, 1870-71.
In recognition of his various valuable services General Read was appointed November 7, 1873, United States Minister to Greece. During his mission there, which covered a period of six years, he received the thanks of his government for his ability and energy in securing the release of the American ship " America " and for his success in obtaining from the Greek government a revocation of the order prohibiting the sale and circulation of the Bible in Greece.
General Read is the author of many public addresses, official reports and learned papers, and an important historical in- quiry concerning Henry Hudson, delivered in the form of the first anniversary discourse before the Historical Society of Delaware, which discourse received the highest commendation from the most eminent scholars in Europe and America. An abridged edition of this work was published at Edinburgh in 1882, by the Clarendon Historical Society. General Read filled many high and important positions and received the highest tributes of praise for his eminent services. For many years he was an honorary member of the Historical Society of Delaware and was most generous in his attentions and dona- tions thereto.
MAJOR HARMON PUMPELLY READ.
This branch of the Read family is now represented by Major Harmon Pumpelly Read, a resident of Albany, New York, in which city he was born on July 13, 1860. He is a son of General John Meredith Read, and was educated at Paris and Athens, a military school, and at Trinity College. He has de- voted the most of his life to historical research. He is a promi- nent member of the Historical Societies of Pennsylvania and New York, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London, and a fellow of the Geographical Society of Paris. He holds the rank of Major in the New York State National Guard. Major Read is an eminent Mason, and one of the
A : EMINENT JURIST : FOR NEARLY THIRTY YEARS UNITED STATES DISTRICT ATTORNEY.
Grandson of Col John Head 1235-1753 of Mar Wand & beaware tv his wife Mary Howell and son of Hon George Read of Delaware ine Father of the Declare. the Thated State 3. by me w .- . trate Ross. : a "Siger" He was born August 20 91048 x. he H Mamy du of Jen. Wp Theme son, distinguished Revolutionary off . Read's mother, Catherine Ross, was the sister of 1 Reads mother. Ne Real was : and conversation al rewers, and his taste test: WHEN THE CUBS:
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the father of Hun Geo Read 324 of Delaware Jozef Dr. Nathan Dersev a surgeon in the Revelator er emvar is an erinera phvaicinz pra Ver Read 3d died at the family mansion NowIs 182% on the eve of his nomination to the Sintra Senate. His son Con Health and his grandson Geo Kan 15% were successively owners of Fos-
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INFLUENTIAL DELAWARE FAMILIES.
most learned members of the craft in Masonic history, having reached the thirty-second degree.
HON. GEORGE READ, JR.
Hon. George Read, Jr., eldest son of George Read, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born at New Castle, Delaware, August 17, 1765. George Read, Jr., was an emi- nent jurist and for nearly thirty years was United States Dis- trict Attorney of Delaware. He was the owner of large plan- tations in Mississippi. On the 30th of October, 1786, he married Mary Thompson, daughter of General William Thompson, a distinguished Revolutionary officer, at the lat- ter's country-seat near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Thomp- son was Catharine Ross, the sister of Gertrude Ross, wife of George Read, the Signer. George Read, Jr., was a gentleman of courtly manners and had the honor of entertaining Lafay- ette at the Read mansion on his (Lafayette's) second visit to America. He died September 3, 1836, and was buried in the graveyard of Immanuel Episcopal Church at New Castle.
WILLIAM THOMPSON READ.
William Thompson Read, son of George Read, Jr., of Dela- ware, was born at New Castle, August 22, 1792. He gradu- ated at Princeton College, studied law with his father, and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1813. He resided in Wash- ington several years, and was Secretary of the Legation of the United States to Buenos Ayres, was elected a State Senator in 1830. He was a highly cultured gentleman and was greatly respected in all the relations of life. He was the author of the life of his grandfather, George Read, the Signer. He died at his home in New Castle, Delaware, January 27, 1873.
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INFLUENTIAL DELAWARE FAMILIES.
THE RODNEY FAMILY.
The first American Rodney was William Rodeney, who was born in England in 1652, and came to America with William Penn in 1682. He was a direct descendant of the ancient English family of de Rodeney, his ancestor being Sir Waner Rodeney, born A. D. 1100. The earliest record of the family is found in an ancient book belonging to the Cathedral of Wells, in which the name of de Rodeney is mentioned in con- nection with the founding of that church three hundred years before the Norman Conquest. The Rodeneys were prominent military men in England. William Rodeney, the first, was six times a member of the Delaware Assembly under the Penn government, and held other offices of trust. His death oc- curred in 1708, and he left a large landed estate, which sub- sequently went to his grandson Cæsar Rodney, the Signer.
WILLIAM RODENEY.
William Rodeney, the eldest son of William Rodeney, the first, was born in 1689, seven years after his father settled in Delaware. He married in 1711. Two sons were born of the marriage, Cæsar and John. Cæsar, the first, was named for his great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Cæsar, a merchant of Lon- don, whose daughter, Alice Cæsar, was the mother of William Rodeney, the first American settler. Cæsar, the first, was the youngest of eight children, and was born in 1707. He mar- ried Elizabeth Crawford, daughter of Rev. Thomas Crawford, one of the earliest rectors of the Episcopal Church at Dover. He died in 1745.
CAESAR RODNEY.
Caesar Rodney (the Signer) was born October 7, 1728, near Dover. He was the son of Caesar Rodney and Elizabeth (Crawford), and inherited, as the oldest son, the landed estate of his grandfather, William Rodeney. He had only limited opportunities of obtaining an education, but early showed good judgment and gave promise, in his youth, of the event-
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ful career that afterwards befell him. He was chosen high sheriff in 1758, and four years later served as a member of the State Assembly. He was closely allied in all of his public life with Thomas MeKean and George Read. With them he framed the address to the king thanking him for the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. In 1762 he served with Mckean in revising and compiling the laws of the Province, and three years later served with Mckean in the Stamp Act Congress.
From 1766 to 1769 Rodney was an active member of the State Assembly, and voted at that early day against the im- portation of slaves into the Province. For three year's preced- ing the Revolution he served as a member of the Committee of Correspondence, an organization of the leading men of that time who opposed the oppression shown by the English gov- ernment toward the Colonics. In 1774, '75 and '76 he served as a member of the Continental Congress, and during part of that time was Speaker of the Delaware Assembly and brigadier- general in the Continental army.
During the war he was a firm friend of General Washington and in close correspondence with him. By bis vote Rodney was able to give the vote of Delaware in favor of the Declara- tion of Independence. The three delegates in Congress at that time from Delaware were Rodney, Mckean and Read. The latter hesitated about voting for the Declaration, hoping that the Colonies might in some way have their wrongs righted without separating from the mother country. Mc- Kean, in his vigorous way, was for the Declaration. Rodney was absent, but Mckean dispatched a messenger for him, who found him at his farm near Dover, and from there he came by horse in great haste, reaching Independence Hall, in Phil- adelphia, in time to record his vote for the famous Declara- tion. His vote and Mckean's represented a majority of the delegates from Delaware, and in that way the vote of Delaware was cast, with the twelve other Colonies, in favor of the Declaration.
When Howe landed at the Head of Elk, in August, 1777,
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Rodney was placed in charge of the Delaware State Militia, and guarded the State against invasion. In 1778 Cæsar Rodney was elected President of Delaware State, serving the full constitutional term, After his retirement from the Presi- dency he was elected to the State Council and served as Speaker in 1784. He died from a cancerous affection on June 26, 1784, while yet a comparatively young man. For fidelity to duty, for high sense of patriotism, and for unwavering ser- vice to his State, no man has excelled Cæsar Rodney. He never married. His brother Thomas Rodney, a most worthy man, was the only Rodney in this line who left a male de- scendant.
THOMAS RODNEY.
Thomas Rodney, son of Cæsar and Elizabeth Rodney, and a younger brother of Cæsar Rodney, the Signer, was a man of influence in the State, and figures as one of the leading actors in the politics of his day. Born on the fourth day of June, 1744, near Dover, his life was largely spent in Kent County. He served as Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court of his native county, was many times a member of the General Assembly of the State, served on the Council of Safety, and was President of the Committee of Inspection of Kent County. During the Revolution he served as Captain of a militia company known as the Dover Light Infantry, and was afterwards Colonel of the Eighth Regiment of Delaware Militia. He saw active service in the New Jersey campaign of 1777.
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