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 70
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C OL. THOMAS BULL, a brave revo- lutionary officer and respected citizen of Warwick township, was born June 9, 1744, and died July 13, 1837. at ninety-
three years of age. He served under Wash- ington, was held a prisoner in the "Jersey Prison Ships," and after the war became the manager of Warwick furnace. He was a member of St. Peter's Episcopal church, and served as a member of the assembly from 1793 to 1801.
Colonel Bull was twice married, and his eldest son, Levi Bull, D. D., was born No- vember 14, 1780. Levi Bull served as a minister of the Episcopal church for over half a century, and was held in the highest estimation by all who knew him. He died Angust 2, 1859.
M AXWELL CLOWER, an active and intelligent eitizen of East Brandy- wine township, and a member of the Bea- ver Mills Company (limited), is a son of Samuel and Evaline (Thompson ) Clower, and was born in East Brandywine town- ship, Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1849. His paternal grandfather, Daniel Clower, was a native of eastern Pennsyl- vania, and passed the larger part of his life as a farmer in Chester county, where he died in 1872, aged ninety-three years. He was a democrat and a Methodist, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812. He mar- ried and reared a family of four sons and four daughters: Louzetta Lightfoot, Sarah Long, Samuel, Elmira Lightfoot, Kerlin, Harriet Bond and James. Samuel Clower (father) was born in 1818, and learned, with his brother John, the trade of millwright, which he followed for a number of years. He then engaged as a machinist with Wil- son & Green, of Wilmington, Delaware, in whose employ he remained for twenty years. At the end of that time he went to Bondsville, where he has remained ever
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
since. While in Delaware he enlisted in the Delaware infantry, and served until the regi- ment was mustered out of the Federal service. IFe is a republican in politics, and a meni- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and married Evaline Thompson. To their union were born three sons and five daughters : Anna ; Sarah ; Clara, who died in childhood ; Henrietta, married James Mullen, and after his death wedded Richard Guie; Maxwell; Clara Lewis; Thompson and Daniel. Mrs. Evaline Clower, who died February 7, 1888, aged seventy-one years, was a woman of more than ordinary intelligence. and always took an active interest in the welfare of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which she was an honored and useful member. She was a descendant of William Penn, and her father, Prof. Thomas Thompson, served as principal of Norristown academy for several terms. He was a native of Montgomery county, married Clara Edwards, and died at the early age of thirty-one years, leaving two chil- dren : Mrs. Evaline Clower, and Thomas.
Maxwell Clower received his education in the public schools of Brandywine Hun- dred and New Castle county, Delaware, and then became an apprentice to the trade of tinsmith, which he did not complete. He afterward (1866) returned to East Brandy- wine township, where he has been engaged ever since in the manufacture of woolen goods for the Beaver Mills Company ( limited). He holds the position of superintendent with his company, and has discharged his duties with alaerity and efficiency.
On July 20, 1870, Mr. Clower was united in marriage with Mary F. Williams, of Har- ford county, Maryland. To their union have been born seven children: John L .; Samuel, who died in infancy; M. Lillian ; Maxwell, jr. : Frank; Gertie, and Edward.
Maxwell Clower is a republican in poli- ties, was township auditor for several terms, has served as a member of the school board for twelve years, and takes an active interest in local political affairs. He was elected presidential elector for the Sixth Peunsyl- vania district. November 8, 1892. He is a member of Brandywine Baptist church : Brandywine Lodge, No. 388, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Wayne Lodge, No. 266, Knights of Pythias, and Windsor Castle. No. 92, Knights of the Golden Eagle.
JOHN OHN YOUNG, a well known citizen of
West Pikeland township, who has been successfully engaged in agricultural pur- suits for over half a century, is a son of John, sr., and Anna M. ( Harmen ) Young, and was born in Schuylkill township, Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1820. He grew to manhood on his father's farm, received a good practical business educa- tion in the old subscription schools, and then engaged in farming, which he has fol- lowed in Charlestown and West Pikeland townships with good success up to the present time. His home farm in West Pikeland township contains seventy-six acres of rich and finely improved land. Adjoining it he owns a sixty-six acre tract on which his son resides, and besides these two good farms he has some valuable wood- land lots. He has passed his life in agri- cultural pursuits, in which he has pros- pered. He is a democrat in politics, and lias held all the more important and most of the minor offices of his township, and was especially popular as a school director, a supervisor, and a tax collector.
On October 6, 1845, Mr. Young married Margaret Wagonseller, and to them were
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
born six children : William, a farmer, who married Abbie Me Williams; John, married Rebecca Moses, and is engaged in farming ; Joseph A., a merchant of Phoenixville, who married Catherine Melon : George, married Annie Bourne, and is a farmer of Newton, Kansas; Ella, wife of J. Wesley Penny- packer, manager of a plumbago mill at Pikeland station ; and Anna, who married Henry Dewees, a farmer of West Vincent township. Mrs. Margaret Young was born October 28, 1819, and is the only living child of William Wagonseller, who was born in 1779, in Montgomery county, and purchased the farm where Mrs. Young re- sides, and on which he died July 22, 1868, when in the ninetieth year of his age. He was a Lutheran, and married Rebecca, daughter of John Neilor, by whom he had five children : James, George, Anna Hol- man, John, and Mrs. Margaret Young. William Wagonseller was a son of John Wagonseller, who came from Germany to near Shannonville, Montgomery county. John Wagonseller was a farmer, a demo- crat, and a Lutheran. He married Mar- garct Honeter, and had eight children : John, Susan Rhinehart, Jacob, Catherine King, Mary Rogers, Peter, William, and Margaret Walters.
John Young is of German descent, and his grandfather, Peter Young, who was a shoemaker by trade, came from Germany to Charlestown township, where he died in 1826, on his farm near Charlestown village. He was a whig, and a member of St. Peter's Reformed church, and married Catherine Snyder, by whom he had seven children : Elizabeth Rickabaugh, George, Peter, John, Catherine Wells, Maria Sloyer, and Bar- bara Sailor. John Young, sr. (father), was the second son, and owned the John Shoff-
ner farm, in Charlestown township, where he died in 1848, aged sixty-eight years. He was a whig, and a member of St. Peter's Reformed church, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812, being stationed at Camp Marcus Hook. He married Anna M. Har- men, who was a daughter of John Harmen. They reared a family of eight children : George, Sarah Auld, John (subject ), Cath- erine Rixstine, Mary Peck, David, Susan Reese, and Elizabeth Rhodes,
G EORGE D. ASHBRIDGE, an old and highly respected citizen of West Chester, who is a representative of an early- settled and prominent family of this sec- tion, several members of which have occu- pied important positions and woven their names with the history of the county, is the only son and sole surviving child of Daniel and Saralı (Davis) Ashbridge. He was born in Goshen (now East Goshen) township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, February 1, 1818, and grew to manhood on his father's farm. His education was ob- tained in the schools of West Chester, and after leaving school he engaged in agricul- ture in his native township, and success- fully followed the occupation of a farmer until 1851, when he removed to West Ches- ter and retired from active business. He has been a resident of the county capital ever since, and is widely known among the people of Chester county. In his political affiliations Mr. Ashbridge was a whig until the organization of the Republican party in Pennsylvania, since which time he has adhered to the latter, strongly supporting its policy during the war, and as firmly be- lieving in the principles of protection and reciprocity which it has advocated since.
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Cuitis H. Hannum.
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
593
The family to which Mr. Ashbridge be- longs is of English-Welsh extraction, and is among the oldest in Pennsylvania, having been planted here as early as 1698, by George Ashbridge, who came from England to Philadelphia in that year, and shortly afterward settled at Edgemont, then Ches- ter, now Delaware county. Here he pur- chased property, and August 23, 1701, at Providence meeting, married Mary Malin, by whom he had a family of ten children : John, George, Jonathan, Mary, Elizabeth, Aaron, Hannah, Phehe, Lydia and Joseph. The mother of these children died February 15, 1728, and George Ashbridge (1) married Mrs. Margaret Paschall January 6, 1730, and died at Chester in 1748. His son, George Ashbridge (2) was born December 19, 1704, elected to the assembly in 1743, and continued to be re-elected each year until his death, which occurred March 6, 1773. He married Jane Hoopes in 1730, and his children were: Mary, George, Wil- liam, Susanna, P'hebe, Jane, Daniel, Joshua and Lydia, In 1732 he came to Goshen township, this county, where his father had purchased a large tract of land. Here he built a house which is still standing. His son, Joshua, was born in that house, Sep- tember 17, 1746, and died there September 4, 1820. He married Mary Davis, Novem- her 4, 1773, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. He was one of the viewers who located the present almshouse of Ches- ter county. His son, Daniel Ashbridge (father), was born in East Goshen town- ship, this county, in 1774, and died here in 1838, in his sixty-fourth year. He was a farmer by occupation, as his ancestors had been, and in' politics adhered to the old whig party nearly all his life. His brother, Thomas Ashbridge, was elected and served
for some time as a member of the State assembly. In 1817 Daniel Ashbridge mar- ried Sarah Davis, a danghter of Amos and Eleanor Davis, of Thornbury, Delaware county, and to their union was born a family of two children, one son and a daughter; George D., the subject of this sketch, and Lydia, who became the wife of John R. Warey, of this county, and died November 27, 1887. Mrs. Sarah (Davis) Ashbridge was born in 1795, and passed peacefully away at her home in this county, August 12, 1872, greatly respected and be- loved by a wide circle of friends.
C URTIS H. HANNUM received his ed- ucation in the public schools of West Goshen, the West Chester academy when J. Hunter Worrall and Engene Paulin were principals, and the law department of Yale university, from which he graduated June 26, 1873, and was on the same day admit- ted in the Superior court at New Haven to practice before the courts of law and chan- cery for the State of Connecticut. The fol- lowing fall he entered the office of the late Judge Futhey and read law until the fall of 1874, and on September 16 of that year was admitted to the bar of Chester county, and later to the bar of Delaware county, and the Supreme court of Pennsylvania. In the month of April, 1884, he quit the practice of the law to escape the confinement of an office, and in 1885 became a stockholder and director in the Edison Electric Illumin- ating Company of West Chester, organized in the early part of that year; is identified with other organizations of the borough, and is a member of Lodge No. 322, Free and Accepted Masons. A republican in politics, he takes pride in the industries und
35
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
material welfare of our country, encouraged and sustained by protection.
John Hannum, with his wife Margery, were settled in Concord township, then in Chester, but now in Delaware county, Penn- sylvania, as early as 1682. John died in the latter part of the year 1730, and Margery in 1742. Their children were : James, who died in 1717; Robert, died February 26, 1759; George: John, married first, Mary Gibbons, second, Jane Neal, and died in Concord, March 25, 1773; Mary, married Thomas Smith ; Elizabeth, married Thomas Broom; Margery, married Anthony Bald- win; Ann, married John Way ; and Sarah, married Jacob Way.
John Hannum, jr., was married August 8, 1741, to his second wife, Jane Neal, by whom he had five children : Margery, mar- ried Joseph Gibbons, jr .; John, married Alice Park, and was the Col. John Hannuni so famous in the local history of the revolu- tion, and of Chester county ; Mary, married Richard Cheyney ; William, born February 1, 1748, married September 29, 1772, to Ruth Evans, daughter of Philip and Eliza- beth Evans, and died August 24, 1816; and James, married three times, died September 28, 1809. William and Ruth Hannum had eleven children : Elizabeth, born August 8, 1773, married Samuel Grubb, and died July 2, 1860; John, born November 15, 1777, died June 15, 1777; William, born April 5, 1776, died January 13, 1852, married first Elizabeth Dutton, and second, Lydia T. Swymelar; Samuel, born October 6, 1777, died April 14, 1845, married Susannah Pen- nell; John, born June 28, 1779, died No- vember 22, 1848; Jane, born May 20, 1781, died May 1, 1864; Joseph, born November 8, 1782, died September 15, 1859, married Ann Fairlamb; Evan P., born July 30, 1784,
died July 16, 1862, married Elizabeth Y. Gibbons; Philip E., born June 13, 1786, died November 15, 1790; Aaron, born May 13, 1788, died March 30, 1868, married first, Sarah Mercer, and second, Eliza New- lin ; Norris, born March 11, 1790, died May 16, 1847, married Sarah H. Young.
Samuel Hannum and Susannah Pennell were married in 1798, she being the dangh- ter of Joseph and Sarah Pennell, and at the time of her marriage the widow of William Cloud. They had eight children: Mary Ann, born February 25, 1799, died April 4, 1882, married Isaac . M. Trimble; Joseph Pennell, born March 29, 1801, died Septem- ber 6, 1860, married Esther P. Dutton ; Edwin, born September 17, 1803, died April 10, 1874, married Maria Miller; Robert Evans, born December 10, 1805, married Georgianna Maria Bartram; Eliza, born December 17, 1808, died March 7, 1879; Ruth, born January 5, 1810, died July 26, 1885, married John D. Pierce ; Susannah, born September 7, 1812, died July 29, 1844; Samuel, born December 12, 1814, died Sep- tember 8, 1892, married Lavina R. Hoopes, danghter of Curtis Hoopes and Sarah (Rob- erts) Hoopes, September 27, 1848.
Samuel and Lavina R. Hannum had two children born to them : Curtis Hoopes Han- num, born June 16, 1850, who married Mary Elizabeth Hughes, daughter of Jack- son and Lydia Ann Hughes, of West Ches- ter, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1879; and Arabella, born July 28, 1860, died Septem- ber 23, 1860.
Curtis Hoopes Hannum and Mary his wife, have two children : Caroline H., born August 4, 1880; Robert Ellis, born June 19, 1886.
In 1686 John Hannum purchased of Jeremiah Collett a farm of about two hun-
595
OF CHESTER COUNTY.
dred aeres in the township of Concord, and on or near this property were born all his descendants in the line to and including Curtis Hoopes Hannum, whose father, Sam- nel Hannum, having purchased a large farm in West Goshen township in 1853, moved there in the spring of that year; here for several years he lived, serving the people as school director, and being often sent by his republican neighbors to represent them in their party convention. In the spring of 1873 he moved with his family to West Chester, where showing a deep interest in the welfare and progress of the town, he was first elected in February, 1875, a mem- ber of council, and returned for seven con- seeutive terms, enjoying the confidence and respect of the community until the day of his death.
T THOMAS W. STEM, a well known teacher of North Coventry township prior to the late civil war, and an intelligent and useful citizen of Chester county, was a son of John and Elizabeth (Bun) Stem, and was born on December 3, 1824, in Nantmeal township, near the village of Nantmeal, Chester county, Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Stem, was of German lineage, and first saw the light of day in Nantmeal township, where he was reared and passed his life as a farmer. He mar- ried and reared a family, and of the sons born to him one was John Stem, the father of the subject of this sketeh. Late in life (1840) John Stem removed to Cedarville, in North Coventry township, and afterward went to Iowa, where he died. He married Elizabeth Bun, and to them were born eleven children : Elizabeth, married Samuel Gong- ler and is dead ; Mary ; Caroline, widow of Jacob Sisler, of Manyunk. Philadelphia :
Thomas W .; Rachel, wife of Albert Long- aker, a contraeter and builder of Norris- town, this State ; Emma, who married Dan- iel Getty. a farmer, of near Norristown; Jacob, who went to Missouri and died there ; Amanda, wife of Davies Valentine, a farmer, of Iowa: Louisa, who married Dr. W. A. Chandler, of Philadelphia ; Adaline, wife of James De Hart, of Germantown, Philadel- phia ; Jane and James, who died in infancy.
Thomas W. Stem was reared on the farm, and attended the schools of his neighbor- hood, after which, at an early age, he learned the trade of carpenter, and worked for a few years at carpentering and farming. He then entered Jonathan Ganze's school, of West Chester, and after taking a thorough course, was engaged in teaching for fourteen years. At the end of that time, in 1850, he purchased a farm of thirty-three aeres in North Coventry township, on which he re- sided until his death. He added ten aeres to his farm by purchase, and was known as a very industrious man and an intelligent citizen. He was a member of the German Baptist church, and in political matters aeted with the Republican party until about 1890, when he became an ardent and radi- cal prohibitionist.
At the end of a busy and useful life Thomas W. Stem passed away on March 20, 1892, when in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His remains were entombed in East Coven- try Menonite cemetery, and he left a vacant place in his community that was hard to fill.
On September 24, 1850, Mr. Stem mar- ried Elizabeth Harley, a daughter of Jacob Harley, of East Coventry, who survives him. They had two children, a son and a daughter : Katie, born November 28, 1853, and Nathan, born November 28, 1858.
Nathan Stem, only son of Thomas W.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
and Elizabeth (Harley) Stem, was reared on the farm, received a good English education, and then engaged in farming, which he has followed successfully ever since. He is a republican in politics, and a member of the German Baptist church. On January 30, 1890, he was united in marriage with Emma Reifsnyder, and their nnion has been blessed with one child, a daughter named Helen, who was born March 11, 1892.
ILLIAM P. TOWNSEND, one of
the organizers and the first presi- dent of the Penn Mutual Fire Insurance Company, is a gentleman of wide business experience, and has also been connected to some extent with literature. He is the eldest son of John W. and Sibbilla Kirk (Price ) Townsend, and was born August 5, 1813, in the house, corner of Gay and Church street, West Chester, where La- fayette slept on one occasion. The Town- sends are of English Quaker ancestry, the family having been planted in America by Joseph Townsend, who was born Novem- ber 18, 1684, and came over from Berk- shire, England, previous to 1711, and pur- chased a tract of eight hundred acres of land adjoining the present borough of West Chester, where he devoted the remainder of his life to agricultural pursuits and died at an advanced age. His son, John Townsend (great-grandfather), was born December 2, 1716, and reared here, and in 1746 erected the house which is still standing. He also was a farmer and married Joanna Eng- land and reared a large family, among whom was William Townsend (grandfather), who, after reaching manhood, purchased the square extending from High street to Wal-
nut, along Gay, for the sum of $1,425, one of the most valuable squares in the borough. He married Grace Loller and reared a family of four children, one of his sons being John W. Townsend (father), who was born on the old homestead adjoining West Chester, March 22, 1782. He received a good education, and upon completing his studies accepted a position as clerk in a book store in the city of Philadelphia. At about the time of his marriage, October 22, 1812, he embarked in the general mercantile business at the corner of Gay and High streets, West Chester, and devoted the remainder of his life to that enterprise. Some time previous to his death, which occurred March 2, 1874, he retired from the active duties of his long business career, and spent his closing years in quiet and comfort at his home in West Chester. In politics he was first a federalist and then a whig and republican. He served as postmaster at West Chester from 1813 to 1830, and was honored and esteemed for his many virtues and fine traits of character. In religion he was a Quaker. In 1812 he married Sibbilla Kirk Price, a daughter of Philip and Rachel Price, and by this union had seven children : William P., the subject of this sketch ; Anna M., married Dr. George Thomas, who died in 1887, and she now lives on the old homestead in West White- land township, this county ; Rachel P., now the widow of J. Lacy Darlington, lives in New York city ; Charles M., died in infancy ; Henry C., a prominent lawyer of Philadel- phia, who is a man of more than ordinary ability, and the author of a life of Thomas Buchanan Read and numerous published addresses and other literary work; Edward G., who died in 1891, was for many years president of the Cambria Iron Company, and greatly beloved by all who knew him,
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
being widely known for his charitable dis- position and kindness to the poor ; and Philip P., now deceased, who did honorable ser- vice in the civil war. The mother of these children, Mrs. Sibbilla Kirk Townsend, died in 1853, aged sixty-three years. Her father, Philip Price, was born January 8, 1764, and died in 1837. He was descended from the early immigrant of the same name, who set- tled in Philadelphia county in the carly part of the last century.
William P. Townsend was educated in the common schools of West Chester, where he spent his hoyhood days. After reaching man's estate he embarked in general mer- chandising, succeeding his father in the store on Gay street, and continued in busi- ness for a period of nineteen years, when failing health compelled him to relinquish that enterprise. He then purchased the farm now owned by Samuel R. Shipley, and in 1857 erected the house which Mr. Ship- ley uses as a summer residence. There Mr. Townsend lived until 1864, when he re- moved to the borough of West Chester, which
· has ever since been his place of residence. In 1864 he was one of the promoters of the Penn Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Chester county, and upon its organization was elected president of the company, and held that position for a number of years. when he resigned.
In his domestic life Mr. Townsend has been very fortunate and correspondingly happy. On November 21, 1855, he was wedded to Anna Mary Kirk, a daughter of Samuel R. Kirk, of East Whiteland township, who has proved to be an ideal helpmeet, taking an active interest in all his plans and pursuits. and being his untiring colaborer in many enterprises. She was a pupil at Westtown boarding school, and she and Mr. Townsend
have long been members of the management committee of that institution. Both have likewise worked together in literature, among their productions being a compila- tion known as " Piety Promoted ; a collec- tion of the dying sayings of many of the people called Quakers," published by the Society of Friends. In politics Mr. Town- send is now a prohibitionist, though for many years a republican. In religion he and his wife are the strictest kind of Quak- ers, both being life-long members of the Society of Friends.
The father of Mrs. Townsend, Samuel R. Kirk, was born June 6, 1788, on the Kirk homestead in East Nantmeal township, this county, where he spent most of his life en- gaged in agricultural pursuits. In later life he purchased a farm at Kirkland station, on the Frazer branch of the Pennsylvania rail- road, and resided there for a number of years, but removed to West Chester a short time before his death, which oceurred May 7, 1877. Hle was a descendant of Alphonso Kirk, who came from the north of Ireland in 1682, and settled on Brandywine creek, in the State of Delaware, where he married Abigail Sharpley. Later he came to Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, and settled in West Nantmeal township. He had a son named William Kirk (great-grandfather of Mrs. Townsend ), who purchased from the Pens a large farm in the same township, which farm became the homestead of the family for several generations. There Isaiah Kirk (grandfather) was born and lived all his life. He married Elizabeth Richards, of Philadelphia, and had a family of six chil- dren, among whom was William Kirk, who secured a fine education and became known as a man of more than ordinary ability, and Samuel R., the father of Mrs. Townsend.
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