USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 50
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
July 1, 1893." Mr. Booth was a chairman of the committee of twenty firemen, selected in 1889, to invite the Firemen's State Convention of Pennsylvania to meet at Chester city in 1890. They were successful, and the Firemen's Convention of 1890 is the largest ever held in the State so far. John W. Booth is a demo- crat in politics, and has been for several years a member of Chester Castle, No. 29, Knights of the Golden Eagle.
On August 27, 1887, Mr. Booth was united in marriage with Mattie C. Crosgrove, daugh- ter of Adam and Margaret Crosgrove, of Me- dia, Delaware county. To their union have been born three children : Helen S., Margaret M. and Mabel P.
The Booth family is one of the older fami- lies of the Middle Atlantic States, and Capt. Joseph H. Booth, one of its members, and the father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Milford, Delaware, October 15, 1822, and in early life came to Chester, where he died February 22, 1867. He was a sea cap- tain and had four brothers, John, William Parker and Levis, who also commanded ves- sels on the ocean. Capt. Joseph H. Booth was engaged for many years in the carrying trade to Philadelphia by the Delaware river and other routes. He served in the late civil war, commanding a vessel on the Atlantic coast. He was a Methodist and a democrat, and married Hannah M. Macklem, of Newark, Delaware, who is a daughter of Matthew Macklem. Captain and Mrs. Booth had a family of seven children, three sons and four daughters : Anna, Laur, Clara (deceased), Jo- seph, Elwood, John W. (subject ), and Han- nah M. Deakyne.
R EV. SAMUEL PANCOAST, recently
deceased, was a cultured and gifted man who had won respectful recognition in the world as a minister, an orator, a poet and a practical man of business. His talents were diversified and positive, and in whatever he 224
undertook, he met with the most gratifying success. He was a son of John and Hannah (Thomas) Pancoast, and was born May 31, 1819, in Lower Providence township, Dela- ware county, Pennsylvania. His parents re- sided at that place, near the edge tool factory owned by William Beatty, but soon afterward removed to the city of Philadelphia, where the mother sickened and died, and Samuel Pan- coast and his elder brother, Robert, were then sent to live with their paternal grandfather, Samuel Pancoast, who resided in Marple township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. The boys' grandfather was a prim old Quaker, and the boys were brought up in strict accord with that faith. Samuel was an extremely bright boy, quick to learn, and always stood at the head of his classes in school. He en- tered the Methodist ministry in 1844, connect- ing himself with the Philadelphia conference. He had charge of several churches in Penn- sylvania and Delaware until in 1857, when he removed to the State of Iowa, where he spent a period of ten years, during which occurred our great civil war. During the war he was presiding elder of the Iowa City district, com- prising four counties. This rapid advance- ment to one of the most responsible positions in his church, tells, far more eloquently than words could do, of his ability and the confi- dence which was reposed in him by his minis- terial associates and ecclesiastical superiors. During his residence in Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa, he conceived and publicly advocated the idea of erecting a suitable monument to commemorate the death of the heroes from that county who had perished in the great civil war, and himself solicited funds to the amount of two thousand dollars for that pur- pose. In 1868 he returned to Atglen, Chester county, Pennsylvania, and afterward became pastor successively of Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal church at Manayunk, and the Elev- enth Street Trinity church, Chester, and St. George's churches in Philadelphia. Later he filled pulpits in regular order at Milestown, Con-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
shohocken and Safe Harbor, and then returned to Philadelphia as pastor of the Messiah Meth- odist Episcopal church on Moyamensing av- enue. His next regular pastorate was at Avondale, Chester county. In 1889, upon the death of his son, Robert E. Pancoast, who was engaged in the boot and shoe business at Chester, Rev. Mr. Pancoast succeeded him and assumed charge of the prosperous busi- ness, which is thus mentioned by a recent writer : "The Pancoast stores, now managed by Samuel Pancoast, are among the largest and most prominent in the city. They are conveniently located, one at No. 812 Edgmont avenue, which was opened in 1876, and the other at No. 108 West Third street, which was established in 1887. The fittings and furnishings of these popular stores are very handsome and attractive, and the stock of goods carried embraces everything usually found in a first class shoe store. The founda- tion of these popular stores was laid by Rob- ert E. Pancoast, who conducted them until his decease in June, 1889, when he was suc- ceeded by his father, the present proprietor. He is a Methodist minister. and has served his church faithfully and well in all parts of the country, and is an upright gentleman, widely known and everywhere popular."
After coming to Chester, Mr. Pancoast preached regularly for the church at Trainer, near this city, and also continued to person- ally conduct his large shoe business until his death, August 12, 1893, when in the seventy- fifth year of his age. While he was pastor of the Atglen church, the soldiers' monument in Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa, was finally ar- ranged for, and Mr. Pancoast was invited, by the monument association, of which he had been president while in Iowa. to go to that State and deliver an oration on the oc- casion of laying the cornerstone of the mon- ument, July 4, 1868. This invitation he gladly accepted, and proceeded to deliver a patriotic oration, which was highly complimented by the press and people of Cedar county. He
was a fine impromptu speaker, and when roused by any special theme, or inspired by some special occasion, could speak in such an impassioned manner as to sway his audience as one man, and apparently mold divergent opinions into a single purpose. During the war he was once called upon to deliver a Fourth of July address in a large Iowa town, with but four days in which to prepare. He appeared at the appointed hour and delivered an oration which was then and since pro- nounced worthy to rank with the finished gems of oratory. He was also a poet of no mean order, and his verses were smooth, full of thought, and embellished with many fine figures of speech and poetical fancies. On the occasion of celebrating the bi-centennial of the landing of William Penn, at Chester. October 23, 1882, Mr. Pancoast prepared and read a poem, consisting of fourty-one stanzas, in which he drew a graphic picture of the de- velopment and progress of Pennsylvania. from the time of Penn to the present day, and closed with these lines :
By onr great schools, in numbers vast,
The future shall exceed the past.
And cultured care shall make sublime
The glory of the coming time.
And when has passed a century more,
And others gather on this shore,
To tell of further triumphs, then They'll bless the name of William Penn.
Politically Mr. Pancoast was a republican, but broad and liberal in his views. He had traveled extensively in Europe and through eighteen States of the American Union. Dur- ing his trip to Europe he visited Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Winsor Castle ( the home of Queen Victoria ), Antwerp. Cologne, Baden, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Switzerland, Italy, Rome, Paris and Ireland. seeing the leaning tower of Pisa, the cathedral of Milan, Mount Blanc, and indeed all the principal points of interest in the old world.
On February 16, 1847, Rev. Mr. Pancoast was wedded to Sarah L. Cook, whose parents, Stephen and Sarah( Gray ) Cook, were of Quaker
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
faith and residents of Unionville, Chester county, Pennsylvania. She, also, was gifted with much poetic talent, and has written a number of popular and catchy productions for the magazines and newspaper press. To Rev. Samuel and Mrs. Pancoast was born a family of five children : Mary Anna, Robert E., who married Sallie Kitchen, of near Ger- mantown, and founded the boot and shoe busi- ness heretofore mentioned, and who died at Chester in June, 1889: Olin T., a printer by trade, who wedded Emerene Hinkson, and re- sides in South Chester: Helen A., now the widow of Andrew Robeno, who was graduated from Gilbert academy, is also of a literary turn of mind, and resides at Asbury Park, New Jersey : and Wilbur H., also a printer. Mrs. Sarah L. Pancoast is now in the sixty- ninth year of her age.
WILLIAM F. ROBINSON, a repre- sentative business man and prosperous merchant of Chester city, is a son of George M. D. and Lizzie M. (Garrett) Robinson, and was born at Mt. Pleasant, in Christiana Hun- dred, Delaware, December 8, 1867. He re- ceived his elementary education in the public schools of New Castle county, Delaware State, and entered Newark academy, where he com- pleted the full course of that educational in- stitution. Leaving the academy, he learned the trade of miller with his father, but did not follow milling. He soon became interested in the general mercantile business, and served as a clerk for several years in various mercan- tile houses in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1890 he succeeded E. T. Kerns in the general mercantile business in his present building, at the corner of Fifth street and Highland av- enue. His building is a handsome three-story brick structure, forty by twenty-six feet in di- mensions. Besides his salesrooms, Mr. Rob- inson has a storage room twelve by sixteen feet, and all of his floor space is taken up by his large stock of goods. He runs two wag-
ons, and does a business that extends beyond South Chester, into the city proper and the surrounding country. Mr. Robinson has amply demonstrated his ability for the general mer- cantile business, and his success is the reward of his energy, activity and honesty. He is a democrat, and a member of the South Chester Methodist Episcopal church.
On November 11, 1891, Mr. Robinson mar- ried Stella J. Weldin, daughter of George W. and Eliza (Tally) Weldin, of Brandywine Hundred, New Castle county, Delaware. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have one child, a daughter, named Elsie W.
The Robinson family in America was founded in New Castle county, Delaware, where one of its members was a farmer. He served in the war of 1812, and had an only son, Wil- liam Robinson (grandfather ), who was born in 1810. William Robinson followed milling in various parts of the State of Delaware, and Chester and Delaware counties, Pennsylvania, and died in Concord township September 11, 1893. He was a democrat, and Free Mason, and Odd Fellow, and married Elizabeth Davis, who passed away March 6, 1886, at seventy- nine years of age. They reared a family of seven children : John, James, William, Joseph, George M. D., and Hannah Montgomery.
George M. D. Robinson (father) was born August 1, 1845, and learned the trade of mil- ler, which he has followed to a considerable extent ever since. He run a mill on Mill creek, in Delaware, until 1890, and then went to Spanish Fort city, that State, where his present large flouring mill is located. He is a Methodist and a democrat, and has held various local offices. He is a Free Mason and an Odd Fellow, and married Lizzie M. Garrett, a member of the old Garrett family of southeast- ern Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson reared a family of six sons, and five daughters : Ella(deceased ), Hannah E. Groves, William F. (subject), George G., Joseph P., Lydia D., Mattie B. and May (twins), Swithin C., Jesse, and Cleveland.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
JONATHAN PENNELL, a man of practical business ability and experience, and the oldest lumber and coal merchant of Chester city, is a son of Edward an Elizabeth J. (Price) Pennell, and was born in the house where he now resides, in the city of Chester, October 5, 1831. The Pennell family was one of the English families that came with Penn to his possessions on the Delaware in 1682, settling in Rockdale, Ashland township, where they purchased over one thousand acres of valuable land. The earliest member of the family of whom we have any detailed account is William Pennell, whose children were : Wil- liam, James, Nathan, Thomas, Jonathan, and several daughters. The youngest son, Jona- than Pennell (grandfather), was born in Edg- mont township, and learned the trade of black- smith, which he followed after 1786 in Ches- ter city. He married Sarah Hibberd of Upper Darby township, who died some years later and left two children : James and Henry Hale. He wedded for his second wife, Ann Delaney, of his adopted city, and their children were : Edmund and Jonathan, who both died in 1798 ; Sarah Ann, Edmund (2), Sydney, Jonathan (2), Nathan, and several who died in infancy. Edmund Pennell (father was born in the city of Chester, April 22, 1802, and after receiving a good common school education assisted his father for some time at blacksmithing work, al- though not intending to follow that line of business. From early life to within the last few years Edmund Pennell was one of the active, the useful and the progressive business men of Chester. His first active business was farming on some land in the suburb of the borough, which he disposed of in 1835, to purchase a tract of some extent in what is now the southern part of Chester, where he conducted farming operations on a consid- erable scale until 1863, when he retired from agricultural pursuits. He is now in the ninety- second year of his age and has spent a remark- ably long and very active life in his native city, where for over half a century he was quite
prominent and useful as a citizen, a public of- ficial and a business man. In connection with farming Mr. Pennell dealt largely in cattle and was interested in several remunerative enter- prises. Media was surveyed by him and laid out by his direction. He succeeded his father as a director of the Delaware County bank, and when it was changed to a National bank he served for over thirty years as a director and as president. He was a whig and is a re- publican, and served one term as county com- missioner. He is a member of the Society of Friends, and his business life and services in behalf of his native city have been such that he possesses the good will and commands the esteem of all who know him. Unobtrusive in giving advice while engaged in business affairs, yet his advice was much sought and highly appreciated by those who received it, as his judgment was good and his counsel always of a safe and practical character. In December, 1830, Mr. Pennell married Elizabeth J. Price, who was a daughter of John and Elizabeth Price, and died November 22, 1892, when in the eighty-seventh year of her age. To their union were born eight children : Jonathan, Anna Elizabeth. wife of Charles C. Larkin ; Charles D., Martha S., who wedded Joshua P. Eyre : William, Mary C., Edmund and Sally, deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Pennell cele- brated their golden wedding in 1880, and the occasion was one of interest and will long be remembered by those present on account of the pleasant time that they enjoyed.
Jonathan Pennell was reared in his native city, received his education in an excellent boarding school in Wilmington. Delaware, and then engaged in farming, which he followed up to 1856, when he engaged in his present lumber and coal business. In his extensive yards are kept all kinds of lumber and every grade of marketable coal. His trade extends all over the city and he supplies many patrons in the surrounding country. Mr. Pennell is warmly interested in the material prosperity of Chester, and has been prominently con-
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
nected for over a quarter of a century with all the leading loan and building associations of his city, being president of several of them at different times. He is now president of the Chester Real Estate Company.
On December 16, 1857, Mr. Pennell wedded Anna Gamble, daughter of Peter N. Gamble, of Lower Chichester township. Their union has been blessed with two children, a son and daughter : Harry G. and Mary E.
Jonathan Pennell is a supporter of the fun- damental doctrines of the Republican party, has served as a member of the city council for four years, and has always manifested a proper interest in political affairs, although not mak- ing himself prominent or becoming a partisan. While engaged in the lumber and coal trade, yet he has given time and attention to other enterprises out of his regular line of business. He had somewhat to do with the building of the present court house at Media, and hauled the corner stone of that structure. Mr. Pen- nell is recognized as one of the useful busi- ness men of Chester, and stands high as a man in the commercial life of his city.
JOHN P. GRUNDY, proprietor of the Grundy hotel, of Chester city, and an en- thusiastic and energetic democrat of Delaware county, is a son of William and Ann (Quinn) Grundy, and was born in the city of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, January 22, 1840. The Grundy family is one of the long resident families of Manchester city, one of the great- est manufacturing centres of England. Wil- liam Grundy was the only member that ever came to the United States. He came in 1831 to Philadelphia, where he was engaged for several years at his trade of loom machinist. He was a skilled workman in his line of work, and not only built a large number of looms, but also fitted up several cotton and woolen mills. From Philadelphia he went to Eng- land in 1841 ; he then returned to Philadelphia
in 1842 ; thence to Kelleyville and Darby, Cobb creek, Pennsylvania ; from there he went to North and South Carolina, returning to Pheo- nixville : thence to Valley Forge ; thence to Kent, on Darby creek, this county, in 1850, which he left in a short time, and since then nothing has ever been heard of him. He was a democrat in politics, and a member of the Episcopal church, or Church of England, and married Ann Quinn. They had two children : John P., and William.
John P. Grundy received his education in the public schools of Upland, and at an early age went to work in the cotton mills, which he left in a few years to learn the trade of blacksmith, which he followed at Leiperville, Chester, and Avondale, from 1859 to 1875. In the last named year he quit blacksmithing and started a livery and sales stable in Ches- ter city, which he run for ten years. In 1885 he sold his livery establishment, and since 1885 has been proprietor of the Grundy hotel, at No. 520 Market street. He is well patron- ized, and in addition to his hotel property, he owns an adjoining livery stand at No. 24 East Fourth street.
On September 30, 1863, Mr. Grundy united in marriage with Elizabeth Quinn, of Leiper- ville, Pennsylvania. To their union has been born six children, five sons and one daughter : George B. McClellan, William J., Margaret, John, Francis, and Henry M. George B. McClellan Grundy, who married Ida M. Mur- phy, is a plumber by trade and assists his father in the management of the Grundy hotel. William J. Grundy married Anna Welsh, and is a shoe dealer in Chester. John Grundy is an electrician, in the employ of the Arnold Electric Manufacturing Company.
John P. Grundy is an old time democrat, who believes the Jacksonian principles of his party. In 1844, when in his infantile years almost, he carried a Polk and Dallas flag, and in 1892 he hoisted the first Cleveland and Stevenson flag that floated to the breeze in Chester city.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
S AMUEL B. PENNINGTON, a suc- cessful wagon and carriage manufacturer of South Chester, and a member of the town council of South Chester from the Third ward, is a son of Isaac and Mary ( Miller ) Penning- ton, and was born in Bethel township, Dela- ware county, Pennsylvania. August 15, 1856. The Penningtons are of English descent. They came here with William Penn about 1682. The great-grandfather of S. B. Pennington was born in Radnor township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1740, and William Pennington, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1780 in Radnor township, Delaware county, Pennsyl- vania, and settled in Bethel township in 1812, where he was a farmer by occupation. Mr. Pennington died August 13, 1856, aged sev- enty-six years. He was a man of good legal and business qualifications, and an old line whig in political affairs. He was a Quaker, and married Lydia Dennison, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daugh- ters : William, Isaac, Beulah Zibbey and Lydia Nicholson. Isaac Pennington (father) was born August 11, 1826, in Bethel township. where he followed farming until 1860, when he removed to his present residence in South Chester. He served in the late civil war, en- listing in 1864 in Co. D, 50th Pennsylvania in- fantry, and participated in the last battles fought in front of Richmond. Mr. Penning- ton married Mary Miller, of Brandywine Hun- dred, Delaware, and they have ten children, four sons and six daughters : William, Anna, Lydia, Samuel, Robert, Beulah. Isabella, Isaac, Sallie and Elizabeth.
Samuel Pennington received his education in the common schools of his native township and the public schools of South Chester. He then served an apprenticeship at wagon mak- ing, which he has followed most successfully ever since commencing life for himself. He conducts a large business at No. 1811 West Third street, associated with C. L. Peirce, blacksmith, where he has his carriage and
wagon-making establishment, to which he has added lately a wheel-wrighting, painting and trimming department.
On May 13, 1879, Samnel B. Pennington wedded Emma E. Neal, who was a daughter of John Neal, of Chester city, and died De- cember 16, 1892, at thirty-six years of age. To their union were born five children : Sam- uel, deceased ; Charles, Beulah, deceased : S. Kirk and W. Rowen.
In his business Mr. Pennington has been very successful. He has a well equipped es- tablishment, and is kept busy filling the num- erous orders which he receives. He is a mem - ber of Larkin Lodge, No. 78, Knights of Pythias : Thurlow Castle, No. 159, Knights of the Golden Eagle : Chester Council, No. 553, Royal Arcanum : and the New York Mutual Life Insurance Company. Samuel B. Pen- nington is a republican in politics. and has been serving for some time as a member of the South Chester council from the Third ward. He has always taken an active part in religious affairs, and is a member of the South Chester Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has served as trustee, steward, and the Sunday school superintendent. His services in the interests of his church and demonina- tion have been such that he has been made secretary of the quarterly conference of the Methodist Episcopal church.
E DWARD DICKERSON, a promi- nent republican of Delaware county, and an energetic business man of Chester, has stamped his name for all time to come as a public benefactor to his native city, by estab- lishing Chester Park. He is a son of Thomas and Sarah A. (Allen ) Dickerson, and was born in Chester, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, June 2, 1857. Thomas Dickerson was of English parentage, and left his native State of Delaware at an early age to become a resi- dent of the city of Chester, in which he passed the remainder of his life, dying in the early
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
part of 1859, when in the forty-fifth year of his age. He was a drover by occupation, had good success in his various business transac- tions, and at one time owned some very valu- able real estate within the city limits. Mr. Dickerson was a Quaker, and wedded Sarah .A. Allen, who is a daughter of John and Mary Allen, of Milford, Delaware. To Mr. and Mrs. Dickerson were born a family of ten children, seven sons and three daughters: Alfred, Hester, Allison, Charles, David, Sarah, Edward, Thomas, G. Washington, and Jennie.
Edward Dickerson was reared in his native city, received his education in the public ยท schools of Chester, and commenced life for himself as a bootblack in the streets while but a mere boy. His tact, industry, and aptitude for business soon secured him success in his humble calling, and gave earnest of what the man would be in years to come when he fully entered the great arena of commercial life. From his meager earnings as a bootblack he helped to keep his widowed mother, and es- tablished a newspaper route, at the village of Upland. At an early age he left bootblacking, and learned plain and ornamental plastering, which he has followed chiefly ever since. He was engaged for a short time in traveling in the South and East as an auctioneer. Mr. Dickerson has always enjoyed a large trade in plastering and in plaster construction work. In 1890 he purchased valuable real estate in the First ward, which he has so highly im- proved that it is now considered very valuable. He also owns fifteen lots in the most desirable part of the city, upon which he has erected fine residences. Foresight, good judgment, and fine executive ability have given to Mr. Dickerson his unusual success and remarkable career. With but few peers and no superiors in his line of work, his prosperity was but a question of time, and came ere he had attained the prime of early manhood. Active in polit- ical as well as business affairs, he has ever been zealous and efficient in the true interests of the Republican party, and now, while serv-
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