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 43
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
be found in this part of the State. He lives in a nicely arranged and comfortable home on Broad street, overlooking the city of his adoption, and affording a fine view of the beautiful Schuylkill river, and the many elegant residences of Royer's Ford that dot its winding banks toward the east. In poli- ties the reverend gentleman is an ardent prohibitionist, and is a member of Apollo Lodge, No. 9, Knights of Pythias.
On November 25, 1869, Rev. John Flint was united in marriage to Mary A. Newell, a daughter of William and Mary Newell of Philadelphia. To them has been born a family of three children -one son and two daughters, the former 'of whom died in infaney, while the daughters are both liv- ing.
T' THOMAS HOOPES, an able business man of many years successful exper- ience, and a member of the well known firm Hoopes, Brother & Darlington, who own and operate the largest wheel factory east of the Allegheny mountains, is a son of Thomas, sr., and Elizabeth (Darlington) Hoopes, and was born in West Goshen town- ship, Chester county, Pennsylvania, Novem- ber 27,1834. The Hoopes family is among the oldest and most respectable families of Pennsylvania, and was founded in 1683 in Bucks county by Joshua Hoopes, who, with his wife Isabel, eame in that year from Cleveland in Yorkshire, England. They brought with them their three children : Daniel, Margaret and Christian. Daniel Hoopes came to Westtown township in 1696, and on December 10th of that year, he married Jane Worrilow, daughter of Thomas and Jane Worrilow, of Edgmont. His son, Thomas Hoopes (great-grandfather)
was born October 22, 1714, and settled on a portion of the six hundred and thirty acre tract of land in Goshen township which his father had purchased from a sea captain, who had bought it from the Penns. He was a farmer by occupation, and died May 21, 1803, aged eighty-nine years. He married Susanna Davies, and after her death, Amy Cope. A son by his second marriage was Jesse Cope (grandfather), who died in 1825. One of his sons was Thomas Hoopes, sr. (father), born in 1794, on the old home- stead, where he died in May, 1880, at eighty- six years of age. He was a farmer by oceu- pation, and a member of the Society of Friends. He was a useful man, and a whig and republican in polities, and in 1816, mar- ried Eliza Darlington, who was born in 1797, and passed away in 1878, when in the eighty-first year of her age. Mr. and Mrs. Hoopes had nine children, seven sons and two daughters.
Thomas Hoopes grew to manhood on the paternal aeres, and received his education in the public and high schools of West Chester. At the early age of sixteen years he commenced farming, which he followed until he was twenty-three, when he went west, where he was engaged for five years in Colorado and Towa in mining and the lumber business. At the end of that time, in 1862, he returned to Chester county and was engaged in farming until 1868, when he removed with his brother William to West Chester, and organized the present celebrated West Chester spoke and wheel manufacturing firm of Hoopes, Bro. & Dar- lington. Their plant, which is known as the West Chester wheel works, occupies three acres of ground, on which are erected large and commodions frame and briek buildings, embracing engine house, work
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shops, finishing factory, and a neat and tasteful office building. The company has 100,000 square feet of floor surface in their buildings. They employ from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men, and have an output of forty thousand sets of wheels per year. Mr. Hoopes' is one of the lead- ing industrial establishments of the eastern part of the State, and he has made for him- self a name as an honorable and first class manufacturer in the many different sections of the State and country where the products of his works are used.
On June 14, 1864, Mr. Hoopes was united in marriage with Amanda Russell, daughter of Thomas Russell, of the city of Balti- more. To their union have been born six children, five sons and one daughter : Charles R., who is in charge of the office of Hoopes, Brother & Darlington; William, superin- tendent of the Bala & Merion Electric Company; Herbert, deceased; Manrice, superintendent of the electric light plant of West Chester; Arthur, now a student in Edison's laboratory at Orange, New Jersey ; and Emily.
Thomas Hoopes is a republican, and has cast his vote for every presidential candi- date of that party since its organization in 1856. He is interested in the industrial progress and general prosperity of his na- tive city, and has served for some time as the president of the board of trade. His time and attention are chiefly given to the extensive business which has been built up during the last quarter of a century. Hle is now in the line of his proper life-work, and the results of his labor are those of substantial success, as attested by the exist- ence of the splendidly equipped factory and extensive trade over a wide area of terri- tory. He is modest and reserved, yet affa-
ble and pleasant. Mr. Hoopes' success and reputation have come, not as the result of accident, but as the fruits of excellence of work and special ability of management.
R EV. WILLIAM W. HARTMAN, a
prominent citizen of Chester county, residing near Coventryville, is a man of great activity and energy, and is somewhat noted for his success in ernshing the trap rock of geology for use in constructing macadamized roadbeds. He is the third son of Jacob D. and Elizabeth (Saybold) Hart- man, and was born in Juniata county, Penn- sylvania, July 21, 1842. He was reared partly in that and partly in Montgomery county, and received a good English educa- tion in the public schools. After leaving school he learned the trade of plasterer and followed that occupation for a quarter of a century. He has also been engaged in farming to some extent, owning and culti- vating a farm of thirty acres in South Cov- entry township, near Coventryville, where he has a beautiful home.
On January 1, 1892, Mr. Hartman em- barked in the business of crushing stone for macadamizing roadways, and has been suc- cessful in building up a large trade in that article. He uses the best and most ap- proved machinery, employing six men and a number of teams, and has a capacity of from fifty to one hundred and fifty tons per day. The popularity of his product and his re- markable success in this unique business is largely due to the fact that he uses only the celebrated trap rock of his region, com- monly known as iron stone, which is the most durable material in existence for road- beds. It is said to be almost identical with the stone used in constructing the Appian
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Way and other ancient roads in Italy and Rome, some of which were made hundreds of years before the dawn of the Christian era, and were among the best, longest-lived and most famous thoroughfares ever devised by man. It is only recently that this rock has been found in this section, and Mr. Hart- man claims to have the only quarry of gen- uine trap rock now worked in Chester county.
On Christmas day, 1864, Mr. Hartinan was united in marriage with Sydney Liece, a daughter of Harry Lieee, of Lieceport, Berks county, this State. In politics he is now a stanch prohibitionist, but was form- erly identified with the Republican party. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has filled all the offices except steward, and has been a local preacher for twenty years, frequently supplying the pulpits of his denomination in this part of the county when the regular pastors were compelled to be absent. He is a leading member of the Sons of Temperance, and is also prominently identified with the Knights of Temperance.
The family of Hartmans are of original French extraction, and trace their ancestry back to three brothers of the name who left France and settled in Northern Germany, but becoming dissatisfied with that country, made their way to America in 1768, and located in Pennsylvania, one settling in Montgomery county, another in Chester county, and the third at some point in the western part of the State. Frederick Hart- man, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a son of that Hartman who settled in Montgomery county, and was born near Trappe in that county, where he resided until about 1815, when he removed to Chester county. He remained in this
county only a few years, however, and then returned to Montgomery, where he died in 1851, in his eighty-fourth year. He was a contractor and builder, and built the first dam across the Schuylkill river for the Schuylkill Navigation Company. In later years he was engaged in farming and be- came very successful and prosperous. In polities he was a Jacksonian democrat, and for many years an active and liberal mem- ber of the Evangelical Lutheran church. He married Sarah Wise, and was the father of eight children, four sons and four daugh- ters, all of whom are now deceased : Jacob D., Frederick, George, Kate, who married a Mr. Posey; Sophia, wedded a Mr. Smith ; Sarah, wife of Richard R. Smith ; Rebecca, married to a Mr. Bidding; and Daniel. The eldest son, Jacob D. Hartman (father), was born in Pottsgrove township, Mont- gomery county, this State, August 23, 1798. At the age of twelve years he came to Ches- ter county with his father's family, and after living here ten years removed to Juniata county, where he also resided dur- ing a decade, and then returned to his na- tive county of Montgomery, where he died at Pottstown in 1884, at almost the exact age reached by his father -not quite eighty- four years. He was a tailor by trade and followed that business a number of years, but later became a farmer. In politics he was a democrat during his earlier years, but attached himself to the Republican party in later life, and was a strict member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was always a zealous worker, and for a long period trustee and class leader. In 1826 he married Elizabeth Saybold, a dauglı- ter of John Saybold, of Montgomery county. To their union was born a family of six children who lived to reach maturity :
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Zephaniah, who married Susan March, and now lives at Snowdonville, Chester county ; Sarah A., married A. Boyer, a prosperous farmer of Pottsgrove township, this county ; Jacob, deceased; Mary A., married Daniel Johnson, and is now dead; William W., the subject of this sketch; and James E., who has been twice married, first to Esther Byers, and after her death to Lisey Trace, and is now engaged in the livery business at Pottstown, Montgomery county.
D AVID COLGAN, a prominent farmer, hay dealer and dairyman of Elkview, is a son of Charles and Philena (Brown) Colgan, and was born on Christmas day, 1831, near Avondale, London Grove town- ship, this county. His paternal grand- father, William Colgan, was a native of the Emerald Isle, who emigrated to Amer- ica at an early age, and settled near Coates- ville, Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he died at an advanced age. By occupation he was a farmer, lived most of his life near Caln station, and was a whig in politics. Ile married Grace Coates, and was the father of ten children, three sons and seven daugh- ters: Lydia, who married Jacob Myers; Rebecca, wedded James Miller; Mary, mar- ried to Melchor Shope; Hannah, married Samuel Gray; Sarah, unmarried; Emily, wedded Samuel Jackson; Zillah; Isaac; Mark, unmarried; and Charles. Charles Colgan (father), was born near Coatesville, this county, and spent his life successively in Lancaster, Chester, and York counties, dying in 1880, at the age of seventy-four years, on the farm where his son David now lives, in Upper Oxford township. He was a potter by trade, but spent a number of
years in farming in this and York counties. He was also proprietor of a hotel for some time at Avondale and elsewhere in Chester, York, and Lancaster counties. Politically he was a democrat until the civil war, after which he became a republican, and took an active part in the support of the latter party. He was twice married, the first time to Philena Brown, by whom he had two children: Isaac, who died in early childhood, and David, to whom this sketch is devoted. After her death he wedded Sarah Pearl, and by this second marriage had one child, Anna M., who died at the age of eighteen.
David Colgan was reared on the farm, and received his early education in the public schools of East Fallowfield township. He afterward attended Unionville academy, and the institute at Greenwood Dell, con- ducted by Professor Gauze. Upon leaving school he set in to work with his father, and remained with him a number of years. Later he became a farmer in York county, this State, and has followed agricultural pursuits ever since. In 1886 he removed to his present location near Elkview, where he is now engaged in farming and baling hay for the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chester markets. He makes a specialty of his hay baling business, and also operates a dairy. He owns a fine farm, consisting of one hundred and thirteen acres of val- uable land, which is highly improved and very productive, with two sets of fine buildings.
On March 27, 1866, Mr. Colgan was mar- ried to Hannah Dunlap, a daughter of An- drew Dunlap, of York county. In politics Mr. Colgan is a stanch republican, and earnestly supports the principles and tenets of that great political organization.
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
JACOB CHRISTMAN, a retired farmer
who has achieved remarkable financial success, and is now a stockholder in several banking houses and manufacturing enter- prises, is the eldest son of Jacob and Mar- garet (Evans) Christman, and was born July 16, 1815, in Uwchlan township, Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania. There he grew to manhood, working on the farm in sum- iner and attending the public school in winter. In this way he acquired a good English education, and after leaving school settled down to farming on the old home- stead, and remained there until 1856, when he removed to East Coventry township and purchased the fine farm of seventy-three acres which he still owns, though it is now occupied by his only son, Pierce Christman. In 1879 he purchased a tract containing five acres, on what is known as the Schuylkill road, and erected comfortable and commo- dious buildings thereon. Here he now re- sides, practically retired from active busi- ness, and surrounded by all the comforts necessary to a peaceful, quiet, and happy life. Mr. Christman is a stanch democrat, and has occupied a number of the township offices. In religion he follows the example set by his ancestors, and is a strict member of the Evangelical Lutheran church. He helped organize the National bank of Spring City,and has served as one of its directors ever since. He is also a stockholder in two banks at Pottstown, and in another at Doylestown, beside which he owns stock in the Window Glass works at Spring City, and is interested in other enterprises.
On November 25, 1845, Mr. Christman was united in marriage to Hannah Wor- mana, of East Coventry township, and by this union had a family of four children, one son and three daughters : Emma, who mar-
ried W. P. Pennypacker, a prosperous farmer of East Pikeland township, residing near Phoenixville; Alice and Irene, both living at home with their parents; and Pierce, who wedded Sallie Diemer, a daughter of Frederick Diemer, of Spring City. He is now engaged in managing his father's farm in East Coventry township, and gives evi- dence of having inherited much of his father's ability and aptitude for business.
Henry Christman, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Montgomery county, who in early life bid farewell to the Fatherland and pushed his way toward the new world, about which such glowing accounts had reached his native hamlet. Arriving in America, he drifted into Pennsylvania, and finally settled on French creek, in what is now East Vin- cent township, this county. He was a farmer by vocation, and devoted his life to clearing out and improving his land, and creating a comfortable home for himself and family. He married Susannah Keeley, by whom he had nine children, most of whom lived to reach maturity and become useful and respected citizens of this county. One of his sons was Jacob Christman (father), who was born on French creek, in East Vincent township, this county, where he was reared and lived until after his marriage, when he removed to Uwchlan township. There he purchased a farm and resided for a number of years, but finally returned to East Vincent township, where he died in 1872, at the age of eighty-two years. The active part of his life was en- tirely devoted to agricultural pursuits. In political faith he was an ardent democrat, and while taking little part in political contests, he was at all times ready to do what he could to secure the triumph of the
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great fundamental principles upon which his party was based. He was a firm adher- ent of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and an active member for many years previous to his death. He married Margaret Evans, a daughter of John Evans. By this mar- riage he had a family of four children, two sons and two daughters: Susannah, unmar- ried, who is still living, being now in the eighty-second year of her age; Elizabeth, married Jesse Brownback, of East Coventry township, and is now deceased; Jacob, to whom this sketch is devoted; and Henry, who married Martha Christman, and is now engaged in farming in East Coventry township.
REV. ROBERT WHITE was born in
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, about the year 1785; received his classical and mathematical education at Norristown ; studied theology under the direction of Rev. Nathan Grier, of Brandywine Manor, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Castle, April 4, 1809. The same year he married the eldest daughter of his theo- logical preceptor, Mr. Grier. He became pastor of the Presbyterian church of Fagg's Manor, Chester county, in 1810, which re- lation he sustained until his death, Septem- ber 20, 1835.
He was a man of fine talents, an instruct- ive preacher, and a friend of thorough edu- cation. He had no desire to gain the ap- plause of man. There was nothing of an affected, sanctimonious manner about him. He could not act the part of a hypocrite, and no one could be in his company for any length of time without being impressed with his humble, Christian spirit. Religion with him was a reality, in the pulpit and out of
it. It gave direction to all he did and said. The power of his example no man could gainsay.
R EV. WILLIAM O. OWEN, the pres- ent popular and efficient pastor of the Baptist church at Pughtown, Chester county, is the fourth son of John W. and and Elizabeth (Kiefer) Owen, and was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1830. He is one of five brothers, all of whom entered the Christian ministry and led such lives as reflect honor on the now sainted parents, who so carefully trained them in youth for usefulness and helpful activity in later life. Rev. William O. Owen received his early education in the common schools, and learned the print- ing business in the office of the Repository and Transcript, at Chambersburg, Franklin county. Later he entered the Pennsylvania college at Gettysburg, where he took a reg- ular college course, lacking one year of gradnation. After leaving college he en- gaged in teaching for a short time, and then entered the pulpit as a minister of the Church of God. For ten years he was ac- tively engaged in the ministry of that de- nomination, and then united with the regu- lar Baptist church, in which he continued his ministerial labors, preaching at Colerain, Lancaster county, five years; at Drumore (which church was organized under his aus- pices) six years ; in Lancaster city, at First Baptist church, one year; at Saint Clair, Schuylkill county, four years; and at Parkesburg and Pughtown, Chester county, during the last six years. While in Lan- caster county he was principal of the Chest- unt Level academy in connection with his ministerial work at Drumore church. He has also worked in the field of literature,
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
having written "Clirist, the True Glory of the Church," "Come, the Inspiring Word of Grace," and numerous newspaper arti- cles of a controversial, secular and political order. In political faith he is a republican.
On September 28, 1857, Rev. Mr. Owen was united in holy matrimony to Rebecca MeFerren, a daughter of George McFerren, of Franklin county, this State. To them was born a family of seven children, two sons and five daughters: Emma C., born June 29, 1858, married William Chandler, a druggist of Strasburg, Franklin county, and has two children-Pearl and Verna; Rev. George M., born December 27, 1859, educated in classies at Selinsgrove insti- tute, graduated from Crozier Theological seminary at Old Chester, married Hannah Mace, of Delaware county, and is now pas- tor of the Baptist church at Baptistown, Hunterdon county, New Jersey ; William, born January 31, 1862, and now employed as a printer at Lasher's Publishing house in the city of Philadelphia; Edith V., born June 27, 1865, married (1889) Jolin Parm- ley, a plumber of Phoenixville; Mary E., born September 19, 1867; Sadie, born June 10, 1870; and Anna, born November 11, 1872, the three latter living at home with their parents.
The Owens are of Welsh descent, and the family was planted in America before the revolutionary war. The paternal grand- father of Rev. William O. Owen was a na- tive of Wales, and married a Miss Walker, who was a native of England, and a rela- tive of Walker the lexicographer. After the death of her first husband, she married a Mr. Seine, by whom she had two sons, both of whom became ministers of the Christian denomination. John W. Owens (father) was born in Franklin county, April
22, 1786, and by his own efforts obtained a good education and taught in the public schools of his native county for forty years. He was of a very studious nature and deeply religious. To him the idea was very real that this life is intended to be used mainly as a preparation for that fuller and con- pleter life which awaits us beyond the golden gates that open on paradise. He was a life long member of the Presbyterian church. In politics he was originally a democrat, but voted for General Harrison in 1840, and afterward continued to affiliate with the Whig party. On February 19, 1820, he united in marriage with Elizabeth Kiefer, a daughter of Abraham Kiefer, of Franklin county, this State. To them was born a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters, all of whom except one lived to reach maturity : Alexander, born October 22, 1820, who became a prominent minister of the United Brethren church, and at the time of his death, December 3, 1861, was serving as president of Otterbein univer- sity ; Abraham, born February 19, 1825, who for a number of years was an active and influential minister in the Ohio confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal church, during part of which time he was presid- ing elder, and is now serving as secretary of the Educational society of that confer- enee ; Wilson, born May 25, 1827, educated at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, became a min- ister of the United Brethren church and achieved distinction, was twice married- first to Catharine Henniger, and after her death, to Margaret Thompson-and died at Orrstown, in 1876; William O., the sub- jeet of this sketch ; Catharine, born Febru- ary 7, 1832, married a Mr. Stone, and now resides in Idaho; Eleanor, born November 18, 1833, wedded Jolin Leedy, and removed
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
to the west, dying at Kansas City, Missouri, in 1880; Rev. Stephen Owen, D.D., born September 13, 1837, who was educated at Selinsgrove Lutheran institute, and has served for a period of twenty-three years as pastor of St. John's Lutheran church at Hagerstown, Maryland; Selena, born May 11, 1835, now the wife of Peter Coon, of La Grande, Oregon; Rebecca, born Febru- ary 22, 1844, and died March 21, 1849. The mother of this family, Mrs. Elizabeth Owen, was born April 27, 1799, and died September 13, 1860, after a useful, beauti- ful and honored life of a little more than three score years.
The maternal grandparents were both of German stock, and seem to have sprung originally from the same province bordering on France. Abraham Kiefer (maternal grandfather) was a son of De Walt Kiefer. He ( Abraham) laid out Strasburg, Frank- lin county, this State, and was one of the most intelligent and respected citizens of Franklin county. By frugality and enter- prise he accumulated much wealth, and died, 1855, wanting only a few months to complete the one hundredth year of his age. He married Catharine Beaver, daugh- ter of George Beaver, who with his two brothers, John and De Walt, came to Amer- ica from his native place in Alsace, now Germany, about 1740. George settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Here he lived and died, and his remains are en- tombed in the cemetery of the Great Val- ley church. His son George served as a soldier in the revolutionary war; and after the war clouds had dispersed at the dawn of peace, and the colonies were free, he moved to Franklin county and married Catharine Kiefer, a sister of Abraham Kiefer, his comrade in the army. Abraham
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