History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 98

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

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John Noach

391

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

work was resumed. By extraordinary exertions he overcame the most distressing discouragements and re-established the foundry. There came out once more the indomitable spirit of the man. Business men generally recognized the fact that nothing could crush John Roach, and from that time his credit was good anywhere, and his word was as good as his bond. Pluck and patience and persistency will powerfully tell. All men honor the man who makes himself the master of misfortunes.

With the profits of the business in eight years Mr. Roach built an establishment having facilities to con- struct larger marine-engines than any yet built in this country. He was bound that nothing in his line should be done anywhere in the world that he could not do. He sent an agent to Europe to examine the greatest establishments there, and thus was able to avail himself of all the advantages in selection and arrangement of machinery. Some of the tools intro- duced were the largest in the country. Where other works were unimproved he was constantly making advance in facilities. He stimulated the inventive genius of his workmen, and was quick to adopt a good thing when he found it. Having gone through every branch of his business, and understanding every detail, his eye was swift to see and his judgment was rarely at fault. Nothing escaped his personal attention. His capacity for work was wonderful. His pay-lists en- rolled from nine hundred to fifteen hundred men. Two immense engines were built by him in these works for the iron-clad " Dunderberg," and the engines for the double-end gunboat "Winooski," the steam frigate "Neshaming," the great sound steamers "Bristol" and " Providence," and other large vessels. No work was too great or too difficult for him to do, and do at its best, and no unsatisfactory work went out of his establishment. His superior facilities enabled him to do work in shortest time and at lowest price. Iu 1858 he took into partnership one of his sons, and the firm became, as at present, John Roach & Son.

But Mr. Roach's ambition was not yet satisfied. The Etna Works, large and complete as they were, lay distant from the river-front and lacked other advan- tages. In 1867 he bought the Morgan Iron-Works, an immense establishment at the foot of Ninth Street, on the East River. These works were built in 1838 by T. F. Secor & Co., and in 1850 were bought by George W. Quintard, who conducted them until 1867. The engines for a large number of first-class merchant and war vessels were constructed in them. They con- sist of various buildings,-foundries and shops,- occupying six city blocks, giving a water-front of three hundred feet. Great alterations were made and the establishment was brought to the highest point of capacity and perfection. For the construction of marine-engines of the old style there was no superior plant in the world.

But when the works were brought to this condition another discouraging train of circumstances came on

which threatened to make establishment and expe- rience useless and the property of little value, except as real estate.

During the civil war our shipping was driven from the sea, and England embraced the opportunity to get possession of the carrying trade formerly ours. For years a revolution had been going on in ship-building, in the change not only from wood to iron, from sail to steam, but from the wooden side-wheeler to the iron propeller, and from the ordinary to the compound engine. No compound engine had at that time been built in this country. Our iron interest had not been developed. And at this time, when England was in possession of the carrying trade, and when every- thing that entered into the construction of a ship was taxed, the free-ship cry was raised in Congress. This utterly discouraged capital invested in the iron busi- ness, and nearly all the great iron-works in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston were closed up. Mr. Roach held on. He looked over the whole subject,- saw the need of this great country for ships and its danger without the power to build them,-and had faith to believe that the people would demand a re- vival of the American carrying trade. He proved his faith by investing all he had in the ship-yard and engine-works at Chester, an establishment which covers some twenty-five acres and thirty branches of skilled labor, and has in many respects no equal in the world, and where a finished ship, from the ore up, can be produced. Over three thousand men are in his employ, and nowhere are to be found superior facilities or superior ships. Nearly one hundred splendid iron steamships have been launched by him, and no unsatisfactory work has he ever done. It is a remarkable fact that in his business career of over forty years Mr. Roach has never been sued, nor has he ever brought suit against any man with whom he . has had dealings. His ability to manage men is as marked as his executive powers. Strikes have been markedly absent from his work-shops, and his men have ever been treated with kindness and considera- tion. He is a model employer.

By his persistency in advocating an American policy of protection not only for American ships, but for all American industries, Mr. Roach has done more than any other one man to stem the tide of foreign influ- ence in favor of free trade, which means the pau- perization of American labor in favor of foreign labor. By his powerful arguments before Congressional com- mittees, arguments which proved unanswerable, he has, year after year, fought and defeated the bills for free ships and free trade introduced into Congress ; his opponents have conceded that they owe defeat to him alone. This will secure him high honor at the hands of the American people when our history shall be written, and when, free from prejudice, men shall be able to see how much the country and its indus- tries owe to the firm stand taken and maintained with consummate ability by Mr. Roach.

392

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

He is a man of genial disposition, a fluent and per- suasive speaker, overflowing with broad and sound ideas on all subjects. He has aided many a young man and influenced him to make something of him- self. The rules which he has followed and which he would recommend to all are these:

1. Keep your promises and appointments.

2. Never let a customer go away dissatisfied, if you can possibly help it.

3. Never lend a friend your note, rather loan him the money, if you can spare it. Never indorse another man's note as an accommodation.

4. Do no business with a man who is troublesome, and whom you know you cannot satisfy.

5. Pay your bills and workmen promptly when pay is due.

6. Be honest and honorable in all things, and kind to all men.

The rules are characteristic of a man whose life cannot be studied by young men without advantage, and who is worthy of the honors that have been con- ferred upon him by those who know his worth.

Sauville Spar-Yard .- In 1865 John Sauville es- tablished a spar-yard .at the foot of Parker Street. The masts and spars used at Roach's ship-yard are here hewn from the large timbers which are brought from Clearfield City, in this State, and the spruce logs are brought from Maine.

The Frick's Boat-Yard .- In 1860, William Frick and William Wilson, formerly of the firm of Frick, Slifer & Co., of Louisburg, Pa., came to Chester and purchased a large tract of land on the river, adjoining the yard of Reaney, Son & Archbold. Here they erected piers, which extended nearly seven hundred feet from the fast land into the water, and expended thousands of dollars in filling in the low and marshy ground so that it might be utilized for the purposes of a boat-yard. The firm made a specialty of building canal-boats, and had established a large business, giv- ing employment to nearly a hundred hands, when the . civil war unsettled value and so advanced the costs of materials that it was very precarious to enter into heavy contracts to be carried out in the future. Frick & Co. had undertaken to build a large number of canal-boats at a designated price, which at the period the contract was entered into, and the cost of mate- rial at that time, promised to yield a large profit to the builder, but the inflation came, lumber and iron advanced threefold in value. The parties for whom the boats were to be built demanded that the firm should carry out its contract, although to do so would entail the loss of many thousands of dollars. Find- ing that the strict letter of the agreement would be required, Frick & Co. strove to carry out their obli- gation in good faith, but the losses entailed embar- rassed them, and culminated ultimately in financial failure. The boats were delivered, but the builders were ruined, and that in a contract which when made promised a large margin of profit.

Besides the yards already mentioned, Charles A. Weidner, at the Chester Iron-Works, on Second Street, between Edgmont and Market Streets, built several river steamboats and other vessels. In 1873 the United States revenue marine steamer " Manhattan" was built at this establishment, and at the time was pronounced by the government inspectors the best vessel ever constructed for that service in the country. In 1876 Nathan Pennell and George Robinson had a ship-yard in South Ward, near Essex Street, and that year the tug " Mary Ann" was built at this yard. The depression of 1877 caused the proprietors to abandon and retire from the business, which was at that time very unpromising.

Court-Houses and Prisons .- At the session of Upland Court, Nov. 14, 1676, an order was made pro- viding that Neeles Laerson be paid " for his charges for keeping the Court last year." Neeles Laerson was a tavern-keeper, and his inn is believed to have been on Edgmont Avenue, north of the present Second Street. He was the owner of one hundred and eighty-one acres of land in Chester, covering a large part of the present thickly built-up portion of the city to which I am now referring. Neeles Laerson was a quarrelsome neighbor, as will be seen by an ex- amination of the records. In 1678, James Sande- lands, on behalf of the inhabitants of Upland, called the attention of the court to the fact that Laerson had built a fence closing the old and usual way to the meadow, which obstruction the court ordered the latter to remove. On the same day the church war- dens complained that in taking possession of two lots in Chester, which he had bought from Dominie Lasse Carolus, he had included some of the church or glebe lands. The court ordered that he should be allowed that which he had bought, but if it was found that he had taken more than was by right his, it should be annexed to the church lots.

The first court of which we have information was, as shown, held at Learson's inn, but the justice or- dered, Nov. 13, 1677, that Capt. Hans Jargin, who had been occupying the building as a barracks for his company, should "fit up" the House of Defense, or block house, and furnish it " fitt for the Court to sitt in against ye next Court." Although there is no pos- itive record showing that the House of Defense was used by the court for its sessions, it is now generally conceded that the evidence fully establishes the fact that it was so occupied. This building, which was constructed of logs, stood on the east side of Edgmont Avenue, about eighty-four feet from the present Sec- ond Street, was rectangular in shape, and was four- teen by fifteen feet in dimensions. It was erected at an angle to Second Street, and extended into the roadway of Edgmont Avenue. Neeles Laerson, March 13, 1678, was ordered by the court "to make or leave a lane or street from Upland creek to ye House of Defence or County House" between that time and the next court, and in default to be fined at

393

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

the discretion of the judges. As the early settlers traveled almost wholly by water, it was very essential that there should be free access from the creek to the public buildings, and this means of communication the pugnacious Laerson seems to have interrupted until the strong arm of the law dealt summarily with him. It appears that the court-house was then a place where articles were exposed by the public for sale. The court, on 3d day of First month, 1684, deter- mined that a revenue might be derived from this source; hence the old record shows this strange entry :

"Ordered that all people that shall make use of the Court House for sellerage of any goods shall for every Tonne pay after ye rate of three Shillings fourpence a Tonne for any time not exceeding a week, And for what time it shall continne afterwards half so much."

How long the House of Defense was used as the public buildings of the county is not known, but in 1703, after two other buildings in succession had been occupied by the court, the grand jury presented the old block-house " as being a nuisance, and dangerous of taking fire, and so would endanger the town." "The Court," -- so runs the old entry on the docket,- "in deliberate consideration, ordered the said house to be pulled down, and that Jasper Yeates, Chief Burgess of the Borough of Chester, shall see the order performed." Previous to 1683-there seems to have been no place for the detention of prisoners in Ches- ter for two years before that date-" John Ward for sundry Felons, committed to the custody of the Sher- iff, and made his escape with irons upon him."

The third court-house, or the third building wherein court was held, was built in 1684-85. Dr. Smith says, " A jail was erected at the same time, but there is reason to believe that it was built near the creek, and that there was a street laid out between the two buildings." Henry Hollingsworth, who was a Friend, " for cutting the eaves of the new prison," was dealt with by meeting the same year. This court-house Dr. Smith located on the east side of Edgmont Street, which John Hill Martin thinks is an error, and that it was on the west side of that highway, an opinion which meets the approval of the present writers. The student of our ancient annals will find more confusion in the authorities respecting the sites of the several court-houses than in any other details of the early days of the colony. This last building, after it was no longer used for county purposes, was ordered by the court, at the March session, 1701, " to be set on sale the 6th day of the Third month next, papers to be set up to give notice that it is to be sold at Vandew."

Whether the sale was had according to this order does not appear, but the property must have passed to Ralph Fishbourn, of Chester, gentleman, for in the latter part of the year 1705 the Legislature passed an act "to assure, grant, and convey unto Ralph Fish- bourn one messuage, cottage-house, or tenement, and

lot of ground thereunto belonging, situated in Ches- ter, in the county of Chester, formerly known by the name of the ' Old Court-House.'"

The fourth court-house, so far as its foundation is concerned, is still standing on the west side of Edg- mont Avenne nearly opposite the House of Defense, its precise location being two hundred and fifty-six feet six inches from the southwest corner of Edgmont Avenne and Third Street. It was built by John Hoskins in 1695, and he conveyed the lot to the county the same year. The old building, now owned by Jonathan Pennell, has a part of the wall of this court-house standing in the northern gable of the present structure, between the two end windows, and extending up nearly to the second story. The old part of the wall, and that which was added after it ceased to be the county building, is still easily dis- cernible. The jail was in the cellar, and the iron rods which formerly barred the prisoners' escape from confinement, while admitting fresh air to the cells, still remain in the weather-stained frames in the foundation walls. The court-rooms and jury-rooms were in the first and second stories.

At the same court, March, 1701, at which the sale of the old court-house erected in 1684 was ordered, the prison being found inadequate to retain the cul- prits, Jasper Yeates, Ralph Fishbourn, Joseph Co- bourn, and Andrew Jobe were appointed supervisors to build a new prison on the grounds of James Sande- lands, the younger, and were instructed that the erec- tion should be twenty-five feet in length by eighteen feet in width in the clear. This structure, so far as the prison was concerned, was built, for the old draft of Chester, now owned by William B. Broomall, Esq., locates this building as south of the court-house built by Hoskins in 1695, and Sandelands, by his attorney, David Lloyd, in open court, delivered a deed for the land to the commissioners of the county.

We have serions doubt whether the court-house alluded to in the report of the grand jury of the 24th of February, 1701, was ever built. The grand inquest on that occasion called the attention of the court to " the necessity of a Court Hous and prison hous," but stated also that "there is little money in the bank, and that many have not paid their moiety ¿ rate of the last assessment, desire that such may be forced." They also recommended the speedy gather- ing of the county tax remaining unpaid, and re- quested the justices to issue warrants therefor, and end their report with the declaration that in their opinion "Law and Justice cannot have its perfect conre withont such honsis for their distribution as aforesaid." We know that at the December court, 1701, the justices ordered repairs to be made " to the court and prison hons," and appointed Walter Martin, John Hoskins, and Henry Worley to be supervisors and oversee the work, with power to provide ma- terials, employ workmen, and to finish the repairs as speedily as possible. The supervisors were also in-

394

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

structed to provide a pair of stocks and a whipping- post. Whether the expense of the building of the new court-house, as desired by the grand jury, in 1701-2, was greater than the county could undertake, cannot now be determined, but there is no document- ary evidence to show that such a structure was ever erected, and we indorse the opinion of Dr. Smith and John Hill Martin that the next court-house in chron- ological order was the old building on Market Street, known to us of the present day as the City Hall.

"The young lady, feeling indignant at the insult, promptly replied,-

"" By line and rule works many a fool.'"

Unfortunately for the tradition connecting this in- cident with Chester, the same story is told respecting the erection of an edifice in York, England, which building antedates the discovery of America by the Genoese mariner, and the anecdote is related of sev- eral localities in Great Britain years before we have knowledge that any European had settled at Upland.

When the new court-house was finished an act of Assembly was procured "to enable the trustee to sell the old Court House and prison belonging to the borough and county of Chester," and in 1725 the building mentioned, the one built in 1695, and part of the . wall of which stands in the house now owned by Jonathan Pennell, on Edgmont Avenue, was sold to William Preston, of Philadelphia, mariner, for twenty-seven pounds.

The presumption is that the old jail, which stood at the north- west corner of Fourth and Market Streets, was built previous to the -- date of the erection of the court- COURT-HOUSE AND JAIL. house on the same street. The act of Feb. 22, 1718, required The fifth court-house, including the tavern of "that within the space of three years after the Neeles Laerson in the number, was the massive stone 25th day of March, 1718, a house of correction, or

structure still standing on the west side of Market work-house, shall be built ... in Chester, at the charge of the county of Chester." The old work- house stood directly in the rear of the prison, and the fact that it was located on the thoroughfare leading from Market Street to Edgmont gave the name of Work Street to the highway for more than a century. The prothonotary's office, which still stands back from the present building-line of Market Street, and now owned by James Hampson, was not erected in that year, for at "the private session" of the court, held Street, which was built in 1724, the date-stone being in the south wall, but covered with the dull brownish preparation which still defaces the ancient edifice, and hides the numerals from sight. The building has the pent-roof projections over the first-story win- dows, as was the style of architecture of that day, and as originally constructed was surmounted with a small belfry rising from the centre of the roof, in which formerly hung a bell, with the words " Chester, 1729" cast in the metal. The bay or semi-circular | at the bouse of John Hannum, in Concord, Dec. 15, projection at the north side, in the rear of the judges' bench, was added at a later date. The jury-rooms were in the second story of the building. Dr. Smith tells us that tradition has handed down an incident " as having happened during the building of the court-house, or some other public building in Ches- ter," which he relates as follows :

" During the progress of the work a young lady was observed to pass and repass the building daily, dressed in very gay attire. After the promenade had been continued for some time, one of the workmen, Jess mannerly than his associates, upon the appcar- ance of the lady, called out,-

"' In silk and scarlet walks many a harlot.'

1724, Joseph Parker petitioned the court, “setting forth ye great danger ye records of ye county lay in, as well as by casualties of fire, as other accidents ;" the court " allows ye petition to be reasonable, and orders ye clerk to present ye same before ye commis- sioners and assessors of ye same county, in order that they may fit a room in ye new Court House for keep- ing ye said records in ; and when prepared order ye old clerk to transmit all ye said records to ye place so appropriated accordingly, and not to be removed without ye Court's direction." Twelve years after this order Joseph Paken, in his petition dated Jan. 24, 1737, gives a woeful description of the then con- dition of the court-house. He says,-

395

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

" Which said Court house was at the Public Expense Furnished with Tahlea, Chairs, fire shovale, Tongs, D. ggs, fanders, aa many as Reason- ably adjudged Necessery. . . . But whoever the Person charge the saois was Committed to It is Apparent to Every Person that will maka usa of hia Eyea that the Doors are most Commonly Left Open for Horses and Cattle to go in and out at Pleasure, the Furniture broke and Exceed- ingly Deminished, and the place made a Commen Stage whereby Rude people break the windows, Treada down Ceiling and Commits many Disorders, which, if not timely Pravanted must end in the Ruin thereof, As the great Danger which proceed by the parson Intrusted by you with the Care thereof In making the sama a Dwelling house and Keeping Firas therain for some months Together."

The court-house appears to have been much out of order, for on March 1, 1737/8, the commissioners and assessors agreed with John Owens to repair it as fol- lows :

" The Lower floor and the Bar and to provide Convenient Seats for the Patty Jury te sitt en when in Court and to repair the windows and almutters below stairs and above the Chimney case in the Grand Jury room and te repair the Three Tablas helonging to the several rooma ahova ateira, and the Benches and to fix a Turn'd Column or Pillar to support the Ceiling where the Bell ropa comes thro' and te cause the Cailing to be Repaired, and to Provide es many Boarda sa may lay a ffloor over the sd Ceiling and to make & put up shutters for the Belfry (or place where the Bell hanga) and Likewise to make a window in the Gahle End in the Garret er Upper Room and glaze the sama, and to En- deaver to procure (with the help of Joseph Parker) the chairs that is wanted belonging to tha Court House as also the Tongs and fira Shovela."

These repairs were made, for some of the improve- ments designated, particularly the setting up of a turned column to support the upper floor, was in the apartment and removed after the building had passed into the ownership of the city of Chester, when the upper apartments were altered into the present Coun- cil chamber.

As stated, the date of the erection of the prothono- tary's office is well known, and I doubt whether the building antedates the Revolution, for, on July 28, 1777, the records of the county were in the possession of the late prothonotary, and at his residence, for on that date the Executive Council authorized Caleb Davis,-Benjamin Jacobs not having qualified,-who was appointed in Jacobs' stead, to "enter the dwell- ing and out-houses of H. H. Graham, take possession of the books and papers of the county, and remove them to a place of safety." Joseph Parker had kept the records in an office alongside his dwelling-house, -the old Logan house on Second Street,-and Henry Hale Graham had after that deposited the records in his office, the one-story building on Edgmont Avenue, north of Graham Street, now belonging to the estate of Henry Abbott, deceased. It seems that in the growth of the business before the County Court, the rooms in the second story of the court-house were necessary for the use of the grand and petit juries, and hence the order of the court of Dec. 15, 1774, had to be disregarded. The prothonotary's office, I am of opinion, must necessarily have been erected subsequent to the battle of Brandywine, for it was the dread of the threatened British attack on Phila- delphia which occasioned the alarm of Council as to the safety of the county records, and called forth the order to Caleb Davis.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 98

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