Delaware County PA Archives Biographies.....THURLOW, John J. February 1, 1795 - aft 1882
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Cyndie Enfinger cyndiee@tampabay.rr.com February 25, 2005, 4:03 pm

Author: John Hill Martin

John J. Thurlow.
Incidents in His Long Life-An Account of His Descendants.
  We take the following interesting sketch of an old and honored townsman, 
John J. Thurlow, and his descendants from Martin's History of Chester.  It is 
not often that one has an opportunity of writing of a man who is was born in 
the last century, and who yet in the flesh and hale and hearty.  As will be 
seen below, Mr. Thurlow will soon enter ion his eighty-eight year, and we know 
that our readers will be glad to peruse the early history of our time-honored 
citizen.
  John J. Thurlow was born February 1, 1795, in the county of Essex, England.  
He married Mary, the oldest daughter of Richard and Mary Shepherdson, of East 
Riding, in Yorkshire, where she was born, A. D. 1796.  They emigrated to 
America in the winter of 1818-19, and settled at Newport, Delaware; and during 
the latter part of 1819 Mr. Thurlow rented the Stage House there and kept it 
for two years, when, at the solicitation of Major Anderson, he moved to 
Chester, some time in 1821, to take charge of the hotel then owned by the 
major, and formerly kept by him.  While there he prepared and furnished the 
supper given to General Lafayette, in the old Court House, on hs visit to 
Chester.  After keeping the "Old Eagle Hotel," near Chester bridge, known as 
the "National," Maurice W. Deshong secceeded him as the landlord.  Major Price 
was Deshong's successor.  After Mr. Thurlow left the "National," he retired to 
his farm below Chester, where he built a commodious house, which he 
named "Sporting Hall," a well-known place in its day,
"Whose roof once rang with harmless mirth, 
Where every passing stranger was a guest,
And every guest a friend."

The scene of much gayety and revelry indulged in there by the young and the 
old folks of the county; for there was held every year the "Harvest Home, and 
on the barn floor the beaus and belles for miles around gathered and tripped 
on the light fantastic toe.  In summer the Hall was filled with city boarders 
from Philadelphia, and evening dances and parties of pleasure were always in 
order.  Mrs. Mary Thurlow died August 1, 1861, regretted by all who knew her.  
I recall with peasure her handsome, beaming face, as she greeted her friends, 
and her kind and cordial manners, that made her house feel like home.  Some 
years after her death, June 15, 1867, Mr. Thurlow married Rachel, daughter of 
Captain William Brewton, of Philadelphia, who was lost at sea, with his vessel 
and all the crew.  The old mansion, "Sporting Hall," was recently town down, 
being in the way of the extension of Third street of the city of Chester.
  John J. and Mary Thurlow had two children-a son and daughter.  The latter, 
Emmeline, born at Chester, April 12, 1823, married first, May 24, 1844, John 
A. McMullin, a merchant of Philadelphia.  He accompanied General Walker in his 
expedition to Nicaraugua, about 1854, and died there.  They had issue: Thurlow 
and Mary W.  The daughter is married to ex-Senator Milton S. Latham, of 
California, and the son, Thurlow McMullin, is in business in the "Golden 
State."  After the death of her first husband, Emmeline married again, 
December 22, 1859, George O. McMullin, of California, a first cousin of her 
former husband, by whom she had two children, Georgie Hammond and Emmadonna.  
She was a very beautiful woman, a brunette, with a sweet, amiable disposition 
and fascinating manners.  Her fate was a sad one: she and her two young 
children were lost in the Pacific Ocean.  The steamer Golden Gate, on which 
they were passengers, returning to her father's home, near Chester, took fire 
at sea and was beached, July 27, 1861, on the coast of Mexico, about 15 miles 
from Manzanilla, and they were drowned in the attempt to reach shore.
  Thomas T. Thurlow, son of John and Mary, was born in Delaware, December 30, 
1819, before his parents removed to Chester.  He married June 20, 1844, Susan 
M., daughter of John Serrill, of Darby, and a grand-daughter of the late well-
known old sea captain, James Serrill, who was for years master of the good old 
ship Tuscarora, one of Cope's line of packet ships to England.  Thomas T. 
Thurlow early took a fancy to military life, and was a captain of militia in 
Col. John K. Zeilin's regiment.  After his removal to Delaware he was 
appointed by Governor Cannon, of that State, Major of the 6th Delaware 
Volunteers, and served with the Union Army until the regiment was mustered out 
of service in 1864, when he was appointed Duputy Provost Marshal of the State 
of Delaware, which position he held until the terminiation of the Rebellion.  
He then removed to Washington City, D. C., and was appointed a clerk in the U. 
S. Hydrographic office, Bureeau of Navigation, Navy Department.  He has issue 
five children, viz: Mary S., John J., and Thomas E., dead and buried in 
Chester Rural Cemetery; Fannie S., wife of Augustus S. Lane, of Wilmington, 
Delaware, and Ella Beale, who married March 21, 1877, Joseph C. Addison, of 
Washington, D. C.  Soon after his removal to Delaware, Major Thurlow became an 
officer of the First City Troop of Delaware.  In 1845, upon the breaking out 
of the Mexican War, the whole Troop, numbering 70 men, tendered their 
services, with their horses and equpments, to the Government.

Additional Comments:
Published in Chester Times (21 Jan 1882) Page 2

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