Ethel Hill Chase (1866 - 1904) Biography/ Mariana Davenport/ Steven Davenport

Ethel Hill Chase Bonnell (1866 - 1904) Biography

Ethel Hill Chase born February 16, 1866, in Wilkes-Barre, PA.  She attended the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, MA in 1885.  She married Henry Houston Bonnell of Elizabeth, NJ on January 16, 1901 at the First Presbyterian Church.  

They had a daughter Mariana Bonnell on April 20, 1902 in Chestnut Hill, PA near Philadelphia.  (Mariana married Stephen Rintoul Davenport on October 13,1928 and had 4 sons (Henry Bonnell, Stephen R. Jr,  Samuel Chase and John Leverett ).  

Ethel died November 26, 1904 in Philadelphia, PA, and is buried Hollenback cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, PA.  (See her obituary below)

After Ethel died, Henry Houston Bonnell married Helen Safford Knowles (a 1907 Wellesley graduate).  When Henry died in 1926, his estate was valued at $1.9 million.  His library was given to Univ. of Pennsylvania and the Morgan Library.  His large collection of manuscripts and first editions of the works of the Bronte sisters went to the Bronte Museum in Hawarth, England.  Helen Knowles Bonnell died in April of 1969.

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A review of one of her recitations:

“Miss Ethel Hill Chase, whose monologues are inimitable, was received with enthusiasm and her selections were of a style that made tears come to the eyes as well as laughter to the lips.  Her first number, The German Opera, which she adapted from Clyde Finch’s article in The Smart Set, was one of the most deliciously funny things that was ever written, and was given with a delightful appreciation of its humor.  

The second was the story of The Boy Orator as told by Richard Harding Davis, and was told with a pathos of tone and gesture which went straight to the hearts of her hearers.

To the determined recall, she responded with Encouragement, a negro dialect verse in which Miss Chase is quite as proficient as in the other class of representations.  

Her last number, The Lady Trimmer, written for her, was admirably given, and caused frequent outbursts of laughter from the audience.  Miss Chase is as graceful as she is clever and ranks deservedly high among the society entertainers of the metropolis.  She will always be sure of finding a more than cordial welcome from Richfield audiences.”

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Obituary from the Wilkes-Barre Record, November 28, 1904

There comes from Philadelphia the painful news that Mrs. Ethel H. Chase Bonnell died at her home on Chestnut Hill on Saturday.  Though Mrs. Bonnell had been indisposed there was no thought of serious consequence, and her taking off was a cruel shock to her family and friends.

Four years ago she became the wife of Henry H. Bonnell and she has never been in rugged health since the birth of a daughter, now left motherless at the age of three years.

Mrs. Bonnell was the possessor of One of the happiest of dispositions and wherever she went she scattered sunshine and was the life of every social circle in which she mingled.  She was loving, gentle, generous, useful, in fact it may truly be said that there were none of the attributes of wifehood, motherhood and womanhood that she did not possess to a bountiful degree.

Her friends will recall the delight which she used to give favored audiences in the matter of recitations.  She was an accomplished amateur elocutionist and might easily have won professional honors had not her career, so full of promise, been cut short by her marriage.

She was a life long member of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre and an active participant in the religious and benevolent activities for which that congregation is noted.  Mrs. Bonnell was born in Wilkes-Barre thirty eight years ago and was the elder daughter of Edward H. Chase and his wife Elisabeth Taylor Chase.  Her mother died in 1896.

Besides her husband, she is survived by sister, Miss Frances Chase, brother, Samuel C. Chase, both of whom reside with their father in Wilkes-Barre and a second brother, Harold T. Chase, editor of the Topeka Capital.

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Ethel H Chase, 1882, "With love to Mabel"

Ethel H Chase by Prince Studio, 31 Union Square, NJ

Ethel Chase Bonnell holding daughter Marianna, 3 months old, 1902

Marianna Bonnell, 1905 or 1906

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To Mrs. Hamilton Chase

21 East 51st Terrace, Kansas City, 2, Missouri

From Mrs. Stephen R. Davenport, R.D. No. 1, Box 157A, Willowmere, Riverside, CT

March 4, 1950

Dea Lieuween and Hamp:

It was fine to hear from you -- it must be a sign of mental telepathy as I was about to write to you.  But you musn’t thank me for having Frances.  It was sheer pleasure from beginning to end of her visit, and we all enjoyed her (    ).  I think she’s a lovely person and the most thoughtful, considerate and helpful guest.  She offered to do anything, everything to give me a hand; and except for the (  ) with Henry, she had a very quiet time, but seemed to enjoy that too!  And made us feel that anything we do was fun -- reading, knitting, just sitting about.  It was really a delight knowing her and I hope she can come again, perhaps in June when all the gang is here as she seemed to get quite a kick out of the fun, foolery and kidding (and that with only half of us here)!

John and I are about to have a marvelous and I guess what will prove to be memorable -- we are going to hear “Rigoletto” at the “Met” with our next -door neighbor singing (He’s the baritone at the “Met”).  When I asked him if he thought this was a good choice for a 13-year old’s first opera, he said “Yes, very medlodius, tuneful, etc.”  “Do come back stage and ask for me in the intermission.”  How’s that !!

I forwarded your letter to (   ) Hamp, and hope and pray he answers it soon.  He’s one (proud) boy, but his shining characteristic is not prompt correspondence.

I had a fine 5-day visit with Aunt Fan in January and found her fine - her interest in things is amazing.  She took me up to see the place where they paint and I think her oils are remarkable.  She and her gals have a lot of fun out of life, which I wonder if I shall at 70 +?

Come East again soon

As ever, with love,

Mariana

P.S. Johnny sends his best.  Steve Jr. is in California on a business trip or he would too.

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To Mr. Hamilton Chase

5528 Tahoe Lane, Shawnee Mission, Kansas, 66205

From Mrs. Stephen R. Davenport, Cove View Avenue, Riverside, CT

February 11, 1962, Sunday

Dear Hamp

Greeting and Salutations!  Just a line today -- I was in Chestnut Hill last weekend, going over old albums, old letters and a trunk my father had used.  Folded and put away some of my mother’s dresses, furs, linen combos etc. -- all very nostalgic although of course, I never knew her.  I spent a long time so doing and brought back a few of her things (but no one I know could ever use them, such a long waist and size).  But I thought the family would like to see a few.

In the course of going through some of Dad’s letters and old postcards, I found the enclosed.  Shades of our past !  These must have been taken at Craigville, where the wonderful acres of cranberries grew (transcriber’s note:  Cape Cod).  

We are all fine.  It was reassuring, though, knowing how well I feel.  Not surprising to hear from x-rays (taken the end of January), 6 months or so since the operation, that I was fine -- no signs of the cancer.  So now, Steven and I will try again (keep fingers crossed) to get to Italy in early April.  It was a huge disappointment to put it on hold last April.  But here it is almost the end of February.  So, April will come again.

John is now at Camp Bragg N.C.  He went to Dix in August, had his 8 weeks basic training, the out to Oklahoma for 5 weeks -- home December to early January.   Then, back again to North Carolina.  Rumors are that they will let the boys out by June.   They can’t keep them longer than October.  He never complains and takes it all in his stride but longs to get out and started.  He passed his bar exams in October (took them in July).  He has had a few interviews with lawyers needless to say -- is antsy to “get going”.

Sam is keen on his job with Norton Company in Worcester -- does a lot of skating -- works with cut scenes every so often -- on Vestry at church, teaches Sunday school and fishes when its Spring!  

Steve is still teaching school outside of Hartford. He, Jo and Wendy (4 ½) have a new little house in deep country a half mile away.  They all come to see us in March for his vacation.

Henry, Lucy and their 2 are in Bedford, very near us.

Did I say -- “just a line” ?

Also, thought the enclosed clipping I cut out January 31st might amuse you.  Slightly dated but still pretty right.

I do hope you and Lieuween have kept well and free of all the nasty flu germs and viruses.

I think I should get up to see Aunt Fan before I leave for Italy.  Her life seems so restricted and a bit dull, though she keeps remarkably well.  I went up this time last year and had a good visit (no trains anymore, went by Greyhound).  Not wanting to be abroad for 3 months without saying “goodbye”.  But I feel a little pushed, what with new glasses, shoes, packing, putting blankets away and having family in!

However, she’s an old lady and I’d feel terrible if anything happened and I did not see her.

How do you think she is ?

This is really the end now!

Steve sends his best with mine to you and Lieuween.  It’s just too bad we live a ½ continent apart.

Much love to you both, as always,

Nana

P.S.  Do we now leave out “Kansas City” on your address?

Hamilton Chase in Craigville, probably 1911

Perhaps Hamilton Chase, Harold T. Chase and Annie Chase
Craigville, Cape Cod around 1911

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To Mrs. Hamilton Chase

5528 Tahoe Lane, Shawnee Mission, Kansas, 66205

From Stephen R. Davenport at Kidney Pond Lodge, Millinocket, Maine, 04462 (Mariana Bonnell’s husband)

September 17, 1969

(writing at the time of Hamilton Chase’s sudden death)

Dear Lieween, 

This is to express our sympathy to you on your loss of Hamilton so suddenly.  It must have been a great shock to you.  It was to Nana when she opened the telegram which reached  here last Thursday night.

He was still comparatively young as ages go these days and when it comes suddenly that makes it all the more of a shock.  But for the one who is taken, it is better than going through a long lingering illness.

Words do not fill up the blank and living through bereavement is one of the hardest things to bear.  But time softens that and one has to keep remembering that he is no more prone to pain or anxiety -- just rest and peace waiting for the time of the Resurrection.

 Affectionately,

Stephen

Harold T Chase; Teddy Roosevelt; William H Taft; Sen. Ingalls

(Harold T Chase’s biography can be found in the January 2, 2016 post)

A TRIBUTE TO HAROLD CHASE

           By Tom McNeal

In the  KANSAS MAIL AND BREEZE

         March 6, 1896

THE CAPITAL’s EDITOR  (a sketch of Harold T. Chase, who succeeded Major Hudson)

Here is a young man who, like Imlach in the story, has “found the delight of knowledge and the pleasure of intelligence.”  To the training of the university, Harold T. Chase, the editor of the Topeka Capital, has added the important education of practical life.  There has long been a controversy between the classically cultivated and the self-made as to who is better reared, but there can be no doubt that fortune has been good indeed to him who carries with grace and uses with skill the returns of both schools.

Beginning on the Capital as a proofreader, Mr. Chase has earned his way to editorial control by the diligence and merit which the printer Franklin spoke of as the mother of good luck.  Nothing has fallen to him;  he has worked his passage so far through the world.  During these years of laborious ascent he has profited by what experience has to give and learned the while to make the best use of his schooling.  This is why I say he has two good educations;  one of books, the other of affairs.

Mr. Chase was born in Pennsylvania, thirty-one years ago.  Graduating from Harvard in 1886, he began work as a reporter for his home paper, the Wilkes-Barre Daily Record, and subsequently became telegraph editor.  A year later he settled at Topeka and took employment with the Capital, of which he was made associate editor in 1889.  Two years after, he became a stockholder in and the treasurer of the Topeka Capital company.  Upon retirement of Major Hudson from the head of the paper in the middle of last month, Mr. Chase succeeded to full editorial charge.  Five years ago he was married at Topeka to Miss Annie Thompson, also a Pennsylvanian, whom he met at school when she was a Wellesley student.  

“Every woman”, a cynical writer has observed, “is beautiful and accomplished” in the newspaper reports.  Mrs. Chase is so everywhere.

  (Factual correction from Frances Chase Courtsal: Annie Thompson attended the Dana Hall  School for girls, a pre-collegiate preparatory boarding school for girls in Wellesley, MA. She was never able to attend Wellesley College because of her father's (Thomas U. Thompson's) financial calamity (which cause the whole family to move to Wakarusa, Kansas (see previous blog post from April 9, 2016)

But for several years Mr. Chase has devoted most of his attention to political controversy, for against the Capital every anti-Republican newspaper hand has been turned, always with malignity and quite frequently with force.  To the “enemy” it has been the chief apologist  in Kansas of those wrongs out of which American Reign of Terror was predicted.  The battle, now probably over, was long and extremely furious.  Many Republican papers, charged by some with having been dazed by the magnitude of the opposition which had sprung up, thought a policy of conciliation better than a baresark warfare, but the Capital, moved apparently by the spirit of old glory, would talk of nothing but absolute extermination.  For every phase of the controversy Mr. Chase found himself well accoutered, but he was particularly prepared for a discussion of the main issue, the money question.  It is not too much to say that of the theories and the history of finance, and of the science set forth by the leading writers on economics, Mr. Chase is as well informed as any other man in Kansas.  Nor was he at any disadvantage when it came to exchange of “anentities” and the use of the short-sword, for through those piping times he wrote many an article which passed for Hudson at his hottest.  A truce came one November day and all the contentions of the Capital and it kind were triumphant at the polls.

Personally Mr. Chase is unpretending, gentlemanly and kind.  Knowing him very thoroughly, I have, with respect for his constitutional dislike of parade drawn every statement less strong than it should be.  It is to his disadvantage that he is not more of what is known in Bohemia as a “mixer”, but this is owing less perhaps to his nature than to the weight of his confining work.  He is an engaging conversationalist and a genial companion everywhere.  He is one of the only two schoolmen I have ever met who says that the value of a collegiate education is overestimated by those who do not have it.

Professionally Mr. Chase’s purpose is to make a good clean paper every day.  This the Capital is.  Such a purpose is high, indeed, and such an achievement is worthy of mention among great works.  The paper’s circulation throughout the state is very large and its character is in high respect.

Mr. Chase is without prejudice or littleness and he is, moreover, brave and honest.  And journalists who are liberal, brave and honest should be pointed out for admiration as they pass along the streets, for newspapers stand daily face to face with social and civil wrongs which it imperils them to touch.  To the business office, to the moneyed man is behind advertisers, to the tax-dodging prominent citizen, to the powerful employer who grinds the faces of the poor, to these and other influences which may be grouped under the one head of “opinion”, the press, with many bright exceptions which make more noticeable the rule, pays the respectful if reluctant deference of silence;  and, whatever it may say with its mouth about fearlessness and independence, utters in its life to this composite and dominating power the words of subserviency which Dante addressed to Virgil:  “Thou are my author and my master, thou.”

--- From the Newspaper West.

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Letter from Theodore Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, N,  July 5, 1899

Mr. Harold Chase,  Topeka Capitol, Topeka, Kas.

My dear Mr. Chase;
As we are both Harvard men, and as you cannot be a better Westerner that I am, I know you will pardon my writing and saying how much I appreciate what you have said about me.  I only hope it will be my good fortune to see you in Albany during my term of office.
Again most heartily thanking you, my dear sir, I am,

Faithfully yours,  Theodore Roosevelt

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Letter from President William H. Taft,  June 8, 1910
The White House

My dear Sir,
I have had no suggestion from anyone that Senator Long be put upon the Commerce Court.  and I had no intention of appointing him.  It may be that some one will press it on me, but no pressure exists at present.

Sincerely yours,
William H. Taft

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Letter from Senator John James Ingalls (Kansas) in Atchinson, Kansas, November 26, 1890

From the United State Senate to Mr. H.T. Chase, Topeka

Dear Mr. Chase,

Had I seen your Georgia Editorial in the Capital before your visit Monday evening, I should have thanked you personally as I do now with the pen. Much that I said to you then was confidential as I suppose you understood. though I did not say this.

Yours faithfully,

John J. Ingalls

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The Editor in Chief punches the "Speaker"

Article from 1979 about the history of the Topeka Capital

The Editor in Chief punches the "Speaker"

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To Hamilton Chase

Campbell Apartments

1312 Main Street,  Winfield, Kansas

From Arthur Capper,   United States Senate, Washington, DC

August 13, 1929

My dear Hamilton:

Upon my return from a short vacation in California I found at the hotel the announcement of your marriage to Miss Eva Lieuween Tonkinson and I want both of you to have this expression of my warmest congratulations and best wishes for a long and happy wedded life.   It just doesn’t seem possible that the son of my life-long friend and business associate, Harold Chase, should have reached man’s estate and taken himself a wife. I am sure you know of my sincere interest in you. I am pleased to know that you are getting along so nicely with the telephone company and hope that the best of success may attend you always.  

If I can do anything for you at any time, please let me know.

Sincerely your friend,

Arthur Capper

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Family Tree (1710 - 1881) for Elizabeth Taylor (1833 - 1896)

Family Tree (1710 - 1870) for Elizabeth Taylor (1833 - 1896)

Elizabeth Taylor married Edward H Chase.

Her parents,  the Hon. Edmund Taylor and Mary Ann Wilson married in 1828.

Her Father, the Hon. Edmund Taylor, and his Relatives:

Edmund Taylor was born on August 4, 1803 in Allensmore Parish of Herefordshire County, England.  He was the eleventh of 14 children (12 boys and 2 girls) born to John and Sarah Taylor.  He was baptized on October 24, 1803 in Allensmore Parish.

Upon the death of Edmund’s father, Edmund immigrated to the USA in June, 1818, with his mother Sarah and several siblings.  They settled in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Edmund married Mary Ann Wilson on December 28, 1828, Rev. Samuel Carver officiated.

They had 6 children (Thomas,  Elizabeth, Edmund Jr., Mary Ann and John)(Ellen died at age 1 year.)(Thomas Taylor inherited the Saddle & Harness business from his father.  The copybook of Stephen Wilson was found in his attic.  See October 25, 2015 post.)

Edmund owned and operated at Saddle & Harness business (located at 40 West Market Street)  from 1828 - 1870.  He had a home at the corner of River and Northhampton Streets.

He was commissioned Associate Judge on the Luzerne County Bench, Wilkes-Barre, PA in 1849 and served one 5-year term.  He was elected Treasurer & Assessor in Luzerne County from 1857 - 1859.

He died in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 8, 1881 of a kidney infection.  He and his wife are buried in Hollenbach Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, PA, along with three of their children (Elizabeth, Ellen and Thomas) and three grandchildren (Samuel, Frances and Frank).

A Eulogy from the Daily Union-Leader can be found below.

Edmund’s father was John Taylor.

John Taylor was born in 1759 and baptized on November 10, 1795 in Allensmore Parish, of Herefordshire County, England.  He became the owner of Moonfield Court in Allensmore Parish.  

Edmund Taylor’s mother, Sarah, was born between 1760 and 1765..  She married John Taylor somewhere between 1785 and 1790 in Allensmore Parish.   Their 12 boys and 2 girls included Elizabeth, Charles, John,  Francis,  Arnold,  Thomas,  William,  Joseph,  Henry,  Robert,  Edmund,  Ann,  Samuel  and Richard III.

John Taylor was with the Bank of England but lost his fortune by endorsing the Notes of  friends about the time of the battle of Waterloo (1815).  When the prices of everything dropped, he lost his fortune and died in 1817 (in Herefordshire, England).

Upon the death of Edmund’s father, Edmund immigrated to the USA in June, 1818, with his mother Sarah and several siblings.  They settled in Wilkes-Barre, PA.  Later, Sarah lived with a daughter in Ohio.

John Taylor’s parents were Richard Taylor II and Elizabeth Barrell.  Richard Taylor II was born around 1730 and married Elizabeth Barrell on November 7, 1758 in Allensmore Parish. Richard Taylor I was born around 1710.  

Sarah Taylor’s parents are not know.

Her Mother,  Mary Ann Wilson and her Relatives:

Mary Ann Wilson was born August 11, 1804 in Kingston (Wilkes-Barre, PA)  and died in Kingston (Wilkes-Barre) on May 2, 1883

She was the child of Elnathan Wilson and Elizabeth Baker.

Mary Wilson Eulogy from the Daily Union-Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA;  May 2, 1883

The death of Mrs. Judge Taylor, relict of the late Judge Taylor, this morning, was not a surprise to those near her who have been watching her failing condition for some time past.  Mrs. Taylor had reached the advanced at of 78.  She was born in Kingston and had resided in this city nearly all her days.  During the life of her husband, no couple had ever so happily illustrated mutual domestic comfort and contentment as they.  In life, they were constantly together, and in death they have followed each other quite rapidly, as though even that were a privilege both yearned for.

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Elizabeth Baker was born 1782 and died in 1840.  Her brother was John Ledyard, who sailed around the world with Captain Cook and was with Cook when Cook was killed in the Sandwich Islands. (see below)

Elnathan and Elizabeth owned most of the land that is now New London, CT.

Elnathan was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1762 and died in Wilkes-Barre in 1837. (see below). He married Elizabeth Baker in 1798.

Elnathan Wilson was the child of Uriah Wilson.  The Wilson family at one time owned a great part of the land upon which New London, CT, now stands. Uriah was born in New London, Connecticut (date unknown) and died in New London, Connecticut (some sources say Wilkes-Barre, PA)(date unknown).   Uriah had five children (Elizabeth, Elnathan, David, Mary Ann and Uriah Jr.). Ancestry.com states that Uriah can be found on the payroll of the 3rd Connecticut Regiment, 4th Company, serving in the French and Indian War in 1759. Uriah can also found on the 1790 census as living in Norwalk and Stanford, Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Elnathan Wilson’s sister was Elizabeth (“the spy”)(born in New London, CT, in 1757 and died in Canada in 1855).  The copybook of Stephen Wilson tells of her service as a spy to Gen. George Washington when she was 19 years old. As noted below, Elizabeth lived with her second husband, Enoch Homer, near Scranton, PA. Later, they moved to New York state and finally, Canada, where she died at age 98.

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Elnathan Wilson and Elizabeth Baker (his wife)

Elnathan Wilson was born February 23, 1762 in New London, CT, the son of Uriah Wilson.

On February 23, 1778, Elnathan enlisted in the Continental Army (American Revolutionary War)(to read more about his Revolutionary War adventures,  read an account after the Eulogy for Edmund Taylor at the end of this post).

After the war, he moved to Stroudsburg, PA. Then, he moved to Forty Fort in Kingston Township and became the owner and captain of a Durham boat in Wilkes-Barre, PA.  He also built a mercantile store and hotel in Kingston, PA.

He married Elizabeth Baker in May 1798 at the Methodist Church in Wyoming County, PA, with Reverend Anning Owen presiding.

They had ten children;  four daughters and five sons.  Their first child died at one week (sex unknown).  Then came Stephen, Mary Ann,  Esther,  Ann,  William C.,  George C.,  Lyman H.,  Elizabeth and their last child, Thomas. who died at age 2.

Elnathan died in March 1837 in Wilkes-Barre, PA

(Uriah Wilson was born in New London, CT,  married (and lived in White, Plains, NY, in 1776 ?)

He had 5 children  Elizabeth (1757 - 1855)(a spy for Gen. George Washington as a teenager.  She married Mr. Fower first.  After he died, she married Enoch Homer and had 3 children (Benjamin, Amy and Eunice)),  Elnathan,  David (an Orderly Sergeant in the Continental Army), Mary Ann and Uriah Jr. (a Captain in the Continental Army).  

Uriah’s wife and Uriah’s date of death are unknown.) As an aside, Benjamin Homer, son of Elizabeth Wilson, stayed in New York State and married Miss Allsworth in 1811. David Wilson lived to be 106 years of age.

Elizabeth Baker was born December 19, 1782 in Connecticut, the daughter of Stephen Baker and __?__ Ledyard.  She married in May 1798 as noted above.  She had ten children, as noted above.  After the death of her husband, she lived with her son Stephen Wilson (1802 - 1891).   Stephen lived in the old ferry house in Kingston at the end of the Market Street bridge (Wilkes-Barre, PA).  He had a book binding and printing office in Milton, PA and was the editor of a weekly paper called “The Milton Ledger.”  

Elizabeth Baker died October 10, 1840 in Wilkes-Barre, PA

(Elizabeth Baker was the child of Stephen Baker and __?__ Ledyard.  Stephen was born in Connecticut and lived in Kingston, PA (Wilkes-Barre).   They had five children;  Elizabeth,  Hubbard (born 1785), Stephan (born about 1788 and moved to Illinois and farther west), Polly (married George Calhoun)  and Eunice (married Stephan Scott).

Her mother, ___?___ Ledyard, was the sister of the celebrated American traveler, John Ledyard (1751 - 1789).  He was ashore with Captain Cook in the Sandwich Islands when Cook was killed in 1779.  John died in Cairo, Egypt, while on another trip around the world.)

(This information was sent to my mother,  Frances Chase Courtsal, from Mary Baker in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 12, 1996)

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Edmund Taylor Eulogy from the Daily Union-Leader Newspaper,  Wilkes-Barre, PA on February 18, 1881.  Written by H. B. W. in Washington, DC on February 15, 1881.

Judge Taylor, in his life and habits, was a true type of English character, stripped of English bigotry, English prejudice and English vanity.  His ideas,  his habits and his treatment of me and things were all American.  He left English customs and political theories behind him when he planted his foot upon the emigrant ship, and in his new home, though still in boyhood, he put on the American mantle, and he wore it to the end of his mortal career.

His watchword was success-success, fairly, honestly won, by individual energy and untiring labor.  He did not speculate upon the chances which sometimes attend those who engage in them with sudden fortune.  What he had acquired was the result of years of labor and toil.  To this he held on with tenacity and an iron will.  In this cautious way he made provision for his children;  he educated them;  he  trained them to become useful and respectable people.  He did this at some personal sacrifice to himself.  Had he looked more to his own comforts than the proper education of his children, it would have been selfishness.  Selfishness, however, was no part of Judge Taylor’s character.

He was a man of fine social qualities;  of an even and placid temper.  I am not aware that I ever saw him in anger.  I never knew him to be guilty of a falsehood.  He envied no man who had been more successful in the acquisition of money, or the attainment of place, than himself.  He was kind and indulgent to a fault;  liberal in the political and religious opinions, very respectful of others and honest in word and deed.  What more may be said of human character ?  I am not aware that he had any faults;  nor do I believe that he leaves an enemy behind him.  

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Elnathan Wilson and the American Revolution

The day Elnathan turned 16 years of age, February 23, 1778, he enlisted in the Continental Army.  A few days later, his squad of 12 men were detailed to guard a crossroad where an old school house stood.  His squad made their night quarters there.  After stationing one of their men at the corner of the road to look out for any straggling enemy that might happen to pass that way, the rest of the squad slept on the hard floor.  Elnathan was not yet hardened to that kind of bed;  he was restless and could not sleep.  He got up just before daybreak and told the sentinel that he would relieve him.  The sentinel gave him his old musket that would not go off and went into the school house.  He had not stood long at his post when he heard the clatter of horse’s feet and soon discovered a horseman coming towards him.  When he came up within a few rods, it was just light enough to see that the rider, who was jogging slowly along, had on the uniform of a British officer, who seemed more asleep than awake.  Mr. Wilson stood behind a post and the officer did not see him till he sprang right before the horse.  He grabbed the bridle rein and shouted to the astonished red-coat to halt, dismount and surrender or he would blow him through and then pulled the officer off the horse.  The men in the school house rushed out and escorted the prisoner into their quarters.  Mr. Wilson was very proud of his first success in war.  The horse and trappings were valued at $180.00, which according to the usage belonged to him, but he never received a penny.  The prisoner in a few hours made his escape, probably by the connivance of some of the men who might have been Tories and willing to take any fee the officer might give for permission to escape.

In 1787, Elnathan left his native state of Connecticut and moved to Stroudsburg, PA, where he remained for four or five years and then moved to Fourty Fort, PA.  He employed himself at any labor that presented a chance of making money and always had something to do.  In those primitive times, the village of Wilkes-Barre, PA, had no better way of getting their salt, sugar, molasses and heavy articles of household use than to send down the river by boats to pick up their supplies from lower river towns.  They used a river craft called Durham boats.  They were long, slim low boats with running planks on each side from stem to stern.  The boats were propelled by three or four polemen on each side, walking backward and forward the whole length of the boat with the ends of their long ask poles against their shoulders, pushing in a bent position with all their might when loaded and coming up river in swift water.  Mr. Wilson had an interest in one of these boats for a time and went with it as Captain.

About the time Mr. Wilson was engaged in the boating business, a family by the name of Baker moved from Connecticut and settled in Fourty Fort, PA.  As early as 1793, the Bakers lived on the old road between Fourty Fort and Wilkes-Barre on what is now called Church Place.  Elizabeth Baker and Elnathan were married in May 1798.

In 1811, Mr. Wilson leased the old ferry house with five acres of land and the ferry with its equipment of flats and skiffs for $100 per year.  He also kept a hotel.  He then built a storehouse and dwelling in Kingston, PA, and commenced the mercantile business.

In 1815, he disposed of his goods and built a large hotel in Kingston.  He sold his store and dwelling to Gilbert Lewis.  Afterwards, he sold his hotel and other real estate in Kingston and moved to the Wilkes-Barre bridge-house where he lived until his death.

(This information was sent to my mother,  Frances Chase Courtsal, from Mary Baker in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 12, 1996)