USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania : comprising a historical sketch of the county, by Samuel T. Wiley, together with more than five hundred biographical sketches of the prominent men and leading citizens of the county > Part 37
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In 1884 Doctor Emack was united in marriage to Clara L. Love, a daughter of John B. Love. of the city of Philadelphia. To the Doctor and Mrs. Emack have been born two children, one son and a daughter: Margaret C. and John Beresford. In poli- ties the Doctor is a stanch democrat, and in religion a strict Episcopalian, being a mem- ber and vestryman of St. Peter's Episcopal church of Phonixville.
The Emacks are of Scotch-Irish origin. and have been residents of the United States for three generations. The first of the name to come to America was William Emack, paternal grandfather of Dr. Frank D. Emack. He was born in the north of Ireland (County Tyrone ), of Scotch-Irish parentage, and while yet a young man left
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the Emerald Isle and emigrated to this country, settling in Washington city. His wife was Ann Jackson Duke, of the Mor- duit family, England. He was a merchant, and continued to reside and do business in Washington until his death in 1833, then in the sixtieth year of his age. He reared a family, one of whom, Elbert G. Emack (father ), became a merchant, and engaged in business in his native city of Washing- ton until 1840, when he removed to Prince George county, Maryland. There he pur- chased a large farm, and engaged in agri- cultural pursuits during the remainder of his life. He died September 12, 1886, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. For forty years he was vestryman in the Episcopal church, and always took an active part in supporting the varied interests of his denomination. In politics he was first a whig, and later became a democrat. He was elected and served as a member of the constitutional convention of 1868, but al- ways declined to accept any political office. In 1836 he married Margaret Turner, a native of Baltimore county, Maryland, by whom he had a family of nine children. She is a member of the Episcopal church, and still resides on the old homestead in Prince George county, Maryland, being yet hale and hearty, though now in the seventy- seventh year of her age. Her father, Hon. James Turner, maternal grandfather of Doctor Emack, was a native of Harford county, Maryland, who became a resident of Baltimore county when a young man, where he died March 27, 1861, aged sixty-six years. He was an extensive and prosperous farmer, owning over one thousand acres of fine land in Baltimore county. In politics he was a democrat, and became a prominent and influential leader in his party. He
represented his district in the lower house of the legislature of Maryland, and also in the State senate, and afterward served four years as a member of Congress at Wash- ington. The maternal great-grandfather of Doctor Emack was James Calder, a brother of Admiral Sir Robert Calder. They were of Scotch-Irish descent, and their mother was a Miss Stewart.
JOHN GILFILLAN, a well known and prominent business man of Coatesville and Chester county, and a worthy descen- dant of that wonderful Scotch-Irish race, so noted for firmness, temperance and honesty, is a son of James and Ann ( Scobey ) Gilfil- lan, and was born near Londonderry, County Derry, province of Ulster, Ireland, Novem- ber, 1815. Two centuries ago three Gilfil- lan brothers left Scotland, and settled in the north of Ireland, which, at that time. was a land of refuge for the persecuted Scottish Covenanters. The land on which these brothers settled is still in the hands of their descendants, and one of them founded the family of which James Gilfillan (father) was a member. James Gilfillan passed his life on his farm, which was with- in five miles of Londonderry, and died in 1872, at eighty-eight years of age. He was a conscientious man, and a strict member of the Presbyterian church, and married Ann Scobey, who died when in the seven- ty-fourth year of her age.
John Gilfillan was reared ou his father's farm, and, after attending private schools, entered Temple Moyle agricultural college. where the higher mathematics and modern languages were taught. On alternate days his class worked on the college farm, and
John Silfillan.
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
thus, by this plan, he received both a thorough literary and practical agricultural education. This college at that time was one of the leading agricultural institutions of Great Britain, whose students were care- fully instructed in the latest and most ap- proved methods of successful farming. Leav- ing college, and having no great taste for agricultural pursuits, Mr. Giltillan turned his eyes toward the United States, as a wider and more favorable field for success in business life than what was afforded him at home or on the continent of Europe. In 1834 he set sail for Philadelphia, accom- panied by his uncle, David Scobey, who be- came a prosperous merchant of Schuylkill county, where he died a few years ago ; and his cousin, Robert Gilfillan, who established a grocery house in Philadelphia, and is now dead. Mr. Gilfillan, in a few days after land- ing at Philadelphia, came to Cochransville, where he learned the trade of tanner, with James Wilson, to whom he had letters of introduction from Ireland. In 1837 Mr. Wilson removed to East Fallowfield town- ship, and Mr. Gilfillan and Samuel Wilson purchased the tannery, which they ran very successfully until 1839. In that year Mr. Gilfillan bought his partner's interest, and operated the tannery until 1872, when he gave over its management to his sons, with the view of retiring from business, and resid- ing at Parkesburg, where he had purchased property. His intentions of a retired life were, however, defeated by the following vireumstances : He was appointed, on ae- count of his knowledge of tanning, to settle the estate of John Shely, at Coatesville. A part of the estate was the Coatesville tan- nery, which Mr. Gilfillan perceived was in such shape, and so situated, as to offer a fine business opening, and after settling up the
estate, he purchased it, and has operated it successfully ever since.
In 1841 Mr. Gilfillan married Anna C. Steel, who died ten months later, and on September 26, 1843, he wedded Jane. daughter of Robert Wilson. By his sec- ond marriage he has had nine children, of whom seven are living: J. B., a leather dealer, at Cochransville; F. P., now in Philadelphia ; Rev. Joel S., who has charge of the Presbyterian church of Livermore, California; Robert, of Virginia; John P .; Emma, wife of Joseph R. Kenworthy ; and Lucinda.
John Gilfillan is a democrat in politics. He was appointed in 1857 as collector of tolls at Parkesburg, served two terms as justice of the peace at Cochransville; and was a member of the town council of Coatesville from 1878 to 1879. He has al- ways been an earuest advocate of popular education, was among the first to recom- mend the establishment of a graded school in every district, and while serving as a school director of Coatesville, was largely instrumental in having the school debt of that place refunded in five per cent. bonds, in place of those issued at seven per cent. Mr. Gilfillan is a director of the Penn Mu- tual Fire Insurance Company of West Ches- ter, and the National bank of Coatesville, and has acted as administrator during the last twenty years, in settling up many large estates. He is a member of the Presbyte- rian church of Coatesville; Skerrett Lodge, No. 343, Free and Accepted Masons of Cochransville ; and Hebron Lodge, No. 437, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also a Royal Arch Mason, and the repre- sentative of Skerrett Lodge to the Masonic Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. The Coates- ville tannery plant of Mr. Gilfillan was es-
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tablished in 1830, by a Mr. Temple. The main buildings are two in number, with a large tan yard in cover between them. He employes four skilled workmen, and is ex- tensively engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of leather, except sole leather, which however, he keeps in stock. Altogether a self-made man, in the truest sense of the word, he has slowly but steadily pushed on- ward in the busy world, and his labors, in his own particular line of business, have been crowned with marked success. .
ROBERT C. KELTON, the founder of the thriving village of Kelton and one of the older and most highly respected citi- zens of Penn township, is a son of Capt. John M. and Elizabeth (Correy) Kelton, and was born at West Grove, London Grove township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, November 3, 1819. He spent his boyhood years on the farm, attended the public and private schools of his neighborhood, and upon attaining his majority, engaged in farming in London Grove township, which he followed but one year. He then went to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was in the grocery business for four years. At the end of that time, in 1859, he came to the site of the present station of Kelton, which bears his name, and is forty-three miles south of Philadelphia on the Philadelphia & Baltimore Central railroad. He has been station agent there for thirty-five years, and was the first postmaster of the place, serv- ing from 1874 to 1889. He has a good farm of seventy acres, and in connection with farming owns a warehouse, which was built on his land in 1868. He has been active and industrious throughout his life, and has seen Kelton grow from a single log hut to a
small village of good buildings and enjoy- ing such a present amount of business as to warrant it size and prosperity in the future. Mr. Kelton was formerly a democrat, but is now a republican in politics. His patriot- ism was attested in 1863, when he enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia and served in defending the State against Lee's second northern invasion. He is a member of New London Presbyterian church and was a trustee of New London church while re- siding near it. Mr. Kelton has always been faithful to every trust reposed in him and has lived such a life as to honor his church and reflect credit on the old and honest Scotch Kelton family from which he is de- scended.
On March 21, 1848, Mr. Kelton married Martha E. Nelson, a daughter of William Nelson, of Penn township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. To their union have been born five children: Mary and May, who died in childhood; William, a farmer of New Garden township, who married Anna Brown, of New Garden township; John, married Elizabeth Barrett, of Arlington, Illinois, and is now engaged in farming in South Dakota; and Ellie, manager of the telegraph office at Kelton.
ยท Robert C. Kelton is a lineal descendant of James Kelton, who was born in Scotland in 1695, and came from the north of Ireland to Chester county in the early part of the last century. He purchased five hundred acres of land near West Grove, built a house which is still standing, and was a Jeffersonian democrat in politics. He died in 1781, aged eighty-six years. After the death of his first wife Margaretta, he mar- ried Mary Hackett, of London Grove town- ship, daughter of James Hackett, by whom he had two children : Hon. James, jr., and
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
Margaret, wife of James Menough. Hon. James Kelton, jr. (grandfather), was one of the prominent men of his day in eastern Pennsylvania. He was born in 1776; was sheriff for three years, served ten years in the assembly and four in the State senate, and died November 25, 1844, aged sixty- eight years. He was the first postmaster of West Grove, serving as such for twenty years, and acted for a long time as a stock- holder of the first stage route in the United States, and which was between Philadelphia and Baltimore. He was a democrat and a Presbyterian, and on Feb- ruary 7, 1793, married Agnes Mackey, who was a daughter of David Mackey, and died May 16, 1823. Their children were : David, Capt. John M., James, Mary Jackson, Rob- ert, Joseph, Agnes Lambson, Margaretta, George, Julia, and Rachel McClenahan. Capt. John M. Kelton (father) was born February 1, 1795, and died December 10, 1886, when in the ninety-second year of his age. He was both prominent and useful as a man and a citizen. He was a republican and a Presbyterian. He served as justice of the peace for forty years; was director of the poor for eleven years; and was one of the founders of Lincoln (then Ashton) uni- versity, and a promoter of the building of the Philadelphia & Baltimore Central rail- road. John M. Kelton organized and was commissioned captain of a company during the war of 1812, but it was never called into netive service. Captain Kelton, on De- cember 10, 1818, married Elizabeth Correy, who died August 7, 1872, in her seventy- ninth year. To their union was born two children : Robert C., whose name appears at the head of this sketch, and Ellen, wife of James Mackey, who resides at Avondale, Chester county, Pennsylvania.
J
AMES C. SELLERS, a graduate of
Yale college, and a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia and West Chester, who has been in active and successful practice since the centennial year, is the only son of James and Emmeline B. (Smith) Sellers, and was born May 4, 1854, at South Orange, New Jersey. The Sellers are descended from old English Quaker stock, the family hav- ing been planted in America by Samuel Sellers, a weaver, who came over from Der- byshire, England, in one of the vessels that crossed the Atlantie with William Penn in 1682. He took up one hundred aeres of land, and established himself in the weay- ing business, in Darby, then Chester, now Delaware county. From him the now num- erous Sellers family of this State have de- scended. The first in America to weave wire into sieves and screens was his grand- son, John Sellers (1728 to 1804), who be- came distinguished for his mechanical in- genity, was a member of the American Philosophical society, and occupied several important official places, being a member of the Provincial assembly from 1767 to 1771, of the Constitutional Convention of 1789, and of the State senate in 1790.
James Sellers, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and a grandson of the John Sellers above mentioned, was a native of Delaware County, this State, but removed to the city of Philadelphia, where he engaged in the wire weaving business and became an inventor of considerable note. He was a member of the Society of Friends -as were all the Sellers-and mar- ried Elizabeth Cadwallader, of Bucks county. by whom he had a family of fourteen chil- dren. One of these was James Sellers (father), who was born in Philadelphia in 1823. Ile received a liberal education.
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studied medicine in the university of Penn- sylvania and at the college of physicians and surgeons in New York, and after grad- uation located at South Orange, New Jer- sey, where he died in 1854, when but thirty years of age. He was a man of strong anti-slavery proclivities, and a firm friend of the negro race. He married Emmeline B. Smith, a daughter of Captain John Holly Smith, and by this marriage had an only son, James C. Captain Smith (ma- ternal grandfather) was a native of Stam- ford, Connecticut, and served for a number of years as captain in the regular United States navy. His wife, Louisa Ireland, be- longed to the old New York family of that name.
James C. Sellers received his early edu- cation in the West Chester academy, where he proved himself an apt pupil and an earnest student. After leaving this school he entered Yale college, from which he was graduated with honors in the class of 1874. He then began the study of law in the office of Henry Wharton, Philadelphia, was admitted to the bar in December, 1876, and has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession ever since, principally in the city of Philadelphia, though he also practices at the West Chester bar. As a lawyer he is distinguished for the thorough- ness with which he works up his cases, and the ability he displays in handling them in court.
On April 25, 1878, Mr. Sellers was mar- ried to Elma A. Townsend, a daughter of Hon. Washington Townsend, of the borough of West Chester. She died April 5, 1881, leaving one son, James C., jr., and on June 18, 1889, Mr. Sellers wedded Eleanor C. Barber, daughter of William E. Barber, deceased, of West Chester, and by this
second marriage has one child, a daughter named Marie. He resides in West Chester, having his law office in Philadelphia.
Politically Mr. Sellers is an ardent repub- lican, taking an active interest in the spread of those principles and the triumph of that policy which distinguishes the party of his choice. He is in frequent demand for the stump, has served as president of the Young Men's Republican club of West Chester, but has never been a candidate for public office. He has long been connected with the Episcopal church, and is serving as a member and secretary of the vestry of his church, being also superintendent of the Sunday school, and secretary and treasurer of the convocation of Chester. For a num- ber of years he has been assistant secretary of the convention of the diocese of Penn- sylvania, and a member of the Executive Board of the Sunday school association of the diocese of Pennsylvania. He is also connected with the local council of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and a member of its executive committee, and is one of the trustees of the Advancement society of Pennsylvania. In every relation of life Mr. Sellers has sustained a high character, and has won an enviable standing in his pro- fession, and as a useful and influential citi- zen. He is an affable gentleman, of pleas- ing address, and very popular wherever known.
E LI URNER, the well-known farmer and business man of Pughtown, and a representative of one of the oldest families in this State, is the eldest child and only son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Halderman) Urner, and was born in Warwick township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1821. He was reared on his father's farmi
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
and educated in the public schools of his neighborhood. After leaving home he en- gaged in the butchering business some five or six years, and then became a stock dealer and drover. He was and is yet an expert judge of good stock. He then purchased a farm in Warwick, and spent another ten years in agricultural pursuits in that town- ship, after which he removed to South Coventry township. Here he farmed for a year or two and then once more engaged in the butchering business, in which he con- tinued for fifteen years. In 1889 he pur- chased a farm (the old homestead) of two hundred and twelve acres in Warwick town- "ship, and again gave his attention to the cultivation of the soil. In 1881 he moved into Bucktown, where he now resides. Politically he is an ardent republican, taking an active interest in all public questions and attending nearly all the conventions and public meetings of his party. He is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. During the civil war he was connected with the quartermaster's department for two or three years. He is an intelligent, affable gentleman, and a popular and highly es- teemed member of his community.
On September 19, 1842, Mr. Urner was united in marriage with Sarah Richards, a daughter of Samuel Richards, of Warwiek township, this county, and to them was born a family of seven children who lived to reach maturity : Oliver N., who married Sarah Murphy, and now resides at Norris- town, this State, where he is serving as jus- tice of the peace; John, now deceased ; Hannah E., wedded Lewis Burgoyne, a farmer of South Coventry township, this county ; Allen, married Deborah Shick, re- sides at "The Buck," and is agent for the Mount Penn Stove works of Reading, Penn-
sylvania ; Filmore, who wedded Anna Fred- erick and lives in South Coventry township, where he is engaged in farming; Webster, who married Millie Bradford, and resides at Spring City, proprietor of the" Hoosier Manufacturing Company, at Royer's Ford, Montgomery county, and Mary A., deceased.
The Urner family is of Swiss descent, coming originally from the canton of Uri, Switzerland-whence the name. (See Schiller's poem entitled "Wilhelm Tell.") Three brothers, John, Martin and Jacob, sons of Uriah Urner, were driven from their homes in the Swiss valleys by religious per- secutions, and settled for a time in the prov- inee of Alsace, now comprised in the Ger- man empire, but later-some time between 1708 and 1712-came to America and set- tled in Chester county, Pennsylvania. John Urner died unmarried in 1743, and was the first person buried in the Brethren graveyard of Coventry. Martin Urner and his wife were two of the first six persons ever baptized by the Brethren in this country, this rite being performed in the Wissahiekon, at Philadelphia, in 1723. In 1724 he removed to Coventry, this county, where he organized the Coventry church of the Brethren, over which he presided as preacher and bishop until the time of his death in 1755, and in the cemetery of which his remains now sleep. His descendants are now found in various parts of Vir- ginia, Missouri and New York. The third brother, Jacob, settled originally in Potts- grove township, near Ringing Hill, Mont- gomery county. He died in 1744, leaving a wife, Ann, and three children : Elizabeth, who married Jacob Frick; Hester, who be- came the wife of Ulrich Switzer; and Mar- tin, who wedded Barbara Switzer, and became the second preacher and bishop of
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the Brethren's church at Coventry, which he served as such from 1755 to 1799. At his death he left four children : Martin, grandfather of Eli Urner; Jonas; Mary, who married David Reinhart, of Maryland ; and Elizabeth, who became the wife of Abra- ham Titlow, of Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania. Martin Urner (grandfather) was born in Coventry township, Chester county, in 1762, and died in North Coventry town- ship in 1838, aged seventy-six years. He was a farmer by vocation, an old-line whig in politics, a member of the German Bap- tist church, and married Barbara Baugh, by whom he had four sons: John, Daniel, Israel and Jacob, all of whom are now de- ceased. John, the eldest, was born in 1784 and died in 1827. He was twice married, first to Susannah Grubb, who died without issue, and later to Elizabeth Grubb, by whom he had two children: Lydia, who married Gilbert Brower; and Isaac N. Jacob Urner (father) was born in Coventry township in the initial year of this century, and lived there until 1828, when with his family he moved to Warwick township, dying February 16, 1868, in his sixty-eighth year. He also was a farmer, and devoted his life principally to agricultural pursuits. in which he was very successful. In both religion and politics he followed the tradi- tions of his family, and was a stanch whig and republican, and a member of the Ger- man Baptist or Dunkard church. He mar- ried Elizabeth Halderman in 1820, and was the father of three children, one son and
two daughters: Eli, the subject of this sketch ; Hannah B., who married Lewis C. Templin, and now resides in Warwick town- ship; and Elizabeth, the wife of J. L. Wells, of Warwick township. The daughters were educated at Kimberton's seminary.
Among the descendants of the other sons of Bishop Martin Urner was Milton G. Urner, a member from Virginia of the forty-sixth and forty-seventh congresses of the United States; and Isaac N. Urner, LL. D., a graduate from Dickinson college, who was president of the Mississippi Baptist college from 1851 to 1867.
GEORGE W. LANDIS, a successful
business man of Pottstown Landing, and one of the progressive farmers of Ches- ter county, is the eldest of the two sons of David and Catharine (Latshaw) Landis, and was born near Boyertown, Berks county, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1832. He was principally reared in North Coventry town- ship, this county, and received his education in the public schools there and in Samuel Aaron's boarding school at Norristown. After leaving school he learned the trade of coachmaker with Isaac Heistand, near Phoenixville, but followed it only one year. In 1854 he embarked in the mercantile business at Madisonville and Pottstown Landing, and soon drifted into the coal and lumber business also at the latter place, in connection with the store. This combined enterprise he successfully continued until about 1866, when he disposed of it and went to North Carolina, where he engaged with several others in the manufacture of lumber in connection with a grist mill and general store, on the Pantego river, in Beaufort county. After conducting these mills for a year and a half an opportunity was afforded to dispose of them, which was done. Re- turning to Pennsylvania he was again, for a period of three years, in the coal and lumber business at Pottstown Landing. In 1868 he was made superintendent of teams
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for the Schuylkill Navigation Company, which position he filled until this company sold out to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, in 1870, when he be- eame and remained superintendent for the latter company until 1876. Since the latter year he has been purchasing the mules, feed and other like supplies for the canal and railroad company, as well as for the Phila- delphia & Reading Coal and Iron Company. Mr. Landis also owns and operates a fine farm of one hundred and eighty-two aeres of highly produetive land in North Coven- try township. In his political affiliations he has always been a republican, and served as justice of the peace from 1865 to 1870. The following year he was again re-electedl, but resigned the position in 1874, and de- clined to serve longer. In religion he fol- lows the footsteps of his ancestors, and is a member of the Mennonite church.
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