The University of Texas at Austin

Law in Popular Culture collection

THE CHRISTIANA RIOT

CHAPTER XIII.

AFTER THE WAR.

Peter Woods the Sole Survivor--Castner Hanway's Later Days--The
   Descendants and Relatives of the Principal Actors in the Drama--
   Concluding Reflections on the Affair.

     The sole survivor of those who were directly involved in
the events that have been narrated is Peter Woods, a very
respectable colored man, who does not know his own age, but
who likely is an octogenarian and was twenty years old when
the riot occurred. He lives on his little farm of fifty-eight
acres, in Colerain Township, just south of Bartville, with his
good wife, and the youngest of his thirteen living children,
the family being much esteemed by those who know its mem-
bers. He was a soldier in the Union Army, having served
nearly three years in the Third Regiment, Colored U. S.
Infantry. During the war he met Alex. Pinckney, at
Charleston, S. C., who was also a soldier in one of the North-
ern regiments. Recently his pension was increased through
the influence of Congressman W. W. Griest, of the Lancaster
district--who is a son of Major Ellwood Griest, author of
the vigorous Bart resolutions of 1850. In the absence of
precise proof that Peter Woods was above seventy five years
of age, the United States Government assumed that it would
not have indicted a boy of fifteen for treason.
     The descendants of Edward Gorsuch maintain the high
social station of their family in Maryland. They were
Methodists in religion and Whigs in politics, and are now
Republicans; during the civil war they zealously supported
the Union cause.
     Edward Gorsuch's immediate descendants are Mrs. W.
W. Campbell and children, of Orwig's Mills, Md.; Mrs. T. B.

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Todd, Jr., of Fort Howard, Md., who is a daughter of Alex.
Morrison; Mrs. E. D. Duncan, of Govans, Md.; Mrs. Fannie
Thomas, Wilmer Black and Anna Black, the last four being
children of Melinda Gorsuch, intermarried with Robert
Black; and Mrs. R. F. Mitchell, wife of Dr. F. G. Mitchell,
of Glencoe, Md. (who was the daughter of Dickinson Gar-
such), her son and two daughters, the youngest of whom, as
an infant, appears in the arms of "Mammy" Kelly, one of
the illustrations of this volume.
     Joseph Scarlet died July 8, 1882; his descendants are as
follows:
     I. Children--Joseph Scarlett, 5313 Master Street, Phila-
delphia; Annie V. Scarlett, Mary E. Scarlett, 1413 Peach
Street, Philadelphia; William Scarlett, 5444 Girard Avenue,
Philadelphia; Mrs. Ella A. Jackson, 304 North Franklin
Street, West Chester, Pa.
     II. Grandchildren--J. Ralph Scarlett, Inda Scarlett
Conrow, Elsie J. Scarlett, Edwin W. Scarlett, Anne Scarlett
Custer, Dr. Charles J. Morell Florence M. Christ, T. Harold
Jackson, William Scarlett, Leslie Scarlett, Richard Scarlett.
     III. Great-grandchildren--Lavinia Scarlett, Helen Sear-
lett, John S. Custer, Charles J. Morell, Jr.
     Elijah Lewis died Oct. 18, 1884, aged 86; his descend-
ants are as follows
     I. Children--Mrs. Martha A. Cooper, Palmyra, N. J.
     II. Grandchildren--Samuel Brinton, farmer, West Ches-
ter, Pa., R. F. D.; Henry Brinton, 2408 Bryn Mawr Avenue,
West Philadelphia; Edwin Brinton, 5584 Hunter Avenue,
West Philadelphia; Mrs. Emma B. Maule, R. F. D., Coch-
ranville, Pa.; Alfred Brinton, Christiana, Pa.; Mrs. Clara
B. Maule, Gum Tree, Chester County, Pa.; Harry P. Cooper,
14 Ruby Street, Lancaster, Pa.; Mrs. D. W. Miller, Linfield,
Montgomery County, Pa.; Mrs. Anna Cooper, Santa Bar-
bara, California; Mrs. George Paschall, Jr., Port Kennedy,
Pa., and Miss Mary Cooper, 2408 Bryn Mawr Avenue, West
Philadelphia, Pa. (W. L. Cooper, superintendent of the

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Bedford division P. R. R., who recently met tragic death by
drowning in the Susquehanna river, was a grandson.)
     III. Great Grandchildren--Roy Cooper, Fairmount, W.
Va.; Herbert Cooper, Parkesburg, Pa.; Helen Cooper, Santa
Barbara, Cal.; Clement S. Brinton, 213 Euclid Avenue, Had-
donfield, N. J.; Francis D. Brinton, West Chester, Pa.;
Willard C. Brinton, 70 West 46th Street, New York; Ellen
S. Brinton, R. F. D., Pest Chester, Pa.; Robert F. Brinton,
R. F. D., West Chester, Pa.; Wilfred Cooper, Bedford, Pa.;
C. Burleigh Cooper, Christiana, Pa.; Harry Brinton, 2408
Bryn Mawr Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.; Lewis Brinton,
Octoraro, Lancaster Co.,Pa. ; Thomas Brinton, minister, Octo-
raro, Pa. ; Mrs. Jesse Webster, Mrs. John Dochter, Christiana,
Pa., and Evan J. Lewis, George School, Bucks Ca., Pa.
     Castner Hanway suffered most in expense and anxiety
from the trial. He resided for years after it ended in Chester
and Lancaster Counties, but in 1878 removed to Wilber,
Nebraska. His first wife, Martha, daughter of Jesse and
Letitia Lamborn, who was with him during his trial, died
August 20, 1855. Later he married Hannah, daughter of
Moses and Mary Pennock, who died January 1, 1864. Later
he married a Miss Johnston, a relative of Governor Johnston,
who was the Chief Executive of Pennsylvania in 1851. She
is still living. Castner Hanway himself died May 26,
1893; his remains were brought East and buried in the ceme-
tery at the famous Longwood meeting house of the Pro-
gressive Friends, in Chester County, made memorable by
anti-slavery meetings addressed by Whittier, Lucretia Mott
and others eminent in literature; and in which quiet grave-
yard are the chaste tombs of Bayard Taylor, poet, novelist,
traveler, journalist and diplomat, and of his brother, Colonel
Frank Taylor, one of the heroes and martyrs of Gettysburg.
     The Longwood Yearly Meeting soon after Hanway's death
adopted a memorial prepared by Patience W. Kent, which
said of him
     "One week ago the earthly form of Castner Hanway was

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laid in yonder cemetery. A quiet, unobtrusive man, he gave
no token that his name was one to conjure newspaper noto-
riety, or stir the wrathful vengeance of the baffled slave power,
as it did at one time. Yet in him, was the stuff of which
heroes are made. `He stood by his colors' when that was all
he could do." During the ninety-seven days that he was in
prison he never once complained. He wrote to his wife from
there, `I do not regret my course; I have simply done my
duty.' With a nature capable of asserting such a beautiful
sentiment in the face of so great mental and financial agony,
surely the reward in the Eternal Kingdom would be: `Well
done, thou good and faithful servant; thou host been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things;
enter thou into the joys of thy Lord."'
     Hanway left no descendants. His collateral relatives, so
far as known, were:
     Jackson Hanway, deceased, a brother, whose children are
Ida Hanway Whiteside, Christiana, Pa.; Ella Hanway Skel-
ton, 1725 Lindenwood Street, Philadelphia; Wilmer Everett
Hanway, 1716 North 55th Street, Philadelphia.
     John Hanway, deceased, a brother, leaving a son, Joseph
Hanway, Hamorton, Chester County, Pa.
     Ellis Hanway, deceased, a brother, whose children are
Mrs. Louisa Booth, Gap, Lancaster County, Pa., and William
Hanway, 1038 Lowell Street, New York City, N. Y.
     Washington Hanway, deceased, a brother, leaving one
child, Mrs. Clara Hanway Pierce, 317 South Queen Street,
York, Pa.
     Phoebe H. Gray, deceased, a sister, whose son is Albert
Gray.
     Hannah Ellis H. Fairlamb, deceased, a sister, who left
children: Elizabeth Barnes, West Chester, Pa.; and Robert
Fairlamb.
     Rebecca H. McDade, deceased, a sister, late of Norris-
town, Pa.

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     "After Life's fitful fever" they who fought and suffered
and died all "sleep well." "There is no work, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave." While governments
shall endure and organized society of human order shall con-
tinue, the ceaseless contest will go on between Law and Lib-
erty. As the temperaments of men vary they will differ
as to which side of that struggle they should or will espouse;
and Human Wisdom will forever be insufficient to avert
occasional conflict. From it, however, will emerge Peace;
and as, the parties to the struggle and their children's children
look back upon the contention that once raged, they will come
more and more clearly to see that it was inevitable; and they
will look with kindlier judgment upon the motives which in-
spired antagonistic forces. They will also see in the outcome
and settlement a Final Cause, shaping events and determin-
ing results, one that could not be recognized in the smoke and
dust of the immediate battle; but which the clear, cold light of
History makes visible to all who would see the Truth. In
his matchless lyric of the Civil War, the most sublime note
that has been sounded from all the literature inspired by that
great National Crisis, Will M. Thompson, in his "High Tide
at Gettysburg," attains this lofty strain:
But who shall break the guards that wait
Before the awful face of fate?
   The tattered standards of the South
   Were shriveled at the cannon's mouth,
And all her hopes were desolate.

In vain the Tennessean set
His breast against the bayonet;
   In vain Virginia charged and raged,
   A tigress in her wrath uncaged,
Till all the hill was red and wet

Above the bayonets mixed and crossed
Men saw a gray, gigantic ghost
   Receding through the battle cloud,
   And heard across the tempest loud
The death cry of a nation lost !
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The brave went down! Without disgrace
They leaped to ruin's red embrace;
   They only heard fame's thunder wake,
   And saw the dazzling sunburst break
In smiles on Glory's bloody face!

They fell who lifted up a hand!
And bade the sun in heaven to stand;
   They smote and fell who set the bars
   Against the progress of the stars,
And stayed the march of Motherland!

They stood who saw the future come
On through the fight's delirium;
   They smote and stood who held the hope
   Of nations on that slippery slope,
Amid the cheers of Christendom!

God lives! He forged the iron will,
That clutched and held that trembling hill!
   God lives and reigns! He built and lent
   The heights for Freedom's battlement,
Where floats her flag in triumph still!

Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns!
Love rules. Her gentler purpose runs,
   A mighty mother turns in tears
   The pages of her battle years,
Lamenting all her fallen sons!
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