History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 130

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1162

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In January, 1826, Governor Shulze appointed him Secretary of the Commonwealth. Shortly after this the Legislature of Pennsylvania elected him to the Senate of the United States, where he occupied a seat until the au- tumu of 1831, when his health declined to such a degree that he resigned. The New York papers of that day de- . manded for Barnard a seat in the cabinet. While yet in the Senate at Washington, in 1829, his friends in Penn- sylvania were nearly successful in nominating him for Gov- eruor. He was defeated by a faction in Chester County, or, in the words of the late Dr. William Darlington, " by a sinister combination of envious cliques." This was the

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HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

first reverse Barnard had ever met ; his whole course had been a brilliant march towards renown, but now his own county was divided, and, being of an exceedingly sensitive and highly nervous organization, he keenly felt the smart of a temporary defeat. All he lacked of success was una- nimity in Chester County.

In July, 1832, he was complimented by being chosen an honorary member of the Peithessophian Society of Rut- gers College. His health rapidly deteriorated, and he died in West Chester, Feb. 18, 1834, in his forty-third year, and was buried in the Friends' graveyard, High Street, from whence his remains were removed to the Oaklands Cemetery, Oct. 19, 1854, where a monument to him had been erected. On the occasion of the interment at Oak- lands Dr. William Darlington delivered an oration, from which many of the above facts are gathered.

The reinterment of Gen. Barnard was the occasion of a very imposing military pageant ; seven car-loads of troops from Philadelphia and companies from other places at- tended, which, together with the line of citizens, reached from the court-house to the cemetery.

As a lawyer Gen. Barnard acquired a leading practice, notwithstanding the many interruptions of his professional life and the able competitors he had to measure with. An original trial-list for January term, 1826, still in good preservation, shows him to have been engaged in sixteen out of the thirty-six causes then ready for trial.

JAMES DAY BARNARD, Esq., brother of Gen. Barnard, born at Chester, June 9, 1781, admitted to practice at the Chester County bar, Aug. 15, 1803, was the eldest son of James Barnard, Esq., sheriff of Delaware County; died young, unmarried.

VINCENT BARNARD, naturalist, botanist, ornithologist, entomologist, taxidermist, mineralogist, artisan, and uni- versal genius; born in East Marlboroughi, Aug. 27, 1825 ;. died at Kennet Square, April 25, 1871; eldest son of William Barnard, deceased. He married, first, Joanna Pennock, daughter of the late Moses Pennock, second, Sarah, daughter of Simon Martin, who survived him and died in Wilmington, Del., Feb. 22, 1881. In botany he was a protege of Dr. Darlington. Naturally fond of pur- suing this study, lie when a boy found a plant, the name of which neither he nor his friend, the teacher of the district school, could determine; he was advised to show it to Dr. Darlington, the author of " Flora Cestrica." He said the doctor would not notice a boy like him, but upon being told that the sight of a flower with a request for its name would be a sufficient introduction he was reassured, and went to the Chester County Bank, of which the learned doctor was president. His own account of the interview, thus tremblingly sought, is as follows : " I went into the bank, and walking up to where the doctor was standing, gave him the plant and asked him to please to tell me its . name. He looked at me for a moment, and asked me where I found it. He then took down from a shelf a book, from which he read me a full description of it. He then talked to me about plants just as though he had always known me, and said to me that he would be pleased to assist me if I should meet with any difficulty in my studies." After this cordial relations were maintained between them through life.

Among the students of the natural sciences Mr. Barnard was distinguished by a sort of intuitive faculty. He had not the advantages of the higher schools, yet he excelled the college-bred in many of the results and acquirements which he gained. During the winter months he attended the public school at Marlborough, and at other times worked assiduously on his father's farm near by. He early ex- hibited very marked traits of character, and his teachers often referred to him as worthy of imitation by his fellow- students. His father allowed him two or more rooms of the house for his collections of birds, insects, plants, birds' eggs, minerals, etc., and he employed his mornings and evenings in gathering and arranging specimens. Seldom a day passed without his acquiring some addition to his cabi- net and museum, some insect, egg, animal, bird, fish, or plant, until he had accumulated a vast collection of birds shot and stuffed by his own hands, butterflies and insects artistically mounted. He actually began, as a boy, a classi- fied description of the insects of his locality, giving many of them names of his own invention, and had progressed to a very considerable degree before he learned that others had preceded him in that branch of natural science, and at the age of sixteen years he had fairly founded his museum, containing over three thousand specimens of all kinds, which became the wonder of the country-side and attracted many visitors. He wrote an essay on entomology in 1848, de- scribing four hundred and eighty specimens. He set out a botanical garden about his residence at Kennet Square, containing four hundred trees and shrubs. His very fine collection of birds, animals, plants, etc., were after his deatlı purchased by Swarthmore College, where they are now pre- served.

Without any previous instruction he was a most thor- ough mechanic, and could make or repair any tool or machinery from a needle to an anchor, and from a watch to a locomotive. What no other mechanic could do Vin- cent Barnard would accomplish, and he was much resorted to to execute some piece of work or mechanism where specialists had failed. He was as pertinacious a questioner as Socrates, and pursued the acquisition of knowledge with a sort of impetuosity which no impediment could check. Dying at the early age of forty-six, a career of great use- fulness and distinction was untimely cut off. Besides being a man of great mental force and physical vigor, he was of a most generous, genial, and noble disposition, modest deportment, and exemplary character.

RICHARD BARNARD, son of Richard and Ann (Taylor) Barnard, of Newlin, married, 1, 3, 1754, Susanna, daughter of David and Winnifred Eckhoff, of the same township. After Susanna's death he married, 3, 16, 1763, Lettice Baker, daughter of Joseph and Mary, of Goshen, by whom he had ten children. Susanna left two children,-Jeremiah and Rachel, the latter of whom married Joseph Reynolds, of Nottingham.

Jeremiah, born 12, 2, 1754, died 1, 27, 1837, married 10, 25, 1780, at Londongrove Meeting, Elizabeth Pass- more, born 3, 13, 1759, died 10, 13, 1847, daughter of George and Margaret (Strode) Passmore, of West Marl- borough. Their children were eleven in number, viz. : Susanna, b. 9, 25, 1781 ; m. Vincent Baily. Jeremiah, b.

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1, 20, 1783. George, b. 5, 1, 1785; d. 11, 23, 1841. Margaret, b. 9, 30, 1787. Richard, b. 11, 3, 1789 ; d. 1, 31, 1850. Mary, b. 1, 31, 1792; m. James M. Lewis. Samuel, b. 5, 13, 1794 ; d. 10, 1, 1826. Rachel, b. 8, 5, 1796. John, b. 11, 11, 1798; m. Hannah Painter, Lydia Ann Swayne, and Martha -. Elizabeth, b. 6, 26, 1801 ; m. Nathan Walton. Anna, b. 6, 9, 1803 ; m. Jacob L. Brinton.

Jeremiah Barnard, Jr., married 4, 11, 1804, Abigail Pusey, born 4, 6, 1784, died 11, 1, 1876, daughter of Ellis and Abigail (Brinton) Pusey, of Londongrove, and had the following children : Ellis P., Joshua, James, Pusey, Elizabeth, Lydia, Philena, and Susanna P. Barnard.

Of these, James was born in East Marlborough in 1808, and married, 12, 14, 1842, Mary Hicks, born 4, 24, 1818, daughter of Thomas and Amy Hicks, of Londongrove. They have had three children,-Jeremiah, Amy J. (died 1870), and Elizabeth H. Barnard.

BARTRAM, JOHN, the earliest native American bot- snist, and the founder of the first botanical garden on this continent, was born near the village of Darby, in what was then Chester (now Delaware) County, Pa., 3d mo. 23, 1699. He was the eldest son of William Bartram and Elizabeth, daughter of James Hunt. His lot being cast in a newly-settled colony, his education was very defective. He, however, applied himself diligently to classical and philosophical studies, and always sought the society of the most learned and virtuous men. He had an early incli- nation to the study of physic and surgery. He acquired so much knowledge of medical science as to be of great ser- vice among his neighbors, and it is very probable that, as most of his medicines were derived from the vegetable kingdom, this circumstance might indicate the necessity of and his taste for the study of botany.

He soon conceived the idea of establishing a " Botanic Garden" for the reception and cultivation of various in- digenous vegetables, as well as of exotics; and also of travel- ing for the discovery and acquisition of rare and interest- ing species. In 1728 he purchased the ground on which his Botanic Garden was laid out and planted, five acres, situated on the right bank of the Schuylkill River, a couple of miles below the city of Philadelphia, as then limited .* Here he built with his own hands a comfortable house of hewn stone. The date of the building is given in an in- scription on a stone in the wall, viz., "JOHN * ANN BARTRAM, 1731.". His various excursions rewarded his labors with the possession of a great variety of new, beau- tiful, and useful trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. His garden at length attracting the visits and notice of dis- tinguished persons, he was encouraged to persevere in his labors. He sought to benefit science, commerce, and the useful arts by communicating his discoveries and collec- tions to the curious at home and abroad.

Bartram became acquainted and entered into corre- spondence with many of the scientific and literary celeb-

* The Bartram Garden is now the property of A. M. Eastwick, Esq., a gentleman who rightly appreciates the treasure, and whose good taste has induced him to restore the premises, as nearly as practicable, to the condition in which they were put and left by the venerable founder.

rities of Europe,-such as Linnaeus, Dr. Fothergill, and others,-and was also engaged in an active correspondence with nearly every scientific contemporary in our country. He was indefatigable in his explorations of our forests and mountain regions, from the Catskills and great lakes down to the sandy lowlands and swamps of the South. A plant was dedicated to Bartram by Linnæus, but it was subse- quently merged in a genus previously established. Now a humble moss bears the name Bartramia, imposed by Hed- wig. At the advanced age of nearly seventy years, John Bartram embarked at Philadelphia for Charleston, S. C .; from thence he proceeded by land through Carolina and Georgia to St. Augustine, in East Florida. When he arrived at the last-named place,-being then appointed king's botanist and naturalist for exploring the provinces, -he received orders to search for the sources of the great river San Juan (or St. John's). He was a man of modest and gentle manners, frank, cheerful, and of great good nature; a lover of justice, truth, and charity. During the whole course of his life there was not a single instance of his engaging in a litigious contest. In his political princi- ples he was a decided patriot,t and zealously testified against every description of human slavery. He was born and educated a Friend, but for some differences of opinion he was disowned by the society.

John Bartram was twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of Richard Maris, of Chester Monthly Meeting. She died in 1727. His second wife was Ann Mendenhall, of Concord Monthly Meeting. They were married in 1729, and had nine children. Ann Bartram survived her husband upwards of six years, having died Jan. 29, 1784, aged eighty-seven. It appears by the rec- ords of the American Philosophical Society, of which John Bartram was one of the original members (his name stand- ing next to that of Dr. Franklin, who headed the list), that he died Sept. 22, 1777, aged 78 years and 6 months,

BAUGH, GEORGE .- The Baugh family is of German extraction, and the first of the name known in the county was John Baugh, who came to America about the middle of the last century. His soo John married Mary Price, to whom were born eleven children,-four sons and seven daughters,-of whom the eldest was George. He was born Oct. 17, 1797, in what is now East Coventry township, and was married Dec. 2, 1819, to Catharine Frick (born Aug. 14, 1798), daughter of John and Catharine (Grum- bacher) Frick. The fruits of this marriage were four children, viz. : Sarah Ann Jones, d. unmarried ; Caroline, m. John Ellis ; Allen Armstrong (deceased), m. Hannah, daughter of Michacl Towers; Harriet Reinhart (deceased), m. Dr. Edward B. Heckel. George Baugh died April 22, 1865, and his widow resides with her daughter, Mrs. Caro- line B. Ellis. In his younger days Mr. Baugh was a mer- chant, and kept store in East Coventry, and subsequently was engaged in farming. He served many years as school director, and was a director in the old Pottstown Bank. He was a pronounced temperance man, taking great interest in that cause, and was equally noted for his opposition to American negro slavery. He often assisted colored people

t Sabine classes John Bartram among the loyalists.

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HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

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to gain their freedom by aiding them on their journeys to the Canadas and more northern climes. He was a local politician of much note, and was as much attached; to the Republican party as he had been to the old Whig organiza- tion. He owned the fine farm on which his daughter, Mrs. Ellis, now resides, and on which he built the residence in 1829. He had the entire confidence of the community, settled many estates, and was a peacc-maker in quieting wrangles and disturbances. He was educated in the Ger- man Baptist faith, and attended and helped to support that church. His daughter Caroline was married to John Ellis, son of James Ellis, June 14, 1853, from which union two children have been born,-Ida Catharine and George Baugh Ellis.

BARTHOLOMEW .- These are said to be descended from the celebrated Barthelemi family of France, many of whom, having seceded from the Roman Catholic Church, emigrated to Great Britain in order to escape persecution. From England they came to Pennsylvania at an early day, and we find George Bartholomew, with his wife Jane, living at and owning the Blue Anchor tavern in Philadel- phia in 1683. John Bartholomew, of Montgomery town- ship, (now) Montgomery County, died in 1756, and Mary, bis widow, about 1762. They had children,-Ann, m. Thomas Waters; Joseph ; Thomas; Elizabeth, m. Isaac Davis, Esq., of Tredyffrin ; Rachel, m. Benjamin Davis; John; Andrew; Benjamin ; Mary, m. - Thomas; Augustine; and Edward.

Joseph settled in East Whiteland soon after 1740, and died there in November, 1754, leaving a wife, Sarah, and children,-John, Benjamin, Hannah, and Rachel. Their

father's lands were divided between the sons, John receiv- ing the homestead and 180 acres, while the remaining 160 acres was devised to his brother. But at the dawn of the Revolutionary war Benjamin spurned the idea of being the inglorious cultivator of an invaded soil. He marched, as captain of a company, to the tented field; he fought gal- lantly and suffered much, yet Providence spared him to witness the happy termination of the contest, and ulti- mately restored him to his friends and paternal fields. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, Capt. Bar- tholomew married Rachel, daughter of William and Sarah (Potts) Dewees, and settled on his farm in the town- ship of East Whiteland, located in the vicinity of his birthplace. On this farm were concentrated all his joys and all his toils. The industry for which he was conspicu- ous in every pursuit of life was in no situation more fully exemplified than in his agricultural occupations. The ap- pearance of his farm and his stock, the harmony which pervaded his household, his excellent arrangements, all com- bined to bring to recollection the elegant exclamation of the prince of Roman poets :

"O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Agricolas !"

Capt. Bartholomew did know and did realize the happi- ness of a farmer's life. No inducements were sufficiently powerful to withdraw his attention from agricultural pur- suits. From 1772 to 1775, inclusive, he served as a mem- ber of Assembly, and he was repeatedly solicited in after- life, by those who were best acquainted with his capacity for business, to accept a public trust; but this he uniformly refused. On a particular occasion he was requested to

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assign his reasons for declining a public station. He re- plied, " Many are fond of public employment, and are totally regardless where the theatre of action may be. I should not refuse my services if required on a public exigency, but until that shall exist I must be permitted to remain with my family on this farm ; each requires my attention, and each possesses my regard."

His family embraced the following children : Joseph, who married Hannah Davis, and died in Tredyffrin in 1811; Hannah, who married John Hughes; Sarah ; John, who married Lydia Cleaver ; Rachel, who married Thomas Davis ; Marian (Maryanne), who died unmarried ; Edward, who married Emily Cleaver; Augustine, who married Maryanne Philips; Benjamin, who married Elizabeth Pritner ; and Ellen, who became the wife of Thomas Maxwell.

Capt. Bartholomew was a plain, blunt man, and freely spoke his mind. He died on his well-cultivated farm March 31, 1812, aged sixty years. His remains are de- posited in the cemetery of the Baptist Church, Tredyffrin.

John Bartholomew, Esq., was the brother of Capt. Ben- jamin Bartholomew, and was educated for mercantile pur- suits, but, preferring agriculture, he early settled on his paternal estate in East Whiteland. He served as major of the Chester County regiment of the Flying Camp in 1775, and in after-life attained to the rank of colonel and briga- dier general of militia. He was also a justice of the peace, and of the County Court. In the burial-ground of the Great Valley Baptist Church a monument was erected to his memory, from which it appears he died Jan. 24, 1814, in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

Thomas Bartholomew, a brother of John (1), probably settled in Willistown after the year 1756. He married Margaret -, but left no children. He died before Dec. 3, 1765; his wife died in December or January, 1776-7.

Benjamin Bartholomew, of Chester borough, gentleman, died in 1784, leaving a considerable estate to his relatives, including the children of his brother Joseph and sister, Elizabeth Davis.

BEALE, WILLIAM, son of Thomas and Catharine, of Calne, in Wiltshire, England, was born near Calne, Aug. 14, 1709, and about the year 1728 or 1730 came to Penn- sylvania. He settled in the Great Valley, in Whiteland, on the farm now Preston Thomas' clover-mill property, his lands including a part of what is now Thomas Downing's farm. His first wife was Mary Jenkin, born April 9, 1715, died Aug. 25, 1771, daughter of David Jenkin, who died in Uwchlan in 1743. William Beale, with his wife and children, were received into membership at Uwchlan Meet- ing 3, 21, 1750. He was married again, 3, 23, 1774, at Caln Meeting, to Rachel Lewis, widow of Phinchas Lewis, of East Caln.

The children of William Beule were,-1. Thomas, b. Aug. 6, 1735; d. June 30, 1803, in Tuscarora Valley, where he settled in 1763. He was one of the judges of Mifflin County, and a prominent man in his day. His wife was probably Sarah Todhunter. 2. William, b. Dec. 24, 1738; d. after 1800. 3. John, b. Dec. 12, 1740; d. Jan. 25, 1777, a soldier under Lafayette; m. about 1764 Tamar Burgoyne, daughter of Joseph Burgoyne, of East

Bradford. 4. Susanna, b. Dec. 16, 1742, m. about 1763 Noble Butler, Jr., and died in Kentucky after 1803. 5. David, b. June 20, 1745 ; d. Feb. 6, 1828, at his home in Beale township, Juniata Co., Pa. ; he was a prominent man in political affairs, and for many years associate judge in Mifflin County. 6. Mary, b. Oct. 8, 1747 ; m. 5, 21, 1772, to Samuel Hunt, of East Caln, now Downingtown ; d. 9, 24, 1820. 7. Joshua, b. Nov. 19, 1749 ; lost at sea in a voyage from the East Indies, 1787. 8. Edith, b. June 13, 1752; m. 2, 24, 1779, to Phinehas Whitaker, of East Caln.

William Beale died 11, 27, 1800, in West Whiteland, and was buried by the side of his first wife, on a portion of his farm now belonging to Thomas Downing. Besides his property in this county he owned large tracts of land in the Tuscarora Valley, on which he settled his sons.

John and Tamar Beale left a daughter, Mary, who mar- ried, 10, 14, 1790, Anthony Gray, of East Bradford ; also a son, Joseph, who was placed by his grandfather as an apprentice with Benaniel Ogden, cabinet-maker, near West Chester, after which he went to Philadelphia and became an extensive manufacturer of furniture in the firm of Beale & Jemison. His son, James M. Beale, came to Chester County in 1830, and died at his residence near Coatesville Jan. 1, 1881. Horace A. Beale, iron-master, of Parkes- burg, is also a son of Joseph, and another is Joseph Beale, late surgeon-general in the U. S. navy, now on the retired list by reason of age. Their mother was Margaret, daugh- ter of Capt. James McDowell, of Upper Oxford.

BELL, HON. THOMAS S., son of William and Jane (Sloan) Bell, was born in Philadelphia, Oct. 22, 1800; studied law under the direction of James Madison Porter, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar April 14, 1821, several months before he was of age. In May of that year he removed to West Chester, the seat of justice of Chester County. He was entirely unknown in the com- munity in which he settled, and for a time struggled for a livelihood, but his active mind, fluent elocution, and legal knowledge speedily gained for him a prominent position in the profession.

On the election of Gov. Shulze, in 1823, he was ap- pointed deputy attorney-general for Chester County, and held that office from December, 1823, until August, 1828. In 1829 he was appointed one of the visitors of the Military Academy at West Point, and in that capacity acted as chairman of one of the committees to report on the state of that institution.

He continued in the uninterrupted pursuit of his profes- sion until May, 1837, when he became a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the State, as a delegate from the senatorial district composed of the coun- ties of Chester and Montgomery. In October, 1838, he was returned as a member-elect to the State Senate from the same district, and took a leading part in the difficulties which distinguished the beginning of that session, coin- monly called the " Buckshot War." Owing to alleged errors in the returns, his seat was contested, and awarded to his competitor, Nathaniel Brooke.

May 16, 1839, he was appointed by Governor Porter to succeed Judge Darlington as president judge of the ju-

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dicial district composed of the counties of Chester and Delaware, the duties of which office he discharged with ability and impartiality until Nov. 18, 1846, when he was appointed by Governor Shunk a judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. This position he held until Dec. 1, 1851, when the tenure of office was changed by the constitution.

He was also, from March, 1855, until December of the same year, president judge of the judicial district composed of the counties of Wayne, Pike, Carbon, and Monroe, to which he was appointed by Governor Pollock.

He represented Chester and Delaware Counties in the State Senate in 1858, 1859, and 1860.

In every position in which it was his fortune to be placed he acquitted himself with great credit. As a lawyer he was learned, faithful, and diligent. In his intercourse with the bench and the bar he was uniformly courteous and honorable. He had a mind remarkably quick of compre- hension, mastering his subject almost by intuition, and there were few more ready men in debate. He was a very fluent speaker, and a clear and forcible writer.

Judge Bell was twice married,-first to Caroline, a daughter of Judge Darlington, and afterwards to Keziah, a daughter of William Hemphill, Esq. His second wife was a granddaughter of Col. Joseph McClellan, a veteran soldier of the Revolutionary war.

Judge Bell died in Philadelphia, June 6, 1861, at the residence of his daughter (the accomplished wife of Dr. Godell, late of Constantinople), and was interred in the Oaklands Cemetery, near West Chester.

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History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 130

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 1162

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1162