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 58
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105
491
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
cordingly sent to the school of Dr. Samuel Finley, at Nottingham, where he made rapid progress. After a time he migrated southward, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia, April 2, 1761, and was pastor at different times of various churches in Virginia. Some time after he had been in the ministry he became incurably blind. He was dignified in his general deportment, but remarkable for politeness and gentlemanly manners- a finished gentleman, in the old Virginia acceptation of the terni.
To great learning he added an eloquence so remarkable that the traditionary accounts of it seem almost fabulous. It was of that sort that electrities whole assemblies, trans- ferring to them the speaker's passion at his will. Under his preaching andiences were moved simultaneously and irresistibly, as the trees of a forest are shaken by a tem- pest. It was to delineate the character of his eloquence that William Wirt wrote that inimitable piece of composition in his " Brit- ish Spy," entitled "The Blind Preacher"-a description which is indelibly impressed on the pages of Virginia history, and which immortalized the writer as well as his hero.
E DWARD GALLAGHER, a success-
ful farmer of Easttown township, and a director of Berwyn bank, is a son of An- drew and Catherine ( MeCafferty) Gallagher, and was born in county Donegal, province of Ulster, Ireland, April 20, 1834. The Gallagher family has been resident of north- ern Ireland for many generations, and Ed- ward Gallagher, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketeh, was a native and life-long resident of county Donegal, where he was a farmer by occupation. He
was a member of the Catholic church, and reared a family of seven children : Patrick, Owen, Charles, Dennis, Neal, Andrew, and John. Andrew Gallagher (father) was reared in his native county, where he fol- lowed farming until his death, at seventy years of age. He was a Catholic, and mar- ried Catherine MeCafferty, who was a native of Ireland. They reared a family of five chil- dren, three sons and two daughters: Han- nah, Patrick, Edward, Neal, and Margaret.
Edward Gallagher was reared and edu- cated in his native county in Ireland, which he left in 1855, to come to the United States, landing at Philadelphia on June 7th of that year. After a few days spent in the city he became a resident of Lower Merion town- ship, Montgomery county, which he left six years later to go to Overbrook, near Phila- delphia, where he was engaged in farming for seventeen years. At the end of that time, in 1881, he purchased his present farm in Easttown township, which he has cultivated ever since. Besides this home farm of two hundred and thirty-one acres, he owns one of ninety acres on the Lan- caster pike, near Wayne or Stafford station. Both farms are rich and productive, while the one near Stafford station is considered to be a very valuable piece of property.
On July 4, 1858, Mr. Gallagher married Isabella, daughter of John and Margaret (Gallagher) MeGady. To Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher have been born eight children, five sons and three daughters : John, who married Catherine Martin, and is engaged in the milk business; Catharine, died in childhood ; Andrew, married Mary O'Keefe, and is in the milk business in Philadelphia with his brother John ; Mary, who is a sis- ter in Chestnut Hill convent, where she is known in religion as "Sister Monica;"
·
492
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Edward; William ; Joseph, who is attending Jesuits' college ; and Isabella R.
Edward Gallagher is a democrat in poli- tics, and a consistent member of Berwyn Catholic church. He takes a warm interest in the education of the young and rising generation. Mr. Gallagher has been suc- cessful in life by his own efforts, and has won a competency by earning it. He is in- terested in financial affairs, and has been a director of the Berwyn bank ever since its organization.
H UGH J. STEEN, one of the older citizens and a prosperous farmer of Tredyffrin township, is a son of Hugh and Susan (Burns) Steen, and was born in New- lin township, near Doe run, Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1818. He grew to manhood on his father's farm, received his education in the schools of his neigh- borhood, and then engaged in farming and dealing in horses and lumber. For many years he was an extensive contractor in the lumber business, but he now gives his at- tention mainly to farming. In political sentiment he has been for many years a re- publican, while in religious belief and church membership he is a Presbyterian. He is a member of Paoli Lodge, No. 290, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows; and Thomp- son Lodge, No. 340, Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has served as treasurer for three years. While ever active in po- litical and religious affairs, yet he has never been an aspirant for office or endeavored to give himself undue prominence in anything relating to the progress or welfare of his church or community.
In 1842 Mr. Steen married Maria Guest, who was a daughter of James Guest, and
died in 1873, leaving three children : How- ard, who died in 1873; Annie, wife of John Beitler, a merchant of Houltown ; and Sarah Emma, who died in 1849. For his second wife Mr. Steen, in May, 1878, wedded Mrs. Mary Fritz. By his second marriage he has one child, Emma May.
His paternal grandfather, James Steen, was born in 1743, in Scotland, from which country he came to Chester county, where he settled on the waters of Doe run in what is now Newlin township. He purchased a farm, and in addition to tilling it he fol- lowed teaming for many years on the old Lancaster pike, which was then a very de- sirable part of the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. He was an elder in the Doe Run Presbyterian church for over half a century, and died in 1820 at an advanced age. He married and reared a family of six children, three sons and three daughters : Hugh J., Stewart, James, Sarah, Margaret, and Katie. Hugh J. Steen (father), was born near Doe run in 1791. He was a farmer by occupation, a democrat in politics, and a strict Presbyterian in religion. He was an industrious and respected man, and died March 10, 1818. He married Sarah Burns, and to them were born three children : James, married, and is a farmer of Newlin township; Jordan, married Phoebe Harris, and has followed coach-making for the last forty years ; and Hugh, whose name appears at the head of this sketch. Mrs. Susan Steen was a daughter of John Burns, and died in 1831, at seventy-two years of age.
HUGH DE HAVEN was for many years in the banking business in the city of Philadelphia, where he accumulated a handsome fortune. He has a very pretty
493
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
house and grounds, with all modern im- provements, in Thornbury township, near Westtown, where he and his family reside.
Hugh De Haven is a direct descendant of Evert InHoff, who came from Holland in the year 1698, and settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania.
Hugh De Haven married Clara Brinton, who is descended in a direct line from Wil- liam Brinton, who came from England in 1684.
H ENRY JJ. MENKINS, a well known citizen of East Whiteland township, and who has always been successful in all agricultural pursuits in which he was ever engaged, is a son of Henry and Sarah (Mc- Minn) Menkins, and was born in East Whiteland township, Chester county, Penn- sylvania, July 6, 1836. The coming of Henry Menkins to the United States is con- nected with that great event of history- the burning of Moscow, which made Water- loo possible, and led to the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, who shook the world in his passage from his island home in the Mediterranean to his prison grave in the Atlantic. Henry Menkins was the nephew of the mayor of Moscow, who, after the evacuation of that city, secured him a pass out of Russia. He came to Philadelphia, but had no money, and worked six months to obtain means sufficient to bring him to East Whiteland township, where he followed burning lime for some time. He then mar- ried and went to farming on " the shares," by which he saved money enough to buy a farm of eighty acres near Frazer. He after- ward purchased two other farms, and was quite wealthy at the time of his death, which occurred August 10, 1871, when he was in
the seventy-eight year of his age. He was a strong democrat, and held several town- ship offices, but always refused to allow his name to be used for a county nomination. He married Sarah MeMinn, who passed away February 25, 1840, aged forty-eight years. They were the parents of four chil- dren, two sons and two daughters: Mary and Margaretta, who reside at West Ches- ter; Joseph, whose sketch appears in this volume; and Henry J. Mrs. Menkins was a daughter of Thomas McMinn, who was a resident of East Whiteland township, this county.
Henry J. Menkins received his education in the common schools, Rockville seminary and Trappe academy of Montgomery county, then under the charge of Reverend Hon- saker, a leading educator of that day. Leav- ing school he followed agricultural pursuits on his father's farm until March 20, 1875, when he purchased his present farm of ninety-three acres of land, which is on the old Swedesford road, and along which the Chester Valley railroad passes. This farm was formerly known as the John Bartholo- mew farm, and is in East Whiteland town- ship. It is well improved and gives un- mistakable evidence in its productiveness of the care and skill with which it is cultivated.
On January 24, 1877, Mr. Menkins wedded Elizabeth D. Gilbert, a daughter of Jacob Gilbert, of East Whiteland township, who is now living a retired life. Mr. and Mrs. Menkins have three children: Joseph. David McFarland, and Jacob II.
In political matters Mr. Menkins has al- ways supported the cardinal principles of the Democratic party. He has held several township offices, and as a public official has always acquitted himself with credit and honor.
494
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
HARLES H. HOWELL, now serving
his second term as justice of the peace at Phoenixville, is one of the enterprising, industrious and useful citizens of this county, who have fought their way up to positions of influence and honor, and are what is popularly termed self-made men. He is a son of Walter J. and Maria (Miller) How- ell, and was born August 9, 1850, at Phœ- nixville, Chester county, Pennsylvania. The family is of Welsh descent and was among the earliest settlers of Gwynedd township, Montgomery county, this State. There Walter Howell, paternal great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1734, he being the second child of George and Margaret Howell. He was a farmer by occupation and lived all his life in that county, dying at an advanced age. His remains lay in the Montgomery Baptist churchyard, in Montgomery township, said county. His son, also named Walter How- ell (grandfather), was a native of the same county, but while yet a young man removed to Chester county, where he died after a long and useful life. He was a farmer and passed all his days in agricultural pursuits. He married and reared a large family, among his sons being Walter J. Howell (father), who was born at Mount Vernon, this county, in 1827, and in 1830 removed to Phoenixville, where he still resides. For many years he has been in the employ of the Phoenix Iron Company, first as a nailor and later as a heater and puddler, being still actively employed though now in his sixty-sixth year. He is a stanch republican in politics, and served for a year and a half during the civil war as a soldier in Co. K, 71st Pennsylvania infantry, under Col. E. S. Baker. In 1849 he married Maria Miller, a native of East Vincent township, this
county, and to their union was born a family of six children. She is a daughter of John Miller, who came to Chester county at an early day and lived all his life in East Vin- cent township. Mrs. Howell is now in the sixty-fourth year of her age.
Charles H. Howell grew to manhood in his native town of Phoenixville, attending the public schools until his thirteenth year, when he entered the Phoenix Iron Company's works. He began at the very bottom and gradually worked his way up to posi- tions of trust and responsibility. In 1870 he entered the machine shops as a skilled mechanic, and was employed there until 1878, when he was transferred to the roll- ing mill and given charge of the machinery and belting. This position he held for six years, giving entire satisfaction and fully demonstrating the remarkable mastery of complicated machinery which his mechan- ical genius and practical training had given him. In 1884, after maintaining his con- nection with the Phoenix iron works for twenty-one years, he resigned his position to accept the office of justice of the peace, to which he had been elected on February 19th of that year. His administration of the office of justice was so satisfactory to the people that he was re-elected to the same po- sition in February, 1889, and is now serving his second term. In addition to his duties as a magistrate he is also engaged in the fire insurance business, and represents sev- eral steamship lines and deals in foreign exchange, issuing money orders payable in nearly all parts of Europe. He is also serving as coroner for the northeastern part of Chester county. Mr. Howell is, in fact, a very busy man, and in giving personal at- tention to the various departments of his flourishing business, he finds ample room
Charles H. Harrell.
497
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
for the exercise of his fine business talent and large executive ability.
On April 4, 1877, Squire Howell united in marriage with Mary A. Hill, a daughter of Abraham D. Hill, of Pricetown, Berks county, Pennsylvania, and to them have been born five children, three sons and two daughters : Carrie H., Harry M., Maude H., Walter A., and Charles S.
Politieally Squire Howell is a stanch re- publican, and with his accustomed energy engages in active work for the success of his party. He is gifted with considerable musical talent, and has been connected with the Phoenix Military band for two decades. His tastes are artistie in other directions also, and he has acquired great skill in pen- drawing and executes many elaborate de- signs, of marked originality and great beauty. IIis daughter, Carrie, is also an expert penman, and does some excellent pen-drawing. Squire Howell is a member of the Junior Order United American Me- chanies, and of the Sons of Veterans. He is a very pleasant gentleman and extremely popular in Phoenixville and wherever he is known.
C' HARLES T. THOMAS, a life long resident and a successful business man of West Whiteland township, is a son of Dr. George and Anna Mary (Townsend) Thomas, and was born October 27, 1847, in the house built before the revolutionary war by his great-grandfather, George Thomas, in West Whiteland township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. Ile received his edu- cation at Westtown Boarding school, and entered Professor Wyers' military academy, which he afterwards left to assume charge of his father's farm, which then contained nearly one thousand acres of land. In con-
nection with his brothers he was engaged in ore mining, and also extensively engaged in quarrying a marble which was used at Girard college, and in the construction of some of the finest buildings in Philadelphia. His farm, consisting of two hundred and thirty aeres of land, of which seventy-five aeres is woodland, lies on the slope of the North Valley hill. He is now engaged in general farming and in operating a first- elass dairy, whose products find a ready market in Philadelphia. He is a republican in politics, a Friend in religious belief, and has held various township offices, and was a director of the Downingtown National bank for some years.
On May 16, 1878, Mr. Thomas married Isabel L. Gibbons, a daughter of Abraham Gibbons, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and to their union have been born four children : Elizabeth (dead), John R., Marion G. and Laura G.
Charles T. Thomas has descended from a long line of honorable and worthy anees- tors, whose American progenitor was Rich- ard ap Thomas, a gentleman of wealth and standing, of Whitford Garne, in Wales. Ile purchased five thousand acres of land of William Penn, but died at Philadelphia be- fore having it surveyed. His sou, Dr. Rich- ard, was the father of Richard, whose son, George, was the father of John R., who left one son, Dr. George Thomas, the father of Charles T. Thomas. The old house built by George Thomas (great-grandfather) in 1772, was used at one time during the revo- lutionary war as a commissary and hospital, and an old house on the farm of Richard Ashbridge is supposed to have been the site of his first house. Some additional history of the old and highly respected Thomas family appears in the sketch of George
498
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Thomas, and full and extensive mention of its eight generations in Chester county will be found in the sketch of J. Preston Thomas, which is given in this volume.
p RESTON W. LOBB, a successful busi-
ness man of Berwyn, and a veteran soldier of the Army of the Potomac, is a son of William C. and Elizabeth G. ( Levis) Lobb, and was born in Darby township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1844. He attended the common schools of Easttown township, and after obtaining a good practical English education therein, he learned the trade of machinist, at which he worked until 1870, excepting three years spent in the army, during the late civil war, from 1861 to 1864. In 1870 he embarked at Berwyn in the lumber, coal and feed business, which he followed until 1886, when he disposed of it to W. H. Fritz, and was variously employed up to the spring of 1892. He then purchased P. J. Trego's plumbing, stove, tinware and roofing busi- ness, which he is conducting very success- fully at the present time. He has not only retained his predecessor's patrons, but has gained many new ones, and has a large and remunerative trade. Mr. Lobb is a repub- lican in politics, and has held several town- ship offices. He is a member of Berwyn Baptist church; Cassia Lodge, No. 273, Free and Accepted Masons; Montgomery Chapter, No. 262, Royal Arch Masons; St. Alban Commandery, No. 43, Knights Templar; and Baker Post, No. 8, Grand Army of the Republic. He has a very fine war record, of which he may feel justly proud. On Angust 9, 1861, he enlisted in an independent battery of flying artillery, that by an act of Congress became Battery
F of the 5th United States artillery. He participated in the battle of Ball's Bluff, took part in the Peninsular campaign, and was at Antietam and Gettysburg. He also participated in seventeen general engage- ments during his term of service, and was honorably discharged at Petersburg, Vir- ginia, on August 9, 1864. His battery, originally two hundred and ninety-five strong, was so reduced by killed and wounded that when it went into the thick of the fight at Gettysburg on the first day, under General Reynolds, it did not number one hundred men ; and when Longstreet's great charge was over on the second day, the battery had suffered the loss of thirty-five men and ninety-three horses. Mr. Lobb was one of five men only in the company that was not killed or wounded, during his three years of service, out of the original company of two hundred and ninety-five.
On February 22, 1876, Mr. Lobb mar- ried Priscilla L., a daughter of Albert G. W. Barton, of Philadelphia, and to their union have been born five children : Carrie R., Arthur B., P. Ole, Morris K., and Corinne B.
Asha Lobb (grandfather), the founder of the Lobb family, was born in Scotland, and came to what is now Delaware county, this State, where he became one of the largest real estate and woolen and cotton mill own- ers in that section. He also carried on an extensive mercantile business for that day. He was a whig, and Friend, and died in 1842. He married and reared a family of four children : William C., Horatio, Ethel- bert, and Maria. William C. (father) was born in Darby township, Delaware county, this State, in 1804. He received a good education, and after teaching for several terms, became a farmer of Easttown town- ship, where he was also engaged in real
499
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
estate and broker transactions until his death, which occurred in March, 1882. Ile was a republican politically, and a promi- nent member of the Friends' church. He married Elizabeth G. Levis, who died in 1889. Their children were: Levis J. W., Clayton A., Mary E. Steen, Preston W., Ethelbert, Margaret W. Taylor, Maria E. Dutton, Henry W., Eliza D. Clegg, Ida A. Jones, and Lewis D.
R. T. MEREDITH, of near Everhart, a descendant of an old Chester county family, and a successful contractor on masonry work, is the eldest son of Isaac and Mary S. (Davis) Everhart, and was horn in West Whiteland township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 21, 1839. He spent his boyhood days on his father's farm, received his education in the common schools of West Whiteland township, and then learned with John S. Garrett, the trade of stonemason, at which he worked for some years as a journeyman, after finishing his apprenticeship. He then commenced working for himself and soon engaged in contraeting, which he has followed for over twenty years. He takes contracts on all kinds of masonry, and has been successful both in giving satisfaction to his patrons and clearing money on his work. In con- neetion with contracting he also follows farming in West Whiteland township, where he owns a good farm of eighty-four acres of land and a couple of woodland lots. He is a supporter of the Republican party, has served his township as a supervisor and a school director, and has always taken an interest in local as well as in State or Na- tional polities. Ile is a member of Thomp- son Lodge, No. 340, Free and Accepted
Masons, and as a man and citizen enjoys the respect of all who know him.
On January 28, 1875, Mr. Meredith mar- ried Elizabeth Loomis, daughter of William and Elizabeth Loomis, of West Whiteland. To Mr. and Mrs. Meredith have been born three children, one son and two daughters : Mary, now attending West Chester State Normal school; Isaac, and Emma.
The Meredith family is one of the dis- tinguished families of Wales, and several of its members came at an early day and set- tled in Pennsylvania. One of them was David Meredith, who came to Chester val- ley, where he purchased land of William Penn, and resided until his death, on prop- erty now owned by Walter Cox. His son, Daniel Meredith, was born and reared in West Whiteland township, where he owned and cultivated a large farm. He married and reared a family of six children, four sons and two daughters: John, George, Joseph, Isaac, Bain and Peggy. John Meredith (grandfather), the youngest son, was a native and life long resident of West Whiteland. where he resided on the farm now owned by the subject of this sketch. Ile was an old line whig in polities, and died in 1856. Ile married Hannah Neilds, by whom he had eight children : Daniel, Amos, George, John, Isaac ( father), Mary Templin, and Sarah A. Dutton. Isaac Meredith was a plasterer by trade, which he followed but a few years. He then engaged in farming, and afterwards purchased his fath- er's farm. Ile was a demoerat until 1856, when he voted for John C. Fremont, and ever afterwards supported the Republican party. He held various township offices, and was a useful citizen. Mr. Meredith was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and died February 30,
500
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
1883, when in the eighty-first year of his age. He married Mary S. Davis. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith reared a family of three children : R. T., William F., and Hannah Snyder.
J. PRESTON THOMAS, a descendant in the seventh generation from Rich- ard ap Thomas, who came with Penn in 1683, and was one of the largest landhold- ers of the Quaker colony, is a respected citizen of West Whiteland township, who has been prominently identified for several years with the educational and financial in- stitutions of Chester county. He is a son of Dr. George and Anna Mary (Townsend) Thomas, and was born on the farm on which he now resides in West Whiteland town- ship, Chester county, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1842. The Thomas family is one of the oldest and most prominent families of Ches- ter county. It was founded by Richard ap Thomas, who was a member of the Ap Thomas family of Whitford Garne, in the county of Flint, in north Wales, where they had been landholders for several gen- erations, having a freehold of £300, and thus being within the grade of gentlemen and the game act. He became weary of the life indulged in by the gentlemen of his class, and united with the Friends, whose principles and course of action recommended them to him as being a people who were truly Christians. He was a man of intelli- gence and foresight, and readily perceived the wide field and splendid opportunities which the forest regions of the new-found world afforded for achievement to those who were brave enough to cross the deep and settle in the infant English colonies of the Atlantic seaboard. He purchased five thon-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.