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 66
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For much of the information given above we are indebted to L. C. Brownback.
H ON. WILMER WORTHINGTON,
M. D., a well known physician and philanthropist of southeastern Pennsylvania, was one of the most distinguished men in
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politieal life that Chester county ever pro- duced. IIe was a son of Amos and Jane (Taylor) Worthington, and was born in West Goshen township, Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, January 22, 1804. He received his education at West Chester academy, read medieine with Dr. William Darlington, and was graduated from the university of Penn- sylvania in 1825. After a few month's prac- tiee near Philadelphia he came to West Chester, where he practiced continuously and successfully for nearly half a century.
The Worthington family in its transat- lantic ancestry is traced back to Lancaster county, England, where it was in high re- pute for bravery and heroie action from the time of the Plantagenets. John Worthing- ton came about 1700 from England to near Philadelphia, where he married Mary Wams- ley. Ilis son, Isaac Worthington, paternal grandfather of Dr. Worthington, married Martha Carver, and reared a family of five sons and two daughters. One of the sous, Amos Worthington (father), was born Sep- tember 9, 1773, and died January 3, 1834. He married Jane Taylor on October 10, 1799, and reared a family of six sons and one daughter. Mrs. Worthington died Sep- tember 26, 1873, at the advanced age of ninety-three years, having survived all her children.
Dr. Wilmer Worthington occupied a high place in his profession, and was a pioneer in the work of medical organization in the State, being one of the founders of the Ches- ter County and State Medical societies and the American Medical association, and serv- ing as an editor of the Medical Reporter from 1863 to 1866. Ile took a deep interest in the affairs of his borough, and served as president of the board of managers of Oak- land cemetery, and as a director of the bank
of Chester county and the West Chester & Philadelphia Railroad Company for some years before his death.
On September 28, 1826, Dr. Worthington married Elizabeth, daughter of William IIemphill, esq. Mrs. Worthington died May 10, 1875, aged sixty-five years. To their union were born eight children, of whom three are still living.
Dr. Worthington was a Douglas democrat, and after the commencement of the late war became a republican in politics. In 1833 he was elected to the Pennsylvania house of representatives, and was influential in se- curing the passage of the common school law. He was elected as a member of the State senate in 1863 and again in 1866, and was chosen speaker at the session of 1866. While in the senate he prevented the pro- vision for the Soldiers' Orphan schools from being stricken from the appropriation bill. and secured the establishment of the pres- ent board of public charities, one of the in- stitutions that do honor to Pennsylvania.
Dr. Worthington was an elder of the Pres- byterian church from 1834 until his death. He passed peacefully and quietly to rest on September 11, 1873, when in the sixty- ninth year of his age, and his remains were interred in Oakland cemetery. He was of portly form, and his benign genial face can- not soon pass from the memories of those who knew him. Dr. Jacob Price, in speak- ing of his death before the medical society of Pennsylvania, said : "The life and char- acter of Dr. Worthington are worthy of our careful study. We find him withont pre- tension to genius, or the insatiate reachings of ambition, steadily doing the work he found for his hands to do, and doing it so well that the world is wiser, better and hap- pier for his having lived."
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
L EVI CUTLER, an enterprising and successful business man of Paoli, and who served in the army of the Potomac from the Wilderness fights to Appomattox courthouse, is a son of William and Mary (Shenaman) Cutler, and was born in War- wiek township, Chester county, Pennsyl- vania. June 14, 1842. He received his education principally in the public schools of Norristown, this State, but his father's death caused him to leave school at an early age to do for himself. He has, however, largely supplemented his early education by reading and self study. After serving in the Federal army and being engaged in various lines of business until 1874, he then embarked in butchering at Strafford, which he followed up to 1883, when he condueted a grocery store at what is now Chester Valley, where he remained until 1891. On April 1st of that year he came to Paoli, and established his present general mercan- tile store. He carries a full and carefully selected stock of dry goods, staple and fancy groceries, hardware and everything to be found in a first-class general mercan- tile establishment outside of the larger towns of the county. Mr. Cutler has pros- pered in his business, commands a large trade, and enjoys the respect and confidence of his patrons. Hle is a republican in politics, an attendant of the Baptist church, and a member of Col. Owen Jones .Post, No. 591, Grand Army of the Republic, of Bryn Mawr. On August 21, 1862, he en- listed in Co. C, 138th Pennsylvania infan- try, and was in the battles of the Wilder- ness, Spottsylvania courthouse, Petersburg, and in the skirmishing that led to Lee's surrender at Appomattox courthouse, at which he was present. He was slightly wounded in one of the Wilderness battles,
and was honorably discharged in June, 1865, at Harrisburg, this State.
In 1869, Mr. Cutler married Mary P. Dannaker, who died in April, 1881, and left two children : Girdon D. and Mollie B. On December 6, 1882, Mr. Cutler wedded Matilda B., daughter of Joseph Peterman, of Philadelphia.
Levi Cutler is of German lineage. His grandfather, James Cutler, died at St. Mary's, Warwick township, at an advanced age. He was a farmer, a democrat, and a member of St. Mary's Presbyterian church. He married Susan Cake, and their children were : Levi, James. George, Jane, Margaret, Rebecca, Caroline and William. The young- est child, William Cutler (father), was born in Warwick township, and died at Bridge- port, Montgomery county, in 1856, aged forty years. He was a farmer, and a mem- ber of St. Mary's Presbyterian church, like his father, but differed from him in politi- cal opinion, being an old-line whig. He married Mary, daughter of Benjamin Shen- aman, who was of German descent and kept the old "Stage tavern," near Berwyn, on the old Lancaster pike, for many years, after which he followed farming. William and Mary Cutler were the parents of four sons and two daughters: James, Benjamin, Margaret, Susanna, Levi (subject), and Wil- liam, a carpenter, who married Jennie Smith and resides in Philadelphia. Of these children only the last two named are living.
H ARRY D. FUNK, one of East Pike- land township's representative farmers, is a son of John and Elizabeth (Detwiler) Funk, and was born in East Vineeut town- ship, Chester county, Pennsylvania, May 14, 1859. He grew to manhood on his father's
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farm, where as a boy he was noted for his skill in breaking and training unmanage- able horses. He received a good common school education, and since leaving school has been continuously engaged in farming in East Vincent and East Pikeland town- ships. In 1889 he purchased his present farm in East Pikeland township, where he has resided ever since. He is a careful and successful farmer, and conducts all of his agricultural operations scientifically and by systematized methods. His farm of one hundred and three acres is well improved and very productive. Mr. Funk also oper- ates a dairy. He has achieved success by his own original and independent business methods, and is now situated to enjoy the fruits of his past labors while yet in the very prime of life. He is a republican in politics.
On December 19, 1879, Mr. Funk mar- ried H. Kate Latchaw, and their union has been blessed with five children, three sons and two daughters : Sallie E., Elsie, Horace, John and Clarence. Mrs. Funk is a grand- daughter of Jacob Latchaw, a native of East Pikeland township, where he was a farmer. Jacob Latchaw married and reared a family of seven children : Daniel, David, John, Elizabeth Bechtel, Mary Ebert, Catharine Buckwalter and Anna Stauffer. Rev. John Latchaw, the father of Mrs. Funk, was born in East Pikeland township, and is now an active minister of the Mennonite church. He was largely instrumental in the establish- ment of Spring City, and did much to build it up during its growth as a village and be- fore it developed into a town. He is a re- publican in politics, and married Sarah Stauffer, and has had ten children : William F., Mary S., wife of Davis K. Loomis, ex- prothonotary of Chester county ; Harriet S., married Joseph I. Mowry, who is in the coal
and feed business at Spring City : H. Kate Funk, wife of the subject of this sketch : Henry S. : Ella E., now dead ; Sallie, wife of Evan J. Yeager, a member of the stove manufacturing firm of Yeager & Hunter, of Spring City ; John E. : Hosea E. ; and Har- vey J.
Harry D. Funk is a grandson of Jacob Funk, who was born and lived during the early part of his life on Stony run, in East Vincent township. He was a wheelwright by trade, and after working at various places purchased a farm of one hundred and ten acres in his native township. There he lived until his death in 1885 at eighty-seven years of age. He married Anna Heistand, and had a family of six children : David, Elizabeth Culp, John, Anna Mowry, Sarah Frances Wissimer, and Henry. John Funk (father) was born in 1824, in East Vincent township, where he always lived the life of a farmer until his retirement two years pre- vious to his death, which occurred June 12, 1890, at the age of sixty-six years. He died from heart failure. John Funk was a re- publican, and a member of East Vincent Mennonite church. His widow, Elizabeth Funk, is a daughter of Henry and Kate (Latchaw) Detwiler. To John and Eliza- beth Funk were born seven children, three sons and four daughters: Elizabeth, Cath- erine Buckwalter, Anna, Harry D. (subject), Susie, Jacob and David. Of these children. Elizabeth and Snsie died in childhood.
HU UMPHRY MARSHALL, one of the most distinguished botanists of the new world, was a son of Abraham and Mary (Hunt) Marshall, and was born in West Bradford township, Chester county, Penn- sylvania. October 10, 1722. At twelve
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years of age he left school and learned the trade of stonemason, which he followed for a few years. He built the walls of his own house at Marshallton in 1773, and in the same year commenced there the first botan- ical garden in America. He was the author of several valuable botanical works, and died November 5, 1801, at seventy-nine years of age. As a botanist Humphry Mar- shall was as well known in Europe as in America, and Marshall park at West Ches- ter was named in honor of him.
ISAAC G. DARLINGTON, now de- ceased, was a son of Brinton Darlington, and was born in 1808, in East Bradford township. Chester county, Pennsylvania. He died in West Chester, October 28, 1879, aged seventy-one years. The paternal grand- father of the subject of this sketch, Thomas Darlington, married Hannah Brinton, and was the father of a large family, one of his sons being Brinton Darlington, father of the subject of this sketch.
Isaac G. Darlington was educated princi- pally in the common schools of East Brad- ford township, and afterward spent one year at Westtown boarding school. Leaving school he followed farming in East Bradford township until about 1872, when he retired and removed to the borough of West Ches- ter, where he resided during the remainder of his life. In politics he was a stanch re- publican, but took little part in public affairs. In 1830 he married Sarah Mercer, a daughter of Jesse Mercer, of what is now known as Oakbourne, Westtown township, this county. Jesse Mercer was a large land owner and extensive farmer. By this marriage Mr. Darlington had a family of five children, only two of whom lived to reach maturity.
The youngest of these, a daughter named Irene, died November 19, 1879, aged forty- five years, so that the only surviving child of Isaac and Sarah Darlington is Hannah Mer- cer Darlington, who still resides in the bor- ough of West Chester. For the early his- tory of this numerous and distinguished family, reference is made to the sketches of Frank P., John N., and other members of the Darlington family, which appear else- where in this volume.
H ON. TOWNSEND HAINES, an em-
inent lawyer and a distinguished man in public life, whose efforts-although able- were never equal to his abilities, was a son of Caleb and Hannah (Ryant) Haines, and was born at West Chester, Chester county, Pennsylvania, Jannary 7, 1792. Hereceived his education at Enoch Lewis' Boarding school, and after teaching for several years, read law with Isaac Darlington, and was admitted to the bar on February 7, 1818. He soon gained a good practice and while he made no effort to be a leader at the West Chester bar, yet he was engaged in all the important cases and excelled as a jury pleader. He was a democrat in early life, served as a member of the Pennsylvania house of representatives in 1826 and again in 1827, and eleven years later became a " Monday Whig," editing the county organ of that political organization. In 1840 he became a whig, and eight years later ac- cepted the position of secretary of the Com- monwealth, in which capacity he served until 1850, when he was appointed as treas- urer of the United States by President Taylor. One year later he was elected president judge of the district composed of the counties of Chester and Delaware, and
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resigned the treasurership to take his seat on the bench, where he served very satis- factorily until the end of his term. He then returned to the practice of his profes- siou, in which he was engaged until his death in October, 1865, at seventy-two years of age.
Judge Haines had a talent for poetry, which he never wouldi exert himself to im- prove. He was handsome, dignified aud imposing in appearance, possessed a strong musical voice, and had there been more energy in his make up, he would undoubt- edly have achieved the splendid career for which his abilities and talents fitted him.
A BRAHAM GOOD, a son of John and Barbara ( Bruner ) Good, was born Octo- ber 9, 1823, in Honeybrook township. Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, where he still lives. He has been a farmer all his life, as were both his paternal and maternal grandfathers, who were among the early settlers of the coun- ties in which they lived. The former was a resident of Jnviata township, Lancaster county, and besides engaging in farming dealt in stock to some extent. Ile was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics a republican. He had five children, two sons and three daughters: Prudence, who married Samuel Hornish : Katie, Agnes, John and Abraham. John Good, father of the subject of this sketch. continued in his father's occupation of farm- ing in Lancaster county, where he was born and lived many years. His early religious training and surroundings fitted him to take the prominent place which he loug ocenpied in the Methodist Episcopal church, as he filled various positions and held offices in his own local church, where he was succes-
sively a class leader, exhorter and steward. His political affiliations, as well as his re- ligious beliefs, were those of his father. he beinga memberof the Federalist party. On March 5, 1811, he was married to Barbara Bruner, a daughter of Owen and Elizabeth Bruner, and to them were born eight chil- dren, four sons and four daughters, in point of age as follows: Elizabeth Hethery. Owen, Jesse, John, Prudence Kurtz. Abra- ham, Mary Climenson and Barbara Beu- Owen Bruner, father of Barbara ( Bruner) Good, was a farmer and miller of Berks county, of which place he was a lite- long resident. He was also a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a stanch whig. He was the father of a large family, of whom Barbara was the oldest. Others were Abraham, Owen, Jacob, JJohn. Isaac, Elizabeth, Daniel and Frances.
Abraham Good comes of a line of farm- er's on the part of both parents, and is still so occupied, living on the old homestead- the farm held so long in his family -cou- sisting of one hundred and eighty acres. Mr. Good makes the dairy business some- thing of a specialty. He is a republican. and has held the position of school director of Honeybrook township. Ile continues in the religious faith of his immediate ances- tors, being a member in excellent standing and trustee of his church. In 1851 he was married to Elizabeth Rettew, daughter of Charles and Sarah Rettew. They have had five children, two of whom -Howard and Emma - still live at home with their parents. Frank, married Annie Rettew and is engaged in farming in the neighborhood of his old home: Fannie, married Samuel Jones, a miller of Cedar Knoll ; and Min- nie, became the wife of Elmer Byler, a blacksmith of Honeybrook.
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ISAAC TRIPP, one of the young and progressive farmers of Schuylkill town- ship, and a desendant of one of the oldest families of the United States, is a son of Isaac, sr., and Hannah ( Rogers) Tripp, and was born in Kingston township, Luzerne county, Peunsylvania, December 29, 1866. The immigrant ancestor of the Tripp family came over in the Mayflower, and was one of the Pilgrim band that landed on Plymouth rock in 1620, when the snows of winter hung heavy on the ice bound shores of New England. One of his descendants, Isaac Tripp, came from Connecticut to northeast- ern Pennsylvania, and was one of the ill- fated victims in the " Massacre of Wyoming," which Campbell has immortalized in song. His son, Isaac Tripp, was a Friend, and fol- lowed farming and distilling. He left a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, among whom were Benjamin, Isaac, sr., Ira, Holden, and Catherine Silk- man. Isaac Tripp, sr. (father), was born in 1817, at Providence, now Scranton, this State, and has always followed farming. After being a resident of one of the agri- cultural districts of Luzerne county for many years he removed to near Wilkesharre, the county seat, where he now owns a fine farm of two hundred acres of land. He is a re- publican in polities, and married Hannah, daughter of Nelson Rogers. They have six children, two sons and four daughters : Flora Bronson, Maude Space, Isaac, Edwin, Cath- erine and Bertha.
Isaac Tripp attended the public schools of Luzerne county until he was ten years of age, when he was sent to Nazareth Military academy, where he remained for some time, and then entered the Factoryville academy, at which he completed the required college preparatory course. Leaving school he
chose farming as a life pursuit, and propos- ing to fully qualify himself for the proper transaction of all the business connected with agriculture, he entered Eastman's Busi- ness college of Poughkeepsie, New York, from which he was graduated in 1888. After graduation he came to his present farm near Phoenixville, where he has been engaged in farming and stock-rising up to the present time. His farm is well adapted to grain growing and grazing, and contains ninety acres of land. He is a republican in politics. On June 27, 1889, Mr. Tripp married Nettie Thomas. a daughter of John and Eliza Thomas, of Shamokin, Pennsylvania. To Mr. and Mrs. Tripp have been born two children, a son and a daughter: Helen M. and Isaac, jr. These children are the sev- enth generation in unbroken line, from the original founders of the family in America.
FI RANK W. KEECH, a progressive young business man, and a member of the house furnishing and agricultural im- plement firm of Hunt & Keech, of Down- ingtown, is a son of Milton and Martha (Jones) Keech, and was born in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1868. Ile was reared on his fath- er's farin, received his education in the Union High school of Lancaster, this State, and, after attaining his majority, remained one year at home, where he assisted in the labor of the farm. Having more desire for a busi- ness than an agricultural life, he left the farm when in his twenty-second year and came to Downingtown, where he opened an agricultural implement house, which he con- ducted up to September 23, 1891. On that date he formed a partnership with E. II. Hunt, and established the successful busi- ness house of Hunt & Keech, who conducted
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the business until January 1, 1893, when Mr. Keech purchased his partner's interest, and now controls the entire enterprise. He keeps in stock and handles general house- furnishing goods, agricultural implements and fertilizers, and carries full lines of every article in which he deals, but makes special- ties of hardware, tinware and agricultural implements. His establishment is ou Center square, and he holds constantly in stock large quantities of everything which he sells. Mr. Keech although young in years, and without special training or much expe- rience before coming to Downingtown, has made a success of his business, and has a large and lucrative trade. He is a stanch republican in politics, and has been a church member for several years.
His paternal grandfather, Hannaniah Keech, was a native of Chester county. and spent the latter part of his life on a farm near Bradford Hills, where he died in 1852, aged fifty years. His widow died in 1881, aged eighty-one years. He was a repub- lican, a member of Grove church, and reared a family of four children, three sons and onedaughter: Baldwin, James, Hannah and Milton K. Milton Keech, the third son, and father of Frank W. Keech. was born at Bradford Hills in 1841. In 1870 he went to near Oxford, in Colerain township, Lau- caster county, and six years later removed to Spruce Grove, that county, where he has continued to reside ever since, lle is en- gaged in farming and operating a creamery, and is a man of observation and experience, having traveled extensively in many differ- ent sections of the American Union. He is a republican in politics, and a member of Union church, where he is always to be found in his place at every service. Mr. Keech married Martha Jones, danghter of Frank
Jones, who was a farmer, and republican. and who had seven children : George, Maris, Chess, Benjamin, Martha Keech, Lydia Dar- lington and Mary Whiteside. To Mr. and Mrs. Keech have been born seven children : Sallie, Linda, Eber, Frank W., Walter, a clerk in the office of the Hudson River Rail- road Company : Clifford, and Milton, the latter now deceased. Prof. Clifford Keech, the fourth son, received his education in the Union schools and then entered Pierce's Business college, Philadelphia, from which he was graduated. After graduation he was appointed as a professor in that institution. where he has been engaged in teaching ever since.
A NTOINE BOLMAR, who has been for a number of years in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Phila- delphia, is a son of the distinguished French scholar and educator, Jean Claude Antoine Brunin de Bolmar, and was born at West Chester, Chester county, Pennsylvania, Sep- tember 1, 1842. His boyhood was spent in West Chester, and his education was ob- tained in his father's academy at that place. On December 21, 1865, Mr. Bolmar was united in marriage to Antoinette R. Worth- ington, a daughter of Carver Worthington, of that borough, and to them were born three children, two sons and one daughter : Eugene A., who resides at St. Paul, Minne- sota: Carver Worthington, deceased : and Anne S., who became the wife of Robert Hamill Newlin, of West Chester.
Jean Claude Antoine Brunin de Bolmar, or Anthony Bolivar, as he came to be called at West Chester, was born in 1797, at Bour- bon Laney, a small town in the department of Saone-et-Loire. Lower Burgundy, France. In 1810 he entered the Imperial lyceum of
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Clermont-Ferrand, where he remained until after the downfall of Napoleon I. in 1815, and the following year went to the city of Lyons, where he began learning the silk business as au apprentice with the famous firm of Cordier & Co. There he remained until nearly twenty-one years of age, and as at that time he would have to draw his lot in the class of conseripts for 1819, he quit the silk business and enlisted in the French army, in order to secure the privilege of choosing the regiment with which he would serve. He selected the 6th Hussars, then commanded by Compte de Pernollet, of Lyons, served in the war of 1822 between France and Spain, and after six years in the army, again entered civil life. About 1826 he went to Switzerland, and from there to England and Scotland, and early in 1828 came to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. There he engaged in teach- ing the French language, and in the prepa- ration of text books adapted to that pur- pose, not less than six or eight of which were published and widely used. When the Asiatic cholera made its appearance in Phil- adelphia in 1832, Mr. Bolmar retired to the borough of West Chester to continue his work ou his school books, and was so pleased with the place that he remained a resident ever afterward. In 1834 he was prevailed on to take charge of the West Chester acad- emy, which sprung at once into wide popu- larity, and in 1840 he purchased the elegant building in which Mrs. Almira H. Lincoln's boarding school for young ladies had been conducted, and opened therein a boarding school for young men and boys. This school speedily became one of the most popular and flourishing educational institutions in the State, securing almost a world-wide celebrity and attracting students from many
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