USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 31
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Inheriting some of the martial spirit which animated his ancestors, besides having re- ceived a military education, Colonel Washa- baugh has always taken a great interest in all military matters ever since he came into the county. He was first elected captain of Co. B, 11th regiment infantry, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in May, 1876 ; elected major of the regiment in 1877, and served with it dur- ing the Pittsburg labor riots of that year. In 1881 he was elected lieutenant-colonel of the 6th regiment infantry, National Guard of Pennsylvania, and re-elected in 1886 and
again in 1891, so that he is serving his third term in that important office, and is the senior lieutenant-colonel in the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and the ranking military officer in the district.
On the 29th of November, 1869, the Colonel was united in marriage to Laura H. Walter, daughter of the Hon. Y. S. Walter, of Chester. To them have been born four children, three sons and one daughter. Walter, the eldest son, is now twenty-two years of age, and a civil engineer by profession. He graduated at the Pennsylvania Military academy in the class of 1889, and is now assistant engineer at the Homestead Mining Company, with head- quarters at Lead City, South Dakota. The daughter, Fanny, now in her eighteenth year, is just home from Wilson college, Chambers- burg, and the two younger sons, Frank and Albert, are aged respectively twelve and six years.
Colonel Washabaugh in politics is an ardent republican, and has taken an active and prom- inent part, both on the stump and in organiz- ing clubs, every campaign for years. He has never held any political office, although he has been an active member of council for years and occupies many other positions of honor, trust and responsibility in the community. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian, having been a member since 1864, and a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian church of Chester since 1885. He is a member and past master of L. H. Scott Lodge, No. 352, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and of Chester Holy Royal Arch Chapter, No. 258. He is a gentleman well and favorably known, affable and genial in manner, and ranks with the most popular citizens of Delaware county.
G EORGE J. STITELER, who is now serving his second term as burgess of Media, and is one of her most popular and successful business men, was born March 7, 1844, in Uwchlan township, Chester county,
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Pennsylvania. His parents were David and Lydia A. (McCaraher) Stiteler, both natives of that county. Young Stiteler attended the district schools of his native township until 1862, when at the age of eighteen he enlisted as a private in Co. A, 124th Pennsylvania in- fantry, Col. Joseph W. Hawley commanding. and served with his regiment until it was mus- stered out. He then went to Philadelphia and learned the trade of stove moulder. Leaving Philadelphia in 1865, he spent the following two years in the oil regions of West Virginia, where he was engaged in boring oil wells. In 1867 he went to Lionville, Penn- sylvania, and remained there until 1871, with the exception of a short time during which he was in the employ of the Philadelphia & West- chester railroad. In 1871 he came to Media, and held clerical positions with a number of local merchants until 1889, when he embarked in business for himself as a dealer in fish, oysters, clams, lobsters, and similar household supplies at his present stand on Orange street, above Jobeson's market. During the four years he has conducted this business he has acquired a wide reputation for enterprise and reliability, and his store is the popular resort of the good housewives of Media, who have learned by experience that everything bought of Stiteler is always just as represented. Two delivery wagons, with careful and obliging drivers, are employed delivering goods to his numerous customers in Media and vicinity.
Always an ardent republican in politics, Mr. Stiteler was honored in January, 1892, by his fellow citizens of that party with the nomina- tion for burgess of Media, and at the ensuing election, in February, 1892, was elected. His administration of the affairs of the office dur- ing his first term was so acceptable to the people that at the municipal election in Feb- ruary, 1893, he was reelected to that office, and is now serving his second term.
In 1876 Mr. Stiteler was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Carr, nee Mifflin, of the city of Phil- adelphia. To this union has been born three
sons : David R., George Garfield and Elwood R. Mr. Stiteler also has two step-children : Edward D. and Maggie.
'George J. Stiteler is an able and conscien- tious official, a reliable business man, and a public spirited citizen, who takes a lively in- terest in the prosperity of the borough over whose affairs he presides, and never allows his private business to interfere with his offi- cial duties. He is a member of Media Post, No. 149, Grand Army of the Republic; Pil- grim Lodge, No. +55, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Lionville, this State; Gar- field Lodge, No. 94, Knights of Pythias, of Media ; Charter Castle, Knights of the Golden Eagle; Lodge No. 354, Sons of America ; and Media Lodge, No. 749, Junior Order United American Mechanics. As a man and a citizen he is honored and respected by all who know him, without regard to politics, and in selecting him for the responsible posi- tion of burgess of Media, its people have con- fided its affairs to the hands of a competent and able officer.
The Stiteler family is of German extraction, its original ancestor in America being David Stiteler, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who came from Germany and set: tled in Uwchlan township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he lived until his death at an advanced age. His son, David Stiteler (grandfather ), was born in Chester county, where he lived all his life and died about 1878, aged ninety-three years. David Stiteler (father ) was also a native of Chester county, where he learned blacksmithing, and for many years carried on that business in Chester and Delaware counties. He was a republican in politics, and served as constable and assessor in Uwchlan township for twelve years in suc- cession. At the time of the battle of Antietam he served with the emergency men. In relig- ious faith and church membership he was a Baptist, and died in 1878, at the age of sixty- eight years. He married Lydia A. McCara- her, by whom he had a family of seven chil-
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dren, four sons and three daughters. Mrs. Stiteler was a daughter of James McCaraher (died in 1862) and a native of East Brandy- wine township, Chester county. She was of Irish extraction, a member of the Evangelical Luthern church, and died in April, 1878, in the sixty-fifth year of her age, greatly respected by all who knew her.
M AJOR JJAMES A. G. CAMPBELL,
treasurer and vice-president of The Del- aware County Trust. Safe Deposit and Title Insurance Company, was born February 19. 1858, in Chester, Pennsylvania. He is the youngest son of James and Angelina ( Garsed ) Campbell, and grandson of Joseph and Mary (Dodge) Campbell, of Stockport. England ; while in the maternal line he is a grand- son of John and Mary (Turner) Garsed, of Swiftplace Mills, Yorkshire, England, a family that has been noted as cotton manufacturers during three generations, in this country. and beyond the seas. His father, James Camp- bell, was the pioneer cotton manufacturer in the ancient borough of Chester, where by his energy, enterprise and business sagacity, the advantages of that place as a center for the mannfacture of textiles were first brought into prominence. It was by his efforts that other enterprises of a similar character were indnced to locate there, until the foundations for the multifarious and extended manufac- turing industries which now distinguish the locality were securely laid. Although in the panic of 1857 James Campbell was over- whelmed in the financial crash, his labors had not been in vain, for his reputation is imper- ishably interwoven with the history of the growth and development of the city of Ches- ter. He died when his son James was a child of four years.
Major Campbell, with the exception of six weeks devoted to special studies at the Ches- ter academy, was educated in the public schools of his native city. At sixteen years
he became clerk in the express office of Head- ley & Mahon, where he continued until the spring of 1876, when for the brief term already mentioned he attended the academy. For sev- eral months during the late summer and fall of that year he was express manager between Chester and Philadelphia ; then a clerk in the real estate office of John Cochran, in the lat- ter city, a position he left to accept that of book-keeper for Dutton & Anderson, lumber and coal dealers in Chester, and subsequently held a similar position in the planing mills of John H. Stroud & Co. On November 10, 1879, he entered the banking and stock broker- age house of Elliott, Sons & Co., on Third street, Philadelphia, where he remained until the fall of 1884. when, after the death of the senior member he became book-keeper for L. H. Taylor & Co., a stock brokerage firm doing an enormous business, located at Third and 'Chestnut streets. There he remained until the organization of the Chester Bank and Saving Fund, of which he was chosen receiv- ing teller, and also secretary of The Delaware County Trust, Safe Deposit and Title Insur- ance Company. These institutions began business August 26, 1885, and have had a career of unchecquered prosperity. On Feb- ruary 23, 1886, when twenty-eight years of age, he was elected cashier of the bank, and when the two institutions were merged under one organization, May 17, 1889, he was elected treasurer, and on May 20, 1892, elected vice- president. On May 17, 1893. he organized and started the Clearing House for the banks of the city of Chester and was its first man- ager. For two years, from 1890 to 1892, Major Campbell was secretary and treasurer of the Standard Spinning Company, manufac- turers of hosiery yarns in Chester, and is now connected in a like capacity with the John G. Campbell Company Finishing works, at Frank- ford, Pennsylvania. He is an active vestry- man of St. Paul's Episcopal church. In politics he is a republican, and during the Cleveland and Harrison campaign of 1888
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was in command of a battalion of four com- panies of young men of that party, but during the municipal contest of 1893 he was a mem- ber of the Citizen's Committee of Fifty which advocated and did so much to secure the election of John B. Hinkson, the democratic candidate for Mayor.
In military affairs Major Campbell has been exceedingly active. He was one of the orig- inal members of Co. B, 11th regiment (now the 6th) N. G. P., enlisting as a private on March 30, 1881. Appointed June 6, 1881, second sergeant, July 29, 1881, first sergeant, and elected first lieutenant January 8, 1883, a position lie resigned March 30, 1886, after a continuous service of five years. He was appointed, May 11, 1887, by Col. John W. Schall, first lieutenant and inspector of rifle practice for his old regiment, the 6th, and on July 20 of the same year, was appointed aid- de-camp, by Brig. Gen. George R. Snowden, with the rank of captain, on the staff of the first brigade, and acted as assistant adjutant general of that brigade from June 4, 1890, until November 11, of the same year. When, after the death of General Hartranft, General Snowden became major general, he appointed Campbell aid de-camp with rank of major, thus elevating him to the division staff. During his military career he took part in the inau- gural parades of President Cleveland in 1885, of President Harrison in 1889, and in that of President Cleveland in 1893, as also in the Constitutional Centennial parade in Philadel- phia in 1888, the Presidential Centenial in New York in 1889, and the Columbian Dedi- catory parade in Chicago in 1892. He was on duty with General Snowden at Homestead during the exciting riots at that place in the summer of 1892.
Major Campbell, November 26, 1889, was married to Elizabeth Hubley Mowry, daugh- ter of Rev. Dr. Philip H. and the late Eliza- beth (Richardson) Mowry, and has one child, John Richardson Campbell.
The success in life of Major Campbell is
due to his persistent energy, quickness of de- cision, close application to details of any business with which he is connected, and a comprehensive appreciation of the surround- ing circumstances that may make or mar the result sought to be attained.
J. FRANK BLACK, president of the Chester Coal & Lumber Company, the Chester National bank and the Chester Freight line between this city and Philadelphia, and prominently connected with many other lead- ing enterprises in Chester and elsewhere, is the youngest son of William V. and Maria (Cochran ) Black, and a native of Upper Darby township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, where he was born October 16, 1839. He grew to manhood in this county, receiving his education in the public schools of Haverford and at Galey's academy in Media, to which village his parents removed when he was four- teen years of age. Leaving school he entered his father's general store at Media and re- mained in the capacity of a clerk until he had reached his twenty-first birthday, when he formed a partnership with his elder brother, Henry B. Black, and the new firm succeeded to the general mercantile business which had been conducted by the elder Black at Media. In 1862 J. Frank Black enlisted in Co. D, 124th Pennsylvania infantry, as sergeant. Al- though his term of enlistment was only nine months, he served ten months before receiving his discharge, and actively participated in the battles of Antietam and Chancellorsville, be- side several other important engagements and a number of skirmishes. Returning to Media he was engaged in business there until 1865, when he came to Chester and embarked in the lumber, coal, saw and planing mill busi- ness in this city, in partnership with his fath- er-in-law, C. P. Morton, under the firm name of Morton & Black. Six months later the firm became Morton, Black & Brother, by the ad- mission of Henry B. Black, and continued
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active operations under that name until 1879, when Henry B. Black retired and the firm again became Morton & Black. Some time later Mr. Black's son, Crosby M. Black, was admitted into partnership, when the name be- came Morton, Black & Son, and still later was changed to J. Frank Black & Son. In 1891 the business was merged into the Chester Coal & Lumber Company, of which J. Frank Black is president, and his son, Crosby M. Black, is treasurer and general manager. This com- pany does a large coal and lumber business, and is widely and favorably known throughout this part of the State. In addition to his coal and lumber interests here, Mr. Black has long been prominently identified with a number of the leading financial and business enterprises of this city. He has been a director in the Chester National bank ever since its organiza- tion, and in April, 1893, was elected president of this institution, which office he is now hold- ing. For the last ten years he has been con- nected with the Chester freight line of boats plying between this city and Philadelphia, during eight of which he has served as presi- dent of the line. He is also a director and stockholder in many other industrial enter- prises of Chester.
On February 16, 1865, Mr. Black was united in marriage to Sue C. Morton, a daughter of Crosby P. Morton, now of this city, but for- merly of Philadelphia. To Mr. and Mrs. Black was born a family of three children, two of whom now survive : Crosby M., who mar- ried Mary E. Chambers, of this city, and has two children-Sne M. and J. Frank; and Sarah C., living at home with her parents.
Politically J. Frank Black is a republican, and has served six terms as a member of the city council, during two of which he was presi- dent of the select council. In religions faith he is a Presbyterian, and for a number of years has served as ruling elder in the Third Presbyterian church of this city. Personally he is affable and pleasant, easily approached, and modest to a marked degree in speaking
of his well-earned and remarkable success in life.
The family from which the subject of this sketch is descended is of Scotch-Irish origin, but were among the early settlers of Pennsyl- vania. Samuel Black, paternal grandfather of J. Frank Black, was an early resident of Marple township, this county, where he mar- ried Catharine Van Leer, by whom he had six children : Joseph, Samuel, William V., Ann, Catharine V. and John. William V. Black (father), was a native of Marple township, born August 22, 1796, and died November 24, 1883, at his home in the city of Chester, where he had resided for a number of years. During the earlier part of his life he was a prosperous farmer of this county, and later engaged in mercantile pursuits, in which he was also very successful. He married Maria Cochran, a daughter of Isaac Cochran, of this county, and to them was born a family of ten children : Catharine, who married J. C. Lindsey ; Isaac C., Samuel G., Elizabeth Jane, William, Han- nah Maria, Susannah, Henry B. and J. Frank. Of this family only three now survive.
D ANIEL NEWSOME, of South Ches-
ter, who served as a Union soldier in the late war, is a member of the well known and successful Byram Manufacturing Company, and is a man esteemed for stability, judgment and energy. He is a son of James and Re- becca (Ellingsworth) Newsome, and was born in Yorkshire, England, November 30, 1844. His paternal grandfather, James Newsome, was a silk hand loom weaver by trade, and passed his life in Yorkshire, where he reared a respectable family of sons and daughters. His son. James Newsome, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared in his native county of Yorkshire, which he left in 1855 with his family to become a resident of Rockdale, in Delaware county, where he owned and cultivated a farm for some time. He then removed to Iowa, in which State he
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died in 1875, at sixty-eight years of age. Mr. Newsome was a republican politically, and married Rebecca Ellingsworth, who was born in England, and their children were : William, Sarah Gore, Anna Parkins, Mary Maloney, John, James, Rebecca Gore, Samuel, Daniel and Wright.
Daniel Newsome received his education in the schools of Rockdale and then entered the cotton mills, where he worked until he was seventeen years of age. He then, in July, 1864, enlisted in Co. 1, 19th Pennsylvania in- fantry, and after being successively stationed at Baltimore, Maryland, and Rock Island, Illinois, his company was detailed to assist in enforcing the draft in one part of that State. At the expiration of his term of service, in 1864, he was honorably discharged from the Union service and returned home, where he was employed for several years in all the dif- ferent processes of cotton manufacture. In 1883 Mr. Newsome embarked in his present general mercantile business at Second and Engle streets, South Chester, where his wife is general manager, and employs four sales- men in order to accommodate their extensive patronage, which is the largest of its kind in South Chester. He owns his store room, dwelling and three buildings adjoining. while his wife has two fine properties on Jefferson street. In June, 1889, upon the death of his brother-in-law, Joseph Byram, who was the proprietor of the Byram Cotton Mills, Mr. Newsome, at the solicitation of the widow, purchased a half interest in the plant, and has continued ever since as the treasurer and sec- retary of the Byram Manufacturing Company. of which Mrs. E. Byram is president. Under Mr. Newsome's active and energetic course of action the plant has been increasing in capa- city, the grade of goods has attained a high standard of excellence in manufacture, and the entire product of these mills is sold to commission houses. The plant of this sub- stantial and prosperous company is located at Third and Booth, in South Chester, whose
postoffice is Thurlow. The main building is a two-story brick structure, two hundred by fifty-four feet, with a weekly capacity of sixty- five hundred pounds of raw material. When running full they employ sixty-three hands, with a weekly pay roll of about five hundred dol- lars, and the cotton and woolen goods of the Byram Manufacturing Company are fast win- ning their way to popular favor.
In 1869 Mr. Newsome wedded Salina Green- wood, daughter of James Greenwood, of Lenni, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. Their union has been blessed with two children : Howard G. and Nellie P.
Daniel Newsome is a republican in political affairs, and has been a member for several years of Benevolent Lodge, No. 40, Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows. Thoroughly ed- ucated by many years of experience in a cot- ton mill to the practical side of his present business, when he came to face the many cares and numerous responsibilities of a manufac- turer he was well equipped for his position, and moved forward intelligently through every detail, developing many of those character- istics that have since distinguished his career as a successful business man and cotton and woolen manufacturer in a section of country where superiority and excellence alone can win in commercial life.
H ORACE B. DAVIS, the popular agent of the Chester Oil Company and local manager of the Atlantic Refining Company, who is now serving as councilman from the Sixth ward of Chester, and was a prominent candidate for county treasurer in 1893, is a son of James and Catharine ( Hoagland ) Davis, and was born January 16, 1842, at Roxborough, then a suburb of Philadelphia, but now in- cluded within the corporate limits of that city. The family from which he is descended is of ancient Welsh stock, and was planted in Penn- sylvania in colonial times by Welsh Quakers. who left their native land to find a new home
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on this side of the Atlantic soon after William Penn first visited his possessions on the Dela- ware. The emigrant ancestor of this branch of the family settled in Montgomery county, where h's descendants have become numerous and where Mordecai Davis, paternal grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared. He was a farmer by occupation, and died at his home in that county. Among his children was James Davis father), who was born on the old homestead in Montgom- ery county and grew to manhood and received his education there. After leaving school he learned the blacksmith trade, and followed that occupation nearly all his life. He mar- ried Catharine Hoagland, and soon afterward established himself in business at Roxborough. near Philadelphia, where he died in 1848. For a number of years he was a member of the State militia, and saw active service during the great Philadelphia riots of 1844. In poli- tics he was an old line whig. By his marriage to Catharine Hoagland he had a family of three children, one son and two daughters : Elener, Louisa and Horace B. Mrs. Davis was a native of Montgomery county, this State, to which her parents had removed from Rox- borongh, Philadelphia county. She wasa mem- ber of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church. and died in December, 1892, aged seventy- eight years. Her father, John Hoagland, was born at Roxborough and died there. He mar- ried a Miss Everman, whose ancestors came from Germany at an early day and purchased a tract of land near Philadelphia for five hun- dred dollars. As the city grew this land be- came valuable, and part of it was sold for one thousand dollars an acre and is now included in Fairmount park. The early generations of the Davises were all Quakers, and several of the family served in the American army dur- ing the Revolutionary war.
Horace B. Davis passed his boyhood days in Roxborough, and came to Chester, Dela- ware county, when thirteen years of age, where he has ever since resided. Losing his father
when only six years old, he was early thrown on his own resources, and his opportunities for an education were somewhat limited. He studied for a time in the public schools, but to industrious reading and a close study of men and things he is indebted for much of that large stock of practical information which long ago placed him among the most intelli- gent and best informed citizens of Chester. Like most men who have attained prominence in business or professional life, Mr. Davis re- lied on his own exertions to shape his career, and by persistent effort and indomitable energy he slowly but surely worked his way up from the humble position of an apprentice boy in the old Gartside mills to an enviable standing among the foremost citizens of his adopted connty. After leaving the Gartside mills he entered the employ of Frick & Thomas, at their boat yard in this city, where he remained for six years, and then embarked in business for himself as a honse painter. He success- fully followed this vocation until 1880, when he was appointed agent for the Chester Oil Company in Chester and Delaware counties. He has been remarkably successful in this enterprise and is still extensively engaged in the oil business, and is also the present man- ager of the Atlantic Refining Company's busi- ness in this city and county.
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