USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 51
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ing his second continuous term as a member of the common council from the First ward, his name has been prominently mentioned in connection with the office of sheriff of Dela- ware county in 1896.
On December 29, 1873, Mr. Dickerson was united in marriage with lda Hastings, a daugh- ter of Joshua and Rebecca( Calhoun ) Hastings, of Salisbury, Maryland. To Mr. and Mrs. Dickerson have been born three children, two sons and a daughter : Walter ( died in infancy), Herman, and Maud.
While Edward Dickerson has ever been forward in every movement for the interest or benefit of his native city, yet it is in the mat- ter of a public park that Chester will be most grateful to him, as it has been through his un- wearied efforts that such a boon has been se- cured to the people in "Chester Park," a picturesque locality in the First ward. Mr. Dickerson's move for a park met with much ignorant and hasty opposition at the start, on the grounds of expense, speculation, and want of street car communication, but lie patiently showed that the expense was light, that no speculation existed, and that street cars would run to the new park.
Edward Dickerson worked withi a will for the park. and secured ample donations of ground along Ridgely creek. A public meet- ing was called at the Grand Opera house on August 25, 1892, and enthusiastically endorsed his work, and took steps to aid him in secur- ing the park. This meeting, in which were the most prominent and influential citizens of the city, authorized Mr. Dickerson to appoint a committee of one hundred to assist in secur- ing the park site.
In his public and private career Mr. Dick- erson has ever had the prosperity and prog- ress of his city and county at heart, and gives to any public movement his best energies and much of his valuable time from business affairs. He is a man of intelligence and energy, and fitly stands as a representative citizen of the old and thrifty city of Chester.
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A BEL HOWARD, one of the leading real estate dealers and property owners of South Chester, who spent nearly thirty years in the ministry of the Methodist Epis- copal church, is a son of Ezekial and Jane (Livesy) Howard, and was born December 3, 1824, at Ashton-Under-Lyne, England. His father was a silk weaver by trade and a mem- ber of the Wesleyan Methodist church, who took a deep interest in religious affairs and was for many years an official in his church. He mar- ried Jane Livesy, also a native of England, by whom he had a family of eight children, five sons and three daughters : Martha Lilley, James, Mary, William, Joseph, Abel, the sub- ject of this sketch : Ellen and Frank. Ezekiel Howard died in England in 1846, in the sixty- third year of his age, and his wife departed this life in 1846 at the age of fifty-seven.
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In the English manufacturing towns of that day but little attention was paid to the subject of popular education, and the boyhood of Abel Howard was surrounded with fewereducational advantages than abound to-day. While yet a boy he was put to work in the mills, but being anxious for an education he attended night schools and improved every advantage that came in his way. By the time he was eighteen he had made considerable progress, and had also saved enough money from his wages to pay his expenses for one term at a business college. He made the best posssible use of his opportunities there, and afterward obtained a situation as a clerk in a wholesale leather store, where he worked as an under salesman for some time. In 1848 he came to America, whither his two brothers, James and Joseph, and his elder sister, Martha, had preceded him some four years earlier. They had settled at Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, and there Abel Howard joined them. He soon secured a position as time-keeper in the ma- chine shop and foundry owned by William Spencer, near Pottsville, and later engaged in teaching, having resolutely continued his own studies until he was master of all the ordinary
branches of learning. For three years he taught in the public schools of Schuylkill county, and then in 1852 entered the ministry of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, becoming a member of the Philadelphia conference. For a period of nearly thirty years he acceptably occupied the position of an itinerant preacher in that confer- ence, serving numerouscharges in Delawareand Chester counties and in the suburbs of Phila- delphia. In 1878 he became pastor of the South Chester Methodist Episcopal church, and after a successful pastorate of two years removed toPort Carbon, where he held a charge for a short time, and then returned to South Chester. In 1880, after twenty-eight years of faithful service, he retired from the ministry, and since then has devoted his time and atten- tion principally to the real estate business. Since his connection with the real estate in - terests of South Chester he has built abont one hundred and fifty stores and dwelling houses in various parts of the borough, and now owns some sixty houses in South Chester and ten tenement houses and four stores in the city of Chester, nearly all located in the most desir- able parts of the city. To the enterpise and active operations of Mr. Howard is justly due the credit for much of the recent growth and development of South Chester. He has prob- ably contributed as much in this way to the building up of that borough as any other one man within its limits, and is still actively en- gaged in building operations. In addition to his improved lots he also owns considerable unimproved property in the two towns.
On January 27, 1861, Mr. Howard was mar- ried to Charlotte Hongdobler, of Mt. Joy, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and to this union was born three children, two of whom- Edgar and Maurice-died in early childhood. The third, a daughter named Lottie, now re- sides with her parents in their beautiful home in South Chester.
In politics Mr. Howard is now strictly in- dependent, voting for the men and measures which in his opinion are most likely to ad-
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vance the public welfare, though for many years he affiliated with the Republican party. He has served as school director in South Chester, and at various times held a number of local offices here and elsewhere. As a whole Mr. Howard's career has been one of great use- fulness and remarkable success, and taking into consideration his early environments and the fact that he was compelled to rely entirely upon his own efforts for advancement in the world, he is one of the many prosperous, suc- sessful and highly honorable business men whose life story we have been pleased to re- cord in this volume.
H ON. JJOHN MORTON, a distinguished patriot and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Ridley, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1724, and died in 1777. He is said to have been of Welsh de- scent, was intelligent and well educated, and lived such a life that he is deserving of the esteem and admiration of his countrymen. He served his county as a justice of the peace, high sheriff and president judge, and repre- sented it for several terms in the general as- sembly, of which he was speaker from 1772 to 1775. He also served as a judge of the su- preme court of the Province. His most emi- nent services were of a political character. He was a member of the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, and of the First and Second Conti- nental Congresses. In the Second Continental Congress he voted for the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He assisted in organizing the system of confederation for the Colonies, and was the first of the signers of the Declaration who died. On one side of the monument erected to him in St. Paul's burying ground at Chester, is the following inscription : "In voting by States upon the question of the Independence of the American Colonies, there was a tie until the vote of Pennsylvania was given, two members of which voted in the affirmative, and two in the nega-
tive. The tie continued until the vote of the last member, John Morton, decided the pro- mulgation of the Glorious Diploma of Ameri . can Freedom."
JOHN SHELDON, the popular ticket and freight agent at Lenni, this county, and a prominent temperance worker and writer, is the eldest son of Charles and Catharine (Myrose) Sheldon, and was born on Christmas day, 1849, at Camden, New Jersey. The Sheldons are of English descent, and the family was planted in America by three brothers of the name who came over in colonial times and settled in various parts of New England. John Sheldon, from whom the subject of this sketch is descended, settled in Massachusetts, and the family gradually increased in numbers and spread into New York and New Jersey, where its members have become numerous and prominent. John Sheldon (grandfather) was a man of common school education, a wine merchant by occupation, and resided in Philadelphia all his life, dying there of yellow fever in 1837, during the terrible scourge of that disease which rendered that year notable in the annals of the Quaker city. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and married Jane Carr, an only child, whose parents resided at Seneca Falls, New York. By that union he had a family consisting of one son and three daughters : Harriet C. Tay- lor, deceased ; Mary Jane Cline, Julia, de- ceased in 1861 ; and Charles. Charles Shel- don (father) was born in the city of Phila- delphia in 1826, and grew to manhood there. receiving a good practical education, after which he learned the trade of carpenter, and has worked at that occupation nearly all his life. He now resides at No. 3035 Linden Square, Philadelphia, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. In politics he is a republican, and in religion a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a
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Good Templar. In 1848 he married Catharine Myrose, a native of New Jersey and a daugh- ter of Henry Myrose. They had a family of eleven children : John, the subject of this sketch : Harry, William (deceased), Charles M., Walter, now a clerk in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ; Oscar, Emma Plummer, Julia Barton, Mary Etta Boddy, Ida and Kate, the last named having died in 1866, at the age of one year. Mrs. Catharine Sheldon is now in the sixty-fifth year of her age, and during nearly all her life has been a devoted member of the Methodist Epis- copal church.
John Sheldon was reared principally in Phil- adelphia and educated in the old Front Street Grammar school of that city. Leaving school at the age of fourteen, he became errand boy in a large wholesale milling establishment of Phil- adelphia, and later engaged in various other industrial pursuits, including glass blowing. In 1869 he entered the employ of the Penn- vania Railroad Company as clerk in the freight office at Camden, New Jersey, and remained in that position until 1877, when he came to Lenni, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, as ticket and freight agent, telegraph operator, yard master and postmaster. Here he has remained ever since, rendering entire satisfac- tion alike to the railroad authorities and the general public, with whom he has become very popular.
On October 22, 1871, Mr. Sheldon was married to Anna Dungan, a daughter of Ben- jamin Dungan, of Marlton, New Jersey, and they have had five children, four sons and a daughter : Jessie, now the wife of Charles Leedom, auditor's clerk in the coal freight department of the Pennsylvania railroad at Broad street and Washington avenue, Phila- delphia, though he resides at Lenni, this county ; Albert B., a clerk in his father's office at Lenni ; Charles Roy, now a student in the West Chester Normal school ; and Ed- ward K. and William S., who are attending school at Parkmount, this county.
Politically John Sheldon is a stanch repub- lican. and in religion a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church. He is also a mem- ber of George W. Bartram Lodge, No. 298. Free and Accepted Masons, of Media : Media Chapter, No. 266, Royal Arch Masons; Rock- dale Council, No. 804, Junior Order American Mechanics : and was at one time prominently identified with the Knights of Labor, repre- senting the Camden assembly in the district conventions and at the Labor congress in Pittsburg in 1865. He is also a member of the telegraphers' organization, in the district composed of Philadelphia, Chester, Wilming- ton and surrounding towns, and represented this brotherhood at their meeting in Chicago in 1885. He was one of the promoters and a charter member of Rockdale assembly, Knights of Labor, and has taken a very active part in the Good Templars' work in this sec- tion, having always been a strong temperance advocate. While yet a very young man he was sent as a delegate to the State temperance convention at Bordentown, New Jersey, and took an active part in its proceedings. He has also done considerable public speaking in the interest of temperance organizations, and has contributed a number of excellent articles to various publications in behalf of the temper- ance cause. Mr. Sheldon is a director of the Central Building and Loan Association of Lenni, and in various ways has manifested his public spirit and deep interest in the material prosperity of his village.
Of the brothers of John Sheldon, heretofore mentioned in this sketch, Harry Sheldon is now the managing editor of the Newark Ad- vertiser, in Newark, New Jersey. He was for several years assistant managing editor of the Philadelphia Record, and later became city editor of the Newark Evening News. He is also the author of a well known work on toxi- cology, treating of narcotic poisons and their effects on the human system. Since 1889 he has resided at Camden, New Jersey. Charles M. Sheldon, another brother, is a member of
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the wholesale commission house of Redfield & Son, No. 141 Dock street, Philadelphia ; and Oscar Sheldon is a clerk in the insurance office of A. W. Wister & Company, at No. 405 Walnut street, in that city.
E DWIN L. CON, a highly respected citi- zen of Chester, and the proprietor of the well known Chester City Planing mills and Sash factory, is a son of Miller and Margaretta ( Trainer) Cox, and was born at Avondale, Chester county, Pennsylvania. March 11, 1851. His paternal grandfather, Josephus Cox, was in the third generation from the original founder of the family in the State of Delaware and the United States. Josephus Cox was of English descent, and followed farming in his native State of Delaware in early life. He afterward removed to New London, Chester county, where he died in 1876, when in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was a whig and republican, and had two wives. By his first marriage he had nine children : Samuel, Hannah J. Stevens-Hall, Lydia A. Jacobs, Emma Miller, Benjamin, Pusey, Miller, and two others who died in childhood. Miller Cox (father ) was born at Hockesson, Delaware, October 15, 1825, and learned the trade of car- penter. He followed carpentering and sash and door making until 1876, when he estab- lished the Chester Planing mills, which he operated up to 1890, when he sold it to his son, Edwin L. Cox. Mr. Cox was drafted in 1862, and served in the 175th Pennsylvania infantry through its campaigns in North Carolina and in Virginia. In 1864 he enlisted in Co. B, 203d Pennsylvania, and participated in one of the battles in front of Richmond, and in the attack on Fort Fisher. Mr. Cox married Margaretta Trainer.
Edwin L. Cox received his education in the schools of his native State, and then entered the employ of Samuel Rost, brick manufac- turer of Chester, with whom he remained two years. He was then successively engaged in
a planing mill and Roach's ship-yard, and in 1885 became foreman of his father's planing mills and sash and blind factory, which he purchased in 1890, and has been successfully operating ever since.
In 1871 Mr. Cox married Eliza J. Wilson, daughter of Robert and Mary (Bell) Wilson. To Mr. and Mrs. Cox have been born seven children, five sons and two daughters : Eva B., Walter A., Robert M., Clarence B., Wilmer E., Lizzie R. and Howard W.
Edwin L. Cox is a republican in politics, and has been for several years a member of the First Baptist church, in which he is serv- ing as a deacon. He is a member of Chester Council, No. 553, Royal Arcanum, and De- shong Castle, No. 346, Knights of the Golden Eagle. His time is largely taken up by his mill and factory business, with every detail of which he is thoroughly acquainted. The Ches- ter City Planing mills and Sash factory of Edwin L. Cox, at the corner of Seventh and Penn streets, are among the largest of their kind in the southeastern part of the State. The main building is forty by one hundred and forty feet, two stories high; the engine room and boiler house is thirty by forty feet, two stories high. The motive power is furnished by a twenty-five horse power Corliss engine. The sash factory is the best fitted up of its kind in Chester city, and the mill has been operated to its utmost capacity for the last two years. Mr. Cox makes a specialty of mill work and furnishes a superior line of material for hand- some and costly residences and fine and beau- tiful public buildings. He employs a force of twenty-five men and does a business that will soon average one hundred thousand dollars per annum. He lias an enviable reputation for integrity and promptness and furnishes first-class work to his patrons.
R EAR ADMIRAL PIERCE CROS-
BY, a naval officer who served with bravery and distinction in the Mexican and
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civil wars, was born in Delaware county, Penn- sylvania, January 16, 1823. He entered the United States navy as a midshipman on Jan- uary 5, 1838. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1853, and to commander in 1862. He served at Tabasco and Tuspan in the Mexican war and rendered efficient service at the cap- ture of Hatteras in 1861. He co-operated in the bombardment and capture of Forts Jack- son and St. Philip below New Orleans and in the capture of Vicksburg. He was in the en- gagement with the ram Arkansas, assisted in the destruction of blockade runners at Mason- boro Inlet, and commanded the Meta Comet in the attack on Mobile. He was made cap- tain in 1868, was afterward promoted to com- modore and to rear admiral, and is now on the retired list, residing at Washington City.
C APT. JOHN J. WILLIAMS, who
has won distinction as a sub-marine diver, and as the leading manufacturer of apparatus for the use of divers. has been a resident of Thurlow, this county, since 1880. He is a son of Charles H. and Margaret A. (Ward) Williams, and was born August 4, 1852, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Charles H. Williams (father) was a native of France, and served for a time in the French navy. In 1848 he came to the United States, having become infatuated with this country while vis- iting on one of his trips, and located in Bos- ton, where his family continued to reside while he followed the sea. He was a captain in the merchant marine, and accounted one of the best and most skillful commanders of his time. In 1862 he was offered the command of the handsome steamer " Mayflower," and was preparing to assume control of that vessel when he was suddenly stricken with smallpox and died in the same year, at the early age of forty-two years. He was a member of the Catholic church, and was twice married. By his first wife, Margaret A. Ward, he had a family of five children : Chark's H., who now
resides in Boston : James C., deceased : Thomas G., dead : Annie, deceased ; and John J., the subject of this sketch. By his second wife, Margaret Pender, he had one daughter. Mary Ellen, who died in childhood.
Capt. John J. Williams passed his early years in Boston, where he secured the rudi- ments of a good English education, and at the age of twelve went on board as a cabin boy on the ship " Tiber," and began learning the sea. For nine years he followed the sea, ply- ing between Europe and America, and during that time passed from his place as cabin boy up through all the gradations of seamanship to the position of captain, the last vessel he commanded being the " May White," from Boston. Retiring from his connection with sailing vessels in 1872, Captain Williams en- i gaged in sub-marine diving, and has the dis- tinction of having gone down farther into the "mysterious caverns of the deep" than any other diver in this country. He has worked in the West Indies and South America, as well as in this country, and has helped to raise many valuable ships and sunken boats in vari- ous parts of the world. Among these were the blockade runners at Venezuela, in the north- ern part of South America, and many wrecks along the coast of New England in our own country-indeed. he has been extensively en- gaged in his profession as a sub marine diver all along the Atlantic coast, from Cape Boston to the reefs of Florida. In 1879 he came to Pennsylvania, where he did work on the Dela- ware river for the United States government, the Pennsylvania railroad and the Delaware River railroad. in the employ of the American Dredging Company. For four years he has had charge of the work of removing rock from Schooner Ledge, opposite Chester. During the past two years he has been in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, doing submarine work at and inspecting the con- struction of Long bridge, Washington, District of Columbia : Walnut Street bridge, in Phila- adelphia ; the Susquehanna bridge at Havre
Capt. John J. Hillia.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R
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de Grace, Maryland ; and the bridge at Grey's Ferry, in Philadelphia. Captain Williams bears a number of recommendations from the numerous companies by which he has been employed, testifying to the efficiency of his work and the satisfactory way in which it was done. He is probably the most successful sub-marine diver in America, and is perfectly familiar with all branches of the business. His work at present consists mainly in raising sunken vessels and cargoes, and he employs at times as many as thirty men in his opera- tions. In 1886 he was employed by the gov- ernment to go to Wilmington, North Carolina, to remove, during the blockade in the rebellion, the ship called the " North Heath."
In 1887 Captain Williams engaged in dock building, engineering and contracting, in ad- dition to snb-marine diving. His office is at the corner of Fourth and Reaney streets, Thurlow, this county. He has just completed. the contract with the government to examine the foundations for the new East End dry dock piers at Philadelphia.
In 1878 Capt. John J. Williams was wedded to Tressa R. Prime, by whom he had a family of nine children. Mrs. Williams died, and the Captain married for his second wife Margaret O'Brien. To this union were born three children : Gertrude, Agnes and Leo. In pol- itics Captain Williams is a stanch democrat, but never took any very active part in polit- ical affairs. He is a member of the Catholic church. As a sub-marine diver he is widely known, and justly considered as standing at the head of his profession in this country.
JOHN CASSIN, the celebrated ornithol- ogist, and one of the founders of the Del- aware County Institute of Science, was a son of Thomas and Rachel (Sharpless) Cassin, and was born in Upper Providence township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, September 6, 1813. He was engaged for some years in mercantile pursuits in Philadelphia, and then 23
devoted himself to ornithology. He contrib- uted descriptions of new species to the Phila- delphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and published " Birds of California and Texas," containing descriptions and colored engrav- ings of fifty species not given by Audubon. He also was the author of a " Synopsis of the Birds of North America," "Ornithology of the United States Exploring Expedition," " Ornithology of the Japan Exploring Expedi- tion," "Ornithology of the Gillis's Astrono- mical Expedition to Chili," and the chapters on rapacious and wading birds in the " Orni- thology of the Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys." He also contributed the ar- ticles on birds and mammals in Smith's "His- tory of Delaware County." He was a mem- ber of a Quaker family, of whom several have distinguished themselves in the military and naval history of the country. John Cassin died January 10, 1869.
u ILLIAM H. MARTIN, ex-factory inspector of Pennsylvania, who for nine years served as postmaster of Chester, and held many other positions of responsibil- ity and trust, is a son of James and Sarah (Gartside) Martin. He was born at Patter- son, New Jersey, March 1, 1842. His father, James Martin, was a native of Oldham, Eng- land, came to the United States in 1841, settling at Patterson, but after a short time removed to Rockland, on the Brandywine, near Wilmington, Delaware, where he resided until 1847. In August of that year he located at Upland, Delaware county, where he con- tinued until his death, January 21, 1860, aged fifty-six years. He was a cotton worker by occupation, following that employment in the factories at his old home beyond the sea, in Delaware, and at Upland. Politically he was a whig, and after the formation of that party became a republican, although he never took any active part in its management. Mrs. Martin was also a native of Oldham, England.
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