History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 156

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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to Mr. Haines the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth, The offer was accepted, and within a few days he entered upon the duties of his appointment. Mr. Johnston having been elected Governor at the ensuing fall election, Mr. Haines was reappointed in January following, and he re- mained in office till Feb. 13, 1850. During the period of his official service as Governor Johnston's secretary and principal adviser his public duties were not onerous, and he had leisure to attend the sessions of the courts in his native county. Hc availed himself of the opportunity to retain his connection with professional practice, and he was frequently engaged in jury trials, usually as assistant, and not as original counsel.

As Secretary of the Commonwealth, Mr. Haines was ex- officio superintendent of common schools, a position which at that time afforded fine opportunities of usefulness in ma- turing a system then only of sixteen years' growth, and still in a state of imperfect development. He was friendly to a scheme of public instruction, and believed it to be one of the highest duties of the State to take care that the chil- dren of the citizens should not be allowed to grow up in ignorance ; and he was not unaware of the need of much hard work to be done by some comprehensive and well-in- formed mind, before the common schools could become the efficient means of the mental and moral culture which the public welfare and the popular sentiment required. He made two reports, which contained some valuable sugges- tions, but which did not aim at striking out a complete and comprehensive system, such as he might have done had he been able to devote to the subject the amount of labor that it required.

While Secretary of the Commonwealth he gained many friends by his social disposition, his attractive conversation, and agreeable manners. The impression he made upon the members of the Legislature and other public men whom he met with at Harrisburg, was that of a man of decided in- tellect, yet averse to labor and studious of his ease. He was a most agreeable talker, and although not a full man, like Burke, nor profound, like Coleridge, whatever he said seemed most happily suited for the time and the occasion, and he had the art of. so pointing a moral and adorning a tale that his remarks, however trite or trifling, were invested with the interest of freshness and novelty. If not prompt in business, his conduct was at least free of offense to those with whom, by his official position, he was brought into con- tact ; and if he sometimes gave cause for complaint by an inveterate habit of procrastination, he silenced all murmurs by his easy and graceful courtesy. He was therefore popular at the seat of the State government as a Secretary, and was even more liked as a man.

Feb. 13, 1850, Mr. Haines was appointed by President Taylor Treasurer of the United States. His appointment was promptly confirmed by the Senate, and a few days af- terwards he removed to Washington and entered upon the duties of his office. Those duties, at the time, were by no means arduous. His clerks had been well trained and un- derstood their business, and the head of the bureau had little to do beyond affixing lis signature to official papers. This position he certainly enjoyed ; his responsibilities were not onerous and he had abundance of leisure on his hands,

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BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL.

and if there could have been an assurance of its permanency his highest aspirations would have been satisfied. He knew well, however, that there was little probability of the pat- ronage of the government continuing in the hands of his party beyond the existing Presidential term to which Gen. Taylor was elected, and that on the accession of a Demo- cratic President he would be obliged to retire. Believing that his duty required him to be generally at his post, his visits to West Chester, while be continued to be Treasurer, were brief and only occasional, and he withdrew almost al- together from professional practice. He was not accus- tomed, at Washington, to mingle to any considerable extent in the gaycties of the capital. His wife had become, some years before, a member of the Society of Friends, and con- formed in plainness and simplicity to the usages of the peo- ple of her religious profession, and consistently abstained from intercourse with the world of fashion which she had renounced. He occasionally attended the President's levees and the receptions of the heads of departments, but more from considerations of respect to the incumbents of those government offices, with some of whom he was on terms of ·personal intimacy, than with a view to social enjoyment. He almost uniformly spent his evenings with his wife, pre- ferring her society, to which her sweet and cheerful spirit lent a perpetual charm, to the brightest and gayest the cap- ital could afford. It was only in her absence, on her rather unfrequent visits to West Chester, that any inducement could be presented strong enough to lead him abroad on festive occasions, and when he accepted invitations to even- ing entertainments he was uniformly among the very first to withdraw. Late hours were unsuited to his habits. From his youth he had been accustomed to retiring early, and whether at West Chester, Harrisburg, or Washington, he was usually in bed before any of his neighbors, even those of the most primitive style of living. His practice in this respect was so strongly marked as to be a subject of pleasantry with his friends. It used to be a common joke that he went to rest at the same time that the chickens went to their roost. He gave, however, no more hours to repose than his neighbors. Although he was in bed before them at night, he was astir several hours in the morning while their heads were still on their pillows. Summer and winter he was usually abroad at the first peep of day.

The insecurity of the tenure of the office of Treasurer at Washington made a more permanent position, though at- tended with greater labor, acceptable. He therefore, on being elected in the fall of 1851 to the president judgeship of the Fifteenth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, com- posed of the counties of Chester and Delaware, resigned his treasurership and returned to West Clicster. In December of that year he was sworn into office. The term for which he was elected was ten years, and he continued for that pe- riod to preside in the courts of the two counties. At the end of his term he was not a candidate for re-election, and he returned immediately to the bar and resumed practice, without any apparent diminution of vigor and with all his forensic powers unimpaired.

In February, 1865, his wife died after a short illness. Her loss was severely felt. She had every quality calcu- lated to make his home delightful, and he ceased to take an

interest thenceforth either in society or business. In his own domestic circle he was constantly reminded of her absence, and he became in great measure weary of life. Towards the early part of September of the same year he was attacked by dysentery. His disease in its first stage had no alarming symptoms. To nobody but himself did it appear to threaten a fatal termination. In his depressed condition of mind, however, and with a certain presenti- ment of approaching death, his recovery became hopeless. His anxiety for relief from the burden of life made death welcome. He died in the following October, in the seventy- fourth year of his age.

" Men of genius, tread lightly over his ashes, For he was your kinsman."

Judge Haines had a talent for poetry, which, if it had been cultivated with assiduity, would have gained for him more than a local reputation. But he wrote only as the occasion prompted. His pieces were struck off at a single heat, and were subjected to no thought beyond the first effort. I have some twenty or more of them in my pos- session, and the most of them bear the marks of incom- pleteness, easily discoverable by a critical eye, and which a revising hand would have removed. He once recited to me an admirable poem, which he had recently written, which I thought needed only some slight retouching to be perfect in its finish and exquisite in expression: He answered my suggestion by saying, " I think I will give it another touch or two some of these days, when I feel in the humor." But I have never seen or heard of it since, except that Mr. Hickman once told me that the author had repeated it to him. Among the effusions of his pen the following may be considered as a just specimen of his style :

BOB FLETCHER.

I once knew a ploughman, Boh Fletcher his name, Who was old and was ugly, and so was his dame; Yet they lived quite contented and free from all strife, Bob Fletcher, the ploughman, and Judy, his wife.

As the morn streaked the east, and the night fled away, They would rise up to labor refreshed for the day ; And the song of the lark, as it rose on the gale, Found Boh at the plough and his wife at the pail.

A neat little cottage in front of a grove, Where in youth they first gave their young hearts up to love, Was the solace of age, and to them doubly dear, As it called up the past with a smile or a tear.

Each tree had its thought, and the vow could impart That mingled in youth the warm wish of the heart; The thorn was still there, and the blossoms it hore, And the song from the top seemed the same as before.

When the curtain of night over nature was spread, And Boh had returned from the plough to his shed, Like a dove on her nest he reposed from all care If his wife and his youngsters contented, were there.

I have passed hy his door when the evening was gray, And the hill and the landscape were fading away, And have heard from the cottage, with grateful surprise, The voice of thanksgiving, like incense, arise.

And I thought of the proud, who would look down with scorn On the neat little cottage, the grove, and the thorn, And have felt that the tinsels and pleasures of life Were dross, to contentment with Bob and his wife.

584

HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

DR. WILLIAM E. HAINES was the son of Jacob and Rachel Haines, and was born at Westtown, Chester Co., Pa., on the 30th of the 10th month, 1816. In his child- hood he carly displayed the activity of mind and energy of purpose which characterized his riper years, engaging in everything he undertook with zeal and efficiency.

He was first sent to school at Westtown Boarding-School, and continued his attendance there until the autumn of 1823, when his father removed to Muncy Valley, in Ly- coming County. In 1831 he was again sent to Westtown School, where he remained for three years engaged in the study of mathematics and other branches of a sound Eng- lish education, as well as the Greek and Latin languages.

By his manly rectitude, no less than by his industry and ready acquisition of knowledge, he won the respect and es- teem of his teachers, while his natural animation, joined to an innocent play of wit, rendered him an agrecable com- panion to his schoolmates, with some of whom he formed friendships which were as lasting as his life.

His close application acting upon a constitution naturally delicate, so far impaired his health that he was compelled to relinquish for a time the pursuits in which he was so much interested and to return home, which he did in August, 1834. Soon afterwards he determined upon the practice of medi- cine as the vocation of his life, and entered the office of Dr. Rankin, a respectable practitioner in the town of Muncy. He devoted himself with new zeal to the studies which were to be so interwoven with the success of his fu- ture life ; during the summer in the office of his preceptor, and in the winter by an attendance upon the lectures in the University of Pennsylvania.

Towards the close of the winter of 1837 his health again began to decline, but he was able to continue his attend- ance upon lectures and his assiduous reading till the close of the session, and to pass the examination for a degree with credit.

He was scarcely twenty-one years of age when, after some search for a suitable field for practice, he settled upon Springfield, Delaware Co., as the sphere where he should assume the onerous responsibility, and encounter the ill-re- paid toil, the struggles against prejudice and mistrust, and the anxious solicitude for success which too often attend the commencement of practice.

Although almost immediately employed by many families in his neighborhood as they had occasion, he had, however, much leisure time, which was employed in adding to his stock of medical knowledge, as well as reading upon gen- eral subjects. In the following winter he delivered a course of lectures upon chemistry at the Springfield Li- brary Rooms, which were listened to with interest by a numerous audience.

His manifest ability, elear judgment, and efficient action soon won for him a confidence in the estimation of the public, which was heightened by the kindness, dignity, and rectitude which characterized him; so that his practice continued rapidly to increase until the summer of 1840, when he was seized with .a severe illness. This malady, the exact nature of which is not known, after confining him some weeks to his bed, left him so enfeebled as to compel him to seek renovation and repose amid the bracing

.air of the mountains of Lycoming and the much-loved society of his paternal home. After some weeks thus spent he returned to his practice, which became sufficiently lucrative to justify him in the following spring in purchas- ing the premises immediately opposite the Springfield meeting-house, upon which he resided the remainder of his active life. On 10th mo. 7, 1841, he married Mary, eldest daughter of Joseph Rhoads, a union which contrib- uted greatly to the happiness of his after-life. In his per- sonal appearance at this time Dr. Haines was of medium height, his figure slender and hair light, complexion fair, and his face, though not handsome, was rendered agreeable by an expression of intelligence, dignity, and benevolence.

His manners partook less of artificial polish than of a true politeness, which arose from native kindness of heart and that just sense of self-respect whereby he scorned not the humblest and rendered to the highest the deference due from an equal to excellence and worth. Though little disposed to converse freely in the presence of numbers, among his more intimate friends his manner was easy and affectionate, heightened by a play of genial wit.

Towards his patients his conduct was most admirable. He was regarded by them as a friend and brother ; for while his abilities, medical skill, and mild dignity of deportment inspired them with respect, his kind sympathy won their grateful affection. In the spring of 1842 an epidemic of typhoid fever prevailed in the circuit of his practice. While busily engaged in attending to others his own family was attacked, and finally himself, in consequence of which he was confined for several weeks to his house. After his recovery he wrote a short account of the epidemic, which was published in the American Journal of Medical Sci- ences. Dr. Haines was a member of the religious Society of Friends, to whose doctrines he was strongly attached, regarding religion not as an abstract speculation, but as a practical law of life, affecting every action, regulating a man's whole being, and requiring of him the practice of every virtue. He died 4th mo. 18, 1846.

JOSEPH HAINES, one of the five brothers who settled ou Rancoeas Creek, in New Jersey, removed with Dorothy his wife, to Nottingham, Chester Co., in the year 1714. His first wife died 1, 7, 1719, at the age of thirty-nine years, and he married, 1, 1, 1721-2, Elizabeth, daughter . of James Thomas, of Whiteland. He died 9, 12, 1763, and his widow 11, 24, 1796, aged about one hundred years. A nephew, Jacob, son of William, also settled in Nottingham, and some of his descendants lived in Lancaster County.

Joseph Haines' children were William, died young ; Sarah, died young ; Ruth, b. 8, 28, 1709, m. Robert Mil- ler, of Caln ; Miriam, m. Robert Halliday ; Solomon, died young ; Patience, b. 11, 24, 1715, m. Patrick Miller; Dorothy, b. 11, 24, 1718; Sarah, b. 9, 27, 1722, died 12, 19, 1745-6; Deborah, died young; William, b. 4, 8, 1725, d. 9, 19, 1800; Reuben, b. 9, 26, 1726, d. 8, 7, 1745 ; Solomon, died young; Joseph, b. 11, 9, 1730; Anne, b. 7, 24, 1732; Margaret, died young ; Nathan, b. 2, 28, 1735 ; Daniel, b. 9, 15, 1736 ; Isaac, b. 4, 19, 1738; Deborah, b. 1, 15, 1740, d. 5, 2, 1784; Job, b. 8, 26, 1744.

585

BIOGRAPHICAL' AND GENEALOGICAL.

The children of Joseph Haines were twenty in number, and with such a start it is not surprising that the name of Haines is very common in the southwestern part of our county and in the adjacent county of Lancaster.

HALL, SAMUEL, a weaver, was living in Kennet about 1710, and died in 1738, leaving children as follows : Mary, m. to Robert Whitacre ; Sarah, m. to David Baily ; Phebe, m. to Calvin Cooper; Elizabeth, m. to Robert Whiteside ; Hannah, Dinah, Susanna, Margaret, George, Samuel, James, and Charles. George Hall married Sarah, daughter of Daniel and Jane Hoopes, and is said to have had twenty- four children. Samuel, the father, and George were weav- ers. Charles Hall married Sarah Taylor, and his descend- ants are living in Kennet.

rael, and Phinehas. Martha died Aug. 21, 1784. Robert Hamill died Aug. 3, 1803, and Jean, his wife, died Dec. 1, 1807, aged seventy-two years. When Robert Hamill came to this country he settled in Fallowfield, now High- land township, one mile south of Parkesburg. Israel Ham- ill (the father of Robert Hamill, the subject of this sketch) was married to Mary Scott, a daughter of James and Han- nah (Allison) Scott, who were of Scotch descent. Mary was born in June, 1776, and died Jan. 21, 1861. They had eleven children, to wit : Elisha, Robert, Hannah, m. James Cochran ; Jane, m. Jacob Seltzer; James, d. 1836; William, and Israel, d. 1840; the other four died in in- fancy.

Robert Hamill, Esq., married Jane Cochran, a daughter

ROBERT HAMILL.

HAMILL, ROBERT, was born July 22, 1801, and died March 18, 1876, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His father, Israel Hamill, was born Dec. 2, 1776, and died June 30, 1838. He was a son of Robert Hamill, who was born in the north of Ireland, Aug. 5, 1719 (O.S.). Joan (first wife of this Robert) was born Feb. 11, 1721 (O.S.). They were married in 1743. Their children were Martha, Mary, Phebe, Eliezer, Priscilla, and Ebenezer. Joan died Aug. 15, 1757, and was interred in the Upper Octorara New Side burying-ground, where most of the name have since been buried. Mary died Sept. 10, 1759, at sea, aged twelve years, and was laid in the same burying-ground. This would imply that the parents came to this country about the middle of the eighteenth century, and had left part of their children behind for a short time. Phebe died Sept. 19, 1779. The father then married Jean Shields, and their children were Elisha; Ruth, m. John Rodgers ; Mary, m. Samuel Richmond ; Jemima and Keziah (twins), d. in infancy ; Phebe, m. Mr. Hogg; John Caldwell, Is- 74

of James and Martha (Elton) Cochran, who died March 19, 1831, aged thirty-nine years, leaving four children, viz. : Martha (m. Dr. John G. Gibson), Israel, James Coch- ran, and Jane, who was married to Evan Chalfant. James Cochran, the father of Mrs. Jane Hamill, was a son of Stephen, one of three brothers (James, Stephen, and Da- vid) who came from Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century. James Cochran died Dec. 12, 1812, aged seventy-four years. Martha, the wife of James, died April 11, 1826, aged seventy-five years. Robert Hamill then married Mary, a daughter of Samuel and Margaret Walker, who died in 1839, without children. He after-

wards married Eliza, a daughter of Wothel and Catharine (Barr) Baldwin, who is now (New-Year's, 1881) living. By that union they had eight children, viz. : Robert Albert, Eliza Emma, Edwin A., Millard Fillmore, Samuel Dale, and Addie, and two others who died in infancy. Robert Hamill's residence was in Highland township, formerly a part of West Fallowfield. He was a justice of the peace

586

HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

for many years, and until he refused to serve any longer. As an evidence of the confidence and esteem of his neigh- bors and friends, he was called upon to fill various offices and positions of responsibility and trust. Israel, the eldest son of Robert and Jane Hamill, the contributor of the ma- terials of this biography, is married to Mary Ann, a daughter of James and Hannah (Fleming) Pinkerton, is an adherent of the Presbyterian faith and practice, as all his ancestry have been, both paternal and maternal, and he, his father (Robert Hamill), his grandfather (Israel Hamill), and his great-grandfather (Robert Hamill) from his settle- ment in this county have always had a residence within the bounds of old West Fallowfield ; and, what is a remark- able fact, neither of them moved from the place of their first settlement in life.

HANNUM, JOHN, with his wife Margery, were settled in Concord as early as 1688. He died in 1730, and his widow about 1742. Their children were James (who died in 1717), Robert, George, John, Mary (m. Thomas Smith), Elizabeth (m. Thomas Broom), Margery (m. Anthony Baldwin), Ann (m. John Way), and Sarah (m. Jacob Way).

John Hannum, Jr., married, 10, 29, 1731, Mary Gib- bons, but she probably died without issue, and he married, 8, 8, 1741, Jane, daughter of John and Elizabeth Neild, by whom he had children,-John, William, James, Mar- gery (m. Joseph Gibbons), and Mary (m. Richard Chey- ney). The father died 3, 5, 1773, in Concord, and his widow 11, 14, 1808, in her eighty-ninth year. William Hannum remained at the homestead in Concord. James settled on Doe Run, but died at Downingtown, 9, 28, 1809, in the sixtieth year of his age. John (3) settled on a large farm on the Brandywine and Valley Creek, in East Bradford, which had been purchased by his father.

He was an active Whig, and an influential citizen of Chester County from the days of the Revolution to the day of his death. Dec. 20, 1774, a general meeting of the citi- zens of Chester County was convened at the court-house, in the borough of Chester, to devise measures for the pro- tection of their rights as freemen, in pursuance of the rec- ommendation of the Continental Congress. A committee of seventy were appointed accordingly, of whom John Hannum was one. From that time he was a zealous par- ticipant in all the movements which led to and resulted in the independence of the United States. Most of the time he was a magistrate, and was often employed by the civil authorities in important confidential business, as well as holding a commission in the militia. At the time the Brit- ish army invaded Chester County, on its way from the Head of Elk to Philadelphia, Col. Hannum resided at the " Centre House" (now in the village of Marshallton), between the two main branches of the river Brandywine, and the night of Sept. 10, 1777, was passed by Thomas Cheyney, Esq., a relative of Col. Hannum, at the house of the latter. (At that perilous crisis it was not deemed prudent for Squire Cheyney to lodge at his own house.) Next morning- being Brandywine battle-day-the two set out together to visit the American army, known to be then in the vicinity of Chads' Ford. As they descended towards the west branch of the stream, near Trimble's mill and ford, they discovered coming down from the hills opposite a very numerous body

of soldiers, evidently British. This very much surprised Messrs. Hannum and Cheyney, and they moved round the adjacent hills, in order to observe the direction taken by the enemy. Finding them going toward Jefferis' Ford, on the east branch, and believing them to constitute the chief portion of the English army, our friends resolved at once, and at some personal risk, to proceed with the intelligence to Gen. Washington. Squire Cheyney, being mounted on a fleet hackney, pushed down the stream from Jefferis' Ford until he found the American commander-in-chief and had the interview mentioned on page 71.

Col. Hannum remained with the army during that un- fortunate day, and in its retreat, and continued with his old friend, Gen. Wayne, until the night of the " Paoli massa- cre." After that cruel affair Col. Hannum returned to his residence, where, a short time afterwards, he was captured one night in his bed by a party of British light-horse, who had been piloted thither by a Tory neighbor, and he was carried a prisoner to Philadelphia. The party robbed Mrs. Hannum of her gold watch, and took everything of value in the house that they could carry away. The colonel sub- sequently made his escape, and was soon actively aiding the great cause in which he had embarked.

May 6, 1778, the Council taking into consideration the appointing of commissioners, agreeably to the act of attain- der, etc .: " Ordered, That the following persons be ap- pointed, to wit : For the county of Chester, William Evans, Thomas Cheyney, Thomas Levis, Patterson Bell, and John Hannum."

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History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 156

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