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 41
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he added the marble and granite business to his other departments. He has been successful in his various undertakings, and in addition to his business interests here he owns stock in several electric light plants in the west, besides being financially con- cerned in other enterprises.
On November 1, 1866, Captain Dewees was married to Hannah Templim, of Birch- runville, who died October 31, 1882. On February 26, 1885, he wedded Ida L. Kueer, of West Vincent township, by whom he has two daughters: Mabel E. and Emma M. He is a member of the Vincent Baptist church, and a stanch republican in politics He is also a member of Stratford Castle, Knights of the Golden Eagle, and of Josiah White Post, No. 45, Grand Army of the Republic. Captain Dewees has traveled extensively in the west, and is an enter- prising, energetic, and thoroughly honest business man, who is highly respected by the community.
B ENJAMIN WEST stands in the front rank of America's most honored sons, and as the greatest of her world-renowned painters. Of him, Lossing says :
" There have been more volumes writ- ten about this great painter in England,' says Lester, 'than there have been pages devoted to him in the land of his birth.' Here he grew to young manhood, and chose the mother of his children; in sunny Italy he achieved his first triumph in high art, and in England he reigned and died. His birth occurred at Springfield, in Ches- ter, now Delaware county, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October, 1738. He was the youngest of nine children (born to John and Sarah (Pearson) West); and
at seven years of age, while keeping flies from the sleeping baby of his eldest sister, he sketched her portrait so accurately with black and red ink, that his mother, snatch- ing the paper (which he modestly attempted to conceal) from his hand, exclaimed, 'I declare he has made a likeness of little Sally !' His parents encouraged his efforts, and the Indians supplied him with some of the pigments with which they painted their faces. His mother's 'indigo bag' furnished him with blue, and from pussy's tail he drew the material for his brushes.
"At the age of fifteen years, young West had learned the use of proper colors, and was a popular portrait painter. The pur- suit of such art was contrary to the disci- pline of the Quakers. A meeting was called to consult upon the matter. At length one arose and said, 'God hath be- stowed on this youth a genius for art; shall we question His wisdom? I see the Divine hand on this; we shall do well to sanction the art and encourage this youth.' Then the sweet women of the assembly rose up and kissed him. The men, one by one, laid their hands on his head, and thus Benjamin West was solemnly consecrated to the service of the great art. His pic- tures produced both money and fame, and wealthy men furnished him with means with which to go to Italy, to study the works of the great masters. There every step was a triumph, and he became the hest painter in Italy. He crossed the Alps and went to England. There prejudice and bad taste met him, but his genius over- came both. Among his earliest and best patrons was Archbishop Drummond, who introduced him to the young King, George the Third. His majesty was delighted, and ordered him to paint The Departure of
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Regulus, that noble picture exhibited in the New York Crystal palace, in 1853. That achievement placed him on the throne of English art. The King, and Reynolds, and West, founded the Royal academy ; and he who in the face of every obstacle created a publie taste for high art, was properly ap- pointed ' Painter to his Majesty.' He de- signed thirty grand pictures, illustrative of The Progress of Revealed Religion, and completed twenty-eight of them, besides a great number of other admirable works. But when insanity clouded the mind of King George, and his libertine son, the Prince of Wales, obtained power, the great painter was neglected. The king of art, who had ruled for five and thirty years, was soon an exile from the court of his exellent friend, and many cherished anticipations of his prime were blighted in his declining years. But when royalty deserted him, the generous people sustained him. Heachieved great triumphs in his old age; and finally, on the 11th of March, 1820, when in the eighty-second year of his life, he was laid by the side of Reynolds and Opie, in St. Paul's cathedral."
JOHN BARTRAM was the eldest son of William and Elizabeth ( Hunt) Bar- tram, and was born near Darby, in that part of Chester, which is now Delaware county, March 23, 1699.
He found few helps to education in early life, but study and perseverance overcame a host of difficulties. He seldom sat down to a meal without a book, and he learned the classic languages with great facility. Inthe study of medicine and surgery he greatly delighted; and drawing his medicines chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, he
practiced successfully among the poor of his neighborhood. His avocation was that of a farmer, and his favorite study was botany.
Mr. Bartram was the first American who conceived the plan of establishing a botanic garden for American plants and vegetables. He carried his plan into execution by de- voting about six acres near Philadelphia to the purpose. He traversed the country in every direction, from Canada on the north to Florida on the south, in search of new productions, and his garden was enriched and beantified by the results of his explora- tions. His philosophical knowledge at- traeted the attention of learned and seien- tifie men, at home and abroad. and with these his intercourse became extensive. He sent many botanical collections to Europe, and their beauty, novelty and admirable classification won universal applause. Lit- erary and scientific societies of London, Edinburgh, Stockholm, and other cities, placed his name among those of their hon- orary members; and finally, George the Third of England appointed him "American Botanist to his Majesty." He held that honorable position until his death, which occurred September 22, 1777, when he was in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
M ARQUIS de LA FAYETTE is one whose name will never be forgotten in America.
Gilbert Mottier, Marquis de La Fayette, was a native of France, where he was born on the 6th of September. 1757. He be- longed to one of the most ancient of the modern French nobility, and received an education compatible with hisstation. When a little more than seventeen years of age he
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married the Countess de Noailles, daughter of the Duc de Noailles, a beautiful young lady about his own age, and the possessor of an immense fortune. In the summer of 1776 he was stationed, with the military corps to which he belonged, near the town of Mentz. He was an officer in the French army, though only eighteen years of age. At a dinner party, where the Duke of Glon- cester, brother of the King of England, was the guest on the occasion, he heard of the struggles of the far-off American colonies, and their noble Declaration of Independ- ence. He heard, with indignation, of the employment of German troops and other strong measures employed by England to enslave that struggling people, and his young soul burued with a desire to aid them. He left the army, returned to Paris, offered his services to the American commissioners, fitted out a vessel at his own expense, and, with Baron de Kalb and other European officers, sailed for America. They arrived at Georgetown, South Carolina, in April, 1777, and La Fayette hastened by land to Philadelphia. Congress, after some hesita- tion, accepted his services, and he entered the army under Washington, as a volunteer, but bearing the honorary title of major- general, conferred upon him by the national legislature in July. His first battle was on the Brandywine, where he was severely wounded in the knee, and was nursed, for some time, by the Moravian sisters at Beth- lehem, in Pennsylvania. He was in the battle at Monmouth the following summer, and was active in Rhode Island. He par- ticipated in the siege of Yorktown and then returned to France, where he opposed the French Revolution and the ambitious de- signs of Napoleon Bonaparte. He died in 1834, aged seventy-seven years.
DAVID AVID C. WINDLE, a veteran of the civil war, now serving as prothonotary of Chester county, is a worthy representa- tive of an old family which has always taken an active part in public affairs, and many of whom have held important official positions in the county. He is a son of David and Mary (Morgan) Windle, and was born in East Marlborough township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, on October 23, 1843. The Windles are descended from old English stock, and have been residents of this Commonwealth for many genera- tions. Francis Windle, the great-grand- father of David C., was born in England, but while yet a boy he left his native shores, and soon after landing in America, located in East Marlborough township, this county, where he purchased a farm in 1742, on which he resided until his death, Septem- ber 26, 1788, aged nearly seventy-eight years. He was a farmer by occupation, and in religion a Friend, or Quaker. On April 14, 1733, he married Mary Jackson, a daughter of Isaac and Ann Jackson, of Londongrove. Their children were Thomas, Ann, William (grandfather), John, David, Moses, Isaac, James and Mary. William Windle was born in East Marlborough, and passed his entire life in that township. He was a farmer by occupation, and erected the buildings which still stand on the old home- stead in that township. He was active and successful in his business, a Quaker in religi- ous belief, and in politics a member of the old Federal party, out of which afterward grew the Democratic party. He married and reared a family, among whom was David Windle (father), who was born in East Marlborough township in 1786, and died there in 1870, at the advanced age of eighty- four years. In early life he learned the
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trade of mason, and followed that occupa- tion until his marriage, after which he pur- chased the old homestead property and de- voted the remainder of his life to agricnl- tural pursuits. In politics a whig, he fol- lowed the traditions of his family in religi- ous matters, and was an earnest and faith- ful member of the Society of Friends. He married Mary Morgan, by whom he had a family of nine children : Rebecca, who died at the early age of eighteen years ; William, a farmer now residing in Kennett township, this county; Mary Elma, the wife of Wil- liam A. Cloud, a merchant of the city of. West Chester ; John M., who enlisted in the 2d Pennsylvania infantry, on the first call for volunteers in 1861, and immediately on the expiration of his term of service, re-enlisted in Co. A of the 124th regiment, Pennsyl- vania volunteers, serving as orderly sergeant, and being wounded at the battle of Antie- tam, and who is now a farmer residing in Newlin township, this county; David C., the subject of this sketch; Francis, who enlisted in Co. E, 3d Pennsylvania heavy artillery, in 1864, and served till the close of the war, being one of the men detailed to guard Jefferson Davis, when that Confed- erate chieftain had been captured, and who afterward studied law and became district attorney for the county of Chester; M. Jen- nie, now employed as teacher in the kinder- garten school of the city of West Chester; Sidney, who died in early life, aged two years; and Thomas A., who became a far- mer, married Clara Taylor, and now lives in East Marlborough township, this county.
David C. Windle received his education principally under the instruction of Isaac Martin, and at the Unionville academy, at that time under the care of Prof. Milton Durnall. In Angust, 1862, when only
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eighteen years of age, he enlisted in Co. F, 124th Pennsylvania infantry, and took part. in the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, and at Chancellorsville. After his first term expired he served two months with the emergency men, being connected with the 29th regiment, and then re-enlisted in the 3d Pennsylvania heavy artillery and served until the close of the war. He was engaged in the siege of Richmond, took part in the various movements around that city, and assisted in guarding Jefferson Davis while the latter was held a prisoner at Fortress Monroe. Mr. Windle was dis- charged from the service November 9, 1865, as sergeant, and returned to his old home in Chester county. Here he engaged in farming for a time, but subsequently went to East Fallowfield township, where he he- gan teaching, and devoted some five years to educational work in that locality. He has continued his connection with agricul- tural pursuits, however, and still owns a fine farm, located in West Goshen town- ship.
In politics Mr. Windle has always been a stanch republican, taking an active and in- telligent interest in all questions of public concern. He served as school director of his township for three terms, and two terms in East Fallowfield, and was tax collector for the district in which he resides. In the fall of 1890 he was elected to the responsi- ble position of prothonotary of Chester county, and has ever since discharged the duties of that office with a carefulness and ability that reflects credit upon himself and renders satisfaction to all who have business before the courts of the county.
On March 25, 1869, Mr. Windle was mar- ried to Anna Thomas, a daughter of Em- mor Thomas, of West Goshen township,
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this eounty. To their union was born a 'family of six children-three sons and three danghters: Charles T., now serving as de- puty prothonotary of Chester county, in his father's office; Florence M., Lucy A., Frederick F., Ernest G., and Alice C. Mrs. Windle is an estimable lady, and was en- gaged in teaching previous to her marriage.
During all his life Mr. Windle has mani- fested a lively interest in literary matters and kindred subjeets, and ever since his early military experience has been quite a student of history. For a quarter of a cen- tury he has been connected with various literary societies, and is an original thinker, a concise writer, and a pleasant speaker. He is a prominent member of the Society of Friends, and is at present serving as su- perintendent of the Goshen Friends' First- day school. He is a member of McCall Post, No. 31, Grand Army of the Republic, and is greatly respected by his fellow eiti- zens, as much for his excellent qualities of heart as for his fine mental aequirements.
R EV. EDWARD WEBB, financial sec- retary of Lincoln university, who labored earnestly and faithfully for twenty years as a missionary for the conversion and civilization of the benighted heathen of India, is a son of Thomas and Susan (Grimsby) Webb, and was born in Lowes- toft, Suffolk county, England, December 15, 1819. Thomas Webb was a native of Eng- land, where he married Susan Grimsby, and died some years afterward. His widow and their four children-three sons and one daughter-came in 1840 to Andover, Mas- sachusetts, where they resided for some time. She died at Greenwich, that State, in 1847, when in the sixty-third year of her age.
Edward Webb was reared in England and took the classical course at the King Edward's Grammar school in Bury street, Ed- munds, from which institution he was grad- uated in 1838. He was then private tutor in a family until 1840, when he came to Andover, Massachusetts. He there entered the Theological seminary, from which he was graduated in 1845, and in the same year went to India as a missionary under the auspiees of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign missions. En- gaged in philanthropie and Christian labor for the spiritual and intellectual good of India's ignorant millions, he established Christian ehurehes and schools. He trans- lated and edited school books and religious works, including a periodieal entitled "The Tamil Quarterly Repository." He also ed- ited a volume of native hymns, which were set to Indian musie. He remained in India until 1864, when he returned to the United States, and spent one year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, recruiting his health, which had been impaired by long residence and over work and the tropical heat of Asia. At the end of that time he took charge of the Peneader Presbyterian church in New Castle county, Delaware, where he remained until 1871, when he beeame pastor of a church in Andover, New Jersey, which he left in April, 1873, to accept his present charge, which he has held until the present time. Mr. Webb's missionary labors did not eease with his residence in India, but he continued them in his work for Lincoln university (whose his- tory appears elsewhere in this volume), and has done a large amount of work in the in- terests of that institution, whose objeet is the education of young inen of color for evangelieal ministry among our seven mil- lions of Afro-Americans and the unnum-
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bered millions of the "Dark Continent." For the last nineteen years he has held his present relation to the finances of the college.
On September 30, 1845, Mr. Webb mar- ried Naney A.Foote, a teacher in Mt. Holyoke Ladies' seminary, of which she was a grad- uate. To Mr. and Mrs. Webb in India were born eight children : Lucius and Allyn (de- eeased), Mary E., wife of J. Wilkins Cooch, probate judge of New Castle county, Dela- ware; Dr. Ella S., who was graduated from the Womans' Medical college, of Philadel- phia, in 1886, and since then has been in active practice at Oxford; Edward A., ed- itor of an agricultural paper at St. Paul, Minnesota; Sarah (deceased ) ; Rev. Samuel G., who is pastor of the Presbyterian church of New Gretna, New Jersey ; and Anna F., who is a missionary at San Sebastian, Spain.
In politics Mr. Webb is a republican. He was licensed to preach in 1844, and ordained to the ministry in 1845. One of his dis- tinguishing characteristics is earnestness, and he throws his whole soul into any cause in which he labors. Well known as a min- ister and missionary, he has been successful in his efforts to advance the interests of Lincoln university.
ISAAC MASSEY, M. D., of West Ches- ter, whose talent and labors have wrought out marked success for him in the field of his chosen profession, is a son of John and Jemima (Garrett) Massey, was born in West Goshen township, near West Chester, Chester county, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1838. The paternal ancestors of Dr. Mas- sey were of English stock, and his grand- father, Israel Massey, was a life long resi- dent of Valley Forge, where he owned the land upon which Washington's head-quar-
ters were situated while the Continental army lay through the midnight of the revolution at that celebrated place. Ile married Rachel Vodges, who was born No- vember 6, 1767, and of whose ancestors genealogist Cope, of Chester county, has compiled the following: " In pursuance of an act of Parliament, made in the thirteenth year of the reign of King George II (of Great Britain), entitled 'an act for natural- izing such foreign Protestants and others therein mentioned, as are settled or shall settle in any of His Majesty's colonies in America,' Richard Vodges took and sub- seribed the qualifications in 1743. He mar- ried and had two children : Jacob and Bar- bara. Jacob married Elizabeth Hampton, who was, perhaps, a daughter of Benjamin Hampton, of Edgemont and Willistown townships. By this marriage he had a family of twelve children, of which Rachel ( Vodges) Massey was one. Jacob Vodges purchased a farm in Willistown township, for two hundred pounds in gold and silver money, and in the deed is styled, ' a blacksmith.'" Israel and Rachel (Vodges) Massey reared a family of children, and their son, John Massey (father), who was born in 1798, at Valley Forge, is now a resident of West Chester. He was a farmer in early life, and afterwards was engaged in merchandising. He is a member of the Friends' church, and a republican in politics, and married Jemima Garrett, who died in 1883, aged 83 years, and whose ancestors settled in Willistown township over two hundred years ago. They had a family of three children, two sons and one daughter: Rebecca, wife of William HI. Garrett, of Swarthmore, Dela- ware county; William, who died in 1869, und Dr. Isaac. Mr. Massey celebrated his ninety-fourth birthday in November, 1892,
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and is well preserved physically, for his great age.
Isaac Massey received his education in Ercildoun and Norristown academies. Leav- ing school he became (1859) professor of higher mathematics and English in the William F. Wyers academy, of West Ches- ter, which position he held for five terms. In the meantime he determined upon med- icine as a profession, read in Philadelphia, and entered Jefferson Medical college, from which well known institution he was grad- uated in the class of 1864. After gradu- ation he became acting assistant surgeon of the United States army, and served as such until the close of the war. Returning from the army, he opened an office at West Ches- ter, where he has remained ever since in the active and successful practice of his pro- fession.
In 1866 Dr. Massey married Mary Hin- man, a daughter of D. B. Hinman, a prom- inent wholesale merchant of Philadelphia. She died in 1874, and on January 8, 1879, he wedded Sarah Connor, daughter of John Connor, a native of Boston, who died at West Chester, 1853, aged thirty-six years. By his second marriage Dr. Massey has one child, a daughter, named Frances Price, who was born Jannary 22, 1883.
Dr. Massey is a republican in politics. He is a member of the Chester County Medical society, the college of Physicians and Surgeons of Philadelphia, the Pennsyl- vania State Medical association. He is also a member of the board of health, and has been physician to the Westtown Boarding school for the last decade. Dr. Massey has served for several years at West Chester, as surgeon of the Pennsylvania and the Wilmington and Baltimore railroads. He has never refused to accept and discharge
other duties than those of his profession when it was the will of his fellow citizens to ask such service at his hands, and thus he served for eighteen years as a member of the city school board, where he had much to do in building up the excellent system of schools for which West Chester is favor- ably known to-day. He has always taken a justifiable pride in the interesting history and substantial progress of his county and State, and has been a useful member for some years of the Pennsylvania Historical society. Dr. Isaac Massey is of that able and energetic class of progressive physicians who love their profession and quickly and efficiently apply in practice what they have learned by close application and thorough study. Respected and esteemed as a citi- zen, and popular as a physician, his skill and success has placed him among the fore- most physicians of southeastern Pennsyl- vania.
ADOLPHUS BONZANO, a well known civil engineer of the United States, and a member of the great bridge building com- pany of Phoenixville, was born December 5, 1830, in the city of Ehingen, kingdom of Würtemberg, Germany. He early re- ceived a classical as well as polytechnical education, and arrived at New York city in September, 1850. He then went to Phila- delphia, where, from October until May, 1851, he was engaged in the study of the English language. From May, 1851, to 1855, he was at the American Machine works, at Springfield, Massachusetts, where and at which time he learned the machinist business in all its important branches. Dur- ing the year 1855 he was engaged in erect- ing machinery in the southern States, and
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then went to Detroit, Michigan, where he resided until 1868.
Adolphus Bonzano was engaged nntil 1860 as superintendent of machine shops, and then as designer and superinten- dent of bridge construction. In 1868 he removed to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of carrying on iron bridge building, as a member of the firm of Clarke, Reeves & Co., and had charge of the esti- mates, general plans, and details of con- struetion. This company constructed an immense number of iron bridges, iron via- -duets and roofs, amounting, up to Decem- ber, 1880, to four hundred million pounds in weight. Among the principal works executed by this firm are : the Girard avenue bridge, at Philadelphia; the Hudson river bridge, at Albany ; the bridges for the inter- colonial railway, Canada, and for the North Shore railway, Canada; the elevated railway in the Second, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth avenues, New York city; and the Susque- hanna bridge at Havre de Grace, Maryland. This company, known as the Phoenix Bridge Company, had its principal office at No. 410 Walnut street, Philadelphia, and its works at Phoenixville. The firm was composed of Thomas C. Clarke, Adolphus Bonzano, and John Griffin, and continued in existence until 1884. Since 1884 Mr. Bonzano has been engaged as vice president and chief engineer of the Phoenix Bridge Company, which is the successor of Clarke, Reeves & Co. Since the organization of the Phoenix Bridge Company some very large iron struct- ures have been completed, notably the large double track bridge over the Ohio river at Cincinnati, and the great iron viaduct over the Pecos river in Texas, for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Mr. Bonzano is a member of the American Society of
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