USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 44
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by apoplexy. He had a light complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, and usually weighed about one hundred and seventy pounds. His height was five feet eight inches. Ilis death occurred January 25, 1867, at one o'clock P. M. In 1821 he married Anna Cooper Wayne, a daughter of Samuel and Eliza Wayne, and they had a family of four sons and two daugh- ters : Louisa W. DuComb, Sarah A. W. Deal, William McCalla, Benjamin F., Cornelius C. V.(whose name heads this sketch), and Charles H. Mrs. Anna Cooper Crawford died March 1, 1887, in Media, Pennsylvania, aged eighty- six years. Her father was a cousin of Mad Anthony Wayne, the famous Revolutionary hero. Her fourth son, Charles H. Crawford, served in the Union army, Second corps, dur- ing the civil war, was captured at the battle of Spottsylvania, and confined for eleven months in various southern military prisons, including Andersonville, and personally underwent all the privations and hardships which have ren- dered the southern prison pens infamous in history.
Cornelius C. V. Crawford was reared in his native city of Philadelphia, and educated in the high schools of that city. Leaving school at the age of seventeen, he tried mercantile pursuits for a time, but being naturally of a studious habit and having a literary turn of mind, he determined to adopt a profession, and was naturally inclined toward the law, but his father disliked the law and preferred that his son become a minister or a physician. He accordingly entered Jefferson Medical college, and after finishing the full course of study and outside courses under Professors Agnew and Penrose, was graduated from that institution with honor and the degree of M. D. in April, 1862. He immediately began the practice of his profession in Philadelphia, where he re- mained until June, 1862, when, having suc- cessfully passed a rigid examination before the army board, he enlisted in the United States service, and became a medical officer of the 102d Pennsylvania infantry, connected with
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the Sixth corps of the army of the Potomac. He served continuously until July 4, 1864, when he was severely wounded at Fort Stevens by a rifle ball in the right leg, just below the knee, during the raid of General Early toward Washington. The shot carried away a portion of the tibia, and the injury was followed by erysipelas and gangrene, necessitating a con- finement in the hospital and at his home for several months. For seven months Dr. Crawford was compelled to use crutches, and returned on them to his regiment, but never entirely recovered from his wound, and was discharged from service November 19, 1864. Prior to his service in the army he also spent some time at sea as medi- cal officer. He then returned to Philadelphia and remained in that city for a short time, practicing as his health would permit, but in 1865 removed to Delaware county, where he has ever since resided, engaged in the general practice of medicine. Originally he gave es- pecial attention to surgery and gynecology, but drifted into a large, general practice to meet the demands upon him. Dr. Crawford has met with remarkable success in his pro- fession, and is widely known as a skillful phy- sician and a cultivated Christian gentleman.
On October 13, 1864, Dr. Crawford was wedded to Sarah B. Diehl, a daughter of Charles F. Diehl, a prominent merchant of Philadelphia, but formerly an active and suc- cessful business man of Alleghany county, Pennsylvania. After removing to Philadel- phia he engaged in the wholesale dry goods business in that city with Lippincott, Coffin & Company, one of the leading dry goods houses of that day, where he became quite prominent in business and an active member of the Union League, during the war of the rebellion - being, politically, an uncompromising repub- lican.
For years Dr. Crawford was an active mem- ber of the Delaware County Medical society, and has contributed extensively to the litera- ture of medical science. In politics he is a
stanch republican, and takes an active part in local affairs, having served as a member of the county committee for many years and been chairman of that body. He also served as census marshal one term, and quarantine offi- cer at the Philadelphia Lazaretto for four years, proving himself one of the most effi- cient and highly respected masters ever on duty there. Dr. Crawford has always taken a deep interest in music and the fine arts and in the cause of popular education, and for years served as secretary of the board of education and as district superintendent of schools. For two years he gave free courses of instruction in physiology in his home district. In 1872 he united with the Upland Baptist church. He is now a member of the First Baptist church of Media, in which he has held the position of deacon, and prior to that was the first deacon in the Village Green Baptist church, which he was so largely instrumental in organ- izing. He is also a member of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons ; of Ches- ter Chapter, No. 258, Royal Arch Masons ; and formerly was a member of the order of Knights of Pythias. He was one of the first members of old Bradbury Post, No. 149, Grand Army of the Republic, and served as adjutant, surgeon and commander thereof. After the dissolution of that Post (now reor- ganized ), Dr. Crawford became a member of Wilde Post, No. 25, and for eight consecutive years was elected medical director of the de- partment of Pennsylvania Grand Army of the Republic. Since 1887 he has resided at Ches- ter Heights, where he built and owns one of the finest and most handsomely appointed residences to be found in this part of the country.
JAMES WESLEY WATSON, now su- perintendent of the Tidewater Steel and Iron Works at Chester, this county, has been prominently connected with the iron industry of Pennsylvania and Colorado for many years. He is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana,
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where he was born January 27, 1841, and is the youngest son of John and Eliza ( Wagoner) Watson. The family is of Scotch ancestry, and was planted on American soil by James Watson, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was born and reared in the Scottish highlands, but who after attaining manhood left his native land to find a new home in the western hemisphere. He settled at Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where he passed the remainder of his life, dy- ing about 1830, in the sixty-fifth year of his life. He married Mary Vernon and reared a family of four sons : Robert, Stewart, Andrew and John. John Watson (father) was born at Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1798, and after securing a common school education learned the trade of plasterer, and later that of molder. For a time he was largely engaged in contract- ing and became quite successful and prosper- ous. Politically he was a democrat, and in religion a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1833 he married Eliza Wagoner, a native of Columbia county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Jacob Wagoner. To their union was born two sons : Robert J. and James W. John Watson died in 1853, at the age of fifty-five, and his wife passed from earth in 1860, in the sixtieth year of her age.
James Wesley Watson, their youngest son, was educated in the city schools of New Or- leans, Louisiana, and at Danville, Pennsyl- vania. Leaving school at the age of eighteen he entered the iron and steel mills at Danville, and began learning the iron business, with which he has been connected all his life. In 1877 he went to Colorado, and for some time was engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel at Pueblo, that State. Later he removed to the city of Denver, where for nearly four years he conducted a large iron and steel mill, but the works were sold in 1880 and he re- turned to Danville, Pennsylvania. He im- mediately connected himself with the Com- bination Steel and Iron Company mill, bought at Danville and taken down and rebuilt at
Chester, and is now named the Tidewater Steel Works, and for more than a quarter of a century successfully maintained a leading po- sition in the manufacture of iron and steel in Danville, Colorado and Chester. In 1880 the business was removed to Chester, Delaware county, and the mills known as the Combina- tion Steel and Iron Company, now Tidewater Steel Works, were erected. Mr. Watson as- sumed the management of these mills as su- perintendent, and has ever since occupied that important and responsible position. He has become widely known by his long connection with the iron industry of this State, and is highly esteemed. Mr. Watson is also agent at Chester for the Valentine Brothers Fire Brick Company, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, and the Mining Company of Somerset county. Pennsylvania, in both of which lines he does an extensive business. Politically he is a stanch republican and protectionist.
On the 18th of February, 1861, Mr. Watson was married to Mary C. Gaskins, a daughter of James and Mary Gaskins, of Danville, Penn- sylvania. To them was born a family of six chil- dren.of whom one son and three daughters are still living : Lizzie A., Hanna M., John V. and Mary M. Mrs. Mary C. Watson died August 3, 1882, at the age of forty years, and greatly respected and beloved by a wide circle of friends, who had been attracted by her many excellent qualities of heart and mind.
C HARLES ROBERTS, the treasurer of the South Chester Manufacturing Com- pany, is a fine example of a self made man of modern times. He is the second son and fourth child of John and Mary D. ( Forbes ) Roberts. He was born in Montrose, Scot- land, on January 27, 1841. His parents, and indeed all his ancestors on both sides, so far as known, were Scotch, and belonged to the Presbyterian church. His father was a well- to-do merchant in Montrose, but such was his faith in the future of this country, and so
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thoroughly possessed was he with American ideas that he long contemplated the removal of himself and family to the United States. While in Scotland he was even more of an American and better understood and appreci- ated our institutions than do multitudes who have been born on the soil. Not until the year 1849 did he see the way clear to carry out his long cherished wish. Then it was, that like many another since, he left his home and native land to explore this country, with a view of opening up a home for his wife and children that he had left behind him. His experience was so satisfactory that in August of the following year he was joined by his family in the home which he had selected for them on the Brandywine, in New Castle county, Delaware. The happy family reunion, how- ever, was not of long duration, for soon after the arrival of the wife and children the hus- band and father became a confirmed invalid, and died in March, 1851, leaving his widowed wife and fatherless children a little company of strangers in a strange land. It was the cherished desire of these devotedly pious par- ents to educate their children, but the means which they brought with them to this country were exhausted by the sickness and death of the head of the house, and it was necessary for all who were at all able to do anything, and could get employment, to go to work and earn something for the support of the house- hold.
Charles Roberts, the subject of this sketch, began working in the Henry Clay Factory, on the Brandywine, when he was scarcely ten years of age. Here he continued to work un- til 1858, when the proprietor, Mr. James Stephens, moved the machinery to the Pioneer mills, of Chester, Pennsylvania. These mills were situated between Fourth and Fifth streets, on the ground now occupied by the Farmer's market house. Mr. Stephens, desiring the services of Mr. Roberts, invited him to go with him to Chester and to continue in his employ. He accepted the invitation, and has been a resi- 20
dent of Chester ever since. When he began to work in the mill in 1851 it was as a creel tender on the old-fashioned cotton spinning hand mules, for which he received three dol- lars per month, but as he was destined to rise to a position above that of a common opera- tive, it was no disadvantage to him to begin at the very bottom. He was ambitious for promotion, and ever looked forward to it. When the other boys or young men of his own age were running the streets or idling away their time out of working hours, Charles Rob- erts was busy trying to educate himself for the place he was to fill in the future. When he had an opportunity he attended night schools, which were not so common then as now, and ever availed himself of such helps as he could get to acquire such learning as would fit him for business on his own account. He always looked forward to being a manufacturer, and he was not disappointed in his aspirations. He rose from one position in the mill to an- other until there was not a piece of machinery in a cotton factory that he did not fully under- stand, and could manage and operate. Finally his employer promoted him to the position of general superintendent of the mills. He was but little over twenty years of age when he re- ceived this promotion. This was his position in 1864, when he was induced by the late General Robert Patterson to become identified with him in the running of the Pioneer mills, in Chester, which he then owned. While thus identified with General Patterson, he erected and equipped throughout, in 1866, the Patterson mills, situated on Penn street and the P., W. & B. R. R. He remained in charge of these mills, which he had equipped with the best and latest improved machinery of that day, until the year 1870, when his business connection with General Patterson ceased. It was in that year, 1870, that Mr. Roberts began business wholly on his own account, in the water works building, at the foot of Fulton street, Chester. In this location he remained but a short time, when he purchased the prop-
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erty known as the River View mills, situated on the Delaware river, at the foot of Jeffrey street, South Chester. Under his ownership the property was greatly improved and en- larged. In 1886 the establishment became incorporated under the name of the South Chester Manufacturing Company. Mr. Rob- erts became treasurer, and still occupies that position. These works give employment to abont one hundred people, and are of great benefit to the place in which they are located.
On the 7th day of April, 1862, Mr. Roberts was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E. Wilson, the daughter of M. Robert Wilson, of Chester. As a result of their union three sons and one daughter have been born to them. The eldest of these, R. Wilson Roberts, died May the 3rd, 1892, at the age of twenty-six years. At the time of his death he was the secretary of the South Chester Manufacturing Company, and was also engaged in the erec- tion of a cotton mill in Cedartown, Georgia, in which he was interested. Mary N. Rob- erts, their second child, is the wife of Paxson V. Lewis. William K. P. Roberts is engaged in the office of Messrs. Cochran & Sweeney, real estate and insurance brokers. Archie C., the youngest son, is the assistant of his father. The family live in a pleasant home, No. 502 Kerlin street.
Politically Charles Roberts is a stanch re- publican. For a number of years he was a member of the school board of the city of Chester, and also a member of the city coun- cils. Like the rest of his family he has always belonged to the Presbyterian church, and for many years has been a trustee and an elder of the First Church, of Chester. He is a mem- ber of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; Chester Chapter, No. 258 Royal Arch Masons ; and Chester Command- ery, No. 66 Knights Templar, being a past officer of his Lodge and Chapter.
The subject of our sketch is pleasant and affable in manner, and his whole career finely illustrates what industry, energy and persever-
ance will accomplish for their possessor, even in the face of many adverse circumstances such as those with which he has had to contend. The success which has crowned his efforts should stimulate every poor boy who has am- bition to rise in the world to make the most of himself, and to look forward hopefully to a time when he shall become his own master and the benefactor of others.
H ON. ORSON FLAGG BULLARD, a prominent member of the Delaware county bar, who has served six years as pro- thonotary of the county and been three times elected to the State legislature of Pennsyl- vania, is a son of Hezekiah M. and Matilda (Deans) Bullard, and was born June 18, 1834, in Bridgewater township, Susquehanna county, this State. The earliest ancestors of the Bul- lards about whom anything definite is known were residents of Vermont, where tradition says the family was planted early in the seven- teenth century. Certainly it is among the old families of New England, where the name frequently occurs in local records and the early annals of the people. Isaac Bullard, pater- nal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared at Burlington, Vermont, where the old stock of the family principally resided, and where he spent the most of his life. In later years he removed to Susque- hanna county, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1842, when lacking only three years of being a centenarian. The entire family is noted for longevity. Isaac Bullard was a farmer by vo- cation, and although possessing only an ordi- nary education became well-to-do and influen- tial in his community. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war when a young man, and loved to tell of those trying times to younger generations who grew np about him. His wife was a Miss Tyler, who was remotely connected with the family of President Tyler, and they had a family of three sons and one daughter : Elijah, Hezekiah M., Otis and
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Sarah. Hezekiah M. Bullard (father) was born near Burlington, Vermont, but came to Pennsylvania with his parents in 1810, while yet young, and passed most of his life in Sus- quehanna county, this State. He died in Bridgewater township, that county, in 1872, at the age of eighty-one. Like his father he devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and as a carpenter, being successful in both. He fonght as a volunteer in the American army during our second war with England, taking part in the battle of Lake Champlain and other historic struggles, and was a democrat in poli- tics until the civil war occurred, when he iden- tified himself with the Republican party, and ever afterward gave it a loyal support. He was a man of positive views, and always kept himself well informed on political issues. A life long member of the Universalist church, he took an active interest in the work of his denomination, and did much for its advance- ment in his neighborhood. He married Ma- tilda Deans, a daughter of Zebulon Deans, of Susquehanna county, this State. To them was born a family consisting of four sons and six daughters : James O., Fannie L. Pneu- man, Thaddeus F., Caroline Robbins, Lucy Sherman, Mary Stanton, Abbie Culver, Orson Flagg, whose name heads this sketch; Clara L. Atherton, and Fred O., who now resides in the city of New York. Mrs. Bullard died in 1857, in the sixty-second year of her age.
Orson Flagg Bullard was reared in his na- tive county of Susquehanna, receiving his primary instruction in the public schools, and afterward completing his education in the academy at Montrose. In 1855 he began the study of law in the office of Judge J. M. Broomall, of Chester, where he remained two years. During the first year he was also prin- cipal of the boys' grammar school at Chester, but after that abandoned teaching and devoted his entire attention to his preparation for the bar. He was admitted to practice in August, 1859, at Media, this county, and in 1874 was admitted to the bar of Philadelphia, and to
practice in the supreme courts of this State. For three years after his admission to the bar he practiced law in this county, and then be- came prothonotary's clerk for two years, after which he was elected prothonotary of Dela- ware county, and acceptably filled that office for a period of six years. In 1872 he was nominated on the republican ticket and elected to a seat in the State assembly, where he served one term with distinction. Again in 1876 he was elected to the State legislature, and served two terms in succession. He never lost his interest in popular education, and for nine years was an active and influential mem- ber of the school board of Media. Mr. Bul- lard is a member of the bar association of Del- aware county, and since 1880 has been associ- ated with Judge Broomall in the real estate and law business, with an office in Media and another in South Chester. Mr. Broomall has large real estate interests in both places, and a law practice equal to any in the county.
As has been intimated, Orson Flagg Bul- lard is a stanch republican, and is regarded as among the ablest, and, at the same time, most conservative leaders of his party in this county. In 1863 hie enlisted in Co. C, 29th regiment of emergency men, under Capt. John M. Broomall, being sworn into service as ser- geant on his twenty-ninth birthday, June 18, and participated with his company in several skirmishes about the battle of Gettysburg. He is now a member and adjutant of Berad- burg Post, No. 149, Grand Army of the Re- public, of Media.
On the first day of June, 1859. Mr. Bullard was nnited in marriage with Rebecca A. Hus- ton, a native of Delaware county, and a daugh- ter of James Huston. To Mr. and Mrs. Bul- lard was born a family of nine children : James H., who married Elizabeth Jones, by whom he has three children, and resides in Brooklyn, New York, being employed as a printer in the office of the New York Tribune; Ellsworth F., who married Anna F. Robinson, has two children, and is at the head of the advertising
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
department of the Lorillard Tobacco Com- pany, residing at Hackensack, New Jersey ; Roberta M., living at home; Elizabeth M., married Dr. Henry Sykes, superintendent of the Episcopal hospital in Philadelphia, where they reside, and have one child ; William H. G., a graduate of the naval academy at An- napolis, Maryland, now an ensign in the navy, and instructor at the naval academy at Annap- olis, and who married Berne Saunders, of Bal- timore, Maryland, has one child, and resides in the city of Annapolis; Anna L., residing at home; Orson V., deceased March 7, 1892, at the age of twenty years ; Howard O. and Clarence L.
Zebulon Deans, maternal grandfather of Hon. O. F. Bullard, was a Connecticut Yankee of English extraction, who came to Susque- hanna county, Pennsylvania, in 1808, where he followed farming and also worked at his trade as a carpenter. He owned four hundred acres of land, on part of which South Mon- trose was built, became quite wealthy, and reared a large family of children, among whom were: James, Orimal, John, Matilda (mother of subject), Phœbe, who married a brother of Hezekiah M. Bullard (father); Lucy and Fan- nie, who married brothers, named Fields ; and others. Mr. Deans was very philanthropic and generous in disposition, a member of the Pres- byterian church, and at the time of his death was accounted one of the richest men in Sus- quehanna county.
EMIL OSCAR HAAS, a wholesale liquor dealer of Chester, and one of the most enterprising and prosperous citizens of the county, is a son of Sebastian and Gertrude (Ott) Haas, and was born near Market square in the city of Chester, Delaware county, Penn- sylvania, December 12, 1860. Sebastian Haas (father) is a native of Germany, born at Wit- tenberg in 1834, and in 1854 he emigrated to the United States and located in Philadelphia. which he left in a short time to settle in the
city of Chester. Here he has resided ever since, being now in the sixtieth year of his age, and a a democrat in political faith.' After coming to Chester he worked for ex-Judge Broomall for some time, and while in his employ cut down the tree to which it is said William Penn tied his boat when he first landed here. This tree stood in the yard where Dr. Forwood now resides, at the corner of Front and Penn streets, and Mr. Haas still has some of the wood taken from it. He was one of the early furniture dealers in this city, and followed that buisness here for a number of years. Later he accepted an agency in this city for the Louis Bergdoll Brewing Company, of Philadephia, and repre- sented that company here until 1889, when he erected his present hotel, known as the Franklin hotel and restaurant, at Nos. 127 and 129 West Third street. He has successfully conducted the hotel business here ever since.
In 1858 he married Gertrude Ott, a daugh- ter of Maurice Ott, and a native of Baden Baden, Germany, and who died October 7, 1876, aged forty-two years. They had a fam- ily of six children, four sons and two daugh- ters : Emil Oscar Haas, subject of this sketch, Lewis M. Haas, Henry A. Haas, John Ed- ward Haas, Caroline B. Haas, and Gertrude M. Haas.
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