USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 45
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Emil Oscar Haas was reared principally in Chester and received his education in the pub- lic and parochial schools of this city. After leaving school he was employed until 1880 in the stationery and book store of William A. Todd, who was then proprietor and editor of the Chester Evening News, of this city. On leaving the book store he became clerk in his father's hotel, but soon afterward went to New York city, where he worked in a piano factory for some time and then took a trip through the west, spending about one year in traveling through that section. In 1885 he went to Eu- rope, traveling all through a number of Euro- pean countries and spending three months in Germany. While in Germany he slept one night in the house where his father was born.
Emil Q. Haas. 1
THE NEW YORK 1BLIC LIBRARY
TOR, LENOX AND .DEN FOUNDATIONS R
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Returning to America he worked for a time in his father's hotel, but in 1889 engaged in the wholesale liquor business in this city and is suc- cessfully conducting that enterprise. He is also the agent of the Louis Bergdoll Brewing Company in Delaware county, and in addi- tion to his wholesale liquor business and beer agency, he does a big bottling business and has teams running all over the county. He also owns some valuable real estate in this city.
On March 20, 1889, Mr. Haas was united in marriage to Loro Hamma Derrickson, young- est daughter of Capt. E. H. Derrickson, of Wallingford, this county. On Tuesday, May 16th, 1893, to Mr. and Mrs. Haas was born a son, named Sebastian. taking his name from his grandfather.
Politically the subject of this sketch is a stanch republican, taking an active part in politics. He was one of the principal organ- izers of the Fifth ward Republican club of this city, which meets, at Turn Hall, situated at Eighth and Morton avenue, of which he is pro- prietor.
E LLEN E. BROWN, M. D., a promi-
and successful physician of the city of Chester, and a graduate from the Woman's Medical college of Pennsylvania, who has been in general practice here since 1885, is a daugh- ter of Orren and Salome (Watkins) Brown, and was born October 5, 1848, at Peru, Berk- shire county, Massachusetts. The Browns are of Scotch-English extraction, and were among the early settlers of Massachusetts. A number of professional men-lawyers and preachers-were among the ancestors of the subject of this sketch, on both the paternal and maternal sides. Solomon Brown (grand- father) was a native of Massachusetts, where he was engaged in farming, and where he died in 1852, at the age of eighty-two years. He married Sallie Gilbert, and reared a family of eleven children, one of whom was Orren Brown (father), who was born in Berkshire county, 20a
Massachusetts, in 1804, and resided in the town of Peru, that county, all his life, dying there in 1888, at the advanced age of eighty- four years. He was a farmer by occupation, a republican in politics, and from early man- hood a strict member of the Methodist Epis- copal church. In 1825 he married Salome Watkins, a daughter of James Watkins, and a native of that county. They had a family of nine children, three sons and six daughters: Jas. G., Mary A., Chas. F., Martha A., Sarah M., Henry M., Effie J., Ellen E. and Jane P. Mrs. Brown was a member of the Congrega- tionalist church, and died in 1866, aged fifty- nine years. Her father, James Watkins, was a native of Scotland, who came to the United States about 1766, in company with two broth- ers, and settled in Massachusetts. He served as a lieutenant during the war of 1812, and afterward as lieutenant of the town militia, and one of his brothers, Nathan Watkins, was a captain in the American army during the Revolutionary war, and was present at the battle of Bunker Hill. They were a long-lived race, and possessed the military spirit in a marked degree. Lucinda Watkins, the painter and French teacher, was an aunt of Dr. Ellen E. Brown. The Watkins were distinguished for patriotism and good citizenship. Some of the family removed to Ohio at an early day, making the trip by slow stages with an ox team, and becoming early pioneers in that then thinly settled portion of the country, where some of their descendants may yet be found.
Ellen E. Brown grew to womanhood in her native village, receiving her early education in private schools there, which was supplemented by a thorough course of training in other pri- vate schools in the city of Philadelphia. She read medicine for two years with her brother- in-law, Dr. William Richards, a prominent physician and surgeon of Natick, Massachu- setts, and then entered the Woman's Medical college of Pennsylvania, from which institu- tion she was duly graduated in 1881. After
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graduation she spent one year in the women's and children's hospital on Staten Island, New York, and was resident physician three months at the house of correction in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. She then located at Cam- bridgeport, Massachusetts, where she was suc- cessfully engaged in practice for two years. In 1885 she removed to Chester, Pennsylvania, and in this city found a hearty welcome, and soon had a nice general practice, which has increased as the years passed until it is now quite extensive and lucrative. Dr. Brown is a member of the Delaware County Medical society, also of the State Medical society, and an earnest student of the best literature of her profession. She is popular in social circles, greatly esteemed as a lady of culture and re- finement, and her reputation as a skillful and successful physician is co-extensive with the city and county. That she is eminently de- serving of the flattering success that has at- tended her career in this city is the unanimous verdict of all who know her, either in the social way or through the successful practice of her profession. Dr. Brown has never married.
THOMAS AARON LAYMAN, the
well known blacksmith and wagon maker of West Second street, Chester, is the eldest son of Edward and Margaret (Williams) Lay- man, and was born April 13, 1848, at Chris- tiana, New Castle county, Delaware. The family is of remote Germanic origin, and was among the early settlers of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where its members have mostly resided for many generations. There Thomas Layman, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared. He was a farmer by occupation, resided in Bucks county nearly all his life, and became quite prosperous. Politically he was a Jacksonian democrat, and married Abigail Coggin, by whom he had a family of ten children, four sons and six daughters : Milton, John, Thomas, Edward, Mary Galliner, Rachel Nicholson,
Catharine Polson, whose son, Rev. Thomas L. Polson, is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, at present serving the charge at Jamaica, Long Island ; Ann Bratton, Phæbe Townsend and Abigail Townsend. The elder Thomas Layman died April 10, 1863, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and his wife passed from earth in 1854. at the age of sixty-five. Edward Layman (father) was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1823. and after attaining manhood became a butcher, and locating in New Castle county, Delaware, followed that occupation there for a quarter of a century. In 1868 he removed to the city of Chester, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, where he continued the business for two years, after which he returned to New Castle county, Del- aware. He continued to reside in Delaware until a short time previous to his death, when he came back to Chester, and died at the home of his son, Thomas A. Layman, in this city, on October 15, 1887, when in the sixty- fourth year of his age. During the civil war he served as a member of Co. B. Ist Dela- ware infantry, and took part in a number of the most important battles of the war. In 1847 he married Margaret Williams, a native of Christiana, Delaware, and a daughter of Jeremiah Williams. To them was born a family of seven children, three sons and four daughters : Thomas Aaron, Edmund, Sarah Ellen, deceased ; Margaret Cubit, Anna M. Walls. Irene and George.
Thomas Aaron Layman was reared princi- pally at Christiana, New Castle county, Dela- ware, where he attended the public schools in boyhood, and afterward learned the trade of blacksmith and wagon maker with William H. Webb, of Summit Bridge, that county. In October, 1868, he came to Chester, Pennsyl- vania, with his father's family, and has ever since been a resident of this city. For a short time he carried on business on East Seventh street, but in 1888 he succeeded William Co- burn at the old stand on West Second street. near Bridge, where he has since conducted a
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
successful business and worked up a good trade. He now employs five men, and in ad- dition to all kinds of general blacksmithing, pays special attention to the building and repairing of wheeled vehicles. His work is always first class and has won a wide reputa- tion for superiority.
On Independence day, 1871, Mr. Layman was united in marriage to Lydia Stewart, a daughter of James Stewart, of Dover, Dela- ware, where she was born and reared. To Mr. and Mrs. Layman has been born a family of eight children, of whom five were sons : George (1), deceased in infancy ; Sarah E., George (2), Howard B., Eva, Thomas A., jr., Lettie P. and Benjamin Harrison.
Politically Thomas A. Layman has been an ardent republican all his life, and is a special admirer of ex-President Harrison, for whom his youngest son is named. In religious faith and church membership he is a Methodist, having been connected with the Methodist Episcopal church since 1877. He is also a past grand of Leiperville Lodge, No. 263, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Supreme Order of Heptosophs, of Penn Con- clave, No. 59.
W ILLIAM ANDREW HILL, super-
intendent of the foundry of the Crown Smelting Company of Chester, who has resided in this city since 1887, is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was born September 10, 1864, and is the only child of Andrew and Mary Ann (Parsons) Hill. The Hills are of English descent, and the family was early planted in America, though William C. Parsons, maternal grandfather of William A. Hill, was born in England, while his parents were on a visit to that country. After attaining manhood he adopted a seafaring life, serving twenty-seven years on board of a United States man-of-war, and while yet a young man secured the posi- tion of mail messenger to the commander of the navy yard at Philadelphia, with whose office he was connected for a period of thirty years.
He was a man of fine education, had a wide range of general information, and became well posted on all current topics. In politics he was a whig and republican, and in religion a member of the Episcopal church. He was also a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, having served as a master of Stewart Lodge, No. 187, of Philadelphia, and was likewise connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Sarah Ann Harris, by whom he had a family of twelve children. His ' death occurred October 21, 1881, when in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Andrew Hill (father), was born in the State of Maine in 1836. There he grew to manhood, received a good common school education, and after- ward learned the trade of cabinet maker, at which he worked until the breaking out of the civil war in 1861. He then enlisted in the service of the United States as a member of Co. A, fourth division, 13th Iowa Infantry, with which he took part in a number of his- toric engagements, and was finally killed at the battle of the Wilderness, in 1864, when twenty- eight years of age. In 1863 he married Mary Ann Parsons, a native of Philadelphia and a daughter of William C. Parsons. Their only child was William A. Hill the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Mary A. Hill is still living, be- ing now in the fifty-third year of her age, and resides in the city of Chester with her son.
William A. Hill was principally reared in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in the public schools there obtained a common Eng- lish education. Leaving school he served an apprenticeship of three and a half years at the trade of brass molder, in Philadelphia, when he entered the employ of the Crown Smelting Company of Chester, where he completed his trade and was made a boss molder, and occu- pied that position until 1893. In the latter year he became superintendent of the foundry of the Crown Smelting Company, and is now occupying that responsible position with great acceptibility. Beginning his trade with a de- termination to master it in every detail, Mr.
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Hill was soon known as an expert molder, and rapidly rose in the estimation of his associates until he was conceded to be one of the most skillful workmen in the business. This supe- riority, the result of his own efforts, opened the way to a foremanship, and the ability for man- agement displayed in that position resulted in his being called to the post of superintendent of the foundry. His successful career may well afford encouragement to other young men who are compelled to rely entirely on their own exertions for advancement in the world. They may feel assured that if once thoroughly fitted for some useful work, their abilities will find recognition somewhere, and the gates swing open to admit them to places of responsibility and usefulness.
In his political affiliations Mr. Hill is a dem- ocrat, though he prefers business to partici- pation in politics, and contents himself with performing the ordinary duties of good cit- izenship. He is a member of Mocoponaca Tribe, No. 149, Improved Order of Red Men, also Larkin Lodge of Chester, K. of P., and Chester Lodge, No. 44, Legion of the Red Cross, and takes an active interest in the Young Men's Christian Association of Chester. Since coming to Chester with his mother,in 1887, Mr. Hill has resided at No. 537 Kerlin street, and is regarded as among the most energetic, suc- cessful and thorough-going young business men of the city. He is unmarried.
W ILLAM H. GREEN, Sr., founder of the Vulcan works, who died at his home in the city of Chester, on May 1, 1893, was a pioneer in the industrial development of South Chester, and by his wonderful ability, clear foresight and indomitable energy. created the first great industry of that borough and guided it to assured success. He was the eldest son of Moses and Jane (Campbell) Green, and was born at Stockport, Cheshire, England, August 3, 1831. He received a good common school education, and at the age of sixteen
went to Manchester, where he learned the trade of machinist and engineer. In that city he remained working at his trade until 1850, when he bade farewell to his native land and sailed for America. Arriving in this country he settled first at Philadelphia, where he re- mained three years, and then removed to Richmond, Virginia, to assume the manage- ment of the engine department of the Tredegar iron works of that city. In 1857 he resigned that position to become superintendent of con- struction and repairs on machinery used in fit- ting out steam vessels for the government at Boston, Massachusetts. In 1861 he was com- missioned by the government as chief engineer at Boston navy yard, but resigned that place in 1863 to assume charge of the Globe iron works in that city. These works were then principally engaged in doing work for the United States government, and there Mr. Green had ample opportunity to demonstrate his thoroughness as a practical machinist and his fine ability as an engineer.
In 1864 he came to Chester, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, and at once perceiving the opportunities which South Chester pre- sented as a manufacturing locality. he pur- chased land on Delaware avenue and Reaney street, and erected the Vulcan works. This was six years before public attention was drawn to the availability of that borough as a supe- rior seat for manufacturing enterprises, and to Mr. Green belongs the credit of paving the way for that industrial growth which has trans- formed the quiet village into a manufacturing center of great importance during the last twenty years, and filled the streets of the town with the hum of unceasing activity. The Vulcan works began operations in a building forty by one hundred and twenty feet in di- mensions, which was afterward enlarged to a handsome brick structure one hundred and twenty by one hundred and forty-four feet, with an addition thirty by thirty feet, used as a cupola house and for other purposes. The output of the works consisted of manufactured
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articles of brass, steel and iron, and Mr. Green made a specialty of brass valves and cocks. In 1883 he manufactured several six ton valves for the water department of the city of Phila- delphia, which are believed to be the largest valves ever made in the world. The Vulcan works owed their inception and success pri- marily to the energy and good management of Mr. Green, and not to any combination of capital and associated interests, and in the conspicuous success which he here achieved he fitly illustrated what may be accomplished by first thoroughly mastering a business and then intelligently and persistently using the knowledge thus obtained.
In his political sentiments Mr. Green was a conservative democrat, voting for men of ability and who understood the business neces- sities of the country rather than for theorists or politicians. He was elected and served as the first burgess of South Chester, and later was for several years a member of the borough council and of the school board, over which he presided for a time. He was a Knight Templar in Masonry, and a member and war- den of St. Luke's Episcopal church of the city of Chester. In every relation of life he faith- fully discharged the duties incumbent upon him and won the regard of all who knew him. Eminently successful in business, he made good use of the means thus acquired and in many ways assisted those less fortunate than himself, providing employment for large num- bers of men and answering the calls of charity with a liberal hand.
In 1857 Mr. Green was united by marriage to Elizabeth Chalmers Mckenzie, a daughter of John McKenzie, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and by that union had a family of seven chil- dren, three sons and four daughters : William H., jr., Margaret Jane, Mary Campbell, Laura Christina, Alfred Tennyson. Lillie Christina and Thomas R. List.
The family from which William H. Green, sr., was descended is of English lineage, as has been intimated. His paternal grandfather,
George Green, was a native and life long resi- dent of Stockport, England, and a well known professor and teacher of music. Of his twelve children, Moses Green (father) was born at Stockport in 1805, and after attaining man- hood married Jane Campbell, whose parents were Joseph and Mary Campbell, of the same town. The children of Moses and Jane Green were: William H., subject of the foregoing sketch ; Sarah, John, James, Jane, Mary, Sarah (2), Moses and Henry. Moses Green came with his family to America in 1847, and followed his trade of engineering in this country until his death, in October, 1879, when in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
CAPT. J. CAMPBELL GILMORE,
freight agent of the Philadelphia, Wil- mington & Baltimore railroad, vice president of the Ridley Park Brick Manufacturing Com- pany, and captain of the veteran corps of the Ist regiment, National guards of Pennsylva- nia, is the eldest son of Andrew and Sarah A. (Semple) Gilmore, and was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1856. The Gilmores are of Scotch-Irish de- scent, and on the family roll are the names of a number of men who have won prominence in medicine, the pulpit, and other professions. James Gilmore, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Agha- dowey, Ireland, where he was reared and ed- ucated. In early manhood he left his native country, with a number of compatriots, to seek a new home in the new world, but re- turned to Ireland in 1851, and died in 1872, in the old homestead where his wife was born, in Killure. He was a man of means, married Mary Campbell, daughter of Samuel and Mar- tha McCandless Patterson, of Killure, and had a family of eight children, whom he care- fully reared and educated. They were : Mary, Martha, Jane, Elizabeth, three died in infancy, and Andrew Gilmore (father). The family is
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
noted for longevity, and the elder James Gil- more continued his active career until he had attained the remarkable age of ninety-three years. His son, Andrew Gilmore (father), was born in Killure, Ireland, in 1818, sailed for America in the ship Mercy, August 16, 1838, and was educated at the principal schools of Killure, and at Prof. Robert E. English's academy in Philadelphia. He was intended for the ministry of the Presbyterian church, and his education was directed toward that end, but his tastes and inclinations turned in another direction, and after completing his studies he embarked in mercantile pursuits, in which he became very successful, owning and conducting two large establishments, one in the city of Philadelphia and the others at different towns in Carbon and Schuylkill coun- ties. Through his mother he is a lineal de- scendant of the distinguished English General Patterson, who took an active part in the pub- lic life of the British isles. While Andrew Gilmore was in the height of his business pros- perity, the panic of 1857 swept over the country like a withering storm, and after stem- ming the tide for a time, he was finally en- gulfed in the general ruin which marked that disastrous year, and was compelled to again begin at the bottom of life's ladder. This he did with a brave heart and the unsubdued energy that characterizes his race, was one of the first merchants to ship goods to California in 1849, and he is now a wholesale dry goods dealer in Philadelphia, connected with one of the largest commission establishments in that city. He is a republican politically, and for many years has been a prominent member of the Union Presbyterian church, which he served as treasurer. All his life he has been a great student and an industrious reader, and still takes an active interest in the world's progress, though now in his seventy-sixth year. In 1851 he married Sarah A. Semple, a daughter of Francis and Margaret Buchanan Semple, of Philadelphia, and by that union had a family of eight children, two sons and
six daughters : Mary, who married William H. Browne; Maggie, died in infancy : Sallie, also deceased in childhood ; J. Campbell, the subject of this sketch; Fannie S., who was prominently connected with the Presbyterian orphanage as an instructor, and died at the age of twenty one; Bessie, unmarried ; Nel- lie, deceased when twenty-one years of age, who was prominent in social circles in Phila- delphia and well known in Delaware county ; and Frank Buchanan, who married Nellie Prout, of Washington, District of Columbia, and is now receiving teller of the Citizens National bank of that city. Mrs. Sarah A. Semple Gilmore is a native of New York, and is now in the sixty-third year of her age. The maternal great-grandmother of Captain Gil- more was a sister to the mother of James Buchanan, fifteenth president of the United States. The maternal grandmother inherited a large estate from her ancestors, part of which decended in due course to Mrs. Semple Gil- more, who, on account of her great age and timidity in regard to an ocean voyage, never crossed the Atlantic to claim her patrimony.
J. Campbell Gilmore was reared in his na- tive city and educated in the public and gram- mar schools of Philadelphia. and by private tutors. At the age of sixteen he entered the office of the Philadelphia Record, and began learning the " art preservative of arts." After a year and a half he became a reporter on the Record, but soon abandoned the newspaper business to accept a position in 1874 as assis- tant car recording clerk in the Philadelphia office of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Bal- timore railroad. Here his abilities were soon appreciated, and he was rapidly promoted from one position to another, including those of manifest clerk, ticket clerk, train dispatcher, yard master, chief clerk and freight agent of the Gray's Ferry district in 1885, which place he has ever since occupied, with offices in Philadelphia and at Gray's Ferry.
In 1892 Captain Gilmore became interested in the Ridley Park Brick Manufacturing Com-
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pany, of which he is now vice president, and to his energy, enterprise and ability is due much of the conspicuous success of this com- pany since that time. Their works are situ- ated at Ridley Park, employ about seventy men, and have capacity to turn out seven mil- lion bricks per year, which find a market in Philadelphia and other large cities through the wholesale dealers in builders' supplies. They have shipped as high as one hundred and twenty-five thousand bricks in a single day, requiring twenty large cars. The bricks are molded in two steam presses, each with a capacity of thirty thousand per day, and these works are the largest of their kind to be found in Delaware county.
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