History of Wilmington, (New Castle County) Delaware United States of America

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Local History Notes:

Brick-making has been carried on in Wilmington and vicinity for more than a century. Valuable deposits of brick clay were found in early days in a large tract of land lying north of Seventh street and east of Poplar. Among the early brick-makers were Esau Coxe, Josiah Stagg and Thomas Wallace. Later came David C. Wilson, Samuel McCaulley, Louis H. Coxe and Henry M. Rile, all of whom operated brick yards in the northeastern section of the city. The last one to carry on the brick-making business in that section was James H. Beggs. The supply of clay being exhausted, that section within the past thirty years has been built on. For many years the excavations made by the digging of clay were utilized as skating ponds in winter, and many of the middle-aged men and women of this generation have reccollections of the merry crowds that gathered nightly on "Coxe's pond."

Another section where clay was found of good quality was on both sides of Lancaster avenue west of Rodney street. Dr. Robert H. McCabe operated a large brick-making plant in that vicinity before and during the Civil War. It afterwards came under the control of Jacob Lewis & Son, and in 1872 Alvan Allen became the owner. This plant was on the north side of the avenue. About 1870 the Wilmington Brick Manufacturing Company was organized with George W. Bush as president and John C. Cole as manager. This was the first concern in the city to make bricks by machinery. The company continued in successful operation for ten years or more. It was located on tlie south side of Lancaster avenue, west of DuPont street.

The firm of J. II. Beggs & Co., composed of James H. Beggs and John P. Alhiiond, was formed in 1882, and began operations as brickmakers soon after the opening of the Eleventh street bridge, on lands belonging to the Thatcher and Mendenhall estates, situated north of the Brandywine. A fine deposit of clay was found in that section and a prosperous business was conducted by the firm for many years, it being still continued, under the old firm name, although the senior member of the firm died in 1902. Both Mr. Beggs and Mr. Allmond were the main parties in interest in the Delaware Terra Cotta Company, organized in 1887 for the manufacture of terra-cotta pipe and kindred lines. This company for many years carried on a successful business just east of Eleventh street bridge on Brandywine creek.

In 1882 Alvan Allen started a brickyard on the Forman farm at Elsmere, outside the city limits, and it has been in successful operation since; for several years past the business has been conducted by the Alvan Allen Brick Company. In 1878 Samuel McClary, Jr., started a brickyard on Elliott avenue north of the city limits, which he conducted for four years when he sold it to J. Eldridge Pierce and Edward Forrest, and four years later, the interest of Mr. Forrest was bought by Harry A. Beeson, and the firm became Pierce and Beeson. The business has been discontinued for several years.

James B. Oberly in 1889 came from Bucks county, Pennsylvania and operated a brick-making establishment at Second and Greenhill avenue, on part of the James Webb farm. He has made the business a success, and it is still in successful operation.

From: History of the State of Delaware by Henry Clay Conrad, 1908

Biographies:

Howard Pyle, artist, was born in Wilmington, Del., March 5, 1853; son of William and Margaret Churchman (Painter) Pyle; grandson of Isaac Pyle and of William and Phoebe (Churchman) Painter. His progenitors upon both sides were members of the Society of Friends, who early settled in the province of Pennsylvania under the proprietary government of William Penn. Robert Pyle, his ancestor in direct descent, came from Hornton in the parish of Bishop Canning, Wiltshire, where he married Ann, daughter of William Globy of Hilperton. This colonist emigrated in 1683-84 to America, where he held considerable grants of land in eastern Pennsylvania, and where he was for several years a member of the Provincial assembly, besides being more or less identified with public affairs of the carly days of the province. Howard Pyle studied art under Franz Van der Wielen (a gold medalist of the School of Antwerp), in Philadelphia, Pa., 1869-72, and subsequently (1876-77) was associated to some extent with the Art Students' league of New York city. His early illustrations, short stories and poems appeared in the leading New York periodicals in 1876-79. He was married in 1881, to Anne, daughter of J. Morton and Ann (Suplee) Poole of Wilmington, Del. He devoted his art work almost entirely to the production of illustrations which appeared in periodicals and books. He is the author of the following works, which he himself illustrated: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Nottinghamshire (1883); Within the Capes (1885, unillustrated); Pepper and Salt, or Seasoning for Young Folk (1887); The Rose of Paradise (1887); The Wonder Clock, or Four and Twenty MarvellousTales (1888); Otto of the Silver Hand (1888); A Modern Aladdin (1891); Men of Iron, a Romance of Chivalry (1892); Jack Ballister's Fortune (1894); Twilight Land (1895); The Garden Behind the Moon (1895).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Henry Du pont, manufacturer, was born at Eleutherean Mills, near Wilmington, Del., Aug. 8, 1812; second son of Eleuth?re Ir?n?e Du Pont de Nemours and Sophie Madeleine (Dalmas) Du Pont. He graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1833; commissioned brevet second lieutenant 4th U.S. artillery, July 1, of that year, and was stationed at Fort Monroe, Va., and later at Fort Mitchell, Ala., in the Creek Indian country. On the 15th July, 1834, he resigned from the army and came home to help his father in the manufacture of gunpowder at Eleutherean Mills. On the retirement of his elder brother in 1850 he became the head of the firm of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., and under his management the business made astonishing strides. From 1846 to 1861 he was adjutant-general of his state and in May of the latter year was made major-general and commander of the entire military force raised and to be raised in Delaware, when his first order was that every man in the military service of the state should take an oath of allegiance to the United States or surrender his arms. The governor suspended this order and Du Pont then called upon General Dix, at that time in command in Baltimore, who sent troops to Delaware to maintain the Federal supremacy. Originally an old line Whig, Du Pont became one of the leaders of the Republican party in his state and was five times its candidate for presidential elector. He was for over forty years inspector of elections or challenger at the polls. He inherited his father's and his grandfather's marked love for agriculture and was a very extensive landholder. He was married in 1837 to Louisa Gerhard. He died at Eleutherean Mills, Del., Aug. 8, 1889.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Hypolitus Keating, educator, was born in Wilmington, Del., Aug. 11, 1799; son of Baron John and Eulalia (Deschapelles) Keating. His father, a colonel in the French army, resigned his commission at the outbreak of the Revolution and settled in Delaware, later removing to Philadelphia, Pa. His ancestors, who were Irish, emigrated to France, and were raised to the nobility by Louis XVI. William H. Keating was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1816, and studied at polytechnic and mining schools in France and Switzerland. He was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia, Pa. He was professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, 1822-28, and in 1823 accompanied the Stephen H. Long expedition as scientist. In 1824 he was influential in establishing the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pa., in which he was professor of chemistry. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Eric Bollmann. He became a member of the American Philosophical society in 1822. He is the author of: Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River (2 vols., 1824). He died in London, England, May 17, 1840.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Thomas Francis Bayard, diplomatist, was born at Wilmington, Del., Oct. 29, 1828; son of James Asheton Bayard, senator. In 1841 he entered Dr. F. L. Hawks's famous school, St. Thomas hall, at Flushing, L. I., where he remained until the school finally closed, in 1843. On his return from school he passed a year and a half in the counting-room of his brother-in-law, Augustus Van Cortland Schermerhorn, in New York city, removing at the end of that time to Philadelphia, where he entered the employ of S. Morris Wain, a merchant. He returned to Delaware in 1848, where, after studying law, he was admitted to the bar, in 1851. His first public office was that of United States attorney for Delaware, to which he was appointed in 1853, and which he resigned in 1854, and removed to Philadelphia, where, in co-partnership with William Shippen, Jr., he resumed the practice of the law. Upon the death of Mr. Shippen, in 1856, Mr. Bayard returned to Wilmington, Del. In 1861 he made a memorable peace speech at Dover, Del., and succeeded his father as United States senator on the expiration of his term, March 3, 1869, his election being on the same day and by the same legislature that elected his father to fill out the short term made vacant by the death of Senator Riddle. He was re-elected in 1875 and in 1881. During his senatorial career, which lasted until 1884, he was prominent on the most important committees of that body. In 1876-'77 he was one of the commission to decide the electoral vote of the disputed states. He was nominated as a candidate before the Democratic convention for the presidency of the U.S. in 1880 and 1884. In 1885 President Cleveland appointed him secretary of state, and he served with great ability throughout Cleveland's first administration; at the close of which, in 1889, he retired to private life. In 1893 he was appointed by President Cleveland ambassador to Great Britain. Lord Salisbury, in 1896, sent Mr. Bayard an advance copy of the official reply of Great Britain to the inquiry of the U.S. government concerning the Venezuelan dispute, and this courtesy was considered symptomatic of the high measure of esteem accorded him in British official circles. In 1895 Lord Sackville, the British minister, who had been recalled at the demand of President Cleveland in 1889 for an official indiscretion in writing a political letter during the presidential campaign of 1888, issued a pamphlet attacking Mr. Bayard; the British press and people strongly condemned Lord Sackville's action, the result being an accession of popularity on the part of Mr. Bayard. In December, 1895, Representative Barrett of Massachusetts asked for the impeachment of Mr. Bayard for "high crimes and misdemeanors," because of utterances in certain speeches made at Edinburgh, Scotland, and Boston, England, which were construed into an attack on the policy of protection. The words "by impeachment or otherwise" being struck out, the amended resolution, after the preamble had been withdrawn, was adopted and referred to the committee on foreign affairs. The freedom of the city of Dundee, Scotland, was presented to Mr. Bayard, Nov. 13, 1895, and at the opening of the Haashalter water-color exhibition in London. Mr. Bayard made the inaugural speech. The degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by Oxford university, June 24, 1896, and he was further honored in the peaceful adjudication of the Venezuelan trouble. He died at Dedham, Mass., Sept. 28, 1898.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor