USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 40
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was of English extraction, and a native of Chester, where he was reared and educated, and where he became prominent in law, poli- tics and local affairs. He was originally an old line whig, but later became a republican, and served for a time as deputy attorney- general of the State. For many years he was a leading member of the Chester bar, and be- came distinguished for his ability as a civil practitioner. He died at his home in Chester in the spring of 1893, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, being then the oldest mem- ber of the bar in this county.
F RANK W. MONROE, D. D. S., one of the leading, successful and progressive dentists of Chester, and relative of President Monroe, of Virginia, is a son of Dr. W. H. and Jane ( Rhines) Monroe, and was born in the city of Chester, Delaware county, Penn- sylvania, January 29, 1853. He was reared in his native city and received his education in the public and graded schools. Leaving school he studied dentistry with his father, and then entered the Pennsylvania college of dental surgery, from which well known institution he was gradnated in the class of 1885. Immedi- ately after graduation he opened an office in his native city, where he has rapidly built up a fine and extensive practice. He is a skilled and efficient workman, and has ever labored to keep abreast of his profession in its rapid modern progress. His office is well supplied with all the late appliances of dentistry. His handsome residence is situated at 210 West Third street. Dr. Monroe is an active repub- lican in political affairs, and has been a mem- ber for several years of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons.
On November 5, 1891, Dr. Monroe was mar- ried, by Rev. Benj. F. Thomas, to Carrie J. Buck. Mrs. Monroe is a daughter of Peter Buck, of Ashland. " Mr. Peter Buck is a self- made man. He is a splendid example of what industry, perseverance and strict application
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to business will do. Thirty years ago Mr. Buck started in Ashland in the hardware business with very limited capital and with very modest pretentions, but by indefatigable resolve and industry he has attained a success second to none of his peers. Ten years after starting in this business, having had such phenomenal success, he was already styled a rich man, and at the present time is worth half a million. He is one of the largest stockholders in both of the Shamokin banks, and has large holdings in various other banking institutions. And, while Mr. Buck has always taken a zealous and warm part in politics, in the ranks of the Re- publican party, he has never allowed his name to go before nominating conventions, despite the urgent appeals of his friends. He was urged and prominently mentioned in connec- tion with the candidacy for Congress on the Republican ticket, but absolutely refused to allow his name to be used in that connection, although he always remained an active worker and a liberal contributor to the campaign fund. He is one of the leading industrious factors of Ashland." The Buck family is one of the pioneer families of Schuylkill county.
Dr. Frank W. Monroe is of Scotch de- scent, and his immigrant ancestor, William Monroe, who originally wrote his name Mun- roe, was born in Scotland in 1625, and in 1652 came to this country with two brothers, one of whom settled in Virginia, where among his descendants was President James Mon- roe. William Monroe settled near Lexing- ton, Massachusetts, and reared a family of thirteen children : John, Martha, William, George, Daniel, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary, David, Eleanor, Sarah, Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph Monroe was born August 16, 1687. He married and had nine children : Elizabeth, Martha, Joshua, Nathaniel, Amos, Abigail, Eleanor, Joseph, jr., and Hannah. Joseph Monroe, jr., was born May 13, 1715, served in the French and Indian war in 1755, and set- tled in Concord, opposite Carlisle, this State. He married, and of their six children, one was 18a
Dr. Joseph Monroe, who settled near Hills- boro, New Hampshire, and served in the Amer- ican army at Saratoga, and until the close of the Revolutionary war. He died February 24, 1798, aged forty-one years. Dr. Monroe mar- ried Zuba Henry, and their children were : Eliza, Zuba Tubbs and Joseph, the grand- father of the subject of this sketch. Joseph Monroe was a farmer and blacksmith, but gave most of his time to trading and speculating in iron, which he shipped largely to the New York markets. He took part in the war of 1812, was known as an anti-federalist, and died in 1838, at fifty-three years of age. Joseph Mon- roe married Nancy Graves, who died in 1848. She was a daughter of Thaddeus Graves, of Scotch-Irish descent. Their children were : Franklin, Sally Jewell, Addison, Joseph, Lncy Fleming, Thaddeus, Dr. W. H. and Jane Field. Dr. W. H. Monroe ( father) was born at Wind- ser, New Hampshire, May 30, 1825, studied dental surgery with Dr. Monroe Tubbs, his' cousin, and commenced the practice of his profession at Palmerston, Massachusetts, in 1851. He came to Chester, and has practiced here continuously ever since. Dr. W. H. Mon- roe is a republican and a Free Mason, and married Sarah J. Rhines, who died September 17, 1875, aged forty-eight years. Their chil- dren were : Dr. Frank W. (subject), Ella M. Hull, Lizzie E. McCollnm, Ida J., George P., Lewis G. and Laura Donaldson.
WILLIAM C. SPROUL, one of the proprietors and editors of the Chester Times, and a graduate of Swarthmore college, is a son of William H. and Dora D. (Slokom) Sproul, and a native of Octoraro, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he was born Sep- tember 16, 1870. The Sprouls are of Scotch- Irish origin, and the first representative of the family in America, of whom we have any ac- count, was James Sproul, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was born in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1787, and came
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to the United States while yet young. He re- ceived a good education, and after attaining manhood engaged in the development of the iron industry, becoming one of the earliest iron founders in Pennsylvania. After a life of un- usual activity and phenomenal success, he died at his home in Lancaster county, this State, in 1847, aged sixty years. He left a large estate at his death, including sixteen hundred acres of land in Lancaster county and four hundred acres in Chester county. He married and reared a family of children, one of his sons be- ing William H. Sproul (father), who was born in Sadsbury township, Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania. In that county he grew to man- hood, receiving the best education afforded by the schools of his day, and later became inter- ested with his father in the iron business. He married Dora D. Slokom, a daughter of Sam- uel Slokom and a native of Sadbury township, Lancaster county, where they continued to re- side until 1874, when Mr. Sproul removed with his family to the city of Negaunee, Michigan, near Lake Superior, at which place he had pur- chased some iron interests. He remained in Michigan until 1882, when he returned to Penn- sylvania, and in the following year located in the city of Chester, having become largely in- terested in the Chester rolling mills. Here he has resided ever since, and is now engaged in the wholesale grocery business in this city, under the firm name of Sproul & Lewis. He also owns large real estate interests in this part of Pennsylvania and in several southern States. Politically he is a republican, and is now serving as a member of the city council. Mrs. Dora Sproul's father, Samuel Slokom (maternal grandfather), was a native of Sads- bury township, Delaware county, where he was born in 1817 and died in 1889. In early life he was engaged in agricultural pursuits, but re- tired early, being a very wealthy man. He was a republican politically, and served for nearly thirty years as a justice of the peace. For many years he was president of the Christiana bank in Lancaster county, and also served as
one of the commissioners of his county for an extended period. He was of English descent, a Quaker in religion, and held the highest es- teem of his fellow citizens. At the time of his death he was regarded as the wealthiest man in Lancaster county.
William C. Sproul was taken to Michigan by his parents when only four years of age, where he later attended public and private schools until the family returned to Pennsyl- vania in 1882. After coming to this city with his parents in 1883, he became a student in the Chester high school, from which he was gradu- ated in 1887. In the fall of that year he en- tered Swarthmore college, from which he was graduated with high honors in June, 1891. From his earliest years Mr. Sproul had mani- fested a decided taste for newspaper work, and when only twelve years of age purchased a small hand press and printed a little paper of his own. When he became older he usually spent his vacations working on some of the city papers, preferring that to the fishing par- ties and other excursions indulged in by his associates. He early developed a remark- able power in the use of language, and while yet at college won reputation as a fine writer. In his senior year he became editor of the Swarthmore Phenix, a monthly magazine pub- lished by the students, and was also editor of the Halcyon, an annual issued by the college. It has been said of him that " he took to jour- nalism as naturally as a duck takes to water," and certainly few men possess a greater love for their vocation or find more satisfaction in the daily tasksit imposes. Following the bent of his inclinations, in less than a year after his graduation from Swarthmore college he was actively trotting in newspaper harness, having purchased a half interest in the daily and weekly Chester Times in March, 1892. This paper had been founded ten years before by John A. Wallace (see his sketch on another page), and was then and is now one of the largest, best equipped and most prosperous and influential journals in the State. Mr. Sproul's accession
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to its editorial force and business management has done much to increase the reputation of the Times for brightness, newsiness and schol- arly ability, and has had not a little to do with the brilliant financial success which has been achieved in its management. He is undoubt- edly " the right man in the right place," and has so ably supported the efforts of his senior partner that the paper is now enjoying a con- tinued boom, having increased in circulation so rapidly during the last year as to require newer and faster presses to supersede the du- plex perfecting presses put in less than two years ago. Their specialty is gathering and printing all the local news, which with an able resume of the general news has made the Ches- ter Times one of the most popular and paying newspapers in Pennsylvania.
In January, 1892, Mr. Sproul was united in marriage with Emeline W. Roach, youngest daughter of John Roach, the eminent ship- builder, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. To Mr. and Mrs. Sproul has been born one child, a daughter, named Dorothy Wallace. Politically Mr. Sproul has always been an ardent republican, and in his position as editor of the leading republican daily of this section has done and is doing much for his party, and for the cause of good government. He is a member of the Phi Kapa Psi fraternity of Swarthmore college.
C HARLES G. NEAL, proprietor of the
leading grocery store of South Chester, and one of her most prominent, enterprising and successful citizens, is a son of John and Zauriah (Baldwin) Neal. and a native of Del- aware county, and was born February 17, 1851. The family is of Irish extraction, being planted in America by John Neal, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sktch, who left his native isle of Erin while yet a young man, and traversing the trackless waste of waters that lie between the old and the new world, landed at New York and soon after-
ward made his way to Pennsylvania and settled in this State. Here he passed a long and ac- tive life, dying at his home at the remarkable age of ninety years. One of the family of children which he reared was John Neal (fath- er), who was born in Pennsylvania in 1797. He was a man of more than ordinary talent, and securing a good education chiefly by his own efforts, he afterward engaged in teaching, and for many years taught in the common schools of this county. Politically he was a whig and republican, and held the office of tax collector and assessor in this county for six years. He was a member of the military organization known as the " Mexican Blues," and became proficient in military tactics. When the civil war occurred he was engaged for a time in drilling volunteers, and to his efforts was largely due the proficiency attained by the two companies enlisted from Rockdale, this county, that were afterward incorporated in the 97th Pennsylvania infantry at West Chester, this State. He died in South Ches- ter in 1879, aged eighty-two years. He mar- ried Zauriah Baldwin, who survived him for a dozen years, dying in 1891, aged sixty-nine. She was born at Glen Mills, this county, and was a life-long member of the Methodist Epis- copal church. Her father was also a native of Delaware county, and lived to be ninety-three years of age.
Charles G. Neal was reared at Rockdale, Newtown and South Chester, this county, and received his education principally in the Rock- dale public schools. Leaving school he ob- tained work in a cotton mill, where he finally became a weaver, and in 1877 came to South Chester and accepted a position as clerk in a grocery store. Two years later he embarked in the grocery business for himself at his pres- ent location, where he has gradually built up the largest retail grocery trade in South Ches- ter. It is needless to say that this result is not an accident, but has been secured by care- ful attention to business and energetic, enter- prising and able management. Mr. Neal is
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also one of the stockholders and directors of the Crum Creek Iron & Steel Manufacturing Company, whose large and valuable plant is located in Ridley township, this county. He is likewise prominently connected with the Consumers' Ice Manufacturing Company, of the city of Chester, is a stockholder in the Delaware County Trust Company, and owns several valuable houses in the village of South Chester.
In 1875 Mr. Neal was married to Ellen March, a daughter of James March, then of Glen Riddle, this county, but formerly of England. To Mr. and Mrs. Neal has been born a family of five children, two sons and three daughters : Ella May, Charles J., Ches- ter W., Clara M. and Bessie W.
In political faith Mr. Neal adheres to the Republican party, and is now serving his sec- ond term as a member of the borough council of South Chester. For four years he was a member of the school board here, and has taken an active interest in educational matters as well as in local politics. He and Mrs. Neal are members of the South Chester Methodist Episcopal church, which he has served as trustee for more than a decade. Mr. Neal is also a member of L. H. Scott Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and is connected with Chester Lodge, No. 92, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Thurlow Castle, No. 159, Knights of the Golden Eagle.
A MOS GARTSIDE, one of the proprie- tors of the Keokuk woolen mills, and a man whose successful career in business has been characterized by abundant energy and sound judgment, and who has for many years occupied an influential position in the com- mercial world, is a native of England, born in Rochdale October 23, 1829. When two years of age he was brought by his parents. Benjamin and Elizabeth (Kershaw) Gartside, to the United States, and was reared and edu- cated in this country. His preliminary edu-
cation was received in the common schools, and his studies completed at the old German- town academy. now included in the city of Philadelphia. Leaving school at the age of eighteen, he at once entered his father's woolen mill at Cardington, this county, and began the acquisition of a practical knowledge of the manufacture of woolen goods. He commenced at the beginning and rapidly acquired a mas- tery of the business in all its details as then conducted. When the elder Gartside trans- ferred his operations to Chester in 1852, the subject of this sketch removed with him and remained in his employ until 1857, when the present firm of B. Gartside & Sons was cre- ated by the admission of the two sons, James and Amos Gartside, into partnership with the father in the ownership and management of the factory. This establishment was originally erected in 1852 by Benjamin Gartside, on land purchased at the foot of Fulton street, and the first structure was thirty-eight by ninety feet in dimensions and four stories high. In 1858-59 additional land on the north was bought, and additional buildings erected. The works occupy over two acres of ground, occu- pying the entire square bounded by Front street, the Delaware river, Parker street and Fulton street, and are fitted up with approved machinery for the extensive handling of wool. from the time it is received in the fleece as clipped until it is turned out as high grade jeans, ready for the jobber or wholesale mer- chant. The power is supplied by a seventy horse-power engine, and about ninety-five operatives are employed, and nearly eighty thousand yards of goods are manufactured every month.
In 1857 Amos Gartside was united in mar- riage to Emma Pierce, a daughter of James Pierce, of the city of Chester. To Mr. and Mrs. Gartside were born six children, only three of whom survive: Elizabeth, now the wife of H. G. Pennell ; Mary Ann and Amy Alberta. The deceased were John, Georgie and Katie.
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For more than thirty years Mr. Gartside has been an active participant in all the leading enterprises connected with the public or busi- ness life of this city. Few men have shown more public spirit than he, or taken a more important part in the advancement and devel- opment of the various interests of Chester and of Delaware county. He was for sixteen consecutive years a member of the city coun- cil, and during much of that time presided over that body. In early life he was a whig in politics, but for a number of years has been identified with the Republican party, in whose local councils he is an influential and trusted leader. He represented the Sixth Pennsyl- vania district in the National convention of his party at Chicago in 1880, and for thirteen years has occupied his present position in the board of port wardens of Philadelphia. A number of important enterprises in the city of Chester owe their origin to his fertile brain and wonderful energy, among which may be mentioned the Chester water works, of which he was president from its organization for about eight years. He is also a director of the Chester Improvement Company, the McCaffry Direct Steel Casting Company, and the Eureka Steel Casting Company, of which latter he is now president. For the last ten years Mr. Gartside has been a director in the Chester Creek Railroad Company, and was largely in- strumental in securing its terminus at Chester. He was also a director in the Delaware River Railroad Company for a time, and since 1885 has been a director of the First National bank of Chester, being elected to that position to succeed his father, upon the death of the latter. All his business transactions have been char- acterized by strict integrity, good judgment and unusual ability, and, as a consequence, he has won, and worthily maintains, a high standing in business and commercial circles.
The Gartside family, which has been so long and intimately connected with the mannfac- turing interests of this county, is of ancient English lineage, and its first representative in
America, so far as known, was Benjamin Gart- side (father), who was born May 26, 1794, at Rochdale, England, where he was reared and educated. There he married Elizabeth Ker- shaw, also a native of that country, and there he resided until 1831, when he came to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. He was a weaver by trade, and in Philadelphia found employment at the Blockley mills, where he remained until 1833, and then removed to Manayunk. In 1838 he engaged in business on his own account, and two years later rented a mill on Wissahickon creek, where he re- mained until 1843. He then removed to Car- dington, this county, where he successfully conducted business for nine years, and in 1852 removed to the city of Chester, where he erected the large factory previously mentioned, and where he passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1885, when lacking only six years of being a centenarian. He was a man of remarkable energy, and remained active up to within a short time of his death. Politi- cally he was a republican, and in religion a Baptist, being one of the founders of the First Baptist church of this city.
JOHN LILLEY, Jr., secretary and treas- urer of the Lilley & Sons Manufacturing Company, one of the leading industrial enter- prises of the city of Chester, and who for nearly a decade has been an efficient working mem- ber of her city council, is a veteran of the civil war, and is justly regarded as one of the ablest financial managers in the county of Delaware. He is a son of John and Sarah ( Sykes) Lilley, and was born at Coatsville, Chester county, Pennsylvania, February 27, 1844. John Lil- ley, sr., was a native of England, who came to the United States when sixteen years of age and located in the city of Chester, Penn- sylvania, where he remained three or four years and then returned to his native land. But having seen America, and had some ex- perience with the business and institutions of
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this country, he soon decided to re-cross the Atlantic and identify himself with the business interests of the Keystone State. Returning to America, he located near Coatsville, Ches- ter county, where he soon afterward engaged in the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods. He began in a small way at first, but meeting with success, and finding that the markets would sustain increased production, he en- larged the capacity of his works and did a prosperous business there for a number of years. Subsequently he removed from Ches- ter to Delaware county. locating at Haverford, where he continued to reside until 1852, when he became a resident of the city of Chester. Here he spent the remainder of his days, dying in 1881, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. Soon after coming to Chester he again em- barked in the manufacture of cotton yarns, and cotton and woolen goods, and was thus en- gaged at the time of his death. His business talents and his character as a citizen were of a high order, and as a manufacturer he was remarkably successful and prosperous. He was a member and ruling elder in the First Presbyterian church of Chester for many years, and in political faith a stanch republican from the time that party was first organized in Pennsylvania. He married Sarah Sykes, also a native of England, and a member of the Presbyterian church, and who died in 1881, in the sixty-third year of her age.
John Lilley, jr., grew to manhood princi- pally in the city of Chester, and obtained a good English education in the excellent pub- lic schools of this city. Leaving school he entered his father's factory at Chester, where he was employed until March, 1862, when at the age of eighteen he left the mills to enlist as a private in Company H, 4th Pennsylvania artillery, in which on account of his ability and talent he was soon afterward promoted to be first sergeant. He faithfully performed all the duties of a soldier until the close of the civil war, participating in a number of hotly contested battles, and undergoing the fatigue
and privations incident to active campaigning, and was discharged in 1865. Returning home after the cessation of hostilities, he became a partner with his father in the cotton and woolen goods business at Chester, under the firm name of Lilley & Son. They conducted the business successfully under that name un- til a short time previous to the death of the elder Lilley, when a joint stock company was organized, and the Lilley & Sons Manufactur- ing Company was incorporated. John Lilley, sr., was elected president, and John Lilley, jr., was made secretary and treasurer, a posi- tion he has acceptably filled ever since. The works employ one hundred and thirty-five persons. They are fitted up with expensive and modern machinery, and supplied with all the latest devices, improvements and conven- iences for the purpose for which they are in- tended. They make a specialty of cotton yarns, and manufacture cotton and woolen goods of every description. Only the best material is used and skilled workmen always employed, so that the goods turned out by this firm are uniformly of high grade, and find a ready sale in the leading markets of this country.
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