USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 49
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William M. Boulden received a common school education, and after working for some time on a farm, entered a cotton mill at Train- er's station, where he worked three years. At the end of that time, in 1873, he secured a position as "fitter up" in Roach's shipyard, at Chester. In 1880 Mr. Boulden had become so well conversant with his line of work that he secured contract work on the construction
of ships. His efficiency as a contractor has been such that he now has to work a force of thirteen men in order to complete the large number of contracts which he receives. He has worked on the following well known ves- sels : The Fall River, Puritan, Pilgrim, Ply- mouth, Persillia, City of Pekin, Tokio, and the Dolphin, the vessel from which President Cleveland witnessed the grand naval review at New York Harbor in April, 1893. Alto- gether Mr. Boulden has worked on two hun- dred vessels, some of which are the finest of their kind in the world. In 1890, Mr. Boul- den, in addition to his contract ship work, en- gaged in the house contracting and real estate business in South Chester, where he has al- ready built twenty-seven tenement houses and now has twelve more well on the way toward completion. He is a republican in politics, has served as building inspector of South Chester, and is always active in any enterprise for the material improvement of his city. He is a member of Chester Lodge, No. 92, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows ; Grand Com- mandery Lodge, No. 106, Knights of Malta ; the Fulton Fire Company, and McClure Gun club. He is a liberal supporter of South Chester Methodist Episcopal church, with which he united several years ago.
On December 18, 1877, Mr. Boulden mar- ried Mary Baxter, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Baxter, of Chester. Mr. and Mrs. Boulden have eight children : William I., Her- bert D., Maude I., Aolus, Leon, Blanche I., Ivy M. and Vincent B.
ISAAC T. LEWIS, one of the old and highly respected residents of Chester, and a retired business man of forty years successful experience, was born in Uwchland township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, August 23, 1825, and is a son of Thomas and Saralı ( Thomas) Lewis. His paternal grandfather, Henry Lewis, was a farmer and a Friend, and died in his native township of Uwchland in
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1798, at fifty-two years of age. He was enter- prising and well informed, and active in all the affairs of his community. He married and reared a family of nine children : Isaac, Thomas, Evan, James, Morgan, Ellen Krauser, Betsey Kranser, Hannah Reed and Sarah Buckwalter. Thomas Lewis (father) was a farmer and a whig, and advocated the principles of the So- ciety of Friends. He held a number of local offices, and died in February, 1849, at fifty- four years of age. He married Sarah Thomas, and to their union were born five children, two sons and three daughters : Anna Vickers, Ellen Philips, Eliza R. Hoopes, Henry and Isaac T. Mrs. Lewis, who died in 1884, at eighty-seven years of age, was a daughter of Isaac Thomas, who was a native of Scotland, and came about 1800 to Pottsville, where he purchased one thousand acres of land in a region that is now one of the most valuable in the State. Not realizing the importance of his purchase he sold out and removed to Reading when but a few houses constituted that now large and prosperous city. He soon left there and set- tled in Uwchland township, Chester county, where he died.
Isaac T. Lewis was reared on the farm, re- ceived a practical business education, and in early life was engaged in farming and milling. The milling business having an injurious ef- fect on his health he removed to Lionville, this State, where he opened a store and also conducted a butchering establishment for sev- eral years. He married Sara A. Spackman, a daughter of Thomas and Hannah Spackman, of Caln township. To their union have been born five children : Ella (Mrs. S. L. Dietrich), Thomas, deceased, aged twenty-two years ; Cassius M., Paxson V. and Clara. At the end of that time he purchased a farm in Brandy- wine township, but imprudently exposing him- self was again compelled to relinquish farm- ing. He then returned to Lionville and did considerable in dealing in grain and real estate for several years, at the end of which time he came to Chester, where he bought property at
the corner of Second and Kerlin streets. He established a retail grocery store, and later on a retail hay, straw, flour and feed depot, which he changed later into headquarters for a whole- sale business in the same line. He prospered in his last enterprise, which he disposed of to his son, Cassius M., in 1883, in order to re- tire from active business. Five years later Mr. Lewis purchased his present handsome brick residence on Kerlin, near Eighth street. In politics Mr. Lewis was formerly a whig and republican, but is now a prohibitionist, be- lieving that the success of the Prohibition party would be for the best interests of the country. He is a member of the Society of Friends, and has always been interested in the intellectual and moral advancement of the communities in which he has resided. Cassius is now of the firm of Sproul & Lewis, whole- sale grocers, at Second and Kerlin streets. Paxson Lewis is superintendent of the Log- wood mills of Chester city.
JOHN II. KERLIN, who is now serving his second term as recorder of deeds of Delaware county, and who has been a resident of Marcus Hook since 1876, is a son of Wil- liam B. and Martha (Yates) Kerlin, and was born May 12, 1842, in the old Kerlin home- stead, near the corner of Third and Penn streets, Chester, Delaware county, Pennsyl- vania, where four generations of Kcrlins have been born and reared. The family is of Scotch- Irish descent, and was planted in the peace- ful borders of Pennsylvania about the time of William Penn. William Kerlin, paternal grandfather of John H. Kerlin, was a native of Chester, where he resided all his life. He was a prosperous farmer and large land owner, and during his later years did a private bank- ing business as money broker. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war when a young man, and died at his home in this city in 1851, aged seventy-eight years. He mar- ried Hannah Byre, of Lower Providence, this
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county, and reared a family of four children, one of his sons being William B. Kerlin ( father ), who was born in the family mansion in Chester in 1799, and grew to manhood here, receiving a good practical education in the subscription schools. He afterward learned the saddlery and harness trade, and settling in his native place continued to reside in Chester until his death in 1856, when in the fifty-seventh year of his age. In politics he was an ardent whig, and held a number of local offices in Chester and served one term as county auditor. In 1839 he united in mar- riage with Martha Yates, a daughter of John Yates, of England, and by that union had a family of five children, two sons and three daughters : Hannah Byre, John H., Elwood, Mary Baynes and Martha Frances. Mrs. Martha Kerlin was a native of England, and came to the United States when only five or six years of age, with her elder brother, John B. Yates, with whom she lived until her mar- riage. She died in 1869, in the sixtieth year of her age.
John Kerlin was reared in his native city of Chester, and obtained a superior English ed- ucation by diligent application to his books in the public schools. Leaving school he be- came an apprentice to the drug business with Ambrose Smith, of Seventh and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia, where he remained un- til 1863. Early in that year, embued with patriotism and anxious to serve his country, he enlisted in the United States navy, and was assigned to service on the monitor Sangamon, with which he made one cruise. On his re- turn he enlisted in Co. A, 197th Pennsylvania infantry, under Capt. James Barton, with which he served until his discharge, near the close of the war.
As early as February 1, 1869, Mr. Kerlin was a member of the Franklin Fire Company, of Chester, and so earnest and active in that capacity that he soon won the confidence and esteem of his associates, who testified their appreciation by elevating him to be the first
chief engineer of the Chester fire department on August 2, 1869. He served in that capacity until August 2, 1872. In 1870 he embarked in the drug business on his own account at Third and Penn streets, Chester, where he success- fully conducted a first-class drug store until his removal to Marcus Hook, in March, 1876. In 1874 Mr. Kerlin was elected director of the poor for Delaware county, and reelected in 1887. In 1889 he received the nomination of the Republican party for recorder of deeds in this county, and in November of that year was elected to the office by a handsome ma- jority. His administration of the duties of that position was so satisfactory to the people that on the expiration of his term of office in 1893 he was again elected for a term of fonr years, ending in 1897, and by a majority ex- ceeding that of any other man on the ticket, which fact illustrates his personal popularity with the people far better than any words the biographer could use.
On July 3, 1865, John H. Kerlin was united by marriage to Mary E. Bell, a daughter of James S. Bell, of the firm of Hinkson & Bell, tanners and curriers, of the city of Chester. To Mr. and Mrs. Kerlin was born a family of six children, three sons and three daughters : Jane B., Martha Y., Mary F., Malachi Harris, John H., jr., and James B.
Long identified with the Republican party, Mr. Kerlin has for years held a high place in the local councils of that organization. He is now the senior member of the county com- mittee, having served continuously for a period of twenty years, during three of which he was secretary of the committee, and in 1881 was a delegate to the Republican State convention. He is also president of the Young Men's Re- publican club, of Marcus Hook, one of the most influential political organizations in the county.
During the seventeen years of his residence at Marcus Hook, Mr. Kerlin has taken an ac- tive interest in all movements having for their object the advancement of the material in-
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terests of the town of his adoption. He was one of the originators and the first president of the board of trade of Marcus Hook, and has always been found in the foremost rank of those citizens who, by enterprise and pub- lic spirit, endeavor to build up and increase the commercial and business importance of the town. He was ever an earnest advocate of reviving the old borough charter, and to his efforts is largely due the bright outlook for future prosperity which the more ener- getic and progressive citizens of Marcus Hook have labored so long and earnestly to see realized. Mr Kerlin is a member of L. H. Scott Lodge, No. 352, Free and Accepted Masons ; Wilde Post, No. 25, Grand Army of the Republic : Wawasett Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men ; Washington Post, Pa- triotic Order Sons of America; the Veteran War club of Philadelphia ; the Keystone club of Chester : the McClure Gun club; and of the Knights of Birmingham, an insurance or- der in which none but master Masons are eligible for membership.
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JOHN J. DEEMER, general manager of the Chester Steel Casting Company's large plant in this city, and one of the foremost practical iron men of southeastern Pennsyl- vania, is a son of John and Susan (Albright ) Deemer, and a native of Lehigh county, this State, born near Coplay. December 15, 1836. The Deemers are of German extraction and rank with the oldest families of the great Key- stone Commonwealth, being planted in this domain long prior to the Revolutionary war. Peter Deemer. paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Lehigh county, where he grew to manhood and learned the milling business. During the Revolution- ary war he was proprietor of a large flouring mill on the Pennsylvania side of the Dela- ware near Trenton, New Jersey, and furnished flour to the American army while they were in that vicinity, hauling it on wagons to Wash-
ington's camp. He died in Lehigh county, this State, about 1834, aged ninety-nine years. He married and reared a family of children, one of whom was John Deemer (father), who was born in Lehigh eounty in 1789, and died in the city of Philadelphia in 1849, at the ad- vanced age of sixty years. After attaining manhood he had moved to Philadelphia and engaged in mercantile pursuits, and for many years was a prominent and prosperous mer- chant of that city. In religion he was a mem- ber of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and in politics a Jacksonian democrat. He mar- ried Susan Albright, a native of Lancaster county, this State, where she was born in 1797. She also was of German descent, a member of the Moravian church all her life, and died in 1887, in the ninetieth year of her age. To them was born a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters: John J., whose name heads this sketch ; Edwin H., Emma R., Eliza S., James A., Ann Cordelia, Frank J. and Matilda C.
John J. Deemer was reared in the city of Philadelphia, where he acquired a good prac- tical education by attending the superior pub- lic schools, and by personal observation and careful thought regarding men and affairs. At the age of seventeen he entered the Struc- tural Iron Company's works in Philadelphia, to learn the trade of pattern maker, and after working as a patern maker for two years be- came assistant superintendent of the shops, and held that position until the firm withdrew from business in 1860. He. then for a number of years had charge of outside business for a foundry firm in Philadelphia until 1870, when he embarked in the foundry business for him- self in the Quaker city, and continued that enterprise until 1874, and two years later came to this city as general manager of the Chester Steel Casting Company's works, a position he has continuously held ever since that time. This company's trade has grown to mammoth proportions in recent years, and their plant has lately been greatly enlarged and improved.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
In his management of their affairs Mr. Deemer has shown the possession of large executive ability and wonderful organizing powers, and to his superior judgment and careful methods may be ascribed much of the success that forms the later history of his prosperous company.
In 1861 Mr. Deemer married Martha Marple, a daughter of Amos L. Marple, of the city of Philadelphia. She died in 1878, leaving five children, four sons and a daughter : John M .. Carrie E., Seldon S., Frank J. and Walter G. On the 14th of March, 1883, Mr. Deemer was married a second time, wedding Julia L. Mal- lery, a daughter of Rev. Daniel Gilbert Mal- lery, of Beverly, New Jersey. Politically Mr. Deemer is a stanch democrat, but has never taken an active part in politics, preferring to devote his time and attention strictly to busi- ness. For a number of years he has been secretary of the board of trustees of the Sec- ond Presbyterian church of this city, in which position he is now serving, and is also one of the board of managers of Chester hospital.
Rev. Daniel Gilbert Mallery, father of the present Mrs. Deemer, was a noted Presbyte- rian minister, who served as chaplain of Gov. John F. Hartranft's old regiment during the civil war, and died at Beverly, New Jersey, April 13, 1868, aged forty-four years. At the time of his enlistment he was serving as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Norristown, Montgomery county, this State, and went out with a company organized in that village. After his return from the field he took charge of the First Presbyterian church of Beverly. New Jersey, and was there engaged in active ministerial labors until his death. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1824.
H ENRY COCHRAN, a wounded Union soldier, an inventor in the great field of modern electricity, and the superintendent of the celebrated Lamokin car works of Chester, is a son of Richard and Mary ( West ) Cochran, and was born in the town of Louth, Lincoln-
shire, or county, England, April 29, 1847. Richard Cochran was a descendant of Lord Cochrane. He was a native of Louth, Lin- colnshire, where lie was engaged in the seed business until 1849, when he set sail for the United States, and was six weeks in making the voyage. He settled at Camden, New Jersey, which he left some eight or nine years later to become a resident of Shoemakersville, a village in Pennsylvania, and near the city of Philadelphia. He died in Philadelphia, January 20, 1885, aged seventy years, one month and six days. Mr. Cochran was a very fine botanist, and spent most of the years of his active life after coming to this country in landscape gardening. He was a republican and an Episcopalian, and married Mary West, a native of England, who now resides with her daughter, Mrs. W. A. Whitmore, of Phila- delphia, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. To Mr. and Mrs. Cochran were born seven children : Samuel W., who owns a drug house at Lambertville, New Jer- sey ; Henry ; Rev. Fred J., a Methodist min- ister stationed at Nanticoke, Maryland ; Alfred W., a druggist of Hammonton, New Jersey ; Sallie D., one of the sisters of Notre Dame, and teaching at Springfield, Ohio ; Mary Emma, wife of W. A. Whitmore, a merchant of Philadelphia ; and Francis A., who as an apprentice on board the United States school ship, has visited most of the important ports of the world, and is now engineers' yeoman on the United States cruiser New York.
Henry Cochran received his education in the public schools of Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, and at thirteen years of age went to Columbus, Ohio, where he worked in the varnishing factory of his uncle, Henry Cochran, until 1862, when he became a mem- ber of the Columbus Cadets, and was three months in the United States service. After this, on July 28th, of the same year, although only fourteen years of age, he enlisted in Company D, 95th Ohio infantry, and served as a private for two years and nine months,
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participating in all the battles of his regiment. In the fight at Richmond, Kentucky, he re- ceived three wounds, one on the left hand, a second in the neck, and the third in the right shoulder. After being honorably discharged from the Federal service at Nashville, Tenn- essee, in April, 1865, Mr. Cochran visited some relatives at Lyons, lowa, where he learned and followed the trade of carpenter for three years. He then returned east to Wilmington, Delaware, where he successively worked for Jackson, Sharp & Co., car builders, Bowers, Dure & Co., car manufacturers, and Harlan & Hollingsworth, car builders, and during part of his time with the last named firm had charge of the ventilator work. Leav- ing Wilmington in the spring of 1876, he went to Philadelphia and had charge of the trestle work of a railroad extension from the Penn- sylvania railroad main line to the Centennial buildings. In the fall of 1876 he became a journeyman worker with J. G. Brill & Co., car builders, of Philadelphia, and four months later was given charge of their erecting de- partment, a position which he held for nearly eleven years. When he left their employ in 1887 he was general foreman, and then re- signed to take charge of E. H. Wilson & Co. 's car works at Chester. Three years later, in 1890, Mr. Cochran induced the company to commence building electric street cars, and their success was so remarkable in their new venture that they were obliged to erect new and large works, which are known as the " Lamokin Car Works." The company often find it impossible to fill all the orders which they receive, and their trade extends all over the United States. They also repair and re- fit steam railway cars, and manufacture and deal in all kinds of standard and narrow guage street and electric cars. Mr. Cochran is a stockholder in the company, and the superin- tendent of the works, which are at Lamokin station in the city of Chester, and has taken out over a dozen patents on electric cars.
On December 23, 1871, Henry Cochran mar-
ried Elizabeth L. Bacon, daughter of James L. Bacon, and a member of the old and well known Bacon family, of Salem, New Jersey. They have a family of six children : Mary W., Clara R., Gertrude E., Harry P., Charles L., and Samuel B.
In politics Mr. Cochran is independent. He is a member and deacon of the Disciple church. He holds membership in Chester Council, No. 44, Legion of the Red Cross ; and Security Council, No. 748, Legion of Honor. Mr. Cochran is a prominent Free Mason, being a member of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons ; Chester Chapter, No. 258, Royal Arch Masons, and Chester Commandery, No. 66, Knights Tem- plar. Much of the success of the Lamokin car works is due to the efforts of Mr. Cochran, whose career in life has been one of prosperity and honor. He is a stockholder in the Frank- lin Sanitarium, which has proved superior to the Keeley cure establishments in curing the whisky and the tobacco habit.
G EORGE GRAYSON, proprietor of the Dauntless Yarn mills at Darby, this county, and ex burgess of that borough, is a son of John and Rachel ( Marshall ) Grayson, and a native of Leeds, England, where he was born March 20, 1848. John Grayson (father) was a cloth manufacturer of Yorkshire, England, who came to the United States in 1856, with his family, and settled at Frankford, Phila- delphia county, Pennsylvania. There he worked at his trade until 1878, when he removed to Darby, Delaware county, where he still re- sides. being now in the seventy-seventh year of his age. After coming to this county he retired from all active business, and has since been living quietly in his comfortable home at Darby. Politically he has been a republi- can since coming to this country, and is a member of the Episcopal church. In 1842 he married Rachel Marshall, a native of York- shire, England, and a daughter of Thomas
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Marshall. To them was born a family of five children, two sons and three daughters : Henry L .: Mary Mawson ; George, the subject of this sketch : FannyWilby, and Ruth G. Woodhead. Mrs. Rachel Grayson died in 1863, at the age of forty-eight years.
George Grayson came to this country with his parents when eight years of age, and grew to manhood in Philadelphia county, Pennsyl- vania, receiving his education in the public schools of Frankford, that county. Leaving school at the early age of eleven years, he en- tered the cotton mills with which his father was connected at Frankford, and began learn- ing the business of textile manufacture, with which he has been associated all his life. He has worked in both cotton and woolen mills, but during the greater part of his life has been connected with the woolen mills of this section. Before he was twenty-one he had charge of the carding and spinning at a Germantown mill, after having thoroughly mastered all the details of the business, including carding and spinning. In 1875 Mr. Grayson associated himself with William Arrott, under the firm name of Wm. Arrott & Co., and engaged in the woolen yarn manufacturing business at Ken- sington, Philadelphia county, where they re- mained for three years. In 1878 they sold the business to other parties, and together came to Darby, Delaware county, where they pur- chased the manufacturing plant of Andrews & Hibbard, and engaged in the manufacture of cotton and woolen yarns at this place. They remained in partnership until the death of Mr. Arrott, and after that event Mr. Grayson ad- mitted John J. McCloskey into partnership, under the firm name of George Grayson & Co. These gentlemen successfully conducted the business together until 1892, when Mr. McClos- key retired, and Mr. Grayson assumed entire control of the business in all its departments. He employs thirty operatives, running eighteen hundred spindles.
Politically Mr. Grayson is a stanch repub- lican, and since coming to Darby has served
two terms as burgess, and been three times elected to a seat in the borough council. He is a member of Philomathean Lodge, No. 10, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Ger- mantown, and is also a member of St. James Episcopal church, of Kingsessing, in which he has taken an active part, and has served for seven years as a vestryman and warden.
On October 20, 1870, Mr.Grayson was united by marriage to Lydia Scatchard, a daughter of Joseph Scatchard, of Germantown, this State. To Mr. and Mrs. Grayson have been born three children, two sons and a daughter : Bessie S., Walter M., and George S., all liv- ing at home with their parents, in their com- fortable residence at Darby.
JOHN WESLEY BOOTH, who is dis-
tinguished by energy and industry, is the assistant foreman of the molding department of Robert Wetherill & Company (Corliss en- gine builders). He is a son of Capt. Joseph H. and Hannah ( Macklem) Booth, and was born August 3, 1863, at No. 218 Market street, Chester city, Pennsylvania. He received his education in the public schools of Chester city, and at fifteen years of age left school to help support his widowed mother and younger sister. He worked in a mill for some time, and then learned the trade of molder in the Corliss engine mills of Robert Wetherill & Company, where he is now serving as assis- tant foreman of the molding department. Young, active and energetic, Mr. Booth has rendered himself useful to his city in different ways. He served for three years as assistant engineer of the fire department, and in May, 1893, was chosen as chief withont any oppo- sition. On July 1, 1893, he was presented, by the mayor, with a very handsome gold badge, which bore the inscription : "To John W. Booth, chief engineer of the Chester Fire de- partment, presented by his friends and Han- ley Hose Company, of Chester, Pennsylvania, as a token of respect and good fellowship, on
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