USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 38
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Since 1849 Mr. Huddell has spent his sum- mers in Delaware county, and since 1868 has been a permanent resident of Linwood, this county. Politically he has always been an ac- tive republican, and for a number of years was a school director at Linwood. In 1891 he served as secretary to Hon. Bois Penrose, president of the State senate at Harrisburg, and filled the same position with Hon. John P. S. Gobin, president of the extra session of the senate in the autumn of 1891. His ap- pointment as superintendent of construction on the United States postoffice building in Ches- ter was secured through Hon. John B. Rob- inson, of Media, a warm personal friend of Mr. Huddell.
On November 11, 1858, Mr. Huddell was wedded to Rebecca WV. Ayers, a daughter of Samuel W. Ayers, of the city of Philadelphia. She died February 10, 1879, aged forty years, leaving a family of nine children, three sons and six daughters : Rebecca A., Alfred D.,
Joseph H., Jane N., Kate T., Esther M .. Sarah A., Draper and Elizabeth B. These chil- dren are members of the Episcopal church, of which Mr. Huddell is an attendant. He is a member of Lodge No. 2, A. Y. M., Excelsior Mark Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Keystone Chapter, No. 176, Royal Arch Masons, of Philadelphia.
JOHN A. WALLACE, one of the edit- ors and proprietors of the Chester Times, and a gentleman who has won wide recogni- tion as a writer, politician and journalist, was born in Hyde Park, Duchess county, New York, February 11, 1842, and is a son of David and Gertrude (Paulding) Wallace. He received his preparatory education in the public schools of New York city and the Stratford (Connec- ticut) academy, and at the age of eighteen en- tered Williams college, Williamstown, Massa- chusetts, where he pursued the collegiate course until the breaking out of the civil war, when he severed his connection with that institution and entered the Federal army as a member of the 150th New York infantry, and later served with the 66th New York veteran volunteers. Returning to his native county at the close of the war, he engaged in teaching for two years and then went to New York city, where he had been offered a position in the county clerk's office. After a short time he resigned to accept a more lucrative appointment in the chief en- gineer's office at the Brooklyn navy yard, where he was soon afterward promoted to the post of chief clerk. In 1873 he resigned this posi- tion and removed to Chester, Pennsylvania, to accept a responsible place in John Roach's ship-yard.
In 1882 Mr. Wallace first became interested in journalism and organized the Chester Times Publishing Company, being elected secretary and treasurer of the company and editor of the paper. After various changes in the or- ganization he purchased the entire business, and successfully conducted the Times alone
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until 1892, when on account of failing health superinduced by too close application to busi- ness, he sold one-half of the establishment to William C. Sproul, with whom he has ever since been associated in the ownership and management of the Chester Times. They have one of the best equipped newspaper plants in the State of Pennsylvania, located in one of finest buildings devoted to the publishing busi- ness in this country, and the Times is univer- sally conceded to be one of the brightest, news- iest and best papers printed in America, and also one of the most profitable, outside the large cities. When asked how he accounted for the remarkable success of his paper, Mr. Wallace replied, " I do not know, unless it is the policy we adopt in the publication of the paper, and keeping everlastingly at it. In country towns, as ours is called," he added, " people get better acquainted with each other than in large cities, and feel more interest in each other, and hence they like to hear and read almost anything and everything concern- ing one another. Town gossip of all kinds, local happenings of every character, with news concerning social and political movements, all written up in a breezy, bright, cheery man- ner, make the local newspaper a welcome vis- itor in almost every household. It has been our aim to get all the news of this character, and we have everlastingly hammered away on that line, and the success which has crowned our efforts convinces us that we are on the right track."
Politically the subject of this sketch is an earnest and active republican, and has been closely identified with the politics of this city and county for many years. He has served as chairman of any number of county conven- tions, chairman of the republican county ex- ecutive committee, president of the Chester city council, president of the board of water commissioners, delegate to State.conventions, and as a member of the State executive commit- tee of his party.
Mr. Wallace was also appointed postmaster
of the city of Chester by President Arthur, and served as such until removed as an " offensive partisan by President Cleveland, in 1885. He is a member of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church, and of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons ; Chester Chapter, No. 258, Royal Arch Masons ; Chester Command- ery, No. 63, Knights Templar; and Chester Lodge, No. 92, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He likewise holds membership in the Chi Psi fraternity of Williams college.
On May 20, 1864, Mr. Wallace was united in marriage to Emma Coyle, a daughter of Cor- nelius Coyle, of Rhinebeck, New York. To Mr. and Mrs. Wallace was born a family of five children, two sons and three daughters : Frank, now employed in the government print- ing office at Washington; Kate, wife of J. Frank Kitts, of the First National bank of Media ; Robert, Sarah Gertrude and Anna.
The family of which John A. Wallace is a member is of Scotch origin, and ranks with the oldest and most respected of New York, where it was planted at an early day. John Wallace ( grandfather ) was a native of Dutchess county, that State, where he passed his en- tire life as an agriculturist, dying about 1842. He married and reared a family of nine chil- dren, one of whom was David Wallace ( father), who was born in 1810, on the old homestead in Dutchess county, New York, where he now resides. He followed ship-building and con- tracting in New York city during most of his active life, but has been retired and living quietly on the home farm in Dutchess county for the past twenty-five years, where he now is aged eighty-three. Politically he was a whig until 1856, when he became a republican and has ever since supported that party. In 1838 he married Gertrude Paulding, a daughter of Levi Paulding, and a native of Dutchess county, and by that union had a family of four children, one son, the subject of this sketch. and three daughters. Mrs. Gertrude Wallace is still living, being now in her seventy-third year. Her father, Levi Paulding, also a
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native of Dutchess county, was of German de- scent, and a brother of Maj. John Paulding, of Revolutionary fame. He was also connected with the Paulding family, a member of which, Major Paulding, with two other Continental soldiers, captured Major Andre upon his at- tempt to regain the British lines after his in- terview with Benedict Arnold.
EWIS MILLER, now deceased, was one of that energetic and talented class of men who seem born to control affairs, and leave their impress on the industrial history of their times. He was a son of John and Magdalena Miller, and was born at Royers Ford, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 13, 1830. He received a good common school education, to which he afterward added largely by a wide course of reading and a care- ful study of men and affairs. He started life on a farm near Phenixville, this State, after- ward locating in Wilmington, Delaware, where lie engaged himself as an apprentice to the machinist trade with the late Jesse Ermie, of Wilmington, Delaware. After five years spent in acquiring a mastery of that business he be- came a foreman in the machine shop of Pusey, Jones & Co., at Wilmington, and later was made general superintendent. In 1857 he as- sociated himself with Josiah Custard, under the firm name of Miller & Custard, and began building machinery for cotton and woolen mills at Chester, Delaware county. In 1859 the 'firm of Miller & Allen was formed, and continued the same business until 1872, when it was dissolved by the retirement of Mr. Allen. While in this city Mr. Miller. under a contract with Mr. Corliss, was the only builder of the now famous Corliss engines, south of New England, and through his agency these engines were introduced to the public in Penn- sylvania and the southern States. During this time Mr. Miller designed and built for Mr. Bruner the handsomest Corliss engines ever erected, every piece being tool finished
and no chipping by hand permitted in any part. These engines attracted the attention of skilled machinists from all parts of the country, and many people came long distances to inspect them. After the firm of Miller & Allen was dissolved Mr. Miller entered into partnership with Seyfert, McManus & Co., in the Scott foundry at Reading, this State, where he remained until 1877, when he retired from the firm, and devoted his attention to the building of cotton presses, making improve- ments thereon from time to time until he per- fected the best cotton press known to the pub- lic. In 1882 he left this country and went to Bogota, in the United States of Colombia, South America, where he succeeded in doing a work that had baffled the united skill of Eng- lish and French engineers.
Away up near the line of perpetual snow, where communication could only be had by mules, he started on the mountain peaks a mill for rolling rails for tramways. No weighty machinery could be transported on mules over the mountain ranges, and he was compelled to build a blast furnace and rolling mill from the material he found on the ground. Nothing daunted. he began the work, and the record of his success reads like one of the stories of Jules Verne. His remarkable in- genuity and wonderful power of resources and expediency were constantly called into play. He made bricks for the furnace, erected the entire plant from foundation to roof, and hav- ing dug the ore from the earth near by, melted it, run it into pigs and ultimately rolled it into rails, the first ever made in that country. Ow- ing to the extreme rarification of the atmos- phere at that high altitude, he could not secure draught enough for combustion, and was compelled to devise and construct a ma- chine to compress the air fed to the fur- nace. When the first rail was manufactured a big demonstration took place at Bogota. It was made a gala day, with bunting flying, troops, societies and public officials taking part in the display, and the rail, exposed to
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public view on a decorated wagon, was drawn through the streets, amid cheers from the as- sembled thousands who lined the sidewalks on every hand. On that occasion Mr. Miller, as the honored gnest of the Republic, was drawn in a coach by fonr horses at the head of the parade, and speeches were made by the President, and other prominent men of na- tional fame. An insurrection, which broke out soon afterward, arrested the work and Mr. Miller was compelled to return to the United States. He afterward built the present plant of the Penn Steel Casting Company, of Ches- ter, and with the Chester Foundry and Ma- chine Company was engaged in the mannfac- ture of the superior cotton press which bears his name. He was also president for a short time of the Linwood Iron Works. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and of Franklin Scientific and Mechanical Institute of Philadelphia. His death occurred May 31, 1892, when in the sixty-second year of his age. In 1849 he married Mary A. Dixon, daughter of William and Mary Dixon, of Wilmington, Delaware, and to them was born a family of six children : Ada A., who married John E. Nugent : William, deceased in infancy ; Mary M., wedded C. R. Heizmann, and died in February, 1892; Laura A., became the wife of Joseph P. Kremp; Lewis J., a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this volume; and Alonzo A.
The Miller family is French-German descent, and was founded in America by John Miller, father of Lewis Miller, who came over abont 1826, from Strasburg, province of Alsace, Germany, then French territory. He soon after located at Royers Ford, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where most of life was spent. By occupation he was a stonemason and contractor, and built several bridges in this part of the State. He married Magda- lena Brown, and had two sons : Frederick, who was a sea captain, and is supposed to have been lost at sea, as nothing was afterward heard of him ; and Lewis, the subject of this
sketch, whose remarkable career reflected honor on the name and did much to make it memorable in the annals of Delaware county.
L EWIS J. MILLER, who has ably sus tained the eminent reputation of his father for business activity and mechanical ingenuity, is a son of Lewis and Mary A. ( Dixon) Mil- ler, and a native of the city of Chester, where he was born May 25, 1859. There he grew to manhood, receiving his preliminary instruc- tion in the public schools, and finished his education at the Broad Street academy, in Philadelphia. Leaving school, he served an apprenticeship with his father in the Scott foundry, at Reading, and after completing his trade became a draftsman in the employ of that firm. remaining with them until 1877. In the latter year he entered the employ of Pusey, Jones & Co., of Wilmington, Delaware, as draftsman, and was engaged thus until 1880. He was afterward employed in similar work for a number of other firms, drawing designs for all kinds of machinery. In 1888 he went to Catasauqua. Lehigh connty, this State, where he planned and made all the drawings for a large rolling mill. Later he became so- liciting agent for the Chester Iron & Machine Company, of this city, and in 1889 formed a partnership with William W. Bierce, of Mem- phis, Tennessee, and engaged in the manu- facture of cotton compresses. They manufac- tured at Chester, this county, but they had offices in Memphis and Philadelphia. This firm continued operations until March, 1891, and upon its dissolution Mr. Miller became associated with his father in the manufacture of cotton presses, and after the death of the latter in 1892, succeeded to the entire business. These presses are made under a number of patents, some of which were owned by the elder Miller, while others were taken out by the subject of this sketch, and cover his own improvements.
He was married in 1888, to Ocy J. Price, a
THE NEW YORK PUGNO LIBRARY
DINS
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daughter of Hugh and Harriet P. (Cox) Price, of Wilmington, Delaware. Their union has been blessed by the birth of three children : Ada A., Lewis J., and Frank P. Mr. Miller was a resident of Philadelphia until 1892, when he removed to Chester, and now resides in a beautiful home at No. 515 West Seventh street.
D ANIEL WORRALL JEFFERIS,
M. D., a graduate of the university of Pennsylvania, who has been in successful practice since 1865, and a resident of the city of Chester since 1873, is a son of Jervis and Sarah ( Worrall ) Jefferis, and a native of Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on Christmas day, 1841. The Jefferis family is of English descent, and its American pro- genitor came over and settled in Chester county in the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury. Jefferis ford, in that county, is named for this family, and is the place where the British army crossed the Brandywine creek, to get in the rear of Washington's force at the battle of Brandywine. James Jefferis, paternal grandfather of Dr. Jefferis, was a native and a prosperous farmer of that county, where he died about 1856, aged seventy years. He married Hester Edwards, and reared a family of eleven children, one of his sons being Jervis Jefferis (father ), who was born in Ches- ter county in 1814, and died at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1850, at the early age of thirty- six. He secured a liberal education, mostly by his own efforts, and then engaged in teach- ing, which he followed for a number of years. Later he became a dry goods merchant in the city of Wilmington, and was engaged in that business at the time of his death. Politically he was an old line whig, and a strict member of the Baptist church nearly all his life. In 1841 he married Sarah Worrall, a native of Delaware county, who is of Welsh-English ex- traction, and now resides in the city of Ches- ter, this county, in the seventieth year of her age.
Daniel Worrall Jefferis was reared princi- pally in Chester county, to which his mother returned soon after the death of her husband. His elementary instruction was received in the public schools, after which he studied for some years at Jonathan Gause's famous acad- emy in Chester county, and then entered Oberlin college, Ohio. He then read medicine with Dr. Wilmer Worthington, of West Ches- ter, this State, and was graduated from the medical department of the university of Penn- sylvania, Philadelphia, in 1865. In Septem- ber, 1862, Mr. Jefferis had gone out with the emergency men, at the time of the battle of Antietam, and again when the battle of Gettys- burg was fought. In the summer of 1864, after completing his studies with Dr. Worth- ington, he went to Petersburg, Virginia, and served in the military hospital there as a con- tract surgeon. After his graduation from the university of Pennsylvania he entered the Federal service as assistant surgeon of the 213th Pennsylvania infantry, and served until November 18, 1865, when he was discharged at the city of Washington. Returning to Pennsylvania, Dr. Jefferis practiced medicine for a short time in Chester county, and then removed to Belmont county, Ohio, where he was engaged in active practice until 1870. In that year he returned to Chester county, Penn- sylvania, and after practicing there until 1873, came to the city of Chester, Delaware county, where he soon acquired and has ever since maintained a large and successful general prac- tice. He is a member of the county and State Medical societies, and of the National Medi- cal association, being the present treasurer of the Delaware County Medical society.
Dr. Jefferis was married in 1866 to Abigail Eldridge, a daughter of Reuben and Lydia Eldridge, of Chester county, this State. She died in 1878, aged thirty-eight years, and leaving behind her a family of five children, three sons and two daughters: Lydia, now the wife of Thomas H. Higgins, of the city of Chester ; Sarah ; Reuben, who married Mar-
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garete Griffiths, of Chester ; Jesse and Alfred, the latter of whom died when three years of age. On August 10, 1882, Dr. Jefferis was again married, wedding for his second wife Mary T. Oliver, a daughter of Henry and Rebecca Oliver, of Philadelphia. To this union has been born two children: Daniel Worrall and Mary.
In politics Dr. Jefferis is an ardent republi- can. For nine years he has been a member of the school board of this city, during eight of which he has had the honor of presiding over the deliberations of the board. He is a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a member of Wilde Post, No. 25, Grand Army of the Republic, of this city.
JOHN II. STROUD, head of the planing mill firm of John H. Stroud & Co., and one of the most successful manufacturers in his line in the city of Chester, is a son of John B. Stroud and Ruth Ann (Gray), and was born March 31, 1844, in the city of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania. His ancestors came originally from Wales, and the family have resided in the State of Delaware since colonial times. William Stroud, paternal grandfather, was a native of that State, born in 1806, and during the earlier part of his life was engaged in agricultural pursuits, but later became in - terested in stone quarrying, and owned and operated a number of quarries. About 1830 he removed from Delaware to Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, where he resided until his death, in 1883, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. Politically he was a whig and republi- can, and in religion a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He married May Weaver, and reared a family of six children. His son, John B. Stroud ( father), was born at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, in 1821, and died in that city in 1849, at the early age of thirty-four. The latter was ship chandler by occupation, and a whig in politics. In 1843 he united in marriage with Ruth A. Gray, a native of Phil-
adelphia, and a daughter of Charles Gray. To them was born a family of two children : John H. and Charles. Mrs. Stroud is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and now resides in the city of Chester, this county, in the sixty-fifth year of her age.
John H. Stroud came to Chester when six- teen years of age and has resided here ever since. His education was obtained in the public schools and a boarding school of this city, in which latter he spent two years. After leaving school he learned the sash and door manufacturing business, serving an apprentice- ship of four years, and then worked as a jour- neyman for two years. In 1870 Mr. Stroud became associated with Robert Booth (see his sketch) in the planing mill business, under the style of John H. Stroud & Co., and began manufacturing all kinds of sash, doors, blinds, flooring, ceiling, and similar articles for the use of contractors and builders. This enter- prise has proved very successful under his management. The planing mill, which is lo- cated at the corner of Front and Concord av- enues, gives employment to from fifteen to twenty men the year round, and its products have become very popular with consumers and find a ready sale. In addition to planing, the mill does all kinds of scroll sawing and turning, and manufactures packing boxes of every description.
On April 29, 1868, Mr. Stroud was united in marriage to Cecelia W. Edwards, a daugh- ter of William and Mary Edwards, of the city of Philadelphia. To Mr. and Mrs. Stroud have been born three children, one son and two daughters: George M., Mary E. and Stella C.
In his political affiliations the subject of this sketch is a republican, but has never taken any very active part in politics, preferring to devote his energies to building up the business which has proved so successful in his hands. Mr. Stroud is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is likewise prominently connected with a number of secret orders, being
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a member of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons; Chester Chapter, No. 258, Royal Arch Masons; Chester Command- ery, No. 66, Knights Templars ; and Morton Council, United American Mechanics.
W. 1. BLAKE MOCLENACHAN, a
real estate dealer and an efficient clerk in the recorder's office of Delaware county, is a son of George B. and Mary ( Booth) Mc- Clenachan, and was born at West Farms, in West Chester county, New York, July 3, 1858. He removed in early life to Philadelphia, where he received his education in Beck's Quaker school and the public schools of that city. Leaving school he learned the trade of gauger and cooper, and in 1880 came to Dela- ware county, where he has resided ever since. He filled the position of inspector of cooper- age with the Chester Oil Company. In 1890 he was appointed to the office he now fills - that of recorders's clerk. A republican in politics, he has always been prominent in the councils of his party, and has for the past eight years been a member of the republican county executive committee, and during the past year its treasurer. He is a leader of his party in Lower Chichester township, where he has been chairman of the township repub- lican committee for several years. Mr. Mc- Clenachan resides on Trainer avenue, between Post Road and the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad. He attends the Epis- copal church, and is a member of L. H. Scott Lodge, No. 352, Free and Accepted Masons, and Delaware County Lodge, No. 113, Knights of Birmingham. In official, business and social circles he is deservedly popular.
On August 1, 1883, Mr. McClenachan was united in marriage with Ella B. Barry, daugh- ter of John W. Barry, of Philadelphia. To their union have been born three children, one son and two daughters : Ella B., William B. and Mary B.
The McClenachan family, of which W. I. 1
Blake McClenachan is a member, was founded in this country by Rev. William McClenachan, who came in 1759 as a missionary from Scot- land to Philadelphia. He became pastor of the Third Street Presbyterian church, of that city, in which he died. He left four children: Rev. Blair, John, Anna and Robert. Rev. Blair McClenachan was a highly esteemed minister in the Presbyterian church, and served as a member from Philadelphia in the Fifth congress of the United States. He married and had two children, George B. and William. George B. McClenachan (grandfather) was a book-keeper by occupation and passed his days in his native city. He wedded Isabella Kerr, and of their children one was George B. McClenachan, the father of the subject of this sketch. George B. McClenachan was a cooper and gauger by occupation and did quite a large business for many years at 119 Walnut street, Philadelphia. He served as a Union soldier in the late civil war, receiving a severe gun- shot wound in the hand. He died May 15, 1879, when in the fifty-third year of his age. Mr. McClenachan married Mary Booth, a daughter of John Booth, an extensive carriage builder of West Farms, West Chester county, New York. To Mr. and Mrs. McClenachan were born three children: W. I. Blake (sub- ject ); George B., deceased ; and Samuel C., deceased.
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