USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 33
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Joseph McDade grew to manhood in this county, and obtained his education in the ex- cellent public schools. At the age of sixteen he left school and began a sea-faring life, which he has followed ever since-now a pe- riod of nearly forty-five years. He began his career on the water as cook for a small vessel plying between Marcus Hook and Philadel- phia, but soon assumed the practical duties of a sailor, which he mastered in every detail, and by successive promotions in the service finally reached the position of captain of a vessel in 1873, since which time he has com- manded a number of important boats and steam ships. In 1863 he had command of a steam vessel in the government service, and in 1893 resigned the captaincy of the Richard Stockton, built in 1853, one of the oldest boats on the Delaware river, which was built and owned by the Pennsylvania Road Company and run
as a pleasure boat, to assume command of the Emeline, a handsome cruising yacht re- cently completed at the Roach shipyards in Chester for John B. Roach.
On February 1, 1869, Captain McDade was married to Amy Hedden, a native of Manna- hawkin, Ocean county, New Jersey, and a daughter of William and Lucretia Hedden. To the Captain and Mrs. McDade have been born five sons, only two of whom now survive: Edward, deceased; Albert D., a bright and promising young man, who will graduate from the university of Pennsylvania in June, 1894, and is now a law student in the office of Thortius Vanderslice, No. 608 Chestnut street, Phildadelphia; Joseph Hilary, deceased ; Er- nest, deceased, and J. G. B. McDade, living at home with his parents.
In political sentiment Captain McDade has been a republican all his life, and when at home has taken an active part in municipal affairs, and done much for the success of his party at the polls. He was elected to a seat in the select council of Chester in 1890, and is now serving his fourth consecutive year in that office. In his official capacity he has al- ways kept the city's welfare in view, and dis- charged his duties in a manner to serve the public good rather than private interests. He is a leading member of St. Luke's Episcopal church, and also of the Royal Arcanum.
₣ RANK RAYMOND SAVIDGE, of the Philadelphia bar, formerly a law partner of the late Attorney General Benjamin Harris Brewster, and now executor of his large estate, was born in the village of Hancock, Maryland, May 22, 1866, while his father was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at that time. The family from which he is de- scended was planted in America early in the eighteenth century. A genealogical work re- cently published at Belfast, Ireland, sustains this claim and shows that the founders of the family came into England with William the
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Conqueror. They fought at the battle of Hastings, October 14, 1066, and afterward settled in England, where they lived until the reign of Henry VII. That monarch granted a large estate in Ireland to Sir Rock Savage for services rendered the crown, and this es- tate thenceforth became the principal seat of the family. Upon it Sir Rock Savage and his descendants continued to reside in succession. Soon after the advent of the eighteenth cen- tury, two brothers left the ancestral estate in Ireland and sailed for America with all their possessions on board. Their vessel was wrecked in sight of the American coast, but the two brothers escaped, and swimming ashore, pluckily began life anew, with all their goods and treasure at the bottom of the sea. One of these brothers settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, from whom came Dr. Savage, now of Pottstown. The other found a home in Northumberland county. A schoolmaster of this branch, tracing the family to French origin, returned to the French orthography- Savidge. From this branch is descended the. subject of the present sketch, and also Judge Savidge, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
Samuel Savidge, paternal grandfather of Frank Raymond, was a prominent railroad contractor of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where he passed most of his life. He executed a number of large contracts on the Cumberland Valley and the Danville & Hazelton railroads, and became prosperous and well known in rail- road circles. His death occurred at Sunbury in 1889, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Politically he was a whig and republican, took an active part in public affairs, served as del- egate to many State and county conventions, and was at one time a prominent candidate for Sheriff of Northumberland county.
Coleman Hall Savidge, father of Frank R., was born in Northumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1835, and obtained liis education at Freeburg academy and Dickinson seminary, Pennsylvania. In 1857 he entered the minis- try of the Methodist Episcopal church. He
was chaplain of the 52nd Pennsylvania infan- try, and was present at the battles of Antietam and South Mountain. For fifteen years he was actively engaged in the itinerant ministry, but in 1870 connected himself with the book publishing business of the Methodist Book Concern, New York, with which he is still associated. He is a republican in politics. In December, 1861, he was married to Alcinda Harwood Creager. a daughter of Ephraim Creager, of Frederick county, Maryland. To them was born a family of five children, three sons and two daughters. The eldest is Dr. Eugene Coleman Savidge, a practicing phy- sician of New York city, and author of several well known works of biography and fiction. His education was obtained in the Baltimore city college, the university of New York and the university of France, at Paris. The second son was Frank Raymond Savidge, whose name heads this sketch; the third, Edgar, now studying medicine in the university of Penn- sylvania ; Myrtle Warfield, and Grace, now at school, are the daughters.
Mrs. Alcinda Harwood Savidge, mother of Frank Raymond, is a lineal descendant of the Warfields, Stocketts and Harwoods, all of English descent, who came to America in col- onial times and settled in Maryland. Major Harwood served with distinction in the Rev- olutionary war. Thomas Harwood was first Lord Treasurer of Maryland. which office he held during his lifetime and was succeeded by his brother, Benjamin Harwood.
Mrs. Savidge was graduated from Mount Washington college, near Baltimore, Mary- land, in 1858 and received first honors in a class of sixteen and a gold medal for "General Scholarship."
Frank Raymond Savidge began his educa- tion under the refining influences of a cul- tured Christian home and continued it with great credit both in the Philadelphia High school and Baltimore city college. In 1885 he enrolled as a student of law with the Hon- orable Benjamin Harris Brewster, attorney
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general under Arthur's administration, and remained in Mr. Brewster's office until Janu- ary, 1888, when at the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the bar. Soon afterward Mr. Savidge associated himself in a law partner- ship with Mr. Brewster, who having the full- est confidence in the ability of his young part- ner, at once engaged him to assist in many grave and important cases. This partnership lasted until the death of Mr. Brewster, April 4, 1888, at which time Mr. Savidge, by the terms of Mr. Brewster's will, became executor of his estate and guardian of his son.
Mr. Savidge was secretary of the meeting called by the bar to pay honor to the memory of Mr. Brewster, and in the natural course of events has succeeded to much of the law prac- tice of his distinguished partner and has built up himself a large practice.
He is solicitor of the borough of Ridley Park, and director and solicitor of a number of corporations. Mr. Savidge has recently written and published a valuable work on the "Law of Boroughs in Pennsylvania, " highly spoken of by the critics, judges and lawyers. His success at the bar has given him high standing among the profession and with the courts.
Politically Frank Raymond Savidge is a re- publican, and has taken some active interest in local politics. He is a member of Lodge No. 51, of the Masonic Order, Philadelphia, and a vestryman of Christ church, Ridley Park.
Since 1883 Mr. Savidge has been a resident of Ridley Park and has done much toward building up the interests and increasing the prosperity of the borough and vicinity. He is unmarried.
G EORGE L. HORNING, a Union sol- dier of the late civil war, and the pro- prietor of one of the largest meat markets of the city of Chester, is one of the self-made men of Pennsylvania, who have achieved
remarkable success. He is a son of John and Sarah (Lenhart) Horning, and was born in Harrisburg, Dauphin county, Pennsyl- vania, February 12, 1841. The Hornings are of Scotch and German descent, and John Horning was born January 7, 1806, in Dauphin county, where he died August 7, 1854, at forty-four years of age. He was a shoemaker by trade, and during the latter years of his life carried on a boot and shoe house in Harrisburg. He was a whig and a member of the Baptist church, in which he served for several years as a deacon. Mr. Horning married Sarah Lenhart, who was born November 20, 1811, and is a daughter of Jacob Lenhart, and died January 12, 1890, when in the 79th year of her age. Their children were: Mary Jones, Maggie, Rebecca, Ella (deceased), George L., John and Jacob.
George L. Horning was reared principally on a farm, and after attending the public schools for a few terms was compelled by the death of his father to leave school in order to help maintain his mother. He worked for some time as a farm hand at twenty-five cents per day, then learned the trade of butcher, and at the suggestion of a friend came to Chester as a favorable place at which to com- mence life for himself. Before coming to Chester, the civil war broke out, and he enlisted at Harrisburg on May 2, 1861, in Company F, 25th Pennsylvania infantry, which was organized April 18, and served at Washington until June 29, when it and com- panies D, G, H and I, marched to Rockville, Maryland, and became a part of the 7th brigade, 3rd corps of Patterson's army. He served at Harper's Ferry and Bunker Hill, and in the Shenandoah valley, and was hon- orably discharged at Harrisburg on August 1, 1861. Mr. Horning re-enlisted in the Federal service on July 15, 1864, as a member of Company A, 197th Pennsylvania infantry, which was fully organized at Camp Cad- wallader, Philadelphia, on July 22, being
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known as the 3rd Coal Exchange regiment, with J. R. Haslett as colonel. This regiment first served as a part of the 18th corps, being stationed at Baltimore, in the middle depart- ment. On August 8, it was sent to Rock Island, Illinois, where it acted as a guard over Confederate prisoners, until November 7, when it returned to Philadelphia, where it was mustered out of the Federal ser- vice on the rith of the last named month. Mr. Horning after returning from the army in 1861, opened a meat shop on Essex street, in Chester, where he remained for two years. At the end of that time he removed to the site of his present place of business, on West Second street. In 1877 he purchased a large frontage of fifty-one feet to his store site and erected his present large and well arranged meat market, which is twenty-five by one hundred and forty-four feet, with two annexes of eighteen by twenty and twenty by twenty feet in dimensions. His patronage is first class, while in size it equals any meat market in the city. Mr. Horning is interested in various business enterprises, and has been a director for some years in Consumer's Ice Company and the Delaware County Building association, and has served as president and treasurer of the Franklin Fire Company .
On May 3, 1864, Mr. Horning was united in marriage with Sarah J. Carr, and to their union have been born two children : Henry, a graduate of the public schools of Chester. and Georgiana, now attending school.
In politics Mr. Horning is a republican, and has served as a member of the common council from the Seventh ward. He is a member of Chester Lodge, No. 76, Knights of Pythias : Mocoponaca Tribe, No. 149, Improved Order of Red Men ; Chester Council. No. 553, Royal Arcanum ; Sharpless Council, American Legion of Honor, No. 1066; and Upland Lodge, No. 253, and Chester Encampment, No. 99, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. George L. Horning has won his own way in life. Purpose, vigor and perseverance have
been to him the talismanic words of prosperity, advancement and success. Directing his thoughts and devoting his energies to his pres- ent line of business, it has grown up into pro- portions of great size. Mr. Horning is a patient and hard worker, who is capable and honest and carefully watches for opportunities in his different commercial enterprises, as well as closely supervising the routine duties of his office and business establishments.
H ARRY G. MASON, proprietor of the well known Morton hotel of Chester, and one of her most enterprising and prosper- ous citizens, is a son of John D. and Sarah P. (Lightfoot) Mason, and was born June 4, 1846, near Dowingtown, Chester county, Pennsylvania. The Masons have resided in Chester county since the time of William Penn, their American progenitor having been among the English Quakers who came out to the new colony at that time. John Mason, paternal grandfather of Harry G. Ma- son, was a native of Chester county, where he passed nearly all his life, and died in 1830, at an advanced age. He was a farmer by occu- pation and a member of the Society of Friends. By his marriage to Sarah Pratt he had a fam- ily of children, one of his sons being John D. Mason (father), who was born on the old homestead in Chester county in 1802, and died at Lenni, Delaware county, February II, 1866, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. All his active life was devoted to agricultural pur- suits, principally in his native county, though he removed to Delaware county a short tinie prior to his death. Politically he was a dem- ocrat, but never took an active part in public affairs, being of a quiet and retiring disposi- tion. In 1827 he married Sarah P. Lightfoot, a daughter of Jacob Lightfoot, and a native of Maiden's creek, Bucks county, this State. They had a family consisting of six sons and three daughters. Mrs. Mason now resides with her son, the subject of this sketch, and is
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in the eighty-third year of her age, having been born April 9, 1810.
Harry G. Mason grew to manhood on a farm near Dowingtown, Chester county, this State, and obtained a good English education in the public schools of that vicinity. Soon after completing his studies he entered a woolen mill at his native place, and continued to fol- low that business until 1878. On August 17, 1878, he assumed the management of the Washington hotel in Chester county, which he conducted successfully until 1880. Tradi- tion says that George Washington visited the hotel and slept there during the Revolutionary war, and from that fact is derived its present name. In the summer of 1880 Mr. Mason came to Chester and took charge of his present hotel -- the Morton House-at the corner of Eighth street and Morton avenue. From that time to the present he has continuously con- ducted this popular house, and has become well known to the traveling public and won a fine reputation as a successful caterer. Mr. Mason was one of the organizers and is now a director of the Consumers' Ice Manufactur- ing Company of this city. In addition to his hotel he owns other valuable real estate in Chester.
On July 5, 1868, Harry G. Mason was united in marriage to Fannie Wagonseller, a native of Delaware county, and a daughter of David Wagonseller, then of Delaware, but formerly of Chester county. To Mr. and Mrs. Mason was born one child, a daughter named Mary E., now living at home with her parents.
A stanch democrat in politics, Mr. Mason has always taken considerable interest in pub- lic and political affairs, and in 1886 was elected on the Democratic ticket to a seat in the city council, in which honorable body he served acceptably for a period of three years. At the time of the battle of Gettysburg Mr. Mason went out with the emergency men, al- though only eighteen years of age, and served until after the Confederate forces nnder Lee had left Pennsylvania. He then joined a con-
struction corps and went to North Carolina, where they were engaged in building bridges and repairing railroads for the United States government until the war ended, when he re- turned to Pennsylvania. He is pleasant and affable in manner, and seems remarkably well adapted to the hotel business, in which he has won conspicuous success. As a citizen he is public spirited and useful, and commands the respect and esteem of all who know him.
J. B. WILLIAMS, superintendent of the extensive works of the Bear Creek Refin- ing Company, at Marcus Hook, this county, and who has been closely identified with the oil business of Pennsylvania for many years, is a son of Adam and Nancy(Landis ) Williams, and was born August 30, 1837, at Greensburg, Westmoreland county, this State. His father was a prosperous farmer of that county, and Mr. Williams remained on the farm until his sixteenth year, receiving a good primary edu- cation in the public schools. At the age of sixteen he went to live with Judge Henry M. Breckenridge, who was territorial judge of Florida under President Jackson, and soon became manager of the judge's estate of twen- ty-two hundred acres, located on the Allegheny river, where the village of Tarentum now stands. The judge took a friendly interest in his youthful manager, and under his advice and tutelage Mr. Williams greatly improved his knowledge, making himself familiar with many of the higher branches included in a liberal education, and acquiring such a store of practical information that he has ever since felt inclined to give Judge Breckenridge the credit of having educated him. The judge laid out and founded the town of Tarentum, and Mr. Williams remained with him until he was twenty-two years of age. He then trav- eled for two years through the southern and western states, making himself familiar with those sections of the Union. Returning to Pennsylvania Mr. Williams engaged in the
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lumber business at Tarentum, but after one year removed to the oil fields on Oil creek and began drilling oil wells by contract. In 1860 he entered the employ of an Ohio firm, Lyday, Chorpenning & Co., who owned the Buchanan farm on Oil creek, as manager of their busi- ness, and remained in that position until 1862, when the firm called him to Pittsburg to build an oil refinery for them in that city. After the refinery was finished Mr. Williams became its general superintendent, and successfully managed the business for three years, when the firm purchased the Dawson farm, near Pitthole, in Venango county, paying over one hundred and twelve thousand dollars for three hundred acres of land, and sent Mr. Williams to develop that territory, he being also finan- cially interested in this enterprise. They abandoned this farm in 1867, and Mr. Wil- liams then purchased an interest in the firm of Porter, Crawford & Co., oil refiners (re-or- ganized as Fulton, Marvin & Co. ), whose works were situated on the Allegheny Valley railroad, twenty miles from Pittsburg. In 1872 this firm was merged in the Central Refining Company, with eight or ten otlier re- fineries, and Mr. Williams retired from the oil business to devote his attention to his salt interests on the Allegheny river. He contin-
ued in the salt business until 1875, when he disposed of his salt works and returned to the oil field as a driller and producer at Bullion Fields. One year later he transferred his operations to the Broadford oil fields, where he engaged in drilling wells and producing oil on his own account. and also had charge of the wells owned by Logan Brothers & Co., of Pittsburg and Philadelphia. Soon after this, while on a visit to his home in Pittsburg, he met T. C. Jenkins, the well known wholesale grocer of that city, and engaged with him as superintendent of his various warehouses in Pittsburg. In 1880 he went to Cole- man station, on the Allegheny Valley railroad, with B. B. Campbell, to construct the oil re- finery now known as No. I, of the Bear Creek
Refining Company. After it was built and in fine operation he went on the road for a time as traveling salesman for this. In 1881 the Ocean Oil Company was organizing their re- finery at Bayonne, New Jersey, and Mr. Wil- liams contracted with them to construct and superintend their factory, becoming at the same time a director in the company. Here he re- mained until December, 1892, when he re- ceived a better offer from the Bear Creek Refining Company to superintend their refin- ery, No. 2, at Marcus Hook, Delaware county, which position he has ever since occupied. This refinery covers some sixty-five acres of ground, with pipe line supplies requiring forty or fifty acres more, employs two hundred men and uses one hundred thousand barrels of crude oil every month. In its management Mr. Williams has demonstrated his accurate knowledge of the business, and met with the usual success which has attended all his oil enterprises.
In 1862 Mr. Williams was married to Mar- geret E. Morrison, a daughter of Samuel Morrison, of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. To them was born one child, a son named Joseph L. Mr. Williams is a democrat in politics and a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church.
The family from which J. B. Williams is descended is of Welsh extraction. His pater- nal grandfather, Thomas Williams, was a native of Maryland and served in the conti- nental army during the revolutionary war. He removed to Westmoreland county, Penn- sylvania, when a young man. where he mar- ried and reared a family of children. His son, Adam Williams (father ), was born and reared in Westmoreland county, this State, where he engaged in farming and also owned and man- aged a large saw mill. He died at his home in that county in 1861, aged seventy-two years. In religion he was a Lutheran and a democrat in politics. He served in the war of 1812 as a soldier under General Markle, of Greens- burg, this State. In 1815 he married Nancy
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Landis, a daughter of Jacob Landis, of Adams- burg, Westmoreland county, and to that union was born a family of nine children : Thomas, Elizabeth, Samuel, Peter, Aaron, Lavinia, John, Anna and J. B.
Mrs. Williams was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and died in 1870, aged seventy years. Three of their sons, Samuel, Peter and John, served in the Federal army during the civil war.
F. FARWELL LONG, M. D., a prom- · inent and popular young physician of the city of Chester, is a graduate of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and has been in suc- cessful practice here since 1888. Dr. Long is a son of Jesse G. and Caroline ( Ramsay) Long, and a native of Pittsfield, Illinois, where he was born March 15, 1865. His boy- hood was passed in that village, and his edu- cation was obtained in the primary and stand- ard high schools, from the latter of which he was graduated in 1884. In the following year he entered the medical department of the university of Pennsylvania, and in 1888 was duly graduated therefrom with the degree of M. D. The same year he opened an office in this city and at once entered upon the duties of his profession. Possessing many of the qualities that distinguish the successful physi- cian, and having carefully prepared himself by earnest study continued through a number of years, it is not surprising that Dr. Long met with immediate recognition, and soon found himself with a large general practice, to which he has continuously given his time and atten- tion ever since. Dr. Long was appointed resident surgeon of Chester for the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company on May 21, 1889, and is still acceptably filling that position. He is an active member of the Delaware County Medical society, and a careful reader and student of the latest and best literature of his profession.
On January 21, 1893, Dr. Long was wedded
to M. Garretta Roach, of this city, and young- est daughter of John B. Roach, president of the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine works, son of the late John Roach, the eminent ship builder, who acquired an inter- national reputation by his gigantic operations in ship and boat building. In politics Dr. Long is a republican.
The family of which the Doctor is a mem- ber is of Scotch - Irish lineage, and was origin- ally planted in America by Henry Long, pa- ternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was born and reared in Ireland, but left his native country while yet a young man, and crossing the turbulent Atlantic found a home in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, where he resided until 1831. In that year he removed to what is now known as Atlas, Illinois, where he purchased forty-two quarter sections of military bounty land and began farming. There he spent the remainder of his days, dying on his farm near Atlas about 1850, aged seventy-nine years. He married Emeline, a daughter of Gen. Jesse Greene, and reared a family of seven children. One of his sons is Jesse G. Long ( father), who was born in Bal- timore, Maryland, early in 1823, and when about eight years of age was taken by his par- ents to Atlas, Illinois, where he grew to man- hood. Soon after attaining his majority he engaged in farming for himself, and for many years operated extensively in that locality. He is now in the seventy-first year of his age, and for some time has been retired from all active business and is living quietly in Pittsfield.
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