History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 195

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches > Part 195

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Among the citizens of Willistown whose public life should claim our notice was Col. Philip D. Thomas. He was born in Crawford County, Pa., August, 1807. His parents were Mordecai and Catharine (Dunn) Thomas. They removed to Chester County when Philip was about one year old.

In 1829 he married Frances Lapp. He was a sub- contractor in building the Columbia Railroad, and subse- quently had charge of a division of the road. He was also for many years superintendent of the West Chester Railroad, and afterwards of the Schuylkill Canal. In 1845 he was elected to the Legislature upon the Whig ticket. In 1862 he was selected by Governor Curtin as a staff-officer, with the rank of colonel. In 1864 he was employed by the Mercantile Oil Company of Philadelphia to look after their interests in Forest County, Pa. He then became identified with the organization of that new county and the erection of the county buildings. In 1875 he was chosen to represent that district in the senate. He died February, 1878, at the residence of his son-in-law, Dr. Jacob Price, West Chester.

THROPP, ISAIAH, born at Wednesbury, a suburb of Birmingham, England, July 6, 1794, was the son of John Thropp and Sarah, sister of Sir William Wood. At the age of twenty-one Mr. Thropp, preferring a republic, came to America and settled in South Carolina, but the institu- tions of this State conflicting with his ideas of justice and humanity, he determined to remove to New England. On his way northward he stopped in Philadelphia, and whilst there received an invitation from his friend, Mr. Brooke Evans, to visit him at Valley Forge. The evening of his arrival a party was given at " Wayside," the beautiful home Mr. Thropp afterwards bought, and there he beheld first Miss Anna Virginia Workizer, the charming young lady who was to become his bride. He sought and obtained an introduction, and, after a short courtship, married her. He then entered the mercantile business in a store belonging to his father-in-law at Valley Forge, which he purchased, and continued for fifty years in the one building. During the whole of that time he was honored and respected by all who knew him for his fair dealing, sincerity, and his great conscientiousness.

Mr. and Mrs. Thropp were the parents of ten children. This is no ordinary family. Some of the children are sin- gularly handsome, most of them are talented.

The oldest son, John W., injured his health whilst at college by excessive study. He was proficient in mathe- matics and botany. He died in early manhood.

The second son, Isaiah Thropp, Jr., served his country, as one of the courageous Pennsylvania Reserves, in the war for the Union three years, part of which time he was de- tailed for special service on the staff of Gen. McCall. He was a brave soldier.

Mary E., the oldest daughter, commenced her career early as a writer. She wrote fugitive pieces in prose and verse

for the New York Knickerbocker, Graham's Magazine, Godey's Lady Book, and the weekly journals. Being modest, Miss Thropp's articles appeared oftener without than with her signature. Joseph R. Chandler, of the United States Gazette, was the first to publish her name over her productions, which he did without her permission.

In April, 1865, Miss Thropp went from Philadelphia, as one of a committee of four ladies, with surplus hospital stores to the sick and wounded soldiers at Richmond. This committee was taken by a small government steamer, and were the first ladies from the North to enter Richmond after the blockade. From Miss Thropp's letter, published in the Philadelphia Inquirer at that time, we take the following :

"On the 11th we arrived safely with our stores in Washington. We could not get passports immediately, but were not sorry to be detained another day, as we had the pleasure of seeing the public buildings illuminated for peace in the evening, and of hearing the famous Louisiana speech of our merciful President.

"The next dny saw us farrowing the blue surface of the Chess- peake. The next, winding cautiously between the banks of the James, every inch of which is henceforth historienl, avoiding unex- ploded torpedoes, sunken gunbosts, dangerous obstructions of every description. On we glided, past Dutch Gap Canal, Aiken's and Har- rison's Landings, Crow's Nest, ns the tall observatory built by Gen. Butler is called, past Fort Darling, apparently endless fortifications of the most formidable character, till, at sunset, we renched the seven- billed city of Richmond.

" We are indebted to the surgeon of the 148th New York Regiment for a kind reception and comfortable quarters at the North Carolina Hospital for a couple of days, till apartments at the Spottswood Hotel could be prepared for us.

"Saturday we saw the business part of the beautiful city in ruins, having been fired by the retreating rebels, and in some places the fires were still smouldering.

"Sunday morning we received the shocking intelligence of the murder of President Lincoln. Murdered the very night we arrived in Richmond on our benevolent. mission sanctioned by him. The man who had called up to an independent existence four millions of slaves assassinated ! He who in the fearless discharge of duty traveled during the whole war without any guard, who received every one without announcement, who could have been killed nt nny moment, but who was protected by Providence for the fulfillment of his divine decrees ! Now the great work of his life wns accomplished, and when mankind stretched out its hands to put the laurels of merited glory upon his head, the Most High called him up to Him- self, to receive n higher, holier reward. Men are not able to reward such philanthropists as Lincoln. Only Ile who was crucified for the benefit of mankind, the Almighty Son of God, can reward such deeds.

"On our way to church we called on Mrs. Robert E. Lee to deliver to her the message of a dying rebel soldier, for we made no difference between the blue and the gray in the hospitals. We were received by Lee himself, who had, unknown to us, returned from the Appo- mattox the evening before. He conducted us to his wife's room, Mrs. Lee being lame.

" Monday afternoon, when through with the day's labor, we strolled past the Jeff Davis mansion, the white columns of which were draped in mourning for Mr. Lincoln. The sentinel on best in front asked us if it was really true that the President had been assassinated, and when we confirmed the sad news the tears he could not control ran down his manly face.

" We found our gallant defenders everywhere; here giving out ra- tions to the starving, there guarding desolate homes; cleansing, im- proving, restoring, the busy benefactors of the city. I was charmed with the conduct of our soldiers. Some of the Richmond ladies confessed that, from false accounts, they had dreaded their coming unutterably, fearing to be delivered over to the vengeance of an infuriated soldiery, but they had found, to their astonishment, the brave conquerors, even in the flush of victory, kind-hearted, indulgent men. Our noble Blues ! God bless them ! I am so glad that the color of our national uniform is that of the unchanging sky, -- true blue !"

744

HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

In July Miss Thropp was again in Richmond, assisting Mr. Thurston Chase, of the Union Commission, to establish the first free schools after the war for white children. She writes,-

"Yon will be glad to learn, my dear father, that our two free schools for 'the poor whites' are doing splendidly. They are kept in the Bap- tist and Methodist churches on Oregon Hill, a part of Richmond pro- verbially loyal throughout the war, the place where our dear old flag floated last in Richmond. The schools commenced with about thirty pupils each, but the girls' school now numbers a hundred and ten, the boys a hundred and forty, and the ory is 'still they come."#

Oct. 1, 1868, Mary E. and her youngest sister, Kate R., were married at Valley Forge on the same day,-Miss Thropp to the Hon. Andrew Cone, owner and publisher of the Oil City Times, and Miss Kate to George Porter, Esq., a prominent oil operator, both these gentlemen having been among the early pioneers of Oil City. Mr. Cone enjoyed considerable reputation as a writer, his principal work, en- titled "Petrolia," being a review of the oil-speculating agitation, and a history of the oil-fields of Pennsylvania.

In April, 1873, Mr. Cone was appointed a State Commis- sioner to the Vienna World's Exposition by Governor Hart- ranft. Accompanied by his wife, he sailed in the steamship " Pennsylvania," the first of the line from Philadelphia. After fulfilling his official duties, Mr. and Mrs. Cone traveled through Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, and Great Britain, Mrs. Cone writing letters mean- while, as the foreign correspondent of the Philadelphia In- quirer and the Oil City Derrick.

Early in the spring of 1876, Mr. Cone's health failing, it became necessary for him to seek a warmer climate, and of the five consulates offered by President Grant, he chose that of Para, Brazil, especially, as he had entertained the Bra- zilian emperor, Dom Pedro, during his visit to Oil City. On the Amazon, Mr. Cone discharged his arduous and re- sponsible dutics with the same indefatigable fidelity and correctness that marked the performance of his every duty in life.

In Para, May, 1878, at the request of Judge J. Smith Futhey, chairman of a committee of leading West Chester gentlemen, Mrs. Cone wrote her poem for the centennial celebration at Valley Forge in the leisure intervals of a few days, owing to great distance and the shortness of time allowed. After two and a half years' service at Para, Mr. Cone was promoted by President Hayes to the consulate at Pernambuco, where he remained two years. September, 1880, he returned, on his leave of absence, to the United States, after nearly five years of hard service, hoping rest and change would restore his shattered health. In Phila- delphia, Nov. 7, 1880, he entered into rest, his noble, beautiful carcer in this world ended. An innate gentle- man, he was refined and courteous as he was fearless and liberal. Charitable and forgiving, he ever kept himself in the background, shunning notoriety. Modest as the gen- tlest of women, he possessed unrivaled courage, and the dross of bigotry, envy, meanness, and egotism was not in him,-he was pure gold all through. In the truest spirit he was a Christian. His record at the Department of State is said to be among the best there, and he was already

marked for further promotion. Certainly the government had in its service no more devoted or conscientious repre- sentative, and no consular officer has ever been more sin- cerely esteemed at home or abroad.

The last article from Mrs. Cone's pen is entitled " Home- Sickness," and was written at Pernambuco in July, before Mr. Cone's leave of absence, which was to be for all time, arrived.

Anna V. Thropp, Jr., the second daughter, is the wife of Lewis S. Wells, attorney-at-law, formerly of Norristown, Pa. They reside in Washington, D. C.

Jennie M. was married Feb. 18, 1867, to G. C. Rogers, Esq., a leading and most estimable merchant of Atlanta, Ga. He died Dec. 6, 1879, but Mrs. Rogers still resides in Atlanta.

Charles A. Thropp is engaged in the oil-producing busi- ness with his brother-in-law, Mr. George Porter, in the Bradford oil region of Pennsylvania. He is not married, neither is Eldon L., the only one of the family now re- maining at Valley Forge.

Miss Amelia Thropp, well known in this State as an easy and graceful writer of fiction, lives on Arch Street, Phila- delphia, with her widowed sister, Mrs. Cone.

Mrs. Kate Thropp Porter writes poetry, not often but beautifully,-" The Old Home," " Returning," etc., being emanations from her pen.

Joseph E., the youngest son, of the firm of J. B. Moor- head & Co., Conshohocken, Pa., married Caroline F., a twin daughter of J. B. Moorhead, Esq., April 30, 1873. Mr. Thropp is well known as a young man of high character and qualities.

The old Thropp mansion at Valley Forge was sold this spring, April, 1881, and now the substantial old homesteads that have witnessed the vicissitudes of the Workizer family for five generations, and which have been in their possession a hundred and twenty-one years, have at last, though all in excellent preservation, passed into the hands of strangers.

TREVILLER, or TRAVILLA, KATHARINE, a widow, appears to have arrived in 1699, on the ship " Josiah and Betty," with her children, of whom a daughter of the same name was only two years old. The other children were James, who died in Marlborough, 1720, unmarried ; Henry, who married, in 1720, Mary, daughter of Morgan James, and died in Marlborough, 1726 ; Richard, who took up land on Doe Run in 1715; and Ann, who married Thomas Stockin, of Whiteland, and after his death became the wife of Richard Richison, of that township:

James purchased, in 1713, 200 acres of the Simcock tract, where the village of Londongrove stands, and de- vised the same to his brother Henry, who purchased land near by, in Londongrove township. Henry's children were Ann, who married Samuel Underwood in 1738; Thomas, who married his cousin, Mary James, and was living in Philadelphia in 1770; James, who married, at First Pres- byterian church, Philadelphia, Catharine (Pugh), widow of Benjamin Rhoads, in 1745, and removed to York County about 1753, where her daughters by Rhoads married John and William Rankin, Tories in the Revolution. James Travilla returned to this county about 1765 with his chil- dren.

* Extract from letter published in The National Republican, Wash- ington, D. C., July 19, 1865.

JOHN TODD.

The Todd family is of Sootch origin, and the first of the name known in this county was John, whose son James married Jennetta Harris and settled in Wallace township. Of their eighteen ohil- dren, John Todd was born March, 1812, in Wallace, and died Feb. 27, 1876. He was reared on his father's farm and received but the poor educational advantages of his day. At the age of eighteen he turned his attention to driving and dealing in cattle, paying his father two hundred dollars for his timo until his majority. Ho mar- ried, May 16, 1834, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Essick) Pergrin, from which union were born eight children : Sally, married to Jesse Rogers; Jen- netta, married first to William H. Krauser, and subsequently to Eras- tus B. Ives; Mary Ann, married to Benton T. Evans; James H .; Emaretta, married to Edward Green; John T .; Clara V., mar- ried to Henry Arons; and Samnel Wiufield, Mr. Todd was actively engaged in varied business enter- prises, embracing, besides his farm- ing and stock. that of merchandis- ing, hotel-keeping, lumber- and

John Would

coal=yards, at Byers' Station, Pa. During the war he furnished the government with thousands of horses. His family attended with him the Presbyterian Church, to the support of which he was a liberal contributor. Hc was buried on the farm on which he was born, and at his death owned the original Todd tract. He was one of tho - managers of the County Agricul- tural Society, and a large stock- holder in the old Chester County Bank. Originally a Whig, he be- came a Republican, and was active in the politics of the day. Byers' Station and villago is a part of his estato, which includes, in addition, five farms aggregating seven hun- dred acres. He began life poor, and made his first five dollars on the sale of some chestnuts; but he arose to be ono of the leading busi- ness men of his county. He was highly esteemed by his fellow-citi- zens, and contributed largely to the material growth of the northern part of the county, notably in the construction of the Pickering Val- ley Railroad. On his estate, near Byers' Station, are the " Plumbago Works," which he discovered, started, and leased to a company now successfully operating them.

RES . OF THE LATE JOHN TODD, UPPER UWCHLAN CHESTER CO. PA.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL.

745

TOWERS, MICHAEL, the oldest of four children-two sons and two daughters-of Archibald and Elizabeth Tow- ers, was born Sept. 24, 1800, in Upper Providence town- ship, Montgomery Co., Pa. His father, a miller by trade, was a nephew of Capt. Robert Towers, the founder of the first factory built at Manayunk, Philadelphia Co., Pa., and chief commissary for the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary war. When Michael was seven years of age his father died. Soon after he was six- teen he commenced to learn the carpenter's trade, at which he worked for a short time near New Orleans, La. Soon after he returned to Pennsylvania, and, in February, 1824, purchased his homestead farm in East Vincent township, this county. About 1827 he began to work for the Schuyl- kill Navigation Company. By his industry and ability he

on rock foundations ; those which before were built on the bed of the river on sand and gravel only stood eight or ten years, while his have been standing half a century and are perfect yet. In his connections with many of the most important works of the country he stood in the foremost rank as a contractor and adviser.

He married, Jan. 6, 1824, Rebecca, daughter of James and Hannah Brook, of Lawrenceville .* He had eleven children, of whom two sons and five daughters are living, as is also his wife. He celebrated his golden wedding Jan. 6, 1874, in the presence of a large number of his old friends and relatives. He died Nov. 13, 1880.

He was a man of unflinching integrity, generous hos- pitality, and left the impress of a long and busy life in the works of his creation.

MICHAEL TOWERS, SR.

won the confidence of its officers, and soon became promi- nent as a contractor and adviser in all their improvements. In the years 1841-43 he was engaged in the reconstruction of the Fairmount dam, Philadelphia, -a work undertaken by himself and Frederick Erdman, a master-builder of con- siderable note in his day. After the completion of this work he seems to have retired to his extensive farm, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1845, when he returned to the canal to aid in its enlargement, in which he took an active part,-among other improvements building the Vincent dam. In 1848 he was engaged as a contractor in the building of dams of cemented masonry on the James River in Virginia, for the James River and Kanawha Navigation Company,-works of very consider- able magnitude and importance, to the execution of which he brought all the knowledge and experience which he in so eminent a degree possessed.

He was the first to introduce the plan of building dams

TOWNSEND, RICHARD, has been mentioned as one of those concerned in the erection of the first mill at Chester. He is said to have been the son of Richard Townsend, who resided at or near Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, and born 9, 30, 1645. He became a Friend in 1672, went to London in 1676, and married Ann Hutchins, 3, 25, 1677. Coming to Pennsylvania in the " Welcome," he settled at Chester for a time, but afterwards removed to Philadelphia County. He died at his nephew, Joseph Townsend's, in East Brad- ford, 1, 28, 1732.

JOSEPH TOWNSEND, son of William and Mary, of Buck- leberry, in Berkshire, was born 11, 18, 1684, and married, 9, 27, 1710, to Martha Wooderson, born 9, 18, 1683, daughter of Julian and Esther Wooderson. They with

# James Brook owned and operated a gun manufactory at that village, and made muskets for the United States in the war of 1812. He was a member of the State Legislaturo when it met at Lancaster, and his son, Nathaniel Brook, was afterwards a State senator.

746

HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

his sister Jean received a certificate from Newbury Monthly Meeting, dated 11, 15, 1711, which was probably taken to Abington. Joseph and his wife came thence to Concord Monthly Meeting in 1715, and in 1720 went to Chester. He was by trade a weaver, having learned the business with Jonathan Sargood. In 1725 he agreed with John Wanton, of Rhode Island, for the purchase of a tract of 800 acres in East Bradford, Chester Co., and settled thereon at that time, but did not get a deed until 1727. This land lies adjoining the borough of West Chester, but has now passed out of the name. Joseph Townsend died 4, 9, 1766, and his wife 3, 2, 1767, both being buried at Birmingham. Their children were William, b. 5, 26, 1711, d. 11, ,13, 1792, unmarried ; Mary, b. 8, 16, 1713, d. 10, 8, 1781, m. Henry Woodward, 3, 20, 1731 ; Joseph,

David, Lydia, John, Benjamin, Hannah, Jacob, Isaac, Talbot, and Rachel.

In 1786, Francis and his brother Benjamin, with their families, removed to the Redstone settlement, in the western part of the State. Samuel, the son of Francis, did not go with his father, but married, 3, 22, 1787, Priscilla Yarnall, daughter of David and Sarah, of Coventry, where he set- tled. The children of Samuel and Priscilla were David, Sarah, Rachel, Lydia, Priscilla, Franklin, Jane, Susan, Eliza, and Thomas J.

DAVID TOWNSEND, son of Samuel and Priscilla Town- send, was born in Pughtown, Dec. 13, 1787. He was brought up to the business of agriculture on his father's farm, and received a plain English education, including some elementary mathematical instruction, at the country

David Townsend

b. 4, 8, 1715, d. 10, 3, 1749, m. Lydia Reynolds, 3, 17, 1739 ; John, b. 12, 2, 1716, d. 8, 18, 1803, m. Joanna England, 12, 31, 1741 ; Hannah, b. 6, 9, 1718, m. Nathan Sharples and Charles Ryant ; Martha, b. 1, 26, 1721, d. 4, 3, 1748; Richard, b. 5, 23, 1727, d. 5, 4, 1738 ; Esther, b. 5, 23, 1727, d. 11, 1, 1728-9.

Joseph Townsend, Jr., received a portion of his father's land, upon which he built a house, which stood in front of the present residence of John M. Hildeburn, and was torn down some twenty years ago. He left five children,- Francis, Benjamin, Esther, Joseph, and Elizabeth. Fran- cis married Rachel Talbot in 1762, daughter of Joseph and Hannah Talbot, of Middletown, born 9, 27, 1745, died 9, 22, 1784. They had children,-Joseph, Samuel,

school of the vicinage. Possessed of an intelligent and active mind, and being, withal, an excellent penman, he was appointed in 1810 a clerk in the office of the register and recorder of Chester County, which brought him to West Chester, where he resided (with the exception of a year on the paternal farm) during the remainder of his life. After the service of a year or two in the county offices he engaged in the business of conveyancing, and also became concerned for some time in a mercantile establishment in the borough. In 1813 he was elected a county commis- sioner, and at the expiration of his term, in 1816, he be- came (as was then the usage) county treasurer for the ensuing year. On the establishment of the Bank of Chester County, in 1814, he was chosen one of the directors, and

747

BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL.

served from November of that year until November, 1816. On Oct. 1, 1817, he was appointed cashier, and the bank continued under his sagacious management for nearly the third of a century with unparalleled success. His resignation, in 1849, was induced by an accidental injury to the brain, which disabled him and eventually caused his death. In 1821 he was chosen a trustee of the West Chester Acad- emy, and in 1826 was appointed treasurer and financier of the board, which office he held until 1854, by which time he had engineered the institution completely out of debt.

In 1827 he was appointed county prothonotary to fill a vacancy ; but the directors of the bank anxiously inter- posed to retain his services, and he resigned the office of prothonotary at the end of two weeks. In all his varied pursuits David Townsend was eminently a practical man, ingeniously and successfully uniting the requisite means to the end proposed. To unite the useful with the agrceable was his constant aim. Trained in the philanthropic tenets of the Society of Friends,-though without their exterior peculiarities,-he was a noble scion of that estimable stock. He was one of the founders of the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science in 1826, was its faithful secretary and treasurer from its origin until the failure of his health, and was at all times one of the most active, public-spirited, and valuable contributors, whether to the treasury, museum, or the library. About this time (the organization of the Ca- binet) he had his attention directed to botanical studies, and was ever after distinguished for his devotion to this amiable science. The plants of Chester County and the surrounding districts became familiar acquaintances, and were duly arranged in his celebrated herbarium. In 1833 a genus of plants, allied to the asters, was named " Town- sendia,"-in compliment to him, who had done so much to elucidate the characters of that family. This genus was established and published by Sir William J. Hooker, with a figure, in his splendid work, the " Flora of North Amer- ica," to the description of which he subjoined the remark that Mr. Townsend, having imbibed an ardent love of bot- any, had devoted his leisure hours to the science with emi- nent success. The new and classical banking-house, planned by Thomas U. Walter, was erected in 1835-36, under Mr. Townsend's auspices, to whose fine taste and salutary influence most of the architectural improvements of the borough are largely indebted. On the retirement of Mr. Townsend from the bank, he found genial employment in the various branches of horticulture, especially in the cul- ture of fruits and ornamental plants. He died Dec. 6, 1858, at the age of seventy-one years, and was interred in the Oakland cemetery.

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History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 195

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