History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 74

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

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The taxables in Aston in 1715 were as follows : Robert Carter, John Pennell, Moses Key, John Dut- ton, Thomas Dutton, Thomas Woodward, John Neild, James Widdows, William Rattew, Samuel Jones, Thomas Barnard, Abraham Darlington, John Hur- ford, Jonathan Monroe, Thomas Gale.

Freemen,-Thomas Dunbabin, Isaac Williams, Jo- seph Darlington, Edward Richards, Samuel Stroud.

At a court held the third day of the first week Tenth month, 1688, the grand jury laid out the high- way from Chichester to Aston, as follows :

"Ffrom Delaware by James Browns along ye old Road Betwixt Jeremy Colletts and James Hulbert soe along ye same Road to a marked White Oake, thence along on ye West sid of a marked Poplar tree near ye Meeting House, from thence by a lyne of marked trees to ye West Corner of Joseph Richard- son's fence, from thence by a lyne of marked trees to a marked Black Oake standing by Astone Road."

On the same day the grand jury laid out the road from Aston to Edgmont :

" Beginning att a Spanish Oake about Edward Car- ter's and soe along ye Cutt Road and down ye Vallie which Joseph Richardson had fenced in, from thence through John Beales Pasture along by William Wood- mansees along ye old Road over Chester Creek's soe along ye Old Road."

Previous to this date the road from Aston to Ches- ter had been granted by the grand jury, "The In- habitance of ye Township of Aston Petioned for one Road way to ye Town of Chester, and another to ye town of Chichester." It is, however, unnecessary to further quote the exact line as presented in the report of that body to courts, the foregoing being deemed sufficient to indicate the manner in which such returns were made.

The following is a list of the justices of the peace for Aston township :

Thomas Newlin ..

.Ang. 19, 1791.

Matthias Kerlio. .July

4, 1808.

Thomas Pierce. .. Feb.

8, 1814.

James Bratton

.Feb.

3,1820.

Joseph Fox

Dec.

4, 1823.

John Mattson

Dec.

13, 1823.

Joseph Bowen

Nov.

10, 1824.

Joseph Trimble ..

April

21, 1827.

Robert Frame.

Jau.

15, 1829.

Robert Hall .. Feb.

8, 1831.

William Mendenhall

Dec.

6, 1836.

Robert Hall. April 14, 1840.

James McMullin April 12, 1842.

Joho Taylor. April 13, 1847.

Isaac C. Denick ... April 15, 1851, May 26, 1856, April 9, 1861.

John Black burn

April 11, 1867.

John T. Aikley

.March 23, 1877.

Charles W. Haycock ..

.. April 9, 1881.

John T. Aikley

.April 10, 1882.

The second day following the battle of Brandywine, Lord Cornwallis, "with the 2d Battalion Light Infan- try and 2d of Grenadiers, marched at half past six in the morning, to join the body under Major General Grant and to move on towards Chester. . . . At 5 o'clock this afternoon the troops with Lord Cornwallis reached Ashtown, within 4 miles of Chester."1 Here Gen. Cornwallis established his headquarters, the en- campment extending from Mount Hope to the lower part of Village Green, where in an old brick house, still standing, that officer made his temporary residence. From here he dispatched parties in every direction to secure supplies for the British army, seizing for that purpose the flour in all the mills within reach of his troops. The soldiers who were sent out on these expeditions frequently despoiled the inhabitants of everything they could carry away, although the orders from Howe and Cornwallis expressly forbade such unlicensed plundering. On the night of Sunday, Sept. 14, 1777, three British soldiers-Dr. Smith says they were Hessians-crossed Chester Creek, above Dutton's mill, to the dwelling of Jonathan Martin, now the property of George Dutton, and plundered the family of many things, among them some articles belonging to Mary Martin, a daughter, then eighteen, who indignantly reproved them for their unmanly conduct. One of the soldiers, in anger at her rep- rimand, slightly wounded Miss Martin with a bay- onet. The men, still on plunder bent, proceeded about three-quarters of a mile in a southeasterly direction to the house of Mr. Coxe, in Chester town- ship, near Sneath's Corner, now the property of Rob- ert McCall, where they stole a number of articles, among which was a silver watch. Mr. Coxe had a

1 Journal of Capt. John Montressor, Penna. Mag. of History, vol. vi. p. 39.

292

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

daughter about the same age as Miss Martin. The next morning the two girls went to the headquarters of Lord Cornwallis, where complaint was made per- sonally to that officer or Gen. Howe, who, with an escort of dragoons, had that day visited Cornwallis' extreme outpost, three-quarters of a mile west of Chester, in the neighborhood of the present Carter- town. Dr. Smith, who heard the incident related by Thomas Dutton and Joseph Mencil, stated that Gen. Howe " promised that if they could point out the men, they should be punished.' The troops were at once formed into line, when the girls passed along and pointed out the robbers, after which they retired to some distance. The officers then put the troops through various evolutions, leaving the men in dif- ferent positions. The same men were again pointed out by the girls as the guilty parties. The operation was again repeated with a like result. The men were then searched, when some of the stolen property was found upon them. They were tried by a court-mar- tial and all convicted. Two of them were sentenced to be hung, and the third to perform the office of executioner. Upon whom the extreme penalty should be inflicted, the question was decided by casting lots. The two men were hung on the limb of an apple-tree on the property owned by George L. Nield, in Aston, and what is remarkable, they were allowed to remain hanging after the army moved away."1 The two men, we learn from Capt. Montressor's journal, were executed on the 15th of September, and that one was a grenadier and the other a light infantryman.2 That night at eight o'clock Cornwallis moved his whole command toward the Lancaster road, and at eleven o'clock the next day Gen. Howe made a junction with the troop of the former, the commander-in-chief having marched with the bulk of the army from near Dilworthtown by the Turk's Head (West Chester), Goshen meeting-house, and the hotel, the sign of the Boot.

Damages sustained by the inhabitants of Aston township from the British army in September, 1777:

Taken from John McClaskey by the British under Corn- £ 8. d. 95 6 wallis, September 13th and 14th. 7

Taken from Johu Noblit by the British nuder Cornwallis, September 16th ..

4 0 0

Taken from James Pennell by the British under Corn- wallis, September 16th ..

186 7 9

Taken from George Pierce, Esq., September 13th, 14th, and 15th ...

771 15

Taken from George Witherow.

165 0 0

Robert Rankin, September 13th and 14th ... 22 12 6

£1245 2s. 9d.

Thomas Dutton, the centenarian, used to relate that on the evening of the 13th of September, when the British troops, under Cornwallis, encamped at Village Green, extending in a crescent form west- wardly to Mount Hope, he was afraid the soldiers would kill his mother's cows, which were then pas- turing in close proximity to the troops, so, lad as he

was, not ten years of age, he marched boldly to the camp and drove the cattle home. An officer noticed the boy's action, and doubtless thinking that where those cows belonged good cheer could be had, ordered four soldiers to follow while he walked with young Dutton to his home. The latter, child-like, answered every question put to him by the officer, and when the house was reached the soldiers waited without to guard against the capture of their commander, who had entered the dwelling. The widow Dutton was much alarmed, but the officer assured her that the soldiers did not come to rob the people, but advised her as long as the troops lay in the neighborhood to bolt and bar every door and window, for the camp- followers, under a pretence of lighting a pipe, a drink of water, or other trifling matter, would strive to get access to the house and plunder it. The brave fellow who had lost one of his hands in Flanders paid for his meals, and the timely warning in all probability saved the widow from loss.3 This lad, born in Aston, Feb. 2, 1769, died Sept. 12, 1869, in the same town- ship, his span of life having been extended to one hundred years, seven months, and eleven days. When twenty-one years of age, he having learned the tanning business, obtained permission from his grandfather to build a tan-yard on the former's estate in Aston, and Thomas Dutton erected a dwelling partly of stone and partly of logs, and a tan-house, into the wall of which is built a stone bearing the initials T. D., and the date 1790. The young man, who had married, appears to have devoted himself to his trade, and not only did he establish a reputation in business, but his industrious habits so favorably impressed his grandfather that Richard Dutton con- veyed "in consideration of the natural love and af- fection he bore" his grandson, the two acres on which the dwelling and tan-yard were located. Subse- quently by his grandfather's will he received a large tract of land surrounding these two acres. Here he continued until 1808, when he removed to New York State, but in 1817 resumed his trade as tanner at the old location, using a steam-engine at the work pur- chased of William Parrish, a manufacturer of Phila- delphia, the first, it is said, ever set up in Delaware County. The good people of that day shook their head doubtingly at the ultimate success of his " new- fangled notions." Here he continued until 1848, at which time, being nearly eighty years of age, he ceased to take an active part in business. He could distinctly remember hearing the cannon which were fired in Philadelphia in commemoration of the adop- tion of the Declaration of Independence, and was of sufficient age to vote for Washington at his second election, and excepting the first term of Monroe, had voted at every Presidential election, casting his ballot for the last time for Gen. Grant, in November, 1868.4

1 Smith's " History of Delaware County," p. 314.

2 Peuna, Mag. of Hist., vol. vi. p. 38.

3 Genealogy of the Dutton Family, by Gilbert Cope, p. 51.

4 1b., pp. 57, 58.

"MARDON." RESIDENCE OF DR. ELLWOOD WILSON, ASTON TOWNSHIP, DELAWARE CO., PA.

293

ASTON TOWNSHIP.

On Feb. 2, 1869, when Thomas Dutton completed his century of life, his family connection and friends, amounting to nearly one thousand persons, assembled at his house in Aston, on which occasion interesting ceremonies appropriate to the unusual event were had. The venerable man lived until the following autumn, and only three instances are recorded in Delaware County of persons who lived to a more advanced age than that reached by Thomas Dutton.

In 1850, Nathan P. Dutton, his mother, Rachel (Pennell) Dutton, and Richard P. Slawter died in Aston, the cause of their death being exceedingly remarkable. On Saturday afternoon, August 8th of that year, a public sale of household goods was being held in a house near Village Green, when a storm ^^companied by lightning occurred. The house where the vendue was in progress was struck, the fluid entering the peak of the roof, passing down between the weather-boarding and plastering until it reached the first story, "when it divided, one por- tion passing in at a hook driven in the wall, from which a looking-glass was suspended, and striking Nathan P. Dutton, who was standing under the glass, upon the top of the head, leaving but a slight mark. The fluid passed to his left arm above the elbow, thence down his body, burning the skin in its pas- sage. He lived about five minutes, and was sensible of his approaching dissolution. The fluid passed from him to John McClay, who was standing near, struck him in the back, and ran down both his legs, burning the skin and clothes from his body, tearing his shoes to fragments, and leaving a small hole in the toe of one of them, as if perforated by a bullet. The other branch of the fluid struck Richard P. Slawter, who was standing outside of the house, and felled him to the ground. He was taken up, but ex- pired in about fifteen minutes. Rachel Dutton, the mother of Nathan, was in an adjoining room, and, on being told of the fate of her son, she came out and immediately commenced to render every assistance in her power to restore him to animation. After laboring with great anxiety for nearly half an hour she gradually fainted away, and, continuing to lose respiration, she expired in about three-quarters of an hour after the death of her son." 1

The foregoing is not the only freak of lightning worthy of record as having happened in Aston. On Monday evening, June 19, 1848, during a heavy storm, the dwelling of John Hall, in that township, was struck by lightning, and a lady sitting in the house was so severely stunned that she was uncon- scious for several hours.

As late as 1770, Dr. Smith tells us, a family of In- dians had a wigwam on the Aston side of Chester Creek, on or in the vicinity of the present farm of George Drayton, but they did not remain there con- stantly. Their names were Andrew, Isaac, his son,

and two women, sisters, Nanny and Betty, one of whom was the wife of Andrew. The latter died about the year 1780, and was buried in the graveyard of Middletown Friends' meeting-house .?

On the evening of Sept. 11, 1777, a number of the stragglers from the defeated American army, hungry, demoralized, and exhausted in their flight from the field at Brandywine, collected in the neighborhood of Logtown, where they passed the night, sleeping in the outbuildings and open fields. The next morning most of them rejoined their commands.

Several acres of land lying in the sharp angle formed by the union of the Marcus Hook and Con- cord roads at Village Green early in this century were the property of John Hoskins, and there occurred in the olden times an accident which is still recalled to the minds of many of the aged residents of the county. On Jan. 5, 1819, a six-year-old son of John and Mary Hoskins, in the absence of his parents, caught up an old firelock standing in the room back of a door, which had been charged about the pre- ceding Christmas, and which the owner had several times attempted to discharge without success. The child pointed the gun at his sister, four years older than himself, saying, " I'm going to shoot," pulling the trigger as he spoke. The gun, unfortunately, was discharged, and the shot lodged in the bowels of the girl, causing instant death.

In February, 1836, a strike occurred at Crozer's West Branch Mills, occasioned by the discharge of William Shaw, one of the hands, and in May of the same year the operatives employed in the cotton-fac- tories along Chester Creek struck for higher wages. In April, 1842, wages having been reduced, a general strike followed. Meetings were held, and on May 16, 1842, eight of the operatives were arrested on a charge of inciting the others to riot. On May 24th the trial began, and continued one week. It was alleged that the strikers caused Burt & Kerlin's mill to stop work by shutting down the head-gate, and one Broadbent, an operator who would not join the strikers, was overtaken going to work and kicked, cuffed, dragged to creek, and ducked. It was alleged that a party, consisting of two or three hundred men, gathered at Rockdale, when a committee was appointed to go to John Garsed and John D. Pierce, at Pennsgrove Mills, and compel the hands to cease work there, and that a procession of ahout fifty men, of Rockdale, armed with clubs, canes, and a few with pistols, went to Kelly's factory, in Upper Darby, to compel the oper- atives there to join in the strike. Mark Wild, Hiram McConnell, and Maj. Rowe were convicted of con- spiracy. Wild and Rowe were fined twenty dollars each. McConnell was ordered to pay thirty-five dol- lars fine. The jury acquitted all the eight men in- dicted for riot, but ordered McConnell to pay the costs of prosecution.

1 Delaware County Republican, Aug. 9, 1850.

2 Smith's " History of Delaware County," p. 400.

294

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

A fatal accident occurred at Rockdale on Saturday, Dec. 17, 1859. A violent storm rendered the night unusually dark. Maris Waddle, of Middletown, was driving down the steep hill at James Brown's (now Atwood B. Hoskins') store, when his horses took fright, backed the wagon over the side of the road at that point, and the vehicle, in falling a distance of ten feet to the wall below, turned, crushing the driver beneath it. When the wagon was removed Wad- dle's lifeless body was found lying under the broken vehicle.

The original township of Aston, which at the upper end conformed to the straight east and west line dividing that township, Concord, and Middletown from Thornbury, and Edgmont remained undisturbed until 1842, when, on July 20th of that year, the As- sembly enacted a law changing the line of Aston, so that that part of the old township lying above Stony Bank School-house-a direct line drawn thence east- ward from Concord township-line to Chester Creek- was annexed to Thornbury township.1 Again, in 1870, an effort was made by the citizens of the upper end of Aston to divide the preseut township, the dif- ficulty growing out of the alleged disproportion of the number of schools and the unequal division of the taxes for road purposes. A petition was presented to the court, but at the election held, under order of court, October 18th of that year, the project was defeated at the polls.

Peters' Grist- and Saw-Mills .- On Green Creek, a feeder of the West Branch of Chester Creek, near Concord township-line, the Peters' grist- and saw- mills are located. The date when the tract on which the mills are erected was first taken up does not ap- pear of record, but on June 10, 1703, one hundred acres were resurveyed to Isaac Taylor, to whom a patent for this land was issued Jan. 12, 1704. It subsequently became the property of William Peters, who, in 1750, erected the brick dwelling-honse now standing, the date-stone in its walls bearing his in- itials, "W. P," and the numerals of the year just stated.

Previous to 1790 a stone fulling-mill had been built, and between that date and 1799 a saw-mill had also been erected, for the assessment-roll of Aston town- ship, in the latter year, shows that at that time a full- ing-mill and a saw-mill were then on the estate. This saw-mill, in several ancient documents, is called "a slitting-mill," it being employed in slitting logs to be used in building ships. In 1826 the fulling-mill was in disuse and a grist-mill and saw-mill were in oper- ation ; in the former from six to ten thousand bushels of grain was gronnd, and in the latter about fifty thou- sand feet of lumber sawed per annum. On June 4, 1842, Samuel F. Peters, a grandson of William Peters, purchased the property, retaining title thereto until Feb. 8, 1872, when Samuel F. Peters sold it to

Charles J. Johnson, who is now operating the mills as the " Forest Queen Mills."

Tyson (now Llewellyn) Mills,-Previous to the Revolution, Robert Hall and Abraham Sharpless owned and operated a grist-mill on the West Branch of Chester Creek. The traces of the old race which fed those works and the remains of the ancient dam can be discerned to this day. The old race on the other side of the creek from the present mills evi- dently was in use for a mill, probably that of 1772, of which mention is made in the road-docket of a road as being laid out at that time from Daniel Sharpless' smithshop (Logtown) to Hall & Sharp- less' mill. Hall subsequently acquired title to the entire property, and on April 5, 1798, he sold thirty- four acres, on which was then erected a stone house, a grist- and saw-mill, to Thomas Jones, and became a store-keeper in Aston, while Jones operated the mill, certainly unsuccessfully, for he became insolvent, and on July 20, 1800, John Odenheimer, sheriff of the county, conveyed twenty-eight and three-quarter acres of land, with the buildings, to Capt. John Richards. The latter retained title to the estate two years, when on Oct. 23, 1802, he sold the premises to James Ty- son. The purchaser, then a young man of thirty- three, continued to operate the mills (having, in con- nection with the grist-, erected an oil-mill) for more than half a century until his death, March 15, 1858, aged eighty-six years. During the flood of 1843 much property was destroyed at these mills, the race and dam being almost obliterated. On March 25, 1864, Elwood Tyson, executor of his father's estate, sold the premises, excepting three-quarters of an acre, to John B. and Samuel Rhodes, who changed the old mill into a cotton- and woolen-factory, and in 1868 erected the present main building, a structure one hundred and ten by fifty-seven feet, two stories in height. In 1872 an addition of one hundred and thirty-five feet was made to the mill, the whole, in- cluding the building put up in 1868, being enlarged by the erection of a third story, and in 1879 another addition of one hundred and twelve feet and three stories was built, making the whole length of the main mill three hundred and fifty-five feet, in which are nearly four hundred looms. The industry, as it developed, necessarily built up a village, which now contains about one hundred tenement houses. For the convenience of the operatives a store was estab- lished at Llewellyn in the summer of 1877, and in 1880 it was made a postal station, John B. Rhodes being appointed postmaster. In addition to these mills the firm are now running the Knowlton Mills under a lease, and have purchased the West Branch Mills, which they are also operating.

John B. Rhodes, the senior member of the firm, is the grandson of John Rhodes, who emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1827, and settled in Aston town- ship, where his death by drowning-together with that of two daughters-occurred during the great freshet

1 Bliss' " Delaware County Digest," p. 98.

RESIDENCE OF JOHN B. RHODES, ASTON TOWNSHIP, DELAWARE CO., PA.

295

ASTON TOWNSHIP.

of August, 1843. His son, William, followed him to America the year after, and also located in Aston township, where he was employed in a factory devoted to the manufacture of cotton fabrics. He married, prior to his emigration, Hannah Kay, and had chil- dren,-John B., William, Samuel, Thomas (deceased), Ann, and Susanna,-all of whom were born in the United States. John B., the eldest, whose birth oc- curred Jan. 27, 1829, in Aston township, at the early age of six years entered a cotton-factory with a view to becoming proficient in that branch of industry. He was employed in the different departments of a weaving-mill, and ultimately acquired a practical knowledge of all branches of the business. His edu- cation was meanwhile gained at the sessions of a night-school (the public-school system not yet being introduced in this part of the State), and confined principally to the rudiments, habits of thought and observation having been of great service to him during his youth as in later life. He remained an employé of the factory until his majority was at- tained, and was then married by Bishop Alfred Lee, of Delaware, to Annie L., daughter of William War- ren, of Middletown township, who was of English parentage. Their children are William K. (deceased), Charles B., Alfred L., John, Jr., Richard Somers, Ann L., and Jennie C. (deceased). On his marriage, Mr. Rhodes embarked in the business of store-keeping at Crozerville, Delaware Co., where he remained prosecuting a successful trade until 1864. He then purchased from Elwood Tyson, Esq., what is known as the Aston Mills property, and has since been en- gaged in the manufacture of doeskins, jeans, and dress-goods. His marked success prompted him, in 1866, to rent the Knowlton Mills, at Knowlton, in Middletown township, which are still controlled by him. To this already extensive manufacturing ven- ture was added, in 1882, the purchase of the West Branch Mills, in Aston township, which are running to their full capacity. In the management of these extensive interests his energy and business tact have been exceptional, contributing essentially to the suc- cess of every enterprise in which he has engaged. From humble beginnings Mr. Rhodes has risen by in- herent force and strong purpose to be an influential factor in the industries of the county. He is in poli- tics a Democrat. He was a delegate to the St. Louis Convention which in 1876 nominated Tilden and Hendricks for the first offices in the gift of the peo- ple. He is a prominent Odd-Fellow, member of Benevolent Lodge, No. 40, of Aston, and has repre- sented it in the Grand Councils for a number of years, his father having been in 1831 one of its charter members and organizers. He is a regular attendant upon the services of the Methodist Episcopal Church, though educated in the tenets of the Protestant Episcopal faith.

The Old Forge at Rockdale .- The first mention of a forge at this place, so far as we have yet ascer-

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 74

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