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 72
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In 1856 Mr. Kauffman married Hannah M. Evans, who was a danghter of Thomas B. and Jane Evans, and died in 1869, leav- ing one child, Rena, who is now engaged in teaching in Delaware county. On July 2, 1876, Mr. Kauffman wedded Mary R. Beuu- mont, daughter of Emmor and Susan Beau-
mont, and to this second union have been born three children: Frank, who died in childhood; Bessie, and H. Allen.
M ALACHI HARRIS, an energetic and prosperous farmer of Willistown town- ship, is a son of John and Hannah (Hoskins) Ilarris, and was born January 28, 1830, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. ITis pa- ternal grandfather, Col. John Harris, was a native of Chester Valley, this county, and made his home in that immediate neigh- borhood all his life. He was engaged in farming. In politics he upheld democratic principles, while in religion he was a de- voted member of the Great Valley Presby- terian church for nearly half a century, serving as an clder for a portion of the time. He was a colonel in the revolutionary war, and was at Valley Forge during the winter that sueli terrible suffering was experienced there. He was married to a Miss Bowen. To them were born six children, three sons and three daughters: John, Thomas, Mal- achi, Esther, Martha and Mary. Jolmn (father) was born in Willistown township. He died in East Whiteland township about 1837. Like his father he followed farming. At one time he studied for the ministry, but was never licensed to preach. He married Hannah Hoskins, and to them were born five children: John, who lives in Kent county, Maryland, is a large farmer and fruit grower: Theresa (deceased) : Martha (also dead) ; Malachi, and Bowen, now dead.
Malachi Harris received his education in the common schools of his native township. He commenced his chosen ocenpation of farming in Willistown township, and has been continuously engaged therein in the same locality. He owns a fine farm of
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thirty-five acres, which lies within the bor- ough limits of Malvern, and deals to some extent in hay.
On November 6, 1851, Mr. Harris was united in marriage with Elizabeth G. Me- Cluen, a daughter of John McCluen, of West Whiteland township.
In politics Mr. Harris is a strong demo- crat, and is a member of the Willistown Baptist church at Malvern, having been on the board of trustees for thirty years. He is an industrious farmer and a useful citizen in the community in which he resides.
ADAM A. CATANACH, a highly re- spected citizen of Devault, and a dealer in lime, coal and building material in Phil- adelphia, is a son of Archibald and Margaret (Notman) Catanach, and was born in the city of Philadelphia, July 23, 1836. His paternal granfather, Adamı Catanach, jr., was a son of Adam Catanach, who was a na- tive of the highlands of Scotland, where he lived and died. During his life time he en- gaged in agricultural pursuits near the cap- ital city, Edinburgh. He was married to Janet Duncan, and had a family of six chil- dren, of whom Alexander, who died in Mex- ico, and Archibald (father) came to America. Archibald Catanach was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1808. He received his edu- cation in the schools of his native city. In 1828 he emigrated to America and located at Philadelphia, where he died in 1872. He made his home there, with the exception of ten years which he spent in the west. His vocation was that of carpentering and build- ing. Politically he was a republican. His religious preference was the Presbyterian church. He was united in marriage with Margaret Notman, a daughter of David Not-
man, who was a native of Scotland. To Mr. and Mrs. Catanach were born seven children : Mary ; Janet, who married Thomas Turnball, present secretary of the famous Hartford Fire Insurance Company, and re- sides in the city of Hartford : Adam ; Agnes. married and lives in Glasgow, Scotland : John, who lives a retired life in the city of Philadelphia, having served in the Penn- sylvania reserves three years during the late civil war, and again re-enlisted and served until the close of that struggle; David, who also served during most of the war, and is now engaged in the real estate business in Philadelphia ; and James, special agent of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company.
Adam A. Catanach received his education in the grammar schools of Philadelphia, and then learned the trade of a carpenter, and, after serving for a while, entered into a larger and more profitable business-that of a contractor and. builder, which he car- ried on extensively for eighteen years in and around Philadelphia.
On November 29, 1859, Mr. Catanach was united in marriage with Margaret Carrick, a daughter of John Carrick, of Philadelphia. To Mr. and Mrs. Catanach have been born seven children : John, who is engaged with his father in business; Archie, married to Clara Wersler, and is also engaged with his father : Adam A., married Pauline Werner, and is the superintendent of his father's yards in Philadelphia; Notman; Madge; Mary, and Jessie. In 1882 Mr. Catanach commenced his present business, that of lime burning, in East Whiteland township. He is a director and treasurer of a company known as the Pennsylvania Lime & Fluxion Stone Company. This company has a quarry of twenty-nine acres and employs thirty men. Mr. Catanach does an extensive busi-
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ness in Philadelphia, handling eoal, lime and building material. In polities he is staneh republican, and has served as a councilman and port warden of that city. He is a men- ber of Philadelphia Lodge, No. 82, Free and Accepted Masons; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 3, Royal Arch Masons; and Philadel- phia Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar. He is a man of influence in his community, and enjoys the respect and good will of all who know him and have business relations with him.
WILLIAM W. COLKET, president of
the Chestnut Hill Railroad Company, by the influence which he has had upon the railway interests of his seetion, his energy and dilligence, and his marked individuality and business success, has made himself one of the leading men of his county. He is a son of Coffin and Mary P. (Walker) Colket, and was born November 11, 1841, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He re- ceived his education at Elmwood institute and Haverford college, and then took a special conrse at Lawrenceville High school. Leaving school his ambition led him toward railway business, for which he seemed nat- nrally fitted. In 1857 he became superin- tendent's elerk and general ticket agent for the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad Company, which position he held until 1861, when he became secretary and treasurer of the Philadelphia City Passen- ger Railway Company, and had the general management of that enterprise.
William W. Colket was united in mar- riage with Jane F., daughter of Solomon and Eunice G. Hoxsie, of the city of Phila- delphia, and to them have been born eight children, seven sons and one daughter: S. Hoxsie, who died in boyhood : Mary E.,
who passed away in infancy; William C., now dead; Herbert, also deceased ; Edward Burton, James Hamilton, Meredith Bright and Percy Currie.
On his paternal side Mr. Colket traces his ancestry to northern New England, where his grandfather, Peter Colket, was born in 1758, in New Hampshire, where he died in 1836. He was a ship-builder, and carried on ship building extensively in the harbors of Maine and New Hampshire. He married and had three children, one son and two daughters; Coffin, Priscilla and Mary. Cof- fin Colket (father) was born at Epping, New Hampshire, in 1809. At an early age he turned his attention and his energy to rail- road building, in which he was actively en- gaged for many years. He came to Phila- delphia, became a large contractor on the old Columbia railroad, and was largely in- strumental in seenring the construction of the Chester Valley railroad. He was prom- inently identified with the building of sev- eral of the early railways in southeastern Pennsylvania. He lived and labored in a season not only of railroad speculation and excitement, but one of useful experience and practical results; and the later flinging of iron pathways over the mountains, and across the continent, was possibly largely and successful really from the experience gleaned in that important decade of early railway building in which Mr. Colket was so remarkably active in Chestercounty. 1Ie was a republican in polities, and died April 5, 1883, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He married Mary P. Walker, and to their union were born four sons and five daughters : Sarah, died in infancy : William W .; George II .: Mary J. Audeuried ; Anna Dehaven; Harry C .; Ida French; Emma, who died young : and Charles. Mrs. Coffin
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Colket was a daughter of William and Sarah Walker, and was born in 1820. On his maternal side William W. Colket is a descendant of Lewis Walker, of Monmouth- shire, Wales, who in 1687 came to Philadel- phia, where on February 22, 1693, he mar- ried Mary Morris, who came on the same ship with him. They afterward settled in Tredyffrin township, where he died Decem- ber 20, 1728, and his widow passed away twenty years later.
In addition to being president of the Chestnut Hill Railroad Company, William W. Colket is president of the Philadelphia City Passenger Railroad Company, and sec- retary of the Philadelphia & Darby Rail- way Company. He owns a fine farm, and makes a specialty of raising blooded stock. He is a republican in politics, and never loses interest in the great political issues of the day. President Colket is essentially a man of action, and has never been fettered by the prejudices that have injured the career of so many able business men. His trained business judgment and quick perception give him successful mastery over all the different situations that naturally arise in the management of a great railway system.
DR. JUSTIN E. HARLAN, D. D. S.,
a rising young dentist of West Chester, is a graduate of the university of Pennsylva- nia and has been in practice here since 1884, where he has won a deservedly proud stand- ing in his profession, and is also a represen- tative of one of the Commonwealth's oldest and most highly respected families. He is the second of the three sons of Hon. Abram D. and Lizzie B. (Scott) Harlan, and a native of Coatesville, this county, where he was born September 27, 1860. There he grew
to manhood, receiving a good English edn- cation in the public and private schools of that borough, after which he entered the university of Pennsylvania, and was grad- uated from the dental department of that institution in 1881, with the degree of D. D. S. He immediately opened a dental office in the city of Philadelphia, where he remained in practice for a period of three years, and then removed to West Chester, this county, where he has ever since resided and given his unremitting attention to the dnties connected with his profession, having built up a fine practice. In his political convictions Dr. Harlan is a pronounced re- publican, giving his party a loyal support on all leading questions.
On January 8, 1885, Dr. Harlan was wedded to Martie E. Sample, a daughter of M. R. Sample, of Glen Moore, this county, and to the Doctor and Mrs. Harlan has been given one child, a daughter, named Chris- tine S., who was born October 9, 1885.
The Harlan family ranks among the old- est in Pennsylvania, and traces its transat- lantic ancestry back to the Harlans of Monk- wearmouth, England, from whence came George Harlan, a son of James Harlan, with his wife, Elizabeth, and four children- Ezekiel, Hannah, Moses and Aaron-some time between 1685 and 1688, and settled first in New Castle county, near where Centreville now stands, but in later life re- moved farther up the Brandywine and pur- chased four hundred and seventy acres of land in Kennett (now Pennsbury) township. In addition to the four who came with him, five other children were born to George Harlan in his Pennsylvania home : Rebekah, Deborah, James, Elizabeth and Joshua. While living in Kennett township he had for neighbors a settlement of Indians, and
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
after they left, in 1701, he obtained a grant of two hundred acres additional land, to compensate him for "the great trouble and charge he has bore in fencing and maintain- ing the same for the Indians while living thereon," as the records have it. He died in 1714, and was buried by the side of his wife at Centre meeting house. His eldest son, Ezekiel Harlan, was born in England, July 16, 1679, married first Mary Bezer and afterward Ruth Buffington. He was an en- terprising citizen and a land speculator. His children were : William, Ezekiel, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Ruth and Benjamin.
Ezekiel llarlan (grandfather) married Hannah M. Bullo, by whom he had a family of children. He was a farmer, and resided most of his life in West Marlborough town- ship. One of his sons was Hon. Abram Douglas Harlan (father), who was born in that township, September 3, 1833, and when eleven years of age removed with his par- ents to Coatesville. Ile was educated in the public and private schools of this county, learned the business of a merchant, became a dealer in real estate, and in the early spring of 1862 entered the employ of the Christian commission, and did good service in earing for the siek and wounded soldiers at Fort- ress Monroe, Harrison Landing, Washington and Antietam. In October of that year, urged by a sense of duty, he entered the army as a private soldier in an independent company of cavalry, and later became first lieutenant of a company connected with the 157th Pennsylvania infantry, which organ- ization he afterward served as regimental quartermaster. Politically he is an ardent republican, and has been frequently honored by appointment and election to official posi- tion. He was transeribing elerk of the Pennsylvania house of representatives dur- 36
ing the sessionsof 1864, and message clerk of the same body in 1865, 1866 and 1867. In 1872 he represented Chester county in the Republican State convention, and was one of the assistant clerks of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1872-73. He served under Hon. A. P. Tntton, supervisor of internal revenue, as a special clerk for nearly two years, and when that gentleman was appointed collector of customs of the port of Philadelphia, he gave Mr. Harlan the responsible position of assistant cashier, a position to which he was re-appointed under General Hartranft. He was elected Stato senator to fill the unexpired term of Senator Everhart, March 31, 1883, re-elected to the State senate in 1884, and in Noveni- ber, 1888, again elected for a term of four years. He is at present United States mar- shal for the eastern district. In 1873 he edited and published a small volume enti- tled "Constitutional Convention of Pennsyl- vania, 1872 and 1873, its Members and Offi- cers." He has served as school director at Coatesville for twenty years, and been iden- tified with all the educational and material interests of that borough. He was the first to suggest the introduction of gas, and in 1868 secured a charter for the Coatesville Gas Company, and originated and organized the Coatesville Building association. It was he who conceived the idea of the Fairview cemetery, and was instrumental in obtaining the charter and organizing the company. While dealing in real estate in that boroughi he was largely interested and very active in laying out additional town lots, erecting houses and opening, grading and paving new streets. Since his eighteenth year he has been a member of the Presbyterian church, in which he has served as Sundny school superintendent, trustee, treasurer and
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ruling elder. He represented the Presby- tery of Chester in the Presbyterian General assembly of 1880. On New Year's day, 1857, Hon. A. D. Harlan was united in mar- riage to Lizzie B. Scott, a daughter of Sam- uel W. and Jane B. Scott, of Coatesville. By this union he had a family of three chil- dren, all sons: Walter L., died in infancy ; Justin E., whose name heads this sketch; and Wallace Scott, who was graduated from Lafayette college in 1882, studied law, and is now practicing his profession at Coates- ville. The mother, Mrs. Lizzie B. Harlan, died at her home in Coatesville, November 18, 1883, sincerely mourned by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
GEOR EORGE W. RAPP, who has been engaged in the milling business for over a quarter of a century, is the senior member of the enterprising firm of G. W. Rapp & Sons, proprietors of the Snyder flonring mills, of East Pikeland township. He is a son of Joseph II. and Margaret (Supplee) Rapp, and was born on the present site of Phoenixville, Schuylkill township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 31, 1837. His paternal grandfather, Barney Rapp, was born near Valley Forge, in Schuylkill town- ship, and followed his trade of blacksmith in connection with farming, and was a well- to-do man for his day. He married and reared a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters : Barney, John, Joseph II., Hannah Bane, Esther, Rachel Boyer and Benjamin, the latter now eighty-five years of age, and the only one of the family liv- ing. George H. Rapp (father) was born in January, 1801, and died in March, 1883, aged eighty-two years. He was a coach- maker by trade, and followed coachmaking
successively at Phoenixville and Kimberton, and then near the former place. He worked most actively at his trade during the early part of his life. He was an old-line whig in political opinion, and a consistent mem- her of Phoenix Baptist church, in which he had served as a deacon for many years be- fore his death. Ile married Margaret Sup- plee, a daughter of Peter and Hannah (Easton) Supplee. Mr. and Mrs. Rapp were the parents of six children, five sons and one daughter : B. F., Joseph E., George W., Silas S., Peter, and Eliza J. Townsend, now dead.
George W. Rapp, after receiving a good English education, left home and learned the trade of miller with Benjamin Prizer. He then worked at milling in various places until 1867, when he. rented the Thomas Snyder mill for twelve years, and at the end of that time, in 1879, he purchased the mill and the farm on which it stood. He immediately refitted and enlarged the mill. and has since remodeled it at a cost of about seven thousand dollars. The mill is sit- nated on French creek, and has excel- lent water power. It is four stories high, forty, by fifty-five feet in dimensions, and fully equipped throughout with first- class machinery. The capacity of the mill is fifty barrels per day. He uses the roller process, and is a wholesale and retail dealer in and a manufacturer of roller flour and all kinds of feed. He has a large amount of custom, runs a flour wagon to Spring City and Phoenixville, and ships constantly to Philadelphia, where his brands are well known and in good demand. His farm con- tains seventy-five acres of fertile and well- watered land, which is productive. He has erected on it two fine brick residences, which are occupied by his sons, Joseph P. and U.
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OF CHESTER COUNTY.
S. Grant. Adjoining his mill he has built a wheelwright shop, which has a water motor, whose base of supply is French creek, which passes through his farm.
On December 28, 1862, Mr. Rapp married Andora Yeager, daughter of Peter Yeager, of East Pikeland. To their union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter: Joseph P., U. S. Grant and Anna Margaretta. Joseph P. Rapp married Mary, daughter of John Brower, of Pottstown, Montgomery county, is a miller by trade, and has been for some time a member of the milling firm of G. W. Rapp & Sons. U. S. Grant Rapp married Mary Detwiler, and is also a member of the above named milling firm. Anna Margaretta Rapp married Irvin Moyer, a farmer of East Vineent township.
G. W. Rapp is a republican in politics. He is a man of great business ability and enterprise, and has made such valuable im- provements on his farm as to make it one of the most desirable properties in the town- ship. He is regarded as one of the fore- most citizens of his community.
C APT. JAMES C. BROOKS, a man of
fine business ability and the president of the Southwort Foundry and Machine Company of Philadelphia, is recognized as an example of what a man can accomplish who relies upon his own energy and persist- ent labor for success. He is a son of James and Phæbe ( Paxson) Brooks, and was born in New Albany, Indiana, March 26, 1843. The Brooks family is of English lineage and is one of the oldest families of the State of Maine and northern New England. William Brooks, the paternal grandfather of Captain Brooks, was a native of Maine and n ship builder by occupation. In early life he re-
moved to Ohio, where he died at Cincinnati. His son, Capt. James Brooks (father), was born in Bangor, Maine, and removed, when a boy, with his parents, from the Pine Tree State to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained until he attained his majority. He then went to New Albany and engaged in the wholesale hardware business, which he fol- lowed for many years at that place, where he died in 1867, aged fifty-seven years. During the late war he was appointed by Secretary Stanton to purchase and fit up a ram fleet and to organize a marine brigade for service on the waters of the Mississippi river. He moved with rapidity in the mat- ter and in a short time a very fine fleet was moving down the Father of Waters. He was a remarkably successful business man, and one of the largest enterprises in which he ever engaged was the building of the New Albany & Salem railroad, of which he was president for many years. This road is now known as the Lonisville, New Albany & Chicago railroad, being an important link in the railways of the North Central States. Mr. Brooks was a republican in politics, and a member and ruling elder of the Presbyte- rian church, and married Phœbe Paxson, a native of the city of Philadelphia, and a member of the Presbyterian church, who died at West Chester in January. 1892. when in the eighty-first year of her age.
James C. Brooks was reared in his native city until he was fourteen years of age, when he entered an academic school in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from which he was graduated just before the commence- ment of the late war. In 1863 he enlisted in the United States commissary department in the west, with the rank of captain, and was assigned to duty in the marine brigade on the Mississippi river. He took part in
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several encounters, and was at the siege and capture of Vicksburg. He returned home after the war closed, and in the latter part of 1865 went to New York city, where he was engaged in the wool business for three years. At the end of that time, in 1868, he removed to Philadelphia, where he was connected for nearly twenty years with the heavy machinery manufacturing firm of William Sellers & Company, of which he was a partner during the larger part of the time. In 1886 Captain Brooks retired from the firm, but eight months later, upon pressing solicitation, accepted his present position of president of the Southwort Foundry and Machine Company, of Phila- delphia. He is now serving as a member of the executive council of the board of trade of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Man- ufacturing and Mutual Insurance companies, and as a trustee of the Williamson free school of mechanical trades.
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On Jannary 25, 1872, Mr. Brooks was united in marriage with Mary C., a daughter of James and Hannah Murtagh, of West Chester. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have two children, a son and a daughter : Massey and Fannie A.
Captain Brooks is a republican in politics, and has been for many years a regular at- tendant of the Protestant Episcopal church. He is a member of the Pennsylvania His- torical society of Philadelphia, and the Union League and the Mannfacturing clubs of the same city. He is a pleasant and courteous gentleman, and owns a beautiful home on the corner of Church street and Virginia avenue, where he resides during the summer, while he spends the winter in Philadelphia. Mr. Brooks has been inter- ested in many business enterprises of the leading eastern cities during the last twenty
years, and has often made his influence and capital felt for the material improvement of the places where he does business, in meas- ures with which he has not been personally connected. His name, however, is most closely identified with and best known in re- gard to the manufacturing interests of Phil- adelphia than with any other city of the United States in which he has been inter- ested in business enterprises. James C. Brooks is a man of clear and vigorous in- tellect. He is energetic, resolute and mas- terful in the prosecution of his enterprises. He possesses to a high degree those charac- teristics which inspire confidence in all with whom he comes in contact, and gives the assurance of success ere it is won. Like every American citizen who has risen to. distinction, he has achieved success by earn- est and persistent effort.
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