USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 56
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Note. In 1882 a family reunion was held on the site of the " Sharpless Rock " and over four thousand members of the Sharpless family were assembled.
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Mr. Charles L. Sharpless to advance the reputation | science ; and having that he cared for no other. of Philadelphia as compared with New York and other large cities in the way of Dry Goods trade, and he labored on the broadest lines to achieve this result. IIc left behind him an unsullied name, a reputation for energy and business ability which extended to all parts of the United States, and a host of sorrowing relatives, friends and employces, who admired his sterling worth and many excellent per- sonal qualities. It is not too much to say that the great impetns given to the business in its modern form came from Charles L. Sharpless, the subject of this sketch. Speaking of his action in this matter, Mr. Thomas Baldwin, in his little brochure entitled "Reminiscences from the Life of Charles L. Sharp- less," says : "When the important removal of their place of business was made from Second Street to Eighth and Chestnut Streets, in that critical year, 1857, his family doubted the wisdom of the change, with the exception, perhaps, of his brother Henry. He had the weight of the responsibility on his own shoulders, and did not shrink from it, sustained as lie was by a clear vision of the future necessities and expansion of business, as well as by inborn courage and independence of character." He was open to the charge of boldness in urging this step, but he was firm rather than bold, for he had carefully and con- scientiously thought out this, as it was his habit through life to think out all problems and projects in which he was concerned, and his decision was based solely on the workings of his judgment. The wisdom of the step was apparent almost as soon as it had been taken. The business increased with wonderful strides, and Charles L. Sharpless at the time he was sole owner of the establishment ranked as one of the most successful and distinguished merchants in his native city. This proud position he held until his death, when the mantle he wore descended to his sons. Charles L. Sharpless does not belong in the category of self-made men, for the son of a wealthy and respected merchant and the graduate of a representative college cannot be classed therein. Nor was he of humble or obscure origin-indeed, quite the contrary. But he does belong in the category of successful men, and he takes rank as a leader in the mercantile com- munity. Born and reared in a conservative school and subjected on all sides to conservative influence, he rose superior to them in the day when they had become obsolete, and had the genius to advance with the growth and progress of the country. It was more than a revolt; it was a revolution, and the man who led it was a born leader. One of his dominating peculiarities was his marked individ- uality. He sought one approval-that of his con-
A friend once asked him if he did not regard the censure of others. "Not at all," he replied, "if I have my own approbation." It is said that "those having dealings with him were inspired with great confidence," and it is also affirmed that " his judg- ment and advice proved in some instances to be al- most of a prophetic nature." There were some things which made a decp impression upon the practical side of his nature, and he seemed to desire that they be given as wide publicity as possible. Printed by his order and posted conspicuously in his store were the following characteristic mottoes: "Keep fully insnred." " Keep your capital in your business." "Keep your stock in proportion to your capital." " Make your old stock as lively as your new." "Let those that stand take heed lest they fall." "In essentials, unity ; non-essentials, liberty ; in all things, charity." Charles L. Sharp- less was a man of large brain power, and those who knew him intimately were certain that he was liberal in his views. While taking no more than the usual interest of a well educated, well bred man in belles-lettres and poetry, he was deeply stirred by art, and was himself an artist of such pronounced ability that his most intimate acquaintances, who were capable of judging, believed that he might have attained eminence in that profession had he chosen to devote himself to it as a life-work. This taste manifested itself in early boyhood and the lad devoted many evenings to gratifying it. His father, later on, sent him to a noted teacher of drawing for instruction, but the latter soon sent a note to the father saying he had nothing to teach the youth. All through life his exquisite taste showed itself in every direction. The beauties of a landscape never failed to catch his eye, and. he was quick to recog- nize capabilities in rude and nncultivated places, particularly as sites for dwellings. His judgment in this latter respect was almost unerring, as was frequently proven. He retained his love for art down to the close of his life, and " one of his last employments," records Mr. Baldwin, " was copying one of Koek-Koek's landscapes-' Summer Even- ing' and Meyer von Bremen's figure subject 'The Little Brother," a task he executed with such ex- quisite skill and delicacy that only an artist or con- noisseur in painting could distinguish the copy from the original. Mr. Sharpless had a rare inde- pendence of character. His standards in whatever he undertook were high, but in reaching them or maintaining them he seemed to care nothing for popular approval or disapproval. He was not al- ways conventional in his manners, but "he was pre-eminently sweet and polite in his disposition,"
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Mark Willen
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and a friend to be prized. Underlying his business exterior was a genial nature which made him a good companion when he was disembarrassed from the cares of trade. He had an inborn taste for rural life, which he sought to gratify soon after his mar- riage by building and occupying with some of his close friends-married people-a commodious house on the site of the last engagement of the Battle of Brandywine. Here were spent a portion of four summers in the most healthful and rational recrea- tion possible ; but he found the distance too great to suit his business duties, and reluctantly parted with this beautiful property. Later iu life he se- lected Chelten Hills as a site for a residence, and building a house, made his home there, summer and winter, for several years, with the exception of occasional trips to Europe, partly for business pur- poses and partly for pleasure. At the Chelten Hills place he devoted much time to improving the breed of road horses, and was the first to introduce Jersey cattle into the immediate neighborhood. He was fond of animals and made those on his place pets. His two most marked characteristics were thoroughness and originality, and he had suf- ficient independence to allow both full sway. Dur- ing many years of his life, before his final sickness, he was a great sufferer from dyspepsia or gastric troubles, from which no treatment relieved him. He bore his pain with remarkable fortitude, rarely giving way to complaint, and then only for a mo- ment. At last, weary of waiting for relief, he took the treatment into his own hands, and after much thought, settled upon a diet of six unleavened bran cakes and one tumbler of milk three times daily. To this course he rigidly adhered for one year, with the result that he recovered his health so com- pletely that there was no more thought of his being an invalid than any other persons among his friends and associates. When the last illness came it was long and very painful, but he bore his sufferings with the same calmness and patience that he dis- played in all the other affairs of life. He made a heroic struggle to live, but when he found that it was futile, he bowed resiguedly to the inevitable, and prepared himself for it. Mr. Sharpless married, on October 1, 1844, Miss Anna Reeves Williams, daughter of Richard Williams, of Philadelphia. Their children were Mary Williams, Anna Brown, Henry Williams, Charles Williams, Anna Brown (second), Lydia Hunn, and Townsend. Mary, Henry, Lydia and Townseud survive, all being mar- ried except Henry, wlio, with his brother Town- send, continues the great business of the house of Sharpless Brothers, worthily sustaining the name and fame transmitted by their honored predecessors.
MARK WILLCOX.
MARK WILLCOX, one of the leading paper manufacturers of the United States, was born at Ivy Mills, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1819, and died at his home in Philadelphia, on April 17, 1883. He was a member of the old English Catholic family of Willcox, and was a descendant of Thomas Willcox, a native of England, who, in 1729, erected at Ivy Mills, in Delaware County, on a tract of land purchased some time previously from Wil- liam Penn, the third paper mill established in America. Thomas Willcox was a man of superior mental endowments aud an acknowledged master of the business in which he engaged. He was a scientist of no mean ability and stood in the front rank as a manufacturer in liis day. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and other prominent residents of Philadelphia at that time, and supplied to Franklin the paper used to print the Philadelphia Gazette. He also sccured the contract to furnish the paper upon which the Continental notes were printed. Since then the house of Willcox has been connected with the history of National paper currency in the United States. The recent head of the house, Mr. James M. Willcox, the father of the subject of this sketch, carried the manufacture to the highest degree of perfection and laid the United States Government under decided obligations to him for important discoveries and applications whichi put au effectual check upon the counter- fciting of the National paper currency. He was the iuveutor of the now world-famous silk-fibre paper, which his mills furnished in vast quantities. Mark Willcox, the subject of this sketch, was edu- cated at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmettsburg, Maryland. When he became of age he was taken into partnership by his father aud continued as partner until the latter's death, after which, until 1879, he was associated with his elder brother, the business being continued under the style of James M. Willcox & Co. In 1879 the elder brother retired and the subject of this sketch took his place at the head of the business, in which he remained until his death, when it passed into the hands of his sons, Messrs. James M. Willcox and William F. Willcox, who now conduct it, retaining the old style of the firm unchanged. In business circles Mr. Willcox was held in high esteem, and he em- ployed his wealth wisely in encouraging and building up several works of local improvement. He was one of the projectors aud for many years a Director of the West Chester and Media Railroad. He was also a Director in the Beneficial Savings Fund, and of the Girard Bank, serving on the Board of the
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latter for a period of forty years. In charitable and religious work he took a most active part, serving as a Director of the St. Joseph's Hospital, of St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, St. Charles Theo- logical Seminary, and St. Vincent's Seminary. A firm adherent of the Roman Catholic faith, he founded and conducted, from 1867 to 1874, as pro- prietor and publisher, a newspaper known as the Catholic Standard, which became the official organ of the Archidiocese of Philadelphia. This publi- cation was an exceedingly meritorious one and had a circulation far beyond the eonfines of the State in which it was issued. It may be mentioned here, as an interesting circumstance, that the Willcox family is one of the oldest Catholic families in the State. Long before the erection of St. Joseph's Church in Milling's Alley, Philadelphia, religious services, including " the Mass," were celebrated at the Will- cox mansion at Ivy Mills. "When the present mansion, which the family use as a summer resi- dence, was erected, the room in which mass was celebrated in the last century was included in it and is to this day used exclusively as an oratory and chapel." Generosity was a marked trait in Mr. Willcox's character. He gave freely in many direc- tions and never limited his donations to any race, nationality or creed. A staunch Catholic, he was extremely liberal to his church, and took great pleasure in extending his sympathy and support to the little edifice built by his father at Ivy Mills some years previous to his death. He also expended quite a large sum of money-the principal part, in fact-in rebuilding the pastoral residence at Ivy Mills, subsequently destroyed by fire.
WILLIAM CRAMP.
WILLIAM CRAMP, one of the most distin- guished ship-builders of America, aud founder of the great ship-building establishment and iron works of William Cramp & Sons, of Philadelphia, was born on Otis Street, Kensington, now a part of Philadelphia, in September, 1807; and died at At- lantic City, New Jersey, July 6, 1879. Both of his parents were of American birth and English de- scent. They were in moderate circumstances and were people of excellent character and good social standing. At the common schools in Kensington William, their son, received the usual training in the ordinary English branches. He had a studious dispo- sition and was also religiously inclined, for in his early youth he decided in his own mind to enter the Christian ministry. This project was warmly ap-
proved by his family, and under the kindly instruc- tion of the Rev. George Chandler, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Kensington, of which he had formerly become a member, he began his studies for the Christian ministry. These studies were prosecuted some time with the happiest re- sults to the young student, but his health did not permit their continuance to the desired end, and with great reluctance they were given up. Out- door occupation being deemed necessary, Mr. Cramp chose the trade of ship-building. Through the influence of some friends he secured a position as apprentice in the ship-yard of Samuel Grice, a noted ship-builder of his day, with whom he served his time and mastered the craft in all its branches. His training under Mr. Grice was exceptionally thorough and when his term of service expired he had no difficulty in finding immediate employment. After working as a journeyman ship-carpenter for a year or two he decided to engage in business on his own account, and accordingly, in 1830, he se- cured premises on the Delaware River at the foot of Palmer Street, and opened a ship-yard. His first work was in building barks and brigs, but after constructing several of these he felt the need of greater accommodations and to secure them re- moved his establishment to Petty's Island. While at this place he built vessels for Isaac Jeanes, Stephen Flanagan, Henry Simons and other well- known merchants. Among other vessels con- structed by him was the bark " John Trucks," re- membered to this day in Philadelphia from the fact of her having been cut through by the ice and sunk at the Arch Street wharf. In 1857 Mr. Cramp took as partners in his ship-building business his five sons, named respectively, Charles H., William M., S. H., J. C. and Henry W., and the firm thus com- posed took the name of William Cramp & Sons. At the opening of the Civil War its yards, two in number, were among the largest in the country and were equipped with all the implements and facili- ties necessary for building both iron and wooden vessels. In Bishop's "History of American Manu- factures," published in 1868, the following details are given regarding the plant of the firm and the work accomplished by it up to that date :
" The iron shipyard located on Richmond Street above Otis, extends from the former street to the Delaware River, and has an area of six hundred thousand square feet with a river front of four hun- dred feet. The machine shop, forty by three hun- dred feet, contains some tools of unusual size, among which we might instanee the bending rolls, weighing over fifteen tons, and which will bend sheets of iron an inch thick and fourteen feet long, to a curve whose radius is three feet. This depart- ment also includes a large smith shop and a furnace
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for bending angle iron frames without a blast. This furnace is thirty feet long and diffuses equal heat throughout its whole length, thus obviating the objections of ordinary furnaces, in which the iron is liable to be burnt at one extremity while at the opposite it is comparatively cool. As an in- stance of the facility possessed by this firm for rapidly executing work, it may be stated that an iron side-wheel tow-boat, one hundred and sixty- five feet long, twenty-five feet beam in hull, was begun on the 2d of January, and on February 6 the plating was all rivcted, and the vessel, costing sixty thousand dollars, ready for use on the 1st of March. About one hundred and fifty meu are em- ployed in the yard for constructing iron vessels. The other shipyard of this firm is located on Penn Street near the site of Penn's Treaty Grouud, and has a front on the river of three hundred feet and a depth of eight hundred feet. A marine railway, capable of hauling up vessels of fifteen hundred tons, is in course of construction at this place, and when completed will cost about $50,000. Here some of the largest and finest vessels in the mer- chant service were constructed. The "Bridge- water" of fifteen hundred and twenty-five tons, and which is said was the largest merchant vessel ever constructed at this port, was built by this firm. Her length was two hundred and twenty feet, width of beam fifty feet, and depth of hold thirty feet. This vessel was launched full-rigged, a feat that, it is believed, was never before accomplished with a vessel of equal tonnage. This firm also con- structed ten steamers, each one hundred and eighty- five feet long, for the Cuban trade, and which were found to be so superior for the purpose for which they were designed that they entirely superseded side-wheel vessels."
The " Bridgewater," referred to above, was still afloat at the time of Mr. Cramp's death and was re- puted to have earned fortunes for three different owners. Another of the notable vessels built by the firm was the "Morning Light," a clipper of extraordinary speed aud beauty, which became famous in the California trade. In 1862 the firm began the construction of a number of fiue vessels for the Government of the United States. The "Ironsides," renowned in the War of the Rebellion and eventually burned in 1866 at League Islaud, was built in 1862. This vessel was two hundred and thirty-five feet in length, fifty-eight feet beam aud twenty-seven feet hold, and was of three thousand two hundred and fifty tons burden. She was fol- lowed, in 1864, by another war vessel, the " Chatta- nooga," which was afterwards cut through by the ice and sunk near League Island, and later by the steamship "Union " and the light draught monitor, " Yazoo." The "Chattanooga" was one of four vessels of peculiar construction ordered by the Navy Department, and cost a million dollars. The firm also rebuilt the light draught monitor, " Tun- xis," which had been turned out at Chester, but was found to sit too low in the water. It was
decided to raise this vessel twenty-two inches. There was no dry-dock at the Cramp yards at this time and Mr. Cramp had ways built and bauled the monitor bodily out of the water on to the Otis Street dock where the necessary re- modeling was successfully conducted., Besides the vessels named, Mr. Cramp constructed for the Government the transports "Stanton," "Foote," " Welles " and "Porter," and the double-ender "Wyalusing" and other vessels, costing in the aggregate five million dollars. During this pe- riod as many as fifty vessels of various sizes were built for private parties, their total tonnage being about twenty-five thousand tons. To Mr. Cramp belongs the honor of constructing the first propeller tug-boat ever built in the United States. This was the " Sampsou," afterwards used as a gun-boat by tbe Government of the Confederate States. In 1871 the Cramps made a contract with the American Steamship Company to build four steamers each of three thousand tons burden and capable of making the voyage from Philadelphia to Liverpool in ten days. To afford the necessary facilities for carry- ing out this large contract the firm acquired a large plot of ground on the Delaware river a short dis- tance above Morris Street, and upon it erected ca- pacious workshops. The four vessels werc begun at the same time. In 1872 the first one completed, the " Pennsylvania " was launched ; and the three others, named respectively the " Ohio," "Indiana " and " Illinois," quickly followed. These magnifi- cent vessels brought great renown to the firm and made its name known in Europe as well as in America. Many other valuable contracts followed in rapid succession, and the activity of the Cramp yards became a proverb iu the ship-building trade. In September, 1875, the firm began the construction of a large drydock at their old shipyard, and in car- rying out the task excavated an area thirty thou- sand square yards in extent, and drove five thousand piles. More than a million fect of heavy timber was used in the gigautic work, the cost of which, when completed, including pumping machinery, was about a quarter of a million dollars. The land cov- ered by this dry dock cost in addition about an equal sum. This dry dock is four hundred and sixty-two feet long within the gates, and is one huu- dred and eleven feet wide at the top and seventy feet wide at the entrance. It will hold twenty-two feet of water. The pumping machinery is driven by two boilers and two direct-acting upright en- gines, working four large rotary pumps, each ca- pable of discharging thirty thousand gallons of water per minute, making an aggregate pumping capacity of about seven aud a quarter millions of
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gallons per hour ; in other words, of emptying the entire dock in that brief space of time. This pump- ing capacity is said to be double that of any other dry dock in the country. The dock will easily ac- commodate a vessel four hundred and fifty fcet in length. Since its completion it has seldom been more than a few hours at a time without a vessel on the keel blocks undergoing repairs. In 1878, when complications growing out of Turkish affairs threatened to embroil England aud Russia in war, the public was startled by the press announcement to the effect that Russian officers had arrived in the United States, and had purchased several fast-sail- ing coasting steamers which they were having con- verted into cruisers to be used by the Russians to sweep British commerce from the sea. This report seemed to be confirmed by the arrival at an ob- scure port in Mainc of a large German steamship, the " Cimbria," with some six hundred Russian sailors on board. In May, 1878, the large steamship " Columbus," built by the Cramps for the New York and Savannah trade, and also the "Saratoga," of the same line, were suddenly taken out of commis- sion by their purchasers, the Russians, aud sent to the Cramp yards for alteration into cruisers. A large force of men was at once employed in effect-
ing these alterations, work being carried on day aud night. The firm was also entrusted by its new owners, the Russians, with the alteration into a man-of-war of the large iron steamship, the "State of California," the hull of which had just been launched at its yards for the San Francisco and Ore- gon trade. A further coutract was secured from the Russians for the coustruction, on the lines of the " State of California," of a second vessel, a cor- vette, the " Zabiaca," intended as a fast sailer. This, like all the other contracts mentioned, was success- fully carried out, aud the vessel afterwards proved herself the fastest vessel of her displacement in the world. The initial trip of the " Zabiaca " from Philadelphia to Havre, was made in .about eleven days. This activity of the firm of Cramp and Sons brought great prosperity to Kensington, par- ticularly to the shipwrights and iron workers, all of whom now found remunerative employment. While the war cloud threatened, the firm pushed work upon the vessels named without the loss of a moment, day or night. Hostilities being averted by diplomacy, the work was closed more leisurely, and the vessels having been renamed the "Europa," the " Asia " and the " Africa," sailed from the yards under the Russian flag, and, proceeding to Europe, took their assigned places in the Russian fleets. Mr. Cramp next went to work upon auother large vessel for the California and Oregon trade, to supply
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