History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 123

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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When his father died, in 1779, Mark Willcox con- tinued to live in Philadelphia, and carried on the manufacturing of paper at the Ivy Mill. At what date he removed from the city is not precisely known, but one of the letters in the letter-book spoken of mentions the fact of his living in the country in 1789. The old Ivy Mill had then been running sixty years, and was the second paper-mill built on the American continent, the Rittenhouse mill, on the Wissahickon, being the only one before it. Following its lead, a number of paper-mills were built in Delaware County,

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

commencing on Chester Creek ; and as late as the be- ginning of the nineteenth century more paper was made in Delaware County, Pa. (then shorn to its pres- ent dimensions), than in all the rest of the whole United States. This was the pioneer county in that particular industry, and long it held its pre-eminence. The old Ivy Mill, after standing over a hundred years, was torn down fifty-four years ago, or rather the greater part of it, and rebuilt by James M. Willcox. Two men of two generations, father and son, had conducted it ninety-eight years. The ponderous ma- chinery, however, of modern mills silenced it long ago, but it still stands, a silent relic of its early time. Its wheel has long since decayed ; its stone gable is thickly covered with the venerable ivy-vine whose root came over the ocean (in 1718) from near the old lvy Bridge, in Devonshire; and the day is drawing near when it will begin its last change into a picturesque ruin as ancient as we have them in this New World. The old mill has a history deeply interesting from its connection with the printing-presses of historic men, and perhaps more so from its relations to the old col- onial governments that preceded the formation of the United States, and the general government subse- quently. The Colonies were wont to issue each its own particular currency, and up to the time of the Revo- lution the paper for all the money of all the Colonies, from Massachusetts to the Carolinas, was manufac- tured by Thomas Willcox at his Ivy Mill; after which followed, out of the same mill, the paper for the Continental currency, and after that the paper for the government issues made necessary by the war of 1812.

After Mark Willcox removed to the country (about 1789) he never afterwards returned to the city to live. Hewas a man of erudition, and a genial but dignified gentleman, and up to the time of his death (in 1827) it was his habit and pleasure to receive frequent visits from his many friends in town, who wonld drive their twenty miles to pass some days, in the old-fashioned way, at his pleasant country home.

Many years before his death Judge Willcox had associated his sons, John and Joseph, in business with him, but retired early, as the books show that in 1811 the firm consisted of John and Joseph Willcox. Joseph died young and unmarried, and John again united with his father, the product of the mill being always principally bank-note, bond, and similar papers. John died in 1826, leaving two daughters, and his widow married, some years afterwards, Lieut. John Marston, Jr., U.S.N., who has survived her. He now (1884), as Rear-Admiral Marston, resides in Phila- delphia, enjoying good health at eighty-nine years of age.

On the death of John Willcox his youngest brother, James M., assumed charge of the hereditary mill, and threw more vigor and activity into the business than it had ever known. His father dying the fol- lowing year, James became the sole proprietor.

Three years afterwards he tore down the mill that had run for a century, and built upon the site a new one of double capacity, with improved machinery. Bank-note paper still continued to be the specialty. For a long period not only were the banks of the United States supplied with their paper from the Ivy Mill, but its lofts were at times piled with peculiar- looking papers of various tints, bearing the ingrained water marks of most of the governments and banks of South America. Nearly the whole Western Continent drew its supplies from there, such was the reputation of the establishment; and Eastward its paper went as far as Italy and Greece. But an end had to come to this. The sagacity of James M. Willcox foresaw the impending changes that were to revolutionize the paper manufacture, and he began early to prepare for them ; at first by improving and enlarging facilities, and then by adopting at once the revolutionary pro- cesses according to their best features, for which he had uot long to wait. He was very early to appre- ciate the full merits of the Fourdrinier machine, and one of the first enterprising enough to adopt it. In 1835 he purchased from the heirs of Abraham Sharples the elder, on the main branch of Chester Creek, and about two and a half miles from Ivy Mills, an extensive water-power, and the property on which the Sharples iron-works, consisting of rolling- and slitting-mills, had been situated. Here he built the first of the mills known as the Glen Mills, in which was placed one of the new Fourdrinier paper-machines of the largest class then known. He took his sons, Mark and William, into partnership, and for many years conducted a large and successful business, di- viding his attention among his various interests,-his farm, the Ivy Mill, the Glen Mill, and his mercantile house in the city. In 1846 he built the second of the Glen Mills. Soon after his health became precarious, and, although he suffered much, he remained actively engaged in the details of all his many engagements as long as he lived. On March 3, 1852, he completed his long-contemplated arrangements and retired from business, leaving it to his three sons, Mark, James, and Joseph, and died unexpectedly before the follow- ing morning. He was a man of unusual intelligence, strength and earnestness of character, and fervent religious convictions that governed all his intercourse with other men. No man was better known or more respected in the entire community. His charities ac- corded with his means. His influence was great, and always for good; and his death was a public loss. Born in 1791, and dying in 1852, he was not sixty-two years of age. His remains repose in the old family burying-ground upon the Ivy Mills property, where those of his father and grandfather were laid before him; and in the same ground lie the remains of many colored people, formerly slaves of his ancestors when slavery existed in Pennsylvania, and a number of their descendants for several generations.

Without change of title, Mark, James M., and

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Joseph, the three oldest sons of James M. Willcox, succeeded to the Ivy Mills and Glen Mills business in 1852. In 1866, Joseph retired from business, after disposing of his interests to his elder brothers, since when he has devoted his time to scientific pursuits, chiefly in the departments of geology and mineralogy. In the mean time the civil war had broken out, and the government was again forced to the issue of paper money, this time on a scale unprecedented in the his- tory of the world. For the third time, under the pressing necessities of war and broken credit, it had recourse to the Willcox House to supply its needs. Fortunately this had kept in advance of the times, and the brothers had, but a few years before, suc- ceeded in changing the manufacture of bank-note paper by bringing it also upon the Fourdrinier ma- chine, thus enabling themselves to produce more in a day than the old practice, by hand process, could produce in a month. When, therefore, the emergency came they were able to meet it, first with one large mill, and soon after with a second. The supply was maintained, and always up to the requirements of the government. All the bank-note paper-mills of Europe, save one, are still hand-mills, and it is not too much to say that, at that time, all of them united could not have supplied the paper needed for our government's issues of paper money.

In 1864 the United States Treasury Department, prompted by the desire to prevent the counterfeiting of its issues, undertook the task of manufacturing a currency paper for its own use, and imparting to it some peculiarity of character by which counterfeiting could be detected. A costly mill with Fourdrinier machine was built on the lower floor of the Depart- ment building, and experiments at great cost were conducted there for four years. There was no out- come of any value; the attempts were all failures, and the Treasury mill ended where it had begun, with an inferior quality of simple white paper. It was then torn out, and the Willcox Brothers were invited to undertake a task that the Department, with all the scientific aid it could command, had failed in, and that had never yet been successfully performed any- where. This they were prepared to do by means of a peculiar paper invented by them, and patented three years before. The "localized-fibre" paper, manufac- tured for many years after this at the Glen Mills for the notes and bonds of the government, attained not merely a national, but a world-wide, reputation, for it accomplished the object desired. So jealously was it guarded by the government that for ten years the mills and premises were occupied by a government officer with a numerous police and detective force, and some forty employés of the Treasury Department, to insure that no sheet or bit of paper should be ab- stracted for unlawful purpose, and that every sheet should be counted and registered as made, and tracked through the various stages towards completion, until it should be delivered over to the express company to

be taken away for use. During that period not a sheet, out of hundreds of millions made, was lost or missed, not a counterfeit seen on any treasury note or bond of the issue or series that began with that paper; and at the end, when Secretary John Sherman, in 1878, removed the manufacture of government paper from Pennsylvania, the paper account at Glen Mills balanced, a clear quittance was given, and the Treas- ury issue of paper money with which he began his administration was free from counterfeits.

In 1880, Mark Willcox purchased his brother James' interest in the Glen Mills property, the Philadelphia business, and the Sarum farm adjoining Glen Mills, of which they had been joint owners. Some years before he had purchased from his younger brothers, Edward and Henry, the old Ivy Mills estate, so that at his death, in April, 1883, he had acquired posses- sion of nearly all the properties of the family in Del- aware County that had historical interest. His two sons, James Mark and William, the present owners of the Glen Mills property, have recently enlarged the principal mill and are actively engaged in the old business, the mercantile department of which is still conducted by them at No. 509 Minor Street, Phila- delphia. These two young men constitute the oldest business house of any description in the United States ; one that has continued from father to son, in one lo- cality, a hundred and fifty-five years. The Ivy Mills property, the original home, now belongs to the youngest brother, Thomas, of the same name as the founder of the family in America.

James M. Willcox the younger, whose portrait is herein presented, was born at Ivy Mills, in the same house in which his father and grandfather were born, Nov. 20, 1824. He is the fourth son of James M. Willcox, and the second son of a second marriage contracted in 1819. His mother was Mary eldest daughter of Capt. James Brackett, of Quincy, Mass., in which State the Bracketts have resided for ten gen- erations. The first of them, also Capt. James Brack- ett, was born in Scotland, in 1611, and came over with the early Puritans. This ancestor figures in Haw- thorne's "Scarlet Letter," as captain of the soldiery and custodian of the jail in which Hester Prynne was confined. Her mother, Elizabeth Odiorne, descended from the ancestor of that name who came over with the Church of England colony that founded Ports- mouth, N. H. The old Odiorne mansion is still stand- ing, and is one of the most interesting antiquities of that place. James M. Willcox's early school years were passed at Anthony Bolmar's boarding-school, at West Chester, Pa., and thence he passed to George- town College, D. C., whose reputation for superior classical and literary training has always been recog- nized. After leaving college he commenced the study of medicine, but before completing the course changed his intentions and went to Italy, where he spent three years, mostly in Rome and its vicinity, in the study of ancient and modern languages, the higher mathe-

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

matics, and philosophy. There existed nowhere bet- ter or higher schools of languages and philosophy than the Roman Propaganda and Sapienza. In them the Latin, instead of being an object of study, was the text of the class-books, the medium of communica- tion, the spoken and written language of the schools. In it Greek, Hebrew, the sciences, and philosophy were learned and expounded by the professors. The rare advantages within his grasp the young Ameri- can student employed to the best advantage, and brought home a full share of the honors competed for, becoming an accomplished linguist, speaking several languages, and attaining in the end to the Doc- torship in Philosophy. This degree is lightly given in the United States, frequently without any course of philosophy at all, but in the universities of Conti- nental Europe it is conferred on but few, on account of the very severe course and examination required in logic, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as in physics and mathematics. At this time Mr. Willcox enjoyed the privilege of the acquaintance and conversation of men whose names are now historical in the literary world, the recollection of which he now cherishes as among the most pleasant of his life. Not the least among these friends was the greatest of all linguists, ancient or modern, Cardinal Mezzofanti, who was master of forty languages, and with whom he made a study of ancient Anglo-Saxon. In 1847 he received from Pope Pius IX. his degree in philosophy, the di- ploma issuing, not from the faculty, but, as a special favor, directly from the Pontiff, as thus set forth in its text: " Pius Papa Nonus, volens eum speciali gratia cumulare, eum Doctorem in Philosophia creavit, cum omnibus honoribns et oneribns quæ Phi- losophiæ Doctoribus propria sunt." This diploma, it is unnecessary to say, is much valued and preserved with great care. After spending some months in visiting many parts of Europe Mr. Willcox returned home in the fall of 1847, with health somewhat im- paired, and some years afterwards entered into busi- ness with his father and brother at Glen Mills. Trans- ferring the same industry and ambition into practical business that he had carried into his scholastic career, he gradually introduced features into it so radical as to entirely change its character.

The advantages of superior education are uot lost in any career in life, for the discipline and enlarge- ment of the mind attained can be advantageonsly applied almost anywhere. One of Mr. Willcox's first aims was to raise the paper mannfacture to a higher level, out of the routine into which it seemed to have settled ; and to this end he conducted a series of ex- perimental researches, producing, in the course of a few years, as he relates, a greater variety of papers than had ever before been made by any one person. Taking as his department of the business the prac- tical manufacture, he turned special attention towards the plan of making bank-note paper by machinery, and with complete success. Then, impressed with the

importance of checking, and perhaps preventing, the counterfeiting of money, so commonly and easily done at that time, he conceived the task of accom- plishing with paper what the bank-note companies, with their arts of fine and geometrical engraving, could not accomplish ; the result being the invention of the "localized-fibre" paper, so long and so effi- ciently used by the United States government for its notes and bonds. For many years, as was said before, this distinctive paper was manufactured at Glen Mills, under the government's supervision and pro- tection. Its success at home brought it to the favor- able consideration of the governments of Europe, and in 1878, under agreement with the Imperial Gov- ernment of Germany, Mr. Willcox sent out an agent to Berlin, near which city was put in successful oper- ation a bank-note paper-mill with the special ma- chinery required, as at Glen Mills, for the manufac- ture of the German currency paper. So pleased were the authorities with the product of the new mill that he received from them a testimonial stating that the contract had been more than carried out, to their great satisfaction ; and the localized-fibre paper be- came the currency paper of the Empire. An exhibit of this protective paper was subsequently made at the great Paris Exhibition, and there received the highest possible award of " Diplôme d'Honnenr."

The chemical paper long used by the United States Treasury Department for the stamps and checks of the department, and called "Chameleon" paper on account of its sensitive changes when tampered with, was also Mr. Willcox's invention, and put an end to the counterfeiting and re-using of Internal Revenue stamps, by which the government had long been ex- tensively robbed of its revenue. Thus in many parts of his business he found fields for the employment of knowledge acquired outside of its ordinary sphere, and so succeeded in vastly enlarging its proportions and lifting it to the highest plane of usefulness. During this long period of active life and heavy cares his earlier tastes for literature were not neglected, and the hours unoccupied by business were generally de- voted to scientific study. He has been an occasional contributor to The American Catholic Quarterly Review, always upon subjects of metaphysical philosophy ; and a few years ago he published the conclusions from a long course of abstract reading and reflection in an octavo volume of1 logico-metaphysics, taking strong ground throughont, from the stand-point of rational analysis, against the growing materialistic atheism of the times, impelled thereto, as set forth in the dedi- cation, by the desire to contribute his part in a good work. He has in progress, he states, two other works of somewhat kindred character, upon which he labors alternately, which will require several years to com- plete.

1 Elementary Philosophy, Parts I. and II. By James M. Willcox, Ph.D. Porter & Coates, No. 822 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

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CONCORD TOWNSHIP.

When the scheme for a Centennial Exhibition was projected Mr. Willcox was among the first to earnestly advocate that it should be international, and to do all in his power to advance it. He was appointed a mem- ber of the first Board of Finance created by act of Congress, and at a later day was requested by the Centennial Commission to act as one of the Judges of the Exhibition, of whom there were one hundred American and one hundred foreign selected. At the first meeting of the committees he was chosen Presi- dent of Group XIII., and after six months' active duty in that capacity he wrote, by request, a critical compendium of the entire work of his committee for publication. His services were recognized in a letter of thanks, with a special medal, by the Commission. In 1852 he married Mary Keating, of Philadelphia, daughter of Jerome Keating, who, in partnership with John J. Borie, was one of the early manu- facturers of Manayunk ; and granddaughter of John Keating, a distinguished officer of the French army in the last century, who, for having captured the island of St. Eustache from the British, was decorated by Louis XVI., and made Chevalier of the Order of Saint Louis. Of this marriage there are five children living, of whom two are married, one residing at Col- orado Springs and the other in Philadelphia. His present wife is Katharine, daughter of the late Abra- ham W. Sharples, of Thornbury township, and grand- daughter, on her mother's side, of Right Rev. Henry U. Onderdonk, formerly the Episcopalian Bishop of Philadelphia. Of this marriage there are two children, both living. The family have lived in Spruce Street, Philadelphia, for many years, but still retain posses- sion of a farm in Thornbury, near Chey ney's Station.

Since his retirement from regular business in 1880, Mr. Willcox has been in the habit of spending the winter months in Florida. He early foresaw the phe- nomenal development of South Florida, little known six years ago, but now rapidly distancing the northern part; and made extensive purchases of property in Orange County and on Indian River that are now very valuable. With the care of these and his ma- terial interests at home, the responsibilities of direc- torship in some large corporations, the continued pursuit of scientific study, and the labor upon his works in hand, he indulges in little leisure; and, to judge from the past and present, is not likely to find the pleasures of idleness as long as he lives.

Licensed Houses .- The first record that appears of license being granted in Concord is at the August court, 1722, when the petition of Mathias Karle (Kerlin) was presented, asking that he be permitted to keep a public-house in that township, and to sell rum and other liquors therein, which application was approved by the justices. At the same court John Hannum desired the privilege of keeping a house of entertainment to sell " Beer and Sider," which was also granted. Kerlin's name annually thereafter, to and including the year 1726, appears of record, after

which it is omitted from the clerk's list, as is also that of Hannum from the list of 1731. Hannum's house, I learn from the application of his son, John Hannum, in 1747, was on the road from Chester to Nottingham,-the Concord road,-and the latter's name appears annually thereafter up to 1760. In 1761, Robert Hall succeeded Hannum, and in 1771, John Palmer followed Hall in business, and continued there until 1776. In 1782, Frederick Steen seems to have kept this house, then called the "Buck," and the following year John Gest succeeded him. Robert Burnett obtained license for 1784, and William Han- num from 1785 to 1787, when William Lockart took his place until 1788, at which date the inn disappears as a public-house.

To return to Kerlin's inn. On Nov. 24, 1730, Mat- thias Kerlin presented his petition, in which he states that he "had license for several years and no com- plaint made, but on account of other affairs had de- clined making application for a considerable time, now wishes to renew," which application was granted.

Michael Atkinson, Aug. 31, 1731, presented his pe- tition, wherein he sets forth that for some time past " he had a recommendation to keep a public-house in West Town, and being desirous to remove into Con- cord, found a suitable place, but hearing that Matthias Kyrlin had an inclination to get into that business, he went to him and received a denial of the report." Atkinson then agreed with the landlord for a term of years at eight pounds per annum, and obtained li- cense to remove into Concord. "The license now being expired," he wished it renewed. It appears that, notwithstanding Kerlin's declaration that he did not propose to apply for license, he did present his application to the court, which was supplemented by the following petition emanating from the "Inhabi- tants of Concord," bearing date Aug. 31, 1731, " That whereas our Township have been through some mis- fortune in some measure oppressed by so many pub- lick houses allowed in our town, & by some this last year without our knowledge or good liking. Let us have but one of that Calling, and if you think fit to grant recommendation to Mathias Kyrlen we shall, &c.," be pleased if the court act on these suggestions. The remonstrance was signed by Benjamin Menden- hall, Thomas Downing, and nine others.

The foregoing remonstrance is indorsed " Allowed," while the petition of Atkinson is marked "Not Al- lowed." Kerlin's name appears regularly on the clerk's list from that date to 1738, when I lose sight of him until 1745, when he regularly is allowed to entertain the public until Feb. 26, 1750, when his pe- tition states that he has kept tavern twenty-eight years; that his family is small, as his children are provided for, but he is unable to work at his trade of shoemaking. As an additional reason why he should be allowed license, he urges that he and his wife are descendants of the " first adventurers who came into this province when money would not purchase

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Bread." The court, however, declined to grant him the privilege desired.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 123

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150