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 57
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Smale (father), was born April 4, 1816, on the home farm in North Coventry township, where he died October 25, 1882, aged sixty- six years, six months and nine days. He was a farmer by occupation, a democrat in politics, and a Lutheran in religious faith and church membership. He married Julia Ann Beeler, a daughter of Jacob Beeler, and to their union were born three children, one sou and two daughters. The daughters were : Mary J. and Sarah Ann, the latter of whom married Theodore Nilman, a farmer of North Coventry township, and has four children -Emma J., Austin H., Jonas and Harry.
GIDEON T. RUTH, one of the substan-
stantial citizens of Duffryn Mawr, is a son of Isaac and Julia (Thomas) Ruth, and was born at that place April 4, 1847. His father, a prosperous farmer of Chester county, was a native of East Goshen town- ship, where he was born in 1800, but lived chiefly during his lifetime on the farm still owned by his sou, Gideon, which originally comprised one hundred and fifty acres of the most valuable land in the northern part of Willistown township, and is now almost entirely included in the present site of the village of Malvern. He was a stanch whig in politics, and latterly as stanch a repub- lican, through which party he held various township offices. He was a member of the Baptist church, with the principles and doc- trines of which he lived in the strictest ac- cordance, having been a deacon for thirty- seven years, and held other official positions in the church.
He was early married to Julia Ann Thomas, whose father, Mordecai, lived near Malvern, being a resident almost all his life of Chester county. He was an ar-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
dent patriot, and served in the war of 1812. He and his wife, Catherine, were the parents of four sons and two daughters: Hazaiel, Philip, Newton, Gideon, Julia Ann (mother of the subject of this sketch), and Mary Ritner. Mordecai Thomas died in March, 1850, at the age of seventy-three years.
Isaac and Julia Ann Ruth had a family of nine children, the youngest of whom was Gideon. In order of age they were: Cath- erine, married to Joseph A. Malin, a farmer ; Mordecai, a banker; Elizabeth, married to Milton Kurtz, a farmer in Willistown town- ship, Chester county ; Sarah, married Davis Lapp, of East Whiteland township; Isaac Miles ; David; James A .; A. Judson, and Gideon. Isaac Miles served three years, while Mordecai and David each served three months in the civil war. In 1872 Isaac Ruth died at the age of seventy-two years. The sub- ject of the present sketch received his edu- cation in the public schools of Willistown, after which he was employed for some time in farming. He devoted several years to this interest, and then went into the boot and shoe business, in which, as one of the firm of Campbell & Ruth, he was success- fully engaged for five years. He has twice been married, but has no children. His first wife, Esther A. Supplee, died in Janu- ary, 1881. A. Clara Supplee, his present wife, is a niece of his former wife. Mr. Ruth holds the same religious faith and en- tertains the political principles of his father, for he is a republican, and a devoted mem- ber of the Baptist church, in which he is a deacon, and has occupied other prominent positions. He lives at present a quiet and retired life in his country home, which he has surrounded with all the substantial com- forts of the present age.
Ilis life has been unpretentious but
straightforward, and he has been useful in the community as a neighbor, a citizen and a man whose endeavors have always been for the welfare of others as well as for his own success.
E LWOOD WEBSTER, a substantial
citizen and a prosperous farmer and stock dealer of Lower Oxford township, is a son of William and Sarah (Lukens) Web- ster, and was born in Bart township, Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, August 30, 1846. Hereceived his education in the public schools of Chester county and the Unionville Boarding school, and then rented a farm which he tilled for several years. At the end of that time he bought some land in Lower Oxford township, and a few years later purchased his present farm, upon which he has resided ever since his purchase of it. His home farm consists of seventy acres of good land, and he owns another farm of one hundred and forty-seven acres in East Not- tingham township. His land is all under good cultivation, and he has been actively engaged for many years in farming and in shipping and dealing in live stock. He is an industrious and reliable man, and one of the best farmers of his section of the county. He is a republican in politics, who warmly supports his party, but who does not allow political matters to take any necessary time from his business affairs.
On February 19, 1873, Elwood Webster married Clara Wilson, daughter of James Wilson, of West Grove, this county. To their union have been born two children, a son and a daughter : Dora C. and Lawrence.
On his paternal side Mr. Webster is de- scended from the Webster family of Chester county, of which his grandfather, George
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
Webster, was a member. George Webster was a native of Chester county, but spent the greater part of his life as a farmer in Bart township, Lancaster county, where he died. He was a whig and republican in politics, and a member of the Society of Friends. He married Sarah Conard, and reared a family of eight children : Hannah Brown, Martha Moore, Patience Smith Naylor, Jesse, George, William, and Sam- uel. Of these children but two- Martha and Patience-are living. William Web- ster, one of these sons, and the father of Elwood Webster, was born in January, 1809, in Lancaster county, but lived most of his life in Chester county, where he died in May, 1885, when in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He received a good education, and, after teaching school for some time, en- gaged in farming, which he followed until he retired from active life. He was a re- publican, and a member of the Society of Friends. He married Sarah Lukens, who was a daughter of Daniel Lukens, a farmer and Quaker, who married Mary Shoemaker, whose services as a minister of the Society of Friends were highly beneficial in mission- ary work among the Indians and the in- mates of prisons. Mrs. Webster was born in November, 1808, was a Friend, and died in November, 1886. She left four children : Patience Kent, Mary L. Kent, Samuel, and Elwood.
SA AMUEL L. WEBSTER, the second child and eldest son of William and Sarah (Lukens) Webster, was born in Bart township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, August 26, 1842. He received his educa- tion in the common schools of Chester county and Walnut Green and Unionville academies, and then took a course in the
Poughkeepsie Business college of New York, from which he was gradnated in 1864. Immediately after graduation he took a full course at the Chestnut Street Art school of Philadelphia, and taught art classes for three years in West Chester Normal school. He also taught in various academies and had classes in different parts of the county until 1873, when he abandoned art teaching. Since then he has been engaged in farming, and also gives some attention to literary work. He now owns a farm of ninety acres of improved land in Hopewell borough. He is a prohibitionist, and a member of the Hicksite Friends' meeting, and on March 11, 1875, married Esther, daughter of John Lancaster, of Baltimore, Maryland. His children are: Franklin, Sarah, Mary E., Helen, Alice C., Ethel, E. Stanley, Robert B., and Esther. Samnel Webster is known as a man of integrity and honor, whose in- fluence has always been for the good of his community.
H ENRY M. STAUFFER, an industri- ous and highly respected citizen of East Coventry township, who has been ac- tively engaged as a tradesman and farmer for over half a century, is a son of Jacob and Mary (Meyers) Stauffer, and was born in West Pikeland township, near Chester Springs, Chester county, Pennsylvania, Sep- tember 27, 1826. ITis paternal grandfather, John Stauffer, was the son of a Mr. Stanffer who came from Germany, and whose Chris- tian name has not been preserved. John Stauffer was born in Berks county, and came to East Coventry township, where he pur- chased a farm of one hundred and twenty- seven neres of land, which is now known as the old Stauffer homestead. He followed farming, was a member of the Mennonite
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
church, and married a Miss Latshaw, by whom he had five children : John, who was a life-long resident of his native township; Catharine M., who married Rev. Jacob Har- ley, a minister of the German Baptist church ; Elizabeth, Jacob and Mary, who died young. Jacob Stauffer (father) was born in 1790, in Berks county, and died on the Stauffer homestead on September 22, 1862, aged seventy-two years. He was a farmer, a Mennonite, and a republican, and married Mary Meyers, who was a daughter of Martin Meyers, and died November 7, 1873, in her seventy-ninth year. Their children were: John M., a farmer, who died in 1891; Catherine, who married Abram Halteman, lived in Juniata county, and is now dead; Mary Ann, married Christian Bliem, lived in Montgomery county, and is also dead; Jacob, jr., now deceased; Abra- ham, of Kenilworth; Henry M .; Sarah, wife of John Latshaw, of East Pikeland township, whose land lies partly within the borough limits of Spring City ; Elizabeth, wife of Joel Ebert, of Kenilworth; Isaac, a farmer and coachmaker, who died in 1891 at Linfield, Montgomery county ; William M., of Reading, British Columbia; Leah, wife of Hiram Ellis, a resident and former merchant of Pottstown, Montgomery county ; Harriet, who married Henry S. Penny- packer, of East Coventry ; and Lovina, wife of George C. Green, who is in the employ of the Keystone Agricultural Company, of Pottstown.
Henry M. Stauffer was reared on the farm, received his education in the common schools, and learned the trade of coach- maker, at which he worked for over twenty years in his shop on the home farm. At the end of that time he turned his atten- tion entirely to farming, which he has con-
tinued in ever since. He owns part of the homestead farm, on which he resides, and has so improved, enriched and cultivated his land that his farm is considered as one of the best in that community. In poli- tics Mr. Stauffer supported the Republican party until recently, when he allied himself with the prohibitionists, and now desires the success of prohibition through political action. He served for several years as school director of his township, and was a director and the secretary and treasurer of the Madison Bridge Company almost from its inception up to the time of its dissolu- tion, after selling the bridge to Chester and Montgomery counties, and has been a mem- ber of the board of directors of Ursinus College, at Collegeville, from its origin to the present. He has been for a number of years an active member of the German Re- formed church, takes an active part in Sun- day school work, education, and all moral improvements, and enjoys that popularity which springs from right living and the honorable treatment of his fellow citizens. The fruits of his diligence, tact and up- rightness are to be seen in his fine farnı, pleasant home and the high esteem in which he is held by his neighbors.
On February 24, 1852, Mr. Stauffer mar- ried Hannah Hart, who was a daughter of Jacob and Hannah (Ziebes) Hart, of Mont- gomery county. Mrs. Stauffer passed away on August 22, 1886, when in the sixty-fifth year of her age.
JOHN T. EACHES, son of Eber and Hannah Philips Eaches, was born De- cember 16, 1842, in the village of Charles- town, Chester county, Pennsylvania. His parents were both natives of Pikeland
John J. Enches.
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
township, in the same county. The father, a son of John Eaches, was of Welsh de- scent. He was for many years a school teacher, farming and working at the cooper trade during the summer, and teaching school during the winter. He was widely known and universally esteemed. He set- tled in Phoenixville in 1847, and died there in 1880, in his seventy-eighth year. He was for many years an officer in the Baptist church of that place. His wife, the mother of John T. Eaches, is still living with un- impaired faculties in her ninety-first year.
The subject of this sketch was the young- est of four sons. The other brothers, Wil- liam, a carriage manufacturer in Philadel- phia; Josiah P., teller in the Phoenixville National Bank ; Owen P., pastor of the Bap- tist church at Hightown, New Jersey, all survive him.
He received a superior English education in his boyhood in the public and private schools of Phoenixville. He possessed a quick and receptive mind. He was fond of study and made rapid progress, attaining a high rank as a scholar. About the time that he was finishing his studies and while making preparation for entering the duties of practical life, the storm of war burst upon the country. Every town and hanılet in Pennsylvania at once became a recruit- ing station for the army. Finishing the work to be done at home, he secured the consent of his parents and entered the ser- vice of his country in his nineteenth year. He enrolled himself a member of Co. G, 1st Pennsylvania reserves. Ife served during the three years term of service, not visiting his home during that entire time. He was faithful, brave, untiring in all the duties that came upon him. He did not know the meaning of shirking or of cowardice. He 29
became a corporal in his company. In the seven days' fight before Richmond, at the battle of Charles City Cross Roads, he was wounded, left on the field of battle, cap- tured by the Confederates, and placed in the Libby prison. After four week's imprison- ment he was exchanged. He was in the battle of Gettysburg and in all the import- ant battles of the Army of the Potomac. The soldier life was in his blood, as his grandfather and three of his brothers were the commanding officers in the seventh battalion of Pennsylvania troops in the war of the Revolution. At the close of the war he returned to Phoenixville. He accepted a clerkship in the cotton factory of Mr. L. H. Richards in Phoenixville. He remained here until 1869, when he accepted a posi- tion in the National bank of that place. He filled the position of paying teller and book-keeper to the satisfaction of all. On the organization of the Spring City National bank in 1872, he was offered the position of cashier of the bank. He accepted the proffer and filled the position with eminent ability until the time of his death. He was a man of the strictest honesty and integrity in his business dealings. To his enterprise and rare financial power much of the suc- cess of the Spring City bank is due. He was a man of large business sagacity. He was one of the four founders of the Spring City Forge Company. Possessed of public spirit, he did much that contributed to the business interests of the town in which he resided.
He took a large interest in political and public affairs, though never soliciting or holding public office. He was married in 1879 to Hannah Stauffer, of Spring City. Three children were born to them: Mary, Amy, and Clara, all of whom are living.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
The quiet of the home circle was a delight to him after the cares of the day. He was a man of rich devotional life. For many years he had been a member of the Baptist church in Phoenixville. Here he was active in all kinds of church work. He was an effective teacher in the Sunday school. Ife was an active member of the G. A. R. and of the Masonic fraternity. He died sud- denly, after a short illness, in his forty- seventh year, September 28, 1889.
He had accumulated a handsome com- petence. His largest wealth was in his irreproachable character, his unstained name, his gracions influence, his devotional life, his noble manhood. Ilis heart was as tender as a child's. His manner was win- ning. He was a pillar in the church and in the community. None knew him but to respect and to love him. Followed to the grave by a large number of his fellow soldiers, fellow citizens, kindred and friends, he sleeps in the quiet of the cemetery at Phoenixville.
Life's fight well fought, Life's work well done, Life's course well run, Rest comes.
A LFRED MULLEN, a Uuion veteran of the late civil war, and the proprietor of the Green Tree hotel of Duffryn Mawr, is a son of Robert and Letitia (Barnwell) Mullen, and was born in the city of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, April 26, 1837. Rob- ert Mullen was born in Lancaster county, and passed nearly all his life at Gulf Mills, Montgomery county, where he was a loom boss in a cotton factory. He was a Jack- sonian democrat in politics, and died in 1846, aged forty-five years. He married Letitia Barnwell and to them were born
two children : Alfred, and Isaac, who still resides at Gulf Mills, Montgomery county, where he is engaged in the general mer- cantile business. Mrs. Mullen, who died in 1868, aged seventy-seven years, was a daughter of Henry Barnwell, who was born in Montgomery county in December, 1754, and after serving in the revolutionary war, part of the time as a privateersman under l'aul Jones, married and had seven children, six daughters and a son, among them being Ann Patterson, who lived to be ninety- seven years old, and Mrs. Mullen.
Alfred Mullen spent his boyhood days at Gulf Mills, and received his education in the common schools of Montgomery county, after which he served for a short time as a clerk in a store. He then went to Con- shocton, that county, and was a clerk in a store at that place until 1862, when he enlisted for nine months in the 124th Pennsylvania infantry. He partici- pated in the battles of Antietam and Chan- cellorsville, and at the end of his term of service enlisted in an independent company of cavalry, in which he served for three months. In a short time after being mus- tered out of the cavalry service he enlisted in the Keystone battery of Philadelphia, and served in it until the close of the war. Returning home, he was employed for one year as a bar-tender by William Evans of Conshocton, and then served for five years in the same capacity at the Eagle house of West Chester. He then purchased the Eagle house, which he conducted for three and a half years, and, after selling it to Alfred Kenny, went to Newton Square, Delaware county, where he was in the hotel business until 1888, when he became pro- prietor of the Green Tree hotel at Duffryn Mawr, which he has conducted most suc-
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
cessfully ever since. He is well suited for the business in which he is engaged, and always gives close attention to every want and in providing for the comfort of his numerous guests. He is a republican in polities, and a member of Thompson Lodge, No. 340, Free and Accepted Masons.
On December 21, 1870, Mr. Mullen mar- ried Fannie Foster, a daughter of Spencer and Miriam Foster, of West Chester. Mr. and Mrs. Mullen have three children : George H., who is in the car record office of the Broad Street steam railroad station ; Miriam and Bessie, who live at home with their parents.
ISAAC K. SIGMAN, the well known coal and lumber merchant of Springfield, this county, is the eldest son of John and Margaret (Kurtz) Sigman, and was born at Springfield, West Nantmeal township, this county, March 21, 1851. His paternal great-grandfather was a native of Germany, who emigrated to the United States at an early day, and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where his son, John Sigman (grandfather), was born, and lived all his life, dying in East Nantmeal township in 1864, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. He was a farmer by occupation, a member of the Episcopal church, and in politics an old-line whig. He married a Miss Smith, by whom he had a family of seven children, four sous and three dangh- ters : George, Thomas, Joseph, John, Mary, Eliza and Sarah, all now deceased except George, Joseph and Eliza. John Sigman (father) was born in East Nantmeal town- ship, this county, August 18, 1818, received his education in the common schools of his native township, and resided there until
1847, when he removed to West Nantmeal, and passed the remainder of his life in that township, dying there October 5, 1891, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. In early life he learned the trade of plasterer, and worked at that business in connection with farming for many years, being very successful and prosperous. Politically he was an ardent republican, and a strong abolitionist during the anti-slavery agita- tion. After the war began was active in securing soldiers for the Federal army. He was a man of ardent nature and quick im- pulse, never doing anything by halves, and after the issues of the civil war were set- tled, he became a staneh prohibitionist, and worked earnestly for the success of that party. Possessing more than ordinary in- telligence, and an carnestness of disposition not common, he became a kind of local leader in his community, and was widely known and greatly esteemed. In early life he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, but after some years changed his church membership to the United Brethren, whose doctrines and methods he came to like better, and among whom he served as class leader and Sunday school superintendent for many years. In 1849 he married Margaret Kurtz, a daughter of Christian Kurtz, of West Nantmeal town- ship, and to them was born a family of five children, two sons and three daughters : Lizzie, who married Stephen W. Handwork ; Isaac K., the subject of this sketch ; George W., single ; Emna, who became the wife of William Filmen : Warrick, and Fannie, who married Ehner E. Deam, of Honey- brook, Chester county.
Isaac K. Sigman was reared on his fath- er's farm in West Nantmeal township, and received a good practical education in the
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
public schools, after which he learned the plasterer's trade, and worked at that occu- pation nearly five years, first at Pottsville and later in the city of Reading. In 1874 he engaged in the coal and lumber business at Springfield, this county, and has success- fully conducted this enterprise ever since, being now in control of a prosperous and paying trade. In his political affiliations Mr. Sigman is a republican, of broad and liberal views, and while entertaining no po- litical ambitions for himself, is always loyal in support of his party and its general policy.
On Christmas eve, 1873, Mr. Sigman was united in marriage to Sophia Leggett, a daughter of John and Margaret Leggett, of East Nantmeal township, this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Sigman have been born two children, one son and a daughter: Walter E. and Ida M., both living at home with their parents.
JOHN W. REAVEY, an efficient fun- eral director and proprietor of a well- stocked furniture establishment near Straf- ford, is a son of Alexander and Jane Reavey, and was born in New York city, September 20, 1861. Alexander Reavey was in all probability a native of Scotland, and a machinist by occupation. He came to New York city, where he died when the subject of this sketch was quite young.
John W. Reavey by the sudden death of his father was left at a very early age to do for himself, and came to Chester county, where he lived for several years with his uncle, a farmer of Tredyffrin township. He attended school during the winters and worked on his uncle's farm in the summer seasons, until he was seventeen years of age. He then learned the trade of carpenter,
after which he went to New York city and worked one year at cabinet making. Leav- ing New York he returned to Chester county and was engaged for two years in house carpentering. At the end of that time, in 1886, he established a furniture and undertaking establishment in Tredyffrin township, near the village of Strafford, and two years later removed to his present loca- tion, on the old Lancaster pike, one-fourth of a mile from Strafford station. He car- ries a choice line of useful and fine furni- ture, including chairs, tables, stands, sofas, and chamber suits, while in the line of un- dertaking he is able to furnish all kinds of burial caskets, robes and trimmings. He is a good workman and business man, and en- joys a large trade in the section of the county where he resides.
In politics Mr. Reavey is a democrat of the Jeffersonian school, and believes in an economical administration of the govern- ment. He is a member of Berwyn Lodge, No. 998, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows; and of Council, No. 200, Junior Order of United American Mechanics, of Strafford ; and also of a Funeral Directors' association.
REV. JAMES WADDEL, D. D., a son of Thomas Waddel, was born in Newry, in the north of Ireland, in July, 1739, and died in Virginia, September 17, 1805. In the fall of 1739 he was brought, an infant in his mother's arms, to this coun- try. His parents settled on the White Clay creek, Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he grew to manhood. Having been dis- abled by an accident when a boy in the use of his left hand, his parents resolved to seek for him a liberal education. He was ac-
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