North Chester Borough.
and fifty dollars, by which we can form an opinion as to the value of the mill property at that day. In 1826, Pierce Crosby had not only the grist-mill, which was making thirty to fifty barrels of flour a day, but there was a saw-mill on the estate which cut between two and three hundred thousand feet of lumber per annum. In 1843, Crosby leased the mills to James Riddle and Henry Lawrence, who changed them to a woolen factory, which they continued to operate until 1845. In that year James and David Irving, who had established the Irvington Mills in Philadelphia in 1842, leased the Crosbyville Mills and removed their business to that location, where they remained as tenants of the Crosbys until 1857, when they purchased the property. The business had so increased that in 1860 the firm erected Mill No. 2, a building one hundred feet in length by forty feet in width. In 1862, David Irving died, and his interest in the business was purchased by James Irving, who continues manufacturing at Irvington, the old mill seat being now known by that name. On Jan. 1, 1866, Washington Irving was given an interest in the business, the firm being James Irving & Son. The son, however, died the following September, but the firm remained unchanged in title, and in 1879, James Irving's son, William A. Irving, was admitted to an interest in the mills. In 1873 the old grist-mill building was removed, and a four-story stone structure one hundred and seventy-two by fifty feet erected on its site by James Irving, and Mill No. 3, a stone factory forty by fifty feet, two stories in height, was built in 1880 by James Irving. The machinery in these mills consists of one hundred and six looms, two thousand one hundred spindles, and six sets of cards, the goods manufactured being woolen doeskins and tweeds.
James Irving, the subject of this biographical sketch, was born in 1817 in New York, where his parents, John and Jeannie B. Irving, emigrated from Glasgow, Scotland, and settled in the year 1811. The family subsequently removed to Montgomery County, Pa., where the two sons, James and David, were apprenticed to Bethel Moore, then one of the largest woolen manufacturers in the State, and with him learned the trade of which he was master. In 1842 they began business in Philadelphia County, and remained until 1846 in that locality.
James Irving the year previous removed to Delaware County and established woolen-mills at Irvington, under the firm-name of J. & D. Irving, which continued until the death of David Irving, in 1862, when James Irving & Son succeeded to the business. James and David Irving and Thomas I. Leiper also established in Chester, Pa., a mill for the manufacture of cotton yarns, under the firm-name of Irvings & Leiper, now the Irving & Leiper Manufacturing Company.
James Irving, in May, 1839, was married to Christiann, daughter of John Berry, of Chester County, Pa. Their children are Jeannie M. (wife of Hugh Lloyd, of Darby, Pa.), E. Matilda (wife of William H. Starbuck, of New York), William A., and D. Edwin. Both the sons are interested with their father in business. Mr. Irving was in politics formerly a Henry Clay Whig, and actively participated in the political issues of the day. He later became a conservative Republican, and indorses the platform of the party in general. He is a director of the First National Bank of Chester, and has been for a long time one of the active trustees of the University of Lewisburg, Union County, Pa., one of the best educational institutions of the State. He is in his religious views a Baptist, and member of the North Chester Baptist Church of Chester, Pa.
Powhattan Mills. - In the fall of 1863, Hugh Shaw and D. Reese Esrey entered into partnership as Shaw & Esrey, and purchasing from Patrick Kelly the machinery and personal property in the Pennellton Mills, at Bridgewater, together with his interest in the brand of goods known as Powhattan jeans, began the manufacture of cotton and woolen jeans and all-wool jeans at those mills, employing sixty hands and producing four hundred thousand yards of goods annually. In 1865 the firm bought a plot of ground on Green Street, Chester, from Spence McIlvain, designing to erect a mill thereon; but early in the spring of 1866, D. R. Esrey purchased from John Cochran six acres of ground and the mansion on the Engle property at Powhattan, near Chester, and the firm concluded to buy other lands adjoining, consisting of three acres. On this plot they immediately erected the building now known as Powhattan Mill, No. 1, removing from the Pennellton Mills the machinery purchased from Kelly and adding a new set of woolen machinery. In September, 1866, operations were begun at the new location. To the machinery in this mill a set of woolen machinery was added in 1867, and another set in 1872. Besides the mill building the firm erected four tenement houses. At first the basement of Mill No. 1 was rented to Joseph G. Fell, who, in one part, was engaged in weaving cotton cloths, and the remainder of the basement to Joseph Monroe for the manufacture of warps. In 1871 the business of Shaw & Esrey had so increased that, to keep pace with the demand for their goods, another lot of ground was purchased and Mill No. 2 was erected. In this building, in the fall of the year, four sets of woolen machinery were placed, in 1872 two other sets were added, and again in 1874, making a total in both mills of fourteen sets and two hundred and twenty-eight roller and clipper-looms. The power in each mill is furnished by an eighty horse-power Corliss engine, receiving steam from six boilers, of one hundred and fifty horse-power. Mill No. 1 is one hundred and seventy-eight feet in length by fifty-five feet in width, and three stories in height. To it is attached a two-story dye-house thirty-two by fifty-five feet, and a one-story dye-house twenty-five by fifty-five feet. There is also attached to this mill a boiler-house thirty-two by sixteen feet, and all necessary