USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 37
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LAPIONS L
Sammel Greenwood,
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
and Accepted Masons, since his twenty-third year, and finds himself, in the very prime of life, at the head of an important and lucra- tive business, with an enviable standing in the commercial world, and an equally high place in the personal regards of his fellow citizens.
SAMUEL GREENWOOD, a prosper-
ous real estate dealer of Chester, who is ex-president of the city council and president of the Chester board of trade, is a fine example of the self-made men of our times. He was born on Sunday, September 5, 1841, at Old- ham, near Manchester, England. His par- ents, Stephen and Nancy ( Winterbottam ) Greenwood, were both natives of the same place, who came to America and settled at Chester, this county, in 1848, where Mr. Greenwood was connected with the Blakeley Manufacturing Company for a number of years. His father, John Greenwood, grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was an English farmer, and early in the present cen- tury came to America on a prospecting tour. He traveled in a sailing vessel and was twenty weeks in crossing the Atlantic, being wrecked on the island of Bermuda, and delayed by ad- verse winds in other quarters. After looking over this country he returned to England, and in 1848 brought his family to Delaware county, Pennsylvania, where he passed the remainder of his days, dying in 1880, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. He was reared in the established church of England, but later embraced the doctrines of John Wesley, and became prominent in the Methodist society, which was then in such disfavor that his broth- ers considered he had disgraced the family by becoming a Methodist, and this fact is said to have influenced his course in coming to Amer- ica. Stephen Greenwood (father,) died in 1892, aged seventy-six, having been retired from all active business for a number of years. His widow now resides in Chester, and is an
exemplary member of the Madison street Methodist Episcopal church.
Samuel Greenwood came to Chester with his parents when only eleven years of age, and was principally reared in this city, receiv - ing his primary education in the public schools. In 1860, with means he had himself saved, he entered Fort Edward institute, at Fort Ed- ward, New York, from which institution he was graduated at the age of twenty-five, carry- ing off first prize in the oratorical contest. After graduation he engaged in teaching, and was for three years principal of the Valatie High school in the town of Kinderhook, New York. He then received a flattering offer from the Domestic Sewing Machine Company, of New York, to act as their general traveling agent, and accepting the position, was seven years in the employ of that company, during which he traveled all over the United States and Canada on business connected with their various agencies in the two countries. This employment brought him into contact with all kinds of people and presented advantages for studying human nature which Mr. Greenwood was not slow to improve. It also proved much more remunerative than teaching, and gave him his first start toward financial prosperity. In 1877 he resigned his position with the sew- ing machine company, and returning to Ches- ter, opened a real estate office in this city. Endowed with good judgment and inheriting excellent business ability, which had been rendered effective by careful training and va- ried experience, he met with success from the very beginning of his new enterprise, and has made many important deals and amassed a handsome competency.
In his political affiliations Mr. Greenwood has always been a republican, and for a num- ber of years has taken an active and import- ant part in local politics. In 1876 he was elected a member of the common council of Chester, and in 1888 had the honor of presid- ing over the first select council ever elected in this city. He is also a manager of the Ches-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
ter hospital. He is one of the most public spirited citizens of Chester, was secretary of the committee that secured the handsome public building now used as the Chester post- office, and to his untiring efforts is due much of the credit for final success in the long con- test to secure its erection. He is president of the Chester board of trade and has repre- sented that organization in the National board of trade. In personal appearance Mr. Green- wood is handsome and portly, as may be seen by the portrait which accompanies this sketch, and in manner is jovial and extremely affable, which renders him popular and makes him liked by everybody.
On January 28, 1868, Samuel Greenwood was wedded to Josephine Beebe, of the city of Chester, and a daughter of George Beebe, a well known carpenter of Delaware county. To Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood was born a fam- ily of five children, two sons and three daugh- ters : Flora B., Albert S., Ida J., Harry E. and Nina J. Mrs. Greenwood died May 21. 1888, aged forty years. Mr. Greenwood owns large real estate interests in Chester, and has done much for the improvement of the city by the erection within her borders of many fine residences and business houses. He is an agreeable companion, a good entertainer, and a representative citizen.
OL. WILLIAM CLEMSON GRAY,
was born near Claymont, Delaware, October 4, 1831. He is of Scotch descent, his great-grandfather, James Gray, having mi- grated to Pennsylvania in the early part of the last century, accompanied by a brother, John. Locating at first in Cumberland county, in 1754, they pushed out in the wilderness, set- tling in the present Milford township, Juniata county, where with other pioneers they built a block-house, known in history as Fort Big- ham. On June 11, 1756, the Indians attacked the fort, but it chanced that both of the brothers were absent from the settlement at the time.
The family of James Gray had not sought shelter in the block-house and they escaped capture, while the wife and child of John Gray were carried off by the savages. The story of the father's search for his lost ones, the return of Ann Gray from Canada after her husband's death, the recognition by the mother after many years of the daughter among a number of returned Indian captives, the lengthy law- suit growing out of the will of John Gray and its final determination against the supposed daughter, constitutes one of the most interest- ing chains of incidents in the history of central Pennsylvania, but in this sketch can be merely alluded to. Thomas Gray (son of James), and his wife Margery, along about the middle of this century, located in Aston, where he contracted with Abraham Sharpless, then owner of the noted Sarum Iron works, at Glen Mills, for the transportation of the iron ore from and the re- turn of the manufactured iron to Marcus Hook, where it was shipped to Philadelphia and other seaboard cities. In this occupation Thomas Gray accumulated considerable means. finally purchasing a plantation of five hundred acres at Naaman's Creek, where he engaged in agri- culture. In the distribution of his estate to his son William ( the father of Colonel Gray), who had intermarried one Mary Bullock, a large farm was altered, and in the old home- stead the subject of this sketch was born. His educational advantages were merely those which were afforded in the common schools of that period, and as was the practice then, he was required to do chores about the place in the hours not devoted to study. Sturdy, active and enterprising, at sixteen he entered the general store of Jesse M. Eyre, the leading merchant of Chester, to learn the business, and when he attained his majority he was ad- mitted to partnership, the firm being Eyre & Gray. Subsequently Eyre retired and his interest was sold to Humphrey Gillson. In the very midst of the panic of 1856-7-a per- iod of financial disturbances without parallel in the history of the nation-W. C. Gray as-
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
sumed the sole proprietorship of the business and continued therein until 1869, when he relin- quished it on his appointment as collectorfor the sixth internal revenue district of Pennsylvania.
When the intelligence that Fort Sumter had been fired on aroused the north to arms and the first quota of troops from Delaware county had gone to the front, many of its citizens en- rolled for home defense, and among the com- panies then formed was the Wayne Guards, of which W. C. Gray was elected captain, but as the war advanced these bodies languished, many of the members enlisting, until by de- grees the Home Guards lost all organization. Captain Gray, however, was desirous of active military service, hence in the summer of 1862 he recruited a company known as the Delaware County Guards, which he tendered to the authorities of the county, but because the quota was filled the commissioners declined to re- ceive the organization. On August 5, 1862, Peter C. Ellnaker, of Philadelphia, was com- missioned by Governor Curtin, colonel and authorized to enlist a regiment to be known as the 119th Pennsylvania. Captain Gray there- upon offered his command to Colonel Ell- nacker, who accepted and mustered it in as Company E, of the 119th. The demand for troops was so urgent that on August 31, before the regimental organization was fully com- pleted, it was ordered to Washington, forwarded the next day and assigned to the defense of the capital. The middle of the following October it joined the army of the Potomac, then in camp near Antietam, and was assigned to the Ist brigade, 2nd division, 6th army corps. At Fredricksburg, December 15, 1862, the regiment was first under fire, and from that time to the end of the war it took part in every battle of the army of the Potomac. At Rap- pahannock station, November 7, 1863, it was part of the columns which stormed the ene- my's works and received the thanks of Meade in general orders for gallantry in the assault and on May 12, 1864, in the Wilderness it was conspicuous in the terrible struggle in the
"Bloody Angle " or "Slaughter Pen," when it was continuously in action from 7 o'clock in the morning until nightfall. Immediately after Governor Curtin appointed him major, and immediately lieutenant colonel, but the regiment was so depleted that he could be mustered only as major. Before Petersburg, April 2, 1865, unaided and under a fierce fire in front and flank, it stormed the enemy's en- trenchments, capturing the opposing force with all the artillery, small arms and colors. Col. Clark having been wounded early in the action, the command devolved on Lieut-Col. Gray, and he was also in charge four days there- after at Sailor's creek, when Russell's brigade, of which it was part, forded the stream waist deep in water and captured the entire confed- erate force, opposing it. In recognition for his " gallant and meritorious services before Petersburg and at the battle of Little Sailor's creek," the President commissioned Gray lieutenant-colonel by brevet. From this date until mustered out, July 19, 1865, Colonel Gray was in command of the regiment. During all the period of Colonel Gray's absence at the front the business in Chester was conducted by Mrs. Gray. In 1866 he was elected a member of council and served in that body until October 21. 1869, when he was appointed by President Grant collector of internal revenue, as already mentioned, an office in which he continued until the act of Congress, in 1875, consolidated it with the 9th district, and then for nearly a year he was continued as deputy collector. In 1886 he was elected a member of common coun- cil, serving therein until 1891, when he re- signed. To his ability in advocacy of the measure in council is put the radical improve- ment in street paving, and he secured the fran- chise for the Union Railway Company, which has given to Chester the admirable system of rapid transit which now exists. He was also active in the organization of the Delaware County Trust and Title Insurance Company, of which he is still a director, and is president of the Delaware County Gas Company.
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He was married March 31, 1854, to Ann Eyre Rulon, daughter of Job and Abigail (Eyre) Rulon. Mary, the elder daughter, is the wife of Robert Wetherill ; Nannie is wife of Hiram Hathaway, jr., and the sons are Wil- liam C., jr., and Howard Gray.
ROF. CHARLES F. FOSTER, who
has continuously held the position of su- perintendent of schools in the city of Chester since 1878, and is widely know as a writer on educational topics and in imaginative litera- ture, is a son of Ira and Sarah W. Crane) Foster, and was born May 27, 1830. at Dor- chester, Massachusetts, now a part of the city of Boston. The Fosters are of old Puritan stock, tracing their American ancestry back to 1633, when Edward Foster came over from England and bought a large tract of land near where the city of Boston now stands, some of which land has been in possession of the family ever since. Ira Foster (father) was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1804, and spent his entire life there, dying in 1873, at the ad- vanced age of sixty-nine years. In religious faith and church membership he was a Baptist, and served his church as deacon for many years. In 1829 he married Sarah W. Crane, a daughter of Jesse Crane, of Milton, Massa- chnsetts. She was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and died in 1848, when only thirty-nine years of age.
Prof. Charles F. Foster was graduated from Colby university, Maine, in 1855, and after pursuing a course of professional study at the Baptist Theological seminary, Newton, Mas- sachnsetts, received the degree of A. M. from his alma mater in 1858. Having served a short time as pastor of a church and afterward as chaplain and principal of a public institution in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, for eleven years. he was transferred in 1866, by the State au- thorities to the principalship of the State Pri- mary school then just established at Monson. There in connection with such educators and
reformers as Dr. S. G. Howe and F. B. San- born, of the board of State charities, and Miss Elizabth Peabody, of Cambridge, he intro- duced into these schools many features then little known, but now recognized as a part of the training of every well conducted common school. In the industrial department, both at Tewksbury and at Monson, the English " half- time " system was adopted, and its utility un- der such conditions fully demonstrated. This feature is set forth in a book illustrating " Life in Public Institutions," written and published by Rev. Mr. Foster about that time. In 1869 Professor Foster assisted Professor Wiebe in translating and bringing before the public Froebel's " Paradise of childhood," and as is stated in the preface of that book, he estab- lished at Monson one of the first kindergartens ever conducted in America.
In 1877 Prof. Charles F. Foster came to Chester as principal of the high school, and for the past fifteen years has been indentified with the interests of popular education in Penn- sylvania as teacher and superintendent of pub- lic schools in this city. A biograhical sketch of Mr. Foster appears in " The Poets of Maine," a volume of eight hundred and fifty pages, compiled in 1888, by George Bancroft Griffith, in which it is said: " His imaginative and ficti- tious literature, and the formation of his style, Mr. Foster regards as due to the influence of his early teacher, Mr. W. F. Adams, better known as 'Oliver Optic.'" In 1878 Professor Foster was elected superintendent of the Ches- ter schools, which position by successive re- elections he has held continuously ever since. In his superior administration of the school affairs of this city he has added to his already brilliant reputation as an educator.
Mr. Foster was first married to Catharine S. Hovey, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who died in 1872, and afterward to Rebecca S. Gladwin, of East Haddam. Connecticut. To their union has been born three children, Anna Rebecca, Roland Howard, and Helen Fred- erica. Professor Foster is a past master of
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons; and past high priest of Chester Chap- ter, No. 258, Royal Arch Masons; and past commander of St. John's Commandry, No. 4, Knights Templar, of Philadelphia.
F RANK S. VERNON, a prosperous contractor and builder of Marcus Hook, this county, who is now serving his fifth year as justice of the peace, and is among the in- fluential local leaders of the Republican party, is a native of Concord township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, where he was born May 19, 1830. His father was Abner Vernon, and his mother's maiden name was Esther Bullock, both natives of this county and both descended from English families who settled here before the time of William Penn. Samuel Vernon (grandfather) was born and reared in Birming- ham township, this county, and passed his life there engaged in agricultural pursuits. He died in 1825, aged sixty-eight years. His son, Abner Vernon (father), was born on the old homestead in Birmingham township, this county, in 1790, and died at Claymont, Dela- ware, in April, 1881, in the ninety-first year of his age. He was a carpenter and contractor, and was engaged in that business nearly all his life. He was a whig and republican in politics, and held a number of local offices in Lower Chester township, this county, where he resided from 1838 to within a few years of his death. In religion he was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and in 1811 married Esther Bullock, a daughter of John Bullock, and had a family of nine children, six sons and three daughters : Levina H., Sarah, Mary G., John B., Samnel, Abner, Frank S., George W. and William G.
Mrs. Esther Bullock Vernon was born in Concord township, and died in 1875, aged seventy-eight years. Her father, John Bul- lock, was born in Delaware county, and was a prosperous farmer of Lower Concord town- ship at the time of his death, in 1823, when 17 a
seventy-eight years of age. The Bullock fam- ily was founded in America by John Bullock, who came from England with his son, John, early in the seventeenth century, and settled in Pennsylvania. He had in some way offended the reigning king, and was compelled to seek safety by flight, and it is said that the city of Leeds now stands on the ground he then owned and was forced to abandon. From these two political exiles all the Bullocks in America are supposed to be descended.
Frank S. Vernon was reared principally in Lower Chichester township, this county, and received a good practical education in the pub- lic schools of his neighborhood. After leav- ing school he learned the carpenter's trade with his father, and in 1853 went to work in the saw-mill of George W. Churchman, at Brandywine Hundred, New Castle county, Delaware, where he soon became superinten- dent and inspector of lumber, and was thus employed for a period of more than a quarter of a century. In 1876 Mr. Vernon left the employ of Mr. Churchman, and accepted the position of superintendent of the lumber yards of Isaac V. Lloyd, in the city of Wilmington, Delaware, where he remained for three years. He then came to Marcus Hook, and in 1880 embarked in contracting and building, which business he has successfully conducted at this . place ever since. He now has some eight or ten houses under way, and among other large contracts has erected twenty-three houses for John Larkin, jr.
In July, 1851, Squire Vernon was married to Ann Eliza Ottey, a daughter of Stephen Ottey, of Aston township, this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Vernon was born a family of four sons : George W., Isaac B., Thomas A. and William W., who was drowned at the age of eight years, at Claymont, Delaware.
Politically Squire Vernon is a stanch repub- lican, and is regarded as a safe and conserva- tive leader in local politics, being now a mem- ber of the county executive committee of his party. He has frequently been elected to
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official position, having served as school direct- or two terms, as township auditor six years, and is now about completing his fifth consecutive year as justice of the peace at Marcus Hook. Since 1852 he has been connected with the Farmers' and Mechanics' Lodge, No. 185, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Lin- wood, Pennsylvania, and for twenty-one years has been a member of Wawassett Tribe, No. 172, Improved Order of Red Men.
In 1862 Mr. Vernon enlisted as a member of the Ist battery of Delaware light artillery, and in 1863 was promoted to the rank of ser- geant, and as such served until the close of the war, being discharged in August, 1865, at Duvall's Bluffs, Arkansas, on the Arkansas river. At the battle of Averill's Prairie, in Louisiana, he had a horse shot under him, and while serving under General Franklin, was wounded at the battle of Sabine Cross Roads.
OSEPH H. HUDDELL, a well known commission coal merchant residing at Lin- wood, this county, and formerly superinten- dent of construction on the new government building in the city of Chester, is a son of George H. and Rebecca H. ( Midlen ) Huddell, and was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1838. The Hud- dells have been natives of that city since shortly after William Penn took charge of his posses- sions on the Delaware, and Andrew Bankson, a member of the general assembly for 1686, under Penn, was connected with the family by marriage. Bankson Huddell, paternal great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared in that city. His son, Joseph Huddell (grandfather), was also a native of Philadelphia, where he was engaged in the cooperage and shipping business for many years. His death occurred in 1843, when in the eighty-third year of his age. He married Martha Lackey, of Chester county, and reared a family of six children, one of whom was George H. Huddell (father), who was born in
Philadelphia in 1813, and resided in that city much of the time until 1865, when he removed to Delaware county. In 1874 he left this county and went to Beverly, New Jersey, where he died in 1883, at the age of seventy years. In early life he was a sugar merchant in New York city, and about 1843 became agent for the Ericson steamboat line, running between Philadelphia and Baltimore, Mary- land. Later he accepted the position of gen- eral agent for the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad, which office he held until his removal to Delaware county, when he was appointed superintendent of steam navigation of the same company, which position he re- tained until his death. In politics he was a whig and republican, and for many years a leading member of St. Peter's Episcopal church in Philadelphia. In 1835 he was united in marriage to Rebecca H. Midlen, a native of Philadelphia, and a daughter of Walter Mid- len, an English sea captain. To that union was born a family of nine children, three sons and six daughters : Caroline M., Joseph H., Constance T., Martha H., Rebecca M., George H., Elizabeth G., Virginia B. and Harlan. Mrs. Rebecca H. Huddell was a life-long mem- ber of the Episcopal church, and died in 1881, aged sixty-four years. Her father, Capt. Wal- ter Midlen, was a member of the Society of Friends. He was married twice, his first wife being Rebecca Huddell, a daughter of Bank- son Huddell, the grand aunt of Joseph H. Huddell. His second wife was Caroline Clun- geon Huddell, the widow of Robert Huddell, who was the son of Bankson Huddell. She was the maternal grandmother of Joseph H. Huddell. Captain Midlen was captain and owner of the bark Rebecca Huddell, trading between Philadelphia and the East Indies. He spent his life in the merchant marine ser- vice, and died at Philadelphia in 1829, in his sixtieth year.
Joseph H. Huddeli was reared principally in his native city of Philadelphia, receiving his education in the public schools and the Prot-
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estant Episcopal academy of that city. Leav- ing school in the autumn of 1853 he entered the employ of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company as shipping clerk, and in the summer of 1854 became as- sistant book-keeper in a large wholesale coal office in Philadelphia, where he remained un- til 1861. In April of that year he formed a partnership with Col. Alfred Day, under the name of Day & Huddell, and engaged in min- ing and shipping coal, their main office being on Walnut street, Philadelphia. He contin- ued in that business successfully as a member of the firms of Day & Huddell, Day, Huddell & Co., Joseph H. Huddell & Co., and Huddell & Seitzinger, until 1871, since which time Mr. Huddell has been engaged in selling coal on commission. In January, 1892, he was ap- pointed superintendent of construction for the new United States postoffice building in the city of Chester, which position he held until Oc- tober, 1893, when he was removed by the Dem- ocratic administration. The duties of this of- fice he discharged with ability.
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