USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 45
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cember 19, 1842, at an advanced age. He married Mary Kelso, of Scotch- Irish ancestry, of a family that first settled in Warrington township, Bucks county, about 1730, and a quarter century later migrated to the west bank 01 the Susquehanna.
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON CASSATT was born in Pittsburgh, December 8, 1839. He received his primary education in his native city, and on the removal of the family to Philadelphia he went abroad and studied in the University of Heidel- berg, and other European institutions of learning, and on his return to America, having chosen the career of a civil engineer, he entered the Rensselaer Poly- technic College at Troy, New York, from which he graduated in 1859. Mr. Cassatt began his professional career, soon after his graduation, on a railroad line in Georgia, but resigned before the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861 he was appointed a rodman on the Philadelphia division of the Pennsylvania railroad, and settled in Philadelphia. In 1863 he was made assistant engineer of a line connecting the Pennsylvania with the Philadelphia and Trenton rail- road, and in 1864 became resident engineer of the Philadelphia and Erie rail- road, with headquarters at Renovo, Pennsylvania. His proficiency and energy in the discharge of his duties attracted the attention of President Scott, and he was successively appointed manager of the Warren and Franklin railroad, the Pennsylvania's connection between the oil regions and the seaboard lines ; assistant general superintendent of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad; and sup- erintendent of motive power and machinery on the same road, and finally, on November, 1867, superintendent of motive power on the main line of the Penn- sylvania railroad. In 1870 he was made general superintendent of the Penn- sylvania railroad, and in 1871 manager of all the Pennsylvania railroad lines, and again located in Philadelphia.
As manager of the extensive lines of the Pennsylvania railroad, Mr. Cassatt established a reputation for executive and administrative ability, and was largely instrumental in the successful moulding of the lines into one perfect system, and the betterment of the service on its main lines. He was made third vice- president of the company, July 1, 1874, and first vice-president in 1880. He resigned, September 30, 1882, and spent a year in European travel. He was elected a director of the Pennsylvania railroad, September 12, 1883, but for the next fifteen years took little part in the administration of the great road he had helped materially to raise to the commanding position it then occupied. He became president of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk railroad in 1885, and in 1891 president of the commission for building an inter-continental railroad connecting North and South America. He was also one of the board of vis- itors of West Point Military Academy for several years prior to his death, December 28, 1906. In 1899 Mr. Cassatt was elected president of the Penn- sylvania railroad and again bent all his energies to an enlargement of the scope of that great system. He conceived the building of a terminus on Manhattan Island, to be reached by tunnels under the North river, and a connection with the New England system of railroads, and, while this great project was not accomplished in his lifetime it was carried to successful completion by his com- petent assistant and friend, Samuel Rea, on plans suggested by Mr. Cassatt.
Alexander Johnson Cassatt married, at Trinity Church, Oxford, Philadelphia, in 1868, Maria Lois, daughter of Edward Y. and Eliza (Foster) Buchanan, and
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a niece of James Buchanan, fifteenth president of the United States. They had four children : Edward Buchanan, married Emily Phillips; Katharine Kelso, married Dr. James P. Hutchinson, and died April II, 1905; Robert Kelso, the subject of this sketch; Eliza Foster, married William P. Steward, of Baltimore, Maryland.
ROBERT KELSO CASSATT was born in Haverford, Montgomery county, Penn- sylvania, September 28, 1873. He graduated at Harvard University in 1895, and has since been engaged in the coal business in Philadelphia as Eastern manager of the Keystone Coke & Coal Company, miners and shippers of bituminous and gas coal and coke, and as a member of the banking house of Cassatt and Company. He is also a director of the Commercial Trust Company. Mr. Cassatt is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolu- tion, and of various social clubs and organizations of Philadelphia and New York.
He married, January 22, 1900, Minnie, daughter of the late John R. Fell, of Camp Hill, of an old Bucks county family, and his wife, Sarah (Drexel) Fell, now Mrs. Alexander Van Rensselaer. Children: Alexander Johnston Cassatt, born in 1904; Anthony Drexel Cassatt, born in 1906.
SPENCER KENNARD MULFORD
The first members of the Mulford family in America, John and William Mul- ford, emigrated from Berkshire, England, in 1645, to Salem, Massachusetts. Both of them Quakers, they settled in 1649 in what is now East Hampton, Long . Island, where John Mulford purchased land of the Indians, and where his home, a typical Long Island farmhouse, is still in a fair state of preservation. After a return to England, where he was occupied for several years in settling one of the family estates, he was commissioned a justice of the courts, and filled that position until his death in 1686. His son, John Mulford, born in 1650 at East Hampton, removed to Salem county, New Jersey, where several of William's sons had already settled. From this point the subject of the sketch is descended through three other John Mulfords, of whom there is little data. His great- grandparents were John and Sarah Mulford, of Salem county, New Jersey. Two of this John Mulford's brothers had commissions in the New Jersey troops during the Revolution. His grandfather, John Mulford, Jr., eldest son of John and Sarah Mulford, was born in Salem county, New Jersey, March 26, 1800, and married, August 12, 1823, Maria Conover, daughter of Dr. David and Deborah (Reading) Bertron, of Readington, located on the banks of the Raritan. Deborah (Reading) Bertron was a daughter of Captain Thomas Reading, one of the most prominent men in New Jersey during the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Captain Thomas Reading was born in Hunterdon county. He was chosen by the Continental Congress for the captaincy of the Sixth Company of the Third New Jersey Foot, and served in northern New York and Canada. He was afterward Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and the largest landholder in Hunterdon county, having inherited much property from his father, John Reading, governor of New Jersey, who received his patent from the King. Gov- ernor John Reading was the son of Colonel John Reading, an English army officer of education and means, who emigrated to New Jersey between 1680 and 1684.
JOHN MULFORD JR. and Maria (Bertron) Mulford removed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1826, where he engaged in the wholesale grocery business as a member of the firm of Mulford & Alter, located on Market street above Sixth, and accumulated a considerable fortune. They had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. The eldest, John Brantley Mulford, was born in Philadelphia, October 31, 1827. He was graduated from the Central high school and for many years associated with his father in the wholesale grocery business. November I, 1850, he married Emma Matilda, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Hugg and Beulah E. (Cox) Kennard. Dr. Kennard was one of Philadelphia's most eminent Baptist divines, and was for more than forty years pastor of the Tenth Baptist Church of Philadelphia. On this side, too, the subject of the sketch has ances- try that was prominent during the historic times of 1776. Joseph Hugg Ken- nard was the son of Samuel Kennard who married Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Hugg. Squire Hugg, as he was known, was a member of the Committee of
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Safety of Gloucester county, a delegate to the Provincial Congress, and was active in the cause of the colonies during the Revolution. The wife of Joseph H. Kennard, Beulah E. Cox, was the daughter of Jacob Cox, who served dur- ing the Revolution in the Gloucester county militia and in Colonel Somer's bat- talion of New Jersey troops.
John Brantley and Emma Matilda (Kennard) Mulford had three sons, John Brantley, Spencer Kennard and Victor Joseph Mulford. John Brantley Mulford was a Baptist minister of prominence, located in the West where he died at the age of thirty-seven. Spencer Kennard Mulford, the second son, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1854. He was educated at the Central High School, and in 1872 entered the leather business as an employe of the firm of England & Bryan, at Third and Vine streets, Philadelphia, and later acquired an interest in the business. This firm, which afterwards dis- solved, was succeeded by England, Walton & Company, Incorporated, of which Mr. Mulford is first vice-president. This corporation conducts a large tanning business, operating five tanneries in the South and branches in Boston and Chi- cago. Their headquarters are in the immense concrete structure bearing their name, which stands between Third and Fourth streets, and Vine and New streets, in Philadelphia. Mr. Mulford is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution by his descent as stated above, his great-great- grandfather Captain Thomas Reading, and his great-grandfather, Jacob Cox, both having served in the Revolutionary army. He is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, the Penn Club of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. For a number of years he was a member of the First Regiment, National Guard Pennsylvania.
He married, October 27, 1880, Mary Blanche, daughter of Jacob and Eliza- beth (Makin) Harley. They have three children, William Harley, born Feb- ruary 13, 1882, Spencer Kennard Jr., born June 8, 1884, and John Brantley, born July 11, 1890, all of whom were educated at the William Penn Charter School and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania. The oldest son, Wil- liam Harley Mulford, married, February 2, 1907, Louise, daughter of Howard Register and Mary E. (Allen) Levick. William Harley and Louise Levick Mulford's son, Spencer Kennard Mulford, (3), died in infancy. Mr. Mulford has lived for a number of years at his country place "Penrythe" on Church Road between Jenkintown and Chestnut Hill, and devotes much of his time to arboriculture in which he takes great interest.
JAMES FREDERICK THOMAS
JAMES FREDERICK THOMAS is a descendant of Lieutenant William Shute, an officer of the Revolution in Philadelphia. He is a son of George Frederick Thomas, born in Baltimore, Maryland, March 24, 1818, who died in Philadel- phia, October 30, 1861, and his wife Maria Smith, and grandson of Daniel Levin Thomas and his wife Jane Oliphant.
The Rev. Henry Smith, the first paternal ancestor of Maria (Smith) Thom- as of whom we have any definite record, was born in county Norfolk, England, m1 1588. He graduated at Cambridge University, and was ordained a minister of the established church, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. After some years of pastoral work in his native country he emigrated to New England in 1638, accompanied by his three sons. He died in Massachusetts in 1648.
Richard Smith, one of the sons of the New England divine, accompanied his father to Massachusetts in 1638, was one of the New England colony who prior to 1650 founded the first English settlement on Long Island, and is said to have been one of the patentees of lands in and about Woodbridge, New Jersey, about 1675, but in this respect is possibly confounded with his son Richard.
Richard (2) Smith, son of the Long Island patentee, was the first patentee and founder of Smithtown, Long Island, and was among the first English pur- chasers of lands near Woodbridge, New Jersey, where he died, leaving a will, dated July 17, 1692, probated April 30, 1696, which mentions his wife Elinor and children, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Richard and Thomas.
Richard (3) Smith, son of Richard (2) and Elinor Smith, was a resident of Smithtown, Suffolk county, Long Island, New York, in 1693, and soon after that date removed to Cape May county, New Jersey. He married Rebecca, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Adams, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, and had seven children; William, Richard, John, Daniel, Jonathan, Jeremiah and Eliza- beth.
Richard (4) Smith, son of Richard (3) and Rebecca (Adams) Smith, was born in Cape May county, New Jersey, December 22, 1715. He married Han- nah Somers, born 1721, daughter of James and Abigail (Adams) Somers, and granddaughter of John Somers, the founder of Somers Point, New Jersey, by his wife Hannah Hodgkins. Richard and Hannah (Somers) Smith had six children; Rachel, married Caspar Smith; Judith, married Andrew Crawford; Hannah, married Henry Ludlam; Daniel, of whom presently ; James and John.
Daniel Smith, eldest son of Richard (4) and Hannah (Somers) Smith, was born near Cape May Court House, New Jersey, January 14, 1755. He came to Philadelphia when a young man and engaged in business there, becoming a prominent business man of that city, where he died June 5, 1836. He married, in Philadelphia, October 24, 1780, Elizabeth Shute, born in Philadelphia, July 3, 1760, died there February 9, 1799. This Daniel Smith is possibly identical with the Daniel Smith who was a private in the Philadelphia contingent of the Fourth Pennsylvania regiment, under Colonel Lambert Cadwalader, 1777-81,
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having previously served in Colonel Spencer's regiment. Another Daniel Smith was a private in Colonel Stephen Moylan's fourth regiment, Light Dragoons, partly recruited in Philadelphia. Daniel and Elizabeth (Shute) Smith had seven children: James; Francis Gurney, of whom presently; Richard; Daniel ; William S .; Juliana, married John Poulson; Charles.
Lieutenant William Shute, father of Elizabeth (Shute) Smith, and great- great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Philadelphia about 1728, died there in February, 1783. He was first lieutenant of a company of Philadelphia Associators known as the "Southwark Guards", commanded by Captain Richard Barrett, and was in active service with the Philadelphia "Home Guard" under the command of Major Lewis Nichols, January 3 to February 3, 1777. This "Home Guard" was organized by the Council of Safety, by the enrollment of the Philadelphia militiamen, mainly unfit for service in the field, and December 2, 1776, Lewis Nichols, who had been barrack-master, was named as commander and commissioned major. The duties of the companies were to patrol the streets of Philadelphia and guard the powder magazines, for which they were to receive Continental pay. This was the inception of the "Invalid Corps" afterwards formed by Congress, at the suggestion of Major Nichols, and of which he was commissioned colonel, and whose duties were mainly to guard magazines, ammunition and stores of the Continental army. Lieutenant William Shute mar- ried, January 31, 1754, Elizabeth Jackson, born in Philadelphia, October, 1731, died there November, 1763.
Francis Gurney Smith, second son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Shute) Smith, was born in Philadelphia, January 4, 1784, died there February 12, 1873. He was for many years a prominent and successful merchant of Philadelphia, and actively interested in its industrial, financial and commercial interests. He married, at Philadelphia, February 7, 1807, Elizabeth Mackie, born June II, 1787, died in Philadelphia, January 14, 1861, and they had eight children: Daniel; Thomas M. Smith, M. D., of Brandywine Hundred, New Castle county, Delaware ; Richard S .; Joanna, married Alexis Irene du Pont, of the famous powder manu- facturing company ; Francis Gurney, Jr., a distinguished physician of Philadel- phia, physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital and author of a number of medical works, and many years a member of the faculty of the Pennsylvania College, and the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania; S. Decatur ; Maria, of whom presently; Edward H. Smith.
Maria Smith, daughter of Francis Gurney and Elizabeth (Mackie) Smith, born in Philadelphia, April 13, 1822, married, at Philadelphia, June 15, 1853, Goerge Frederick Thomas, born in Baltimore, Maryland, March 24, 1818, died in Philadelphia, October 30, 1861, son of Daniel Levin and Jane (Oliphant) Thomas. Mrs. Maria (Smith) Thomas died at Mooar, Lee county, Iowa, Novem- ber 23, 1898.
JAMES FREDERICK THOMAS, son of George Frederick and Maria (Smith) Thomas, was born in Philadelphia, May 15, 1860. He was educated at the Episcopal Academy, and in 1882 began his business career with the well-known firm of J. E. Caldwell & Company, of which he later became a member and has since been one of the active managers. He is a member of St. Andrew's Society, a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Union League, Philadelphia Art Club, the Germantown Cricket Club, and other
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social organizations. He is also a member of the vestry of St. Luke's Church, Germantown. Mr. Thomas married (first), November 23, 1883, Margaret Xavier Throckmorton, born June 1, 1860, died April 7, 1889, daughter of Charles and Narcissa E. (Mudge) Throckmorton; (second) June 2, 1891, Helen Stone, born June 5, 1861, daughter of Henry Morton and Louise Vernier (Besson) Stone. By his first wife he had two children, Frederick T., born December 25, 1885, and Margaret Xavier, born March II, 1888.
FRANK G. PAULSON
FRANK G. PAULSON traces his Revolutionary descent through the maternal line. His mother, Elizabeth D. Gormly, was a daughter of Matilda, a great- grandmother of Christian Mowry, the patriot soldier, one of the members of the "Bloody Foot" Regiment, so called from their sufferings on the long march from Pittsburgh, over the snow covered mountains, to join the army of General Washington in New Jersey.
Christian Mowry was of German descent and was born in Pennsylvania in 1747. He enlisted as private in the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel Aeneas Mackay, commander ; Daniel Brodhead, lieutenant-colonel ; Stephen Bay- ard, major ; with James Bigot as captain of the company to which Christian Mowry belonged. The regiment was at Pittsburgh, and in order to reach the army of Washington in New Jersey, had to traverse the distance on foot. This they did in the dead of winter. It must be remembered that about one hundred and sixty miles of this was through and over the Alleghany Mountains. The men were hardy pioneers and capable of withstanding all the ordinary hardships of the long march and did, but their sufferings were intense. They were without surgeons and many died on the march, including Lieutenant- Colonel Brodhead. It is said they never entered a house, but camped in the snow, under such shelter only as was afforded by the trees or overhanging rocks. The total distance marched from Fort Pitt, the starting point, to Wash- ington's headquarters in New Jersey, was five hundred miles. The regiment was engaged in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and was at Val- ley Forge during the terrible winter of 1777-78. Christian Mowry was in the service seven years, and fought in all the battles of the war where General Washington was in personal command, being always attached to the army of that great commander. After the war he returned to Pittsburgh. He married Margaret Klingensmith, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, who was born in 1769. Children : Philip, mentioned below; Peter, an early physician of Pitts- burgh; John, killed in a duel at New Orleans in 1813.
Philip Mowry, son of Christian Mowry, was born January 28, 1778, within the stockade at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), and died in Pittsburgh, July 31, 1846. After a boyhood and early life of struggle, he became a prominent merchant and justice of the peace of Pittsburgh. He was prominent in other lines also. Mr. Frank G. Paulson has framed in his office a certificate dated October 10, 1809, signed Philip Mowry, showing him to have been a "judge of election". He was universally known as "Squire Mowry". He was an "old side" Cov- enanter of the strictest type. He married Susan Boyle, and their children were: Matilda, grandmother of Frank G. Paulson; Jane, married Rev. J. J. Buchanan ; Dr Robert B. Mowry, who was an early member of the Sons of the American Revolution, a most worthy man and accomplished physician ; Catherine; Mary Ann; Margaret; Elizabeth; William B .; Peter.
Matilda Mowry, daughter of Philip Mowry, was born in 1801, died in 1867.
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She married James Gormly, who was born in 1800, died about 1869. Children : Elizabeth D. (Mrs. Charles H. Paulson) ; John B., a banker of Pittsburgh, who went south before the Civil War, and was mayor of Pensacola, Florida; Wil- liam M., lived and died in Pittsburgh; Jane, married (first) Rev. Thomas Campbell, (second) Hon. Lewis Peterson Jr., ex-mayor of Allegheny, Penn- sylvania; James, died at the age of fifteen; Mary, widow of Charles Brewer Davis; James.
Elizabeth D. Gormly, daughter of James and Matilda (Mowry) Gormly, was born in 1824, died 1886. She married Charles H. Paulson, who was born in Wilmington, Delaware, September, 1815, died in Pittsburgh, April 20, 1880, son of Joseph and Lydia ( Foreman) Paulson.
CHARLES H. PAULSON was reared in Philadelphia, where he passed his early life, and learned the trade of silk hat finisher with a noted manufacturing firm which made silk hats for many of the celebrated statesmen of that day, among them the great orator, Daniel Webster. In 1834 he. removed to Pittsburgh and entered into the busy business life of that wonderful city. At what is now 515 Wood street, he established a wholesale and retail hat and fur business that has existed in the same place and under the Paulson name until the present time (1909), a period of seventy-five years. He invested largely in real estate, and was known as one of the largest landholders in the city. He erected many buildings, among them being Apollo Hall, the first public hall ever built in Pitts- burgh. He was interested in railroads, and was an incorporator and a direc- tor in a great many of the earlier roads, among them being the Pittsburgh & Connellsville railroad, now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system. He was one of the original incorporators and for ten years a director of the Allegheny National Bank of Pittsburgh. In politics he was a Democrat, and served as a member of the Allegheny City Council. He was elected to the State Senate and served during the years 1878-80, dying while yet a senator. He was an active member of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, and a trustee for many years. His son-in-law, Dr. John Gillespie, was pastor of the church for several years. Mr. Paulson was a member of the Masonic fraternity, affiliating with Frank- lin Lodge, of Pittsburgh. He enlisted in one of the city's famous military or- ganizations-the DuQuesne Greys-and became captain. In fact, Mr. Paul- son's life touched all points of activity in his city and whether it was business, church or state, he was always a leader.
He was twice married, his first wife being Narcissa, daughter of Daniel Kil- gore, of Cadiz, Ohio, first president of the Steubenville & Ohio railroad, now a part of the Pennsylvania (Panhandle) system. By this marriage there was no issue. His second wife was Elizabeth D. Gormly (as before stated), great- granddaughter of Christian Mowry, the Revolutionary soldier. Children of Charles H. and Elizabeth D. (Gormly) Paulson: I. Frank G., see forward. 2. Matilda, widow of Rev. John Gillespie, of East Liberty, who at the time of his death was one of the secretaries of the Presbyterian National Board of Foreign Missions. Mrs. Gillespie resides in Pittsburgh and has two children: i. Eliza- beth, wife of Percy W. Crane, an attorney of New York City ; ii. John Chalmers Gillespie, who resides in Pittsburgh with his mother. 3. Adelaide Howard, widow of James A. Grier, at the time of his death postmaster of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania ; she is a resident of Pittsburgh. 4. Lydia F., wife of Henry W.
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Bickel, cashier of the Commercial National Bank of Pittsburgh; they have Elizabeth, and William Bickel, a student at Princeton University. 5. Mary, died at the age of seventeen. 6. Charles Henry, died in 1891, unmarried. 7. Jennine Campbell, who at the age of twenty-five was a passenger on the illfated Pitts- burgh day express that on May 30, 1889, reached Johnstown, Pennsylvania, just in time to· be detained there by ruined bridges, and was later engulfed and car- ried away by the terrible onrush of a mountain of water, loosened by the burst- ing of the dam above. Miss Paulson's body was recovered among the "unknown" buried dead, six months afterward, fully identified by her family, and reinterred in the Allegheny cemetery at Pittsburgh. 8. Elizabeth K., wife of Case A. Foster, of Pittsburgh; they have: David Paulson Foster, a Princeton student ; Jennie Paulson; Case A. Foster Jr .; two children died in infancy.
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