USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county > Part 53
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They were the parents of nine children, four sons and five daughters : William, Susanna A., Mary J., Alice, Emma, Emma K., Wil- liam L., Charles W. and Allen C. W.
William L. Mathues grew to manhood in the county of Delaware, receiving a superior education in the public schools of Media, and in 1880, at the age of eighteen, entered the law office of John M. Broomall, the Nestor of the bar of Delaware county, and began prepar- ing himself for the legal profession. After completing his studies and passing the usual examinations, Mr. Mathnes was admitted to practice in the courts of Delaware county, on November 10, 1884. In the following year he accepted the position of deputy sheriff under his father, which office he held for two years. On January 1, 1887, he became deputy prothon- otary and deputy clerkof the courts of Delaware county, and served in that capacity until the first Monday in January, 1892, at which time he took the oath of office as prothonotary and clerk of the court of quarter sessions, hav- ing been elected thereto on the republican ticket in the fall of 1891. Mr. Mathues has given his entire attention to the duties of his official position, and has won the reputation of being one of the best prothonotaries the county has ever had. He is painstaking and careful in everything he does, and so pleasant and affable in disposition as to have become very popular with all who have business in his office.
On September 24, 1884, Mr. Mathues was married to C. E. Goodley, a daughter of Charles Goodley, of Delaware county. She died in 1891, leaving three sons : William Franklin, Samuel G. and Ernest P. On the 17th of May, 1893, Mr. Mathues was again married, wed- ding Marguerite R. Londen, a daughter of P. B. Louden, of Delaware county.
As has been intimated, William L. Mathues is a republican politically, and he has always taken an active part in support of his party and its principles. He is a member of Lenni Tribe, No. 86, Improved Order of Red Men ;
William &. Mathues
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
L
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Media Lodge, No. 749, Junior Order United American Mechanics : Captain Johnson Camp, No. 18, Sons of Veterans, of which he has served as captain ; and several political asso- ciations. Mr. Mathues has served as aid on the staff of the commander-in-chief of the United States Sons of Veterans. He is also a member of the board of trade in Media, and takes an active interest in every movement calculated to advance the material prosperity of the people, or aid in the industrial devel- opment of Delaware county. A writer in the Evening News, of Chester, said on May 13, 1893: "Few citizens of the county have a wider acquaintance or are more popular with the people of all classes than the genial pro- thonotary."
JOHN H. GARY, an enterprising, lib- eral and progressive business man of Ches- ter, and a member and officer of the favorably known Thurlow Cotton Manufacturing Com- pany, is a son of James and Lydia (Hoffecker) Gary, and was born at Collin's Beach, Dela- ware county, Pennsylvania, June 21, 1848. His paternal grandfather, Henry Gary, passed his life at his native place in new Castle county, Delaware, where he married and reared his family. He died aged eighty-five years, and his wife died about the same time, and at the same advanced age. Their children, seven in number, were : Philip,John, Joseph, James, Henrietta Bailey, Ann Smith and Martha. James Gary (father) was born in 1808, and re- ceived a practical English education in his native county, after which he removed to near Charlestown, Kent county, Maryland, and con- tinued so successfully in farming that at the time of his death in 1856, he owned over eight hundred acres of land well adapted to all agri- cultural purposes. He was a thoroughgoing man in business and a democrat in political opinion, and came to his death by a severe strain received in some heavy lifting that he did a few days before he died. He married Lydia Hoffecker. To their union were born
eight children, four sons and four daughters : Eliza, Anna (dead), James, Catherine, Joseph, Henrietta, John H. and William.
John H. Gary attended the ordinary schools of his neighborhood and old Middletown acad- emy, and at the early age of fifteen years left home to become a clerk for Col. W. C. Gary, who then did a large dry goods business on Market street, in the city of Chester. Some- time afterward he left the Colonel's employ to become a dry goods merchant himself, and continued in that business on Market street for three years. At the end of that time he disposed of his mercantile interests and for a time was connected with the Chester Dock Mills, for the purpose of fully examining the manufacturing of cotton goods in every stage of the process. When he had fully acquainted himself with that busines he assumed charge of. the Centennial Mills, now known as the Thurlow Cotton Mills, and held that responsi- ble position until the spring of 1893, when the heirs of the proprietor, Simeon Cotton, who died in July, 1891, sold the mill property to the Thurlow Cotton Manufacturing Company. of which Mr. Gary is a stockholder and the secretary and treasurer. The building was erected in 1876 by Mr. Cotton, has forty-two thousand spindles and furnishes employment for forty-five hands. Thecompany work strictly middling Texas cotton and find market for their entire product in Chester, the Byram and Shaw & Esyrl manufacturing companies, taking all their warped yarns from them. The mills are well equipped with all the late machinery and modern appliances necessary to a first class cotton plant of their kind, and the company has been prosperous under its initial and still present management, while everything tends to warrant future success of an enduring char- acter.
On January 9, 1870, Mr. Gary was united in marriage with Sarah Colton, and their union has been blessed with three children, two sons and one daughter : Minnie, John H. and War- ren H. Mrs. Gary is a daughter of Simeon
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Colton, the founder of the mill and a well known business man of Chester.
In politics John H. Gary is a prohibition- ist, having been formerly allied with the Re- publican party. He is a member of the Mad- ison Street Methodist Episcopal church, and in various ways is associated with the Chris- tian work of the city. Mr. Gary gives a prac- tical supervision to his works, and employs competent foremen, while system and order are visible throughout the entire plant. He produces the best quality of goods in his line and has done much to foster and enhance the manufacturing interests of Chester city and Delaware county.
H ORACE F. LARKIN, the well known coal, wood, and feed merchant at Marcus Hook, who is also interested in the real estate business there, is a son of Jolin M. and Emily F. ( Dutton) Larkin, and was born January 9, 1859, in the city of Chester, Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather is John Larkin, jr., whose sketch appears elsewhere in this vol- ume. John M. Larkin (father ) was a native of Marcus Hook, this county, who carried on the drug business at Chester for a short time, and then removed to Philadelphia, where he was engaged in the same business until his death in 1872, at the early age of thirty eight years. He had resided in Philadelphia about ten years, and was well known as a leading druggist of that city. In political sentiment he was a democrat, and so popular that he was elected a member of the State assembly from his district in Philadelphia. but did not live to take his seat in that honorable body. He married Emily F. Dutton, a native of Delaware county, and a daughter of Robert R. Dutton. To them was born a family of children.
Mrs. Larkin is now visiting in California, though she still regards Chester as her home. Her father, Robert R. Dutton ( maternal grandfather), was born in Upper Chichester
township, this county, and was a prosperous farmer during his earlier life. He was elected sheriff of Delaware county, succeeding John Larkin, jr. (paternal grandfather), in that office. Politically he was a republican, and in religion a member of the Society of Friends. After retiring from the sheriffalty he carried on the lumber and coal business at Chester for a number of years, where he died. He was of English extraction, and his ancestors came to Pennsylvania about the time of Wil- liam Penn.
Horace F. Larkin was reared in his native city, receiving his elementary instruction in the public schools, and afterward attending Swarthmore college two terms, and completing his education at Gilbert's academy, in the city of Chester. He spent two years study- ing the drug business, but on account of fail- ing health abandoned it and learned the trade of machinist, at which he worked for nine years. At the end of that time he visited California, and spent a year in traveling through that and other western States and territories. Returning to Chester in 1890, he engaged in the hardware and plumbing business in that city, but finding this too sedentary for his health he sold out in 1891, and embarked in the coal and feed trade at Marcus Hook. Here Mr. Larkin met with encouraging success from the first, and has ever since conducted a gradually increasing trade, handling wood, coal, feed, hay, and straw. He is also manu- facturers' agent for implements and tools, and for the celebrated Franklin ready mixed paints. In addition to his other business he also op- erates to some extent in real estate, and has made several important deals.
In October, 1887, Horace F. Larkin was united by marriage to Lillian M. Wilson, a daughter of William and Hannah H. Wilson, of Delaware county. To Mr. and Mrs. Lar- kin has been born one child, a daughter named Helen Louise.
In his political tenets Mr. Larkin is a stanch republican, but has never actively engaged in
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
party affairs. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and a regular attendant and liberal contributor to the Baptist church of Marcus Hook, of which Mrs. Larkin is a member.
ROBERT CARNS, the popular and effi- cient agent of the Ridley Park associa- tion, and a well known brick manufacturer of that place, who served with distinction during the civil war, and in several civil capacities since its close, is a son of Charles W. and Mary (Patterson) Carns, and a native of the city of Philadelphia, where he was born May 22, 1839. The family is of English-German extraction, and came to Pennsylvania from the Isle of Jersey, where Charles Wesley Carns, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born. He came to Philadel- phia with his parents when a child, and after attaining manhood engaged in the manufacture of brick, which occupation he followed for many years, doing a large business and ac- cumulating considerable property. He was a prominent member and local preacher of the Baptist church. His wife was Ann Larkin, by whom he had a family of eight children : Charles W. Carns (father) was born in Phila- delphia in 1808, and after receiving a good common school education, learned the brick business, and was engaged in that occupation in Philadelphia all his active life. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, conducted his affairs on an extensive scale, and having accumulated a competency, retired from active business about 1876, and removing to Moore, Delaware county, passed his declining years in quiet comfort, dying in 1889, at the ad- vanced age of eighty-one. In early life he was a whig, but upon the advent of the Re- publican party he assisted actively in its or- ganization in Pennsylvania, and ever after- ward gave it his warm support. In religion he was a strict Baptist, and in 1826 married Mary Patterson, a daughter of John Patter- son, of Philadelphia, to which union was born
a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters : Mary Danley, Elizabeth Fite, Gilbert, who has held the position of United States guager at the Port of Philadelphia for thirty years : Charles, who is connected with the Girard estate in Philadelphia ; Robert, the subject of this sketch ; William and John, interested with his brother in the manufac- ture of brick at Holmes, this county ; Anna L., Emma A. and Ella, the last named being now the wife of Charles Woodard, who re- sides in the city of Baltimore, where he is en- gaged in the insurance business. The mother of this family, Mrs. Mary Carns, died in 1881, in the seventy-first year of her age, and greatly respected by all who knew her.
Robert Carns was reared in Philadelphia and educated in the superior grammar schools of that city. At the age of seventeen he be- gan learning the brick business in his father's works at Philadelphia, and remained with him until August, 1861. On the 19th of that month he enlisted in Co. K, 88th Pennsylvania infantry, of which he was made first sergeant. He was soon afterward promoted to be second lieutenant, and still later became first lieuten- ant of his company, with which he participated in the second battle of Bull Run, and the en- gagements at Chancellorsville, Antietam, Thor- oughfare Gap and South Mountain. At the battle of Antietam he was slightly wounded by a ball, which would have undoubtedly ended his career had not its force been fortu- nately broken by the buckle on his belt ; and soon after the battle of South Mountain he fell sick and was taken to the hospital. He did not rejoin his company, but was mustered out of service at Washington in 1863, on ac- count of disability, and some time later be- came chief clerk in the clothing department of the Schuylkill arsenal at Philadelphia, where he remained until the close of the war. In the fall of 1865 he was elected clerk of the board of health of that city, and by succes- sive re-elections, served in that capacity until 1880, a period of fifteen years, when he re_
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
signed to accept a large contract for street cleaning in the city of Washington. On Jan- uary 1, 1881, he became superintendent of the quarantine station, in this county, and re- mained in that capacity up to 1889, when he resigned to engage in the manufacture of brick at Holmes station, this county, where he has carried on that business successfully ever since. When running at their full capacity, his brick works employ forty men, and turn out a superior quality of building and paving brick, which find a ready sale. In 1891 Mr. Carns became agent for the Ridley Park asso- ciation, and has since been conducting a real estate business at that place. To his energy and ability in managing the interests of the park association is largely due the present prosperous condition of Ridley Park, which now has a complete modern system of surface and underground drainage, and owing to its excellent sanitary condition, is entirely free from malaria and so remarkably healthy that no death has occurred in the borough for more than a year. Mr. Carns has done much to encourage building operations at this place, and his efforts have met with abundant suc- cess. There is no more beautiful or desirable location for a residence than Ridley Park, and its future growth and prosperity is assured.
On March 12, 1863, Mr. Carns was united in marriage with Hettie A. Dorman, a daugh -. ter of John and Mary Dorman, of Sussex county, Delaware, and a descendant of one of the oldest families in that State. To Mr.and Mrs. Carns were born two children, one son and a daughter. The son is Alfred D. Carns, who married Lizzie Shepherd, resides at Cam- den, New Jersey, and is a conductor on the Philadelphia & Atlantic railroad. The daugh- ter, Laura M., resides with her parents at Ridley Park.
In local politics Mr. Carns has always taken a conspicuous part, being an acknowledged leader in the Republican party of this section. Since his residence at Ridley Park he has represented his party in a number of county
and State conventions, and always with dig- nity, force and signal ability. He has always taken a prominent part in municipal affairs, having held various borough offices at Ridley Park, and is now justice of the peace and commissioner. Mr. Carns has been a Mason since 1866, and an Odd Fellow since 1863, be- ing now the master and a charter member of Prospect Lodge, No. 578, Free and Accepted Masons, of Moore, and a member of Ameri- can Star Lodge, No. 405, Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows, at Philadelphia.
Z ACCHEUS M. BOWEN, a prominent and successful contractor and builder of the city of Chester, is the only son of Zaccheus and Rebecca (Mason) Bowen, and was born February 11, 1835, at Berlin, Worcester county, Maryland. Isaac Bowen (grandfather) was a native of Virginia, where he was reared and educated, but removed to Worcester county, Maryland, while yet a young man, and passed all his active life in that county. He was an extensive and prosperous farmer, owning three or four large farms. He married and reared a family of children, one of his sons being Zac- cheus Bowen (father ), who was born in Wor- cester county, Maryland, and after attaining manhood engaged in contracting and building, which he followed successfully until 1858, when he abandoned that business to prepare himself for the ministry of the Methodist Epis- copal church. He was admitted to the Wil- mington conference, in which he continued his ministerial labors from that time until his death, dying in the eighty-third year of his age. His pastoral charges were principally in Maryland, where he became widely known and very popular. Politically he was a whig and republican, but never took an active part in politics. At the age of twenty-two he mar- ried Rebecca Mason, a daughter of Joseph Mason, of Philadelphia, and their only child is the subject of this sketch. After the death of his first wife Mr. Bowen married Ann Bell, by
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OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
whom he had one son, Henry, who served as a soldier in the Confederate army during the civil war, and now resides in the city of Balti- more. Henry Bowen married Mary Williams, and had one son, James Battell, now a sales- man in New York city. Zaccheus Bowen married for his third wife Elizabeth Conner, to whom one child was born, a son, named Leven I., who was accidentally drowned at Cape May. Mr. Bowen was twice married after the death of his third wife, but has no children by these later unions.
Zaccheus M. Bowen was reared principally in his native county, where he secured a good English education in the common schools, and afterward learned the carpenter trade with his father and Charles Collins. When twenty-one years of age he went to the State of Arkansas, where he was engaged in contracting and building for nearly two years, after which he returned to Berlin, Worcester county, Mary- land, and followed carpentering and building. During his residence there he erected some of the finest houses in that town. He came to the city of Chester, this county, in 1871, where he entered the employ of John Roach, and worked for ten years in the hardwood depart- ment of the Chester ship-yards. In 1881 he engaged in contracting and building in this city, and has successfully conducted the busi- ness from that time to the present, doing an annual business of nearly sixty thousand dol- lars, and constructing a number of the finest houses to be seen in the city. He gives close personal attention to every enterprise he un- dertakes, and is widely known as a skillful workman and a conscientious contractor, whose aim is always to give satisfaction and whose work will stand the closest investiga- tion.
In 1858 Mr. Bowen was united by marriage to Georgiana Tarr, a daughter of Isaac Tarr, of Berlin, Worcester county, Maryland, and a descendant of one of the oldest families of that section. To their union was born a family of three children, all sons : William M., the
present manager of the Penn Coffee house of this city; George, employed as book-keeper in Chester : and Frank, a clerk in a paper store in this city.
Mr. Bowen joined the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has ever since been an active and influential member. For years he has been a class leader in his church, and has received license as a local exhorter. In poli- tics Mr. Bowen is a stanch and uncompromis- ing prohibitionist.
G EORGE S. WHITTAKER, a self-
made man, and one of that class who know no failure, but write achievement where others have failed, is a son of William and Margaret (Smith) Whittaker, and was born in the city of Columbus, Ohio, November 25, 1865. He received his education in the pub- lic schools of Clifton and Rockdale, this county, and then at sixteen years of age entered the cotton mill at Clifton with his father, whom he assisted for several years, thus learning the manufacture of cotton goods in all of its departments. During an absence of his father he became manager of the spring department, which position he resigned two years later to become an apprentice at the trade of molder. Not liking the molding business in some of its branches, he did not complete his appren- ticeship, but returned to the cotton mill, which he left two years later to enter at South Ches- ter upon that line of business-contracting- for which he was specially adapted. While a sudden change from one pursuit to another entirely dissimilar in nature, yet Mr Whitta- ker's most sanguine expectations, which were of a very humble character, were more than realized in the success that crowned his first efforts. His career from that day on has been one of continual success, while the propor- tions of his trade have rapidly increased with each succeeding year. Mr. Whittaker has made a careful study of the subject of mechan- ics, and has added intelligent comprehension
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
and technical knowledge of his business to the general understanding that is only pos- sessed by the majority of contractors. In IS91 he built twenty-one houses. and one of the largest of his contracts of that year was the Clayton school building, a handsome two- story brick structure. thirty-eight by ninety- eight feet in dimensions, which was completed at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, and is one of the finest buildings of its kind to be found in the city of Chester. Mr. Whittaker is enterprising and public spirited, and it has been due to his strenous exertions that West Fourth street has been opened and improved. He has made seven-eighths of all the improve- ments on seven squares of that street. and has opened it up to the westward, and secured sewerage for it. At present he owns sixteen brick tenement houses on Sixth street. in South Chester, besides having six on Engle street, and eight on Third and Lamokin
streets. His business has so extended and prospered that Mr. Whittaker at times has over thirty thousand dollars of contracts, and employs as high as fifty men. His business knowledge, his marked success, and his ex- tensive property holding in the city have so commended him to the property owners of Chester that he was elected as a member of the council from the Second ward when that body consisted of but six members, and has been retained by re-election since the board has been increased in numbers from six to twelve. He is a republican in politics, has always given to his party that hearty and cor- dial support that is his nature to give to what- ever engages his attention or enlists his sup- port, and has frequently rendered efficient service in the county to the cause of republi- canism. In addition to the labors of his con- tracting business, and the work he gives to political affairs, he devotes a portion of his time to the real estate. insurance, mortgaging and conveyancing business, being a mem- ber of the firm of Whittaker & Whitsel, the latter being his brother-in-law. In conse-
quence of the character and extent of his own business, it could hardly be expected of Mr. Whittaker that he would take time to serve his fellow citizens, yet he has always cheer- fully complied, and wherever accepting a pub- lic office, has always brought to the perform- ance of its duties the same sound judgment, and clear foresight that mark the transactions of his private affairs. A factor of his city's progress, an intelligent and influential citizen of his county, and one of the foremost busi- ness men in his line in southeastern Pennsyl- vania, he has secured means, position, and high standing in the very morning of his life.
On May 19, 1887, Mr. Whittaker was united in marriage with Julia Whitsel.
The Whittaker family is of English origin, and ChandlerWhittaker, grandfather of George S. Whittaker, was a resident of Maryland, and came from Manchester, England. Chand- ler Whittaker was a democrat and an Episco- palian. William Whittaker (father) was born and reared in Manchester. England, where he received a good practical education, and learned cotton manufacturing. He subse- quently came to Delaware County, and finally located at South Chester, where he now resides.
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