USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > Historical sketch of Chester, on Delaware > Part 14
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and made many religious visits to neighboring meetings in Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey and Delaware, and several times to New Eng- land, Long Island, and on one occasion to Great Britain, and the West Indies. He, as I have already stated, was a natural humor- ist, and a few of the stories which have descended to our own time will repay narrating :
One day Salkeld was wearing a new hat that had a button and loop, then quite fashionable, and he was remonstrated with by a Friend for adhering to the usages and customs of the world. John tore off the offending part of his apparel, remarking: " If my friend's religion consists of a button and a loop I would not give a button and a loop for it." On another occasion, when at a meeting of Friends, the speaker who was addressing the audience being so tedious that many in the assembly were almost asleep, Salkeld sprang to his feet, exclaiming : " Fire! fire!" Every one was awake immediately, and many put the query: " Where?" " In hell!" responded John, " to burn up the drowsy and unconverted." After he returned from a religious journey to New Jersey, he said : " I have breakfasted with the Ladds, dined with the Lords, and slept with the Hoggs," the names of the families that entertained him. One time as he walked from his corn field, a Friend, by the name of Cloud passing by, said : "John, thee will have a good crop of corn." Salkeld afterwards relating the circumstance, stated that he heard a voice coming out of a Cloud, saying: "John, thee will have a good crop of corn." He rode at one time a horse with a blaze in its face, and a neighbor who thought to be merry with him, said : " John, thy horse looks pale in the face." " Yes, he does," he replied ; " and if thee had looked as long through a hal- ter as he has, thee would be pale in the face too." He was at times forgetful, and on one occasion when visiting Friends in New Jersey, he took his daughter Agnes with him, riding, as women then often did, on a pillion, strapped on the saddle behind her father. After the assembly dispersed he entirely forgot his daughter, and mounting his horse rode away leaving her at the meeting house.
He was personally about medium size, but his wife, Agnes, was very tall and muscular, hence her descendants, who are all notice- ably tall, inherit this characteristic from her. John Salkeld died September 20, 1739, and by will devised the farm of one hundred
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acres, on which his house stood, to his son, David Salkeld, and left the plot of ground whereon Lamokin Hall was subsequently built, to his wife, Agnes, and she, by will, 7th mo., 11, 1748, devised the estate to John Salkeld, the younger. The latter, in 1731, had mar- ried Elizabeth Worrall, who became the mother of thirteen child- ren. John Salkeld, the younger, by will, December 13, 1776, de- vised his real estate to his eight children, (the others had died in chilebood) in equal parts, his whole estate, however, being charged with his wife's support. In the distribution of the property the land under consideration was allotted to his son Peter, who built the western end of Lamokin Hall. December 7, 1789, he sold the property to Jacob Peterson. The latter conveyed it to James Withey who made the addition to the eastern end of the old house about 1796.
It will be seen that there is an error in my account of the Co- lumbia House, where I say that Mary Withey had purchased this property. That statement was based on tradition. In the deed from Robert Fairlamb, Sheriff, April 12, 1819, to Charles Justice and William Graham, he states that the estate had been taken in execution as the property of James Withey.
The purchasers interchanged deeds, dated February 27, 1821, by which Charles Justice acquired absolute title to the land south of the Post road, and William Graham that north of the same high- way. The latter having trust money belonging to his sisters in his hands at the time of his death, Lamokin Hall was in the distribu- tion of his estate, transferred to his sister Henrietta, who had mar- ried Richard Flower. The latter was the owner of the noted " Chester Mills," now Upland, and while there made several suc- cessful ventures in shipping flour to Europe. When the misunder- standing existed between France and the United States, previous to 1800, he, in connection with his brother John, his half brother Reece Wall, and his brother-in-law, Capt. John McKeever, loaded three vessels with flour and cleared them for Liverpool. All three of the ships were captured by French cruisers and condemned in French prize courts, although one of the vessels was within sixty niiles of the Delaware bay when taken. During the war of 1812, the American troops were instructed to impress all the flour at Chester mills for the army, but the Government paid full value for
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all that was taken. The loss Mr. Flower sustained by French spo- liation, however, so cramped him that he was never able again to carry on business largely, and, indeed, that incident seemed to crush out his desire to seek a foreign market for his breadstuffs. He reached an advanced age, dying in 1843, in his eighty-fourth year. Mr. Flower was at one time County Commissioner He and his fellow commissioners were told that they were entitled to $1 a day as compensation, and that if they made a visit to one locality to look after public improvements, and the same day another locality was visited on a similar errand, the commissioners were accustomed to charge two days' fees. Acting on the traditionary custom, the commissioners for that year managed to crowd five hundred and eighty days into the twelve months.
John W. Ashmead, who had built the house on the farm adjoin- ing, after the death of his father-in-law, Mr. Flower, purchase the estate, June 3, 1844, from Hon. Edward Darlington, trustee to sell the property, for the purpose solely of adding a trifle over an acre to the lawn of his dwelling, so that his house should be located in the centre of the lawn. After thoroughly repairing Lamokin Hall, he sold it September 5, 1846, to Abram R. Perkins, for $6,000. The latter had been a successful merchant in Philadelphia, but his purchase of the property at that price, thirty-six years ago, was, perhaps, in the shaping of events one of the most fortunate transac- tions in his business career, for the premises in that period have so increased in valve that it alone has made his estate worth thirty times what it originally cost him.
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
Jacob Howell House.
The small stone building on the east side of Edgmont avenue, above Third street, which is jammed in between the northern end of the City Hotel, and an addition to the Howell House itself, made by Isac Eyre, now used as a Chinese laundry, has had compara- tively few owners The land was patented by William Peun to Randle Vernon, March 4, 1681, and the latter conveyed the estate, the lot on the west and one on the east side of Edgmont avenue, to Jacob Howell, June 16, 1714. On the lot thus conveyed on the east side of the street, Howell built the stone structure and lived there until May 13, 1764, when he conveyed the estate to Isaac Eyre, who built the brick addition to the north of the dwelling. Justice Eyre for many years kept a general store in the old build- ing at the south-east corner of Third street and Edgmont avenne, at the time he was carrying on business at his tan yard across the street. In 1798, when the yellow fever was raging in Chester, a woman came to Isaac Eyre, who was then Burgess, demanding that he should remove a person ill with the scourge from her house, and threatened, if he did not, she would bring the sick lad to the home of the Burgess. " If you do, I'll shoot you before you cross my doorstep," said the latter. 'Squire Eyre was not afraid personally of the disease, for he had nursed several persons who were ill with it; but he was determined, if he could prevent it, the fever should not be introduced into his family, which was an unusually large one. He is said to have been more than equal to Horace Greeley in pen- manship, particularly when he wrote hurriedly, for frequently, after the letters got cold, the 'Squire himself could not read his own chi- rography, as is said to have happened with Rufus Choate and others distinguished for their eccentric handwriting. It is stated that on one occasion when a case was being heard before Judge Cox, who was somewhat irascible during the trial of a suit, and the matter being an appeal from a judgment given by 'Squire Eyre, his docket was sent for. The counsel who desired to use it opened at the name of the case; that he could make out, but the inscription on the Rosetta stone was not more difficult for him to decipher than were the characters in the words written within that docket. He
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twisted it in all directions, but without avail ; not a word could he make out. The Judge at last nervously said : " Hand me the dock- et : I never saw writing I could not read." The bulky volume was carried up to the bench, and His Honor dropped his glasses on the bridge of his nose and gazed earnestly on the page. The task was more than he had expected. His face grew scarlet, and the law- yers tittered, while it is said even the tipstaffs smiled audibly. "Send for 'Squire Eyre :" at last His Honor said, hotly. It was done, and the Justice presented himself in Court. "Is this your docket, 'Squire ?" said Judge Cox. " I suppose so, but I can tell if I can look at it," quickly answered the 'Squire. The Judge handed down the docket, and said: " Be good enough to read us your entry in this case." "Certainly," replied the Justice, and he took out the large spectacles then recently invented, called temple glasses, which were exceeding fashionable, and looked carefully over the page. Several minutes elapsed, not a word escaped the 'Squire, and the symptoms of a general laugh began to manifest themselves throughout the audience. Then the 'Squire drew him- self up and said : " May it please the Court, the law requires me to keep a docket, and make an entry of cases heard before me, for the benefit of this Court and the public. I have done that, but 1 fail to learn that any law compels me to read that entry for any person ; that is the duty of the Court." And that docket entry never was read, at least not before the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware county.
After the death of 'Squire Eyre, his daughters lived in the house until 1874, when it was sold to Stephen Cloud, who now owns it.
The house on the opposite side of the way, where F. J. Hinkson, Jr., has his leather store, was built by 'Squire Eyre. The exact time I do not know, but March 25, 1826, William Neal, the school- master at the old school house, torn down in 1874, bought it from the heirs of Isaac Eyre, and March 23, 1833, he sold it to Job Rulon, who, in turn, March 23, 1870, conveyed the estate to Fred- erick J. Hinkson, who by will devised it to his sons, Henry and Frederick J. Hinkson, Jr.
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
The Gray House.
Although the substantial brick structure at the north-west cor- ner of Fifth and Market streets is not very ancient, it having been built not more than forty years ago, yet the old house, which for- merly occupied part of the site of the present building, as well as the house in which Mrs Dr. Gray still resides has connected with it much interesting history appertaining to the olden time and for- mer residents of Chester.
The land on which it stands was part of the grant of twenty acres of land confirmed to James Sandelands, the eller, by patent May 31, 1686. James Sandelands, it seems, sold the property to Roger Jackson, but died before he effectually conveyed the premises to Jackson . The latter, in his will, dated January 13, 1711, devised this lot, whereon he had built a house, to his " loving friend, Jo- seph Baker, the elder, of Edgmont, * and Thomas Powell,
of Providence,
and their heirs my dwelling house and lots of land *
* situate, lying and being in the said town of Ches- ter, which James Sandelands in his life time sold but not effectually conveyed to me, in trust, to sell the estate for the payment of debts and divide the residue thereof equally amongst such or so many of my relations in England as shall within seven years after my de- cease come over here." However, Jonas Sanlelands and Mary, his wife, by deed, March 20, 1712, conveyed the premises, of which he was then in occupancy, to Roger Jackson, reserving a yearly rent of six shillings payable on the 25th day of March in each and every year forever. Thomas Powell died before Roger Jackson, and Jo- seph Baker took upon himself the duties of the trust, but he dying, left his son, John Baker, as executor of his estate, who, as such executor, Octoher 4, 1717, conveyed a part of the estate of Roger Jackson to William Backingham. The latter, August 14, 1721, conveyed the premises to John Price, who had before Roger Jack- son's death, purchased from him, May 26, 1715, a part of the land conveyed to him by Sandelands. On March 25, 1724, John Price purchased from John Baker the remaining part of the Jackson es- tate. Price died in 1726. By his will, February, 1726, he left to
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Historic Buildings in Chester.
his wife, Catharine, one-half interest in his real property. The widow married William Frehorn, who, by his will, May 2, 1736, left his estate to his wife, and she subsequently intermarried with John Hanley, who, with Catharine, his wife, by a deed, January 29, 1742-3, conveyed to Joseph Parker the interest of Catharine in the estate, and Joseph Parker, by deed dated February 9, of the same year, conveyed the half interest to John Hanley. Catharine Han- ley having died, the widower married a second time, and by his will, May 12, 1769, he devised unto his wife, Eleanor, the lot bounded by Fifth street, Market street and Edgmont avenue, ex- cepting a part to the north end of the triangles belonging to Henry Hale Graham, and a lot which he had sold to Caleb Cobourn, during his lifetime. Eleanor Hanley subsequently married John Hogan, a kinsman of John Hanley, to whom the latter by his will had de- vised the brick house on Fifth street to the east of the Columbia House and now a part of that hotel. The interest of John Price, the heir of John Price, the elder, was absorbed into that of the . Hogans, and a mortgage was given him February 10, 1772, cover- ing the property under consideration as well as the brick house on Fifth street. On May 24, 1774, John Hogan and Eleanor, his wife, mortgaged both the properties mentioned to Hugh McIlvain, for £50, and defaulting in the payment, Nicholas Fairlamb, Sheriff, sold the lot on the north side of Fifth and Market streets, May 9, 1791, to William Richardson Atlie. The latter married Marga- retta, the only daughter of Gen. Anthony Wayne, and having been appointed one of the Justices and Clerk of the Courts of Dela- ware county in 1789, came to this city in 1790, and resided in the old house. Atlie having built a stable and improved the property, on March 25, 1795, sold it to John Crosby, of Ridley, who, No- vember 23, of the same year, conveyed it to James Withey; the latter in turn, December 15, 1796, sold it to Dr. William Martin.
Dr. Martin, the grandfather of John Hill Martin, the author of the " History of Chester and its Vicinity," was a man of much pro- minence. He was a physician as well as a lawyer, a Justice of the Peace, and Chief Burgess of Chester, and in April, 1798, when Washington passed through Chester on his way to Philadelphia, Dr. Martin made the address of congratulation to the President on be- half of the town. It was in this year that the yellow fever visited
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
Chester as a fearful scourge. Dr. Martin, it is stated, was much alarmed, and seemed to feel that he would die of the pestilence. It is said that he frequently rode to the windows of the houses where persons were sick with the fever, would learn the condition . of the patient, and prescribe and furnish the medicine without en- tering the dwelling.
In September of that year, however, a British vessel was lying off Chester with all hands down with the fever. Dr. Martin was sent for : he attended, and as he had feared, he contracted the dis- ease from which he died, September 28, 1798. His wife, Eleanor Martin, administered, and by order of Court she sold the premises January 13, 1799, to John Flower, in trust, to the use of Hannah Wall, and at her death to her children, John Flower, Richard Flower, Jemima Mckeever and Reese Wall, and in the event of the death of Reese Wall, without issue and intestate, to his half-bro- thers and sister in equal parts. Reese Wall was drowned in the Delaware bay in the early part of the present century, and Hannah Wall died February 24, 1810. On February 24, 1824, Richard Flower, of Chester Mills, (now Upland) and wife, conveyed his "one-third interest to his brother John, who, by his will, February 14, 1825, devised his two-third interest in this property to William G. Flower, who was for many years afterwards the lessee of the Chester Mills, and whose almost miraculous escape from drowning during the freshet of 1843, is still remembered by the older resi- dents of this city.
Jemima Mckeever, grandmother of the late John Burrows Mc- Keever, and of Harriet B. McKeever, the authoress, of this city, conveyed her interest in the estate, June 10, 1826, to William G. Flower. During the latter's ownership of the house it was occu- pied by Archibald T. Dick, until he built the old Eyre mansion, now the Chester Republican League House. On April 15, 1834, William G. Flower sold the premises to Joseph M. G. Lescure. The latter in 1825 had purchased the material and printing estab- lishment of the Post Boy, from Eliphalet B. Worthington, changing the title of the paper to the Upland Union, or Delaware County, Kingsessing and Blockley Advertiser, a folio sheet, five columns to a page, which paper he continued to publish in the Borough until 1838, when he sold it to Joseph Williams and Charles T. Coates.
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The office of publication was in the frame building then standing on Fifth street, west of his dwelling, after he purchased the pro- perty on which Mrs. Gray's house now stands. The Uplund Union was strongly Democratic in its leanings, and the late Y. S. Walter, in the Republican, always alluded to it as the " Upland Onion," while . Lescure, in return, dubbed the Delaware County Republican, then published in Darby, as the " Darby Ram." Joseph M. G. Lescure and Catharine, his wife, August 15, 1836, sold the property to Dr. William Gray, whose widow still owns it. Shortly after Dr. Gray acquired title to the premises, and while he was absent several months on a visit to recruit his health at the springs of Virginia, his wife caused the old building to be torn down and the present house to be erected in its stead. . Peter Gamble was the builder. The doctor, on his return, was agreeably surprised to find that in his absence a new mansion, ample in its proportions and finished in a style of elegance for that day, had taken the place of the ancient stone dwelling which had formerly occupied a part of the site of the new structure.
Dr. William Gray, a member of the well-known family of Gray, of Gray's Ferry, was for many years one of the most noted men of the county. In early life he had gone to his uncle, Thomas Steel, a miller in Darby, to learn that business, but finding the occupation uncongenial he abandoned it, and studied medicine under his rela- tion, Dr. Warfield, of Maryland. After he graduated, he married Martha Bonsall, and settled in Chester, where for many years he had a large and lucrative practice as a physician. He died May 12, 1864. The doctor will be recalled to the recollection of the old residents of Chester as one whose visits, whether in the discharge of the duties of his profession or of those of social life, were al- ways received with pleasure by the household to whom they were made.
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
The Turner (Shaw) House.
I thought until very recently that part of the old house standing at the north-east corner of Third street and Concord avenue, da- ted back over a hundred and fifty years, but I have learned from Mrs. Shaw that the old Turner House was torn down by James Shaw, in 1796, and the eastern portion of the ancient structure was erected by him at that time, while the western addition was built in 1827, when it was the estate of Jane (Sharpless) Shaw, who married a second time, in 1808, David Bevan. We know that John Salkeld, Sr., in his will, in 1733, devised the property to his son, Thomas, and the latter, January 26, 1741, sold it to William Tur- ner, who is designated in the deed as " merchant " Previous to this purchase, Turner occupied the dwelling thereon erected as Thomas Salkeld's tenant, for in 1739, Bampfylde Moore Carew mentions that in that year he called on Mrs. Turner and obtained money from her, as stated elsewhere in this volume. The dwelling and ground in all probability was acquired by Edward Turner by descent, for in 1770, the premises were taken in execution by Jesse Maris, Sheriff, and sold as the property of Edward Turner, May 28, of that year, to Samuel Shaw. The purchaser was the first of his name in Chester county, having been born in Lincolnshire, in 1707, and previous to his leaving England was in the military service of his King, for in a petition he presented to the Justice of the Courts, March 26. 1764, asking to be relieved from the duties of Constable of Chester township, he set forth that fact, as well as that he has formerly dwelt in Philadelphia, where he was commis- sioned by the Governor as a Major and Captain of a company of soldiers, in which capacity he instructed not only his own comnand, but " did discipline several other companies as well, without any reward from the Government." At the time the office of Constable was appurtenant to the land, and each real estate owner had to dis- charge that duty in turn, as will be apparent from an examination of the old records at West Chester. In 1752, Samuel Shaw owned the noted Chester Mills, now Upland, and erected a dam breast across the creek in that year, as appears from several affidavits in
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possession of the Crozer family among many old papers and maps relating to the title of the mill site and lands appertaining thereto. Samuel Shaw died September 20, 1783, intestate, and the property at Concord road and Third street was awarded to his son, John Shaw, by order of Court, in partition of his estate. John Shaw, November 10, 1786, conveyed the estate to James Shaw, his half-brother ; John, the elder son, being a child of Samuel Shaw's first wife, Mary, and James a son of his second wife, Han- nah, daughter of Tristram Smith. It is related that when James Shaw married Jane Sharpless, daughter of Thomas and Martha (Preston) Sharpless, October 23. 1796, the newly married couple occupied for a time the Black Bear Inn, (now the Hinkson property at Penn and Third streets) as a dwelling, while the old Turner House was being torn down to make room for the new structure James Shaw was a noted sportsman in his day, and on one occasion he shot in an afternoon seventy-eight ducks. He used a double- barrelled gun, and fired at the birds that sat on the water, and dis- charged the second barrel as they rose, with the result above stated. So remarkable was it then thought that the fact was noted on the stock of his gun, an account being cut in the wood. After his death this gun was given by his widow to William Graham. James Shaw died early in the present century, leaving a will by which he ap- pointed Ephraim Pearson and Jane Shaw, (his widow) executors of his estate with power to sell the realty. In exercise of that author- ity the executors named, March 26, 1803, conveyed the premises to Wm. Graham, and he, May 2, the same year, transferred the estate to Jane Shaw, the widow, previous to her marriage with David Be- van. Mrs (Shaw) Bevan, by her will, December 5, 1843, devised the estate to her son, Samuel Shaw. The latter married Mary Ann, daughter of John and Isabella Eyre, of Upper Chichester, who, surviving her husband twenty years, is yet hale and hearty and still resides in the old homestead, the property having been devised to her by her late husband, September 5, 1840, his will having been made nearly twenty-two years before his death, which occurred May 9, 1862. Samuel Shaw .was a farmer, and appointed a Justice of the Peace, and although he was an old-fashioned gentleman, punctilious in the observance of all the ceremonies of social inter- course, he was always courteous to young and old alike, and is
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Historical, Sketch of Chester.
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