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 65
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(whose name heads this sketch), Jesse, Levi, Phoebe, Mary, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Jane, of whom John, David, Jesse, Phoebe and Rebecca still survive.
THOMAS WARRINGTON, deceased,
was for more than twenty years a well known and highly esteemed citizen of West Chester, where he was engaged in mer- chandising and farming. He was a son of Thomas and Hannah (Lippincott ) War- rington, and a native of Westfield, Bur- lington county, New Jersey, where he was born August 16, 1824. Hegrew to manhood in his native county, and received his pri- mary education there, finishing his studies at Westtown boarding school in Chester county. After leaving school he found em- ployment as clerk in a store for some time. and then engaged in teaching until his mar- riage in 1849, when he began farming in Burlington county, New Jersey. He fol- lowed this ocenpation for several years. until failing health compelled him to relin- quish it, and in 1854 he removed to West Chester, this county, and embarked in the dry goods business. After a few years spent in merchandising he disposed of his stock of goods and purchased a farm in West Goshen township, which he operated for many years, though he continued to reside in the borough of West Chester until his death, which occurred February 6. 1875, in the fifty-first year of his age. Politically he was a republican, and in religion a strict member of the Society of Friends.
On April 12. 1849, Thomas Warrington was united in marriage to Anna M. Hoopes. a daughter of Curtis Hoopes. of West Goshen township. To their union was born a family of four children, three sons and a
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daughter. The elder of these is Curtis II., born October 23, 1851, who married Helen A. Smith (now deceased), by whom he had three children-Carrie R., born November 19, 1877 ; Ellen S., born April 5, 1880 ; and Hannah M., born October 23, 1885. The second was Alfred F., born June 18, 1854, and died June 7, 1855. The third son, T. Francis, was born October 11, 1856, and married Josephine L. Smith, by whom he had two children, twins, both of whom died in infancy. She died April 13, 1881, and in 1885 he wedded Ellen S. Parvin, and their union has been blessed by the birth of one child, Anna L., born April 10, 1889. They live in Philadelphia, where Mr. War- rington is employed in the drawing depart- ment of a large machine shop. The only daughter of Thomas and Anna M. War- rington, Carrie R., was born November 25, 1861, and died September 20, 1863.
The Warringtons are descended from old English Quaker stock, the first of the name to come to America being Henry Warring- ton, whose father's name was John, and who was born in England about 1687. He came to this country in 1700 with his mother, Hannah, who had been left a widow. and who settled in Philadelphia, where she and a daughter resided for a number of years. Henry went to New Jersey to learn farm- ing, and after attaining manhood, in May. 1719, purchased a tract of four hundred acres of land in Chester township, Burling- ton county, New Jersey, and began farming on his own account. He first married Elizabeth Austin, by whom he had four children : Ruth, John, Mary and Thomas. She died in 1728, and he then married Elizabeth Bishop, by which union he had a family of eight children. From this Henry Warrington, by his first marriage, was de-
scended Thomas Warrington, father of the subject of this sketch. The elder Thomas was born and reared in New Jersey, and died at his home in Moorestown, Burlington county, that State, September 21, 1857, at an advanced age. He was a farmer by oc- cupation, and married Hannah Lippincott, a daughter of Josiah Lippincott, of West- field, New Jersey, by whom he had a family of four children.
The Hoopes family, of which Mrs. Anna M. Warrington is a member, is descended from Joshua Hoopes, a native of Yorkshire, England, who came to America with his son, Daniel, in 1682, and settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where they lived for some time. In 1696 Daniel Hoopes mar- ried Jane Worrelow and removed to Chester county, purchasing and settling on a traet of land in Westtown township, which is still in possession of his descendants. He had a family of seventeen children : Grace, born July 17, 1697, died March 6, 1721; Ann, born October 23, 1698, died March 13, 1704; Mary, born September 22, 1700, died in 1765; Hannah, born May 21, 1702, died in 1750; Joshna (great-grandfather of Mrs. Warrington), born April 19, 1704, died October 9, 1769; Jane, born May 14, 1706, died in 1789; Ann, born December 3, 1707, died in 1730; Daniel, born October 27, 1709, died in 1790; John, born August 17, 1711, died in 1795; Abram, born April 12, 1713, died in 1795 ; Thomas, born October 22,1714, died in 1803; Elizabeth and Stephen, twins, born Jannary 13, 1716-Elizabeth died in 1804, and Stephen in 1762; Nathan, born Jannary 16, 1718, died in 1803; Walter, born January 11, 1719, died in 1720; Sarah, born May 25, 1720, died in 1794; and Chris- tian, born in 1723, and died December 31, 1815. As will be seen by a comparison of
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dates, several of this large family lived to a good old age, and it is related that some of the older children were born in a cave, which was the first home of the family - in those primitive times, not an exceptional case by any means. Joshua Hoopes (great- grandfather) was a native of Westtown township, where he spent his life on the old homestead. Ile married Hannah Ashbridge, and was the father of nine children: Jane, born July 12, 1732, died May 16, 1812; George, born August 5, 1734, died February 23, 1805; Joshua, born July 15, 1836, died March 21, 1825; Mary, born April 4, 1739, died in 1812 : Phoebe, born October 15, 1741, died February 19, 1819: Amos, born June 9, 1745, died in 1805; Joseph, born March 10, 1748, died March 17, 1795 : Israel, born June 1, 1750, died young : and Ezra (grand- father), who was born October 1, 1751, and died October 14, 1811, at the Westtown homestead. He lived all his earlier life on the old homestead, and a part of his married life in East Goshen township. In politics he was an old-line whig, and in religion a Friend or Quaker. Hle married Ann Hick- man, and to them were born eleven chil- dren : Moses, born February 6, 1774, died December 7, 1818; Lydia, born July 12, 1775, who being an energetic girl, and the eldest girl of a large family, upon whom 'ell much of the responsibilities of life, used to attend the Philadelphia market with the prodnee of the farm, dairy and poultry, on horseback, as was the custom of those early days, and lived to be an aged woman, over eighty when she died ; C'aleb, born Novem- ber 29, 1777, died April 25, 1863; Sarah, born May 4, 1780; Ann, born May 14. 1782, died October 17, 1833; Phehe, born March 11, 1784. died November 22, 1862; Curtis (father of Mrs. Warrington); born February
20, 1786, died October 7, 1872; Ezra, born April 15, 1788; Hannah, born February 22, 1790; Lavina, born April 10, 1792, died October 13, 1867; and Elizabeth, born December 6, 1794, died August 2, 1876. Curtis Hoopes was reared on the old home- stead, and after attaining manhood removed to West Goshen township, where he mar- ried and remained until 1853, when he came to West Chester, and soon afterward built the large residence now occupied by his daughter, on the corner of Walnut and Biddle streets. Hle was a whig and repub- lican in politics, and married Sarah Roberts, by whom he had a family of seven children. The eldest was a daughter, born May 9, 1822, who died in infancy. The others were: Elizabeth, born April 7, 1823, died April 20, 1825; Harriet, born October 20, 1824, died July 18, 1825; Lavina R. and Caroline E., twins, born April 8. 1826, of whom Lavina R, married Samuel Hannum, father of Curtis Hannum, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, and Caro- line E., married Charles P. Hewes Septem- ber 12, 1850, and died childless on August 17, 1858; and Anna M., born January 1, 1829, who, on April 12, 1849, married Thomas Warrington, whose name heads this lengthy genealogy of two important and numerous families, descendants of Eng- lish and Welsh ancestry.
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WILLIAM EVANS, deceased, was a worthy member of a prominent Welsh family, descended from the early immigrant of the same name, and long ranked with the most substantial and useful citizens of the county. He was a son of Joshua and Mary ( Malin) Evans, and was born at Paoli. Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the year
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
1769. There he grew to manhood and re- eeived the limited education afforded by the country schools of that day. His mind was of a superior cast, however, and he read ex- tensively and thought earnestly on all questions then engaging public attention, insomuch that he became a man of wide in- telligenee. Upon reaching his majority he engaged in farming, and followed that vo- cation nearly all his life. He was noted for thrift and energy, and all the qualities that go toward making the patriotic and useful citizen. In polities he was a democrat, and earnestly supported the principles of that political organization, while in religious belief he was a Quaker, and regular in his attendance at Willistown meeting most of his life. About 1796 he removed to Willistown, this county, where he eontin- ned to live until his death in October, 1843, at the age of nearly seventy-five years. In 1794 he married Anne M. Hibberd, a daugh- ter of Samuel and Mary Hibberd, and by this union had a family of seven children, two sons and five daughters; Hibberd and Joshua, who both became prosperous farmers of this county, but are now deceased ; Mary, deceased; Eliza E., married Enos Hibberd, and both are now deceased ; Sarah W., who resides at West Chester; Ann M., married Judge Thomas L. Smith, now deceased, and lives at New Albany, Indiana; and Lydia T., became the wife of Levi Lewis, now de- ceased, of Radnor. Delaware county.
W ALTER R. HIBBERD, one of East Whiteland township's reliable citizens and farmers, and a decendant of the old Hibberd family that was resident of the county before the commencement of the last century, is a son of Josiah and Lydia
A. (Malin) Hibberd, and was born in East Whiteland township, Chester county, Penn- sylvania, January 21, 1865. The Hibberd family is one of the old families of East Whiteland township, where it has been prominent for nearly two centuries. Josiah Hibberd (great-grandfather) owned four hundred acres of land in East Whiteland, where he carried on farming extensively for that day. He was a Friend, and married and reared a family of three children : Josiah, Owen and Susanna. Josiah Hib- berd (grandfather) was born on the home farm, where he always resided and where he died in January, 1834, at sixty-five years of age. He was a whig, and a Friend, and married Alice Hunter. They had seven children who grew to maturity : William P., a stock dealer and resident of Philadel- phia, where he served as alderman for thirty years before his death ; Rebecca, now dead ; Edward H., served one term as recorder of Chester county, and died at West Chester; Jehu R., was a farmer in Ohio, but died in East Whiteland township, where he had been engaged for several years in farming ; Susan, still living; Josiah (father) : and George O., who was born July 11, 1825, in East White- land township, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1886, in which year he removed to his present home at West Chester. Josiah Hibberd, the fourth son and father of Walter R. Hibberd, was born in 1822, and after receiving a good English education, he went to Philadelphia and studied surveying. Heafterward served as city surveyor for twenty years, and was active and useful in various ways until his death, which occurred January 31, 1887. Ile was a republican, and a Friend, and wedded Lydia A. Malin, who was a daugh- ter of Joseph 'and Amy Malin, and who
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
died in 1866, aged thirty-five years. To Mr. and Mrs. Hibberd were born four chil- dren, one son and three daughters: Alice, deceased ; Carrie, also deceased ; Walter R., and Mary, who married George O. Hibberd, jr., a prosperous farmer of East Goshen town- ship.
Walter R. Hibberd grew to manhood on the home farm and received his education in the celebrated William Penn Charter school of Philadelphia. Leaving school he engaged in agricultural pursuits in his na- tive township, where he now owns a good farm of ninety-five aeres of farming and grazing land. In polities Mr. Hibberd is a republican, and while ever active to yield- ing his party an active and energetic sup- port, yet is no politician or aspirant for of- fice. He is a member of Thompson Lodge, No. 340, Free and Accepted Masons.
On December 27, 1887, Mr. Hibberd was united in marriage with Natalie, daughter of Davis and Margaret (Brown) Gill, of Green Tree. To Mr. and Mrs. Hibberd have been born two children : Walter R., jr., and Edward N.
A' DDISON WILSON, a substantial and
prosperous farmer residing near Kim- berton, who has served his township for many years as a school director, and is a highly esteemed and useful citizen, was born December 5, 1840, in West Vincent township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, and is the oldest son of Thomas and Rebecca (Hale) Wilson. He was reared on the farm where hosnow resides, and received a good common school education in his native town- ship, after which he engaged in farming on the old homestead, and has devoted all his life to agricultural pursuits. He is energetic
and industrious, and being a man of good business judgment, has been very successful in life. In his political affiliations he has always been a democrat, and for eight years has served as a school director of his town- ship, being also the present treasurer of the school board.
On January 14, 1875, Mr. Wilson was united by marriage to Rebecca Shick, a daughter of John Shick, a prosperous farmer of West Vincent township, and they have had four children, all sous: John, born January 18, 1876 ; Raymond, born April 21, 1877, died August 27, 1877; Edwin, born November 7, 1878; and Clarence, born Feb- ruary 12, 1886. Mrs. Wilson was born No- vember 4, 1841, in this township, where she grew to womanhood, and was educated in the public schools.
The Wilson family is of English descent and are old residents of Chester county. Here Thomas Wilson, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and passed his life, dying in West Vincent town- ship, aged nearly ninety years. His voca- tion was that of a farmer, and politically he was a Jacksonian democrat. He married Elizabethi Wills, by whom he had one child, a son, named Thomas Wilson (father), who was born in West Vincent township in November, 1802, and died on the farm now owned by his son, Addison Wilson, on No- vember 7, 1884, aged eighty-two years. Reared on the farm, Thomas Wilson im- bibed a love for agricultural pursuits, and purchasing a tract of one hundred acres of choice land, he devoted much of his life to the cultivation of the soil. He also owned and for a number of years operated a mill at Birchrunville, this township. In his political convictions he was a stanch dem- ocrat, doing what he could to advance the
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
. principles he held so dear. He was an earn- est friend of popular education, and held the office of school director in West Vincent township for a period of thirty-nine years, during which time he beheld a generation of school boys grow to manbood, assume the active and responsible duties of life, and most of them pass away to make room for the generation that followed. Mr. Wilson married Rebecca Hale, daughter of an En- glishman named Lawrence Hale, and by this union had a family of nine children, tive of whom-two sons and three daugh- ters-are still living. They were: Lydia, long since deceased ; Margaret, who mar- ried Levi Emery, and is now deceased ; Mary, the wife of Edwin Williams, of West Pikeland ; Sophia, married Levi Rettew, a resident of Spring City ; Ellen, the wife of George Chrisman, of Schuylkill township; Addison, the subject of this sketch ; Sarah, deceased ; John, who resides at Columbia, Lancaster county, being employed as train- master on the Reading & Columbia railroad ; and Matilda, deceased.
K ERSEY SHOEMAKER, a successful farmer of West Whiteland township, and who has been engaged for many years in the coal and lime business, is a son of "Thomas and Mary (Evans) Shoemaker, and was born in Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania, December 16, 1815. His paternal grandfather, Peter Shoemaker, was a native and life-long resident of Montgomery county, where he followed his trade of stone mason in connection with farming. He was an old-line whig, and a member of the So- ciety of Friends, and married and reared a family of ten children, among whom were John, Charles, Nathan, Peter, Hannah
Moore, Rachel Meredith, and Thomas. Thomas Shoemaker, the fourth son, and father of Kersey Shoemaker, was born in Whitemarsh township, Montgomery county, where he passed his life as a farmer, and where he died in 1856, aged seventy-two years. He was a whig, and a Friend, and married Mary Evans, who died January 3, 1876, when in the ninety-first year of her age. They were the parents of six children, two sons and four daughters : Kersey ; Har- rison, who died in 1862; Emma Paxson, now dead; Myra S. Moore, of Illinois ; Mary and Sarah.
Kersey Shoemaker was reared on the farm, and received his education in the old subscription schools of Montgomery and Chester counties. Leaving school he turned his attention to farming, and some years later engaged in his present coal and lime business. He burns large quantities of lime, which he ships to various parts of this State and New Jersey. He purchased his pres- ent farm of ninety acres in this county, which is fertile and well improved, has good buildings and fences, and lies conven- ient to market, church and school. Mr. Shoemaker has always resided within three miles of where he now lives, and is one of the substantial citizens of his township. He is a republican in political opinion, and a Friend in religions belief and church men- bership.
On February 18, 1858, Mr. Shoemaker was united in marriage with Ann Eliza Ayars, and to their union have been born three children : Mary, who died in child- hood ; Emma, wife of Dr. Patrick, of West Chester; and Margaret. Mrs. Shoemaker is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and received her educa- tion in Thomas' boarding school at Down-
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ingtown. She was born in Chester county, February 9, 1825, and is a granddaughter of Hamilton Ayars, who was a trative of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and a resident and business man for many years of Philadel- phia, where he died in 1833, at an advanced age. Ile was a democrat in politics, mar- ried and reared three children : Lemuel, Shepherd, and Mary MeConaghy. Shep- herd Ayars, father of Mrs. Shoemaker, was born at Bridgeton, New Jersey, June 19, 1789, and followed his trade of cabinet maker in Philadelphia and at Sadsburyville. He died at Downingtown in August, 1857. He was a democrat, an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal church, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812. Ile married Mary Murray, and their children were: Preston, Hamilton, Addis, Mrs. Ann Eliza Shoe- maker, Wesley, and Mrs. Sarah P. Mullen.
EWIS C. BROWNBACK, a highly esteemed farmer residing in the viein- ity of Stonaker, this county, is a represen- tative of an old and honored German family that has become numerous in Chester county. He is a son of Jesse and Elizabeth (Christ- man) Brownback, and was born January 29, 1837, in East Coventry township, Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania. He was reared on his father's farm in that township, and attended the public schools of his neigh- borhood, where he received a good practical education. He married at the age of thirty- one, and farmed for his father on shares for six years, when at his father-in-law's re- quest, May 12, 1874, he removed to the farm of the latter in East Vincent township. ITis father-in-law died August 31st of that year, and the fine farm of eighty-one acres of valuable land on which they now reside,
became the property of Mrs. Brownbaek. This farm is now all highly improved and in a splendid state of cultivation. He also owns ten acres of timber land in South Coventry township, and ranks among the substantial and prosperous farmers of this section. In politics he is a republican, but in religious faith he follows the traditions of his family and is a strict member of the German Reformed church.
On April 30, 1867, Mr. Brownback was united in marriage with Mira Grubb, a daughter of George and Mariah Grubb, of Frederick township, Montgomery county, this State. To their union has been born a family of four children, two sons and two daughters : George G., Emma E., Jennie M. (deceased), and Lewis Marvin.
Lewis C. Brownbaek is a lineal descend- ant of Garret Brownback, (originally writ- ten Gerhard Brumbach), a native of Wur- temburg, in southeastern Germany, who immigrated to America in 1683 on the vessel Concord from Amsterdam, October 6, and settled in Germantown, near Philadelphia, and helped to build the first house in that place. In 1734 he removed to Chester county and settled near Bethel church, where La- zetta Garber now lives. He was the founder of Brownback's German Reformed church, which was built by him of logs in 1741, of which there is a drawing, and kept the first tavern on the north side of the Lancaster pike in Chester county, and took out the first license in Chester county, in the year 1736, where he became a large landowner, taking up one thousand acres partly in Vin- cent and partly in Coventry townships. It was on part of this land that the church which bore his name was afterward built. IIe married Mary Pepen, the youngest daughter of Howard Pepen and Elizabeth
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Rittenhouse, the daughter of William Rit- tenhouse, a brother of David Rittenhouse, the famous American astronomer, and reared a family of two sons- Benjamin and Henry -and daughters, who became the wives of Richard Custard, John Benner, Frederick Bingaman, and John Munshower. When Garret Brownback settled here there was an Indian village, two hundred yards back of his house, which contained three hundred persons ; he taught them to help him to work in the vicinity of his dwelling, the inhabi- tants of which frequently rendered him ser- vices in return for favors shown to them. For this work he gave them milk, potatoes and vegetables. He was born in 1662 and died about 1758, aged ninety-six years, and his remains lie entombed at the cemetery connected with the church he founded. He was succeeded at the tavern by his sou, Benjamin, whose first wife was Mary Paul, the daughter of John Paul, and they had three sons : Henry, John and Edward. Hc continued the business nearly thirty years. The latter served as a soldier-first lieuten- ant, August 21, 1776-during the revolu- tionary war, and after his death his widow, Rachel Parker, his second wife, was robbed and murdered, but no clue to the assassin was ever obtained. He died April 15, 1837, aged eighty-five years and two months. Henry Brownback (paternal great-grandfath- er) was born in East Coventry township, this county, about 1733, and received such edu- cation as was afforded by the schools of that early day. He lived all his life in that town- ship, dying July 30, 1804, at the age of sev- enty-one years, five months and twelve days. By occupation he was a farmer, in religion a member of the German Reformed church, and married Magdalena Paul, the daughter of John Paul, who died in 1766, aged thirty-five
years and ten months. They reared a fam- ily of five children-three sons and two daughters-John, Peter, Benjamin, Annie Snyder and Susanna Prizer. Peter Brown- back (grandfather) was born October 3, 1764, iu East Coventry township, where he passed his life quietly engaged in agricultural pur- suits, dying July 9, 1834, aged sixty-nine years, nine months and six days. He was a member of the State militia for many years and served actively during the great "whisky insurrection" in western Pennsyl- vania. His wife who died December 12, 1853, aged eighty-eight years, was Susannah DeFrane, the daughter of Peter DeFrane, and they had a family of three sons: Peter, Jesse and John, the first and last now de- ceased. Jesse Brownback (father) was also a native of East Coventry township, born March 18, 1807, where he still lives at the advanced age of eighty five years. Polit- ically he is a democrat, as were all his an- cestors, and a member of the German Re- formed church. On December 27, 1832, he married Elizabeth Christman, a daughter of Jacob Christman, of this county, and to them was born a family of eleven children, of whom one, Theodore, died December 7, 1842. Those surviving are : Penrose, Edith, Mar- garet, Jacob, Clementine, Anna, Garret, Martha, Frederick and Lewis C., the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Elizabeth Brownback died June 21, 1853, aged forty-one years, having been born October 23, 1812.
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