USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Mr. Browne married, April 20, 1773, Sarah Dutton, born May 29, 1753, daugh- ter of Isaac and Mary (Coats) Dutton, the latter a daughter of John Coats, of a well-known family of Northern Liber- ties. Mr. Browne's shop was at Kensing- ton, but his residence was at 141 North Front street, at that time an exceedingly fashionable neighborhood. Mrs. Browne passed away November 3, 1809, and her husband survived her little more than a year, his death occurring December II, 1810. The independent nature of Peter Browne was strikingly manifested in his refusal to use the arms to which he was by descent entitled and in devising an escutcheon of his own. This consisted of a large anvil with two pairs of naked arms in the act of striking, the motto being "By this I got ye," meaning that by the ironmonger's trade he gained his fortune.
(II) John Coats Browne, son of Peter and Sarah (Dutton) Browne, was born October 23, 1774, and received his early education at the Episcopal Academy, sub- sequently entering the University of Pennsylvania and graduating in 1793. He
then engaged in business with his father, his specialty being the iron work for ships. He was the first president of the Kensington Bank, and in 1831 became president of the board of commission- ers of the District of Kensington, North- ern Liberties, holding this office to the close of his life. He was elected, June 2, 1798, a member of the celebrated First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, hold- ing, from 1803 to 1807, the rank of fourth corporal. He was connected with various other organizations and in some of them held the office of president. Mr. Browne married, April 27, 1800, Hannah, born February 15, 1779, daughter of Hugh and Susannah (Pearson) Lloyd, of Philadel- phia. The Lloyd family were strict Friends as the Brownes had been prior to the Revolution, but Peter Browne, after bearing arms in defense of Ameri- can liberty, had ceased to belong to the Society. Mr. and Mrs. Browne were the parents of six children ; one of these was named John Coats, 2nd, who died in infancy. On May 7, 1810, he resigned as corporal, but maintained his other activi- ties many years longer, for when he passed away, on August 8, 1832, he was still in the prime of life. The death of his widow occurred August 7, 1868, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.
(III) Peter Browne, son of John Coats and Hannah (Lloyd) Browne, was born February 8, 1803, and engaged in the lum- ber business in Philadelphia, but owing to impaired health retired early and lived for a time abroad. Mr. Browne married, October 15, 1836, Anne Taylor, born April 6, 1811, daughter of John and Frances (Taylor) Strawbridge, the former a rep- resentative of the old Philadelphia fam- ily of Strawbridge. Mr. and Mrs. Browne were the parents of two children: John Coats, mentioned below; and Fanny Strawbridge, who died in infancy. The
259
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
death of Mr. Browne occurred March 25, 1840, and in 1850 his widow became the wife of William C. Kent. Mrs. Kent passed away on January 1, 1888.
(IV) John Coats Browne, 3rd, son of Peter and Anne Taylor (Strawbridge) Browne, was born February 18, 1838, in Philadelphia, and received his education in the Episcopal Academy and other schools of his native city. Among the most interesting of his early recollections were those of several summer vacations spent with his mother at Roop's boarding house in Germantown. At that time the railroad to Germantown consisted mainly of a single track, and the Philadelphia station was on the west side of Ninth street, north of Green street. In 1853 the boy became a member of the Delphian Circumferaneous Association, a club largely composed of lads connected with the Rev. Dr. Hare's school, several of whom became prominent clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal church. They used to meet in a field beyond the Wire Bridge (now Spring Garden Street Bridge), in West Philadelphia, where they played ball and cricket, varying the exercise by racing around the reservoir basin of Fairmount Water Works.
At the age of fifteen, John Coats Browne went into the old wholesale dry goods house of James, Kent, Santee & Company, of which his stepfather was a member, and remained with the firm for three years. For two of these years he received an annual salary of fifty dollars and for the last year seventy-five dollars. Dur- ing this last year almost all the money that came in and went out of the counting room passed through his hands. When it is added that the amount was about three millions it will be seen how great was the confidence placed by the firm in this youth of seventeen. He carried to the bank large sums in notes and checks
and "took up" all the notes of the firm, sometimes amounting to twenty thousand dollars in one day. These notes were not made payable to any particular bank and he was obliged to hunt them up all over the city, being thus frequently compelled to carry in his pocket ten or fifteen thou- sand dollars in cash to take up the notes and cancel them. During this time he took up and completed a course in chem- istry, and a few years after devoted some attention to mineralogy. In after years he made a fine collection of minerals, and became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
A business career did not appeal to Mr. Browne's inclinations, and he devoted the greater part of his life to conserving and enlarging the family estate. He was much interested in amateur photography and was the first in Philadelphia to make instantaneous pictures of moving objects, photographing moving ships on the Dela- ware river as early as 1867. In recogni- tion of this he was elected a member of the Philosophical Society, being proposed by Pliny E. Chase, but declined the honor. As an amateur photographer for more than half a century Mr. Browne was ex- celled by few professionals. He was one of the founders and an active member of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, being elected its president for several suc- cessive years, from 1871 to 1878. He won several gold medals in open competition for his artistic photographs of country scenery, and left an invaluable collection of his own photographs of vanished and vanishing Philadelphia scenes.
The interest which was always nearest Mr. Browne's heart was that of philan- thropy, and the many kindnesses and charities with which he filled his days will never be fully known to the world. In 1872 he was elected a manager of the Episcopal Hospital at Front street and
260
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Lehigh avenue, and gave greater and longer personal attention to it than any other manager in its history. For forty- five years he retained his office, also serv- ing on the board of trustees of the insti- tution. Nearly ten years before his death Mr. Browne resigned, and as a mark of appreciation the board created the posi- tion of honorary vice-president to which he was elected for life. At the time of his death he also held a directorship. Such was his devotion to the institution that for many years, instead of spending the hot weeks of summer out of the city, he would stay in Philadelphia simply to see that the affairs of the hospital were conducted in the best possible manner. This was but an especially notable in- stance of the unselfishness which marked his entire life. In the minute on his death drawn by Francis Lewis and W. W. Frazier they say: "These facts are noted because they show remarkable and un- usual fidelity to a great trust." From 1868 to 1883 he was a manager of the Philadelphia Dispensary.
In the summer of 1869 Mr. Browne ac- companied a United States Government party to Ottumwa for the purpose of as- sisting the observations of the total eclipse of the sun by making photographs of the phenomenon. For some days prior to the eclipse the weather was cloudy so that the sun could not be seen, and the night before the eventful day a heavy rain storm passed over Ottumwa, continuing until early morning and ending with the most tremendous thunder and lightning Mr. Browne had ever experienced. After the storm the sun appeared, shining un- obscured by a single cloud, and the photo- graphic work was signally successful.
Politically Mr. Browne was a Repub- lican, but office seeking and office holding were alike repugnant to his nature, and he preferred to discharge his duty to the community as a private citizen. He was
chairman of the council of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a life-long member of St. James' Protestant Episco- pal Church, that is, he might almost be called so, for it was only in the latter years of his life that he joined in the worship of God at St. Stephen's Church.
As a man of wide culture, Mr. Browne took a very lively interest in everything pertaining to the history of his native city. He possesed a fine collection of views of old Philadelphia, some of them rare and costly engravings and others in- delibly burned in china and Delft ware, specimens of the quaint decorative art of a century ago. The Birch series of en- gravings, the most valued of all pictures of old Philadelphia, is to be found in very complete form in the Browne collection. Mr. Browne also possessed a remarkable collection of buttons, chevrons and in- signia, including those of every regiment that served during the Civil War. His patriotic feeling led him to collect speci- mens of all the most interesting campaign badges since the time of Abraham Lin- coln, and also a sheaf of Civil War en- velopes. Photographs of historic interest and beauty spots in and around Philadel- phia taken with his own camera form not the least interesting part of this varied collection.
The personality of Mr. Browne was singularly attractive. His ready wit, good humor, store of scientific and gen- eral information always rendered him a welcome presence. He possessed a gentle gift of versifying and would enliven many little gatherings with his extemporaneous poems. An old lady, a friend of Mr. Browne, having accused him of being "only a butterfly," he responded with the following lines:
I'm only a butterfly, Born for an hour To gather the sweets From the fairest flower;
261
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Made for no use But to float in the air, Bright-colored and beautiful, Free from all care. Life is a day-dream, All sunny and bright,
Obscured by no cloud "Til the coming of night.
I dine with the lily And sup with the rose, Hide under a daisy In perfect repose.
No thought of the morrow, I live for to-day, And steal from the flowers Their sweetest bouquet. To-morrow, perhaps, The sweet flowers will miss
My hovering o'er them With soft, dewy kiss.
Another of Mr. Browne's many gifts was rare facility with the pencil, enabling him to produce, with a few masterly strokes, sketches of telling quality. It is readily seen that Mr. Browne was one of those men who, while never active in business life, yet do much for the progress of their communities by the advancement of culture and by presenting higher ideals of living. His face bore the imprint of a strong mentality and revealed a spirit an- imated by lofty aims and unselfish ambi- tions. His eyes were his most striking feature. On meeting their gaze the be- holder felt that he was in the presence of one who lived habitually on a higher level than most of his fellows, that here was a man who conformed his conduct to the highest standards, who was deeply rev- erenced and sincerely loved.
Mr. Browne married (first) Alice Eliz- abeth Morton, born September 11, 1838, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Henry J. and Helen (McFarland) Morton, of Philadel- phia, and they became the parents of one daughter, Edith Lloyd, now the widow of Henry Potts, of Pottstown, whose death occurred November, 1916. Mrs.
Browne passed away February 7, 1907. Mr. Browne married (second), June 7, 1909, Emily Ada, daughter of Henry Mus- grave and Jane Budgett Payne, of Eng- land. The line of Payne is one of the most ancient in England, and runs back into France. Hugh de Payen, the Cru- sader, was a commanding figure in the early history of France, took part in the crusades to the Holy Lands in the elev- enth century. He with a companion in- stituted the order of "Templars of the Cross." For full account of this ancient family see "Payne (or Paine) Family." The arms are :
Arms-Argent on a fess engrailed gules between three martletts sable as many mascles or, all within a bordure of the second bezantee.
Crest-A wolf's head erased azure charged with five bezants salterwise.
Mrs. Browne was her husband's con- genial companion and in his philan- thropies, as in all things else, his true comrade.
On June 20, 1918, this gifted and lov- able man passed to his reward. All felt that the city was the poorer for his de- parture, not only by reason of the liber- ality with which he had dispensed his means, but also because of the withdrawal of a personality which always seemed to radiate sunshine. Many sorrowed because they might no more hope to meet his kindly smile and hear his words of cor- dial greeting. To the Episcopal Hospital and the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania he made large bequests.
Devoted in his family relations, sincere and true in his friendships, honorable and generous in business, Mr. Browne had the affection and esteem of those who lived closest to him and were best fitted to judge of his quality. He was human in his sympathies, cherishing no false or impossible ideals, living level with the
262
Payne
i
fm B. Bement
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
hearts of those to whom he was bound by ties of consanguinity and friendship, and endearing himself to them and irradiating the ever-widening circle of his influence with the brightness of spirit that ex- pressed the pure gold of character. With an optimistic outlook on life, with faith in his friends and humanity, with a pur- pose to make the best of everything and see the good that is in all rather than the evil, with a helping hand and a word of cheer for all who needed to have their pathways made smoother, this worthy heir to honorable traditions won a place that was all his own in the hearts of all who knew him. The motto of his ancient house, Spectemur agendo (Let us be viewed by our actions), was one which he was, in a peculiar sense, entitled to dis- play.
Seen in the unblemished mirror of his own deeds the figure of John Coats Browne stands before us dignified and noble, a stainless image of true manhood.
BEMENT, William B., Captain of Industry.
The late William Barnes Bement was among the constructive builders of Phil- adelphia's great iron industry during the last half of the nineteenth century, and the founder of the firm which from 1885 was known as Bement-Niles & Company. The Bement arms are as follows :
Arms-Azure semee of fleur-de-lis and a lion rampant or.
Crest-On a cap of maintenance gules turned up ermine a lion passant proper.
The family, of which he was so able a representative was established in Massa- chusetts during the early period of its colonization by the brothers, William and John Beamond, who sailed from the port
of London in the ship "Elizabeth," April 15, 1635, bound for New England. Wil- liam Beaumont, the elder of the brothers, married Lydia, daughter of Nicholas Dan- forth, Esq., of Cambridge, and sister of the Hon. Thomas Danforth, deputy gov- ernor of Massachusetts. After spending some years at Salem, he settled at Say- brook, Connecticut, where he died Feb- ruary 4, 1699. He and his descendants adhered to the original Norman spelling of his surname-Beaumont.
(I) John Beamond, Mr. Bement's col- onist ancestor, was also for a time at Salem, Massachusetts, when in 1640, he had a grant of land. In August, 1643, he appears among those able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony, and is credited to Sci- tuate. While in the older colony he be- came associated with the Brewsters and was the purchaser, on June 18, 1644, of a portion of Elder Brewster's library, the most remarkable layman's collection of exegetical literature in early New Eng- land. He died in Essex county, before July, 1647. His only child,
(II) John (2) Bement, as his surname came to be written, was born about 1638, probably in or near Salem. After his marriage to Martha, daughter of Edmund Dennis, of Boston, Mr. Bement settled at Wenham, some six miles north of Salem, one of the most charmingly located of the rural towns of Essex county, and there his four sons were born. In or before 1680, his attention was attracted, with that of many of his neighbors, to the fer- tile lands along the Connecticut river, at Enfield, between Springfield and Hart- ford, then within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, but later under the Con- necticut government. At Enfield he had several grants of land, bore his part in the foundation of town and church, and was the fifth to be laid in its churchyard, the last of December, 1684. His son,
263
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
(III) Ensign William Bement, born at Wenham, December 20, 1676, died at En- field, January 13, 1728. He accumulated a large estate, held most of the town of- fices, and was ensign of the militia com- pany before 1720. His wife Hannah, whom he married March 3, 1707, was the daughter of Captain Samuel Terry by his wife Hannah (Morgan) Terry, and the granddaughter of Captain Miles Morgan, founder of Springfield, Massachusetts. Their son,
(IV) William (2) Bement, the eldest of eight children, was born at Enfield, December 28, 1709, and died at Stock- bridge, Massachusetts, in February, 1798. He married, January I, 1732, Phebe, daughter of Daniel Markham by his wife, Deborah, daughter of Captain Isaac Meacham, of Enfield. During the Rev- olution, and for some years previous, Mr. Bement was a resident of Great Barring- ton, Massachusetts. It was at his house that the meetings of the Committees of Safety and Correspondence held their sessions, and the Council of War its de- liberations. His sons, William and Eben- ezer, marched with the Great Barrington minute-men on the Lexington Alarm, and were later commissioned officers on the staff of Colonel, afterwards General John Fellows, of Sheffield. His son,
(V) Samuel Bement, the youngest of four sons, was born at Wethersfield, Con- necticut, December 25, 1742, and died, probably at Tunbridge, Vermont, April 7, 1816. He married at Salisbury, Con- necticut, in 1765, Martha, daughter of Jabez Bingham, of Norwich and Salis- bury, by his wife Bethia (Wood) Bing- ham. He was like his brothers, a staunch adherent of the Colonies in their struggle for independence, and served gallantly in Captain Albert Chapman's company, Sev- enth Regiment, Connecticut Continental Line. At Salisbury, from the time of his
marriage until about 1791, he combined agricultural pursuits with the iron indus- try, then that town's chief claim to dis- tinction. His son,
(VI) Samuel Bement, born at Salis- bury, February 7 or 9, 1768, died at Brad- ford, New Hampshire, March 31, 1837. He married, June 6, 1793, his cousin, Lucy Barnes, daughter of Captain Phineas Barnes, of Great Barrington, by his wife, Phebe (Bement) Barnes, born Novem- ber 20, 1774, died at Bradford, December 8, 1835. Early in the closing decade of the eighteenth century, Mr. Bement was attracted to the hills of Vermont, and in January, 1792, he purchased lands in Tun- bridge, going later to Bradford, where his remaining years were spent. At both towns he was a manufacturer of wrought nails. His son,
(VII) William Barnes Bement, the ninth of ten children, was born at Brad- ford, New Hampshire, May 10, 1817. Ob- taining the educational advantages com- mon to the New England rural commu- nity of that period, and employing his leisure hours in the construction of a va- riety of rudimentary machines, supple- mented by practical experience in his father's shop, he developed an inventive faculty and laid the corner stone of his subsequent successful career. In 1834, he entered the machine shops of Messrs. Moore & Colby, at Peterborough, New. Hampshire, where his natural talents were apparent from the outset, and at the expiration of less than two years, and be- fore his majority was reached, he was taken into the firm which became Moore & Bement, manufacturers of machinery for cotton and woolen mills. This posi- tion he relinquished in 1840 to seek a wider field at Manchester, New Hamp- shire, where, with the Amoskeag Machine Shops, he remained until 1843. In the latter year he went to Mishawaka, In-
264
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
diana, to superintend some woolen ma- chinery shops, but their destruction by fire on the eve of his arrival left him adrift with little capital save energy, mechan- ical skill and experience. Quite equal to the emergency, he quickly built up a small business as a gun smith, surrendering it to accept the superintendency of the St. Joseph Iron Company's Machine Shops, which by his suggestion were enlarged and equipped with new machinery. Scarcely had this been accomplished when a fire demolished the entire estab- lishment. The company was, however, able to rebuild and upon the plans com- pleted by Mr. Bement within twenty-four hours after the disaster. During the years at St. Joseph his ingenuity and per- severance were displayed to a remark- able degree. He invented and constructed the small tools from which the large ma- chinery was made, also an engine lathe, and his gear cutting machine, the first seen in the West, attracted marked atten- tion from machinists. With a growing reputation he returned East in 1847, and at once undertook contracts to build cot- ton and woolen machinery for the Lowell Machine Shops, ultimately assuming management of the pattern and design- ing departments, which afforded wide scope for his genius as inventor and draughtsman.
In September, 1851, Mr. Bement and his nephew, Gilbert A. Colby, entered in- to partnership at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, with Elijah D. Marshall, then con- ducting a machine shop of moderate ca- pacity at Callowhill street and Pennsyl- vania avenue and Twentieth and Twen- ty-first streets, and for three years the business was conducted under the firm name of Marshall, Bement & Colby. Sub- sequently, James Dougherty, a practical iron founder, became a partner and for two years the house was known as Be-
ment, Colby, Dougherty & Company. Upon the retirement of Marshall and Colby and the entrance of George C. Thomas, Sr., the name was changed, in 1856, to Bement, Dougherty & Thomas, and again in 1857, to Bement & Dough- erty. This latter connection continued until 1870, when Mr. Dougherty with- drew, and was succeeded by the eldest son of the senior partner, Clarence S. Bement. John M. Shrigley entered the firm in 1874, remaining a member thereof until 1884, and in July, 1879, William P. Bement, second son of the senior partner, was admitted. In 1885, a consolidation was effected with the Machine Tool Works conducted by Frederick B. Miles, and thenceforward the firm was Bement, Miles & Company. Mr. Bement trans- ferred his interest to his three sons in 1888, Frank Bement, the youngest, having become a partner in that year. He then withdrew from the plant which for thirty- seven years he had guided from a small machine shop to the immense industrial works whose specialties stood second to none in America and only to Whitworth's in Manchester, England ; perhaps not sec- ond to that.
Giving strict attention to, but not com- pletely absorbed by business affairs, Mr. Bement ever manifested a keenly active interest in everything pertaining to the city's welfare and his name was associated with projects of the utmost municipal concern. Many of the financial and com- mercial institutions, the educational, char- itable and religious organizations, profited by his support and co-operation. He was an independent Republican in politics, a director of the National Bank of the Re- public and many other financial institu- tions, many years a director of the Penn- sylvania Academy of Fine Arts and of the School of Design for Women ; a mem- ber of the Academy of Natural Sciences,
26
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
the Franklin Institute, and the Union League and Manufacturers Clubs. An ardent and discriminating patron of the fine arts, he possessed a most interesting collection of works from the studios of foreign and native artists, which collec- tion was generously open to art students and the interested public.
His death, which occurred October 6, 1897, removed from Philadelphia, one whose business capacity was of the high- est order, a citizen of active patriotism, a man of cultivated taste, persistent opti- mism and large hospitality-one who in every relation of life wavered not in his loyalty to high principles and who en- joyed the esteem of his business asso- ciates and subordinates.
He married, January 26, 1840, Emily, daughter of Thomas Baldwin and Esther (Lyman) Russell, of Royalton, Vermont, born at Royalton, September 3, 1819, died at Philadelphia, November 16, 1894. Their children were: 1. Emily Jane, died in childhood. ¿ 2. Clarence S., q. v. 3. Charles Russell, died in childhood. 4. George Walter, died in childhood. 5. Mary Ella, born December 10, 1851, died August, 1912; married Waldo M. Claflin, of Philadelphia and had issue: William Bement Claflin, of Philadelphia; Emily Russell Claflin, unmarried; Leander C. Claflin ; Clarence B. Claflin. 6. William Parker, q. v. 7. Frank, of Toms River, New Jersey, born November 1, 1860; married Grace Furbush, and has a daugh- ter, Florence, wife of George Braxton Pegram, professor of physics at Columbia University.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.