History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 73

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Evans, Samuel, 1823-1908, joint author
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1320

USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 73

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State and County Officers .- Fulton township has furnished the following county officers since her or- ganization in 1844, viz. : Members of the Legislature, Jeremiah B. Stubb-, M.D., 1847-48 ; John C. Walton, some forty years ago, and which was about one mile ' 1851-52; Day Wood, 1864-65;1 Jeremiah Brown, as- sociate judge, 1851; S. W. P. Boyd, sheriff, 1860; Slater Brown, prison inspector, date not at hand.

Jeremiah Brown was also elected to the Legislature in 1826, to the Constitutional Convention of 1637-38, and to. Congress in 1842 and again in 1844. Ilis father, Jeremiah Brown, Sr., had been a member of the Legislature from 1796 to 1800, inclusive, without intermission.

Heury Carter was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1874.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

ROBERT FULTON.

Robert Fulton, a celebrated inventor and engineer, was born in Little Britain township, now Fulton, Lancaster Co., Pa., in 1765. About the age of seven- teen he went to Philadelphia, and began to cultivate a talent for drawing and portrait-painting, which he practiced with skill and profit for three or four years. In 1786 he visited London, where he devoted several years to the same profession, under the tuition of Benjamin West, who received him as an inmate into his own house. Hle next resided for two years in Devonshire, and became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater and Lord Stanhope. About this time his mechanical genius impelled him to abandon painting, and to follow the profession of civil engi-

+ Djed before taking his seat in 1865.

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FULTON TOWNSHIP.

neer. In 1793 he was engaged in a projeet to im- and the trial was so successful that it excited great prove inland navigation, having already conceived admiration, and steamboats were rapidly multiplied on the American rivers. The " Clermont" made reg- ular passages between New York and Albany, at the rate of five miles an hour, but this rate was soon in- creased by improved machinery. . the idea of using steam as a motive-power. Ile in- vented a machine for spinning flax, and another for making ropes, for which he obtained patents in Eng- land. In 1796 he published in London a "Treatise on Canal Navigation." From 1797 to 1804 he resided

ROBERT FULTON.

in Paris, in the family of Joel Barlow, where he dis- played his characteristic enterprise and ingenuity in various projects and inventions, and in the study of the sciences and modern languages. He was the pro- prietor of the first panorama exhibited in Paris.

a torpedo, designed to be used in naval warfare, and induced Bonaparte to appoint Volney, La Place, and Monge as a commission to examine it. In 180I he made an experiment in the harbor of Brest, when he succeeded in remaining under water for an hour, and in guiding the boat with ease. Other trials were made with partial success, at the expense of the French government, but as they at last declined to patronize the project, Fulton accepted, in 1801, an invitation from the English ministry, who also ap- pointed a commission and made trials of his torpedo. It appears, however, that the English did not give him much encouragement, for in 1806 he returned to New York. Here, in co-operation with Robert Liv- ingston, Esq., he sneceeded, in 1807, in perfecting the great discovery of steam navigation.

Though others had previously conceived the idea of steam navigation, Fulton is admitted to have been the first who successfully realized it. In 1807 his boat, the "Clermont," was launched at New York, generation.

Several other larger boats were built under the di- rection of Fulton, who expended large sums of money in this way, though he received nothing for his pat- ent. In 1806 he married Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston, by whom he had four children. He pos- sessed great personal dignity and agreeable manners, and many noble qualities of heart. In the midst of his triumph and in the height of prosperity he died in New York, in February, 1815.

JUDGE JEREMIAH BROWN.

Among the early and intelligent settlers in Little Britain, now Fulton township. were the Browns, gen- erally known as " the Browns of Nottingham."

As early as the year 1680, James and William Brown, sons of William Brown, of England, mem- bers of the Society of Friends, emigrated to America, and settled near Marcus Hook, on the Delaware River. James married Honour Clayton. They had six children, four sons and two daughters. Their third son, Jeremiah, was the ancestor of the family we propose to follow.

In the year 1699 a colony of Friends took up eighteen hundred acres of land in Nottingham, Ches- ter Co., forty miles from Marcus Hook, and at that time " deemed far back in the wilderness." William I'enn donated them forty acres of land for a meeting- house, graveyard, etc.

Among those Friends were James and William Brown, before mentioned, and from these brothers have descended most of that name now residing in the

He invented a submarine or plunging boat, called ! southern ends of Chester and Lancaster Counties, Pa., and the northern end of Cecil County, in Maryland, numbered by hundreds, and extending to the eighth generation.

Jeremiah Brown, above mentioned, in the year 1710, married Mary Cole, of Nottingham. Their children were Patience, Jeremiah, Joshua, and Isaac.

Joshua was born 3d month 5, 1717. He married Hannah Gatchel, 10th month 15, 1736. Their off- spring numbered eleven, ten of whom lived to man- hood and womanhood.

In the year 1758, Joshua Brown purchased five hun- dred acres of land in Little Britain, now Fulton town- ship, Lancaster Co., and removed thereto, his eldest son, Elisha, remaining on the farm in Nottingham. On this beautiful farm, situated in the Conowingo Valley, a substantial brick dwelling-house was erected, which has braved the storms of more than a century, and yet remains a sound building, occupied by his descendant, Slater F. Brown, of the fourth

862

HISTORY OF LANCASTER COUNTY.

Joshua Brown was an eminent minister in the so- forty acres of land, a part of his father's farm. Ile died in the year 1805, leaving one son, who subse- quently removed to Illinois.

ciety of Friends, and traveled extensively in the love of the gospel to all the meetings of the society in the different colonies. During the time of the Revolu- tionary war he felt it his duty to visit Friends at Win- chester, in Virginia, who had been banished from their homes in Philadelphia for no crime but for their faithful adherence to their well-known peace principles. While on that visit one of their number died. After attending his funeral, and encouraging Friends to faithfulness under their suffering, he, in company with Achilla Douglas, of Virginia, as a companion, proceeded to visit the meetings of Friends in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and encourage Friends during that trying period to stand fast to their Christian testimony against all wars and figlitings.

In the latter State they were arrested by the au- thorities as spies and cast into prison. J. Brown showed the officers his credentials of unity with his friends at home and the object of his mission among them. After a thorough investigation, the judge of the court admitted he believed them to be innocent men. Yet he said he " was under the disagreeable necessity of committing them to prison, as he could not dispense with the law." J. Brown replied, " It is hard to commit such to prison whom thou believest to be innocent." IIe nevertheless committed them to prison.

The jailer and his wife were kind to them, and soon they were allowed the privilege of the town, returning to the jail in the evening to lodge. They | of his native State while its sessions were held in held religious meetings in the court-house frequently, the borough of Lancaster, and during his term was which the citizens attended and expressed their satis- ! instrumental in procuring the passage of several acts faction. The prisoners were offered their release on of vast benefit to his constituents. condition "they would leave the State, never to re- turn." This they could not conscientiously consent to, and after a detention of about six months they were discharged. Notwithstanding this long and unexpected imprisonment, Joshua felt it a religious duty to visit the different meetings of Friends in the Carolinas and Virginia on his return home, and, as he wrote, "I reached my habitation on the 26th of twelfth month, 1778, with a peaceful mind, having been a prisoner six months, wanting two days." This ; valuable Friend and undaunted Christian died the 15th day of the Tenth month, 1798, in the eighty- second year of his age, a faithful minister of the gospel forty- eight years.

Of his children, four, viz., Mary (intermarried with Vincent King), Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Joshua Brown, settled and remained on the homestead or in the neighborhood. Vincent and Jeremiah King, sons of the former, were noted physicians, eminent in their profession. Jeremiah purchased of his father his grist- and saw-mill, which he enlarged, and it ultimately became the chief merchant mill in southern Lancaster County.

Isaiah was an humble blacksmith, who inherited

Joshita, the youngest son, lived and died (in the year 1823) on the mansion farm, leaving no children.

Jeremiah, as has been stated, purchased his father's mills and a portion of his farm. He was a man pos- sessed of great energy and perseverance, and was eminently successful in business. Ilis supplies of grain at that time were chiefly drawn from the rich valleys of the Pequea and Conestoga, in Lancaster County, and the Codorus Valley, in York County, from whence it was carted in wagons to the mill, and the flour in turn carted thirty miles to Christiana Creek, Delaware, where it was shipped to Philadel- phia, then the nearest and most expeditious route to a market.

About the year 1800 he purchased the extensive Slate Hill, at Peach Bottom, in Lancaster County, on the Susquehanna River, and commenced the manu- facture of roofing-slates. From these quarries, the first opened in this section of the State, he furnished the slate which yet covers the State capitol at Har- risburg, the Friends' Asylum for the Insane at Frank . ford, numerous public buildings in Baltimore, Wash- ington, Alexandria, and Fredericksburg, in Virginia. These quarries he continued to work successfully until the year 1827, when he relinquished them to his three sons, Levi, Jeremiah, and Slater Brown, who continued to work them until a recent period. Ile was several times chosen a member of the Legislature

In the year 1810 he, with others, established the Farmers' Bank, at Lancaster, an institution which has stood the test of all financial struggles with an- blemished credit to the present time, and at the time of his decease, in 1831, was perhaps its largest stock- holder, holding in his own name one thousand shares of its stock. Although active and energetic in busi- ness, he did not neglect his religious duties. During a long life he was diligent in his attendance of all the meetings of the Society of Friends when health per- mitted, and for many years was an esteemed elder in the church. Near the close of his life he built, at his own expense, the present commodious brick meet- ing-house at Penn Hill, which to all appearances may stand another century a monument of his liber- ality and devotion to the principles and testimonies of the society of which he was a lifelong and consist- ent member. Ile died the 7th day of the Seventh month, 1831, aged nearly eighty-two years.

His children -- Sarah, Levi, Hannah, Deborah, Jere- miah, and Slater Brown-all married and settled near their native home; many of their descendents to the third and fourth generation reside in the township and vicinity. Sarah married Timothy Haines. Han-

Day Mivel

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FULTON TOWNSHIP.

nah married Isaac Stubbs, mother of Dr. J. B. Stubbs, who will be represented on another page.

1850, when he was nominated and elected an asso- ciate judge of the courts of Lancaster County for the Of his three sons, Levi was a retired man, a miller, and farmer, much esteemed, who deceased in 1846, aged about seventy years. Slater, the youngest son, inherited the paternal mansion, farm, and mills; was successful in business ; also took an active part in political affairs. He was elected and for some years served as one of the prison inspectors of the county. term of five years, which position he filled to the entire satisfaction of his fellow-citizens. In the year 1855 he was solicited to be a candidate for re-election, but on account of enfeebled health and advancing years he declined the honor, and retired to private life. Ile was a man of decided character, kind and benevolent to the poor and the afflicted, firm in his llis death occurred on the 5th of the Sixth month, , convictions of the right, and of unswerving integrity. 1855, aged sixty-eight years.

Jeremiah, the subject of this sketch, was born the 14th day of the Fourth month, 1785; he mar- ried, Fifth month 14, 1807, Ann, daughter of Roger and Rachel Kirk, of Nottingham. Enjoying a robust constitution, in early life he was placed in his father's mill to learn the trade, in which capacity much of the time it was necessary for him to con- tinue half of the night season; at other times he drove one of the teams, hauling wbeat to and flour from the mills. He was a man of good natural abil- ities and sound judgment, and in early life was fre- quently chosen to responsible positions in the neigh- borhood.

In the year 1826 he was elected a member of the State Legislature on the Federal ticket, and served during that session, which will be remembered as the one in which the State inaugurated " her great sys- tem of internal improvements" to the satisfaction of his constituents. The following year he was again nominated, but owing to the breaking up of the old political parties in that year, many Federalists, in- cluding the Hon. James Buchanan, joining in the Jackson excitement, he was defeated by llon. George B. Porter, a leading Democrat, afterwards Governor of Michigan, by a very few votes. In the year 1836 he was placed at the head of the ticket and chosen a member of the Convention to revise the Constitution of the State. The Convention met at Harrisburg the following spring, and, after several months' discussion, adjourned to meet in Philadelphia, where it concluded its labors the following winter.

1842 he was again unanimously nominated, and with his colleagues re-elected to the Twenty-seventh Con- gress. Although not accustomed to public speaking, rooms, where, after all, the effective work is accom- ' plished. During his term of service the well-known " tariff of 1842" was enacted, in support of which he took a conspicuous part, and which, during its con- factures of his district.

Ilis valuable life closed the 2d day of the Third month, 1858, in the seventy-third year of his age.

Judge Brown left seven children. Two sons, Kirk and Edwin, have since deceased. Hannah (wite of Samuel C. Wood) resides on the mansion farm; Rachel K. (widow) has removed with her children and their families to Kansas; Deborah H. (widow) resides with her son in the adjoining township of Little Britain ; Alfred M. Brown resides on his farm, and Levi K., his eldest surviving son, a retired farmer and well-known business man, resides on his farm adjoining the paternal mansion.

William H. Brown, son of Levi K. Brown, and grandson of Judge Brown, is the chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and resides in Phila- delphia.

DAY WOOD.

The subject of this sketch was born in Little Britain township, Aug. 7, 1812. His father was Jesse Wood, and his mother a daughter of Samuel Carter, a man widely known for his integrity and other noble traits of character.

Day Wood's parents were Friends, to which society he belonged, although he did not participate in their extreme views in all cases of non-resistance. The in- fluence of this society wherever extended has been to promote benevolence, peace, and good will to men, and in these traits of character he was an admirable representative of their doctrines.

He received his education in the common schools, except a single term in a neighboring seminary, but being a persistent reader of books and papers, he ac- quired a vast amount of information in this way. When the question of the public school system was first agitated he espoused the cause, and shortly after

In the year 1840 he was nominated and elected a member of Congress for Lancaster County, in con- nection with Hon. Francis James, of Chester, and Hon, John Edwards, of Delaware County, those three counties forming the congressional district. In ; it became established by law he was made a director, which position he held up to the time of his death. In this capacity he took an active interest in the schools of his district, and was often found in the the teacher and pupils in the good work.

he was assiduous and diligent in his committee- , school-room encouraging by words and his presence

He married Eliza, daughter of Joel Jackson, a man remarkable for many peculiarities and intellectual endowments of a high order. They removed to a of farming and feeding cattle. Ile made several trips

tinnance, proved so beneficial to the extensive manu- , farm near Penn Hill, where he followed the business

Ilaving completed his second term of Congress, he to Ohio for the purchase of them, generally bringing devoted himself to his private affairs until the year ! a large surplus which he disposed of among his neigh-

864

HISTORY OF LANCASTER COUNTY.

bors ; there being no railroads, he was obliged to drive them the entire distance. He made the business of eattle-feeding a success, and was well known for his fine stock.

His political career was a model of unswerving con- sisteney. Firm and unchanging in his sentiments, he was true to the principles which he thought right. Born and reared within a few miles of the line which formed the boundary between slavery and freedom, he was never captivated or allured by the fascinating influences of the system of human bondage, but from the earliest efforts of his life to the day of his death he was an uncompromising hater of that institution, and no event of his whole life afforded him more heart- felt gratification than the privilege of placing his name on the record, when a member of the State Legislature, in favor of the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forever abol- ishing slavery.

He was among the first in his neighborhood to ad- voeate the principles of the Republican party, and when the war broke out, although his early teachings and convictions were against the evils of war, he saw it was the only course and accepted the issue, and did what he could for the preservation of the Union, He took a great interest in the soldiers, and especially those of his own neighborhood, and was frequently with them in the field. fle gave generously of his means for the assistance of soldiers' aid societies, and for the support of their families at home. He was chosen a delegate to the national convention which met on the 8th of June, 1864, in Baltimore, and as- sisted in the renomination of the lamented Abraham Lincoln.

Day Wood was elected in the year 1864 a repre- sentative to the State Legislature, which position he filled with credit to himself and his constituency. During the entire session he was not absent even for a day from his post of duty, and the record shows his position upon every question upon which the decision of that body was recorded. He again received the nomination, and was elected a few days before his death, which occurred on the 19th day of October, 1865.

Day Wood was one of the most honored and highly- respected men in Lancaster County. His manners were unobtrusive, retiring, and gentle ; no appearance, no act of his could be regarded as challenging attention. He moved among his fellow-men with manifestations of constant respect for their rights and their position. His widow, one daughter, and two sons survived him. The daughter, Rachel, married Judge J. T. Hoke, of West Virginia, and resides in that State. The eldest son, Edward, graduated at West Point Military Acad- emy ; married Miss Lizzy Wynn, of Chester County, Pa., and now is an officer in the regular army. The youngest son, Day, married Miss A. E. Wood, and re- sides on the old homestead, and follows the business of farming.

JOHN L. PATTERSON.

John L. Patterson, son of Thomas and Hannah W. Patterson, was born in August, 1823. He was reared a farmer, and received a common-school education. ITis mother died in the year 1848, and his father died ten years 'afterwards. When he was thirty years of age he began the world for himself. He never served an apprenticeship, but is a natural mechanical genius, to which fact his beautiful home and picturesque sur- roundings fully attest.

RESIDENCE OF JOHN L. PATTERSON.

In January, 1853, Mr. Patterson married Miss Ann Eliza, daughter of James and Margaret Black. Their children (seven in number ) are Laura M., T. Howard, Ashmore P., Annie B., Lindley R., Leta May, and Bessie. Laura, the eldest daughter, married John L. Bockius; they have one child, Ada Bell. Howard married Miss Kate E. Hen-el ; their children are Grace A., Laura E., and an infant daughter. Ash- more P. married Miss Emma J. Grubb; they have one child, W. Chester.

Mr. Patterson is of Scotch-Irish descent. He is a man who enjoys an excellent reputation for integrity and good business qualities; has held a number of township offices, such as school director, etc.

EMMOR SMEDLEY.

Emmor Smedley, eldest son of Eli and Elizabeth Smedley, was born in Little Britain township, on the 27th of the Seventh month, 1817. His father, who was a farmer and manufacturer of sorghum molasses, was born at Willistown, Chester Co., Pa., on the 4th day of the Twelfth month, 1786. He came to Lan- caster County in 1806. His mother, a minister in the Society of Friends, was born on the 14th day of the Fifth month, 1786. She was frequently engaged in visiting the meetings of the neighborhood, as well as throughout the State of Pennsylvania. Her last com- munication was at the funeral of an aged neighbor, on which occasion she addressed a large audience. She died on the 24th of the Third month, 1858. Her husband followed her seven years afterwards.

The subject of this sketch received a common- school education in his neighborhood. For a number of years he was engaged in the manufacture of mo-

John & Paterson

EMMOR SMEDLEY.

NEAL HAMBLETON.

Roger. H. Kirk

865

FULTON TOWNSHIP.

lasses in connection with farming. On the 11th day' of the Second month, 1844, he married Elizabeth Adams: Their children are Mary, Edith, and Kireil- dia. They, however, buried two children, one an infant son, who was named Enoch B., died on the 21st of the Eleventh month, 1843, and a very promis- ing young man, over twenty years of age, who died on the 11th of the Third month, 1843. His name was Abel K.

Mary E. married Enos W. Marth ; they have two children, namely, Clarence and Emmor E. Kircildia married Joseph S. Townsend ; they have no children.

About the year 1868, Mr. Smedley began the study of electrical medication under George W. Freed, M.D., and for a number of years has been practicing his profession. IIe is a man of good sense and strict integrity, is modest and unassuming, has no desire for public places, though he has often been solicited to accept them. He was elected school director, however, in 1877, and served with credit until 1880, when he resigned, against the wishes of the people.

NEAL HAMBLETON.

Neal Hambleton was born in Morgan County, Ohio, March 22, 1838, his parents having emigrated from Fulton township, Lancaster Co., Pa., to the Buckeye State in 1830, the entire trip being made in the old- fashioned Conestoga wagons, with bows over the top and covered with canvas or cotton sheeting. Neal was the youngest of a family of eight boys and four girls, and was left at an early age to care for himself, his father having died in 1845, and his mother a few years later. ITis first experience in earning a living for himself was on a neighboring farm, where he worked a term of three years for the small sum of seventy dollars, and from this small sum was com- pelled to furnish his own clothing. When sixteen and a half years of age he entered the " Albany Manual Labor University," at Albany, Ohio, where he remained one and a half years, working for his board and tuition, and when at the age of eighteen he commenced teaching school, teaching winters and returning in the spring. Thus he continued until the spring of 1859, when, on account of ill health, and with a cash capital of only sixty-six dollars, he em- barked on board a steamer at New York for Califor- nia, where he arrived after a long and tedious passage. Here a new difficulty met him. He was far from

until the spring of 1863, when at the urgent request of his only surviving uncle, the late William Neal, of Philadelphia, he came to Pennsylvania, and finally went to Wilmington, Del., where he worked two and a half years in a machine-shop, finishing a trade at which he had worked with a brother in Ohio. From Wihnington he went to Philadelphia, and worked in Sellers' machine-shop till 1869, when he was appointed one of the assistant boiler inspectors, a position of much responsibility, the execution of the law meet- ing with opposition by owners of old and dangerous boilers which were ordered to be removed. After three years as boiler inspector, he spent one year as superintendent of a large ornamental iron foundry, after which he spent three years in traveling for the Rue Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia, intro- ducing among railroad officials a new and improved steam injector. While in their employ in 1875 he met with a serious and painful accident, having all of the front part of his right foot torn off while at work on an engine.

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History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 73

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Evans, Samuel, 1823-1908, joint author Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1320

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Evans, Samuel, 1823-1908, joint author
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1320